Apricot and cardamom buns

Hygge is everywhere: the Danish concept of cosiness.  Whilst I love the thought of it, I have been trying to avoid jumping on any fashionable bandwagons.  I have yet to attempt to make the cinnamon buns that fill the pages of every magazine at the moment, although I will admit to a scented candle or two - but there again, these have long been a feature in our house.

However, these fragrant, tasty buns, which are ideal for a relaxed Sunday breakfast on a wintry morning seem to fit the bill.  The aroma of them baking fills the kitchen with the most appetising of smells.

But, hands up, I admit I did not make these wearing beige cashmere and fluffy slippers and I don't expect you to do so either.  Just let me know if you try them and what you think of them.
You will see that one of the ingredients is orange infused sugar - this is one of my #wastenot tips.
If you are only going to use the juice of an orange, or simply eat it, grate the zest first and add it to a jar of sugar.  The sugar will absorb the orange oil and take on a beautiful flavour.  This has a myriad uses and you can even blitz it in a food processor to make flavoured icing sugar, ideal for glazing or sprinkling on these buns.
And whilst we are on the subject of #wastenot, always grate the zest from your lemons, even when you only need the juice.  The zest can be stored in the freezer until needed.

10oz bread flour

12 fl oz milk
Juice of 1 lemon 

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dried yeast

2 dessertspoon orange infused sugar (or plain sugar and the grated zest 1 orange)

6 green cardamom pods

2 oz soft butter

4 oz dried apricots

Egg white

Sugar

Heat the milk to blood temperature in a saucepan and add the lemon juice.
Remove from the heat.

Split open the cardamom pods and take out the seeds.  Grind to a powder with a pestle and mortar.
Chop the apricots.

Put all the ingredients, except the egg white and extra sugar into a food mixer or food processor (with dough blade fitted) and mix thoroughly for around 30 seconds.
Alternatively, place all the ingredients into a large mixing bowl and beat well with a wooden spoon.
Ensure the dough is covered, use cling film or a damp cloth and leave to rise for at least 2 hours. (You can leave it overnight and bake them in the morning if you are more organised in the morning than I am.)

Place a griddle plate in the oven and pre-heat to 200ºC

Shape the dough into 8 equal sized rolls and place on the hot griddle plate.
Paint the tops with egg white or milk and sprinkle with sugar.  You can omit this stage and glaze them with a thin drizzle of orange icing whilst still warm if you prefer.

Bake for around 15 - 20 minutes until they sound hollow when tapped on the base.

Serve warm with butter and plenty of coffee.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

A jar full of teaspoons

I have no doubt that many of you will have heard of Maslows hierarchy, which I first encountered at university, a lifetime ago.

This describes how we can only start to ski around the snowy pinnacle of ego validation - self worth, self esteem, the longing to be loved and valued, when we have met the basic needs for survival at the bottom.  These include protection from extremes of climate and temperature, from physical danger. The days of living in caves at risk from sabre tooth tigers are long gone, but consider the plight of the homeless, who are prey to the cold, wet, prejudice, discrimination and mindless violence.

Of course, one of the absolute essentials is nourishment.

In other words, before we can grow as individuals, we need a roof over our heads, protection from physical harm and a full belly.

So we are back on my favourite subject, food.

Not enough of it and we become malnourished.  The issues of body image in the media, anorexia websites, child poverty, climate and natural disaster induced famine and the politics of dictatorial and corrupt regimes are all serious topics better suited to cleverer writers than me.

The wrong type of food and we become sick, of course there are poisonous mushrooms etc, but there's also the potential for diet related diabetes, heart disease, cancers etc.

Too much and we get fat, with all the health issues, both physical and psychological, that being overweight brings.

So clearly food is fundamental to our existence and well being , but it's about so much more.

There are those who simply eat to live and who would happily take a nourishment pill, like the writers of the sci fi films of the 1950s and 1960s imagined we would be doing.

But I believe the vast majority of us, who have a choice, take pleasure in our food, whatever it is.

This could be a bar of chocolate, icecream, a piece of cake, an Indian takeaway or steak and chips and ,as long as these are part of a more varied diet and are consumed in moderation, there is no reason to demonise them.

In my opinion, food provides the opportunity for more than keeping our bodies ticking over; mealtimes offer company and conversation, there's  the pleasure of discovering new tastes, the comfort of familiar favourites and the satisfaction and fulfilment from cooking and sharing with others.  As you may already have worked out, I am what is colloquially known as a "feeder".

Our son is now fending for himself in his first term of university and our daughter is in 6th form college, so it's not really that long ago that they were taking part  firstly in primary school and then in secondary school food technology classes.

This is a term no more appealing than the "domestic science" of my school days. Nor is it any more useful or appetising than it was then.

You cannot equip a child for life by teaching then how to make cupcakes.

The teaching of cookery seems to have removed so much of the pleasurable aspects of food and reduced it to formulaic following of instructions, much like a self assembly, flat pack wardrobe.

But if we can encourage a feel for cooking, the constant tasting and adjusting, then cooking become less of a chore and eating all the more rewarding.

I believe that we should teach the basics and then encourage experimentation. Explain how different flavours can enhance (or ruin) a dish...... I will never forget being served fried onions with poached salmon - so wrong - but a salad of marinaded shallots, with tomato and cucumber would have taken the basic onion and oil combination and created something to complement the salmon.

One of the most valuable lessons that chefs can give is always to have a spoon next to the pot and to keep using it.

Learn how to spice up and tone down your sauces, why a rare steak tastes different for a slow braised piece of shin, how a touch of heat can transform an underripe piece of fruit into something sublime.

Savour your meals, put the phone down, switch off the telly, concentrate on what you are eating and, if possible, share the experience with friends or family.

Stop and think for a moment how many dishes revolve around a humble tin of tomatoes, an ingredient that can be bought for so little and transformed into something truly special.
Things like pizza, soup, chilli, bolognese, baked beans, goulash, chicken cacciatore.

Here are some suggestions about what to do with a tin of tomatoes and what to serve with them:

1. With orange, fennel, prawns and pasta.
2. With peppers and onions, chicken and a simple risotto

3. Paprika, sour cream, chorizo and boiled potatoes

4. Garlic, onions, oregano, mince and spaghetti

5. Chilli, garlic, capers, anchovies, olives and linguine

6. Lemon, cumin, parsley, garlic, onions and green beans with rice or pitta bread

7. Paprika, caraway, onions, pork and rice

8. Or simply reduce a tin of chopped tomatoes with a pinch of oregano and a splash of olive oil for the perfect pizza sauce.

Go ahead, experiment

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Sticky fig cake

For reasons that are too tedious to go into, I have been faced with the challenge of creating a vegan menu recently - not something that comes easily in this household, with its love of all things dairy and a passion for fresh eggs.
But I have never been shy of meeting a challenge, be it rock climbing or motorbike riding, so vegan cooking was simply going to go on the list.

Vegan main courses were fairly straightforward, admittedly I haven't come up with a decent cauliflower cheese, but we have had a number of vegan dishes which didn't even register as being of "special dietary interest".
It was puddings that proved the hardest...... you will already have seen a number of puddings on this blog and without checking, I can be pretty sure that every single one contains at least one prohibited ingredient.
It has to be admitted that some experiments are best glossed over, suffice to say that it's lucky some of our garden birds aren't fussy.
However, we did enjoy a treacle tart, with a pastry made from vegetable suet and filo tarts filled with cashew and pistachio cream and topped with poached apricots and, for the purists, maple syrup and the less pure, honey.

That said, the weather is getting colder and we were craving a proper autumnal pud, so the big challenge was to come up with a variation of sticky toffee pudding and this is the result. And for those of you who are not following a vegan diet, I have included the non-vegan alternative ingredients too.
I didn't tell all my testers that this was vegan, just to gauge the response and I am pleased to report that it got an all round thumbs up and surprise when it was revealed to have no animal products in it.

CAKE
4oz vegan margarine (or butter if you don't want a vegan version)

4 oz sugar

1 banana

2 oz soft dried figs
4 tblsp soaked chia seed jelly (or 2 eggs if you don't want a vegan version)

4 oz self rising flour

1 tsp baking powder

6 dried figs for decoration

Preheat the oven to 170ºC
Put the margarine/butter, sugar, banana and figs into a food processor and mix until smooth and fluffy.
Add the chia/eggs and beat again.
Fold in the flour, mixed with the baking powder.

Spoon into a greased 10" Prospector pan or 8½" cake tin
Split open the reserved figs and put them on top of the cake batter
Place into the oven and bake for approx 30 minutes, until the top springs back when pressed with your finger.
Set aside while you make the sauce.

SAUCE

4 oz sugar

Juice of 1 orange

2oz dried figs soaked for 30 min in 6 fl oz hot water. 

Put the sugar into a saucepan over a medium heat.
Cook gently until the sugar has melted and turned a rich brown.
CAREFULLY pour in the orange juice and continue to cook until the caramel has completely dissolved in the juice.
Add the fig purée and simmer for 5 - 10 minutes until it is a consistency to your liking.
Slice the cake and pour over the sauce.  This can served as it is or with cream, (vegan) yogurt or cashew cream.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Toad in the Hole

Do you remember our trip to Finnebrogue and the rucksack full of sausages that we brought back with us?
Well this is what happened to another pack of them; a simple addition to an old favourite.

The key to a good Toad in the Hole is the temperature of the oven and of the oil when you add the batter.  Our Prospector pans are great for really hot cooking, but please remember that if you are using them on induction, you need to start them on a very low heat and increase the power gradually.
As they are made of 99% pure iron, you will struggle to find anything with better performance on induction stoves.

Good Little Company pork sausages, 2 per person

1 tart apple, I used a Granny Smith

150g plain flour

2 eggs

Milk, approx 200ml

Salt and pepper

Pre-heat the oven to 220ºC

Put the flour into a large mixing bowl, season with salt and pepper

Add the eggs and half the milk.  Whisk together.

Add more milk until you have a batter with the consistency of double cream.

Heat 1 dessertspoon of oil in a Prospector pan over a medium heat.

Place the sausages in the pan and brown on all sides.

Quarter the apple and remove the core, there is no need to peel it.

Add to the pan and continue cooking for another 2 minutes.

Turn up the heat and when the oil is smoking hot, pour the batter over the sausage and apples.

Place the pan immediately into the hot oven and cook for 20 minutes until well risen and golden.

Ours was accompanied with carrots, peas and cider gravy.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Not exactly a Jaffa cake

Like millions of other people, I take time out from domestic chores to watch Great British Bake Off, although whether it will be the same when it leaves the BBC remains to be seen.

I thoroughly enjoyed watching the contestants' efforts to create Jaffa cakes and revelled in a reverie of having 1½ hours to myself to do nothing other than bake and then have someone else come along and clear up after me. Well, one can dream................
It was only when I wandered back in to the kitchen that I realised that it was a school  night and there was no cake to put in OH and kids' lunchboxes for the next day.

Sadly the prospect of rustling up a batch of perfect Jaffa cakes was about as likely as Mary Berry turning up dressed as my kitchen fairy godmother, but the classic combination of cake, chocolate and orange was not to be ignored.

This recipe combines all three into a super simple cake, that any baker could make.

Pre heat the oven to 170ºC

Weigh out 2 eggs and then measure out the same weight of butter, orange marmalade and self raising flour.
I used homemade marmalade, but whatever you choose it needs a good strong Seville orange "bite" - Dundee marmalade would be ideal.
Roughly chop around 50g of dark chocolate - I used up the end of a bar I found in the cupboard.

Cream the butter and marmalade until well mixed and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs and then fold in the flour and the chocolate.

Put the mixture into a greased 10" prospector pan or 8½" cake tin and place in the centre of the oven.
Cook for approximately 20 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a rack.

We ate it unadorned, but I reckon a coating of orange glace icing or a simple drizzle of melted chocolate wouldn't go amiss.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

It's not clean, it's not dirty, it's food - enjoy it

Let me preface this article by stating candidly that I have NO qualifications whatsoever related to nutrition and diet.  I know and respect some qualified dieticians, who talk a lot of (common) sense and I now know that if I parted with less than £30 I could be issued with a certificate proclaiming to the world that I am a trained nutritionist.  So much twaddle.
Check that out folks, there are no regulations governing people who call themselves nutritionists.

However, I have been around for more years than I am now prepared to admit on a regular basis, have cooked for myself, my family, our Scout group and many more besides.
I am fit, healthy and a sensible weight.  My children are (touch wood) rarely ill, extremely fit and active and enjoy a wide ranging diet.

We eat what we believe to be a balanced, but thoroughly enjoyable diet which can range from bowls of raw vegetables, salad and nuts to a plate full of tartiflette.
We have never denied the children the opportunity to try things or imposed arbitrary rules.
When they were younger, they had free access to the sweetie and biscuit tins and consequently never regarded them as guilty pleasures and never over indulged. When they were gone, they were gone and there were simply no more until I topped up the tins again.

But this all started running around in my head when I recently met a young man, in less than ideal circumstances, (for me, not him) and what truly depressed me was the diet he told me he was following: no sugar, no carbs just protein and leafy green vegetables

This excluded not only bread, cakes, rice, potatoes and the like but also a great deal of fruit and vegetables too.

He claimed it made him feel healthier and fitter, but refused to elucidate on how he feels when everyone is enjoying a slice of birthday cake or a celebratory drink?

What about a meal out with friends? Apparently there is only one item on an Indian restaurant menu that he can choose and he has that without any accompaniments.

Smug or envious, superior or left out?

This strikes me as food purely consumed as fuel.

Okay, so he claims to like steak, peanut butter and cheese, but surely there is more to life?

We hear so much about balanced diets and about our work life balance, and surely this can includes the balance between fuel and flavour, enjoyment and abstinence

We are beset as a nation with eating disorders and obesity issues, one the one hand we have the problems of body image and the associated horrors, yes horrors, let's not mince words of amnesia and bulimia

On the other hand we have a growing tide of obese people, suffering from a myriad of weight related health problems from heart disease, diabetes, joint pain, and the psychological impacts.

This doesn't even begin to take into account the restrictions being overweight can place on every day life; consider the school children unable to take part in PE lessons without fear of ridicule or self hatred.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own food choices, vegetarians, vegans, religious constraints, the Atkins diet or simply refusing, as President Bush did, to eat broccoli.

What that young man consumed was really none of my business, Beyond the fact that he chose to share it with me.
This week I was enthralled by Grace Victory's BBC programme and have to applaud her research and fantastic presentation skills as she exposed some of the myths being peddled to vulnerable, body conscious individuals - and we are not just talking neurotic, middle class teenage girls. This is an issue that crosses all divides.
In particular I was struck by her interview with the charming Eve Simmons

It is a sad testament to our woeful lack of education and fundamental understanding of food and its place in our lives that allows these charlatans to prey on the vulnerable and get rich in the process.

In my view, we should be celebrating the breadth of choice of food available to us, never before have we had such a wide variety to select, to try, to experiment with.

And yes, the growth of food banks is alarming, but the cost of food represents a far smaller percentage of our average income than it ever has......  and that's another debate entirely.... a rant for another day.

So I come back to one of my soapbox topics......let's connect people with food again, get rid of the notions of good and bad, clean or dirty food, guilty secrets and wicked indulgences and  teach not only school kids, but through them, their parents how to shop, how to cook, how to eat, how to fall in love with food, how to treat food and their bodies and their minds with respect.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

A prelude to the Great British Bake Off

The cricket tea, the village fete, birthday parties, picnics, high tea, cream tea all made better by the addition of baked goodies.  Pies, scones, cakes, biscuits I cannot think of anyone who isn't cheered by a little bit of home baking.  I well remember the best fund raiser at the school summer fayre was always the cake stall, the dads and grandfathers being particularly susceptible to the lure of a slice of coffee and walnut cake or a shortbread triangle.

Tomorrow sees the start of the latest Great British Bake Off and millions will tune in to see baking elevated to a science and an advanced art form, with oohs and aahs in sitting rooms across the nation.

Some will find the competition inspiring, but no doubt for many it will be intimidating, which is a great pity.  We cannot all aspire to becoming the next Nadiya but we can give Mr Kipling a run for his money.

This is not a showstopper, but it is a luscious dessert cake, created because I had some overripe bananas lurking in the freezer and wanted to use them up to make some space.
Nothing complicated, but lovely flavours and with a little bit of artistic licence a great looking pudding.

3 eggs

150g sugar

50g melted butter

100g Greek or Turkish yogurt

3 bananas - I used very ripe ones that had been frozen, but freash ones are just as good.  

3 cardamom pods

150g self raising flour

100g sugar

60g salted cashews

Pre heat the oven to 175º C

In a large mixing bowl whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and very thick

Add the melted butter and yogurt and whisk again.

Mash the bananas until very smooth and add to the mix.

Extract the seeds from the cardamom pods and crush them.

Add the seeds and flour to the mixture and gently fold in.

Pour the batter into a greased 10" prospector pan or cake tin and bake for 20 minutes.

Leave to cool while you prepare the cashew brittle.

Put 100g sugar into a pan, I used a frying pan and place over a moderate heat until it is all melted and a rich brown colour. Do not be tempted to stir it.

Tip in the cashew nuts and swirl the pan to coat the nuts in the liquid sugar.

Pour out on to a greased tray or pan and leave to set.

When the sugar has solidified, break into chunks and grind to a coarse powder with a pestle and mortar.  Otherwise, put into a plastic bag and bash it with a rolling pin.

Don't use an electric grinder as this will reduce it to powder and you want some texture here.

Carefully turn out the cooled cake and cut into slices.
Serve with a large dollop of yogurt (or cream, creme fraiche, Mascarpone or clotted cream) with a generous sprinkle of the cashew brittle.

Store any left over cake - as if - in the fridge, but return to room temperature before serving.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Venison sausages

Remember our trip to Finnebrogue in Downpatrick and our selection of sausages?
Well, of course, venison has to feature.  After all, this is how they started.

Their venison sausages are truly wonderful and, like all their sausages they are gluten free.
Venison is a dark, delicious and low fat meat, making it a great addition to your diet. Whilst some cuts of venison can be expensive and/or hard to get hold of, these sausages are an ideal introduction to the joys of bambi meat.

Fine as they are with mash and gravy, I decided on something a little more adventurous and matched their intriguing colour with the deep purple of damsons and beetroot.

This dish was cooked in one of our woks and ready in 20 minutes - the time it took for #1 son to complete his cardio-vascular cycle run.

So, here goes:

1 onion, chopped
6 Finnebrogue venison sausages, sliced into 5 pieces each
120g stoned damsons*
¼ tsp chopped rosemary
8 juniper berries, crushed
2 cooked beetroot
½ head Hispi cabbage
2 tablespoons damson gin -  in fact, I used my homemade elderberry gin**
Salt and pepper to taste

*   Freeze the damsons and then defrost them to make stoning them a doddle!!!!
** You can replace the gin with red wine, port or stock. If using wine or stock, add 2 teaspoons of sugar to counter the sharp flavour of the damsons.

Heat 1 tablespoon of rapeseed oil in a wok.
Add the chopped onion and cook over a medium heat until translucent.
Increase the heat and add the sausage chunks, rosemary and juniper.

