The Cottage Smallholder


stumbling self sufficiency in a small space


Delicious brisket of beef recipe – slow cooked with root vegetables

Posted in Beef and Steak and Veal | 6 comments

Delicious brisket of beef recipe – slow cooked with root vegetables

  As you know Danny haunts the Tesco *CFC when he does the evening post run to Newmarket. He finds spectacular bargains – lots of seafood (responsibly harvested otherwise passed over by his giant paws) and this week a 1 kilo joint of brisket of beef reduced to just £1.50. I’d not cooked brisket before and discovered that this joint is ideal for the slow cooker/crock pot/low oven of the Aga. I decided to treat it a bit like our pot au feu recipe but add even more vegetables to pad out the meat. My recipe also contains a lot of delicious...

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Superb slow cooked lamb casserole recipe (posh lamb stew)

Posted in Lamb | 13 comments

Superb slow cooked lamb casserole recipe (posh lamb stew)

  I used not to be much of a fan of lamb casserole or stew. I think that I made it once for Danny and didn’t like it as it tasted bland and fattylike all the lamb casseroles I’d tasted before. Back then I didn’t have a slow cooker/crock pot – which is great for enhancing the flavour of cheaper cuts of meat. This week the scales fell from my eyes when I used some lamb shoulder neck chops at the Highgate Farm Shop. Six chunky chops (900g) for just over four quid. Feeling thrifty I bought them, determined to make something...

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Egg and bacon pie recipe

Posted in Pork Ham Bacon Sausages, Savoury Pies | 25 comments

Egg and bacon pie recipe

  As a child egg and bacon pie was a traditional picnic dish and I loved it. This is not a quiche. The eggs are unbroken and the texture and flavour of the combination of short crust pastry, floury egg yolks, silky egg whites and thick cut bacon is out of this world. I had forgotten all about this pie until The Chicken Lady served it when we went the Hampton Court Flower Show two years ago. I could have guzzled the entire pie but politeness made me hold back and only accept two slices. Since then I have dreamt about it, on and off. Faced with...

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Cooking in advance

Posted in Cottage tales | 5 comments

Cooking in advance

  We had someone special coming for supper last night and as it was going to be a busy day I decided to cook everything in advance except the vegetables. I managed to get my hands on a wild rabbit and made a bone in casserole in the slow cooker the day before. I used this recipe to get the correct balance of ingredients to the weight of the rabbit. I rolled the rabbit portions in flour and put all the ingredients in the slow cooker. I set the knob to high and after about an hour – when it was starting to simmer – I switched it to low...

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