No picture of this because we were too hungry to fetch the camera. Starter of tempura aubergine in quartered 1cm tranches, battered with a mix of flour, apple juice, salt, pepper and black onion seeds. Served on a bed of shredded beetroot and carrot, chopped walnuts, green lentils, shredded romaine, baby leaves, paper-thin celery slices and chopped herbs.  Dressing of walnut and olive oil, cider vinegar, lime juice and honey.

Main course, rose veal steaks, fried in a little oil for 4 and a bit minutes each side, then rested for 4 minutes.  Butter and herbs melted in the hot pan and drizzled on the meat once served.  Mashed sweet potato, chopped sprouts and chestnuts, roasted butternut and parsnip chunks with rosemary and baby onions from the garden baken in their skins.

Sauce made from a duxelle of chestnut mushrooms with finely chopped shallots and crushed garlic, cooked down with a little olive oil. Added apple juice and soya cream then thickened with a little flour and seasoned.

Beef fillet, oiled and seasoned, then fried 5 minutes per side. Knob of butter added a minute before the end, then put aside to rest in a warm place under cover. Served with creamed potatoes, tourne carrots, wilted spinach and diced butternut squash, tossed in olive oil, sea salt and black pepper, then roasted 35 mins in a hot oven, turning once.

Sauce of button mushrooms browned in butter, mixed with the meat juices from deglazing the pan with a little white wine, seasoned and reduced, then a glug of cream to finish.

Call it retro, call it vintage, whatever.  Nice slab of local beef fillet, (1.2kg) seasoned and roasted at 220C for 20 mins, then chilled and rested.  Mushroom duxelle of finely chopped chestnut mushrooms, fried in a little olive oil, added half a glass of white wine and reduced to dryness.  Fillet massaged with salt and pepper and English mustard.  Rolled out puff pastry base.  Laid out clingfilm, with double layer of prosciutto, then layer of duxelle in centre.  Laid fillet on to duxelle, then coated rest of fillet and rolled into tight sausage with the clingfilm.  Rested for a while, then removed clingfilm and laid wrapped fillet on to pastry base.  Rolled out pastry top, well oversize.  Painted joining faces with beaten egg, sealed, ensuring no trapped air, then  rolled over joint and pressed with spoon handle to seal.  Marked pastry with curved incisions from back of a knife, then coated liberally with egg.  Baked for 30 mins at 190C in fan oven until golden, checked temp withmeat thermometer, 52 degrees at the core for a reasonably pink finish.  Rested 10 mins then carved into thick tranches.  Served with crushed parsnips, chopped carrots with herb butter, mashed potato and sweet potato, creamed together with parsley, chopped brussels and chestnuts.  Meat gravy and a tart and glossy plum sauce to finish.

5kg thick end of rib from our local butcher.  Served with roasted potatoes, parboiled, distressed a bit, then roasted in goose fat (separate veggie version too).  Served with chopped carrots with tarragon butter, creamed sweet potato with chopped French parsley, petit pois, onion gravy (and a veggie version), chopped fresh sprouts and chestnuts.

Starter was a red cabbage winter slaw from Nigel Slater, served with deep-fried parsnip crisps

Fillet of rose veal, pan-fried with red peppercorns and herbs.  Rested and pan deglazed with sherry, then reduced with some cream.  Served with red cabbage, carrots, petit pois and creamed potatoes. Meat juices mixed with the sauce and served with some chopped thyme

Sirloin steaks, pan-fried fast in foaming butter, then rested for a good ten minutes.  White peppercorns, fried in the meat juices with chopped crushed garlic, then deglazed with red wine and reduced to half volume.  Added cream and cooked until it thickened.  Served with chopped sprouts and chestnuts, and rosti made with our own Golden Wonder potatoes, Autumn King carrots, sweet potatoes, herbs and rice flour.

No picture this time.  Just had to eat….  Fillet steak seasoned and browned in butter, nice and rare inside. Chestnut mushrooms, sliced and sauteed with spring onions and garlic, then deglazed with dry white wine.  Steaks left to rest for six minutes on scalding hot plates, meat juices and cream added to the mushrooms and cooked until thickened a little. Served with creamed mash, crushed petit pois and a pea-sprout and herb salad.

Local spud, baked, seasoned and filled with shredded thick rib of beef, fried in butter with sweet pepper, shallots and parsley.

Green beans, banana shallots, chopped root ginger and sweet peppers blasted for a couple of minutes in a smoking-hot wok with a little oil and seasoning. As the smoke cleared, I threw in some cubed aubergine and beef, and cooked for two more minutes, then tossed in some torn kale leaves.  Soon as the kale went dark green, I added some jelly and meaty goo from the carving dish, and deglazed the wok with apple and mango juice to make a slightly sweet but meaty sauce.  Fast food

Steak and Old Peculiar pie with a rich beef and onion gravy, new potatoes, carrots, watercress and shredded red cabbage braised with butter and honey