The new cheap cuts: tips from The Ginger Pig

All of us I guess like to think of our meat coming from a farm where the animals graze freely and are well looked after but few can have such a good life as at the Ginger Pig. I visited one of their three farms up near Pickering in North Yorkshire the other day and it made me feel I never wanted to buy supermarket meat again.

The problem is good meat is pricey - too pricey for most families to afford you’d think but in actual fact so long as you avoid the prime cuts - and, ironically, the humble cuts that have become so fashionable like pork belly and lamb shanks there are bargains to be found.

Who would have thought that topside and silverside were among the best-priced joints on the butchers’ slab these days but according to farmer Tim Wilson everyone wants ribs. And pork legs are better value than belly. He also told me he can hardly give away lambs’ liver and hearts so reluctant are we to eat offal.


My own view is that we’d all be better off if we ate less meat and saved it, as our grandparents did, for a once a week treat - with leftovers if you were lucky. And if we took the advice of our local butcher rather than a telly chef and only decided what to make once we found out what was cheap that week. That means being more flexible about what we cook and eat - not easy in a generation of fussy eaters. (I’m not being holier than thou here. At least two of my children wouldn’t touch offal.)

Another problem is that not everyone lives close to a butcher these days but I reckon if you ring up one of the many online suppliers and tell them you’re looking for good value cuts they’ll respond. And if you band together with some neighbours on a delivery it shouldn’t cost too much. At the time of writing, for example, Sheepdrove has an offer on organic pork shoulder at £6.40 a kilo (though I’m amused to see they lump offal with ‘doggy bags’. Hardly encouraging . . .)


And if you’re lucky to live within striking distance of one of Tim’s Ginger Pig shops - in Borough Market, Marylebone and Hackney - you can drop by and see what he's got. He was telling me about a cut called lamb 'Henrys' which is a shoulder of lamb divided into about five or six big chunks, which he says is cheaper than buying lamb shanks and can be cooked exactly the same way. You’ll find more suggestions in his forthcoming book The Ginger Pig Meat Book which is written with a cookery writer friend of mine, Fran Warde. (Quick plug there for Tim and Fran.)

So what’s your attitude to buying meat and how often do you eat it? Do you buy direct from the farmer, from a butcher or do you mainly use the supermarket? (Incidentally Tim said that he thinks that Morrisons has the best meat of the big chains) What are your favourite cheap cuts?


March 1st
I actually did call by the Ginger Pig's Borough Market shop the other day. Disappointingly they didn't have much in the way of cheap topside and silverside but there were some great pork bargains including pork ribs for £4.95 a kilo, hand of pork for £5.95 a kilo and pork hocks for £3.80 each. (I'm sure you could find them cheaper out of London that's fair for rare breed pork). They also - impressively - knew what Lamb Henrys were!

The new cheap cuts: tips from The Ginger Pig

All of us I guess like to think of our meat coming from a farm where the animals graze freely and are well looked after but few can have such a good life as at the Ginger Pig. I visited one of their three farms up near Pickering in North Yorkshire the other day and it made me feel I never wanted to buy supermarket meat again.

The problem is good meat is pricey - too pricey for most families to afford you’d think but in actual fact so long as you avoid the prime cuts - and, ironically, the humble cuts that have become so fashionable like pork belly and lamb shanks there are bargains to be found.

Who would have thought that topside and silverside were among the best-priced joints on the butchers’ slab these days but according to farmer Tim Wilson everyone wants ribs. And pork legs are better value than belly. He also told me he can hardly give away lambs’ liver and hearts so reluctant are we to eat offal.


My own view is that we’d all be better off if we ate less meat and saved it, as our grandparents did, for a once a week treat - with leftovers if you were lucky. And if we took the advice of our local butcher rather than a telly chef and only decided what to make once we found out what was cheap that week. That means being more flexible about what we cook and eat - not easy in a generation of fussy eaters. (I’m not being holier than thou here. At least two of my children wouldn’t touch offal.)

Another problem is that not everyone lives close to a butcher these days but I reckon if you ring up one of the many online suppliers and tell them you’re looking for good value cuts they’ll respond. And if you band together with some neighbours on a delivery it shouldn’t cost too much. At the time of writing, for example, Sheepdrove has an offer on organic pork shoulder at £6.40 a kilo (though I’m amused to see they lump offal with ‘doggy bags’. Hardly encouraging . . .)


And if you’re lucky to live within striking distance of one of Tim’s Ginger Pig shops - in Borough Market, Marylebone and Hackney - you can drop by and see what he's got. He was telling me about a cut called lamb 'Henrys' which is a shoulder of lamb divided into about five or six big chunks, which he says is cheaper than buying lamb shanks and can be cooked exactly the same way. You’ll find more suggestions in his forthcoming book The Ginger Pig Meat Book which is written with a cookery writer friend of mine, Fran Warde. (Quick plug there for Tim and Fran.)

So what’s your attitude to buying meat and how often do you eat it? Do you buy direct from the farmer, from a butcher or do you mainly use the supermarket? (Incidentally Tim said that he thinks that Morrisons has the best meat of the big chains) What are your favourite cheap cuts?

What I made with my bargain buys

First of all a very happy new year to you all. I hope you had a good Christmas and have managed to wade through the leftovers!

You might indeed wonder what I got round to making with my bargain buys - or even if I ended up chucking them away (no, I didn't!)

The turkey was roasted and kept us in cold turkey and fry-ups with madeira-spiked gravy (our youngest son's favourite way of eating it, devised by his dad) for days. (I should say our youngest is 25.)

I made a turkey and leek pie filling with the last of the white meat which is sitting in the freezer. I prefer to make it as a filling so we can have it how we choose - with a pastry lid, with rice, with potatoes or even as a pancake filling though that seems like a bit too much hard work right now after Christmas. And there are two big tubs of turkey stock in the fridge for a reviving bowl of noodles or broth.

But the £4.94 leg of lamb was the big triumph. I made a Lebanese recipe called Ouzi from Claudia Roden's Arabesque which involved rubbing the lamb with spices (cinnamon, allspice, cumin and cardamom), roasting it for 20 minutes then adding half a head of garlic, an onion and a litre of water to the pan and cooking it very slowly for 3 hours. Result, amazingly tender, delicately spiced meat with a delicious fall-apart texture.

It was served, as recommended with a dish of mince, rice and nuts using many of the same spices plus some nutmeg. The only downside was that it was all rather brown so I cooked some multi-coloured carrots I'd bought from the local greengrocer with a little ground coriander, folded in some chopped parsley and piled them up on the platter too (as seen in the quickly snatched and rather blurry shot above).

It's one of those dishes that can be cheap or expensive depending on what you have in the storecupboard. I didn't have to buy any extra spices and had the recommended pinenuts so the only extra expense was some pistachios which were ironically about half the price of the lamb.

As I've said before it is easy to feel you must go out and buy the ingredients recommended in a recipe but you have to think about why an ingredient is there - for texture or flavour. Nuts and spices would obviously be fairly cheap in the Lebanon but they're not here. If pinenuts, say, are too pricey you could use cashews. If you can't get whole almonds at a reasonable price you could use flaked ones. And I'm not sure that you really need the mince. But I am a believer in having a wide range of spices you can use to jazz up inexpensive ingredients (best bought from a specialist shop rather than a supermarket).

I reckon you could also make the dish with shoulder of lamb which would normally be cheaper than a leg.

Anyway my new year's resolution - or one of them - is to try and go through some of the food in my freezer and storecupboard this month rather than keep buying new stuff. What's yours?

What I made with my bargain buys

First of all a very happy new year to you all. I hope you had a good Christmas and have managed to wade through the leftovers!

You might indeed wonder what I got round to making with my bargain buys - or even if I ended up chucking them away (no, I didn't!)

The turkey was roasted and kept us in cold turkey and fry-ups with madeira-spiked gravy (our youngest son's favourite way of eating it, devised by his dad) for days. (I should say our youngest is 25.)

I made a turkey and leek pie filling with the last of the white meat which is sitting in the freezer. I prefer to make it as a filling so we can have it how we choose - with a pastry lid, with rice, with potatoes or even as a pancake filling though that seems like a bit too much hard work right now after Christmas. And there are two big tubs of turkey stock in the fridge for a reviving bowl of noodles or broth.

But the £4.94 leg of lamb was the big triumph. I made a Lebanese recipe called Ouzi from Claudia Roden's Arabesque which involved rubbing the lamb with spices (cinnamon, allspice, cumin and cardamom), roasting it for 20 minutes then adding half a head of garlic, an onion and a litre of water to the pan and cooking it very slowly for 3 hours. Result, amazingly tender, delicately spiced meat with a delicious fall-apart texture.

It was served, as recommended with a dish of mince, rice and nuts using many of the same spices plus some nutmeg. The only downside was that it was all rather brown so I cooked some multi-coloured carrots I'd bought from the local greengrocer with a little ground coriander, folded in some chopped parsley and piled them up on the platter too (as seen in the quickly snatched and rather blurry shot above).

It's one of those dishes that can be cheap or expensive depending on what you have in the storecupboard. I didn't have to buy any extra spices and had the recommended pinenuts so the only extra expense was some pistachios which were ironically about half the price of the lamb.

As I've said before it is easy to feel you must go out and buy the ingredients recommended in a recipe but you have to think about why an ingredient is there - for texture or flavour. Nuts and spices would obviously be fairly cheap in the Lebanon but they're not here. If pinenuts, say, are too pricey you could use cashews. If you can't get whole almonds at a reasonable price you could use flaked ones. And I'm not sure that you really need the mince. But I am a believer in having a wide range of spices you can use to jazz up inexpensive ingredients (best bought from a specialist shop rather than a supermarket).

