A Cookathon

Today I set to to cook two lots of pork cheeks, possible as I went to the farm shop yesterday (in the rain and a gale)

So here’s the recipe followed this time; as with many of my recipes, this one varies form one time to the next depending on what is in the house.

6 pork cheeks, cut into bite sized pieces (a sharp knife is the easiest way)
3 onions, chopped finely
3 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
Half of each of a red pepper, a green pepper and a yellow pepper, chopped
3 tomatoes, skinned, cored and chopped finely
about 8 good sized closed cup mushrooms, chopped
Left overs from a bottle of light beer.


Fry the onions and garlic in a herb infused oil (or other oil - I am just boasting here - in fact it was a gift from Le Chef) - until soft.
Add the peppers and fry till soft.
Add pork cheeks and fry until brown.
Add mushrooms and stir through.
Add tomatoes and beer

Stir through and bring to the boil.
Cook slowly with the lid on until tender

It is now bubbling away on the hob.

…and I am thoroughly discomknockerated.*

* no, this is not another Scots word, just a made up one. I am sure you can work it out.

Farmers' Market

This morning s. and p. collected me and took me to the near by Farmers’ Market. We all shopped separately and met up at the end for them to take me home and each move on elsewhere.

I bought:

2 packs of 2 pork cheeks
1 pack streaky bacon
1 pack bacon bits
1 pack middle bacon
1 pack “just plain” pork sausages (9 of them)
(Yes, that is what I asked for and that is also how they are labelled!)
1 pack chicken livers (just under 6 oz)
1 pack chicken drumsticks, 6 good sized free range corn-fed ones
2 rib eye steaks
1 stalk of Brussels sprouts

I spent just under £30 on this, but it is a serious amount of meat. I am having one rib eye steak for my dinner tonight and freezing the other.

Umm, I also ordered Jacob’s Sheep lamb chops and mince to be delivered and don’t have a price for that yet, so really I spent more than I admitted to.* I was told by a lady in the Highlands who has Jacob’s sheep that the lamb has a stronger flavour than ordinary lamb, more approaching mutton.

I swear by the bacon as being the best in Britain, and the pork cheeks and sausages come from the same source.

Now I have packed the meat away, mostly in the freezer (my nice clean freezer, with enough room to pack it all away the way I like. This involves soups in the top drawer, cooked meats in the middle drawer and raw meat in the bottom drawer.) I suppose I have to admit that every cloud has a silver lining, but what I wonder is why every silver lining has to have a dirty great black cloud lurking in the vicinity!

* (…and before anyone tells me “never use a preposition to end a sentence with!)