Some people get a little weird about cooking with oxtail – which I sort of get, sort of (I’m being a little polite), but they wouldn’t have an issue with oxtail soup from a can, and it tastes way better when you make it fresh.

Everyone knows, anything you cook low and slow, on the bone, is gonna be awesome, this African oxtail stew recipe is no different.

In terms of the country of origin for this oxtail stew recipe, I could have gone British, it’s very traditional. Oxtail is a fascinating ingredient, used all over the world and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular is a massive consumer and I love African cuisine, which is only going to get more popular, plus it has some spice, which = winner. I’ve tried a few and this one is from Zimbabwe.

I’ve said it’s really easy and it is. 30 mins prep and then let is sit in the oven for 3 hours. Before we get going, whack the oven on full and pop a cast iron casserole dish in there – do this first, put the kettle on too for beef stock.

The post Zimbabwean and African Oxtail Stew | National Dish Recipe appeared first on National Dish.

Some people find roasting and cooking beef a real challenge, ending up with a disappointingly tough result, especially a beef brisket.

All that is usually missing though, is a little patience and foresight.

Brisket is a cheap (although annoyingly, that is changing) cut of meat from the lower front chest of the cow, just above the front legs – so it gets worked hard and is therefore naturally tough.

Cook it right though and something miraculous happens.

The post Cook the perfect Beef Brisket and pull it with a fork | National Dish Recipe appeared first on National Dish.

Poussin is a french word used exactly the same in English, which does not necessarily make this a french dish, so I have credited both countries. But – how do you cook Poussin?

Also known as Spring Chicken, Poussin basically means ‘young chicken’, which is less than 28 days old and half a kilo.

My two beauties are corn fed and were acquired from Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly, London – raaahhhh.

The post How do you cook Poussin? | Corn fed spatchcock Poussin with fennel | National Dish Recipe appeared first on National Dish.

Would you bet on yourself to lose weight? I have and it’s going…

I am now 2 weeks in to my bet and things are going well, a little harder than I thought though. Trying to lose weight is so hard and those around just do not help.

In open conversation people will discuss, at length, dieting, food choices, exercise and of course, other people behind their back. Not necessarily in a bad way, but because it’s too scary to talk to them directly.

No-one will ever have a frank conversation to your face though – you’re really overweight, you need to sort that out, look at yourself, have you no self respect? That’s bad, right – wouldn’t it help if they did?

What people say…or not?

The problem with life and obesity is that honesty seldom makes an appearance. What do I mean by that?

My dearest friends and family gave me mixed messages. Your family will tell you that you look fine, it’s OK, you carry it well, don’t give yourself a hard time.

Colleagues would never say anything, because you can’t actually say anything to anyone at work of a personal nature – although, after a few beers, peers seem to.

Finally friends, the most confusing group. I am in a group of great mates who take this piss out of each other, often brutally. Yet, they would never go near my weight. Whilst in normal conversation some of my friends would address me as ‘fat boy’, which didn’t upset me but seemed OK to say. A dear friend of mine told me recently, after I had lost 25kg (4 stone), how he felt my weight was terrible, couldn’t believe the size of my gut and the way it hung over my belt.

“Dude! I love you, but why the hell didn’t you tell me that before, rather than now?”

Let’s assume that most people would like to lose weight. Similarly let’s suggest that motivation and willpower are serious barriers. Surely, if everyone were more honest with each other, that would be a real motivator, right? A genuine reality check.

To my friends and family reading this, don’t feel bad, no-one wants to discuss this stuff – it’s a social nightmare.

Change

My lifestyle had changed, my confidence had changed, my body had changed, my appearance in clothing had changed and people’s attitude toward me, changed.

You get a lot of compliments, shock and general positivity. It’s then, and only then that people talk about how you were before, and how much better you are for it. During the process, this is a enormous motivator, probably the strongest – it’s amazing.

But, for goodness sake, why couldn’t I get that honest feedback when I needed it? I appreciate that the hypocrisy of society makes that difficult.

After a while, I found the compliments to be rather embarrassing. A reminder of how disgusting I was. Yup! DISGUSTING, VILE, GROSS – that’s how ‘I’ felt. You might very well disagree, but that doesn’t actually help people who want to lose weight or NEED to lose weight – it’s not always about how you look.

I recall a few years back having a few beers around the pool with a mate in Vegas. He was telling me how he’d let himself go and referred to himself as a ‘fat fucker’. More importantly he made the point that it went unnoticed, he didn’t notice it and no-one said anything.

He said that as soon as he realised he addressed it – ‘I was a fat fucker’ – brilliant. I bet, and this is a betting related article after all, if someone has mentioned it to him he would have addressed it sooner.

That does not mean you should tell your friends that they are a ‘fat fucker’ though – as funny as it is.

Honesty

To anyone that knows me, I would be grateful if you could call me out if:

• I start to put on weight again
• You don’t feel that I am exercising enough
• I’m eating too much
• You see me reaching for Haribo, Maynards or those giant snakes with the foam bellies (I am addicted to sugar – damn!)
• You think I’m not looking after myself

The latest position from friends, family and colleagues is ‘don’t lose any more weight, you’ll look ill. Your face will be gaunt’.

Really? I am still in the yellow zone for BMI 26.3 and that means overweight. Guys, please – the NHS, Britain’s health service, widely regarded as the one of the best in the world, is telling me that I am overweight. That’s it!

I need your support and honesty, not some ill guided rhetoric to make me feel better, losing weight will make me feel better. Love ya though…

Progress with DietBet

I thought I would nail this and actually reach my goal weight of 88kg, I don’t think that’s going to happen. The target weight for the bet is 93kg and I am 80% likely to reach that, according to my recent update from DietBet.

I have recorded a weight of 92.6kg about a week ago, but since then I’ve ended up at Five Guys and sunk too much booze over the weekend, plus I think I weighed myself at a stupid time, naked too. DietBet requires you to have some light clothing on – so I am actually at 94.4kg and still well within reach.

I started at 96.9kg so I think losing 5 1/2 lbs isn’t bad at all – gotta keep going.

The post Would you bet on yourself to lose weight? | DietBet diary post 2 appeared first on National Dish.

How much would you gamble on yourself to lose 4% of your body weight in 4 weeks? That’s what I am about to find out. I’ve invested, if that’s the right word, hard cash in a bid to lose weight, no, win some money…huh? Would you bet on yourself to lose weight?

I’ll explain below, this is the first post in a series to diarize my attempt to lose weight through gambling – it already sounds wrong.

A bit of background first.

I am, or was, morbidly obese – the stats:

• 18 Stone – 114 kg – 252 lbs.
• That was a UK size 40 waist or ‘equator’
• I’m just under 6ft 3″ – 190cm
• Making my BMI a whopping 31.5 – the healthy BMI range, according to the NHS, is 18.5 to 25.
• I couldn’t wear anything yellow in NYC without getting hailed
• Lost 25kg
• Almost instantly I stopped guffing

11 January 2016 was that day. The day the scales screamed ‘get off me’. I have struggled with weight for most of my adult life, as a young adult, I was super fit – so bloody what? Who wasn’t?

Taking action

Lifestyle change! I’m ‘time poor’ which is a real blocker and didn’t exercise. When I sat around the house, I sat AROUND the house.

So it started – exercise, initially at home and a gym membership. Smaller portions, no sugar, no booze (apart from odd binge – can’t go to Twickenham and not get on it), cutting down on fat and eradicating as much carb as possible. This also resulted in saying goodbye to Gluten and farting – who knew?

I am not suggesting that I followed a particular diet (Paleo maybe), although I did create a funny little excessive regime (I might cover that later), but the early results were good, very good in fact:

MyFitnessPal, graph shows that I have put a little back on, don’t get me wrong, it’s not too bad, but a worry. Plus, I never actually reached my goal weight. Ultimately – I failed!

My goal was 88kg, that puts me a 1lb under 14st. I managed to get to 90kg at best I reckon and then it crept back on – I yo-yoed a little too. I am now 95kg and want, no actually, need, to reach 88kg, but how?

Gamble

It’s vice that got me in to this mess, so it can be vice that gets me out.

I’m gonna gamble, back myself to win. I’ve downloaded DietBet, a weight loss community betting app.

I did attempt a similar thing a while back with a good colleague of mine, we agreed to bet against each other – £100. It didn’t quite work out, we couldn’t quite nail how to weigh-in – which is a bummer, cause I won – he knows who he is….! It’s that incident that inspired me to download DietBet – I reckon it’ll work.

The principle behind DietBet

Once registered you find a game – in this case a Kickstarter (I’m playing three at the same time). A game sets a weight target over a time period – 4% in four weeks. Anyone can join and in turn they will bet real money on reaching that goal (it’s American so USD $).

Those that hit the target share the pot made up from those that didn’t, minus a rake from DietBet (they take between 15% and 25% dependent on the game). The worst case scenario for a winner is that lots of people reach their goal and they don’t win any money – they would get their money back and have lost 4% of their body weight – so that’s a massive net win, right?

I have bet a total of $235 (£179).

The ‘weigh ins’ are timed and controlled. A code is provided which you must write on a piece of paper. You stand on your scales and take a photograph of the reading and the code on the paper. You then take a full body shot of yourself, in minimal clothing stood on the scales. Sometimes videos are also required. This is then submitted and reviewed by a human referee.

Cheating, there could be I guess, but I am in this to lose weight, so I don’t need to cheat and don’t care for other that try. I’m gonna win!

All the pics and videos are confidential, but I am going to publish mine as part of this feature.

