#44 English Game Pie, #45 Cumberland Sauce

I invited Clive from work to help me finish off the last of the game I got from Bury Market last night in the form of (#44) English Game Pie. Looking through the 'Stuffing, Sauces and Preserves' chapter of English Food for something to go with game, I found (#44) Cumberland sauce. I've never had it before, and had no idea what it was. Everything was straight-forward, though the pie had lots of preparation. Anyways, here's what I did...

The day before I simmered a brace of pheasants and a pigeon (essentially everything I had!) in a very light chicken stock along with a good seasoning and a bouquet garnei of parsley, bay leaves and thyme springs. Jane recommends between 2 and 4 birds. It took an hour and a half for the meat to become tender enough for me to pull the meat from the bone with relative ease. I cut the meat into chunks and kept them in a sealed tub topped up with the stock so it didn't dry out over night and reserved the remaining stock.

Next day I arranged the meat in one large dish, and a smaller, as I made an extra one for my PhD supervisor too. Then hard-boiled and quartered three eggs and tucked them between the pieces of meat along with small rolls of grilled bacon (though not in yours Jason, don't worry!), and chopped parsley. Next, I fried a large onion and about 8 ounces of mushrooms in 2 ounces of butter until they were golden. A tablespoon of flour was mixed in to the mushrooms and onions and stirred around so that the butter got absorbed, and then stock was added a ladelful at a time until a thick sauce had developed - about the thickness of double cream. Make sure the sauce is seasoned very well. It was simmered for about 5 minutes, and I added extra stock whenever the sauce thickened too much. The sauce was poured over the meat and then a puff pastry covered the pies. The large pie was cooked at 200 degrees for 20 minutes and then the oven was turned down to 170 for a final ten.

The Cumberland sauce was very easy. Make sure you make it in advance as it should be served cold. Whisk together a jar of redcurrant jelly and a teaspoon of Dijon mustard in a pan over a low heat. Meanwhile blanch the thinly pared peel of a lemon and an orange that have been cut into matchsticks for 5 minutes, then drain. Once the jelly has melted, add the peel, the juice of the two fruits, 5 tablespoons of port, plenty of black pepper and salt and ground ginger to taste (I used a scant teaspoon). Pour into sauce boat. Easy peasy.

FYI: Cumberland sauce is, in fact, German - the recipe was brought over with the House of Hanover in the late Eighteenth Century, and is named after George IV who was the Duke of Cumberland.

#43 English Game Pie - 10/10. This is my first full point dish I think! It was absoluely delicious. Although I'd never had it, there was something very familiar and comforting about it. It was also, for me, the epitome of English Food. The meat was beautifully tender, and he sauce had turned into a delicious gravy and the salty bacon added an extra dimension. The full flavour of the pheasant and pigeon coped very well with the rich Cumberland sauce...

#44 Cumberland Sauce - 8/10. A perfect complement to the game. Although it was very rich and sweet, the savory additions such as the pepper and mustard allowed you to add loads. All in all a fantastic meal!

#43 Parsnip Cake

According to the Grigson, she tried putting parsnips rather than carrots in a carrot cake, and according to her, parsnip cake totally shits on carrot cake. We'll see...carrot cake is my favorite of all cakes, so I'll be a harsh critic.

The cake itself was easy - a carrot cake recipe with the carrots replaced weight-for-weight with the parsnips. Proper American frosting made from cream cheese, icing sugar and butter is the filling. Hopefully the oven's worked ok because I've made it for cake day this afternoon; where a member of the Evolution group at the University take it in turns to make a cake. It's the first one we've done in a while, so don't let me down Grigson!

Mix together 12 ounces of peeled and grated parsnip with four ounces of chopped hazelnuts in a bowl. Next make a cake mixture using an electric beater from 13 ounces of caster sugar, 8 ounces of flour, 2 teaspoons each of baking powder and ground cinnamon, a teaspoon of salt and 8 fluid ounces of oil (use a mixture of walnut or hazelnut and sunflower). Beat in 4 eggs individually and stir in the parsnips and nuts plus a teaspoon of vanilla extract. Divide between two buttered and floured 9 inch cake tins and bake for 40 minutes at 180⁰C. Allow to cool on a rack. Make a filling by beating together 8 ounces of full fat soft cheese, 4-6 ounces of softened unsalted butter, 4 tablespoons of icing sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla essence.

FYI: The parsnip was our main carbohydrate staple before the potato was brought over from the Americas. Also, it was thought that it was an aphrodisiac - careful if you try to pick a wild parsnip though, as it's almost exactly the same as hemlock!

#43 Parsnip Cake - 8/10. Phew! Neither The Grigson or the oven let me down. A lovely moist cake, though I'm not sure if Jane's Claim of it being better than carrot cake. There is however a recipe for her carrot cake - so there's only one way to find out!!

Greg says...

"Mostly I made the parsnip cake actually. I pressed all the buttons and everything. It went round and round and out came a cake! Well done me. I gave Pugling a bit of the filling and he made this noise: bleep! I wasn't allowed a slice until next day but it was worth the wait. Helen tried it too. We made this noise: mmm, ooohhh, mm, ng! Really really good. You would never guess it has parsnips in though. 9/10."

Kitchen - Phase 2!!

It really has been a dry month of cooking! The fact the kitchen wasn't done has been the main factor. However, all is well as it is now fitted! Hooray! Got to do the floors and walls, but the main thing is I have an oven that works (hopefully!) and gas hobs. I can finally say 'Goodbye' to that awful old kitchen.

I'm testing the oven by making a cake. It is cake day at work today so I have made (#43) Parsnip Cake. Hopefully it won't be a giant biscuit - it takes a while to know one's oven, dontcha nar!

#42 Soft Fruit Ice Cream

Since Greg had tonsillitis, I simply had to make some ice cream! Greg chose (#42) Soft Fruit Ice Cream (or Soffru, as Vic and Bob would say). It's a great recipe and very different to the ginger ice cream I made last month; it doesn't require any custards, so although there are several stages, it's quite easy because you can take your time without the worry of your custard turning into scrambled eggs. If you've never made ice cream, this is probably the best place to start I reckon.



The main problem was finding soft fruits in April in Britain! It's easy to buy strawberries, but they are so insipid unless they're in season. I had a look in the greengrocers and saw some lovely ripe peaches and snapped them up. I knew I had raspberries frozen at home as a back up, and they are prefect with peaches - a la peach Melba.



