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

Baking - chocolate and peanut butter cake

I love baking, the simple pleasure of mixing the ingredients, the tantalising smell that fills the kitchen and the anticipation of something to tuck into, be it sweet or savoury, whilst it's still a wee bit warm.

And of course, I am far from alone, as the success of Great British Bake Off testifies.  
We are fortunate to know a host of superb bakers, including fifth generation baker, Robert Swift, Tom Herbert, one half of the Fabulous Baker Brothers, the adorable Luis Troyano, runner up in last year's GBBO and closer to home the lovely Janice, who runs fabulous bread making courses in her own home.

We are also honoured and excited that the Domestic Goddess herself, Nigella Lawson has been using our loaf tins for some of her latest recipes - including one for Breakfast banana Bread with cardamon and cocoa nibs, which will be in her latest book, Simply Nigella, to be published on 8th October 2015.
Only a week away, but if you can't wait - you can find it featured in the pre-publication special in the Mail on Sunday

My chocolate and peanut butter cake may not be in the same league, but I have to admit, it's not half bad and goes down well with a cup of tea.

120g butter

80g crunchy peanut butter

120g soft brown sugar

50g dark chocolate, at least 70% cocoa, melted and left to cool

3 eggs

120g self raising flour

Topping

30g dark chocolate, melted

1 rounded teaspoon butter

2 rounded teaspoons icing sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC

Grease a 1lb loaf tin or line with a liner, parchment paper or a butter wrapper.

Cream the butter, peanut butter and sugar until fluffy.

Beat in the eggs and chocolate.

Carefully fold in the flour and transfer the mix to the loaf tin

Bake for 40 - 50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean with no sticky mixture on it.

Allow to cool in the tin for 15 minutes before turning out.

To make the optional topping, stir the butter and icing sugar into the melted chocolate and drizzle over the cooled cake.

Here's the finished cake sitting pretty on my favourite Shelley plate

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Baking - bread and cake

I really LOVE our new loaf tins and it seems that our customers do too.  This set was a Valentine's day present.

And this one was photographed by Nigella Lawson as soon as she unpacked it!

We've asked the folk who posted these amazing photos on Twitter to send us their recipes and as soon as we've compiled them all, we will share them with you.

In the meantime, you'll have to make do with mine - although if you buy one of these lovely tins, you will get 2 recipes from master baker, Robert Swift, the fifth generation of the Swift baking dynasty.

In our house, we have genes running back to Eastern Europe and I think that's where our love of  "bread with substance" comes from.  These are not light, airy breads, but seriously tasty breads with a bit of "chew".
There are 2 for you to try - the first one is a delicious brown bread, which goes just as well with a strong cheese as it does with butter and honey and the second is a really easy, food processor loaf, which takes virtually no effort and is great for sandwiches.

Brown bread, seriously brown bread
1lb strong white flour, unbleached if possible
1lb wholemeal bread flour
3 tsp dried yeast

2 tsp salt

1 pt tepid water
1 dessertspoon malt extract
1 dessertspoon black treacle

Put 5 fl oz of the water into a large mixing bowl and add the yeast.  Sprinkle over 2 tblsp of  the white flour and set aside for around 15 minutes, until the yeast has dissolved and is beginning to froth.

Dissolve the salt, malt extract and treacle in the remaining water.

Tip both flours into the mixing bowl and add the water mix.

Bring the mixture together with a fork or wooden spoon.

Tip the dough out on to the worktop and knead well for around 10 minutes. You should have a smooth, elastic dough that doesn't stick to your fingers.

Place in a clean bowl and cover - use oiled cling film, a large plastic bag or, preferably a damp tea towel (we are minimising our use of plastic) - essentially, you don't want the surface of the dough to dry out.
Leave to prove until doubled in size.

Turn out again and give it a quick knead.

Grease 2 x 2lb loaf tins with butter or oil.

Divide the dough in half and put each half into one of the greased tins.

Cover, as before and leave until doubled in size

Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC
Place the tins into the centre of the oven and bake for 30 - 40 minutes.

To check that the loaf is cooked, turn it out and tap the underside.  If it sounds hollow, it's cooked.  If it doesn't, stick it back in the oven, or you'll find you have a stodgy middle :-)

Leave to cool on a wire rack and serve in thick slices

Easy white bread
1lb strong white bread flour, unbleached if possible
10 fl oz tepid water
1 tsp dried yeast
1 tsp salt
1 tblsp olive or rapeseed oil

Dissolve the yeast in the water.
Tip all the ingredients into a food processor and mix for 30 seconds.
Cover any exposed surface of the processor bowl to prevent the dough drying out.

Leave to prove until the dough has doubled in size - I have been known to leave this all day, while I've been out at the workshops or overnight at the weekend.

Grease a 2lb loaf tin with butter or oil.

Put the dough into the greased tin.
Cover, as above while you pre-heat the oven to 200ºC
Place the tin into the centre of the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

To check that the loaf is cooked, turn it out and tap the underside.  If it sounds hollow, it's cooked.  If it doesn't stick it back in the oven, or you'll find you have a soggy middle :-)

Leave to cool on a wire rack.

And because we also like CAKE ..............

Cherry loaf
Personally, I can't stand glace cherries - they have the texture of plastic and taste of nothing more than syrup - but I do love dried cherries, so here is a new version of an old favourite.

125 g butter
125g sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
50g ground almonds
75g self raising flour
100g dried cherries
2 tsp grated lemon rind (optional)

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and lemon rind and beat again.
Fold in the flour, almonds and cherries.

Grease a 1lb loaf tin or line with a butter paper, greaseproof paper or a loaf liner.
Transfer the cake mixture to the tin, level the surface and place in the oven.

Bake for approximately 25 minutes - please remember that ovens vary, so it's worth keeping an eye on your cake the first time you bake it.
Check that the cake is cooked through - insert a skewer into the centre of the cake and if it comes out clean your cake is cooked.
If the cake is not cooked through, but the top is golden, cover with a loose sheet of greaseproof paper or foil - I use a butter paper - to prevent the top from burning, while the middle cooks.

© 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