My goal

I am in three games – two @$100 each and one @$35. There are 779 people taking part with a prize pool of over $45,000 (£34,000).

• First weigh in was 48 hours before the start.
• My first game started 8 November 2017 and finishes 5 December 2018 – 4 weeks.
• First weigh in came in at 97.2kg (15st 4lbs)
• That means I have to lose 3.9kg or 9lbs (just over half a stone).
• My first progress weigh in came in at 95.1kg – I am 54% of the way there.

I have become rather confident and motivated. I am fascinated at the prospect of this project, which is why I have gone for three games to run simultaneously. This is the maximum permitted.

Here are the three games if you want to take a look – you can even join them still – they have different names, are run by different people and often have spot prizes:

1. BET BIG – 2X WINNINGS PRIZES!
2. $500 in BONUS PRIZES! NOVEMBER KICKSTARTER
3. Kris Gethin’s Fat Free in 4 Weeks

@ Follow me

I’ll be updating on this site – please share it with anyone you think might be interested.

But also:

• Instagram – @nationaldish
• Twitter – @nationsdish
• FaceBook – facebook.com/nationsdish/

Disclaimer

I am not affiliated to any of the platforms mentioned in this feature, I am not being paid by any person or organisation. This is my project, for my benefit, with my money, using my time and effort. The reward, if I am successful, is the weight loss. I don’t even care about winning any money, I don’t want to lose it either. So if any of my fellow competitors are reading this – good luck to you and I hope you win.

The post Would you bet on yourself to lose weight? | DietBet diary post 1 appeared first on National Dish.

Roasted flap of lamb doesn’t sound particularly appetising, but it is stunning. A shoulder of lamb is a fine cut, but when you buy it de-boned and rolled, it looks gross and would fool anyone in to thinking it’s a shit cut….wrong.

Cooking it in it’s rolled state is fine, but unroll it, turning it in to a flap and when you slow cook it, good things happen.

My baby bro loves this and asked me for the recipe, here it is buddy…

The post Roasted flap of Lamb with rosemary and garlic | National Dish Recipe of a boned rolled shoulder of lamb appeared first on National Dish.

There aren’t lots of recipes around for Indian crispy duck.

Most of you will know that Indian cuisine isn’t all wet curries, quite the opposite. The country is huge and the cuisine incredibly regional. I am partial to a Dhansak, and when I was in Mumbai I mentioned this, which was greeted with ‘oh, they eat that up near Delhi’. How cool is that, made me love it even more.

Britain has a wonderful love affair with Indian cuisine, with many British favourites actually coming from this very island. This Indian influences dry spiced crispy duck breast and it’s friends, I guess you can say, follows that same tradition.

This is a very healthy Indian dish, Paleo friendly and extraordinarily pretty.

I had some ingredients lying around and went for it – and it went, well.

The post Indian dry spiced crispy duck breast with char-grilled peach, crusted paneer and hot green salad of spinach, peas, asparagus and beans | National Dish India appeared first on National Dish.

In sunless England we don’t generally manage to grow exotic ingredients and whilst figs grow well (I grew these myself), they tend not to be as sweet as sunnier climates. So what to do with them. Quartered and covered in honey is stunning, but, make a savoury fig chutney out of them you’d better keep an eye on them, because they are about to elope with all your cheese and get married.

The post Fig tree to fork Israeli Spicy Fig Chutney | What is the national dish of Israel? appeared first on National Dish.

A real crowd pleaser and simple to boot – goats cheese salad with Serrano ham and peaches
Photograph: Wayne Morgan – nationaldish.co.uk © 2017

It’s sunny and you want something fast and healthy. This is only labelled Spanish because I used Serrano ham – but you can use any dry cured med ham, such as Parma – so it’s basically a Mediterranean thing. So much more than a goats cheese salad.

The critical thing and the reason to make this, is the peach, goats cheese and the dressing – it’s sunshine on a plate and rather impressive.

Cold drinks are a must and English ‘Dry’ Cider, especially Stowford Press, cuts nicely through the honey lemon dressing and enhances the flavour of the goats cheese. Sounds total nonsense doesn’t it? Try it first…it’s skill!

The post Serrano Ham, Goats Cheese and Peach Salad | ensalada de Serrano, queso de cabra y melocotón | What is the national dish of Spain? appeared first on National Dish.

Pesto is as Italian as it comes, it’s lovely stirred through pasta, but we don’t eat that shit here. Spread it on a chunky cod fillet, you won’t miss the heavy carb.

Serve it with another couple of classic Italian treats, Parma ham, wrapped around asparagus spears and rocket and Parmesan salad.

The post Italian pesto crusted Cod with Asparagus in Parma ham | Bacalao con pesto y espárragos en jamón de Parma | What is the national dish of Italy? appeared first on National Dish.