One Man’s Meat is Another Man’s Poison

It’s great to get feedback about the missives I send out with the menu each week, so thank you to everyone who sends in a message. They say one man’s meat is another man’s poison and I guess this is particularly true when it comes to music. My top musical tip this week would have been The Flying Clouds of Detroit, an acapella group formed in 1929 in Detroit, Michigan and their hauntingly beautiful rendition of ‘out of the depths of my soul I cried’ But I can’t find a link to that exact tune on you tube and other versions are a bit turgid or even ‘tortured horribly’ and I wouldn’t want to invoke any more ire or wrath.

Back in 1966, every Sunday morning I would encounter my mum and dad in the kitchen getting lunch ready for everyone. On the radio, ‘BFPO Two Way Family Favourites’ blasting out all of my mum’s favourites, Jim Reeves, Roy Orbison, The Johnny Mann singers, Russ Conway, all the greats. They had quite an impressive record collection, quite a few colliery brass band albums and Welsh male voice choirs which my dad loved. There was one album, I remember with fondness, listened to behind closed doors on a Saturday night, out of earshot of the children, when friends came round for a drink and a catch up. Blaster Bates, ‘Laughter with a Bang’, it’s a northern thing, a bloke telling stories about working in and around Northwich, Nantwich, Sandbach, Marston, Pickmere, blowing things up basically.

They were quite ripe tales, very funny back in the day and involved the odd swear word, an occasional ‘bugger’ and ‘sh*t’. Coming from seriously rooted working class stock, there was never any swearing at home. Plenty in the workplace and the pub, bar end, but never at home, hence the clandestine closed doors and muffled chortling of my parents and their friends. I was allowed in to listen that year though, I remember, I was 12 years old and had just started working weekends on Ray Eardley’s farm, so I thought it must have meant some acceptance of my senior years and newfound responsibilities, of becoming a man.

One of my favourite stories from the album is here, hoping it doesn’t cause too much offence

Listening again, he sounds just like my dad used to.


THIS WEEKS TAKEAWAY - FINISH AT HOME MENU
GURNARD
This has to be my favourite fish of the moment the flesh is firm and the taste, utterly lovely. It’s caught locally, between Poole and Brixham and perfectly filleted by Premiere fish in Downton. Simply grilled, it’s a real treat and eats perfectly with the Puy lentils.
£7.50

GREYLAG GOOSE BREAST
More good fare from the Orkney Islands, it’s another super simple, pan fry, baste and roast number, which I’m sure you will cook and slice to perfection. You won’t find wild goose breast in Waitrose any when soon that’s for sure. As you might remember, the Orkneys are inundated with these birds flying in from Norway annually, scoffing all their crops, so we’re really helping out by eating them.
£6.00

PUY LENTILS, ROOT VEGETABLES, PRESERVED LEMON & HERBS
Puy lentils with loads of root vegetables and a hint of preserved lemon to give it all a lift. A perfectly comforting and comfortable dish to eat alongside either the goose or the fish.
£4.50

LEEK & CHESTNUT RISOTTO
We make this dish often, it’s simple but utterly delicious, it’s an old River Cottage recipe. We make the risotto base for you, which basically involves finely slicing up the leeks and adding them to foaming butter in a hot saucepan, then sautéing them, low and slow for about half an hour until they dissolve into a velvety unctuousness. Then adding picked and chopped fresh thyme, before stirring in the rice and finally a liberal glug of white wine and cooking for 8 minutes. We’ve even made the vegetable stock for you. So all you have to do is heat up the stock and add it to the rice a ladle at a time and keep stirring. Then pan fry the chestnuts in butter and scatter over the top
£6.50

RHUBARB CHEESECAKE £5.00
Lovely forced rhubarb from the rhubarb triangle, an area of 9 square miles in West Yorkshire, between Wakefield, Morley and Rothwell, at this time of year, it’s the absolute best.
£5.00