A Note on Cold Remedies...

I know, hardly slow cooking is it? But I have been struck down with a lurgy and wanted to share with you all a drink my mum used to make for me (she got it from some natural remedy place) which I now make for myself that I think really does help.  You still get said cold but it doesn’t seem to last so long and perhaps the symptoms not so severe.  When she used to make it all but the garlic were ground spices but I have upped the ante with fresh ingredients with the exception of the turmeric, which you could also get fresh if your green grocer stocks turmeric root.  The turmeric is my addition to the recipe.  An Indian lady once told me they give honey mixed with turmeric for sore throats; apparently it has anti-bacterial properties...  I know people often think of turmeric as something that just gives colour but it has a lovely musky flavour.  I always grate the garlic and ginger as it makes for easier drinking (less sharp corners!)

So here it goes:

1 garlic clove grated

Fresh ginger (about an equal quantity to the garlic) grated

1 small red chilli seeds removed diced very, very finely

½ tsp ground turmeric

1 large tsp honey

Juice and zest of 1 large juicy lemon

Put all ingredients in a glass or mug.  Top up with hot water from the tap (do not use boiling water as you’ll destroy the vitamin C in the lemon).  Due to the turmeric it should turn an excitingly lurid yellow.  Drink it all down including the chunky bits.  I find this is easier if you give it a stir before each swallow so you’re not left with lots at the bottom you have to try and eat neat as it were.

You get used to the taste eventually J

Flesh Box

So I finally got my Box o’ Flesh from F&B, so very exciting.  I’d asked for a box of goodies to cook up a storm with.  When I’d contacted them I asked if they thought that a box of meat they had left after all the orders were in was a good idea, in the interests of not letting anything go to waste.  Plus, I find that it’s easier to cook around what I have instead of thinking of what I need up front (call me a lazy shopper).  So I picked up my box which was full of lots of lovely surprises...

The first thing that caught my eye was packets of oxtail. I LOVE slow cooked oxtail and it was the first thing I used.  I decided to do an oxtail pie.  The plan was to have it on Saturday night for dinner.  I started cooking the tail at about midday, thinking that would be plenty of time for the meat to start falling off the bone, threw it in a pot with the usual suspects and covered it in one of those paper jobbies, lid on top then in the oven down low.

When I pulled it out at 6pm alas! The meat was not cooked enough (do’h!) So I put it back in the oven to think about itself for a while longer and then wondered what I was going to feed the family for dinner... Dug around the freezer and pulled out some sausages so quickly knocked up a sausage and bean casserole. Not as nice as the sausage and bean casserole I usually make using the F&B toulouse sausages (they are divine) but still good, disaster averted.

When I was about to go to bed I turned off the oven and put the oxtail in the fridge.  In the morning it had a nice layer of fat on top which I took off and saved for when I needed dripping later (dripping makes amazing Yorkshire puddings).  The meat was removed from the bone and then put aside.  The only thing I don’t like about oxtail is those weird little hard caps on the end of each joint... what are they anyway???

I made some pastry in the afternoon and then baked up the pie.  It was sensational!  Although I think the wee girl was more impressed with the pastry leaves I put on top of the pie for garnish than anything else...

Off topic, did I mention that I freeze my left-overs in portion sizes? That way a quick meal can be had simply by adding toast or mash or pasta or whatever...  So I thought the other day I would use one for lunch the next day.  Pulled out some spaghetti bolognaise mince and cooked up some spaghetti while I was waiting for the mince to thaw.  Put the pasta in my lunch container and poured the mince over only to find out it was chilli con carne. For the record, chilli con spaghetti does not work.