Its that time of the year as the nights draw in and the wild wind blows that you look forward to real warming food.
A few weeks ago we decided that we wanted to 'feed' the freezer and looked around for good deals on beef and lamb boxes. The local beef, 'Devon Red Ruby' is lovely and lots of farms now offer boxes. In the end though we decided to buy our freezer 'food' from our local butcher; Bob the Butcher in Bradworthy; he is great and I am sure he won't mind me publishing his name, we cannot speak highly enough of his produce and service; his chorizo sausages are - well hot! and his beef, lamb and pork are wonderful. His gammons are (I am afraid to say when we have done our own before) the best. We bought a lot of beef and half a lamb and now have quite a bit of pork on order as when we 'fed' the freezer we realised that we were out of pork and the pigs don't go to 'market' until December.
Now we have the freezer full of meat what to do with it? Well one of our all time, cold night favorites is a good lamb stew. M is the best at this and if you have good meat you really need nothing more than onions, spuds, a bay leaf, some water and salt and pepper. Definitely comfort food, sitting in front of the fire with some nice bread to dunk in the juices. I like pearl barley too in it.
M is also very good at beef stews and did a lovely one last week, again a one pot dish in a big bowl, yummy. Next week it will be steak and kiddley pudding and I mean pudding (not that I need any help in the pudding area but I think the weather calls for it).
Not only have we a lot of meat in the freezer but I planted a lot of beetroot and we still have bottles and bottles of pickled beetroot in the cupboard. I am hoping for a wine recipe but in the meantime and trying my hand (as we speak) at Borscht, it smells wonderful and the colour is just indescribable (when it is finished I might try to take a piccy to post on here). The other thing I might do with some of the beetroot is to make a cake, but if this soup is any good I might make quite a lot and freeze it. We both work from home so are always looking for something nice for lunch. We also have a big squash courtesy of our friends, and have to come up with a plan, will it be a curry or soup? Not sure yet, we are considering our options.
I do love this time of year for food, you can have lovely hearty warming dishes which admittedly do need love and long cooking but I think that is the fun of cooking, I struggle with those dishes that only takes minutes to make. There will be a stir fry from left over pork later in the week, which OK is quite a quick thing, but again is warming, especially if M puts some of his hot hot chillies in it. This weekend I think it has to be leg (or preferably) shoulder of lamb with the left overs going into a tasty shepherds pie. Oh, must stop thinking about food getting hungry now. Chilli tonight retrieved from the ever hungry freezer.
A few weeks ago we decided that we wanted to 'feed' the freezer and looked around for good deals on beef and lamb boxes. The local beef, 'Devon Red Ruby' is lovely and lots of farms now offer boxes. In the end though we decided to buy our freezer 'food' from our local butcher; Bob the Butcher in Bradworthy; he is great and I am sure he won't mind me publishing his name, we cannot speak highly enough of his produce and service; his chorizo sausages are - well hot! and his beef, lamb and pork are wonderful. His gammons are (I am afraid to say when we have done our own before) the best. We bought a lot of beef and half a lamb and now have quite a bit of pork on order as when we 'fed' the freezer we realised that we were out of pork and the pigs don't go to 'market' until December.
Now we have the freezer full of meat what to do with it? Well one of our all time, cold night favorites is a good lamb stew. M is the best at this and if you have good meat you really need nothing more than onions, spuds, a bay leaf, some water and salt and pepper. Definitely comfort food, sitting in front of the fire with some nice bread to dunk in the juices. I like pearl barley too in it.
M is also very good at beef stews and did a lovely one last week, again a one pot dish in a big bowl, yummy. Next week it will be steak and kiddley pudding and I mean pudding (not that I need any help in the pudding area but I think the weather calls for it).
Not only have we a lot of meat in the freezer but I planted a lot of beetroot and we still have bottles and bottles of pickled beetroot in the cupboard. I am hoping for a wine recipe but in the meantime and trying my hand (as we speak) at Borscht, it smells wonderful and the colour is just indescribable (when it is finished I might try to take a piccy to post on here). The other thing I might do with some of the beetroot is to make a cake, but if this soup is any good I might make quite a lot and freeze it. We both work from home so are always looking for something nice for lunch. We also have a big squash courtesy of our friends, and have to come up with a plan, will it be a curry or soup? Not sure yet, we are considering our options.
I do love this time of year for food, you can have lovely hearty warming dishes which admittedly do need love and long cooking but I think that is the fun of cooking, I struggle with those dishes that only takes minutes to make. There will be a stir fry from left over pork later in the week, which OK is quite a quick thing, but again is warming, especially if M puts some of his hot hot chillies in it. This weekend I think it has to be leg (or preferably) shoulder of lamb with the left overs going into a tasty shepherds pie. Oh, must stop thinking about food getting hungry now. Chilli tonight retrieved from the ever hungry freezer.
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