North African flavours

This is a development of one of my favourite recipes from a book called Supercookery, which was a present for my 21st birthday - and, no, I am not going to tell you when that was!!  But here's a picture of the book, so you can make up your own minds how old it is and therefore how old I am..........

The recipe it's based on is called Carrots, Algerian style and at the time, was considered very exotic.  Cumin was hard to come by in those days unless you lived in the south or a Midlands city with a sizeable ethnic population and a brief spell living in County Durham made spice shopping an epic venture.

Of course these days what were once exotic ingredients are now readily available and North African cooking is far more prevalent.

As is the appropriate cookware - what better to prepare this in than one of these ........

What I particularly love about the original recipe though is the family story of Neil telling our, then 3 year old, daughter that these carrots were his favourites.

The next day she asked me when we were having Daddy's friends for tea again.

I assumed she meant the friends who had been round the week before and explained that they were on holiday, so it would be a while before they could come again.

"No," she said, "not them, the carrots.  Daddy said they were his friends!!"

They are now firmly established as Daddy's friends, though I'm pleased to report that he does have some human friends too.

Daddy's friends tagine

1 onion, sliced

2 fat cloves garlic

1 dessertspoon cumin seeds

2 tsp rock salt

1" ginger

6 cloves

1 dessertspoon dried rose petals (optional)

200g chick peas, soaked and cooked - or use a 400g tin

4 large carrots

1 red pepper, sliced

2 satsumas, quartered

6 dates, stoned and chopped

1 dessertspoon honey

450ml stock

Black pepper

Pucketts carrot and cardamom chutney (optional)

Put the cast iron bowl over a medium heat and add 1 tablespoon oil.
Fry the onions until translucent.

Meanwhile, pound the garlic, salt, cumin and cloves to a paste.

Add to onions and stir well to distribute evenly.

Peel and finely chop the ginger and add to the bowl.

Cook for 3 minutes over medium heat.
Thickly slice the carrots.

Add chick peas, carrots, stock, rose petals, satsumas, dates, honey, chutney and black pepper. Stir well to mix.

Put the tagine lid on.
Cook for 45 minutes.

Remove the satsumas before serving

Serve with roast chicken and cous cous for a sumptuous Sunday lunch - or with flatbreads and salad for a mid week meat free treat.
You can also leave it til the next day and serve at room temperature as a salad or pitta bread filling.

You can also make this dish using the electric tagine.

Once all the ingredients are added to the cast iron bowl, put the tagine lid on and carefully transfer the dish to the heater base.
Cook on LOW for 3 - 4 hours.

 Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2014 ©

Bridgnorth Beef Barrels

A delicious  dish, that punches well above its weight in terms of flavour and cost.  This is what slow cooking is all about - taking a cheaper cut of meat, adding some additional ingredients and producing a fabulous result.

This takes the classic combination of steak and mushrooms, as used for classic pub grills, stroganoff, pies and the ultimate - Beef Wellington, and marries them together as something new.

This would be as welcome mid week as it would centre stage for Sunday lunch.... I'm thinking of Yorkshire puddings with gravy here too!!

Our spun iron frying pans do make excellent Yorkshire pudding pans  - as you can see from this Toad in the Hole

You will need

500g braising steak - in a single piece


I bought this beautiful piece of meat from Checketts in Ombersley; great meat, great service, great advice.

And
2 medium field mushrooms, finely chopped
1 large onion, sliced
70g fresh breadcrumbs
1 egg
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
100 ml port
1 litre stock

Method
Hammer out the steak to twice its original size -  use a meat hammer if you've got one, otherwise a rolling pin will do a good job.



Finely chop the mushrooms and mix together with the breadcrumbs, egg, thyme and seasoning.
Slice the onions.
Put the cast iron pot onto the hob and heat 1 tblsp oil over a medium heat.
Add the sliced onion and cook until softened, but not brown.

Spread the mushroom stuffing over the steak.


Then roll it up like a Swiss roll and sit it on top of the onion slices. Secure with cocktail sticks or string.
(Please do not use Bridget Jones style blue string!! Check the link if you've never read the book/seen the film/done the trivia quiz....)

Any "escaped" or leftover stuffing can be added to the dish.



Add the port and the stock and put the lid on.



Transfer to the heater base and cook on LOW for 6 - 8 hours or HIGH for 4 hours.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2014 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Pattacake

A pan fried version of a nut loaf, that is very quick and easy to prepare and which will appeal to vegetarians and omnivores equally.
It's also nice served cold with coleslaw and a baked potato.

Cashew and Halloumi rissole

1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
½ butternut squash, peeled and chopped into ½" chunks
75g chopped roasted cashews
100g breadcrumbs
1 block Halloumi, grated
Salt and pepper  to taste
2 eggs

Place a crepe pan on the hob and gently heat 1 tblsp oil.
Fry the onion and squash until soft.
Remove from heat. Place all the other ingredients into a mixing bowl, then add the onions and squash.
Stir well to mix. Season to taste - Halloumi is quite a salty cheese, and if you are also using  salted cashews, make sure you taste the mixture before adding additional salt. 
A handful of chopped fresh herbs will give this dish some extra zing - try parsley, thyme or mint.

Leave for 20 minutes for the breadcrumbs to absorb the egg.

Replace the crepe pan on the hob, add 1 tblsp oil and turn the heat to medium.

Add all of the mixture to the pan and spread out evenly.  Press down with the back of a wooden spoon.

Cook for around 7 minutes until the underside is browned and the "cake" holds together.

Place a large plate or serving board over the pan, invert and turn out the cake.

Slide back into the pan, cooked side upper most.
Continue cooking for another 7-10 minutes until the underside is cooked..

Slide out onto a plate and cut into slices.

Serve with greens, tomato sauce and, if you fancy, real chips!
We finished off the last of the Christmas cranberry sauce with this, which was a delicious accompaniment.

Cranberry sauce -  a quick and simple version
Simply cook some fresh cranberries with a splash of orange juice and sugar to taste.  As soon as the fruit softens, remove from the heat and leave to cool.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2014

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Broomfield bhajis, what to do with yet another carrot

I arrived home with a massive haul of super fresh, super cheap carrots for my local farm shop, Broomfields - so after the soup, the cake and the salad, a little inspiration was called for.
This is what I came up with;  a variation on one of my son's favourite foods - onion bhajis from our local takeaway.

Carrot bhajis with spiced tomato sauce

First make the tomato sauce

1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1" ginger, peeled and roughly shopped
2 tblsp water
2 tsp kalonji
1 tsp turmeric
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar


Blend the onion, garlic, ginger and water to a smooth paste.
Heat 1 tblsp of oil over a medium heat.  Add the onion paste and fry for 2 minutes.
Add the kalonji and turmeric and cook for a further minute.
Add the tomatoes, salt and sugar.
Simmer for 20 minutes.
Remove from the heat while you cook the bhajis - serve the sauce warm, not piping hot.


250g gram flour
3 tsp cumin seeds
Chilli to taste
1 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 bunch fresh coriander, chopped
4 large carrots, coarsely grated

Mix the dry ingredients with enough water to make a thick batter.
Stir in the coriander and the carrots

I use our 13" wok to cook these
Drop dessertspoonfuls of the mixture into hot oil a few at a time and fry until golden brown.
Lift out of the oil, drain on kitchen paper and keep warm while you prepare the rest.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2013 ©
www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

One pot, two dishes

I love lentils, cheap, versatile, tasty and low fat!!  This is a dual recipe, which makes two separate vegetarian starters from a single pot of lentils.

This is an ideal recipe to make in the Kitchen Companion - making the most of one pot cooking.

Lentil pate and lentil and tomato soup

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped
200g red lentils
10 sun dried tomatoes
1 sprig thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
800ml water
1 fat garlic clove, sliced
1 tin chopped tomatoes
400ml stock
Salt and pepper to taste.

Put the sweet potato, lentils , sun-dried tomatoes, thyme and water in the cast iron bowl. Cover with the cast iron lid. place the bowl on the heater base or on the hob.
Turn the heater base to its highest setting and bring to the boil.
Turn down to a low heat and simmer for about an hour - until the sweet potato is very soft and most of the water has been absorbed.
Add the sliced garlic and season to taste.  Cook, without a lid, for another 10 minutes until all the water is absorbed.

Remove the thyme if you have used fresh herbs.  Blend the mixture until smooth and cool half in the fridge.  
Serve the cold pate with toast.

Use the remaining half to create a tasty and warming soup - ideal on a chilly winter day.
Add the chopped tomatoes and  stock to the other half of the mixture.  Stir well to mix, return to the heat and warm through.
Serve with crusty bread.

Netherton FoundryShropshire 2013 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Wok fried chicken with plum sauce

Our woks are incredibly popular and I use mine several times a week.  Nothing can beat a stir fry for a tasty meal in a hurry - and with busy lives, weekday dinners are more often a hurry than not!

This dish was inspired partly by Jan's last recipe for pork chops and plum sauce and partly as a variation on the classic duck and plum sauce so beloved in Chinese restaurants

300g chicken breast, diced
1 leek, sliced
¼ white cabbage , shredded
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 star anise
300 ml chicken stock
1 tblp plum jam
1 tblsp soy sauce
2 tsp cornflour
2 tblsp oil

Heat the oil in the wok oil over a high heat.
Throw in the garlic and fry for 10 seconds, then add the chicken and star anise.  Fry until the chicken is golden brown on all sides.
Add the leeks, cabbage and star anise and fry for 2 minutes.
Add the jam, soy sauce and stock and cook for 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.
Mix the cornflour to a paste with water and then stir into the dish and stir until the sauce is thickened.

Serve with steamed rice or noodles.

PS I also use my wok for frying chips!! But not quite so often as the stir fries!

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2013 ©
www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Pork chops with plum sauce

It has been somewhat busy at Netherton Workshops over the last few weeks - not least with our latest 2 export orders.
Shropshire made cookware is now making its mark in Germany and the Czech Republic and we have been busy loading the pallets and waving our pans off to foreign homes.

I have been very conscious that it is a bit too long since I posted a new blog, so I was mightily relieved when our fabulous customer Jan dropped me an e-mail.

Jan came to visit our workshops last summer after being disappointed that she couldn't buy a Shropshire made slow cooker in the county town of Shrewsbury - sadly still the case!
But we are always happy to meet customers, so she was, in her words, "treated like royalty" and has been keeping me up to date with her recipes ever since.

Here's the latest, thanks Jan


Here’s a nice simple tasty recipe to add to the blog. I got the recipe from the web. It was for pork ribs, but works very well with chops.  They cooked quite quickly and were incredibly tender.

Slow cooker pork chops with plum sauce

¹/₃ cup plum jam

1 chicken stock cube

2 teasp cornflour – I omitted this as I don’t like glutinous sauces

¼ cup of water

3 teasp soy sauce

1 clove garlic crushed

Chops of course!

I fried the chops briefly on the hob and then added the sauce ingredients. It cooked  in about 4 hours on HIGH. The meat was so tender and sweet. Delicious! This is nice with some simple vegetables, cauliflower, and jacket potatoes.

It seems years since we came over for our cooker, and I think it was one of the best purchases ever! I am always telling my friends about the virtues of slow cooking.

Happy Christmas to all,

Jan

If anyone else has a recipe that they'd be happy to share, please e-mail it over to me, ideally with a photo and I will post it on to the blog.

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk