Happy New Year everyone!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas-time and a brilliant new year celebration. We had a big family dinner party (myself, Ben, my brother and sister-in-law, Becky and her son, Mum, Dad and the witty grandparents) with canapes and a very nice elderflower gin and champagne cocktail, and lots of delicious food including a rib of beef which must have weighed as much as I do! Then we had dessert, cheese and port and Presecco at midnight. It was a very fun evening. On New Year's Day, we all met my aunt and uncle and their three children for lunch in a lovely restaurant in Llanddarog.
I must say, I'm having a very relaxing few weeks off after the madness that was the run up to Christmas. I'm still catching up on sleep and eating as much as I can. However, I have had some wonderful books and tools which I cannot wait to start using. One of them in particular bring a lot of excitement; a book called The Gentle Art of Preserving. My boyfriend's mother bought me this book (along with the Complete Works of Oscar Wilde) and it's full of recipes on how to cure meats, salt fish, preserve fruits and vegetables in oil, how to make alcohol (oh yes!) and how to make chutneys and jams all year round from produce that has been stored in numerous ways. One of the chapters focuses on smoking meats and fish to prolong its shelf life, but to also alter and enhance its flavour. The book, in all its ingenuity, suggests cheap ways of smoking, curing and preserving foods without spending hundreds of pounds on super-duper equipment.
After reading this book, cover to cover (twice) I have decided that I am going to start smoking. It's a simple, yet brilliant, method of preserving, and I can't wait to get started! I've bought a great big galvanised steel bin, and some wood which will add a subtle flavour to the smoked produce. The book says to smoke small pieces of fish or cheese to begin with, to get used to the smell and texture of how the product should be, so I think this afternoon will be spent experimenting with things. I will take plenty of pictures and post them later.
Another product that I am going to start making is cured meats. I've learnt from the book that some meats can be cured in the fridge, some in a cupboard (obviously a clean and empty one) and some need a curing chamber. I'm going to find an old wine fridge and give it a good clean and then use that as a curing chamber. I'm going to have to read a lot more into curing as it requires certain humidity and temperature control, and I don't want to be getting things wrong when bacteria is involved. Good thing I like reading! And food.
With smoking, different woods produces different flavours and suit different produce. This too will need some experimentation to see which flavours I prefer with which produce.
I am almost too excited about this whole thing!
I'll let you all know how it goes...
Ruth