To make the ice cream start by liquidising a pound of soft fruit along with the juice and zest of an orange in a blender, add about 4 ounces of icing sugar to sweeten it (you must use icing sugar as it dissolves instantly). This was folded into half a pint of double cream and a quarter of single single cream that had been whipped and sweetened, again with icing sugar. The mixture was poured into the ice cream maker. Meanwhile, I whipped two egg whites, and when the ice cream was softly frozen, I folded it into the whites, along with three tablespoons of Cointreau. Then I scoffed a load of it the next day. Oink!



#42 Soft Fruit Ice Cream - 8/10. This is a lovely fresh ice cream, very different to a custard-based one. It could have been improved by the addition of a more appropriate liqueur, such as creme de framboise, seeing as I used raspberries. However, I shall be practicing this one loads whenever I see some nice fruit in the summer!

#41 Mushroom Omelette

Well, well, well, it has been a while since I've updated the old blog. I've been busy and skint in equal measure so far this month. It's gruel for me for now on, I think. Inamongst the business, I have managed to get a couple of dishes done at the weekend. Greg hs been quite ill with tonsillitis, so I was only allowed to make soft food, so I did (#41) Mushroom Omelette. I don't know why I hadn't done it before. It's interesting that the omelette is considered English, as it is is obviously French, but we always see them in the English section of any Indian restaurants menu. The recipe that Jane Grigson gives here is very much an English omelette. Whenever I make one, it is always more French, i.e. pull the cook egg into the middle and don't let it colour. I use eggs, a dot of milk, salt and pepper, plus butter to fry it in of course.

This recipe is enough for 6, so decrease – or increase – the amounts as you see fit. Cook a chopped medium onion in 2 ounces of butter until it softens, then add 12 ounces of good mushrooms that have been sliced – e.g. the dark-gilled Portobello – the juices will come out after a few minutes, so turn uo the heat so that just a small amount of the cooking juices are left. Make the omelette itself beat together 9 eggs very well, season and add a tablespoon of chopped herbs – parsley and chives are recommended by Jane – and pour a third of the mixture into an 8 inch omelette pan that had been heated with a knob of butter. Cook until the underside had set and turned slightly golden. Spoon a third of the mushrooms down the centre of the omelette and fold it over. Keep the omelettes warm as you cook them, or serve individually. Don’t worry if the eggs are a little runny – they will continue to cook, and should be a little moist..

#41 Mushroom Omelette - 7/10. The dish was very nice indeed - not as light as a French-style omelette, but the centre was perfectly cooked - still creamy as it should be. The dense mushroom mixture complemented it perfectly. I will do my omelettes in the English style from now on and see if I can improve on it.

#40 Elizabeth Raffald's Orange Custards

I knew that we'd be hungover on Saturday after a big drinking session on Canal Street, so I knew I'd have to choose a recipe for a dessert I could prepare ahead for the meal we were having at Greg sister's boyfriend's in the evening. I wanted to do a sticky toffee pudding really, but it would have to have been cooked there. I went for (#40) Elizabeth Raffald's Orange Custards as I had a couple of Seville oranges in, and it would be a shame not to use them. It was a bit of a risk however, as custards are either loved or hated. I realise that they don't look that nice on the picture, but they were very good.

They were easy to prepare: In a blender the juice of one Seville orange, the blanched peel of half of said orange, granulated sugar, a splash of Cointreau (which I happened to have in! Get me!) and six large egg yolks were all whizzed up until the peel was just tiny specks. I then boiled half a pint of double and half a pint of single cream and slowly pored this into the whirring mixture. Pour the whole thing into eight ramekins and bake in a bain Marie for half an hour in a cool to moderate oven.

All would have gone well if my stupid oven hadn't conked out! I got it sorted in the end though. I cannot wait to get my new oven in. My partly-done kitchen is getting pretty depressing now. My stuff is still in the lounge in boxes and bags...

Anyways, enough whingeing...

FYI: Elizabeth Raffald did many things in her short 18 year career (she started aged 14, but died at 32). She wrote the first English cookbook (The Experienced English Housekeeper), was the landlady of two inns, including the King's Head pub in Salford, ran two shops, ran the first domestic servant's employment agency, organised the first street and trade directory in Manchester as well as two newspapers as an eminence rose (not sure what that means, anyone know?) and had fifteen daughters! I think I might try and get hold of a copy of her book...

#40 Elizabeth Raffald's Orange Custards - 8/10. Surprisingly orangey bearing in mind the fact you only need one to make eight. The Seville orange makes your tongue go all tingly - they really are superior to normal oranges when cooking.

#39 Finnan Haddock in a Mustard Sauce

On a visit to the Arndale Market earlier in the week on mission to buy something meaty, I found rather slim pickings! Maybe is was because I went the day after Easter Sunday, but there was little fish that appears in the Grigson's book, and the game stall looked as though it may have closed down! I do hope not. Due to the lack of exciting ingredients, I plumped for old faithful: Finny haddock - or Finnan haddock as it appears it is really called.

It was quite an easy dish to prepare. The fish was poached gently in milk for 10 minutes that had already been brought to the boil containing cloves, bay leaf, a sliced carrot and a sliced onion. The fish was removed and kept warm. The milk was strained and used to make the sauce. The Grigson says to start with a roux of butter and flour and then to add the milk until a thin sauce is produced, which is then reduced. Be warned though, adding hot milk to a hot roux can cause lumps - use a whisk, but be prepared to sieve out any that shouls appear. Dijon mustard and seasoning was then added and poured over the fish. The whole thing was served with boiled potatoes turned in butter and parsley.

FYI: Finnan haddock, or haddie, originally comes from the Scottish village of Finnan near Aberdeen. Its IUCN conservation status is Vulnerable. However, stocks have been recently reported as increasing once more.

#39 Finnan Haddock in a Mustard Sauce - 8/10. I absolutely love Finny haddock, so I couldn't go wrong with this one. I was a bit stingy on the mustard though - add more than you think is needed I'd say.

#38 Broad Bean Soup

After spotting the broad beans in Unicorn, I made (#38) Broad Bean Soup. A simple affair: soften an onion in butter, add water, a little chopped parsley, the beans, salt, pepper, and a little sugar and simmer until cooked. Then liquidise in a blender and add a few tablespoons of cream. Serve with a crouton!

This was a lovely fresh tasting soup - it's certainly letting me know that Spring has arrived; even though the weather outside is AWFUL! I normally make soups with stock and thought that it would be quite bland. The best thing about it, however was the fact I could serve the soup up in the new le Creuset mini soup terrines that I bought...

