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.

Herb crusted Salmon

A delightful idea making for an impressively flavoured meal. Simple to prepare with everyday ingredients, can be made a little in advance then placed in the oven whilst you entertain your guests, just slice into generous portions at the table.

A side of Salmon, deboned and skinned
A bunch of herbs-fresh from the garden
100g butter
Fresh breadcrumbs made from several slices of bread
1 lemon
dried fresh chilli-to taste!
sea salt
black pepper

Butter a greaseproof sheet and place on a baking sheet.
Place the salmon on this and cover generously with sea salt and black pepper, place in fridge.
Meanwhile remove the zest from the lemon with a fine grater and squeeze the juice.
Slice and chop the chilli.
Finely chop your fresh herbs, we used parsley, sage, thyme and chive.
Put the soft fresh breadcrumbs in a bowl, add the herbs, chilli and lemon zest, season with salt and pepper and mix together with your hands. (to make breadcrumbs, simply wizz some bread in a liquidizer or food processor).
Pour over the lemon juice and turn the mixture over a couple of times, leave to soak in for a few minutes.
Remove Salmon from the fridge and sprinkle the herb and breadcrumb mix generously over the top, take care to cover the edges too.
Dot the crusted Salmon with the remaining butter.
Bake in the oven on about 170 centigrade for 20 minutes until the crust is beginning to brown and the Salmon is just cooked, ideally it will still have an almost jelly type texture, rather like smoked salmon.

Enjoy.

Garlic bread

Garlic bread

Well, having made the garlic butter it would be a shame not to make garlic bread! Be warned though, once you have made your own, you will never want to have that poor greasy and bitter tasting shop bought alternative again. Imagine the wonderful aroma as you open this up at the table for your guests to tear at with their meal.

Simply take a french stick or baguette and cut it three quarters through, every 2cm all the way along its length. In  each cut place a generous helping of garlic butter, wrap in foil and bake for 10 minutes until all the butter is melted, serve and enjoy. 

See the pictures, simple to make and a pleasure to eat.

Garlic Butter

Garlic butter

Everyones favourite, yet seldom made well today. Garlic butter can be made in advance, frozen in little cylinders ready for later use, all you need to do is to remove it from the freezer a few before you slice it and place it carefully over your fish or steak or even to flavour a sauce. It is of course a great base for making garlic bread too.

500g Butter, retain both wrappers

Good bunch chopped parsley

Garlic to taste, use your own discretion!

Sea salt,

Black pepper

Place the butter in the bowl of a mixer and turn on to beat. Leave beating whilst you prepare the remaining ingredients, the butter needs about 10 minutes to become soft and very light in colour.

Meanwhile, chop your parsley finely and place to one side.

Peel the garlic by placing a clove on your chopping board, then cover with a wide flat implement (we just use the knife blade place flat on the clove) and strike it quickly with the side of a clenched fist. The skin should split open and then peel away easily, you can also achieve this by striking down on the clove with the base of a tin can.

Place garlic in a mortar and pound into a paste along with a good pinch of salt and a generous helping of ground black pepper.

The butter is probably ready by now, so stop the machine, and fold the garlic into the butter, followed by the parsley.

Place the some butter mixture onto a butter paper and roll carefully, twist each end to form a christmas cracker shape and gently press each end to help even out the mixture.

The butter can be placed in the fridge to set, or frozen for later use, it keeps well and gives you a wonderful standby ingredient that add depth and flavour to your food.

Enjoy