Miss Foodwise

Celebrating British food and Culture

recipes

Soda bread, time to bake.

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On saturday mornings I look forward to a wholesome slice of bread, spread with -when I have the time to make it- home made butter and a sprinkle of seasalt or jam that reminds me of the warmer days of the year passed.

But it has become so hard to get a decent loaf these days, I admit I’m not the easiest of customers but I think my wishes aren’t odd at all.
I want ‘real’ bread made from good quality – organic – stone ground flour, not low protein Chorleywood style loafs or other breads that have been made in a jiffy filled with additives and bread enhancers that feed food intolerance and allergies.

Many people don’t realise that when they buy this unnaturally square shaped spongy bread they get more than they bargained for. Chorleywood bread is one of these wonderful inventions of the 60’s when everything had to go fast and had to be industrialised. The ingredients don’t only list low quality wheat flour, water, salt and the double amount of yeast used for ‘real’ bread, it also contains a cocktail of hard fats, ascorbic acid, enzymes, emulsifiers and other chemicals that speed up the process.

Some scientists claim that the Chorleywood method is responsible for the growing amount of people who have trouble digesting bread, the use of potassium bromate (E924) -which is now banned in the EU but not the US- being the primary cause. Potassium bromate is carcinogenic and nephrotoxic to experimental animals, causing cell tumors to the thyroid and Renal cell carcinoma.
I apologise for the usage of these scary words but when I found out about this an researched it some more I felt I had to share it with you.

 

Soda bread, oysters and a pint of stout. A fisherman’s tea.

I don’t want to be the one screaming ‘horse meat’ but I wouldn’t be surprised if this harmful E924 would still be circulating in our food chain. After all it isn’t banned all over the world and still used widely in the US.
The Chorleywood method is used all over the world and not exclusively for the iconic square shaped loaf but also to speed up the process of regular bread.
I’ve stopped eating store-bought bread unless I know it was made traditionally.

Now I know some people might argument that baking your bread takes longer and one hasn’t the time to do this very often and I agree.
Baking this Soda bread is in my opinion a great alternative to baking your bread traditionally when in urgent need of it and no time to spare. Made with good quality organic wholemeal flour this makes a fine loaf in just 45 minutes – baking included. This is faster than hopping on my bike and driving to a store.
Soda bread is an acquired taste but I promise you it is very much a treat on busy saturday mornings when all you need is to get on with things.
In soda bread Bicarbonate of soda is used as a raising agent instead of yeast or a sourdough starter, the process is activated by the acidity in buttermilk, live yoghurt or in some traditional recipes even stout beer. Buttermilk and live yoghurt contain lactic acid, which was also used in Milk stout beer before the usage went out of fashion. The lactic acid reacts with the baking soda and forms air bubbles of carbon dioxide. The trick is to underwork your dough and get it in the oven as fast as you can to get a good rise.
Unlike the chemicals used in Chorleywood method, baking soda and lactic acid from buttermilk, yoghurt or beer, isn’t harmful to your health.

In Ireland Soda bread is often eaten with oysters, before the decline of oyster beds they used to be a cheap source of protein. The tale goes that down at the harbour pubs, fishermen used to get served soda bread and oysters along with their pint of stout. I must say it is a treat indeed, the bitter taste of the stout pairs perfectly with the salty oyster especially when fresh and still drowning in seawater. The soda bread brings a slightly sweet and sour taste to the table, along with a crumbly texture.
So now perhaps a treat only enjoyed on special occasions.

What do you need

  • 500g good quality – organic wholemeal wheat or spelt flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon of seasalt
  • 400 ml buttermilk
  • or 200ml live yoghurt and 200 ml milk
  • or 200ml stout beer and 200 ml buttermilk

Method

  • Preheat your oven to 180C°
  • Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
  • Combine the flour, baking soda and salt well in a bowl.
  • Add the buttermilk, milk, yoghurt or stout – whatever you chose – and mix with the dry ingredients.
  • Quickly form a wet dough – it is important to get the bread in the oven as quickly as possible and not to overwork it – dust it with flour and cut a cross half way down the dough.
  • Put on the baking tray in the oven for 40 minutes.

Eat warm and spread with a generous amount of butter …

For a smaller loaf, split the recipe in half.

You might also like
Home made butter – so easy and so worth it! >

Oat and spelt biscuits – a daydream

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Looking out of my office window and gazing over that white carpet of snow makes me wonder how much I would enjoy being snowed in for a few days.
It is minus 8 degrees outside but the sun is shining like she’s declaring her will to fill the world with golden beams of light.

I close my eyes, daydreaming of waking up in my small chocolate box cottage in rural England, my whole body warmly tucked under a mountain of gingham and flowery blankets. The sun shining through my frost flower stained windows, the glaring light showing off the fact that I haven’t cleaned the windows in weeks – months – Who has time to clean the outside of windows?
With the blankets still wrapped around me I make my way to that window to look outside and see the snow halfway up the door of the cottage on the other side of the road.

Could we be snowed in?

I quickly change into my downstairs pijamas -yes there is such a thing- and try to find out what the situation is. The old red door of the cottage is jammed by the snow, it will need some pushing. I’ve managed to get it open just far enough to leap outside in my red hunter boots and my big red cape. I realize I must look quite silly wearing my downstairs pijamas with the wellies and the cape but the village folk know me by now… it’s Regula, she walks her favorite ginger pig on a lead …

I make my way back to the cottage, open my red door and head back inside. The cats – however a bit suspicious of the snow –  try and run out in the garden – No no no, we are snowed in! Lets put a hearty stew in the oven and snug up on the armchair by the inglenook fireplace. I grab the book I’ve been meaning to read for ages, a woolen blanket,  a large mug Earl Grey tea and biscuits … treasuring the silence in my imaginary cottage.

These biscuits are wonderfully crumbly, they are not overly sweet and the oats and spelt make them slightly healthier than your average shortbread or a chocolate chip cookie.
Oats have a higher concentration of well-balanced protein than other cereals, they are a great source of carbohydrate, which
is an important source of energy for the body. All carbohydrates
are converted to, and absorbed into the blood in the
form of glucose, which is the brain’s preferred source of fuel.

 

What do you need
120 g soft butter, unsalted
110 g raw cane sugar
170 g rolled oats
170 g spelt flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 tablespoons of milkMethod

  • Preheat your oven to 250° Celsius
  • Line two baking trays with baking paper
  • Cream the butter and the sugar in a bowl
  • Mix in the oats thoroughly
  • Add the flour (sifted) and the bicarbonate in batches while you work the dough with your hands
  • Start adding the milk until you get a stiff dough, you might need more or a little less of milk.
  • Turn the dough out on a floured surface and roll out the dough until it’s about 0,5 cm thick
  • Use a +- 7 cm ring to cut out round shapes
  • Transfer the cookies to the baking trays and place in the oven for 10 -15 minutes.
  • Cool on the trays before eating them.
Enjoy while you gaze out of your window, watching the birds…You might also like:
Cranberry & apple spelt crumble >

 

Sussex Stewed Steak on a wet winters day

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Eight in the morning, a wet winters day in the Sussex countryside. The sun is rising over the marshes and fields but the pink glow is quickly washed away by grey clouds of rain …
I walk trough a typical crooked path where the tops of the ancient trees lean towards each other creating an archway over the road, nature’s chapel.
Blissfully relaxed I listen to the bustling sound of busy birds in the hedges. Holding my breath, counting robins, coal tits and wrens. They don’t even seem to notice or care that I’m standing there.
Then it quiets down, the moment has passed and I walk on.

When I am at home but I have lots and lots to do during the day and not enough time to prepare a lovely meal, a Sussex Stewed steak is my dish of choice.
It really is the easiest dish you can imagine and it comes out of the oven as a warming meal with elegant flavors to enjoy with guests or just for your own family with plenty of leftovers for the next day. The Stout, port and mushroom sauce used, create a mahogany sauce with a deep  flavour sometimes – depending on which Stout you use- you find some chocolate notes, and however a humble dish it turns out to be a feast for the palate every time.

For this dish you should use the chuck of beef, an economical cut of meat that has a deep flavour after slowly cooking it for a few hours. It is one of my favourite cuts of meat, it doesn’t cost the earth so I go for the best quality meat I can find. I buy grass fed Black Angus but I would love to try it with Sussex Longhorn beef one day. I suspect the Sussex Longhorn or the Sussex Red, will have been the kind of breed used for this dish decades ago.

 

I couldn’t find when the recipe first came to be but it is has been cooked in Sussex and beyond by generations of women. The most famous of women connected to this dish must be Elizabeth David who featured her recipe for the Sussex Stewed steak in her book Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen.
All the recipes I found were all very similar, did they all originate from David’s recipe or is this a far older recipe. Why is it called Sussex Stewed Steak? Is it because David gave the dish its name while she was living is Sussex? Or is it named after the breed used to cook this dish, the Sussex Longhorn or Red … Jane Grigson features her version of the dish in her book ‘English food‘, although similar it explains more how to prepare this recipe.
I cooked four different -although all very similar- recipes over the months, and this is the one I feel is the best, adapted from David’s and Grigson’s recipe.

David as well as Grigson suggests to serve the Sussex stewed steak with mashed potatoes and large field mushrooms. After trying a few other vegetable sides and potatoes, I agree the ladies are of course right.
The Sussex Stewed steak indeed pairs wonderfully with creamy mashed potatoes and sauteed mushrooms.

Sussex stewed steak

What do you need

  • 1 kg of chuck steak in one piece
  • Flour to dust the meat with
  • 1 large onion, sliced in rings
  • half a cup of stout
  • half a cup of port
  • 2 tablespoons of mushroom ketchup*
  • freshly ground black pepper

To serve
Mashed potatoes, nice and creamy
sauteed mushrooms, a large variety.

* You can buy Mushroom Ketchup from Budgens, if you can’t find it you can substitute it with red wine vinegar.

Method

  • Preheat your oven to 160° celsius
  • Dust the meat with the flour and place in a baking dish that is just a little larger than the meat. If your meat has some fat, place in the dish with the fatty side down.
  • Place the onion rings around the meat and a few on top.
  • Pour in the Stout, port and mushroom ketchup, you might think it is not enough liquid but don’t add any more than instructed. Trust me.
  • Season with freshly ground pepper
  • Cover the dish with tin foil
  • Put in the lower part of the oven for 3 hours then take off the tin foil leaving just a bit behind to only cover the top part of the meat. If your meat had a fatty side, turn it around now with the fat facing up this keeps the meat from drying out.
  • Let simmer in the oven for another hour, this gives the sauce a chance of thickening slightly as you will see it is very runny, it will also color the onions.

Enjoy with a good pint of Stout, Porter or Ale!


You might also like:
Jo’s Lamb Hotpot >

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 brandy to wet the baby’s head

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We are a bunch of friends, food bloggers and one of them is becoming a mom at christmas time. Much like our Food Revolution Potluck in the summer, we decided to do a Virtual baby shower for Emiko, our dear friend who moved all the way to Australia last year. We all see each as often as we can, even if we do live in different countries and continents, this virtual baby potluck was plotted in the bedroom of an Umbrian casale on one of our foodie get togethers last month. After those first talks before going to sleep, the plotting started via email, getting all excited imagining her pretty face when she finds out we’ve been planning this surprise. 
Our friendship lasts through our never ending conversation on twitter, facebook, instagram and very long emails… yet far away, we are always close…
Emiko’s blog was the first food blog I started to follow back in 2011 and the first food blogger I ever talked with when I first got on the mighty twitter.
She is one of the kindest people I know and I wish her and her husband Marco all the happiness in the world with their gorgeous little daughter end of december.

I bring to Emiko’s baby potluck a home made cobnut or hazelnut brandy for Marco, the dad to be.
It is tradition in Britain for the fathers to ‘wet the babies head‘ when their child is born. As much as it is often an excuse to get drunk, it is also part of a drinking culture that has been around for centuries. To ‘wet’ or to ‘whet’ the babies head refers to baptism, however in pagan Britain a newborn baby would most likely be celebrated with a drink… or two, or three.
Not only will there be a drink for the dad, there will be a Birthday sponge cake by Giulia, Vegan pumpkin cookies by Zita, Frollini di riso by Jasmine, Gingerbread banana muffins by Valeria, La Belle Helene by Karin, soft cheesecake by Rosella and Savory mini tartlets by Sarka. 

May you always walk in sunshine.
May you never want for more.
May Irish angels rest their wings
beside your nursery door
Irish blessing for a newborn baby

Cobnut brandy

What do you need
• 500ml jar
• 1 cup golden cobnuts*, shelled and chopped (you can use hazelnuts)
• 2 tablespoons of molasses (or cane sugar)
• just under 500 ml vodka or Eau de vie

Method
Put the chopped cobnuts in a jar and add the sugar, pour over the brandy and close the lid.
Put in a dark place and shake the jar every day morning and evening for a week.
After a week, shake the jar ones a day for a week.
I the sugar is dissolved you can leave your brandy to ripen for a minimum of 2 months.
Why not save it for a special occasion, in this case a 16th birthday?

When you are ready to use the brandy
Strain the brandy with a cheesecloth and discard the nuts
You might need to do this twice depending on how long you have been saving the brandy.
Bottle and use, or leave to mature!

Bottoms up for the newborn!
Cheers Marco and Emiko!

You might also like: 
Drunken cherries
Sloe Gin

*More about cobnuts here >

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/

I had my mind set on Sloe Gin

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I had sloes on my mind the last two times we drove up to Kent…
On both occasions I went home without them…
My eyes were on honesty boxes by the road, people selling produce from their garden at car boot sales and little blue-ish dots in the trees we drove passed.
The location of sloe trees is a well guarded secret of those who have discovered them on foraging trips. This makes them even more mysterious to me, I just had to have some sloes. I heard stories saying the native British sloe is so very rare it only grows from ancient trees. They look like black olives, and like olives best not eaten straight from the tree. Sloes are very tart and mostly used to make jams to accompany cheese and for making sloe gin…

The
sloe or ‘Prunus Spinosa’ is a berry from the blackthorn. Sloes or blackthorns were planted
around the countryside in the 16th and 17th century as hedges around the
fields to keep the cattle in. The word ‘sloe’
comes from the Old English slāh, in Old High German slēha and in Middle Dutch sleuuwe.
Traditionally when making sloe gin,
the berries must be gathered after the first frost and one must prick
each berry with a thorn taken from the blackthorn bush. Sloe gin is made
by infusing gin with the berries. Sugar is required to ensure the
juices are extracted from the fruit. Some swear by freezing the berries
before use.

But I had no sloes…
Until a lovely lady offered to send me some of the sloes she had gathered to maker her own boozy preserves. I must say I was quite nervous for them to arrive as they are after all perishable. Luckily they weren’t reduced to jam and I was able to use them thanks to Claire who froze them for the journey. That same day the sloes would be drowned by Gin…

It is so easy to make, the hard part is keeping yourself from opening it too soon to drink it. I’ve been told a ten year old sloe gin has a wonderful flavour… so I decided to hide a bottle from myself so I can actually try it. I think I might put it behind my 8 year old cherry brandy I was able to save.

 

To Make you own sloe gin!

What do you need

500g ripe sloes
250g sugar
1 litre of Gin, I used No.3 London Dry Gin

Method

  • Prick the sloes with a thorn from the tree or a toothpick
  • Put them in a suitably sized Kilner or jam jar
  • Pour over the
    sugar and the gin
  • Close the lid
  • Shake and shake every day until the sugar
    has dissolved
  • Store in a dark cupboard

After 3 months

  •  Strain out the sloes using muslin, bottle and store in a dark
    cupboard
  • Try to wait 1 to 10 + years before opening a bottle.Thank you Claire for the sloes, I will drink to your health when I open a bottle!

You might also like
Cherry brandy
Raspberry vinegar

Jo’s Hotpot – British family recipes

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I think she didn’t realize how much she filled my heart with joy when she handed me a jar of pickled red cabbage to go with a Lancashire hotpot she cooked for me to take home. Insecure about what I was going to think of her dish, she provided me with the instructions for heating the hotpot at home.
Joanne, a bridal gown designer originally from Lancashire, moved to Birmingham a few years ago to open her fabulous bridal studio in the old Custard factory. She cooks this hotpot a lot for her family and I was lucky enough to have a taste myself.

The Lancashire hotpot is the most famous dish to come from the county of Lancashire. Traditionally it is made from mutton, topped with sliced potatoes. It’s a quick and simple dish to prepare with long slow cooking, the tale goes that the women who worked at the cotton mills prepared this dish in the morning and placed the Hotpot in the oven to simmer. Hours later when the family returned home, they would have a warming dish to enjoy. This is an economical dish, making the most out of cheap cuts of meat. Nowadays lamb is mostly used but in the old days cheap cuts of mutton were used as they have a strong flavour and therefore little would go a long way.

Jo’s Hotpot is made with a pastry lid instead of being topped with sliced potatoes on top. The pastry gives some extra texture to the dish that I quite like!
I’m sure this dish will be a favourite in our house like it is at Jo’s. Thanks so much for sharing Jo, you are amazing!

This is the first of hopefully many recipes sent to me by readers, friends of readers, mums and aunties for my British family recipe challenge. Do you have a family recipe for Huffkins, puffkins, pudding or any other traditional recipe?
Something you mum made a bit differently because her mum told her to?
 
Submit your recipe and I will cook the dish and post it here on the blog!
Do
let me know where you got the recipe from, it could be your grandmother
or even your grandmother’s grandmother! And tell me the story behind
the dish if you like!
Can’t wait to read all about it!

More in info here  >
You can send you recipe to: recipe@missfoodwise.com   Cheers x

Jo’s Hotpot 


What do you need
2 tsp of olive oil
500g of minced lamb, or lamb cut into small pieces
2 medium onions, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves (optional) chopped
2 large carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
1 kg Potatoes, sliced 0.5cm thick
2 pinches of salt
200 ml Lamb or beef stock
1- 1 1/2 level tsp of ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
Shortcrust pastry to go on top
1 egg for eggwashing the pastry

Method

  • Peel and slice the potatoes in 0.5cm thick discs, Par boil in water with 2 pinches of salt
  • Whilst potatoes are boiling: lightly fry the garlic in the oil with half the pepper in a large stew pan. 
  • Add the lamb and brown
  • Add the onions and fry until they soften
  • Add the carrots
  • Add 200 ml of stock
  • Add the rest of the pepper and the bay leaves
  • bring to the boil then simmer for about 10 minutes
  • preheat the oven 160°
  • Check potatoes after 10 minutes and as they are starting to go soft at the edges, add them along with some of the water they are cooking in, the water level should cover the food just.
  • Cook for a further 10 minutes to allow the flavours to blend
  • Thicken the juice with corn flour or some other thickening agent, it should still be runny liquid and not too stodgy/glupey (I didn’t need to do this, as I cooked it a further 10 minutes to thicken the sauce)
  • Transfer to a casserole type dish and the add shortcrust rolled pastry to edges, seal edges of pastry to side of dish, glaze with milk/egg and prick with a fork
  • Put in the lower part of the oven and cook for 40 -50 minutes until the pastry is golden on top

Serve with Pickled red cabbage, mushy peas and crusty buttered bread

Jo tells me black pepper is the key to this dish, and I agree so give it a good dose!

Enjoy

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