A break from our working lives.

A definition: what is bouldering?

Bouldering is rock climbing stripped down to the raw essentials, frequently demonstrated by some ripped climbers, stripped to the bare essentials. 

“It is a form of rock climbing that is performed on small rock formations or artificial rock walls, known as boulders, without the use of ropes or harnesses.”

Until recently bouldering was seen as the poor relation to roped climbing, indoors and out.  There is a fascinating but brief history by John Gill, in which he notes that bouldering was first documented as an activity in the late 19^th century, and whilst it was used for training for “real” rock climbing, it was not taken seriously, in its own right, until relatively recently.

It is now increasingly popular and fashionable, attracting a whole new target market and this has led to innovation, aspiration and ambition within the wider bouldering community.

A declared interest:

As well as spending a lot of time thinking about iron and oak, we devote a lot of our free time to rock; sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic, not progressive and glam rock.  Although a bit of punk is always a welcome distraction.

Rock for climbing on, an interest that has been passed on to the next generation and here is where our worlds collide.  Netherton’s first born, Toby,  is a talented (#nobias, #parentalpride) rock climber and boulderer and is sponsored by WildBounds to promote their selection of BelmezFace bouldering gear.  Originating out of the cobbled, graffiti-tagged streets of Madrid, BelmezFace’s  collective of artisans and creatives manufacture gear that as environmemtally sustainable as it is high-performance.   Follow Toby to watch his climbing and bouldering adventuires.

Oh yes, Wildbounds also happen to be one of our customers too - what goes around, comes around. 

By the way, if you look up Bélmez Faces, you come up with something altogether different – alleged paranormal activity in a house in Andalusia!

We have been watching the evolution of bouldering and the facilities on offer with great interest and enthusiasm.  As this article points out, “Bouldering isn’t the oldest form of climbing, but it may be the most modern.”

The opening of the Depot in Sheffield , a brand new, dedicated bouldering wall is a milestone in the journey of bouldering walls, the way paved by Yonder, Substation and Boulder Hut on foundations laid in older venues, where bouldering was a lesser part of traditional climbing walls.  The Climbing Works Sheffield blazed the trail that others would follow when it opened in 2006, as they say themselves it is a “World-renowned bouldering centre of international significance and is the first UK bouldering centre to be awarded a National Performance Centre status by the BMC.”  It was the industry standard and world’s largest bouldering centre for many years before others  such as Yonder and Boulder Hut  further paved the way on foundations laid in older venues, where  bouldering was a lesser part of traditional climbing walls.

And these new venues are winning on so many levels; they are inviting and accessible, they have the atmosphere and ambience of a great night club, but with better loos and lighting (the music is open for debate!), and each has its own USP, be it vegan catering, hot yoga sessions, decent coffee (a must, in our eyes) or great pizza.

We admire this bold approach, the breaking of barriers, puncturing of perceptions, the inclusivity and the drive behind these ventures.  After all, bouldering is a truly democratic activity, appealing to all demographics; you can be young or old; a tyro or a hero; , you don’t even need to invest in special kit, you can hire a pair of shoes at the venue while you work out if you are going to come back for more.  Nor is it not ALL about the performance, you are not up against the clock, or anyone else; it’s about enjoyment and self-improvement.  Everyone is too immersed in their own boulder goals to be watching you!

We are looking forward to seeing more venues spring up around the country – so much is being debated about increasingly sedentary lifestyles, the selling off of school playing fields, a general lack of accessible sporting facilities and we believe that these centres offer far more than the sum of their parts; a chance to enjoy a physical activity, be part of a community, make new friends, challenge yourself.

If you fancy having a go, read this article and let us know how you get on.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Guest post - rustic Italian cooking

The world is a smaller and often better place for social media.

Here is a story of how we met one of our followers in real life, discovered they also know someone else we know, James at Cabrito Goat Meat and persuaded them to come up with a recipe which bound us all together…………….

