Dinner at the Felinfach Griffin

Back from a weekend at the incomporable Felinfach Griffin for my birthday

A starter of pressed ham hock in a cauliflower veloute

Followed by a welsh ribeye in a peppercorn sauce

A fair exchange

A fillet of beef, as exchanged for a meat slicer.

Roasted, and served with a red wine and crabapple reduction, a celeriac puree, thyme-roasted potatoes and purple sprouting broccoli

Gung pao king prawns

Gung pao king prawns, in a gloriously spicy, gloopy, crunchy sauce

A favourite paella

Moro's chorizo and pork fillet paella

finished with spinach

Served with nothing more than a lemon wedge

Steak and Kidney pudding - step by step

A happy Saturday pottering around the kitchen preparing a steak and kidney pudding. Starting with browning the beef.

Preparing the kidneys always feels a little like a GCSE biology lesson

Reducing the rich and meaty stew

And steaming for two hours . . .

. . . until it looks like this

Sadly it always photographs disastrously (John and Gregg would definitely want me to 'work on my presentation') but tastes great, served in this case with some simple creamed leeks

Steak Frites aplenty

So, after a veggie January, a start to February dominated by steak frites during a week's holiday in France.

A ferw thoughts on a month of no meat . . .

The Good

- We discovered lots of new recipes - grilled polenta, baked aubergines, aubergine caviar and tempura will all be repeated again

- It forced us to be more inventive with midweek meals

The Bad

- I was a lot hungrier

- Eating out (except for a few noble exceptions) was tricky - being left with the one veggie option was challenging, and a chinese takeaway based around tofu was a low

So . . .

- Interestingly it wasn't the great big lumps of animal flesh that I missed - it was hings like anchovies, pancetta achicken stock that add a lot of flavour to any meal

- I would do it again, althought probably in the summer next time