I reckon you could also make the dish with shoulder of lamb which would normally be cheaper than a leg.

Anyway my new year's resolution - or one of them - is to try and go through some of the food in my freezer and storecupboard this month rather than keep buying new stuff. What's yours?

How to cook breast of lamb

I bagged a couple of terrific bargains on my way back to Bristol yesterday at an extraordinary shopping complex called Darts Farm just outside Exeter. Farm shop doesn't even begin to describe it: it's a gourmet shopping mall on an epic scale - more like the out of town shopping centres you find in the US.

You'd expect it to be expensive but it isn't, suprisingly. Or, put it another way, it needn't be. I picked up some good value fruit and vegetables grown on their own farm (including over a pound of rhubarb for 49p), a whole rabbit for £3 and a breast of lamb for £1.50.

Personally I don't like breast of lamb the traditional way, boned and rolled as you never seem to get rid of the fat so I had them chop it up into chunks which I then roasted much as you do spare ribs until it was crisp. I cooked it unseasoned (apart from salt and some smashed garlic cloves) for 20 minutes, poured off the accumulated fat then sprinkled over the za'atar I wrote about the other day and some ground cumin. If you don't have za'atar you could grind up some salt, thyme, sesame seeds and cumin.)

In keeping with the frugality of the dish I decided to use up some storecupboard ingredients as accompaniments. I cooked some rice and Puy lentils Lebanese-style, flavoured them with a pinch of cinnamon and topped them with roasted diced courgette and carrot. (If I'd had some coriander handy I'd have added some chopped up stalks and forked through a few leaves at the end. I'd also have squeezed a little lemon juice over the meat before serving it).

We had our lamb 'ribs' with yoghurt, harissa and a green salad (see the rather fuzzy picture above) and a mighty feast it was too - ample for three although the two of us managed to polish it off without much difficulty. All except enough rice and lentils to make a salad for lunch today which makes me feel doubly virtuous. Later I'll cook the rabbit - with bacon, cider and apples, I think. Happy days!

Do you have any favourite ways of cooking breast of lamb?

How to cook breast of lamb

I bagged a couple of terrific bargains on my way back to Bristol yesterday at an extraordinary shopping complex called Darts Farm just outside Exeter. Farm shop doesn't even begin to describe it: it's a gourmet shopping mall on an epic scale - more like the out of town shopping centres you find in the US.

You'd expect it to be expensive but it isn't, suprisingly. Or, put it another way, it needn't be. I picked up some good value fruit and vegetables grown on their own farm (including over a pound of rhubarb for 49p), a whole rabbit for £3 and a breast of lamb for £1.50.

Personally I don't like breast of lamb the traditional way, boned and rolled as you never seem to get rid of the fat so I had them chop it up into chunks which I then roasted much as you do spare ribs until it was crisp. I cooked it unseasoned (apart from salt and some smashed garlic cloves) for 20 minutes, poured off the accumulated fat then sprinkled over the za'atar I wrote about the other day and some ground cumin. If you don't have za'atar you could grind up some salt, thyme, sesame seeds and cumin.)

In keeping with the frugality of the dish I decided to use up some storecupboard ingredients as accompaniments. I cooked some rice and Puy lentils Lebanese-style, flavoured them with a pinch of cinnamon and topped them with roasted diced courgette and carrot. (If I'd had some coriander handy I'd have added some chopped up stalks and forked through a few leaves at the end. I'd also have squeezed a little lemon juice over the meat before serving it).

We had our lamb 'ribs' with yoghurt, harissa and a green salad (see the rather fuzzy picture above) and a mighty feast it was too - ample for three although the two of us managed to polish it off without much difficulty. All except enough rice and lentils to make a salad for lunch today which makes me feel doubly virtuous. Later I'll cook the rabbit - with bacon, cider and apples, I think. Happy days!

Do you have any favourite ways of cooking breast of lamb?

Lamb legs are the new lamb shanks

I know I've been banging on incessantly about how cheap cuts are no longer cheap but here's a perfect illustration. Incited by my recent observations that men aren't as frugal as women when it comes to food shopping, my husband picked up a half price leg of lamb for £8.99 in Somerfield the other day.

I never really fancy a full English roast in this sort of weather so decided to make an old recipe I haven't made for years from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery which you can find (the recipe, not the book) online here

There was a time when I would have conscientiously trotted down to the shops and bought every ingredient in the recipe but apart from picking up a large pot of yoghurt made do with what I had from an admittedly well-stocked spice cupboard. I scaled down the spicing slightly reducing the garlic from 8 cloves to 4 and replacing the recommended 4 green chillies with 1 red one and also omitted the blanched almonds which was perhaps a mistake as the marinade split making the dish initially look as if it was covered in cat sick - as my husband somewhat tactlessly pointed out.

