The mane dishes being cooked up this week include Horse Bourguignon, Horse Confit, and Pulled Horse, all of which are served with all the trimmings, for a wholesome and stable diet.

But the best bit is: you’ll know exactly where your horse has come from. We’re all about transparency at Housebites, so you’re now able to pick from a selection of horse types, including:

• Wild horse, got old
• Grand National Winner, got old
• Riding School horse, got old
• And ‘wrong place, wrong time’ horse.

Just select the dish you’d like, tick the type of horse you’d prefer the chef to cook your meal with (as above), and simply add to cart. It’ll then be delivered to you in your selected time-slot, hot and delicious, for you to enjoy in the comfort of your own home.

They’re already galloping off the shelves, so be sure to get your orders in early to avoid unbridled disappointment!

UPDATE

This was posted April 1st.  Hope we didn’t offend too many of you

Because we’re the same old people we were last year, except that we might be slightly fuller/fatter and a wee bit less festive.  And we might also be about to reveal a whole heap of exciting new developments, chefs and menus for 2013..

Though 2013 might be a bit of an ugly number, we reckon it’ll make up for that in all it brings, so ultimately, we just want to wish you all a very happy New Year, and to make a huge, rather dramatic toast to the year ahead.

Fingers crossed it’ll be a good’un, filled with health, happiness and delicious food for all.

A lot of people are scared off by the word ‘vegan’. It sounds intimidating to many, but the thing is it really isn’t. It doesn’t shut off alleys or drain you of vitamins; it’s just an alternative diet, filled with lots of opportunities.

I was vegetarian for 20 years before I became vegan. Apart from my concerns about animal welfare, one of my main reasons for giving up eggs and dairy was because I was having a lot of unexplained allergic reactions and I was aware that eggs and dairy were two of the most common triggers for my symptoms. Since giving them up I have found that I have had far less allergic reactions.

My main worry about going vegan was that I wouldn’t get enough protein, but this hasn’t been a problem as I tend to replace eggs with tofu, like scrambled tofu with black salt (black salt is sulphuric and gives it an eggy taste) for breakfast, I have soy milk in my cereal and I replace cheese with homemade nut cheese. I’ve also always eaten a lot of beans and pulses. The biggest health concern for me as a vegan is getting enough vitamin B12 as this is most commonly found in meat and eggs. Most soy milks come fortified with B12 and I look for cereals fortified with it. It’s not hard to find, my local supermarket own brand cereals have B12 in them, as does Marmite. So I know that by breakfast I’ve had my recommended daily allowance.

Since I’ve been vegan I’ve spent so much time discovering new foods, trying new recipes and learning to adapt old recipes to be vegan. I’ve found so many amazing recipes written on blogs; there are vegan versions of just about anything. I even found a recipe for a vegan poached egg, with a runny yolk!

It was actually because I was spending so much time in the kitchen, trying out different things, that I became a Housebites chef…

I was joking to my friend one day that I wished I could get paid to cook, when she told me about Housebites. What has surprised me the most about cooking vegan food professionally is that a lot of my customers aren’t vegan or even vegetarian. I often get reviews where people say that they don’t normally go for vegetarian food, so I’m always really happy that my menu has tempted them to try something new.

Because I’m not cooking just for vegans, I try to cook food that is naturally vegan, like mushroom and ale pie as well as classic food that isn’t normally vegan, like chocolate cake. But I have to make it in such a way that no one would ever know the difference; that’s the challenge!

The Perfect Vegan Christmas

Many people think that being vegan means going hungry and missing out, especially at Christmas. In truth most of the food on the table is vegan, provided you don’t cook it in animal fat. If you like to cook your spuds in goose fat, just do a small tray of veggies and potatoes in olive oil.

Here are my top tips for a vegan Christmas:

Gravy:

I always make onion gravy which is really simple. All you need to do is fry a couple of onions on a medium heat until they are caramelised. This takes a little time, so you can do this early in the day and set them aside until nearer to dinner time.
Once the onions are a rich brown, sprinkle with corn flour and stir until the onions absorb the cornflour.
Slowly add a pint of vegetable stock while stirring until the right thickness is achieved. You can use stock cubes or bullion powder, but I much prefer to boil up all the vegetable peelings with an onion, garlic, herbs and seasoning and drain to make stock. Fresh stock tastes much better and it’s cheaper too. Add a teaspoon of yeast extract to make the gravy a nice dark brown. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Instead of turkey: Nut Roast Wellingtons!

