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Andy Murray, please note: cheval à la Glasgow is hot to trot Andy Murray, please note: cheval à la Glasgow is hot to trot
(7 months later)
My favourite horsemeat recipe is a not insubstantial wee number called cheval à la parisienne. This repast also travels well and can easily be translated into our own Jock cuisine. What you do is: get a couple of pounds of your horsemeat and boil it thoroughly before cutting it into thin strips. Then use the beast's fat in which to cook a turnip, although if you have a deep fat fryer, just stick it in there. Once the turnip has turned yon dark colour, stick in the horsemeat. After that, just lob in all your favourite herbs and spices. The French recommend chives and shallots, but I like mine sans shallot with maybe a dash of curry powder. And it's brilliant with mushrooms – standard or magic.My favourite horsemeat recipe is a not insubstantial wee number called cheval à la parisienne. This repast also travels well and can easily be translated into our own Jock cuisine. What you do is: get a couple of pounds of your horsemeat and boil it thoroughly before cutting it into thin strips. Then use the beast's fat in which to cook a turnip, although if you have a deep fat fryer, just stick it in there. Once the turnip has turned yon dark colour, stick in the horsemeat. After that, just lob in all your favourite herbs and spices. The French recommend chives and shallots, but I like mine sans shallot with maybe a dash of curry powder. And it's brilliant with mushrooms – standard or magic.
Horsemeat is an extremely versatile ingredient that can turn its hand to anything. It's also nutritious and can feed a family of seven much cheaper than the supermarkets and nutritionists tell you. If a restaurateur chose to offer it accompanied by, say, chips and baked beans, he could call it cheval à la Glasgow. I'm sure it could be customised and rolled out across the city before the 2014 Commonwealth Games and help show what a cosmopolitan city we are. And let's not get all supercilious and toffee-nosed here about horsemeat, for, as it turns out, it's probably formed a significant part of our diet for the past decade. Especially those who stick zealously to the WWF's recommended five pieces of meat a day. It's now part of the food chain and that's no bad thing.Horsemeat is an extremely versatile ingredient that can turn its hand to anything. It's also nutritious and can feed a family of seven much cheaper than the supermarkets and nutritionists tell you. If a restaurateur chose to offer it accompanied by, say, chips and baked beans, he could call it cheval à la Glasgow. I'm sure it could be customised and rolled out across the city before the 2014 Commonwealth Games and help show what a cosmopolitan city we are. And let's not get all supercilious and toffee-nosed here about horsemeat, for, as it turns out, it's probably formed a significant part of our diet for the past decade. Especially those who stick zealously to the WWF's recommended five pieces of meat a day. It's now part of the food chain and that's no bad thing.
See all those boeuf bourguignons, wellingtons and stroganoffs you thought you were ordering at some over-priced and sullen eaterie? Well, now you know it's probably been free-range Dobbin, hand-reared and beer-fed on the windswept savannas of County Cork. So really, I'm afraid it's too late to start worrying about our sensitive palates, for they have already acquired a taste for Black Beauty, Champion and Red Rum. So let's make the best of it and gradually introduce horsemeat on to our tables and into our homes.See all those boeuf bourguignons, wellingtons and stroganoffs you thought you were ordering at some over-priced and sullen eaterie? Well, now you know it's probably been free-range Dobbin, hand-reared and beer-fed on the windswept savannas of County Cork. So really, I'm afraid it's too late to start worrying about our sensitive palates, for they have already acquired a taste for Black Beauty, Champion and Red Rum. So let's make the best of it and gradually introduce horsemeat on to our tables and into our homes.
We need a few internationally renowned icons to help get le ballon rouland and get behind the drive to bring horsemeat into our cafes and restaurants. I'd nominate Andy Murray, who is up there with Henrik Larsson and Lubomir Moravcik in the pantheon of Scottish sporting greats. Andy has just revealed that he has bought Cromlix House hotel in Perthshire and not far away from his home town of Dunblane. Andy is obviously aiming for the high end of the market and has already retained the services of the celebrity French father and son cookery team of Michel Roux and Albert Roux, or "uncle" as he's known in the kitchen.We need a few internationally renowned icons to help get le ballon rouland and get behind the drive to bring horsemeat into our cafes and restaurants. I'd nominate Andy Murray, who is up there with Henrik Larsson and Lubomir Moravcik in the pantheon of Scottish sporting greats. Andy has just revealed that he has bought Cromlix House hotel in Perthshire and not far away from his home town of Dunblane. Andy is obviously aiming for the high end of the market and has already retained the services of the celebrity French father and son cookery team of Michel Roux and Albert Roux, or "uncle" as he's known in the kitchen.
Roux père et fils have had a rapid rise in the unforgiving UK chef industry following their unforgettable BBC Bake-Off triumph a few years ago. In this, they had to fight off tough competition from the formidable duo of Dale Winton, the legendary comestible-hunter of Supermarket Sweep, and Tim Wonnacott from Bargain Hunt, who is simply a legend. Since then, they haven't looked back and le monde est leur huître.Roux père et fils have had a rapid rise in the unforgiving UK chef industry following their unforgettable BBC Bake-Off triumph a few years ago. In this, they had to fight off tough competition from the formidable duo of Dale Winton, the legendary comestible-hunter of Supermarket Sweep, and Tim Wonnacott from Bargain Hunt, who is simply a legend. Since then, they haven't looked back and le monde est leur huître.
Michel Roux was actually in Glasgow last week, providing words of encouragement to students from the City of Glasgow College HND hospitality management course. What he said to them could change the face of Scottish cuisine forever. Michel announced that he was seeking to recruit Scottish chefs for Andy Murray's hotel before delivering the following coquille de bombe: "I can see the students' classical French training shining out in this food. It's not dressed up in poncy foams or clumsy smears; it's as it should be."Michel Roux was actually in Glasgow last week, providing words of encouragement to students from the City of Glasgow College HND hospitality management course. What he said to them could change the face of Scottish cuisine forever. Michel announced that he was seeking to recruit Scottish chefs for Andy Murray's hotel before delivering the following coquille de bombe: "I can see the students' classical French training shining out in this food. It's not dressed up in poncy foams or clumsy smears; it's as it should be."
Seasoned Roux-watchers have since been speculating that Michel is making some subtle signals here and that he is rejecting all that faux cuisine nonsense for cheval cuisine. Michel and "uncle" Albert are both French; horsemeat is a staple component of French cuisine; they are both cooks and they are rejecting "poncy foams and clumsy smears" – et voilà. Does this mean horses are now on the menu? The mare the merrier, say I.Seasoned Roux-watchers have since been speculating that Michel is making some subtle signals here and that he is rejecting all that faux cuisine nonsense for cheval cuisine. Michel and "uncle" Albert are both French; horsemeat is a staple component of French cuisine; they are both cooks and they are rejecting "poncy foams and clumsy smears" – et voilà. Does this mean horses are now on the menu? The mare the merrier, say I.
For years, Scots diners have been conned rotten by restaurateurs and chefs out to make a fast buck and a Michelin star, the badge of honour that has financially ruined otherwise decent culinary enterprises and been responsible for robbing more punters of their cash than the high street banks. And, as ever, it's those with modest means who are worst affected. Let's be frank here – most affluent diners know absolutely nothing about what is put down to them. They simply head for the most expensive restaurants in town because, well… these are the places to be seen. It's the ordinary families that get shafted by these spurious super-restaurants, and in Glasgow and Edinburgh we all know which they are. These families perhaps only venture into one of these gastronomic clip joints once or twice a year to celebrate a graduation or a new job, perhaps a 21st. Let's push the boat out, they'll say to themselves nervously, you only live once. Then they fall prey to the extortionists in the white hats.For years, Scots diners have been conned rotten by restaurateurs and chefs out to make a fast buck and a Michelin star, the badge of honour that has financially ruined otherwise decent culinary enterprises and been responsible for robbing more punters of their cash than the high street banks. And, as ever, it's those with modest means who are worst affected. Let's be frank here – most affluent diners know absolutely nothing about what is put down to them. They simply head for the most expensive restaurants in town because, well… these are the places to be seen. It's the ordinary families that get shafted by these spurious super-restaurants, and in Glasgow and Edinburgh we all know which they are. These families perhaps only venture into one of these gastronomic clip joints once or twice a year to celebrate a graduation or a new job, perhaps a 21st. Let's push the boat out, they'll say to themselves nervously, you only live once. Then they fall prey to the extortionists in the white hats.
In these converted living rooms, the sophistry on the menus is staggering and the price increases in accordance with the inscrutability of the dish. A cabriolet of sautéed cabbage with a tributary of caramelised onion and a noisette of Tasmanian mountain pepper. That's just the starter and you're already 25 quid down. Elsewhere the menu is simply a chaos of ridiculous confits, bisques and veloutés. These dubious appelations are there for only one reason: to make you pay 60 quid for a dish that is worth only 10 quid. There will be a dismal wee flower arrangement on the plate as well because the chef wants you to think he's an artist.In these converted living rooms, the sophistry on the menus is staggering and the price increases in accordance with the inscrutability of the dish. A cabriolet of sautéed cabbage with a tributary of caramelised onion and a noisette of Tasmanian mountain pepper. That's just the starter and you're already 25 quid down. Elsewhere the menu is simply a chaos of ridiculous confits, bisques and veloutés. These dubious appelations are there for only one reason: to make you pay 60 quid for a dish that is worth only 10 quid. There will be a dismal wee flower arrangement on the plate as well because the chef wants you to think he's an artist.
There are two reasons why these chefs and restaurateurs don't want horsemeat on the menu: you can't use words such as terrines and tournedos with plain and simple horsemeat. And everyone knows what horse means in French.There are two reasons why these chefs and restaurateurs don't want horsemeat on the menu: you can't use words such as terrines and tournedos with plain and simple horsemeat. And everyone knows what horse means in French.
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