Sometimes the simplest things are the best, in fact very often and particularly when it comes to food. Forman’s London Cure smoked salmon, great bread, cream cheese a few chives and a squeeze of lemon, as served at Poilane Cuisine de Bar in London. Encore s’il vous plait!
Read Zagat’s recommendation in full here - http://blog.zagat.com/2013/01/best-thing-we-ate-today-smoked-salmon.html
Classic Christmas food and leftover recipe ideas that really sparkle
To help you ring the changes this Christmas, whilst still enjoying the classic dishes, here is our guide to some gourmet Christmas foods you can treat yourself to, as well as some inventive ways you can add a little seasonal sparkle to those leftovers.
Make it easy on yourself
Our gourmet, UK wide, food delivery service is the ideal way to take the stress out of Christmas cooking this year. For starters (and mains and desserts!) we offer our complete Christmas menu deals for a traditional Christmas dinner without the customary blood, sweat and tears. Our selection of complete menu deals includes:
Add a touch of sparkle
We also offer a wide selection of ready prepared, gourmet meals, starters and sweets to add a little sparkle to your own Christmas dinner menu. Here are some tempting gourmet Christmas food ideas to help get your party started:
Get inventive with your leftovers
No matter how carefully we plan our menus, and order food online, the Christmas leftovers are as traditional as the big meal itself. Here are some creative Boxing Day menu ideas to help you use up those leftovers, with flair.
If you want to find out what leftover chicken recipes or leftover beef recipes top chefs suggest, have a look at Angela Hartnett, get inspiration from Jamie Oliver or take advice from Marcus Wareing. You can also have a look through the BBC’s Good Food or get deliciously creative with Taste. Here are our three favourite ways to make a meal out of leftovers, without resorting to a turkey sandwich.
Christmas kedgeree
If you have any salmon left over, this simple dish is a quick and easy brunch or supper. Fry onion and garlic in plenty of butter then add some basmati rice, garam masala and stock. Mix in some petit pois as the liquid is absorbed and, when the rice is tender, stir through some crème fraîche. Finally, add the salmon, some parsley and dress with quartered, lightly boiled eggs.
Turkey Singapore noodles
Noodle dishes offer a fresh take on turkey and chicken leftover recipes. Get creative with the spices and ingredients you use. Alternatively, try this tasty suggestion: cook your noodles and add some sesame oil. Make an omelette and shred it. Fry garlic, ginger and chilli in a wok and then add leftover vegetables, turkey and ham. Mix in the noodles with some curry powder, turmeric, soy, leftover sherry, sugar and your shredded omelette. Serve and garnish with fresh coriander.
Delicious desserts
With a little imagination and some Grand Marnier soaked oranges, custard, cream and leftover Christmas pudding, you can make a truly festive trifle with a difference.
Our top tip, however, is for that bottle of Baileys that often sits forlornly on the shelf after Christmas. Bailey’s Chocolate Pudding is a deliciously decadent dessert: a simple and wonderfully sinful treat.
Have a relaxing, indulgent, stress-free and leftover-free Christmas!
We’re incredibly lucky to have a guest recipe post from a true food blogging hero, Nazima Pathan of Working London Mummy.
The blog strapline may be ‘Feeding my family. One meal at a time’ but as you will see, there’s a lot more joy in her cooking and writing than just putting food on the table. The blog is big on beautiful desserts and cakes but taking in everyday savouries for the family and stunning restaurant style dishes such as the one that follows. Photography is always spot on and for balance the blog takes in food events and covers issues with personality and charm.
Nazima was a worthy winner of our recent ‘Forman’s Jubilee Bake Off’ for good reason – click here to see our judges’ comments.
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Courtesy of http://www.workinglondonmummy.com/
Smoked Salmon with Candy Beetroot Jelly and Purple Potato Crisps
The smoked salmon from Forman & Field is delicious, the slices have a beautiful texture and are smoked just right. Not overly strong nor too salty. I was sent some of it to develop a recipe for this guest post. After a lot of deliberation, my husband and I decided on these smoked salmon ‘flowers’ on a bed of purple potato crisps and a strip of candy beetroot jelly. Some sour cream and capers to top it off.
The delicacy of a fine smoked salmon pairs well with the light beetroot jelly in this recipe. Purple potato crisps made using the Vitelotte variety offer a different texture and add a visual complement in this easy to create dish. The best thing is that you can prepare ahead and assemble at the last minute. We used candy beetroot, mainly because it is such a lovely colour, and although it is not cheap you only need a couple of them. If you cannot source it then normal beetroot is fine. The jelly may be slightly more strongly flavoured but you can reduce the time you simmer the beetroot.
Here is how we made this recipe.
Ingredients (to serve 6):
2 Candy Beetroot
1 and a half teaspoons caster sugar
Pinch of star anise
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Gelatine powder (use dose indicated on packet, around 1 teaspoon)
6 slices of smoked salmon
6 teaspoons of Sour Cream
6 large capers
Salt and Pepper to season
3 large Vitelotte potatoes (or other purple potato variety)
Olive oil spray
Method:
Firstly prepare the jelly. Peel and cut the beetroot into small pieces. Place in a saucepan with the sugar, vinegar and star anise. Cover with 350ml of water and bring to the boil.
Simmer on a low heat for 10 minutes and then drain the liquid using a sieve into a measuring jug. Note the volume (it is likely to have reduced somewhat) and pour into a clean saucepan. Bring to 95 Deg C and add the gelatine in an amount indicated by the manufacturer (in my case it was 1 level teaspoon per 500ml so I used half that since I had around 250ml left). Remove from the heat and pour onto an oiled greaseproof paper placed in a small rectangular baking dish to a depth of no more than 4mm.
Once it has set, carefully remove the greaseproof out of the dish and lay it on a chopping board. Cut strips of jelly about 2.5cm thick. Leave the jelly on the greaseproof until ready to assemble.
Now to the potato crisps.
Preheat oven to 140Deg C. Peel the potatoes and using a food processor, mandolin or sharp knife cut wafer thin slices. Spritz with olive oil spray on both sides and place on a baking tray. Bake for around 20 minutes until the edges start to curl up Remove from oven and sprinkle a little sea salt and ground pepper over them. They will crisp up a little more as they dry and cool. Store in an airtight container.
For the salmon, take a slice of salmon and cut into slices around 2.5 cm wide. Carefully roll these up and fluff out one end of the roll to create a flower shape. You need 3 flowers per plate.
To assemble the dish place a salmon flower in the centre of the dish. Use a palette knife to lay a strip of jelly across the salmon.
At each end arrange the potato crisps and place a salmon flower on top of this.
Use a teaspoon to place a quenelle of sour cream on the middle flower on top of the jelly and place a caper on top. Ready to serve!
A huge thanks and Royal wave to all the fabulous cooks and bloggers who took part in our Forman’s Jubilee Bake Off. We’re delighted to announce the winner and runner up as follows.
1st Place – Working London Mummy for her ‘Royal Jubilee Tea Party‘
2nd Place – Lavendar and Lovage for her Royal Elderflower and Lemon Curd Butterfly Cakes and Regal Pear and Chocolate Pavlova Crown
Remember our ‘Formans Love Cook Off‘? Well today is a big day for baking!
It’s the launch of our inaugural (diamond jubilees don’t come around every day after all) Forman’s Jubilee Bake Off. We picked 9 of our favourite blogging bakers and sent them a mystery box of the finest ingredients we could lay our hands on. Their task is to use them to create a fabulous, magical, celebratory and most importantly delicious cake or sweet treat in honour of Her Maj’s Jubilee. Bloggers will photograph their entries post recipes online. Then they will be thoroughly tested and judged by Chef here at Forman & Field.
The prize for the winning entry will be a pair of tickets to our incredible Olympic dining experience, plus a guest post on the blog. The runner up will receive a Diamond Jubilee hamper.
It’s a dream team of masterful bakers, just take a look at their form here:
http://athomewithmrsm.blogspot.co.uk
http://iheartkatiecakes.blogspot.co.uk/
http://joskitchen.wordpress.com/
http://www.lavenderandlovage.com
http://www.frugaliciousfood.com/
http://www.workinglondonmummy.com
http://whatkatebaked.blogspot.co.uk/
The final boxes are arriving today and tomorrow, we can’t wait to see what they come up with!
We love this website. The wonderful Roy Ackerman visits Restaurants, Hotels, Chefs and Food Producers to interviews, taste and test. The filming is stunning and covers some of the true greats of the food scene – Raymond Blanc, Brian Turner, Theo Randall, Giorgio Locatelli, Mark Hix, Anton Mosimann, Michel Roux, Richard Shepherd, Rick Stein, Catherine Parisot… and many more.
In the latest episode he visits Forman’s to talk to Lance about our smoked salmon and his family company’s history. Our world record smoked salmon slicer Darren demonstrates his skills – yet again, we can’t keep a good man down! – and Forman’s Restaurant Chef Mike Smith demonstrates how to produce his tian of Salmon with Orange, Lemon and Keta.
Visit the site for many more excellent films – http://coolcucumber.tv/index.html
This is a recipe full of the rich flavour of late summer – deeply savoury grouse and heady truffle. It keeps the lean meat moist and creates a delicious sauce as you cook.
Ingredients
• 2 Grouse, oven ready and well seasoned
• 4 slices of Streaky Bacon
• Oil for frying
• 20g Minced Black Truffle
• 1 Onion, 1 stick of Celery, 1 Carrot – all diced
• 1 clove of Garlic, chopped
• 1 small bunch of fresh Thyme
• 150ml Red Wine and 150ml of Beef, Chicken or Game Stock
• Butter, salt and pepper to taste
• Serves 2
Preparation
• Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4.
• Wrap the bacon around the breasts of the grouse (if you buy from Forman & Field we do this for you in advance), get the oil quite hot in a heavy based frying pan and sear the birds all over so they have a good rich colour, just a couple of minutes each side.
• Take out the birds and set aside, reduce the heat to medium and soften the onion, celery and carrot and fry gently for another few minutes. Then add the garlic and give it another minute.
• Pour in the wine and stock and warm through.
• If your pan is oven friendly – if not, transfer to a casserole – pop the birds on top of the veg and liquid, add the thyme, loosely cover with foil and put them in the oven.
• Roast for 20 minutes, take out and give the breasts a squeeze. If they feel firmish on the outside but with a bit of give inside that should mean they are just cooked through but nice and pink and juicey. Reduce the roasting time by a five minutes if you prefer them rare, or add five minutes for well done.
• Once cooked take out the birds and set aside to rest for at least 5 minutes. Return the pan to the hob and bubble whilst vigourously scraping all that good stuff off the bottom until it is thickened to your liking – you can add more wine/stock if it’s already gone very syrupy whilst roasting. Strain, taste and season, return to the pan and whisk in a knob of butter for extra richness. Finally stir in the minced black truffle.
• Serve the birds with the sauce, Herb Mash is an ideal side dish.
A foolproof roast for any leg of lamb but right now look no further than the fabulous organic meat we’re getting from Rhug Estate in north Wales. Order while you can as this is a proper seasonal delicacy that’s only in stock for a short month or so!
Ingredients:
1 leg of salt marsh lamb
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 cloves garlic
30g butter
salt and pepper
500ml lamb or chicken stock
4 cloves garlic
Serves 8-10
Preparation:
Take lamb out of the fridge an hour before cooking to allow it to reach room temperature. Remove from packaging. Heat oven to 190′C.
Use a small knife to make approx 15 holes roughly 2 cm deep evenly spread over the joint. First chop and then use a pestle and mortar to pound the garlic into a paste with a teaspoon of salt. Pick and chop the rosemary leaves, then add them to the garlic along with the butter and a good grind of black pepper. Mix together well with your pestle, then massage all over the lamb, rubbing it into the holes you created as much as possible.
Transfer the joint to a roasting tin, add the stock and loosely cover with foil. Roast for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and roast for a further 50 minutes for medium or adjust time to cook to your taste.
Remove from the oven and set somewhere warm to rest for at least 20 minutes. Serve with the juices from the tin poured over the meat, or even better with our red wine jus and herb mash.
There’s an immaculately photographed set of recipes for our smoked salmon on the brilliant Aesthetics and Gastronomy blog. Click through to the blog and read them in full here.
We’re delighted to be introducing The Ginger Pig to our group of speciality producers. They farm Tamworth pigs, Longhorn cattle and sheep to the highest standards in the beautiful North York Moors.
They produce some of the best meat we have ever tried and as Jay Rayner put it recently, “There are many great butchers in Britain but no single company which covers the whole process from the happy animal in the field, to the terrific cut of meat in my kitchen in the way they do.”
We have a great value selection box of their meat as well as individual cuts of fresh and cured pork and beef available throughought June. Order now while stocks last!
Ginger Pig Selection Box £49.95
Ginger Pig Sirloin Steaks x 2 £19.95
Ginger Pig Pork Chops x 2 £13.50
The Ginger Pig Meat Selection
To give some more inspiration Lucas Hollweg of The Times recently compiled some fabulous recipes from the new Ginger Pig cook book.
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