Today is the first day I am properly back at the desk, and I intend to try and wean myself in slowly, doing a few hours a day until next week. We’ve just enjoyed a few days of lovely family time, all junior shepherds were around, and while we had lots of sickness in Christmas week, most of us recovered by Christmas day, the photo below taken on Chrismas morning is proof.
I have only tried two new Velvet Cloud-related recipes in the past week. Yesterday I mixed Velvet Cloud yogurt with some harissa, then added diced turkey and ham leftovers, filled some Vol au Vent cases with this mixture, and warmed them in the oven for about 10 minutes, it made a lovely lunch served with a green salad. Today I made broccoli soup (onions, broccoli, stock cube water) blitzed it, and then added our sheep’s milk labneh to make it extra creamy. If you didn’t get your hands on some of the labneh, our yogurt works just as well in soups. I served it with a Rockfield cheese crisp on top. I got the idea for a crisp when I saw a chef post on Instagram about how to make a parmesan crisp. You just grate the cheese, heat it in a pan until it melts and fuses together into a disc, finish under the grill, let it harden, then break it into smaller pieces and serve it on top of the soup. My food photography leaves a lot to be desired but you get the idea.
I hope you all had a restful few days. We are back dispatching on Tuesday of next week. Thank you so much for all your support for 2022, it was certainly the most challenging year yet. Here’s wishing you all a wonderful safe and healthy 2023.
Happy New Year
Aisling, Michael and the junior shepherds
