This year I am going to try to do several food things,
Firstly I am going to give up beef. I expect it will creep in from time to time, but on the whole we only really eat it as mince and brisket and shin, and we can probably survive without these. Most mince requirements can be taken by lamb, pork and turkey, and quorn is fantastically good in a lot of things - makes a very acceptable chili or bolognese. Can try it in stuffed veg etc I suppose.
The second things is to try and diversify the diet, we are a very meaty household, so I will try and reduce that. We have tried to keep to one meatless evening meal a week, but usually a scrap of bacon or something creeps in.
Thirdly, I will try to cook one new dish each week, and use more varied ingredients. The main obstacle to this is Finn (although my nephew Harry wasn't impressed with the pheasant either!). The first attempt was a New Year's Day dinner of pheasant casserole.
This is a recipe I got from Google, a BBC James Martin recipe which I stuck to fairly rigorously. It goes something like this:
Brown two pheasants all over in butter. Remove from pan, fry chopped celery stalk, onion, a few chopped sage leaves (10) and 100g chopped bacon in the fat. Return pheasant to pot, season, pour over 300ml chicken stock (I used stock from the Christmas tongue - it was fine) and 600ml dry cider, add 2 or 3 apples, quartered and cored, I left the peels on and it seemed fine as flesh held together better. Bring to simmer then cook in oven 4/190/170 for 25 mins (I cooked them longer). Pour off juices and add sliced cabbage (I used brussels sprouts) and cook them in the stock until done, then add some cream and serve with mash.
This is a nice recipe, simple and tasty but not one that will have you in ecstasy. The pheasant was quite gamey and the boys weren't impressed, even though I cut it all off the bone. I now have a fair bit of cold pheasant and am not sure what to do with it. I think I will have to pot it! And then no one will eat that! But I can serve it on bread for the Epiphany leftover party.
Firstly I am going to give up beef. I expect it will creep in from time to time, but on the whole we only really eat it as mince and brisket and shin, and we can probably survive without these. Most mince requirements can be taken by lamb, pork and turkey, and quorn is fantastically good in a lot of things - makes a very acceptable chili or bolognese. Can try it in stuffed veg etc I suppose.
The second things is to try and diversify the diet, we are a very meaty household, so I will try and reduce that. We have tried to keep to one meatless evening meal a week, but usually a scrap of bacon or something creeps in.
Thirdly, I will try to cook one new dish each week, and use more varied ingredients. The main obstacle to this is Finn (although my nephew Harry wasn't impressed with the pheasant either!). The first attempt was a New Year's Day dinner of pheasant casserole.
This is a recipe I got from Google, a BBC James Martin recipe which I stuck to fairly rigorously. It goes something like this:
Brown two pheasants all over in butter. Remove from pan, fry chopped celery stalk, onion, a few chopped sage leaves (10) and 100g chopped bacon in the fat. Return pheasant to pot, season, pour over 300ml chicken stock (I used stock from the Christmas tongue - it was fine) and 600ml dry cider, add 2 or 3 apples, quartered and cored, I left the peels on and it seemed fine as flesh held together better. Bring to simmer then cook in oven 4/190/170 for 25 mins (I cooked them longer). Pour off juices and add sliced cabbage (I used brussels sprouts) and cook them in the stock until done, then add some cream and serve with mash.
This is a nice recipe, simple and tasty but not one that will have you in ecstasy. The pheasant was quite gamey and the boys weren't impressed, even though I cut it all off the bone. I now have a fair bit of cold pheasant and am not sure what to do with it. I think I will have to pot it! And then no one will eat that! But I can serve it on bread for the Epiphany leftover party.
