Heritage cooking - an adaption of one of Mum's recipes

When I was a child, too long ago to mention, my Mum baked every Sunday.  The results would be served up to me and my brother at tea time and added to my Dad's packed lunches - we had the joy of school dinners!
Her repetoire included Victoria sandwich cakes, jam tarts, ground rice cakes, squashed fly pie, almond slices, egg custards - sadly with very soggy bottoms, Mary Berry would not have approved -  and, as an occasional treat,  she would make toffee tarts.  I have no idea where the original recipe came from but they were a confection of pastry case, sugar and dried fruit made even sweeter with a splodge of icing.
My teeth ache at the mere thought of them.

But the memory of the sheer pleasure these brought made me think it would be worth re-visiting her original recipe and adapting it to a more grownup palate.

And this is the result - sweet, sticky, but a little more sophisticated than those teatime treats

Short crust pastry
4oz plain flour
2 oz butter
Cold water

Place the flour in a large mixing bowl, cut the butter into small pieces and add to the flour.
Rub together until you have a mixture resembling fine breadcrumbs.
Alternatively, chuck the flour and butter into a food processor and do this the quick way!!

Add just enough cold water to bring it all together into a stiff dough.  Place in a plastic bag or greaseproof paper and leave in the fridge for ½ hour.

Grease a 10" pie dish.  Roll out the pastry and line the pie dish.

Filling
1oz butter
4oz brown sugar - dark is best
3oz chopped dates
3oz chopped walnuts
1 egg
1 orange

Place the butter and sugar into a saucepan  and place over a low heat until the butter  has melted and the sugar dissolved.
Remove from the heat.
Finely grate the orange and add the zest and the juice to the butter mix.
Stir in the dates, walnuts and egg.

Pour over the flan case and bake at 170ºC for approximately 30 minutes.

Serve in thin slices - it is very rich -  with custard, ice cream, creme fraiche or clotted cream
A custard flavoured with lemon rind and bayleaf goes beautifully with this.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Big Day Out

It started with a tweet and ended up with us going to Kate Humble's Big Day Out on her farm in Monmouthshire, alongside Dallas Campbell and his "Science of Pizza" demonstration.

Kate had asked Dallas to do a demonstration at the Big Day Out on the theme of pizza, to show off the Esse wood fired pizza oven, so with his usual enthusiasm and hands on approach, he duly did his research and rocked up to the event with some great facts, figures and anecdotes. Daniel Blewitt from Esse was on hand to lend his considerable expertise to the proceedings
But before that, his research led him to investigate the best surface on which  to cook the perfect pizza and he turned to us, figuring we'd be able to help.

Of course, we love a challenge, so the quest for the perfect pizza plate was joined and we started our own experimentation. We came up with a 15" diameter, ¼" thick black iron plate. Out of which was born our brand new griddle and bake plates - not only good for pizzas, but a whole host of other goodies too.
So now you can choose from 2 sizes - 12" and 15".
UPDATE: we have now added the long handle and short handle pizza peels to the raqnge
Please take note, more recipes will be coming this way soon.................

Our joint experiments concluded that this plate is fantastic in a wood fired oven like the Esse featured in this post, a domestic oven - see photos below - and Dallas's own experiments which proved that you can create a great Napoli pizza by cooking first on the hob and then finishing off under the grill.

Using the following recipe and flour from a 25kg bag  that he bought for less than £20, Dallas made pizza bases for around 4p each.

Mix 3g fresh yeast (or 1½g dried yeast) into 600ml water.
Put 1kg of 00 flour into a bowl and add 35g salt
You do not need anything else!!!

Make a well in the middle of the flour and add the water.  Draw the flour into the water and bring together until thoroughly combined.
Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes until the dough feels "elastic".

Cut into portions weighing approx 250 - 280g and shape into balls with a smooth upper surface.
Place on a floured tray and cover with a damp tea towel or oiled clingfilm
Leave to prove for 8 hours.

Heat the oven to the highest it will go, or the wood fired oven to 350º or heat the hob and grill.
Place the pizza plate on the hob or in the oven to preheat.

Press out the dough to your preferred thickness - a true Neapolitan pizza has a THIN crust.

The sauce was made from a 40p tin of tomatoes, simply blitzed with a stick mixer.

Spread a thin layer of sauce on to the pizza - too much will give you a soggy bottom, to quote a well known baking personality.

Finish off with a dusting of grated Parmesan and some Mozzarella.  A few leaves of basil will turn this into the classic Margharita.

Carefully transfer the pizza onto the pizza plate, using a pizza peel - more news of these coming soon - and transfer to the hob or oven.
Alternatively, you can build your pizza directly onto the pizza plate.

It should be ready in a matter of minutes - depending on the cooking method.

And there you are, Dallas's genuine Neapolitan pizza - delicious, simple and incredibly cheap.

Of course, we were lucky enough to hear his anecdotes and yarns...... but you never know, he may be back again next year or may even find an opportunity to share the adventure on TV.

But this was not the only cookery demonstration of the day............

At a varied and fun event we also got to see Tom Herbert - one of the Fabulous Baker Brothers making bread and butter -  delicious soda bread with home made butter.
We are lucky enough to have met Tom before and he and his brother Henry have been using some of our cookware around the country for their outdoor cooking escapades.

And let it not be said that the barbecue is the sole domain of the suburban, Neanderthal male.

You may have seen recent press coverage of the rise of women in the hitherto macho domain of outdoor cooking and here to show off their altogether more appetising alternatives to charcoaled sausage were Genevieve Taylor, launching her fascinating and appetite stimulating book "How to Eat Outside"

and the utterly lovely Shauna and Samantha, who together are the HangFire Smokehouse gals.

The gals

Neil and Dallas inching towards the HangFire stall

And there was not just food, we were lucky enough to chat with Oliver from The Noses and got a wave from Gareth Malone, who naturally enough led the children in a fantastic rendition of Old MacDonald and other great favourites.

We would like to extend our personal thanks to Emily, the Farm Shop Manager and all her staff for the warm welcome and the terrific way in which the have displayed their stock of Netherton Foundry wares.

  

 

And we mustn't leave out Josh, Guyrope Gourmet with his camper van and Pioneer stove

and Alexis from Embers in Bristol with his Kamodo Joe

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Eat your greens

This is a very green salad - best served slightly warm and no cooler than room temperature.

200g green or Puy lentils
1" ginger in julienne strips
2 cloves garlic, halved

1 large onion
½ head Hispi cabbage
2 sticks celery
2 tblsp oil
Grated rind of 1 lemon

Vinaigrette

1 pack of feta cheese
Handful of sorrel or mint

Place the lentils, ginger and garlic in a saucepan and generously cover with water.
Bring to the boil and simmer until the lentils are cooked, but are not mushy.

Halve and then finely slice the onion.
Heat the oil in a wok and add the onions.  Cook over a medium heat until just starting to brown.
Add the chopped celery and finely shredded cabbage.  Throw in the lemon rind.
Cook until the cabbage wilts and then remove from the heat and transfer to a serving dish.

Tip the drained, warm lentils on top of the cabbage and dress with a generous glug of simple oil, mustard and vinegar dressing.

Top with cubed feta and sorrel (or mint) 
Serve with bread or new potatoes.


© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015