Chicken Carisco

I hate to think how it's looked from your side of the fence, but the last few months have been a nightmare for us as we struggled to meet the huge demand for our British slow cookers, after they were praised by Nigella Lawson and then appeared in the Sunday Times and Grazia magazine.

We have worked ceaselessly to restore supply and are now busy beavering away, making these in our workshops.
We have been asked so many times if we really DO make our kitchenwares in the UK and the answer is "Yes, we certainly do!!"

We are finally back on track and extend our massive thanks to all of you who have kept the faith and been patient enough to wait for your slow cooker.  Waiting time from the placing of your order to arrival on your doorstep is now only a week!

To celebrate the availability of the new 2016 model, I have created a new chicken recipe, which uses seasonal wild garlic - which can, of course, be replaced by other greens at other times in the year.
This is the true "cut it up and chuck it in" tradition of simple slow cooking - so just relax and give it a go.

Bold Mediterranean flavours and the colour of sunset

1 large chicken, mine weighed in at 2kg
1 large onion, peeled and sliced
1 red pepper, de-seeded and sliced
1 yellow pepper, de-seeded and sliced
1 orange, cut into 8 segments - skin on
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp paprika
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
200ml water or stock
2 tsp salt
Handful of wild garlic, in season - otherwise use spinach

Lay the onions and peppers in the bottom of the slow cooker bowl.
Sprinkle the salt, fennel and paprika over the top and stir well to mix.
Sit the chicken on top and place the orange segments around the chicken.
Pour the tomatoes and water/stock over the chicken.
Put on the lid and cook for 8 - 10 hours on KEEP WARM , 6 hours on LOW.

When cooked, remove the lid and throw in the shredded garlic or spinach.  Replace the lid for 5 minutes to allow the greens to wilt and then serve.
Delicious with new potatoes, rice or crusty bread.

A watercress, orange and fennel salad would be a terrific accompaniment

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

A very special dinner

I know that professional food critics can get a little hot under the collar about us amateurs treading on their turf, but this is not an attempt to do them out of a job, more an encouragement to get them out to Shrewsbury.  

We were thrilled to be invited to the Peach Tree for a special tasting menu, put together just for us by Executive Chef and good friend Chris Burt. To give himself an added challenge, he came up with a  vegetarian selection for us,  an opportunity to add an extra layer of inventiveness.
Chris is a hugely talented chef, heading up 3 restaurants in Shrewsbury, each offering exciting and imaginative dishes to liven the tastebuds and lift the spirits.
Important update: Chris is now the executive chef at the Mytton and Mermaid and his cooking has moved up several notches!!!

My first encounter with food from the kitchens of the Peach Tree was at the very first Shrewsbury Food Festival in 2013.  It was also the first festival that we had attended, but what a fabulous experience.  We will back again for the fourth time this year, supplying pans for the demo stage chefs as well as the cookery workshops, which will be overseen by none other than Mr Burt himself and of course, with our own stand selling our great British cookware..
I was manning our stand single handed and in need of sustenance.  Of course, there was a staggering selection to choose from, but the menu from the Peach Tree stood out and called to me like a siren.
After that, I was hooked and couldn't wait to introduce the family to Chris's food.
It was only the following year at the same event when we got to know Chris himself - and the rest, as they say, is history.
We are now firm friends and not only do we supply woks for the restaurant kitchens, but we also do specially commissioned woks with the MomoNoKi logo, which are on sale in the eponymus establishment.

Back to the more recent past.........

The following is in part a description of what we ate and in part a little hero worship.

We love not only Chris's talent, but his enthusiasm, passion, even obsession with food, his love of great flavours and his championing of local suppliers.... And yes, that does include us.... this is one of our woks, much used in the restaurant kitchens

So, what did we eat?

Amuse - a shared plate of heritage beets with aged Lockley cheese, made by the lovely  Mr Moyden and goats cheese snow, a frozen cheese from Sarah at Brockhall Farm.  The plate was finished with pumpkin seeds for extra texture.

Off to a good start, with bouche well and truly amused.

