Slow braised oxtail recipe for six hungry people
A few years ago I was in Fred Fitzpatrick’s butcher’s shop and spotted a tray of oxtail. My mum was coming for the weekend and somewhere in the vague backwaters of my mind I connected her with oxtail. So I bought the oxtail and rushed home to ring her and announce that we were cooking something very special for the weekend. She arrived in a fever of excitement. I couldn’t contain the good news until the meal. “We’ve made you a wonderful oxtail dish.” When I saw her back straighten and a certain stiffening of...
read moreThe ultimate soft pork meatballs recipe
Years ago when so called witches were awaiting trial, they were fed mouldy bread and water. Mouldy bread, in excess, causes hallucinations. And in the case of the witches probably sealed their fate. So I tend to avoid mouldy bread. We have been working on the ultimate pork meatball recipe. We now have a recipe for the softest melt in the mouth meatballs with the addition of a beaten egg. I decided to give Magimix her first run chez Cottage Smallholder. I oohed and aahed so much that Danny rushed into the kitchen to check what was going on....
read moreEasy rare roast prime rib of beef recipe
A couple of weeks ago, Danny visited Fred Fitzpatrick’s, shopping list in hand. Suddenly Fred popped a well hung rib of beef into a bag and put it with our order. Danny was astonished. “I’m sorry Fred but I didn’t order that!” Danny is almost as passionate as I am about rib of beef. It must have been hard to say no. Fred beamed, “It’s a present for Fiona.” When I got back from work, Danny related the story and I examined the beef through the thin white bag. It had a bluish tint, I knew then that...
read moreSimple melt in the mouth calves liver recipe
I found some calves liver knocked down to half price in Waitrose last weekend and bunged it in the freezer. Danny is a big eater and normally I’d have to shell out over seven quid for the two of us at full price. Generally my trolley wheels glide hopefully up to the calves liver section only to spin silently towards the sausages. It was the first time in five years that I found enough calves liver for under £3.50. I was jubilant as I swung the carrier through the front door. I knew that Danny wasn’t impressed but he was too polite...
read moreQuick Steak and Kidney Pie Recipe
This was the pie that I used to make before I discovered the merits of slow cooking. It does not quite have the soul of our Slow Cooked Steak and Kidney Pie Recipe but it is delicious. It’s well worth making if you are pressed for time and are willing to splash out a bit more on the meat than for the slow version. I always cruise past the cut price food section at Tesco and snap up any reduced priced packs of steak to freeze for this pie. Sometimes I run this up for Danny as a treat if he has had a bad day. This pie also magically...
read moreSunday Roast: Perfect rare roast beef recipe
We reward ourselves once in a while with a really good joint of beef. It does a Sunday lunch plus at least a couple of meals during the week. Beef is easy as long as you have the three elements spot on: the choice of joint, temperature and timing. With beef, I found this all a bit overwhelming until I met Tommy Cody. I worked at Tommy and Peggy’s house for about a month. They always insisted that I joined them for lunch. It was an elegant affair. Peggy and I were given pre lunch drinks to sip and could hear the happy clatter of saucepans...
read moreHow to cook perfect sirloin or rib eye steak recipe
Friday night is steak night chez Cottage Smallholder. It has become an institution. We started it when Danny was weekly boarding at at an assignment in Exeter, five years ago. The promise of a really good steak bolstered him up on the drive home. The steak has become an integral part of our life. We now accept no invitations on a Friday night, preferring to batten down the hatches, open a bottle of good red wine and pig out on unbelievably good sirloins and, occasionally, rib eye steaks. These were supplied by Fred Fizpatrick on the Exning...
read moreSlow cooked Steak and Kidney Pie Recipe
One great thing about autumn and winter is savouring a really good steak and kidney pie. Another is that we have streamlined our weekday cooking but still eat well. We both love good food; even our mid-week meals of sausage and mash consist of Newmarket sausages (superb!) with creamy mashed potato and heaps of vegetables fresh from the garden. Neither of us wants to spent hours making supper during the working week. Even those ’30 minute meals’ seem to take us at least an hour. Eventually we twigged that we could avoid kitchen...
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