By l.martin, on April 25th, 2011   Everyday, Foie Gras, Potted meats 
This is my version of foie gras au torchon. Most recipes I’ve seen on the internet are based on the French Laundry recipe which is fine and nice but takes days to make. I did once see a French recipe book which made the process quite simple but I didn’t have that to hand so instead I made this which is probably not technically a torchon since it’s vacuum packed instead of wrapped in cloth.
Ingredients
1 lobe of foie gras about 400g
Maldon Salt
Black pepper
De-vain the foie; this is a pain but is very necessary. Split the liver open with a knife and gently tease out the strands and wriggly bits. It doesn’t matter if you break the liver since we’re going to force it back together again.
Season the pieces of liver all over with the salt and pepper. Take a large piece of baking paper and arrange the pieces in a . . . →Foie gras au torchon
By l.martin, on April 11th, 2011 International Preserves Exchange, Jam 
I’ve been making this for years and it’s about the best thing you can possibly put on a BBQ’d sausage. The main flavours are from chilli and ginger and sugar, but the batch I made this year included a few scotch bonnet peppers, possibly a mistake but we will have to wait and see when it’s finished maturing in the jars.
I will update this post in 2 months when i taste the jam properly. This brew will also filter out into the world for the International Preserves Exchange.
Ingredients
1 kilo of red chillies 3 – 4 scotch bonnet chillies (optional) 500g jam sugar with extra pectin 200g ginger, brunoised or pureed. Zest and juice of one lemon 150ml water
Finely slice half of the chillies including the scotch bonnets if using. The other half should go into a food processor to be finely pureed. Like me you may want to wear some rubber gloves for this.
. . . →Chilli Jam – tantrums and trauma sweats
By LucMartin, on March 25th, 2011 Potted meats 
Duck confit is one of those things that scratches an itch nothing else can. Back in the day, the breasts of the foie gras ducks would be confit’d together with the legs, but nowadays the breast or Magret is too fashionable and indeed expensive to “waste” on confit. Shame. In France you can wander into any supermarket and buy tins of perfectly acceptable confit, unfortunately we don’t all have the luxury of living in France. For the rest of us, here is my duck confit recipe (you can substitute goose if you want).
Cure Ingredients
As many duck legs as you can get your hands on. Maldon salt, relative to the amount of duck legs, it need only be a thin covering. White pepper, garlic powder, about 1tsp per kilo or duck
Wash and dry the duck legs. Mix the salt and spices together and rub into the duck. Place the legs in a non reactive container and . . . →Confit de Canard
By LucMartin, on March 25th, 2011 Potted meats 
I started making rillettes as a way to use up leftover roast pork (super easy, pound it up spread on toast), but my wife loved this so much that I had to start making it specially from raw meat. It’s still a really easy way to preserve any bits of raw pork (or indeed chicken, lamb, duck) for several weeks or months and is pure bliss on a slice of hot toasted sourdough.
Ingredients
Pork belly, doesn’t really matter how much, but because of the long cooking time, it makes sense to use at least a kilo of pork, I normally go for 1.5 kilos 1% total weight of salt, I prefer Maldon Herbs and spices to taste; some combination of bay, black pepper, juniper, thyme is good Lots of rendered pork or duck fat
Cut the pork belly into large chunks, massage well with the salt and herbs and place in a large roasting tin. Cover . . . →Rillettes de porc
By LucMartin, on February 25th, 2011 Preserving This is a Placeholder for the International Preserves Exchange
Add more posts etc here……
By l.martin, on September 5th, 2010 Fruit, Jam 
Now i know we all know how to make jam, but this year my plum tree bore fruit for the first time, five kilos in total. So there will be a bit of a jammy theme to the next posts.
So, for homemade plum homemade plum jam you will need:
3kg plums from your own tree (or just from the shop is also ok) 2kg sugar 3 lemons quartered Some water
My plums were small and sweet but this means a lot of work to get the stones out. Fortunately I’m far too lazy for this so I put them in a big pan with a little water and stewed them down with the stones – this is also good to get the pectin from the stones that helps set the jam. After about 2 hours stewing, I let the mixture cool until I could get my hands in and fish out the stones.
Then . . . →Homemade plum homemade plum jam
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