A few years ago I was on a quest to buy Made in the UK or Made in Italy; not an easy task by any means, but while searching for UK manufactured products I came across a family run, independent business in rural Shropshire that made beautiful iron pans called Netherton Foundry. As a food blogger and keen home cook, I love discovering new kitchen utensils and ingredients so it was a perfect match for me: I ordered an oven safe fryingpan, intending to make a tarte tatin.

Fast forward a few years, and I still have to make that tarte; but since then, I have been following Netherton Foundry on their social channels, seeing how they have expanded their range and successfully obtained the trust of chef and industry experts.

After an initial occasional exchange of messages and 'likes' - we started 'chatting' about motherhood and kids, making the connection more personal than just about pans.

And on the final day of 2018, we realised (still via social media!) that we happened to be at the same time in the same place, coincidentally - the stunning Cotswolds village of Broadway. We quickly arranged to meet up for coffee in the local deli, which was such a great opportunity to put faces behind 'handles' and yet another proof, if I needed another one, that good friendships can come out of socials. I was delighted when they asked me to provide a regional Italian recipe for their website, making in one of their pans.

Kid goat ‘cacio e ova’

This recipe is found in a few variations all over Southern Italy, from the mountain areas of Abruzzo to the green sea facing hills of Cilento and the inner lands of Campania. It is a warming, satisfying, wholesome dish which uses kid goat, a type of meat commonly found in Italy. In the UK, Cabrito Goat Meat sells ethically reared goat meat; if you can’t easily buy, lamb would work well too.

Serves 4

1kg kid goat meat: a mix of cutlets (ideally) then ribs and diced

2 cloves of garlic

1 small red onion, sliced

¼ white onion, thinly sliced

1 twig of rosemary

good quality extra virgin olive oil

2 free range eggs

1 tin of garden peas, drained

1 tub of pancetta cubes

1/5 lt stock (we used organic vegetable)

Salt & pepper to taste

Half glass of dry white wine

50gr grated, good quality Parmigiano Reggiano / Grana Padano (or pecorino if you like something stronger)

the juice of ½ lemon

In a small pan, sauté the pancetta with a little olive oil and the finely sliced white onion. Once browned, add the drained peas and let them cook for about 20 minutes, adding water a little at a time to prevent them from drying out. Add a knob of butter towards the end for an extra layer of flavour.

Once ready, set aside. Add two generous table spoons of olive oil to your Prospectorpan, two cloves of garlic (peeled but whole) and the sliced onion, with a twig of fresh rosemary. 

Once golden, add the diced meat and the cutlets, letting them brown on a high heat. Add the wine and let it evaporate fully, then turn the heat to low, add a little of the previously prepared stock and partially covered with the lid to let the meat cook. Keep adding the stock little at the time to avoid the pan from drying out and the meat sticking to it. After about 30-45 minutes the meat should be tender (depending on the size of the pieces). Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

Whisk the eggs with the grated cheese and set aside.  Remove the lid and add the peas, let the stew cook further adding some more stock if needed. Finally, just before serving, add the whisked egg mixture and mix well so that the egg will cook but not solidify like for an omelette; add the lemon juice too at this point.

Serve immediately with roast potatoes or mash and a slice of good sourdough bread to mop up the sauce.

Note: the sourdough was cooked in an oven safe frying pan; it works great with bread too! The recipe used is pain naturel by Weekend Bakery

Read more from Federica on her blog  http://www.pastabites.co.uk and follow her on Instagram @pastabites and on twitter @federilli

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Urban Spice Man take 2 - Imperial trout

Imperial trout

1 shallot, finely chopped
1 tblsp rapeseed oil
200g assorted tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 tsp Imperial spice powder from Mr wolf Spices
2 tsp sugar, you can use less if your tomatoes are very ripe
Juice of 1 orange
100ml fish stock or water
2 trout fillets, other fish will work just as well.