I’ve always had a nut roast, last year I made wellingtons too, so I’m combining the two this year and making nut roast wellingtons.

To make the nut roast wellingtons:

200g mixed nuts
150g brown bread crumbs
6 small shallots
1 leek
1 clove of garlic, crushed
Mixed herbs
Salt and Pepper
3 dessert spoons of nutritional yeast (optional)
1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
Puff pastry

• Toast the nuts on a baking sheet in the oven for about 5 minutes on 200c.
• Slice and fry the onion and leek until softened, add the garlic and leave on the heat for another minute.
• Put all ingredients into the food processor and pulse until combined. You want to keep some texture and not end up puréeing it.
• Line ramekins with cling-film and push the nut roast into the ramekins making sure there are no air bubbles between the cling film and the glass. Be generous with your cling film so that you have plenty of over hang. You can then use this to pull the nut roast out of the ramekin later.
• Leave the nut roasts in the fridge to chill or you can put them in the freezer at this point and defrost them when you need them.
• About half an hour before you’re ready to serve up christmas dinner, pull the nut roasts out of the ramekins.
• Roll out some puff pastry.
• Use the ramekin to cut out a circle for the bottom of the wellington and sit your nut roast on it.
• Then cut out a circle twice as big to cove the rest of the nut roast and join up with the bottom.
• Personally I like to make little berries and holly leaves out of the pastry to decorate.

Desserts:

I get asked a lot if I make desserts at all, since I don’t use eggs, cream or butter in my cooking. A lot of Christmas desserts can be easily adjusted for vegans and vegetarians. For mince pies, you can make or buy vegan shortcrust pastry fairly easily; surprisingly most of the range of the leading pastry brand in the supermarkets is vegan. In your mince meat, just use vegetable suet instead of beef.

The christmas pudding I usually make calls for an egg to bind the mixture but this can be replaced either with an egg replacer – which you can buy in health food stores – or by boiling a tablespoon of linseeds in 4 table spoons of water. As soon as the mixture becomes frothy, drain the seeds into a container with a sieve. It’s the liquid you want, so throw the seeds away. The liquid will be just like egg whites and can be used to bind anything from christmas puds to veggie burgers.

Alcohol is something you need to check before you serve to a vegan or vegetarian. Most wines and beers are not suitable for vegetarians and vegans so check the label.

I’ve found out that Croft Sherry is vegan and Sainsbury’s label their own brand wines to say if it is suitable for vegetarians and vegans. There are also websites and apps that list popular brands and identify if they are suitable.

Vegan Trifle:

One dessert that is a little bit challenging to veganize is trifle, but I love trifle at Christmas so I don’t want to go without. I make my trifle in individual glasses, because I want to avoid the way trifle can collapse in the bowl and look really messy after you take out one portion.

First put a layer of fruit salad on the bottom. I just chop up fruit and add a bit of orange juice and sugar.

Next you need a layer of sponge. I’ve never seen vegan sponge fingers so I made a sponge cake and re-baked it. Here’s the recipe:

Lady Fingers:

250 g plain flour
200 g sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon corn flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
175 ml sunflower oil
250 ml cup water
Trex or Vegan margarine for greasing pans.

• Pre-heat the oven to 175 C
• Grease two 9” Round Cake Pans
• Sift all the dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl.
• Slowly pour in the wet ingredients and keep stirring.
• Mix until all the lumps are gone.
• Pour cake batter into the tins and bake for 30 minutes.
• Turn the cakes out of the pans and onto a cooling rack.
• Once cooled slice the cakes in half so that you have four round discs.
• If you are making individual trifles in glasses get a cookie cutter about the same size as your glass and cut out biscuit shapes. If you prefer to make one big trifle cut the cake into fingers.
• Place all your fingers or rounds onto a baking sheet and put back in the oven until they are slightly browned.
• Once they are out of the oven, leave them to cool again.
• After they are cool you can store them in a Tupperware or zip-lock bag.
• The recipe will give you more than you need, but I always do extra so I have some on hand and don’t have to bake a whole new cake every time.

