The Cottage Smallholder

We don’t tend to have a starter on Christmas day as I prefer to serve canapés if people are feeling peckish. Traditionally these are smoked salmon on thinly sliced brown bread. Danny is a bit picky about the sort of salmon that he likes, ideally the salmon should be wild and not farmed. But as Read More »

  The joint of wild boar was excellent. I chose a recipe from the superb Italian cookbook The Silver Spoon as my starting point for the leg joint. Although it was delicious, the sauce was a bit too strong for home reared wild boar (and I left out the vinegar!). The flavour of our joint Read More »

  “Are you really up for making a frittata. It’s such a palaver, peeling and boiling all those potatoes.” “I’m not doing potatoes.” Danny was horrified. “But we have to have potatoes. That’s the best bit.” “I’m using the left over roast potatoes from Sunday.” “Oh. I didn’t know there were leftovers.” Ever since Veronica Read More »

  Danny likes our cauliflower cheese especially when I add ham and tomatoes and serve it with garlic bread. Quite often I pick up 6 pints of milk from the Tesco CFC and make it into white sauce, ladled into plastic zip lock bags and frozen flat in the freezer. This takes the strain out of Read More »

  This is another in our skinflint soup series. This delicious soup was run up with leftovers that could easily have just been thrown away. They made an elegant soup. The two key ingredients are mushroom ketchup and the zest of the orange which transformed this soup from good to sublime. Danny chickened out on Read More »

  This summer I stopped at the Marshalls stand at Hampton Court flower show and bought a selection of salad, radish, spring onion and stir fry leaves for a fiver. The overall saving was about £12 and I’m a bit of a sucker for a bargain. The seeds have been sown every few weeks and Read More »

I reckon that the best risottos contain a range of textures as well as combination of flavours, This risotto hits the mark on both fronts. We scoffed the lot – even I had seconds. But this could easily feed four, with a starter and a crisp green salad. As it only uses one duck breast Read More »

Danny and I are not Salad People. I don’t know quite what Salad People are – I imagine them chomping quinoa and feeling rather smug about their bowel movements. We tried quinoa once. This summer I have been seducing D with salads and dressings that have made this meat and two veg man finally throw Read More »

Danny found some rice noodles on the condemned food counter at Tesco and we decided to try making a stir fry with some of the leftover St Clements chicken and gravy. This was really quick and easy to make and quite delicious. Packed with lots of subtle, summery flavours, the sweet Romano peppers balancing the Read More »

We cured and smoked our own ham this year. It was delicious and a proper old fashioned half leg. We were thrilled that it worked out as I had tweaked our bacon cure, upping the salt by 25%. This is still far less than the HFW cure and every other recipe that I’ve found on Read More »