Chicken in gin and lemon

Inspiration for recipes can come from many places; travel, eating out, family recipes passed down and given a modern makeover.
Necessity can truly become the mother of invention and many a recipe is the happy result of a fridge forage or larder raid.
And of course, other people's recipes.  I am not talk plagiarism, just a mental nudge in a new direction.  
What stuck in my mind, when I went on a writing course with Diana Henry at Otter Farm earlier this year, was her telling us that to write well, you must read well.
And so I choose my recipe books with care. I do not simply want a compendium of recipes, I want to share the author's love of food, immerse myself in their writing, catch a glimpse of what makes them tick, savour their words as much as their food.
To me, food is about sharing.  It is, as Nigella Lawson says, more than just fuel and the best food writers want to share their passion as well as their recipes.
And it is back to Nigella that I come for the inspiration for this recipe.  To the astonishment of most of us and believed only through a leap of faith and trying it ourselves, her ham in cola is a wondrous thing.  My second inspiration is Valentine Warner and his friends at Hepple gin, a most glorious elixir from Northumberland.  If you get any opportunity to try this, seize it with both hands and savour it.
This recipe was created with Hepple in mind, although sadly I didn't have any to hand, so in this instance I have substituted Bols genever instead.  Believe me, any gin will do.

2 chicken breasts
200ml good quality, cloudy lemonade or bitter lemon
1tsp grated lemon zest
1 tsp juniper berries, lightly crushed
1 tsp salt
1 large sprig hyssop or thyme
1 tot of gin
100g butter


Place everything except the butter in a prospector casserole or a frying pan with a lid.

Place on the hob and bring to the boil over a medium heat.  Turn down the heat and simmer for 40 minutes.
Carefully lift out the chicken and set aside.
Remove the twiggy herb stalks from the pan and add the butter. Bring it up to the boil and cook until glossy and sticky.

Slice the chicken and lay it on a bed of steamed shredded cabbage.
Pour over the sauce and serve.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2017 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

SIMPLE: A book by Diana Henry

You will recall my trip to Otter Farm earlier this year for a food writing course with Diana Henry.
You may also remember my trepidation at the thought of submitting a piece of homework for review by our talented teacher.
This was a sample of work, written BEFORE the course - definitely an opportunity to "compare and contrast" our writing abilities, in the manner of the old English O level questions!

Well .......... the homework came back duly marked and I think I can safely say that the comments could be interpreted as a solid 7/10.
Diana's comments were incisive and very helpful.  I am putting them into practice with my writing now and hope that the results are evident.

But this all gave me an idea and as she has written, albeit privately, about mine, I have decided to write about Diana's writing.  I have several of her books and, in my opinion, each one is even better than the last.
Her latest, is certainly my favourite.

SIMPLE:  Effortless food, big flavours

To be honest, there's not much more to add to that.  We learned on our course that "less is more" and not to pad out our writing with unnecessary waffle.  The title and summary really do describe the book to a T.

Damn, Diana is a clever writer!!

This book shows you how to turn a few ingredients into tantalising, easy to prepare and visually impressive meals without having to be a trained chef or have a kitchen full of specialist equipment.
OK, so some of the ingredients are a bit off beat for us rural mice - pomegranate molasses in Highley anyone? - but surely that's what the internet is for.  Hello Souschef.

Take, for example, huevos rotos:

"SPANISH BROKEN EGGS; spicy, cheap, calls for a cold beer."
No spare words and already I am hooked.  After all, an excuse for a beer on a school night signposts me to a recipe every time.

"In other words, perfect midweek food" 
Who can argue with that?  
A total of only 16 words and they speak volumes.

This not only sums up the recipe, but everything that Diana taught us. Choose your words carefully and sparingly and they will deliver your message. Blather on and the message will be lost.

Now go and get yourself a copy of the book - and treat yourself to some remarkably SIMPLE food.

© Netherton Foundry 2017

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

A day at Otter Farm 3

Wear sensible shoes. So said the joining instructions for the course.
OK, so the footwear is sorted, sort of. But what else to wear, is there a dress code for this kind of event?  The nerves tingle and sting like Spring nettles. What will everyone else be wearing? Am I being too shallow? Will there be a yummy mummy contingent,  ladies d'un certain age and a certain, confident style, media maidens, sassily strutting their AllSaints apparel?  Nothing in my wardrobe shouts "writing course" at me, oh where is my Elizabeth David outfit when I need it.
Pull yourself together, woman. This is a food writing course, not a remake of The Devil Wears Prada. You are meeting Diana Henry, not Anna Wintour.  All the same, as the saying goes, clothes maketh the (wo)man, so I need something that is not only comfortable, but which will also boost confidence.
Black dress, black boots, grey cardigan, done.
And as I walk into Mark and Candida's glorious kitchen at Otter Farm and meet Diana, I take in her black dress, black boots and grey cardigan.  I feel better already.  Better yet with a cup of coffee and a still warm, fennel fragrant biscuit, produced by the disarmingly youthful 5 o'clock apron, aka Claire Thomson.
The other course attendees start arriving.  Coffee and tea flow freely and initial, introductory conversations stutter into life. We are issued with sticky name labels and V. uses hers to cover the toothpaste mark on her black top and I inwardly acknowledge my right to be here.  What's more it's a joy to discover that I already "know" some of these people from the virtual world of social media, where we so often expose our personalities and hide our identities.
More coffee, and, with the arrival of long distance traveller, A., we begin.

I open the beautiful notebook, given to me at Christmas by my daughter, especially for today. I don't want to miss a thing.

There is so much to take in, Diana has structured the course to cover as much material as possible In the time available.
I listen, I make notes, I drink more coffee, I eat sublime cake, thanks again Claire, listen again, make more notes, eat a delicious lunch, yes, prepared by Claire, and swig home made Limoncello with sparkling Otter Farm wine. 

Enough to be glad that I am not the one to be driving home, not so much that the afternoon will be a somnolent haze.
Just as well, because as soon as the lunch  dishes are cleared, it's our turn to work.  Write a piece in 45 minutes; a metaphoric blank piece of paper insolently defies us to pick a topic, an audience and a coherent collection of words.
THIS IS NOT EASY. But harder yet is reading it aloud to the group.
Deep breath, don't look up, go for it. There is appreciation, laughter - reassuringly in the places I'd expected - and relief.  I listen to the others' pieces; this room is brimming with talent, wit and warmth.

The day is over, we have run over our allotted finish time and yet it has past all too swiftly.

I am not going to divulge details of the course itself, you will have to attend yourself for that.  Only that way can you benefit, as I did, from one far more qualified than I am to deliver pearls of writing wisdom. Cliched that may be, but believe me, pearls they were, lustrous, precious and certainly not found in every shell.

It is time to go home to homework, housework and getting these in the right order.  This post is part of my homework, whilst the dishes languish in the sink!

Many thanks to Mark and Candida for arranging the course and opening their beautiful home to us, to Claire for feeding us so wonderfully,  I can still taste the marmalade polenta cake and, of course, to Diana for sharing her skill and talents with us so generously.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2017

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

On meeting a hero

Where, how do you start when writing about a hero?  Especially if that hero is a writer, a person whose command of language can transport you to places you've never seen and evoke such base yearnings that you would blush to admit..... albeit cravings of the stomach, a greedy longing that makes the categorisation of gluttony as a sin justifiable.

Before I even get to see Diana Henry take her place in the Orangery at Bristol,Food Connections, a serendipitous meeting brings home the impact that her writing has.
I was fortunate enough to procure a ticket to recording of an interview by Sheila Dillon for a future broadcast of the BBC Food Programme entitled, Diana Henry, a Life in Food.
Just in case you are reading this on another planet, here are some of the Diana Henry books pulled from my shelves.

This meant an early start; on a good day the trip to Bristol can take an hour and three quarters, but the M5 is a fickle and variable conduit and the same  trip can seemingly last all day. Add into the mix the fact that I wasn't entirely sure where I was going and plenty of leeway seemed a sensible precaution,

As it was, the motorway was blissfully free of traffic - so bizarre for a holiday weekend, that I feared I had the wrong day - and the directions provided on the cathedral website were disarmingly simple to follow.
Needless to say, I was ridiculously early.
And this is what led to my chance encounter with Helen.  I only know her first name and regret not getting to say good bye properly later that morning, but it was a genuine  pleasure to meet her and I can only hope that she reads this and recognises herself
She joined me at the window table of a coffee bar overlooking the College Green, where the advertised event was to take place and we fell into conversation about the city wide Food Connections and quickly established that we were attending the same event.
One thing led to another and I explained that I had come down from Shropshire - Helen was a Bristol resident - and "let slip" that we make pans.
"Aha" she said you are the company that Diana mentioned in her Christmas guide, where she said "Look out, Le Creuset".
My word, that was Christmas 2014, so you can see why I was so struck by the power of her words.

But, less about us and more about Diana Henry....
The recording was happening inside a wonderful wooden framed marquee, which was very atmospheric, resplendent with twinkling fairy lights, but which must have been a nightmare for the sound recordist. External noise which caused heads to turn included the throaty roar of a Harley Davidson motorbike, what sounded like the erection of scaffolding and the overhead pass of a helicopter.

Sheila Dillon, another hero, introduced Diana on to the stage and conducted an interview, which drew the very best from her interviewee, the conversation flowed, the facts and reminisces were skilfully elicited and praise was given with the lightest and most sincere touch that even the most self deprecating interviewee could soak up its warmth, without fear of  an overheated blush.

Diana Henry is a truly talented writer, and setting  her in the same pantheon as Elizabeth David and Jane Grigson, as Sheila Dillon did, is to site her exactly where she belongs.
Her sheer love of and joy in food, ingredients, travel and writing were evident and so readily shared. It would take a joyless soul not to be carried along with the flow of her words and the undercurrent of  gentle passion as she described how she came to write, how she writes in the middle of the night when she doesn't have to distracted by putting on a load of washing and about moving to London and discovering so many wonderful ingredients carried the audience on the journey with her.

She is truly enamoured of the written word and unstintingly generous in her praise of others' writing.
Her excellent and eclectic choices of inspiring writing were  beautifully read out by Becky Ripley and Sam Woolf.
Becky coaxed the words off the page and sent them skipping and dancing joyfully amongst the audience, whilst Sam's sonorous voice filled the tent with ripples and echoes of meaning and emotion.

I especially enjoyed the Seamus Heaney poem, Blackberry-Picking and one of Marina O'Loughlin's restaurant reviews.

Time past too quickly and the event was over too soon, but the icing was still to be applied to the cake and I got the opportunity to thank Diana in person for all the support she has given us and to say "Hello", in person to Sheila Dillon.
Thank you both for an uplifting, inspiring and thoroughly enjoyable morning.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Rhubarb and strawberry cake

I love the combination of these two classic English fruits - yes, I know that rhubarb isn't technically a fruit - the glorious sweetness of an English strawberry contrasting with the sharp bite of the rhubarb.

This works well in pies and crumbles, but as ever, I wanted something a little different and I needed to keep up my 20+ year tradition of trying at least one new recipe a month.

I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Diana Henry's fabulous book Food from Plenty for my birthday last month and was even more delighted when she recommended to me that I start with her apricot and almond cake.
Quite right she was too.............

.... but damn the woman, I am now constantly plagued to know when I am going to make it again.

Soooooooooooo, I decided to have a play around and came up with the following, just hope Diana would like it.

1 large stick of rhubarb - see method
8 small English strawberries
2 oranges
100g sugar

125g butter
125g sugar
2 eggs
170g self raising flour 
2 tablespoons sour cream
NOTE: I tried this with 170g rice flour too for a gluten free alternative  - scrumptious

Finely grate the orange zest and set to one side.
Cut the rhubarb into lengths to fit across a 1lb loaf tin  and place in a saucepan
Add the juice of the 2 oranges along with the 100g sugar.  Poach gently until the rhubarb is soft, but retains its shape.

Taste and add more sugar if needed.  Set aside and leave to cool.

Heat the oven to 170ºC

Beat the butter, sugar and orange zest together in a large mixing bowl until pale in colour.
Add the eggs and beat again.
Fold in the flour and then the sour cream.
Line the loaf tin with oiled greaseproof paper - or use a butter wrapper.
Cut the strawberries in half - or slice them if they are too large.
Carefully lift the rhubarb out of the orange syrup and space it out in the bottom of the loaf tin.  Place the strawberries between the lines of rhubarb. Reserve the orange syrup.

Spoon the cake batter over the fruit and level the top.

Place in the oven and cook for 40 - 50 minutes - or until a skewer poked into the middle of the cake emerges free of gooey mixture :-)

Leave to cool a little and then invert on to a serving plate.

Spoon over the orange syrup and serve slightly warm with cream, Greek yogurt, creme fraiche or, now that you can finally get it here in the UK, Skyr, utterly delectable Icelandic thick yogurt

Serves 8

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Blowing our own trumpet

It has been an extraordinarily exciting time for us lately.

Creating a new brand from scratch was a daunting prospect, especially on a shoestring.  Other well known brands of pots and pans have huge marketing budgets, which seems a little unfair when you consider that so many of them are already household names.
I suppose we also tied one hand behind our backs with the decision to sell our wares through the independent, imaginative and often eccentric shops on your High Street, rather than going for the lure of the mega order from the chain stores.
This (still) means, as you probably already know, my filling up the car - the original Little Blue Van - has been replaced by a newer blue van - and touring the country looking for likely stockists.

These wonderful shops are, quite literally, our shop window and have done so much to bring our range to the public's attention.  We love the fact that establishments as diverse as pubs, bookshops, farm shops and fireplace showrooms are just as likely to stock us as traditional cook shops and that all of these offer true individuality, a great choice of goods, genuine passion for what they are doing, great product knowledge and customer service.
I'm sure that the reps who go into some of the bigger department stores for meetings don't get a hug!!

They have supported us and we are doing whatever we can to support them - and the best way we can do that is to supply them with great British-made cookware, that people will come looking for.
Thank you to all of them. Please help us by visiting them - you can find them all listed here

And that is why we are so very grateful to the well known and professional people who have lent us their support.

We know that our pans are good, but when highly respected chefs say so, then people start to pay a little more attention.
First up is Stevie Parle from the Dock Kitchen in London - he spotted us way back and has been using our casserole dish and frying pans ever since.  He created a fabulous recipe for the Sunday Telegraph, for whom he is a regular contributor and cooked it in our casserole dish


Since then his head chef, the talented Rich Blackwell keeps me posted with what's going into the frying pans. 

Many of you will know James, as son of Dick Strawbridge and they took delivery of some pans to use on their hugely entertaining Saturday Farm TV show, that was filmed at Daylesford Farm.

James is now the proud owner of one of our tagines and if you look further down the blog, you will come across the special chicken recipe he created just for us.

On now to the stars of Shropshire and many thanks for all your support to......

Will Holland, who has now migrated to Wales and cooked this gorgeous Tarte Tatin in one of our oven safe crepe pans  As far as we know, Will is now in Jersey

Marcus Bean has not only used our pans on stage at the Shrewsbury and Ludlow Food festivals, he takes them with  him to all his demos and regularly uses them at the Cookery School.

He also included us in his Kitchen Saviours article for the Guardian, describing the usefulness of the Kitchen Companion, one of our most versatile products.

Chris Burt's prodigious talents see him running the stunning Peach Tree and Momo-No-Ki restaurants in Shrewsbury and he is so impressed with our woks, that they are the only ones used in the Momo-No-Ki kitchen  Update: Chris is now cooking up a storm at the Mytton and Mermaid and still using Netherton pans

Suree Coates  is a celebrated and award winning Thai chef.

Robert Swift, master baker has lent his support and expertise to the development of the latest addition to the Netherton range - these superb loaf tins will be available in February, complete with recipes by Robert.

But I've been saving the best news til last.............

Drum roll please..............

Showcasing the pans at Taste of London, was Michelin starred chef Adam Gray,from the Skylon restaurant. Adam is now at the Devonshire Club

Food writer and broadcaster par excellence, Diana Henry recommended us as her find of the year in her "must have" Christmas gift guide 

And finally, as an early Christmas to both herself and us - the undisputed goddess of the kitchen, Nigella Lawson got her hands on one of our slow cookers.

    

As if all that weren't enough, we were honoured and privileged to be asked to present one of our hand painted tagines as a Shropshire gift to HRH the Princess Royal on her recent visit to the Shropshire Women and Children's Centre at the Princess Royal Hospital in Telford.  We were fortunate enough to meet Her Royal Highness.

Read all about the visit here...

Last week brought yet more excitement with our attendance at Theo Paphitis's #SBS event in Birmingham, where he told us that we all have to blow our own trumptes, because if we don't no-one else will.

Well, it looks as though he may have half a point there - because we have been blowing so hard, that we now have a backing chorus blowing along with us.

And that backing team includes his #SBS  team who selected us as one of seven companies to be showcased in 10 key Robert Dyas stores.

We are not there yet, and there is still a long way to go, but we are certainly on our way to becoming a household name and giving the "big boys" something to think about.

So a HUGE "Thank you " to everyone supporting us on our journey, keep shouting, there are still some folk at the back that haven't heard (of) us yet.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk