When the going gets tough

[ramtops]

The tough get ... cooking.

perlmonger has been up to his eyes today configuring servers; that's not something that I can really help with, so I had a cooking frenzy.


I made

• Some soda bread for lunch - my Irish grandmother made a loaf of this every morning, and it's delicious. I actually use a mix of plain flour, strong white, and wholemeal. Fab - I ate mine with some smoked cheddar, and red pepper relish. And now I want to make chutney.
• I cooked up half a huge gammon - I buy these from Costco, at about £18 a time. Half went in the freezer uncooked, and the other half was cooked up in my splendid new cast iron cauldron (conveyed from Forn Parts by that nice ccomley, cos they're much cheaper there). It's so huge we had to rearrange the kitchen to find somewhere to keep it, and I can't actually lift it when it's full, but ne'er mind - it is a splendid cooking recepticule. This (half) gammon was cooked with a quartered onion, two star anise and a slosh of maple syrup, and very nice it is too.
• Next up was a piece of top side, supplied by that nice Mr Rawlings. It was too small to roast, so I did it innapot, very slowly, and it's nearly ready to eat. I put the potatoes in with it today for a change.
• Then a huge pot of soup was constructed for next week's lunches - I chopped carrots, celery, leeks and courgettes, sweated them down in some olive oil, and added lentils and a carton of passata (something no larder should be without). Once the gammon was cooked, I stole most of the ham stock and bunged it in the soup pan. It will be gorgeous. I hope.

P is now requesting bananananana muffins, but I think I might be too tired. I'll see.

[edit] Oh yes - I took the half of fresh pineapple that was left, liquidised it, and cooked it down with a little sugar and some cornflour. It's gone in the freezer as a cheesecake topping or summat similar.