Shopping and cooking

2007-01-31T20:14:00.000Z

Wednesday
===========
Leftovers day. A small celeriac: sliced it thinly and fried it in butter and oil. Used too much butter, thinking it would be absorbed, but it wasn't; must try again with less oil. Tasty but not crispy.

Fried four Richard Auler streaky rashers (to produce bacon fat) and seven kiln-smoked dry-cured organic rashers. Delicious. Then heated leftover pesto mash in the bacon fat. Again, ration of fat to goods too high, though it all got absorbed.

2007-01-30T22:20:00.000Z

Tuesday
=========
Cold roast beef, salad, brown bread. Yum.
Monday
========
Something half way between an omelette (six eggs) and scrambled eggs, with fried smoked lardons (so called) and oven-dried tomatoes.

2007-01-28T17:13:00.000Z

Sunday
=======
"Pork tomorrow", said I, having misread the label.

I'd had a 6lb piece of meat in the freezer, and I took it out on Friday night to unfreeze. The butcher's label said "tender loin", shich I assumed to be pork, but as soon as I unwrapped it it was clear that it was beef. But never mind.

About 40 minutes at 230C, then down to 160C. Meanwhile steamed some peeled potatoes and some parsnips. When the interior of the meat got to about 58C, I removed it from that oven and shoved it into a resting oven at just over 50C. Then, having shaken the potatoes and parsnips, I put them into the bottom of the roasting tray (the beef had been on a rack) with extra dripping.

I put a cauliflower in the steamer. Wife made Bisto gravy for Small Son; I made onion gravy (taking the best part of an hour, but it was delicious) for everyone else: soften a sliced onion in butter, then shake in some flour; let that cook for a bit. Add some sloshes of cooking marsala; stir; leave it for a bit. Add a heaped teaspoon of mustard; leave it for a bit. Add (but by bit) about a quarter of a litre of onion stock (made from a Kallo cube). Near the end, stir in some grated parmesan (an idea I got from a website somewhere). Very good too.

The final veg was radicchio. I had picked up a head at Steve's stall, without really looking at it, thinking it was red cabbage. He pointed out that it was radicchio, and the idea of wilting came to mind. A website suggested marinading it a bit first. So I cut it into quarters, shoved it into lemon juice and some oil and garlic, and let it sit until everything else was almost ready. Then a few minutes over high heat, some time on each of the three sides of each quarter, and there it was, the bitterness gone and the flavour and texture delicious.

Whole dish went well except that the potatoes, though full of flavour, were not crisp.

Managed two glasses of fino before and two of Fleurie with the main course.

Wife had very kindly prepared a pear and raspberry crumble (using some of our garden produce), which was delicious with cream. After we had tidied up, we had some of the whiskey-flavoured coffee I'd been given free at the market (a new stall: they roast coffee and I'd bought some of their other blends).

2007-01-27T21:48:00.000Z

Saturday
=========
Small SOn being home for the weekend, and with a mate, our meat consumption has shot up: steaks yesterday, lamb today, pork tomorrow.

Today's lamb was a Guard of Honour, and it worked reasonably well. I saw it in the butcher's yesterday: it's two racks of lamb pointing towards each other, the ends of the chop bones trimmed of meat and interlaced, and stuffing in the gap between the racks. Mind you, I think the stuffing may be a bad idea. It's surrounded by bone, which doesn't transmit heat very well; the meat would have to be very well done (which is undesirable) before the stuffing reached the requisite temperature for killing off any nasties. Maybe I'll make my own stuffingless Guards in future ....

Anyway, stuffing apart, I think I got the rack about right: medium on average, a bit on the well side at the ends, a bit short in the middle, thus catering for everybody. That was just over half an hour at 230C and about the same at 160C, followed by about ten minutes' resting in a 50C oven.

With the lamb, I served

- mashed potato (milk and butter) for Small Son

- mashed potato (pesto and single-estate olive oil) for everyone else

- microwaved broccoli for Small Son

- sugar-snap peas, cooked in water and butter: slightly too much butter, I think, but it was OK

- leeks, sliced and sweated in butter

- a sort of Cumberland Sauce made with unmeasured quantities of redcurrant jelly, port and some of the zest of a clementine. Very good it was too.

Whole thing worked well and all components were ready on time, which is always a minor miracle.

2007-01-27T09:53:00.000Z

Friday
========
Small Son home. Went to butcher for one large and two small T-bone steaks. Also baked potatoes, microwaved broccoli, mushrooms fried in butter.

2007-01-25T21:28:00.000Z

Thursday
=========
Soup first: parsnip-and-fennel-and-apple-and-onion.

Then pasta: that stuff that's slightly wider and somewhat flatter than spaghetti. Heston Blumenthal recommends two litres of water for 200g of pasta (which is about right for two people) and TWENTY GRAMS OF SALT. I usually use no salt; I weighed out 20g and looked in horror as this mountain of salt formed. I put in a small amount.

Ragu from freezer, with Parmesan. Quite good.

Spoke to Jack McCarthy butcher today: possibility of venison and other goodies next week.

2007-01-24T20:06:00.000Z

Wednesday
==========
Not hungry myself, so boiled a potato and heated some shepherd's pie mix for wife.

2007-01-23T22:43:00.000Z

Tuesday
========
Intended as a quick meal: parsnip and fennel soup with toasted-cheese-on-toast.

2007-01-22T19:46:00.000Z

Monday
========
Had intended to make risotto but, it being cold, and finding bacon, eggs, mushrooms and soda bread to hand, reader, I fried them. Bacon included Richard's streaky and Glasthule butcher's dry cured kiln smoked.

2007-01-21T18:56:00.000Z

Sunday
=======
For lunch, a little soup to start, the last of the unfrozen leek-and-potato. Roasted the last four or five inches of the Christmas pig. Served with baked potatoes, leeks (melted slowly in the pan with butter) and stuffed mushrooms (stuffing being a couple of spoons of the crumbs I keep in the freezer, the mushroom stalks, a few gratings of cheese, some dried herbs and some melted butter to hold it together). Also wife's apple butter, which has been very useful: still lots left, but a spoonful enlivens many meals.

Vi's rhubarb cake afterwards.

2007-01-20T20:39:00.000Z

Saturday
==========
Away Thursday and Friday. To market on Saturday: a few veg, some rhubarb cake, carrot cake, a little cheese, some sun-dried tomatoes. Milk from supermarket.

A big salad on Saturday evening: bag of leaves, some watercress (not a success: too wilted), a few chard leaves from last week, six hard-boiled eggs, a few herbed croutons, a tin of anchovies, a few slices of Mizen chorizo, dressing. Delicious.

2007-01-17T19:49:00.000Z

Wednesday
===========
Soup: some of what made the xmas vichyssoise, but diluted with chicken stock and served warm. Crostini: wife's bread, toasted on the bottom; the top with butter, serano ham, spicy tomato stuff, a little grated cheese. Very good.

2007-01-16T22:13:00.000Z

Monday
=======
Using up leftovers: baked some potatoes and used oven to cook six Frank sausages and the last of the (home-)baked beans.

Tuesday
========
Cooked rice to go with a tub of the daube de boeuf from the freezer. Rather tasteless, with acidic liquid: added chilli sauce to mine to cheer it up. I think that's the last of it, thank goodness.

2007-01-14T22:04:00.000Z

Saturday
=========
Wife unwell so dashed to supermarket for shopping: chocolate bars, chocolate biscuits, potatoes. milk, steaks, dog food, toilet paper. Heated Irish stew (from freezer) for dinner.

Sunday
=======
To Killaloe market. Only four traders. Bought chard and celeriac from Jim, twelve large chocolate cookies from one woman (her last remaining stock) and cakes, biscuits, falafels and hummus from the American woman. The other chap was mostly non-food.

Lunch was walnut bread from freezer (defrosted and cut into thin slices) with Cheshire cheese, falafels, hummus and a chilli and basil dip from the Limerick market (Forbidden Foods): very refreshing.

Before dinner, two glasses of rum and lime-juice with ice: very addictive and refreshing. Dinner was a large baked potato each, a large T-bone steak each and a salad of chard and julienned celeriac: very good, but the dressing drowned out the beetrooty taste of the chard. I wanted some oranges in the salad, but didn't have any.

2007-01-12T21:08:00.000Z

Thursday
=========
I had four potatoes, a chunk of ham (less the thick slice that went into the beans) and a leek.

Boiled and baked the ham. Boiled the spuds (too few for the steamer). Simmered the leek (sliced) in milk, and used some of the milk to mash the spuds. Smeared apple cheese over the ham. Very good.

Friday
=======
Wife unwell. Sliced the last of the loaf thinly and toasted it. Sliced a chunk of Hederman's smoked wild salmon: new knives made it possible to do this thinly and neatly. Scrambled nine eggs. Ground some black pepper. Bliss. That salmon is really good.

2007-01-10T21:33:00.000Z

Wednesday
==========
Currently reading Heston Blumenthal's *In Search of Perfection*. I don't imagine I'll ever spend 31 hours (even of elapsed time) cooking a steak, but on the other hand I've been thinking about baked beans.

Method 1: buy tin. Open. Heat contents. Eat.

Method 2: get 500g dried haricot beans. Put them to soak on Saturday. Add more water on Sunday. On Tuesday, bring them to the boil (still in the same water), then simmer them for about 45 minutes. Meanwhile put the oven to 125C or so. Chop some bacon or ham or pork into bite-sized chunks and put it in a casserole. Add the beans and enough water to keep them covered (add more throughout the process). Stir in a couple of spoonfuls of mustard (whole-grain garlic and chilli was to hand) and two thirds of a pot of apple jelly. Leave the beans there for six or seven hours. On Wednesday, reheat in the oven for a couple of hours, stirring in half a bottle of passata or other tomato goo, but leaving the lid off to reduce the moisture. Serve with wife's sourdough bread, which can be dipped in the sauce; them as likes tabasco and suchlike could stir in some drops of that or of a chilli sauce they may happen to have bought at Carrick-on-Suir market. Delicious.

2007-01-09T20:27:00.000Z

Monday
=======
Made Welsh rarebit to use up stale bread and old cheese (some 18-month-old Dutch stuff and some Cheshire-with-the-mould-cut-out). Threw in two eggs and a jar of Teresa's spicy tomato stuff. Very nice, but I made too much: four slices each, where two each and a salad would have been better. No salad veg, alas.

Tuesday
========
Another unsuccessful day. Tried a sort of pilaf. Rice (with onion in it) went OK. The rest was leftovers and store-cupboard stuff: a bulb of fennel, some chicken, a few chopped apricots, some pistachios, the last of the hazelnut butter. It was edible, but not much more: not interesting in any way.

2007-01-07T22:57:00.000Z

Saturday
==========
Little available in the market, so it was just as well I didn't need much. Didn't feel well myself so, with wife going out to a hooley, I just fried a steak (nicely this time), baked potatoes and microwaved broccoli for Small Son; I didn't eat.

Sunday
========
Wife made two loaves today and one yesterday, starting from sourdough. Very good: another step towards self-sufficiency.

Roasted a chicken for lunch. Served it with a gravy of its own juices and butter, potatoes boiled then roasted in olive oil, crispy bacon, microwaved cauliflower, celery simmered and then tossed in hazelnut butter (very good).

2007-01-05T21:10:00.000Z

Friday
=======
Ate out in local pub.

Thursday
=========
Steak (fried from near-frozen) with baked potatoes and broccoli for Small Son; reheated lasagne for self and wife.

2007-01-04T10:59:00.000Z

Wednesday
===========
Drove Small Daughter to ferry in Dublin and had a breakfast roll on the way there and lunch in a pub (for a rest) on the way back, so wasn't hungry. Fed wife and Small Son on baked potatoes, boiled cauliflower and roasted streaky (Richard) and back (Tom & Sharyn) rashers, which they ate in front of the television: clearly standards have fallen.

Ate some Cheshire myself, froze some and gave some mouldy bits to the dogs.

2007-01-02T20:33:00.000Z

Monday
=======
Fried two pork chops for Small Son, served with some microwaved cauliflower.

Everyone had baked potatoes. Everyone except Small Son had baked pork chops (from Tom and Sharyn's pig), prepared after this fashion.

1. Softened a large sliced onion in oil; shoved it into the bottom of my roasting tin (rack removed).

2. Browned six pork chops in the pan; put them on top of the onion. Made a small amount of gravy with the pan juices, flour and a bottle of cider; added that.

3. Sliced half a pineapple (xmas leftovers), quateredd the slices and arranged them up the sides of the pan.

4. Poured in a bottle of "Governor's sauce", which Teresa had made when something went wrong .... It was a sort of green tomato ketchup, and provided the "sour" element.

5. Put foil over the top and baked it at 190C for 45 minutes, then removed the foil for a final 15 minutes. Checked the sauce at that stage and decided it needed a bit more "sweet" so added some honey.

Worked well.

Tuesday
========
Small Daughter's last day, so roasted a 5lb piece of Whelan's rib beef on the bone, and served it with mashed potatoes (plain steamed for Small Son) and the remains of the turnips (broccoli for Small Son).

The beef lost a lot of liquid on defrosting, but it wasn't too dry. I kept it pink inside: half an hour or so at 230C and an hour at 160C.

2006-12-31T23:24:00.000Z

Saturday and Sunday
====================
Didn't cook dinenr on either day!

On Saturday Small Daughter cooked a lasagna. I had defrosted a second tub of ragu for Thursday, but hadn't needed to use it, so I thought we'd have pasta of some sort again on Saturday. Then I remembered that SD had cooked lasagna in Wales, so we bought some and she did the rest. And very delicious it was too. Enough left over for a meal for two later in the week. Drank a bottle of Prosecco with it.

Didn't go to the market (many of my suppliers wouldn't have been there); bought a small amount of food in supermarket, as we have quite a lot in stock still. Plan for the next few weeks is to eat all the older frozen stuff --- and to run down the stocks of alcohol.

On Sunday we had to drive to Dublin for a tea-party, which meant we would be on the road both at lunchtime and at dinnertime. Accordingly, I cooked bacon, sausages and eggs for breakfast. There were Tom & Sharyn Shore's sausages and rashers: did the rashers (and later the eggs) in the big Aga frying-pan and the sausages in the smaller Aga that SD gave me for Xmas. Managed to cook them at a very low heat, giving a nice brown exterior: very good.

On both days I had some Cheshire cheese. What a pleasure it is to slice it horizontally. I ate it on both days with crackers, salted almonds, olives and raw onion --- and beer. Bliss.

2006-12-29T20:42:00.000Z

Friday
=======
The humble turnip (swede or rutabaga) is often despised, but Gerry Galvin has a very good recipe for it in *Everyday Gourmet*. It's simplicity itself. I adapted his method very slightly to sue up more cream ....

I chopped two cloves of garlic and an onion and put them in a saucepan with half a litre of cream, brought it to boiling point and then left it to infuse. Meanwhile, I took the skin off a turnip with a sharp knife, then quartered it and sliced it thinly. I oiled a heatproof dish and built up layers of the sliced turnip, then poured the cream over the top and shoved it in the oven at 200C for an hour and a half.

After half an hour, I put a tray of washed potatoes to bake in the oven.

I had taken a fillet of ham out of the freezer two days ago. This was one of the local butcher's, so a bit saltier than I like, but not bad. I simmered it in water and unlabelled cider for an hour, then de-fatted it and baked it for half an hour.

Because all of this meant lengthy preparation, I prepared a plate of nibbles: table water biscuits with the last of the foie gras, the last of the venison paté (two more patés still in the fridge), some caviar, thinly sliced cherry tomatoes, a chunk of pineapple and some vegetarian bean paté. That kept people quiet for a while.

Dessert was lemon cake or fruit salad.

Christmas Day was high tide in the amount of food in storage; the level is declining satisfactorily.

2006-12-28T19:41:00.000Z

Thursday
=========
Lunch: Cheshire cheese.

Dinner: cooked some pasta, and got the texture pretty well right. Provided son with some of Richard Auler's streaky rashers; salty, but dark and delicious, producing much bacon fat. (Later, I mixed the leftover pasta and sauce, with some pork fat from xmas, in the bacon fat: the dogs loved it.)

Some of my very dense ragu, from the freezer, for everyone else: I diluted it with a jar of Bunalun organic tomato puree. Very good.

Opened a bott of claret.

2006-12-28T10:09:00.000Z

Wednesday
==========
Wife and offspring went to Cork to buy soap and had a meal there, so no need to cook. Foie gras, cold roast pork, hazelnut butter, raw onion, crackers, bread, Cheshire cheese.

2006-12-26T20:30:00.000Z

Tuesday
========
Had accidentally removed four rather than two partridges from the freezer (four more in there) for yesterday's dinner, so Small Son offered to eat the other two today. I roasted them and also gave him baked potatoes and microwaved cauliflower.

I thought everyone else would benefit from something light, so I prepared a salad with one of the two bags of mixed leaves I'd ordered from Steve. I added small numbers of small pieces of cold pork, anchovies, pistachios, cucumber, tomato and melon. Frank's dressing.

As a starter, we had thin slices (on thin toast) of bloc de foie gras de canard avec morceaux, with small glasses of chilled Tokai.

More of the leftover desserts, and a slice of Cheshire.

2006-12-26T16:10:00.000Z

Monday Xmas day
=================
Yes. Well. A day for being silly in the kitchen.

Provided eight courses last year, so thought I'd go for nine this year, counting dessert as one (if you count each dessert separately, there'd be twelve courses, which would be silly). I don't do them all --- wife and daughter have their specialities --- and Small Son provided much help.

Small Son also cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast, which was very welcome, providing a sound absis for present-opening. At 1.00pm we went to visit a neighbour, then home at 2.30 to begin cooking. Started eating at around 5.30pm, finished around 7.30pm and had tidied up by about 8.00pm.

The first four courses could all be described as starters. I got some square plates, each of them divided into four square compartments, and served four of the starters on them, to save on washing up.

1. Amuse-bouche.

A tiny amount of scrambled eggs with white truffle oil, and some caviar, and a grape.

I had initially hoped to be able to have three types of eggs, but couldn't get quails' eggs anywhere. And the caviar was lumpfish, not sturgeon (not available). The grape was a last-minute addition to allow anyone who disliked the fishy taste to remove it. The black and yellow looked well on the plate and tasted particularly well when eaten together.

2. The soup.

Vichyssoise for most; warm leek and potato soup for Small Son (who didn't like it). Very good, is I say so myself. I just put some thyme leaves on top, no cream (there was cream in it) or yoghurt. Lots of undiluted soup left --- and lots of cream.

3. The fish course.

I knew I wanted smoked trout, but my initial idea was to serve it in wodges, warmed in the oven, with some raita. Then I decided to remove the bones, and found it hard to keep the wodges whole, especially when I tried getting the really small bones out. So I thought I'd pot it, and got out four small tubs. Then I decided instead to mix it with some raita (very small pieces of cucumber, yoghurt, nutmeg) and shove it in the small tubs as though for potting, but just to omit the addition of clarified butter. I shoved a slice of lemon on top and chilled it. Worked very well.

4. The sorbet.

This should really have been no 5, but that would have been awkward. Small Daughter's speciality, made this year from our own raspberries and blackberries we had picked, both frozen. Excellent.

5. The game.

Half a partridge each, roasted until quite crisp (but not burnt: I used some bacon to protect it). Very nice. Served with pieces of mandarin orange and with damson jelly.

6. The main course.

Most of a pork loin.

This was the course I was most disappointed with. I had ordered a foot of loin from an organic Saddleback/Duroc cross, I actually got 19", which was too big for the freezer, and chopped a bit off in advance; I had to chop more off to get it to fit in the oven. As I had done before, I scored the skin (after scraping it a bit), poured boiling water over it to open the cuts, rubbed salt into it and then rubbed olive oil and rosemary over the whole thing. I think this was where I went wrong: I shouldn't have oiled the rind (and didn't the last time), because the skin didn't form crackling (except for a small bit at one end).

The pork had a sizeable layer of fat under the skin, and took about 45 minutes longer than expected to cook: into the oven at 230C at 15:37, down to 160C at 16:21, at 61C in middle by 17:10, nearing 77C at 17:45, when I set it to rest in the second oven at 50C.

Still, it was tasty when done. Served with gravy (wife), hazelnut butter, apple cheese (wife), microwaved broccoli (for Small Son), baked onion with clove (too long in the oven: didn't do the onion any harm, but hard to clean the dish), celery braised in stock, celeriac steamed and then warmed through in the oven, potatoes steamed and then roasted in pork fat under the pork (my rack has lots of room).

7. The dessert.

Small Son likes mint-choc-chip ice-cream, so that was to hand in the freezer.

Wife likes to make a giant fruit salad, so she did that.

Daughter likes pavlova and I like trifle, so I get six (organic) egg yolks and she gets six whites. These are made a day ahead. Her pavlova is topped with fruit and sometimes with chocolate; my trifle used (alas) shop-bought sponge, some of our poached pears preserved from the summer, Lustau St Emilio sherry, whitecurrant jam, custard made with the six egg yolks, cream and sugar, cream and then some glacé fruits and angelica.

8. The cheese.

I had decided to simplify things this year by having just one cheese: my favourite, a mature Cheshire, posted to me by John Bourne, cheesemaker. Celery oiled and sprinkled with salt and pepper; a few crackers. Wonderful cheese, and I got 5kg of it, so there is quite a lot left.

9. The coffee and petits-fours.

In a small patisserie in Cork, we got some petits-fours made by a French chocolatier living in Lahinch, and very good they were too.

The wines.

Lustau Puerto Fino: excellent as always.

Puligny-Montrachet: most unusual taste: would have liked another bottle, but perhaps not at the price.

Tokai with the dessert.

Decided to skip the port, liqueurs etc.

Went to bed afterwards.

2006-12-26T15:21:00.000Z

Thursday to Sunday
===================
On Thursday collected Small Daughter from the ferry in Dublin and visited a friend who had kindly offered to feed us: smoked salmon and prawns, very good green curry, dessert of grapes in cream and brown sugar. He doesn't think much of organic food. Decided afterwards that knowing the grower or rearer or maker of about 75% of our food is important.

On Friday collected Small Son from Waterford. Cooked Richard Auler's burgers in the oven this time, but that didn't work either, perhaps because I was trying to cook too many and therefore needed several layers: again, they ended up shrunken and dry.

On Saturday back to Dublin to visit mother and meet sisters and their husbands. Dinner was stew.

On Sunday cooked burgers and sausages (three types of sausages: Jane Russell's, Frank's and Richard's). Did JR's and Frank's in the oven (with baked potatoes and tinned baked beans; microwaved romanesco broccoli for Small Son). Cooked Richard's burgers and sausages (for new readers: these are 100% meat) on the ridged grill at very high heat: this worked, giving a nicely charred outside without shrinking too much. The downside was that much of the kitchen became covered in grease, either from direct splashes or from the mist of grease that filled the air. I suspect that these burgers may be best cooked outdoors. One more approach to try (at least for the sausages): simmer gently first, then fry, which is the opposite of what Frank recommended for his.

Got some preparatory work done on food for the following day (xmas day).

2006-12-20T20:41:00.000Z

Wednesday
===========
Drove to Waterford yesterday, intending to eat on arrival, but fog delayed us so there wasn't time for more than fish and chips from a chip-shop.

Wife out this evening; cold pork pie from On the Pig's Back in Cork market, with relish.

2006-12-18T19:36:00.000Z

Monday
========
To friends on Sunday. Dog-walking, much fine beer, excellent food: a delicious tomato soup, very light and delicate; then pork loin stuffed with cognac-soaked prunes, steamed swiss chard, roasted parsnips, creamy mash, gravy; then an apple tart made with rice and potato pastry; finally, cheese, crackers, celery. And more beer.

Today ate slices of rectangular quiche from the Cork market.

2006-12-16T20:55:00.000Z

Saturday
=========
Went to Cork and bought some goodies in the market (lumpfish caviar, pork pie, pizza, various nuts, olives, a few veg, turkish delight, dried fruit, coffee, two goats' cheeses, smoked wild salmon) and in a chocolatier (petits fours). Lunch in the Farmgate Café, which is in the market and buys its ingredients therefrom. Wife had good chowder followed by liver and bacon; I had half a dozen oysters (rock/Pacific, not native, alas) to start, then decided that it really was time that I sampled a traditional Cork dish: tripe and onions with drisheen (a blood sausage that should, I understand, use sheep blood and be flavoured with tansy), served with good baked potatoes. I tried not to look at the cellular side of the tripe. Neither tripe nor drisheen was unpleasant, but both were soft and lacking in bite. There was a slightly medicinal flavour, but not much more than that. They were served in a pleasant white sauce with lots of onion. I'm glad to have tried them, but I wouldn't bother cooking them myself.

2006-12-15T20:18:00.000Z

Friday
=======
Cooked one of the "oysters", pieces of Tom & Sharyn Shore's pig (Saddleback/Duroc cross) cut by T J Crowe (butcher to all the best people around). I assumed it was cured, but I think it wasn't. I simmered it and then baked it like a bacon joint, which actually worked very well, though it was very (and deliciously) porky. Baked potatoes and a baked marrow to accompany. The marrow had been hanging around in the fridge for a long time, mostly because I couldn't think of anything that might make it taste interesting. I halved it longitudinally, scooped out the seeds, slathered it with Teresa's Spicy Tomato mix, shoved in some halved cherry tomatoes and topped it with thinly sliced cheese. Very good it was too.

English Market in Cork tomorrow ....

2006-12-14T19:13:00.000Z

Thursday
==========
A simple repast: ten (one packet) of Richard AUler's organic streaky rashers (cured with sea salt and organic cane sugar), seven (one packet) of O'Doherty's black bacon back rashers, four of Stella Coffey's organic eggs, two pieces of potato farl, left over from Small Son's visit at the weekend.

Fried the streaky first, producing lots of bacon fat, then the back, then the eggs (with lots of fat to shove over them), then the farls (to absorb some of it). Each batch cooked quickly, but I kept them warm n the oven anyway. I turned up the heat for the eggs, which was a mistake, as the fat blackened a bit, but I noticed before it got too bad.

2006-12-13T19:13:00.000Z

Wednesday
===========
Wife out on Tuesday night, so finished the toad (cold).

On Wednesday went to Country Choice in Nenagh and bought a few things, including some white truffle oil. Met Tom & Sharyn Shore and bought my loin of pork: it turned out to be 19.5" long rather than 12", so I had to cut it when I got it home, so that it would fit in the freezer, and may have to cut it again to get it into the oven.

Also bought a bone, some pig skin, two oysters, a 5lb pork roast ....

This evening made a salad: bag of Steve's mixed leaves, some quartered cherry tomatoes, streaky bacon (left over from the weekend) snipped into tiny pieces, dressing. Delicious, with heated focaccia.

2006-12-11T20:45:00.000Z

Monday
=======
Made toad in the hole with 10 large Hicks orange and fennel sausages, a tin of organic baked beans (15 months past their best-before date) and a jar of confit of onion. Onion worked well; beans a bit dry; generally good. Had the sausages more or less fully cooked (in the oven) before adding the batter; used the heavy metal roasting tray.

My Christmas pork is ready for collection, along with some pig-skin.

2006-12-10T19:43:00.000Z

Sunday
=======
I've been dissatisfied with my cooking of corned beef for some time: it has been turning out hard and chewy. I had a piece of just over 3lb in the freezer, from James Whelan in Clonmel, and I decided to get it right this time.

So I consulted books, and I found recommended cooking times ranging from 1hr 20mins to 4hrs. As I've usually been at the lower end of that scale, I decided to go for the higher end this time, and to simmer the beef for 3hrs.

Having soaked it overnight, I brought it to the boil on the wok ring, which is very powerful, then put it on a diffuser on the simmering ring, which is as low as I can get the heat. It still bubbled a little, but there wasn't much else I could do.

After an hour of simmering, I added some pieces of carrot, onion, celeriac and turnip (swede to Britons) and a few herbs, and left it for another two hours.

I baked five large potatoes and roasted the rest of the carrot, onion, celeriac and turnip in some olive oil, then microwaved some caulifloiwer for small son. While all of this was going on, I cleaned the fridge and sorted out the freezers, in preparation for Christmas: it enabled me to check what we're short of (steaks, small cuts of meat, chicken stock) and what we have lots of (bread, rashers, sausages).

The beef turned out very well, soft and nicely flavoured. The veg were good too. Kelly's chocolate log afterwards, with coffee, and I left the liquor to simmer to make a stock.

2006-12-09T20:53:00.000Z

Saturday
==========
Bought little at the market today: potatoes, salad leaves, celeriac, carrot, mushrooms, broccoli, cauliflower, herbs; some breads; almond croissants; stilton; Mizen chorizo, some pork rillette. Some absences next week.

Steamed some spuds this evening: nice and floury, the last of Jim's from the Killaloe market. Microwaved broccoli for Small Son. Fried streaky rashers, then fried mushrooms in the bacon fat, then fried back rashers (both Richard Auler's: saltier than we usually get, but very good). Keeping some rashers for a salad during the week. What a wonderful thing is a good rasher: much flavour in a small space, and producing fat for frying other things too.

Didn't buy any Leffe today, so I'm suffering from lack of beer. There are four cases of it, but they're for Christmas, and some Hoegaarden, but that's for Small Daughter, and some bottles that are 10% ABV, which is rather more than I want just yet. Currently polishing off the last two Chimays (red, 7%).

2006-12-08T21:00:00.000Z

Friday
=======
Small Son home. Fillet steaks, baked potatoes, fried onions, broccoli.

2006-12-07T20:20:00.000Z

Thursday
=========
Roasted a piece of white pudding and some of Richard Auler's organic pork sausages with garlic. Fried leftover boiled potatoes; heated some beans in the pan afterwards. All very nice. Mixed leftover pudding with sausage fat and leftover risotto to feed the dogs, who liked it. Defrosting fillet steaks for Small Son's arrival tomorrow.

2006-12-06T20:48:00.000Z

Wednesday
===========
Stew from freezer; baked potatoes.

2006-12-05T20:27:00.000Z

Tuesday
=========
Made a not-very-good risotto this evening. Rice took ages to cook; I ran out of stock and had to add water, which reduced the flavourfullness even further (it was to be a lemon and mint risotto, but became lemon and mont and thyme). I had used the last of the arborio in the glass jar; perhaps it was very old ....

2006-12-04T21:14:00.000Z

Monday
=======
Wife went to Cuba with Daughter for a fortnight, so being alone I did little cooking. Visited Killaloe market on a day when few sellers were present: bought bread, veg, cheese and some pickle/spread things. Went to Tara's Beerhouse and had two nice bottles of beer; bought some good stuff to take home, including some Porterhouse Celebration Stout (10%), which I haven't opened yet. Ate mostly bread and cold stuff.

The following Friday, went to the market in Carrick-on-Suir to load up on Richard Auler's hamburgers, plain and garlicky, which are made with all the meat (fillet etc included). Also all-pork sausages, dry-cured rashers (saltier than most others), eggs. All organic. Also bought some cola, chili sauce, bread and cakes from another stall. Freezer is quite full; must use stuff to make space. Four cases of beer for Christmas arrived today; must get some wine and check on spirits, cola etc.

Yesterday, went to Killaloe again, on a very windy day: few stalls and few customers, so bought more bread and nibbles than I otherwise might have done. For dinner, roasted the last two ribs of the nice piece of beef I'd got some time ago. Did it on the rack with space for potatoes, onions and parsnips underneath. Apple crumble (market) to follow.

This evening a bacon and egg salad. Washed a bag of mixed salad leaves. Boiled six organic eggs; peeled and chopped them and shoved them in. Squeezed in half a lemon (no point in adding oil to something that would shortly get quite a lot of fat). Fried a packet of Richard's streaky rashers, which produced much fat. Cut half of the rashers into small strips and added them. Had cut a loaf into cubes and mixed with some herbs; fried them in the bacon fat and added some to the salad. Tasted nice and fresh although, if you looked at it the other way around, it was actually bacon and eggs and fried bread with some greenery.

2006-11-17T23:38:00.000Z

Friday
=======
Microwaved yesterday's leftovers. Wife now away for a fortnight.

2006-11-16T20:39:00.000Z

Thursday
=========
Let's see .... About an hour and three quarters to prepare this evening's meal. A 2lb piece of dry-cured kiln-smoked organic had been soaking in water for a couple of days; I simmered it for about 50 minutes, then removed the fat and put it into a 220C oven for twenty minutes. The first piece I tried was rather chewy, but after that it was delicious, and with a good firm texture (not flabby or watery), though not hard.

I steamed quite a few British Queen potatoes: they're deliciously floury and I was afraid that, if I peeled them first, they'd fall apart, even when steamed. That meant I had to peel the hot potatoes afterwards, but it was less of a hassle than usual. I put them in a lage mixing bowl and put it in the second oven to keep warm, along with the plates.

I sweated three leeks in butter, then added milk: not as much as I'd have liked, as I had forgotten I would need it and had drunk a glass earlier in the day.

I fried shredded cabbage in a mixture of hazelnut oil and butter (neither of which added much flavour, alas).
I added the greens to the potatoes and mashed and mixed the lot to a form of colcannon. I melted butter on top of it, but it needed more milk. Still, not too bad.

2006-11-15T19:27:00.000Z

Wednesday
===========
Shortened cooking time, as wife had to go back to work, so postponed the bacon and cabbage to Thursday (and the lemon and mint risotto yet further). Ate remains of pies, Frank's salami, bread and the last of the apple and blackberry cake.

2006-11-15T10:02:00.000Z

Newsflash
==========
The replacement handle I ordered for the large cast aluminium Aga "frypan" (as they call it) has arrived! It cost about STG6, with delivery STG5 ... plus being woken up twice by the courier, once by ringing to see where we were (I was too late to answer the phone) and then by arriving with the thing before 9.00am. Never mind: the poor chap was getting soaked too.

Anyway, these Aga pans are wonderful, and when our other pans wear out I think I'll get smaller Agas to replace them. The handles are removable, so that you can put the pans in the oven (which I've done only once) but the catches are weak and that on the first handle failed in two ways.

The secret of buying a replacement Aga frypan handle is not to look on the website: if they're there, they're very well hidden. Ring 'em up instead. Very efficient.

2006-11-14T19:46:00.000Z

Tuesday
========
Wife expected home late; self working. Both had expected to be going to a concert, so I'd bought some of Fintan's small quiches for this evening, so that's what we ate.

2006-11-13T20:30:00.000Z

Monday
======
Pasta with herbs and crumbs. The pasta itself was peculiarly tasteless. I spent some time making rather a lot of crumbs: my new Wenger serrated knife was useful for removing crusts from very stale bread; the food processor did a reasonable job of zapping them; then into the oven for a while. I had lots of crumbs, so more are drying out as we speak.

Lots of oil in the pan, a thinly sliced clove of garlic, and a lot of chopped parsley. Then added the crumbs, which absorbed all the oil. I burnt some of the crumbs, alas, but overall I thought the sauce worked well, and I'll do it again,

More of Kelly-and-Vi's apple and blackberry sponge-cake to follow.

2006-11-12T18:46:00.000Z

Sunday
========
A simple repast. Steamed British Queens (floury potatoes). Steamed beetroots (six small ones). Fried some of O'Doherty's nitrite-free (or is it nitrate-free? They seem to be of two minds at ) rashers. When the rashers were done, added a little butter to the pan, then wilted the stem ends of two bunches of scallions in it. Sliced the beets longitudinally and added them to the pan for a few minutes. Delicious, the whole lot.

Some of Kelly-and-Vi's apple and blackberry sponge-cake to follow.

2006-11-11T21:12:00.000Z

Saturday
=========
To market. Didn't buy much: a few veg, some bread and cakes, some quiches, three of Olivier's pates, some Teresa goodies. Lunch was bread, Olivier's mackerel-with-sundried-tomatoes paté (delicious), his cream cheese with lots of wild garlic and his chicken with lemon and coriander paté. Coffee with Fintan's almond croissants to follow. Dinner was T-bone steaks with mushrooms (I lost my bag of salad leaves somehow) and more bread. Both breads were Fintan's, and jolly good too; Kelly-and-Vi's breads for tomorrow and later in the week (they freeze more easily).

2006-11-10T20:23:00.000Z

Friday
=======
Irish stew from the freezer.

2006-11-09T19:46:00.000Z

Thursday
==========
Cooking all ahoo this week .... Froze the rest (a small amount) of the ham. Wife due home late; ate bread, oatmeal crackers and Cheddar and Durrus cheeses, with apple cheese and tomato relish.

2006-11-09T11:20:00.000Z

Tuesday and Wednesday
=======================
On Tuesday heated a tub of cabbage-and-bean soup from the freezer: not very nice, having been made with leftovers rather than planned. An unpleasant purple colour too. With it, some Welsh rarebit, which was OK, but I did it int he sandwich-maker and it dripped over the edges. And the crust stuck to the inside of the lid, but came off easily.

On Wednesday both late home. Cut a couple of slices off the ham and fried them with some sliced organic chestnut mushrooms; then set them aside and fried five organic eggs; then a few slices of McCambridges brown bread to soak up the excess butter (and because it's delicious).

2006-11-06T20:42:00.000Z

Friday to Monday
================
This blasted software lost a lengthy post on Friday, so I got fed up ....
Had to go to Dublin for work meetings on Friday, but timed them to allow me to collect Small Daughter and her mate from the ferry at 5.00pm — and to leave time for a few visits to food shops.
Started in Mitchells wine merchants (who delivered a case of mixed white wine to me last week). Bought a full bottle of very dry Lustau sherry, a bott of Fonseca white port and a bott of Green Spot whiskey.
Then to Cavistons: two packets of crackers (the celery-seed crackers were delicious), a bottle of Fentimans cola, a bottle of elderflower cordial, two packs of O'Doherty's (of Enniskillen) black pudding and two of white, several packs of their black (nitrite-free) rashers, a chunk of their organic pig reared on Inishcorkish, the Lough Erne island O'Doherty's bought from the Reihills who used to run a restaurant there. Eight oven-ready partridges. A chunk of wild venison haunch. A large piece of cheddar, a log of St Tola and a medium piece of Blue Vinny. Some sliced smoked wild salmon.
Across the road to the organic butcher. Half a dozen wild-boar-and-garlic sausages. Some kiln-smoked dry-cure rashers and a small piece of ham done the same way. Thirteen small lamb chops (what there was on the tray). And a large piece (5kg) of dry-cured ham.
Drove to Dalkey to get a sandwich for lunch. In O'Briens, a bott of Noilly Prat and twenty-four bottles of beer: six Hoegaarden, five Maisel's Weisse, two Duvel, five Chimay and six Affligem (which I hadn't had before and which is good).
Found I had parked outside Hicks so bought two dozen each of their large fennel-and-orange and cajun sausages. Rang Small Son to ask him to turn the freezers to high.
Collected daughter and mate. Drove home, arriving at 8.30pm. Ate stew (from freezer) and baked potatoes, then cheese (the three above plus Durrus and Mossfield), then the Nenagh ice-creams.
Saturday
========
To market, mostly for veg: salad leaves, onions, mushrooms, cauliflower, broccoli, a seasonal veg (which turned out to be beetroot) and some leeks. Breads bought hither and yon: Kelly & Vi away and Gillian still not back. Some Fintan tarts and a bottle of Teresa's Governor's Sauce. a dozen eggs.
For lunch, cooked the wild boar sausages (plus four ordinary ones for Small Son), rashers and eggs: Small Son dislikes runny yolks, so I turned his over.
For dinner, salmon to start. Then the lamb chops with gravy (had to add redcurrant jelly to disguise the burnt taste, which in turn was caused by (a) a lack of skill and (b) my having put tarragon and thyme leaves on the chops, with lemon juice), steamed spuds, broccoli and tomatoes, which were fried in butter. Tarts and ice-cream.
Sunday
========
Small Daughter had wanted black pudding pizza; to buy her off (it didn't really fit the plan) I cooked one packet each of the O'Doherty's black and white pudding, remembering to remove the skin, which I suspect to be plastic, as well as some eggs.
I had soaked the 5kg ham overnight in our largest saucepan; I drained it, replaced the water and started cooking it at 9.00am. It reached boiling point at 9.30 and I left it to simmer, following the Leith directions of 25min per pound for joints over 8lb (this was about 10lb). NB this is not roasting, so weight rather than diameter seems to matter, and the timings certainly worked well. I left it for just over four hours, then removed the skin and baked it at 220C for just over half an hour, with fifteen minutes to rest in a warm oven. Baked potatoes, cauliflower, celeriac simmered with chili and garlic mustard, celery sweated in butter, hazelnut butter, apple cheese (our first taste: it was delicious). Got through about half the ham. Then the remainder of the tarts and ice-cream.
Monday
=========
Salad leaves, with some left-over herbs; toasted roll; ham; apple cheese. Very tasty.

2006-11-04T20:47:00.000Z

test 2

2006-11-02T20:33:00.000Z

Thursday
=========
Fried some low-salt rashers for Small Son; served with steamed floury potatoes.

For self and wife, Welsh rarebit made with leftover bread, two leftover cheeses, two eggs, two teaspoons of whiskey mustard and half a pot of onion confit, which added delicious moistness as well as flavour.

2006-11-01T21:42:00.000Z

Wednesday
===========
Small Son home. He said he wouldn't need feeding, but just in case I boiled-then-baked a piece of bacon, with baked baby potatoes and boiked baby carrots: very fresh and delicious. Now testing Skull Splitter, 8.5% ABV Orcadian beer. Same strength as some of the Belgians, but distinctive taste.

2006-10-31T20:40:00.000Z

Tuesday
=========
Replanned the week's menus ....

I had bought six herby sausages from Sharyn Shore in Nenagh, and decided to use them tonight. I softened a red onion and a fennel bulb in oil, which took about half an hour.

Then I put the sausages to fry very gently over the diffuser, at a very low temperature, and set lots of water to boil.

To the softened onions, I added a large pinch of Italian herb mix, half a jar of organic tomato puree and a slosh of Madeira. Mixed it well and let it cook over a low heat. Then added about 250g of pasta to the boiling water (too much, but I was using up the end of a packet); that took ten minutes or so.

I broke up the now-cooked sausages and mixed them in with the sauce: it made quite a good mix. I'm not usually good at sauces of this kind, so I'm glad this one worked out well.

The apple crumble is almost gone; the tiramisu-flavour ice-cream is entirely gone.

2006-10-30T20:00:00.000Z

Monday
=======
Oat cuisine.

Softened two sliced leeks in butter. Gradually added 10oz rolled oats (as in porridge) and about a litre of chicken stock, stirring. And some herbs. Got a thick and tasty porridge. Would have been interesting to see what would happen if I kept on adding liquid: the mix could have been thinner. The chicken stock (which had partially jellied) was very flavoursome.

2006-10-29T22:07:00.000Z

Sunday
==========
Minestrone from the freezer. Taste is good but texture suffered from freezing and colour from too much red cabbage.

Wife made juice from remaining apples and pears: tasted very good.

Doris's apple crumble, made with oatmeal, is very good; the icing stuff on top rather detracts from it.

As a starter, had a half-bottle of amontillado, some garlic croutons and shavings of the last of the air-dried beef, crisped briefly in the sandwich-maker. Very good too.

2006-10-28T22:08:00.000+01:00

Test

2006-10-28T19:24:00.000+01:00

Saturday
==========
To Nenagh market today. Sharyn Stone had some of a pig, but not a lot; bought two bacon pieces and four packs of herbed sausages. Some cheese and ice-creams from Boulabane; some veg (no broccoli or cauliflower, though) from the single veg stall; no bread; a cake. In Country Choice, got some wine, nuts, single-estate olive oil for special occasions, cheese, Cuban coffee, garlic croutons (which I really should make myself).

Steamed floury potatoes; steamed broccoli for Small Son; baked beans for self and wife; fried dry-cured rashers for son, sausages for self and wife. Four sausages left over for later use: they'll go with some leeks in the porridge.

I've decided, you see, that risotto is essentially a sort of porridge, only with rice, and that the same technique should work, only faster, with oats. There are recipes for oat-based soups, and I've made some of them (brotachán foltchep comes to mind), but a thicker soup is essentially a risotto. I have leeks and some bits of sausage for flavouring. And if nothing else, it should fend off constipation for months.

This oats-based cooking will, of course, be called Oat Cuisine.

2006-10-27T20:27:00.000+01:00

Friday
=========
Small Son home. Striploin steaks, fried mushrooms, steamed broccoli, steamed floury potatoes.

2006-10-27T20:24:00.000+01:00

Friday
==========
Son home. Steamed spuds and broccoli, fried mushrooms, striploin steaks.

2006-10-27T06:29:00.000+01:00

Thursday
==========
Wife out. Ate bread and butter, cold chicken with salt, red onion in balsamic dressing, red pepper hummus, apples.

2006-10-26T01:39:00.000+01:00

Wednesday
=============
Out to dinner, in what is probably the best of our local restaurants, the Cherry Tree in Killaloe.

Poor choice of sherries: Tio Pepe was the best available. Amuse thingie of leek and potato soup with a bacon froth: however they do it, delicious it was. Breads: wholegrain, pesto and salt. Butter fairly ordinary.

I had a crab starter: four different preparations, but all crabby. A lot of work for the cooks, but worth it for the guests. Sorbets: mango. Then a chunk of venison, medium rare as requested, with venison sausage, delicious champ, organic broccoli with hollandaise and almonds: all excellent. Cheeseboard: three cheeses in good condition; quince cheese; celery anointed with olive oil, salt and pepper (an idea I intend to steal); a sorbet of Granny Smith apple; organic oatmeal crackers (Nairns?). Coffee, truffles, a Cointreau with crushed ice for me. A bott of Gigondas and a half bottle of Sancerre between
four (two drivers drinking little).

Then to the pub: double chocolate stout, Goose Island, Duvel.

And so to bed.

2006-10-24T19:19:00.000+01:00

Tuesday
========
Drove to Dublin and back. Self and wife ate Fintan's mini-quiches (ham and egg, salmon and egg) with tomatoes.

2006-10-23T21:52:00.000+01:00

Monday
========
Wife out to dinner with a mate. So I had

- half a large white onion, sliced thinly and soaked in olive oil

- two tomatoes, sliced and mixed with chopped celery leaves, olive oil, salt and pepper

- some sundried tomatoes

- some shaved pecorino

- knobbly bread

- bresaola. I sliced it fairly thinly by my standards, but I need more practice. It was delicious anyway

- a half bottle of Porto Fino.

Afterwards I had some blue cheese and then a rhubarb crumble tart.

Yum.

2006-10-22T22:16:00.000+01:00

Sunday
==========
Wife away. Ate two mini-quiches, bread with red-pepper hummus, a vegetable samosa and a pear tart.

2006-10-21T21:10:00.000+01:00

Saturday
==========
To market. Steve said it was probably the last week of the British Queens and, as I like floury spuds, I bought four bags. Also salad leaves, broccoli, mushrooms, lots of red and white onions, celery, tomatoes and eggs. All Irish and organic.

Bought two cinnamon-and-walnut sticks from Kelly & Vi, as well as two loaves, two samosas and two quiches. From the recently-arrived person, a pepper hummus and a bean dip. Onion confit, crab-apple jelly and Sicilian mix herbs from Teresa's husband (Teresa being in Manchester for the weekend); his wrist is unbroken.

As we'll be in and out at different times next week, I got six (plus a freebie) pies and ditto pastries from Fintan, plus a knobbly loaf. And a chunk of salami and a large piece of Frank's new Bresaola ; I must admit that to some extent this was to give me something to do with my new knives. Then three pieces of cheese and some sundried tomatoes from Marie and, except for a chicken from the butcher, that was it.

Roasted the chicken, with a lemon inside it, for dinner, served with thinly-sliced cinnamon-and-walnut loaves and the salad leaves tossed in Frank's dressing. Delicious, and we (well, 80% me, actually) polished off a bottle of Prosecco as well.

The Indie has volume 3 of its cookery supplement today, covering meat and game and produced by the Leith school. It says that meat on the bone cooks faster because bones are good conductors of heat; have they ever put a thermometer against a bone on a roasted joint? And it gives cooking times related to weight, while admitting that a long, thin joint will cook faster than a round one. Is there no hope? Will this nonsense continue to be retailed for ever?

2006-10-20T21:50:00.000+01:00

Friday
==========
I see that Spaniards fry their potatoes. They tip the potatoes and so forth into the beaten egg, before putting it back in the pan; doesn't that cook some of the egg prematurely? And they turn the whole thing over in the pan (difficult with my large pan) where I put mine in the oven to cook the top. I think I'll stick to my method on the last two, but fry the potatoes next time.

Wife has made much apple cheese: delicious smell throughout the house all day. Some of it will be used on Christmas Day (for which I've ordered some pork).

Ate cold omelette, crackers and cheese and unfrozen Irish Stew today. Drinking dry sherry.

2006-10-19T20:19:00.000+01:00

Thursday
==========
Finished the hard goat's cheese for lunch, with some of Kelly & Vi's cheese-and-onion bread, taken from the freezer. Still have the soft and the Cheddar. Must see about getting some Cheshire for Xmas.

Wife made more smoothies (the raspberries are holding out) and is making apple cheese.

Hadn't planned dinner. With some potatoes, an onion, half a cauliflower and six eggs, decided to make a Spanish-type omelette. Steamed the potatoes and cauliflower; softened an onion in olive oil, then added some curry powder and some fenugreek. When the onion was ready, transferred it to the large pan and added a bunch of scallions, chopped small, twelve thin slices of chorizo cut into sixths, a miniature chili, deseeded and chopped, and some more oil. When the potatoes and cauliflower were done, tossed them in the mix and heated the lot through, then beat six eggs and poured them over the mix. Let it harden on the bottom and then put the pan (sans handle) in the oven to cook the top. Good, but cauliflower still watery.

No idea what a real Spanish omelette is like.

2006-10-18T21:38:00.000+01:00

Wednesday
=============
More goat's cheese for lunch. The soft cheese is White Lake, and highly delicious. The hard one is very good too, but I don't know what it's called or whether it's from the same manufacturer.

I had been seeking Wenger slicing knives for some time. Two of them --- one serrated, the other not, both with 30cm blades --- arrived today. Running my finger and thumb down the sides of one, near the edge, was sufficient to cut my skin; I was able to cut bread into slices about 2mm thick. Joy!

Wife's breadmaking is likely to end soon, as she is taking a new job.

More lamb chops for dinner, this time with steamed potatoes and carrots. I had taken two unlabelled bags from the freezer, which is why we've had lamb two days in a row. After frying the chops, I swirled some butter around the pan, poured in some madeira and, after a while, stirred in some mandarin orange marmalade. Very nice it was too. Parsley over the carrots.

2006-10-17T20:14:00.000+01:00

Tuesday
========
Now, where were we? I was away from MOnday to Thursday last week. Back Thursday night; ate some ragu on wife's new-baked bread. Dinner at my mother's on Friday, then flew with son to Bristol on Saturday morning. Several good beers and one excellent one (Bath Ales); many goodies in the market, whereof I bought only small quantities. Pie Minister pies wonderful, but I left most room in my luggage for cheeses. Two goat's cheeses, one hard and one soft, from a stall, then round to Gert Lush's, where I bought 600g of Montgomery Cheddar, some North Wiltshire Loaf and some Stinking Bishop, which Gert very kindly wrapped in many layers so that the smell would not escape on the plane (we had only cabin luggage). Dinner in Wetherspoons, breakfast at a crepe stall, Sunday lunch in (very good). Home to a meal of market breads, salad leaves, hardboiled eggs and cheeses.

Monday: finished the Stinking Bishop for lunch (don't want it hanging around too long. Reminded me of a meaty mushroom in some respects). Found my kabanossi, set to dry, have developed mould, unlike the last lot. Dry-cured streaky bacon, eggs and bread for dinner.

Tuesday: had some of the goat cheeses for lunch, with turnip and pear soup (diluted) from the freezer and more of wife's bread. For dinner, fried two organic lamb chops, served with boiled British Queen floury potatoes and microwaved sweated leeks. And elderberry jelly.

Was sent a free case of Samual Adams beer; trying it tonight.

2006-10-08T20:47:00.000+01:00

Sunday
=======
Last posting for a while; will be away for the next week.

Roasted a chicken for lunch. Rubbed all over with butter, producing nice sauce. Steamed British Queen potatoes and ditto carrots; fennel sliced and baked in olive oil and the juice of a lemon (very tasty, but perhaps half a lemon would have done). A brownie from Kelly & Vi and a slice of wife's excellent gingerbread to follow.

Made some more hazelnut butter, to be frozen in small cubes.

2006-10-07T20:10:00.000+01:00

Saturday
=========
To market this morning but, because I'll be away for most of next week, didn't buy much apart from some stocks (four packets of Frank's kabanossi-like sausages, five jars of Teresa's spicy tomato). Went to the Wild Onion for lunch, where son essayed an omelette for the first time ever.

Wife and self invited out this evening, so just fried two pork chops for son, with microwaved cauliflower and boiled floury potatoes.

2006-10-06T21:14:00.000+01:00

Friday
========
Wife made the gingerbread yesterday and we were allowed to have some today: mighty stuff. I must get some cheese to go with it.

Son home for the weekend, so steaks this evening. Some boiled organic British Queen potatoes (which are delicious), carrots for wife, broccoli for son, onion gravy with red wine for me, and four of James Whelan's dry-aged Angus 8oz striploin steaks (one for wife, one and one third for me, one and two thirds for son). Scraps for dogs.

2006-10-05T20:08:00.000+01:00

Thursday
=========
Decided to diverge from the plan to cook bacon and eggs.

Wife had bought some dry-cured back rashers in Country Choice in Nenagh and I had some organic eggs. I took four slices of McCambridges bread rom the freezer and sliced four large chestnut mushrooms.

The problem with frying is trying to have everything ready at the same time. I could have cooked each of the four items in a separate pan, but that would have lost the benefit of the bacon fat (although there isn't a lot in back rashers), so I decided on two pans. A very large amount of butter in the normal-sized pan, put on a diffuser, I tossed the mushrooms in the butter as soon as it had melted.

I put the large pan on the wok burner, with no fat, and put the seven rashers in it once it was hot. There was no white stuff and no water, just delicious crispy bacon.

Once the bacon and mushrooms were coked, I put them on plates in the left oven, which I had heated to 75C, then put the bread in the mushroom pan and six eggs in the bacon pan. It all worked out more or less on time, but coping with such extras as sausages, pudding and so on would be a challenge.

Anyway, all jolly delicious, and very little fat left in the pans.

Wife has made gingerbread from Rose Prince's recipe so we have something to eat with our cheese. Hoping to get some decent Cheddar, and Stinking Bishop, in Bristol next week.

2006-10-04T20:26:00.000+01:00

Wednesday
===========
Decided not to freeze the rest of the cold roast pork because eating it is so pleasurable. The last of the crackling went today, but there are two good days of cold meat left --- with many generous portions. Had some with raw onion and with black pepper mustard today, on wheat sourdough that was rather dry.

And I was allowed to have an elderberry sorbet, and very delicious it was too.

We've been given several marrows, overgrown courgettes, which is usually rather a problem: the things are massive but largely tasteless. Still, one of them was not much longer than my hand, so I determined to use it in a risotto.

As usual, I sweated a chopped onion in some butter, until it was soft, then fired in 10 oz arborio rice, got it all nicely coated and left it to think things over for a while.

Meanwhile I melted a small portion of chicken stock from the freezer: it was only about one pint, whereas I usually use a litre.

And further meanwhile, I peeled the marrow, chopped it into small chunks and tossed it in a saucepan in rather a lot of Portuguese olive oil with the juice of an organic lemon and the seed-heads of a chunk of dill. And some marjoram leaves, because they were there. Then I set that lot over a very low heat, using the diffuser.

Meanwhile, back at the rice pan, I added about half a bottle of red wine that was standing around: it had been vacu-sealed but it still didn't taste very nice. I added it in two doses, stirring the while. Then, as you do with risotto, I added the stock, about a ladleful at a time. That meant rather more wine than I would usually put in a risotto, but there was rather less stock than usual.

When all of that had been absorbed, I added the marrow and all its herbs, lemon juice and oil. I reckoned the oil might replace the butter in the mantecatura stage. Then I added some grated pecorino sheep's cheese.

The whole thing was very delicious, with a wonderful flavour from the herbs, but probably needed a little more liquid.

2006-10-03T21:06:00.000+01:00

Tuesday
=========
Four of Frank's large, meaty and garlicky sausages baked in cider (about 45 mins, initially at 230C but down to 160C when I turned them about halfway through). Tossed some finely chopped leek into the cider at that stage. Served with boiled newish potatoes, in their jackets, which split. I put them to dry in the oven then tossed them in a little balsamic vinegar, olive oil, oak-smoked sea salt and black pepper. Very nice, though I should have used somewhat waxier potatoes according to Rose Prince, from whose *New English Kitchen* I adapted this slightly.

Finished the hazelnut butter; must make more. Wife making apple puree and, all going well, sourdough bread.

Also smoothies, probably elderberry, but I didn't get offered one!

2006-10-02T20:51:00.000+01:00

Monday
========
More cold roast pork with bread and apple sauce for lunch. How delicious it is. Large slices of Fintan's chocolate cake too.

For dinner, another Ashy recipe: . Tasty, but I took the warnings about lemon juice too seriously and should have added a bit more: maybe half rather than a quarter of a lemon. I threw some herbs on top, more for colour than for flavour.

2006-10-02T00:35:00.000+01:00

Sunday evening
=================
Slices of cheese-and-onion bread with apple sauce and cold roast pork, a piece of crackling and some hazelnut butter. And now a glass of Leffe.

Must mention that for weeks we've been eating our own pears. Only two trees, one more prolific than the other. Pears picked early (to defeat the wasps) and ripening in a large basket: delicious.

One row of raspberry bushes is now on its second crop: we have raspberries daily.

We did have an apple and a plum tree but they've died; the apple may be replaced next month. In th emeantime mother-in-law supplies vast quantities of apples of various types, as well as cucumbers and courgettes/marrows.

If I could work out how to edit old posts, I would change Finucanes (butchers) to Flavins. Finucanes are the electrical suppliers.

2006-10-01T18:42:00.000+01:00

Sunday
========
A particularly satisfying lunch today. The centrepiece was a 7lb piece of pork loin on the bone, with lots of crackling.

I had examined the pork roasting joints on display in Finucanes, a good butcher nearby. There was one round piece of pork with crackling: it was about eight inches in diameter and I reckoned that, by the time the centre was cooked, the outside would be burnt. All the other joints were pork loin, boned, stuffed and rolled --- but bereft of crackling.

So I spoke to the ever-obliging boss, who offered to cut me a piece of the pork loin with crackling on. He brought it out, on the bone, and I decided to buy the whole thing, even though it was enough to feed six (with decent portions). He scored the rind for me. The piece weighed 7lb and was about 13" long, which is about as big as will fit in my sink and my favourite roasting tin.

Adopting a hint from *The New English Kitchen*, I positioned the pork on the rasting tin's rack in the sink, rind towards me, and poured boiling water over it, taking care not to let the water get on the flesh and bones. As predicted, this opened the scorings and enabled me to rub salt into them: I used a coarse sea salt. Then I rubbed the flesh and bones with some olive oil flavoured with dried rosemary (I had cut some branches last week and left them to dry; today I removed the leaves and stored them). I also extended some of the scoring with my meat-cutting knife.

Then rearrange the joint with the rind uppermost and into the oven at 230C for about half an hour, after which I turned it down to about 160C and left it for another hour or so, checking after 45 minutes. The interior was just at 77C after about 5 minutes, so I put it in the second oven at 50C to rest. There was a lot of delicious gravy in the bottom of the tin; the crackling was crispy; the whole thing looked wonderful, and it's definitely a joint worth cooking again. In fact, if I can get some Gloucester Old Spot or something, we might have this on Christmas Day.

Now note the times: there are lots of recipes around that tell you to cook pork for thirty-five minutes per pound plus thirty-five minutes or something: the first five websites I checked all had that sort of thing, including Delia Smith. So my 7lb piece would have taken four hours to cook --- and been burnt to a frazzle. What determines the cooking time is not the weight but the thickness or diameter (probably the square of the thickness or diameter), not the weight. I was roasting a long thin piece and I checked with the digital meat thermometer at the spot furthest from the outside of the meat. It took less than half the time the minutes-per-lb people would have you believe, so ignore them and get a meat thermometer.

To accompany the pork I provided four things:

- some simple boiled organic British Queens, which I dried out: they absorbed the gravy wonderfully

- apple sauce, which I made from two large cooking apples, simmered in cider in a small fryng-pan until they broke up. I then added a dash of a blackcurrant cordial (just blackcurrants and sugar) that added some sweetness but also looked wonderful, with red veins through the largely white mass. I served it in one of three bowls on the table

- spinach. Washing it is a nuisance (every leaf has to be checked) but cooking it is very easy. I shoved it, with just whatever washing water remained on the leaves, into my large frying-pan on a low heat, turned it occasionally and waited for it to reduce, which it did fairly quickly. This, I think, better than putting it in a sealed saucepan because you can keep an eye on it. Once it was cooked I put it in the oven to keep warm. The green was at the other end of the line of three bowls on the table

- the middle bowl contained hazelnut butter. Steve in the market had sent his son to pick wild hazelnuts and I bought a pile of them. I spent about forty minutes getting the nuts out of their shells, using my Leatherman. Then I put them on a plate and roasted them in the oven for a few minutes, ground them in the coffee/spice grinder and then mixed them with country butter. Absolutely delicious. There is a little left over; I'd love to make more of this.

I cut two thick chunks off the pork, with their crackling, and poured gravy over them. My wife said that it was a huge portion, but she still ate it. It was very tender (but properly cooked); the cut is like pork chops joined together.

After lunch I removed the rest of the joint (there is about twice as much left as we ate today --- but I love cold roast pork. And anyway it could be frozen) from its bones and shoved it into the fridge. The bones, and those from our plates, joined the remains of the gravy in the stock pot: first time, I think, I've made pork stock. I didn't put a lot of water into it. The scraps from between the bones went to the dogs, who were delighted.

Delicious raspberry smoothies for dessert, and coffee later with the newspapers.

Next task is to do things with some of the apples: mother-in-law sent another huge batch.

2006-09-30T20:43:00.000+01:00

Saturday
=========
Wife away. Ate bread, cheese and duck pate for lunch.

2006-09-29T21:14:00.000+01:00

Friday
=======
Simple meal: bookmaker's sandwiches, but really too sloppy to eat without knife and fork.

Start by making onion gravy: I cut up all the onions we had, viz one large and several small. Then cooked them in oil and butter over the lowest possible heat, for over half an hour. Then stirred in a teaspoon of sieved 0-grade flour and let that cook; then added about half a pint of onion stock, which I had made in advance from a Kallo cube. Let that cook, then toss in a little oak-smoked sea salt.

Just before the onions had the flour added, I smeared some oil around another pan, heated it quite hot and put in two striploin steaks. Cooked on each side but stopped while they were still soft (and somewhat red inside).

And cut open two small ciabattas that wife had bought; any flattish bread would do. Butter one side inside, shove in steak and put onion gravy over it. Eat. Delicious.

With just the fried onions, not made into gracy, it might qualify as a bookmaker's sandwich, especially if squashed and then eaten as a large stuffed roll.

Afterwards, two small lemon meringue pies that wife had bought in Country Choice in Nenagh; also delicious.

She got cheese, butter and rashers too.

2006-09-28T22:59:00.000+01:00

Thursday
=======
This blasted software is misbehaving: it has failed to publish three times so far, the layout is screwed up and it's showing stuff in a different font from usual.

Pizza this evening: dough made in bread machine with Doves Farm 0-grade flour; chopped organic tomatoes, fresh basil, two types of salami, goats' cheese.

2006-09-28T20:12:00.000+01:00

Thursday
===========
Why is this software misbehaving? Why is the layout screwed up?

Made pizza this evening: dough in bread machine with Doves Farm organic 0-grade flour; topping tinned organic tomatoes, fresh basil, two types of salami, goats cheese.

2006-09-28T19:50:00.000+01:00

Thursday
========
I don't understand why the layout on this thing has gone wrong, or why the font has changed, or ....

Made a pizza this evening. Dough in bread machine, using Dove Farm 0-grade flour. Topped with some chopped organic tomatoes, fresh basil, two types of salami and goats' cheese.

Steaks out of the freezer for tomorrow.

2006-09-27T19:57:00.000+01:00

Wednesday
==========
Organic spaghetti and ragu from the freezer, with a bit of nutmeg grated in to counter the tinny taste of the tomatoes (which it did fairly well).

Delivery of beef from www.jameswhelanbutchers.com arrived: 6 X 2 dry-aged striploin Angus steaks, 2 X 2 fillet ditto, 6lb tenderoin roast, 5lb rib beef on the bone, 2 X 2lb stewing beef, 4lb corned beef; total €206.06, delivery free.

I had reorganised the freezer so had empty drawers ready for it and the superfreeze on, so it's all now freezing.

Sorry to see that the accompanying leaflet recommends timings for joints based on weight, when in fact thickness is what determines the time required.

2006-09-26T20:28:00.000+01:00

Tuesday
=========
Very simple meal: boiled potatoes, green beans and carrots with fried sausages and chutney. Ingredients were good, though, the sausages being from Tom & Sharon Shore's late lamented pigs.

2006-09-25T21:36:00.000+01:00

Monday
========
Just had some of the minestrone for dinner, with bread and butter. A complete meal in itself, with lots and lots of veggies and other goodies.

Froze the rest, unpureed. Pureed the cabbage and bean, but left a few chunks in it: about three litres. And the pea soup was very solid and can be well diluted: I removed the ham hock, gave the fat to the dogs and put the bones in the bin, pureed the peas, chopped the ham and returned it to the pot (where it sat on top of the peas) and added a couple of kabanossi-type sausages, sliced. Froze the pea and the cabbage and bean soups.

Need to sort the freezers again: beef delivery due on Wednesday.

2006-09-24T22:20:00.000+01:00

Sunday
=======
A day of rest?

I have now frozen

- about four litres of parsnip, apple and fennel soup, made with a little onion and some chicken stock

- about three litres of turnip (swede) and pear soup, made with a little onion and some chicken stock. Surprisingly delicious

- two litres of leek and turnip (swede) soup, made with spices and chicken stock.

All of those are very thick and could be diluted with the same amount of stock.

I have made five litres of ham and pea soup, using a ham hock and some dried peas; I have yet to remove the bone and fat, chop up the ham and puree the peas. I'll add some salami, and at serving time some fresh herbs to liven it up. It has some garam masala and onions in it.

I have about the same amount of cabbage and bean soup, which I made largely to use up leftover beans and half a red cabbage. It has some onions and cumin in it and is made with water rather than stock. It hasn't been pureed yet.

And I have a huge pot of minestrone, made with

- water
- dry-cured streaky rashers (bacon)
- a large leek
- half a red cabbage
- a packet of dried mushrooms, reconstituted
- a couple of handfuls of French beans, halved
- two ladlefuls of cooked butter beans
- four or five carrots, cut into batons
- some handfuls of penne.

Except for the minestrone, these are all pureed soups, made using the hand-held blender. The meat in the pea soup is in chunks, not pureed.

I had intended to make Ashy's lentil soup recipe, but discovered I didn't have enough red lentils. That spurred me to tidy up the larder cupboard.

Lunch was bread and pate; we had raspberry smoothies mid-afternoon; for dinner I roasted a hand-reared duckling (Frank brings them to market for a friend of his) and served it with boiled new potatoes, spinach, orange and basil. There were lots of bits for the dogs afterwards.

2006-09-23T23:07:00.000+01:00

Friday and Saturday
=====================
On Friday night we went out to a wine bar about ten miles away, meeting friends there. Afterwards we went to the pub across the road, one of the few in Ireland that serves cask beer --- they had a fine Pilsener this week --- as well as good English, Belgian and other beers in bottle.

On Saturday I made Ashy's butter beans with carrots and basil. I put in rather too much liquid and I think next time I'd omit the green peppers, which were bitter: I'm not sure that it's worth eating peppers in Ireland. I have lots of beans left over.

A smoothie and coffee cake afterwards.

Making lots of soups this weekend, using up some of my gallons of chicken stock and with many onions softened in preparation. So far I've made some litres of

- turnip (swede/rutabaga) and pear
- turnip with leeks and korma.

Planned for tomorrow are

- parsnip and fennel
- ham and pea (a ham hock is defrosting)
- an Ashy lentil recipe
- a minestrone, in very large quantities, which is likely to include the remaining butter beans, a red cabbage, carrots and anything else I can think of.

Roast duck tomorrow: Frank had some in the market today. Spinach to accompany it.

I've frozen five loaves, bought in the market today.

2006-09-21T22:13:00.000+01:00

Thursday
=========
Another change of plan: needing to eat quickly, we had some of the ragu with pasta instead. Ragu a bit disappointing: a tinny taste. Must get some more real tomatoes instead. Still, froze four tubs of it.

bjg

2006-09-20T21:14:00.000+01:00

Wednesday
============
Not very nice.

Made some ragu, to my own recipe, starting with some peeled carrots and onions left over from the Irish stew: softened them over a low heat, then removed them from the pot and added (lb by lb) three pounds of minced beef I'd taken from the freezer yesterday. (This is in pursuit of my campaign to use up stuff in the freezer.) Browned that lot, put the carrots and onions back in, added three tins of chopped Italian tomatoes and about a bottle of passata, plus some herbs and a large chunk of Parmesan rind (free from the cheese stall). Oh, and some sherry. Simmered that lidlessly for a while, then shoved it into a low oven for a few hours.

I also soaked some butter beans for the week's Ashy (veggie) dish.

But what of this evening's meal? I took a bag of frozen red stuff from the freezer yesterday, and defrosted it. It turned out to be spare ribs: I put them in the oven and then served them with boiled potatoes and baked beans. But the ribs weren't very nice, so the dogs did well.

2006-09-19T20:55:00.000+01:00

Tuesday
=========
Welsh rarebit today. Cheap, quick, simple --- and a good way of using up old cheese. I had

- some excess Parmesan grated last week
- some smoked Bay Lough, with a best before date of September 2005
- the end of a piece of Gouda
- a piece of Gruyere.

Grated them all; added several spoonfuls of apple chutney, a decent slosh of sherry (there was some open at the time ...) and two eggs; mixed that lot up. Meanwhile, having defrosted a loaf, I cut six slices, toasted them under the grill (top element of the oven) on both sides, buttered them and spread them with the mix. I put some aluminium foil on the roasting rack to reduce the amount of cleaning that would be required afterwards, then grilled the slices until they were dark brown and bubbling on top. Quantities don't really matter, I find.

I also defrosted and heated a tub of parsnip and fennel soup, made last June: one of the last of my frozen soups. But now I'll be able to buy lots of them ....

2006-09-18T20:33:00.000+01:00

Monday
========
Slight rearrangement of menus: as wife had to go out early, we heated some of the Irish Stew this evening. I froze the rest: eight to ten portions, I reckon.

2006-09-17T21:45:00.000+01:00

Sunday
========
Lunched off bread (wife's own plus one market loaf), cherry tomatoes, two types of salami, apple chutney, apple juice, raw onion, country butter and several cheeses. Then went to visit Irish Seed Savers Association to look at apple trees: must get some in November.

I bought rather too large a piece of beef yesterday, so I cut it in two and froze the smaller part. I roasted the rest for dinner: half an hour at 230C and then 45 minutes at 160C, which was a bit too long really, then to rest for 15 minutes. I roasted potatoes: parboiled them then got them to fit under the beef. And boiled some string beans. Very good, and some cold roast beef left over for sandwiches.

Meanwhile I sliced many potatoes, carrots (this being the south) and onions and layered them, with 3lb of lamb pieces, in a large casserole whose inside I had smeared with pesto. Shoved in some leftover chicken stock from last week, topped up with water; brought it to the boil on the fish-kettle burner, then into the oven at 160C, where I hope to leave it for three and a half hours.

2006-09-16T22:47:00.000+01:00

Saturday
===========
To market, to market, to buy a fat pig ....

Here's next week's meal plan:

Lunches Bread and cheese

Saturday evening Steaks, salad, bread

Sunday evening Roast pork with spuds, apple sauce, string beans. Make Irish stew for Wednesday and for freezing

Monday dinner Welsh rarebit with tomatoes

Tuesday dinner Pizza: salami, tomato, basil

Wednesday dinner Irish stew

Thursday dinner Ashy's butter beans with carrots and basil

Friday dinner Sausages and mash with baked beans

And the shopping list:

- Steve: salad leaves, string beans, 4lb onions, 4lb carrots, tomatoes, herbs incl basil, 2 green peppers, lots of tomatoes. Got all of that

- Kelly & Vi: breads

- Peter: St Tola goat's cheese

- Teresa (who was back today): herb mix. No tomato sauce, alas

- Palatines: eggs

- Frank: coffee cake and some new pepperoni-type sausage

- Marie: blue and Gruyere

- butcher: a large piece of beef on the bone (I wanted pork, but there wasn't much) and 3lb of lamb pieces for Irish stew

- supermarket: milk and yoghurt

- offie: twelve 33cl bottles of Leffe.

Saturday's dinner was a simple one: bread and butter, the salad leaves tossed in Frank's dressing and two thick fillet steaks (almost the last of our supply from ). Very nice indeed.

2006-09-15T21:44:00.000+01:00

Friday
=======
Lunch cooked by a sister at my mother's house. For each of us: an avocado cut into four lengthways, with goats' cheese, pesto, tomato and basil in the gaps; the whole roasted. Very nice.

Dinner was Ashy's Green beans and potatoes from . Very quick, simple and good. I used the large frying-pan. I should perhaps have cooked the beans for a little longer, but their texture contrasted nicely with everything else. I had some cooked potatoes, so used them instead of raw, adding them later in the process. I had neglected to keep a tomato, so threw in some (organic) tomato puree instead, which worked well. However, wife found the taste of garlic too strong, though I used only two cloves instead of Ashy's 4--5 cloves.

Market again tomorrow, tra-la.