#ConfinedAtoZChallenge – G to M

 Wow, it feels like ages since I last posted, mainly because it is ages. Time is a very strange commodity at the moment. Anyway, I’m a bit late to the party, but Happy New Year everyone. Fingers crossed that 2021 will be better than last year – it’s only January, so I live in hope.

I’m back playing the #ConfinedAtoZChallenge – this is all stuff from the last few weeks that I was meaning to post and never quite got around to it, so I’ve just collected it all here.

G is for Game Keeper’s Pie.  I would usually use venison for this, but there was none to be had. However, the husband came back from shopping with some Bison Mince, so I thought that would work nicely as a variation on a theme. I just cooked the bison in the same way as I would have done venison mince with garlic, onion, celery, carrot, some passata, stock and a bit of red wine, let it cook away on the hob for a while until it reduced and got a bit thick and them topped it with mashed potato and baked it until brown. It worked out pretty well.

H is for Ham, or in this case Prosciutto. I used it in a pseudo-Quiche Lorraine for an easy dinner and left over lunches. Using a frozen pastry shell makes doing something like that straightforward when I don’t know what to cook.

I is for Ice-cream. Specifically, my favourite combo of Hagan Daz Almond Vanilla and Strawberry, served here with some mini mince pies and butter tarts that I got from our local artisan baker. We bought a ridiculous amount of stuff from him over Christmas and my waistline is paying the price.

J is for Juniper – I think the picture says it all. And of course this picture could also double up as G for Gin.

And sticking on the drink theme – K is for Kir Royale, because why not.

L is for Lamb Kebabs (so another K in there as well). Specifically, Syrian Lamb Kebabs that I buy from our local community farm shop. They’re full of yummy middle eastern flavours  and went wonderfully with some couscous, some garlic yoghurt, fresh dates and fresh bread rubbed with Tunisian olive oil.

This post was meant to stop at L, but then I realised last night I could take it up to M, so I did.

This for Mussel Risotto – yay, the first risotto of  the year for me. The main difference on my usual risotto base was adding finely chopped fennel along with the onion and garlic. Also my recipe used veg stock as opposed to chicken stock and there was no cheese. It made for an interesting, slightly lighter risotto than normal, for which my Christmas waistline thanked me. I had frozen vacuum packed cooked mussels in the freezer, so I just had to defrost and take most of them out of the shell to mix through the rice when it was cooked. This was a first time cooking this risotto (bizarrely I got it out of a slow cooker recipe book, but just cooked it on the hob) and I will definitely cook it again.

Okay, that’s it for now. I hope everyone is doing well, and wow, I can’t believe we’re three-quarters of the way through January. Like I said, time is weird right now!