Full, oh so full, of the joys...

I challenge anyone not to feel a deep but gentle joy at the way the seasons change in the UK. The starlings who have been scavenging on my bird table all winter are now raising a brood in the rafters of Corner Cottage, My tomato plants have gone from being puny little filaments to strong vibrant shafts of green, as thick as my little finger, reaching for the trellis (although last Monday, when there was frost on the ground, they did look at me as if to say "Really? Are you sure it's May?").

I have written before of my love of September but right now, for just a few weeks, the English diet is turned upside down. We are justifiably proud of our meat in this country and many of us are excited by the quality and variety of seafood found around our coasts but right now for just a brief month or so it is the vegetables of this green and pleasant land which take centre stage.

Asparagus is with here from late April to late June (strictly speaking the season is from St Georges day to Midsummer day) and we must gorge ourselves whilst we can. A bundle should be in every shopping basket, veg box and hessian bag (for farmers' markets, of course). There are many beautiful things you can do with this delicious (if slightly bizarre) vegetable. It is a friend to butter for simplicity and a friend to egg - poached, fried, boiled, hen, duck or goose - it matters not. Best for me, however, is to combine the two and make an hollandaise sauce. I am aware that this turns a very healthy vegetable into a heart attack on a plate but its only around for such a short period of time and we do need to live a little.

If we lived in a world, and I shudder at the thought, that did not have asparagus in it, then the king of this time of year would surely be Purple Sprouting Broccoli. This evening I made a perfectly pleasant cottage pie for dinner but it was completely upstaged by the lovely stems that I had quickly blanched and placed on our plates as an afterthought. A flavour that just screams "Spring!" at the top of its voice, demanding attention from all the other foods in the kitchen. Rich and subtle, a hint of iron in the taste and just enough cruch to assure one of its freshness - a true monarch of the vegetable kingdom.

What are you waiting for people?

It's been a while!

I must apologise to those who read my blog that I have been remiss over the past few months and not kept up with my postings. The truth is, this has been a very busy spring term at the chalk face and time has been very short. However, things have calmed down a bit in Corner Cottage and I find myself with a little time to write.
Over the past few months I have felt the need to push aganst modern food trends. Modern "fine dining" has at its core a desire to put as many different ingredients on a plate as possible. One only has to look at the dishes produced on the last season of Masterchef to see that a tiny bit of everything on a plate is now considered the way forward. The only alternative is to cook one ingredient in 25 different ways.
Those of you who have read my blog before will know that I like learning how to provide the basic foods. I have often written about the joys (yes I do mean joys) of making bread. Recently I have been making my own butter.
So it was with a spring in my step that I headed off to Orchard View Farm in March (www.orcharviewfarm.co.uk) to take part in a sausage making course. I cannot tell you how much fun this was. Our instructor, Jim Mackeller, was a brilliant teacher, dealing with questions and mini disasters with humour and a sense of practicality which was refreshing and enlightening. We made two batches of sausages to take home and tasted our first batch at lunch! The beautiful wife and I have been working our way through a freezer full of sausages since! I have mentioned Orchard View before, it may well be one of the finest places in the UK to take breakfast . Their Black Pudding is quite the best I have ever tasted.
The otherbit of news from Corner Cottage is that I am now making my own Beer. So far I have produced beer from kits but I hope to move on to more basic production soon!

First thoughts of 2015

The  Beautiful Wife gave me a Butter Churn for Christmas and at the weekend I made my first batch of lovely butter. I can hardly tell you how beautiful fresh butter is on warm toast. Now I can make a bacon sandwich from scratch, who could ask for anything more!
Some cream was purchased, poured into the glass container, the lid screwed on and the handle cranked till the cream went from whipped to split. The butter milk was then poured off (great for scones, incidentally) and the solids drained of the remaining liquid. This was then "washed" with cold water to ensure all of the buttermilk was gone. A little salt was added. I now have 4 ramekins of butter sitting in the fridge. I don't think I have ever eaten so much toast!

Butter and my Christmas present

Over the past few days, I have been wondering why I blog. I have no aspirations to be a full time food writer, though I am delighted when anyone reads my ramblings and almost overjoyed when they comment. However, one of the main reasons why I blog is that it is unedited.
This can, however, cause its own issues. It has been pointed out that in my last post, there was an amusing spelling error. Just to clarify: At no stage was there any giggling from my roast potatoes at Christmas, just a little jiggling. Though if I had been grown in a beautiful organic field, gently peeled and par boiled, in preparation to be roasted in a duck fat rendered from an organic, free range bird, then I might afford my self a wry smile of superiority if not actually out right laughter.
Much, much more important than exposing poor proof reading, the fact that we bloggers have no editors means that one reads exactly what has been written by the blogger, warts 'n' all.
I revel in that freedom, and consequently, when I read entries from many months ago I also cringe at the mistakes and the lack of cohesion in my ramblings.
My New Year wish to you all is that you live your lives unedited.
Je suis Charlie

Stopping all the stress.

This will be my last post before the big day and by now I hope you have everything under control. Please remember its only a roast dinner with a few extra bits there is really no need to get in a tiz. If the meal comes out of your kitchen 20 minutes late, who really cares?
Anyway, down to foody matters.
Yesterday I braised some red cabbage, it always amazes me how much one gets from a small red cabbage. The cabbage was finely sliced as was an onion and an apple (the variety was "Rudolf" appropriately). The onion was gently fried in too much butter in a casserole until it was just taking a little colour, the apple and the cabbage was then added and all mixed in. Some seasoning and some nutmeg, clove and cinnamon was then added with a big splash of cider vinegar and most of a can of cider. This was then covered and popped in a medium oven for about an hour and a half. After allowing this to cool it was bagged up in two bags and slid into the freezer. It will reheat perfectly in the microwave tomorrow. (see pics below)

One small red cabbage!

Stirring before the oven

While we are on the subject of vegetables:
 The Brussels Sprouts will be blanched off first thing tomorrow and then refreshed under cold water. Just before serving they will be added to some cooked bacon lardons and the other packet of chestnuts. This glorious gang of three will then be rolled around a pan of hot butter until they are ready for the table.
Most celebrity chefs will tell you that you need to "en-robe" your carrots in an emulsion of cummin juice and larks tongue puree. Don't listen to these people, boil them and simply serve them with butte over them (ok, a little garlic salt as well, if you must) This is not the meal for which to produce glazed carrots - too much faffing.
There is a craze for honey glazed parsnips at the moment. I have never understood this. The humble, yet noble parsnip is wonderfully sweet already, just roast it near the meat to bring it to perfection.
Then there's the potatoes. Everyone has a quirk with their spuds. However, if you need flour to make yours crispy then you are trying too hard. Foe most of the UK, tomorrow will be chilly, this is perfect for roasties. Boil your peeled spuds for just 8 to 10 minutes, drain them and return them to the pan. Put this pan outside in the cold for 2 minutes (yes I am being serious) bring it back in and gently giggle the pan. The cold will mean that the outside of the spuds has dried very fast and the giggling roughs up the edges to catch the fat. Now pop these heroes of the roast into the fat near the beast and turn them once (and I mean only once) during their cooking  - quirky enough for you?
As I sit here in Corner Cottage, this little house is filled with the smell of a gammon which is now cooling from its boiling and preparing to be smeared with marmalade and roasted for just half an hour. This will provide cold cuts and nibbly bits for the next five or six days.
Just a final word, whatever you are doing tomorrow please take just a couple of minutes during the day to count your blessings. A couple of minutes thought, a little meditation or a small prayer of thanks (if praying's your thing) will help you remember that we are lucky to be able to feast on this day.
Have a wonderful, peaceful and calm Christmas among those you love and love you.