Cook until the sausages are browned all over.

Add the cabbage, damsons and beetroot and cook for another 5 minutes.

Pour in the gin, season to taste and cook for 5 minutes more.

Gorgeous with new potatoes.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Cherry and almond cake

If you are one of our social media fans, you will already have seen tantalising shots  of our brand new Prospector pans, as well as the rather lush cherries that I have already cooked in one.
We are constantly reviewing our range, working out what's missing in our own kitchen and listening to the feedback from home cooks, professional chefs and food writers.
These came about as a result of comments from all of the above - including me.
Update, we have now added a cake tin to the range, which would also work well for this.

Our creative genius put on his thinking cap and I  have to admit the result is not only perfectly functional, but perfectly formed too.  Once again, he has combined beauty with utility.

What I have already found with these - and there will be more to come - is that they are not only useful on the hob, but also in the oven and I am working on a recipe which will see one popped under the grill too. They are equally good for sweet and savoury dishes, versatile, compact and easy to store.

You will also have realised by now that we are great believers in seasonal and local food and enjoy cooking according to what's in season, rather than flown in from other continents.
I appreciate that the political and economic debate about imported food is a vast and polemic topic, with issues such as supporting farmers in developing countries directly through trade rather than aid, air miles, agricultural grants and the globalisation and homogenisation of food cultivation and supply and I leave to experts cleverer than me to continue these discussions.
I am happy to admit that we do not live entirely on local produce and have been known to indulge in mangoes, pineapples, avocados and other delicious imports.

But when local fruit is in season and in abundance, nothing can beat it.  We are fortunate enough to have apple, damson and plums trees in the garden, which where here when we arrived and since then I have added a cherry tree.  The original trees, I guess are pretty old and the harvest is variable but in a good year the crop is sensational.
The cherry tree is prolific, but it's a race with the pigeons and blackbirds as to who gets the lion's share.

  

The bowl of cherries shown above got demolished pretty quickly, but our local farm shop  carries a tempting selection of locally grown fruit, as well as their own fantastic collection of apples and pears, grown in the family orchards.

Last weekend, I could offer no resistance when faced with lush, shiny dark cherries and came home with a large punnet, which I hid from the family in the back of the fridge whilst I figured out what to do with them.

OK, I admit it, I did feel the need to do a quality check on a random sample :-)

I had been avidly reading Ed Smith's supplemental  and yes, I do own up to a little favouritism - have you seen his photos of our pans - and was sorely tempted to do a clafoutis, but having had toad in the hole (recipe coming soon) the day before decided to make something NOT batter based.  I did however heed his advice to stone the cherries and then painstaking extract the kernel from the stones (the noyeux) which have a heady almond flavour, terrifically matched to the cherries.

This is, incidentally a gluten free recipe.

This is what I did with my locally grown cherries.....

2 eggs, 
1 egg white

120g sugar
120g butter, melted and cooled slightly
60g ground almonds
60g ground rice
1 tsp vanilla extract

250g fresh cherries, with the kernels of ¼ of the stones OR 8 fresh apricots

Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC

In a large mixing bowl or food mixer, whisk the whole eggs and egg white with the sugar until it is thick, pale and foamy.
Whisk in the melted butter and vanilla extract.
Fold in the rice and ground almonds

Place the stone cherries and noyeux (optional) or quartered apricots in a 10" prospector pan or cake tin

Pour over the cake batter and place it in the oven.

Bake for 40 minutes (approx) until a skewer comes out clean when dipped into the cake.  If the cake is browning too quickly, cover the top with a piece of greaseproof paper, foil or, as I did, a butter wrapper.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand for around 20 minutes - it will taste far better warm, rather than oven hot.
We indulged ourselves with homemade custard, whipped with Mascarpone cream, but this would be good on its own, with yogurt, creme fraiche, cream or ice cream too.
But to be fair, it would count as one of your "five a day" :-)

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk