SPICY BUNNY BURGERS WITH SUN DRIED TOMATO MAYO

Best burgers ever or so my sons says, and I have to agree!

Made with rabbit shot and prepared by my own fair hands but

you can buy yours from your local butcher for around £4 each.

 Pile high with salad, cheese, home-made tomato sauce in a freshly baked bun

and serve with home made chips

Ingredients

1 Rabbit (once boned, about 600g)
300g of pork belly (optional)
1 onion (chopped)
Free herbs (rosemary,chive,thyme,marjoram or any you have) chopped
1 chopped chilli
Salt & Pepper

Tomato mayonnaise
2 tablespoons of mayonnaise
3 Sun dried tomatoes
1 teaspoon of tomato puree
dash of Tabasco sauce (optional)

To Dress
Tomato
Salad leaves
Gherkin
radish
red onion
Cheese

First, skin and bone out your rabbit (or buy ready prepared from your butcher)
along with the pork belly to add some fat to an otherwise very lean meat.
This will make the burger moist and more flavour but can be left
out for a healthier option.

Mince the meat together in a Kenwood mixer with attachment 

or similar gadget.

Bind the mincemeat, herbs, chilli, salt and pepper together and make into good sized burgers.

Do this by taking the meat and rolling into a ball roughly the size of a peach.
Press flat between your hands and lay on a board.
Shape the edges round while flat if required.

Fry the burgers on a high heat for about 3 to 4 minutes a side.

Once you turn the burger put the cheese on top

so it can melt while the second side cooks

We made fresh bread rolls with dough from our superb bread maker.

A Panasonic that we've had for over two years now and couldn't do without.

I can count on my hand the number of times we have bought bread since buying it.
These were made with wholemeal flour and were delicious with the rabbit.

For the spicy tomato mayonnaise

simple chop the sun dried tomatoes,

add to the mayonnaise along with the

tomato puree and Tabasco sauce and mix together.

Build your burger.

Start with the salad, red onion and tomato,

then the spice mayonnaise and burger,

topped off with the Gherkin and sliced radish

Dig in!

MUST TRY FISH PIE

A fish pie to die for, hence the 'must try' title.

One helping just isn't enough!

You know me by now, I will always recommend you use the best ingredients and in this case, your local 

fish mongers.  We are lucky enough to have Mr Turner but if your only option is the supermarket,

make sure it's as fresh as possible; it will make all the difference.

Ingredients

250g salmon

250g smoked haddock

150g cod

100g peeled prawns

3 soft boiled eggs

750g potatoes - cooked and mashed with 40g of butter and a grating of nutmeg

Half glass white wine (optional)

300ml water

200ml milk

75g Parmesan

Salt & Pepper

Sauce

75g butter

75g plain flour

100ml double cream

Serves 6

Poach the fish for 10 minutes in a saute pan with a lid.

Do this by simmering on a low heat in the milk, water and white wine 

Take off the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes 

Remove the fish from the saute pan onto a plate and allow to cool further.

Save the liqueur , you will need this for the sauce.

When the fish is cold enough to handle, flake, removing the skin and bones.

Place the flaked fish in a deep baking dish 30cm x 40cm and scatter over the prawns

Grate over half of the Parmesan.

Soft boil three eggs for 5 minutes and plunge into cold water (to stop the egg cooking any more)

Quarter and lay on top of the fish.

Now for the sauce....

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the flour and allow to cook on a medium heat while stirring.

Add the liqueur from the fish, a little at a time, stirring until combined before you add more.

Add a little water if the sauce is too thick - it should be thick enough to coat the back of the spoon

Remove from the heat and stir in the cream 

Pour evenly over the fish and egg

Fork over the prepared mash potato and grate on the rest of the Parmesan

Bake in the oven for half an hour at 190 degrees or until the top is golden brown and the sauce 

is bubbling up, as shown.

Serve with green beans or vegetables of your choice.

SAUCY LAMB SHANKS

A lip smacking meaty feast with a positively perfect vegetable combination.
 Your friends and family will adore this easy, one pot meal.

Serves 4

Four lamb shanks

3 carrots, cut into large chucks

2 celery sticks, cut into large chunks

2 onions, cut into large chucks

4 cloves garlic

1 tbsp flour

1 glass of white wine

1tbsp cider vinegar

2 dessertspoon tomato puree

1 bay leaf

600ml water

Bouquet garni (herbs of your choice - we tied together,
thyme, mint, rosemary, chive, lovage and oregano from the garden but use what you have!)

Brown the lamb shanks in a frying pan with a little oil and transfer to a casserole dish.
Place in a warm oven to await the rest of the ingredients.

Throw all the prepared vegetables into the same frying pan as the lamb was in and fry off for 5 minutes on a medium heat.

Take off the heat and stir in the flour.
Put back onto the heat and add the wine, cider vinegar, tomato puree, bay leaf and water.
Simmer gently while stirring to to warm all the ingredients through and combine together.

Take the lamb shanks from the oven and turn up the temperature to 180 degrees
Pour over the vegetable gravy and add your bouquet garni.

Cover with the casserole lid and put back in the oven to cook for 2.5 hours.

Serve with crushed or mash potato or white or brown rice

Or as we did, cous cous with chopped prunes and toasted pumpkin seeds...

...and fresh green beans

 Succulent and sweet with just the right amount of gravy juice to mop up with your mash!



VENISON LEFTOVERS

Many of you will have seen my previous post on venison, a roast haunch for Sunday lunch on the BBQ.  Well, as is usually the case with a roast dinner, there was plenty left over which we ate throughout the week - and it was just as good cold.

Apart from cutting a slither off every time I opened the fridge, we've had a lunch of

stuffed venison pitta breads and a meal of cold venison with char grilled Mediterranean veg.

Toast and split the pitta bread

 Stuff with the cold sliced venison, red pepper, spring onion, tomato and goats cheese

And drizzle over some sweet chilli sauce for an extra something

This one is locally handmade from Gulls Cottage, Dedham, bought from our local deli.

Warm and crunchy with a spicy hot kick!

Use any other cold meat or remove altogether for a vegetarian option

For the venison with charcoal grilled Mediterranean veg.....

Grill three peppers on all sides until the skin has charred and is bubbling away from the flesh. 

Put into a plastic bag for 5 minutes to allow to sweat.   

Remove from the bag, peel off the skin, de-seed and thinly slice. Put to the side.

Steam a handful of green beans and put to the side.

Slice one courgette and four mushrooms and toss in a desert spoon

of olive oil with six whole trimmed spring onions.

Char grill in a griddle pan, placing just a few slices in at a time and cooking on both sides.

No oil required.

Press them down as they cook to get an even colour.  

In a separate bowl add a desert spoon of chopped chives and one of chopped lovage.

(two chives if you don't have the lovage)

Add eight finely chopped black olives and a teaspoon of finely chopped capers

and then mix in one teaspoon of dijon mustard and a tablespoon of raspberry vinegar

or good red wine vinegar.

Throw in the char grilled vegetables, sliced peppers and green beans and toss together.

Serve with slices of cold venison and cous cous

 So, all in all its fed the family well for the last week and it didn't cost a bean!

MOTHER'S DAY LUNCH - SLOW ROAST HOGGET (AND WE DID!)

Mothering Sunday and we had invited mine and Marie's parents over for a family lunch.  I knew I was going to cook a Sunday roast but was deliberating on what joint of meat.  There was the usual suspects of course, pork, beef, chicken, lamb but I wanted to try something different. I remembered that many years back, I had seen the two fat ladies cooking mutton and singing its praises, so I went in search.  Since I was heading over to Ipswich for work anyway, I dropped into the butchers at the Suffolk Food Hall. Great place, have you been? Huge selection of produce and a cafe for lunch break.

They didn't have a Mutton joint big enough unfortunately but what they did have was a shoulder of hogget (lamb over one year old  and less than two) which I was more than happy to try.  

So first thing Sunday morning, I readied the meat for the oven with rosemary and garlic and cooked it for six hours at 130°C, regularly checking and renewing the herbs which together with the juices made a beautiful thick gravy.

Cooked and ready to carve, the hogget was incredibly moist and had so much flavour, more so than

young lamb and a better texture I thought.

A good choice as everyone around the table that day would agree.

Served with roast potato's, a selection of vegetables and celeriac dauphinoise which I have to say

could not have complimented the meat more.

To make the dauphinoise, or my version of it....

Slice one celeriac, a large onion and a small chilli and layer up in a casserole dish. Pour over 200ml of double cream and sprinkle chilli powder over the top.  Cook for 50 minutes at 180 degrees.

Hugh's pudding cake to finish - see the next post

(when I've written it!)