The whole calendar has been hijacked by various causes, some worthier than others. You’ve missed “Farmhouse Breakfast Week” (22-28th January) and already in February there’s been “Safer Internet Day” (wear a condom whilst browsing?). Next week there’s the quite thrilling “Fair Trade Fortnight” which should sort lots of things out no doubt.

Do I care? Not normally – and I also wouldn’t care about National Chip Week, even though I like chips and I encourage them in my own special way, were it not for the fact that my favourite fish and chip venue – the Black Country Living Museum – tweeted rather enigmatically that they were frying “red-battered chips” this week in celebration.

What are red-battered chips and more importantly why haven’t I heard of them until now? Google is no help. But a bit of incidental conversation on Twitter about West Midlands specialties (balti, pork pies, pork scratchings, faggots & peas, groaty pudding, Fenky Jane’s caribbean patties since you ask) also threw up orange battered chips. Sounds very similar. Apparently these are a Black Country specialty, the origins of which are a source of great controversy.

But – what are they? Well they are simply battered chips. Etymologists amongst you will not be surprised to find out that they are orange. Those who have eaten food, or observed teenagers in the Black Country won’t be surprised to find out this is achieved by adding tartrazine to the batter.

So what of the red battered chips? Well, with today’s beautiful spring-like weather I decided to go and find out for myself. Turns out Black Country museum on a weekday in February isn’t very busy, and I was first in line at Hobbs & Son.

“Why are they called red-battered chips not orange?” I enquired, trying to sound like I didn’t really have a middle-class Southern accent. “Because they are red”. Mystery solved. In they went to the fryer with a hunk of cod and I waited outside in the glorious winter-into-spring sun for them to be ready …

They were blimming lovely. Bostin’. Black Country museum fish and chips are already the best ever, cooked to order in beef dripping with quite the best crispy flavourful batter and perfectly steamed fish within. So adding some extra batter to the chips as well as a generous helping of crispies tucked in the bottom of the cone just serves to make the whole experience more decadent.

National Chip week runs until 26th February – in case you give a shit.

I’ve been really enjoying using my pressure cooker of late. Slow cooked dishes which have previously been out of reach of work-night dinners are now in reach. The pressure cooker miraculously transforms tough cuts like brisket, pork and lamb shoulder into melting goodness in a manner of minutes rather than hours. I made a cracking lamb and spinach curry in about twenty minutes the other day. Lap uses his for pork carnitas and beef rendang. I thought I’d use this trick to make one of my favourites – Lancashire hotpot. Often meaty neck bones are suggested for this dish but I find these a bit hard to get hold of, but I can get lamb shoulder which has the requisite properties to render gelatinous goodness into the sauce. So I figured I’d cook down the shoulder in the pressure cooker, shred the meat from the bone and then assemble the hotpot. This brings the total cooking time for this dish down to a realistic two hours. I reckon it’d be double with a conventional braise.

If you are interested in experimenting with pressure cooking, I’d suggest this excellent site – hip pressure cooking which has a useful page on cooking times and some handy tips and tricks.

1/2 lamb shoulder
1 glass red wine
1 onion, sliced
2 carrots, chunked
1 tablespoon flour
400ml good beef stock (I tend to use the Heston stuff from Waitrose)
bay leaf, sprig of rosemary and thyme
floury maincrop potatoes (Maris Piper, King Edwards* see comments) – number will depend on the area of your cooking pot
good slug of anchovy essence

Brown lamb shoulder in a hot pan (my pressure cooker isn’t big enough for a shoulder).

In the open pressure cooker fry the onion and carrots in some oil until giving. Add the herbs and flour. Add wine and reduce by half. Add the stock and anchovy essence, reduce a little. Add the lamb shoulder whole. Cook in pressure cooker for about 35-40 minutes at 15 psi (high pressure) and use the slow release method. Check the lamb is tender, otherwise go again for 10 more minutes. Remove the shoulder from the sauce and leave until it’s cooled enough to handle. Use your hands to rip it into shreds, it should be tender enough (gloves are handy here). Pour the sauce into a bowl and let the fat settle on the top. Skim the fat off but reserve it for later. Season the sauce (careful as the anchovy essence is quite salty). Cut potatoes into thickish slices (about one pound coin thickness) for the base. Add some lamb dripping to a nice oven-proof pot. Then layer the thickly sliced potatoes on the bottom of the pot. Make a couple of layers if you like lots of potatoes in your hotpot. Layer over the shredded lamb shoulder and pour over the sauce so it just covers the meat (removing the herbs at the same time). Cut more potatoes into very thin slices for the top. I use a mandoline. Overlap them neatly in several layers. Add a little more lamb dripping to serve as a glaze. Cook in oven at 200 degrees covered loosely with foil for 1 hour and then remove foil and brown the top until it looks really appetising.

Serve with pickled vegetables. Red cabbage is traditional, but I used turnips and carrots which worked well.

I’ve been writing this post for a couple of weeks, better post it before it’s 2012!

Hannah, my co-eater lady* and I have enjoyed many cracking meals this year and it was quite good fun arguing about ranking them. And literally about three people have asked me recently – “Nick, what were your best meals of 2011?”. So I hope you don’t mind this rather self-indulgent post …

And also, I suspect 2012 won’t be much like 2011 eating wise, as our lives are set to be turned upside down at the end of February with a new arrival …

Before we get into the list proper:

A few places which might have seemed shoe-ins for this list didn’t end up featuring. Perhaps most notably El Celler de Can Roca. Given its ranking of “2nd best restaurant in the world” our expectations were consequently sky high. But the experience left us a bit cold, mainly down to the sterile and unrelaxing “international dining” experience on offer, which didn’t tally with the experimental “emotional cuisine” which was always interesting but only rarely pushed any emotional buttons for us.

Another place which had bloggers and eGulleters in a tizzy this year was Hedone, the project of ex-blogger turned professional chef Mikael Jonsson. Whilst a few dishes were genuinely amazing (the slow-cooked egg with girolles being the stand-out) the meal didn’t live up to expectations, with a few dud courses and some inconsistent cooking.

The award for absolute turkey of a meal this year goes to Kenny Atkinson at Rockliffe Hall which served up generally banal food in an excruciatingly awkward setting. A serious disappointment.

On with the list!

10) Turner’s (Harborne, Birmingham, UK)

We ate here several times during the year and I regret it wasn’t more – it’s on our local high street for god’s sake. Turners remains my tip for best restaurant in Birmingham if anyone asks. The meal we enjoyed most was the full-on tasting experience, written up by Lap here.

9) Roganic / MEATliquor, London, UK

A bit cheeky to lump these two together but a truly excellent day of eating saw us take the tasting menu at Roganic and follow it up hours later with cheeseburgers, deep-fried pickles and chilli cheese fries as well as copious lageritas at MEATliquor. A very memorable double-act.

8 ) The Black Country Museum, Dudley, UK

I was genuinely sad to hear that the best chippie in Birmingham – the Great British Eatery had closed down this year. The guys were genuinely passionate about their project, but got caught out with a bad location and a bad egg business partner. But I’m pretty sure they’ll be back with something soon. However GBE was only the second best place for fish and chips in the West Midlands – first place honours belong to the Black Country Living Museum. This also happens to be the best museum, probably anywhere in the world. An open wrap of fish and chips, a pickled egg and lashings of vinegar, eaten on a cold day around a coal braizer, followed by a pint in the Bottle and Glass Inn is one of the UK’s great food experiences. We’ve been countless times since we moved to Birmingham. If you haven’t been, go now!

7) Cochon Butcher, New Orleans, LA

I had to pick somewhere in New Orleans, an awesome place for eating (and drinking, and dancing). In the end I couldn’t decide between Cochon Butcher and a couple of other places, all introduced to me by the very generous Rebecca Penton. The Joint served up some outrageous BBQ ribs in a downhome setting, and Elizabeth’s served one of the most heart-stopping starters of all day – maple praline bacon. In the end I went for Cochon Butcher for their outrageously rich boudin sausage, stuffed with liver, spice and rice … followed by duck sliders.

