Giant potato croquette recipe
My mother used to reheat yesterday’s mashed potato with milk, in a saucepan, very gently. This wasn’t good – it had a wishy-washy taste. Up until two weeks ago we made potato cakes if we had some left-over mash knocking about in the fridge and were feeling galvanised. More often than not, the bowl would be pressed into a dark area of the fridge where food mysteriously vanishes until it is exhumed days later to make room for something fresh. One lazy day last week, I opened the fridge and found a decent sized bowl of cold...
read moreDo you speak Parmesan?
Danny has a natural ability for languages. Spanish, Irish, Italian and a smattering of Latin. He learnt Italian on CDs when he was commuting weekly to Exeter for a year. I find that keeping au fait with the English language is pretty stretching. In France I can get by if my aunt and her famous pen are to hand. Otherwise I’m mute. I’ve spotted that the French are extremely polite to each other, so when I’m forced into a shop by D, who unfortunately is still saving up for the “Bonjour France” CDs, I am marvellous...
read morePheasant stew with mushrooms, oven baked shallots and Puy lentils recipe
This is the first time that The Cottage Smallholder has participated in a blog event. ‘Waiter There’s Something In My…’ is hosted across three great sites. The first theme is stews. *See the bottom of this post for the link to the details. Tasty pheasant dishes needn’t be rich to be good. This stew is packed with flavour and is good to eat at this stage in the season when you might be beginning to suffer from a surfeit of rich game dishes. We call this condition Pheasantitis. The only remedy is to freeze the birds...
read moreCelebrity Cottage Smallholder
There was a rush for the front door this morning. Not to read the newspapers but to find our free gifts. Danny was triumphant, waving the British Bird Song CD over his head. “Just what I’ve always wanted. This is so useful.” If only I’d known at Christmas. My offers were not quite so appealing. A Shlipa Shetty Bollywood DVD (I have to send away for this) and eat out for ?10 at a gastro pub (if I collect the tokens). Danny, his head tiny between bulky studio headphones, was in heaven as the CD twittered away in his ears....
read morePheasant braised with grapes, clementine juice and white wine recipe
Sometimes the Cottage Smallholder game plucking service comes in very handy. We’ll pluck and draw some game in exchange for a brace of pheasant or partridge. This gives us a good supply of fresh game right through the shooting season. This is our own recipe for pheasant and grapes, braised in clementine juice and white wine. The fruit both tenderises the flesh and balances well with the rich meat of the pheasant. Loads of summery flavours. The ginger wine was an experiment that worked surprisingly well. This is quick to prepare and...
read moreCarol (the chicken)
Carol, our Maran hen started laying again on Saturday. Large brown eggs with deep orange yolks. I have a soft spot for her. She is the first hen that we raised from an egg. Carol is special. We were happy with our hens until Thumper, a ginger layer, became broody. I was working locally at my friend Carol’s house and bemoaned my fate. I’d tried shifting the hen off the nest every few hours but she would stalk back up to the nesting box and settle again immediately. At this early stage in my chicken keeping experience, I didn’t...
read moreGilbert’s Seville orange gin recipe
In January, Gilbert makes Seville orange gin whilst Marjorie is making marmalade. He says there’s nothing like a glass with a stale husk of bread when their marmalade runs out. I’m sure that this never happens as I’ve seen Marjorie stirring dustbin sized vats on their Aga. Their house was filled with the heavy scent of marmalade last weekend. Like us, they simmer their marmalade for hours to get the depth of flavour and dark colour that livens up even the soggiest piece of toast. We’ve known Gilbert for years but were...
read moreNarcissus: Paper Whites are flowering for us
When my Mum left at the end of her Christmas visit this year, she asked me to open the boot of her car. She had a funny glinty look so I was intrigued as I put the key in the look. Snuggled up beside the tyre jack was a bowl planted with paper white narcissii. I was delighted. In an instant she had filled a yawning gap. Usually we buy bulbs and plant them in large bowls for the cottage so that they’ll flower for us indoors through January and February. Once they are over, I plant the paper whites in a sunny protected spot in the garden...
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