Mike and Harry's Birthday Fish In.

Fishing Chum(p)s

My good friend Harry is older than me - by 4 days! It might not be much, but at my age, I'm starting to care about such fine detail. Like my hair, opportunities to be younger than someone in the same vicinity are beginning to thin and as my 55th birthday approaches I become more circumspect about these things.

We try to fit in a fishing trip each year sometime around our birthday week if we can and although most of our trips involve cake of some kind, it jumps higher up the priority order for this particular day. So we arranged to meet at a local Trout Fishery in Herstmonceux where they have a small, but very nice Lodge Cafe within the complex. We relaxed over a nice cup of tea and a slab of Coffee and Walnut sponge while we caught up with each other's lives, ruing the intervention of work and family life into our fishing time. We're both Grandfather's now but I don't think either of us can believe that, I certainly don't feel as my perception of old age tells me I should - I feel fit, healthy and just as broke as I was in my youth and Harry is trimmer and fitter, but also better off than me! I, however, have more hair - for the moment. Yet we can't chat for very long as the water beckons and trout are waiting to be fooled with the fly.

Usually.

Not today.

Four, nearly five, hours later, we both found ourselves with one trout each.

If only the trout had been as greedy...

You can always tell when the fishing has been difficult. Open up any Fisherman's Fly box and it becomes obvious. If he has done well and caught with relative ease, there will be regimented ranks of matching flies, each correctly positioned in its own sub section; nymphs, dries, buzzers, hoppers and wets - and of course, by colour. If he has had a trying time, as we all seemed to on this afternoon, flies will explode like furry, feathery snow as the box is opened, nothing will be in its place and the sodden, intermingled lures will be a sad testimony to the increasingly frenetic search for "The Catching Fly" as the afternoon drew on.

Harry takes care with his Fish

Such was this day. The sun was warm for September, the breeze stiff at times, sending clouds scudding across the skies and casts into reeds, trees and bankside water mint. The high temperature kept the trout near the bottom away from floating lines and  light flies and thus were unable to see our crafily concocted wonders of natural pheasant tail and hare's ear fur. But the company was good, nobody showed us up with a bagful of fish - we all struggled equally, and, of course, there was cake.

Birthday Cake!

The "Catching Fly"?

Season of Mists....

Autumn has been heralded here in the south by misty mornings and hot days. For a week or so we have made the most of the late summer sunshine coming at the end of what has been a very wet spring and summer. 

Yet the year presses on apace; mornings are cooler, dampened by heavy dews creating swirling, short lived mists, evenings in the garden are over sooner and the time for relaxation between work end and night time seem to be filled with manic activity in an effort to make the most of the shortening gap - the shortening day.

Most people will tell you that they like autumn - Keats' 'Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness' - the changing colours, the fire lit evenings- yet still a sense of sadness prevails. We say as we get older that time flies faster - tempus fugit and all that, but the speed at which the seasons are spinning by remind me of HG Wells' Time Machine - particularly the 1960 movie in which Rod Taylor plays George Wells -sitting in his chair as the years, the fashions and the Changing world flash by faster and faster. As Autumn approaches each year we take the opportunity to look back and wonder 'where did that year go?' We assess our part in it - was it successful, was it a good year, did we enjoy it, did we make the most of it? 

Winter can be depressing - dark nights and mornings, barely any time for outdoor activities - but we should make the most of what the season offers. We can embrace the hearty fireside occasions, a time to catch up with friends and families, hot, robust stews, casseroles, soups and curries - but we can also get outside. 

Dress up warmly and go walking, even if it's just around your local neighbourhood, a good pace will soon warm you up - the hardest part is finding the motivation to put on the clothes and pass the front door. Sunlight on your skin, even on a cold day, will soon banish a few winter blues as any fisherman knows. Winter sunshine has a greater capacity to cheer; its  low angle creates wonderful clarity, long shadows and the joy at seeing its winter face so rarely. 

There are many foraging opportunities too; chestnuts, rosehips, sloes and myriad mushrooms to pick up along the way. There are warm pubs to make toward with hot fires and smooth ales, and then the comfortable walk back home, smug in the knowledge that one didn't languish stagnantly in front of the television, an accomplishment seemingly rarer these days. Should you pass anyone along the way then a secret smile and a nod will be tacitly transferred between kindred spirits, souls content with the robust ruggedness of autumn and winter wanderings, weighed down with the pockets full of hips, haws and husks that such a walk can produce.

Smugness can be healthy too, sometimes.....

Pot Roasted Pheasant with Blackberries and Spiced Wine

Essential ingredients

This is a simple dish, really, but the art of a great blogger and amateur chef is to make it look difficult.....nope, I can't. It honestly is simple enough.

My pheasants are obtained from a shoot on which I am a beater each year, they are dressed by me and I skin them rather than pluck them. This is because there is very little fat on the birds - and skinning them is far easier. However, if you buy yours from a butcher then, although it will almost certainly have retained its skin, you will still need the bacon with which to cover the bird. This adds the necessary liquid to prevent the pheasant drying out - a common complaint about game bird recipes.

So I place half a lemon and half the blackberries (I start with about 100 grams - these were picked right outside our cottage) into the cavity, season the bird with salt and black pepper, wrap the entire bird, legs and all, in bacon and place it in the pan on top of three or four halved red onions and four cloves of garlic. I sprinkle in the thyme and rosemary add two or three juniper berries and, in this instance, I also added two all-spice berries for a little depth and heat. About half the mulled wine was poured in around the bird and the pot placed, lid off in a hot oven (200 degrees) for 30 minutes or so.

Now, after 30 minutes, you have a choice; the bird is certainly cooked if you like your game rare-ish, just take it out of the oven, place the lid on top and leave while you prepare the vegetables, this helps retain the moistness. Or, you can add a touch more wine if it looks as if it needs it, put the lid on, turn down the oven to about 150 degrees and allow it to slowly cook until the meat falls off the bone.

Isn't that marvelous? A meal with a choice and I can't honestly say which I prefer, it depends on the occassion and how hungry I am.

Ready for the oven

With which vegetables to serve it is another wonderful choice laid before you....roasted butternut squash is seasonal as would be a spiced red cabbage dish or perhaps sweet turnips and potatoes...Or if cooking slowly you could at this stage add frozen peas and chopped carrots to the pot before putting the lid on. I have a garden full of beans and carrots so that is what I will have this time. As with all my recipes, you can change it around as much as you like to suit your tastes and needs.

Please give Pheasant a try, if you haven't done so, it's cheap, usually local and adds back to the community. These shoots employ locals, the gamekeepers are custodians of the Countryside as are the Farmers on whose land the shoots are held. Every beat I've been on has shown the care and concern of the woods and fields that one would expect from the pragmatic approach of country folk. Life is not taken needlessly,and never wasted. If there are too many birds, then we give them, fully prepared, to the local Care Homes, Hospices and Churches. We enjoy the fresh air, even when the ground temperature is in negative numbers, we get plenty of excercise, keep an eye on the woodland and the birds are given a good, plentiful living and every sporting chance during the shoot. This would only apply if you buy your meat from a butcher rather than a supermarket. Supermarkets are rarely concerned with local food sourcing and almost never give anything back to the local community, I avoid them as much as I can.

Blackberry

What can one say about the ubiquitous Blackberry? What more can be added to the list of uses that this wonderfully abundant and tasty fruit already has?

Well, obviously something or I wouldn't be writing this blog I suppose.

My use of this wonderful berry is, like simple origami, threefold; Bramble vodka, blackberry and apple jelly and game sauce/gravy.

Blackberry Vodka is a drink that reminds me of dark winter evenings sitting in front of a flickering wood fire, shadows dancing across the watercolours on my wall, a good book on my lap - probably Dickens but possibly Conrad or Lawrence - and the cats sprawled around the room in various careless positions. It is a drink easily made but not casually drunk. Not if you value your head the next day.

The recipe is the epitome of simplicity too; sugar, vodka, blackberries - that's it! Put however much vodka you like/can afford into a Demi-Jon add sugar, blackberries, shake and leave for up to three months. I'm always asked "how much sugar?" but that's an individual requirement. I would start at 100 grams per 70 CL bottle of vodka and then taste it after a few weeks. Their are friends who think my bramble vodka too sweet and those who find it not sweet enough - so taste it and add more if you want. Mine usually ends up around 150 g per bottle. As for the fruit, I always decant the liquid off after about 3 months but for goodness sake don't throw the leftover berries away - put them in a kilner jar topped up with either sugar syrup or more vodka and use it at Christmas it's just too good to waste.

It's been hiding away for months....

As for the Game recipe, well I just add a tablespoon full of soft brown sugar to about 100 grams of berries and half a bottle of mulled wine, which can be purchased from all good stores around Christmas and saved for such emergencies as cold winter, spring, summer and autumn evenings - or game recipes. The spices are included in the red wine for you so all you need are 3 or 4 juniper berries and herb of your choice, depending on the Game, rosemary, thyme and sage are the natural favourites. Reduce the sauce to the consistency you require and serve. It's wonderful. The sugar removes some of the bitterness and adds depth of flavour to the jus.

The Apple and Blackberry Jelly is a bit more complex, but there are recipes for jam making available everywhere, I use the River Cottage one mostly as it's straightforward. I cook the fruit on one day and hang it in a jelly bag until the next. Then I make the jelly by adding the sugar and jar it up for presents plus a couple to keep for ourselves.

Just with two of these three ideas, Christmas Presents become easier to consider. Most of my friends and family look forward to their booze, chutney or jams, and those who are ambivalent towards these, love my wife's home-made chocolates - and she's a professional!

Herman The German -Basic Recipe Revisited

Spooning on the Marmalade...

It is possible to subdue your Herman. On the sheet of instructions which accompanies the initial gift of batter you are told not to keep the culture in the fridge, but this is rubbish. Naturally if it is left in the fridge without ever feeding, it will turn into a black mess, but by feeding and stirring it on a weekly basis, the maintenance of it can be reduced.

The basic recipe gives a solid, chewy and tasty foundation upon which to build and the usual addition of fruit lightens the bite and compliments the yeasty undercurrent very well. However, I wanted to try something a little different for a Sunday afternoon treat with some friends and family. So I took the basic recipe and just added a half a jar of homemade marmalade, some orange zest and some orange juice. This is the basic recipe:

The measurements are given in cups - a volume measurement - rather than by weight. If the resultant mix is not viscous enough - too stodgy - then add a drop more batter, milk or fruit juice to water it down a little:

• 2 Cups Herman Batter
• 2 Cups Plain Flour
• 1 Cup Sugar
• 1/2 Tsp Salt
• 2/3 cup melted butter or light oil (about 150 mls)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 heaped tsp baking powder

        

That's the basic recipe to which MUST be added the additional flavours to make a fruit cake, lemon drizzle or even carrot cakes, as examples. 

I stirred stirred into my basic recipe a half a jar of home-made Seville Orange Marmalade together with the juice and zest of an orange. I baked mine at 150 for an hour and 15 minutes or so, or until cooked in the middle.

The resultant cake was still heavy, but also tangy and chewy and would have been excellent with warm custard. It disappeared quickly enough without it though, so it was a success.

I shall try a few more recipes but I also want to find a way to make the cake lighter without removing the yeasty flavour and the wonderful texture of this style of loaf cake.

Hazel (Corylus avellana)

Very often, squirrels will have pinched any hazel nuts you may have been hoping to find, but with a protracted walk through the woods, you can probably gather enough to do something with - and there are lots of options. If squirrels have been there before you, then look at the branch tips, the thin ends of the tree where even a squirrel is too heavy to reach, there you may find some unforaged nuts.

As for the recipes, well, where to begin....?

One friend of ours loves them green on toast with salt on top! A very definite marmite moment! However, you may choose from a number of dishes and uses including making your own peanut butter, using them as a topping for many dishes including fish, a topping or addition for many desserts, an inclusion in home-made bread and a crunchy topping with cinnamon on rice pudding ( a particular favourite). But there are so many more and a short trawl through the internet will bring you thousands of choices in less than a second!

The nuts pictured above are much larger than normal - we found them while out on a walk locally - but we believe them to be a cultivated variety planted by the local Highways Agency to provide roadside cover - the squirrels have not yet found them!

If you can't be bothered to forage for your own Hazel Nuts, they can sometimes be bought as Kent Cobnuts. These are a cultivated species that have been hybridised with the more productive Mediterranean varieties over the years to produce larger nuts in greater numbers but still on Eastern English soil with British Sunshine....give them a try.

Chickens - The Serial

Scraping around in the courtyard

Well, I have to say they are fun! They're not much work, we're getting two eggs a day from our two new point-of-lay hens and they're all getting on swimmingly. Or is that ducks....?

There's something very homely and comforting about the gentle noises these birds make as they scrape around their run. It's very much a sound redolent of comfortable living, lazy days and cups of tea in a sunlit garden. Perhaps a cuckoo calls in the background as the postman waves cheerily as he passes your gate - no bills today thank you!

As I write this I'm sitting in my back yard with the hens scraping around my feet. The traffic on the A21 is slow as hoards of families head towards Hastings and the beaches, the sun is blazing down, the breeze is lazily susserating through the beech trees and I have fresh bread in the kitchen and a coffee in my hand. The Olympics are drawing to a close and Great Britain have done more than enough to still the voices of the curmudgeons like myself who initially showed concern about the cost of the games and a lack of interest in the results. The sound of screeching U turns is very loud around here! Even my son Ben, an avid tweeter of all things that feel foul, has been to the Olympic Park and enjoyed his day.

The hens love the back yard; compared to their run which is now devoid of life and where a snail can be spotted by a beady eye from 50 yards, it's a veritable jungle and I had an odd flashback to fishing as I watched them rooting around. I used to love seeing reeds flicker as the sub-surface activity of fish caused their trembling movement and in the back yard, it's the swaying of raspberry canes, rosemary bushes and sage plants. Occasionally a head pops up or a long neck is stretched to reach a ripe raspberry, but the result is the same.

So the two new girls, Peggoty and Polly, had a few problems being accepted by Molly and Hilda initially, so for one day I kept the two new girls in the inner coop cage. Then I thought "Hang on, why am I punishing the victims?" so I put Hilda and Molly in the cage instead and that did the trick, in less than 24 hours, the twins had taught the youngsters to go to bed at night and were snuggling up together in the hemp bedding. Result, and peace in the hen house.