I'm not sure how environmentally friendly or otherwise our woodburner is. It's one suitable for smokeless zones, so is very efficient - hardly any ash and not much smoke. The alternative is gas or electricity that is generated by goodness knows what methods - though we do pay the tiny premium for ostensibly green power. And a tree left on the earth would rot in the long term and produce plenty of gases without warming us up.
In full money-saver mode I refuse to buy kindling. A sack of this costs about £5 from garages and shops, if I take 10 minutes and a sharp axe I can make the same amount, and generally thinner so it lights better, using only a couple of pieces of wood that cost maybe 50p between them.
This morning we had a fire in the burner to cheer Monday breakfast and warm the place up, the temperature has dropped a few degrees in the last couple of days. I must admit that as well as the practical immediate economic benefits - we have lots of trees whose trimmings are dried for burning - I had an eye to future unrest in the world when I suggested buying it. Private Eye seems to be the only publication pointing out that unless the politicians get their fingers out and rapidly the lights are going to go out in the next few years. And if push comes to shove I reckon I could cook on it - one pot stuff, quick fried or, with a heat diffuser, slower stews. What a depressing thought, but one I would guess I am not alone in having.
When the lights do go out how will the politicians cope? In the most creative and useful way they know - blaming the other side, using researchers to dig out 10 year old pronouncements to prove their fatuous cases. David Cameron will be able to burn some of his money, and as everything beyond Oxford and Westminster is outside his experience Ed Milliband will have to ask his team what fire is for. Nick Clegg will look worried and nod a lot.
Monday 28 November 2011
Wednesday 16 November 2011
Cheap and Delicious
The austerity Christmas post brought to mind last night's cheap and very cheerful indeed main course - starter was just grated carrot seasoned and with a drop of oil plus a few slices of salami each. Stuffed savoury pancakes made into a gratin with a cheesy sauce. The stuffing was half a chicken breast leftover from Sunday, eight mushrooms sliced and gently sauteed with two chopped onions and two cloves of garlic sliced thinly. My wife saved my sauce from medicority by insisting it needed more cheese, and she was right. I even added a bit of parmesan on top of the sauce to give it some oomph. Two pancakes each quickly made on my flat griddle. the result was fabulous even though I say so myself. For once I even got what seemed like praise from small son - he compared it favourably to lasagne, his favourite dish apart from steak with a pulse.
An Austerity Christmas Meal
We are incredibly lucky that we eat well, and don't have to count every penny. In spite of that I like cooking what I think is good food without spending a fortune. A debate on Radio 4 the other day set me to thinking - one panellist said he dealt with people left just £5 a week to feed their family - about the cost of the Turkey course for Christmas lunch for those on very tight budgets, and I reckon I could do the Turkey and trimmings - not the whole week - for under £5. Filling and tasty, and nothing I hope wasted - heard again about Britain throwing away seven million tonnes of food a year. Shaming. The planet can't take the over-use of resources, and nor soon will the landfill be able to take such huge amounts.
A turkey drumstick is about £2.20 from the supermarket. Season with salt and pepper and a dash of oil over it and roast wet in a covered dish (lid or foil) with a carrot or two and an onion chopped in and a chicken stock-cube for about 80 minutes at 180 centigrade. Turn the drumstick once or twice as it cooks. With its several sinews this will need carving in the kitchen, but there's plenty of good brown meat on it.
The real treat for me at the Christmas table is the stuffing, a version of which I made on Sunday to go with chicken. Chop in the processor or very finely by hand: 1) pack of smoked 'recipe' bacon £1.40 from Sainsbury's, rind removed if there is any, leave the fat though; 2) Two large onions; 3) Three medium carrots; 4) Four slices of bread, ideally a bit stale. So 1,2,3,4. Mix together well in a bowl, add an egg and stir in, season - not much salt, the bacon has plenty - drizzle (sorry) a few drops of oil on and cook in the oven in a dish about 1" - 1 1/2" inches deep, covered with foil, about the same length of time as the turkey drumstick. It is moist and really flavoursome, and you can play tunes with herbs - a few sage leaves is excellent - or some mushrooms (sliced just one thinly and decorate the top to prettify it). Replace one carrot with a small apple. There's plenty to go round too, probably enough to have leftovers that make great sarnies.
