Fun with the solar thermal panels

 We’ve been having a bit of a nightmare with the solar thermal panels. Just replaced the propelene glycol

Out of the bottle it is 

In the system it is 

This is because we have washed the system through with water a few times and it is impossible to get all the fluid out the system!

Hopefully still has low enough freezing point

It’s a right fag pumping it all out and back in again!

Chocolate Fondue Recipe

150g dark chocolate

100g double cream

Splash of some spirit (Quattro, whisky, whatever)

Lots of chopped fruit.

Heat the cream in a pan, don’t boil. Add the chocolate and stir until melted.

Put in to the fondue pan

Butchering a deer’s hind leg

 I followed a youtube by Outdoor Allie, really helpful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=HP43Zm1-Jrg

Didn’t really fit on my chopping board, but had to make the best of it :)

The sirloin tip is in the sous vide bag. I’m making salted venison (like salted or corned beef)

Going from there left we have the bottom round - made in to 2 roasts for pot or slow roasting

Next let is the eye of round which looks like. tenderloin but isn’t. Planning on cutting in to medallions and slow frying one of them, the other I am salting to fry rounds of like ham.

Far left is the top round which I cut in to steaks to fry

At the back is the tri tip (triangular muscle off the sirloin tip). That went in to stewing chunks

Also at the back the sirloin butt which is a kind of raggedy cut which I cut up for stir fry.

The front legs I took out the flat irons and the rest was stewing chunks or mince.

Lamb ham

We were wondering the other day whether you could dry cure lamb, I looked it up on the internet and found several recipes!

Dry cured leg of mutton (or lamb)
Boned leg of mutton

The following are per kg of meat
30g salt
1tsp ground pepper
1tsp sugar
4 cloves
1tsp chopped rosemary
1 clove garlic finely chopped

Pinch of curing salt (optional depending whether you want the salt peter which will keep the meat pink or not)

Mix all the cure together
Smear all over both sides of the leg
Put the leg in to a plastic bag and seal the bag (or make sure the end is always above the rest of the bag)
Put the bag in the fridge for a week, turn every day and swish the cure around
After the week, remove leg from the bag and rince and wipe down with vinegar then dry it with paper towel or clean cloth
Roll in to a neat tube, as tightly as you can, and tie in place.
Hang somewhere well aired, humid and under 18°C until the leg loses 30 to 35% of its weight. This is probably about a month (but more or less depending on size of leg and conditions it is hanging in)

Yorkshire Blood Cake (black pudding cooked in a loaf tin)

400ml pigs blood (I used dried 80g dried blood 400ml cold water)

200g of diced pork back fat (or belly pork or sausage meat or lardons)

100g pearl barley (dry weight)

100g rusks (or bread crumbs)

½ large onion – finely diced

(you can vary the spices as you wish but you need salt, pepper, cayenne and nutmeg/mace as a minimum in my opinion)

1tsp ground pepper

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 tsp ground coriander

2tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp nutmeg

2 ground up cloves

2lb loaf tin or 3 x 500ml foil trays

Rehydrate blood

Cook the pearl barley

Gently fry the fat and remove from pan

Gently fry the onions in the fat left in the pan. Don’t brown them.

Mix everything together and put in to a greased loaf tin (or foil trays) It should be quite a thick mix which will keep the fat suspended.

Cover in foil and cook in bain marie in 170°C oven or in steamer until set solid. The loaf tin will be about an hour and the foil trays being smaller will take less long.

You can also cook covered in foil in a steamer.

Let it cool and then cut in to slices to fry.

Looks pretty gross before cooking! With fresh blood it looks a lot redder, but easier to get hold of the dried, and easier to work with too…

Thes photos have more wheat than I now have in the recipe…

Finally managed to get started on the pathio tiling despite setback caused by rampaging horses.

I guess I should have closed the gate when we moved the cows - but I was a bit distracted by the cow riot that started when I opened the gate resulting in all the cows running off in to the woods bucking and snorting with me in slow pursuit (fast pursuit just makes them run faster) 

We’ve had a lot of rain so been hard to find time for all the dry weather activities like tiling

 

Poppy helping make curtains

 Yes they will be much better for some paw pronts and dog hair!