Friday 21 November 2008

A Great Butcher

Ok, well the quest for great meat is never ending. We have been ordering our meat from sheepdrove farm for a while. It is truly excellent, try it. http://www.sheepdrove.com/ They are very reliable at delivery and the quality is always topnotch - excellent offers on whole or half mutton and the best birds ever.

Braywick Farm butchers is a small add-on to the farm shop and reminds me a lot of the butchers on small town high streets when I was a child. There are always a brace or several of pheasant hanging, rabbits lying waiting to have "thier jackets taken off" and big hunks of meat to choose from. The prices are excellent, and I will wholeheartedly recommend the lamb. They also stock a rarity in this part of the world, beloved to the Asian and Carribean cooks, goat meat.

Happy eating!

Monday 4 August 2008

Courgettes on the Grill

To celebrate the benevolence of mother nature we decided on a barbeque in between rain showers.

Grilled courgettes
Slice 6 courgettes finely, lengthways.
Brush lightly with olive oil and grill on a medium hot barbeque for ten minutes
Tzatziki
One large cucumber
Several spoonfuls greek yoghurt
large bunch mint
juice of one lime
one garlic clove, crushed

Shred the cucumber, chop the mint and stir in yoghurt, garlic and lime juice. Season to taste.

We ate this rolled up in a soft flour tortilla with some salad from the garden. We have had great success with a type of lettuce leaf that is pale green and curly, also perpetual spinach is a winner in salad. Enjoy!

Saturday 2 August 2008

First Blog



Just a baby 5 weeks ago - hard to believe it is now huge and fecund! This week it seems to be the week of the courgette. My four plants are producing yellow, thick courgettes daily. I learnt the very helpful tip of artificially pollenating them - just dip your fingertip into the male flower (the ones without a courgette forming) and then spread the yellow pollen into the female flower (the one with a courgette forming) this stops the courgetts starting to rot and not forming properly, which can be a problem if you don' t have lots and lots of bees. I don't see as many bees as I would like so I always dip my finger in!





I used my courgettes for:


A courgette Lasagne: Make as per a usual lasagne but use thinly sliced courgettes instead of pasta


Deep fried courgette flowers (a la Jamie Oliver) stuffed with mozerella and mint.


Thinly shredded in char sui mai.





Currently I am working from a small garden in surrey, the transition to small holder in the coutryside will be happening in the next year or so. For now, I am experimenting, learning and becoming inspired!

Will post some courgie- inspired pics in the morning.