Spiced lentil and sweet potato soup

A recipes for those in-between days - simple fodder after the Christmas lunch and before the New Year's Eve party.
There are so many recipes for lentil soup and now that the soup dragon has taken up residence within the internet, you are only ever a few clicks away from a bottomless cauldron of recipes.
Soup is a staple at Netherton Towers. When the offspring were small there was generally a pot of botbot (BitOfThisBitOfThat) soup on the go to feed them and any after school hangers on they may have picked up along the way. Leftover or limp veg, stock, rice and tins of tomatoes, the contents of the fridge - anything could be chucked together in an instant and I just love the power of the blender to hide things that kids claim not to like, but don't notice if they can't see them.

This one, on the other hand, was made in a more leisurely and considered manner, with the ingredients weighed out, so that I could share it.
It is a thick, warming soup, with a warm undercurrent and a little bite added to the  - long pause while I search for a less clichéd word than velvety; nope, brain has ceased up, the texture will remained adjectiveless - smoothness of blended lentil and potato.

1 onion, chopped
2 tblsp oil -  I used some garlic and chilli oil for an extra kick, but rapeseed or olive will work equally well
1 tsp ras el hanout
100g red lentils
450g sweet potato (or squash), peeled and diced
1 litre stock, vegetable or chicken (vegetable stock will make this a vegan/vegetarian dish)
1 red pepper, finely chopped

Put half of the oil into a large pan or casserole and warm over a moderate heat.
Sweat onion until soft and translucent.  Be gentle, you don't want brown or crispy bits, but you do want to coax the sweetness out of the onions.
Add the spice and stir well, cook for 2 -3 minutes.
Add the sweet potato, lentils and stock.
Simmer for around 30 minutes until the lentils are thoroughly cooked and the potato is soft.
Blend with a stick mixer or in a blender.

Heat the remaining oil in a frying pan
Add peppers, cook for 5 minutes

Stir into soup.
Serve.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2018 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Pies, a paean to pastry

Pies and tarts by Annie Rigg

Pie dish by us

The newest product on our website and in some of our retail outlets is a terrific pie dish.  It came into being when food writer Annie Rigg contacted us, asking if such a thing were possible to produce.

Now as you know, our creative genius likes nothing better than a design challenge, and a slice of pie, so he set to work.

Annie's verdict - "gamechanger" - she likes it!!

Pies are, without a doubt, this year's cupcakes; the humble pastry offering has grown wings, sported controversy  and been turned into an art form.  Take a look at the Instagram posts of @lokokitchen and @julie_jonesuk to see what I mean.  These are no ordinary pies and I certainly wouldn't attempt anything like those here at Netherton Towers.

But we do love pies and were eager to read Annie's book, although I confess here, as I did to Annie herself, to an initial degree of scepticism.

What more is there to say about pies? Single topic cookbooks, so often found languishing in charity shops with their dull covers and formulaic writing are too often uninspiring and predictable.

But this one is different, the cover alone is enough to make you want to buy it - beautiful deep blue with that bronze embossing, gorgeous.

And the inside...... so many new ideas, so much well, clearly written information on pastry techniques, even new pastry recipes - tahini pastry is a new one on us and a real treat.

Take, for example, the classic custard tart.  Made properly, it is divine (the least said about my late mother's pallid pastry and soggy bottom the better) and there is a recipe for a buttermilk version in this book.

But, in popular culinary parlance, bordering on overused cliché, the recipe for malted custard tartlets with bourbon soaked raisins, elevates this to another level.  In fact it takes the lift up several floors and gives this tart a view across the skyline.  Absolutely, lipsmackingly, plate-licking delicious.

We love the book, we love our new pie dish and are grateful to Annie for suggesting it. 

Have a look at our full range of bakeware over on the website.

Collaboration is a cracking way to do business.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2018 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

CHOCOLATE AND BLACK TREACLE TART

We have been diligently working our way through the recipes in Annie Rigg's glorious book, Pies and Tarts, of which more another day.
But like all good cookery books, this inspires as well as instructs.  Discussions between Annie and our resident creative genius inspired the design and production of our new pie dish and cooking from the book inspired me to create a new tart of my own.

Start by making either a standard shortcrust pastry with 150g plain flour and 75 g butter or follow my lead and use 75g plain flour and 75g ground hazelnuts with 75g butter.
Rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs and then add just enough water to bring it together into a firm dough.

Grease a 10" pie dish and roll out the pastry to fit.  If you have used the hazelnut version, it will be quite friable, so just use off cuts to patch up any gaps where the pastry has fallen apart.
Chill for half an hour and while it is in the fridge, pre-heat the oven to 170ºC.

Pop the pie dish into the warm oven and cook for 10 minutes.  Remove from the oven and set aside while you make the filling.

100g milk chocolate
50g black treacle
250g Mascarpone cheese
50g icing sugar
3 eggs

Place the chocolate and treacle in a bowl suspended over warm water and allow to melt.
Tip the Mascarpone into a mixing bowl with the icing sugar and beat well.  Mix in the melted chocolate mix and then the eggs and beat thoroughly.
Pour into the pastry case and return tot he oven for a further 30 minutes.

Serve at room temperature with clotted cream or creme fraiche.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2018 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk