Robert Owen Brown's cooking reflects the clear flavours of our region - as well as the heritage of the North West in the shape of its farms, foraging opportunities, rivers and off-shore fishing grounds. With devotees like Adele and the south's food-er-atti, he's got a loyal fan base for his modern and often nose-to-tail cooking style at Mark Addy pub where he's head chef.
The 50 recipes in his new cookbook draw on his experiences cooking at well-loved Manchester restaurants and pubs, such as the Midland Hotel, Reform, The Angel and many more. Check out a sample recipe for 'braised lamb hearts' from the book below. The book is called Crispy Squirrel And Vimto Trifle and it's published by new imprint Manchester Books Ltd. It's on sale now in the pub for £12.99 - or buy it online here.
Braised Lamb Hearts
Ox hearts are probably too big and tough to tackle for most people, but Im not averse to flash-frying wafer-thin slices of the stuff. Delicious. Still, the hearts of pigs and sheep are more manageable and make better eating. Your butcher is unlikely to parade them in the front of his cool counter, but he can certainly supply them. Get him to trim away the fat and all the veins and arteries and youll find the hearts cavity is perfect for stuffing. This is definitely a cut that benefits from a good, long braise, though.
Ingredients
4 lamb hearts, tubes trimmed
2 crushed garlic cloves
8 rashers of streaky bacon, minced
2 large onions, finely chopped
Salt
Pepper
200g sausage meat, uncooked
50g breadcrumbs
50g butter
1 bay leaf
25g plain flour
1tbsp tomato puree
200ml red wine
1tbsp chopped parsley
1tbsp chopped tarragon
1tbsp rapeseed oil
Method
First make the stuffing. Heat half the butter in a saucepan, add the bacon and half the onion and cook gently until the onion is soft but without colour. Add a pinch of pepper and the breadcrumbs. Beat together and remove from heat, then stir in the sausage meat thoroughly. Fill the hearts with your stuffing, squishing it in firmly. Set aside in the fridge. Use any leftover stuffing as little dumplings. Simply roll into balls and fry.
For the sauce: Heat the rapeseed oil in a saucepan, slightly brown the remaining onions and add the garlic. Mix in the flour and the tomato puree. Now beat in the stock, a little at a time to avoid any lumps and beat in the wine. Set the sauce aside.
Heat a heavy casserole dish and oil and brown the hearts. Pour over the sauce and cover. Bake for 2 hours 30 minutes at 220C/gas 7. Remove the cover, stir in the parsley and tarragon, season and serve.
The designer/photographer for this project was Joby Catto and the co-writer and editor was Taste of Manchester contributor Neil Sowerby.
The Mark Addy, Stanley Street, Salford, M3 5EJ. Tel: 0161 832 4080, www.markaddy.co.uk