In Season | 99 Station Street

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The Haggis is English …

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011

Tonight is Burn’s Night, a celebration of the colourful Scots Poet, Robbie Burns. One is his most famous poems was Address to a Haggis:

” Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin’-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm. “

I am not going to give you the other 6 verses, but it does go on to describe the haggis’ buttocks and all manner of other things. The haggis has been a thing of folklore for centuries, even with tales of which leg was longer than the other.

However, there is strong evidence that the dish was not originally from Scotland. According to the BBC, “Historian Catherine Brown said she found references to the dish inside a 1615 book called The English Hus-Wife. The title would pre-date Robert Burns’ poem To A Haggis, which brought fame to the delicacy, by at least 171 years.”

I know of a great English Haggis, made by our butchers, Ian Barkers, in Rolleston on Dove. In all fairness to junior, he did learn his craft after spending many years in Scotland and made haggis while he was there.

Haggis is one of those dishes that really does use up what was left over, should be cooked simply and tastes delicious. Even for one night a year, this British dish earns it’s rightful place at the table.

Tags: Burns Night, butcher, dove, English Haggis, Haggis, ian barker, on, Robbie Burns, rolleston
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Christmas Senses | Ahead by a nose ?

Tuesday, December 21st, 2010

When you think of fantastic festive fragrances, which ones jump out? Mulled wine? The bird coming out the oven? Christmas pud? Gravy? Brandy sauce? Stuffing? Roast vegetables? An open fire? The overcooked sprouts? All of them evoke strong feelings of memory of winter, but why? In a word, warmth. When materials get warm, the molecules move quicker and at certain temperatures, odours peel away into the free air. Try a cold turkey sandwich in cold bread from the convenience store fridge. Certainly not as nice as was when it was being carved on the Christmas table?

Heat and smell go hand in hand, as does taste and smell. If you pinch your nose even the foulest medicine will be more palatable, though Mary Poppins tells us to use a spoonful of sugar instead. Freshly brewed coffee sells houses as does bread straight out of the oven. A smell can take you back to a beautiful moment in your life just the same way a favourite song can.

Have a Very Merry Christmas from,

Susan, Helen, Katherine, Kelly, Molly, Anthony, Daniel, Rob, Michael and Ross xx

Tags: Christmas, Food, smells, taste
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Beauty and the Beet(root)

Wednesday, December 15th, 2010

This time of year, the most visible form of beetroot is in the pickled form. Although a great accompaniement to pot roasts and stews, it is surprisingly versatile elsewhere. This root vegetable has a number of health giving properties and also has some history as a source of red dye. However, this is about it’s use on the plate.

A beetroot can be used in two forms in salads, the main veg finely cut and the leaves. There is little waste with a beetroot apart from the stalk, skin and base, which go wonderfully well in the compost or wormery.

If you are going to use it for a warm dish, you will first need to boil it till the point you can poke it with a skewer (1/2 hour plus) or peel, parboil and roast. The roasted vegetable works very well with game dishes. The only downside is the after effects of the beetroot, in it’s more raw form, one of the chemicals responsible for the dye use, is passed straight through the body. Apart from the initial shock, it is completely harmless.

Boiled beetroot works well with dried fruit and wine to build a risotto. As discussed before, it’s worthwhile keeping most of the ingredients in the dish red as they will be turned that colour anyway.

A warming winter soup is magnificent, think cream of tomato but made with beetroot. The real trick is to make sure you can keep your best tablecloth safe from the spills.

Beetroot has a fairly long season, really only unavailable fresh between the start of spring and early summer.

Tags: beetroot, Food, root, seasonal, vegetable
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Staffordshire Buttery Potato Cake

Thursday, November 11th, 2010

This is one of those easy to cook / easy to get wrong dishes. With simple ingredients, it is all to easy to add extra items or tweak the method. Buttery potato cake makes a great side dish, especially with stews, rich sauces or pot roasts. A potato halfway between waxy and floury is best for this, probably Maris Piper is the more available choice.

Ingredients:

2lb potato
2oz butter
Seasoning

Method:

Preheat oven to GM5. Peel and slice potatoes as thinly as possible. Set potatoes aside in a bowl of cold water for a few minutes while the oven heats.

Gently grease a cake tin or oven dish of appropriate size. Thinly layer potatoes and dot each layer with butter. Once complete, seal with a disk of greaseproof paper. This needs to go into the oven until they can be gently pierced with a skewer, probably about one and a half hours.

Serve in slices.

A couple of things to avoid are: par boiling the potatoes, not soaking the potatoes, overpowering with salt or cooking at too higher temperature.

Tags: buttery, cake, maris piper, potato, staffordshire
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In Season | Parsnip

Thursday, October 28th, 2010

The parsnip is just coming into season and by this we mean they are available domestically from the ground in peak condition. Many parsnips arrive in large plastic storage bags and these cause the vegetable to sweat and like other roots, this limits their useful life. A freshly pulled parsnip can be stored in the dark and dry for months. This is a perfect winter veg and can be used in many other ways than being roasted. As a rule of the thumb, the larger the parsnip, the tougher it can be.

Here is another way to use this versatile veg, as parsnip puree. This makes a great accompaniment to any roast or even on it’s own as a comfort dish.

Ingredients
Parsnips
Milk
Salt
Ground black pepper
Butter

For an additional warming touch:
Onion seeds (pinch)
Mustard seeds (pinch)
Curry leaves (1 or 2)
Asafoetida (a quick dash)
Vegetable oil (or ghee) a tablespoon

Method

Peel, top and tail the parsnips. Cut the thin section off the front as one piece and section the large end lengthwise. If the parsnip is tough slice out the centre and discard with peel to compost.

Put into pan and just cover with milk. Bring milk to a simmer, season to taste. When the parsnips ar soft to a fork, they are ready. Put to one side. Blend till smooth and add a dot or two of butter to preference.

In another pan, heat oil. Add the warming ingredients until the seeds pop and then pour over the parnsip puree and serve.

Tags: In Season, Parsnip, recipe, seasonal food, vegetable, Winter
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Walnuts | The battle begins …

Wednesday, September 15th, 2010

At home we have a mature walnut tree standing at the side of the house. Every so often you will here one of the fruit dropping from the tree and then bouncing down the tiled roof. Technically they are not in season for another month, but the ones on the ground are ready to store. The maths are quite stunning, this tree can produce several small sacks a year of nuts. Now why am I talking about maths and also an ingredients that isn’t even in season yet? It all started with one of my random rants the other day, which was picked up by our friend PodChef and he sent me the link to this You Tube Video.

So how do these little creatures perform the art of subtraction so well that I end up with close to zero nuts each year?

The walnut is a great ingredient and, luckily, you don’t need that many of them to make up simple salad, a nut topping for a dessert or even to make a pesto. Earlier on in the year, these can be collected when they are still in the green husk and pickled. Not to everyones taste but a staple when the game season comes about.

Tags: season, seasonal food, squirrels, Walnuts
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Foraging | Easy pickings …

Monday, September 13th, 2010

One of my favourite activities is talking the children to one of our village parks. To get there, you walk across a couple of fields and some well trodden footpaths. A common feature of any of these treks is the variety of food that is literally there for the taking. At this time of year the blackberries and elderberries are at their peak. Rosehips are all around and if you have the patience, try making the syrup. A sad fact is that many things in hedges or with painful foliage get ignored. The blackberry is certainly in that group as well as one of my real favourites, the stinging nettle. The sting is deactivated as soon the leaves hit boiling water, straight out and into ice water to refresh. It makes a great alternative to spinach and is fantastic as a stuffing for chicken breasts.

The key to any foraging is not only in the understanding of where you can find produce but also in when it is at it’s best. Whilst there is no strict calendar there are a couple of hints that nature will give. If you want to harvest nice, juicy sloes, wait till at least after the first frost. The cold will freeze the liquid inside, this expands and causes damage to the cell walls and thus, the juice is unlocked. It also saves a mountain of time when you don’t have to prick them with pins before immersion in the gin

Tags: autumn, blackberry, early, elderflower, foraging, nettle, sloe
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In Season | The Leek

Thursday, September 9th, 2010

A close relative of the onion and nearly just as versatile. the leek is deservant of it’s position as a symbol of Britain. One noted Welshman, Terry Walton, has plenty of advice on the humble leek. Terry is the BBC allotment guru and has spent most of his life growing veg on his various family plots. One tip is to cover the base of the leek with a length of old drain pipe to encourage a larger area of white on the vegetable.

The leek should not be confined to potato soup or being stewed to death as a drab side dish. After carefully cleaning of the soil, it can be cut many ways, as a chiffonade, into slices, sticks or even as a wrap. Leeks are just as delicious raw as they are cooked. If you are looking for a milder substitute for the spring onion, the leek is just the thing. The leek is an important component of any good vegetable stock which is a compliment to it’s flavour.

If you want a real treat, try leeks in a cheese sauce, covered with breadcrumbs and browned under the grill.

Tags: In Season, Leek, seasonal food, september
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Corn | A seasonal treat

Monday, September 6th, 2010

When it comes to sweetcorn, he is bang on the money. Not only is this a delicious, multi purpose ingredient, it’s also grown in great quantities in the UK. This is emphasized when I was driving around some country roads near home and there were fields full of corn over 8′ tall. Nowhere did this hit home but at a local attraction, The National Forest – Maize Maze . Here, the farmer has clearly realised that once his crop is planted, he can’t do anything with that land until harvest. So every year when the corn gets to a certain height, roughly mid July, they design a new themed maze in the fields. This year, they had a beach holiday feel to it, lots of fun. This goes on until late September, when the corn is harvested. A great day out for all the family and many activities on site.

Apart from providing a Great British day out in the summer, corn is also fantastic produce. There are very few ingredients that you can boil, barbecue, cream and even make bread with. One of our favourites are the sweet corn pancakes that Chef Dan puts on the menu occasionally. Corn is susceptible to over cooking, especially if you keep it on the boil for too long. Careful preparation and gentle treatment brings the best out in corn.

Tags: maize, maize maze, seasonal food, sweetcorn
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Seasonal favourites | The Blackberry

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

The blackberry is one of the real gems of the hedgerow, up there with the sloe. Like any fruit, too much water can produce a soft tasteless berry and too little, will prevent them reaching their potential. It has a great range of use and is easily available to anybody willing to forage.

There are three safety points that need to be in mind when you go blackberry picking; brambles are sharp, always wash what you pick, watch out for cars. The good news about brambles, if they are yours, is that they can be cut back drastically after the blackcurrant harvest and they will stay down for most of the year.

After the picking, you have plenty of choices of what to do with your fruit. Blackberry gin, crumble, jam or a rich sauce to go with game, goose or duck. Some of you will have spotted that last sentence and asking why goose and game are not game. My definition of game is wild but the majority of goose and duck are farmed.

If you want to go a stage further with the sauce, you could sieve it and spoon, warm, over ice cream.

Tags: august, blackberries, blackberry, In Season, seasonal food
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