In the end I poured off the marinade, skimmed off the fat (a good move) and strained it then whizzed the solids in a food processor and added enough of the liquid back to make a thin - and delicious - sauce.

We had it with friends on Friday with a dry cauliflower and potato curry and some green beans with tomato and garam masala and have been scoffing the leftovers over the weekend. With seconds at I reckon we got 10 servings out of it which comes to less than £1 a head. Which is more than you can say for lamb shanks these days.

Lamb legs are the new lamb shanks

I know I've been banging on incessantly about how cheap cuts are no longer cheap but here's a perfect illustration. Incited by my recent observations that men aren't as frugal as women when it comes to food shopping, my husband picked up a half price leg of lamb for £8.99 in Somerfield the other day.

I never really fancy a full English roast in this sort of weather so decided to make an old recipe I haven't made for years from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cookery which you can find (the recipe, not the book) online here

There was a time when I would have conscientiously trotted down to the shops and bought every ingredient in the recipe but apart from picking up a large pot of yoghurt made do with what I had from an admittedly well-stocked spice cupboard. I scaled down the spicing slightly reducing the garlic from 8 cloves to 4 and replacing the recommended 4 green chillies with 1 red one and also omitted the blanched almonds which was perhaps a mistake as the marinade split making the dish initially look as if it was covered in cat sick - as my husband somewhat tactlessly pointed out.

In the end I poured off the marinade, skimmed off the fat (a good move) and strained it then whizzed the solids in a food processor and added enough of the liquid back to make a thin - and delicious - sauce.

We had it with friends on Friday with a dry cauliflower and potato curry and some green beans with tomato and garam masala and have been scoffing the leftovers over the weekend. With seconds at I reckon we got 10 servings out of it which comes to less than £1 a head. Which is more than you can say for lamb shanks these days.

Do cooks need recipes?

I got involved in a debate on the Guardian’s Word of Mouth blog earlier this week with my former editor Matthew Fort (now the unlikely star of TV programmes like Great British Menu and Market Kitchen. I say unlikely not because I don't rate him but because I'd never have imagined him abandoning the written word for the box.)

He was arguing that people shouldn’t bother with recipes. I was saying - from personal experience - that they needed them when they were starting out. No-one cooked - as in cooked well - in my family so I had to teach myself from books, a habit I only broke when I became a more confident cook and learnt what ingredient went with what.

Last night’s meal was a case in point. I had bought a pack of frozen lamb mince (for £2.99 a kilo) a few weeks ago and thought I should start to use it up. I fancied making a shepherds pie but suspected (wrongly, actually) the lamb wouldn’t have much flavour so thought I’d give it the treatment I usually reserve for moussaka (red wine and cinnamon). I also thought I’d play around with the topping to make it lighter and dairy free (my husband is dairy intolerant) so beat in some soy yoghurt and olive oil. (Nice)

There were many ingredients I used which I would have left out or substituted if they hadn’t been available. I had a fresh carrot, for example to use up so that went in. And some fresh parsley which gave it a bit of a hachis parmentier (the French version of shepherds’ pie) touch. I could obviously have substituted beef mince for lamb and passata for tinned tomatoes. But the red wine and cinnamon gave it its distinctive character. Here’s the recipe which I rather like. And so did my other half.

Greek(ish) shepherds’ pie
Serves 4

3 tbsp olive or other oil
450g-500g minced lamb
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and very finely chopped (optional)
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp oregano or marjoram (optional)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp tomato puree or sundried tomato puree
1/2 a 400g tin of tomatoes (save the rest for a pasta sauce) or 200ml passata
A small glass (about 125ml) red wine
About 3 tbsp chicken or vegetable stock (if you have some handy)
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the topping
700-750g boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into even sized pieces
A heaped tbsp of soy or Greek yoghurt
2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat a frying pan, add 1 tbsp of the oil and fry half the lamb until lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain off the excess fat/liquid. Without adding more oil repeat with the remaining meat. Put some fresh oil in the pan and fry the chopped onion and carrot over a low heat until soft. Add the crushed garlic, cook for a minute then stir in the oregano and cinnamon, then the tomato puree, tomatoes or passata and red wine. Season lightly with salt and pepper, bring up to boiling point then reduce the heat to low and leave to simmer while you boil the potatoes.

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them, cut them up roughly and mash them with a potato masher or fork. Add the yoghurt and olive oil, beat well then season to taste. Add a little extra stock, water or wine to the lamb filling if it has got a bit dry, stir in the parsley and check the seasoning.

Preheat the grill* Transfer the meat to a shallow dish and top with the mash, spreading it evenly over the meat. Place under the grill until the top is nicely browned.

* If you’re making this ahead you’ll need to reheat the pie in a moderately hot oven (190°C/375°F/Gas 5) for about 30-40 minutes depending whether or not you’ve taken it out of the fridge

Do you cook from recipes or do you tend to improvise? Or a bit of both? Do tell me how you learned to cook!

