Pea flour fritters

We recently attended at series of talks and demonstrations at Bristol Food Connections, which is a brilliant, city wide collection of food oriented events which take place over 2 weeks.  It's all over for 2019, but be sure to check out next year's itinerary - there's bound to be something that appeals to you.
These simple, tasty fritters were firstly inspired by Jenny Chandler who was talking to Nick Saltmarsh, one of the founders of Hodmedods, who describe themselves as "Britain's pulse and grain pioneers".  Jenny's book, Pulse is a great read, has some fantastic recipes and is a terrific introduction to the world of cooking with pulses, if you have not ventured there before.
Second inspiration came from Genevieve Taylor and, in particular, her latest book Charred, which is all about vegetarian barbecue food.

These were cooked on our split chapa, along with some spiced, glazed  carrots; leeks; peppers stuffed with kidney beans and garlic; cherry tomatoes and Padron peppers.
Not only are they a beautiful pale green colour and extremely tasty, they are also gluten free for anyone suffering from gluten intolerance or coeliac disease.

150g green pea flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 tsp nigella seeds
Salt and pepper
100ml milk (dairy or non dairy alternative)
150g grated courgette 
300g tinned sweetcorn
Handful of chopped mint.

Grate the courgette coarsely and place in a colander over a bowl.  Sprinkle liberally with salt and leave to stand for 30 minutes.  Rinse thoroughly, drain and then squeeze out as much excess moisture as you can - use your hands, it's the most effective method.
If your courgettes are baby ones, straight from the garden you can skip this bit, as they are not quite as moisture laden as the ones you buy.

Tip the flour, baking powder, a good pinch of salt, plenty of black pepper and the nigella seeds into a large mixing bowl.
Add the eggs and milk and beat until you have a smooth batter.
Stir in the courgette, sweetcorn and mint.

You can either cook these on a griddle or chapa over the barbecue or an open fire.  In which case, drop single tablespoons of batter onto a medium hot griddle.  cook for 2 - 3 minutes, until the underside is golden and the top is beginning to set.  Flip them over and cook for another couple of minute s to brown the other side.
Alternatively put a tablespoon of oil and a small knob of butter in a large frying pan and heat over the hob, on a medium heat and then proceed as if you were cooking on the griddle. 
These are nice on their own, but liberal splodges of ketchup or sriracha wouldn't go amiss.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

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

Keeping the pulses racing

We wish you all a wonderful Diwali

We wish you all a Happy Diwali

You all know how much I appreciate someone else writing this blog for me and this one is no exception.

This wonderfully detailed explanation of how to create delicious and authentic Indian dishes was sent to us following a long conversation with one of our customers.

Jas is a doctor and is learning to cook with the help of her relatives.
Her Sikh background means that she fully appreciates the benefits of cooking in iron pots and she shares our opinion that meals cooked in our cookware are superior to those cooked in other vessels.
She has a great collection of our cookware, including a cast iron casserole a couple of frying pans and a saucepan.

I adore pulses, so this is an absolute gift for me - a great blog and lots of new ideas to experiment with. As always though, we'd really like to hear what YOU think.

Over to Jas.................

The first batch of recipes are all 'one pot curries', using the following beans, pulses or lentils.  I have grouped each combination into groups A-F.  If I know the alternative name for the dal, I have added it.  Each group of dals is prepared in the same basic manner, and then is embellished individually at the end, so please follow the basic stem recipe and then refer to each recipe ending separately.  I will use the term 'dal' to refer to the dried beans of whichever recipe you are following in the dry and 'pot' stage.  Each dal has been tried and tested in the iron cookware.

I personally prefer to use either Natco or East End brands (good quality yet cheap to buy in large quantities).  


Group A: yellow split lentils and red split lentils ( masar dal)
Group B: red kidney beans 
Group C: black eyed beans
Group D: split chick peas (chana dal)
Group E: whole chick peas- many varieties, all prepared in the same way (sholay)
Group F: whole brown mung beans, chana dal, black urid beans, whole green mung beans.


Preparation

Group A dals do not need to be soaked prior to cooking so are ideal for when you need a quick emergency meal for a lot of people. 
For groups B-F:

To make the maximum amount of your end product dal, with a 4 litre pot, you will need 600ml of dry weight dal. I usually make a brimful pot of dal and we eat it until all gone and then make another!

Measure out 600ml of dry dal if using a single dal recipe, or measure out equal parts of dal to make up roughly that amount if attempting a combination dal recipe.

Transfer into a clean bowl and cover with plenty of cold water and leave to soak for at least 10 hours.  Please make sure to soak in plenty of water as the dry dal will absorb a lot.  This will reduce the cooking time and ensure lovely soft, creamy dal.  If the weather is hot, I leave the covered dal in the fridge whilst soaking to prevent it fermenting.  

The soaking stage is particularly important to soften the red kidney beans, which are potentially the most toxic type of bean, unless prepared and cooked properly.

And here is my interpretation of chana dal, following Jas's guidelines

Cooking stage

Cleaning
Boil the kettle using fresh water.
Rinse the dal very thoroughly until the water runs completely clear.
Transfer to pot.
Add hot water until dal completely covered and then half a pint more.
Prepare the kettle again.


Boiling stage
Bring the heat up gradually until you reach a fast boil.
Keep at this heat for 10-15 min for all dals, except the red kidney beans which need at least 30 min ( these are toxic unless cooked in this way)
You will notice some froth rising to the surface, this should be gently skimmed off and discarded. Using a wooden spoon, mix regularly to prevent any sticking ( using these pots, so far, I have not had food stick to the bottom of the pan)

Simmering stage
Once the boiling stage is over, cover the pot and leave to simmer for at least one hour, stirring regularly and adding more hot water if your dal is becoming dry. 

The longer you simmer for, the softer and creamier your dal will be.

Thurka stage
Thurka is what gives your dal flavour and this is how I make it using the same dal pot.  As taste is very individual, vary the amounts according to your own preferences.

Add as much butter as you feel like!

Add one large chopped onion, chopped garlic, chopped green finger chillies and a small amount of ginger.  Squeeze a small amount of concentrated tomato paste into the pot.

Add one small 'spice spoon' worth of salt.
Add the double the amount of dry garam masala 
( I use East End whole mixed spice and grind it in small batches to keep it as fresh as possible)
Add one spice spoon of ground turmeric
Add half the amount of powdered red chilli 

Stir thoroughly and continue to simmer for at least one hour for all groups of dal, except group A, which will only need 20 minutes.

This stage is complete when the onions are meltingly soft, and the dal is completely soft.

You are almost done! Taste and add spice accordingly, but ensure you continue to cook to release the flavour, rather than just add salt and spice to correct the flavour at the very end to avoid that 'uncooked' taste.

Finishing off
Red kidney bean dal goes extremely well with potatoes, and Black eyed beans go well with potatoes and mushrooms, these can be washed, cleaned, chopped and added at the end. Continue to simmer until the potatoes are soft.  Cooking times vary really, I just usually keep cooking until everything is soft.

All dals can be finished with fresh, chopped coriander and freshly squeezed lemon to serve.

Cumin toasted lightly in butter in a frying pan is perfect for masar dal.


This is pretty much what I do on a daily basis using your amazing pots and my family are all pretty happy.  I hope that my suggestions for recipes are of some small use to you.   
Jas