The Aiden Byrne Blog

In February Aiden delivered a cookery demonstration as part of the Lymm Festival Winter Warmer series of events.

Held at the Lymm village hall, the audience were treated to a step-by-step guide to cooking a beef hotpot and lime cheese cake with roasted pineapple and chilli, and were able to sample the finished dishes. 

Throughout the evening Aiden shared plenty of top cookery tips, produce sourcing ideas, ingredient advice and answered plenty of questions from the audience. He talked about the new concept being introduced at The Church Green – the Aiden Byrne British Grill.

Aiden and Sarah ran a raffle with prizes including Aiden’s cookery book, Made in Great Britain, and the Cherry Tree School cookbook, The Big Red Juicy Cookbook, which Aiden has written a foreword for.

Aiden says, “It’s great to have the opportunity to stand up in front of people who are interested in cooking and share my skills and knowledge with them. I hope the audience went away with a bit of inspiration and are now cooking these dishes in their own homes. I would urge others to get involved with the Lymm Festival in some way shape or form, the events that are run are great and have a fantastic community feel about them.”

To receive a copy of the recipes, please email abteam@thechurchgreen.co.uk marking the subject as ‘Lymm Festival Cookery Demo’.

Toffee apples with marshmallows and pecans

INGREDIENTS
6 dessert apples
6 wooden sticks (like those used for ice lollies)
4 (100g) packets original toffee, such as Walkers
2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
100g marshmallows, chopped
175g chopped pecans, toasted
175g dark chocolate, chopped


METHOD
Insert wooden sticks 3/4 of the way into the stem end of each apple. Place the apples on a baking sheet covered with lightly greased aluminium foil.

Combine the toffee and water in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring often, until the toffee melts and is smooth. Stir in the vanilla. Dip each apple into the toffee and gently run apples around the insides of saucepan to scrape off some of the toffee. Scrape excess toffee from the apple bottoms using the side of the saucepan.

Combine the chopped marshmallows and pecans on a dinner plate. Roll the apples in the mixture to coat. Place on the aluminium foil and chill.

Put the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Cook in the microwave for 30 second intervals, stirring between each, until melted and smooth. Drizzle the chocolate over the apples and return them to the refrigerator until you are ready to serve.

Spiced Pork Belly With Asian Style Coleslaw and Pak Choi

There are a couple of ways that you can cook this pork belly, the way we cook it at The Church Green has been born out of necessity. We only have a small kitchen so therefore not much oven space and for a braisage such as this to take over the whole oven for a few hours isn’t an option.

Let's Get Started

• 2 Kilo of boneless pork belly
• 1 stick of lemon grass (bashed thoroughly to release all the oils and flavors)
• 2 chilies (cut in half lengthways)
• 25 grams of fresh ginger (sliced)
• 1 lime (sliced into 8 slices)
• 4 lime leaves
• 20 coriander stalks

For the Asian Coleslaw

• ¼ red cabbage finally sliced
• ½ red onion finally sliced
• 1 large carrot grated
• 2 tablespoons of crunchy peanut butter
• 30 grams of toasted peanuts
• 5 grams of white sesame seeds
• 5 grams of black sesame seeds
• 25 mls of toasted sesame oil
• 15 mls of dark soy sauce
• zest and juice of 1 lime
• fresh coriander leaves (finely shredded)
• 1 chili (finely sliced)

And the Oyster Sauce

• 25 mls of toasted sesame oil
• 10 grams of fresh sliced ginger
• 1 clove of sliced garlic
• 50 grams of sliced shallots
• 1 sliced red chili
• 1 stick of lemon grass (bashed thoroughly to release all the oils and flavors)
• 15 mls of dark soy sauce
• 50 mls of oyster sauce
• 1 litre of white chicken stock
• 5 grams of corn flour
• 20 mls of cold water
• 4 bunches of bok choi

The two options for cooking the pork belly are as follows, (firstly with either option you must salt your pork belly fairly heavily in advance, as much as if you were seasoning a steak) the conventional way is to lay a sheet of greaseproof paper and lay it on the bottom of a fairly deep roasting dish, lay down all the flavoring ingredients and spices and then lay the well seasoned pork belly on top, cover with either white chicken stock or water, cover with another sheet of greaseproof and then cover the tray with tin foil, place in an oven at 140oc for 3 hours and remove, press and chill. Option number 2 is take your flavoring ingredients and spices to the butchers and ask them to lay them on your well seasoned pork belly, place it into a vacuum pac bag and seal tightly, I would even ask them to double bag it for strength.

Place into a bath of water set at 78oC and cook for 8-12 hours, the difference in flavor and texture is fairly minimal, as I said this second cooking technique was born out of necessity.

The pressing of the belly is also quite important, this is were you may struggle for fridge space at home. With either technique allow the belly to cool for 15-20 minutes so it is much easier for you to handle. You need flat surface of some description, possibly a flat-based roasting dish/tray, line it with greaseproof paper and after removing all the flavorings and the spices from the belly, place it skin side down onto the paper (trying to avoid tearing the skin), place another sheet of greaseproof paper on top and then place another flat tray on top, at this point you will need to clear a shelf (preferably the bottom) from your fridge, place in the pork belly on the trays and find a weight to place on top of it, this will take a little time, ingenuity and patience, you must get it so that the belly is pressing evenly, this will make for a fantastic crispy skin later.

Now For The Easy Part

The Asian coleslaw is simply a take on basic coleslaw, spiced up. So I’ve taken red cabbage, red onions, carrots and all the ingredients I think will make a nice asian dressing, so what I’m saying here is that this is basically down to your personal taste, I have put peanut butter in here but its completely your choice.

If you sticking to this recipe then simply mix all the ingredients together and eat immediately. (don’t leave it dressed for too long as the vegetables will become limp and loose their crunch.

For the sauce heat a heavy bottomed pan and place in the toasted sesame oil, add the ginger, shallots, garlic, chili, lemongrass and coriander stalks and cook until the shallots are soft. Add the soy sauce, the oyster sauce and the chicken stock and allow to simmer for 20 minutes, mix the cornflour with the water and whisk into the sauce, allow to simmer for a further 5 minutes and then pass through a fine sieve and allow to cool.

After 24 hours remove the pork belly from the fridge, peel away the greaseproof and trim to 4 even sized portions.

Place the belly into a hot oven proof frying pan with a dash of vegetable oil skin side down, cook the skin on a very low heat for about 10 minutes and then place into a pre heated oven for a further 10 minutes. The skin should be crisp at this point if not then place the belly portions in the same pan back onto a low heat until the skin becomes crisp. Meanwhile place the bok choi into a pan of boiling salted water for 30 seconds maximum. Place the crisp belly onto plates, and serve with the coleslaw, the pak choi and the spiced sauce.

Seared Foie gras  & puy lentil Ragout

I'm afraid Rob that I can't take credit for this dish, this is one of Rogers dishes.

For the Puy Lentils:

• 500gr puy lentils
• 1 Large carrot (peeled and chopped roughly)
• 1 Spanish onion (peeled and chopped roughly)
• 1 cm slice of Alsace bacon (or any pork belly cured and smoked )
• 1 head of garlic cut in half

Method

Caramelise the carrot, onion and bacon (the further you take the caramelization the sweeter), add garlic toward the end. Wrap in a muslin cloth with a bay leaf and a few springs of thyme.

In a large casserole place in the lentils and fill the pan with cold water, bring to boil as fast as possible, strain and put back in the pan adding the vegetables wrapped in muslin (doing this will save you the job to pick them after), cover with water, bring to boil, then simmer until tender, at this stage season salt to taste and leave to cool.

Squeeze the muslin to extract all the goodness and flavour, keep lentils in the stock.

Lentil Ragout (4 portions):

• 200 gr cooked puy lentils
• 100-gr lentil stock
• 30 gr sliced spring onion finely sliced
• 60-gr Alsace (or sweet cured) bacon (fine julienne)
• 15 ml sherry vinegar
• Chopped chives
• Salt and pepper
• 1 tbspoon brown chicken stock

Method

In a very hot wok add olive oil and straight away toss the finely sliced spring onion .for a few second only, till they collapse, keep aside.

In a hot non stick pan add the bacon until they colour and melt the fat, remove extra fat, deglaze the bacon and the pan with the sherry vinegar, add lentils and stocks, cook until most of the stock evaporated and emulsified, add the spring onion and the chives, check seasoning.

Foie Gras:

• 60 gr sliced of Foie gras per person

Season with salt and pepper in a sous-vide bag .5 min @ 55 c then seared and a quick flash in the oven. Or in a pan, seared then in a oven for 4/5 min @at 180 c.

To finish the dish 1 quail egg pan friend per person and a sliced of crispy sour dough bread.

Chicken breast with lemon, Rosemary and Fig

To serve 4 portions

• 1 large organic, free range chicken

• 1 liter of white chicken stock

• 3 large sprigs of rosemary

• 200 ml of double cream

• 4 lemons zested

• 1 recipe of potato gnocchi (flavored with chopped rosemary)

• 6 black figs

• 1 lemon

• 50 ml of honey

• 100 ml of chicken jus Method

1. Heat the chicken stock in a large casserole pot, place 2 of the 3 sprigs of rosemary and the zest of 1 lemon into the stock, cut the legs and the backbone away from the chicken, season heavily with salt and pepper and plunge into the stock. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes. Take off the heat and leave the chicken to cool down in the stock. Meanwhile make the potato gnocchi:

• 700 grams of Desiree potatoes 
• 2 egg yolks 
• 90 grams of 00 strong flour 
• 10 grams of potato starch (fecule)

2. The potatoes need to be just cooked so take care that they are neither under or over cooked. Remove the flesh from the potatoes with a knife and put through a moulis.

3. Weigh out 400 grams of the potatoes and place this into a bowl, adding the egg yolks, 00 flour and season. Mix well. Divide the mix into four and roll each piece, coating in flour, into a long sausage shape approximately 3-4 mm in diameter. Cut each sausage into 3-4 mm lengths so they are like little barrels. Place onto a tray.

4. Place a pan of water onto simmer, add a little salt and olive oil. When the water is boiling place in the gnocchi and once they float to the top remove them from the pan into iced water to cool.

5. Once they have cooled remove from the iced water and drain. Place onto a tray with a little olive oil to prevent them sticking.

6. Slice each fig into 4 slices, lie on a tray and drizzle over the honey.

7. Remove the chicken from the stock and reduce the stock down by 2/3, add the double cream and reduce by ½ again. Remove the rosemary sprigs and pass through a fine sieve. Place into a jug blender and, whilst still warm, add the lemon zest and blend until smooth. You may need to adjust the seasoning with a touch of salt and sugar. You may find this strange but it will probably taste a little fresher with the juice of ½ lemon added. Set aside and keep warm.

8. Take the chicken breast from the bone. Remove the skin and slice thinly. Lay the slices onto a plate, and place into a steamer to re-heat.

9. Re-heat the chicken jus, flash the slices under the grill for 30 seconds or so and re-heat the gnocchi in the lemon sauce.

10. Arrange all the ingredients liberally onto a plate, spoon the chicken jus over and dress with some buckler sorrel.

This week has been fairly eventful, actually the past few weeks have been with all the planning and preparation for our new venture at Hillbark hotel.

Our new restaurant "Aiden Byrne at Hillbark" will be opening either the last week in July or the first week in August. Details will follow shortly.

Anyway I drove down to Norwich at 4 am on Thursday morning to arrive at 8.30 am to spend the day with my old boss David Adlard, at his cookery school in Norfolk, the man is a living legend.

He held a Michelin star for close to 20 years at his epnoymounus restaurant. Not many chefs can boast about such an achievement these days. David has now sort of semi retired to the country side with his latest venture "Adlards in the country"

I had a fantastic time and really enjoyed spending time with amateur cooks who were all extremely keen to learn the tricks of our trade.

I produced a beautiful chicken dish with figs and lemon gnocchi, my GBM desert and a smoked eel and apple soup. All the recipes to follow, a photograph of the chicken dish and some more news about our new venture.

The perfect recipe for a these sunny days.

This chilled beetroot soup is one of the many dishes that we will be served over the world cup period.

I will be cooking on a big BBQ each England game,so hopefully I'll be out there quite a lot.

Reserve your table now, we only have 10 tables outside, so first come first served...

Recipe to follow soon.

The picture first followed by the recipe tomorrow.

This desert nearly scored top marks with Marcus Wareing but wasn't enough to fend of the fantastic Lisa Allen.

It is being served at The Church Green and also at another place soon. Details will follow.....

Method:

To prepare the parfait

Beat the egg yolks  until it becomes a pale, creamy yellow texture. Heat 170g cream, and in another pan slowly cook  200g (??oz) of the sugar until caramel in colour, deglaze with the double cream,  pour the  caramel mixture over the yolks and whisk till cold.when cool pour  into honey comb shaped rings and freeze until set, 6 rings 2 ½ inches, hexagonal hone comb shape.

For the honey ice cream

Cook the ice cream ingredients together at 84oc in a pan and then cool to 4oc. Allow to sit for 1 day – in the fridge and then process in the ice cream maker.

For the cinder toffee

Line a baking tray, 12 x 8 inches with greaseproof paper, place the sugar, water, honey, butter and glucose into a pan and bring to hard crack stage , add the baking powder and whisk rigorously. The mixture will puff up. Immediately pour the mixture into the lined baking tray and allow to cool. Crush the toffee into a crumb to sit the ice cream on.

For the caramel sauce

Repeat the same process for making the caramel sauce for the ice cream  adding the bee pollen before deglazing and allow to cool.

To serve

Turn out the parfaits onto 4 cold plates , cut out the centres and pour in the caramel sauce, sprinkle the tops with crushed cinder toffee, sprinkle a little cinder toffee on the plates and spoon on the ice cream, then spoon a large spoon of the curd on the side and add a twist of cracked black pepper

Peanut Brittle & Banana Tart

As promised the banana tart recipe that we done at the Spode launch evening.

I'll pop the photo on tomorrow, its on my iPhone I'm afraid so not very professional.

Banana Cream

• 6 eggs
• 70g sugar
• 90g cream
• 90g milk
• 2 bananas
• 10g lime juice
• 10g banana liquor
• 50g butter

For the lamb:

• ½ rack
• 1 loin

Ask your buthcher to french trim your rack of lamb and trim the loin of any sinew, then in a warm pan add a dash of olive oil.

Season the lamb with plenty of salt and place in the frying pan fat side down.

Allow the fat of the lamb to render slowly, When the fat is a golden colour seal the rest of the sides.

Place in oven for 7-8 minutes at 180oc and allow to rest for 5 minutes.

For the tomato fondue:

• 10 tomatoes
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon of Harisa
• 3 sprigs of thyme

With a small knife remove the eye from the top of the tomato and at the base, cut a small cross in the skin trying not to cut in the flesh.

Place the tomatoes into a pan of salted boiling water for 10 seconds only, then plunge into a bowl of ice water immediatley.

Remove the skin from the tomatoesand cut into quarters and remove the seeds then cut each quarter in to small dice.

In a hot saucepan add a dash of olive oil and all the diced tomato, season with salt and pepper and slowly cook on a medium heat stirring occasionaly.

Peel the garlic and place in a warm pan with the olive oil, slowly cook until golden brown.

Once the garlic is golden finely slice and add to the cooked tomatoes.

Finely chop the thyme, mix into the tomato with the harrisa and cook for a further 10 minutes, season to your liking, set aside and keep warm.

For the beer batter:

• 87g flour
• 13g yeast
• Pinch of salt
• Pinch of sugar

Mix all ingredients and cover with Clingfilm and leave in a warm place for 20 minutes for the yeast to react.

For the onion Bhaji mixture:

• 60g sliced shallots
• 2g fresh ginger
• 2g red chilli
• 3g fresh coriander (finely chopped)
• 1g red chilli powder
• 1g turmeric
• Salt to taste
• Lime juice to taste
• 10g corn flour

Finely slice shallots, ginger and red chilli, then mix with the turmeric powder, chopped coriander and salt then mix in the remaing ingredients.

In a separate bowl add a small handful of bhaji mix and 2 spoons of beer batter and mix well so it forms a paste. With your thumb and finger mould some of the mix and make a small ball and carefully drop in the fryer at 180°c for about 1 minute. When golden remove from fryer and season with salt and lime juice.

For the Gnocchi:

• 350g baked potato
• 50g pasta flour
• 5g corn flour
• 1 egg
• 20g cauliflower puree
• Salt to taste

Pass the baked potatoes into a bowl and then mix in the remaining ingredients; when the mix is like a dough place on a workbench dusted with flour and start to roll out with your hands. The gnocchi needs to be roughly the same diameter as your little finger When all the gnocchi is rolled cut with a knife 1 cm pieces.

Add to simmering water for 1 minute and when the gnocchi starts to float to the top of the water it should be ready, drain and serve.

Also check out a journalists opnion on our beautiful crockery range... on the blog of beautifulkitchens