Monday, February 06, 2006

Monday 6th February

Arrive back in Manchester to an empty fridge. Its late afternoon and there’s no time to do a proper shop, but I have a strange desire for venison. I haven’t had any this season, and an article in the paper has got me thinking. Of course, living in the city centre should mean no problem getting hold of some venison, or so I thought… not a sausage (literally and metaphorically)! So I end up with some rather pathetic looking ‘venison beefsteaks’ from Tescos, which means the nobbly bits of the deer, pumped with water and mixed with breadcrumbs. I don’t why I’m blogging this, I should just keep it as a guilty secret really.

The beefsteaks go in the oven and I set about sautéing some leeks and mushrooms to sit next to them. Since I’m practically eating a burger I decide to put the beefsteaks into pitta bread along with the leeks and mushrooms, and… some Heinz tomato ketchup.

As guilty pleasures go its not bad. My taste for venison is sort of quenched, and I’ve had something easy and relatively healthy. The ketchup was a bit decadent though.
To put things back on the gourmet trail I indulge in a bit of cheese later on. I picked up some ‘Membrillo’ or quince jelly from a Deli in Beaumaris at the weekend and I pair thin slices of this with chopped walnuts and Ossau-Iraty cheese on oatcakes. Ossau-Iraty is an unpasteurised sheep’s cheese made in the Basque region on the ‘French’ side of the border, and is the closest thing I’ve found to resembling the Spanish/Basque Idiazabal cheese which was one of the highlights of last September’s trip to the Basque country.

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