A taste of the Middle East

I am guessing that a lot of you have been watching Nigel Slater's Middle East and along with me are hoping that there is a book in the writing.
Here at Netherton HQ, we are very fond of Claudia Rosen's A New Book of Middle Eastern Food - an interesting title, as our copy was published in 1986.  But the recipes are timeless and classic and it was intriguing to compare her recipes with those being created in the homes that Nigel visited.  

This is not authentic, it is just a delicious combination of ingredients, inspired by the tastes of the Middle East, which I hope you will enjoy as much as we did.
We ate this with slices of bread, drizzled with Bennett and Dunn rapeseed oil, sprinkled with home made za'atar and then baked until crisp on our griddle plate in a hot oven.
It would be equally good with a flatbread and of course, whilst it makes a great vegetarian main dish, it would also be good with lamb chops!

150g butter beans, soaked overnight, simmered until soft in fresh water.
100g green beans, chopped
2 tblsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 red onions, sliced
2 fat cloves of garlic, sliced
1 aubergine, cut into ½" cubes
2 tsp salt
½ tin chopped tomatoes
1 cinnamon stick
Juice of half a lemon
1 tblsp chopped mint

Heat the oil over a medium heat in a Prospector pan and add the onion, garlic and aubergine.
Cover with a lid and cook slowly until the whole lot is soft.  This should take around 20 minutes.
Add the beans, tomatoes, cinnamon and salt, pop the lid back on and cook for 30 minutes.  
Remove from the heat and stir in the lemon juice and mint.
Either serve immediately or allow to cool to room temperature. 

Serves 2

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2018 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk 

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            

Autumn treats

WARM DISHES FOR COOLER DAYS

The leaves are turning colour - those still left on the trees after the recent winds - and the temperature is definitely falling with them, so here are some lovely warming recipes for Autumn.
I made these indoors, I have to admit, but we have recently sold a lot of our Outdoor Hobs, which will no doubt be used on Bonfire Night and on those lovely cold and crisp days which really bring the joys of Autumn to mind. 
One bowl of charcoal will barbecue for up to 4 hours, but if you pop the pot on, you can cook for up to 7 hours - believe me, I experimented in the Springtime ( remember the snowy April we had?).  The seasons really do seem topsy turvy these days.  

 

We should all be doing whatever we can to minimise the impact of climate change and in our own way, we are trying to make a difference with our cookware range - we don't use anything other than iron, wood and flax oil for the pans, we make sure that you can restore the surface and replace most of the parts, but most of all these are built to last - they are durable and get better with use and age.  Sustainable materials, low component miles and a complete contrast to the concept of "disposable" product, with built in obsolescence

Anyway, enough of the philosophy - on with the cooking..............

Baked beans

500g haricot or cannellini beans, soaked and cooked
1 tblsp oil
1 tblsp black treacle
2 tsp grain mustard
4 cloves garlic
1 tblsp brown sugar
½ tsp cayenne pepper (or more to taste)
2 tins chopped tomatoes
250 ml water
Salt and pepper to taste

Warm the oil in a casserole dish over a medium heat and add the chopped garlic. Cook gently for a couple of minutes. Don't let it burn or it will taste very bitter. Add all the other ingredients, except the beans and stir well to mix.  Cook until the sugar has dissolved and then add the beans.
Cover with the lid and simmer for at least a couple of hours, but they will be even better after 5 or 6 hours.  You can do this on the hob, on the slow cooker base (use the LOW) setting or on the charcoal base of the Outdoor Hob

These are fantastic on toast, with baked potatoes, with sticky sausages or chuck in some chorizo, chunky bacon pieces or chestnuts to make an even more sustaining meal.

These sausages were added to a pile of caramelised onions and then I stirred in a large dollop of marmalade to make a very sticky and tangy glaze.

Pumpkin and cashews

2 tblsp oil

4 cloves of garlic

2 heaped tsp cumin seed

2 tsp salt

½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp paprika

750g squash or pumpkin (peeled and seeded weight), cut into chunks

Juice of 1 orange

100g cashew nuts

2 large onions, peeled and sliced

Dry sherry

Pre-heat the oven to 180º C/gas mark 4

Crush the garlic with the salt and cumin to make a paste.

Warm the oil in a cast iron casserole and add the garlic paste, cinnamon and paprika.  

Cook gently for a minute, then stir in the squash or pumpkin. Stir well to coat with the spice mix.

Add the orange juice.

Put the casserole in the oven and roast for approx 25 minutes.

Meanwhile heat 1 tblsp oil and a knob of butter in a frying pan

When the butter foams, add the sliced onions and cook over a medium heat til soft and beginning to turn colour.

Add a splash of dry sherry and continue cooking until sticky and caramelised.

Remove the casserole from the oven and scatter the cashews on top - return to the oven for a further 5 minutes to heat the nuts.

Serve the pumpkin and the onions on top of a bed of cous cous.

This would also work well as an accompaniment to roast chicken or roast pork, particularly with some buttered kale or spinach.

If you like these recipes, have a look on the website for more details of the pots and pans I used.

The Outdoor Hob is a fantastically versatile charcoal powered barbecue and outdoor slow cooker, which you can use all year round.

The cast iron casserole has a 4 litre capacity and is great on the hob and in the oven - I use mine for so many thing from curries to crumbles, risotto to rice pudding

The spun iron frying pans have a completely natural flax oil finish, which gets better and better the more you use them.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk