A kitchen marathon last week to fill the freezer for ages to come, all thanks to the indomitable help of Karen and the great ingredients from Dave the Butcher’s of Highlands Road. Together over a few hours we created two full meals of roast turkey, roast potatoes and Brussel sprouts followed by Tarte Tatin plus 12 more two-course lunches (with desserts to spare)and 17 light suppers: Roast turkey (12), Tart Tatin (8), baked fruit salad (14), minestrone soup (14), mushroom soup (3), bread (18), rough puff pastry (12 future pies or tarts). It all takes a bit of preparation beforehand and coordinated team work but batch cooking keeps the fuel bill down while producing a stack of great meals for the next few weeks. Next time we’ll make different main courses such as lamb tajine, Thai fish curry, pork pies and many more so that there’s always a selection ready.
The autumn apple cake has also been going down well and anyone can try this amazingly easy recipe to use up their windfalls: www.pennymelvillebrown.com/recipes/apple-cake
Meanwhile, we hosted local friends for a simple Sunday brunch which is a super way of entertaining without fuss and a “traditional English breakfast” is such a treat. Again, courtesy of Dave’s, sausages, bacon, black pudding, tomatoes, mushrooms and scrambled eggs on toast after an appetiser of fresh melon, all topped off with an apple (more windfalls) and mincemeat crumble.
I know, it all sounds wildly self-indulgent but its nearly all fresh food, cooked from scratch without any of that ultra-processed stuff and ensures that we have well over 30 plant-based foods a week. Good nutrition needn’t cost an arm and a leg in ingredients or the energy bill.