Chicken with ham and mushroom

Ingredients
 2 tbsp  olive oil
 500g boneless, skinless  chicken thighs
 flour, for dusting
 50g cubetti di  pancetta
 300g small button mushrooms
 2 large  shallots, chopped
 250ml chicken stock
 1 tbsp white wine vinegar
 50g frozen peas
 small handful  parsley, finely chopped

Heat 1 tbsp oil in a frying pan. Season and dust the chicken with flour, brown on all sides. Remove.

Fry the pancetta and mushrooms until softened, then remove.

Add the final tbsp oil and cook shallots for 5 mins.

Add the stock and vinegar, bubble for 1-2 mins.

Return the chicken, pancetta and mushrooms and cook for 15 mins.

Add the peas and parsley and cook for 2 mins more, then serve.

This is the recipe as received. I used ordinary ham, ordinary oil, didn't bother with the vinegar, or the flour (makes it difficult for calculating carbohydrates, and the chicken browns fine without it.) I also did the peas separately, which I think makes for nicer presentation.

Served with mashed potato, it made a 10/10 for local sourcing.

Belgrade beef stew

750 g stewing beef, cut in 3cm cubes

250 g onions, chopped

1 clove(s) garlic, mashed

1 red bell pepper, diced

4 tomatoes, diced

2 carrots, sliced

salt and freshly ground black pepper

paprika powder

1 glass(es) red wine

5 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 tbsp butter

Method

Heat the butter and fry the beef over medium heat all around until browned. Stir in the garlic and onions and fry for two more minutes. Season with salt, pepper and paprika powder. Pour in the wine, cover and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, bell peppers and carrots. Cover and simmer for another 20-25 minutes or until the beef is tender. Check seasoning and correct, if necessary.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and serve with rice and lettuce salad.

This is economical cooking – does in one pot on the hob. I used oil instead of butter. I left out the red wine, adding a little water to compensate.

For localness 7/10; rice is always a problem from that point of view. The meat, the veg and most of the spices were local.

Lamb ragout

Ingredients
150 g lean lamb, cut in 3cm cubes
1 tbsp oil
2 tbsp onion, chopped
2 tsp celeriac, diced
2 tbsp courgette, diced
4 tbsp tomato, diced
200 ml vegetable stock
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp          oregano
1 tsp basil, chopped
1 tsp parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

250 g potatoes
100 ml milk
1 tbsp butter
nutmeg


Method

Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the meat and stir-fry from all sides until browned.

Add the onion, celeriac and the courgette and stir-fry for further 5 minutes.

Mix in the diced tomatoes, pour in the stock and bring to the boil.

Stir in the mustard, basil and parsley. Season to taste with salt, pepper and oregano.

Simmer for 15 minutes.

Serve with mashed potatoes, seasoned with nutmeg.

This worked really nicely. The flavours were rich and the meat nicely done. I had no celeriac; I used half a sweet potato that was lying around in the fridge looking for employment.

 If I knew where the oregano came from, I might be able to give 10/10 for local sourcing.

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. 

Nov 5th meal

We stayed in for bonfire night and I cooked:

Roast veg and goat's cheese starter. All the veg and the cheese were local. The cheese is topped with honey and pepper, and grilled till soft before being put on the roast veg. The honey is very local. I wasn't able to get a proper picture before the gannets got at it.

Main course was Kolkhata curry with veg rice and artichoke ragout. Meat from local butcher, local yoghurt, international spices and rice. All the veg in the veg rice was local again (onions, shallots, carrots, sweet corn, courgettes) as were the artichokes and potatoes. Also the spring onion that goes in the artichoke ragout (I refuse to call them salad onions.)

I didn't get an individual pic of the veg rice, but it's in the pic of the meal, on the right:

For the veggies there was walnut and olive pistou. Onion, green bean, celery, tomato local. Not sure about the walnuts.

And for afters Dutch apple cake, which for a variety of reasons has to be gluten free and vegan, so I used Dove's all purpose flour (UK but not absolutely local), and left out the eggs. Apples would have been from our garden but we finished off the last ones last week, so I got these from Lew's.

It really needed cream or ice cream to go with it but the fridge was empty. Anyway, still warm, it was moist enough without. And there's one serving left as a reward for finishing this blog.

I was quite pleased with that - a three course meal with international recipes and about 90% of the ingredients locally sourced.

Oh, yes, and a bottle of wine - French, so not too far away.

Burgers and chips

Lovely daughter coming home for a visit gave me the inspiration to try to find some gluten free and egg free burgers (combination of allergies round here). Google brought instant success: there is one on Jamie Oliver's site. This one is for beefburgers and we have to be dairy free as well (big combination of allergies round here), so I substituted lamb mince for beef mince.

I thought I'd try producing home made chips, shallow fried, as well, so googled again and found there is a massive debate about how best to make chips. Kitchen knives at dawn. There's also a lively debate about whether it is possible to shallow fry chips decently. From the look of the various methods offered, it seemed OK so I did.

The mince and the bacon came from Turners
The onion and the salad from Lew (very glad he's stepped into the breach with Marko's gone)
Burger buns from Jack and Jills
Everything else from Tesco - I give myself about 6 out of 10 for buying local on this one.

Here's the recipe for the burgers:

500 gm mince
1 onion, diced
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
4 rashers smoked bacon, trimmed of fat and diced
1 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp dried Italian herbs
Pepper and salt
1 tbsp olive oil + extra for frying
1 tsp butter
Burger buns

Method
“Add oil and butter to medium size pot over medium heat. Add onion and bacon and fry until soft. Add Dijon mustard, and fry for 2 more minutes. Remove mix from pot and place in a small bowl to allow to cool.

“Add almost cool mixture to the beef mince in a large bowl. Combine using hands. Add herbs and salt and pepper to taste. Combine with hands. Add cornflour and combine with hands again.

“Shape mix into patties and flatten slightly with hands. At this stage, you can pop them in the fridge on a plate covered with cling film until you are ready to cook them or if you want to cook them at a later date, these uncooked patties can be frozen.

“Heat small amount of oil in frying pan and add patties, flattening slightly. Fry until underneath is brown and a bit crispy. Turn and cook the other side until cooked through.”

This worked very nicely. The bacon was quite dominant, so I think I'll try two rashers instead of four next time.

For the chips I followed an amalgam of suggestions from the web, which basically involve boiling the chips till nearly done, then frying. There's a lot of debate about choosing the right kind of potatoes. I didn't know what kind I had – they were just white, in a string bag. We use a steamer, so I cut the chips into proper sized chunks (none of this French fry stick rubbish), then steamed them for about 20 minutes till some were going crumbly and the rest were just hard. Then I put enough oil in the frying pan to cover the bottom comfortably and heated it up to a good temperature. (I used plain vegetable oil, not olive oil. I think olive oil would give it an interesting flavour though so might try that next time.) I patted the chips dry in a couple of paper towels. That was a bit awkward as the potatoes had plenty of starch on them and they began to stick, but as far as I know nobody ate any paper. Then I threw them all in the frying pan and kept them moving till they were crisp and properly fried on the outside. That worked pretty well – needed more oil halfway through.

Added a basic salad to get some green stuff in.

Altogether, it was a considerable success.

Navarin of lamb

We tried the lamb navarin recipe featured in the Low Carbon Ringmer wiki recipe pages.

The ingredients were:
600g - 1kg middle neck of lamb, trimmed: we use stewing lamb from a local butcher
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1” lengths : bought locally
2 medium sized onions, quartered : bought locally
1 small turnip : no turnips. No swedes either. Used a butternut squash, locally sourced. Not even a close relative of a turnip but the flesh looks vaguely like a turnip
1 tsp sugar : country of origin not specified, but I suspect it was a long way away
1 tbsp flour: used Doves Farm flour - can't verify the origin, but Dove s' policy  is to source locally where possible
1-2 tbsp dripping: missed that out, used sunflower oil instead; no indication of country of origin
500ml water or stock : used water. Stock tends to make things taste salty, even when there's no salt in the stock
bouquet garni : used mixed herbs instead, oh the ignominy
chopped parsley: from our garden, can't get more local than that.

So I give myself about 95/100 for local sourcing for this one.

The recipe says give it about 40 minutes; I usually find recipe timing for meat very short. I gave it an hour and a half and it still wasn't quite ready. But the overall effect of the vegetables, flour, sugar and liquid was a stew at just the right consistency, thick but smooth, and the squash was a passable alternative for the turnip.

Local suppliers

The Low Carbon Ringmer wiki has some new pages on which residents are welcome to contribute to and expand upon.

Firstly there is a recipe page, designed to highlight recipes that use local ingredients.

And secondly there is a page on Shops and other suppliers that highlights where you can get those ingredients.

Both are only sketched out at the moment, but will be populated over time.