Fowl

There's something very satisfyingly frugal about cooking whole birds. As I write, there is the remains of two pheasants being rendered down in the pressure cooker in our kitchen, for the third stage of eating a bird. Usually, of course, it's a chicken. We're lucky that Moonface occasionally has the chance to get pheasants from a game-keeping colleague, and we rarely eat a duck as well.

The meals go like this. First, mostly on Sundays, we have the bird roasted in the traditional way: with roast potatoes, vegetables and (frequently) stuffing and sauce. The next day we will eat the pickings of the flesh in a curry, stir-fry, risotto or similar dish.

The carcase will then be pressure-cooked to produce a stock, and I'll often pick it over for the last shreds of meat to throw in. This stock will in turn be used as the basis for a lentil or bean casserole for a third meal, together with any gravies or other leftovers in the fridge. We eat well, but not richly. Are we too mean, or is this just being careful? But I do like a good lentil stew.


:-)