Our first event of 2006 focused on old English dishes and English wines.
PubChef Live took a step back in time at the Hinds Head, Heston Blumenthal's pub in Bray, Berkshire. The 15th-century pub was the perfect setting for an event designed to inspire chefs to use traditional English recipes and British produce.
Chefs and pub owners sampled Heston's take on old English recipes, including quaking pudding, a dish inspired by a 17th- century recipe from Hampton Court Palace. Hinds Head joint licensee Susan Proctor gave a talk on Heston's work with the palace to recreate centuries-old recipes for a modern audience.
With English Wine Week, an annual promotion of English wines, running from 27 May to 4 June, the event included a tasting of English wines, which demonstrated to licensees the quality and diversity of wines suitable for pubs' wine lists.
The event also featured a talk by Hinds Head meat supplier Richard Vaughan about Pedigree Meats, his quest to produce the highest-quality meat using pure British breeds at Huntsham Farm, Herefordshire. Oxtail in the oxtail and kidney pudding served up for lunch by Hinds Head head chef Dominic Chapman came from Richard's farm.
Chefs were encouraged to save money by specifying particular cuts of meat to their butcher, a practice advocated by master butcher Viv Harvey during a demonstration on behalf of the English Beef and Lamb Executive (EBLEX).
Business ideas
The Hinds Head pub is planning to recreate amazing mediaeval banquets held in Tudor times. The timber beams and old-world feel of Heston Blumenthal's historic pub provide an ideal setting for a traditional whirl of velvet gowns, bodices, breeches and buckles. With its own full-time food researcher to unearth recipes from bygone centuries and a menu with a modern take on traditional British food, the pub promises to host banquets in the Vicar's Room, a private, upstairs dining room seating 26.
And there's space for 60 covers in the ground-floor restaurant, beside a cosy bar area which still attracts local custom within this top gastronomic destination.
Old and new customers can choose from wonderfully-traditional British dishes on the restaurant menu - such as pea and ham soup, oxtail and kidney pudding, Gloucester Old Spot pork chop with pease pudding and Lancashire hot pot - or order snacks at the bar. A Scotch quail egg or devils on horseback will set you back £1.50, while sandwiches filled with smoked salmon, cucumber and cream cheese or bacon, oven-roast tomato and rocket cost £5.50.
A moving experience
Heston Blumenthal and Hinds Head head chef Dominic Chapman, who worked at Heston's restaurant, the Fat Duck, for two years, have collaborated closely with the Tudor Kitchens at Hampton Court Palace in Surrey to recreate dishes from a bygone era in a modern style.
The scope of their quest for ambitious re-creations has expanded with the arrival of a full-time food researcher who hopes to find more forgotten recipes for Heston and Dominic to add to their traditional Hinds Head menu.
The now-famous quaking pudding has established itself as a firm favourite. The re-introduction of the pudding that featured as a staple in recipe books from the 17th to 19th-centuries has created such a stir that Hinds Head manager Susan Proctor expects up to a third of the pub's covers to order the dish at any one time. To add to this memorable experience, the pudding is brought out quaking on a wooden board, see picture, right, just as it is shown in archive illustrations, accompanied by a little card describing its origins.
"We've always served traditional food like potted shrimp, hot pots and oxtail and kidney pudding," says Susan. "Heston is always keen to research dishes thoroughly to find out where they originated. Archives show that middle neck of lamb was very traditional and that oysters were 10 a penny - they would supplement a dish for a hungry family. We've worked very closely with the people in the Tudor kitchens at Hampton Court Palace to create these dishes, and we are keen to develop more. Dominic continually tries out new ideas and puts them on as specials, approved by Heston. The most popular dishes become part of our main menu."
Hinds Head oxtail and kidney pudding
Recipe from head chef
Dominic Chapman
Braised oxtail
5kg/11lb oxtail
500ml/17fl oz red wine
200ml/7fl oz brandy
150g/5oz celery - sliced
350g/12oz leeks - sliced
350g/12oz carrots - sliced
600g/1lb 5oz onion - sliced
1 star anise
400g/14oz mushrooms - sliced
500g/1lb 2oz tomatoes - halved
2-3 bay leaves
Large pinch thyme
16 black peppercorns
2kg/4½lb veal stock
2kg/4½lb chicken stock
Brown off the oxtail in a large pan, deglaze with the red wine and brandy and place to one side. Make sure that the wine and brandy are flamed.
In dripping, fry off the celery, leeks and carrots in one pan, the onion and star anise in another and mushrooms in another. All the vegetables should be coloured and almost caramelised. The tomatoes should be faced down in oil and a little sugar and caramelised; deglaze with a splash of water.
Add all ingredients together in a pressure cooker, making sure the veal and chicken stock are melted and mixed before putting the lid on.
Cook the oxtail for 1½ hours once the pressure reaches the second red line on the pressure gauge. Leave to cool naturally before passing off, reserving the meat for the puddings and the stock for the sauce - be careful to keep the meat as whole as possible.
Braised Kidneys
3 ox kidneys
Small pinch thyme
20 peppercorns
2 bay leaves
Trim the ox kidneys and remove any sinew. Place in a pan with cold water to cover, bring to the boil and refresh. Place the kidneys in stock, thyme, peppercorns and bay leaves. Simmer gently for two hours until tender.
Suet pastry
1kg/2¼lb self-raising flour, sifted
500g/1lb 2oz of Atora suet
15g/½oz salt
600ml/1 pint water
Mix the sifted flour, salt and suet together. Add the water a little at a time until the dough comes together. Do not overwork the dough. Leave it to rest for at least 20 minutes.
Steak and kidney sauce
Reduce the oxtail jus until at the correct sauce consistency - see braised oxtail recipe.
To assemble the puddings
Butter the moulds three times, freezing them at each stage. Weigh out 120g/4oz of pastry for the moulds and roll into a circle one-inch thick. Roll and stamp out the lids at the same thickness using a pastry cutter.
Heat pudding sauce until just melted. Put the cooked oxtail and kidney into the moulds - 90g/3oz oxtail to 25g/1oz kidney. Fill up with the sauce so it is just below the rim, egg-wash the lip of pastry and fork on the lids.
Cook for two hours at 100°C steam. Allow to rest overnight before using.
at the Hinds Head
Event Menu
Starter
Soused herrings with beetroot
and horseradish, served with
Chapel Down Pinot Blanc
Main
Oxtail & kidney pudding, served with
Chapel Down Rondo Reserve
Dessert
Quaking pudding, served with
Three Choirs Late Harvest
A quest for perfection
During Richard Vaughan's 30 years in farming he has seen many changes in the industry. When he started out, the process was all about maximising production and using new technology. While supplying supermarkets, Richard complied with every request to help bring down prices. "I was doing all the things that we call 'dirty practices' today," says Richard, "But back then they were seen as the right things to do."
So it came as a nasty shock when he asked for some of his meat from the abattoir, only to be told that it wasn't worth eating. "I was devastated," says Richard. "I thought I was doing a good job."
Stunned into changing his farming practices, his business, Huntsham Farm Pedigree Meats, now produces some of the highest quality meat. Among Richard's clients are the top three pubs in P