Fake away supper

The very clever people at Ginger Pig wrote a few blogs a while ago about making, at home, versions of the nations favourite take away meals. I was thus inspired to make tonight's supper from scratch.
I fist made some traditional English Muffins. Taking the sausage meat out of some skins I made neat little patties of meat to fry like a burger. Whilst these were finishing in the oven with some Vintage Cheddar oozing on top of them I fried eggs for the top. I know it is supposed to be a breakfast dish but it served to be a fine supper especially with crinkle cut chips. Now be honest, how long ago did you last have a crinkle cut chip?

Muffins proving, sausages ready to be skinned.

Muffins fresh from the oven

The finished article with onion rings for good measure

Stuffing time

If you haven't bought your chestnuts yet you might as well give up and focus on what you are going to cook for Easter instead.
Today is the day for making stuffing. There are few things more important than getting the stuffing right on the big day. From my perspective, there is little point in actually stuffing the bird of your choice, this does add great flavour but it can really mess up your timings as it will drastically alter the cooking time for the bird. Many people now opt for the stuffing ball approach, this is a trick used by caterers to make presenting a Christmas roast easy for large numbers. I have nothing against stuffing balls but I think we can do a bit better than that don't you?
There is a massive purchasing of sausage meat at this time of year in order to make stuffing. Don't buy any old sausage meat. If there is a particular sausage, made by a particular company or butcher that you like, then buy half a dozen of them and take them out of their skins. This way you will get exactly the flavour you want and no nasty surprises. Just for the record, I used Newitt's Oxfordshire sausage in mine.
So to making the stuffing: I made some breadcrumbs from a nutty, seedy loaf that was almost past its best. To this I added the sausage meat, a packet of chestnuts that I had finely chopped, some sage (from the garden) some egg whites (left over from making Chocolate Brownies for my Tutor group), salt, pepper (lots) and a small, very finely, chopped onion. This was all mixed with the hands to make a perfect sticky stuffing. I placed this in an old pie dish then finally, and this is quite important, I ran over the top with a fork to create little grooves in the surface. This then went in the freezer to be brought out on Christmas Eve to defrost. It will take about an hour to cook in the bottom of the oven (covered for about 40 minutes then open and studded with little bits of butter, nicely browned by the time it's till ready to serve.
The major joy of making stuffing in this way is that it means that it can be carved like a meatloaf on the day and, more importantly, on Boxing day as an extra cold cut.

Ready for the freezer

Preserving for Boxing Day

This weekend, I was left to my own devices as the Beautiful Wife was on a residential course. My usual default position under such circumstances is to by a vast quantity of mussels and cock them with shallots. garlic. white wine and cream. This Friday was no exception and they were quite delicious.
There are, however, much more important things that you need to do before Christmas. Primarily you need to do an audit of all your preserves. You may make your own chutneys, jams and such or you may have been given many jars that have found their way to the back of the cupboard. Now is the time to bring them into the light in preparation for the cold cuts that will inevitably grace your table from Boxing day onward.
My audit revealed several jars that I had forgotten about (much of my marmalade can now wear the tag "Vintage" with pride) several of these jars were chutneys and pickles.

The preserve audit.

It was noticeable that there was one glaring absence - The king of the condiments: Piccalilli.
Having sensed earlier that this may be the case I ordered a "kit" from the team at Abel and Cole. Along with my delivery on Friday there was a second box with all the ingredients necessary to produce this lurid wonder.
On Sunday and set to. The recipe that came with the box was simple and straightforward and all the ingredients were of the usual quality one would expect from such an organisation. In short, everything about this product was first class.
The style of piccalilli was quite rustic with whole cumin and coriander grated ginger and finely chopped garlic. This was coupled with turmeric and mustard to give the shocking colour. One of the aspects of pickling any veg (and this is something that a lot of commercial pickled onion makers get wrong) is that the veg themselves must be salted for a considerable length of time (obviously depending on size) in order to ensure that they maintain their crispness.
When finished. I was left with jars of wonderfully fragrant chutney which will keep for 6 months or more - not that it will last that long. Full marks to Abel and Cole for a great product.

Piccalilli for Boxing day

Don't make me ask about whether you have bought your chestnuts yet, you have been warned!