Food critic and cookery writer – and son of Queen Camilla – Tom Parker Bowles champions eating meat in a sustainable, welfare-conscious way.
A new issue of his acclaimed book, Let’s Eat Meat, has been released with 120 recipes celebrating all manner of meat, from slow-cooked lamb to chicken kebabs – and a ‘Less Meat’ chapter for some tasty alternatives.
His approach to meat-eating is buy the best you can and use every last scrap to eke out the flavour.
Pork with Clams
“A classic Iberian dish, the clams add their sweet charms to small chunks of pig,” says Parker Bowles. “Lard is the traditional cooking fat, but olive oil works fine too.”
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
2 pork tenderloins (400g each), trimmed of sinew, cut into 2cm chunks
½ bottle of dry white wine
2 heaped tsp hot paprika
1 bay leaf
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1kg live palourde or carpetshell clams in shells
3 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, sliced
4 tomatoes, peeled, deseeded and finely chopped
Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Sourdough bread, to serve
1 lemon, cut into wedges, to serve
Method:
1. Put the meat in a non-reactive bowl with 5 tablespoons of the wine, the paprika, bay leaf, half the garlic and a big pinch of salt and pepper. Cover and leave in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or overnight.
2. Wash the clams in cold water and discard any that remain open when you tap them firmly. Tip the pork into a colander over a large bowl to collect the marinade; leave to drain while you make the tomato sauce.
3. In a large heavy pan, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil, then cook the onions and the remaining garlic until soft and golden. Add the tomatoes, season to taste and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Pat the pork dry with kitchen paper. Heat the remaining oil in a large non-stick frying pan and cook the pork in three batches over a high heat until nicely browned but not quite cooked through. As each batch of pork is browned, transfer it to a plate using a slotted spoon.
5. Tip the marinade liquid into the frying pan, add the remaining wine and reduce to 6-7 tablespoons. As it simmers, skim the froth from the top of the liquid. Return the pork to the reduced liquid.
6. Add the clams to the bubbling tomato sauce, cover and cook hard for 4-5 minutes, depending on size, until all are open. Discard any that do not open. Add the pork and liquid, scatter with parsley and serve hot, with bread and a wedge of lemon.
Harissa and za’atar marinated chicken kebab with chilli raita
“Ah, the kebab, the late-night last resort of the peckish toper,” says Parker Bowles. “BO-scented flaps of flesh forced into a stale pitta with radioactive chilli sauce. Yuck!
“But a good kebab is something wonderful. This recipe came about when my wife asked for a healthy-ish dish for dinner. Wandering down the Uxbridge Road on my way home, I found fresh flatbread. And endless spices. This has a kick and zing, but nothing too overwhelming. The za’atar adds that scent of Eastern promise.”
Makes: 4
Ingredients:
6 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 2.5cm chunks
Juice of 1 small lemon
1 tbsp harissa paste
1 tbsp za’atar
1 tbsp olive oil
4 flatbreads or large pitta breads
1 head of round lettuce, chopped
Handful of fresh coriander leaves, roughly chopped
Handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
For the tomato and onion salad:
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 red onion, roughly chopped
2 bird’s-eye chillies, chopped
½ cucumber, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
Big pinch of sea salt
For the chilli raita:
200g natural yoghurt
½ cucumber, deseeded and finely chopped
1 green finger chilli, finely chopped
Method:
1. Mix the chicken with the lemon juice, harissa and za’atar. Cover and marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or longer if possible.
2. To make the salad, mix all the ingredients together and leave to sit for 10 minutes.
3. Mix together the ingredients for the raita, add a pinch of salt and leave to sit.
4. Drain the chicken well. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan or griddle pan and cook the chicken for 3 minutes on each side, until cooked through, with piping-hot juices that have no sign of pink when the largest piece is cut in half.
5. Heat the breads. Smear chilli raita all over, then scatter over the lettuce and salad. Top with chicken pieces and herbs, and wrap.
Cornish Pasty
“I was a judge on a TV programme a few years back, looking for Britain’s favourite dish. One of the high points was meeting Eunice Woolcock, a wonderful 91-year-old Cornish lady who made the best pasties I’d ever tasted,” says Parker Bowles. “Just sublime.
“There’s lots of guff talked about pasties, but because they were hardy and portable they were originally food for the tin miners. The key is not cooking anything first. And no fancy ingredients, either. No mucking about, just raw skirt or chuck steak, raw potato and swede, lots of pepper and proper pastry.
“As Eunice would say, ‘There’s Cornish pasty. And that’s it. The rest are just pasties.’ This recipe is adapted from hers.”
Makes: 2
Ingredients:
For the pastry:
225g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
Pinch of salt
50g lard, chilled and diced
50g hard margarine, chilled and cut into cubes
Milk or beaten egg, to glaze
For the filling:
1 potato (150g), peeled and thinly sliced
50g swede, peeled and thinly sliced
115g beef skirt or chuck steak, finely diced
¼ small onion, thinly sliced salt and ground white pepper
Method:
1. To make the pastry, mix together the flour and salt, and rub in the fats. Gradually stir in 2-3 tablespoons of water and bring everything together with your hands to form a smooth, pliable dough.
2. Divide the dough into two balls.
3. Preheat the oven to fan 180C/350F/gas 6. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
4. On a floured work surface, roll out one ball of dough to form a circle about 20cm across. Slightly off centre of the circle, place a layer of potato, then a layer of swede. Add half the beef, then half the onion, then a pinch of salt and plenty of pepper. Finally, add another thin layer of potato, to stop the meat from drying out. Carefully fold the pastry over and crimp the edges together. Place on the lined baking sheet. Repeat to make the second pasty.
5. Glaze with a little milk or egg, and make a small hole in the top. Bake for 40 minutes, until golden brown. Serve hot or cold.
‘Let’s Eat Meat’ by Tom Parker Bowles (Pavilion, £26).
