Cooking With Richard

We went to the Dacorum Steam Rally again on Sunday.

Previously …

Click for bigger!

Look! It happened to someone else as well!

Nom nom …

Previously …

Previously and previously.

It’s a baby blackbird, I think. He was a bit shaken up for a few minutes, but eventually flew away, so I think he’ll be OK.

I’m wondering if they will eat the umeboshi in the middle …

Previously …

We are growing the cayenne variety of chilli peppers. Here is my scientific test of the first pepper from this season.

I simply don’t believe this Cathay Pacific advert …

But wait, there’s more. If you go to their website there’s this ridiculous flash “game” where you have to grab “girl cards” out of the air, and then there’s a mini-bio on each one. Meet for instance “Julia Chen”, flight attendant by day, but by night …

It’s like the 1950s and 60s all over again …

I think these photos show cirrus clouds being pulled along in a jet stream, a very unusual and beautiful cloud formation.

versus

(More …)

This is my bathroom, not your house!

Previously …

Slightly better photos of the pigeon pie:

I made the pheasant pie again, much better this time. Unfortunately I didn’t take any good photos :-(

The pheasants were from Gibson’s in Watford market.

I found three shot while I was making it, and N-sama found another two:

A brace of pheasants in a pheasant pie:

Tarte tatin, named after a French hotel:

A very tasty Sunday dinner!

The recipe for pheasant pie is very easy, although somewhat time-consuming. It is adapted from this one. First I simmered the pheasants, onions, carrots (etc) in water and some white wine for a few hours:

Then I separated the meat into some pie dishes and covered it with streaky bacon:

I returned the bones to the stock and boiled it further, then removed all the bones and vegetables from the stock and boiled it hard to reduce the stock and intensify the flavour:

I also added sage, thyme and pepper at this point to get the seasoning right.

Finally pour a little of the stock over the meat (not too much — you can save any stock you don’t use), cover with puff pastry, and cook in the oven 200C for about 20 minutes.

Hiyoko Sable site …

(Thanks Nobuko!)

Previously and previously and previously.

I ordered a goose from Clerkes Geese, but how best to cook my goose? (I’m going to call her “WAAKO”).

This site has illustrations on how to truss, cook and slice a goose.

Gordon Ramsey’s Christmas goose recipe looks a bit poor.

Delia’s suggesting goose, pork, sage and pears.

Goose, plum and sage, sounds nice.

Goose with cranberries, sage and a traditional stuffing. Another goose recipe with a traditional chestnut stuffing. I think I’m seeing a pattern here …

Goose with apple stuffing, and another goose and apple recipe, and yet another one.

I ordered a goose for Christmas from Clerkes Geese.