Radek's Tudor meal

Cooking at the weekend I created a trio of meals using bits I had found in the freezer.

• Mutton hot pot which I made from cooked and trimmed mutton breasts.... using the biggest pan I have, plus 2kg of potatoes, 1kg of carrots, ½ kg white onions, salt, pepper, bay leaves from the garden and some stock. Unfortunately no black pudding for this but as with all the “let’s follow a recipe” it’s followed with “ what do we have in” so a bit of making it up as you go along seems to work well for me. 
• Then, unpacking the second bag of what I thought also held mutton breast, found some cooked chicken from some banty cockerels which I froze when I couldn’t use them all at once. What to do with the chicken? Why not put it in a chicken hot pot same as the mutton? 

Using my (no expense spared) mandolin to slice all the veg for both the pans, I made some lovely thin veg in no time at all, although I also ended up having to double the quantities of veg to do both hot pots.
Layers of potatoes, carrots, onions, meat, on top of layers of potatoes, carrots, onions, meat.... anyway you get the idea. Fill the pan up to the top with stock, bring to the boil then cook below simmer for a couple of hours or so, both for the mutton and for the chicken.
Everyone else was out of the house at this point so I had the kitchen all to myself, but the hot pot factory peace was shattered by the return of the family.... young Farmer Sharp Juniors (there are two of them) came in to ask what was I doing (“not sure” I thought.... as ever making it up as I go along with no plan and no meal ever the same twice).

• Third, I had four mutton shanks. I browned the mutton shanks until nearly burnt then proceeded to put them in a double oven size roasting dish on a bed of rosemary thyme and some bay leaves, all from the garden, plus whole peeled potatoes, whole carrots and whole peeled onions. For a change, there was no garlic in anything and the results are plain to see looking at Radek’s picture of him eating in the time-honoured style that would have made Henry the VIII proud.

Young Farmer Sharp - Guest post by Michael Sharp

As the son of Farmer Sharp, I sometimes find myself in food related conversations before I know it. 

I was in a pub the other night, and when I should have been dancing and chatting up the girls, I ended up sat at the bar talking to a farmer for half an hour about sheep, farming and food. Food must just run in my blood. 

These conversations don’t just happen just with food industry people either. I often find myself in debates with people - like in one instance, there was a girl at college determined she was going to be a vegetarian, using the justification of ‘killing animals is wrong’, but all the while walking around in leather shoes. Knowing what I know, this got my hackles up and we battled it out about the production of leather for the entire lunch hour. Can’t blame the lass as she was totally uneducated about food, and probably thought a potato came from a tree. 

I’m assuming that she can’t be and most certainly isn’t the only person in this group (uneducated about food), and obviously this needs to change if people are to lead better, healthier lifestyles. If I can learn, so can everyone else. They just need a good teacher.

Bounty of the hedgerow

In the hedgerow this year are an abundance of autumnal fruits like blackberries - the fruit of the thorny avaricious weed that is the bramble. 

A couple weeks ago, my lad Radek and I went just five hundred yards from our house to pick blackberries. As a part of the essential tool kit, I took my very special (amazing) walking stick made by my very good friend Simon Grant-Jones, U.K.  champion blacksmith, and a milk carton adapted for blackberry-ing ....really all ewe need for a successful day out.;-)

Radek had his own cut of a plastic milk bottle, but his picking technique consisted of mostly “one for the pot, most in his mouth”.

The requirements for blackberry-ing (in addition to the fine walking stick) are, an immunity to nettle stings (as when you find brambles, you inevitably find nettles), and an eagle eye out for the bramble thorns. 

Be prepared for the fact that the best fruit are totally out of reach, hence the need for the stick. You’ll find also, that as you pull that lovely group of perfectly ripe fruit, unless ewe are lucky and can put your adapted milk carton under the ripe fruit to catch them, the best of them will fall on the floor into a really inaccessible place.

Also, as you let the branch spring back into place, the fruit you missed that were obscured by a bunch of leaves, will always look better than the fruit you just picked.

After you’ve spent an hour or two in the middle of a tangled mess of thorny brambles, the rewards of a blackberry and apple pie or crumble are second to none.  Without doubt the most rewarding and enjoyable pudding ever. Sat round the table with the kids eating you’ll find it even better with a bit of custard or fresh cream. 

Those of you in towns and cities will probably find this process just as easy as I did, and if not this year, try it the next as the relentless bramble takes hold of any ground given half a chance.