Slightly spice lamb stew

oil

2 onions,

2 tbs Turmeric

1 tbs Garam Masala

juice and grated rind of 2 lemons

3 good handfuls of soup mix

4 pieces of lamb neck / stewing lamb / scrag end etc

stock or water.

Marinate the lamb overnight in the turmeric and lemon juice.

Cook off the onions until translucent then add the Garam masala.

Add the lamb, turmeric and lemon then cover with stock / water.

Cook on a very low heat for 2 hours then add the soup mix. Stir well and return to heat. Check occasionally that the soup mix has not soaked up all the liquid. If it has just add more stock / water to the pan.

Continue to slow cook for around 5 hours and serve with roasted veg and a good thick slice of bread.

Electric fan oven  120  to 150 deg C for 5 hours.

( ideal time to put in some surplace tomatoes / peppers etc for drying out)

Cake

100g sugar
100g icing sugar
100g butter / marg
150g plain flour
2tbs baking powder
3 eggs
Zest of 1 orange and or lemon and or lime

50g extra icing sugar.

Mix the eggs, sugar, zest and icing sugar together. Sift into this mix the flour and baking powder and cook on at 18- deg c for 30 to 35 minutes.
leave to cool in the tin for 30 minutes then remove and cool completely.
Add the juice of the chosen citrus fruit to the extra icing sugar and mix to a consistency that you are happy with. Drizzle / spread this over the cake and leave to set.

Adapted from a Rachel Allen recipe.

Lemon sole and prawn dressing

Ingredients

2 Lemon sole fillets
100g prawns
30g butter
3 tbs flour
Salt and Pepper to taste.


Method
coat the fillets in the flour.
melt half the butter in an oven proof pan
place the fillets into the pan with the hot melted butter and fly for 2 minutes
Turn over the fish and dab on the fish the remaining butter and place in a hot oven 230deg C approx gas mark 7 for 5 minutes
Add the prawns and return to the oven for a further 2 minutes
Remove from the oven and enjoy with seasonal veg of your choice.

Chicken Stock

1 large free range, organic chicken if possible
2 large onions
3 large carrots
2 sticks of celery or 1 tsp of cellery seeds
Salt and pepper
2 bay leaves
A few sprigs of thyme
3 cloves of garlic, uncrushed and unpeeled
2lts of water

Method,
Roast your chicken and eat the meat. With the bones left put these in a large pan and add the rest of the ingredients but leave out the chicken skin as I think it makes the stock very fatty.
Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to a very low temperature and leave cooking for 2-3 hours.
Strain it all into a colander over a large bowl and leave it to cool Strain the liquid again in a fine sieve or through a piece of muslin cloth to remove all the bits. Leave this liquid to chill and then scoop off any fat that is on the top of the liquid. This will last about 3 days but I prefer to put it in small pots of about 500ml / 1 pint and freeze. If I have a small amount left over then I often reduce the liquid in a pan by at least ½ and then when cooled make stock ice cubes as these are good for adding a small but intense flavour to other dishes.

If you do your own jointing of a fresh chicken and thus only have the bones left you may wish to roast these in a very hot oven with some veg before putting then in the pan as above.

Chicken legs with mushroom sauce

2 large chicken legs with skin on.
400g of mushrooms
1 small onion very finely chopped
30g fridge cold butter cut into small 1/2cm cubes
30g flour
Salt and Pepper
30ml good oil.
100ml of good chicken stock
Method.

Fry your onions until translucent and then remove from pan and save.
Fry your chicken legs skin side down until golden brown and remove from pan but keep warm keeping the chicken fat in the pan.
Cut the mushrooms up into thin slices and gently fry in the chicken fat until browned.
Add the onions, stock and flour back to the mushrooms and gently heat through until all mixed.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Increase the heat and reduce the liquid in the pan by about a 1/3rd .
When reduced, turn the heat low and add the butter in small quantities whilst moving the pan gently to mix the butter into the liquid. This will help the sauce glaze and thicken. When all the butter is added, plate up immediately the chicken and pour over the sauce serving with lightly boiled potatoes and steamed seasonal veg and eat immediately.


Obviously if you are well down the self sufficient path you might like to use your own free range, organic chicken legs but equally your local butcher can supply them for you.
Likewise, the type of mushroom is up to you but I like the textures and different flavours of wild mushrooms picked fresh in the morning dew [ if you are up early enough ] me, the local shop has nice wild mushrooms but brown cap or the ubiquitous white mushroom are equally good.

Burgers and zingy dip

Bread buns
700g of minced steak
100g of Bread crumbs
2 medium red onions
Pinch of salt
Grate of pepper
1 medium egg preferable organic, free range or from your own chickens
Flour to coat burgers.

Zingy Dip
3 Tablespoons of Mayo
1 Tablespoon of Tomato ketchup
juice of half lemon
half red chilli (optional)
salt and pepper to taste.

Method:
Chop finely the onions and gently fry until they become soft on a few teaspoons of good oil. Drain and move to cool down.
Make the breadcrumbs by blitzing a few slices of stale bread in a food processor.
Mince the steak if you haven't got ready prepared mincemeat and add to a bowl along with the onions, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper and egg.
With clean hands mix all the ingredients together and form into small round burger shapes. Cover with cling film and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes to firm up.
Remove from fridge and cover in flour then fry in a pan with a light coating of oil for around 3-4 minutes per side depending on how rare you like your burgers.

Method for dip
Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix together.

To build your burger warm a bun of your choice and place on it one of your burgers. Add a dollop of your zingy mayo sauce then top off with a few rings of red onion. Serve with a side salad, jacket potato, chips or all three...... Lovely...

Roast Rabbit.

Ingredients.

Rabbit (quarted)

onions

butter

pastry

carrots

Barley

There is nowt wrong with quick browning a quartered rabbit with some butter, onions and a bit of garlic then bung it in an over proof dish with some mushrooms, chopped up carrots and soaked barley with a pastry crust. Bung this in the oven at around 200 deg c gas mark 7 for about 30 minutes.

Pork sausages.

My basic recipe which is below is the one I was given by my supplier weschenfelder although I make larger quantities in kilo's now where their recipe is in pounds. All it means is i have 2.2 times the quantity at every sausage making session.

5 kilos of lean Pork
2.5 kilo's Fat Pork (i.e. Belly Pork)
0.75 kilo's of Dried Pinhead Rusk
1.5 kilo's Water (cold or iced) I used iced.
0.25 kilo's Seasoning

Method
Cut the meat into cubes or thin strips and mince ensuring the Lean Pork and Belly Pork are well mixed. My butcher takes off the rind and cubes the meat for me at no extra cost and this is an amazing help.

Then add the seasonings & mix well. I scrunch the seasoning and meat together through clean hands.

Add the water gradually and mix thoroughly into the meat using clean hands. Finally add the rusk & again mix .

There is a lot of mixing but this does really help make a wonderful sausage, trust me.
At this point you can fill directly into the casings…..or alternatively put through the mincer a second time. This really mixes all the products together & produces a slightly thinner chop. Use a coarse plate (8mm or10mm ) if you want the texture to remain fairly coarse.