The perfect 10: favourite gastro pub dishes
How about this for the perfect gastro-pub menu? Mark Taylor lets you in on where to find the dishes that have earned a place on his list of favourites
1 Crab on toast:
Whether it's in the form of crab cakes, in sandwiches or as part of a salad, fresh crab appears on most menus in one form or another. I've enjoyed crab on toast at both the Anchor and Hope near Waterloo, London, and the King William in Bath. The toast is hot, buttered and spread with either brown or white crab meat, occasionally bound by a little homemade mayonnaise. Delicious,simple and easy for the kitchen. The perfect starter.
2 Jellied ham and parsley terrine with piccalilli:
I often order a terrine or paté as a starter. It may be a smooth, silky chicken liver and foie gras terrine spread on toasted brioche, or a coarse game terrine with hunks of granary bread, a blob of homemade chutney and a few cornichons. My favourite, however, is a good old fashioned jellied ham terrine, marbled with pieces of ham hock, flecks of green parsley and served with proper, homemade piccalilli.
3 Deep-fried lambs' sweetbreads with sauce gribiche or tartare sauce:
It's great to see more pub chefs using offal on their menus. Tongues, livers, kidneys and even hearts are more and more commonplace than they were, as are lambs' sweetbreads, which remain my favourite animal extremity. Cheap and versatile, these delicious glands are at their best when pan-fried but I've had them in a few pubs recently deep-fried and served like goujons with a suitable dipping sauce, such as gribiche or tartare.
4 Shepherd's pie:
A classic winter warmer. The best I have ever eaten was an individual one cooked by Stephen Bull when he ran the Lough Pool Inn in Ross-on-Wye, Herefordshire. It was perfect. The deep, dark filling was packed with finely chopped roasted lamb in a sumptuous gravy made with really good stock, onions and carrots. The buttery mash topping was fluffy and golden brown. A complete meal in a dish, everybody loves a really well made shepherd's pie and it would be good to see it on more menus.
5 Ox cheeks braised in red wine with wild mushrooms and creamed potato:
I had this dish at Michael Bedford's Tetbury pub, the Trouble House, two years ago and I can still remember it as if it was yesterday. As far as I am concerned, this is the Rolls-Royce of braises. The ox cheeks have great flavour and the rich red wine sauce has all the hallmarks of being made by a chef trained by legendary Frenchman Pierre Koffman. People love braises, stews and casseroles and they are a great way off using cheaper cuts with big flavours. It doesn't have to be ox cheeks, either. Good old beef in stout is just as delicious, as is the very English dish of boiled beef and carrots.
6 Rib-eye steak with béarnaise sauce and handcut chips:
A dish that even lifelong vegetarians must secretly drool over. Is there a pub in the land that hasn't got steak and chips on the menu? I doubt it. But, like so many other classics, it is a dish that can be disappointing in the wrong hands. In the right hands, however, a well-seasoned, well-rested rib-eye steak - preferably Aberdeen Angus or Hereford Beef - served medium rare with a pile of hand cut chips sprinkled with a few flakes of sea salt and a small ramekin of béarnaise sauce, washed down with a large class of claret... well, does it really get any bettter that that?
7 Ham, egg and chips:
Again, a time-honoured pub classic, but one that often suffers at the hands of lazy chefs. The ham has to be well-sourced and local. It also has to be home-cooked and hand-carved, the fried eggs must be at least free-range, if not organic, and the chips really should be hand-cut, although fries will do. As a slightly "posher" alternative, chargrilled local gammon steaks served in the same way seem to be increasingly common on pub menus Retro pineapple rings optional, of course.
8 Treacle tart:
A good test of any kitchen is the treacle tart. Often, the pastry can be too thick, too claggy, or the treacle filling can be tooth-achingly sweet. The best I have ever tasted was the one at Heston Blumenthal's Hind's Head pub in Bray, Berkshire. The pastry was the shortest I've tasted and it was as thin as a CD. The filling was well-balanced, not too sweet, and it was accompanied by a refreshing milk sorbet which tasted just like that first glass of cold milk you drank as a child. It was an exemplary pudding and the stuff of which dreams are made.
9 Rhubarb crumble:
Like steak and chips, fruit crumble is another pub-menu staple and with good reason. Whether it's gooseberry, plum, damson, greengage, apple, blackberry, pear, quince or rhubarb, a steaming hot bowl of cooked fruit, topped with a loose "rubble" of flour, butter, sugar, annd possibly ground almonds, is a perfect marriage. It's always best to use seasonal autumn and winter fruits in crumbles and I'm a firm believer in using British fruits, too. The worst crumble I ever had the misfortune to taste was a banana and mango version. It was a disaster: dry, mushy and not at all pleasant. Crumble should be served with custard, thick clotted cream or good-quality ice cream. I'm especially fond of crumbles made with forced, pink Yorkshire rhubarb and served with stem ginger ice cream.
10 Warm ginger cake:
There is something mesmerising about a dark, spicy, sticky ginger cake. It seems the perfect pud for a chilly winter's day - the sorrt of dessert one dreams about after a long country walk - with a reviving pub lunch at the end, of course. Although clotted cream is a fine accompaniment, I've had warm ginger cakes with treacle toffee ice cream, custard and even pink rhubarb compote. The Star at Harome, North Yorkshire, sticks to tradition and serves a baked ginger parkin with rhubarb ripple ice cream and hot-spiced syrup.
