Citrus and syrup soaked sponge

 A festive treat, aglow with citrus.  This is a light sponge, with oil and yogurt,rather than butter, gluten free and dripping with boozy, zesty orange syrup.

60g Greek yogurt
60ml rapeseed or sunflower oil
2 eggs, separated and whites whisked to stiff peaks

2 oranges, zest grated and juice, errr juiced!

120g sugar

60g ground almonds

60g rice flour

2 tblsp sugar

2 tblsp rum/Cointreau, liqueur of choice (optional)

Heat the oven to 180ºC

Grease a 9" savarin ring or an 8½" cake tin

Put the oil, yogurt, egg yolks, orange zest and 120g sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk together.

Fold in the flour and almonds, followed by the whisked egg whites.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until golden and firm to the touch.

While the cake is baking, put the sugar into a saucepan and warm gently until golden brown. Carefully add the orange juice and keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved into the juice to form a thick syrup. Remove from the heat and add the booze.

Pour the syrup over the warm sponge and allow it to cool in the tin.

Carefully turn it out and serve with creme fraiche, clotted cream or ricotta, stirred through with candied peel.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2020 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

The annual cherry battle

From now until the tree is bare,we will be in daily battle with the pigeons for the harvest of our cherry tree.  I, being small, pick the ones on the lower branches. The pigeons, having wings, have free access to the top branches and I rely on #1 son's vertical superiority and tree climbing skills to gather all the fruit on the branches in between.

Some of the harvest will find its way into a bottle of vodka, some will end up in ice cream, a great deal will be eaten fresh and, if there is enough, there may be a pot of jam or a bag for the freezer.

Handfuls will be added to dishes sweet and savoury, such as this light and luscious dessert, which, incidentally happens to be be gluten free.

120g butter, melted
2 eggs
120g sugar
60g sour cream
60g ground almonds
100g stoned weight of fresh cherries

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC
Grease a cake tin and dust with flour, tipping out the excess (use rice flour if you want to make this gluten free).

Whisk the eggs with the sugar until the mixture leaves a ribbon trail when you lift out the whisk.
Add the melted butter and the sour cream and continue whisking.
Fold in the ground almonds and carefully pour the batter into the prepared tin.
place in the oven for 25 minutes.  Turn off the heat and leave the tin in the oven for a further 10 minutes.
Leave to cool to room temperature.
This is a fragile thing, delicate as a beeswing, so it's better to serve it straight from the tin, rather than attempting to turn it out.

If you are being posh, do this away from the table, dust each plate with icing sugar, put a couple of stoned, fresh cherries on the side and serve with creme fraiche and an ice cold tot of cherry vodka.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2018 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

In and out of the kitchen

It has been a week of dipping in and out of the kitchen, with no time for leisurely cooking and experimentation.  To be honest, it's been one of those weeks when I seem to have been constantly busy, with no evidence of what I have achieved.  I have had innumerable forms to fill in for all sorts of bureaucratic reasons; quarter end figures to pull together for the tax man; the last of the washing and shopping for our two student offspring to take back to university at the end of their all too brief Easter holiday and a fair bit of pan assembly and packing as we have been short handed in the workshops.  We operate a policy of never asking someone to do a job we would not be prepared to do ourselves, so when necessary, I will roll up my sleeves, don my Netherton apron and start oiling pans, waxing handles, screwing on lid knobs and wrapping, boxing and labelling orders.

Whilst the order book is still never quite as full as we would like it to be, things are picking up, thanks, in part, to you lot, who help us spread the word.  And we have been talking to two exciting restaurants in London - more of which soon, I hope.
But I still need to be selling, selling, selling; finding potential new stockists and the time to talk to our existing stockists.  We know we need to grow to survive, but we do not want to turn into some sort of anonymous corporation, out of touch with those who make us what we are.

Last night, the cupboards cleared by the locust raid of the students, I was scratting about for something for dinner.
We started with leek and Halloumi fritters, with a dish of potatoes layered in a loaf tin with a mixture of yogurt, chopped wild garlic and melted butter and baked in the oven. And then I noticed we had some slightly wrinkly apples in the fruit bowl, bought in expectation and abandonned when their taste did not match their looks.

So with the brevity of Damien Trench in the Radio 4 classic, "In and Out of the Kitchen"; recipe:

Pour 250ml full fat milk into a saucepan and add 4 cloves.  Bring to the boil, turn off the heat and leave for an hour for the flavour of the cloves to infuse into the milk.

Take 4 apples, peel core and quarter.
Melt 50g butter in a 10" prospector pan over a low heat and then add 120g sugar.
Cook continuously until it turns golden brown.
Add the apple slices, cover and cook for 10 minutes until the apples have softened and taken on some of the caramel colour.
Remove the lid and increase the heat.  Cook until the caramel has turned a rich mahogany and most of the juice has evaporated.

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC

Remove the cloves from the milk and return the pan to the hob.  Heat gently.
Beat in 50g buckwheat flour, a teaspoon of vanilla extract and 100g sugar.  Add 2 beaten eggs and mix vigorously.
Pour over the apples and pop it into the oven.  Cook for 20 - 25 minutes until the top is firm.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 10 minutes.
Invert on to a serving plate and serve with clotted cream.

NB because I have used buckwheat flour, this pudding is gluten free.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2018 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Fruit cake

The last few crumbs of the Christmas cake have been scooped out of the tin and the festive board packed away until next year.
But we love a good fruit cake, so we are not hanging around until December for the next slice of fruit laden, moist cake.
This one was inspired by one of Sue's Christmas presents - a selection of teas from Whittard Of Chelsea. It's light, gluten free and so full of fruit I reckon you could count it as one of your #fiveaday. As you can see from the photos, the cake tin was not lined, simply greased and dusted with ground almonds and despite the cake's inherent gooeyness it came out a treat.

120g butter
60g granulated sugar
60g light soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tea bag - I used a Spice Imperial one, but any black tea will work
200ml boiling water
120g mixed dried fruit; sultanas and cherries is a great combination
80g ground almonds
40g chestnut flour (you can use self raising flour instead)

Put the teabag in a jug and add the boiling water. Leave to steep for 10 minutes.
Remove the teabag and add the dried fruit. Leave to steep until the tea is cold. Strain off the liquid, which, incidentally makes a terrific drink, and reserve the fruit.
Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC
Grease a 8½" cake tin and dust with flour or ground almonds. You can tip any excess into the cake mix.
Beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and mix thoroughly.
Fold in the almonds and flour and then stir in the steeped fruit.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 20 minutes.  Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cooling rack.  Perfect with a cup of tea.

And while you drink your tea and eat your cake, have a read of this article about fruit cake by Mayukh Sen

You can see our full range of bakeware here: http://www.netherton-foundry.co.uk/shop/baking-tins

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2018 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Inspired by a bee

We have some rampant lavender bushes in the garden, planted alongside some beautiful David Austin roses.  Together with the jasmine, honeysuckle and dianthus, these scent the warm evening air to an intoxicating degree and provide us with a summer long supply of cut flowers for the kitchen table.

Whilst providing an olfactory overload for us humans, they also attract all manner of bees and the sound of them buzzing their busy way around the stems is mesmerising and soothing.  As long as I can hear the bees I feel that whatever else is going on around the globe, in this small corner at least, all is right with the world.  There may even be hope for the rest of it.
The bees were particularly active earlier this week, when the sun was warm and the air still and it took ages to capture one of the busy bees bumbling around the flowers.

But as I waited patiently for the moment to click, I pondered the combination of lavender and honey and, having captured this fat fellow's picture, headed back into the kitchen to experiment.

Coming up with the idea of a honey based, lavender scented syrup, I decided on a denser style of cake, which would be drenched in the syrup and served as a dessert.
This also happens to be gluten free and you could quite easily double up the quantities and make a thicker cake, if you wished..... just turn the oven down by 20ºC and cook for a further 15 minutes.

For the cake
120g butter

120g sugar

2 eggs

60g polenta

60g ground rice

2 dstsp creme fraiche

For the syrup

100ml water

3 dstsp honey

8 lavender heads

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC

Grease a cake tin and dust with polenta.  Tip out the excess (you can add this to the polenta you are weighing out for the cake mix).

Cream the butter and sugar vigorously, until very pale in colour.  Add the creme fraiche and beat again.

Add the eggs and mix thoroughly - don't worry too much if it separates.

Fold in the polenta and rice flour.

Spoon the batter into the cake tin and spread out evenly.

Place in the oven and cook for 20 - 25 minutes, until a skewer, inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.

While the cake is cooking prepare the syrup.

Put water, honey and lavender in a pan, (our milk pan or 6" saucepan is ideal) heat slowly until honey is fully dissolved.

Bring to the boil and reduce by half.

Strain and set aside.

When the cake is cooked, pierce it all over with a skewer or fork.

Pour over the honey syrup, while the cake is still hot.

I strewed the top of my cake with lavender petals, thyme and hyssop, but a plain top is perfectly acceptable.

When the cake has cooled, gently turn out of the tin onto a plate and then invert onto your serving dish.  This pretty plate is from 1265 degrees north and the flower petals are from our garden.

 

Serve with a generous spoonful of creme fraiche and I reckon a few raspberries wouldn't go amiss.

A note of caution; flower petals are a very simple way of making your dishes look pretty and summery, but please, please make sure that the ones you pick are edible!!  

© Netherton Foundry 2017 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

White chocolate and raspberry cake

No rambling, no proselytising, just a fab new recipe, of which I am extremely proud.

120g sugar

2 eggs, separated

1/2 tsp vanilla paste

120g rice flour

100g white chocolate, melted and cooled

120g stracciatella yogurt, you can get big tubs of this in Lidl 

120g raspberries

Pre heat the oven to 180ºC

Whisk the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract until very pale.

Add the yogurt (use plain, vanilla, lemon or coconut if you can't get/don't like stracciatella)

Whisk thoroughly.

Add the cooled, melted chocolate and whisk again - it will feel a little stiffer now as the chocolate cools.
Whisk the egg whites until they form peaks.

Fold the rice flour and the whisked egg whites into the chocolate batter.

Pour into a greased 10" prospector pan or one of our new cake tins

Arrange the raspberries in concentric circles on top of the batter..... or if you are feeling anarchic, just scatter them where they fall!

Bake for 30 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean.

Leave to cool, then turn out of the pan.

Serve just warm either on its own or with creme fraiche, Greek yogurt, clotted cream or raspberry sorbet/ raspberry ripple ice cream.

© Netherton Foundry 2017

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Cherry and almond cake

If you are one of our social media fans, you will already have seen tantalising shots  of our brand new Prospector pans, as well as the rather lush cherries that I have already cooked in one.
We are constantly reviewing our range, working out what's missing in our own kitchen and listening to the feedback from home cooks, professional chefs and food writers.
These came about as a result of comments from all of the above - including me.
Update, we have now added a cake tin to the range, which would also work well for this.

Our creative genius put on his thinking cap and I  have to admit the result is not only perfectly functional, but perfectly formed too.  Once again, he has combined beauty with utility.

What I have already found with these - and there will be more to come - is that they are not only useful on the hob, but also in the oven and I am working on a recipe which will see one popped under the grill too. They are equally good for sweet and savoury dishes, versatile, compact and easy to store.

You will also have realised by now that we are great believers in seasonal and local food and enjoy cooking according to what's in season, rather than flown in from other continents.
I appreciate that the political and economic debate about imported food is a vast and polemic topic, with issues such as supporting farmers in developing countries directly through trade rather than aid, air miles, agricultural grants and the globalisation and homogenisation of food cultivation and supply and I leave to experts cleverer than me to continue these discussions.
I am happy to admit that we do not live entirely on local produce and have been known to indulge in mangoes, pineapples, avocados and other delicious imports.

But when local fruit is in season and in abundance, nothing can beat it.  We are fortunate enough to have apple, damson and plums trees in the garden, which where here when we arrived and since then I have added a cherry tree.  The original trees, I guess are pretty old and the harvest is variable but in a good year the crop is sensational.
The cherry tree is prolific, but it's a race with the pigeons and blackbirds as to who gets the lion's share.

  

The bowl of cherries shown above got demolished pretty quickly, but our local farm shop  carries a tempting selection of locally grown fruit, as well as their own fantastic collection of apples and pears, grown in the family orchards.

Last weekend, I could offer no resistance when faced with lush, shiny dark cherries and came home with a large punnet, which I hid from the family in the back of the fridge whilst I figured out what to do with them.

OK, I admit it, I did feel the need to do a quality check on a random sample :-)

I had been avidly reading Ed Smith's supplemental  and yes, I do own up to a little favouritism - have you seen his photos of our pans - and was sorely tempted to do a clafoutis, but having had toad in the hole (recipe coming soon) the day before decided to make something NOT batter based.  I did however heed his advice to stone the cherries and then painstaking extract the kernel from the stones (the noyeux) which have a heady almond flavour, terrifically matched to the cherries.

This is, incidentally a gluten free recipe.

This is what I did with my locally grown cherries.....

2 eggs, 
1 egg white

120g sugar
120g butter, melted and cooled slightly
60g ground almonds
60g ground rice
1 tsp vanilla extract

250g fresh cherries, with the kernels of ¼ of the stones OR 8 fresh apricots

Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC

In a large mixing bowl or food mixer, whisk the whole eggs and egg white with the sugar until it is thick, pale and foamy.
Whisk in the melted butter and vanilla extract.
Fold in the rice and ground almonds

Place the stone cherries and noyeux (optional) or quartered apricots in a 10" prospector pan or cake tin

Pour over the cake batter and place it in the oven.

