Skirt of beef recipe stir fried with baby vegetables and red wine
Skirt of beef (also known as Flank Steak, Fajita Meat, Skirt Steak and Philadelphia Steak) is not well known in the UK. It has an excellent texture and flavour somewhere between sirloin and fillet steak. It can be used as a fried steak or here in a stir fry as well as in stews.
read morePork risotto recipe with mushrooms, sweet peppers and tomatoes. Tasty budget meals.
Ever since I saw the Compassion in World farming videos we have only been buying free range pork. These videos expose the terrible conditions that many factory farmed pigs live in and whenever I reach for a cheap pack of pork I remember the images and quickly pass by. Buying free range pork can be a bit alarming as it is expensive. Happy pork does taste much, much better and is savoured at the cottage as a real treat. Even though we have been avoiding cheap pork for months, I was dismayed when I saw the size of joint that Danny...
read moreSpare ribs recipe slow cooked in a rich sauce
Before Danny met me he lived in America for three months. Often he refers to the spectacular spare ribs that he ate there. “One guy spent three days cooking just one pot of ribs. They were superb.” Unfortunately Danny didn’t get the recipe. When D’s brother came to visit he made some stunning ribs. His secret ingredient was black bean sauce. Unfortunately we didn’t note down the recipe. I had a longing for slow cooked spare ribs this week and I had two packs in the freezer that I’d picked up from the Waitrose *CFC which would be...
read moreBaby turnip, Romano pepper and continental onion salad recipe. With a homemade walnut vinegar dressing.
Danny and I spent all day yesterday developing a tasty slow cooked spare rib recipe. I reckon that we eventually pulled it off as the dish was guzzled very fast and everything was almost licked clean. You can find our spare rib recipe here. I wanted to serve the ribs with rice and a crisp salad. Finely sliced Oasis baby turnips were top of my list to try. I teamed two turnips with a couple of continental spring onions and a slim Romano pepper. The turnips were sweet and spicy – rather like a more succulent radish. The dressing was a...
read moreChicken thighs recipe roasted with red onions
Roast chicken thighs were never something I looked forward to, or could ever countenance as I prefer white chicken meat and always avoid brown. That was a fact until we tried this amazing recipe that was posted on the forum by Shereen, who lives near Belfast. She credits her sister in law, JennyB. Well congratulations to you both because you have converted this chicken thigh hater to a chicken thigh enthusiast. This is really is a wonderful and economical recipe that punches way above its weight. The thighs magically convert to white meat...
read moreTurnip Oasis: a review
Last year Danny was surprised how much he enjoyed raw home grown cauliflower and raw courgette (zucchini) in salads. This year I thought I’d tickled his taste buds further by introducing him to raw home grown turnip. I’m not a big fan of turnips – they are fine in a winter stew but I’d been seduced by the description of turnip Oasis on the Thompson and Morgan site. Turnip Oasis is a new variety of turnip and when eaten raw has the taste of a melon. Danny was dubious about it. “Why would I want my turnips to taste of melon? I want...
read moreHaddock baked with lemon and Greek basil served with pickled nasturtium seed butter recipe
“Do you remember we used to use Jamie Oliver’s method of cooking fish in aluminium parcels? Let’s do that for supper tonight.” We used to use this method a lot a few years ago. It’s simple and quick and the foil seals in the flavours. Danny had found some CFC haddock marked down to a third of the original price so he snapped it up. All afternoon I played mentally with combinations of flavours and eventually ran them past Danny as he lay on the swing seat enjoying the sun. “Haddock with black butter and pickled nasturtium...
read moreLamb mince burger recipe with chips in our halogen oven by Danny
Lamb can be greasy but these were delicious and not at all fatty. If our friend KC is reading this, then you can skip the rest, K! She hates lamb. We did not know this when we invited K and JP for Sunday lunch of roast lamb and dauphinoise potatoes. Poor K was too polite to say anything when she arrived and heard the menu but she really cheered up when the big dish of potatoes was placed on the table. One bite later she realised that, as a special treat, the lamb was roasted on a rack directly over the potatoes so that all the juices would add...
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