6) The Cajun Cook-off

Inspired by the food in New Orleans we got the Popstrami gang back together for a Cajun cook-off on a glorious summer’s day. Everyone brought their A-game that day including Tom’s boudin balls, Lap’s BBQ ribs and andouille, Yen’s wop salad and dirty rice. And I have to say my wagyu brisket turned out better than I could have imagined. Hannah’s apple pie with smoked ice cream was a brilliant way to finish this awesome eating fest. Oh, and some picklebacks.

5) Sea Urchins for Breakfast

Eating spanking fresh seafood isn’t usually a West Midlands experience. An early trip to the Birmingham Wholesale market was rewarded by the rare treat of some spanking-fresh sea urchins which were opened gingerly by Lap and spooned onto some sourdough toast for a breakfast of champions. A market experience on par with Tsukiji. The Birmingham wholesale markets are currently under threat – this would be a real loss to the City. Write to your MP.

4) L’enclume, Cartmel, UK

Just a lovely experience start to finish.

3) Ferran Adria’s Tickets, Barcelona, Spain

For sheer theatricality I don’t think you could do better than Tickets. We enjoyed this all tremendously, particularly the miniairbags and the “sparking” rabbit ribs. I’m sorry to say you have virtually no chance of ever getting a reservation.

2) Maeemo, Oslo, Norway

Oslo was a food paradox. The locals seem to live off cheap hot-dogs and pizza by the slice from the ubiquitous Deli De Luca. They splurge sweet pink toothpaste on Ryvita for breakfast. You don’t see change from £20 if you order a couple of coffees and a cake. But at the high end of dining, they had some very good restaurants. We loved our meal at the excellent Hanami. But one place is head and shoulders above the rest in Oslo, and that place is Maeemo. Clearly inspired by NOMA, I suspect you’ll hear about this place more in 2012. I’ve been rather remiss in not blogging this meal (yet) but Nordic Nibbler did it much better than I could, including decent pictures. As we were both having the same menu at the same time, just pretend I wrote it. The oyster dish was simply legendary.

1) Restaurant Nathan Outlaw, Rock, UK

Another meal I shamefully didn’t blog about, but lives long in the memory. The short tasting menu was an absolute masterclass in fish cooking, benefiting from subtle applications of curing and smoking (my favourite things as you may know by now). The service was wonderful, from the proferred reading glasses (available in several prescriptions) to the inspired wine pairings. Not the fanciest of experiences but just genuinely enjoyable from start to finish. Even the death defying drive through thick fog with rather sketchy direction finding to get back to our B&B didn’t manage to dampen the spirits.

Hannah’s top 5 (for feminine balance):

5) Nathan Outlaw
4) Hanami, Oslo
3) Maeemo
2) L’enclume
1) Tickets

Honorable mentions: Galvin la Chapelle, Carters of Moseley, Pepe Viera, Ebi sushi, Hand and Flowers, Michael Wignall at the Latymer.

Happy 2012 to all readers of the blog!

* not Jill

Summer is not over! Even though it’s nearly October, we still managed to sit out until 10pm and have a BBQ. You can knock all this up in less than an hour after work.

Photo by Hannah!

Kentish cobnuts – lovely, milky and sweet at this time of year
Padron peppers (still available in Waitrose, don’t think I’ve ever seen them in any other supermarkets) – cooked on a frying pan on the BBQ in olive oil. Be liberal with the Maldon salt.

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Butterflied leg of lamb, Moro’s muslim mediterranean marinade (see below)
Moro aubergine and tomato pilav
Moro chickepea salad
Mint and cucumber yoghurt

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English strawberries, raspberries, meringue and yoghurt (we didn’t have any cream!!)

Moro Muslim Mediterranean Marinade

In my opinion, this is one of the best things you can do with a butterflied leg of lamb. The cumin and coriander comes through beautifully.

