Jottings from Lancaster - Pheasant and Chorizo, birthday celebrations

It's my sister Gwenda's birthday today and she and her husband are over from Germany for a short stay during which she turns 57. OK, she isn't really 57 but that's near enough, particularly as I conveniently have those wax candle numbers left over from my 57th birthday which will do nicely on top of Hugh's little black cake and which is looking very chocolately and ready to eat later for tea time along with a glass of Prosecco.

We thought of going out to lunch and tossed about a few ideas ranging from the tried and trusted Lunesdale Arms (quite near and not too expensive) to the Inn at Whitewell which is altogether a bit posher, further away and more pricey. Eventually we decided to stay in and I would cook. It would be hard to think of what to make from a book which is for everyday cooking since a celebration meal usually entails a book that is dedicated to entertaining, but Hugh evidently thinks we could all be eating pheasant a couple of times a month and we all decided that it was worth a try. 


I haven't cooked pheasant before and Hansotto, who is my brother in law had some doubts about how it would work with butter beans and chorizo. He is a superb cook himself, as is Gwenda, so I had a lot to live up to. Normally I would have defaulted to roast lamb or something that I had cooked up enough to be confident with, but knowing and trusting the Everyday recipes I was keen to have a go at this one. For a start I got muddled up with lots of pans frying onions and pheasant and realising I hadn't used a big enough dish to cook the pheasants in the oven and I had to find increasingly bigger dishes out of the cupboard until I ended up the biggest one I had - which would do just nicely. Once I had sorted out all the pots and pans I put it into the oven and forgot about it for 2 hours as instructed. 


I had decided to do parsnip, carrot and potato mash, knowing that Gwenda likes parsnips. I would normally have done roast potatoes but somehow reading the mash recipe I felt that it was better to make that. It took some preparation and as I had to cook the potatoes and the carrots/parsnips separately it involved more saucepans - more washing up. But although it was a bit of a faff to make, having to whizz up the veggies and mashing the potatoes, it was well worth the extra bit of effort.


After 2 hours everything was ready and if I had had my wits about me I would have taken a photo BEFORE we ate all of it. As it is this is the best I can do...

Remains of a pheasant.

This is what was left on the plates (after 2nds all round)...

Carrot, parsnip and potato mash...

Satisfied brother-in-law...

All in all it was a very successful celebration lunch.  This is the birthday girl afterwards in some kind of ecstatic moment after eating the rich and tasty juices...???

Jottings from Lancaster - Wholemeal Drop Scones

I haven't talked at all about our visit to the River Cottage Canteen in Axminster but I need to here as I have been making wholemeal drop scones - actually spelt drop scones - which was exactly what I ordered the morning we walked into River Cottage Canteen for the first time.

We were on holiday in Devon in October and I was half aware that there was a River Cottage thing at Axminster. I expected some out of the way little fancy restaurant instead of this big, bold frontage right in the middle of the tiny town. We had parked in Tesco and you could conveniently walk from there into the town through a rather picturesque little ginnel right on to the main street. John went off to the bookshop (Archway Books - highly recommended) and I popped my head round the door and decided immediately that we would have to go there for coffee. 


So when John eventually emerged from the bookshop with some interesting acquisitions I dragged him off. Inside it was a lovely deli and a somewhat rustic cafe with wooden tables and trendily unmatched wooden chairs. It was almost empty, it being Monday morning. The coffee menu looked amazing. They did rather nice breakfasts but having resolved not to eat anything at all, all that strong will crumbled under the thought of spelt drop scones with honey. John had toast and we ordered 2 coffees. And then we waited. It was a nice enough place to sit and wait. But when the coffees came and still no sign of the food we began to get a tad restless. Of course, being English, we sat for far longer than anyone in their right minds would. And then we gave up - we just went to the till and offered to pay for the coffees but explained that the food hadn't arrived. The girl was really nice about it and offered to go off and get the food for us and bring us another coffee each, but by then we needed to get on as we had planned a day's geocaching on Golden Cap (the highest point on the south coast).


But they were so nice - she was really kind and apologetic and we didn't even end up paying for the coffees. And by then the spell of the spelt was wearing off and I was being seduced by the deli pies. So we turned to the counter and from their amazing selection bought a ham hock and pea pie, along with a chicken and leek pie. And then a chocolate tart and a pear and almond tart. The former were for tea back at the cottage where we were staying and the yummy sweet tarts to eat with our picnic lunch on Golden Cap. And they were good - I mean REALLY good. Scrumptious pastry and tasty fillings. I couldn't begin to describe the chocolate tart it was just so... 


Anyway, the guy serving us on the deli counter was really kind and wrapped up everything well so that it wouldn't crumble in the back of the car or my backpack on our walk. He had heard of geocaching, but never done it so it was fun to talk to him. So surprisingly, our first encounter with River Cottage was very good but somehow the longing for the spelt drop scone never quite left me.

Drop scones cooking on top of the wood burning stove

River Cottage Canteen and Deli was bristling with books by Hugh, including his new veggie one. You could buy them there signed, but in the end I decided against. Like Heather, the thought of another almost unused cookery book on the shelves was an extravagance too far. At that time I knew nothing about HFW except that he lived at River Cottage somewhere in the West Country and he grew his own veggies. I had seen him on enough TV trailers to know what he looked like but that was the sum total of my knowledge. Still, even knowing so little, it was exciting to be in Axminster. But then a few days later, whiling away a little time in Honiton while John was sampling some of the best 2nd hand bookshops for miles around I noticed that W H Smith had an offer on - all TV cookery books were £9.99 and if you bought 2, the second was £5. Just because, for no reason at all really, I decided to buy the River Cottage Everyday book as I thought it looked really nice. And as we were on holiday and looking for little holiday presents, I bought a second one for £5 for Heather. After all, I had only spent £14.99 and had 2 books which I might have paid £25 each for. And if Heather wasn't bothered, at least we hadn't spent much. But in fact I LOVED the book. I loved the recipes, I loved the pictures and little drawings and I loved the foreword. 


The nice man at the deli counter told us to return for a meal in the evening, but we decided then and there that instead we would go for lunch. What happened when we did that is a blog for another day. Meanwhile the spelt drop scones were calling so here they are.

Ready to eat!

The recipe is really for wholemeal drop scones but I thought it would work just as well with spelt flour - as indeed it did... I even put honey on them.