Greek style Herdwick lamb with orzo

My first recipe of the year from the Farmison meat box uses some diced Herdwick lamb. When you first visit the Farmison website it is evident that this is a company built on passion for animals – both quality sourcing and welfare. I particularly liked this glossary here explaining the stories behind each breed. A Herdwick lamb is a little grey sheep from Cumbria, shy of personality, introduced by Norse invaders and apparently put on weight slowly by eating only naturally foraged food, resulting in a subtle and delicate flavour. They sound positively adorable.

Mum’s braised beef shin stew

Since unboxing my Dunwood Farm meat box I have had a hankering to go back to a traditional, familiar recipe after the Americana love-in that was my Farmer’s Choice box. As there was some beef shin in there, I decided to cook a recipe that my mum always does – a slow braised stew with Chinese ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms and Jew’s ear fungus (bit of an odd name, I know). These are dried store cupboard ingredients that every Chinese cook has, so it’s easy to whip up a meal at a moment’s notice.

Oxtail stew

I’ve been away for a couple of weeks on family duty, but I’m back – with an appetite! Last night I looked in my freezer to pick up where I left off with the Farmer’s Choice meat box. I took the chopped oxtail out, and made a slow cooked stew today – despite it being one of the hottest days in recent weeks and highly inappropriate for hearty fare.

Mauritian-style goat curry

I recently unboxed my seventh meat box from Farmer’s Choice. One of the most exciting things available on their website is free range GOAT. And quite coincidentally, shortly after I bought said goat I read this article on the Guardian – ‘Should we eat more goat meat?‘. It seems the British lack of appetite for goat and veal meat is at odds with our ever-increasing demand of goat and cow products. As a result there is an over-supply of male goats and cows; farms find it more economical to slay them at birth, than to rear them for meat. So here’s my message to you: eat goat! Because it’s good for them and, as I found out, very tasty.

Foochow red rice wine chicken

I suspect this post is so niche that if you’re not a Chinese person of Foochow descent, you might as well look away now! Today I made a Foochow red rice wine chicken stew with my Roaming Roosters whole free range chicken; it’s a traditional, age-old dish that has been passed down to me from my Malaysian Foochow mum, as it has through lots of other people’s mums. It’s my first time making it, and as most people who are familiar with this dish will know, it’s hard to make unless you have the special ingredient: red rice wine dregs or lees.