Local smoked duck

I never thought that I would write this, but it is possible to have too much comfort food. I’ve spent the week serving and making food for those who have been clearing-up the flood damage at work in Cockermouth. Hot and filling comfort food has been pouring forth, but now I’ve had enough of chilli, stews and casseroles!!!

I picked up a fresh cabbage and some oak smoked duck breast at a local farmers’ market. Along with some of my homemade plum and damson sauce, this shopping formed the basis for supper this evening. Smoked duck on a bed of cabbage and rice noodles.

Riverside Smoked Foods, in Frizington, make the most wonderful smoked food. The duck breast had been marinated in damson juice, before being smoked. Delicious. Unfortunately, they don’t have a website at the moment, but I believe one will be online soon. I’ll put a link up here when one is available.

This dish is quick and easy to make, and can be made partly in advance, making it ideal as a starter for a dinner party or for an informal supper.

Method:

Chop the cabbage finely, and steam for 5 minutes. Soak the rice noodles for 5 minutes, then drain. Cut up some ginger and garlic and thinly slice the duck breast. These steps can all be done in advance.

Heat some oil in wok, add the garlic and ginger. Fry for a minute or two. Add the cabbage and noodles, along with a splash of soy sauce. Place in a warmed bowl, with the duck on top and drizzle with plum sauce.

Lamb, Rosemary and Leek Pie

Well, what a day. The floods in Cockermouth (10 miles away) have been making headline news all day. It’s strange to think that where we were standing yesterday afternoon is still under 4ft of water and is likely to be inundated for some time to come. My heart goes out to the people who live in and around Main Street, I can not even imagine what they must be feeling.

With the winds and rain set to continue tomorrow, it’s a night for comfort food (I don’t need much of an excuse for comfort food!). We had a wonderful joint of local lamb the other night for Nick’s birthday, so the leftovers now need using up. I’ve set about making a lamb pie, loosely based around my steak pie recipe. The filling is currently simmering away, or trying to simmer on our useless hob!

I’ve not yet attempted wheat-free (gluten-free in this case) pastry. My wheat free bread, made in our bread machine was a disaster, although I’ve since been told to try using chestnut flour. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for the pastry.

Recipe

Pie filing

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 tbs olive oil
• 1 tbs gluten-free plain flour
• A good pinch of herbs de Provence
• Any left-over cooked lamb, or 300-400gr of fresh lamb, chopped
• 1/2 cup of pasata
• 1 cup of red wine
• 1/2 cup of good stock, I used chicken stock as I had some in the fridge.
• 1/2 cinnamon stick
• A few sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 1 tsp (heaped) of dried rosemary
• 6 mushrooms chopped in half
• 2 tsp of redcurrant jelly
• 1 leek, chopped into 1cm circle

1. Heat the oil, add the onion and fry for a couple of minutes in an oven-safe dish until the onion is soft.
2. Toss the lamb in the flour and herbs, add a good grind of black pepper and a little salt. Add to the onion.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients, reduce the heat, cover and simmer gently for about 3/4 hour.
4. Meanwhile, make the pastry.
5. After the meat has simmer for 45 mins, remove the lid, add the leek and allow the sauce/gravy to reduce for 15 mins. At this stage you can also fish out the rosemary stems and the cinnamon stick.

 

Pastry

The pastry recipe is from Stephen Howarth. I’m expecting great things Stephen!

• 8oz gluten-free plain flour
• 2oz butter, I used goat’s, but I’m going to try using Pure next time to make it totally dairy-free, cubed
• 2oz lard, cubed
• 1 medium egg, beaten

1. Rub the butter into the flour.
2. Stir in the egg and a couple of tablespoons of cold water.
3. Turn out the crumbly dough and knead it. Or, like I did, knead it in the bowl. Unlike normal pastry, apparently ‘gluten-free pastry likes to be handled’.
4. Wrap in clingfilm and place in the fridge for 30 mins.

Pie

1. Roll-out 2/3 and line the base of a pie dish. This is easier said than done. You will use a lot more flour to keep the surface dusted, and it’s best to use short strokes of the rolling pin. As there is no gluten, there is not much elasticity in the pastry, so it splits easily as you roll it. When you turn the pastry, or need to handle it, use the rolling pin and the plate knife. You’ll quickly come unstuck if you use your hands!
2. Fill the base with the lamb.
3. Roll out the other piece of pastry, as above.
4. Use a fork to press down the edges of the pie. Pierce the top and place in a preheated oven (180 degrees celcius) for 45 mins.

 

Result: It was good! The pastry was extremely short, which meant it cracked on top in the oven, but that didn’t matter. Also, the gluten-free flour tasty made the pastry taste quite floury. Having said that, I would definitely make it again!

Organic, free range or local?

Is this really a dilemma? I didn’t think so – but now I’m not quite so sure. A few instances recently have made me begun to think about the difference and importance of: organic, local and free range produce.

Meat

Where possible I try to buy local produce that is organic, and in the case of meat and eggs, free range. Recently I came across a website for an organic farm in Devon who do mail-order meat. My initial reaction to it was: ‘Imagine the food miles!’. But after thinking about it the idea might not be as bad as it seems.

OK – here are the arguments against buying local meat (I can’t really believe I’m saying this!) and buying mail-order meat instead:

1. Purely selfishly, it is an hour round-trip to the ‘local’ butchers. If I want meat that is guaranteed local and free-range, make that two-hours to a different butchers. Mail-order meat arrives at the door.
2. Therefore there’s also rather a lot of petrol involved too. If I bought mail-order meat, it would be delivered by a courier company who deliver to other people in the area too, meaning that although a lot of petrol may be used, it’s not just for one person. Is the principle really any different from Amazon?
3. At the local butchers I’m not always entirely sure where the meat came from, what type of life the animal had, what it was feed, how it was killed, how far it has already ‘travelled’. I can know all of that from the farm in Devon. (Although admittedly the butcher is usually helpful when 1) he’s serving and 2) I ask!).

