Netherton Foundry: February 2015

Sunday, 22 February 2015

Vegetarian chilli

The power of a picture.....

I was tweeting some stream of consciousness musings about feeding a houseful of teenagers, along with work in progress photos, when I was asked for the recipe for the chilli I was in the middle of preparing.

I had to cater for a group of teenage boys - all of them significantly bigger than me and each with their own food fad - a vegetarian, one who doesn't like baked potato, another who only eats "dry" food (no sauces, gravy, soup..... but with a distinct liking for beer), so the challenge was to come up with something they could all eat.

I settled on baked potatoes, French bread, grated cheese, baked beans and a veggie chilli, so they could help themselves to whichever components they fancied.

Pudding was a no brainer, everyone loves chocolate mousse.

Here are the recipes for the chilli and the chocolate mousse.

CHILLI

2 tbls rapeseed oil

3 onions, sliced

3 cloves garlic

2 tsp cumin seed

2 tsp salt

2 dried chillis

3 sprigs thyme

2 cartons tomato passata - or 2 tins chopped tomatoes

2 tins kidney beans

150g red lentils

2 tsp cocoa powder

1 red pepper, chopped

1 green pepper, chopped

Heat the oil over a medium heat - the cast iron casserole dish is ideal for this quantity of food.

Add the onions and fry until translucent.

Crush the garlic, cumin seeds, salt and chillis with a pestle and mortar and add to the onions.

Fry gently for 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes/passata, kidney beans, lentils, thyme and cocoa powder.

Simmer for around 40 minutes or until the lentils are cooked.

Add the chopped peppers and cook for a further 15 minutes.

Serve with baked potato, rice or bread.
Serves 8

CHOCOLATE MOUSSE
200g dark chocolate
8 eggs, separated

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water.
Leave to cool, but not set
Beat the eggs yolks.
At this stage you can add extra flavours if you wish, such as grated orange zest, espresso coffee, brandy or even creme de menthe
Add the yolks to the cooled chocolate and mix thoroughly
Whisk the egg whites to a stiff peak.

Beat 2 tablespoons pf the whites into the chocolate mixture to loosen it.
Fold in the rest of the whites and transfer the mousse to individual serving dishes.
Chill in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Serves 8 - 10

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Saturday, 7 February 2015

Let them eat cake - a new recipe for the new loaf tins

We are delighted that master baker, Robert Swift has tried and tested the new loaf tins and agreed to give us a special recipe for both white and wholemeal bread for us to include with every tin.
Bread is definitely one of the finest foods there is and I have yet to meet anyone who can resist the smell of a freshly baked loaf.
Be it a ploughman's lunch or a humble jam sandwich, good bread is at the heart of so much that we enjoy.......... bacon sarnie anyone?
And there is something primordially satisfying in creating your own bread, so please create time for yourself and give bread making a go.

With Robert providing the bread making expertise, I decided to have a go at creating a brand new cake recipe to celebrate the launch of the loaf tins.
After all, if you can bake good bread in them, there's no reason not to use them for other things - I also have a meatloaf and a nut loaf in mind.............

But for now, make do with cake

This is not too sweet and I've used wholemeal flour, so that you can feel virtuous without sacrificing any yumminess.

100g raisins
Juice and grated rind of 1 orange
100 g butter
50g peanut butter
100g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
150g wholemeal flour

Soak the raisins in the orange juice for at least 30 minutes
Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC
Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar.