There are few dishes that reward patience quite like a traditional shepherd’s pie. This slow-cooked lamb version is stripped back to its essentials — two days, one pot, and a handful of good ingredients that build quietly into something remarkable.

Often, shepherd’s pie was a way to use up leftover roast lamb — simple, thrifty cooking at its best. In this case, we’ve gone all in from the start, braising lamb shanks for depth and richness. Both approaches are preferable to the shortcut of mince, which can never quite replicate the texture or flavour of true slow-cooked lamb.

The dish has its roots in the rural kitchens of the British Isles in the late 18th century, when the potato became a staple and leftover meat needed a second life. Whether from England, Scotland or Ireland, the idea was the same: nothing wasted, everything transformed — and few comfort foods speak so directly to home cooking.

I made this during a rare weekend off from coaching girls football, be assured, this Shepherd’s Pie is incredible but not nearly as good as my football team!

The post Thirty-Hour Shepherd’s Pie | Recipe appeared first on National Dish.

There seems to be Vietnamese restaurants popping up all over the place – and for good reason, the food is the nuts. How do you make Vietnamese Pho (pronounced fur)?

This is one National Dish we don’t mind posting, we did this as part of a banquet, my good chum @fp_in_the_kitchen and I. I’ll focus on the Pho here though and post the other dishes separately.

Get ready for some good food from ‘The Nam‘, Cheltenham…that’s fucking terrible…

The post How do you make Vietnamese Pho? | National Dish of Vietnam 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.

I was cooking up some Moroccan Lamb the other day and wanted the best yogurt dip ever to go with all the flatbread and spice action.

This isn’t from Morocco, but who cares, it’s amazing – I’d say it was Middle Eastern, leaning toward Israel.

It’s nutty with Pomegranate – so a crunchy mutha – the textures are really fun.

The post This is the best yogurt dip ever | Middle East and North Africa | National Dish Recipe appeared first on National Dish.

It’s getting cold, although you could be reading this when it’s warm, doesn’t matter, this recipe is well fun. The kids and their buddies will love you for this, plus it will get them eating more fruit. It’s really easy. By the way, you need to slice a watermelon so make sure you have a sharp knife – believe it or not, that’s dangerous – so don’t let the kids have it!

The post Have an indoor fruit BBQ for the kids | National Dish Fun 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.

– we’re not 100% sure where this dish might originate.

I accidentally made it up, but that’s not to say it doesn’t exist. So in actual fact this could be a South East Asian ‘influenced’ English dish – Changlo food! You saw it here first.

Anyway, I fancied sweet and sour chicken, but wanted to add lots of chilli and forgot to buy pineapple, so used some mango I had – hence…

It’s really good – I also knocked up a cheats Mushroom Chow Mein on the side.

The post Sweet and Sour Chilli Mango Chicken | National Dish Recipe from South East Asia…maybe appeared first on National Dish.

I once watched an episode of one of Rick Stein’s shows, whereby our usually well mannered grandpa Cornish Chef and cookery teacher lost his temper over a badly cooked steak in a motorway services in France. At least I think it was in a motorway services in France, I tried to look it up but couldn’t find it – if you know, post it in comments and I’ll update this.

Anyway, I think he’d had a couple of glasses of wine but his grievance was perfectly reasonable “it’s not bloody hard to cook a steak well”. Now, for some reason I used to struggle with steak until my mother bought me the Morton’s Steakhouse Cookbook – probably because I cooked her a poor steak. I followed their opinion and now have perfect steak every time and it’s really not difficult.

I don’t cook many steaks compared to Orford Flat Iron’s Chef Patron, Thomas Aubrit. He must cook a lot of em, so it must have been a bad day.

Orford Flat Iron is on Orford Yard, Red Lion St and before you get near the door you’re feeling pretty good about what’s to come. The discreet door opens to a small (probably less than 30 covers) and potentially cosy restaurant. The decor is good, grey walls, loads of wood and a kitchen hatch to let you see the guys at work.

Problem! Why can’t some people get lighting right? This place was brighter than the sun, despite the good decor, it was like going in to your Nan’s lounge – there’s no need. If you’ve been to a Hawksmoor in London you’ll know what I mean, the only light that counts is at your table, giving you warmth and the perception of privacy – intimate, that’s the word.

The greeting by the front of house, without a reservation, went well. The girl that looked after us was delightfully polite and friendly, which continued throughout the visit – might have made a couple of silly mistakes though.

Menu’s are well presented on a clip board, separate food and wine list, but maybe not easy to follow – you’ll see why.

Drinks first, small glass of Merlot, which now of course means 125ml, which in my mind was only reserved for sparkling. In an age of drinking less, 125ml is a cracking measure, but are you paying 175ml prices – you know, a tactic? Nope – £3.50 – that’s spot on. I went for a Gin and Slim, only given two choices, Hendricks or Monkey 47 – don’t know how much it was going to be or if it was 25ml or 50ml. Also, no slimline tonic, full on fever tree.

Delivered to the table in a heavy scotch tumbler, with some ice but no lime (or lemon) – what’s all that about? Upon request a segment of lime duly arrived, quick squeeze and rub and I’m tasting one of the best G&T’s I’ve had in ages. Could have been the tonic, could have been the gin or could have been my ace lime squeezing skills – who cares, it was amaze. I didn’t know at the time it was £9 – but, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Order consisted of two courses each, I kicked off with Chicken Livers in cognac and cream served on toasted ciabatta and rocket.

I followed that with steak and made a massive error – huge. I didn’t notice, this is my fault, so be warned OK? They don’t give you a price. They have a Flat Iron Steak, this is a cheap cut from the shoulder, more like a chunk of steak for £9 – that’s clear.

Above that is something called ‘Speciality Steak of the Week’, whatever that means because the choice was Sirloin, Fillet, Rib-eye or even a T-bone. So normal ‘non speciality’ steaks then? Maybe it’s the way they cook it – nope.

I chose a rib-eye RARE and didn’t ask how much it was, they also didn’t tell me – the menu does say ask. It’s a menu so I don’t want to ask, unless it’s lobster maybe. I’m not signing a contract – (although strictly speaking you are making one)….but come on, that’s not fair. The mains didn’t come with sides, so you have to wang that on top. I went with Garlic Sauteed Mushrooms for £3 and Asian Som-Tum Slaw for £3. I added a blue cheese sauce for £2.

I’ll just say it now, the sides were excellent and the slaw was off the scale good – order that for sure. My blue cheese sauce was rather thin and lacking a bit of punch.

My buddy went for some non-sizzling – sizzling prawns with garlic butter and chilli and a Flat Iron Steak MEDIUM RARE with Thrice Cooked Fries (drowned in oil more like) and ‘that’ Asian slaw.

Starters – both dry. My chicken livers must have been sat for a little while as the cream sauce has formed a little skin on the top and wasn’t ultra hot. The prawns, were just dry. He did say they tasted good though. The chicken liver was really overcooked, they should melt in the mouth, but you know when liver takes on that dry and grainy texture, I got a beak full of that? Not a great start.

The steaks – OMG – they were cooked so poorly. My RARE rib-eye was medium-well at best and for some reason it got rarer toward one end even though it was the same thickness throughout. The MEDIUM RARE Flat Iron came big time rare – I was well miffed. It is very possible and likely that the waitress got them the wrong way round – but mine was still beyond medium and if the orders were mixed, my pal wanted medium-rare.

When you’re ordering steak you want it perfect, especially in a steakhouse – there is no room for error, it’s just not on.

They serve the steaks up in a skillet that could have been hotter, which would only have cooked them even more of course. Ironically the sizzling prawns was also served on a warm skillet, but on a bed of rocket – eh?

Coffee and the bill. My share of the bill was £43.50 before a tip – with one alcoholic drink I felt that was a little steep, bearing in mind I’d just eaten at Rambla in Soho for less than that.

I feel bad about this review, it’s a new place and I would love it to be amazing – but Norwich does have a lot of competition. I think they made a few mistakes, that’s all and had I been more savvy about the menu, like you now are, I could have managed the budget a little better.

Tripadvisor has them running at 4.5 stars, that’s amazing and I do think they are capable of delivering that – let’s put it down to a bad night and give them the benefit of the doubt. I even feel they could be worth a second chance.

Therefore, I wouldn’t go as far as to say this is a bad place to visit. If you fancy it, you should give it a go for sure, but keep your wits about you…and wear shades.

We paid the bill to keep it real.

PRICE: £ £

WEBSITE: orfordflatiron.co.uk

TELEPHONE: 01603 764441

Atmosphere
Food
Drink
Staff
Value
Overall
Average

 

The post What’s it like to eat at Orford Flat Iron Norwich Steak House? | Restaurant Review | National Dish 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.