Tuesday, April 11, 2006

The Bunker Challenge

Hey, a competition, with a real prize!

Full details to follow (setting the ground rules is proving a little more complex than I'd initially envisaged), for the moment the title should be enough of a clue, but if not then think tinned food and limited cooking facilities...

UPDATE: MouseMan and I have been working on the specifics of this contest. Expect full rules by the end of April and then you'll have a whole month to get your entry in as the closing date will be 31st May 2006. Good luck!

UPDATE: The Boss won the contest (and a rather nice Cannon scanner) with her take on Salt Cod and Ackee. Full recipe and pictures to follow.

Beer-Buggered Chicken

The late, great Martin Dyson gave me this recipe. He swore it works, and I'm still prepared to believe him, despite the failure I'll describe here. The basic recipe is very simple - ram an opened can of beer into a chicken, wrap the thing in foil and shove it *into* your barbecue coals whilst you cook other food.

Should work, yes? I'd say so, though from personal experience I would point out that aluminium cans burn given half a chance, something which has a fairly negative effect on any chicken they may happen to be stuffed up at the time.

Anyway, perhaps you'll be able to do a better job, so here's my pictorial guide to the process. Firstly, we take a chicken, some beer and some herbs for stuffing the bird (in this case lemon balm, which I find very fine for stuffing chickens). Season the outside of the chicken, too.





Now, insert the the herbs and the opened can. Might be worth making sure either that the neighbours aren't looking or that you're not alone when you do this. You have been warned.





Next wrap it in cooking foil...





Shove it in the barbie...





Get cooking...





And some while later, I hope after you've removed the other food, you'll get the most awesome volcanic eruption as flames and white ash burst forth from your chicken package. At least I did. There was *nothing* left.

Please give this a go and, if you produce something you can actually eat, tell me what it tastes like, I'm dying to know!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Sausage Layer Bake

Ah, now here's a recipe I've been after for quite some while. One of the best things ever to come out of Devon, it's another one from the MouseMan's Book Of Fine Fare.

Not the most photogenic of dishes - hence you're not getting a photo - but the taste is to die for! Check out the recipe here and give it a go!

Monday, April 03, 2006

MouseMan's Crab Cakes

Deceptively simple, these are a truly wonderful experience and a very fine starter IMHO. Picture to follow next time someone makes them, in the meantime grab the recipe here.