Eric’s Prime Cuts

And prime they are indeed! I bought a chicken but what I really wanted was that rib of beef in the window at £40 - and probably worth every penny.

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Rabbit Hunting – part two

That is the problem (and advantage) with killing your own animals. You have to face the fact that it was once alive and it makes you eat less meat, which is a good thing. It wasn’t easy - a huge arguement with my son, frozen hands and now the last thing we want to eat is rabbit. So into the freezer until the memory has faded, but I am still hoping to run over a deer.

Rabbit Hunting – part one

Well, not so much hunting as waiting for them to come for the carrots.

I love George Debman butchers

Because he said the piece I wrote about him in last year’s Christmas edition of Suffolk magazine was ‘sensational’. And he says that if I go to his butchers he will give me a bit of free bacon.

Eye Eye

Had a little wander round the shops while my son played football and bought a whole chicken from this butchers. I’ve shown him how to joint it and make coq u vin with some of it, saving the rest for another meal. It was £6 – way more than a supermarket but we could certainly taste the difference. Grow my own veg but the sign on the shop opposite was tempting too as have just been on an apple hunt with my sister. Found lovely sweet wild ones that were just like Gala – apart from the holes.

      

Scotch eggs (again)

My friend from France is here and the one food she remembers (and wants to buy) are the Scotch eggs we had from the Edris of Ely butchers! So we eat them in the Abbey Gardens. I had a Cornish Pasty.

Breast of lamb – is it the new belly of pork…?

This is the bargain of the week – a rolled breast of lamb from Asda, already cheap, but reduced to £1. I have cooked this lots of times, and it’s been tasty, crispy but as tough as hell. This time I read the intructions in a recipe book instead of guessing and rushing, and it said SLOW cooking. So I put it on at 100, went to work for four hours and came back to the most delicious and tender piece of meat ever. Turned it up for twenty minutes to crisp up and WOW, what flavour! It’s not for everyone as it’s very fatty, but with rosemary, broad beans and the first new potatoes out of the garden it was as tasty as anything I have had lately. Next time I will unroll it, put some stuffing in and serve it to my best friends.

Goat meat from Rattlesden

My links with the Caribbean dictate that I have to have goat meat every now and then and now we have a supplier – the most delicious barbecued chops I have ever had jerked in England! Forgot to take a picture though.

Stanton – again

Have already been recommended for their sausage rolls. This place has everything, fresh and frozen. And their plants are good too. Mick the Baker makes the bread at the back and he said if I come back earlier next time he’ll make me a cup of tea.

Meat pies, scotch eggs and the generation who buy them

Edis Of Ely make the best takeaway food snack in Bury in their butchers in St Johns Street. I have mentioned them before - their still warm scotch eggs and at least three types of pasties and sausage rolls. I bought a Tin Miners for £1.35 – minced lamb, carrots and onions, perfectly seasoned, with pastry shiny with beaten egg, oozing a bit of gravy but still crisp. And I was the youngest customer in the shop !

Tel: 01284 753297