Chickens, Eggs and Asparagus!

I’m thinking about chickens. Why? You may well ask.

Whilst we’re sorting out the dietary requirements of the delegates for the BBC conference or printing out attendance lists for the Redditch and the Bromsgrove breakfast clubs, I quite like the idea that I may be able to hear some gentle clucking noises from the garden!

I’ve got this real yearning to have hens laying fresh eggs and have this romantic idea of rescuing some battery hens and watching them grow back their feathers. I’ve looked into it and had a really friendly e-mail chat with someone called John who rescues them. It seems it’s just a question of turning up to some car park somewhere where the newly rescued chickens are chosen by people with the same idea as me, all fighting to rescue the one that looks the most bald.

The other challenge is finding the right coop.

This may sound easy but I have to tell you that hen houses are as varied as the human property market. There are bungalows, town houses, rustic properties, others of mansion size proportions, on wheels, slide off rooves (like the centre court at Wimbledon or the Millennium Stadium at Cardiff). In fact, there are so many different types available they almost need to appoint a chicken estate agent. It could be called Cluck and Feathers perhaps.

Fortunately my choice is limited because most of them are far too big for our postage stamp sized garden. Cost is a factor too, and like human abodes, the prices vary dramatically. The only good thing is, it isn’t so much about location, location, location as wherever you live the chickens have to live with you. There’s none of this ‘moving closer to a good school’ or ‘within walking distance of the station’ nonsense and they can’t really fly the nest and leave home either!

Anyway, back to price. Unfortunately I haven’t yet found one for around £50.00 which is what I’d like to pay! There are some fancy plastic ones called Eglus which come in an array of colours and which are supposed to keep the chickens warm in winter and cool in summer – a type of technicolour double glazing I guess. Anyway they are quite expensive, so I thought I’d look on e-Bay to see if I could grab a bargain.

Now I’m not exactly an e-Bay expert so I started ‘watching’ some (I was told this is the best way of finding out how much they sell for). Well, e-Bay virgin I may be, but I think some people must be barmy! These Eglus seem to sell for almost as much at second-hand as if you buy them brand new. You also have to pick them up from the vendor because, presumably the Royal Mail can’t manage parcels that size so they have to be collected. You could end up going miles to fetch them. Honestly, by the time you’ve paid for the petrol you could have had a new one delivered and a nice man who apparently helps you put it together and gives you advice on how to look after your chickens, but – and this is the burning question – do I want to pay around £350.00 for a brand new one? I think not.

Bethany reckons the hens will ask to go back to the battery anyway, once they’ve encountered the Edge household. What with Doris and Daisy (the cats), and Guinness, the part-time tenant and resident office dog, she thinks the trauma will be too much for them and she could well be right. My theory is at least they’ll have the chance to breathe some fresh air and see what the big wide world of the Edge garden looks like, even if they do drop dead with shock when they meet the animals!

Anyway, I’ve found a coop now which is all wood and which has the accommodation upstairs and the run underneath, like a mews. It also has handles so a two man team can pick it up and move it around. It doesn’t have any felt on it, which means it’s less likely to attract red spider mite but it costs about £150.00 so I’m still thinking. Watch this space.

Anyway with fresh, free range eggs in mind, I thought I’d go for another recipe. Asparagus Quiche. English asparagus is one of the best foods on the planet in my opinion, and it’s a very short season so you have to eat as much as you can when it’s available.

Now it’s said that ‘real men don’t eat quiche’ which I think is bunkem. Miles loves home-made quiche and I can assure you, he is a real man. I know because I’ve seen him in the shower and the hot water didn’t make him melt so he certainly isn’t a waxwork!

Also I’m giving you a very good tip. When you blind bake a pastry case you prick the bottom, line with paper and fill with baking beans so it doesn’t rise. When you take the paper out to finish it off brush some of the beaten egg you’ll be using for the filling all over the inside of the pastry case. It forms a sort of waterproof layer and then it stays nice and crisp. Try it – it really works.

Asparagus Quiche
12oz ( 340g ) short crust pastry, homemade or ready made (all butter is best)
1 lb ( 450 g ) asparagus
3 large eggs
½ pt double cream
2 oz of freshly grated hard cheese, parmesan or cheddar (or both)
salt and freshly ground pepper
Preheat oven to 190c (375f - gas 5)
1. Grease a 10” (26cm) flan dish and dust with flour
2. Roll out the pastry and line the flan dish
3. Place in refrigerator and chill for 1/2 hour to rest (if you don’t have time it doesn’t matter, but you may find the pastry shrinks a bit).
4. Break the woody ends off the asparagus (just the last centimetre usually), they just snap off easily leaving all the rest tender and edible.
5. Steam for 5 minutes over salted water and put aside
6. Bake pastry blind (line raw pastry greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans to prevent the pastry from rising for 10 minutes , remove paper, brush with beaten egg and finish for approx 5 minutes)
7. Whisk eggs till frothy and add cream and mix together well, season with salt and pepper (remember the cheese is salty, particularly parmesan if you use it so don’t go too mad!)
8. Turn oven temperature to 180c (350F - gas 4)
9. Cut asparagus into pieces (reserving some spears to create wheel spokes if you like depending on whether you have thick or thin asparagus), spread round the pastry base, sprinkle most of the cheese over and pour on the mixture. NB. If using, put your reserved ‘wheel spokes’ radiating out from the centre into the mixture, and sprinkle the rest of cheese on top
10. Bake in the middle of the oven for 40-45 minutes, until well risen and golden brown.
11. Serve with side salad, delicious

Chocolate - and a new beginning....

Well there we are then. Finally it’s been decided and we have a new government – a Tory LibDem Coalition. I do hope it works particularly with the economy in the state it’s in. Having seen the new PM and Deputy PM live on TV a few minutes ago, it seems that they are fully committed to making this happen. Who would have thought it?

So what else has been happening – Gordon has gone, David Milliband has thrown his hat in the ring but what about the air crash that killed 121 people? Not news it seems!

On the home front Eleanor and Jack have both had horrible coughs and colds, Claude has learnt to crawl, Jessica is still limping around having fallen 20ft off the climbing wall at the Crystal Leisure Centre, Bethany looked beautiful on Saturday as she was bridesmaid to one of her best friends, Laura survived a hen weekend in Southport and Miles is trying to overcome his disappointment at the end of the rugby season.

With Laura away, and me in loco parentis, I decided to take Eleanor and Jack to Cadbury World. Can you believe it – I’ve never been! The last time I went round the Cadbury factory I was at Stourbridge High School for Girls and that’s much longer than I care to think about!

We all really enjoyed it, however Eleanor announced when she got back in the car that she wasn’t eating chocolate ever again! Mind you by Sunday she’d changed her mind which was just as well as we came away with a boatload, so Cadbury don’t need to worry about lost customers!
It did make me think though, as I went round this very British company, how did it happen that Cadbury, a huge manufacturer and perhaps more importantly a huge benefactor to Bourneville, Birmingham, the UK and third world countries could fall into the hands of an American company in a hostile takeover. Surely that shouldn’t be allowed to happen? Then yesterday, on Midlands Today it was announced that Kraft were closing the Cadbury Head Office in Cheltenham with the loss of 400 jobs. The reporter did say later that this might be good news for Bourneville, but will this bring in 400 jobs in Birmingham – I doubt it.

So with chocolate in mind, and as promised in my last blog, I’m going for a chocolate recipe, Chocolate Fudge Cake. This was given to my mother by Mrs. Hodges, who was the headmaster’s wife at my brother’s old school, Lucton, in Herefordshire.

My copy is so old and well-used that years ago I laminated it with sellotape which is why it’s in English not metric. I now own a laminating machine – how times change (although metric is still a bit of a challenge)!

Here goes:

1/2lb digestive biscuits
4oz butter or marg
3tbsp golden syrup
3tbsp cocoa powder
2oz sultanas
1oz glace cherries halved
6oz choc for top (I use plain but you can use milk if you prefer)
Optional – 1oz nuts chopped (brazils/walnuts/hazelnuts)

Method

Melt the butter, cocoa powder and golden syrup together, crush the biscuits (not too finely or it changes the texture) and add with the rest of the ingredients, except the chocolate for the top, and mix well. Pour into tin (loose-bottomed preferably – about 8” round).
Melt the chocolate slowly over a pan of water or on low in the microwave (if you do it too quickly it burns and tastes ghastly), pour over the top and jiggle around to cover the biscuit/choc mixture. Put in the fridge to set.
To serve, take out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature or the chocolate cracks when you cut it. Serve with cream as a pudding or with a cup of coffee or tea as a biscuit.

DELICIOUS!

Try it out and let me know what you think.

Today it starts!

Well, I've been promising to do this for ages so here it is finally - my blog.

As I understand it one is supposed to start with something easy and non-controversial so, never one to break the rules, I thought I'd start with politics!! Did you watch the debate last night?

I was trying to think what to call the challengers, the three little pigs seems rude and anyway they didn't have names that I know of, so I decided they'd have to be either the Three Stooges or the The Three Musketeers, whichever you prefer. So if it's Larry, Curly and Moe; or Aramis, Porthos and Athos you decide - I think that's supposed to be the whole idea of the debate? Whatever. In my view David Dimbleby was certainly a contender for D'Artagnan!

I really would like to see politics based on common sense and I think that's what all voters would like. The private sector has got to make enough money to support the public sector. If it doesn't then the economy collapses because we're giving away more than we're taking back and that seems to be where we are at the moment. I just wish all of them would tell us the truth.

Also the idea of globalisation is fine but if a long-established British company like Cadbury's can be sold to an American company that makes plastic cheese because some hedge fund manager thought he could make a quick buck then we ought to be in a position to stop them. If you go to France and have milk in your tea it tastes different, so if they start making Dairy Milk in Poland their milk might not taste the same as ours so the chocolate will taste different (or have I got that wrong)? Anyway our dairy farmers in Britain need our support as well.

To this end when my breadmaker blew up, I decided to try and aid the economy by buying British and went for a Kenwood which is supposed to be made in the UK and I have to say I really am delighted with the results. Eleanor and Jack, the grandchildren, approve as well so I think I made a good choice and a big thanks to Dotsie, my mum for giving me the breadmaker for my birthday.

Tomorrow, if you look again, I may go for something really controversial like a recipe!!!