After adding a layer of sponge, liberally sprinkle with sherry, but don’t go crazy. Too boozy and it will ruin the trifle.

Jelly:

Next make up some jelly. Regular jelly is not vegetarian, but you can buy sachets of vegetarian and vegan jelly in health food shops. Follow the instructions on the packet. If you can’t find vegan jelly crystals, get agar flakes and make that with fruit juice or cordial to give it a good flavour and colouring.

Let the jelly set in the fridge; this will take a few hours.

Custard:

The next layer is custard. Traditional custard contains eggs and dairy but you can actually use the Bird’s Eye powder and mix it up with soya milk or any other non dairy milk substitute. It does feel a bit like cheating but it offsets having to make your own sponge!

Leave the custard layer to cool in the fridge.

Whipped Cream:

For the whipped cream layer, take a packet of coconut cream, the kind that comes in a tetra pack, not coconut milk, which comes in a can.

• Empty the coconut cream into a bowl, it should be fairly solid. Add a few teaspoons and whip with an electric mixer on a high speed.
• Whip the cream until you can form peaks with it. It won’t go as stiff as double cream would but it will still set nicely in the fridge.
• Add the cream to your trifle and leave to set in the fridge.

And now – sit back and enjoy your vegan Christmas!

Chef Eva (SE15)

Experienced chef Eva specialises in cooking deliciously fresh vegan food using the freshest ingredients. Having cooked vegan and veggie food since she was very young, Eva’s menu offers a colourful & healthy insight into the meat-free world, converting even the most avid meat-eaters to veggie dishes!

You can find Eva’s Housebites profile here.

We’re feeling overly Christmassy here at Housebites, so here’s us saying Happy Christmas in a rather loud and flamboyant way…quite a few times.

Have a very merry Christmas, everyone!

Here are a few of our favourites:

Sweets and Chocolates

If you want to get into people’s good books, it’s always fun to take something deliciously homemade along to dinner parties with you. The following things don’t take long to make, but look lovely, and are well worth messying up the kitchen for.

• Homemade Fudge: Just be sure to keep testing the consistency as you stir the pan, to make sure it’s not too hard or soft – best way of testing is to get a bowl of cold water, and drop small blobs of the mixture in at intervals. Then collect it together in a ball, to see how solid the fudge will be when it’s cooled. If it’s too soft, keep going, and if you like the sort of crumbly texture, just keep cooking until you reckon it’s perfect consistency!
• Marzipan Fruits: Making shapes from marzipan couldn’t really be easier – embrace the food colouring, and make some ridiculous little edible objects (fruits are the traditional choice) to package up and give to friends.
• Christmassy Florentines: Be sure to use your own homemade candied peel (see below), and some seriously quality chocolate to make your Florentines. You’ve also got to be aware that they cook damn fast, and can burn very easily, so keep an eye on them. And make LOTS. Florentines are possibly the most over-priced things you can buy, and it’s definitely worth making your own if you get the time.
• Boozy Cherries: Soak your fresh cherries overnight in brandy, and then gently dip them into molten chocolate (completely submerge them), before placing them on a cool plate to solidify. Nothing beats a homemade boozy cherry.
• Peppermint Creams: Too easy to evenconsider not making. And you could even half-dip them in melted chocolate, to make them look that bit more professional.
• Chocolate Truffles: See Chef Laurent’s beautifully simple yet delicious recipe in the previous blog-post.

Using Citrus Peel

Orange, grapefruit and lemon peel: you eat lots of citrus fruits during the winter months (to fight off horrible colds and to bulk up on the much-sought-after Vitamin C, so you might as well get using their peel to your advantage.

• Candied Peel: Cut the peel into strips, and boil it down in boiling water. Then fill the pan with sugary water, and boil the peel again, until the water has all evaporated and what’s left is a gloopy, syrupy mass of clear peel. Then pour the peel and syrup into jars (ensuring that the peel is all covered by syrup), and screw the lid on tightly. This keeps for a long time, and makes such a difference to the quality of Christmas cakes or general Christmassy cooking.
• Chocolate Covered Peel: Do the above, cut the softened candied peel into strips, and then dip it into silky melted chocolate. Leave to solidify, and package up into beautiful boxes.
• Homemade Firelighters: Cut the peel into quarters, and place on a baking tray, in a low-heated oven. Leave for a few hours to dry, and then chuck on fires if you need to give them a firelighter boost. The added bonus is that citrus peel firelighters also smell delicious. And are free.
• Cloved Oranges: And if you don’t want to eat the actual orange, why not make a beautiful cloved orange?! Stick patterns of cloves into the orange, covering it beautifully, and then wrap it with a lovely ribbon, so you can hang it up somewhere in your house. It smells divine and Christmassy for a long, long time.

Interesting Festive Baking

Everyone wants to impress when it comes to Christmassy baking, but when push comes to shove, it usually ends with a quick trip to the local supermarket, and a cunning shift from packet to plate. Christmas is made by the smells wafting out of the kitchen, so if you find yourself with a free few hours, definitely have a stab at it.

• Yule Log: Gorgeous and so worth making (even if just for the aesthetic buzz).
• Mini Christmas Cakes: Pour your standard Christmas cake mixture into greaseproof paper-lined baby Baked Beans cans, and cook them at a low temperature for an eighth of the time. It’s certainly worth it, and you can marzipan and ice each one, making them a pretty impressive gift to give to friends.
• Alternative Christmas Pudding: This is essentially a fridge cake, shaped like a Christmas pudding! Pour your slightly spiced fridge cake mixture into a cling film-lined bowl, press it down, and refrigerate. Then whip it out of the fridge, gently warm the outside (to ease it out of the bowl a little easier), place it flat-side down onto a plate, dowse with molten chocolate, and return to the fridge. Garnish with holly before serving to the standard Christmas pudding dislikers. No one could fail to love this.
• A Giant Mince Pie: Way more fun to serve to your guests than the little individual ones. Just make it in exactly the same way as you would the regulars, but do it on giant-scale and cook for longer, as you would a standard pie. Imagine you’re feeding a giant, and fill it with a portion of mincemeat fit for a king.
• Gingerbread House: Might be easiest to buy the bits and pieces for these, if you don’t fancy a whole day of baking and making. Then stick em’ together with icing, laden with smarties and sweets, and create something beautiful from nothing. You might even decide to get friends round to build the house with you?!
• Father Christmas Hat Brownies: Make your regular brownies, leave to cool, then place an upturned strawberry on top. Finally, whip out the squirty cream, squirt a blob on the tip of the strawberry, and a lovely frill around the bottom of the strawberry. Et voila: a Father Christmas hat atop a brownie. Simple yet effective. And – more importantly – delicious. 

And to wash all that down with..

It might be due to the rather overbearing central heating blasting out across the UK at the moment, it might be due to the stress everyone is feeling in the countdown to Christmas, but either way, you’ll probably be feeling a bit parched in the upcoming month.. Here are a few easy drinks to make, to quench that thirst:

• Mulled Wine: A clichéd classic. Make it properly, with fresh orange juice and just enough sugar…and you can get ready made ‘mulling bags’ filled with all the spices you need, just to make it even easier. Pale carpets are at risk when the party really gets going, and you probably need to turn your central heating down, but otherwise you’re sorted.
• Mulled Cider: Make your mulled cider in the same way as your wine. It’s arguably even more delicious (and less messy), so be sure to give it a try. And improvise when it comes to recipes – everyone has their own tastes, so don’t feel confined to a recipe.
• Mulled Apple Juice: For people steering clear of the booze, this is the perfect Christmassy drink. It means that no one is left out, and it is truly divine. Don’t add sugar though – then it gets a bit sickly.
• Damson Vodka: A warming, hearty drink fit for a king. If you haven’t already made it earlier in the year (and left it to age and increase in depth), buy some ready-made. It really is the perfect little shot to give to icy wanderers coming into your house on a chilly night. Drink slowly, and allow the warmth to spread through your body. Unrivalled as a winter drink.
• Sloegasms / Sloe-pagnes: Your regular Champagne or Prosecco, with a shot of proper Sloe Gin at the bottom. Kicks like a donkey on steroids.

