Honey and fig cheesecake

The farmers' market haul from a recent trip to Riga included a jar of intensely flavoured, buckwheat honey.  Dark brown and heady, it was never destined for toast, but cried out for a creamy counterbalance.  Plump and purple figs at 30p each were too good to ignore and who can resist honeyed figs?  Thus was born the honey, walnut and fig cheesecake.

6 figs,

2 tblsp orange juice

2 tsp honey

Carefully make 6 incisions in each fig, without cutting through the base.  You want to end up with 6 "petals". Place the figs into a prospector pan and add the orange juice and honey.

Cover with a lid and cook gently for around 20 minutes until the figs have gracefully unfurled and there is a sweet and sticky syrup in the bottom of the pan.

Set aside to cool.

170g plain biscuits, such as Digestives

80g walnuts

125g butter

Crush the biscuits, chop the walnuts (not too finely) and melt the butter.  Mix all three ingredients together and press into a 10” pie or flan dish.  Place in the fridge while you make the filling.

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC

300g cream cheese

100g sour cream

80g runny honey

3 eggs

30g ground almonds

Beat the cream cheese and sour cream until smooth.  Then add the honey and eggs and mix thoroughly.  Stir in the ground almonds.

Pour the mixture over the chilled biscuit base and place in the oven.

Bake for around 30 minutes, until the edges are just taking on a little colour and the centre is firm to the touch.

Allow to cool and then drape the figs languidly on to the cheesecake and spoon over the syrup.

Enjoy! 

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

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

Our new cake tin is put through its paces

Someone called the workshops last week and asked whether we had a rep visiting their area in the near future.

The short answer was, "No", but to expand on this brevity.... we are a small, family business and when you call you deal directly with us. You can talk to Neil, the creative genius and founder of Netherton Foundry, father of my children and all round superhuman and you can talk to me.  
We do not have reps and agents schlepping around drumming up business for us - that's not how we do things.
When Neil created the first Netherton Foundry, made in Britain product -  our slow cooker - there was nothing else for it than for me to fill my "little blue van" and tour the length and breadth of the country, hammering on shop doors.
Not being a natural front of house/sales person, with a lifetime of back room jobs behind me I found this new role, shall we say, challenging. However, with no-one else to do it, I simply had to get on with it - what doesn't kill you makes you stronger!!
To start with, I was quite frankly terrified and rubbish.  But as the trips and the miles accumulated, so did my confidence, market knowledge, sales and "technique".  
I covered a lot of ground, quite literally, and met many people.
Of the rude, arrogant, ignorant and hostile, the less said the better.
Of the inspirational, imaginative, supportive, kind, tea offering and friendly majority, no praise is high enough and my thanks to all of you are implicit here.... you know who you are.
I learned a lot of valuable lessons and have a store of anecdotes, with which I occasionally bore anyone who will listen.

My personal armour, donned to protect me, in part, from the aforementioned hostile crowd, and polished to bolster my confidence, was double skinned; my passion for what we had started and personal knowledge of the product.
I simply refused to sell anything we hadn't tried and tested ourselves.
Cliché it may be, but I spoke from the heart.
For example, before the milkpan was made available to you lot, one came home with me.  Its first run was a batch of porridge, and when it had been successfully and easily cleaned out, it had to face a helping of scrambled egg followed by a pint of custard.  Product testing can be hard at times, imagine having to eat a pint of creamy, home made custard and call it work!
Incidentally, that's how the milkpan ended up with 2 pouring spouts - our son is left handed and accused us of right hand prejudice when he tried out the pan.

The latest Netherton Foundry equivalent of a "shiny new thing", which naturally isn't shiny at all, is our cake tin and this was tested with the same ruthlessness as everything else.
No paper lining and the stickiest substance in the cupboard were the starting point.
And this is what happened................. this was not a special tin, nothing extra had been done to it, it came out of the seasoning oven, had its brass rivet added and was unceremoniously bundled onto the front seat of my slightly newer little blue van.

Honey, date, walnut and lavender cake.
120g butter
50g broken walnuts
120g honey
70g chopped, pitted dates
2 eggs
170g self raising flour 
2 lavender heads, chopped (optional and you can substitute fresh thyme if you prefer)
3 teaspoons runny honey.

Pre-heat the oven to 170ºC.
Grease your cake tin - as my mother before me, I use the wrapper from a pack of butter - and dust with flour.  Tip out any excess flour.
Put the honey, butter, dates and walnuts into a pan, our milk pan is ideal.
Warm over a gentle heat until the butter has melted.
Leave to cool while you whisk the eggs in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy.
Pour the butter mix into the eggs and whisk again.
Fold in the flour and lavender/thyme (if using) 
Pour the batter into the  greased and floured cake tin.
It looks like porridge at this stage - don't worry!

Place in the oven for 20  - 25 minutes, you can tell it's cooked if a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean

Drizzle top with 3 tsp runny honey while still warm.
Allow to cool in tin and then turn out carefully.  You will get sticky hands, but hey, what's the problem with that?  Lick your fingers.

This can be served plain with a cup of coffee or dressed up with, say, caramelised or puréed apple and a dollop of Mascarpone.

© Netherton Foundry 2017

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk