Chitchat thread #24

[Snoop Puss]

Rook pie! I once skinned a pheasant after reading instructions online. I was surprised I managed to do it so easily. As I can't find a recipe in my books for pigeon, rary, here's a recipe for two for pheasant:

Wrap a pheasant in six slices of bacon (secure with toothpicks if necessary) and brown for two mins in a tablespoon of oil in the pressure cooker base. Add 60 ml of brandy to deglaze then half a cup of walnuts, six large shallots sliced lengthways, 1/2 tsp of dried thyme or a sprig of fresh, 1 bay leaf, 1 blade of mace, black pepper to taste and 250 ml of chicken stock. Stir to mix and ensure pheasant is breast side up. Lock lid on pressure cooker, bring to high pressure and then lower heat to maintain pressure and cook for 20 mins. At end of time, remove pressure cooker from heat and leave to stand for pressure to fall. Open carefully with lid pointing away from you (to stop steam getting in your face). Serve with cabbage, says the recipe.

With regard to the stock, 250 ml is usually the minimum amount of liquid recommended by pressure cooker manufacturers. You might be able to get away with less if yours is a modern design. 250 ml plus the juice from the pheasant will leave you with quite a lot of gravy at the end. You can save some as stock for soup or casserole. Thicken with appropriate thickener if you like a thicker gravy.

Tip: heat pressure cooker base before adding oil and allow oil to briefly heat up before adding pheasant. This reduces likelihood of food sticking to base when browning. Sorry if this tip is like teaching your grandfather to suck eggs.

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

i use both a slow and a pressure cooker depending on what I'm making.

There used to be stories about pressure cookers exploding, but they have all kinds of safety mechanisms nowadays and this doesn't happen (touch wood, says the woman with six...) .

That happened to me about 4 years ago I was cooking dried peas a bit of skin must have blocked the release valve and mushy peas shot out covering the ceiling and everything else in the kitchen. Luckily the ceiling is low enough for me to touch using a spatula to scrap them into a bucket the rest of the kitchen took me and MrP most of the day to clean.

Since then peas are done in the slow cooker.

Its raining here so not much outdoors I did get my apples picked earlier will nip out later for the other veg I need.

Enjoy your day

[mothhawk]

Morning all.

My mum can remember her mum making rook pie when the farmers had been shooting the rooks off the crops in late spring. She said it was very tasty. I suppose it would be as the birds would have fed up on the tender green wheat and barley shoots in the fields! And of course the birds were given free to anyone in the village, so a cheap meal too.

It's overcast here but no sign or feel of rain. I really hope it does rain soon, my garden desperately needs some. The runner beans are finally beginning to produce decent beans now it's a bit cooler, so I've begun freezing them, as we've plenty of CFB for eating green.

I'm resisting picking any more blackberries when I go out for a walk as there's loads in the freezer and the jam cupboard is full. It seems a wicked waste for to leave such big beautiful berries to just decay on the brambles, and I'm still astonished that folk will pay £2-£3 for a 500g supermarket punnet when they are free for the taking in the hedges.

[rary]

Morning

i use both a slow and a pressure cooker depending on what I'm making.



That happened to me about 4 years ago I was cooking dried peas a bit of skin must have blocked the release valve and mushy peas shot out covering the ceiling and everything else in the kitchen. Luckily the ceiling is low enough for me to touch using a spatula to scrap them into a bucket the rest of the kitchen took me and MrP most of the day to clean

But how did they taste?

[Bren In Pots]

Rary that’s something I didn’t get around to trying

When I told our daughter she said I ought to have taken a photo then used it as our Christmas card titled ‘Peas on earth’

[Nicos]

^^^ te he….that made my giggle!

[rary]

Good evening, my neighbour was a bit worried earlier when he saw me standing with a shotgun, but fortunately I had another read of Snoops cooking instructions and I realised I had made a mistake, the instructions were for pheasantnot peasant
Well after church today it turned out a right bright, warm sunny day, as it was bright I decided to shredd all the branches that I had cut down recently, with the sun out I can do it free of charge with having solar panels, so they are all shredded and spread over one of the veg beds, I have decided to stop making compost and now, spread everything straight onto the soil any vegative waste I cut up with the grass shears and as said shredd branches, the thoughts behind doing this is to put everything back into the soil o need to catch or lose any juice, I am hoping that doing it this way will cut down snail damage as well, time will tell
Right time to go and have the last cup of tea for the day, I know some of you older folks don't have a cuppa as late as this possibly once I get old I will be the same. We'll have a good day tomorrow and remember to pass on smiles. Goodnight

[bramble]

It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day here.
Spent some of the afternoon in the greenhouse tidying up the tomato plants.
My crop this year seems to be coming to an end very early, * can only put it down to the very warm weather we had in the last month.

With all the rain we had yesterday the water butts are full.
I left out some empty buckets and when I checked them this morning 5 inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours.

Sleep,well all.

[Snoop Puss]

Morning all.

Five inches of rain in 24 hours is a lot, bramble. I'd love to have that here.

Sorry to hear about the peas, Bren In Pots. Bet you were cursing at the time. Like your daughter's quip, though. Made me laugh too.

Chilly this morning. Long trousers and a jumper necessary for the morning dog walk. I was hoping the cold might hold off a bit longer, but it looks like autumn is well and truly here already. Daytime temps are still very high but the night-time temps are plummeting. Shame, as my red peppers are at last looking like they might do something. Won't happen if the night-time temps continue to drop like this.

Other than that, a very busy day ahead. Loads of work and, apart from the watering, the garden will have to wait till tomorrow.Mr Snoop is off into the village this afternoon to clear space for the new freezer, which has been ordered but could take a while to be delivered.

The smiles got a bit stuck around the new brassicas when I set off with the dogs but should be with you in good time this morning. No idea why a few more have turned up. lottie dolly, were they with you? Are you back off your holidays now?

Anyway, have a great day everyone.

[greenishfing]

Good morning all. Bren, "Peas on Earth" sounds so funny. I'd have liked to have seen the Christmas card.

Rain banging on my bedroom window woke me up at about 4am. I don't think there was a lot though and it's dry and cloudy now, forecast to be 24 °C later.

I'm off to the post office shortly to post (Christmas) birthday puddings, go buy some coffee and then pop down to the allotment. That should keep me out of trouble for a while.

[Jay22]

Morning all, well turn your back and who appears? Great to see you rary, missed your cheery posts!
Congratulations to your granddaughter bramble, well done her!
Was in Ayrshire for the weekend. Managed to cut back a bit of overgrown garden in between the showers on Saturday. Yesterday was a beautiful day in comparison but last night here at home was wild. One of our recycling bins which was out for uplifting took a walk down the pavement! The amount of rain we had was amazing too. Had to close the window as the blinds were horizontal!!
Off for an apple cooking day. Have had loads off the one tree…tried giving some away but no one wants them, think it’s the thought of peeling and coring but I have someone who doesn’t mind doing it.
Anyhoo I’ve rambled on long enough. Better get some domestics done. Catch you all later. Rary, glad you decided to join us again and I hope the OH feels better soon. x

[Nicos]

Mornin n’alln’all

Still nice and warm here too but it does feel as if Autumn is on the way first thing.

We are due heavy rain and high winds as from tomorrow so OH had taken down our awning at the bottom of the field. Bit sad not having it up still but it won’t cope with the high winds.
We didn’t really get much use of it this year because when we actually had time to sit out we were hiding indoors out of the heat. This is the first year ever we’ve not lit the fire pit down there in the evening because of the massive fire risk.
Still, we can use the patio later on in the autumn - so that’s something to look forward to

More apple stewing for me , and a baking sesh as I want to make a quiche for supper tonight so I might as well fill the oven with other things to bake at the same time.

Rary…any tips please to help me evade doing the ironing today? I know you are our resident expert…..

Jay, some of my windfall apple are the size of ping pong balls, with bugs inside. I did start making an effort to peel them but heck, I finally gave up , so I’m leaving them in a wheelbarrow for the wasps and hornets - and the occasional bird. What’s left will be composted .I’ve plenty of mandarin sized ones to struggle with . Pity they are mostly so small this year, but I’m not complaining as I really thought we’d get none at all as the late frosts really zapped most things in the garden.

Best crack on then! Enjoy your day peeps!
See ya later…

[Bren In Pots]

Morning

Lots of rain and full water butts here as well. Looks like the 'lawn' is starting to grow back there's a green tuffs here and there.

Jay have you thought of getting an Apple corer, peeler slicer they really do work I use mine for the dehydrator, pies then for jams and chutneys i chop the slices into pieces. Well worth the money.

It wasn't until I'd finished Pea scraping the ceiling I realised I ought to have taken a photo but at the time I was just a shock to see a peas everywhere.

Enjoy your day

[Nicos]

I’m still chuckling at your peas Bren. Doesn’t make me feel so bad with the state of my floor, ceiling, walls and cupboards after my jam making sessions!…but your tops them all!

[bramble]

Good morni g all.
A nice sunny start to the day.

Peas on the ceiling Bren, too funny.
A neighbour had beans splattered in his kitchen years ago.
He sat the can in a pot of boiling water to heat the beans but never punctured the can before hand.

Jay, If I lived near you I would gladly make use of the windfalls.
My daughter gave me hers but I could do with some more.

It's looking like mixed fruit jam that I will be making this afternoon.
I have apples, plums, strawberries and rhubarb but not huge quantities of any of them.
It will be pot luck jam.
Have a good day all,