Serve these two elements with just a few sprouts each, one parsnip for the entire table cooked however you like it, more carrots, and lots of mashed spuds, make gravy with the veg rich juice in which the turkey cooked and it's a feast. Do your own bread sauce too if you like it, another delicious bargain filler.
The times shape our perceptions of food. The above in WWII would I guess have been a feast. And for workers until the 1960s likewise. For some in Britain this year it would represent luxury. Maybe the way things are going it won't seem too stingy for the rest of us before the decade is out.
A final peasant touch: Don't throw the sinews and bone out, nor the bacon rind if any. Simmered gently with chopped onions and carrots for an hour, a bayleaf or sage if you have them, with spuds in big dice added for the last 10 minutes or so (check they are cooked), seasoned well, and you have a broth that will smell great - remove the bone and what's left of the sinews before serving with bread to dip. Or go the whole peasant hog and make a stock with the washed peelings from Christmas lunch plus the bone etc. Cook a risotto with it and all you'd need to complete the dish would be a handful of mushrooms and a bit of grated cheese for another cheap feast.
A turkey drumstick is about £2.20 from the supermarket. Season with salt and pepper and a dash of oil over it and roast wet in a covered dish (lid or foil) with a carrot or two and an onion chopped in and a chicken stock-cube for about 80 minutes at 180 centigrade. Turn the drumstick once or twice as it cooks. With its several sinews this will need carving in the kitchen, but there's plenty of good brown meat on it.
The real treat for me at the Christmas table is the stuffing, a version of which I made on Sunday to go with chicken. Chop in the processor or very finely by hand: 1) pack of smoked 'recipe' bacon £1.40 from Sainsbury's, rind removed if there is any, leave the fat though; 2) Two large onions; 3) Three medium carrots; 4) Four slices of bread, ideally a bit stale. So 1,2,3,4. Mix together well in a bowl, add an egg and stir in, season - not much salt, the bacon has plenty - drizzle (sorry) a few drops of oil on and cook in the oven in a dish about 1" - 1 1/2" inches deep, covered with foil, about the same length of time as the turkey drumstick. It is moist and really flavoursome, and you can play tunes with herbs - a few sage leaves is excellent - or some mushrooms (sliced just one thinly and decorate the top to prettify it). Replace one carrot with a small apple. There's plenty to go round too, probably enough to have leftovers that make great sarnies.
Serve these two elements with just a few sprouts each, one parsnip for the entire table cooked however you like it, more carrots, and lots of mashed spuds, make gravy with the veg rich juice in which the turkey cooked and it's a feast. Do your own bread sauce too if you like it, another delicious bargain filler.
The times shape our perceptions of food. The above in WWII would I guess have been a feast. And for workers until the 1960s likewise. For some in Britain this year it would represent luxury. Maybe the way things are going it won't seem too stingy for the rest of us before the decade is out.
A final peasant touch: Don't throw the sinews and bone out, nor the bacon rind if any. Simmered gently with chopped onions and carrots for an hour, a bayleaf or sage if you have them, with spuds in big dice added for the last 10 minutes or so (check they are cooked), seasoned well, and you have a broth that will smell great - remove the bone and what's left of the sinews before serving with bread to dip. Or go the whole peasant hog and make a stock with the washed peelings from Christmas lunch plus the bone etc. Cook a risotto with it and all you'd need to complete the dish would be a handful of mushrooms and a bit of grated cheese for another cheap feast.
Saturday 12 November 2011
F1, Queueing for our Allotment, Pizza and Onion Rings
Stuck this afternoon in a massive queue on the way to our allotment - it is near Deepdale and PNE are at home today - I was listening to 5-Live and it struck me that not only was I in traffic, but I was listening to commentary about traffic, albeit in Dubai. Is there a duller and more over-hyped sport than F1? Rallying I can understand - countryside, mud, real roads, getting within inches of the cars - but Grand Prix? No. How is it interesting that one helmet in a very fast car goes round in circles more rapidly than another helmet in a slower car?
Two little victories in my culinary life. Thursday night I made three pizzas (pizzi?) from scratch, even thinner than previous effort as I used the same quantity of dough for three rather than two, the result being nicely crisp crust. Very hot oven, done in 15 minutes. Unlikely though it sounds the sardine, anchovy and prawn one (all were with onions and peppers) was praised by wife and son, and the meat feast (mini-meatballs made with leftover roast beef from Sunday) not far off. With two mozarellas, sardine tin, anchovy tin, and a few slices of salami I reckon £3.75 for the lot, the price of one from a shop or half from a takeaway.
Even smaller win: to go with steak on Friday I made my own onion rings - Greek-style batter recipe courtesy of the great Jane Grigson, with a bit of cayenne in place or her pernod. Crisp again, no processed rubbish in them, not a crumb left. Egg from our chickens, bit of flour, baking powder, water, some cheap olive oil, two onions, so pence against pounds from the freezer section of some supermarket. A sneaky extra vegetable, and the pleasure of crunching sounds at the table.
Two little victories in my culinary life. Thursday night I made three pizzas (pizzi?) from scratch, even thinner than previous effort as I used the same quantity of dough for three rather than two, the result being nicely crisp crust. Very hot oven, done in 15 minutes. Unlikely though it sounds the sardine, anchovy and prawn one (all were with onions and peppers) was praised by wife and son, and the meat feast (mini-meatballs made with leftover roast beef from Sunday) not far off. With two mozarellas, sardine tin, anchovy tin, and a few slices of salami I reckon £3.75 for the lot, the price of one from a shop or half from a takeaway.
Even smaller win: to go with steak on Friday I made my own onion rings - Greek-style batter recipe courtesy of the great Jane Grigson, with a bit of cayenne in place or her pernod. Crisp again, no processed rubbish in them, not a crumb left. Egg from our chickens, bit of flour, baking powder, water, some cheap olive oil, two onions, so pence against pounds from the freezer section of some supermarket. A sneaky extra vegetable, and the pleasure of crunching sounds at the table.
Monday 7 November 2011
Firework Weekend
November 5th being special to us we had a gathering of friends various on Saturday, fed and watered about 16 people by my reckoning. As ever, too much food: massive lamb stew that everyone seemed to have two platefuls of, but still left enough for three ice-cream containers-full to be frozen. Good use for Turk's Turban squash to accompany it, loads of starch and wonderful orange flesh to brighten up the lamb hotpot. Fabulous fireworks, the rule being bring one large one per family.
The weekend was the rocket, Monday the stick - sadly the Information Britain site that has been my biggest source of income for last five years has been sliding down the rankings for no good reason in fact the opposite, it does what it suggests with vast amounts of easily navigable stuff about Britain. Sad, I have never enjoyed a job more, and never worked with anyone as easy to get along with as Nick Crawford-Barton, the owner. Anyone need a brilliant writer with a dozen ideas for books and about 3000 for articles? Food, wine, spirits, boats, all the good things in life.
The weekend was the rocket, Monday the stick - sadly the Information Britain site that has been my biggest source of income for last five years has been sliding down the rankings for no good reason in fact the opposite, it does what it suggests with vast amounts of easily navigable stuff about Britain. Sad, I have never enjoyed a job more, and never worked with anyone as easy to get along with as Nick Crawford-Barton, the owner. Anyone need a brilliant writer with a dozen ideas for books and about 3000 for articles? Food, wine, spirits, boats, all the good things in life.
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