It’s British Sausage Week and butchers and supermarkets have sausages to suit every taste. Although the week is really designed to help retailers and butchers to promote their products and boost sales, the sausage is a favourite for family meals. In the past year we managed to consume 119,114 tonnes of them and sausages  are now a regular mealtime purchase for 87% of British households.

A favourite meal with my family is this Pasta and Sausage Ragout. It’s a quick, easy  dish to make and with such a great variety of different sausages available the flavours can be changed to suit your own taste.

I find the recipe works well with a good quality pork sausage as the addition of paprika, fennel seeds and oregano enhances the flavours of the tomato sauce and the finished dish.

Although it is a good one pot meal, I usually serve this with a green salad and crusty whole meal bread.

‘Spreading a little wildfire’

Scottish award winning Chilli company, Galloway Chillies, run by Sheena Horner is continuing to ‘spread a little wildfire’ with a new vibrant look for her chilli jams. The new look will be unveiled tomorrow at the Wigton Show, where a full selection of jams and chilli plants will be on sale.

Vibrant new labels with the level of chilli heat shown on top

Sheena launched the company in December 2012 and 8 months later is producing 7 types of chilli jam, which she sells at farmers markets, food festivals and through a number of stockists in the West of Scotland and Scottish Borders. And, ‘chilli hot’ off the press news, her ‘Hot Chilli lemon Citrus has just been awarded a gold star

by the Guild of Fine Food at the Great Taste Awards. Well done Sheena.

The current range includes ‘Chilli Original’ ‘ Chilli Citrus Lemon’, ‘Chilli Lime and Ginger’, ‘St Clements Chilli’ and ‘Smoked Original Chilli’.

The jams are made using only British Chillies and Sheena hopes that in future she will be growing enough of her own chillies to meet the demand. It was the lack of variety in her local area that started farmers daughter, Sheena growing around 40 varieties of Chillies at home in South West Scotland. From there she began experimenting and as a result Galloway Chillies was born.

One of the 40 variety of chillies grown at Galloway Chillies

Surprisingly many people think the only use for chilli jam is with cold meat and sandwiches but all of the jams are ideal for adding to sauces and casseroles for that extra flavour and kick.

Ideal for serving with cold cuts and pies but can also be used in other ways

This recipe from www.GallowayChillies.co.uk is ideal for a quick but flavoursome meal.

In addition to farmers markets in South West Scotland, Galloway Chillie jams will be available from September onwards at Glasgow’s Partick Farmers Market on the 4th Saturday of each month.

Products, including gift packs can also be ordered by mail order. See www.GallowayChillies.co.uk for ordering information.

Gift packs are also available

There’s been a lot of discussion about convenience foods during the recent horsemeat scandal and much concern about the quality and content of supermarket convenience meals. For me cooking your own with fresh ingredients is definitely the best and healthiest way to eat, it’s also more economical, particularly when you’re feeding a family.

Cooking your own food is not only enjoyable but I do see it as an essential part of the way we live. Food is such an integral part of our lives so why not buy the best fresh produce you can afford and get cooking. Apparently not that easy according to several, people who sent me comments recently. If you’ve never learned to cook or find it a chore, yes it might not be as easy, but believe me it is not rocket science and once you have a few basic recipes under your belt it is easy to plan for the week ahead.

Yes, I know the world is a busy place, people are working full time, coming home at 5 or 6 to cook a meal doesn’t appeal and why bother when supermarkets have made it so easy!
I’ve been there, I’ll hold my hands up and say yes there was a time in the early 80s when calling into the food section of a well known shop’s food section to pick up something for the dinner had the potential to make my evening easier after a hard day at work. It never became a habit as once I started reading labels and looking at the cost of feeding a family I soon realised that planning ahead and cooking quick and easy healthy meals was not that difficult.

I’ve also worked with groups where the preparation of food was difficult due to health and mobility conditions but we got there using different methods to prepare and cook the ingredients. Mince is such an easy, versatile and economical dish to cook and my advice is go along to your local butcher or local Farmers market as you’ll find better quality produce and you may find it cheaper than the local supermarket as very often they have also special offers on their produce.

Chilli con carne albeit an 70s 80s dish is one of those old favourites that has never lost its appeal for me and usually makes an appearance once or twice a month in our house.  I first started cooking this around 1978 and over the years I’ve made some small changes to the spices but on the whole it’s largely the same recipe. It also works well with other types of mice and I quite regularly use venison mince as an alternative.

Chilli Con carne makes a healthy & filling meal with a few additional accompaniments

This recipe uses 2lb of mince so easily halved and frozen for another day.   Please don’t send me a comment to say you don’t have
a freezer….. Someone else beat you to it !!

Wild ice,guacamole,grated cheddar and sour cream, all great to serve with Chilli

We’ve left the festive period behind for another year and 3rd week of January is already upon us. For most it’s a month for tightening the purse strings and loosening belts after the excesses of Christmas and New Year but regardless we still need to eat. There’s the resolutions of losing weight, eating healthier, cutting out alcohol and no cakes or biscuits. I often wonder if anyone succeeds as January for me is still a month where the right kind of comfort food feels like  a big cosy blanket wrapping itself around me.

In addition to the festive excesses inflicted on our digestion there’s possibly a groaning freezer of food that was bought just in case we needed it. This is my starting point, using up any chicken, meat and fish that wasn’t used for meals during Christmas. I’ll be using store cupboard ingredients like pasta, rice, and tinned tomatoes along with herbs and spices meaning no big shopping for a week or two.

There’s always mince in my freezer, beef, lamb, pork and turkey and it usually features a couple of time is weekly meals. It’s economical and I’ve noticed both my local butcher and butchers at Farmers markets selling two for the price of one. Having boys with big appetites means  I usually use 2lb of mince for many of my recipes and then freeze any leftovers in single portions for my mother.

Mince is so versatile and works so well with other ingredients like rice or pasta and it’s easily stretched by adding lentils and extra veg.  This months posts will therefore be about mince, with recipes for a few healthy and economical meals to feed the family. Given the news about horse meat in Supermarket burgers I’ll also be including some homemade burger recipes.

Turkey makes a really healthy meal and the mince and can be cooked in a number of ways including meatballs, meatloaf, Koftas and burgers. It is widely available at farmers markets, supermarkets and if your local butcher has turkey in stock he will be more than happy to mince for you. I prefer to use the thigh mince as breast mince can be quite dry but the recipe works well with both.

This first recipe is a reminder that turkey is not just for Christmas and is a good to eat all year round

Free Range Turkeys at St Brides on the outskirts of Strathaven in Lanarkshire

Minced turkey can be quite bland and it works well with stronger flavours such as chilli, ginger and garlic, really warming ingredients for this cold winter weather.This recipe is really quick to make and you can reduce the load at the end of a busy day by preparing the fresh ingredients earlier.

Spicy Turkey Mince served with brown and wild rice

Shortcuts are okay, and it may suit to replace  the chilli, garlic and ginger with a ready mixed spice blend such as Thai 7 spice or even a good quality Thai curry paste such as Barts.

Spicy Turkey Mince.

Ingredients

500g Turkey Mince

1 Tbsp rapeseed oil

1 onion, finely chopped

1 Red chilli, finely chopped

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1inch piece of ginger finely chopped.

Lemon grass….or 1 teaspoon from a jar of ready prepared…Barts is good.

1 Red pepper, roughly chopped

500ml chicken stock

2 Tbsp light soy sauce

2 Tbsp nam Plaa – fish sauce

Freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil over a medium heat, add onion and cook for about 3-4 minutes until softened. Add the ginger, red chilli and continue cooking for 1 minute.

Add the minced turkey, stirring until well browned.

Add the red pepper, stir in approx 250ml stock along with the soy and fish sauce. Season with black pepper and continue cooking for 10 minutes adding additional stock if needed.

Ready to serve…colourful and healthy

To serve

4 Chopped spring onions

Handful of torn basil leaves or freshly chopped corriander.

Serve with rice such as brown basmati and wild rice or Thai rice and some broccoli.

NOTES

Use Chicken or Pork Mince as an alternative if you can’t get Turkey Mince.

Thank you to Robert at St Brides Poultry for the picture of the Free Range Turkeys. You can find out more about them at www.stbridespoultry.co.uk or keep up to date with what’s happening at the farm by following on Twitter @StBridesPoultry