The ultimate Steak Sandwich with basil aioli and caramelized onions

I love a steak sandwich and I love really good toasted bread  to go with it (at the moment we are using focaccia made from the Great Northumberland  bread company at Cornhill and home-made garlic mayo.

We use Martin Redpath's cheviot Sirloin steak  and we tenderize it by  cutting a slice then putting it between two pieces of cling film and beating it flat. I used my rolling pin last night and I beat it so hard I broke it. I made the boys laugh in the kitchen I told the boys to think of somebody you don't like and beat the meat so it is beautiful and level and very thin. Then Chargrill the beef for a minute each side and while you are doing that grill the  flavoursome cut  bread after you have brushed it with garlic oil. (the smell will knock you for six). Drizzle some pesto over the bread, and heat some caramelized onions up and start making up your sandwich. You have to serve it while it is hot so you learn to prep well and work fast. The tender beef the caramelized onions the garlic the mayo the hot garlic bread..................is a true treat
A word of warning you can't be mean with the beef .In the sandwich I ate at The townhouse in Melrose on Friday and I would be lucky if I got 2ozs of steak in my steak sandwich and it was cut up so small  if you blinked you would miss the beef .At Sallyport the beef is the star. You can serve it with a warm potato salad or hand-cut chips and a  beautiful side salad.

Crab,avocado and orange salad

The crabs we use at 1 Sallyport are brown crabs but that doesn't mean it is brown meat we use its just the name of the type of crab. It comes from  the north east coast and is supplied to us by Douglas Flannigan at Tweedmouth who diffinately has the best in the area. It is sensational mixed with with home-made mayo and seaonal ripe avocado which is full of goodness and tastes of summer. The orange segments mixed through a leaf salad with some chives is a perfect accompanyment. Throw in a few olives a glass of chilled fino sherry and you will feel your in  sunny Spain ( away from this wild windy weather!) Talking about oranges,having oranges freshly squeezed for you in the morning or indeed any time of day is an absolute luxury,especially when you think how many oranges it takes to get a glass of juice. We invested in this amazing machine from Zummo 3 years ago to take all the hard work and pain out of squeezing fresh oranges . The only down side is its such a fiddle to wash!
Oranges are such a  wonderful fruit that deserves  much  more recognition in the kitchen . The scent of an orange is awesome, a couple of strips of orange rind in a dish make such a difference and it is diffinately one of my favourite fruits  to cook with. I made an orange avocado and crab salad and an orange drizzle cake today.I'v got a lovely dish of lamb with cinnamon,star anise and orange.Also you can make  a stunning sauce  with caramelizing oranges to drizzle over your ice-cream. I'm trying to eat only  heathly food at the moment but its murder when your a chef as you've got to taste when your cooking all the time.You don't see many fat chefs mind you but that's different from healthy eating..................now where are my walnuts, pecan nuts,dried cranberries,grapes,Oh Avocado its really healthy...................so that's okay!

Olive oil,Lemon and honey dressing

For a fruity dressing for your salad leaves try mixing 3 tablespoons of runny honey ,lemon juice and olive oil.Use sparingly and   dribble it over the leaves and  then finally ,at the last moment ,add a pinch of malden salt turn the leaves once more and serve

It is one of the biggest bug bears in the kitchen when the salad is under dressed or has got too  much dressing on .......................so every day ,at the pass I check the amount of dressing. Always I say to the chefs the leaves should glisten and taste taste taste.

Warm Poached Plums with cloves,port,orange and cinnamon.

For many years this is what we served at 1 Sallyport for Breakfast. It comes with Greek yoghurt and if you desire home-made granola. I personally adore  warm poached fruits and could eat them at any time of day whether it be pears poached with  a vanilla  pod or necterines with a brandy marinade...........and the accompanyment of home-made vanilla ice-cream would I think be devine.

Here is my recipy for the plums.

Take 1lb 8ozs of Plums(best quality you can find)
A wine glass of port
half a stick of cinnamon
2 peices of orange rind with two cloves stuck through
4 ozs of soft brown sugar

Put all the ingredients into a pan with a tight fitting lid, and slowly bring to the boil. Once the liquid starts bubbling turn the gas down as low as you can and let the plums everso gently cook until a beautful sauce is formed . The plums are ready when you can pierce the plums with a knife and there is no resistence.
Allow them to cool until tepid and serve as part of a luxury breakfast or  why not indeed ,some home-made rice pudding.now we are talking nostalga (when the kids were small in our family it was who ever could get to it first to eat that lovely golden skin!)

Scottish Shortbread home-made

 Like many of you I too have been  watching The Apprentice on Television  tonight where the two teams had to source 10 items for the Savoy. I wish I had been team leader  don't you,all the products were from the hospitality business and it would have been huge fun to do.Alan Sugar gets alot of stick but at least he has a strong mind and kept the integrity of the programme whereas Masterchef has gone all silly ........more like X Factor.I think Lord Sugar is cool.............and Karen Brady is fantastic too. A great business role model for women.
I'v been making shortbread since I was a kid. I was brought up on it and I have to say my mothers recipy was delicious. Not only was she a teacher but she could bake well too. I make shortbread every week at Sallyport and customers get it in their rooms on their tea tray as well as being sold in the brasserie. Shortbread is great with a very light pudding like a lemon posset and this time of year we are trying to make lots of light fruity puddings. The secret of great shortbread is to use real butter and to cook it gently. Here is my recipy.Enjoy

11b Butter
8ozs Caster Sugar
11b Plain flour
1 teasp of salt
8ozs Ground Rice

Method
Beat the butter and sugar together in a Kenwood Mixer( really important that you have one if you want to bake regularly) then add the other ingredients. Knead into a ball and roll out and cut into circles or at Xmas Christmas Trees!
Bake at 170 for 20 mins. When lightly brown remove and sprinkle immediately with caster sugar.
 For various changes you could add some grated orange  rind or a teasp of cinnamon or a hand full of best quality chocolate drops

The Great Britsh Cheeseboard

These is our personal selection of British Cheeses that we are proudly serving this week at 1 Sallyport.

Tunworth
With the great British Menu being on the television screen at the moment and with this years amazing Royal wedding we feel we should wave the flag for great British cheese makers!
Tunworth a rare unpasteurised camembert style cheese. Cows are now grazing the new growth of grass and flavours. Made by Hampshire cheeses was voted best cheese in britain at the british cheese awards. The soft white cheese won the accolade of supreme champion ahead of 840 cheeses. Tunworth has a rich, milky and nutty taste.The box alone that it comes in is beautiful.

Tor and Driftwood

This is Craig's favourite and it certainly looks and tastes amazing!
We have put this one into our goats cheese salad.
Fresh cheese so goats are now grazing and milk yields are up.Tor is Ash coated pyramid and the Driftwood is an ash coated log. They have natural mould rind that develops a degree of surface ripening and has a smooth soft paste.

Winterdale Shaw

This one is in our Ploughmans platter as well as being on our evening selection.
One year old,coming into season as of May last year his cows were starting to graze the Kentish Weald.Situated high up on the north Downs in the heart of Kent. Winterdale Shaw is a hand made  hard cheese ,which once cloth bound is placed in the cellar to mature for a minimum of six months. The natural stone cellar is dug deep into the chalky North Downs of Kent, which gives the cheese its unique characteristic full of flavour.

Barkham Blue
We feel so lucky and privileged to have this cheese
Although a pasteurised cheese this rich creamy blue is lovely and soft and perfect for the summer. Produced in Wokingham,Berkshire. Barkham Blue is a gold award winning blue cheese. It is a big flavour cheese with great depth. With a lovely texture,colour and great taste this is a frim buttery cheese made from Channel Island pasteurised cow's milk. Suitable for vegetarians

Caerphilly Gorwygg
I'v been baking 100 oatckes today and we have made a beautiful chutney to match this cheese.
Even the paper it comes wrapped in is stunning. It seems a shame to open it.
Trethowans Gorwydd (pronounced Gor-with) Caerphilly. Matured Caerphilly made to a traditional recipe,using raw unpasteurised milk and GM free traditional animal rennet. These ingredients combined with working with the curd by hand,keep the cheese true to the origins of how traditional Caerphilly is made. Gorwydd Caerphilly is matured on the farm for 2 months and exhibit's a fresh lemony taste with a creamy texture to the outer (known as the breakdown) and a firmer but moist inner.

Sparkenhoe Red Leicester

This is perfect for our ploughmans platter as well as on our evening selection
Joe and David Clarke have reintroduced this unpasteurised,clothbound,cows milk cheese made on their farm in Sparkenoe,near Market Bosworth. They use milk from their own herd of Pedigree Holstein Friesian cows.It is around 4 months old and has a incredibly vibrant orange colour and a rounded,mullow,nutty flavour with hints of citrus. The texture is firm and 'snaps' as a Red Leicester should

Fresh spring Vegetables

It is now getting very close to when the baby beetroot should be available also British grown carrots and  Scottish peas ,broad beans and baby turnips. We are really fed up of the fine beans our veg supplier has been giving us...............................they are pre-cut and pre-wrapped and generally something you don't want to use. When we complain he just says there are non others in the market.If we had time ,we would go to the market ourselves but it is a 120 mile round trip so that isn't the answer.Getting someone to grow vegetables for us locally would be ideal. Roy already grows herbs for us and brings in Lovage ( a relation to the celery family) and wild garlic, mint etc. We get our heritage potatoes from Tiptoe farm at Cornhill. So  my next project is  to get all our veg grown locally especially as they will be so healthy for us all and full of flavour.At the end of the day that is what our job as chefs is, to present the general public with the best flavours  a food can produce and its not about adding lots of butter and cream.............but cutting down on food miles and eating food in season. I'm on a special detox diet at the moment of fruit and vegetables and nuts for 10 days .My nutritional advisor has said that I'v got all these aches and pains and I'v got to detox! I'v got a frozen shoulder and arthritis in my knee,terrible sore feet and generally falling apart . Richard has given me sulpher to take for my frozen shoulder so we will see what happens.............watch this space.It was great at the Royal Wedding reception all the vegetables came from ''Highgrove'' and what was wonderful was they were served without cream or butter!!

Slow cooked leg of Scottish Border lamb with red wine ,fresh mint,tomatoes and bacon

I don't get to see much television but I was able to see the Great British Menu the other night where Tony Singh from Olorosso in Edinburgh was competing against Head chef  Michael Smith from The award winning Three Chimneys on the Isle of Skye. They both did a marvellous job and it was real boys banter in the kitchen ................lol. Goodness gracious I wonder if they were told to behave like that or it just came naturally!  Michael did a wonderful barbeque for the table where he cooked three types of lamb and served lit with Asparagus and it looked great with heather in the presentation. Tony did fabulous Langoustines and presented them beautifully with a marvellous arrangement of tiered  plates( like a huge cake stand)  with a divers helmet at the top.. It was such a pity they couldn't mix the two menu's for the peoples banquet as they were both equally as good.

Lamb is our best seller in the evening, without a shadow of a doubt, we put this dish on the menu and it sells straight away.

We take a stunning leg of lamb and cut it into large 2 inch peices then pan fry it so that is is brown and sealed. We fry some onion and bacon add some tomatoes ,herbs and wine,redcurrent jelly  etc and cook in a gentle oven for 3 hours. It is absolutly  devine but it all depends on the quality of lamb you start with. Remember 90% of great cooking is good shopping.. Buy the best from a local producer and you will be able to talk about the  history and what the lamb is fed on and because it  has cost  alot of money( as it is going to be much more expensive than supermarket lamb) you will cook it with great care and attention which is what I try and teach in my kitchen.

Dauphinoise potatoes

At 1 Sallyport we offer a choice of potatoes in the evening and Dauphinoise is one of those choices. It is prefect I think as an accompanyment with rack of lamb. It is a creamy layered garlic and potato side dish, full of calories but a little goes a long way. !

You need 3llbs of thinly sliced potatoes,2 garlic cloves,12 fl ozs of milk 2 teasp of salt and 1oz of parmesan cheese and 6 fl ozs of double cream

My boys in the kitchen have done a fantastic job tonight , led by Craig( I had the night off to watch my favourite TV show the Apprentice) They have had a full house  including a private business men 's dinner party and  they  have coped brilliantly. I am extreemly proud  of them.

Packed Lunch

My son Dean came in to the hotel kitchen today, he had one of our famous packed lunches to take to work  this morning and he said it was delicious. (He builds marquees so he needs lots of great food to keep him going.) A stottie filled with a ham salad, home-made shortbread, coffee and walnut cake, grapes,apple., scone etc

There is nothing more stronger in the world than the love a mother has for her child, there is nothing  that can bring more happiness and joy  and more sadness when the relationship brakes down.I should know as a mother of two boys aged 22 and 23.

Yorkshire Puddings

Everyone loves a great yorkshire pudding with proper gravy and I am no different . My favourite food in the world is a Sunday  Roast Beef Dinner.

Here is our secret recipy (actually it is James Martin's) for Yorkshire pudding

8ozs SR Flour
pinch of salt
8 eggs
1 pint of milk

Whiz all together in a food processor, as long as you remember to add your milk slowly at the end.

The best bit of advice  I can give you is that you have got to have a really hot oven ( 200 degrees) and that you  must remember  to heat the oil in your tin until it is so hot it is smoking  before you add the batter.
Don't keep opening the oven door while the yorkshire puddings are cooking  otherwise they will fall flat . My mate and fellow chef 'Dave' says in order to get them to stay upright ,once they are ready switch  the oven off and leave them in there to dry out.

Raspberry white chocolate Tart in sweet butter pastry

Well its Sunday and its been full of April Showers (sorry May Showers!) Its like all the sunshine came in April and this Month we are going to get lots of rain.  However The sun can't shine forever and there is always a silver lining  (or so they say).Rain , at the appropriate time,means we will get wonderful raspberries and soft berries from Blackhouse farm near Reston which is the very best grower in the area.You can go to pick your own fruit in June  from the Swan family and I highly recommend it, the view is spectacular it feels like your in provence in France. and the berries are devine.
 I make wonderful pastry,I know you think I'm being bigheaded but I DO! Saying that there is lots of things I can't do, I can't spell,hopeless at maths ,couldn't do chemistry at school  or Latin or physics but making pastry is something I'm in the top A class. Pity there wasn't a university for top pastry cooks!LoL .I would love to have gone to university I felt I missed out from not going away from home to study what your passionate about. That was the problem of being a child at a Grammar School, the academic expectations was always really high and I was totally and utterly unsuitable  and extreemly miserable (being a very practical person )and still find it hard to forgive my mother for sending me there!! I was 13 years old and very happy in a secondary school
Anyways...........................The secret of good pastry is having cold hands and not over working the dough.Also once you have made a batch ,wrap it in cling film and leave it to rest in the fridge. This white chocolate tart I make is so popular as soon as I put it on the counter it sells like hot cakes. Someone once said you should give cookery classes but it isn't really my thing.  Saying that I love it when we get a school visit and we all make pancakes together but then I feel duty bound to inspire young people to cook and I love giving people happy memories that visit  hopefully  that will last them all their life. The hairdressor I go to  opposite us has a trainee called Rachel and she came to me with her class when she was 9 years old and she still remembers it so fondly and with such affection I feel wow! That's great.

Arbroath Smokie Pate

I'm a great  fan of Tom Kitchin in Edinburgh. I'v eaten there once  last year on his 7 course gastro menu.( thanks for that Ronnie!)He writes a food  page each Sunday for Scotland on Sunday magazine and it is one of my days high lights finding out what he is cooking this week.He has a open plan Kitchen in Leith and if you get a chance to go to Edinburgh I highly recommend you eat there. Anyways I'm going to dedicate this recipy to Tom as he loves Scotland like me and promotes it all the time. I recommend you serve Arbroath Smokie Pate with home made Oatcakes and a mixed leaf salad with some freshly chopped avocado and oranges mixed through.

Recipy

A pair of' real' Arbroath Smokies  warmed ( you can tell they are the real thing if they have string  attached and smoked to their tails!)We warm them slightly so the flesh comes off more easily.
8ozs of cream cheese
3ozs melted butter
Juice of half a lemon
6 grinds of pepper

Remove the flesh from the smoked fish and transfer to a food processor.
Add the cream cheese and whiz for 20 seconds then slowly dribble in the hot butter. Finally add the lemon juice and pepper until it tastes just right

PS.
That reminds me you can't be a cook in a great kitchen if you don't TASTE ALL THE TIME. I'm fed up of telling my chefs to taste everything as they go along. Your senses are a vital part to successful cooking. Taste Taste Taste.

Posh ploughmans

I like a ploughmans at lunchtime and its always a pleasure serving it  as  its such great value and a hearty meal. Perfect for a summers day................especially with a glass of our real ale from Stewart Brewing  in Edinburgh.(At present we are doing his IPA but soon we will go on to another one such as Timothy Taylor.)
When I am teachng the boys in the kitchen how to do a ploughmans I always say you have got to imagine  years ago when farm labourers worked really hard outside on the land.They were hungry men  with big hands with handling sacks of corn and  turning sheep etc and they didn't want anything twee to eat for lunch so a ploughmans is a substantial salad..............accompanied by an assortment of breads.I was brought up on a dairy farm 3 miles outside of Berwick and I know first hand how hard it is especially when your a poor tenant farmer like my parents were. It was a very very hard life and I'v got total admiration for them both. It gave me a real grounding when I eventually found my niche in life. Working 16 hours a day is normal for a chef just as it would be for a farmer.Hopefully this wonderful industry will get its true recognition  from the honours list one day.
Anyways back to the Ploughmans:  Here at  Sallyport it always has slices of beautiful slow baked ham on the plate and 3 British cheeses. We serve a artisan cheddar say Keens or the Isle of Mull or Lancaster poacher.Then a beautiful blue cheese like Cashel blue or Dunsyre Blue or A classic Coulson Bassett. Then a a cornish Brie would be perfect.We serve a chuncky peice of apple ,home-made chutney,firm grapes and celery and of course your cos lettuce and  cherry tomatoes and cucumber.
We do this as one of our many  platters to share and its a delight to the eye.

Chocolate Brownies

Everyone loves Chocolate.In the evening we daren't do a menu without chocolate! From Chocolate bread and butter pudding to chocolate pecan pie,chocolate fondants,white chocolate berry tart,chocolate mousse,and of course the ultimate chocolate gateaux . When I was younger and a an exceptionally keen chef I travelled down to Gidleigh Park to visit the kitchen's of the famous Shaun Hill  for a few days. It took me 7 hours to drive there from little Berwick and to my great surprize there was a Geordie Head chef  called 'Duncan Walker''who was absolutly brilliant and I will never forget him. Where are you now Duncan? He was a really rough tough guy and he could cook the most sublime food.  He used to laugh at me all the time I was such a Pollyanna! However It was a real eye opener. I had been  a self taught cook up till then and it really opened my eyes how tough and miserable professional kitchens could be. He had lost his license through drink and driving (Gidleigh Park is miles from everywhere) Shaun was a very heavy drinker too. They hated the punters as they called them , they certainly couldn't relate to them. I was saddened by the experience and it made me realise I didn't want anything like that in my future. The worn out pastry chef was simply there to get Gidleigh Park on his CV so too were 75% of the others.I was really surprized that it was the total opposite of what I imagined............... but that is the thing about life  many things aren't what they seem!!.  So I tell myself don't assume .
Anyways Chocolate Brownies are a   huge success at Sallyport and this recipy was given to us by an excellent pastry chef last year.In the evening we serve it with whipped cream or doddington award winning ice-cream. We also make our own special sauce to drape over it to give it a real decadent feel.  And Hey I love my customers and I wouldn't do this job if I didn't.............so thankyou Moira for your beautiful card .


Ingredients:

14ozs dark choc
12ozs of butter
6 eggs beaten
11b 2oz of caster sugar
teasp of vanilla essence
8ozs of plain flour
7ozs of walnuts chopped

Melt the butter with the chocolate in a bain marie and stir together until it is all mixed through. cool. In your Kenwood Chef whisk the eggs and caster sugar until very thick. Then whisk in the chocolate and finally stir in the flour and walnuts. Pour into a lined tin and bake at 160 degrees for 50 mins.
Leave for 30 mins to set when it comes out of the oven

Pierogi

At long last  here at Sallyport we have been able to get round to making Pierogi.

.It has been huge fun in the kitchen today  with Jurek,Goldie and Craig making Jurek's( one of our loyal Polish staff)  favourite recipy. I'v been wanting to make this dish for such a long time and I can't actually believe we have finally managed it.(the busy holiday period is over now so  I have time to catch my breath ) It is a dumpling that can have various fillings. It reminds me of gnochi because you have to boil it in salted water for 3 mins................(they float to the top)..............then fry them in butter so they are nice and  crispy.We are going to put it on the menu  in the evening as a Tapas and spread the good news of what they are and why we make them .Jurek is our pot washer a tall handsome blond who swears alot !lol . Polish workers tend to be very hard workers and we would be lost with out them here at Sallyport. We only have Jurek at the moment but in the past we have had Marta who was an amazing hard working girl ( we hand delivered a Pierogi to her today much to her surprize and her work mates at CafeNero!)
So today was my homage ,my thank-you to all hardworking Polish people  because where as a nation would we be with out  you???In the second world war they fought for us , at the gates of Vienna,and through no fault of their own are they a nomanic people now.Going where they can to find work and decent pay.It must be so hard being away from their homeland and their culture. I appreciate how difficult it must be.
 It is so refreshing making new dishes  and this one is true European food but just remember................. you don't put potato in the filling as that is more  of a Russian dish ,Okay Jurek.!!

Irish Liqueir coffee

This is a real holiday treat and surprisingly popular.

You need a  proper liqueir glass with a teasp of sugar in ( leave the spoon in. as it avoids the glass cracking when you add the hot black coffee)..............while you pour a measure (25ml) of Irish whisky on top. Now add a cup of properly made good coffee on top. Then finally whip some double cream and then once it has thickened  pour a little over the back of a spoon, so as it floats on top.

Brinkburn Goats Cheese with oatcakes

Tonight we are serving 3 local cheeses, northumberland nettle, baltic and brinkburn goats cheese. They are served with our home made oatcakes ( La potiniere recipy............... What ever happened to David and Hilary Brown?) Quince jelly,pear and saffron chutney,apple,celery, and grapes.

It has been a very busy Bank holiday, my feet hurt after a 17 hour shift  but we have had great fun.................................and best of all the sun has never stopped shining

Brandy Snap Basket

When I was reading the Sunday Telegraph  today I saw the  menu for the evening reception for the Royal wedding .The dessert menu included brandy snap baskets  filled with ice -cream as well as trifle and chocolate fondants! It made me smile because recently  we had a  over night michelin inspection and he asked at the end of our discussion if he could see the kitchen and during his tour I showed him the brandy snap baskets that  had been making. I asked him if he thought they were a bit old fashioned. ''Not at all ''he replied ''they showed skill and should be included.'' Now I will always think of the michelin guide and the Royal wedding when I make them. lol I couldn't resist asking the Michelin inspector at the end of  his visit what he thought  of us and his reply was ''Berwick is very lucky to have Sallyport''. In a world of put downs ,you have to roll with the punches and don't dwell on sad things but that is a real positive comment that I won't forget

Brandy Snap Recipy
 2 ozs of butter
2 ozs of syrup
2ozs of sugar
2ozs of plain flour
pinch of ginger

Melt the first three ingredients then add the ginger and flour
place teasp (very widely apart as they spread) on a greased baking tin
bake in a moderate oven till golden brown and bubbling
As soon as they come out the oven drap over an orange or upside down small bowl