Do cooks need recipes?

I got involved in a debate on the Guardian’s Word of Mouth blog earlier this week with my former editor Matthew Fort (now the unlikely star of TV programmes like Great British Menu and Market Kitchen. I say unlikely not because I don't rate him but because I'd never have imagined him abandoning the written word for the box.)

He was arguing that people shouldn’t bother with recipes. I was saying - from personal experience - that they needed them when they were starting out. No-one cooked - as in cooked well - in my family so I had to teach myself from books, a habit I only broke when I became a more confident cook and learnt what ingredient went with what.

Last night’s meal was a case in point. I had bought a pack of frozen lamb mince (for £2.99 a kilo) a few weeks ago and thought I should start to use it up. I fancied making a shepherds pie but suspected (wrongly, actually) the lamb wouldn’t have much flavour so thought I’d give it the treatment I usually reserve for moussaka (red wine and cinnamon). I also thought I’d play around with the topping to make it lighter and dairy free (my husband is dairy intolerant) so beat in some soy yoghurt and olive oil. (Nice)

There were many ingredients I used which I would have left out or substituted if they hadn’t been available. I had a fresh carrot, for example to use up so that went in. And some fresh parsley which gave it a bit of a hachis parmentier (the French version of shepherds’ pie) touch. I could obviously have substituted beef mince for lamb and passata for tinned tomatoes. But the red wine and cinnamon gave it its distinctive character. Here’s the recipe which I rather like. And so did my other half.

Greek(ish) shepherds’ pie
Serves 4

3 tbsp olive or other oil
450g-500g minced lamb
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 carrot, peeled and very finely chopped (optional)
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp oregano or marjoram (optional)
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp tomato puree or sundried tomato puree
1/2 a 400g tin of tomatoes (save the rest for a pasta sauce) or 200ml passata
A small glass (about 125ml) red wine
About 3 tbsp chicken or vegetable stock (if you have some handy)
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the topping
700-750g boiling potatoes, peeled and cut into even sized pieces
A heaped tbsp of soy or Greek yoghurt
2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Heat a frying pan, add 1 tbsp of the oil and fry half the lamb until lightly browned. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain off the excess fat/liquid. Without adding more oil repeat with the remaining meat. Put some fresh oil in the pan and fry the chopped onion and carrot over a low heat until soft. Add the crushed garlic, cook for a minute then stir in the oregano and cinnamon, then the tomato puree, tomatoes or passata and red wine. Season lightly with salt and pepper, bring up to boiling point then reduce the heat to low and leave to simmer while you boil the potatoes.

Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them, cut them up roughly and mash them with a potato masher or fork. Add the yoghurt and olive oil, beat well then season to taste. Add a little extra stock, water or wine to the lamb filling if it has got a bit dry, stir in the parsley and check the seasoning.

Preheat the grill* Transfer the meat to a shallow dish and top with the mash, spreading it evenly over the meat. Place under the grill until the top is nicely browned.

* If you’re making this ahead you’ll need to reheat the pie in a moderately hot oven (190°C/375°F/Gas 5) for about 30-40 minutes depending whether or not you’ve taken it out of the fridge

Do you cook from recipes or do you tend to improvise? Or a bit of both? Do tell me how you learned to cook!

Leftover lamb

We had the tail end of a shoulder of lamb from the weekend to use up tonight. Could have curried it but there wasn't much meat so decided to make a pilaf. Very simple - fry a chopped onion, add spices, stir in rice, add twice the volume of stock and leave to simmer until the liquid is absorbed (about 15 minutes). Fry up lamb with more spices, add peas, herbs, whatever - something green. Fork through rice and tip on serving dish, top with lamb, a squeeze of lemon, more herbs and serve with plain yoghurt, chutney or sweet chilli sauce

The reason why these kind of leftover dishes are often so unappealing is that people tend to do one of two things. Either put the meat in with the rice while it's cooking in the mistaken belief that that's what's needed to cook it through thoroughly (It simply makes it unappetisingly squelchy) or fail to put in anything brightly coloured which creates a drab brown slop. I can't pretend my pilau was the most stylish dish ever - it was hurled together at huge speed - but it was pretty tasty. (The picture is of a platter for 2 btw in case you think we've got outsize appetites!)

Leftover lamb

We had the tail end of a shoulder of lamb from the weekend to use up tonight. Could have curried it but there wasn't much meat so decided to make a pilaf. Very simple - fry a chopped onion, add spices, stir in rice, add twice the volume of stock and leave to simmer until the liquid is absorbed (about 15 minutes). Fry up lamb with more spices, add peas, herbs, whatever - something green. Fork through rice and tip on serving dish, top with lamb, a squeeze of lemon, more herbs and serve with plain yoghurt, chutney or sweet chilli sauce

The reason why these kind of leftover dishes are often so unappealing is that people tend to do one of two things. Either put the meat in with the rice while it's cooking in the mistaken belief that that's what's needed to cook it through thoroughly (It simply makes it unappetisingly squelchy) or fail to put in anything brightly coloured which creates a drab brown slop. I can't pretend my pilau was the most stylish dish ever - it was hurled together at huge speed - but it was pretty tasty. (The picture is of a platter for 2 btw in case you think we've got outsize appetites!)

