Category Archives: Cooking

A loaf of bread, a jug of wine

Posted on September 17, 2014 | 1 comment

I took a chance and ordered a hand-held steam cleaner. Judging by the reviews, these devices are pretty useless for the task that they’re designed for, but I wanted a cheap and easy way of simulating a steam injection oven. And, to my relief, it worked.

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Three themes combined: caravans, chickens, and cheese

Posted on September 16, 2014 | Leave a comment

We spent a few days in Torquay, partly for a family visit, partly because we were itching to try out the new caravan, and partly to visit a couple of poultry breeders. And the cheese? Read on …

We stayed at Widdicombe Farm touring park, just outside Torquay. This site receives rave reviews, and I can understand why. The site is terraced, so everyone gets a good view of the surrounding countryside.

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Posted in Caravans, Cooking, Poultry

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Chalk and cheese: the attack on good food

Posted on August 15, 2014 | Leave a comment

My attention was taken by a Tweet from @samphireshop linking to a panic-stricken press release from an organisation called CASH, Consensus Action on Salt & Health.

Well, it certainly alarmed me! Let me quote the headlines from this paper. The use of capitals for emphasis is theirs, by the way:
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BBQ anathema, but it worked!

Posted on August 5, 2014 | Leave a comment

I’ve been watching an American reality TV show called BBQ Pitmasters, in which teams compete to cook the best and tastiest barbecued meats. We actually went to one of these cook-offs in Dodge City on one of our mid-west motorcycle tours, but at that time we didn’t really appreciate the nuances of competitive BBQ.

Anyway, inspired by the Pitmasters, we decided to do a family BBQ last weekend. We booked a couple of pitches at a campsite in rural Essex. We pitched the caravan on one, and the big frame tent on the other to act as an awning.
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My Little Porkie: Sausages

Posted on July 25, 2014 | Leave a comment

Well, the day came when Ethel was converted into joints of pork. She’d had a lovely life at Samphire at Sycamore Farm, so we don’t feel bad about eating the end product.

A couple of days before she arrived on our doorstep, we had a message from Karen Nethercott, who runs Samphire, to tell us that “Ethel was quite a big girl”. That sent us into a minor panic, since although we thought we’d cleared plenty of freezer space, we hadn’t bargained for a larger than average pig.

We made some backup arrangements, but we shouldn’t have worried. The pork arrived immaculately butchered, boned, packed, and labelled.

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Posted in Allotments, Cooking

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Great gadgets: Aeropress coffee maker

Posted on June 26, 2014 | Leave a comment

I hope that she won’t mind my mentioning it, but one of my daughters-in-law is even more of a gadget connoisseur than I am. It was she who recommended the Aeropress coffee maker. It also comes highly recommended by Has Bean coffee.

Now you can’t go to France on a camping holiday and drink instant coffee, can you? So I had every excuse to buy one to produce our breakfast café au lait.

140622 Aeropress 011a
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Ethel the Little Porkie

Posted on June 8, 2014 | Leave a comment

We finally went to see Ethel, our little porkie, who is being raised on our behalf by Samphire at Sycamore Farm. You can see a video about the farm and My Little Porkie here.

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Cobb barbeque for camping

Posted on May 24, 2014 | Leave a comment

I’m not sure whether this latest purchase is going to be a good idea or not. Indeed I’d never heard of the Cobb barbeque until I read an enthusiastic recommendation from a fellow motorcyclist on The Rev Counter.

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Posted in Caravans, Cooking, Uncategorized

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Sansaire sous vide curry

Posted on April 23, 2014 | Leave a comment

The latest experiment in sous vide cooking was to prepare a simple Indian dish. I chose aubergine and chicken curry, not least because our local Indian grocery shop had some most beautiful aubergines. But also because both the main ingredients have their challenges. It’s quite easy for aubergine to become an unidentifiable slop when it’s cooked in a sauce, and similarly difficult to prevent the chicken drying out.

Did I succeed? Well, yes and no. The aubergine pieces retained their integrity and their taste. The chicken was perfectly cooked. The sauce was fresh and zingy with spices. And the dish looked nice – it wasn’t just a bowl of brown gloop:

Sous vide curry 009a
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Sansaire Silverside

Posted on April 16, 2014 | 4 comments

The next experiment with sous vide cooking has been very simple and very successful. Sous vide is claimed to make relatively tough “pot roast” joints tender and delicious.

I bought a piece of silverside, salted it for 18 hours, then vacuum packed it and popped it into a water bath controlled by the Sansaire. That was it – no additions other than the brief brining period. I left the customary piece of basting fat attached to the beef.

Silverside Sansaire 001a
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