Flat Bread---Piadine

A simple Italian flat bread, ideal for the barbecue season, quick to make and a great alternative to soft bread buns. The basic recipe below can be adapted to include herbs, garlic, chilli, shallots or bacon etc to add interesting flavours or extra texture to the breads.

350g Plain flour
10g Salt
30ml olive oil
100-110ml Luke warm water.



Simply place the flour, oil and salt into a bowl.

Add most of the water and mix everything together by hand to form a soft ball of dough. If the dough seems dry then add a little more water to it to make the soft ball. Adding too much water will give a dough that is too sticky to roll.

Turn the dough out onto the work top and knead for about 5 minutes to give a smooth, well mixed dough.

Lightly oil a bowl, place the dough into it, cover with cling film and set aside to rest for about 20 minutes.

When the dough has tested, heat a griddle or heavy bottomed frying pan/ skillet ready for use.

Divide the dough into about 12 equal pieces, lightly flour the work top.

Take each piece of dough and using your hands, knead it gently,up into a ball. Roll out thinly to approx 12-15cm.

Lightly oil the griddle/pan and place the rolled dough disk onto it. leave for about 2 minutes to brown, turn over and cook on until both sides have browned.

The Piadine is now ready to enjoy and is at its best warm and freshly made. They can be kept warm for a short time, or frozen for later use but do then lose a little of their character.

Enjoy.

Goose with Pheasant stuffing and Hare.

Something a little different for Easter, using some odds n ends from the freezer, left overs from the Autumn season. The result was very rich, flavoursome and tender, enjoyed by all for lunch today, the quantities are very variable with this one, but the idea is sound and has worked well for us on a couple of occasions now.




 1 Goose breast--wild
3 Pheasant breasts
2 Hare legs, boned and diced
Bunch fresh herbs from the garden
3 Onions, finely chopped
3 Cloves garlic
6 rashers bacon
Tub of frozen stuffing from xmas!
Bottle red wine
Good dollop of Elderberry jelly
2 Tins plum tomatoes--chopped
3 Tablespoons tomato paste.

Cut the goose breast twice lengthways to create 2 flaps that can be lifted from the centre to result in a large flat escalope shape. Cover with cling film and bash out with a rolling pin to increase the size and to tenderise the meat.
Cut Pheasant breasts into chunks, place in a food processor with the stuffing and herbs, then pulse until blended. Place the resultant stuffing in a long sausage shape on the goose breast, roll the goose up to seal in the stuffing. Roll the bacon around the length of the goose meat.
Soften the onion and garlic in a large cast iron casserole, when soft add the bacon wrapped goose. Brown all round, add the hare and when sealed, add a dollop of elderberry Jelly, 2 bay leafs and a generous half bottle of red wine. Bring to the boil and allow the liquid to reduce by about half. Add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, bring to a simmer, place in oven for approx 2 hours or until the hare meat is tender.
Serve and enjoy.

portioning a chicken

A little visual guide to help you master one of the classic kitchen basics. Essential for many traditional dishes, plus this allows you to buy whole chicken and then freeze the spare joints for use later meaning that you retain the quality and choice in your cooking.
Enjoy.

Elderberry Jelly

The end of summer brings about the bounty of the season, one of our favourites is the Elderberry and this year has seen a bumper harvest. This jelly is well worth the effort of collecting, cleaning and sorting as just one day of labour will give you at least a year of pleasure as you add the jelly to sauces for a rich taste, or just a little dollop with fresh cold meats and cheese rather than using the less flavoursome commercial alternatives. What can be finer than your own seasonal preserves to add a little of the sunshine to your winter meals? A few simple ingredients combine here to make something rather special.


1300g Elderberries
1300g Cooking Apples

Peel of 1 Orange
1 Cinnamon stick
Granulated sugar as per instruction below.



1 Go out on a warm sunny day and collect your elderberries, remove stems to leave just the berries.

2 Place elderberries in a large deep pan.

3 Chop apples roughly, including skin and cores and add to the elderberries.

4 Pour 500ml cold water into the pan, place over heat and bring to the boil.

5 As soon as the apples have softened, turn off the heat, allow to cool a little and pass the mixture through a sieve into another pan or large container. Push as much pulp through the sieve as possible.

6 Use a measuring jug to see how much pulp you have then put pulp into a large deep pan again.

7 Add sugar to the pulp in the ratio of 475g sugar to every 500ml of Elderberry and apple pulp, place pan over heat again and bring back to the boil. Add the peel of the orange and the cinnamon stick.

8 Turn down to simmer and allow to cook. As scum appears on the surface, remove it with a spoon.

9 After about 30 minutes of simmering, begin to check if setting point has been reached by removing a small amount on a teaspoon and placing on a cool plate, in about 5 minutes touch the cooled preserve, if it feels jelly like then it is ready. If still too runny then continue to simmer and check every 10 minutes until the setting point is achieved.

10 Pour the jelly into sterile prepared kilner jars or jam jars, seal quickly and allow to cool.

11 Store until you are ready to use, enjoy.

Roast stuffed leg of Lamb

One of the real delights of the year is the arrival of new season lamb, the one we ate today really lived up to expectations too. Quite a simple dish that will thrill your tastebuds and guests alike. The stuffing can easily be varied to suit your tastes, try adding lemon zest , chilli or use chorizo instead of bacon. No real measurements here either, just experiment a little and most of all enjoy. Again this type of dish is just spur of the moment, throw it all together and see what happens, which we really enjoy doing, makes food really interesting and different every time too.

1 Leg of local lamb
A handful of fresh garden herbs
Clove garlic
3 or 4 rashers bacon
Couple of slices stale bread--sourdough is great
Splash of white wine

Bone the leg of lamb, your local butcher will be happy to do this.
Pick over the herbs, pop the bones, along with some root veg and the herb stalks into a pot to make your stock.
Remove crusts from bread slices then dice them, roughly chop the bacon.
Whiz the bread and herbs in a food processor, place to one side then whiz the bacon to make a coarse paste. Mix into the bread and herb to make a stuffing.
Open out the leg of lamb and cut the meat so it opens quite flat, spread the stuffing onto the meat.
Roll up and tie to prevent it unrolling during cooking.
Peel and slice the garlic.
Season lamb with salt and pepper, then push the tip of a sharp knife into the skin and into the meat, lever it very slightly to make a small opening and insert a slice of garlic. Repeat evenly across the whole joint.
Place on a roasting tin, drizzle with olive oil, and splash of wine, roast.(The cooking time will depend upon the size of the leg and degree of cooking that you wish to apply).
Remove from oven when cooked, allow to rest for a while before carving into thick slices to enjoy with a simple gravy or sauce made from the stock.

Spiced Beef

With all this cold weather about, its time for a warming comforting dish, basically thrown together from ingredients that we found left over from other dishes or just in the cupboard anyway. The beef dish we've made here has good depth of flavour, is smooth and light yet really packs a punch with the warm spices used. Absolutely suited to winter weather!!

500G Diced beef
2 Spring Onions
2cm piece ginger
3 Garlic cloves
Half a dried scotch bonnet chilli
Half a dried chilli
5 Potatoes
1 Butternut squash
1 Tin coconut milk
1 Tin Butter beans-drained
500ml Chicken Stock
Sprig Thyme
Salt and pepper


This one is very straightforward to prepare.

Heat some oil in a pan, add the beef, season with salt and pepper. Meanwhile chop the ginger and chilli, slice the garlic and add to the pan with the thyme.
When the meat is sealed, cover with 500ml stock and cover with a lid. Allow to simmer for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile peel the squash and potatoes and dice these evenly. Add to the pot and simmer for a further 20 minutes. Now add the coconut milk and butter beans, simmer until the beef and potatoes are cooked to perfection. Sprinkle in the chopped spring onion and serve.

Great served with sour dough bread to mop up the juice. Should any be left over then next day it makes a great soup like light lunch, ideal following a walk on a frosty morning.

Cabinet pudding

A real blast from the past, but one that really should never have fallen from its place at the dinner table. Delicious hot, warm or cold, with ice cream, sauce anglaise, creme fraiche or simply cream, full of fruit and vanilla flavours the Cabinet pudding really ticks many boxes. Cabinet pudding really should acquire the status that its cousin the bread and butter pudding has achieved in recent years. If made with dried fruits its a Cabinet pudding, if made with Glace fruits its called a Diplomat!! Ideal at any time of year, and basically uses only stock cupboard essentials.

Ingredients

Old sponge, diced (fresh sponge works too)
500ml milk
3 egg yolks
60g Caster sugar
half of a vanilla pod
30g currants and sultanas
25g Butter
Nutmeg to taste

1. Line a casserole type dish with some of the butter and a little of the caster sugar.
2. Dice the sponge and then add some of it to the dish, then some of the dried fruits and so on until full.
3. Scrape the vanilla pod to remove the small seeds.
4. Pour the milk into a pan with the remaining caster sugar, add the vanilla seeds. Heat to warm through, but do not boil.
5. Beat the egg yolks, then slowly add the warmed milk and vanilla. Stir then strain into a pouring jug/bowl.
6. Pour the egg and milk mixture over the the sponge and allow to soak well.
7. Dot the top with the remaining butter and grate over fresh nutmeg to taste.
7. Place the dish in a roasting tin with about 2cm water in the bottom, place into oven at 175 centigrade and bake until the egg has fully set.
8. Allow to cool, unmold and enjoy.