Cooking the goose...

Well, my goose was cooked well ahead of time - and eaten! I came down with some flu bug or other last week, and so had done very little to organise the famous Christmas pressies, or food or wine, and I was in dire need of a pick-me-up to get me into the frame of mind for all the hassle. I love goose, as does my mother and my husband. My brother was a little unsure of whether or not it would be to his liking, but was prepared to give it a go. So, on Sunday - well ahead of the Christmas day dinner - I cooked a goose for us to have. No ordinary goose though - this was a Jenny special - organic beautiful goose, well-reared and ready for cooking! I collected it on Saturday, and cooked it on Sunday. No additives whatsoever - just goose and heat. I took my timings from Richard Corrigans cookbook, although I didnt bother with the rest of his recipe - I wanted simple plain cooking to show off the flavours of this wonderful bird. Amazingly, I didnt add even lemon or garlic to the cooking - all I did was to prick the goose all over with a sharp knife so that the fat could come out of the flesh, placed it in the oven at a high temperature for the first 20 minutes and then reduced the heat to 160 for a further 2 1/2 hours. And the result? The most sublime taste, served with roast potatoes (naturally cooked in the goose fat) and roast carrots, along with some organic cauliflower and a simple apple sauce. We had it with some red Burgundy - although a good Bordeaux or Italian red would have worked really well. And we have great goose fat left to use for more roast spuds or whatever for the next while - just enough to bring back the memories of this great meal!

Help! Its Christmas...

All of a sudden, its only a week to Christmas. And to say that I am not organised for it is a serious understatement. I have put up the wreath - a beautiful one from Judith at the market, I have found last year's Christmas decorations after much searching, but they are still in a bag looking at me balefully - or is that me looking at them balefully?? As anyone who knows me will appreciate, I wouldnt ignore the food side of things so I have ordered goose and lamb for Christmas and that will happen ok, but I am so not on top of the Christmas present buying, it is not funny. My plan had been to make loads of edible pressies, and to use them to personalise whatever other small gift I would find for friends and family. But, apart from a couple of jars of preserves, I havent actually made anything else yet! Nor have I done much searching for the presents that have to be bought. I had a sense of complacency due to my having found the perfect present for my mother - but hadnt actually bought it. Of course, when I went back to buy it - they were all sold out. That deflated my admittedly mild enthusiasm for going out into shops full of hordes of people all with grim determination to find that perfect present. However, time for prevarication and procrastination is now over. Today is the day - if only I could summon up the energy that is lacking due to me being awake for a few hours in the middle of the night pondering about all sorts of things, before falling into an unrestful few hours sleep, where I had nightmares about weird Christmas presents. Very sad, I am...

Pig meat recall in Ireland

Listening to the radio this morning, I was very taken aback at the news that all pig meat was being recalled in Ireland (and on its export market) due to the presence of PCBs in routine samples taken earlier this week. It emerged that the cause of the toxins was due to animal feed from one feed supplier, and apparently only a small number of farms used that feed supplier. However, as pig processing is carried out in a very small number of plants around the country, it was impossible to separate out the pork products. I am puzzled that this is the case, as surely we have traceability schemes in place for this very sort of reason? What is the point of having extensive management systems in place - which presumably add considerable cost to meat production - if these systems dont work when there is a problem?

It does of course throw up many other issues - not least whether or not it was a wise decision to concentrate meat processing into a small number of plants around the country? While perfectly understandable from a logical perspective - that it is easier to control and manage large scale facilities rather than a myriad of small-scale processors - it does mean that when there is a problem, it becomes a large problem very quickly, and a whole section of the industry has gone into crisis due to an initially small problem. Diversification and dispersion of effort has its own benefits which shouldnt be ignored or forgotten.

I feel very sorry for the people who have now been caught up in a crisis not of their own making, particularly at this time of year when the Christmas tradition of having a ham as part of Christmas dinner would have meant a major boost to incomes at a difficult time in the economy and in farming - as well as the many other products which are being affected. The versatility of pork products will mean that all sorts of prepared and processed foods will also have to be recalled, and throw a lot of businesses into chaos.

One does wonder how PCBs managed to infiltrate animal feed - one rumour is that the covers of stale bread managed to get into the feed? Are PCBs in materials used to wrap bread - that is nearly more scary! Back to meat though - Given that humans are at the top of the food chain, maybe it is time to rethink our approach to cheap meat production - if the end result is food with toxins in it. Bad source materials at one end of the food chain surely will not disappear at the other end of the food chain - are we that foolish that we dont see the connection?

Recessionary times and healthy eating & living

As most of the world seems to be in the grips of a recession (I've even heard it being called a depression, which is even worse!), it is hard to know how people will respond when they have less money in their pockets, and in their bank accounts - that is if they still trust the banks to mind their money properly...

On the one hand, it could make people learn to cook at home, creating a whole new wave of social behaviour of eating healthy good food, cooked from scratch, because the ready-made food section is very expensive for what you get, and anyway, if you're at home because you cant afford to go out, then it makes great use of all that extra time you have - and lets face it, TV is fairly awful most of the time, so you cant really watch the rerun of the rerun of a not very good comedy show - again!! And if you cook that little bit extra - then you have the leftovers for your lunch the next day (yes, it is time to buy that lunch-box and pack it with home-cooked food!).

On the other hand, and this is probably more likely, people will have to work harder to stay at work, worried about holding onto their job and prepared to work all hours to be seen to be doing a good job. They'll then head home and will have little choice of fresh food available to them on their way home, and then will be too tired to cook from scratch when they arrive in the door, so will pick up a take-away meal, or a convenience meal or a frozen pizza or whatever the easiest option will be... and the end result will be poorer health - you cant be healthy if you dont eat healthily - it is simply an impossibility in the long-term. This will then turn into a vicious circle, as if you are less healthy, you'll have less energy, and then working long hours will mean that your energy reserves will be depleted, and then you'll be prone to illness, or just plain tiredness...

So, if anyone is looking for a New Year's resolution - yes I know its a bit early, but at the same time... why not think about how you can turn recessionary times into a recipe for better health? Things to try... - dont try them all at the same time, as you'll never do it - just add one each fortnight and see how you get on...

Get out and walk or cycle to work - save yourself the bus-fare, or the petrol if you normally drive - and yes, there are dry days in January/February so no excuses for not doing healthy exercise three times a week at least.

Try and cook your evening meal from scratch - yes, starting with fresh raw ingredients - just go for it at least part of the week. If your cooking skills are non-existent, then learn some (you could even come to one of my cookery courses, but of course there are lots of them around). If you cant afford to pay for a cookery course, then get a friend who can cook to teach you - it is great fun and really easy to learn - so, no excuses on that one!

If you think that you'll be too tired during the week, then do your main shopping at the week-end. For me certainly, I never mind the cooking, its the shopping I dont like - crowds in the supermarket, dismal lack of choice and people looking like zombies - not the kind of experience to cheer you up at the end of a long day... If you go to a farmer's market, rather than to your supermarket, you are likely to get fresher food, and it'll be a positive experience as most stall-holders are only too happy to talk to you - a far cry from the experience in most supermarkets I know of. Find out when there is one near you. Then pick healthy ingredients - yes, you do know which ones to go for - and if you dont, email me and I'll be happy to help you with a top 20 list of good foods.

When you cook your dinner, make enough to freeze for another day, or enough to throw together a lunch-box for work the next day. Occasionally, make up a batch of fresh soup - great to have in the freezer for emergencies - there are literally thousands of recipes on the internet for soups, but if you want some ideas, I'm happy to help with some recipes - for starters try the squash soup recipe on this blog.

If you have any garden at all - or even a window box - grow some edible plants, particularly herbs - many of them have medicinal extra benefits as well as adding great tastes to your food - and the sense of pride you get when you can pick your own herbs to add to dishes is fantastic.

Is that enough??

Join the library - these days the range of books is pretty good, and it is free for the most-part (well, unless you're like me and forget to bring back the books, thus defeating the whole purpose of getting free books, because you've to pay huge fines!)

Join a book-club - I joined one earlier this year and have made some lovely new friends. If you're not into books, join a club which does interest you - most of them are really cheap to join and you'll get out and about with a purpose while the dark winter nights pass by!

You dont have to join a gym to get fit - walking an hour a day at a good pace will do the trick - just make sure you have good fitting walking shoes and that you wear visible clothing if you are walking in a non-lit area. Other sports clubs always welcome new people - and you dont even have to play competitively - there are lots of things that non-playing members can help out with, and you can just join in the practice sessions.

I think the most important thing of all is to remain positive. If our recession does indeed turn into a depression - it is called that for a reason, so dont give into it. As there are really strong links between healthy eating and energy, and between healthy exercise and even more energy, these are the things to focus on while the world economy tries to sort itself out. And who knows what opportunities times like this could throw your direction, so stay alert!

Lamb meat-balls with tomato, roast peppers and herby dip

I was experimenting with flavours last week, for once trying to prepare a dish that would match a wine, rather than the other way around. The wine in question was a St Emilion Grand Cru, one of the wines that we are working with our wine importing partners to market and showcase. I decided that lamb would work well, with a tomato and herb-based dip to go with some lamb meatballs. Due to the higher fat content in lamb, I thought it would work better to reheat than beef meatballs, and I wanted to play with the tastes in the dip to match. I roasted some red and yellow peppers in the oven - 20 minutes max, and then didnt even try and remove the skin afterwards. In the meantime, I chopped up a large clove of garlic, and softened it in some warm olive oil. I then hunted in the garden for some herbs and found some thyme, oregano and mint - mostly mint! I added this to the olive oil and garlic mix. I then blitzed the peppers and herb mix in the food processor and put them back onto the heat once they were fairly well blitzed. I then added about 200ml of tomato passata and about a glass of red wine and a generous squeeze of lemon juice (you have to taste it at this stage to know how much lemon juice to add, as it all depends on the sweetness of the peppers and the style of red wine. Finally, I seasoned it fairly generously with salt and black pepper. For the lamb meatballs: Cook off finely chopped onion (about half a small onion for a kilo of lamb mince and garlic - and some chilli if you are so inclined!. Then when that has cooled, add into lamb mince, salt and pepper - you can then form either small meatballs or larger kofti shaped ones - or even burger size if you want... Fry them in olive oil until browned and then finish off in the oven - 5 minutes for the smaller ones, up to 10 if you have burger size. As this dish went down so well, I will have to do it again, paying more attention to the quantities, and publish it on the website as a proper recipe... And it worked really well with the St Emilion - great dish for a supper party as it reheats wonderfully well...