The Family Who Eats Together Stays Together

                                      The lovely ladies at Emsworth country market

I think it's fair to say that I go on incessantly about cooking from raw ingredients and naturally, the more research I do, the more passionate I feel.  But you know, my feelings really stem from my own childhood, a time when the kitchen really was the heart of our home. Our society has largely lost the wisdom of generations past and the old adage: 'The family who eats together stays together' has been lost on us.

So, I've started 2015 determined to try and shop and cook in the way my mother would have done, eschewing as many convenience foods as possible ie bottled sauces, prepared vegetables, oven ready chips, ready made pizzas, tinned pulses......all those everyday ingredients we rely on for convenience.

I remember that it was the intention of love my mother put into many of her dishes that automatically made them nourishing, soul satisfying meals that were often made from sparse ingredients, leftovers and cheap cuts of meat.

By cooking from scratch you can control what goes onto yours and your families plates and into your bodies, and that has to be a good thing!

I already had a love of country markets and am now making a conscious effort to shop at them more regularly. Country markets are co-operatives of growers and producers of homemade goods who sell their produce directly to their community. On a recent visit to Emsworth country market I came away with an abundance of delicious wares.

                                              Delicious homemade jams and chutneys

                                                        Locally sourced meat

                 Fresh free range eggs, sticky homemade ginger cake and local sausages

I recently bought a rolled breast of lamb, a cheap cut that seems increasingly less popular, possibly as my butcher seems to think, because people don't know how to cook it. Alternatively, it could be due to it being a fatty cut, which doesn't sit well in the current climate of healthy food. This cut was typically used years ago when portions were smaller and I still believe it is fine to eat natural fats in small quantities.

For a remarkably fat free result, rather than roasting this joint, I pre cooked it in my slow cooker and finished it off in the oven.

Slow cooked breast of lamb

Recipe
1 de-boned, rolled breast of lamb (pare off as much fat as you can without tearing the meat)
1 onion, peeled and thickly sliced
1 large glass red wine
1 whole bulb garlic
500ml stock

Place onion on the bottom of slow cooker, place lamb on top
Add whole, unpeeled bulb of garlic in cooker and top with wine and stock
Leave to cook on high setting for 4 hours
Remove the lamb and strain the gravy into a jug
Allow both to cool, then refrigerate for several hours, or until the next day
Skim the fat from the top of the gravy, pour into a small pan and season to taste
Brush the lamb with a little olive oil, place in a small roasting tin and cook in a preheated oven 200c/gas 6 for 20-30 minutes until browned and heated through
Remove from oven and rest, covered in foil, meanwhile, warm your gravy
Remove the string from the joint, cut into thick slices and serve with the gravy

Costing less than £4 from my butcher, this joint served three of us amply. The garlicky red wine gravy was delicious, I served fresh mint sauce to accompany it along with lots of vegetables and crunchy rosemary potatoes.

'There is no spectacle on earth more appealing than a beautiful woman in the act of cooking for those she loves.'
- Thomas Wolfe

Love Donna xxxxx