The first step is to brown the meat. Heat a thin layer of sunflower oil in a large casserole pot. Season 4 shanks and carefully place into the pot. Brown on all sides, remove the shanks and drain off the oil. Turn the heat to low and return the shanks to the pot and the pot to the heat. Add 4 whole (peeled) shallots, 1 chopped leek, 2 (peeled) diced carrots, a slug of balsamic vinegar and a tin of chopped tomatoes. Add 250ml of chicken stock. Add 2 star anise and 2 pinches of chopped fresh rosemary and bring to a simmer.

Cover with a tight fitting lid and place the pot in a pre-heated (150C) oven . Cook for 2 hours. Serve with the sauce and vegetables from the pot and some creamy mash potato.

Lamb Shank

Confit Duck with Puy Lentils – serves 4

4 Barbary duck legs
4 cloves garlic
2 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaf
30g salt

200g Puy lentils
Olive oil
1 small onion – finely chopped
1 carrot – finely chopped
1 leek – finely chopped
Dijon mustard
chopped parsley & tarragon

Stage 1

• Smash the garlic & chop the thyme & bay. Rub into the duck legs. Scatter over the salt & leave for 24 hours to cure.
• Pre-heat oven to 150C.
• Wash & dry the duck legs & place in a deep oven tray.
• Place the duck fat in a saucepan & heat.
• Pour the fat over the duck legs. Cover tightly with foil & cook for 3 hours.
• Remove & allow to cool in the fat. Store under fat in the fridge until needed.

Stage 2

• Pre-heat oven to 200C
• Scrape fat from the duck
• Return the duck to oven skin side down to crisp up and re-heat. A non-stick pan is ideal for this.
• Place lentils in a large pot, cover with water and bring to the boil.
• As soon as it boils drain the lentils & set aside.
• Heat a little olive oil in a pot and gently cook the vegetables until soft.
• Add the lentils and reheat, adding enough water or stock to give a sauce.
• Stir in mustard & herbs to taste.
• Season and serve with the crispy duck.

The first step is to rough cut a selection of vegetables for the pot. I have cut these quite chunky but you can cut smaller and let them incorporate themselves into the sauce. Using a large casserole dish heat a thin layer of sunflower oil until very hot. Season the brisket and gingerly place in the hot oil. Sear each side on a high heat until the surface is a rich brown colour.

Remove the beef, reduce the heat and add the vegetables to the pot. Give them a good stir to dislodge any sediment stuck to the bottom of the pot. Stir in enough flour to soak up the oil (about 2 tablspoons). Cook for a few minutes on a low heat then add half a bottle of red wine and enough beef stock to cover the vegetable. Return the beef to the pot with a bouquet garni of thyme, rosemary, bay leaf and star anise. Bring back to a simmer.

Cover with a tight fitting lid and cook in a pre-heated oven at 150C for 5 hours. Cut into thick slices and serve with the braising liquid and some of the slow cooked vegetables . A slightly sharp dish of braised red cabbage and some sweet parsnip puree compliment the dish perfectly.

Rich, comforting and wonderfully intense this is a great dish to lift the spirits and help beat the January blues. The secret to the dish is very slow cooking, which tenderises the meat and softens the gelatine, causing much of it to melt away, thickening the sauce and imparting a wonderful flavour. I have added a bouquet garni of star anise and herbs. To make this simply wrap the anise and herbs in muslin, tie tightly, and drop into the pot.

For the parsnip puree place the parsnips in an oiled baking tray and season. Drizzle with honey and dot with butter. Roast until soft, allowing the parsnips to take on a little colour.  Once cooked process with a dash of cream until it reaches a nice consistency. Place in an oven dish, cover with grease-proof paper and keep warm until ready to serve.

Slow Cooked Ox Cheek with Anise

Serves 6

3 Ox cheeks
2 Onion – diced
4 Carrots – diced
2cl Garlic – smashed
500ml Red wine
500ml Chicken or beef stock
1 Tin of Chopped tomato
Bouquet Garni – Star anise, rosemary, thyme & bay
6 Parsnips – peeled, diced
6 Handfuls Greens – boiled for 2 minutes then tossed in butter.

• Remove the sinew and silver skin from the ox cheek.
• Cut each check into 5 or 6 large chunks.
• Heat some oil in large pot and sweat the onion, carrot and garlic over a low heat until soft.
• Season and fry the diced ox cheek in a little vegetable oil until nicely coloured. Add to the pot.
• Add the wine, stock, tomato & bouquet garni and bring to the boil
• Simmer on a low heat for about 3 hours.
• Serve with the parsnip puree and greens.