What happened to the breast of lamb

Confession time. I've never cooked breast of lamb before, having been put off by the decidedly fatty boned, rolled roasts of my youth. But at £5.19 a kilo for organic lamb it's too good a bargain not to try.

Last night I slow-roasted it on the bone, as advocated by Graham the butcher - slightly too long I think. It was so lean that it dried out a little. But with the creamy chard gratin, the beet greens and a few roasted spears of asparagus from the farmers' market it was a feast.

Unusually for me I tackled the leftovers straight after the meal, pulling the meat off the bone and marinating it in a few spoonfuls of garlicky vinaigrette. (Good for the lamb, not so good for the fridge which reeked of garlic when I opened it this morning.) I also saved the crisp outer skin in a separate piece.

Tonight I crisped up the meat and the skin in a little hot oil. I seasoned the meat generously with ground cumin, a little chopped onion and a tablespoon of chopped fresh mint and scissor-snipped the crisp skin into it. I rescued the last of Saturday's salad greens, lightly dressed them with oil and vinegar and tossed in some peeled, chopped cucumber I found lurking in the veg drawer of the fridge. Then I arranged the salad on our plates, topped it with one of the roasted beets, cut into chunks, piled the meat on top, drizzled over some yoghurt and sprinkled over some chopped herbs.

It was actually pretty good - like a deconstructed doner kebab with veg - but one of those dishes for which you can't really give a recipe as it's too off the wall.

It did prove, however that lamb breast is a good buy. The two breasts I bought would have easily served six and were really tasty. Graham told me they're at their best at this time of year because they come from animals who have been grazing on winter grass and which are therefore nice and lean (as opposed to spring lambs which gorge on summer grass and run to fat).

Off to London tomorrow for a couple of days' meetings and catching up with the kids. I'm really looking forward to seeing them but it's hard to break off in the middle of a book especially when a deadline is looming. And the publisher is reading my blog ;-)

PS There's a useful post (I hope) on Beyond Baked Beans today on how to save money on pasta which, as I'm sure you know, has gone up 81% in the last year. Scary.

What happened to the breast of lamb

Confession time. I've never cooked breast of lamb before, having been put off by the decidedly fatty boned, rolled roasts of my youth. But at £5.19 a kilo for organic lamb it's too good a bargain not to try.

Last night I slow-roasted it on the bone, as advocated by Graham the butcher - slightly too long I think. It was so lean that it dried out a little. But with the creamy chard gratin, the beet greens and a few roasted spears of asparagus from the farmers' market it was a feast.

Unusually for me I tackled the leftovers straight after the meal, pulling the meat off the bone and marinating it in a few spoonfuls of garlicky vinaigrette. (Good for the lamb, not so good for the fridge which reeked of garlic when I opened it this morning.) I also saved the crisp outer skin in a separate piece.

Tonight I crisped up the meat and the skin in a little hot oil. I seasoned the meat generously with ground cumin, a little chopped onion and a tablespoon of chopped fresh mint and scissor-snipped the crisp skin into it. I rescued the last of Saturday's salad greens, lightly dressed them with oil and vinegar and tossed in some peeled, chopped cucumber I found lurking in the veg drawer of the fridge. Then I arranged the salad on our plates, topped it with one of the roasted beets, cut into chunks, piled the meat on top, drizzled over some yoghurt and sprinkled over some chopped herbs.

It was actually pretty good - like a deconstructed doner kebab with veg - but one of those dishes for which you can't really give a recipe as it's too off the wall.

It did prove, however that lamb breast is a good buy. The two breasts I bought would have easily served six and were really tasty. Graham told me they're at their best at this time of year because they come from animals who have been grazing on winter grass and which are therefore nice and lean (as opposed to spring lambs which gorge on summer grass and run to fat).

Off to London tomorrow for a couple of days' meetings and catching up with the kids. I'm really looking forward to seeing them but it's hard to break off in the middle of a book especially when a deadline is looming. And the publisher is reading my blog ;-)

PS There's a useful post (I hope) on Beyond Baked Beans today on how to save money on pasta which, as I'm sure you know, has gone up 81% in the last year. Scary.

Easter leftovers

We've been away for a couple of days over Easter so we don't have any leftovers to finish up. But this is the kind of weekend that generates them so I'm wondering what I would do if I had.

First turkey, which is now almost as popular an Easter meal as a Christmas one. The most helpful approach, I find, is to divide the leftovers into three categories - white meat, brown meat and the carcass.

White meat's not the problem. Everybody loves it - it eats well cold: in sandwiches or in salads.