Juice of one lemon
Handful of coriander, roughly chopped
Two large cloves of garlic, crushed to a paste with salt
Two teaspoons of cumin, freshly ground
Red onion, grated
Black pepper
Olive oil

Butterfly the lamb and give it a good slashing on both sides to encourage the marinade in. Combine all ingredients and rub over lamb. Marinade for as long as you’ve got (I only had an hour and it was fine, but I didn’t put it in the fridge so as to encourage it along a bit).

Chickpea salad – ideally you’d cook your own chick peas but I didn’t have time. I’ve found that I much prefer the East End tinned chickpeas as they are plumper than the standard supermarket brand ones.

I’ve already complained on this blog about the lack of decent food in Selfridges, Birmingham.

So it was with some trepidation we stepped across the threshold of Rossopomodoro, a new pizza-pasta chain with some pretentions of authenticity in Selfridges Food Hall.

There is some expectation it might be decent. They name check Slow Food (not my thing but recognisably not a bad thing), and DOP and DOC (not the rapper) on their website and import both their flour and their mineral water from Italy. This is not actually very cool because both flour and water are abundantly available in England (someone let them know), but at least they are trying I guess.

Service is impressively nonchalant/horizontal, which is certainly authentic when I remember our holiday in Rome, the one where we ate about as badly as we could in England. But actually, bring the drinks over yeah?

Starter was burrata. This mozzarella “pouch” filled with cream and mozzarella scraps (thanks Wikipedia) is lovely and creamy. But presumably they didn’t make it themselves and it was £7. It was served with crap tomatoes and stale bread and a couple of anchovies.

By now I was beginning to despair of the meal entirely.

But – hang on.

The pizzas were … actually extremely nice.

A light, soft dough with a bit of char on the crust from the wood-fired oven. A tomato sauce that was zingy and light and tomato-ey (idiom copyright John Lanchester). Decent mozzarella in the correct proportions. It was … REALLY QUITE GOOD INDEED. Certainly the best pizza I’ve had in the West Midlands.

In the end I was so impressed that I forgot the bad things and we skipped away happily into the sunset.

I got excited that I had invented a recipe, and a search for “smoked potato dauphinoise” is a GoogleWhack. However I cannot stake my claim as a genuine food inventor, as there are hits for “smoked dauphinoise“. Damn.

Anyway, smoked dauphinoise – it came to me as I considered a partner for a brace of roast grouse. We know that smoked potatoes are nice, as is smoked mash. And indeed smoked ice-cream is very nice too. So why not smoked dauphinoise?

Listen carefully for I will impart two useful secrets now. One is for the best potato dauphinoise recipe – courtesy of Simon Hopkinson’s “Week In, Week Out” and the second is for the smoking modification. Naturally I did this on the Bradley Smoker.

Smoked dauphinoise

300ml double cream
150ml semi-skimmed milk
600g potatoes (I used Desiree, Maris Piper also work great)
One clove of garlic, bashed
Salt to taste
Ground white pepper
Ground nutmeg
Small knob of butter

Simon Hopkinson has a very canny way with this dish which takes all the pain out of it. Instead of waiting for it to cook from raw in the oven and ending up with uncooked bits of potato you start it off on the hob.

Firstly, peel and slice your potatoes about £1 thickness. Wash the slices under a cold tap to remove some of the starch. Dry thoroughly in a tea towel (this is important so the cream mixture sticks to the potato surface rather than being repelled by the water).

Mix the other ingredients except for butter (salt, to taste) together and add sliced potatoes in a flat dish. Make sure that the potatoes are all separated and coated in some cream mixture. Allow to infuse for a bit.

For smoked potatoes:

Put the dish of cream and potatoes into the pre-heated Bradley smoker, and hot-smoke on maximum temperature over oak for about an hour. Allow to sit around for an hour or two for the smoke to penetrate completely. Quite honestly the mixture won’t taste great at this stage.

For both types:

Then, add the mixture to a large frying pan or casserole and put over the heat until the cream has thickened significantly and the potatoes are nearly tender. If your hot smoker is very hot then you may be able to skip or foreshorten this stage.

Add back to a buttered baking dish and cook for 30-40 minutes in an 180C oven until golden on top and nice and wobbly.

Smoked or unsmoked, this is very good!