Downstairs at The Guildford Arms we are serving roast pheasant with Puy lentils and roast parsnips. Cooking pheasant successfully does require a little care as the breast meat, which is delicate and light, requires a different cooking time from the tougher leg meat. To remedy this we will be roasting the crown and braising the legs. Before roasting we remove the breastbone, as this makes carving a lot easier. After roasting, we cover and keep in a warm place for 10 minutes before serving. This resting time is very important as the residual heat gently completes the cooking process without overcooking and drying the meat. It also relaxes the flesh, making it tender and juicy.

Roast Pheasant

Roast & braised pheasant with Port jus – serves 4

• Ask your butcher to remove and joint the legs. Heat a little oil in a large pot, season the legs and brown them all over. Add some chopped onion, carrot, garlic and thyme. Pour in a glass of red wine and cover with water or stock. Simmer for about an hour.
• Heat a tablespoon of sunflower oil with 50g of butter in a large ovenproof pan. Season the crown and cook on either side until it is golden brown.  Roast in a pre-heated oven at 220°C for about 15 minutes, basting every 5 minutes. Remove the pheasant, poor off the oven juices, cover, and rest in a warm place before carving.
• Reduce a glass of port to a syrup in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Pass the braising liquid and roasting juices through a fine sieve and add to the port. Add a sprig of thyme and boil until it thickens to a sauce consistency.

We braise chunky pieces of diced beef chuck with onions, carrots and herbs in red wine, adding sauteed button mushroom, baby onions and smoked bacon half way through. We then leave the dish to cool and refrigerate overnight. This is an important stage as any unwanted fat will rise to the surface and can then be easily removed. It also gives a chance for all the flavours to mingle, creating a more harmonious dish.We serve it with some winter greens, or braised red cabbage and a smoked garlic mash. A few steamed carrots complete the dish.

Beef Bourguignon

Beef Bourguignon – serves 6

1.5kg Diced Beef Chuck
1 Onion – diced
1 Carrot – diced
1cl Garlic _ chopped
Bottle Burgundy
Bouquet Garni (Bay, Thyme, Rosemary)
500ml Veal Stock
250ml Tomato Juice
200g Smoked Bacon Lardons
24 Pearl Onions
300g Button Mushrooms

• Place the onions, carrot, garlic, bouquet garni & red wine in a pot and bring to the boil. Leave to cool, then pour over the beef and leave overnight.
• Drain the beef and dry. Season & shallow fry in vegetable oil until browned all over.
• Meanwhile sweat the onions, carrot & garlic in melted butter until soft. Add the beef and stir together. Stir in 3 or 4 tablesppons of flour to adbsorb the fat, and cook over a low heat for a minute.
• Add the wine, tomato juice and stock and simmer for about two hours. It may take longer but it’s a good idea to check now.
• Sautee the button mushrooms, pearl onions & bacon lardons until they are golden. Add to the stew after the first hour of cooking.
• When the beef is tender allow to cool in the liquid.
• To reheat the dish, bring back to the boil and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes before serving.

To mark the event I will be making some cheese based canapes, such as Mini Jacket Potatoes with Goats Cheese, Chives & Black Olive Tapanade and Baby Gem with Roquefort and Toasted Walnuts. The walnuts unfortunately won’t be coming from the tree in my garden as I only harvested three, but they will be delicious all the same.

Home Grown Walnuts

The other canape I plan to do Welsh Rarebit with Beetroot & Red Onion Chutney; perfect on a cold winters night.

Welsh Rarebit

50ml Milk
150g Strong Cheddar
1 teaspoon English Mustard
1/2 teaspoon Flour
Dash Worcestershire Sauce
Pinch Salt
1 Egg

• Heat the milk over a low heat and whisk in the grated cheese until melted.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the mustard, flour, Worcestershire sauce and salt.
• Cool a little, then beat in the egg.
• Spread over some thick slices of bread and grill until golden

Welsh Rarebit

Beetroot & Red Onion Chutney

1 Red onion
2 Beetroot
150ml White wine vinegar
150ml Caster sugar
1/2 Tbsp Cornflour
Mustard seeds

• Finely slice red onions.
• Sweat in olive oil.
• Peel & grate raw beetroot. Add to onions
• Add white wine vinegar and caster sugar.
• Cook, gentle and covered for 30 minutes.
• Thicken liquid with cornflour paste

Beetroot & Red Onion Chutney

After some research I discovered that Georgia has a very rich and proud cuisine with notable Russian and Turkish influences. They have great local produce and their dishes have a real middle eastern flavour, with lots of fresh herbs and spices. It didn’t take long to identify some key ingredients that would work well with a sweet, intense, red wine. Honey, figs, cardamom, walnuts and saffron all leapt out at me. As for the main element of the dish, it had to be a classic middle eastern dessert. It had to be Baklava.

Baklava is essentially layers of buttered filo pastry and chopped walnuts that have been flavoured with orange blossom water and sweetened with honey. In my version I have used pistachios instead of walnuts and added a pinch of saffron to give a little more depth of flavour. I have paired it with some cardamom ice cream and honey roast figs, to add a touch of luxury to what is otherwise quite a rustic dish. The end result was delicious. In fact, I liked it so much I put it on the main restaurant menu.

Pistachio Baklava with Cardamom Ice Cream & Honey Roasted Fig

Pistachio Baklava with Cardamom Ice Cream & Honey Roasted Figs – serves 8

• Pre-heat oven to 180C
• Melt 250g of butter.
• Chop 225g of pistachio & mix with a pinch of saffron, 3 tablespoons of sugar & 1 tablespoon of ground cardamom.
• Butter an oven dish and line with a buttered piece of filo pastry (brush with melted butter).
• Repeat until you have 8 sheets of filo as the base.
• Sprinkle a generous layer of the spiced nut & sugar mix.
• Lay down 6 more layers of buttered filo.
• Sprinkle another generous layer of the spiced nut & sugar mix
• Lay down 6 more layers of buttered filo.
• Sprinkle another generous layer of the spiced nut & sugar mix.
• Lay down 6 more layers of buttered filo.
• Butter the top layer with butter and, using a sharp knife, cut a criss-cross pattern into the baklava that runs to the center (this will help the syrup to absorb).
• Cook for 20 minutes then reduce the heat to 150c and cook until golden and cooked through. About 30 minutes.

• For the syrup heat 350g of caster sugar with 300ml of water and the zest of 1 orange.
• Boil and reduce by half.
• Pour over the hot baklava & leave to cool.

• Cut 8 figs in half, drizzle with honey and roast or grill until starting to soften.
• Cut the baklava into a squares & serve with the roasted figs and a scoop of (cardamom) ice cream.

Now that I have a pub of my own I would love to bring that ethos to Greenwich. No fuss, no parade, just freshly cooked, delicious food, in a relaxed and welcoming environment. So, with the building work completed, the garden quiet and the restaurant operating smoothly, I can turn my attention to achieving that.

The Guildford Arms

From a food perspective the first step is to develop the menu. This weekend autumnal dishes, such as a Smoked Ham Hock & Purple Artichoke Salad with Soft Boiled Duck Egg and Char-grilled Trout with Tarragon Lentils, Cavolo Nero & Almond Butter, will feature on a weekly changing menu. For the sweet toothed we have a Warm Rice Pudding with Armagnac Prunes and a Warm Pear & Almond Tart with Creme Anglaise. 

It’s not just the food that will be evolving. We also have plans to refurbish the pub dining room. Nothing major; just a few touches here and there to improve the space and the ambiance.

Incidentally, there was another friend of a friend who wanted to have a chat with me about his ideas for a fast food concept. I tried to helpful, give a bit of insight into the industry, but I was far too busy with my fledgling restaurant (inside) to be of any use. Truth be told I didn’t really think he would follow it through either. Wrong again. I can only smile to myself every time I pass a branch of Leon.

 Char-grilled Trout with Tarragon Lentils, Cavolo Nero & Almond Butter

In this dish the trout is scaled, scored and cut in half across the bone. It is then rubbed in olive oil, seasoned and char-grilled. This imparts a wonderfully smoky aroma to the fish. The fish is served with Cavolo Nero and Puy lentils. The lentils have been cooked with a brunoise of vegetables, and at the last moment mustard dressing, chopped parsley and tarragon are stirred in. A simple butter sauce, seasoned with lemon juice, and flavoured with toasted almonds completes the dish. Almonds have a well known affinity with trout but the way they complement the lentils and tarragon is both surprising and delicious.

Char-grilled Trout with Tarragon Lentils, Cavolo Nero, Almond Butter

Roast Salt Marsh Lamb Chump

This dish has been my favourite so far at my restaurant above the Guildford Arms pub. The salt marsh lamb is boned and trimmed to give 2 lovely chumps, ready for roasting. These are then marinated with garlic and rosemary. The off-cuts are minced to make an intense tomato & marjoram infused moussaka; topped with a cheesy bechamel sauce and bread crumbs it’s finished under the grill to give a crisp topping.

To make the sauce the bones are roasted and then boiled for 6 hours with veal bones, carrots, leeks, celeriac and onion to give a rich lamby stock. This in turn is passed and then boiled until reduced by half. To complete the sauce we reduce a bottle of red wine (with shallots and rosemary) to a syrup, add the stock and reduce again to a nice sauce consistency. To finish we add some chopped black olives.

The galette potato is made by baking the potatoes until soft. We then peel whilst still hot and grate. The grated potato is seasoned, formed into a cake shape and then cooked in duck fat until golden on both sides. Some buttered winter greens complete the dish.