So there we have it: a mini guide to being creative in the kitchen this Christmas. Because why buy things if you can literally just whip them up in a flash, for a quarter of the price? A slightly messy flash, granted, but nonetheless a very festive and cheery one.

My life as a Housebites chef is fast and furious, coping with multiple orders and remembering how long each fillet has been on the flame. You have a degree of freedom – adding a bit of this and that depending on the season or your mood – but every evening’s service is non-stop.

As a chocolatier, my pace slows down…

Perfect chocolate requires patience, precision and practice. And time. Chocolate can’t be hurried and it’s unforgiving. A drop of water or a degree centigrade too high and it’s ruined.

But it is meditative and magical too.

For me, methodically hand-tempering chocolate by moving it around a marble slab to raise and lower its temperature is absorbing, relaxing and satisfying. You change its molecular structure and create a dark, shiny chocolate that makes a satisfying snap when you crack it.

If you’re making chocolate at home, then try tempering. It’s not essential, but you will get much more professional and pleasing results if you do.

There are few flavours and ingredients that don’t work with chocolate. Much of my inspiration comes from Provence where I grew up, but I’ve also been experimenting recently with flavours from further afield, including wasabi from Japan and carrot-cake from England.

A bit like pairing wine with food, the trick is to find the chocolate that best compliments the particular flavours you are using. Use chocolate with a high cocoa mass, but don’t assume that the higher the cocoa solids the better the taste. Every cacao plantation is unique,and production methods vary wildly, having a big impact on the final taste and texture.

And the only way of really finding the perfect chocolate for you is to taste and experiment; if you like chocolate, this shouldn’t be a hardship.

***

Chocolate Tasting:

Again like wine there’s a technique to tasting chocolate. First drink a glass of water to clear the palate. Then, place a piece of chocolate on your tongue and let it melt. Chocolate melts at body temperature; once it has done so, place your tongue on the roof of your mouth to ensure you use all your senses.

First, you should get a hit of cacao, followed by that chocolate’s secondary notes.  It is these notes – citrus, fruity, smoky and so on – that you should match to the ingredients you wish to add to the chocolate, and the flavour should fill your mouth.

I make a wide range of truffles and chocolates using a range of techniques. If you would like to hand-roll your own, then try this simple recipe – no tempering required.

Recipe: Hand-rolled Truffles

Makes approx. 40 truffles

• 300g dark chocolate, broken into pieces
• 100ml double cream
• 150g unsalted butter (room temperature)
• 25ml alcohol of your choice (optional)
• 250g cacao powder

Method

1. Gently bring the cream to boiling point and pour onto the chocolate.
2. Once the chocolate has melted, add the butter at little at the time, whisking as you go. You’re aiming to create a smooth and glossy ganache.
3. If you’re adding alcohol, add it now and mix.
4. Let the ganache sit for about two hours in a cool place.
5. Then place in the fridge for a further hour.
6. Once the mixture has stiffened, use a spoon to scoop up about 10-15g of ganache and roll in the palm of your hand to create a ball.
7. Place the balls back in the fridge and leave for half an hour.
8. Then, put your cacao powder in a baking tray take each chocolate truffle and
9. Put your ganache balls into the baking tray and shake, making sure each one is covered in powder.
10. Your truffles are now ready to bag, box or simply enjoy.

Chef Laurent (W9)

Laurent is an award-winning French chef with over 20 years experience in fine dining and gourmet food. He has worked as a restaurant chef in a number of top restaurants worldwide, and has worked alongside some top chefs. He is also a chocolatier, and creates the finest, handmade chocolates.

You can find Laurent’s Housebites profile here.

Our chefs have now created a whole load of new MEALS FOR TWO; two of you can eat their delicious, freshly-cooked food, but for cheaper than ordering two separate meals. A pretty brilliant meal deal, really.

But alongside that, we’ve now launched new ‘Say it with Housebites’ service, just to make your meal for two that bit more special…

You’re eating quality food, after all, so why not make the atmosphere truly romantic?

