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Staffordshire Fine Foods – Launch

January 13th, 2011

As many of you know, we make a range of our own ingredients in-house. The sale of these products has been limited to the restaurant menu so far. However, this is about to change on the 15th January 2011. To start with, Chef Daniel will be creating a range of 6 homemade sausages. Following on from there, we will be developing our home smoked range, traditional and modern charcuterie, pickles, sauces, fudge and gifts for your favourite foodie.

All the range will be available on the Staffordshire Fine Foods website or from the restaurant. A couple of local delis and farm shops have been in touch as well. The whole line is hand produced and we have no intentions to move from that to large scale output.

If you have any requests or questions, please let us know

Tags: fine, foods, launch, staffordshire
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Roasted Cockerel | Home Recipe

January 6th, 2011

This Christmas we thought we would treat ourselves with a different bird and something that we could see all year round. So, on the 23rd of December, we went down to visit our pals at Brown and Green in Trentham to pick up Finbar (the cockerel reared by Packington Poultry). After getting him home and looking at the recipe, I just knew I had to tinker and come up with something quick, easy and stress free for the day itself. So after a little thought, this is what we came up with:

Ingredients

1 Cockerel approx 7 1/2 pounds (or 3.5kg)
1 Very large leek, cleaned and chopped
3 Carrots, washed, topped and tailed, but not peeled, chopped
1 Bulb of garlic, cloves removed and slightly crushed to split the skin
1 Twig of rosemary
1 Bunch of thyme
Water
Oil, salt and pepper

Method

Preheat oven to GM9 (250C/475F).

Put chopped leeks and carrots in base of large roasting dish. Top up with water to height of veg only. Place bird on top, gently wipe with oil or butter and then a dash of salt and ground black pepper. Place tray in oven for about 20 mins (larger bird maybe 30 mins). This stage is to get some colour and crunch on the surface of the bird.

Remove from oven, drop temperature to GM6 (200C/400F) and leave oven open a couple of mins to help it get down a few degrees.
Add the loose garlic cloves, some on the bird, some in the water, thyme and rosemary. Baste the bird and then cover with a doubled over layer of foil. Put back in oven for 75-80 mins.

The ideal, overall cooking time is 12 – 15 mins per pound. If you are doing any form of stuffing, cook it seperately, different cooking properties from the bird and the result would be inconsistent if cooked as one.

Test the cockerel with a skewer in the thickest part of the breast to make sure that the juices coming out are clear. If they are pink or red, put the bird back and keep checking every 10 mins. If you have a probe thermometer then look for 180F of 80C as a guideline.

Once you are happy the cockerel is ready, allow to rest for about 20 mins. During this time, take the juices from the roasting dish and make gravy. The garlic cloves can be taken out and squeezed as a side treat or into softened butter for a flavoursome spread. If you seperate the fat then all the better, but try not to add any additional salt until you know it is cooked down enough. A quick glug of wine is always helpful, even if you put some in the gravy pan.

Tags: cockerel, Packington, poultry, recipe
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Christmas Senses | Ahead by a nose ?

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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It’s Snow Laughing Matter

December 17th, 2010

So here I am stranded because of the snow, 180 miles away from home. It’s like retirement, we know it’s going to arrive but we do nothing about it. Trunk roads don’t get gritted and nothing gets ploughed. If in this modern age a country grinds to a halt over a few inches of snow, how did Britain survive in days gone by?

First thing, is that they used the seasons as their friends. Autumn came, food was getting ready for store, hams were made, fruit preserved and vegetables put into sand pyramids. Winter brings with it cold, snow and ice. All of these are great for preserving food. In Victorian times, people in the big house would dig holes and store goods buried under snow, a kind of 19th century freezer.

We have modern appliances that do all this now, but there are a foolhardy few who venture out to forage, dig or even smoke food in the winterscape. What better way to welcome these hunter gatherers back than with a large bucket full of beer, wine, water and snow. It’s nature’s very own drinks cooler and a welcome sight at any party this time of year.

Don’t fight nature, work with it?

Tags: improvisation, old days, snow, Winter
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The Emergency Chicken …

December 16th, 2010

This has nothing to do with some lager fuelled hallucination about poultry performing great acts of bravery, first things first. It’s over the Christmas Day and you realise you have got the maths wrong on how big the bird should be, you need more. In just over thirty mins, you can have a freshly cooked chicken ready to go. This is simple, stress free(ish) and only needs a couple of ingredients, ohh and a pressure cooker.

Turn heat on oven to high or find room if it’s already in use at such a temperature. Take a 3-4lb chicken, wipe with vegetable or rape seed oil, quick couple of grinds of black pepper and a pinch of salt. In the pressure cooker add about a pint of water, a couple of bay leafs and a few black peppercorns. You should have one of those little perforated veg dishes with the set? Find it, turn it upside down and put in the bottom of the pressure cooker and put on the hob, without the lid on.

The chicken goes in the oven for about 5 minutes, by which time the water in the bottom of the pressure cooker should be bubbling away. Place chicken onto the upturned dish inside the pan. Lock on lid and turn valve to high if needed. The pressure indicator should pop up quite quickly. You will need about 12 – 15 minutes depending on which end of the size scale the chicken came from.

Let off the pressure, remove lid and check chicken is cooked all way through by pushing a skewer in. If juices are even slightly pink, more time is needed. Even better if you have a temperature probe in the kitchen. The juices in the bottom of the pan and anything you reserved from the roasting dish are a great base for any extra gravy that is needed.

Tags: 30 minute, chicken, emergency, last, minute, quick, thirty minute
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Beauty and the Beet(root)

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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The Hamburger | History and recipe

November 30th, 2010

While this is not a British dish, it probably is not an American invention either. The history of the hamburger does not seem to start with anything related to ham, but to the seaport city of Hamburg. Apparently, in the early part of the 19th century, New York restaurants tried to vie for popularity with the German sailors coming into port. The Hamburg steak, as it was called, was seen as the ideal import to welcome these hungry seafarers with flavours of home. From then on, it’s all history. This goes hand in hand with the story behind the Cumberland sausage and illustrates how dishes get adapted and integrated.

A burger can be as complex or as simple as you can make them and many countries have a variant of the meat or vegetable patty. Indian cuisine has a particular gourmet shami kebab which can contain over 100 ingredients, yes two zeroes. Our recipe is inspired by a very down to earth chain called In-N-Out in the US and is a firm favourite in our home kitchen.

Ingredients: To make four

1lb chuck steak, cubed and then coarsely minced
4 buns, halved and lightly toasted on the centres
4 cheese slices
1 Onion sliced into rings
Your favourite sauce

Method:

Separate the meat into 8x 2oz balls and press flat with your hand, then grill or barbecue, your choice. Place cheese slice on 4 of the burger pattys to gently melt. To assemble; bottom bun,spread of sauce, burger with cheese, slice of onion, burger, another spread of sauce, top bun. To add extra authenticity, wrap each completed burger in grease proof paper and serve.

A gentle barbecue sauce or marie rose which is ketchup and mayonnaise is ideal or even both (one top, one bottom) Very quick and easy to prepare. This is the kind of home recipe that ideal for little helpers, the children will enjoy making the pattys, especially when they get to try them

Tags: beef, german food, hamburger, history
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The Brussel Sprout

November 25th, 2010

Love them or hate them, they are here. The Brussel bit comes from records showing that they were grown in Belgium from around 15 something. In the 18th century they migrated to France, Britain and in the 19th century to the States via French settlers. They have a peak season of late November till early January, so that’s probably the reason they ended up on the Christmas table.

Sprouts get maligned as soggy, nasty tasting vegetables with a bad smell. These are all tied together due to a chemical that leaches out when they are overcooked. Ideally, they should be steamed, roasted or boiled, but ideally steamed for 6-7 minutes. This preserves the gentle peppery flavour and also all the good chemicals. The humble Brussel has potent levels of a chemical that has anti-cancer properties, in particular colon cancer. As well as this, they are also rich in vitamin A and C, fibre and iron. Overcooking not only loses them flavour but also beneficial nutrients.

Cooking is as much a family tradition as it anything else. Once the sprouts have been trimmed and any off-coloured leaves are removed, many folks go onto putting a cross on the base. There is no proof either way that this benefits cooking, but it is a great way of getting the family together to prepare the dinner.

Leftover sprouts are fantastic chopped up with bacon as part of bubble and squeak or in potato rissoles for Boxing Day. A sprout is not just for Christmas then?

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Hasty Pudding

November 22nd, 2010

This is listed as an old Staffordshire pudding and is even mentioned in the song Yankee Doodle:

Fath’r and I went down to camp
Along with Captain Goodin’,
And there we saw the men and boys
As thick as hasty puddin’

The US version does appears to be almost like a porridge, whereas our version below could be accused on being a set custard.

Ingredients (serves 2)
1 heaped tablespoon of unsalted butter
1 heaped tablespoon of plain flour
3/4 pint of milk
1 egg
1 teaspoon of brown sugar

A key in getting this pudding right is in the basics of cooking the roux and creating the white sauce as a base. Other ingredients can be added before the egg gets introduced such as jam, more sugar and vanilla. It’s called hasty for a reason, because it’s hasty to make, so plenty of variations can be tried in a short time.

Method:
Warm butter in pan and once melted add the flour. Stir with wooden spoon until it completely combined. Slowly add milk, very little to start with as it will practically go solid at first. Add more milk and keep stirring, the consistency of the sauce will start to come through. Ideally, once all the milk is added, the base of the pan should be briefly visible when stirring. Add egg and mix quickly, this should thicken the sauce without curdling. Pour into ovenproof dish and sprinkle with sugar. Under the grill t brown the top and it’s done.

If you come across any other tweaks or ingredients for this recipe, please drop us a line.

Tags: hasty, pudding, staffordshire
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Local Food, Is it just a British problem?

November 11th, 2010

I sometimes get sent to nice places around the world for conferences and this trip was no let down. This is the first time I have visited Spain and being sent to Barcelona as an introduction to the country was great. The picture above is one of the longest building projects in the world, starting sometime in the mid 19th century. It is still a building site today and is a mix of architectural style from ancient to modern. So, I set off on foot from my hotel on the edge of the city to find this place, over a 2 mile walk down a lovely avenue of trees and then a few side streets to this amazing square. The cathedral is awe inspiring and maybe could also be described as eccentric or even barking mad. Sadly it had also inherited the same neighbours as many historic places around the world. On one corner stood the burger place, then on another, the chicken place and finally one of the pizza places.

So where was all this great local food that the Spanish produce? Luckily, that had been a treat on the way to the square before I got hit by the high street anytown fast food joints. A slim but deep bar / restaurant which was buzzing. The main bar had a local cable type lotto thing going on, buy a ticket and watch live draws several times an hour. For me it was about the food. Three types of Spanish omelette (potato, courgette and mushroom), chorizo, small warmed up morcilla (black pudding, but the guy said it was blue pudding), ham and a beer. So let me run through that again; omelette, sausage, black pudding and ham. Almost sounds like a British pub snack? But this was really nice Spanish food, done their way and in no way comparable to a fry up or a grill.

How is this different to British food? If you came from overseas looking for local food where would you go? Pie and eel shops, tea rooms, sandwich bars, greasy spoons and fish and chip shops. It might not be high end, but this is the kind of food enjoyed all over the world in local neighbourhoods. The tapas place was no different to this, people coming out for a snack, a chat, a cigarette, a flutter and a beer.

Tags: british, fast food, Food, local, spanish, tapas
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