Miss Foodwise

Celebrating British food and Culture

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We shall drink Lambswool on the Twelfth Night

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Although I was brought up with a lot of Pagan traditions, living in the city of Antwerp meant that some customs were harder to follow than others. As city dwellers far removed from any orchard or field, we were ignorant to the traditional rites surrounding harvest and sowing time. If there is no nature to honour, no field to gather around the cleansing fire, the feasting quickly becomes part of the past and forgotten.

Industrialisation has brought us wealth and the choice of matching shoes with handbags on a regular tuesday morning. It has brought the technical bits and bobs we all love and loathe. The big world has become smaller and the challenges bigger. The lucky few still live outside of the ever growing concrete cities. We follow their lives on Instagram with a sense of nostalgia, as if we have ever experienced living surrounded by trees and liberating fields and forests, and then tragically lost it.

But that is what it is, we have lost something, and most of us can feel it. There have never been more depressed people, nor have there ever been more people who are unhealthy because of their eating habits, eating too much rather than starving, but malnourished nonetheless. Our daily bread is soiled with adulteration, slowly making us ill. Animals are kept away from fields and live their ever shortening lives on the concrete floors of factory farms to keep the cost of your daily need low, fruit is left on the trees to rot because farmers can’t afford to harvest it, the price a farmer gets for his milk hasn’t gone up in 20 years (based on Belgian farms) so milk is being sprayed onto the soil of the farmland where the cows can no longer roam freely because of bureaucratic nonsense about fertilizer. Small scale generation long fishermen turn their boats into flower beds because the fishing quotas set out to protect fish stocks have made it so that only the big destructive factory fishing vessels can make a living, scooping up the fish only for part of it to be actually consumed and the rest turned into animal feed because their nets just catch too much for it all to be sold and cooked by us humans. The fisherman that could have made his day by catching one Dover Sole, now has to trow it back, while the big monsters take and take and kill the sustainable fishing industry.

We got lost as humans, because we lost part of our human nature.

Let today be an Epiphany.

The Epiphany is the Christian feast that concludes the twelve days of Christmas. In Pre-Christian pagan traditions this marks the time for Wassail. The practice of ‘wassailing’ meant singing and drinking in the apple orchards on the Twelfth Night to awaken the trees, to warn of the evil spirits and pray for a good harvest in the autumn. It could be that the feast of Wassail comes from the Celtic festival called ‘La Mas Ubhail’, the Feast of the Apple. Wassail comes from ‘waes hael’ meaning ‘be thou healthy’ or ‘be whole’, a salutation in Old English. During the feast these words would be addressed to each other and to the oldest apple tree in the orchard.
A drink traditional to Wassail is called ‘Lambswool’ and it is very possible that ‘La Mas Ubhail’ got phonetically Anglicised, to ‘Lamasool’ and later ‘Lambswool’. In historical books we often see that a lot of words were written down phonetically, resulting in a number of different ways to note down one single word.

Robert Herrick, a mid 17th century poet mentioned the custom of Wassailing and Lambswool in his poem about about Twelfth Night, we also get an idea of the recipe too:

Next crown the bowl full  With gentle lamb’s wool  Add sugar, nutmeg and ginger,  With store of ale too;  And thus ye must do  To make a wassail a swinger

Give then to the king And queen wassailing : And though with ale ye be whet here, Yet part from hence As free from offence As when ye innocent met here. 

 

The drink Lambswool is a mulled ale, poured over hot apple puree, although some people swear by whole apples, or apple pieces cooked in spiced cider or ale. However, as far as a drink goes, you can’t swallow a whole apple, nor can you swallow apple pieces so it is most probable that the recipe containing whole apples is just derived from the recipe made with apple puree. It is possible that the soft puree resembled a lambs fleece to people in the old days, resulting in giving it the name of what they associated it with, lambs wool.
Another reason for thinking that an apple puree was used it that this is the end of the season, so the apples which are left in times before refrigeration and fancy techniques to keep fruit from ripening, would not have been the prettiest of the bunch. An hot and spiced apple puree fortified with ale would be warming on a january evening, and would allow people to prepare it in a kettle rather than an oven which is used for the recipe with whole apples. Remember this is a country dish and ovens were a privilege for the well-to-do. But the sugar in the dish also tells us this wasn’t a drink for the poor, it could have been a special treat from the lord of the manor, or from the farmer to his farm labourers.

 

Last year I spoke to you about the intriguing Twelfth Cake, a fruit cake elaborately decorated with sugar or wax figurines which was also a privilege for the well-to-do. This cake, which is also mentioned by Herrick in his poem also started of as a humble ‘plum cake’ for the feast of Wassail. City folk picked up on it and adjusted the cake to their festive needs, making it the centrepiece of the table and causing queues in front of bakeries. Because it became popular in the city and with the wealthy, we get our first recipe for it in a 1803 book. A recipe for Lambswool is more difficult to find, as the drink remained in the countryside. So judging from the poem of Robert Herrick, I came up with this recipe for you.

Lambswool

serves 6-8

What do you need

  • Bramley or Cox stewing apples, 500 gr (peeled and cored about 300 gr)
  • water, 100 ml
  • sugar 100 gr
  • freshly grated nutmeg, 1 teaspoon
  • ginger powder, 1 teaspoon
  • a good ale, 750 ml

Method 
Peel and cut your apples in small pieces and place in a pot along with 100 ml of water and the sugar and spices. Stew until soft and puree so there are no bits left.
When ready to serve, heat up the apple puree and add the ale while whisking. You should get a nice froth while doing so. Serve at ones.

 

Are you celebrating the Twelfth Night? Or are you having a slice of King cake, galette Du Roi or Driekoningen taart? Or are you wassailing and drinking Lambswool?

Ancient apple trees in Sussex

You might also like
Twelfth Cake for Twelfth Night >

Cranberry and Apple Spelt Crumble – a review of the new Falcon enamelware

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Those blue rimmed pie dishes, plates and mugs are something I’ve always associated with Britain …
Imagine a rustic wooden table in a ‘chocolate box cottage’ kitchen, I’m sure you can see the white enamelware stacked somewhere in easy reach. Because these are practical utensils, durable and -yes in my opinion- pretty to look at. They are the essential oven to table ware, the perfect picnic crockery and the last thing we like to see when finishing a delicious blueberry pie.
Falcon enamelware seems to have always been there on your kitchen shelve, like the color blue in the sky and the smell of freshly mowed grass in the air. A thing your kitchen needs, a thing that will age with you and even outlive you.

I love these simple and timeless objects. Yes, I find happiness in the little things …

I would hope for my future children to cherish my old enamelware and have memories of me serving him or her a cranberry and apple crumble in them. I would give them a set of their own when they marry, to keep in arms reach in a cupboard in their kitchen too. More on the origins of the humble crumble later on…

The  people at *Falcon asked me to test their bake set and I love it.
They have re-launched their line of enamelware and now have a few new vibrant and attractive looking colored rims and they are even more durable as some of the items are fitted with a much heavier gauge. This makes them a bit more expensive than the old range but you do get a better product.
I’m blown away by the red ones… if you know me … well … red is my color!
Apart from new colors the design mostly stayed the same, thank god for that.
I am missing the round pie dishes though, but perhaps they will be re-launched eventually as well.
The sets come in great looking boxes, the graphic designer in me approves.
I will most likely keep the box as well …

The first thing I baked was a Cranberry and Apple Crumble.

The apple crumble became part of British traditions during World
War II. History says that  the Apple Crumble was invented due to strict food rationing,
to replace the apple pie which contained too much quantities of flour compared to the crumble. A simple mixture of flour, bread crumbs, margarine (during the war there was a shortage of real butter) and sugar created a pastry lid over stewed fruit.

