Cottage Smallholder wet cured and smoked bacon recipe
One thing that lightens the darkest day is our home cured bacon. When I took a small hamper of food to my mum the small package that I was really pleased with was our bacon. Her grill is different from ours. She had to wait a good twenty minutes before it was cooked, compared to our ten minutes. But the smell of slow cooked bacon is the heart of any good breakfast, so by the time I had warmed the plates and rustled up some scrambled egg my mum was in the starting stalls and eager to go. She tasted a small forkful and looked up. “I...
read moreSunday roast: Breast of lamb stuffed with bacon and apricots recipe
We have got a craze for breast of lamb at the moment. It’s such an economical joint and it’s a great opportunity to play with store cupboard ingredients for the stuffing. I usually use fresh breadcrumbs in stuffing but I had such a lot of dried breadcrumbs I though I’d whiz them up in the food processor and give them a go instead. I also left out onions to speed up the preparation. The result was lots of texture and a satisfying crunchiness that balanced the sweet melt in the mouth meat. Following Nigel Slater’s tip...
read moreThe Salami Project: part two
I wondered why all the recipes that I found for salami didn’t mention pork hock. They all seemed to go for shoulder. Three hours later, I know why. It took me a good hour to remove the gristle from two hocks. At least I thought I’d removed the gristle until Eva, dug in her trotters and only let a thread width shred of mince escape from her furred up disks. Eva has replaced Mincy who just pulverised meat. Great if you are feeding an invalid or a toothless dog but a no no if you want proper minced meat. The extended mincing process...
read moreThe salami project: step one
Bursting with pride, I opened the small foil parcel and pushed it across the counter towards Fred. It was a slice of my first old fashioned pork pie. Fred sampled the meat. “Good texture. Did you make the pastry yourself?” He tasted the thick crust. “Yes, we did.” “When you next make the pies put a little of the seasoning mix for the meat into the pastry. Then the pastry won’t be such a contrast to the meat. Sage and pepper is a good combination.” “What do you think of the...
read moreGuest spot: Eat your greens! by Steve Kirk editor of The Bushcraft Magazine
The spring foraging season is just beginning and I’m determined to make the most of it this year. I was delighted when The Bushcraft Magazine contributed this article from a past issue. This magazine is great resource for tips on foraging and a whole lot more. The Buashcraft Magazine also runs foraging courses. The first foraging course is in Kent on April 19th 2008. Check the details of their courses here. Eat your greens! Our guide to foraging some of nature’s delights in the spring countryside by Steve Kirk editor of The...
read moreWe made pork pies
I’ve always wanted to have a go at making pork pies. I even bought a tiny funnel for adding the jelly a couple of years ago in the faint hope that I would have time to try over Christmas. When The Chicken Lady admitted to a similar dream I retrieved the funnel from the depths of the equipment drawer and pounded up to the top of the village with some plain flour, a large block of lard and a couple of pork hocks with trotters. My mum has given me her treasured farmer’s cookbook Farmhouse Fare (first published in 1946). So I took that...
read moreEggy Bread recipe
“How much do you love me?” I asked. I was standing under the kitchen table as my mother ironed above on an old folded blanket. “I love you lots.” “More than the others?” The iron thumped and swished above. “I love you all the same.” “If you tell me that you love me more, I won’t tell them.” This was a lie and I knew it. I had a plan. If my mother admitted that she was fonder of me than my older brother and sister I’d creep out of the kitchen and run down the garden,...
read moreClare’s scrumptious quick spinach and prawn gnocchi recipe
I have been enjoying my friend Clare’s food whilst battling with the wallpaper in her sitting room. Clare is the sort of cook that rustles up something delicious without a huff or a puff. The execution is seamless and the results always delicious. If I work in Saffron Walden I tend to start my day later and return home mid evening and tired. The combination of wallpaper glue, step ladders and the drift of wonderful wafts from her kitchen at around six thirty always had me wilting and longing for an injection of food. Any food. Every...
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