Salmon Risotto

 On the meat front, the original EatingBritish project was actually quite easy.  A quick glance over almost any supermarket meat section will reveal that a significant quantity, if not all, of the meat was produced in the UK.  However, one of the areas that does become slightly questionable is fish.  When is a fish a British fish?  When it's caught in British waters perhaps?  I'm still slightly undecided on this issue myself, so instead I make do with sustainably farmed fish, which is definately produced in Britain!  In this case, I am using Scottish farmed salmon.  I quite like a nice piece of salmon every now and again, particularly pan fried (click on the 'fish' label to the left to see more recipies).  However, I thought I would try something a little different this time round and so I tried a salmon risotto.
 Salmon is ideal for a risotto because it requires only the gentlest of cooking, assuming its nice and fresh to start with, so it can go into the cooking pot right at the last minute.  Here is a nice piece of Scottish farmed salmon:

To make the risotto is really easy.  Heat some oil and butter (the oil raises the smoke point of the butter, allowing a higher heat to be used, but still giving the nice buttery flavour) in a pan and fry a finely chopped onion on a medium heat until soft.  Add about half a cup of rice.  Some would say to use risotto rice, which is certainly very good, but to be honest I used regular, long grain rice and it worked just fine for me.  Stir this around for a couple of minutes.  Meanwhile, make some chicken stock (I just use cubes, but if you have fresh stock it would be awesome!).  After the rice has been in the butter/onion/oil mixture in the pan for a few minutes, start adding the stock.  You want to do this quite slowly, allowing it to be absorbed by the rice before adding a bit more.  For this amount of rice, I found 3/4 pint of chicken stock worked very well.  You can always add more water if the rice still isn't cooked by the time you've used up all the stock, but it's much harder to take excess water out without over cooking the rice!
 While the rice is cooking, cut the salmon into cubes, removing the skin first if it was still on.  Once the rice is cooked, add the salmon, some chopped basil (dried works OK, but fresh would be so much better!) and two table spoons of double cream.  I also added some pine nuts because I like them and some halved cherry tomatos.  Stir this all together over a low heat.  Continue to cook until the salmon has turned nicely pink and is starting to fall apart.  Most risotto recipies would call for Parmesan cheese to be added, but of course, Parmesan cheese is not British.  It's an excellent cheese, but I didn't have any and I was keen to try a British alternative.  So, I used some of the Winchester mature chedder I've blogged about before (see here), which was a nicely mature chedder with a fairly robust flavour which I think did it's job as a Parmesan replacement fairly well.
 This was the end result:

Venison Steak Stri Fry

 The last dish I wrote about, the roast Venison rump steak, was rather more than I could eat in one go, so I had left overs.  A stir fry is often a good way of using left overs from a roast, or many other kinds of left overs come to that.  Anyway, in my opinion a stir fry requires relatively little meat, but with plenty of fresh and interesting vegetables.  On the subject of fresh and interesting vegetables, I have to say that I am finding the going a little difficult at the moment in terms of keeping to only British produce.  This time of year is something of a gap between the last of the previous seasons winter produce (see my posts from January, there was still quite a variety available then) and the next seasons early spring produce.  We have had an especially long and cold winter as well, which almost certainly will make things more difficult.

 There was actually an interesting article on this on the Guardian website that I came across today, which is worth a look (click here).  I had a good look round at the Sunnyfields farm shop when I was there to see what local vegetables I could pick up.  I came away with curly kale and purple sprouting brocoli, both of which are quite suitable for a stir fry.

 All I did was tear off some handfulls of the curly kale and purple sprouting brocoli and wash them under the tap.  I then heating some oil in the pan, added a chopped onion and fryed on a high heat until softened.  I then added the washed vegetables.  Continue to fry on a high heat until the leafy vegetables start to wilt. I then added a generous portion of soy sauce, some freshly ground black pepper and the sliced left over Venison.  I also added some frozen peas.  In the picture below, I have also added the left over roasted vegetables from the previous meal and as much as possible of the remaining juice, which will add a nice depth of flavour to the stir fry.

Continue to stir fry for a few minutes more to make sure that the frozen peas have defrosted, then serve on a bed of rice:

Roast Venison from the New Forest

On my last trip to Sunnyfields Farm Shop and Market, I picked up a pack of Venison rump steak.  I have to say that I am something of a fan of Venison, it's got a great flavour and it naturally very lean.  So, this is what I bought:

And out of the wrapper:

I'm not a butcher, but to me that looks like a good bit of bit of meat!  To make a nice roast from this, I lightly seasoned the meat with salt and pepper and then sealed it in a very hot frying pan.  This simply involves putting a little oil in the pan and getting it nice and hot, but not smoking.  Then, simply place the meat in the pan and leave it alone for a minute or so.  Then, turn onto the other side and leave for about a minute or so.  Keep turning until all the sides have been browned:

Here, I have placed some carrots, a chopped onion and 4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped.  I added some cold pressed rape seed oil over the vegetables and then placed the sealed meat on top.  Put this in an oven at 180C, for about 45 to 50 minutes.  The exact cooking time will vary depending on the size of the joint of meat of course.  The best way to tell if it is cooked is to push a metal skewer into it, at the thickest point and check that the juices coming out are clear.  If not, then it needs another 10 minutes or so.  Once it's cooked, remove it from the over, cover it with more kitchen foil and leave it to rest for about 5 to 10 minutes.  This helps to ensure that the meat will be nice and tender.

When rested, slice thinly and serve!

British Tomatoes

 I was pleasently surprised to find that British tomatoes are already available!