FYI: the broad bean, or fava bean, is native to Africa and Northwest Asia, but has been cultivated in Europe since around the Sixth Century BC. Also, raw broad beans contain vicine, which can induce haemolytic anaemia in patients with glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase phosphate deficiency. So do say I didn't warn you!

#38 Broad Bean Soup: 6.5/10. A lovely fresh soup, but I prefer more substantial soups, however it would be great as a first course.

#20 - Quince Vodka (Part 2)

The quince vodka, now named "Quodka" has now been officially drunk, as were we after drinking it. We tried it with apple juice, but was too overpowering; but then we had it with tonic and it was lovely! I'm usually not a big fan of tonic water in drinks, but the sweet, subtle perfumed quince made it a very delicious drink. In fact, it may have been too delicious as we all necked it pretty quick - much quicker than if it was a strong normal voddie. Anyways, we all got even more pissed out in Manchester at Bollox, which by the way is totally brilliant!

#20 Quince vodka - a healthy 7/10. It was very nice and I shall make some if I have any spare next year

#37 Ginger Ice Cream

Oh my god! Everybody has to go out and buy and iced cream maker right this instant! I made (#37) Ginger Ice Cream as a pud to eat after a super-hot Thai red curry. It was super-easy to do and tasted gorgeous! No bought stuff can compare, even the posh bought stuff. You use the stem ginger in syrup to flavour it. All you do is make a custard with cream, 2 egg yolks and an egg, add ginger syrup and churn. Then add loads of chopped stem ginger and lightly whipped double cream after 10 minutes or so. When it's finished churning, eat straight away for soft ice cream or freeze in a tub and eat whenever!

FYI: Ices were invented by the Greeks in the fifth century BC, who added fruit juice and honey to crushed ice. The Romans made iced wines. All the ice had to be either imported or collected from frozen lakes in the winter and stored in ice houses, as apparently Thomas Jefferson did. It was in tenth century Baghdad where ices that included milk and cream were made commercially. In terms of English food, the first ice cream recipe appears in the 1751 Hannah Glass book, The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy - a favorite book of Jane Grigson's - for raspberry ice cream.

These days there's loads of posh creamy ice creams these days and the cheap ones are OK compared to the cheap stuff when I was a lad. I'm sure I read a few years back that in the seventies and eighties, the really cheap stuff, like the ice cream you'd get for a dessert in your school dinner contained whipped lard and other animal fats. Does anyone else know of this? I may have dreamt it!

#37 Ginger Ice Cream. 9/10 - I love ice cream and I love ginger! Perhaps there are better ones out there, but I think that home-made ice cream cannot be less than an 8 anyways.

Vegetable Soup

This is my vegetable soup, which I admit is pretty good. I always make a great load of it and freeze what I don't eat. It's very good for you, easy to make and pretty substantial for a soup containing no big meaty bits! The Grigson also does one that contains lots of meat! I must admit I make mine with chicken stock, but I also make it with vegetable stock and it's almost as good. It difficult to stick to an exact recipe, because it throw in whatever I have, plus the time of year has a great effect. I think that there are certain ingredients that are a must, however, such as potato, onion, garlic, carrot, i.e. basic stock vegetables. That said if you miss a couple out it's also fine. I would say try and use as many of them as possible. All should be clear in the recipe. The rest of the vegetables can then be added at the appropriate time - roots straight after the stock has come to a simmer, and greens towards the end. The choice of herbs is your own, but I like the classics - thyme, parsley, pepper and mint. Any stalks and leaves you don't use, freeze. I freeze all my fresh herbs and spices - chillies, herbs, ginger, etc etc...

I think that some protein is required so I always add some red lentils, which thicken the soup slightly, and a can of beans - any will do, use your favourite.

For some tips on what to put in your bouquet garni, have a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bouquet_garni. I find that those little bags you get with washing tablets work quite well!

You will need:
2 tbs olive oil, or butter
bouquet garni - made from a very generous sprig of thyme, parsley stalks, mint stalks
2 litres of chicken or vegetable stock
2 tbs of red lentils
salt and pepper

As many of the following basic vegetables as possible:
1 onion, chopped
1 medium-sized potato, diced
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1-2 carrots, diced
1-2 sticks celery, diced
1 leek, sliced - use as much of the green parts as possible. Slice it finely though as it can be tough

2 or 3 root veg, diced appropriately, as some take longer to cook than others e.g. turnips, a small swede, parsnip
1 or 2 greens, thinly sliced e.g. 1/4 white cabbage, kale, peas (don't slice those, obv.!)
1 can of cooked beans
2 tbs each parsley and mint
more salt and pepper, if required

What to do:

1. Fry the stock vegetables in the oil gently for a few minutes, when they start to soften, season and add the bouquet garni. (Tie the herbs with a piece of string, or put in a muslin bag). Continue to fry for about 10 minutes - don't let the vegetables colour, though.
2. Add the stock and bring to the boil, add the lentils, then allow to simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add the root vegetables and simmer until tender - around 15 minutes.
4. Add the greens, beans and herbs and allow to simmers for 5 more minutes.
5. Removed the bouquet garni and check the seasoning.

Creamy Mushroom Pasta

This is one of my favorite recipes. It's pretty easy, but requires a little care and attention - it's the slow-cooking of the onions and mushrooms that make this dish. It's based on a dish that an Italian chap called Luigi gave my Mum. I'm sure it's got an exciting Italian name, though I've no idea what it would be. It's originally made with chicken, mushrooms and cream, but I've faffed about with it. I do put chicken in it from time to time, but as mushrooms are one of my favorites, I've ended making this meal my mushroom fix. Use the best mushrooms you can find - my favorite are the dark-gilled Portobello mushrooms - they give a good earthy taste. I've also changed the double cream of the original recipe to creme fraiche, as it gives a slight piquant zing, that compliments the sweet, slightly chewy caramelised onions very well.

You will need:
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
6 tbs good olive oil
8oz (250g) mushrooms, sliced
2 sprigs of fresh thyme, or half a generous tsp of dried (oregano could be used instead)
around 5 tbs of creme fraiche (or double cream)
salt and pepper
freshly ground nutmeg
whole wheat pasta

What to do:

1. Fry the onions in the oil on a medium heat along with the thyme in a large, heavy frying pan. Cook the onions gently - don't let them change colour yet.
2. After 8-10 minutes, add the garlic and mushrooms. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg. The idea here is that the slow frying evaporated all the moisture away allowing the onions to caramelise. The more time you spend over this the better. Take at least 15 minutes, ten minimum. You should end up with unctuous oily mushroom, and flecks of sweet, chewy onion.
3. Whilst the mushrooms are cooking, boil the pasta in salted water in the largest saucepan you have - the pasta will be less gluey from escaped starch and will cook quicker.
4. Stir in the creme fraiche a tablespoon at a time until all the olive oil is incorporated into it.
5. Add the drained pasta to the mixture and stir through.
6. Serve in large bowls.

