Can cook, will cook

Thursday is ice cream day, because that's the first weekday that the farm shop at Oslinc is open and we can go and get a tub of Bill Grundy's ice cream to last us over the weekend. Pistachio and coconut are the flavours we tend to gravitate towards, but this week S chose tutti frutti and I stocked up on meat:

I apologise deeply for the blurriness of that shot. What you're looking at there is the tub of ice cream, some venison mince; some venison, apple & cranberry sausages; several kangaroo steaks (I got 9 in total); ostrich & tomato sausages and zebra sausages. That's the kind of fare you get round here! I thought of popping into Cooke's Farm for some lamb, but I'd run out of cash by that time (the Oslinc bill came to just under £35) and figured I had enough to keep us going for a while anyway.

When it came to dinner time, I looked at the stuff that was taking up a lot of room in the fridge and had a short shelf life and challenged my friends on Facebook to help me think up something to do with it all. I gave them a cauliflower, some curly kale and a fennel bulb and said they were allowed to suggest other ingredients and I'd see if I had them!

The four main suggestions were:

From my brother Jack: "roast fennel cauli cheese bake, steamed kale then some roast or grilled meat with some mashed sweet potato"

From Susan: "sweat onion garlic in butter add salt to stop browning.. then add potatao fennel and saffron . slowly add stock fish/veg you make it.. ok leave out the saffron its colour mostly.... boil and simmer till potatoes cooked add leeks... simmer....add fish/prawns so go out and catch something in the fens... simmer 3mins"

From Tony: "Chop kale, onion and fennel and shove in a dish with a little veg stock, garlic and seasoning, top with mashed cauli and bake"

From Emma: "I'd purée the cauli (just steam it, then purée it up in a blender/processor with a bit of butter), put that on the bottom of the plate, then sauté the kale with the onions, add that on top of the purée on the plate, then grill up your steak and put that on top. Of course if it was me it'd be fish but horses for courses. And make sure you put some salt on that kale and a splash of vinegar."

Tony's idea had the merit of potentially producing the least washing up, Susan's had the flavour going for it although I didn't have any fish, and Jack's idea, while good, sadly fell down on the fact I had no cheese. So I decided on a combination of the above. I said: 

"I was kinda liking the idea of the tasty garlic/fennel/onion combo in the frying pan, I've had that before and it *is* yummy. If I blanche the kale in the same water as the spuds and cauli, I can get away with only two pots for that combo. I'll take up the vinegar suggestion, I'll put some in the pan with the stuff fried together in a little rapeseed oil, and then have a kangaroo steak with it."

But what actually happened was quite different, because when it came to it, the big pan I'd planned on using was (I'd forgotten) in the garden, full of stuff for the birds. So what actually happened was this.... 

First I peeled the spuds and got them on the go, then chopped an onion and fried it with the fennel and a bit of garlic on a low heat while I got the kale into more manageable pieces.

Then in another saucepan I started boiling the cauliflower. By the time the cauliflower was done it was time to wilt the kale, so I scooped out the cauli and used the same water. It didn't take long to wilt, then I added it to the pan with the fennel and onions and about half of the cauliflower: 

While that was sizzling, I prepared the kangaroo steak by making slits in the top and rubbing butter and pepper into it. Then I put it in the same pan with the other stuff: 

And then, having had time to mull over Emma's puréed cauliflower idea, it was a case of mashing the cauliflower and potato together with a bit of milk and some salt and pepper. I also put a bit of the kale in it as well (and still had some left over).

Put together on the plate it looked like this: 

And obviously, since the dog had been suspiciously not in the way through this process, he had to make up for it by photo-bombing that picture. Thanks, Hackett! He didn't get any, cos me and S scoffed it all up in no time, seeing as it was actually completely delicious. There was plenty left over which I turned into a sort of posh bubble and squeak for Friday's lunch. 

And I'd just like to send a big raspberry to Sainsbury's and their "feed your family for a fiver" boast, because I just fed mine with gourmet exotic meat and tasty, substantial accompaniments, for about £4.50, with plenty left over for another meal!