Food on Friday

It seems there is quite a demand for My Mummy's special catnip jelly recipe! Anyway since she made us a big batch of it this morning I thought I'd better make notes so I could tell everykitty all about it as it's so darn yummy on a hot day, well on any day really... ;)

500g Chicken or Turkey meat - other meat works too if you have a preference or just some spare
2 tbsp Pudding Rice - any rice will do really
3 pints Water
4 tbsp Dried home-grown Catnip leaves, cut that to 4 tsp if you're using the finer cut up commercial dry catnip or you'll all wind up like Tigmut'hep! ;)
3 packets of gelatine or enough to set 3 pints of fluid

Cube up the meat and put in a large pot of pressure cooker (Mummy has special little baskets for her pressure cooker, each basket holds about 250g of cubed up meat the right amount for one tray of turkey terrine or chunks in jelly). Add the rice, water and about 1/2 of the catnip. Cook until the meat is nice and tender and the rice is done, allow to cool a little and add the remaining catnip leaves to the stock/tea. Remove the meat and most of the rice and put in a container or two, next take 1 pint of stock/tea at a time and add 1 packet of gelatine to each - stirring until dissolved. Pour in enough to cover the meat in it's containers and then take the rest and pour that and any remaining rice onto the other containers (nice flat bottomed shallow ones make it easy to cut off bits and serve without it sticking) . Now just leave to cool, once cool refrigerate until set. Serve as desired or freeze some for a later date (defrost before serving).

This recipe gives enough for 2 containers of meat jelly or terrine (just liquidize the meat and rice in the stock/tea and jelly solution for terrine), and 3 of jelly that is great as a treat in the summer to assist in keeping your cat adequately hydrated and cool. It also makes a good placebo meal for a cat who's living with kittens and wants to join in at every meal time without causing them to gain too much weight! If you want to feed your cat like this on a regular basis you need to add a good quality vitamin supplement to the jelly, containing turine, biotin and the like. It's also a good idea to add in a little processed cooked carrot to help achieve a more balanced meal including dietary fiber. As the recipe is it's just good as a hydrating treat and the meat in jelly or terrine can be used along side a top quality dry food as a part of their daily meat.

Tuesday's tasty turkey terrine!

Since a number of you have asked about the chicken jelly stuff Mummy makes us, I've managed to get her to type down one of her recipes that we all love lots and lots (especially me and Isis). The recipe for turkey terrine makes enough food for 4 meals for us three, but then again Isis and I eat mostly dried food since we like the crunch! :)

Turkey Terrine

1/2 lb (aprox.) of turkey meat - leg meat or simmilar being the best and cheapest
1 small carrot - adds vitamins as well as a bit of roughage (dietary fiber)
1 packet of gelatine
Water

Cube the turkey meat and put it in a sauce pan, grate and add the carrot (this way us kitties don't pick it out and leave it) and cover with water - at least 1/2 pint (1 Cup). Bring to the boil and simmer for at least 1/2 hr - this makes the turkey very tender and yummy! Now take 1/4 pint of the liquid and put it in a bowl and dissolve the gelatine in it, stir and make sure it's fully dissolved. Now take a few of the cubes of turkey and put them into two flat containters (preferably ones that have lids), the rest of the turkey and carrot should be liquidised with the rest of the fluid and add it to the gelatine mixture to make it up to about 1 pint (add extra water if needed). Stir to make sure the turkey and gelatine combine evenly and pour over the cubes of turkey in the two containters. Now leave to cool for about 1 hr and then put the lids on the containers and carefully put in the fridge to set - about 1-2 hrs. Once this is set you can feed it to your cats!

Here with the three of us Mummy gives us half a containter per meal, split between each of us (giving us boys the chunks of turkey and Isis just the terrine and jelly as she doesn't like to bother with meat chunks). Mummy makes us our own homemade cat food at least a few times each month, so she's got a number of really tasty recipes including some for special occasions! Oh, and they're all tested out by us to make sure they not only work and look good, but they taste good too and are nice and healthy. :)