Cranberry and Apple Crumble

What do you need

  • 650 g cranberries
  • 2 Bramley or any other cooking apple diced
  • 100 g soft raw cane sugar

For the crumble

  • 100 g wholemeal spelt flour
  • 50 g raw cane sugar
  • 60 g rolled oats (I sometimes use muesli)
  • 100 g cold unsalted butter
  • 0,5 cup of shaved almonds     

Method

  • Braise the fruit in a pan, with sugar over medium heat.
  • Leave the fruit whole, it should not me reduced to jam

For the crumble

  • Mix flour, sugar and oats.
  • Rub the butter into the mixture, I like to use a knife to do this at first, this way the butters stays cold.
  • Add the shaved almonds.
  • Now use your fingers to bring the dough together leaving it rough and crumbly. 
  • Put the mixture into the fridge for about an hour.

Preheat the oven to 160° celsius

  • Place the fruit in the baking tray
  • Arrange the crumble on top, divide evenly  
  • Put in the top side of the oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes

Serve with Clotted cream or vanilla ice cream.
Enjoy!

*I received this bake set from Falcon, other than the set I didn’t receive any payment.

You might also like
Bramley apple and blackberry pie > 

I love reading your comments and will reply as soon as possible.

Cobnut and apple tart

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I’m very happy to announce, I’ve been asked to write for Great British Chefs
Here I am, a Belgian girl writing about Britain and British food and I am really proud that they have taken me under the Great British Chefs’ wing.

I didn’t have to think twice when I was asked to write about something for a mostly British audience, recently I’ve been quite obsessed with Kentish cobnuts and I have many more recipes up my sleeve.

When
I think of my beloved Kent, apples, cobnuts, cherries and hops are the
four things that define this county for me. They have moulded the
landscape with their orchards and plats and have influenced the kitchens
and culture.

I
discovered Kentish cobnuts on a late summers day when they are sold
fresh in their green husks. The kernels are then juicy and resemble a
chestnut flavour, yet more delicate. When autumn arrives the cobnuts are
ripened, the husks, then turned brown, are removed and they look more
like the hazelnut we generally know. Now they are dried and referred to
as Golden Cobnuts. The flavour of the nut has developed while ripening,
and has gone from fresh and juicy to an intense nutty flavour. When
stored dry they keep till christmas. The Kentish cobnut is larger and
more ovoid shaped than a hazelnut and also has a different and slightly
more intense flavour.

Cobnuts
generally grow in Kent, where the variety the ‘Kentish Cob’ was planted
in the 19th century by a Mr Lambert of Goudhurst.
They
have however been around since Tudor times and were but revived by the
Victorians who considered them to be a delicacy. There are more
varieties of cobnuts but as Kent has historically been the main county
producing cobnuts, the term Kentish cob is often used generally for
every variety of cobnut grown in Britain.
Cobnut
orchards are known as ‘plats’ and the nuts are harvested by hand by
workmen called ‘nutters’. In the old days cobnuts were also sometimes
picked by hop pickers coming down from London as cobnuts and hops both
ripen at the same time. The disappearance of the Hop pickers roughly
corresponds with the decline of the cobnut plats.

The
last few years there’s been a revival in cobnut growing as well as in
hop growing as many people are opting to buy British and the growing
amount of micro breweries are showing interest in Kentish hops again.
Cherry orchards are being planted once more and apples are still plenty
and taking over the British greengrocers.
I
had Kent on my mind when my sack of golden cobnuts arrived and I was
also in need of a cake or tart that is not only comforting and cosy on a
dreary autumn day but also a bit more nutritious than your average
tart.
This
cobnut and apple tart is something between a cake and a tart, I am
using spelt flour and lots of cobnuts and apples so this tart will not
only give you your dose of sweets but also energy.