Green velvet up next, a voluptuous velouté of wild garlic and nettle, presented wearing a pixie hat of penny wort. As if the flavour wasn't punchy enough already, Chris had upped the ante with truffle roasted radish and Romanesco.

So many huge flavours distilled in a tiny cup, but with each flavour still individual and identifiable. Utterly luscious.

From green to purple, hummus blitzed with beetroot and pitta spiked with pomegranate, which merited star billing in its own right.  Harissa and pistachios added another layer of flavour, again enhancing rather than distracting from the main players. All topped off with a rose wafer for colour, texture and fun.

If I hadn't been sitting in a restaurant I'd have licked the plate.  As it was I made do with wiping my finger around the plate to make sure I got the last little scrape.

Three dishes in and my tastebuds are rejoicing, but there is so much more to come.

These dishes have been full of flavours, but they have been delicate, well behaved, polite, the next one was decidedly kickass.

A true Momo No Ki smack in the gob bowl of oomph. Noodles, salad, tofu and peanut with a generous dollop of lip smacking kochujang ketchup.

This is the kind of food that makes you sit up and take notice, an assault on your senses that leaves you knowing that you'll be back for more.

I have to admit, I had no idea how Chris could follow that, surely  anything that followed would seem tame in comparison, a sensory letdown, not doubt pleasant, but a pale shadow of the previous dish.

Oh me of little faith, I really should have known better. Chris produced a dish of ceps and truffles on Robert Swift's sourdough that topped the last course for sheer umami punch. Wave upon wave of fungal depth with a sublime combination of texture. Simply stunning.

As each dish arrived, my admiration of Chris talent and inventiveness grew, we knew he was good, we hadn't realised just how good.

With the flavours creeping up the scale, I was intrigued to know what would come next.  And whilst everything that had gone before was a new riff on dishes we'd had before, professional versions of dishes we eat at home, then the next one was totally new.

The salsifondue was a complete revelation. Salsify is one of my favourite vegetables and in my opinion, much overlooked and underused. This was like no salsify I had ever had before, an intense fudge like paste, blended with buckets of butter for an almost foie gras experience and served with salted roasted salsify for dipping.

The roasted, salted salsify was the perfect partner for dipping into the unctuous goo.This was a fondue like no other and deserves wider recognition.

Touring the globe, the next dish is inspired by Italy and we share a plate of gnocchi with a pretty purple beetroot and acorn sauce, topped with another of Martin's delicious Shropshire cheeses, this time it's Newport. Best described by Martin himself

This assembly has a subtly sweet overtone, cleverly bringing our palate back on track for dessert.

And not one, but two truly delicious puds to round off the meal.

As vanilla as you can get without sucking on a pod, this ice cream with spice of angels knocked spots off the average scoop and the intriguing and subtle spicing created an extra dimension.

To finish, we were treated to chef Liam James's flower brulees - I must admit that had these simply been described to me, I would have shared Chris's initial thought that I was about to be served with a selection of boutique hotel soaps - his description, not mine, but like him, we were won over by the exotic and delicate flavours of rose, geranium, lavender and violet, that left our tongues feeling caressed.

You may well think that all this sounds like "too much of a good thing", but it's further testament to Chris's skills that each course and the overall balance of the meal was such that we could enjoy every course to the full, without filling full.

By the end of the meal, we scraped the last vestiges of brulees from their shell, felt replete, but not stuffed and privileged to have been given this amazing treat.

The boy done good, thanks Chef.

And if you fancy checking out this most inventive and passionate chef's work, seek out Momo No Ki, the Peach Tree and Havana Republic, side by side on Abbey Foregate in Shrewsbury

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Toffee apple and date cake

Our loaf tins, as many people, including the lovely Nigella Lawson, already know, are good for all sorts of yummy things other than home made bread.
This is a scrumptious toffee apple cake, which tastes even better with some home made custard or a dollop of cream.

1oz butter
2oz brown sugar
Splash of brandy (optional)
2 apples - no need to peel
8 dates, pitted and chopped
1oz chopped pecans

Melt the butter in a frying pan, add the sugar and the brandy. Heat gently until sugar dissolves.
Core the apples and cut into chunky slices. Stir into the toffee sauce, with the dates.

Cook for 5 minutes and transfer to a 2lb loaf tin.
Sprinkle over the chopped pecans.

Preheat the oven to 175ºC

2 oz butter
2 oz sugar
2 oz golden syrup

2 eggs

2 oz SR flour
2 oz ground rice
1tsp mixed spice

Beat the butter until it is soft, add the sugar and syrup and beat until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and beat thoroughly.
Fold in the flour, ground rice and mixed spice.

Spread over the apples.
Place in the oven and bake for around 20 minutes.
Leave to cool for 15 minutes.
Turn out onto a serving plate and serve sliced with whipped cream or custard.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Sticky toffee pudding

I'm getting time off for good behaviour - this has been sent in by one of our customers.

Enjoy.



Right, Sue, how does one stand on copyright issues? I was a bit bothered about this, but looking at the changes I have made, I think it has to be "mine". The recipe is based on one from the Wells Cathedral (Somerset) teashop booklet, but looking at other recipes for the same pudding it's easy to see how very similar they are, within the parameters possible. I have changed some of the measurements, changed some of the instructions for the dates, changed the sugar and flour used, changed the cooking method - yes it has be "mine"!

So, the original was baked in an ovenproof dish, but I usually use a pudding basin these days to keep it nice and moist..

I use Imperial measurements but for the sake of the metrically compliant among us (!), I have converted to grammes on a 25 gm rather than 30gm per oz, so as not to overfill the basin.

Here goes:

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Serves about 8

Butter a 2 pint (1.2L) pudding basin well

Ingredients

50gm / 2oz butter

125gm / 5oz sugar, soft light or dark brown, or golden granulated

1 egg, lightly beaten

200gm / 8 oz plain flour, half wholemeal, half white, with1 tsp baking powder sifted in, or use self raising flour

200ml / 8fl oz boiling water in a jug/bowl, and 1tsp soda bic (bicarbonate of soda)

*175gm / 6 oz dates

1 tsp Vanilla extract

Sauce

275gm / 11oz dark brown Muscovado sugar

150gm / 5oz butter

250ml / ½ pint double cream

* You can either use chopped ones, cut up whole ones with kitchen scissors, or, even use whole, which is fabulous - my favourite - they soften and sort of candify! See note below**.

Method

Put dates in bowl/jug with boiling water and soda bic to soften a little. They will continues softening during cooking.

Mix butter and sugar well, add the egg, then flour. If using food processor, "blitz" butter and sugar, then add egg and vanilla, and finally fold in the flour/baking powder mixture by hand.

**Add dates, as much of the hot water needed to make a rather sloppy mixture. Adjust as necessary.

Put into the greased pudding basin - it will almost fill it.

Grease a piece of foil or greaseproof paper large enough to cover the basin, and tie it round the top with string.

Cook on High for 2 hours, and turn down to Keep Warm if it's ready before you are.

**Alternatively, lift the dates out of their soaking water, and put them in the bottom of the basin, adding the liquid to the sponge mixture and mixing in well. (If using whole dates, I usually mix them through the sponge ingredients.)

Toffee sauce

Warm the ingredients in a small pan on the hob to dissolve the sugar, bringing to a gentle boil,
Turn pudding out on to warmed plate, pour over some of the sauce, and serve rest in a jug to add as required.

Postscript

The other thing I did yesterday was to cook a whole cauliflower in the slow cooker. It was rather large, so cut in ¼s and added about half a packet of butter, sprinkled with a little salt and white pepper, and cooked for 2 hours on High, just lifting the lid periodically to turn the quarters over. It was melt-in-the-mouth sweet and tender. (My husband doesn't normally like cauliflower, but even he admitted it tasted OK (he couldn't possibly go so far as to say it was nice!)

I thought I'd try it with chopped swede, as I love it, but it can have a slightly "I don't know what flavour" . Also the Jerusalem artichokes from the garden... or how about parsnips, perhaps cooked in with Bramleys? Endless possibilities...

Must go and get lunch!!

Bye for now Elisabeth