Warm the oil over a medium heat in a sauté pan.
Gently sweat the shallot in the rapeseed oil for 5 minutes.
Add the spice powder and cook for another 2 minutes.  Throw in the tomatoes, sugar and orange juice.
Cover with the lid and simmer gently for 30 minutes, adding stock/water as necessary.  You want to end up with a thick, rich sauce, so add the extra liquid judiciously.
Taste the sauce and add salt, sugar or a touch more spice to suit your own palate.
Lay the fish on top of the sauce, replace the lid and cook for 10 - 15 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

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

Rhubarb galette

Social media is awash with strawberries and cherries at the moment, and why not?  A short lived season of photogenic lusciousness.
We love the sheer, unadulterated joy of seasonal fruit and are lucky enough to have strawberry and pineberry plants and a glorious cherry tree.  Nothing beats a sun warmed strawberry eaten straight from the plant.  And the cherries taste sweeter for the victory of getting to them before the birds - we get the lower branch crop and they have their pick of the loftier harvest.

As well as the fresh fruit, there have been jams and gins, tarts and cakes and a Savarin Montmorency from our 1970s Cordon Bleu Cook Book, which calls for ¾ gill milk!  This was cooked in our 9" savarin tin.

But in addition to all this sexy red fruit, there is still some late season rhubarb flourishing at the bottom of the garden and it may not be so in your face but it is oh so delicious.

Here it is in a free form, inelegant galette, with an amateurish attempt at the picture perfect chevron patterns beloved of Instagram.  Okay, so I didn't measure each piece of rhubarb to ensure consistency, I didn't use a protractor for pinpoint accuracy and do you know what - I don't care, the taste was what really mattered.  Life's too short!

5 long sticks rhubarb
Grated rind of an orange
80g sugar
( I used orange infused sugar, made by placing orange peel into a jar of sugar - the sugar draws out the oil from the peel, drying and preserving it and flavouring the sugar. #wastenot).

150g self raising flour
75g butter, cut into small pieces
25g sugar
1 beaten egg

100g cream cheese
50g sugar
100g ground almonds

Heat the oven to 180ºC 
Cut the rhubarb into short lengths and place in an oven proof dish.  Sprikle the sugar and orange zest over the top and place in the oven.  cook for around 15 - 20 minutes, until the rhubarb is soft, but still holds its shape.
Check for sweetness and sprinkle on a little more sugar if necessary, but bear in mind that you will need a little tartness to counter the sweet pastry and filling.
Remove from the oven and set aside while you make the base and the filling.
LEAVE THE OVEN ON

Tip the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the butter.  Rub in with your fingertips until it looks like a bowl of breadcrumbs.  Add the sugar and distribute evenly. Mix in the beaten egg and bring together to form a ball of dough.
(All of this can be done in a food processor if you prefer - mine just happened to be full of bread dough)

Dust your worktop with flour and roll out the dough around 4mm thick.  Carefully transfer to a baking sheet, the 15" griddle plate is perfect.

Beat the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth and then stir in the ground almonds.  Carefully spread this over the pastry base, leaving a 5cm border.
Arrange - or simply tip- the rhubarb over the filling.
Pull up the edges of the pastry to meet the filling.  this will form a nice crust and prevent any juices from running out and burning.

Place in the oven and bake for 25 minutes, until the pastry is golden.
Serve at room temperature.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

The pan amnesty

“If it can’t be reduced, reused, repaired, rebuilt, refurbished, refinished, resold, recycled or composted, then it should be restricted, redesigned or removed from production.”

The words of the late Pete Seeger, on an album released in 2008 and even more relevant today than they were then.

Were he still with us, no doubt Pete Seeger, a life long environmental activist, would be at the forefront of the environmental campaigns across the globe today.

His words may sound harsh, but they are what we all need to hear.  And the order is important – recycling is a headline hitting concept, but it should never be the first resort.

We should be looking to reduce our consumption of non renewable, unsustainable materials such as single use plastics.  We do not use any single use plastics and only one silicon washer on the lids of our cookware. And we are looking for alternatives for even that component. Our packaging is all paper based and can be re-used, recycled or composted.

Our pans are seasoned with natural flax oil, so they can be re-seasoned and restored again and again.  In fact, they longer you use them the better they get.  And we sell all the spares you need to make repairing them a simple process.  Do try not to burn the handles, but it’s not the end of the pan, or the end of the world, if you do.

And so we come to rebuilding and re-using.  We would love more people to own Netherton cookware, to use it daily, to cherish it, to hand it on to the next generation.  And we recognise that the reason many people do not buy new pans is that they “already have more pans than we need”. 

So we have come up with a plan. 

But first a few words about food banks – we are filled with admiration for the staff and volunteers who run food banks around the country, but we are unhappy with the necessity for them in 21^st century Britain.

It is over 75 years since the Attlee government basically enacted every recommendation made by eccentric patrician liberal reformer Sir William Beveridge, who exceeded his simple brief – to survey the country’s social insurance programmes – with a wide range of suggestions aimed at eradicating what he called the five “giant evils”: want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness.

Whatever Attlee thought of him, Beveridge was no socialist. He thought taking the burden of healthcare and pension costs away from corporations and individuals and giving them to the government would increase the competitiveness of British industry while producing healthier, wealthier, more motivated and more productive workers keen to buy British goods.

Yet here we are, the fifth biggest economy in the world and the evil of want is blighting the lives of thousands of people.

And we cannot blame it on the evil of idleness either – in 2017/2018 over 28% of referrals to food banks were for low income households, ie people in paid employment, who couldn’t afford to put food on the table.

“I hope the foodbank closes

The reasons that drive people to a foodbank are really complex. Essentially, it tends to be because of low-pay work and issues with the benefits system. We’ve already seen in Lambeth, which we are on the border of, Universal Credit rolled out as a full service in December last year. In the last six months we’ve seen the use of the foodbank rise by 150 per cent. Maybe not all of that is a direct result of Universal Credit but the numbers have gone up massively.

I don’t think foodbanks should be part of our norm. I hope the foodbank closes because we have a benefits system that supports vulnerable people when they need it.”

Rebekah Gibson is manager of Oasis Centre Waterloo foodbank

  

We cannot solve the problem of people not having enough to eat on our own, nor can you.  But we can all do our bit. 

The issues are vast and complex; people may not have the means to cook food, they may not be able to afford to turn the cooker on; they may not have the knowledge and skills to turn their donated food into an appealing meal; they may not have the basic equipment, have you ever tried to open a can of soup without a tin opener?

And this where the #panamnesty plan comes in.

Bring us your old pan and we will restore it to as close to new as possible and pass it on to a food bank, who can give it a new home.

In exchange, we will give you a discount on a new Netherton pan, that you can use and use and eventually hand on the next generation.

  

 “Food banks should not exist – not a single one – in an economically developed nation seven decades after the construction of a welfare state.  “

Agreed, but as long as they do …………….then we should all do whatever we can to support them, from the donation of a single can of beans to a full week’s shop, to volunteering and helping out, campaigning and sourcing new supplies or taking part in the #panamnesty

Roast cauliflower fritters

Nubbles of soft, spicy cauliflower, with a crispy batter coating, just lush!

1 cauliflower, broken into florets
1 tblsp rapeseed oil
2 tblsp natural yogurt
2 heaped tsp Mr Wolf Sweet Rabey James, or a spice blend of your choice.
100g self raising flour

Pre-heat the oven to 180ºC
Mix the oil, yogurt and spice mix together and coat the cauliflower florets generously.
Save any residue.
Toss the florets into a prospector pan or oven proof dish and roast in the oven for 30 minutes.
While they are cooking, add the flour to the left over spicy yogurt mix and whisk in enough water to create a batter the consistency of double cream.

Place a wok or large saucepan on the stove and add enough oil to deep fry the florets.  Heat to around 180ºC or until a drop of the batter rises to the surface and turns golden brown in around 30 seconds.
Drop the roasted florets gently into the batter and then into the hot oil.
Cook until golden then carefully remove, drain on kitchen paper and serve immediately, with an extra dusting of seasoning if desired.

We ate ours with an aubergine purée, baby gem lettuce charred in miso butter and flatbreads.

Netherton Foundry Shropshire 2019 ©

www.netherton-foundry.co.uk