Lamb in red wine

I love it when you send us your recipes, there are so many talented and imaginative cooks out there.

So when Janice sent this recipe to me, I really wanted to share it with you - so here it is and I have to say, I can't wait to try this myself.

This one was cooked in the garden hob - making the most of our Indian Summer, but I think this will be just as good cooked in the electric slow cooker when winter sets in.

Today I was very busy and wanted something tasty for dinner which wouldn't take up much time. I also wanted to use my garden hob as the weather forecast was for fine weather.

My husband was sent off to buy anything he fancied for dinner and he came back with a boned half shoulder of lamb. So I decided to go for slow cooked lamb in red wine.

Ingredients:

Half shoulder of lamb boned and rolled

2 - 3 sprigs of rosemary

1 large or 2-3 small cloves of garlic

1 large glass of red wine

Sea salt to taste

1 table spoon of oil

1 tsp mint jelly

1 tsp damson jelly

Method

Prepare the lamb by tucking slivers of garlic into the meat. Salt the meat to taste.

Heat the cast iron bowl on the kitchen hob and add the table spoon of oil and brown the meat all over. Pour over the red wine and add the rosemary sprigs. Bring the wine to boil. Put on the lid and transfer to the garden hob. Leave to cook for 4-5 hours.

Remove the meat and cover loosely with foil and keep warm.

Add the two jellies to the sauce on the kitchen hob and dissolve. Boil vigorously to reduce by to half and achieve a nice glossy sauce.

The lamb will be wonderfully tender and the sauce tasty. Serve with whatever you like. We had roast potatoes and parsnip together with lots of veg - carrots, swede, broccoli and cabbage. A feast!

With many thanks to.......

Janice Bell
Bread at Home
www.bread-at-home.co.uk

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Apple Pan Dowdy

Way back in the 90s, after many setbacks, we finally sold our little Victorian terrace house and, as the buyer wanted to move in straight away (this was mid December), we ended up moving into a hastily arranged rented house 3 days before Christmas.

Come the New Year, with the deposit money burning a hole in my pocket, we set about finding our dream house.  Spring came and went, summer came and went and with the seasons came and went a mountain of totally unsuitable details sent by unimaginative and lazy estate agents.

Then, one day out of the blue,  I received a phone call from an estate agent, who talked to me as if he'd known me all my life, telling me he'd found exactly what I was looking for and as it had only just come onto the market, he was offering me the opportunity to view before the details were published.
Seemed entirely unlikely, but as our lease was coming to an end, I decided it was at least worth a look.

Improbable as it was, the estate agent was right and I fell in love with the house before I even set foot inside. Granted there was some serious work to be done - the padded, velveteen bar with mock hand pumps had to go - but THIS WAS IT.  Three weeks later we exchanged contracts and moved in.

However, it wasn't just the house... we were now the proud, but somewhat daunted owners of a beautiful, if neglected garden, with 3 apple trees, 2 egg plums, 2 damsons and a peach tree.  Sadly the peach tree succumbed to a storm 5 years after we moved in, but the damsons have self seeded and we now have 5 and I have planted a cherry tree too.

And this year has seen the best harvest yet.  Cherries galore, bumper crop of damsons and more apples than you can imagine - the branches are touching the ground with the weight of the fruit.

From this...........

To this ..........

These are obviously very old trees and I had no idea what kind of apples they were, but I have now been told that they are Howgate Wonder and very good they are too.

These have been eaten straight from the tree, made into pies, crumbles, cakes, jellies ( sweet and savoury) and chutneys, but one of my favourites is a batter pudding called Apple Pan Dowdy.

I've got this in a hand written note book that I have had since student days and cannot remember where the original recipe came from, but it is delicious and the bowl of our deep casserole l is an ideal vessel to cook it in.

6 apples, peeled, cored and cut into thick slices

1-2 tblsp brown sugar

1-2 tblsp golden syrup

This will depend on how sweet your apples and your teeth are!

grated nutmag and cinnamon

6 oz self raising flour

2 oz sugar

2 eggs

3 oz melted butter

8 fl oz milk

Put the apples, brown sugar and syrup in the bowl and sprinkle with the spices.

Cover and bake in the oven at 180ºC for 15-20 minutes.