For the recipe head over to the website of Great British Chefs here >

Special thanks to Farnell Farm for the cobnuts! www.farnellfarm.co.uk/

Harvest soup for Samhain

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The Celts called it Samhain which celebrated the end of harvest
and the beginning of winter. It literally means ‘summer’s end’ and is the primary festival marking the end and the beginning of the year.
Along with Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasadh it makes up the four Gaelic seasonal festivals.
Samhain was the evening when the veil between our world and
‘Netherworld’ was believed to be at their thinnest. It’s the feast of the dead, like Beltane is the feast of the living.
Bonfires played a big part in the festivities -much like with Beltane- people would jump over the fires or walk between them as a cleansing ritual. 
Costumes and masks -usually animal heads and hides- were worn, as an attempt to cast of or taunt the evil spirits, this was referred to as ‘guising’. 
It was also the time for farmers to choose which animals would need to be
slaughtered to get through the winter. This custom is still
observed now by many who raise livestock as the animals will no longer graze outside.
Food offerings were also made at Samhain, people would leave vegetables outside of their door to please the evil spirits and fairies. Later in time the food offerings changed into lanterns made of hollowed turnips – much resembling the carved pumpkins we know today.

The earliest record we have
of Samhain in the Celtic world comes from the Coligny Calendar,
a Celtic lunisolar calendar engraved on bronze tablets believed to be dating back to the first century AD. It was written in Gaulish, a Celtic language very close related to the Brythonic being Cornish, Welsh, Breton, Cumbric and maybe even Pictish.
Celtic
mythology is originally a spoken tradition, the irony is that the
traditions and tales were eventually written down by Christian monks in
the Middle Ages who then Christianized them to suit there needs and
believes. After all the best way to strip the people of their believes
is to simply adopt them to later on adapt them…

In my childhood there was no halloween, we had ‘All saints day’ and ‘All souls day’, we went to clean the gravestones of those who had passed and leave flowers for them… 
But I was lucky because my mum had always been interested in Celtic mythology and she taught me about Samhain and all the other traditions when growing up.
So in a way, I grew up with Celtic traditions. On our travels to Britain we were always in search for Celtic and pre-celtic heritage while my mum told us tales about it in the car.
I feel fortunate to have been exposed to different traditions and religions as a child, I think it makes me a more liberal-minded person. It also makes me wonder how people can follow their religion and tradition blindly and without asking questions… but that is another story…

On to the soup!
I call this my harvest soup, it contains turnips, apples potatoes and a good homemade stock. 

What do you need

butter
4 turnips (I used butter or yellow turnips)
1 bramley apple (or 1 cox)
1 large potato
1 liter of chicken or vegetable stock.

to decorate
toast ham or bacon for 1 minute in the microwave between a sheet of greaseproof paper
toast stale bread and cut into chunks

Method
Dice all the vegetables and apple.
Over a high fire heat two teaspoons of butter in a medium sized pan.
Add all the vegetables and apple and stir so they don’t burn
When slightly glazed add the stock and simmer for 30 minutes
Mix the soup until all the chunks are gone 
Put back on the fire and bring to the boil for another minute
Season to taste with pepper and salt
Serve with the toasted bread and crispy ham or bacon

Enjoy and remember to set an extra plate for the spirits…

Bramley apple and Blackberry pie

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Today is apple day.

In 1809 a young girl, Mary Ann Brailsford, planted a few pips in her garden in Southwell. Those pips grew into the apple tree that is responsible for one of Britains most beloved fruit.
Forty years later a local butcher bought Mary Ann’s cottage and garden, after a decade of enjoying the trees fruits a nurseryman from the area asked him if he could sell some of the apples from the tree in his garden. The butcher agreed but wanted the apples to bear his name… Bramley.

Bramley’s seedling were an important source of food during the First World War as during the 1900s the trees were extensively planted and the crop plenty.
Every single Bramley apple tree has come from the tree planted in that cottage garden in Nottinghamshire.

The tree was almost lost forever when in 1900 a destructive storm knocked it over, leaving it wounded on the grounds of the garden where he had grown and grown for nearly a hundred years. But from the old wood of the tree emerged a new one and it grew to be the monument we can see today.
The Bramley apple tree in Southwell has become the towns treasure and they host many celebrations of the Bramley Apple, there even is ‘The Bramley apple Inn’ which is located just a few doors away from where the original Bramley apple tree still grows his apples to this day.

The lady who lives in the cottage now, acquired the house from Mr Bramley 50 years ago and has cared for the tree ever since.

Bramley apples are gorgeous in pies, tarts and traditional British puddings, simply covered in shortcrust pastry or with custard. Bramleys are also good to use in cakes, chutneys, jams, compote, orchard sauce to accompany pork and for cider making.
For this pie I chose for the classic apple and blackberry combination. The blackberries are added at the end so they give texture and color to the dish. 

Do you want to know more?
Why not pay a visit to Brogdale farm in Kent, home to the ‘National fruit collection’.
They
host an Apple festival and a Cider festival every year. If you have an
apple tree in your garden and you think this might be a very old
variety, you can send in a sample and they will investigate the fruit.
www.brogdalecollections.co.uk

Bramley apple and Blackberry pie
 
Sweet Shortcrust pastry

What do you need:
500 g plain flour
100 g icing sugar
250 g cold butter cut into small cubes
half a teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large free-range eggs
1 teaspoon milk

  • Sieve the flour and icing sugar on to a work surface or into a large bowl.
  • Throw the cubes of butter into the flour and using a knife start cutting them into even smaller pieces mixing it with the flour and sugar. This is a trick I use to keep the butter as cold as possible, if you touch the butter it melts quicker.
  • To create good Shortcrust pastry your butter should be kept cold and your dough shouldn’t be over worked as this will activate the gluten.
  • When you have a crumbly texture start using your hands to rub the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
  • At this point ad the vanilla
  • Ad the eggs one by one, and the milk, using a knife or fork to work it together.
  • When the mixture is crumbly again use your hands to work the mixture until you have a ball of dough.
  • Remember don’t work the pastry too much as it will leave you with a whole other texture.
  • Wrap the dough in clingfilm and chill for at least 30 minutes.


Preheat your oven to 180° gas

Prepare the filling while the pastry is chilling

What do you need:
5 Brambley apples, cored, peeled and cut into halved wedges
100 g Blackberries
50 g butter
80 g light brown sugar
1 egg beaten
a sprinkle of caster sugar
20 cm shallow pie dish

  • Put the butter into a saucepan and melt over a low fire
  • Ad the sugar
  • Ad the apples and slowly cook for 10 minutes
  • Ad the blackberries and stir briefly and some of the berries release their juice
  • Let it cool slightly
  • Tip the fruit into a sieve and keep the juices and fruit aside
  • Take your pasty out of the fridge
  • Cut the dough in half and put the second piece back into the fridge
  • Roll out the dough until it’s about 5 mm thick
  • Butter your pie dish
  • Line the pie dish with the pastry
  • Trim off the excess pastry around the sides with a sharp knife
  • Put the fruit into the lined pie dish so you have a little mount in the middle
  • Use a spoon to add a bit of the juice, not all of it or it will get too wet.
  • Take the rest of the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out like you did before
  • Lay the pastry over the pie
  • Trim off the excess pastry around the sides and crimp the edges of the pastry together with the back of a fork or your fingers.
  • Decorate your pie if you like, cut an opening in the pastry so the steam can escape
  • Brush the pastry with the beaten egg and sprinkle over some caster or cane sugar

* if you have leftover pastry why not make some shortbread!

Place the pie on the bottom of the preheated oven for 50 minutes to an hour.
The top should be golden and crisp.

Serve with a dollop of clotted cream or double cream.
Enjoy

You might also like
Blaeberry pie 
Kentish Cobnut cake 

Kentish Cobnut cake with apple compote – a marriage made in autumn

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It seems like in a weeks time the days have started to get more chilly and shorter. The trees are starting to shake off their leaves and we are greeted by cobnuts, apples and plums. Autumn is definitely upon us.

Last week I walked in a sunny meadow in Kent wearing a summer dress and red dancing shoes, today I’m packing a warm cardigan for London where I will stay with friends for a few days to attend this years food blogger conference. This time away from the hectic magazine deadlines and the company of like-minded food lovers from all over the globe will warm me with a fire of creativity.

In Kent, my mission was to find the ‘Kentish cob‘ which is a type of hazelnut that has been grown in England since Tudor times and perhaps even earlier. The Victorians considered the Kentish cobnuts to be a delicacy and therefore are responsible for planting 7000 acres of cobnut orchard or ‘plats’.
Like the cherry orchards, after first world war the amount of cobnut plats in Kent was drastically decreased to no more than 730 acres with a further decline to 250 acres today.
Unlike most hazelnuts, cobnuts are sold fresh and not dried. They are in season from the end of august through october.
At the beginning of the season the husks are green and the kernels very juicy, further into the season when the nuts have ripened the husks and shells are brown and the flavour has developed further to the hazelnut taste that we are used too.

This cake has a wonderful nutty flavour, together with the apple compote the flavours are a marriage made in autumn. Just glorious cake.

Kentish cobnut cake
traditional Kentish recipe adapted from English Teatime Recipes


preheat the oven to 160C

To roast the cobnuts
Remove the shells and place them in an oven at 160C for 45 minutes

For the cobnut cake
• 225 g self-raising flour
• 110 unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 110 g light soft brown sugar
• 3 free-range eggs, beaten
• 50 g (1 cup) cobnuts, shells removed, roasted and finely chopped

Method
For the cobnut cake, preheat the oven to 160C°.
Line you cake tin with baking paper.Add the butter to the flour and mix until it resembles breadcrumbs
Add the sugar and eggs and beat until well combined.
Stir in the chopped cobnuts until well combined.
Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin, gently spreading the batter into all the corners.
Put the cake in to the oven and bake for 1h 20 min, or until the cake has risen and is lovely golden-brown, when a skewer is inserted into the centre of the cake it has to come out clean.
Set the cake aside to cool slightly in the tin.

For the apple compôte
• 3 apples, peeled, cores removed, finely chopped
• 2-3 tbsp cane sugar
• 2 tbsp water

Heat the water in a frying pan over a medium heat.
Add the sugar and let it dissolve
Add the apples and stir well
Cook until the apples have broken down slightly and the mixture has thickened.

Serve the slices of cake with a spoonful of warm or cold apple compôte.

Enjoy!

 

 

For more information about Kentish Cobnuts visit this website: www.kentishcobnutsassociation.org.uk

Want to know where to find Cobnuts? Check out this page here
or visit www.farnellfarm.co.uk

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Elisabeth sandwich cake
Chestnut cake
Parsnip and apple cake 
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Apple glazed ham – Best of British

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I went to London 3 days before christmas for a ridiculously short visit. We arrived with the Eurostar at 10:30 and left again at 5.
My bestie Vanessa and I wanted to shop for food and bras, that was our mission.
After the bras were sorted we started the food shopping and ended up with a full backpack each and more to carry in our hands. I was actually relieved to be on the train again as the 
2 kg Gammon and the quarter wheel of Stilton were doing my back in. To be fair, I did buy some dinner plates and bowls too and those might have been the heaviest of all.
I wanted to cook a glazed ham for ages, we don’t get that cut of meat here so I had to buy it in London that day. Because there were strikes going on in Public transport the cancellation of our trip was pending for a week. To much of my regret I couldn’t risk ordering a gammon from the butcher I wanted it from. I was looking forward to a ham from a rare breed pig rather than a pig that was kept indoors as I don’t approve treatment like that. Luckily I found a nice piece of gammon that came from a farm where animals are raised naturally and outdoors, but no rare breed sadly.

If you are in London and wonder where to get that wonderful rare breed meat, these are a few places you can buy from:

The Ginger pig: shops in Sheperds Bush, Marylebone, Hackney, Waterloo and Borough market
www.thegingerpig.co.uk

Daylesford farm shop: shops in Pimlico, Notting Hill and Selfridges. 
Main farmshop in the Cotwolds
http://www.daylesfordorganic.com

Preparing this glazed ham is actually very easy, I was surprised how easy it was. Imagine how much you can save by cooking your own ham if you have a large family to feed.
If I could get my hands on this cut of meat easier I would cook this a lot!

What do you need
2 kg gammon
a lot of cloves

for the cooking tray
1 teaspoon of cinamon (or 1 stick)
10 peppercorns
half an apple cut into small wedges
2 bay leaves
a small sprig of thyme
1 small onion

for the glaze
4 teaspoons of apple syrup
2 teaspoons of mustard
2 teaspoons of brown sugar
1 teaspoon of cider vinegar

Method
preheat your oven to 160° Gas
Cook the gammon by filling half a roasting tray with apple juice or water, add the mix of spices and finally the ham.
Cover with tinfoil and leave to cook for about 45-60 minutes.

Prepare the glaze by adding all the ingredients to a small pan and warm it through.
 
When ready, take the ham out of the oven and let it rest for 30 minutes, covered.
After the ham has rested and cooled, take of the skin but leaving a generous amount of fat on the meat.
Score the meat with a sharp knife and stick a clove in each crossing.

Now you can start brushing the glaze onto the meat.
Brush on one generous coating and put the ham in the oven for 30 minutes. Add another coating of glaze after 15 minutes. 

Ones removed from the oven, leave to rest in the baking tin for 10 minutes while you set the table.

We ate this ham with roasted potatoes and a fresh salad.

The leftover ham is great in pasta dishes or in a sandwich, the options are endless.

Other recipes in the Best of British category:
Pork stew, braised with cider and apples

This recipe was inspired by one of Jamie Magazine #december

Please leave a comment. I appreciate every single one.

Pork stew braised with Cider and apples

by 3 Comments

The comfort of food
Although it was the last week of August the weather became quite chilly, not to speak about the storms we’ve been faced with.
There’s been thunder and lightning every evening for about a week now. At times the weather got so bad a tent collapsed at a music festival leaving utter destruction and fatalities.
I had some friends there who kept themselves safe, thank god for that. But others did lose friends and are now left to cope with the loss. It leaves you with a strange feeling when tragedy strikes a place where thousands of young people are gathered to enjoy themselves and be merry.
Some of the young people’s lives will never be the same and others will be strengthened by it but nevertheless the experience will be a part of their lives for a very long time, if not forever.

At times like this I’m beginning to think about warming stews and the comfort they can give you.
I love making stews, you can make it in the morning and leave it to simmer for a few hours so it fills the house with a mouthwatering aroma. There’s something about a big pot of delicious food on the stove that always gives me a feeling of warmth towards my family.
I wanted to cook something with the last of my discovery apples and I knew I had some Cider tucked away from our wedding. Apples and pork are one of my all time favorite combo’s, classic.
This is a truly British dish, I hope you’ll like it !

Ingredients: (serves 4)

Cider half a pint
Water half a cup
500 g of free range/Organic stewing pork
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
2 medium potatoes
1 carrot
2 medium onions
1 teaspoon of cider vinegar
1 or two small (I used my discovery) apples
Salt and pepper
Flower to dust the meat

Method
Preheat your oven to 160° (gas)

Take 1 tablespoon of salt (I always use coarse seasalt), a bit of freshly ground pepper and the leaves of a few sprigs of fresh Thyme and rub meat in with it, dust with a bit of flour.
Cut the onion into medium sized wedges, quarter the carrot (half if it’s a small one) and slice the potatoes in cubes like seen in the picture above.
Peel and slice the apple in small cubes (about the size of a dice).
Put on the heat under a heave base pan (I always use cast iron) and pour in some olive oil.
Add the onion and carrot to the pan and stir for about two minutes, now add the potato and the apple.
Stir a few times and add the meat, let it color a bit and than add the Cider and the water.
Bring to the boil and than put it in the over for about 2,5 hours.
You can take it out sooner but I like it when the meat falls apart.
Drink this with a Cider, just delicious!

My sweetheart enjoying his meal and his Cider, bless him X