Brown meat (the kind you get on legs and thighs and on the underside of the carcass) I find needs to be cooked up into something else - a pasta bake or a pilau or saved for a soup or soupy stew. Which is where your third component comes in - the carcass - which you should, if you're feeling truly frugal, use to make a stock. (Or freeze until you have several cooked carcasses then make a big batch)

The key things to remember are to cover the bones with cold rather than hot water which will make the stock cloudy, to skim it once you've brought it to the boil (again to keep it clear) and to cook it slowly so that you don't extract the more bitter compounds from the bones. Then cool it, refrigerate it and skim it. That may sound like quite a palaver but it's a routine that becomes familiar and it's worth it for a really great tasting base for soups, stews and risottos.

The only thing I don't do is pick the meat off the carcass once it's boiled. It's simply overcooked by then and all the taste and texture has gone out of it. If you've saved some of the leftover turkey meat for a soup add it at the last minute. Heat it through thoroughly, yes, but don't cook it for longer than you need because it's been cooked already.

The best use, I think for leftover lamb is a middle-eastern style pilaf with dried apricots and nuts. Again don't re-cook the lamb in the stock when you cook the rice. Chop or shred it, fry it in a separate pan (with the nuts, if using) until lightly browned,then fork it through the rice once it's absorbed all the liquid and other flavourings. Turn the heat off, leave a lid on the pan and leave for 5 minutes for the flavours to amalgamate.

Easter leftovers

We've been away for a couple of days over Easter so we don't have any leftovers to finish up. But this is the kind of weekend that generates them so I'm wondering what I would do if I had.

First turkey, which is now almost as popular an Easter meal as a Christmas one. The most helpful approach, I find, is to divide the leftovers into three categories - white meat, brown meat and the carcass.

White meat's not the problem. Everybody loves it - it eats well cold: in sandwiches or in salads.

Brown meat (the kind you get on legs and thighs and on the underside of the carcass) I find needs to be cooked up into something else - a pasta bake or a pilau or saved for a soup or soupy stew. Which is where your third component comes in - the carcass - which you should, if you're feeling truly frugal, use to make a stock. (Or freeze until you have several cooked carcasses then make a big batch)

The key things to remember are to cover the bones with cold rather than hot water which will make the stock cloudy, to skim it once you've brought it to the boil (again to keep it clear) and to cook it slowly so that you don't extract the more bitter compounds from the bones. Then cool it, refrigerate it and skim it. That may sound like quite a palaver but it's a routine that becomes familiar and it's worth it for a really great tasting base for soups, stews and risottos.

The only thing I don't do is pick the meat off the carcass once it's boiled. It's simply overcooked by then and all the taste and texture has gone out of it. If you've saved some of the leftover turkey meat for a soup add it at the last minute. Heat it through thoroughly, yes, but don't cook it for longer than you need because it's been cooked already.

The best use, I think for leftover lamb is a middle-eastern style pilaf with dried apricots and nuts. Again don't re-cook the lamb in the stock when you cook the rice. Chop or shred it, fry it in a separate pan (with the nuts, if using) until lightly browned,then fork it through the rice once it's absorbed all the liquid and other flavourings. Turn the heat off, leave a lid on the pan and leave for 5 minutes for the flavours to amalgamate.

Moroccan style lamb with dates, prunes and apricots

I'm completely converted to cooking with meat on the bone. It's cheaper and it's much, much tastier. True, it's a bit more work. It also tends to be fattier so you have to make your stew, cool it, take the meat off the bone (not essential but people find it off-putting and it looks a whole lot better), refrigerate it and skim off the fat but you're left with a really fantastic meal for the following day(s) which need no effort or last-minute attention.

I cooked the lamb knuckles I brought back from Wales with some Moroccan-ish spicing, root veg and dried fruits and have to say it was quite delicious. There was enough meat on each knuckle for two so the five I bought (for a fiver) made enough for eight to ten - a great all-in-one meal for a crowd. I served it with roast carrots and parsnips seasoned with crushed coriander seeds and couscous into which I'd forked through some chopped parsley and almonds. Here's the recipe:

Moroccan-style lamb with dates, prunes and apricots
serves 8-10
5-6 lamb knuckles(about 2kg meat in total)
Pinch of saffron (optional - good if you have some)
600ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
2 tbsp light olive or sunflower oil
2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp Moroccan spice mix*
1 cinnamon stick or 1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp passata or juice from a tin of tomatoes
250g mixed dried fruit including prunes, apricots and dates, larger pieces cut into half
2 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme, marjoram or oregano
1 small to medium (125ml-150ml) glass of red wine or stock
2 heaped tbsp chopped parsley or coriander
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

With a sharp knife trim any obvious excess fat off the lamb knuckles. (Don’t worry too much, you’re skimming the stew later on). Infuse the saffron, if using, in the hot stock). Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or sauté pan and fry the onions and carrots over a low heat until starting to soften. Add the garlic and spices, stir then stir in the passata and stock. Add the lamb knuckles, mixed fruit and thyme and bring bring slowly to the boil then turn the heat right down and simmer for 2 hours. The liquid probably won’t cover the meat at this stage so you may need to turn the lamb knuckles every half hour or so. Cool the stew, removing the meat and bigger chunks of vegetable before it’s completely cold. Chill the liquid then skim off the fat. Cut the meat off the bones, removing any remaining skin or connective tissue, cut into large chunks, and return to the pan along with the skimmed liquid and a glass of red wine or stock. Reheat gently. Season with salt and pepper and an extra pinch of cinnamon if you think it needs it.

Oh, and I made a Spanish-style tapas dish of kidneys in sherry, padded out with some mushrooms which served four. (A medium dry Montilla is an excellent cheap alternative to sherry if you don't have any)

Moroccan style lamb with dates, prunes and apricots

I'm completely converted to cooking with meat on the bone. It's cheaper and it's much, much tastier. True, it's a bit more work. It also tends to be fattier so you have to make your stew, cool it, take the meat off the bone (not essential but people find it off-putting and it looks a whole lot better), refrigerate it and skim off the fat but you're left with a really fantastic meal for the following day(s) which need no effort or last-minute attention.

I cooked the lamb knuckles I brought back from Wales with some Moroccan-ish spicing, root veg and dried fruits and have to say it was quite delicious. There was enough meat on each knuckle for two so the five I bought (for a fiver) made enough for eight to ten - a great all-in-one meal for a crowd. I served it with roast carrots and parsnips seasoned with crushed coriander seeds and couscous into which I'd forked through some chopped parsley and almonds. Here's the recipe:

Moroccan-style lamb with dates, prunes and apricots
serves 8-10
5-6 lamb knuckles(about 2kg meat in total)
Pinch of saffron (optional - good if you have some)
600ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
2 tbsp light olive or sunflower oil
2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp Moroccan spice mix*
1 cinnamon stick or 1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp passata or juice from a tin of tomatoes
250g mixed dried fruit including prunes, apricots and dates, larger pieces cut into half
2 sprigs of fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme, marjoram or oregano
1 small to medium (125ml-150ml) glass of red wine or stock
2 heaped tbsp chopped parsley or coriander
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

With a sharp knife trim any obvious excess fat off the lamb knuckles. (Don’t worry too much, you’re skimming the stew later on). Infuse the saffron, if using, in the hot stock). Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or sauté pan and fry the onions and carrots over a low heat until starting to soften. Add the garlic and spices, stir then stir in the passata and stock. Add the lamb knuckles, mixed fruit and thyme and bring bring slowly to the boil then turn the heat right down and simmer for 2 hours. The liquid probably won’t cover the meat at this stage so you may need to turn the lamb knuckles every half hour or so. Cool the stew, removing the meat and bigger chunks of vegetable before it’s completely cold. Chill the liquid then skim off the fat. Cut the meat off the bones, removing any remaining skin or connective tissue, cut into large chunks, and return to the pan along with the skimmed liquid and a glass of red wine or stock. Reheat gently. Season with salt and pepper and an extra pinch of cinnamon if you think it needs it.

Oh, and I made a Spanish-style tapas dish of kidneys in sherry, padded out with some mushrooms which served four. (A medium dry Montilla is an excellent cheap alternative to sherry if you don't have any)

Buying direct from the producer

A quick overnight trip to Wales to research a piece on lamb proved an unexpected source of bargains. Apparently the producer (a partnership of two farmers who trade under the name Gower Salt Marsh Lamb) can barely give their cheaper cuts away.

They couldn't have been more delighted when I picked a pack of lamb knuckles (£1 each) and one of kidneys (given away) rather than walking off with one of their few remaining packs of lamb steaks (the salt marsh lamb season having ended in December). It's apparently the same with hearts and other offal.

It's certainly a cheaper way of buying meat than in farmers' markets many of which have become quite expensive so if you have a producer near you I'd go direct to the farm gate. And always travel with a coolbag!

I'll let you know what I do with my booty which is currently thawing gently in the fridge.

Buying direct from the producer

A quick overnight trip to Wales to research a piece on lamb proved an unexpected source of bargains. Apparently the producer (a partnership of two farmers who trade under the name Gower Salt Marsh Lamb) can barely give their cheaper cuts away.

They couldn't have been more delighted when I picked a pack of lamb knuckles (£1 each) and one of kidneys (given away) rather than walking off with one of their few remaining packs of lamb steaks (the salt marsh lamb season having ended in December). It's apparently the same with hearts and other offal.

It's certainly a cheaper way of buying meat than in farmers' markets many of which have become quite expensive so if you have a producer near you I'd go direct to the farm gate. And always travel with a coolbag!

I'll let you know what I do with my booty which is currently thawing gently in the fridge.