sheepish

Have you ever replaced bits of you car? Did you use a workshop manual. They're quite like high-end recipe books. You quickly glance at what is involved in changing your steering rack and it's only 6 steps so you make a start one Saturday afternoon. Step 1. Remove battery earth lead. Step 2. Drain fluid from steering rack. Step 3. Remove engine. See steps 1-114 in Chapter 4. So I'm having a go at star anise and muscavado parfait with bergamot cream and parkin puree from "Dessert" by David Everitt-Matthias. We went to his restaurant in Cheltenham a few months ago. I'd had his "Essence" book for a few years. Some great savoury course in there. The desserts at the restaurant were great so I bought the dessert book. Anyway hidden in the ingredients list are spiced bread crumbs (see page 20). There are loads of links like this in the Eleven Maddison Park recips I'm going to give a go. I might ignore quite a few of those! But I thought I'd give this a bash. I never bake. You have to dissolve honey in milk. Anyone done that before? Did it look like curdled milk in honey? If you see me trying to use this machine I'd usually ask you stop me for the sake of the poor unfortunates who'll get to sample the output. I'm a real dab hand at lining a loaf tin. I'm not, Mrs S had to do this lest I use up the entire roll of baking parchment. But the result seems pretty good. I haven't tasted it. But it's not black. Or flat. Also got my black garlic discs on the go for the EMP john dory dish. The one I'm going to ignore many of the fiddly see page 312 ingedients. Passed black garlic through a tamis. And pressed between two sheets of acetate. If your as old as I am you will remember using this stuff on overhead projectors before Powerpoint was invented. Oh yes, and I have some beef stock on the go. I'm making beef bourguignon as my meat course tomorrow. Couldn't find any "posh" meat I really liked the look of today. And this will buy me some time when I'm doing all that see page 372 stuff.

Only wild. I know of farmed rabbits, but not hares. Hunting hares (or any wild mammal) with dogs has been illegal for a few years in the UK. Although it still goes on. I doubt any would be coming through reputable game dealers though. I think hares I buy are shot, but I'm not certain. I really should ask. Didn't find any shot in the one we ate last night, but we didn't eat it all.

Been to the big smoke today. Cardiff. Capital city of Wales. Rotten day, cold and wet. I have a lumbering old SLR not really suited for pictures of market and shop produce I'm afraid. Cardiff has some lovely architecture and a long history of trading and as such has a few hundred years of international influence. I'll get back some time soon and get some pictures to do it justice. First stop, one of the Chinese supermarkets to pick up another couple of litres of light soy sauce, some green bean jelly sheets and a few serving bowls to replace those the children drop. The slightly more modern structure behind is the Millennium Stadium, home to the Welsh rugby union team. Site of many famous victories, and every time I've been there, close but disappointing losses. Moving on into the city centre. Cardiff has several arcades, all built around 120 years ago. For my money a much, much nicer place to shop than a big "mall". Cardiff has those too though. Of food interest here is Wally's delicatessen. I've always known it in this location, but only been here since 1981. Owned by the descendants of Austrian immigrants. It's always strong on cured meats. St Mary Street is decked out with flags of the "6 Nations". The annual rugby union competition featuring Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, France and Italy. Rugby Union is a very big deal in Wales. Scotland play here on Sunday. You'll struggle to get in the door of any of the pubs on match day. The stadium is right in the centre of the city so you can't easily escape the match atmosphere. Cardiff market has some great butchers and a good fish monger. Sadly fish mongers are a dying breed in the UK. There's one very small stall in Bridgend market. Bridgend is the nearest town to me. But compared to pictures from other people's blogs in the last few months it's really nothing special. You're not missing too much from the lack of pictures. I picked up a gurnard for dinner tonight, and a john dory for tomorrow. Plus some beef cheeks and beef bones for tomorrow too. Finally the Bwyty Hayes Island Snack Bar. This part of town has been redeveloped extensively in the last 5 years, but it's nice to see this has been left alone. Bwyty is Welsh for restaurant or cafe.

For the first time this week, breakfast that isn't black coffee. And my very favourite breakfast. Devilled lamb's kidneys. Kidneys need the cores removing and cutting into three or four pieces. Fry in butter until they colour. Throw in a small glass of port and let it bubble. Add a teaspoon of redcurrant jelly and let it dissolve. Add a good teaspoon of English mustard, a pinch of cayenne and a good glug of Worcestershire sauce. Then good grind of black pepper and a pinch of salt. Finally a dribble of cream to mollify what is a pretty assertive sauce. Serve on toast

Thank you for the kind words. I think I just like food. It's way more interesting than computers. If I've learned stuff from anywhere it's books. And Mrs S for deep frying tips. In fact I don't deep fry. Dangerous to let me near hot fat. Not sure the mise is very deft though :-)

Last update today. So cracking on with Saturday dinner. I'm attempting the Jerusalem Artichoke dish from EMP. I call it EMP now I've seen Ulterior Epicure refer to it as such on Twitter. I'm down with the movers and shakers. And by the way, Sunchokes. I really should have Googled them before. I assumed they were some kind of exotic root veg we didn't get here. So one element of this dish is the pickled JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES. And that needs white balsamic. Seems Sainsbury's have had a run in with the Balsamic AOC lawyers. Here's a picture of some JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES for the dish. Look. I chopped them so fine. A mandoline may have been involved. And back to dinner. I made pan haggerty. It's a dish from the north of England. Grated veg, onions and Wensleydale cheese. Sort of like a rosti, with a bit of cheese. And thyme. And dinner ready. Hare casserole with pan haggerty. Recipes lifted from 'Loose Birds and Game' and excellent book from Andrew Pern.

Obligatory recipe book collection in eGullet blog time. And because it looks like several days after the earthquake and the Red Cross have been in tidying up, a couple of shots of the other side of the kitchen.

Thanks! Now that's a lot of options to try for a cut I admit does often get left to last in the freezer as I have demonstrated.

This evenings update. I'm making a hare casserole. I ordered a whole hare. They sent me a jointed one. No biggie, I was going to joint it anyway. Plus what I think is streaky bacon I made earlier in the year. Hare jointed Mise, mised. Floured hare in the pan. Note my clever overfilling of the pan to prevent that pesky even browning. And time for a spoon or four of nutritious Scottish ice cream Water still out so fluid intake vital. I had the other bottle of this 2 years ago with mallard duck and it was lovely. High expectations generally lead to disappointment. We'll see. Also finally making a start on Saturday's birthday dinner. I'm going to need some fish stock. Luckily I have a stash of fish bones. And another lot of mise, mised.

Maybe a dialect thing, but I'd say lamb breast is equivalent to pork belly. Ribs, or at least the pork ribs I use are from around the loin. I make back bacon from pork loin. Lamb loin I always leave on the bone. I'd leave pork loin on the bone if I was going to cook it without curing too.

Only to check they have milk if a lamb isn't looking too good. I see no reason why you couldn't. Milk sheep in the UK tend to be a dutch breed, Zwartbles. I assume mountain sheep would yield OK. Plenty of alpine sheep and goats' cheeses.

Various cider apples. Black Dabinett, Kingston Black, Michelin. 10 different varieties. Plus a couple of victoria plum. Commice pear. And a quince.

Caerphilly would be the famous cheese. White, hard cheese. A few small goat's milk cheese producers about. There's a cheese shop in Cardiff, and I'm there tomorrow. I'll see what I can find. Other Welsh specials. Cawl is a lamb stew. Not unlike Irish Stew but with more different veg. Glamorganshire Sausages are cheese and leek "sausages'. Faggots I shall look for tomorrow if I can remember. They are pig liver, heart and possibly other bits, wrapped in cawl fat. Served with peas and gravy. And of course laverbread (boiled seaweed) which I will definitely get round to showing before the week is out.

Some people have asked to see a bit more countryside. I had to take some feeding troughs to the higher part of the farm at lunchtime so took the opportunity to snap these. The house... My cider orchard. Only planted a few weeks ago. Come back in a few years.

Quick update from last night. Mrs S at it again. Chocolate brownie in a frying pan. Or in this case a blini pan. And just for Blether, topped with Mackies ice-cream from sunny Aberdeenshire.

OK. Here's Lamb-E. Eifion.

And a little later. I cooked the polenta with chicken stock and garlic. Let it set and fried in olive oil. Fried the lamb in butter - everything tastes better fried in butter. Veg is betroot, carrots and celeriac. Carrots and celeriac finished in butter, of course. The lamb is really tender. For me this is the best thing you can do with lamb breast. It' OK roast with a dry stuffing, but not this good. And just because "mutt on" has popped up to sing my praises, here's the decanter he bought me for Christmas. That wine was a bit tanic straight from a just opened bottle. Not too bad after the first glass :-)

Bit of a catch up here. Last night the lamb breast finished simmering after 4 hours. I took it from the pan, pulled out the ribs, which happens very easily once cooked, laid once piece on the other and set it under a weighted sheet. Big books work well here. Back to today and lunch courtesy of Mrs S. Umm, tinned tuna and cheese and salad. You know if I'd been cooking lunch it would have involved frying. I managed to consume it while contributing little to a conference call about getting some emergency SAN provisioned (computer stuff). I forgot to buy polenta for tonight's lamb, so after work I popped to the supermarket. I know everyone else's blogs are full of wonderful pictures of local markets. I don't really have a local market. Perils of living in the sticks. This is what the outside of the supermarket looks like. In the UK possession of an SLR in public is a terrorist offence (probably) so here's my covert picture. The fella in the Fiat is on to me. I'm expecting a call from MI5 tonight. Another peril of living in the sticks. When it gets very cold our water supply freezes up. So today we're on jerry cans I've lugged up from the spring. With water at a premium we had little option but to raid the climate controlled wine cellar. Not sure where this bottle comes from. I've never been keen on a blend with Mouvedre. Apologies if anyone now reading this bought it for me. Cracking on with tonight's dinner. Lamb, unpressed. And lamb simmering liquid strained and ready to be reduced. Update later when I'll bring exciting news about what it tasted like.

The stock they cook in has added soy sauce and is created by simmering with a muslin bag full of star anise, fennel seeds and sichuan peppercorns. It taste pretty strong and quite bitter, but makes what simmers in it delicious. If I make pork spare ribs in it then they get deep fried after and dressed with chilli and garlic.

Teisen Lap recipe came from here. http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk/recipebook/index.php?option=com_rapidrecipe&page=viewrecipe&recipe_id=1085. I'm told it took 50 minutes to bake, not the 35 minutes specified.

Evening. Been getting some lamb on the go for tomorrow, and my attempt at Sichuan tonight. First, the lamb. Breast of lamb. Based losely around a recipe from The French Laundry for veal breast. This is the last piece of lamb I could find from those we had slaughtered last year. Timmed of most of the fat and skin, split into three so it will fit in my pans, and browned on both sides. Add stcok veg Plus chicken and lamb stock and this will simmer gently for four hours. Later on tonight I pull the ribs out and let the meat cool, pressed under a weighted baking tray. And come back to it for tomorrow's dinner. Next onto tonight's dinner. Our local farmers market only happens once a month, so no pictures I'm afriad, but there's a lady there who sells various poultry. I asked her for duck necks and hearts. And the following month I had a *big* bag of necks and hearts for £4. I was sure they must eat necks in Sichuan so I tweeted Fuchsia Dunlop and she suggested simmering in strongly spiced stock and serving at room temperature with roast, ground sichuan pepper and salt. Duck necks chopped into 3s. Also going to do sweet and sour fish. Mrs Sheepish tells me there wasn't much choice at the supermarket today, which isn't unusual but we have a sea bass, which I'm pretty sure will be farmed. Found some proper facing heaven chillis listed from a place I occasionally buy spices from. Bought a 200g bag a few weeks ago. Nearly all gone now. Nice to know how hot these dishes should be by using the proper chillis. Getting thirsty at this point, and mindful of the ever present danger of developing malaria in South Wales it's time for a large glass of quinine flavoured fizzy water, with the merest splash of Tanqueray. Got bored of taking pictures at this point, as I'm sure you will have been looking at them. So here's how it ended up. Duck necks. Sweet and sour fish. Pigs kidneys with wood ear mushrooms. Green beans with chilli and sichuan pepper. Green peppers with black vinegar. Close up of the liver And the green beans Andiesenji wanted to see what my kitchen looks like. Well here's what it looks like when I've been cooking. Not to be outdone, Mrs Sheepish has been baking. This is another Welsh recipe. Teisen Lap. Not a million miles from Bara Brith, but slighty drier and lighter and I've nearly eaten it all.

Depends on the breed and what they graze on. The idea is to prevent a build up of, err, muck, around the tail because that attracts flies and flies mean maggots. Rufty-tufty mountain sheep on poor pasture have nice firm muck. Namby-pamby lowland sheep on rich grass can suffer from a softer movement.

Still do that. The harness is called a raddle. At least it is here.

Lots of reasons. Just a localised way to record some information. Sheep require a few annual "treatments". So when I spray them to prevent blow fly strikes, or give them a dose of wormer, or flukicide, they get a coloured spot on the shoulder or rump so I remember which I've done. I don't have a proper run, so I tend to pen them and wander about doing whatever needs doing. They do look quite alike, so the coloured dot helps me know which have been treated. Then I also spray an 'R' for Rob on mine, so I can easily spot them on the mountain if some kindly rambler leaves a gate open. There are plenty of other sheep up there so nice to identify them from a distance. You also see some people number ewes and lambs so they know which match. useful if you are treating or moving ewes with small lambs so you can make sure the correct lamba and ewe get back together afterwards. You will sometimes fine a lamb crying and often it's just because it's mother wants a bit of peace for 10 minutes and is happily ignoring it 6 feet away :-)

I know of rustling, but fingers crossed, no one near hear hit. Being in the mountains helps. It's not so easy to gather the sheep, although at this time of year a shaken feed bag attracts a lot of ovine attention. I'm always very self-critical about anything I produce, but I think our lamb matches the flavour of anything I've tasted. Because we have a lot of it it's not something I'd order in a restaurant. We did have a slice of loin in The Square last year that was stunning. Flavour and very tender. I'm at the whim of the abbatoir, so I can't control hanging times too much. One day I will have my own walk-in fridge! And all that said, Phil Howard could probably make a piece of cardboard taste good :-)