Stocking Up, #36

Popped to Chorlton yesterday in the hope of buying some exciting things from Unicorn etc. and wasn't disappointed! Seville oranges are still in season - get making marmalade peeps - and broad bean have come in. Will make some nice desserts and soups. I'm looking forward to seeing how the new seasonal produce changes over the coming months. Also got hold of the ingredients for bread-making. I was hoping to do hot cross buns, but I think they may be a bit advanced so I'm starting at the start of the bread section in Ms. Grigson's book. Also, I'm going to try my hand at ice cream making this week, now that my ice-cream maker is fixed. Hurrah! I also need to get my finger out re: meats. Need to get hold of a veal knuckle. Any ideas anyone? W H Frost in Didsbury sells veal, but has run out of said knuckle! Also I have prepared (#36) Vanilla sugar. It simply involved putting four vanilla pods and a bag of caster sugar in a storage jar. I just need to do a recipe with it in. I also hear that a teaspoon of vanilla sugar in warm milk is nice as a bedtime drink. I also need to add my own recipes that I've been doing; haven't done that in a while...

#34 Black Pudding, #35 White Pudding...

Ok, I know I didn't slave over a hot bucket of pig's blood and offal to make this stuff, but it great food and the Grigson does make a point of mentioning where to buy good puddings and how they should be eaten. Bury, in Alongshore, UK is the best place to get them (and it's where I got mine). They are made in horseshoe shapes and are not as firm as those in long sausages that you slice, which I think is very important. They are also in 'natural casing', i.e. intestine. You don't eat the casing, but I think it's much better this way - there is less waste, and I'm all up for that. People should eat more offal. Of what I've eaten, it's really tasty. It's also very low in fat and very high in nutrients. I think that calves' liver is as nice as steak. Anyway for those that are not aware, black pudding is made from pig's blood, fat, oatmeal and herbs and spices. This mixture is then boiled in the natural casing. Jane suggests eating it fried with mashed potato, bacon, fried chopped apple and a blob of mustard.

I'd never had white pudding before, and I had to wonder: 'What on earth is in it?'. I mentioned it to friends, who also had no idea. It's very similar to black pudding, but contains pork meat and suet instead of blood. It's not as spicy as black pudding either.

Grigson suggests eating it with bacon, so I combined the two to produce an extremely meaty tea! It's all good though, I think, because I'm going to the gym alot at the moment and need my protein, and it's offal and therefore less wasteful. Oh I am so holier-than-thou these days...

#34 Black Pudding: 8/10. I'd not had black pudding as a teatime meal, always as part of a full-English breakfast, and I have to say it was wonderful - the apple and mustard cut though the salty streaky bacon and soft, stodgy black pudding. Yum!

#35 White Pudding:7/10. Very tasty indeed! Soft in the centre and crispy on the outside. Much more subtle than black pudding, but a change to normal sausages. More please!

#33 Stewed Pigeons in Foil

The first of the game dishes made with the produce from my trip to Bury Market. I've not had woodpigeon before, and wasn't too sure if it would be too gamey. I have tried to cook it before but it was so tough it was inedible. My mate John came over for tea and I thought I'd try and do (#33) Stewed Pigeons in Foil. It seemed easy; all was required was time. One pigeon is required per person. Brown the pigeon in butter, breast only, using a hot pan. Allow them to cool. Meanwhile cut pieces of foil large enough to encase the pigeons individually, and spread softened butter over the centre of each piece. Place the birds in the centre and make a parcel with one end still open so you can add the flavourings. Into the cavity add a large knob of butter, thyme, pepper, a slug of brandy, finely chopped onions, a tablespoon of lemon juice, and one of beef stock. Make sure all is sealed well, place on a baking tray and cook for three hours in a low oven. The breasts were removed and seasoned well. It was served with mashed potato and celeriac and the juices from the pigeons (Grigson's orders). I added some purple sprouting broccoli for something green.

This is definitely the most cheffy looking dish I've made so far. It certainly looked the part. The wood pigeon was very tender and moist - it came away from the bone easily. The flavour is very much like liver, in that it's quite metallic, and it's got a slightly grainy texture. The mash was divine - used the ricer that I bought for the first time, and will never go back to mashing! - the celeriac and parsley gave in a herby, perfumed taste. Absolutely brilliant! What's more, eating game is totally sustainable food - even if we all went vegetarian tomorrow, we'd still have to shoot them as part of woodland management (same goes for deer, pheasant, etc...)

FYI: according to the BBC, the wood pigeon is the most common bird in the UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4646685.stm

#33 Stewed Pigeons in Foil. 9.5/10 - I cannot believe how nice this dish was. Can't wait to do more game recipes!

#32 Parsnip and Watercress Salad

As Greg and I gorged ourselves on Bury Market cheese, we needed something to cut through the richness. I'd seen the recipe for the salad as I was flicking through English Food, and thought that I should only make it when able to get really good produce. Apparently, it's an early Seventeenth Century dish, and it's very easy to prepare. The recipe said to use one medium sized parsnip per person, so I doubled that for starters! They were boiled until tender in salted water. While they were boiling, I arranged a head of little gem lettuce in each of our bowls and made a vinaigrette. Jane recommended putting on some toasted nuts and to use the relevant nut oil in the vinaigrette. I used walnut, as I've made parsnips salads before that used walnuts. I made it in the ratio of 1 part walnut oil,1 part vegetable oil (as the nut oil by itself can be overpowering) and 1 part white wine vinegar. Then I seasoned it well. This was used to dress the parsnips. The dressed parsnips were arranged in a ring on top of the lettuce. Finally, a pile of watercress was placed in the centre of the dish along with a sprinkle of chopped toasted walnuts.

I'd forgotten how nice the walnut and parsnip combo is, and how lovely and peppery watercress is, I think that people poo-poo it has boring salad. FYI: watercress is one of the three indigenous vegetable to Britain. The others are kale and....Damn! I've forgotten the other one. I shall try and find the reference again. It's weird to think that all other vegetables have been brought in from foreign climbs, including the parsnip!

#32 Parsnip and Watercress Salad - 8.5/10. This is a great salad. Certainly tasty enough to eat on it's own. I'd have it with some granary bread to mop up any stray vinaigrette at the end!

Bury Market

Greg and I went to Bury Market for the day on Saturday. I'm apologising in advance for the lack of photos. We both forgot to take them because we were so cold. I managed to get hold of some ingredients for some more recipes,along with some nice produce too. The cheese stall there is one of the best you'll ever go to; Greg and I scoffed a load of it last night night - Yorkshire Blue, a nice young goat's cheese, and a lovely mature farmhouse cheddar. It shits on anything you can get in a supermarket, no matter how many 'Extra special' stickers, or whatever they put on them. I also got some game - pigeon and pheasant - so hopefully there'll be some nice things coming my way! I love pheasant, but have never had pigeon - I once tried to cook one by roasting it, and it was so tough I couldn't eat it. The Grigson says to never roast a pigeon. I have seen the error of my ways.

I also got myself a black pudding - a must if you go to Bury, as it is the place where the best are made. I also got white pudding, which I've never had before. I'm saving them for when I have NO visitors!

Kitchen - Phase 1

Hey there!

Not put an entry on for a bit...do apologise. There is a few Grigson-related news to thee an' all and the first is that one side of my new kitchen has been put in my me and (mainly) my brother Ady. Hopefully as the photos of the food get added on throughout the next few weeks, the background scenery will become less and less depressing! Here's some in-progress shots. Obviously, the number of Grigsons has decreased of late, however it won't be like this forever! It's not as bad as the photos now as there's some temporary units in on one side. ***here ends kitchen update***

Sunday Dinner - # 30 and 31

After a Friday night out on the razz and a hangover all Saturday, me and Greg thought we'd do a nice Sunday lunch and get Joff round. We decided to make pretty normal one - pies, gravy, peas, veg , Yorkshire puddings. But we thought the Grigson must have something we could do. Of course, she always delivers; (#30) Carrot and Potato Cake seemed straight-forward and unfussy. Simply fry an onion in butter and stir in 2 or 3 grated carrots along with plenty of salt. Spread half in a cake tin, followed by a pound of thinly-sliced potatoes and then the remaining carrot mixture. Bake in the oven until all has become soft - about 25 minutes. We had a slice of it with our meal and it was a much welcomed addition. The juice from the carrots and the butter made a lovely orange-coloured sweet sauce.

The pudding was an Eighteenth Century-style (#31) Baked Custard Tart. Usually the kind I have is made from eggs, milk, sugar and nutmeg, but this was made from 3/4 pint of single cream boiled with a cinnamon stick and 2 blades of mace. The cream was sieved and added to 2 eggs and 2 egg yolks along with 2 tablespoons of sugar. This was whisked thoroughly and quickly so that it didn't scramble. Then 2 teaspoons of orange flower water was added, and it was all poured into a blind-baked sweet shortcrust pastry base, a flourish of grated nutmeg added to the surface, and baked on a low/medium heat for about 30 minutes until just set. Can't wait to get my new kitchen in - hopefully will be starting it at the weekend. Watch this space!

#30 Carrot and Potato Cake - 7/10. An interesting and fuss-free way of making your typical Sunday veg a bit more interesting (and fattening, natch).

#31 Baked Custard Tart - 8/10. Lovely! Very creamy and fragrant. The orange flower water was a perfumed delight! However, I think I do prefer the recipe I know of - there is several recipes similar to this in English Food, so I won't worry that I'm missing out!

Greg says:

"#31 Baked Custard Tart: 8/10. Woop! Bona to vada your dolly old tart. Me and Joffrey were dry humping over this one. I even gave Pugling a little bit and he made his scratty schnarfing gulp-sound which means ‘I like’. Despite Neil’s misremembering I’m sure this is the only pie of this kind he’s made me and thus is my fave of the breed so far."

Valentine's Day - # 28 & 29

I've been a bit poor recently with the upkeep of this blog, so I'll start with Valentine's Day - least Thursday. If there's Grigsons for special occasions one simply has to make them. So it was a choice between Sweetheart Cake or Valentine's Day Syllabub; I went with the latter. The Grigson suggested making Elegant Sugar Thins to go with. The process for both required some prep the day before. For the syllabub add a splash of white wine, a good squeeze of lemon juice plus the grated zest, a dash of brandy and a big tablespoon of honey to a bowl and leave to infuse. For the bikkies, I simply made the mixture and let it firm up in the fridge shaped into a sausage. There were three - yes count them, three - options for the flavoring; lemon, vanilla or cinnamon. I went with vanilla, as I am loving it the moment after the rice pudding I did last week. The mixture was a basic biscuit one really - I really should find out how much of the Grigson's recipes I can put in the blog without getting done... I only needed about a third of the mixture for the next day, so I've frozen the rest.

On the day, it was pretty straight forward: pour in a small tub of double cream into the lemony mixture and whip up. Place in two wine glasses and a sprinkle of toasted almonds. The Sugar Thins needed slicing very thinly and then sprinkled with sugar. They took only 7 minutes to cook in a hot oven.

For the main course I made chilli baked eggs - a recipe from another excellent book - Leiths Vegetarian Bible. This book is excellent - the recipes are all of such high quality. Most of the hundreds of recipes are traditional and not hippy cuisine at all.

All-in-all Greg and I had a lovely romantic evening, filling our faces and drinking wine as you can see by the photo - I do apologise for the depressing background of drying washing and part-built kitchen cabinets...

FYI: noone really knows who St Valentine was,and it may be a day that celebrates several saints all called Valentine. Also, the association with love and romance seems to have been completely made up as part of a story by Chaucer. I am officially a font of all knowledge...

#28 Valentine's Day Syllabub: 5/10. When I first started eating it I thought it was lovely, but then the wine and brandy made it too rich and bitter for me. I'd have preferred it with just honey and lemon methinks!

#29 Elegant Sugar Thins: 8/10. Lovely delicate, sweet, crumbly and melt-in-the-mouth. I'm so glad I've made a big stash of the mixture in the freezer!

Greg says:

#28 Valentine's Day Syllabub: 6.5/10. I think I liked this more than Neil did, he doesn’t really like boozy foods though. As usual however we tried to eat too much of it, but I think if you got a little egg cup’s worth in a fancy-pants restaurant you’d appreciate it much more. WHEN NEIL GETS A BLOODY DINING TABLE HINT HINT then we can share the wealth a little more. Are you listening?? Any road, the bitterness is nicely offset by these: #29 Elegant Sugar Thins: 8/10. Ooh I like a good thin, me: butter, lemon, cheese or sugar, you names it, I likes it. You could just sit and eat these all night with a brew in fact, they’re like a really classic sweet little biscuit from your Gran’s ‘parlour’. Muchos yum.

