Reverse Meal Planning

joedenise

With that amount of meat I'd be adding lots more veg and pearl barley too; would also need more water (I think these days we'd tend to add a stock cube or HM stock if we had some).

Haven't had breast of lamb for years but used to buy it quite regularly back in the early 70s when we first married.  I deboned it and stuffed it with sage and onion stuffing and rolled and tied with string and roasted quite slowly in a fairly low oven.  I used to sit in on a rack or on a bed of veg so it didn't sit in the fat.  It was a really cheap and tasty roast.

I've got an old fashioned oxtail stew out of the freezer which I made several months ago when our butcher had some meaty oxtail rather than the bony little bits, which I know are very flavoursome but definitely not much meat on them and when I'm making a stew I want a decent amount of meat as I always add loads of veg.

Suffolk_lass

@joedenise I don't think that was all she served - my recollection is potatoes and lots of separate vegetables so this was more a way of cooking the meat. As I say, times change. I've got some scrag in the freezer so might try it next month when we resume eating meat. We have three portions of fish and lots of vegetables in the meantime

Porridgecat

Mr Porridge made fried chicken last night so not much reverse planning done there. Tonight we're having mackerel pate on toast, I baked sourdough yesterday and I had half a tub of black pepper soft cheese is the fridge so that's been used up. 

greent

Only 2 tiny pieces of Xmas cheese left now - a very strong smoked dbl Gloucester and a white Stilton with apricots - they should both be gone this week 🤞  

Finished Thursday's Victoria sponge off tonight after dinner  

No idea about tomorrow as yet... ideally would like to eat from freezer but not sure others would agree....

Mrs_Cheshire

Suffolk_lass said:

Mrs_Cheshire said:

Hi all, been using up things from the freezer and fridge the last few days. we've had slices, sweet & sour chicken, spaghetti bolagnese and last night we had homemade pizza's using up some of the strong bread flour we got in the 1st lockdown. Tonight I'm going to use some beef stew that was slow cooked earlier in the week, the kids will have sausages instead. will serve with mash and green veg. 
Does anyone have any tips for cooking lamb breast. I've done it once before and remember it being really fatty. 

@Mrs_Cheshire my grandma used to make a lamb stew using breast of lamb. It always had pearl barley added as this absorbs the fat from the neck of lamb. You can also use mutton (scrag or stewing lamb).

I've just looked through and found her recipe:
One and a half pounds (650g) meat, coated in seasoned flour (a dessert spoon of flour with salt and pepper (optional chilli flakes)
1 onion, one parsnip, one carrot - all diced not too small
1 Tablespoon of pearl barley
1 pint of water (500ml)
1 oz (25g) butter
Fry off the seasoned meat in the melted butter. The object is to render most of the fat from the meat (you could pre-boil the meat before coating in seasoned flour and skim off the fat but you would lose flavour) then add the vegetables. The old recipe suggests then transferring to a casserole dish but you could pour off the fat and make it a one-pot wonder.
Add the (hot) water and barley.
Cover with a tight fitting lid and cook long and slow - 2.5 hours on a very low heat in the oven (or in a slow cooker) - you are likely to need to add more seasoning - our 21st century tastes expect more. 

Thank you so much, I've got pearly barley that needs using up so will give it a try. 

greenbee

I still have some xmas stilton which I plan to have for lunch with bacon and salad at some point. Probably over several weeks. 

rtandon27

We have also have xmas cheese tucked away in the freezer as the small truckles were such a good deal in the post holiday sale.  A couple of larger truckles in the fridge as the use by date is June!  OH would revolt if the cheese supply ever dried up

Suffolk_lass

We have load of stilton in the freezer - I never seem to fancy it but it must be used or discarded - the bottom drawer is nearly all my cheese stores... madness

In mitigation there is also a large bag of grated (by us) parmesan and some mozzarella 

rtandon27

SL - I quite like Stilton cooked in other things - Blue cheese risotto with lots of cooked greens on the side or in Broccoli & Stilton soup - funny that as I quite dislike Broc on its own!

Suffolk_lass

@rtandon27 I know... it just never reaches the top of my list. 

By the way, I shelled the 6 enormous prawns and skinned and sliced the one (generous sized) salmon steak really thinly. I used a shallot, two balls of frozen spinach, two handfuls of F-peas, tarragon, parsley, fried in a mix of olive oil and butter then DH covered with his special mash (potato, sweet potato and carrot cooked in veg stock and then added lovely things), topped with panko breadcrumbs, black pepper and a few chilli flakes, we baked it for 20 minutes and had it with steamed savoy cabbage. So delicious and half left for today