Toad in the Hole with black pudding, Andouillette de Troye and pork kidneys in bacon

Friday, 11th May 2012 

The theme for tonight's Offal Club arose from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's "The Meat Cookbook" and the concept that kidneys wrapped in bacon made an excellent "Toad". Having toyed with several possible ideas including Hole in the Heart (pan-fried ox heart topped with a horseradish foam-filled yorkie pud) or the even more pun-tastic Tongue in the Hole (which we leave to your imagination...), the recipe was confirmed when Jason's boss returned from France with 3 packets of Andouillette, otherwise known as Pig-colon sausage. Some black pudding, kidneys in bacon and lashings of onion gravy completed the dish. Our habit of sending invites out 2 weeks in advance continued to show dividends with another fine turn-out including 2 new offaliates, Paul and Joby. Indeed Joby not only brought his own home-made black pudding to compliment Simon C's home made focaccia but his performance with a camera has now earned him the title of Official Offal Photographer. Jason's Manchester tart provided a fitting end to another fine evening.

 

Chefs: Starter: Simon C, Joby; Main: Simon; Desert: Jason.
Venue: Simon's house.
Members: Simon, Jason, Howie, Simon C, Joby, Jon, Dan, Jock, Paul.
Starter: Joby's Black Pudding Crostini.

Home made Black pudding by Joby.  Home made Focaccia by Simon C.  Styling by man at C&A.

Main: Andouillette de Troye, Pork Kidneys in Bacon and Black Pudding Toad in the Hole with Celeriac and Carrot Horseradish Mash, Stir-fried Cabbage and Mustard and Onion Gravy.

The Andouillette was variously described as "fecal", and "delightful", with scores ranging from 2 to 8 out of 10.  Try it if you get the opportunity, but don't say we recommended it.

Pudding: Manchester Tart.

We used Marcus Waring's fine recipe found here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-1212009/Recipe-Manchester-tart-slice.html

Suggestions of what to do with all the spare dessicated coconut on a postcard please

Quotes of the night:
"This is Howie's get gout weekend"
"It's like sweaty foot"
"You've got to punch it down"
"Does anybody want any focaccia"
"I like tripe sausages. The ironic thing is I hate Yorkshire pudding"
"The tripes up there with the spleen"
"A tripe / spleen fricasee would be the holy grail for me"
"Imagine that it's not as good as bollocks"
"Offal club has boundaries, we're not animals you know"

Last word: Jon "Manchester tart...that's not made from rendered prostitutes is it?"

Next time: BBC2

Black pudding samosas, lamb kidney bhuna, tarka dhal, cachumber salad and chapatti, cardamom rice pudding with stewed mango

Festoffal 2012.

A new year and new resolutions. Here at offal club we have tried to continually push the offal envelope, as our numerous posts attest. However, having painted ourselves into an offal corner with recent experiments with pig face and cow spleen, time was right for a back to basics approach...simple offal cooked very well. This time around an Indian theme, which oddly offal club have to date not embraced. It did at least show us that that there are virtually no puns that tie together indian food and kidneys, and that two years is adequate time to forget the last time offal club poisoned you.

Chefs: Jason and Howie.

Venue: Jason's house.

Members present: Jason, Howie, Simon, Jon, Jock, Dan and Mark

Starter: Black pudding samosa.

Samosa mix made from bury black pudding (x2), birdseye chilly (green, 1), fresh chopped coriander and one potato cut into small cubes and blanched in boiling water (5 minutes). Ready made samosa pastry from Hulme Asda strangely. Brush with melted Ghee and bake in oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. Served with Mango Chutney

Main: Lamb kidney bhuna, tarka dhal, cachumber salad and chapatti.

Bhuna prepared exactly as described here on twice the scale with half the onions, tasted phenomenal.

http://nidhiraizada.blogspot.com/2009/04/kidney-masala-lamb-kidney-masala.html

Remaining dishes all directly from Pat Chapmans Curry Bible (Hodder and Staughton 1997).

Tarka Dhal: 500g red lentils soaked for 3 hours then boiled for 30 minutes. Prepare the tarka by slow frying 2 onions in ghee for 20 minutes, then add 2 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp turmeric, 6 chopped garlic cloves, 3 tbsp curry powder, 3 tsp garam masala and salt and stir fry for a further 5 minutes. Combine with the drained lentils.

Cachumber salad: 1 red onion, 2 green chillies, 1/2 green bell pepper, 2 tomatoes all finely sliced. Add 1 tsp fennel seeds, 1 tbsp chopped coriander, 1 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp vinegar and mix

Chapatti's: Add warm water to 500g wholemeal flour and need to a dough. Rest for 10 minutes then split into 8. Roll out thinly and dry fry in a large hot non-stick frying pan.

Dessert: Cardamom rice pudding, stewed mango.

Rice pudding amply described here...

http://thefrugalcook.blogspot.com/2011/02/creamy-cardamom-rice-pudding.html

Stew the chopped mango pieces with sugar and a small amount of water for 20 minutes. Serve

Quotes of the night: "I think my mouth is bleeding"

"I've made it in to the blog"

"You can't do raving on offal" (although apparently Howie disagrees)

Excuses of the night: None, Mark turned up.

Next venue: Offal-off at Jons.

The final word: Jocks..."I can't shit, but other than that all is good. Top tucker"

Braised Pig's Head Fergus Henderson Style.

7th October 2011

The Mark Addy Masterclass.



We in the Offal Club have long held the belief that the very pinnacle of offal consumption would be the eyeball and there seemed no more appropriate moment to achieve this feat than in the presence of the Great Offal Master himself: Fergus Henderson. In association with the Manchester Food and Drink Festival, Robert Owen Brown, head chef at the Mark Addy, and his team had put on a gourmet evening in honour of the great man and the Offal Club were in attendance. After a couple of fruitless attempts to persuade the waitresses to introduce us to Fergus, we realised we were going to have to take matters into our own hands. We quickly realised He was rather fond of the odd flaming tar stick so ingratiated ourselves while similarly nipping out for a breath of fresh air. Having paid homage to the Master, we then settled down to a delicious 5 course meal of which the main event was the classic Braised Pigs Head. Magnificent!!




Chef: Robert Owen Brown and his team.


Venue: The Mark Addy.


Members present: Howie, Jason, Simon.

Pan fried Ox Heart with Horseradish cream

Shrimp Soup

....and all that remained at the end.

Braised Pig's Head, straight from the kitchen...

Chocolate ice cream in a chocolate cup.

Sheeps curd cheese.

Quotes of the Night:

"I should have booked the table under the name of "Mr o'Ffal""

To Fergus: "you're only offering me a cigarette because u want to chain smoke." Fergus: "I dont care if I chain smoke or not."

"Salad?"

"I don't know what this gunjy shit is but it's quite nice"

"Infra temporal fossa that mate"

"My arse is really sensitive, I know when someone is touching my arse"

"I was gonna have a wank but I had a sleeping tablet instead"

Deep fried Breaded Lamb's Testicles with Potato Cake "Soldiers" Courgette Spaghetti and Horseradish and Mustard Foams; T'hal (Lebanese stuffed sauteed beef spleen).

Friday 16th September 2011

It's Spleen a Long Time Coming....

Offal club has been in session for many years, many more than indicated by this humble blog. With only a finite number of animals available sporting an equally finite number of organs, the time will come when we have sampled everything there is to sample from the fifth quarter. That day is not today however, where in spite of several conversations with butchers indicating Spleen was legally destined for the "BSE bins", tenacity by Jason secured two of the Northwests finest "Melts". Buoyed by a record number of offaliates in attendance, and armed with copious quantities of Lebanese wine, we embarked on the classic Lebanese dish T'hal, or stuffed spleen.

Pity then that it tasted of death, and chewy death at that.

Chef: Simon, Howie.

Venue: Simon's.

Members present: Jason, Simon, Howie, Jock, Adam, Dan, Dave, Jon.

Preparation:

The Unadulterated Lambs Testicle

The Unadulterated Beef Spleen.

Deep fried Breaded Lambs Testicles with Potato Cake "Soldiers", Courgette Spaghetti and Horseradish and Mustard Foams.

Lambs Testicles

4 Lamb's testicles (although I think we got Ram's).

Coat in seasoned flour, dip in beaten egg and roll in breadcrumbs. Chill in fridge for 30 mins, brush with egg and roll in more breadcrumbs. Chill for further 30 mins. Deep fry in hot oil till cooked.

Potato Cake "Soldiers".

500g floury potato, boil for 20 mins, drain and mash with butter and egg yolk. Shape into soldiers, bake on a lightly oiled tray for 40 mins, turning halfway through.

Courgette sphagetti.

Grate fresh courgette. Dress with lemon juice, olive oil and Dijon mustard dressing.

Foams.

1 onion and 1 garlic clove finely sliced and lightly fried. Add 250ml milk and 250ml cream, bay leaf and thyme and simmer till reduced by 1/3. Pass through sieve. Create foam using hand held blender and split in half. Add horseradish cream to one half and mustard powder to the other.

Nasturtium flowers: By Esme Caulfield, for Offal Club.

Main, T'hal (Lebanese stuffed sauteed spleen) with couscous.

(from The Fifth Quarter by Anissa Helou)

Lebanese Sauteed Spleen

Desert: Beetroot and chocolate brownies

(Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall)

Beetroot and chocolate brownies

You can either grate or purée the cooked beetroot before adding to the mix - the latter gives a slightly more velvety texture. They work just as well with or without walnuts. Some people think that a brownie isn't a brownie without walnuts, while others can't stand them; it really depends on your personal preference. Makes 15 squares.

250g unsalted butter, cut into cubes, plus a little more for greasing

250g plain chocolate (about 70% cocoa solids), broken into squares250g caster sugar3 eggs150g self-raising flour (we use wholemeal self-raising)100g broken walnuts (optional)250g cooked and peeled beetroot, grated or puréed

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/ gas mark 3. Lightly grease a baking tin that's roughly 20cm x 30cm in size and at least 2cm deep. Line the bottom with greaseproof paper and butter the paper, too. Put the cubed butter and chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Place this on an oven tray lined with a baking sheet, and put in oven to warm up. After a few minutes, remove, stir, then return to the oven to melt completely. (Alternatively, melt the chocolate and butter in the conventional manner, in a bowl held over a pan of barely simmering water). Preheat the oven to 170C/325F/ gas mark 3. Lightly grease a baking tin that's roughly 20cm x 30cm in size and at least 2cm deep. Line the bottom with greaseproof paper and butter the paper, too. In another bowl, whisk the sugar with the eggs until smooth and creamy. Stir in the chocolate mixture until well combined. Sift in the flour, stir, fold in the walnuts (if using) and beetroot. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a knife or skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it - be careful not to overcook the brownies. Remove from the oven, then stand the tray on a wire rack until cool enough to cut into squares.

Wine: Lots of Chateau Musar. Fabled Labenese vintage, 2002-3

Post-Offal Entertainment: Discussing how bad spleen tasted

Quotes of the night:

"You wanna be careful you don't get the Shi-ites"

"Oh fuck is that what spleen looks like?"

"Is it one of those each? No. Thank fuck for that."

"If it's any kind of testicle I want it cooked through."

"Listen i could eat bollocks any time"

"It tastes processed, a bit like a bollock twisler"

"We're gonna tell the ladies it really does melt in your mouth"

"Do you want some ball batter?"

"I really like the spleen, the ironic thing is I can't stand couscous."

Acceptance of the night:

"For fear of being labelled a lilly-livered faggott, I haven't the heart to refuse, on this occasion. What time should I come a-lung?"

Excuse of the night:

"It's CavFest tomorrow so I have to spend all night stocking the bar"

"I'm offal-ly sorry"

"........................"(Oh Scott, how your silence is deafening!!)

Injury of the night: Howie, who ended up in in A&E with a fractured ankle after a kerb viciously attacked him.

The Final Word:

Jock: "Cheers for last night mate, I had a ball"

Roast Veal Bone Marrow Salad; Veal Sweetbreads with Grenobloise sauce, Dauphinoise potatoes and roast vine baby tomatoes.

Friday 13th May 2011

Friday the 13th Part V(eal)

It's Friday the 13th and Jason's back, chopping things up. A secret under the counter handshake , a masonic wink and a pile of cash and suddenly he had appropriated the pinnacle of sweetbreads: veal pancreas. Accompanied by a light starter of roasted bone marrow, Fergus Henderson style, and we had the perfect meal to induct new member Jock.

Chef: Jason, Simon, Howie.

Venue: Jason's.

Members present: Jason, Simon, Howie, Jock.

Roast Veal Bone Marrow Salad.

(from Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson,)

Veal Sweetbreads with Grenobloise sauce, Dauphinoise potatoes and roast vine baby tomatoes.

Soak 4 Veal Sweetbreads (pancreas not thymus) in water overnight, then blanch in salted water with a little white wine vinegar for 4 minutes. Allow to cool, then trim to remove membranes etc. Press between 2 plates overnight, refrigerated. Slice the sweetbreads into 3/4 inch slices, season with salt and pepper and dip in flour. Pan fry in olive oil for 6 minutes, turning frequently. When done remove to a warm plate, then add 4 Tbsp of butter to the pan, allow to brown for 1 minute, then add 2 Tbsp chopped parsley, 2 Tbsp chopped capers, salt and pepper. Serve immediately.

Jamie Olivers quick Dauphinoise (30 Minute meals).

Vine baby tomatoes roasted at 200C for 15 minutes.

Lemon Posset with Ginger biscuits.

Wine:

Post-Offal Entertainment: Arsehole (another classic card game)

Quotes of the night:

"If he'd warm his plates he be as good as me"

"You're just high on offal"

Scallops wrapped in Parma ham with black pudding and sauce vierge; Oxtail with Rioja and chorizo.

29th January 2011


A Winter's Tail.

Jon B's birthday provided the perfect excuse to congregate once again. Oxtail was back on the menu and we discovered that even scallops can be "offalised" if you throw in some black pudding. Great plans for an all night poker session were sadly let down by the realisation that, once we had eaten, we just couldn't be arsed.

Chefs: Jon B and Howie

Venue: Simon's

Members present: Simon, Jason, Jon B, Howie and Dan.

Scallops wrapped in Parma ham with black pudding and sauce vierge.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/scallopswrappedinpar_89835

Oxtail with Rioja and Chorizo.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/oxtailwithriojaandch_82945

Chocolate Tort.

Wine: A light Mojito followed by the obligatory rioja.

Post-Offal Entertainment: Texas Hold 'em.

Quotes of the Night:

"I was high on worming tablets"

"That's the best starter I've ever had anywhere." - "he is from Rotherham though"

"What are you reading?" - "Poker tips from the pros."

Chocolate Pasta (Hotel Chocolat), pan-seared Foie Gras and Figgy sauce; Chicken Liver Risotto; Stuffed Braised Lamb's Hearts.

10th December 2010

Liver Let Die.

FestOffal 2010 is upon us. Retreating to the frozen wastes of Sale, the grand plan of feasting on Reindeer heart was somewhat let down by the purveyers of fine Scandinavian foods (Liddle) so we settled for an assortment of liver and lamb's heart instead. Then while compiling the blog we discovered a group of London foodies had plagiarised our name AND tag line......

Chef: Dan and Simon, (Jon provided desert).

Venue: Dan's house.

Members present: Simon, Jason, Dan, Jon.

Chocolate Pasta (Hotel Chocolat), pan-seared Foie Gras and Figgy sauce.

Combine 100ml Sauterne, chicken stock, 1 tablespoon redcurrent jelly and sliced dried figs and reduce for 15 minutes. Cook the pasta and fry the foie gras. For God's sake don't

get tinned foie gras unless you like a melted mess.

Chicken Liver Risotto.

http://www.tasteitaliamag.com/content.plm/233

Stuffed Braised Lamb's Hearts.

http://dine-online.co.uk/foodie/stuffed-braised-lambs-heart-an-alternative-christmas-dish/

Wine: An aperitif of Prosecco with a mulled wine ice cube, plenty of red and a nice Sauterne to finish with Grandma's mince pies.

Post-Offal Entertainment: Shithead (a card game - not just a term of endearment)

Quotes of the Night:
"Its good to be eating something for the first time (that no-one will ever eat again)"
"When we asked the sommelier what we should have with this he said Irn-Bru"
"I'm never buying f*****g tinned foie gras again"
"I think I'll have some more. No Jon. think about your heart"

Excuses of the Night:
"I've only just regained the power of my legs after the flu jab (but I'm off raving for New Years eve tomorrow)"

Next Venue: Some fancy restaurant courtesy of our London affiliates.