What's cooking?!
Gillian's weekly guide to local, seasonal and speciality food & drink plus lots of tasty food news...

I’M NOT a follower of wearable fashion. On the other hand, food trends absolutely fascinate me. It was with interest, therefore, that I noted ‘thrift’, English rose veal, and ‘bacon candy’ among the top ten predictions for 2012.
This column, as you know, has long been a champion of thrift – see below for this week’s cracking deal (and a local one at that) from butcher Peter Hutchinson at Greenodd. I hope news that rose veal is now making national headlines pleases farmer Roger Mason at Heaves Farm who has been championing the cause for the past four years. As for ‘bacon candy’- or salted caramel sauce’, check out the lip-smacking offering from the award-winning Hawkshead Relish Company - I defy you not to become addicted!
And so to the first of those food trends, thrift; Peter Hutchinson’s special offer this week is half a Herdwick ewe (aka mutton) for the ridiculously cheap price of £45. Weighing in at about 30lbs per half, that’s only £1.50 per lb for a full leg, chops, shoulder, diced lamb etc.
Full of Lake District flavour, this Herdwick simply needs long, slow cooking, for meltingly tender meat.
Meanwhile, with National Farmhouse Breakfast Week just around the corner (I’ll be sharing a recipe with you next week to ‘shake up your wake up’), we have wonderful start-the-day recommendations from Hazelmere Café & bakery at Grange-over-Sands who suggested hand-moulded Swiss rye bread with walnuts and raisins at £1.96, delicious toasted; and a farmhouse white loaf, crusty on the outside and soft on the inside, perfect for a bacon butty, at £1.12 per loaf.
Baba Ganoush in Kendal recommended a selection of cereals from the Rude Health company including fruity date porridge, four different mueslis (eg: early bird crispy muesli with oats, spelt, fruit and hazelnuts), and granola; prices from £2.99 (500g) to £5.99 (500g) for the granola.
For your breakfast week kedgeree (curry-flavoured rice and smoked fish topped with soft-boiled eggs), check out natural smoked haddock from Kendal Fisheries on Stramongate (£6.30/lb) or how about some lovely smoked salmon to stir into your scrambled egg (£2.80/100g).
Kendal Fisheries other two recommendations this week were Manx queenies (£2.25/100g) – I cooked some in a paella at the weekend, with lots of chilli and sweet peppers, for example; also, Cornish mackerel from Newlyn at £4.06 per lb.
More breakfast week suggestions include butcher John Unsworth’s own-make black pudding which is available from Greenlands farm village (75p per 100g); while from Grange butcher Stuart Higginson, how about this for a ‘thrifty’ special offer - get half a dozen Cumbrian free range eggs FREE if you purchase one pound of Stuart’s own award-winning dry-cured bacon (plain or smoked, back or middle) plus one pound of any of Higginsons’ famous sausages made with British pork. Offer available during farmhouse breakfast week which starts on Sunday (January 22).
It’s Burns Night next week too – you can buy Higginsons own-recipe haggis from Low Sizergh barn farm shop (various sizes, various prices). Serve with neeps and tatties which also, as it happens, would be the perfect accompaniments for this week’s easy-peasy meal idea from Kendal butchers Watson & Woollard – Brennand-recipe pies at £1.20 each. Choose from meat and potato, or cheese and onion, and simply warm through in the oven.

Last changed: Jan 17 2012 at 4:59 PM