Delicious budget meals for frugal entertaining: Honey glazed gammon baked with star anise and tamarind recipe
Ham is generally superb to cook and eat. Gammon can be a bit disappointing with its rougher texture and stronger taste. A few weeks ago a good friend gave us two small joints of gammon, bought from the back of a lorry at a Bank Holiday market. The first one was simmered very slowly in the slow cooker and Danny gave it the thumbs down. “It tastes piggy.” The dogs didn’t agree. This weekend I spotted the other one, nestling in the freezer. Loathe to give the dogs another treat, I remembered Smart Wife’s deluxe budget dish. “I’m...
read moreNigel Slater’s Pork ribs with honey and anise recipe
Star Anise look so pretty. When I spotted them in herb and spice section of the Daily Bread Cooperative I had to buy them. I’d never used them before so had no plans for their future. I tossed four into some 10-minute soup that I was making. “What are these?” Danny peered into his bowl and lifted one up with his spoon. The soup tasted vaguely reminiscent of spiced aniseed balls in gravy. So they have stayed in their jar in the larder door waiting to make an entrance in someone else’s recipe. Last night I found a cut...
read moreFillet of pork medallions on a herby bed of courgette and baby broad bean couscous recipe
Fillet of pork is so tender and succulent but sometimes it can lack flavour. Danny bought two packs of medallions from the condemned food counter at Tesco and fried them in a little black butter. He sat down to savour this delicacy with a small proud wobble of his head. Within seconds there was a roar. “They taste just like blotting paper!” When I found myself with a pork fillet to cook, I remembered the shrieks and made a marinade. I used loads of fresh herbs for this. We had a great tip from some friends who used to run a...
read moreThe naming of things. Asparagus, Ham and Rice Bake Recipe
When I was a wooden toymaker I made a small car, simply shaped, immensely tactile. My sister christened it the Dumpy Car. I knew in an instant that the name would sell the car. I’d listen to people chatting about the toys on the stand. If I heard them mention the Dumpy Car, I knew that they were likely to buy. The words sound comfortable and solid, good in the mouth, with just enough resonance. I sold thousands of them. Danny has a problem with the name “bake”. “Never make us a bake. I’d have to leave. Just...
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 moreBesotted by home cured smoked bacon
I was at Fred Fitzpatrick’s butchers shop. I’d brought them each a present of my home cured bacon. John picked up the two slim packs and placed them gently beside the till. “I think I’ll have mine with my Easter Egg.” It was Easter Saturday and I had finally made bacon that I was proud of. Not too salty, sweet edged with black treacle and a deep smokiness from hanging over a smouldering log for twelve hours in our inglenook fireplace. We are now hooked on home cured bacon. Our wet cured recipe only takes 2-3 days...
read moreCompanionable bacon home smoking. The old fashioned way.
The Chicken Lady answered my tom-tom invitation to share our chimney and indulge in a bit of home smoking last night. She arrived with her husband S and a large joint of wet cured belly of pork wrapped in an old red muslin curtain. “I did wash it and loads of red dye came out. Perhaps it will stain the pork pink and get over the problem of not using saltpetre.” I was regretting not using saltpetre on my loin of pork, wanting a good pink colour but had convinced myself that it was good to try different cures. TCL had used a brine...
read moreSlow cooked Boston Baked Beans recipe
“American baked beans are different from yours. Heinz are so bland. We have loads of different ways of making beans. Hot, with molasses, with sausage or bacon. There’s real variety in the States.” Mike was giving his beans a final stir before their 8 hour simmer in his crock pot. I’ve never been a baked bean fan. Danny likes me to buy those tiny tins of beans for his weekend brunch. The Min Pins will wolf down any leftovers but Great Aunt Daisy Beatyl is like me, she’d eat them if there was nothing else left in...
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