Bake for 40 minutes (approx) until a skewer comes out clean when dipped into the cake.  If the cake is browning too quickly, cover the top with a piece of greaseproof paper, foil or, as I did, a butter wrapper.

Remove from the oven and leave to stand for around 20 minutes - it will taste far better warm, rather than oven hot.
We indulged ourselves with homemade custard, whipped with Mascarpone cream, but this would be good on its own, with yogurt, creme fraiche, cream or ice cream too.
But to be fair, it would count as one of your "five a day" :-)

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Orange and thyme cake

This is, entirely incidentally, a gluten free recipe.  We are fortunate in our household in that we do not suffer from food allergies and intolerances. The worst it ever gets round here is a fussy teenager's attitude and we can only hope that that is no more than a "developmental phase", aking to toddler tantrums.
However, we do know the problems that restrictive diets can pose and the poor choice that is so often offered to sufferers.  So whilst we enjoy this cake simply because it tastes great, I can also recommend it heartily if you are catering for someone with coeliac or gluten intolerance.

Not only does this demonstrate that gluten free can be delicious and part of a mainstream diet, it also highlights the versatility of our frying pans.......... they can be used for so much more than a fried egg or a steak!  It's a cake, cooked in a pan, but I'm not sure that makes it a pancake!
We eat this cake as a dessert and it's great to carry it to the table in the pan.

150g butter

150g sugar

70g ground rice

50g ground almonds

30g polenta

Grated rind of 2 oranges 

3 eggs

Juice of 2 oranges

2 sprigs fresh thyme

2 dessert spoons runny honey

Heat the oven to 170ºC
Lightly grease a 10" frying pan
Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and the orange zest and beat thoroughly.
Fold in the polenta, ground rice and ground almonds and spoon into the pan  - if you are using one of our oak handled pans, remember to unscrew the wooden handle covers before you put this in the oven
Place in the oven and bake for approx 25 minutes - the standard skewer test will let you know when it's cooked.

While the cake is cooking, put the  juice, thyme and honey in a saucepan - a milk pan is ideal.

Heat gently until the honey is dissolved into the juice

Turn off the heat and leave to one side to allow the thyme flavour to infuse into the juice.
Add a splash of Curacao or Cointreau if desired.

Take the cake out of the oven and whilst it is still warm, strain the orange syrup and pour it evenly over the cake.

Serve warm with clotted cream, Greek yogurt or ice cream.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2016

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Poached peaches

It's been pretty busy at the workshops, so I apologise for the writing lull - we've been busy with some exciting export orders for USA and Germany, as well as the the first of the events we are attending this year.
We kicked off the festival season at the Severn Valley Railway Food Festival -  a roll down the hill from us at the Engine House Museum at Highley Station.
Last weekend saw us at the 3rd Shrewsbury Food Festival - bigger and better than ever.

As a result, the cooking front has been low on the priority list, with old favourites that require little thought being the order of the day.

But a picture post on Twitter prompted a request for the recipe for these, so here we go.

4 peaches
250ml water
100g sugar
Handful of dried rose petals
4 heads of lavender

Place the water, sugar and flowers in a casserole dish 

                                           

Bring to the boil on the hob and then reduce to a simmer until the sugar has completely dissolved.

Remove the lavender or it will overwhelm the finished dish.

Slice the peaches in to 8 and add to the syrup, cover with the lid.

                                                    

Poach gently until the peaches are soft - this will take from 10 - 20 minutes, depending on how ripe the peaches are........... check with the tip of a sharp knife.

Turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 20 minutes.

Carefully slip the skin off the peaches and transfer the slices to a serving dish.  Leave the skins in the syrup. they will add color and flavour.

Bring the syrup back to the boil and reduce until thick and "syrupy".

Strain and pour over the peaches.

Leave to cool.

 Decorate with edible flowers and, if you have them, a few raspberries (those are tayberries from the garden in the picture)
Serve either with clotted cream and Amaretti biscuits or Mascarpone with icing sugar and grated lemon rind.... and possibly a glass of fizz.

Serves 4

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

Bootstrap Black Oi'd Peas

This was cooked up on Hallowe'en in readiness for a day at Bootstrap Artisans in Wolverhampton. Update: sadly this shop is no longer open

We have known Ange, one of the leading lights and creative thinkers behind Bootstrap, since she ran a craft shop at Apley Farm, just up the road from us and she has been a great and generous supporter of what we are doing.
So, as small recompense, we agreed to do our bit to help them by spending a day at their new premises, demonstrating our wares.  Since they sell a wide selection of products from our range, it seemed only right that we should create them their very own recipe to share with friends, collaborators and shoppers.

We also wanted to show off the fabulous collection created for us by Rachel Frost, one of the Shropshire Creatives

As Wolverhampton is home to a wide diversity of cultures, I wanted something that everyone could try, which is one of the reasons for creating a vegetarian dish.  another reason was to demonstrate that there is far more to slow cooking than a traditional stew - delicious though those can be.

As it turned out this was a hugely successful dish - there was certainly none left!!

The principal ingredient of this dish is black eyed peas, but the "oi, oi, oi" reaction of one of our tasters led to the renaming of the dish as Bootstrap's Black Oi'd Peas - which rescues us from any embarrassing comparisons with Will.i.am and Fergie :-)
I made huge quantities for the shop- but have scaled down the recipe to serve 6 people.

4 onions, quartered
3 tsp cumin,
12 cloves,
1 dried chilli,
10 black peppercorns,
2 tblsp desiccated coconut
300g sweet potato, pumpkin or butternut squash
2 tins black eyed peas
1 tin chopped tomatoes,
250 ml water,
1 cinnamon stick
2 chopped red peppers

Toast the coconut over a medium heat until golden brown and set aside to cool - the crepe pan is perfect for this
Dry fry the cumin, cloves, chilli and peppercorns - one of our 8" frying pans is ideal - until the chilli darkens and you can smell the aroma from the spices.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool.
Grind to a powder

Heat 2 tblsp of oil in a cast iron casserole bowl and add the quartered onions.

Fry until soft and translucent.

Add the spice mix, stir thoroughly and cook for 2 minutes.








Add the sweet potato and stir again.
Add all the other ingredients, EXCEPT the red peppers and mix well. Cover with the cast iron lid.

Transfer to heater base and cook on LOW for 4 hours.



Add the red peppers , turn up to HIGH and cook for another 40 mins.
Season to taste.
Vegetarian/vegan/gluten free

These were served up with sweetcorn pancakes, cooked in a crepe pan on the Kitchen Companion heater base.

8oz self raising flour
4 eggs
Approx ½ pt milk
Salt and pepper
1tsp paprika
1 tin sweetcorn.

Place the flour, eggs and half the milk in a bowl with the seasoning.
Mix well.  keep adding milk and whisking until you have a thick batter.

Heat the crepe pan slowly on the Kitchen Companion or on the hob and add a knob of butter.
Drop dessertspoons of batter in to the hot pan.
When the bubble rise to the surface, turn the pancakes over and cook on the other side until golden brown.

Also delicious with grilled bacon and tomatoes.

Vegetarian

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Damson custard crumble - a gluten free pudding

Another Autumn favourite - fruit crumble. 

We are fortunate not only to have damson trees in the garden, but also to live in an area of the country where they grow abundantly in the hedgerows.  So this time of year is a particularly purple hued season for us.

                                          

This recipe was inspired by a demonstration at the 2013 Ludlow Food Festival by our friend, Marcus Bean and has been modified as a gluten free version of a traditional favourite.

I have used my own damsons, but any plum variety would work just as well.  I can gather cherry plums, bullaces, Marjorie Seedlings and damsons between home at the Workshops.

400g damsons
320ml single cream
3 egg yolks
100g sugar

200g chestnut flour
100g pistachios
120g butter
70g  sugar


Poach damsons in 100ml water until just soft.

Leave to cool, remove the stones and sweeten to taste - they will be added to a sweet custard, so retain a little bit of sharpness for contrast.

Pour the cream into a milk pan and heat gently.
Meanwhile whisk the egg yolks and sugar together and add 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Whisk in the hot cream, return to the pan and stir continuously until the sugar has dissolved.

Place the stoned damsons in an ovenproof dish and strain the custard over the top.
Cook in a low oven, 170ºC for around 30 minutes - until the custard is just set, a little wobble is a good thing.

Chop the pistachios very finely and put into a mixing bowl with the chestnut flour.
Chop the butter, add to the flour and rub in until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
Stir in the sugar.

Tip the mixture into an oven proof frying pan or prospector pan

When the custard is cooked, remove from the oven and turn up the heat to 200ºC
Put the crumble mix in the oven,  after 10 minutes cooking, give it a stir and return to the oven for a further 5 minutes.

 To serve, dish up the custard onto a pudding plate and surround with crumble mix.

© Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2015

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk