Unleash something spicy (but not too spicy)

I am not good with spice but Salsa Macha is a quality little warming number that compliments a steak or something fatty pretty good! Have a little catch up on my wild birthday weekend.

It was my birthday this week, and I had a weekend of all weekends and one I won’t forget for a long time. If you know me or watch my content, you can tell I am quite energetic and impulsive, and I love saying YES to things.

Thursday, I was in Brixton watching SOFT PLAY - an epic two-piece punk band, I went with some friends and my new internet mate Luke - who had a massive crash in Columbia on his motorbike. He's now my plus-one at most events! A very inspiring bloke, go give him a follow and see his journey - Luke Tarrant

Friday, I went to a ball at The Dorchester, long story short, I met Laura King MB fucking E, who has a caviar company Kings Caviar. If you got my previous newsletters, you will know the story; if you not, check out episode 3 of The Stuffed Podcast (linked below). I got invited for a caviar tasting at the Ritz and got on really well so well that she invited me to her charity ball. The charity “John King Brain Tumour Foundation” was set up when her husband John died of a brain tumour. 

I wore a Tuxedo to the Dorchester and enjoyed a very emotional and wonderful evening. Food wise I am always baffled by how they send out such quality food to big numbers. The trick is a cold starter, hot main, and cold dessert! If you want to donate, here's a link: They just raised a million pounds since setting up the charity.

If you want to donate here is a link

On Saturday, I went to see England v NZ at Twickham (I am not calling it the Allianz as it doesn’t sound right, haha). Let’s say we drank a lot of Guinness! Big love to Sam, Chloe, and James for figuring out our tickets! We didn’t have too much to drink, I promise!

Sunday was then a recovery day, and I went for a fantastic roast with the family at our brilliant local, The Collab, in Walthamstow.

I know I am getting old, as it’s taken me about four days to get over the hangover. I am off to Athens this weekend to run the OG marathon! Wish me luck! I will for sure be coming back with loads of Greek influence dishes, so get ready!

Lessons with Mart - Residual cooking temp

This one is such a key lesson in cooking - residual cooking temp. I bang on about this all the time, but it is fundamental to getting decent cooked food. I have focussed this video on steak/meat. But also talk about where it applies across food. Enjoy.

1. Carry over cooking/residual cooking temp

Temps all in Celcius

• Rare 45-49

• Medium Rare 50-55

• Medium 55-62

2. If you are cooking a thin steak go for the top end of the numbers

3. Anything more than an inch go for lower end/middle and leave to rest

4. Temperature will rise around 3-5 degrees during resting on large bits of meat

5. Chicken safe temperature in professional kitchen - 74c

6. Think about residual cooking temp 3-5c increase in temperature so pull out around 68-70c

7. Scrambled eggs, the pan is hot, the pan is hot so will carry on cooking off the stove

8. Add cool ingredients like cream fraiche or cold butter to stop the cooking.

9. Check out the boiled egg video - link here

10. Pasta if you want to reheat in a sauce then you will be cooking it again, so don’t cook as much the first time.

PODCAST

STUFFED! Episode 3 - Rocket

Podcast Notes

George and his Fortnum and Mason award

We speak about where and how we met Laura King MBE and our time at the Ritz

Plenty of talk about caviar

Metting John Williams MBE

Geroge’s ingredient of the week is Rocket

Understanding how to balance a dish through pepper and salty cheese.

A bit debate on how to cook rice

Gadget of the week - Temperature probe

I love with a capital L anything smokey and vinegary and dressingy (is that even a word?). This is like a Mexican spicy nutty version of the Argentinian chimichurri with less herbs! I love finding salsas like this and really breaking it down to see where you can mess with it. There are so many ways you can make this recipe flex, change the nuts, seeds, chilli, oil, vinegar and still semi stay with something that looks like a salsa macha! Check the notes at the bottom to see what else you can do with it.