Best of British

We seem to have a lot of cooking books of regional cooking & I thought a nice way to start making more use of them was to pick a country for a Saturday night meal.  Last weekend we had two British meals which provided two midweek meals as well.  I also thought it would be a nice idea to have a seasonal arrangement of those charming mini pumpkins on the sideboard.  I just buy a couple each week & we eat our way through them.
The first British meal was venison loin with barley risotto & roasted roots.  Start with the barley because it takes a while.  Saute a thinly sliced leek with a little butter & oil & a sprig of thyme until softened.  Stir in 250g pearl barley with 1/2  the hot  chicken stock (500ml of 1 litre).  Put the lid on & simmer 20 minutes or so until all the stock is absorbed. Just keep adding stock over the next 40-60 mins until the barley has the consistency you like to eat.
While that is cooking, heat the oven to 200 & dice 1/2 a swede, 1 red onion, 1/2 large carrot & 2  turnips into 1-2cm cubes.  Toss in a roasting dish with 2 rashers chopped streaky bacon & a couple of sprigs of rosemary.  Season well & drizzle over some olive oil.  Cook 30-40 mins until the vegetables are done.
Put the leaves of two rosemary sprigs in a pestle & mortar with 5-6 juniper berries & salt & pepper.  Bash them then mix in a splash red wine vinegar & a swig of olive oil.  Rub all over your venison loin.  We had 400g for two & that stretched to 2 meals.  When you think you are 20 mins away from dishing up, heat a little olive oil in a pan to a high heat.  Cook the loin around 18 mins turning every 2 mins.  Do not overcook.  You want it rare to medium rare. Place on a warmed plate & rub it with a little butter while it rests.  Get up the roasties & stir through some marmalade which will give it a lovely gloss.  Serve it all with a few handfuls of watercress & other green leaves dressed with a little oil & balsamic.
Later in the week make a rustic huntsman's pie with the leftovers.  This is just shepherd's pie with venison.  I made a sofrito with onion, carrot & celery then added the finely chopped venison & left over barley & veg.  I topped with a mash of swede, pumpkin & potato because that is what I had in my cupboard.  You might have a different combination.  I had too much mash so I froze the surplus for another day.  My freezer is full of surplus mash which is great for a potato topped dish & sometimes I forget to label it so I am not sure which vegetable I have until it is done.
On Sunday we did Jamie Oliver's empire roast chicken. I served this with peas - it felt like the right thing to do. You could expand this if you had a crowd maybe with a variation on dhal & some spicy beans.
Leftovers became a pilaf the next day & Peter took the remainder for his lunch the day after.  For that I adapted an old favourite.  I left out the pine nuts & the preserved lemon and added a little garam masala with the turmeric.  I just added the shredded cooked chicken & peas with the rice.  I used 1 cup rice & 2 cups stock.  We served it with the cranberry sauce that needs to be used. Meals like this make weekday eating so easy.