Against:

1. Our local town is lucky enough to have a lot of small independent retailers and I enjoy supporting them. The local fishmongers closed-down when Sainsbury’s moved in.
2. Convenience, I can just pop to the butchers to pick up the meat that I need, especially if I’m at work that day.
3. The food miles still seem ridiculous for mail-order meat!

OK, the best thing is perhaps a monthly trip to the second butchers who are further away, but where I know I can be guaranteed local and free-range meat. I can always get the occasional extras from the more local butcher in order to continue to support him. If I lived in Devon, I would definitely opt for their mail-order meat, but luckily Cumbrian meat is pretty darned good, it’s just getting to the butchers when the fells are in the way!

Vegetables

The next problem was vegetables. I’m trying to grow our main vegetable supply this year, but I still need to buy our vegetables at the moment. Also, I will probably still need to supplement what I will be able to grow in pots during the rest of the year too.

The greengrocers are usually excellent, selling a range of great seasonal produce (including Seville oranges, damsons, quinces, chestnuts and wild mushrooms). I needed onions the other day, so after grabbing some rhubarb and purple-sprouting broccoli I went to get the onions. I was surprised to see that they weren’t local, they weren’t even British - and I needed onions! Feeling like a traitor, I went of the Sainsbury’s and brought British onions from there instead.

I know seasonal and local are not synonymous, and I’m the first person to herald the joys of produce from around the world, like Seville oranges. But, if something can (and does) grow well here, why is it imported?

The next question that this shopping trip raised (and it certainly raised many!) was: are the supermarkets so bad after all? If I can be guaranteed that I will be able to find British produce in them, then should I give the greengrocers a miss?

Sweets

I don’t think that there are necessarily clear answers to any of these questions. Inevitably, I think my continual shopping around between different places will produce the best results. But it certainly got me thinking.

I felt a bit like a child in an old-fashioned sweet shop with all the jars of shiny sweets in front of me and I had to choose which ones I wanted. Rather than choosing just one sort, I think I need to pick and choose small quantities from each jar.

If you have any trouble finding your best local ‘sweets’, then I’ve found the search engine on localfoodadvisor.com is a pretty useful starting point for all things foody and local in Britain.

The joys of homemade stock – beef stock recipe

I take back any reservations I had about my chicken stock, particularly the part about reducing it too much.

I used it last weekend to make risotto and it was the best risotto I’ve ever made (thanks to the stock!). My stock has never tasted that good before, I think perhaps I’ve not reduced it enough in the past.

‘It tastes like it has bits of real meat in it’, was the surprised comment that I received. We both agreed that the intensity of the flavour of the chicken meant that we could have quite happily eaten just the risotto without any other ingredients, in this instance: roasted peppers and feta, and sun-dried tomatoes. Inspired by the success of the chicken stock, I decided to try making beef stock. I’ve not attempted this before because we rarely have a joint of beef, let-alone one with bones in!

While I was in the butchers yesterday I plucked up the courage and asked the lady serving me if they had any beef bones for stock. I still can’t quite get used to the idea that what you see on display in a butchers is often just the tip of the iceberg. To me it seems rude to ask for something that means them having to go ‘through to the back’ to get it. But I think this is just my hyper-sensitive mindset – they seem quite used to it.

My confidence crumbled slightly when the lady who had originally served me said, ‘He’s just gone to look. We do sell our own stock you know’.

Where was that big hole in the ground when I needed it?

I managed to reply “Ooohh, I’ll remember that for the future. I like to make my own though, thanks”, with a big smile on my face.

I was very glad I had asked, because not only did the butcher return with a big bag of bones – but they were free!

Beef Stock Recipe:

• Beef bones (I had about 1.3 kg)
• 3 small carrots (bendy)
• 2 parsnips (bendy)
• 1 stick of celery (although I’ve just found it on the counter so I must have forgotten to put it in!)
• the top of a leek from the other day
• 2 onions
• 10 peppercorns
• 2 bay leaves
• 250 ml of red wine
• a pinch of salt
• a pinch of dried thyme or a sprig of fresh thyme
• water

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees (Celsius).

Cut the veg into 2cm chunks and the onions in half (or quarters if large). (I used vegetable I had lying around, I don’t think the quantities really matter hugely as long as there are at least carrots and onions in there somewhere.)

Put the meat, veg and peppercorns in the a roasting tin.

Pop this in the oven for 30 mins.

When the veg and the meat have started to go crispy around the edges, remove the tray from the oven.

Put the meat and veg in a large pot. Add the salt and thyme. 

Add the wine to the baking tray, and whilst it is still warm use the liquid to release any bits that have stuck to the bottom or sides. Then pour the liquid and bits into the pan. 

Bring to the boil, remove and scum that may have developed (I found that very little had formed), reduce the temperature so that it barely simmers and cover the pot. My largest pot is without a lid at the moment, it must have been packed away in the move by mistake, so I just covered mine with a double layer of tin foil.

(Be prepared for the whole house to take on the aroma of akin to a rich gravy for most of the day!)

After about 7 hours (I got a bit carried-away with writing!), strain the liquid and then boil for about 20 mins. This allows it to reduce and therefore intensifies the flavour. Also, it goes a really nice caramel colour.

Allow it to cool completely. Remove the solidified fat from the top and discard it. Put the stock into containers and store in the fridge or freezer.

This made just under a 1 3/4 pints (about 800ml) of stock.