planner: for fortnight beginning 1st march 2010

onion marmalade
This fortnight’s taster is our own onion marmalade - typically it is going to end up beside pork chops but will also work well with grilling steak or sausages. I’m not one for eating it cold, gently reheat it in a small pan if you want to get the best of flavours from it.

sausages
And talking of sausages - have a mid-week supper of colcannon and pork sausages. Start by bringing a pan of potatoes to the boil in salted water and setting some sausages to brown under the grill. Prepare green cabbage (my preference is always savoy but it may not be yours) by trimming and then thinly shredding. Pop it in a pan with seasoning, a generous knob of butter and a little stock - cook it, covered, at a gentle simmer so that it braises/steams for about 6-7 minutes to tender. Mash the potatoes and fold in the cabbage together with some of the braising stock and more butter, seasoning with salt and plenty of pepper to taste. Serve with grated cheddar over the mash, sausages on the side and a dollop of hot onion marmalade too.

minced lamb or beef
he humble baked potato is a great family pleaser and everyone can indulge in their own favourite filler. For a simple, no fuss, meaty option dry fry off either minced beef or minced lamb (removing excess fat if you use lamb) and then add a couple of tomatoes - deseeded and chopped - and a few spoons of pesto. You can also have grated Parmesan available to sprinkle over the stuffed potato and briefly grill to golden.

stewing lamb or mutton
Our large box contains stewing lamb/mutton and Irish stew immediately comes to mind - if that’s the way you want to go there are 2 recipes for Irish Stew on this website. Otherwise you could season and brown the stewing lamb then strew it with sliced onions, rosemary and crushed garlic. Pour over a large jar of passatta (or a couple of cans of chopped tomatoes) and add a small glass of red or white wine. Bring the casserole to a simmer then cover and transfer to a gentle oven (about 170°C) for 2 - 2½ hours or until the lamb is very tender. For my taste I’d add some black olives and grated lemon zest as it left the oven.

bacon
I have to confess to being a spinach addict and have found ways of sneaking it in to almost everything but the pudding these days - which is no mean feat (in this household dominated by teenage boys) as most below the age of 50 aren’t happy to even give it a try. Softening the spinach blow by adding plenty of chopped, crisp bacon, a couple of diced ripe tomatoes and a Capricorn goats’ cheese, - also diced - I folded all into pasta and received no complaints. Quite the opposite in fact. The same combination of ingredients slipped under the grill and then topped with a poached egg makes one of the most heavenly Sunday breakfast treats.

beef roast
Perk up your Sunday lunch of roast beef by adding horseradish to the Yorkshire pudding batter - and don’t warn the family!

Sandra Tate

Below is a connection to a selection of recipes that use the contents of the winter warmer box - though you are likely to find the occasional recipe or mention of items within the newsletter/planner that accompanies the basic meatbox.