I’d never spotted this before but there was a small one on sale in Lidl. It had to be used so cooked it Thursday night. It was slightly s too salty but the closest thing I’ve had to Christmas ham in years! If I get the same one again I’ll soak it for an hour but will see if I can get a bigger one elsewhere. So happy to have discovered it in time for Noël ! We’ll be having that, a chicken and a nut roast on the day with loads of leftovers!
How I’ve managed to live here nigh on 20 years without coming across this blows my mind!
Gammon joint done in cola, 4 bird roast and sirloin joint for us at Christmas and a few days after
My wife went and harvested some Brussel sprouts today, she will probably start cooking them tomorrow
There’s a place near Cannes I think, which does real gammon joints, but they’re pretty expensive. Not sure of the name. There’s another in midi pyrenees somewhere as well.
The one in the South East is called Brittains, and the OH ordered one from there for this New Year.
I try to do research because buying pork products in France often means inadvertently supporting industrial pork farming which seems more prevalent here than in the UK (willing to be corrected on that). Consequently my rule of thumb is either ‘élevage traditionel’ or ‘porc noir’ as the various breeds of southern French black pigs aren’t usually farmed intensively.
On that basis this seems a go to place for high quality hams:-
Totally agree Mark, sadly not in your financial position having been downgraded this year to half time at my lycée . i only have the choice to buy what I can afford. I grow our veg, and eggs, all organically, but just have to do what I can for meat ( including massively reducing our consumption).
But way less than that to eat them, yum yum, I love 'em, but they only get 12 minutes in the steamer here, along with all the other veg, and fish too if that is what we are having (at least twice a week ).
I rarely use the small oven we have, but when I do it is often just to grill a thick slice of ham now and again to go with the vegoftheday.
But I made a real cockup last night. Filet de Julienne was on the menu with mashed potatoes, the latter using for the first time my blitzer and blender, I normally use a hand masher. I added butter and milk to the spuds before blending and was really pleased with the tasty result. After we had both finished and I had had my cheese, I set about warming a tart and (very rare) Bird’s custard in the micro.
When I opened the door I saw the jug of Hollandaise sauce I had prepared beforehand to go with the fish.
Oh well, I have some more fish, so it will do for next time.
In Scotland they aren’t the most favourite vegetables as most folks would only have them at Christmas, they were usually undercook and quite bitter.
There were alway jokes a plenty about yer ma or mother in law putting them on to boil in August so that they are ready for 25th December, that and the smell next day either because of the smell cooking them or the farting due to eating them
My least favourite vegetables along with the taste of spinach
We love spinach and Brussels sprouts and kale and all those dark green leafy things. Planning a menu for a birthday party with my about to be 6 August daughter she suggested bowls of Brussels sprouts, I don’t know how popular they would have been, it was August and there weren’t any.
Can sympathise with that as my career was something of a roller-coaster ride,
Now fortunate to be retired and only cooking for two. Also despite misgivings about our main butcher’s pork, I’m a sucker for his poitrine fumé and although I buy my chorizo from a local producteuse, I’ve never dared ask questions…
We don’t have a lot of land, and most of it’s rock, so I’m more or less limited to growing herbs and exotic salad leaves that aren’t found on the markets.
Brussel sprouts and spinach are both wonderful raw, and spinach no more than wilted. Never tried kale raw, but I imagine it would be like chewing cardboard
If you are anywhere nearthe Bellac/Confolens area
try Montybutchers for Gammon Ham. They rear their own livestock
and produce some amazing bacon, haggis etc.
Just picked up a huge gammon ham for a friend (we are having
Surf n’ Turf) at the farm shop and admired their outdoor ‘happy’ pigs.
Brussels sprouts en salade sliced on a mandolin are fab. You get more beta carotene from cooked spinach (just as you get more lycopene from cooked tomatoes) but either way it’s delicious.
I prefer not to see my menu happy beforehand. I know it is silly but, on Saturday as I was waiting to be served a piece of fish I kept well away from the poor lobsters feebly waving their feelers about.
I would love not to eat any living thing, and at least once a week I just steam up a variety of veg. It is delicious with the sauce/soup I have made to eat with it, but I wouldn’t want it every day. I know that more veg are available but I have tried almost everything on sale that I have never eaten before and it just doesn’t do it.
I actually prefer to buy meat from the farm. It makes a difference to my conscience knowing the animals had a ‘life’ as close as normal to being in the wild before they are turned into food.
Living in a rural area of Scotland I had the priviledge knowing the farmers and their care for the animals they raised or the veggies and fruit produced.
. i only have the choice to buy what I can afford. I grow our veg, and eggs, all organically, but just have to do what I can for meat ( including massively reducing our consumption).
).
