Rich curd tart

Rich curd tart

So much has been written about the traditional Yorkshire curd tart and its little sisters, maids of honour, that there seems little point in covering ground better done by professional food writers and historians.

For me, a curd tart is simply a reminder of childhood, one of my mother's baking day staples and my father's favourites for his bait box, as we called his packed lunch.

All those years ago, no one regarded it as a special dish, a heritage recipe or even realised in our rural enclave that it was very much a regional dish, rarely ever encountered outside the county boundaries.

Chronologically and geographically it was a different world.

In fact, it was only when I went to university that I realised that we even had our own vocabulary, incomprehensible to the rest of the country. Whereas everyone else simply had tangled hair, mine was full of cotters!

I still make my mum's recipe for traditional curd tart, but can't resist tinkering from time to time and concocted the following, more as a dessert than a simple teatime treat.

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC
Make a shortcrust pastry using 6oz plain flour and 3oz butter

Remove the handle from a 10" glamping pan or use an ovenproof 10" frying pan or remove the oak handle covers from a 10" frying pan. Alternatively use a 10¼" prospector pan. 
Of course, the new 10" pie dish is ideal.
Grease lightly
Line the pan with the pastry.

2oz butter

3oz sugar

3 eggs

8oz curd or cottage cheese

Grated zest of ½ lemon

2oz raisins, soaked for half an hour in a little rum

1oz candied lemon peel

2oz ground almonds

Grated nutmeg

Beat the butter and sugar, add the eggs and beat thoroughly.
Stir in the remaining ingredients and pour into the pastry case.

Bake for 30 mins, until set.

Serve cold.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Warm summer salad

When you think of casserole dishes, the first things that come to mind are comforting stews and hearty winter dishes, but this might help you to see your casserole in a new light and dust it off on a summer's day.

WARM SUMMER SALAD
2 sweet potatoes

1 onion

¼ cauliflower

1 small red pepper

8 cherry tomatoes, quartered

150g baby spinach

100g salted peanuts

Ottolenghi tahini and parsley dressing

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC
Peel the sweet potatoes and cut each one into 6 - 8 chunks, depending on the size of your potatoes.
Cut the onion into 8 segments.

Put the potatoes and onions into the casserole dish and pour over the olive oil.
Mix well to coat the vegetables and roast in the oven for 30 minutes.
Break the cauliflower into florets ad add to the casserole and return to the oven for another 15 minutes.

Leave to cool to room temperature.
Dice the pepper and add to the dish with the tomatoes, peanuts and spinach.
Toss gently to mix.

This would be fine served with a vinaigrette, but is brought alive with Yotam Ottolenghi's superb parsley and tahini dressing.

We ate ours accompanied by sesame and garlic flatbreads and an ice cold rose wine.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Whitchurch Food festival

Food Festivals come in all shapes and sizes

First of all there are the large, corporate events held in vast venues, such as the Good food Show at the NEC.  These are great for spotting celebrity chefs and the perfect place for a celeb selfie.

Then there are the traditional festivals, all based on the original one first held in Ludlow over 20 years ago and now a twice yearly event at the Castle.  Here the focus is on local producers, alongside some splendid and varied entertainment.
Shrewsbury Food Festival burst onto the festival scene in 2013, we were there, and it has been growing like Topsy ever since.  This is an amazing outing and this year's event takes place verrrry soon. Come along and say "Hello", watch the chefs rustle up appetising grub in our pans on the Wenlock demo stage and get to use the pans yourself in the Chef's School .

Some festivals are hosted in buildings, from church halls to engine sheds - check out the Severn Valley Home and Garden Fayre in Highley, some are in marquees and some are just a row of exhibitor gazebos in a muddy field.

Every craft fair in the land will now have someone selling something delicious and homemade.

Which brings  me round to Whitchurch Food Festival - relatively new, still quite small, brought together by 3 volunteers and a councillor - and a delightful day out.
This was my first visit to Whitchurch, not as a visitor, but a sidekick to the irrespresible Chris Burt, executive chef at Momo.No.Ki, the Peach Tree and Havana Republic in Shrewsbury, on stage and demonstrating how easy it can be to create great lookout, great tasting food.....all cooked in our pans of course.

We had huge fun, as you can see in the photos and this was the first public outing for our new collaborative range of pans in conjunction with Fat Punk Studio - take a walk on the wild side
http://www.netherton-foundry.co.uk/Fat-Punk

This festival, like all the others in the county, was a fabulous endorsement of the talented array of artisan food producers across Shropshire - we are hugely lucky to have all this great food on our doorsteps.

A huge thank you to everyone involved at Whitchurch Food Festival, see you again next year.

And massive thanks to La Triestina for taking time away from their stand to take our photos

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016