Aaaaaagh!

I am incandescent with rage, I sit here stuttering with a combination of disbelief and fury. "So what's the matter, Cook?" I hear you ask. Therein lies a short tale.
We get a half dozen eggs delivered every Wednesday from the wonderful folks at Rent-a-Hen. We have been getting eggs from Anita and John since we moved out here. The concept is that you rent a hen from them. You don't actually get a hen but you are guaranteed 6 beautiful free range eggs every week. We used to collect them, but as their business has grown they now deliver and we rush home on Wednesday to scrambled eggs. I cannot recommend this company enough, they are exactly what the ethical food movements are all about.
"So" I hear you say again "What is the matter?"
Well, It appears that some lunatic has decided that you cannot now re-use egg boxes as it carries a cross infection risk. What are these imbeciles thinking? People have been taking egg boxes back for refilling for decades and I can find no incidence of contamination. Yes, yes I know the shell of an egg is porous but really people, get a grip. This will add cost to food production and will increase the need for re-cycling which is much more expensive than re-using. The only consolation is that most cardboard of this type is compostable.
I sometimes wonder if there hasn't been a release of gas over the offices of these bureaucrats. I shall, however, continue to enjoy amazing eggs this Easter with a clear conscience and only a little bit of anger at the lunacy.

Roast alternative.

When one cooks for many people the idea of a "Sunday Roast" is a simple affair. One buys a flipping huge lump of Beef, Pork or Lamb and applies heat. A short while later everyone at the table starts oohing and aghing as the said lump of flesh is served. When there are only two of you this becomes extremely difficult. Roasting meat is a strange thing - in order to be really delicious a joint of meat has to be be a considerable size, little pieces of meat simply dry up and turn to leather. This leaves the gourmet couple with a dilemma - miss out on the glory that is a full roast dinner or find yourself eating cold cuts for a week after the roast.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of the cold cut and, in the interests of food efficiency, if we cook it we should eat it; but eating Roast Lamb followed by Shepherds pie, followed by lamb curry followed by Hot Pot can all get a tad samey.
The following recipe is a antidote to this sad situation and provides a remarkably inexpensive roast dinner for two.

Stuffed Chicken Legs
Two (free range, high animal welfare) chicken legs.
Two sausages (I've used Toulouse, but any high quality ones will do)
Two rashers of free range,dry cure, streaky bacon (smoked if you like)

Take all of the bones out of the legs from the inside of the leg. This will take a short time as it does take practice but its worth the extra few minutes, just keep going with little cuts till the bones come away. Make sure you keep the skin on. Level out any of the flesh. Take the sausage meat out of the skins and put about one third of each sausage on the drumstick end and the rest on the thigh end and wrap up the legs again. Secure the thigh end by wrapping bacon around it and, if necessary secure the drummer with a cocktail stick. Tuck the skin in if there is any overlapping. Roast in a medium hot oven for about 45 minutes. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes, slice into about 5 pieces and serve with all your usual trimmings.

Lamb course

Last Monday I attended a course of Lamb butchery at the Ginger Pig. For those of you who don't know of the Ginger Pig it is the most amazing butchers in the UK. What started as a bit of a hobby for Tim Wilson became a business and now sets the standard in terms of animal welfare and husbandry. They not only provide beautiful meat but taking it from field to plate ensures that they control the process.
The course was great fun with Perry and Borat guiding us through the anatomy, butchery and cooking of lamb. We each boned and rolled a shoulder to take home. The evening finished with a feast of lamb shoulder with mashed potatoes, followed by bread and butter pudding laced with chocolate. It was a great evening and my second of these courses - I've already started saving for the Beef course, or maybe I'll do the sausage making evening.
The message from successful ethical meat businesses such Ginger Pig is clear: Eat less meat, eat better meat and expect to pay a fair price for it.