Steve's Fish 'n' Chips, Shepton Mallet

Steve's is Shepton Mallet's original Fish & Chip Shop and is located in the centre of town, opposite The Bell. It's got that real chippie look and the awkward access that tells you that if there's any sort of queue whatsoever the food must be good. I get stuff from there regularly: this note is to show you what you'll get should you choose to visit and to provide a baseline for judging other local competitors...

As you can see, the F&C comes in traditional newsprint (albeit unused, thanks to the usual EC idiocy) and features those proper, bloated, really-cut-from-a-potato chips. By the time you get them home they're no better than lukewarm, of course. Yummy (especially with a good shot of Mayo). Try that with a little cardboard thing of McFries!





The fish? Gorgeous crisp batter, beautifully moist just-cooked cod. Perfect.

I know other people don't rate this place, but I really can't fault it. I've never had a bad meal from Steve's and every time I walk past I get this urge for a fish supper...

Your Mission, Should You Choose To Accept It

OK, so here's the score. You have to prepare a "gourmet" meal for four bearing the following in mind:

1. You're in a bunker following a nuclear strike. Consider this to be a home-made bunker, not a second-hand ICBM base, so you're going to be limited in terms of the types of food you will have available, the sort of cooking facilities you may have and the amount of water you can afford to use;

2. You should be aiming not just for taste but also to take specific account of the nutritional requirements of the people in the bunker in the situation in which you all find yourselves.

Your task is to provide a menu/recipe for your meal, an explanation for your choices and details of what's in your bunker. There's a decent prize for the winner, who will be the one who produces the most with the least and who, IMHO, offers the best chance of cooking through disaster to survival.

If you need clarification, please leave your questions via the comments facility. Good luck...

UPDATE: The winning entry (actually the only entry) is The Boss's Salt Cod and Ackee meal which cleverly fits all the parameters of the contest. Full details of the meal (and pictures) to follow.

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!

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!

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.

Chilli With Basil And Sun-Dried Tomato Dumplings

The title pretty much explains this simple and flexible recipe! Make up a pot of your favourite chilli and, once it's done, throw in some suitably flavoured dumplings and cook 'em through. Serve up the dumplings with the chilli (surprise, surprise) and some form of side salad and away you go.





Here's all I used for the dumplings. If you've never made these before you'll be quite amazed at just how simple they are. I always just follow the recipe on the Atora packet. You *really* should use Atora, IMHO, anything else just wouldn't be cricket.





And here's the stuff for the chilli. Everyone's got their own way of making this dish, of course. I tend to use a mixture of pork and beef, both cut into cubes rather than as mince. Beer is also essential to my version (both in the chilli and in the chef).

Coming Soon

Coming soon! Yep, another food blog. This one will be devoted to my own personal food obsessions, these being burgers, curry and chilli. I think we may also get a few mentions of beer. Learn just how us lot in Somerset can ruin these wonderful dishes (you don't want to know what they do to beer down here - I come from Kent, you know... ) and see the pictures to prove it!

Of course, we'll also be seeing examples of some superb cooking (including recipes) from many of my culinary-inclined friends. Expect some real treats!