 These, as can be seen from the label, have been grown at Thanet Earth in Kent, which is the largest greenhouse complex in the UK (http://www.thanetearth.com/).  Of course, the important question is; Did they taste good?  They were really quite good, juicy and sweet as a tomato should be.

Edinburgh, Chutney & Tebay Services

 On my way up to Edinburgh, for my recent visit, I felt I couldn't drive past Tebay Services without stopping there for a coffee and maybe to do a spot of shopping.  I've blogged about Tebay Services before (here), so I won't write more about it here and now, but surfice to say - well worth popping in should you find yourself on that particular stretch of the M6.

 Anyway, I had been very kindly invited to lunch on one of the days of my visit, so I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to pick up a gift of some sort.  I was really looking for some kind of local food produce and after much browsing I found a selection of rather lovely sounding chutney:

 They looked rather delightful, though I must admit I don't know what they are like to eat!  However, I hope they are good.  In return for these, I not only recieved a really rather good lunch, but was introduced to a whole new world of chutney swapping.  This kind of made me wish I'd come armed with some of my tomato chutney from last year!  I shall have to try to make some smaller jars of it this year when the tomatos are back in season, to use as gifts.  Anyway, I received a lovely looking jar of homemade tomato and red pepper relish:

 Which I sampled this evening with some Pondhead Farm pork sausages which I picked up at the Sunnyfields farmers market when I was last there.  The relish was really rather good, with a subtle sweetness from the peppers carefully balanced with the vinegar.  Very nice indeed.

As I say, next time I make chutney or relish of my own, I shall certainly invest in some smaller jars - they really do make excellent gifts.

Richard Woodall Cumberland Sausage, Hams and Bacon

 On my return journey from Edinburgh, I took the opportunity to visit a place that I have seen on TV before - Richard Woodall's shop in Waberthwaite in the Lake District.  I think the Lake District has to be one of the most beutiful parts of England and at this time of year it has a certain bleakness to it that is hard to describe.  Anyway, Richard Woodall's shop is famous as being the first place to make prosciutto style ham in Britain.  He is also famous for being a supplier of pork products to the Queen, including bacon, sausages and the air-dried ham.  So, I could hardly pass up the chance to visit!

 Driving into the Lake District, I was almost immediately greated by some amazing views:

 But, that wasn't why I was here!  The village of Waberthwaite itself is really tiny, little more then a scattering of houses, a school and the famous post office / Richard Woodall's shop.  I grew up in a rural area in England so I am quite aware that many of these communities are struggling to survive these days and very often the closure of the local post office can prove to be the final straw.  It was really good to see an example of a business model that can clearly work, by combining the post office with something else, in this case the butchers shop, it becomes much more viable.  Of course, I'm sure it helps to have a famous product to draw people in.

 Inside, the shop was just amazing.  It's not very big, so the first thing that I noticed was the smell which comes from the hams hanging up from the ceiling:

 They sell these hams whole and assured me that one would last for a long time if I were to buy one.  However, I felt that that was probably a little bit too much ham to buy in one go, even for me!  So, I settled for a 250g pack of the air-dried ham.  They also sell sausages, which I already knew to be very good because I had some for my dinner the evening before at the Brown Cow Inn, also in Waberthwaite.

 Now that's a big plate of food!  There were two sausgaes, the mashed potato and swede, peas, chips and under the fried egg, a large piece of black pudding.  I have to admit that I wasn't really able to do it justice, but I did my best!  Really, without having spent the day out walking in the fells, I can't imagine that many people would be able to do better.

 Anyway, I was intrigued that Richard Woodall's sell their sausages by the yard, rather then in the short sausages that I usually buy from the supermarket.  I also picked up some smoked bacon and some unsmoked bacon, both of the short back variety.  I shall blog more about these things soon!  It almost goes without saying, but all of these fine products are made from locally reared pigs.

Edinburgh

I recently had the opportunity to visit Edinburgh, where many moons ago I used to live.  I'm one of those people that is really bad at getting around to doing all the tourist stuff when I live somewhere, so going back as a visitor gives me the chance to do just that!  As a tourist, I felt the one thing I really had to do was to visit Edinburgh Castle.  It was really interesting and well worth the £11 entrance fee in my opinion.  Here are some pictures.

The approach to the castle iteself:

 This is a view over the city towards Arthurs Seat, taken from the castle:

 More views of the city:

 Of course, I couldn't really write about this visit here on my blog without mentioning food in some way or another! So, here we are, I had lunch in the Queen Anne Cafe, which was really good.  Since I was in Scotland and doing the whole 'tourist' thing, I felt I had to have the haggis, with neeps and tatties:

 

 It tasted as good as it looks!  I lived in Scotland for some time, so I've had haggis before, many times.  I have to say that I rather like it.  All I can say is that if you've never tried it before, do so if you get the chance!  Here, the haggis itself is at the bottom, under a layer of tatties (mashed potato) and neeps (mashed turnip).  People often worry about what haggis is made of - commenting that it's all the disgusting parts of the sheep, but personally I consider the heart, lungs, liver and kidneys to be some of the more flavoursome parts.  All of this is mixed with oats and herbs and spices and well, really you'll just have to try it for yourself.

 Edinburgh is awash with tea shops - several of which are new since I was last there.  I have blogged about the botanical gardens before, but they have recently opened their new West Gate building, which houses a really rather nice resteraunt.  Having been terribly well fed every morning at my bed and breakfast, all I could face on this particular occasion was a cream tea, but it was really very good:

 Perfect.