Lambs Fries

What should I find in the butchers this Saturday but a tray full of
lamb's fries... In other words, testicles. I had to try.

Following the procedure outlined in the Good Book
(http://www.amazon.co.uk/River-Cottage-Meat-Book/dp/0340826355/ref=pd_ka_1/203-8083694-8800764?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173698467&sr=8-1),
I marinated the skinned fries in some olive oil, a sliced onion, thyme
and sage, and some tarragon vinegar. Then sliced into thick strips and
fried, with a dusting of flour.

They're very tasty! Rather like Kidney in flavour, but perhaps a
slightly softer texture. A curious milky liquid came out into the pan
while frying them (no joke!) but no more disquieting than what happens
when you fry cheap bacon.

Oxtail stew

It's not my recipe, basically another one by dear old HFW. But it's lovely.

Take one oxtail, chopped up by butchr. Rinse it. Place in a big pot
with one large onion (chopped), two sliced carrots, chopped celery,
bay leaves, thyme. Cover with water. Bring to boil, simmer slowly for
3-4 hours (skim off some of the crud which rises if you can be
bothered).

When the meat is tender, take it all out of the stock (veg too). Rip
the meat off the bones. Add 1/2 a bottle of red wine to the stock, and
boil it down to a nice thick consistency. Add meat and possibly the
veg if you like really well done carrots back to the stock.

Minty Trousers

You will need:
One pair of trousers
One washing machine
One small packet of Wrigleys Extra Peppermint Gum.

Open gum and chew a couple of pieces. Place in trouser pocket and forget.
Wash trousers in washing machine, as normal.

Pumpkin Soup

Here is my pumpkin soup recipe. It is very good

--------------------------------------------

Take one Graig Farm chicken (2kg).

Use the neck and heart to make a nice sauce for the bird:

Fry onion, carrot, neck and heart in a tiny amount of olive oil. Add
water to cover. Simmer for an hour or more.

Take the liver. Fry quickly with garlic, and spread on a piece of
toast. Chef's perk.

Grate the rind off a lemon. Stuff the two halves of the lemon up the
chicken's arse.

Mix some Malton salt, fennel seeds, black pepper, lemon rind, and
thyme leaves with a little olive oil. (This is vaguely inspired by a
Jamie Oliver recipe). Smear it all over the outside of the bird.

Roast the bird about 30 minutes, breast down, on a heat high enough to
make your kitchen/lounge all smoky and set off the smoke alarm. Then
turn the bird over and roast for another 45m or so at about 160dC.

When cooking is done, move it to somewhere else and rest the meat.

Deglaze the pan with red wine and water, thicken with some flour and
chicken fat made into a roux. Add the scrapings to the heart and neck
stock you made. Then season it with S+P, Worcester sauce, whatever...
P.S. Eat the lovely tender heart when nobody is looking!!

Serve the bird with the sauce and some broccoli and potatoes.

----

Have a meal or two of chicken on the bone, grilled until bubbling,
with leftover tatties and sauce. Yum.

---

Use the leftover bits of chicken (breast etc) for a nice pasta sauce:

Fry onions, leek, garlic, tinned tomatoes, add some worcestershire
sauce, cook hard. Fry chicken breast hard, seasoning very hard with
cayenne and black pepper, throw into the sauce, stir to mix. Should be
fucking spicy.

---

A week later, use the bones and skin of the chicken ... (you are
supposed to keep them aside in a tupperware in the fridge. didn't I
say that? you'd better go and root through the dustbin) ... to make a
nice stock:

Roast bones until they're brown. Add to a pot with 2 halved onions, 2
carrots, a stick of celery, some peppercorns, a bay leaf. Add water,
simmer slowly for about 3 hours. You should have plenty of time to,
say, clean your bike, while this is happening.

--

Then make your pumpkin soup:

Cut the skin off your pumpkin. Chop into big chunks. Roast until
tender, with olive oil, garam masala, cumin, cayenne, black pepper,
maldon salt. Liquidise with a ladle or two of stock. Reheat. Serve
with toast.

For the best organic chickens

I'd highly recommend these guys' organic chickens.

http://www.graigfarm.co.uk/

and their beef was very fine too.

Pork belly stuffed aubergine

2 medium aubergines
about 250g leftover roast pork belly, re-roast to brown more and
render some of the fat off)
onions
garlic
spices etc

Cut a "lid" off the aubergines (longways) and scoop out the innards.
Fry 2 small onions, 4 cloves garlic. Add the chopped aubergine lids
and some of the scooped out flesh. fry a little while. Add the (diced)
belly. Add a sprinkle of cumin and chilli. Stuff filling back into
aubergines. Sprinkle with garam masala. Bake until aubergine is tender

a way with roasted pumpkin

Slice a small (green) pumpkin into thin wedges. Put in a roasting tin, sprinkle a little garam masala, black pepper, ground cumin, grated nutmeg and olive oil over it. Shake about to make sure everything's covered. Bake/Roast for about 25 minutes in a very hot oven until slightly browned on the edges.


Nice with roast pork.

curry

 a (roughly) south indian style curry

Mince about 8 cloves garlic, a piece of ginger and 2 small, hot green chillies
Fry some cinnamon bark, coriander seeds and about 6 hot red dried chillies for a short while. Add 1 1/2  medium onions, chopped. Cook for a minute or two. Add the minced garlic, ginger and chilli. Add the chopped roots and stalks of a bunch of coriander (qiute a lot). Add a can of tomatoes. Quickly brown off some quartered button mushrooms  and add. Chop some chicken breast into bite sized portions and fry to brown the edges, along with three hot green chillies split into strips (keep the seeds in!). Add a bunch of cooked green beans. Finish the curry with some chopped coriander leaves and garam masala.

roast garlic and pumpkin soup

Roast a bulb of garlic (in foil) with a pumpkin cut into 8th's.
(Sprinkle black pepper and cumin on the pumpkin first, and a drizzle
of olive oil)

After about 1.5 hours, remove and leave to cool.

Blend the garlic with chicken stock* and add the pumpkin. When smooth,
add cream, stock, chopped sage, salt and pepper to taste.

* Stock:
1 chicken carcass, roasted until dark red
2 onions
1 large carrot
3 thin sticks celery
Top bit of a leek
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs rosemary
1 star anise

Beans and Sausages

2 Onions
1 large / 2 small Carrots
1/2 a pack dry Pinto beans, soaked
2 Bay leaves
1 large sprig thyme
1 large sprig rosemary
1 sprig sage
1/3 bottle red wine
5 big fat toulouse sausages (from butcher)
Olive oil

Fry onions and carrots until slightly coloured. Add herbs and beans
and plenty of water. Pressure cook for about 20 mins or simmer until
beans are tender.
Brown the sausages well in a frying pan and add to the pot whole.
Deglaze the frying pan with the wine and set it alight. Add this to
the pot. Simmer for up to an hour until the sausages are really firm
and the sauce has reduced enough. Add Salt and Pepper to taste.

Serve with wilted spinach and rice

Mince and Aubergine curry (Keema Brinjal)

Ideally made quite late on when you really should be going to bed
rather than cooking a big extravaganza.

Take 2 aubergines (fairly small to medium size), chop into big bite
sized cubes and salt to degorge.
Fry your lamb mince (500g) until slightly browned. Leave in a sieve to drain.
Puree a knob of ginger, 6 cloves garlic and 1 onion.

In a pan, heat some oil and throw in about 10 peppercorns and about 8
cardomon pods, and 1 bay leaf. Sizzle for a short while. Add the puree
and cook until it's starting to stick. Then add 2 cans of tomatoes and
the mince, and some cinnamon sticks. Fry off the aubergine pieces
(rinsed of salt) and add to the pot. Throw in a small bell chilli,
with a cut in it. (it doesn't turn out hot enough though. Better make
it about 4 next time, or add the chillies to the puree). Put a lid on
and leave over a low heat for a while (20 mins or so) to cook the
aubergine. Maybe simmer for a while to reduce slightly.

Deep fry some thinly sliced onion (rings?) until very brown and
crispy. Add at the last minute, with Garam Masala if you have it (I
had run out).

Very nice at half past eleven.

Improvements:
1) Make some garam masala first.
2) Put many more chillies in, unless you're serving it to your grandma
(or your girlfriend.)
3) Add some cumin seeds in the oil at the start. I couldn't find the
cumin seeds. Oh well. Or something else to give it a little bit more
bitterness (maybe Fenugreek) would have helped.

Pumpkin coronary

Take a small pumpkin. Slice the top off. Scoop out all the crap. Fill
with 1/3 grated gruyere, 1/3 double cream, a knob of butter, pepper
and nutmeg. Replace the lid and bake at 180 C until the pumpkin is
tender and the filling is hot enough.

Scoop it out into bowls. Eat. Then go for a run to burn off some of
that tasty cholesterol.

Fwd: Pheasant and mushroom soup

2 raw pheasant carcasses
1 onion
1 carrot
1 clove garlic
1 rasher streaky bacon
A little fresh rosemary
Duck fat

Fry the onion, bacon, and carrot in a little duck fat until slightly
browned. Add the bashed up garlic and ripped up carcasses. Fry until
the meat is slightly browned. Add cold water to cover everything and
bring to a simmer. Skim off the fat. Play the violin for 1 hour.

Skim off the fat. Add 2 teaspoons of tomato puree. Rip all the meat
you can off the pheasant bits. Play violin a little longer.

Sieve the whole lot into another pot. Put some dried wild mushrooms
(chanterelle and horn of plenty) in a little water to soak. Reduce the
soup a bit and season. Add a big handful of brown rice. Play violin a
little longer. When ready to serve, throw the mushrooms and bits of
pheasant meat into the soup.

Rhubarb, Apple and Raisin Cake

Crumble Topping:
3oz plain flour
2oz butter
1oz sugar

Cake:
3oz butter
3oz sugar
2 eggs (small)
3oz Self raising flour

Fruit:
300g Rhubarb
1 dessert apple
1 handful raisins
sprinkling of sugar

Oven at gas 4 (180C)
Make the crumble - rub together flour and butter to a crumb texture. Add sugar.
Make the cake - cream butter and sugar, mix eggs in well, add flour,
and a little milk if it's too thick.
Spread cake mix in a greased cake tin (8"?). Lay sliced fruit on top
with a sprinkling of sugar.
Add crumble mixture on that.
Bake 45 minutes.

Roast chicken with spring onion and ginger

1 chicken

2 tsps Fivespice
Black pepper
pinch salf

Bunch spring onion
big piece of ginger
1/2 a red chilli
6-7 cl garlic
2 sprigs sage

Rub the spices on the inside of the chicken
put the chopped herbs, garlic, ginger etc inside the chicken
place chicken in the chicken brick and roast until cooked.
take the liquid from the chicken and put in a saucepan. Remove as much
fat as possible.
Add cornflour and water, stir well and boil to thicken. When ready,
add a good handful of sliced spring onion and some chopped ginger.
Pull the meat off the chicken, slice into bite sized chunks, and add
to the sauce. Add some of the mixture from inside the cavity.

Serve with rice.

bloody gorgeous and no mistake.

Baked chicken with leek and fennel

Slice your leeks
Slice your fennel
put the veg in a casserole dish.
add a bay leaf and some thyme
put chicken pieces, on the bone, on top, and add ground black pepper.
drizzle over some olive oil
add a chicken stock cube (frozen fresh stock if possible)
add a little water

bake in a hot, hot oven for about 20 minutes, then turn over the
crisped up chicken pieces and add a large, chopped tomato. turn the
oven down a bit, and cook for a further 20 minutes.

and today's recipe

Bedraggled sausage casserole

Fry some onion in olive oil and butter, in a stove-proof casserole.
Add carrots, celery, garlic, and chopped tomatoes and fry a bit more.
Seperately, fry a very good sausage cut into large bite-sized chunks,
then when they're going brown add some halved closed-cup mushrooms and
brown them a bit too. Throw into the pot with some thyme and rosemary,
stock (i used pheasant stock to go with wild boar sausage), a slug of
red wine and some water to only just cover. Add a really good sprinkle
of freshly ground pepper.

The really important bit of this recipe is to put it in your oven at
160'C on a timer, and then walk 20 minutes in the pouring rain to a
violin lesson. If you don't play the violin, then maybe you could
substitute a penny whistle, ophiclides or spinnet. Regardless, take
your instrument for a walk. If it's not raining, you could stand under
a cold shower with a fan blowing in your face.

... When you get back in about two hours time, it will have been
cooking in the oven for an hour and a half. Ladle out as much juice as
you can, and whisk with cornflour in a small saucepan to form a thick
gravy. Another dash of red wine might be nice. Season to taste and
pour back into the pot. Serve with rice or potatoes.

chilli

Since i've been detailing what i've been eating, more or less, for the
last two days, here's yesterday's recipe.

Chilli with couscous.

Ingredients:
Unknown (?!)

Method:
Get Greg to call you at about 6pm, offering chilli.
Run round to Greg's at about 7pm. Eat chilli.

Linguine ai porcini con aglio

A handful of dried porcini mushrooms
A little garlic, very finely sliced
A large knob of butter
A large handful of linguine pasta
A scraping or two of parmesan cheese

Soak a handful of dried porcini mushrooms. Cook a large handful of
linguine pasta until al dente. Meanwhile, melt a large knob of butter
and fry a little garlic, very finely sliced. Roughly chop the
mushrooms, add to the garlic and fry gently. When the pasta is done,
add it to the mushrooms and garlic. Stir. Serve. Add a scraping or two
of parmesan cheese. And you're done.

Cottage Pie

a good sized chunk of leftover roast beef
2 onions
3 cloves garlic
5 large open mushrooms
3 carrots
1 swede
5 smallish potatoes
chicken stock
butter + olive oil
bay leaf
thyme
salt and black pepper
worcestershire sauce
grainy mustard
cornflour

Roughly chop potatoes and swede. Boil until tender, drain, mash with
butter and black pepper and put aside.

Finely Dice beef and fry in olive oil until very well browned. Put aside.
Slice mushrooms and fry in olive oil and butter in the same pan, until
well softened and brown. Put aside.
Finely dice onions and fry in oil until soft.
Add very finely chopped or crushed garlic and cook for a few minutes.
Add sliced carrots, bay, thyme and stock, cover, and simmer for a few
minutes to soften the carrots.
Throw the meat and mushrooms back in, season with worcestershire sauce
and mustard and tons of black pepper.
Mix a tablespoon of cornflour with a little cold water and stir into
the mixture to form a gravy.
Pour the meat mixture into a deep oven dish. Cover with the potato and
swede mixture.
Bake for 40 minutes until absolutely piping hot.
Nice with lightly steamed broccoli.