BBQ

A great day out at a local country fest, with a heavy emphasis on food, where we really enjoyed a good look around and some good tasting sessions. Really good to catch with old friends and to talk to the producers who give us so much pleasure. Having been such a hot day what better way than a BBQ to sample some of produce with friends too.

The first outing this year for the fire starter, a great device for starting the charcoal or briquettes with. Just stuff some paper into the base, top with some old coals and then fill with new ones, place over the base shelf and light. Leave this until you have red hot glowing coals, pour over the BBQ base and you can begin to cook, simple and effective, but we are yet to decide the best paper to use, a midweek or weekend one, a broadsheet or tabloid, the jury is still out!

We were lucky enough to have purchased some racks of ribs, traditional, sweet chilli and peri-peri, along with a coarse Cumberland sausage, pork and chive sausage, Springbok burgers and Kangaroo burger, certainly something a little different.

The ribs were sealed off and cooked in a rack, then when nicely browned, wrapped in foil and returned to a cooler area of the BBQ, whilst the sausage and burgers were cooked over the coals. Everything remained moist and juicy with excellent flavour, the Springbok and Kangaroo were certainly powerfully surprising and to be recommended as a great alternative to the usual offerings. The ribs were juicy, tender and well flavoured, offering a selection for everyone and keeping us happy as we ate them by hand, giving us the opportunity to lick our fingers clean afterwards too! These meats all came from Shaw meats in Wigton, check them out at www.shawmeats.co.uk

A bit of a Mess

Forever popular, Eton Mess is a firm favourite of ours. Simple and quick to make, and today this will be the ideal end to a Chinese style meal. The dish can be as simple as just whipped cream with mashed Strawberries but here we add a few twists to give the dish a little more complexity in taste, yet still it retains the fresh smooth delicate balance that has made it a classic.

200g Strawberries
200g Raspberries
300g Lychees
200g Blueberries
Zest of 1 Orange
500ml Double Cream
4 Meringue nests



Method
1. Remove zest from Orange, place  to one side.
2. Remove green leaves from Strawberries, chop into small bite sized pieces, place in a bowl.
3. Remove the shell like skin from the Lychees, cut each in half and gently remove stone from middle, place in bowl with strawberries.
4. Add raspberries and Blueberries to the bowl.
5. Pour cream into another clean bowl and whisk until well risen and stiff.
6. Pour fruit and orange zest over the cream, place in fridge until required.
7. Break meringues into small pieces.
8. At the last minute, add meringue to fruit and cream, fold everything together gently, serve.


The combination of fruits can easily be varied to suit the occasion or even the season, try adding halved grapes, some nuts for texture or even broken biscuits, consider adding fresh chopped mint leaves or the explosive taste of fresh basil with black pepper and some soft crumbly goats cheese. Top it all with a generous serving of honey or Maple syrup, its really there to be tried. Explore, imagine and enjoy.

Tagliatelle

One of the real pleasures that we get  from food is to just open the fridge, look around the garden, market or shop, wherever and just to collect up some ingredients together and then to simply knock out whatever falls into place. A fridge and larder are never devoid of a meal, just follow your senses and see what happens, some of the tastiest dishes that we have made happened this way, this recipe is the result of one of those moments. Luckily we had Salmon in store, but it could just as easily have been bacon, various sausage, ham, tuna or even based upon vegetables alone, peas, broad bean, carrot, courgette to name but a few. This technique can be applied to so many ingredients, just experiment, be brave and do it.

Just a quick supper, using the now dried Tagliatelle from the Cannelloni we made earlier. No real ingredients list this time, simply put on a large pan of salted water to boil (remember pasta likes to swim), now chop an onion, slice a couple of garlic cloves and sweat these till soft with a knob of butter in a hot pan. Now, slice some Salmon into bite size pieces, toss these into the pan with the onion, add a splash of white wine and reduce volume by half on a high heat. Add finely grated zest of a lemon plus the juice from half along with a teaspoon of sugar, reduce again by half. Add your tagliatelle to the now boiling pan of water. Chop a good handful of fresh herbs, we had chives and parsley, and place to one side. Add a generous amount of double cream to the Salmon pan, bring to boil, add the herbs. By now the Tagliatelle should be almost cooked (homemade cooks more rapidly than shop bought) add some delicate shoots of fresh broccoli, boil for 1 minute, drain this into a colander, return to the pan, or serving dish, pour over the Salmon mixture, stir lightly to combine, serve with thinly shaved Parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil over the top.



Enjoy.

Sourdough Bread

Freshly baked bread, what a welcoming thought, what a superb smell in the kitchen and what great reaction from everyone who eats it. Even better if you know that all of the flavour is coming from the sour dough culture that you have been maturing for some weeks. And thats where most people stop in this age of instant food satisfaction, they just nip out and buy it, but why when with a little time and care, you can be enjoying the fruits of your efforts on a regular basis. We tend to bake sour dough twice a week now that both our cultures are established and we have a simple routine to look after them. The beginning processes of sour dough baking do however take a little patience and planning, but we hope that you try out the following and are rewarded with a little gem of your own.

Your sour dough starter

75g Wholemeal bread flour.

75ml Warm water.

Large lidded or Kilner jar.

1. Simply mix the flour and water into a paste. Pour into jar, loosely seal and stand to one side in the kitchen, leave for 2 days.

2. Weigh out the same ingredients as above, and stir into the jar too, place in the safe spot again and leave for a further 2 days.

3. Repeat number 2, leave for 2 more days.

4. By now the mix should be showing the first signs of life, bubbles should be evident. This is the natural yeasts getting to work, the mix will probably have a sour type of scent too. At this stage the culture can be placed in the fridge.

Thats it, the messing around is over and you now have a living culture that will mature over time, giving ever more character to your breads at each use. You can of course use plain strong bread flour, which will result in a slightly creamier textured starter with a less sour taste.

Sourdough bread

This is a good weekend project or mid week treat. Plan this next stage for a Friday night.

Your starter mix will now weigh 450g, take 75g and place it in a new clean jar. This is now your midweek starter, place this in the fridge.

Leave the rest of the starter out overnight, during which time it should begin to bubble more strongly. On Saturday morning, remove 75g of the mix and place in another clean jar, seal and place in fridge, this is the next weekend culture. You are ready to make your first sourdough loaf.

Ingredients

450G Strong plain(bread) flour

200ml Warm water

25g Butter

10g Sea salt

300g Sourdough starter culture(this is what is left in your jar)

Ground semolina or rice 

Simply place the flour, culture and butter into your mixers bowl and combine using the dough hook. Add most of the water and continue to knead until you get a slightly tacky but not sticky dough, if too dry add some of the remaining water to correct.

Cover and leave for 10 minutes, then add the salt and mix for 5 more minutes. Cover and leave to gently rise for 3 or 4 hours at room temperature.

Prepare a shaped container(bowl, bread basket etc) by lining with cling film, oiling lightly and then dusting generously with the ground semolina.

Knead the dough, then shape, place in the container, sprinkle exposed top of dough with ground semolina, cover lightly and place in a warm spot to rise for 6 to 8 hours.

Preheat oven to 190 degrees centigrade.

Turn out gently onto a prepared baking sheet, quickly slash the top skin with a very sharp knife, splash with water and bake in the oven for approx 25 minutes or until golden and well crusted.

Looking after your culture.

This first run through is the most complex and from here onwards it gets easier, promise.

After a couple of days in the fridge, take out your cultures and beat in the 75g strong flour and 75ml warm water combination, return to the fridge till you are ready to use it. The culture benefits from use and feeding, but can survive for several weeks in-between uses too.

The night before you intend using your culture, remove it from the fridge, beat in the usual flour and water mix again. Leave out overnight, it will be ready to use the following morning.

Simply follow the recipe above, remembering to place 75g starter back into the fridge, keep jars clean. Remember that in the early weeks your culture is still developing its own unique characteristics and that these change over time too.

But most of all 

Enjoy.

PS This is only the beginning, if you get truly hooked on sourdough then take a look at www.northwestsourdough.com its an eye opener.