Monthly Shop - Core Ingredients/Ideas List for

Ever since the pork pie workshop I have been itching to have a go a making further pork pies but there are ingredients to collate together as well as practical kitchen items as well to obtain as well as being able to afford the key ingredients if you have not already got them to hand.  I am also keen to have a go at making salamis and also having the facilities for smoking items as well.

I have for the past month been mentally sourcing where I can obtain the said items  in order that I can go back at the end of the month and obtain them but as my memory these days is not always as good as it could be.   I had thought it might be safer for me to create a couple of lists especially as I have  just found some very useful recipes in Preserves, Pickles and Cures by  Thane Prince for Pork and Herb sausages, Merguez sausages, veal and chicken bourdin blancs with green peppercorns and Sheftalia.  I thought that I would make an initial batch of each recipe and then once I was happy make in mutiples and then freeze where I can and then cook from fresh when needed.

There are also recipes for Game Terrine, Pressed tongue, Terrine de Campagne and Chicken Liver Parfait and Jambon Persille (Jellied Ham) some of these can and some of them cannot be frozen but cold be made in the days up to Christmas (probably the day before Christmas) as they can be kept in the fridge for quite about a week or a little more. Items like this go very well with home made pickles and my philosophy of serving yourselves after the main Christmas meal

So here we go:

Pork Pies:

I will need a minimum of 5lbs of Pork shoulder to make five x 1lb pies that can be frozen and then cooked.  The idea of preparing them this way made utter sense to me as it means that we will have pork pie available when we want it.

Black Pepper

White Pepper

Extra Strong Bread Flour (I normally keep this in anyway but you may not have it on your shopping list)

Lard (I get mine from Lidl or the Co-Op.

Equipment:

A Pork Pie Dolly.  I found one in John Lewis that I quite liked the look of but I think that they can be sourced on line. You can use a jam jar though. The one I have my eye on is by Paul Hollywood - they have just introduced a new kitchen line of essential items.  it is quite sturdy and it also has an industrial sized sturdy pie middle available as well.

So these are my musings so far they are just ideas and not set in stone but they are things that I want to have a go at.  As I have mentioned before I tend to buy the ingredients and then make things myself.  Like buying ingredients for steak pie in bulk making several and then freezing them to be cooked as you want them.  It just means I have a specialised baking session once or a couple of times a month to ensure that we have said goodies on hand to enjoy them as we want them.  Things like Cottage pie and Shepherds pie as well can be made this way.  It also helps in buying the meat in bulk - can often get it at a cheaper price but also allows you to budget properly so that you can enjoy  good quality meals where you have control over what goes into said dish.

I also want to get ahead on things like this as I want to make sure that there is nearly always a meal available to either of us.  I am conscious that I may at some point have to have surgery so I want to get ahead of the game to make sure that things run as smoothly as they can if and when this does happen.  I thought it would also help to be more structured when I do go shopping as to the regular items/ingredients that we use and thought that in the fullness of time I would end up with a master shopping list resulting from what we do use.  Remember each household is very different from the next.  This list is also not set in stone and is open to variation.

Right had better get a wriggle on.  The lists will follow separately.

Catch you later.

Pattypan

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