BARRETS BUTCHERS of Englands Lane

Freshly malleted free range Beef cut

Free Breadcrumbs from Barretts Butchers

Flour, breadcrumbs and Organic free range egg from Budgens

The hands that rocked the cradle

Freshly crumbed Schnitzel. Waiting in the queue.

From the frying pan into the fire.

Spuds from Michael Palin's favourite grocer Pomona, Haverstock Hill. 

The South Island of New Zealand Schnitzel.

The end product. 

Roots Ginger Beer. Real Ginger, Real Ginger Roots.

# 8  Garden Gate


Crumbs Of Comfort

Some people say Kentucky Fried Chicken is finger lickin' good. And who are we to argue ?

It is more than a small crumb of comfort to know that times are a'changing and for every KFC that opens around the globe there is some burgeoning small community earnestly pottering away, producing handmade food that is locally reared, grown or sourced.

In starting this personal blog, I have been learning heaps about the technical rudimentaries. How difficult it is to get the layout just so, how little or much to write for the reading audience not to get bored and should I bother about the traffic flow. The most important point of all is how really good food can taste so different depending upon the place, the ambience and the experience.

This weekend the blogger decided to cut loose and make Schnitzel. Now, most food aficionados will know authentic Schnitzel is made from Veal. There are some meat eaters out there who steadfastly refuse to eat veal and sight understandable concerns relating to the historic cruelty of the young animal. It is good to know a body such as the RSPCA now endorses eating UK Rose Veal, having proactively overseen the adoption and implementation of new farming methods.

Despite this helpful reassurance, the blogger decided to challenge our local butcher on Englands Lane, to provide a cut of meat suitable for making Schnitzel, that wasn't Veal.

Our nice smiley butcher is innovative, bright eyed and bushy tailed and set about hammering away with his wooden mallet, creating paper thin slices of pork and beef. This experimental plan we hoped to prove an interesting Schnitzel test, with prime cuts from reputable locally reared, free range animals.

Kindly throwing in a surprise free bag of breadcrumbs, we gratefully thanked the butcher and headed off home to find the accompaniments for our meal and to prep for the table.

The rest as they say, went just like clockwork.

Schnitzel is a fab, fun plate to prepare and whether the cut is beef, pork or veal when served with mash, it truly is the ichiban of comfort foods.

Barretts Butchers