Best vegetarian recipes: Delia’s Vegetarian Shepherd’s pie with a tweak
We are chomping our way through veggie dishes on alternate nights. Actually, it’s been a joy so far. Great flavours and combinations. A revelation. Danny wakes me in the mornings. As he’s putting down my large mug of sweetened tea, he gently enquires who is cooking tonight. “It’s me and it’s vegetarian tonight.” “Great!” This response has as much to do with not having to cook as relishing the dishes that appear on the table. Delia’s vegetarian shepherd’s pie is truly wonderful. So...
read moreGuest spot: Back to the woods! By Huw Woodman from The Bushcraft Magazine
Here’s our February contribution from The Bushcraft Magazine. This great magazine is a brilliant publication, packed with interesting and inspirational articles. We reviewed it here. Each month an article from the magazine will appear on the Cottage Smallholder site. Huw Woodman’s been walking around our woodlands in the early spring. The southeast has some of Britain’s most beautiful woodlands. They may not be the most spectacular, but they have a quiet charm that is unbeatable, especially as the year begins to unfold;...
read moreSeasonal for some: Baked red bell peppers with tomatoes, pesto and preserved lemons recipe
I love seasonal cooking. The arrival of Winter Celery, beetroot and asparagus has tiny hands clapping with glee at the Cottage Smallholder. But we still buy tomatoes and peppers throughout the year. I look at the little aeroplane label on the pack and feel a twinge of guilt as I place them carefully in the delicates section of my trolley. There are many ways of preserving these summer harvests for winter use. Perhaps this year I will finally get my act together and bottle them. Oded Schwartz’s Preserving book has loads of great recipes...
read moreOlive oil and walnut vinegar dressing recipe
I’m working for my American friend Mike, down in Saffron Walden. We’re both busy so lunch is brief but always interesting. A couple of days ago he opened a can of tuna, mixed it with lashings of black pepper and a couple of tablespoons of mayo. He spread this on elegant crackers, put a thin slice of giant tomato on top and drizzled it with some homemade dressing that he grabbed from the fridge. Watching anyone prepare food is always interesting. If I am hungry, the process has an extra allure. Meanwhile I was heating up some...
read moreHard frost
We’ve had some very hard frosts for a few days now. The grass hasn’t unfrozen before the crisp dark sky freezes each strand again with tiny shards of ice. I am hoping these frosts will kill the blight spores that attacked our potatoes last year. The plants were black within days and the tubers didn’t last long before they softened and rotted. Irish grown potatoes are much more floury than ones raised in England. D’s father planted earlier – mid March and lifted the first potatoes in mid July. I discovered by...
read moreTastes from across the water
Donagh laid the long pack of breakfast sausages (16 sausages per pound weight) on the kitchen worktop. “What have you got there?” Danny was curious. “Back in the forties when our Mam was young and training in Dublin, she was instructed to bring a pack of Hafner’s sausages home to Oylegate each weekend. It was imperative that she carried out the mission. The company eventually vanished but a few years ago someone found the recipe and they started production again. I’ve bought a pack of Denny’s too. The famous...
read moreUpdate on the Farming Friends – Cottage Smallholder Interblog Guinea Fowl Breeding Event. A new home for the boys.
June 2007 saw the launch of the Farming Friends – Cottage Smallholder Guinea fowl breeding event, when Sara sent us six guinea fowl eggs in the post to put under our broody hen Mrs Boss. Since then our guinea fowl have grown up and become sexually mature. With 3 cocks and one hen, we needed to find a home for two lone cocks. While we waited to find a suitable home our guinea fowl have finally sorted themselves out. Cloud, our lone guinea hen, has chosen her mate. A handsome hero of the beach type, with large pendulous wattles and...
read moreFlying visit from Donagh
Danny’s favourite youngest brother is over from Ireland. Donagh is everything that a special brother should be. He reminisces with D and helps me with projects. “Do you remember how Lassie would look after the day old chicks?” “I was away at school by then.” Danny was tenderly turning the steaks. “Well, she’d lie on the ground and herd the chicks back to their mothers, very carefully with her paws. I’d watch her for hours. She’d mother any baby thing. Took over Bing’s pups when she...
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