THE DISHES WE COOK

Quite often I am asked what sort of food my kitchen partner, Mary and I cook at PipsDish. After all how would you know what to expect from one of my pop-ups? It’s the leap of faith presented by cooking without recipes and which I write about in my book. We often genuinely don’t know exactly what we are making until finally it is about to leave the kitchen. But that certainly doesn’t mean that we don’t read recipes. In fact, you’ll find a host of books we pore over looking for inspiration. As a launchpad of ideas for what we can do with the incredible ingredients we are lucky enough to be able to source. For us cooking is all about taking each ingredient and allowing them to transform and emerge in a dish, creating natural layers of flavour, texture and colour. Every day that will be different depending on our moods, the weather, the people we are expecting to feed and the ingredients we are using. This is not some rarefied, magical skill, in fact it’s probably born of fear: fear of boredom as cooks. The idea of perfection, creating the ideal recipe and repeating isn’t interesting enough. So this style of cooking suits our temperament and so far keeps the people we feed returning for more. We want the ingredients to speak out for themselves, to be the star of the show. You can see a bit more about how that works by watching my short film For an idea of the dishes, we’re making, you can follow @pipsdish on Twitter or look at our PipsDish Facebook page, where we post pictures of most dishes we cook. Here’s some things we’ve fed to our customers recently:

Salad of Black Pudding, Feta & Red Chard
Spiced Roast Shoulder of Mutton with Fennel
Chicken Roasted with Lemon & Tarragon
Cuttlefish on Sourdough with Romesco
Oxtail Glazed with Rhubarb
Chilled Cucumber & Mint Soup with Spring Onion Sorbet
Squid Stuffed with Chorizo & Tomato Sauce
Ribble Farm Summer Salad with Toasted Walnuts, Radishes & Quails Eggs
Pork in Cinammon & Milk with Lemon Crackling & Rainbow Chard
Lemon Creams with Shortbread
Venison Burgers with Tzatziki
Lemon Curd Ice-Cream with Fruit Compote and Brandy Snaps
Sourdough and Kalamata Tapenade
Chilled Watercress & Anise Soup
Asparagus, Hollandaise, Toasted Walnuts
Cumbrian Black Face Lamb with Chicory & Anchovy Dressing
Jersey Royals, Porcini, Somerset Goat Cheese (v)
Baked Peach Alaska with Chantilly Ice Cream
Aubergines with Black Cumin Chermoula
Kuri Squash, Rosewater & Cinnamon Sorbet & Toasts
Cep, Star Anise & Fino Consommé
Squid Stuffed with Tomato Sugo with Patatas Bravas
A Salad of Golden Beetroot, Sorrel & Fonteluna Sausage with Roman Dressing
Brasato Al Barolo with Jerusalem Artichoke & Roasted Cavalo Nero
Baked Plum Amarettini with Marscapone & Vanilla Ice Cream
Duck Liver Pate on Sichuan Pepper Fried Crouton with Sherry Consommé Shot
Smoked Salmon Pâté & Lemony Hummus
Red Kuri & Braised Fennel Soup
Vanilla Risotto with Truffle Paste
Salade Chatelaine – Foie Gras, Prawns, Watercress, Asparagus
Mixed beetroots with Mint, Celeriac & Pomegranate
Baked Gammon & Chips with Caramelised Pineapple
Baked Leek, Tomato & Almond Gratin
Quince Pies served with Woodpigeon
Borscht with Stolichnaya & Fennel Cream
Hake with Cavalo Nero & Romesco
Broad Bean, Garlic, Pecorino & Toasted Pinenut Salad with Roman Dressing
Shorthorn Boeuf Bourguignon with Rainbow Chard

If you’d like to come to one of my events or book a private dining experience, you can call me on 07764 336 220

Articles, Eating