Edwards & Godding

Finally your Edwards & Godding blog is returning!  I’ve been off on maternity leave and although had every intention of continuing to post I was unashamedly sidetracked by my rather lovely new little boy.

A lot has happened in the world of Edwards & Godding in the last 8 months so I will be getting you all up to date on here and the rest of the site over the next few weeks but as a taster we’ll be looking at the new Aga Total Control in a bit more detail, introducing you to some new brands of appliances and of course looking at some delicious recipes for you to try.

I will leave you now with a tip I discovered whilst on maternity leave…for perfect roast potatoes use rapeseed oil.

A report by the Waste and Recycling Action Programme (Wrap) found that more than a third of all the food bought by households ends up in the bin, much of it still edible. The average household throws away £420 worth of food a year, with families discarding food worth £610. When I read this I was amazed but not surprised. However, until recently my problem with food wastage was a different one. I don’t tend to pay too much attention to ‘use by’ dates because I can see for myself if something is still OK to eat or not, my complaint was always that my refrigerator never kept my food for a good amount of time.

All of this changed when I purchased my first Liebherr with Biofresh drawers. It is now extremely rare that we throw any food away and we always have fresh fruit and vegetables to eat. The blurb from their brochure states:

Liebherr has come up with the additional temperature zone, Biofresh, where many types of food can be kept fresh for as much as three times longer than in a traditional refrigerator compartment. This requires keeping the temperature accurately at 0 degrees combined with the ideal humidity. Fruit and vegetables, for example, stay fressher for longer in high humidity, while a dry environment is ideal for storing meat, fish and diary products. With Biofresh not only is the appearance and fresh flavour maintained but – first and foremost – the valuable vitamins and minerals are preserved up to three times longer.

Now I have no way of knowing about the claims made with regards to vitamins and minerals, but I was amazed at how much better my food lasts in the Biofresh drawers. I have gone from thinking that a refrigerator is just an appliance to keep my milk cold to being of the opinion that the refrigerator is where one should invest most money in a kitchen. I spend a lot of money on good quality produce and now I know it is being stored correctly and safely and not going to waste.

I think my Liebherr is superb.

We visited the Newbury Farmers Market to pick up some local products for our Sunday dinner without any fixed ideas on which roast I was going to prepare. After settling on a bread and butter pudding for dessert and a fantastic lardy cake for, well just because we turned our attention to the stalls of the several local butchers. Despite never having tried it before we opted for a joint of mutton.

On the advice of the farmer, I pot roasted the mutton joint using this method (I was taught to cook using the non-exact measurements of ‘some’, ‘ish’ and ‘a bit’ so I don’t think I will be writing a cookery book anytime soon):

1) In a big casserole, gently sweat down a couple of onions and a few garlic cloves.
2) add diced carrots, swede and potatoes and stir them for a bit.
3) pour in a good glug of red wine
4) sit the mutton on top of the vegetables and cover in boiling water. Add a vegetable stock cube and put the lid on (I never add salt to my cooking if my young son is eating the same meal)
5) Cook in the simmering oven for 3 hours-ish

Because we have a 3 oven 13AMP AIMS AGA that I turned from low to normal as I started cooking, I decided to put the pot roast in the baking oven first before later popping it in the simmering oven.

Before serving I rested the mutton and reduced the stock for a gravy. I served this with roast potatoes (which I think are best cooked in rape seed oil, a hint stolen from the River Cottage Canteen in Bath), cabbage and carrots.

Now I have to be honest. I thought that the meal was OK, but far from my favourite roast – I will be sticking to lamb in future. However, I do think that diced mutton would be great in a stout or dark real ale stew.

The pride of our Christmas Day lunch was our free-range turkey from Peachcroft Farm in Abingdon (http://www.peachcroft.co.uk) and to make it even tastier we decided to try the slow-roast Aga version. So, at 11pm on Christmas Eve we could be found wrestling with a 6kg turkey, attempting to smother it with a pack of butter mixed with cranberries, a few cloves of garlic, some anchovies and plenty of salt and pepper and then lay about 10 rashers of streaky bacon over the crown. We finished by covering it loosely with foil and putting it in the Aga Simmering Oven.

14 ½ hours later at 1.30pm on Christmas Day (don’t worry reader we checked on it during this time too) we uncovered the turkey and moved it to the Roasting Oven for another 30 minutes to brown the skin. It was then taken out, wrapped lovingly in foil and tea towels and rested until lunch at 3pm.

The beautifully moist Turkey centrepiece was served with…(deep breath)…
Goose-Fat Roasted Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary
Honey Roasted Parsnips
Carrots with Thyme
Brussels with Chestnuts
Peas (Straight Up. No Messing)
Sausage-meat Stuffing
Sausages wrapped in Bacon
Gravy
Bread Sauce
and Cranberry Sauce

and for pudding?? Nobody had room for another thing.

One of the things I love about Christmas is the idea that you always have a batch of home-made mince pies around, warm and inviting, to greet your visitors as they arrive.

The reality of the situation of course is that I neither have the time nor the inclination to make my own pastry and mincemeat in such quantities as to make this possible so I resort to my Home-made (ish) Mince Pies instead!

Shop bought (but unrolled) shortcrust pastry and a good quality jar of mincemeat are my friends.  To the jar of mincemeat I add the zest and juice of one orange and to the pastry I add about a teaspoon of ground cinnamon as I roll it out.  Assemble the appropriate parts however you see fit – I am a big fan of mini mince pies (why is a normal size one too much when it’s possible to eat 2 or 3 little ones?) – and bake in the Aga Baking Oven until they are golden brown.

I have been known to serve them with some extra thick cream spruced up with some more orange zest and a swig of brandy which makes them even more special or, alternatively, just serve them straight up with a warming mug of tea. 

With this particular batch I covered them in a liberal sprinkling of icing sugar which 1) looks pretty and 2) hides a multitude of sins. 

Following on from our massive roast yesterday we have a LOT of left over food (what is better than that brilliant feeling of frugality when you can make more meals from the left overs of one?  Even if like me you cook enough to sink an army purely for that reason in the first place).

So, an overflowing plate full of vegetables and roast potatoes get mashed down and fried off with some ham hock I have.  I dearly wish I could tell you that I had prepared the ham hock myself but I have actually discovered a new range of pre-cooked meats from Waitrose!

Served with some baked beans and we have the perfect Monday night supper.