by goodshoeday, on July 23rd, 2010
At last the English fruit season has arrived. The gooseberries and strawberries are in full flow and the raspberries, cherries and currants (black, red and white) are all just starting to come into their prime. For all these fruits when the season starts and end is inevitably affected by the weather and where you are in the country, some have much longer natural seasons than others and making the best of each while you can is what its all about.
I like them fresh of course, or cooked in compotes, sauces and pies and some preserved to bring a little summer [...]
Continue reading Mostly berries, some cherries and currants
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by goodshoeday, on July 18th, 2010
I just looked up E17 on wikipedia…..where it tells me that it can refer to:
A European road route that runs from Antwerp to Beaune, via a whole bunch of places including Arras and Reims
A British pop band, originally called East 17
A version of the window stacking software Englightenment
A postcode in the E area of London (E = east)
A Japanese visual sci-fi novel called Ever17
A type of Edison screw on light bulbs witha diameter of 17mm
And a British submarine of WW1
Well I never and I just thought it was the postal district adjacent to mine famous for its dog track (now [...]
Continue reading E17, the food, the place, but mostly not the band
by goodshoeday, on June 30th, 2010
Its very nearly the end of the the elderflowers for this year, in fact in some parts of the country I’m sure they are already gone gone gone. But in a few places there are still some good ones to be found so if you are quick you might be able to grab a few flower heads and make cordial, champagne or…guess what……yes flavoured vodka.
Somehow I seem to have gathered a reputation for all things flavoured voddy and a few people have asked for the method for doing an elderflower one. So here it is:
6-8 good size elderflower heads in [...]
Continue reading Elderflower rush
by goodshoeday, on June 25th, 2010
It’s late spring (well it was when I wrote and it was published, we’ve now just edged into summer) and a time many of us associate with lamb, in fact, it’s common to think of lamb as a traditional dish for Easter. A moment to pause and think about this should make us wonder why? Easter can be as early as 22 March and as late as 25 April; and we mostly all know that spring is when lambs are born so how are these lambs old enough to be ready to eat by Easter? Well they aren’t. The lamb [...]
Continue reading Mutton dressed as lamb, why not go the whole hogget
by goodshoeday, on May 18th, 2010
I love asparagus. Really love it. I could eat it everyday for the duration of its short season and not get bored. In fact I would probably have it nearly the same way each time, nice and simple with good butter or oil. I might steam it, roast it or chargrill but I’d still dress it simply. I might have it with some cured ham or hard tangy cheese. But in the main I’d let the asparagus do all the talking.
And once the season was over that would be it. No more asparagus for a whole year. Because even more [...]
Continue reading Asparagus Rolls
by goodshoeday, on May 13th, 2010
I’ve said on here before how much I love asparagus and I’m very certain I will be saying it again before the season is over. Earlier in the week I went really simple with steamed asparagus and slithers of Ticklemore cheese popped under the grill until the cheese was just melting. The salty goats cheese was great with the asparagus. I didn’t take pictures though because I was so busy eating it.
Today I went for Parma ham, steamed asparagus and fried guinea fowl eggs.
Oh yum.
I don’t think you need instructions to be able to copy this, of course feel free [...]
Continue reading Easy Lunch: Asparagus
by goodshoeday, on May 10th, 2010
This article was first published in Francoise Murat & Associates newsletter in April 2010.
We’ve just had Easter eggs, egg-decorating competitions at school and the hens are laying well again. With year round supplies of eggs in the shops we forget they are seasonal. We forget that when we talk of eggs we mean hen’s eggs. Anyone who keeps a few hens knows that during the winter they hardly lay at all and it takes until spring for them to get back to producing an egg a day. Jane Grigson talks of eggs as a rarity in the winter months and preserving [...]
Continue reading Eggs-eptionally seasonal
by goodshoeday, on May 3rd, 2010
Its fair to say I am an inveterate hoarder of stuff. All sorts of stuff. Books. Old adminy type things. Christmas and birthday cards. Shoes. Jars. Old kitchen things. Stuff. And more stuff.
This means our house can get quite full and because its an old house there aren’t actually that many places to shove or hide all this stuff. So rooms that are supposed to have other purposes become sort of holding areas for, well, stuff. And then if someone come to visit the stuff gets shuffled about and hidden for a while in a different room only to re-emerge [...]
Continue reading A peek in the pantry
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