Cornish Food Challenge Day 6
Posted on Oct 06, 2009 at 07:15 PM
I am sorry that this disappeared, it somehow doesn't seem to matter the next day! I am annoyed because I wrote about all sorts of thing that were relevant at te time but I can't recall them in the same way today.
I talked about where I bought things, the cost, the fact that I would love to carry on using Cornish tea all the time but can't afford it. I talked about the pollock that visitors caught and left in the freezer and I used as the basis of a fish pie, the lovely ham we had in sandwiches, the soup I have made wit left over squash and other vegetables. Still got a few runner beans in the garden.
I,have missed, lemons, rice , muesli. I have not got around to getting a pasta mker to try making Cornish flour into pasta.
I will carry on buying Cornish flour for bread.
Why has a local farm shop got onions from spain and the supermarket got ones from Suffolk?
Cornish Food Challenge Day 7
Posted on Oct 06, 2009 at 06:58 PM
I am a little confused, according to my computr this is my 6th entry. Must be something to do with me the 1st one didn't appear, so I made it up a bit the next day. Perhaps my next challenge should be to learn to use a computer!
This should be the last day, actually I started this afterI went shopping last Tues so my challenge finished this afternoon.
So dinner tonight was a toss up between aubergine curry( that lovely aubergine that I bought from the farm stall on my way home yesterday) or bacon and tomato risotto, most ingredients for which have been sitting in the fridge for a few days. The risotto won, all local ingredients except of course the rice.
And this I think is how it is going to be, buy what I can as locally as possible, buy in season as much as possible, look at where things have come from and try to at least get British but rice, citrus fruits, bananas , muesli etc are all going to come back into our lives. I will deffinately keep an eye on the stall near my work and buy whatever looks nice and work out meals round it.
My favourite meal of the week has to have been the sticky glazed pork whith chard and leeks on day one(My other blogging mishap). It is a take on an old favourite of ours, pork with orange juice and cous cous and stuff. I have posted my new improved local ingredient recipe for you all to share.
So what is my next challenge?
Cornish Food Challenge Day 5
Posted on Oct 04, 2009 at 07:10 PM
Fantastic - honey cake! If you have never tried it you should.
Brakfast today was pancakes, apple and raspberry puree, natural yoghurt and honey.
Lunch; sardines on toast and cherry tomatoes. Cornish sardines are well known, less well known are the tinned variety - very good but pricey compared to the usual supermarket sort.
Dinner was tray baked chicken and squash with mashed potato and sweetcorn.
Lots of lovely tasty things to eat today.
This has certainly made me try and be inventive, the same sort of food that we usually eat but with some adaptations.
Oh yes I am making stock - Economy Gastronomy made more of an impression than I thought, nothing is being wasted.
Ever tried ewe's milk yoghurt? That's what the farm shop had so that is what I bought, it's good. I have had to try a few different things or different combinations, it's good to keep an open mind about these things.
Cornish Food Challenge Day 4
Posted on Oct 03, 2009 at 09:22 PM
Today we have been off on a coast path walk, normally this would involve cereal bars or chocolate. We started the day with scrambled eggs, toast and apple juice. We took with us cheese and chutney sandwiches, Cornish crisps made wih Cornish potatoes - a big treat, I rarely buy crisps - home made apple cake and instead of the usual fruit and nut selection we had walnuts, hazel nuts, dried cherries and dried blueberries at least they weren't imported and apples. Tonight we were very tired and we have a 3 year old staying with us. I made potatoe wedges which he ate with ketchup ( yes the usual stuff in a squeezy bottle) and we ate with re heated onion flan and beetroot from the garden with cider vinegar on it and left over coleslaw, sorry not very interesting.
What I find interesting is how aware I now am of where foodstuffs come from, I think a totally local diet would be too restrictive long term but what might change long term is my shopping, I have long been a fan of buying local but there are times when a supermarket trip wins because it is easy. I haven't been inside a supermarket for 5 days and that was to do some shopping for my daughter.
Tonight ended with a late night adventure to the harbour, what 3 year olds and grandparents need when they get home is hot chocolate - made of course with local milk.
Good night.
Cornish Food Challenge Day 3
Posted on Oct 02, 2009 at 08:46 PM
That was a very tasty pizza. I didn't have to go in to work until late and tempting as it was to stay in bed and read a book I did the right thing and got up. Made a pizza base and tomato sauce, was a bit worried because tomatoes aren't as dark red and yummy as they were. It was all ready to cook when I got home and it was all fine, cherry toms,oregano, onion, goat cheese and Miss Muffit cheese - which even went nice and stringy. The new food processor arrived today so making coleslaw was easy and the red cabbage and carrots were straight out of the garden. I need to get better at mayo. I use rapeseed oil, from Somerset, not too far away, it tasted good. We also had salad leaves from a local farm with cider vinegar, rapeseed oil and honey dressing.
Had stewed fruit and pllain yogurt as a snack at coffee time.Yum.
This would be harder if I worked full time. I am spending a lot of time cooking which I enjoy but I don't think that I was prepared enough. I only have a small freezer and it needs to be full of tomato sauce, stock, stewed fruit and stuff however I seem to be managing well with what is available.
Did you know that they grow coffee at the Eden Project? None available to buy though.
Sticky Glazed Pork With Swiss Chard and Braised Leeks
Posted on Oct 02, 2009 at 08:48 AM
Warming weekday supper, can be made with lovely local ingredients.
Crnish Food Challenge Day 1
Posted on Oct 01, 2009 at 01:52 PM
Day 1 seems to have disappeared! Briefly - I have challenged myself to use only local products for a week. As there is only myself and my husband at home this should be easy - or is it?
There is plenty of veg, meat, fish, dairy products, limited fruit, flour, tea (yes it is grown here expensively), apple juice. I have decided to allow myself spices and coffee imported and roasted by a cornish company, also I have made jam and chutny using English sugar, we have cider vinegar.
We used oats packed by a company in Devon yeterday but I have just heard that they are grown in Scotland.
I used English mutsard in my marinade for pork chops yesterday, the worst thing I used was mass produced mayonaise in the sandwiches, its all gone now, when my new food processor arrives I shall make some.
Imay not have bought enough Cornish flour at the Truro Food Fair last weekend, must find where I can buy it.
Cornwall makes good wine and beer, true they will contain some non-Cornish products but I don't think that counts.
I think we are going to eat well.
Cornish Food Challenge Day 2
Posted on Oct 01, 2009 at 01:29 PM
Well I said that I should be able to do better. Last night my husband needed his hot milky drink, he wasn't willing to go with milk and honey so the Ovaltine won. Also I realised that we need to eat up a few bananas end some orange juice, wasting it would go against every thing I believe in.
Anyway we did better at breakfast, toast and jam and apple juice. Packed lunches were fine too. Glad I made that seasonal chutny a few weeks ago.
Have I told you about Cornish salt? It comes out of the sea somewhere near Penzance I think.
Tonight it is caramellised onion and Cornish crumbly cheese tart. My food processor has blown up so this is going to take a bit of time, salad to go with it I think.
This isnt a cheap option. Am I actually seeing the true cost of food?
Answer this question
Posted on Jun 13, 2009 at 09:39 PM
My daughter has just become the proud owner of 2 twelve week old Pekin Blue bantams. Can any one tell us when we can expect them to start laying, what colour eggs they will lay, or anything about them please, they are very cheaky and very pretty. Is it trrue that we shouldn't feed them bread?
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