Well, it didn’t happen did it? Although the way people were descending on the local supermarkets it looked as if many people were stocking up for the apocalypse. Or maybe just Christmas. We headed off to the local farm instead.
Why did the chicken..
We spent some time with the chickens there – they are so relaxing, the way they cluck about happily. They are given complete freedom to potter about, the gates to their enclosures are open doing the day; they wander up and down the long drive way, in and out of areas of pasture, and around the farm shop.
No one here but us chickens
In the farm shop one of the chaps working there spotted our crestfallen looks when we saw the fresh eggs tray empty. (They do stock other free range eggs when theirs aren’t laying, but we wanted the rare breed ones.) He slipped out of the shop and returned a couple of minutes later with a plastic container of muddy, but fresh eggs. He was apologetic about the mud – there’d been a constant deluge recently, and the some of the chicken were looking like they’d been having fun in the mud.
Freeranging
Chicken whisperer
Rare breed chickens
I had to chuckle at Tim’s recipe-making in the kitchen today. The plan was that he’d make one of my favourite dishes – a perfectly poached egg with Halloumi and Puy lentils. Perfect for the post apocalyptic supper.
But Tim went free-range himself – with the Halloumi, poached eggs, the lentils cooked with a hickory smoked chicken stock, a salsa of chargrilled tomato and and a truffle infused cream sauce. And pickled red cabbage made the day before.
The chicken stock was made earlier with a free range Label Anglaise chicken – the farm doesn’t sell their rare breeds to eat.
Chargrilling the tomatoes
Chargrilling the peppers on the hob. Otherwise known as making a mess.
Halloumi, eggs and smoky puy lentils
You can see from the pic below the difference between a fresh free range farm bought egg, and the supermarket free range. The egg with the thicker, more gelatinous white is the fresh farm egg, the one with the thinner is a free range supermarket egg, about a week old, and the one that collapsed at the back of the picture was also a free range supermarket egg – it’s probably about 12 days old.
The one on the left is the pasture fed freerange egg
Wonderful pics and good to see such simple and delicious food. The dish of eggs, halloumi, tomatoes, peppers and halloumi is right up my alley.
A friend of mine who lives in the Wicklow Mountains keeps chickens for his family use. He has ten to a dozen hens and therefore ends up with too many eggs. We benefit with the very best real free range eggs delivered occasionally. They are as I remember eggs from my childhood. The supermarket bought ones, even the faux free range are pretty awful.
Your poached look wonderful.
I hope you get over the disappointment of the Mayan’s being wrong and have a wonderful Christmas.
Best,
Conor