You can now choose to receive three essential elements for a romantic atmosphere alongside your meal for two; candles, chocolates, and a personalised card of your choice. It might be a ‘thank you’, a ‘sorry’ or a simple ‘I love you’ – something to make your meal a touch more special. And just for an extra pound.

We’re renowned for being the more personal takeaway option, so why not take it that step further and say it with Housebites?!

Buon appetito!

We’re all buzzing in the office because last night, we were awarded ‘Best Food Website of the Year’ at the Good Web Awards.

It’s a massive deal for us, and it’s fantastic to receive such awesome recognition. Thanks so much to all our customers and team, and here’s to many more!

I can’t imagine there are many chefs that don’t get their inspiration from the food of Italy and I am no exception. When it’s not messed about with and the ingredients are left to do the talking, it’s lip smackingly good in a way that few other cuisines can match.

Italian food tastes all the better with an appetite and I have just returned from Northern Tuscany where I spent daylight hours climbing up trees to harvest this year’s olives.  After 80 days with no rain, the olive growing regions of Italy, like Spain & Greece, are suffering and the yield is down.  We pick much earlier than a lot of local people because though the yield is low, the quality is superb.  The evenings were spent counting the scratches on our arms and drinking cheap red wine.

We do it the hard way, ie with no machinery apart from our nimble limbs for climbing and our well-worn hands for pulling the olives from the branches.  My speciality is ‘setting the nets’; the laborious but necessary process of ensuring the widest possible area of ground underneath the tree has the net to catch the olives.  It’s time consuming and a fiddle but every olive counts and you don’t want those little suckers bouncing off the terrace into the grass far, far away, never to be seen again.

It was crazily warm most days, 29° most days.  It’s hard to describe the delight of picking olives with robins and blackbirds squawking around you, the morning mist creeping up the hills being burnt off by the blazing sunshine and the satisfaction of hard, physical work yielding a good crop of olives.

All that picking makes you hungry and the great glory of Tuscany, its beef, cannot be better appreciated than with a Tagliata, which is quick enough to cook that you don’t pass away in the waiting.  Tastes even better with new season, first pressed olive oil.

Beef Tagliata For two

Two sirloin steaks (around 300g each) or one large T-Bone steak (Bisteca)
100ml Virgin Olive oil
1 large sprig of Rosemary
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Juice of one lemon
One well seasoned griddle pan or Cast Iron frying pan

* * *

Season the steaks well with salt (leave the pepper till it’s cooked as it burns on the griddle).

Get the griddle hot enough that you think your eyelashes might singe when you stand near it (ie, on high for at least 10 minutes)

When the pan or griddle is ready, place your steaks on and cook them for around 3- 4 mins on each side, depending on how well done you like them.  Err on the medium rare side. When they’re done place on a warm plate, cover with foil and leave to rest for 5-10 mins.

It’s a sin I know but heat your olive oil very gently in a pan and add your garlic and rosemary and infuse for about 10 mins.  If you’re good at multi tasking, you can do this while your steaks are cooking. I had a version in Tuscany that had green peppercorns in the oil, which was sublime.  Be careful not to let the garlic burn.

When this is ready, cut your steaks into slices around half an inch thick, keeping the juices that have gathered while it’s resting.  Pour over the oil and season really well with salt & pepper.  Be brave, the Italians are fierce with their salt & pepper and it works.

Serve with braised spinach and small, crispy roast potatoes.

Chef Alice Naylor (SW12)

Alice is an experienced chef, with a passion for creating quality, seasonal dishes, filled with colour and energy. She specialises in Modern European cuisine, and is experimental in her approach to flavours and tastes.

You can see Alice’s Housebites profile here.

Bristol is known for its foodie population and its amazing culinary knowledge, so it’s fantastic to now be serving locals quality takeaway within this metropolitan city. We’ve got a fantastic array of experienced chefs on board, all cooking their own, seasonal menus, and they can’t wait to hear your requests and feedback.

We all know you can eat out easily in Bristol (in the amazing array of renowned restaurants that the city offers), but eating fresh, chef-cooked takeaway – priced at little more than your average mass-produced takeaway joint – is a completely different story. And it’s now possible for all Bristolites. Finally.

And so the quality, cooked-to-order takeaway revolution continues – we hope you’ll join us, and reap the delicious benefits!