New Camera

I have a new camera (to replace the one I lost in the pub/taxi a month or so ago). It is very small and extremely pink and I am still getting used to it. So I apologise for the quality of photographs for the next while.

This was cheese burgers with beetroot salad (it is unAustralian to have burgers without beetroot) edamame salad and crispy mushrooms. Assembly rather than cooking.

Sunday Lunch

We had another big joint of meat in the freezer. A 2.5kg leg of "iron -age" pork that we would never be able to eat by ourselves.

Fortunately we have a pair of pork-eating friends to invite for lunch. I decided to try Nigella's method for a 24-hour Aromatic Shoulder of Pork - giving it 14 hours to accommodate the fact that the leg was much smaller than the shoulder called for in the recipe.

Divine. Absolutely gorgeous. The meat wasn't at all dried out and the crackling was just amazing. Next time the only thing I would do differently is dispense with the aromatic rub. After that long a cook it contributed nothing to the flavour. I served it cut in thick slices with roast butternut and microwaved baby corn and sugar snaps.

For dessert, I decided to go low-effort but impressive.

The day before, I bought a tub of good-quality white chocolate icecream, softened it slightly and pressed it into ramekins lined with clingfilm. I pushed a teaspoonful of seville orange marmalade (the last of the store-bought) into the heart of each one, taking advantage of the fact that slow-cooked sugars freeze weirdly and stay a bit plastic. Then I tucked them back into the freezer to wait... To sauce them I reduced a cup of blood orange juice by half, then added a dab of butter and a little cornflour, slaked with a touch more juice, and cooked it for a few minutes until it had thickened nicely. The hot sauce cooled very quickly in contact with the icecream, but the flavours were delicious. If I hadn't been cooking for teetotallers, I would have added some brandy or Cointreau to the sauce.

Spicy Nuts II

No sooner have I discovered that a meringue is the best way to stick the spices to nuts, than I discover another way...

I'm going to a dance festival, and it's being held in Glastonbury. And it looks as though there are going to be a lot of people there who eschew the flesh of our fellow creatures. So I was looking for a nutritious snack to take with me to give me lots of energy (I have a teensy suspicion I am going to be out of my depth in the workshops) that I would be able to share with others of a less omnivorous persuasion.

And I discovered that flaxseed can be used to make a pretty effective eggwhite substitute. Who would have thunk it?

Vegan Wasabi Nuts

2tbs flaxseed, ground quite finely in a mortar & pestle
2tbs cold water
1tbs caster sugar (one that isn't refined on animal bones!)
2-3 tbs wasabi paste
600g mixed nuts

Mix the ground flaxseed in the cold water and allow to sit for a couple of minutes. Strain the resultant gloop into a large bowl (I wasn't too precious about that bit - if I was using it in a cake I would be more careful), whisk in the sugar and wasabi paste and then mix through the nuts.

When they are all pretty well coated, tip them onto a silicon paper lined tray and bake at 130C for about 40 minutes. It took much longer to get them nicely roasted than it did with the eggwhite coating. When they have cooled they will be nicely crunchy and caramelised with a good kick. And perfect with a drink.

Venison Pasta

I recently made a pot of red deer osso bucco. It was brilliant, even if I do say so myself. I added some orange juice to the tomatoey liquid, and used orange zest in my gremolata and it was pretty darn perfect.

And there were 3 little cross sections of shin left when we'd both eaten as much as we could and more than is good for us.

So a couple of days later they reappeared as pasta. I fried some lardons of bacon, added the venison, stripped from the bones and chopped, then added a can of crushed tomatoes, the leftover jellied juices from the osso bucco, along with the marrow pushed out of the bones and brought it to a simmer. Finished with a lot of parsley (leftover from making the gremolata) and stirred through cavatappi, it tasted rich and delicious, but only took about 15 minutes to make. And I do love using the leftovers!

The Simple Things

Leftover bratwurst, par-baked baguette, sauerkraut, mustard and loads of cheese. Wrap it in foil and bake until the bread is crusty and the cheese is melty.

Eat immediately with a glass of good beer.

Sunday Dessert

So, when I was liaising with our friends about the leg of lamb we were taking over, they said "We haven't got anything for pudding". And I realised that I had some oranges in the fridge, there was sugar in the sugar jar, and I had some double cream in the freezer. So I made a classic Caramel Oranges. I tweaked it a bit by adding a little rosewater to the oranges and infusing the caramel with cinnamon.

It was just the thing after the roast meat.

Sunday Dinner

We tend to buy meat in bulk - we'll order half a lamb, cut into pieces, or a quarter pig, or a selection of slow-cooking cuts. The savings from buying in bulk mean that we can get really high quality, high-welfare meat, which we also prefer.

The problem with this scheme is that sometimes the cuts are too big for a couple to get through. And so it was that last Sunday we went over to visit friends, bearing a 2.4kg (5lb) leg of organic Devon lamb that we'd never be able to eat alone. A bit of salt, a bit of pepper and into a moderate oven for 3 hours. It threw off so much fat that we couldn't make gravy, but roast potatoes, asparagus, carrots & cauliflower cheese were all present. These friends eat early on a Sunday evening so that their small hurricane can eat with them, so we had the very great pleasure of sitting around a dining table having a really proper traditional Sunday roast dinner. It was lovely.