Autumnal cooking - a Bonfire night classic

Sticky ginger cake

 A nostalgic favourite, updated.

Misty mornings, dark, chilly evenings, the turning of leaves from green to red, gold, copper and bronze and  and Bonfire Night.

All Hallow's day, 1st November,  marks what we think of as the start of autumn, banishes the bad spirits of Hallowe'en, anticipates the spectacle of Bonfire Night and is, commercial nightmare such as Black Friday notwithstanding, probably the start of many folks' countdown to Christmas.

It also signals a change in our cooking, more soups and stews, spiked with spices, rather than the vibrant verdancy of summer herbs and salads; warming the body and the soul.

These squashes grew from seeds, carelessly tossed in to the compost heap and will be used for a number of dishes over the coming weeks.

But today is all about a variation on a family favourite, a wistful reminder of the Bonfire parties of our youth.  

What do you remember  - I can recall potatoes baked in the embers of the fire, fat sausages, home made toffee and sticky Parkin.  Mulled wine and spiced, warmed apple juice were always on hand when our children were small, although the hot chocolate we had as kids ourselves is just as welcome.

This recipe is a sticky ginger loaf, dotted with ginger tea soaked raisins and is as tasty standing round the fire, as it is served up as dessert with poached pears and ginger Chantilly cream.

Tonight I plan to serve it with Andrew Dargue's marzipan custard. 

Soak 100g sultanas in 150ml ginger tea for half an hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 165ºC

Grease a 2lb loaf tin 

120g butter

120g black treacle

180g soft brown sugar

2 eggs

240g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tblsp ground ginger

2 tsp mixed spice

125ml hot ginger tea - I used an infusion of Saco ginger flakes, gifted to me at Ginger and Spice Fest

Place the butter, sugar and treacle in a pan, I used our copper milk pan, and warm gently until the butter has melted and all three ingredients have melded together.

Tip the dry ingredients in to a large mixing bowl and stir well to distribute the spices and bicarboanate of soda.

Strain the raisins and add to the bowl.  Beat the eggs lightly and add those along with the melted butter mix.  Stir well, then beat in the hot tea.

Puir into the prepared loaf tin and pop into the oven.

Cook for around 40 minutes, until it passes the skewer test.

Allow to cool for 15 minutes in the tin.

then carefully turn out onto a cooling tray.

Serve around the bonfire in thick slices, perhaps accompanied with a classic Whisky Mac

Or serve as a delicious dessert, with poached pears and a Chantilly cream made with some syrup from a jar of stem ginger.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Copper pudding pot

Autumn; bronze, gold and copper are the colours we most associate with this time of year.
A nip in the air, the turning of the leaves, darker evenings, dewy mornings, harvest moon and harvest festivals, mists and mellow fruitfulness, all the clichés and all the symbols of the change in seasons.  Get your sweaters and warm socks out, the temperature is falling and we are heading into the kitchen for some comfort cooking.

Can you imagine yourself in the Downton Abbey kitchen, making dinner for royalty? If so, you would most certainly want one of these beauties.
Designed in collaboration with Regula Ysewijn, renowned for her books on baking and puddings, this is our traditional tin lined, solid copper pudding pot.  Perfect for sweet and savoury puddings, particularly a traditional steamed pudding.
It even has 4 notches on the rim for your string handle to pull it out of its steamy bath!

Regula is one of the most multi talented people we have ever met - a graphic designer, beer sommelier (well, she is Belgian!) food writer, food historian, TV presenter, as well as being a judge on Belgian Bake off, she has also appeared on Inside the Factory here in the UK, talking about the history of the Bakewell tart.  Her first book, Pride and Puddings, has pride of place on our kitchen book shelf and more than a couple of pudding mix splodges on the pages.

We've been trying ours out with some new recipes, including this light as air, yogurt and plum pudding, using some delicious desert plums, foraged from a tree near the workshops.

120g Greek yogurt
120g sugar
2 eggs
120g self raising flour
250g poached, sweetened plums

Whisk the yogurt, sugar and eggs together.  Fold in the flour.
Grease the pudding pot and put half of the mixture in.  Carefully lay the plums on top of the mix

And then cover with the remaining batter.

Place a sheet of greaseproof paper or foil over the top of the pot and secure with string.
There are lots of handy hints about how to make a string handle, which will make it easier to take your cooked pudding out of the cooking pot.

Sit the pot on a saucer or trivet in a deep saucepan and add enough water to come half way up the pot.
Cover with a lid and bring the water to the boil.  Steam the pudding in the pan for 1¼ hours.
Carefully remove the pot from the pan, take off the paper or foil covering and invert the pudding on to a serving plate.
Serve warm with extra yogurt or double cream.

Time to start thinking of the Christmas puds!

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Mushroom and goat's cheese risotto

Funny stuff, fungus; not an animal, nor a vegetable, almost other worldly, alien.
And a bundle of contradictions too, the prettiest are often poisonous, such as fly agaric,  whilst the ugly or unprepossessing are delicious, bordering, in some cases, on divine - think ugly shaggy ink caps and unprepossessing truffle, neither would win prizes for their looks.
They are also very much of the moment, a true reckoning of the changing seasons, brought to life by the damp of early autumn, as seasonal as pumpkins and quince.  There are wood blewits to be found in the Wyre Forest, well worth a detour on the way home and a bank of shaggy ink caps just outside the workshops, their briefest of peaks to be watched for between shy emergence and ebony liquefaction. Fascinating fungus indeed.
Instagram has been full of envy evoking baskets of foraged ceps and chanterelles this year.  Sadly we have found neither and have had to resort to handing over our hard earned cash for a little mushroom magic.
Fortunately a small amount of mushrooms can be transformed into a delicious dinner and this is what I did with our humble haul from the farm shop.

For 2 of us
130g Arborio rice
Approx 300ml of chicken or vegetable stock
1 onion, finely chopped
80g butter
4 - 5 sprigs of tarragon
Grated rind of 2 lemons
Juice of 1 lemon
75g soft goat's cheese
A handful of wild mushrooms (use chestnut mushrooms if there is nothing more exotic available)

Keep the stock simmering (not boiling fiercely) in a saucepan
Melt 50g of the butter in a frying pan or prospector pan  over a low heat.
Add the onion and cook gently until translucent.  Add the rice and cook until it turns white and opaque.  
Gradually add the stock, one ladle full at a time, stirring all the time.  
When almost all the stock has been added, stir in the chopped tarragon, lemon rind and goat's cheese.  
Adjust the seasoning to taste. 
Stir in the final stock and then cover with a lid and set aside while you cook the mushrooms.
Heat the remaining butter in a frying pan and when it foams, throw in the mushrooms.  
Cook until the mushrooms are golden and there is no liquid in the pan. Season with white pepper and add the lemon juice.
Place the mushrooms on top of the risotto and serve immediately, ideally with a glass of chilled white wine.

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Netherton Foundry Shropshire © 2018

Apple and almond pie

There is nothing to beat an apple pie and with Autumn well established, this is the best time of year for getting your hands on some apples, be they from friends' gluts, scrumped from the wild or overhanging branches or from your local farm shop.
Regular visitors to this blog will already know that we have 3 ancient and prolific apple trees and an annual challenge to use our harvest, ahem, fruitfully.

This is a special apple pie - elevated, to coin a much overused and current culinary adverb, above the ordinary.

This will make 6 - 8 portions.

Short crust pastry

250g plain flour

125g cold butter

1 egg yolk

Cold water

Pie filling

2lb apples

2 tablespoons jam

50g ground almonds

1 egg white

70g sugar

Chop the apples into 8 - 10 chunks and put them in a saucepan with 200ml water.

There is no need to peel or core them.

Cook gently until the apples have completely collapsed.  Push the apples through a sieve and then place the pulp in a muslin bag (use a J cloth or an old pair of clean tights if you haven't got a muslin bag.)

Leave to drain.  Pour off the juice, sweeten to taste, dilute with water to suit your palate and drink!

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC

Grease a 10" prospector pan or your favourite pie dish.

Make the shortcrust pastry; rub the butter into the flour then add the egg yolk and enough water to bind.

Roll out just over half the pastry and line your pan/pie dish.

Spread the jam over the pastry, I used home made damson but any other tart jam would work, such as a good quality raspberry.  Avoid the sweeter jams like strawberry.

Sprinkle over the ground almonds.

Whisk the egg white until stiff, then whisk in the sugar until glossy.

Fold into the apple purée and then spread this over the pie base.

Top with rest of the pastry and put 3 small cuts into the top.

Place in the hot oven for 30 minutes.

Serve at room temperature with clotted cream.

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2018 ©

To Autumn

Autumn has arrived promptly this year, bringing chillier mornings and darker evenings.
Autumn raids the cliché cupboard every year and there can scarcely be any adult who has not, at some time or another, uttered at least the first line of Keats' famous poem, To Autumn,

"Season of mist and mellow fruitfulness"

It is a season that assails our senses; there are the scents of bonfires, quinces and damp leaves; the sounds of apples thudding to the ground in the wind, dry leaves kicked by small children and, buried in the memory, the clash of conker on conker; then there is the nip in the air, tingling the fingertips and beginning to numb the toes.
And the sheer glory of the colours; glorious shades of orange, red, yellow - I was astonished to look out of the kitchen window and see the extraordinary yellow hue of the damson tree leaves, which seemed to have received word overnight that the seasons had officially crossed the line.
An aside, while we are on the subject of colour.  Do you know what season you are?  Doing some research before I embarked on this post, I was astonished to discover that Colour Me Beautiful is still a "thing".  Carole Jackson wrote the book that launched the company over 35 years ago, but is no longer involved. You can read more in this article by Hannah Marriott. I had assumed, cynic that I am, that it was a relic of the power suited, excess fuelled 80's when money was no object and for some it took more than American footballer sized shoulder pads and a can of hairspray to give them the confidence to join the swaggering class.
Cynicism aside, there is a warmth to the hues of this season that softens, yet intensifies the light of the shortening days.

My favourite lines from Keats' poem are:

"To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees, 

And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core."

There is an abundance of ripe, seasonal produce of every shade in Autumn, after all, every church in the land is preparing for Harvest Festival; orange squashes, red and green apples, pears, yellow quinces, late summer and green tomatoes - the ones you know will rot before they ripen, but are too good to waste - white, green and purple brassicas, brown nuts and the last of the purple finger staining damsons, blackberries and elderberries.

Now is the time for the warm spices; cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, allspice; for dried fruits and citrus.
There is already a number of autumnal recipes if you scroll through the appropriate months, but I make no apologies for adding another.  You can make this one all year round, by substituting the fresh corn for tinned.

This recipe brings together the colours I have already mentioned, with some of those warm spices.  I cannot claim credit for its origin, nor trace its provenance back to the ultimate source, but I can acknowledge two steps along its evolutionary journey.  I took my inspiration from a piece by Simon Hopkinson - a yellowing, desiccating cutting from the Independent Saturday Magazine, a throwback to the sadly lamented glory days of the broadsheet format print editions. He, in turn, based his recipe on a tomato curry prepared by the Thanki family at the Kastoori Indian restaurant in Tooting, south London, equally sadly, now closed.

Tomato, egg and sweetcorn curry

2 eggs, boiled for 4 minutes and cooled under cold running water.
2 corn on the cob, kernels stripped
8 medium sized tomatoes, halved
50g butter
2 cloves garlic
4 tsp ground ginger
2tsp cumin seed and 1tsp cloves
½ tsp fennel seeds
5 green cardamom pods
1 dried red chilli
50g creamed coconut
200ml water
2 tsp salt
Juice of half a lemon

Toast the cumin and fennel seeds and cloves in a dry pan, until the aroma rises and inveigles its way into your nostrils.  A blini pan is ideal for this.  Remove from the heat and grind finely in a spice grinder or with a pestle and mortar.
Place a large frying pan or prospector casserole over a medium heat and melt the butter.
Add the garlic and cook until just turning golden.  Stir in the spices and cook for another 2 minutes.
Put the tomatoes, sweetcorn coconut and water into the pan. Stir and then leave to simmer until the coconut dissolves into the water and tomato juices.
Cover with a lid and simmer for 20 minutes. 
Meanwhile, peel and halve the eggs.
Take off the pan lid, remove the chilli and the cardamom pods, season to taste with salt and add the lemon juice.
Sit the eggs on top and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
Serve with plain boiled basmati rice or chapatis.

                                        © Netherton Foundry 2017     
                                       www.netherton-foundry.co.uk            

New York City news

A little over a year ago, we sent off a slow cooker to New York City and keen to see how it was faring, I contacted its new owner and asked.

Here's the e-mail I got in reply, which includes a darned tasty sounding recipe.


Hello Sue,

Enjoying my cast iron slow cooker I purchased from your UK company.

I have made various meat meals with it.

Here is the latest from my NYC kitchen:

Rack of baby back ribs (pork)

Fresh Thyme

Fresh Rosemary

White wine & a little water for the pot

Fresh garlic

Frank's Hot Sauce (not sure if they sell it there in the UK, but you can use any hot sauce of your preference).

Dijon Mustard

Put all ingredients on and marinate over night, then slow cook it for a couple of hrs or until pork is fully cooked.

The meat will practically fall off the bone, juicy and quite tasty.

Enjoy!

Cheers,

Robes

NYC, US

Having shown Robes a picture of our route to work, in contrast to the bustle of NYC, he is now hankering after a drive down our country roads on his Triumph motorbike

...... a ride I've taken many a time on a Harley Davidson.
You didn't know I was a biker, did you?

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

A savoury pumpkin pie

I love this time of year - seeing the breathtaking array of colour everywhere, crisp mornings, tramping through crunching leaves, the smell of bonfire smoke and also the fantastic selection of seasonal produce; quinces, apples, pears, figs and of course, pumpkins.

I'm not entirely sure when pumpkins and squashes became such a big thing, though I am pretty sure it has something to do with the commercialisation and Americanisation of Hallowe'en.

When I was a child and living up in North Yorkshire, Hallowe'en was virtually ignored, but we did have turnip Jack O'Lanterns and "celebrated" the 4th November as Mischief Night, which mostly seemed to involve knocking on people's front doors and running away...............another age!!

We did get up to slightly more mischievous activities, but if you think I am going to own up to those now, you are very much mistaken.  what happened in the past, stays in the past.

But for all I dislike the bought costumes, the dreadful Hallowe'en themed cakes and sweets for the equally awful Trick or Treating, I am pleased that we now have ready access to pumpkins and all their relatives.

And it has to be said that no pumpkin flesh is ever thrown away on carving day.

                                                      

                                         

Pumpkin pie is quintessentially an American institution and I am not going to attempt a version of their sweet confection.

I have gone for a savoury version, which went down a storm in our house and I hope you like it too.

None of these measurements are critical, so please feel free to adapt this to what you have on hand.

2 tblsp rapeseed oil

500g pumpkin flesh, peeled and chopped

1 large leek, washed thoroughly and cut into thick slices

2 tblsp dessicated coconut

2 tsp salt

1 dried chilli, crushed

200ml double cream

2 large potatoes

50g melted butter

Start by toasting the coconut in a frying pan over a medium heat.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Heat the oil in a 10" frying pan - an oven safe one is ideal or, as this is going into the oven, remove the oak handle covers.

Put the pumpkin into the pan and cook for approx 15 minutes, until starting to take on a little colour and becoming soft.

Add the leeks and stir well to mix.

Throw in a couple of tablespoons of water and simmer until the water is absorbed.

Add the toasted coconut, salt, chilli and cream.

Mix well and remove from the heat.

Heat the oven to 170ºC

Slice the potatoes thinly.

Bring a large pan of water to the boil and add the potatoes.

Cook for 5 minutes, then drain and rinse with cold water.

Arrange the potatoes in overlapping layers over the pumpkin mix.

Pour the melted butter over the potatoes and put the pan in the oven.

Cook for 20 - 30 minutes until the potatoes are soft and golden.

Serve piping hot with peas and roasted tomatoes.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015