Pork Pate - Vegetarians Look Away Now!

I've often said that if I really knew what went into pate it wouldn't eat it.
Well, now I have made it from first principles and its yummy.
We picked up our half a happy pig from Hempsal's Farm last week. This time I was spared no realities - we got the lot. Head, bones (extracted), feet.....
The rest of the family stayed totally clear of the kitchen while all this was going on.....
And here is why:

Liver, trotters and half a head: the cheek is the best meat...though not much of it.

What to do with half a pig's head?

I reasearched a little here and there....considered boiling the head as for brawn (Head cheese to US readers - sounds a bit like toe cheese to me....) Somehow, having a head in the pot and watching the gums recede as it boiled did not appeal. Settled on using the meat for a variant on Delia Smith's Coarse Country Pate.


The first job was to remove the meat from its various hiding places.
So I whipped out my nice sharp Sabatier and investigated. I left the brain alone - it was a lot smaller than I expected.
The teeth could have done with better brushing and flossing - another reason to avoid boiling the whole head.

I did boil the trotters because the meat was encapsulated in very tough connective tissue. Also, it made AMAZING stock.  Would you believe that from 6 trotters (Not bad when I had only bought for only half a pig....) this was all the meat I could find:

Apparently trotter meat is delicious.

I had about 600g of liver, a few micrograms of trotter meat (!), about 400g head meat, so I added 400g unsmoked streaky bacon and a chunk of unspecified weight from the belly.

Blend it all up with 3 cloves of garlic, 20 juniper berries crushed, 20 black pepper corns crushed, and a dollop of trotter stock.

I pressed it into a loaf pan and some ramekins and baked them in a bain marie at low heat for 1.5 hours.

Out of the oven, covered with foil, and weighted down with whatever I had to hand that was heavy....tomato cans, pestle and mortar, bookstand etc.

And here is the result:

I have sliced this up and frozen it now.

One member of the family couldn't wait to try the pate, so he jumped on the counter when no one was looking, knocked the weight off one of the ramekins, clawed back the foil and helped himself. I hope he had indigestion from all that pate - his breath was certainly rather garlicky, hence we identified the culprit after the event.

Who me?

We agree with him though - it was quite delicious on crusty bread with a cornichon.  Garlic breath all round.

Getting Nettled

I love free food, and there is so much through the seasons to pick here!
The kids did draw the line at eating mushrooms I found in the garden (I was sure they were safe...!)
We have a nice crop of Stinging Nettles in our wilderness area. They have so many uses - food, wine, liquid plant feed...apparently the seeds have caffeine-like qualities!

Here is a recipe for soup that is so good you won't believe it! It has the sweetness of a pea soup with the savoury richness of spinach or watercress soup. Delicious.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp oil, nob of butter
A carrier bag loosely filled with tender young stinging nettles tops
A large onion
1 Clove of garlic
two large potatoes (I used a load of new potatoes that were starting to sprout)
1.5l (6 cups) hot veg stock
pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste
swirl of cream (optional)

Method:

1. using thick rubber gloves(!) thoroughly wash the nettles.

2. chop onion and potatoes into chunks about 1 inch cubed
3. peel garlic and chop in half

4. heat oil and butter until better melted. Add onion, garlic and potato, stir until coated with fat, turn heat to lowest possible and cover with tight fitting lid.   Allow to "Sweat" for 10 mins

5. meanwhile remove leaves from nettle stems, discard stems. Gloves still needed for this part!

6.when "Sweating" period is over, add hot veg stock, nettle leaves and cayenne pepper. I cheated and used hot water and a stock cube crumbled in. Hey, it works.
Cover and simmer for  10-15 mins, or until potato is cooked through.

7. blend soup, add freshly grated nutmeg, salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with a swirl of cream if desired, and some crusty bread. Yum.

Oh, by the way, once cooked, nettles don't sting any more!!

Lashings of Goulash

Below is my trusty Goulash recipe. 
Actually, that is not true, it is Delia Smith's Goulash recipe, and it works perfectly every time.
Good old Delia. no matter what the other super TV chefs say, I would take her recipes over theirs any day for reliability!

I must preamble this by saying that I have two lovely friends, one of German and one of Hungarian descent who both have fabulous Goulash recipes, and serve their Goulash with traditional Spaetzles. I am usually in too much of a hurry to make them, but they are superbly worth the effort if you have the extra energy and time. V, G (and G's Dad) if you are out there, I am plagiarizing your recipes for them!
I cook the whole of this recipe in one of my much loved Le Creuset lookalikes, which saves having to transfer stuff from one pan to another. But, if you don't have one, just do as it says below, and all will be well.

Prep time: about 20 mins for the meat part, 10mins for the spaetzle.
Cooking time:  2.5 hours at 140oC (275oF)
Serves: 4

Ingredients
1.5 lb stewing steak cut into 4cm (1.5") cubes
2 large onions, roughly chopped
1 large clove garlic chopped or crushed
1 tbsp olive oil
1 rounded tbsp all purpose (plain) flour
1 rounded tbsp Hungarian Paprika (can use regular paprika, but not the hot kind!!)
14oz can chopped tomatoes
1 red pepper cut into strips
5 fl oz sour cream
salt and black pepper.

Method:
(preheat oven to 140oC, 275oF, with dutch oven/deep lidded casserole dish in it to warm)

1.  Brown the beef cubes:  heat up oil in a heavy duty frying pan. Put in a fistful of beef cubes at a time and brown on all sides of each cube. (they should brown almost instantly, but not blacken - med, high heat.)
Avoid putting too many pieces in at a time, because then they produce to much liquid in the pan, and instead of sealing in the meat juices you end up boiling them out.
As each batch has finished browning, place them in a bowl to one side.

2. Now add onion to the pan (You may need a little extra oil if the pan is very dry at this point).
Stir gently until the onions are softened and golden.
Add garlic, turn heat to medium low and stir for 1 minute

3. Return the beef to the pan, mix contents together, then add flour and paprika. Combine thoroughly and let cook gently for 1 minute.
this will look claggy and revolting. But never fear, it is meant to!

4. Now add the can of chopped tomatoes. mix in, bring to a simmer then transfer the whole lot to warmed dutch oven. Put the lid on and place it in the middle of your pre-heated oven.

5. After 2 hours, remove goulash from oven and add the pepper strips. Stir briefly and replace lid, return to oven.  Start getting the stuff ready for making spaetzles.

6. After a further 1/2 hour, remove from the oven. Your Goulash is ready.  Stir in sour cream and serve on noodles or spaetzles.



To make yummy, buttery Spaetlzes:
You will need a large pan of boiling water and a sturdy colander with nice big holes.

 Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 cup waater
2 eggs
1/2tsp salt
melted butter (to pour over once cooked)

Method:
Combine flour, water, eggs and salt.  Beat to thick batter.
Bring water to boil in pan.
Press batter through colander so that it drips into the pan.
Floating spaetzles are cooked. Remove as they come to the surface, and place in a warm dish.
Cook in batches to avoid over-boiling them.
Once all cooked, drizzles melted butter over them.
Serve immediately.

Apologies - no pictures. WIll try to embellish future recipes!
Enjoy your Goulash. Mine is in the oven smelling very good as I type!