The Cottage Smallholder

The Chicken Lady, who writes the excellent blog Kitty’s Super Allotment, was cooking pigs’ cheeks with apples when I popped in a few weeks ago. “I think that the butcher just sliced them off the head. Look there’s a piece of ear.” Initially I felt a bit squirmy about tasting this dish. But these were quite Read More »

  Why chicken thighs again? For one thing, it makes a succulent, tasty and economical meal. Also, Fiona split her jam making over two days, which is a great idea because it is then less of a major task. The house is filled with the aroma from the two jam saucepans. One has wild plum Read More »

Simple boiled rice, such as good basmati, or a dish like frittata can be a joy, especially if you add a little something to lift it above the ordinary. In my wilder years, I learned to cook by trial and error after accepting a position in a Chelsea, London household even though I did not Read More »

“How about Wiener Schnitzel for supper tonight?” Danny looked unimpressed. Picking through the freezer I had found some small veal escalopes that I’d picked up from the Tesco *CFC a few weeks ago. One was a little smaller than my hand and the other barely reached across my palm. Wiener Schnitzel seemed the sensible option. Read More »

Growing up there were a handful of meals that I really liked my mum to cook. One of these was curry. Back in those days curry powder was the norm, with the remains of the Sunday roast diced into the mix. I loved the exotic colour of the sauce but it was the way that Read More »

I love meatballs. But only the melt in the mouth variety. Having sharpened my teeth on  ultra firm chewy meatballs, I decided never to attempt to make them myself. What was the point? Why push hardened walnut sized balls of meat onto anyone else? Several years ago Danny’s special brother, Donagh, gave me the secret of melt Read More »

For years it has hurt me to throw away the green outer leaves of the cauliflower. I have simmered them for the chickens in the past but mainly they are added to our kitchen compost bin. Having had the tip from John Coe – that all the leaves on the sprouting broccoli plant are edible Read More »

These are a collection of recipes inspired by cut price, soon to be out of date, supermarket food. I have discovered that this sort of shopping has made my cooking a lot more inventive and it’s really satisfying to create something delicious out of ingredients that would otherwise be destined for landfill. Many years ago I was Read More »

Poussin – a baby chicken weighing about 500g – has been one of my standbys for years. Easy to cook, great if you are living alone as one can easily stretch to two or even three meals as long as you’re not keen on meat heavy meals. The main drawback to a poussin is that Read More »

Danny and I love pak choi (also known as bok choi and Horses Ear). This Chinese vegetable is a member of the cabbage family and cooks in two minutes when it’s sliced and simmered fast. It’s a great side vegetable with a richer dish as it tastes very clean – a cross between spinach and Read More »