Milk pork with cinnamon, bay and lemon

This started out really complicated, but as with most recipes that pass through my hands, got simplified on the way through

Ingredients
For the pork
2kg-3kg/4lb 4oz - 6lb 10oz pork loin, French trimmed with the chine bone removed (you can ask your butcher to do this): I used a couple of pork steaks with no bone – many people are sure that the bone makes the meat taste better. That's always been a minor difference for me, and I prefer eating without having to saw my way around the bone.
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
110g/4oz unsalted butter  (I didn't use the butter)
2 onions, peeled and cut into quarters
3 garlic bulbs, cut in half
2-2.5litres/3 pints 10fl oz - 4 pints 8fl oz full fat milk (enough to cover the pork completely) I used rice milk to keep the recipe dairy free: it worked perfectly well.
2 lemons, zest and juice
30g/1oz fresh coriander leaves
4-5 bay leaves
20g/¾oz cinnamon sticks
2 tsp mixed peppercorns
½ nutmeg, freshly grated (I used ground)
5 cloves

For the rice
300g/10½oz basmati rice
salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tbsp fresh flatleaf parsley, roughly chopped
4 tbsp fresh chives, roughly chopped
4 tbsp fresh coriander, roughly chopped

For the vegetable
400g/14oz spring greens, roughly chopped
50g/2oz butter (I didn't use the butter - again to keep the whole recipe dairy free)

Method

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2. (Note: I didn't use the oven. It was fine doing the whole thing on the hob.)

Season the pork all over with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Heat a deep casserole large enough to hold the pork until hot, then add the olive oil and pork. Fry for 1-2 minutes on each side, until browned all over, then rest bone-side down in the pan.

Add the butter, onions and garlic and fry for 2-3 minutes more. (As I said above, I just didn't bother with the butter. I added a little extra oil and it worked fine.)

Add enough (rice) milk to cover the pork, then add the lemon zest, half of the lemon juice, the coriander, bay leaves and spices.

Transfer to the oven and cook uncovered for 1½-2 hours, or until the bones pull away from the meat easily. Remove the pork and set aside in a warm place. (As I've noted, I didn't bother with the oven; I just kept it cooking on the hob at a low temperature, and stirred occasionally. There was never any danger of it sticking to the pan.)

If the sauce is still thin when the pork is cooked, skim the remaining milk sauce of excess fat with a spoon. Season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper and add the remaining lemon juice, to taste. Place the sauce over a medium heat and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to simmer until thickened. (I found this stage was unnecessary)

For the rice, cook in water for 12-14 minutes until tender. Drain and return to the pan to remove any excess moisture.

Season the rice, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper, then add the herbs and stir to combine.

Meanwhile, boil the greens for 2-3 minutes, or until tender. Drain and return to the pan, then add the butter and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

To serve, remove the bones from the pork, then carve the meat into slices and place onto plates. Spoon over the sauce and place some greens and herbed rice alongside.

This worked out really well. The gannets were on it before I had time to take a photo, but we will do it again. The spices and milk combined very nicely for an intriguing taste, the pork cooked itself beautifully and the herbs gave the rice a, well, herby sort of taste.

I gave it 7/10 for local sourcing. The rice and rice milk, the lemon and some of the spices were from far away.

Beef and vegetable casserole

1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 leek, diced
2 celery  sticks, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
75g mushrooms, sliced
500g braising steaks, cubed
2 tbsp plain flour
3 sprigs of  thyme
750ml stock


Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large pan then add the onion, carrot, leek, celery and garlic, and cook gently for 5 minutes, do not brown. Add the mushrooms and cook everything for a further 5 minutes then remove from the pan. Heat a little more oil in the pan, add the beef (in batches if necessary) and brown all over then stir the flour in well.

Return the veg to the pan and add the thyme and stock. Season and mix well. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook covered for 1 1/2 hours until tender, stirring occasionally. Serve with jacket potatoes, rice, pasta or mash.

I don't usually do the vegetables first, but it seemed to work very well in this case.

I served this with mash, which did very nicely. All the vegetables were locally sourced, as was the beef. The thyme came from our garden. The flour is from elsewhere in the UK. I used organic vegetable stock; I can't verify where that or the oil came from, so I gave it 8/10 for local purchasing. 

Fracking and renewable energy

A guest post by Peter Gardiner

Fracking  is in the news, and has been proposed for areas very near Ringmer.

I see fracking as an option we should not be exploring, and I outline here some of the reasons why.

My first objection is the obvious one - that it is more CO2 going into the atmosphere.  We've managed to stop using coal - we have plenty of that left- and while gas is not so dirty it is still producing  CO2. Scrubbing exhaust gases is very, very expensive, and there does not seem to be a ready solution in the offing that avoids use of large amounts of energy in the scrubbing process. So CO2 gas from these stations will be put into the atmosphere. 

My second is that it puts off the hard choice - we have to move to renewables sooner or later, as even fracked gas is finite - certainly in the UK.  It's hard enough now to get people to think renewably, but it will be even harder if people (especially the Government) think we don't have to look beyond gas.

Third,  fracking means impetus for gas-fired power stations which are continuing to be built, in part with fracking in mind, but also using imported gas. This is at a time when we should be looking to be self-sufficient.

Fourth, it's the economics of gas power stations once built. Once constructed as a primary base load source they will have a presumptive use, because to build anything to replace them will be seen as an added cost. I see the reverse of this as being what we have to do -  gas fired stations should from this day on be regarded as standby/peak load generating capacity, not base load, and we have to build enough renewables to cover the base load.

Finally, as a still wealthy nation we should be setting an example. Why should anyone else bother with climate change if rich nations are not doing their bit?

To explore the whole issue of renewable energy, a good start is Sustainable Energy – without the hot air, a book by Professor David MacKay. Professor MacKay  is a generous man, as you can read, browse or download the whole book or parts of it for free. It is by far the easiest text on the subject of renewable energy, as he has separated the general from the scientific so the scientific detail doesn't get in the way, and he then gives good explanation of the science later, which you will appreciate.

Offshore wind is one solution, but only part of it.  We probably have to grow miscanthus as a crop to fire CHP plants, and we have to look at wave and tide energy as well as using sunlight - both UK sunlight and from what I am calling the sunshine states of subsahara.

It is entirely possible to build a Severn Barrage which accommodates the birdlife by providing mudflats for as long as the current exposures provide.   The Barrage could produce a fifth of our electrical needs ( a bit less if you look after the birds). It will produce over considerable periods of the day, and so will largely support base load. It can be built within ten years if we approve it now (and possibly quicker, given the mobilisation rates that were used for the Olympic Park).

Finally a cheerful note from the US of A. I see that The Republican Governor of Virginia has given Fugro a contract to explore offshore wind power for the state. And I thought all republicans were rednecks!

This is a guest post by Peter Gardiner, Lewes District Councillor for Ringmer and shadow lead councillor for planning matters. In a former life, Peter was was Head of the School of Environment at Brighton University. The School has a considerable reputation from a wide range of work including structural use of timber as a green material, containment of radioactive deposits in soils, investigating harmful microbiological distributions in rivers, air pollution and a series of habitat studies including South Downs grasslands using GIS methods. Peter was also a Director of the Brighton Environmental Body, a company set up to carry out green research on pyrolysis, recycling cars and waste.

Forget deer, forget foxes: snow leopard seen in Ringmer

Snow leopard:

Stranger still, feet with no socks

Got week's supplies at Turner's farm shop. They are well stocked.

The bird seed is going down well.

For some animals life goes on just the same.