Ok, all that stuff I said about it being unseasonably warm and hating it? I take it back. It’s freezing now and I’m scrabbling around for excuses not to leave the house. So far, the best one I have come up with (‘Jermey Kyle’ and ‘Cash in The Attic’ not withstanding) was the desire to knock up a great big batch of chocolate chip cookies. Normally I’ll reach for many a chocolate confection before I get my sticky mitt in the biscuit barrel – brownies always get my vote as does anything that combines chocolate with ground almonds but yesterday I just had to have a big fat cookie. I wanted to combine the grown up taste of Green and Blacks 70% with the childhood sensation I used to get from eating Wagon Wheels. I remember the first time I saw a Wagon Wheel as an adult and being truly crest fallen that it was no longer the size of my 8 year head. Cries of “They are not as big as they used to be” were swiftly followed by the realization that it was I who had grown and not the Wagon Wheels that had shrunk.

These  cookies are very much made in the American mould – big, crisp on the outside and still chewy in the middle. Sure they would taste good with a glass of milk but they are even better with a small, wickedly strong espresso.(They are just big enough to sustain you through two coffees if, like me, you need the extra caffeine hit).

It may be about to get even colder outside but after one ( OK, three) of these cookies I have just the right amount of warm and fuzzies to forget about the weather.

Choc chip Cookies ( Makes 24 large )

Ingredients

350g plain flour

1 tablespoon cocoa

1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon salt

225 grams unsalted butter at room temperature

175 grams caster sugar

175 grams dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

350 grams good quality dark chocolate with 70% cocoa solids ( Green and Blacks Chocolate for Cooks is excellent) chopped into small but rough peices

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/375F/Gas 5.

In a bowl, combine the flour,cocoa, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, beat the butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla extract until creamy. Beat in the eggs. Gradually mix in the flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate.

Split the mixture into two, rolling each out into sausage shapes, approximately 5cm/2in in diameter. Wrap them in cling film and transfer to the refrigerator for 1 hour.

When you are ready to bake the cookies, simply cut the log into slices 2 cm thick and lay on a baking tray, widely spaced apart. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove from the baking tray and cool on a wire rack until completely cold. Don’t worry if the cookies are still very soft, they will crisp up as they cool

There’s something rather disconcerting about everyone else knowing what you are going to order in a restaurant before you’ve actually had a chance to make your mind up. This happens to me every time I dine out. I try to peruse the menu just like everyone else but always end up ordering the same thing. Boring? Maybe, but I just don’t seem to be able to break the habit. I go through the pretense of running my finger down the menu, pausing for dramatic effect at the sea bass or lamb but I really needn’t bother.

“And he’ll have a medium rare steak” My friend said the other night before snatching the menu out of my hand and passing it to the waiter.

“I might have wanted the special” I protested

“Well, do you?” My friend asked

“Er, no. I want the rib eye”

The thing is, I am not alone in this. If you put 6 chef’s around a table I would bet good money that 5 of them would order a steak. The one that didn’t will then spend the rest of the meal talking about how he or she should probably ordered a steak after all. It probably has something to do with being surrounded by choice every day or maybe it’s more primal than that. Either way, steak and chips is the go to menu item for me.

I had an onglet steak the other night at Hotel du Vin in Brighton and it was bloody delicious. Rare and full of flavour it was everything you could ever want in a slab of meat. Despite it cropping up on many a decent eaterie’s menu at the moment it’s still not that well known. Onglet has pros and cons for the first timer. It has to be said that raw, it’s not going to win any beauty contests and it’s unfamiliar appearance could have some people reaching for the rib eye.

Asking the butcher what part of the cow it comes from might not be much of a reassurance either as it’s actually a pair of muscles that hang from the diaphragm.

Lets just say it’s hell of a lot tastier on the plate than the page. It also requires a a certain amount of chewing so it’s probably not for the kind of diner who want’s the flavourless ‘melt in the mouth’ experience you get from a fillet steak. In fact it needs very brief cooking over a high heat to render it rare to really get the best out of it. Those preferring a medium to well done steak should  probably stick to what they know.

All that said, what it lacks in good looks and familiarity it more than makes up for in flavour and lets face it if you’re not eating steak for flavour then maybe you should have had the sea bass after all.

If you’re planning on trying onglet you could ask your butcher for hanger steak or skirt steak. I got mine from award winning Sussex Butcher of the Year Bramptons (Cause he’s my mate!) and just when you thought it couldn’t get any better it’s cheap too!

http://www.bramptonsbutchers.co.uk/contact.htm