Winter warmers

First things first: a major announcement.
We have heating in our house!
After over a year of living in our cotswold idyll, including through the coldest winter in 30 years, snow, ice and seriously sub-zero temperatures, we finally have a heating system! Oh the bliss...

And to celebrate, particularly given all Dan's hard work on getting the radiators plumbed in, I gave Dan a free card to request any dinner he fancied this weekend just gone. He chose beef stew and dumplings.

Now, I don't eat beef. I'm allergic. So, I'm always a little anxious cooking it as I don't feel all that confident that I know how to do it. I found some instructions in the Jamie Oliver magazine though, so followed them to the letter to make a very rich-smelling beef and ale stew with dumplings.

Dan's parents also came over for Sunday lunch. Its strange how anxious cooking for Dan's parents makes me; they're lovely and uncritical but I still get a little stressed by it! But the beef stew went down a treat with all of them. Apparently it was the perfect dinner for a cold day. I can't vouch for the flavour myself as I had trout, but since they polished off the whole stew pot of stew between 3 of them I think its safe to say it was a winner!

I followed it up with rasberry and white chocolate souffles. I'd meant to make these a week or so ago but couldn't buy white chocolate in the local shop so just went with rasberries. The white chocolate did make them just a touch sweeter and slightly more decadent feeling.

Oh how lovely to have a chilled out weekend (no DIY!) in a warm-as-toast house. Ahhhhh....

Mr McGregor

I am possibly not quite as bad as Mr McGregor since I didn't actually try to catch and eat Peter Rabbit, however we did have Rabbit Stew this week.



I spotted rabbit at the butcher's and bought some on impulse. The butcher said stew was the way to go with this particular specimen.

I'd never eaten rabbit before, and Dan had never had wild rabbit. Although he did tell me a charming anecdote about killing his pet rabbit when he was a kid and getting his mum to cook it for dinner. What a lovely boy I've ended up with.

Anyway, rabbit stew; it was quite tasty done to Jamie Oliver's stew recipe, although the meat was very lean so might be better in a creamy or yoghurt-y sauce in future. That would just keep it a bit moister I think.

The butcher did offer me a pigs trotter to go in the stew to up the fat content, but I felt that rabbit was enough new-ness for one meal. Couldn't quite bring myself to use a pig's foot!

Cooking from the 'Axis of Evil'

Ridiculous statement. I do hate that kind of label. "War on Terror" also bugs the hell out of me. You can't wage war on a feeling for God's Sake!

But anyway, even if it is from the 'Axis of Evil' (please read Iran) the Chicken Fesanjan recipe which we had for dinner tonight was very delicious indeed. So at least they're eating well over there while we make our stupid sweeping statements about their nation.

Fesanjan is a stew of coarsely ground walnuts, a lovely subtle but warming mix of spices (cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, cardamom) and pomegranate molasses (you can get this quite cheaply in Sainsbury's), with chicken and onions. I served it up with rice and spinach and a few fresh pomegranate seeds sprinkled over the top. You can use duck instead of chicken.

Must make more middle eastern recipes - I just love the mix of flavours.

I got the original idea to make this when I had Claudia Roden's Middle Eastern recipe book from the library. Sadly, I had to return the book, but it turns out the internet is full of recipes for this dish, so just do a google hunt.

Sorry - rather short post! Turns out training for a half marathon is rather tiring, so I don't have much energy just now! The run is on sunday.

St Patrick's Day

Today is St Patrick's Day, and the most Irish thing I could think of (other than Guinness which I'm pretty sure I couldn't make!) was lamb stew. So that's what I have for lunch today.

My sisters will understand why it is a truely unbelievable occurence that I have made this....but let me explain.

My Dad, being retired, does the week-day cooking at my parents' house. He's a pretty decent cook. I like his spag bol, and shepherd's pie is always a favourite. Bacon and egg pie, also good. And he passed on a fantastic recipe for a smoked fish and potato dish.

But, as you may have deduced from the above list, cooking light meals is not something my Dad ever does.

Now, don't get me wrong; I do not mean to sound ungrateful here, but I have to confess that my heart literally sinks into my boots whenever the question 'what's on the menu?' is met with the reply 'good old bog standard'.

This means lamb stew.

And for some reason, I don't know why, it always seems a bit too greasy, a bit too fatty, a bit too heavy. I don't HATE it, but I would NEVER choose it.

Except that today I have lamb stew.

I cooked it long and slow with no added oil. I skimmed the fat off when it had cooled, and again when I took it out of the fridge to warm it up. I have little new potatoes in it instead of serving it with mash. I have nice fresh carrots and onions in it. And herbs.

I hope that all of this makes it more palatable to me. But I suspect that lamb stew just is, by its very nature, a heavy, fatty meal. That's the point of it.

Wish me luck....

UPDATE - Nope. Still don't like it much. Ah well, I tried!