Yesterday I had the pleasure of taking part in a pretty unique experience as about twenty of us got together to sample the delights of an all-but-forgotten food: mutton.
One of the members of the Transition Chichester food group is a local sheep farmer. He had a six-year old ewe who had done her turn on the lambing front and needed despatching, to put it politely. For most farmers in his position the ewe is of no commercial value and so he made us the offer that, if he had her slaughtered and hung properly (three weeks, very impressive), we could take the meat and see what we could do with it.
An offer that was not to be refused!
So, the lovely Rosemary Moon collected the meat last week and dropped off various cuts to us with requests as to what dishes we were to do and then we all gathered at her house for the most wonderful mutton feast with: roast leg of mutton, mutton curry (my dish!), Moroccan mutton tagine, mutton Irish stew and slow-braised mutton chops. All these wonderful dishes were accompanied with the most amazing assortment of breads, potatoes salads and green salads which, being as we're all part of TC's food group, were all home-made, home-produced, freshly prepared etc etc. Then others brought puddings and again we had a delicious array of strawberries, strawberry flan, cheesecake, gooseberry and elderflower fool, rhubarb fool... once more all coming from our various gardens.
Need I say more?! A true mutton feast was indeed had by all and I would recommend mutton to whoever can get it.
Leave a comment