Saturday 4 February 2012

Cool Runnings, and a Game Pie

I'm sat here, doing little other than keep my fingers moving in order to stay awake right now, and reading down, I fear, it's a long one.

There was little to write down yesterday, I went to work, did my job, came home, then took everyone over to Shropshire for the weekend, and Olive is now spending some time with her Nana and Dadpa.

So that is where I end up, typing a little yarn out, propping my eyelids open through willpower alone, and little else.

I usually reserve the weekends for running, and my calendar stated that I had to get 8km out of the way today, and 32.5km out of the way tomorrow. Now, I'll be honest, while I know a lot of the area around here, I'd be struggling a lot to try and find 20 miles to run, without getting seriously lost. So, I came up with a compromise to myself before arriving, that I would see how long it takes me to climb the Telford Wrekin (pronounced ree-kin), from the door of my ladies Ma & Pa's, and back again. 

Like a blot on the landscape, you cannot miss it

The Wrekin is a haunt I tend to visit whenever I'm up here; it's a lump of rock that sits in the middle of Shropshire, everything around it is flat, but from atop its 406m elevation (1,335ft in old money), you are alleged to be able to see up to 12 counties. Not a bad claim to fame, as well as its supposed inspiration on J. R. R. Tolkien to write a small book you may have heard of called The Lord of the Rings. They made a film about it, don't you know. There's also some fable about how the Wrekin came to exist with a Welsh giant who got perturbed by the folk of Shrewsbury, and pledged to carry a load of dirt on a spade to block the river Severn, thus flooding the town. On the way, he met some local cobbler, who outsmarted the giant not to go to Shrewsbury, because he had a load of old shoes, and made out he used them all getting from there to where they were. The giant, considering his options decided to ditch said dirt where he was, and head off home again.

A picture speaks a thousand of my gibbering words

Maybe I'm not the folk teller on the interweb.

Where was I? The Wrekin. It's a decent walk, has a nice view, a couple of nice summit cairns, as well as some nice craggy edges to it if you know where to look. In fact it's one of those small hills that can have the feeling of something so much more. I've been up here in all conditions, and I think today pretty much encompassed everything all at once.

Summit on a previous, and clearer winters day

It started out a mere -5 C outside, and it didn't feel much colder on the skin, but I headed out none-the-less, and soon warmed up as the pace began to take a hold of itself (barring an episode of my water carrier emptying itslef on my back). There was nice light, and I was optimistic that I would get away with this today, due to the forecasts of heavy snow overnight, and not during the day.

The easier approach heading West

The route taken was one that I tend to drive; over a few roundabouts of Malinslee; into Horsehay; then take the minor roads towards Little Wenlock, and then towards the Wrekin itself. I tried to take a footpath away from the 60mph roads, but the path wasn't clear, and I soon decided it was easier to simply follow the road, being very wary as I went along.

Approaching the Wrekin, I headed along another footpath that brought me up the south side. It was here that I decided to head to one of my favourite routes up. As I was running, this was a route that offered a good excuse if I kind of stopped running. It is steep, you have to see it to believe it. I recall getting trapped on here in a pure whiteout in 2ft of snow a couple of years back, scared I'd slide right off. As it were, my pace up was probably a fast walking pace. I didn't stop, but I will certainly feel it on the back of the hamstrings come the morrow. From the top, I had a well earned rest. I couldn't see a thing in any direction, as the wind and snow was hammering in from the South, I didn't hang around long. I headed East for the more conventional ridge back down, and followed a path round to where I joined the Wrekin at the beginning. I then used the roads all the way back home. This was a little edgy, because the snow was beginning to settle and become slippery. All about 12 hours earlier than reported.  I ran down a hill in Little Wenlock, felt sorry, and dare say, feared for the learner driver getting their first taste of snow and hills. I got home in one piece in the end, felt good, and was happy I didn't over exert myself. The final time was 1 hour 57 mins 30 secs. That was 17.8km, which is approx 11 miles.

Slower than I would usually set, but given the hill, a nice time all the same, below is the record of elevation on the route which I record using MapmyRun.  This makes me feel much better.

MapmyRun Elevation and Climb stats from the Wrekin

The rest of the day has been spent rolling, cooling, and re-rolling a puff pastry to go onto a game pie that I made. It was the end of the game season this week, which tends to mark a turn to putting the nice meat into something special. I must confess I am very carnivorous, but try to stand by ethics, and do my best with choosing and cooking the meat I buy. Whatever your opinions on hunting, I believe it is one of the best ways to know where your food came from. I am more than prepared to do the 'nasty work', getting my hands dirty, by preparing an animal in its entirety for the plate, and use all parts I get out of it.

In this instance, it was Pheasant and Wild Rabbit. I was hankering to put the Venison in there, but was told otherwise by the others. On reflection, it was the right call, otherwise it would have been too much.  I do wonder what if I left out a Pheasant, and put a bit of Venison in there instead?  Regardless, the reactions around the table were good I'm glad to say... so good, I couldn't get a photo it got served so quick.

Have a Gav style recipe:

Ingredients:
2x Pheasant
1x Rabbit (pref wild)
100g diced Pork Belly (or Pancetta)
2x Carrot
2x Celery
2x Onions
2x Bay Leaf
1x Sprig of Thyme
1 Glass Red Booze (Wine)
Bowl of plain flour

Pastry:
500g Plain Flour
Pinch of Salt
250g Diced butter (Cold)
Ice Cold Water


Method:
1.      Brown the meat, toss it in flour, put it in a stock pot
2.      Add the vegetables; deglaze the pan with wine; add that to stock pot
3.      Bring to a simmer (where it bubbles, but ever, ever so gently, about 1 bubble every 10-15 secs) for 1 hour
4.      Remove the meat, pick it off the bones. Add bones, skin, other crap you don’t want back to stock for further 1 hour
5.      Season and strain to approx 500ml

Pastry:
1.      Mix salt and flour together, add butter cubes, and cover them in flour
2.      Mix above well together, and add enough water to make a dough
3.      Shape into rectangle, and roll to about 2cm thickness. Pull top third down, and then pull bottom third over
4.      Turn at a right angle, and repeat stage 3. two or three more times
5.      Wrap in Clingfilm, and put in fridge to chill, watch the rugby, next try scored, take it out again. Other method, wait 30mins
6.      Repeat stage 3. - 5. a further 3-4 times, then leave in fridge for 1 more hour after last effort

The Pie:
1.      Put the meat into a big enough pie dish
2.      Put in the stock, keeping it below the top layer of meat
3.      Roll out your pastry, cover the pie dish, and make a pretty picture with what's left
4.      Put an egg wash on the pastry (we used milk, due to allergies)
5.      Bake for 50mins at 190 C, which I presumed was Gas Mark 6, and worked on the oven I used

Use any leftover stock to make gravy, and serve with mashed spuds, greens, carrots, and Nana's cranberry sauce was nice.

Sleep beckons.


4 comments:

  1. Appreciated. I was happy, not tried this before, so unsure what to make of the time. I didn't rush about things though. I'll know where I am after the Brighton Half Marathon in two weeks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. When I next get out to a nice farm shop in Kent, or the Greenwich butchers, I will get some decent beef for a good pie. Unfortunately game meat is not so easy to come by now, as it is illegal to shoot it.

      Delete