Unconventional menu planning

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I hate shopping, so usually I like to plan meals for at least the next few days so I know I won’t need to do it again too soon. It’s difficult at the moment though as my partner is away a lot but at short notice, so not knowing who and how many I’ll be cooking for makes a difference. I like a good variety but if it’s just me and the girls there’s no point making something too exotic only for them to go ‘Yuk!’ The last few days we managed with groceries from the village shop and stores from the freezer, so I could avoid a big shopping trip. Yesterday though I had to bite the bullet and go to the supermarket as we needed a couple of things I just couldn’t get elsewhere. I also needed something from the pharmacy, and there is a separate pharmacy counter within the store. I hate doing nothing so I had a book in my bag, and when I had to wait at the pharmacy counter I snatched the chance to read a page or two. My current book is about travelling Britain’s restored canals on a narrowboat, but it also incorporates a few of the author’s favourite recipes, and as it happened I turned the page and there was his recipe for a traditional-style boatman’s stew. I glanced over it and noticed he was most insistent it must be made with shin of beef, no other cut would produce the required depth of flavour. I don’t remember ever seeing shin of beef at the supermarket before, normally stewing steak is what’s on offer, but strangely, as I went on with my shopping, I rounded the corner into the meat aisle and found that the staff had just marked down several items and guess what – on the first shelf I looked at there was a stack of packs of diced shin of beef! Well that was my meal plan decided for the next couple of days, we all like a tasty meaty stew so it should go down well and we can either eat it a couple of days running or freeze some for a quick meal another day – or even both, depending on how many of us are here to eat it. Not my usual method of menu-planning but it seemed it was meant to be! All rights reserved. © Text and image copyright Fleur 2017.