#27 Baked Rice Pudding

So many people turn their nose up at milk puddings. I don't know why; Jane Grigson blames it on schools' attempts at it. I must admit the rice/semolina puddings at my school were a bit of an insipid affair. However, if you think you don't like them try the Grigson version, or indeed any recipe that makes it up from scratch. You must use pudding rice with its little fat, almost spherical, grains otherwise it'll be a disaster - it stays quite grainy, whereas normal cooking rice would just become a gluey mess. Also full fat milk MUST be used. The Grigson goes all the way by using Channel Island milk.

Put 2 1/2 ounces of pudding rice in a baking dish with a pint of Channel Island milk, two tablespoons of sugar, an ounce of butter and either a cinnamon stick or a split vanilla pod. I went vanilla. (I've used extract but not a real pod before and nothing compares! Well worth investing in a couple - they can be rinsed, dried and reused several times, so don't be put off by their price). Bake in a low oven - 140 degrees Celsius - for 3 hours, stirring it every hour and topping up with more milk if it becomes too thick. When cooked, you can add more sugar to taste. Although I enjoyed it (you can't go wrong, really) I've used other recipes, and although they are all very similar in ingredients, they seem better. I shall root one out and compare later (I'm at work at the moment...).

I've rabbited on enough...

#27 Baked Rice Pudding: 7/10. On the grand scale all milk puddings are close to perfect, but I've scaled down as I'm sure I've used better recipes...Roll on semolina pud, though!

Cheat's onion gravy

This is one that I do if I want nice gravy but I'm not making a roast dinner, or more often, if there's a (*sharp intake of breath!*) vegetarian. It's very easy and probably doesn't count as a recipe, but fuck it; it's my blog so I can put whatever I like in it... Sorry about that outburst there. I often do this with mushrooms aswell as or instead of onions...

You will need:
Gravy granules
Vegetable stock from any boiled veg you're having, else use boiling water
1 small onion, sliced into half rings
1 tbs sunflower, or any other flavorless, oil
spring of thyme, rosemary or other suitable herb
Pepper

What to do:

1. Fry the onion on a medium heat in the oil along with the thyme until the onion goes dark brown - almost black - around the edges. Season with pepper - don't add salt because gravy granules are salty enough.
2. Make the gravy with the stock, according to the instructions on the packet, or to your own liking
3. Add the gravy to the pan and allow to simmer for around five minutes. Add more water if it's looking a bit on the thick side.
4. Pour into a jug or gravy boat, if posh; or just pour straight onto roast dinner, if not posh.

#26 Roast Parsnips

A quick one cos it's a bit crappo really! Made a nice tea last night with Yorkshire Puddings (see recipe in blog). I bought some parsnips. Followed the Grigson's guidelines which turned out to be what I do anyway! Par-boil your parsnips in salted water for about 3 minutes. Add to a hot roasting tin, season, and roast in a hot oven until they're squidgy in the centre and crispy (but not too crispy) in the outside. If you're cooking them with roast meat, stick them in the tin alongside it. Curiously enough, the Grigson doesn't give a recipe for roast or mashed potatoes - maybe she assumes everyone knows how to do it; but then again, if you can do those, you can do parsnips... I've also noticed some other omissions from the book and will compile a list, methinks and add my own versions.

Anyway, sorry for the rather uninspiring post today, but it's all I could muster this week - still have no money. Boo! However, it is Valentine's Day very soon, so I'll do something from the book then. I intend to go to Bury Market also and get some offal and weird things.

Here's the score for the roasts:
#26 Roast Parsnips: 8/10. You've gotta love em. The Grigson didn't give any new info on them though. Anyone know a better way to do them, or is this the best?

Rice Krispie Cake

Everyone has a favorite recipe for Rice Krispie cake and it's usually their Mum's. But when people try my Mum's they soon see the error of their ways. My Mum used to own her own bakery many years ago before I was even thought of and this the RKC she sold. It has to be the best one. I dare anyone to better it: the secret ingredient is... Mars bars! Although I did try it with Snickers and it worked quite well. Either way, it must be eaten with a cup of tea.

I will try and give amounts because I do it all by eye; use your judgement.

You will need:
2 Mars bars, chopped up
2 tbs golden syrup
1 1/2 to 2 ounces (45-60g) butter (though my Mum always uses margarine)
Rice Krispies
milk chocolate

What to do:

1. Melt the Mars bars, golden syrup and butter slowly in a saucepan, stirring often. Don't let it burn!
2. Pour the melted mixture into a large bowl containing the Rice Krispies. Add more cereal if you need to; the mixture is very rich so a thin covering is all that is required, but you should do it to your own taste.
3. Spread the mixture out into a Swiss roll tin that has been lined in greaseproof paper or foil. Flatten it our neatly with a spatula or palette knife.
4. Melt the milk chocolate over simmering water or on a medium heat in the microwave and spread thinly over the top of the RKC mixture.
5. Allow to cool (if possible) and cut into squares.

FYI...

From my old matey, James...

"Here is you're Christian take on the pagans 40 days of fasting:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temptation_of_Christ"

#25 Harvest Pancakes for the Poor

I did Pancakes for the Rich a while ago, and so as it was Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday yesterday. I thought I'd do the Grigson's recipe for (#25) Harvest Pancakes for the Poor. [I don't know why the pancakes were meant to be for harvest time, seeing as that's in September...] Jane Grigson's recipe is pretty much the same as everyone else, except she puts in ground ginger into hers; which was quite pointless since as you couldn't taste it! Hey-ho. Anyways, many different fillings were made by me and Greg - some English, some not so English. No matter what fillings I try, nothing beats my two favorites: lemon and sugar, or butter and sugar. Yum!

For the pancakes, make a batter by whisking together 5 ounces of flour with half a pint of either milk or mild ale (!) and an egg plus half a teaspoon of ground ginger. Fry over a high-ish heat using lard or cooking oil to lightly grease the pan (pour off any excess and re-grease for each pancake).

FYI: Shrove Tuesday is the last day of Shrovetide which was a long festival that built up to the forty days of fasting in the lead up until Easter. I wonder if the 40 day fast thing is also a Pagan thing taken over by the early Roman Christians like Easter was? Anyone know??

Also I tried to make ice-cream to go with it, but my ice-cream maker is broken - what a crock of shit. I have had soooo much bad luck lately I'm beginning to think I'm cursed...

#25 Harvest Pancakes for the Poor - 8/10. A very good recipe, though I prefer using some water as well as milk, but that's what I'm used to. Why-oh-why is there ginger in it?

Neil's Kitchen Nightmares

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have bought a new kitchen. I foolishly bought it using my current account and have no money until April. Boo! Anyway, I will not go on a massive rant about the never-ending stream of bad luck and terrible customer service I have received from MFI other than to say do not buy a kitchen from there! It is delivered now and I need to start tearing out the old one in stages and replacing it with nice shiny new kitchen bits. I cannot wait to have an oven that actually works properly. I will be posting up pictures as I go. So here's the first two: the God-awful kitchen as it is now and a small sample of the the giant set of flat-packing I have to do.* Hurrah!

Also, on another note, I will be back in the fray again - it's Pancake Day tomorrow so I'll do Grigson's pancakes and see if they're better than my Mum's recipe!

*For some stupid reason Blogger won't let me put photos on - yet another example of the MFI curse. Damn those bastards!**



**it seems to be working now...

Tatties wi' their hats on

Ok. Another of my own recipes. Actually it's one my uncle used to do. He passed away about 12 years ago, but I went to visit my Auntie last weekend and she made this dish. Tatties wi' their hats on has to be pronounced in a Yorkshire accent. Next time you cook a roast dinner make these brilliant potatoes, they're genius! You roast them in the oven in a tray filled part way up with vegetable stock and sliced onions. The tops have a coating of bought, dry sage and onion stuffing straight out of the packet. If you are doing roast pork or chicken pop the meat in and nestle the potatoes around it. It may all sound slightly naff, but it is one of the bast ways to do tatties! I goes particularly well with a roast shoulder of pork (with crackling, of course) and apple sauce.

You will need:
Medium-sized potatoes, peeled (I do 2 per person)
3 medium-sized onions, sliced
Vegetable stock
Sage and onion stuffing
Salt and pepper

What to do...

1. Preheat the oven to 108 degrees Celsius (or if having with meat, follow instructions for the meat you are roasting).
2. Spread the sliced onions evenly on the bottom of a roasting tin
3. Cut the base of each potato so that they can stand up longways (like large eggs!). Dunk the top of each potato in some stuffing and season well.
4. Nestle these amongst the onions, or around the joint of meat. Sprinkle extra stuffing on top
5. Pour enough stock so that it is around 1/2 inch deep.
6. Roast for around 1 1/2 hours until cooked.
7. If you're doing meat - make sure it's a cut that take at least 1 1/2 hours to cook, otherwise it'll dry out

My recipe for lentil and bacon pasta stew

As promised more of my own recipes. This one is adapted from an Elizabeth David book on Italian cookery. It's brilliant if you are being frugal (as I am), you could even miss out the bacon altogether, though I would replace it with some smoked paprika. (Plus swap the chicken stock for vegetable stock, and it's vegetarian) Also, when VERY frugal, instead of using parsley leaves, I use finely-chopped parsley stalks. I freeze all my herbs in freezer bags and have always got loads of stalks to use to flavours soups or stocks. Don't let the huge amount of garlic scare you, it cooks down into a sweet mush.

The recipe makes enough for four as a main I reckon. It freezes well too.

You will need:
4 tbs good olive oil
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 or 3 good-quality smoked bacon rashers, cut into squares
1 stick of celery cut in 1cm lengths
the peeled cloves of half a bulb of garlic
6 oz. of brown or green lentils (or a mixture of both)
1 tin of tomatoes
3 tbs chopped mint leaves
4 tbs chopped parsley leaves
2 pints light chicken stock
2 oz. pasta (any kind)
salt and pepper

What to do:

1. Pour boiling water over the lentils and allow to soak for 30-45 minutes
2. Meanwhile, fry the onion in the oil until soft, then add the bacon and fry for about five minutes.
3. Add the celery and garlic and cook for a further 5 minutes.
4. Add the drained lentils and stir around so that the lentils soak up the oil.
5. Pour in the tin of tomatoes, along with the mint and parsley. Season. Simmer until most of the tomato juices have been absorbed by the lentils.
6. Add the stock and bring to a good simmer. Allow to cook for about an hour, perhaps slightly longer.
7. When the lentils are served add the pasta and cook for a further 10 minutes or until the pasta is ready. Check the seasoning.
8. Eat!

OMG!

Homemade marmalade is absolutely gorgeous! Greg and I had some on toast when we got in from work last night. It's super orangey and not too bitter. It definitely better than any bought stuff and this is my first attempt. I'm going to make loads more jams and shit!

#24 Orange Marmalade: 9/10. Don't want to give it full marks as I may be able to improve on it next year...

Greg says:
I agree, 9/10 for the marmalade, it's SO good, the kind that a little old lady with a hair bun would give you if you knocked on her door to ask for directions in the countryside. It actually tastes like it has something to do with fruit which most marms/jams seldom do. Yum please.

Jenny says:
Yep, 9/10, fantastic marmalade. Tangy, chunky and sticky - bring me more toast at once!

Nic says:
"loving the marmalade neil! very impressed- good use of rind, deliciously fruity but not overly sweet. works well on old school toast and bagels. i'm assigning a score of 9/10. it's on a par with my all time fave -the vintage Oxford one. more please! can i put in a request for lemon curd and/or 'buttery's no-butter peanut butter' please!"

Ange says:
"Sometimes you don't need foie gras or quail's eggs to satisfy your well-educated tastebuds, on occassion only something homely and comforting will do. Take marmalade for example, you don't need fancy melba toast or an organic rye bagel to enjoy its zesty goodness. I believe the only true way to enjoy marmalade is on cheap, thick sliced white bread, toasted a bit more than usual, the merest sheen of butter (not marge mind) and then a thick unctuous layer of boiled sugar and citrus!I looked forward to last weekend knowing that such a treat was within my grasp. Neil's Marmalade (TM) made a satisfying pop when the lid was loosened and expelled a cool draught of lively orange. First taste was exquisitely sweet, dying down to a sharp, but exhilarating tang. A defining marmalade moment. Pat yourself on the back young Neil.I second the motion for lemon curd to be next though!"

#24 Orange Marmalade

Since I've no money and everyone was out having fun, it was the perfect time to make (#24) Orange Marmalade. In a weird and quite geeky way I actually quite enjoyed myself! Boil 3 pounds of Seville Oranges in 6 pints of water for about 1 1/2 hours, scoop out the innards and put in a muslin. Add muslin to pot of water, shred the peel, add shit load (6 pounds) of sugar. Boil. Piece of piss. The tricky bit was getting it to set.

FYI: pectin sets at 105 degrees Celsius after boiling for 10 minutes. Viciously boiling a pot of molten sugar for that long is quite scary and it took ages for me to pluck up the courage! Eventually I did and it passed the 'wrinkle test'. The kitchen and I ended up one massive sticky mess! Then it was the simple procedure of funneling everything in with my new jam funnel. I haven't had a chance to taste it yet, except for the molten splashes that landed on me; and it seems very nice, strong and bitter. I am labelling them up and distributing them about.

FYI: I got all the jam-making stuff and posh jars from internet/ebay shop Country Cook Shop (http://stores.ebay.co.uk/COUNTRY-COOK-SHOP) which is situated in The Travelling Hen, Herefordshire; and very good they are too! Plus the fancy Gingham pot lids were from Greg as a Christmas pressie. I can't believe he feeds my geekiness by buying me these things! Anyone else would be ina permanent state of embarassment...

I think I may start a new career in conserve production...

I may be poor but hopefully there will still be Grigsons to speak of. Today, my order of preserve-making goodies came via the Internet. I just need to get hold of some cheesecloth and I can make some marmalade. I don't have a proper posh pan or a thermometer but hopefully all will be well. As I am poor I will have to be frugal, so I shall hopefully be making more jams etc. soon. Also, I got an ice cream maker for Christmas, so I can do some exciting (and cheap) experiments with that. Anyone fancy a water sorbet!? Even if I don't do stuff from the book I shall put on my own recipes; I haven't done that for a while and I should because I've made some good ones off the hoof and forgotten what I did. Anyway, I'm going to stop blabbering now. Laters!

#23 French Dressing

Now I know what you're going to say; French Dressing isn't very English. Back when English Food was written, we had one type of dressing and it was this recipe. (My sister used the exact same one herself, though not from Grigson.) Now, of course we have millions, so they are definitely part of the English way of eating. And if you don't agree: tough tits it's in the book and I have to make at some point anyway.

The reason that I've made it in the middle of January is because I need to eat something fresh with actual vitamins. Christmas was too indulgent. I may have gout. So it's salads for me. I got a brilliant panini sandwich press thing for Christmas and have been having healthy sarnies and salads. Ta Ma!

Crush a clove of garlic into a bowl or a clean jar and add a quarter teaspoon of sugar, a teaspoon of French mustard, a tablespoon of wine vinegar, five tablespoons of olive oil and some salt and ground pepper. Give it a good mix or shake and you are done. I know it looks like someone's vommed in a jar, but it's very nice reallly. No, really!

#23 French Dressing 7/10. It's the one we all know and love, but there's more exciting ones out there.

Christmas Dinner, numbers 21, 22

I planned to do alot more than I actually did for the Christmas dinner. It did all go down a treat though. However, only two Grigsons were done. Most of the recipes for the meal were taken from the brilliant Leiths Vegetarian Bible that I bought Greg a couple of years back; I would recommend everyone to buy it whether a vegetarian or not. This was the menu:

Starter: Mushroom pate

Main: Nut roast, (#21) Buttered Parsnips, Brussels Sprouts, Roast Potatoes, Minty Peas, Mustard Gravy

Pud: (#22) Little Pots of Chocolate with Rosemary

'Parsnips need butter' says the Grigson. And so right she is. Buttered parsnips is a way to make roast parsnips without roasting them it seems. Boil your parsnips until nearly cooked, drain, and then saute them slowly in butter. They go all nice and golden and chewy. Yumbo! Add some parsley and salt and pepper and you're done.

The Pots of Chocolate with Rosemary were a strange affair; dissolve 8 ounces of sugar in 8 fluid ounces of dry white wine and lemon juice, add a pint of cream and simmer until it thickens. Now add either a stem of fresh or a teaspoon of dried rosemary (I used dried as they'd run out of fresh at the shop) and 5 1/2 ounces of grated dark chocolate. Simmer for 20 minutes until nice and thick. Pass through a sieve and pour into ramekins to set. All pretty easy. sprinkle with some slivered almonds. The Grigson did warn that it was a very rich dessert, and she was not wrong! Greg and I managed to eat half of one each!

#21: Buttered Parsnips.7.5/10 - A great way to eat parsnips, but are they better the roast!? I don't think so!

#22: Little Pots of Chocolate with Rosemary Cream. 4.5/10. The combination of rosemary-infused chocolate works very well indeed. But the vast amounts of wine and sugar made far too rich even for me!

Happy New Year!

Well 2008 is here. I need to fill you in on Grigson-related activities over the festive period. There actually wasn't that much Grigson action to be honest. The Christmas Cake has gone down well with who tasted it (except for those that don't like Christmas Cake!). I did like the Marzipan as it was less sweet than the shop-bought kind. I liked the royal icing too, but I used (*sharp intake of breath*) Jif lemon! This was because I'd forgot to buy it and didn't have time to go to the shop. The icing's consistency was nice, but the slightly fake lemon flavour was noticeable. I still have a massive wedge of cake to eat, so if someone sends me their address I'll send a slice! My Mum like it too much, though, and it has now become my job to make the Christmas Cake every year.

#15 Christmas Cake, #18 Marzipan, #19 Royal Icing: 9/10. Certainly better than any shop-bought cake. I am knocking marks of for the icing (albeit my own fault)

I have been to Unicorn in Chorlton to buy my Seville oranges so I can make some lovely Oxford Marmalade. I have also ordered jam-making equipment from th'internet. It will be my first forray into the art of preserve-making.

However, dear-reader, do not expect too many Grigson's over the coming months. There are two reasons for this:

1. I have put on more than a stone since October with all the rich food and lack of trips to the gym.
2. I foolishly bought a new kitchen for my house. I paid for it using my debit card because I'd forgotten my credit card. What I didn't know is that these credit cards charge you 5% of the value to transfer it. What I also didn't know is that my card had been cancelled as I'd not used it since 2003! This leaves me with about £30 a week until April (my PhD pays me quarterly).

All Grigsons must be now a, cheap, and b, low-calorie. I don't know how successful I will be at this. I have managed one, and will tell you all about it after I fill you in on the couple I did over Christmas for mine and Greg's veggie Christmas dinner.