Meanwhile, sift the flour in to a large mixing bowl and add the sugar.  Gradually add the egg, milk and melted butter and beat to a smooth batter.

Pour over the apples and return to the oven for approx 30 minutes.

Serve with clotted cream.  This served 4 of us, 2 days in a row!!

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Autumn harvest

PICKLED BLACKBERRIES 

Yes, I did say pickled!

This is a recipe from my 1975 Penguin Book of Jams, Pickles and Chutneys by David and Rose Mabey.  My copy is looking a little dog-eared these days, but as I've seen the price of a replacement of this, sadly out of print, tome on Amazon, I think I'll patch it up!

Pickling is probably not the first method of preserving that you think of when you go out blackberry picking, but there is such a good crop this year, that it's worth using a few as an experiment.  But be warned, they are quite addictive.

As there is no point in re-inventing the wheel, I am reproducing the Mabeys' recipe verbatim - it's beautifully written and easy to follow.  Oh yes, all the measurements are imperial!

2½lb blackberries
1lb sugar
½ pint white wine vinegar
2 leaves rose geranium - I hadn't got any, so used lavender instead.

Put the sugar into a pan with the wine vinegar and simmer until it is dissolved.  Then add the blackberries. These should be the largest and sweetest you can find and not too ripe (the first fruit to ripen at the very tip of a bramble are the best).  Simmer for 5 minutes or so, just long enough to soften the fruit without making them disintegrate.  Then carefully remove the fruit and transfer to jars.

  

Boil up the vinegar and sugar until a thick syrup is formed

Put the geranium leaves in with the fruit and pour over the syrup while still hot.
Cover and store for a week or so before serving.

These spiced  fruit, slightly sharp and perfumed with geranium, are the perfect accompaniment to soft French or goat's cheese.

I also like to serve them with smoked duck or cold roast pork and the vinegar make a great basis for salad dressing.

Fresh bread

Usually when we get an enquiry, I try to answer straight way - just goes to show how well brought up I am and how good my manners are ;-).   After all, there is something very frustrating about writing to an anonymous e-mail address and never really knowing whether or not someone will read it, let alone respond.

We do pride ourselves not only on the quality of our product range, but also on our customer service and the lovely comments we get are very gratifying indeed.  What's more, it is generally very rewarding to speak with our customers and we have had some great ideas passed on to us and a lot of support for what we are doing.

Back to the point.....  recently I received an enquiry to which I didn't feel I could respond instantly - it needed some research, and as that involved cooking I couldn't wait to get started.

Can you, asked our enquirer, make bread in the Netherton Foundry slow cooker?  Have to admit -  I had absolutely no idea, but as this was something I'd always fancied trying, I now had the incentive to get on with it.

I make all my own bread, so I decided to use my "go to" standard recipe as the basic experiment and I had no preconceptions about what the outcome would be.
So, giving nothing away yet, here's what I did.

450g (1lb) strong white bread flour, preferably unbleached.
I often use Wessex Mill, which I buy locally at Broomfields Farm Shop



1½tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
300ml (11 fl oz) tepid water
1 tsp dried yeast or 20g (1 oz) fresh yeast
2 tblsp rapeseed oil

Either chuck everything into a food processor and mix for around 30 seconds or combine the sugar, water and yeast and mix well.  Stir into the dry ingredients and add the oil.  Knead well until elastic.
Cover with a damp tea towel or oiled clingfilm and leave for around an hour in a warm place.

Grease a large piece of greaseproof paper with butter and line the slow cooker bowl.
Split the dough into 7 equal pieces.  Put 6 round the outside of the bowl and one in the middle

Place the bowl on the slow cooker heater base and cover with the lid.

Cook on HIGH for an hour.  Then carefully lift out the paper and flip the bread over into the bowl, so that the base is now uppermost.

Cook for another 10 minutes and then turn out onto a rack.

......................And here's the result......ta daaaaa!

So the answer to my enquirer was a resounding "YES, you most certainly can make bread in the slow cooker and it's delicious!"

I then went on to experiment with some pumpkin seed rolls, which we ate with home made cherry jam - they didn't last long!

So, if any of you have got any more questions, be sure to get in touch!

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2013 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk