Somehow two of my favorite recipes  disappeared from the blog,- don't ask me how,- Im really a computer novice. The first that disappeared was my "No Knead Bread", so here it comes again:

300 gr white flour, or spelt

125 gr. rougher white flour or spelt

3,5 dl water

1 ts salt

0.5 ts dry yeast

mix it all together, let it rest 12 to 24 hours. Sprinkle a good heap of flour on your baking table, scrape or pour the dough onto the flour,-this is a real sticky dough...Fold it a couple of times, trying to form something that looks like a bread. Let it rest while the oven heats up to 240 degrees celsius. We bake this bread in a clay pot, set the clay pot and the lid in the oven while the oven is still cold  When hot, remove the pot, sprinkle flour in it or the bread will stick, lift your sloppy dough into the pot, replace the lid and let it bake for30 minutes, remove the lid and let it bake 10-15 ekstra minutes, till nice and golden

We belong to a generation raised mostly on home made food. Both the wife and I are born in the 1950 s,- mums were home, and cooking for the family was one of the house wife's jobs. Gradually pre made food came into their household, supposedly to make their day easier, but for the most, they continued making food from scratch. When I was in my teens however, the pre made foods really invaded the Norwegian kitchens, and it became rather posh to be first to try out new products."Just add water or milk and enjoy a lovely taste of Italy".... Of course, most people hadn't been to Italy, or Greece, so hardly anybody knew what the premade food was supposed to taste, and to this day I believe that producers of this kind of food is destroying European cooking. They define what foreign food tastes like, -right or wrong,-and as often as not, their food doesn't taste like the meal its pretending to be. The worst part being that they cynically do it to make a profit.

An example of what we eat in a week: (this is from week 13)

Monday. Jambalaya with prawns, bacon and rice

Tuesday pea soup, boiled on salted leg of pork

Wednesday fish grateng with  macaroni

ThursdayChicken Milano with flakes of pastry

Friday HorseRaddish Pork Chops

Saturday Salmon with sage, onions, and potatoes

Sunday Roast of game, (this week it was elk)

We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, of course, me working nights gives us plenty time together to plan our meals, so we usually plan for a week and write it down in a book. We find this makes it easier to get variation in our diet. We can always look back in the book and maybe get inspired by something we had a while ago. I would love to say that all the fish we eat is self caught,- but that would be a lie. All winter we have to buy fish, and even if we do catch some our self in the summer and in the autumn its not enough to   last through the winter months. Since last august however, we've not bought any other meat than pork chops. The hunting season gave plenty this year, and also I and a friend bought half an elk from another hunting team. Still got meat left. I also got 15 ecologically bred hens from a friend who couldn't have them any more, so they're in the freeze to. Keeping a couple of ducks company....

Bread

We bake all our own bread. This is something we've always done, and when we lived in Finnmark (the area of Norway known as Sameland), well, nobody bought bread. Everybody baked  their own. We don't use a recipe, we use aproxhalf a kilo white fine flour ( wheat), and  another half kilo of whatever we feel like,-rye, and "coarser" types of flour, add 50 grams fresh yeast, tablespoon of salt and aprox 5 to 7.5dl water with a wee touch of olive oil in it. Sometimes we have to add more flour, we knead it together, set it to rise, walk the dogs or work in the garden for a couple of hours, form the breads and let them rise while the oven reaches 250 degrees Celsius. Let them stay in the oven 15 minutes, then turn it down to 200 degrees for another 45 minutes. FINITO! No Stress!!!

 Whats happened to simple cooking?

I often wonder. I collect cookery books,- or I should say USED to, when I reached 130 my wife asked me nicely to stop buying them. We bothlookthroughthem, hunting recipes we haven'ttried. One of my favorites is Fannie Farmers All American Cookery Book and since this lady started her famous cooking school in the 1880 s, I think shes a great referent to whats happend to food through the years. Take jambalaya for instance...if you order this dish, you'll probably get an expensive dish full of lovely crayfish, prawns etc. In the old recipes however, its a rather simple dish,- a sauce made of baconfat, tomatoes, celery, carrot, onions, garlic, chillies and red or green peppers. I once saw a tv program about Cajun food and one Afro-American cook was talking about jambalaya and other dishes,- he said:"you know they say about pigs you can eat all but the snout? Well, in the old days the snout was all we could afford, and prawns and tomatoes were easy to come by". Food evolves through time, but I like to look for the simple roots of the dishes I enjoy. I think food is often best when it consists of only a few ingredients, well prepared and enjoyed in the company of good friends.

Made a great salsa today,- one can crushed tomatoes, 2 chillies, one onion, 2 cloves of garlic, one jalapeno, one tablespoon olive oil, 2 tablespoons red wine, a splash balsamico, one teaspoon salt, and oregano to taste, mixed it well and let it rest in the fridge till we served it.  Nice and stingy, but not to hot.

  We try to follow the nutrition advice I learnt when I studied to become an auxiliary nurse,-fish two or three times a week, meat, two or three times a week, and something else like pancakes or soup once a week. And as far as possible we make all our meals from scratch. Some products we have to buy, for example "fish pudding", I really don't know if you can buy this in Britain,- I cant remember seeing it there. Its like a meat loaf, but made with fish. Also, when we make sausages we buy minced meat of pork and ox. Two reasons for that: price, and these products are well marked, and contain some things-, salt and nitrates,- that I would have to add anyway. I suppose some of my friends think of me as some kind of "food snob",- an expression used here about people like me and my wife because we care about what we eat, and like to know whats in it. In our garden we grow a variety of veg's in barrels and boxes. If you've seen the picture of the garden you may wonder why we don't plant more, but the truth is that we've only got 5 cm earth. Just enough for the grass to grow. I usually sow carrots in the barrels, mixing earth with sand andpreferringtheyellowcarrot. Growing them like this doesn'tgive a huge harvest, but it gives us great quality. This year will be different when our land share project gets going.

I have previously tried and enjoyed a number of different types of bread, including a Kalamata Olive bread, several types of rolls, foccacia, pizza, and a few sourdoughs (and even ciabatta and doughnuts on Dan Steven's course at RC) but generally I stick to the tried and trusted white or granary options for the weekly loaves.  

Now I am getting back into the swing again I have decided to start trying some different recipes from amongst the numerous books I have obtained over the last couple of years (including, obviously, Dan's RC book). As part of this I recently obtained a new sourdough starter from my mother-in-law's partner up in Yorkshire (a part-time baker at Bread Actually - a not-for-profit bakery in Bedale) which means I can start getting sourdough bread back into my life, which is one of my absolute favourite tastes.

I thought therefore that over the next few weeks as I try out some new recipes I would report back here on how they go. Here goes with the first one...

Friday 11 May: Simple milk loaf (Dan Lepard - "The Handmade Loaf").

This loaf calls for a mix of strong white flour and plain flour, and utilises warm milk instead of water (hence the name) and golden syrup and melted butter for the fat/sugar content. It also requires a little milk wash before putting in the oven and for a different look you divide the dough in half and roll two balls that are placed next to each other in the tin before rising and cooking.

It produced a lovely soft crumbed loaf with a beautiful crisp crust. It is perfect for sandwiches and lovely for toast. I think its fair to say that this will become an oft-made loaf for the weekly lunch box.

Saturday 12 May: Tom Herbert's overnight sourdough ("The Fabulous Baker Brothers")

Using my new sourdough starter I thought I'd have a crack at the baking Herbert brother's sourdough recipe. This one started on Friday morning with a livening up of the starter and then later in the afternoon required the rest of the ingredients to be added in and mixed together. Once this had risen for 4 hours or so it was to be transferred to the proving baskets for a slow overnight rise before cooking Saturday morning.

Tom does mention in his book that the water content of the recipes is more of a guideline than a set figure as different flours will take up fluid in different ways I did stick to the recipe for this first attempt. I'm not sure whether it was the slight runniness of my starter or the uptake of the water by the flour but I got the sense whilst gently (left-handedly still) kneading the bread that the tackiness of the dough was a sign that this dough was a little on the wet side for this. This was to be confirmed saturday morning when I woke up to find the bread well risen but literally running down the side of the basket and stuck to the bin liner I use to cover my baskets whilst proving. After some emergency tending and gentle coaxing I was able to get the dough out onto the baking tray and installed it in oven.

The picture below shows that it did come out a little flat (due presumably to the wetness of the dough) but I have to report it still has that very special taste of a really good sourdough, has a crisp crust and has the airholes you expect. So next time I will either try with a slightly thicker version of the starter or a little less water; I will keep you posted.

Heading to the South West over June half term?!!

...here at the Axminster Canteen & Deli we serve freshly cooked, fabulous food from our daily changing menu, inspired by the very best local and seasonal ingredients the South West has to offer. 

We are really looking forward to the Bank Holiday weekend and will be celebrating witha selection of mouth-watering cupcakes, but be warned, it may be difficult to choose between the delicious flavours of Pimms, strawberries & cream and English trifle!  We will also be hosting our Diamond Jubilee Afternoon Tea (Friday 1st - Tuesday 5th June, 3.30pm - 4.30pm), with a selection of homemade cakes & sandwiches and organic teas & coffee; or why not treat yourself to a glass of River Cottage Sparkling Elderflower Wine instead!

To entertain the children, while you make the most of your half term visit to the Canteen & Deli, we will be holding a colouring competition - the most ‘royal’ picture will receive a box full of River Cottage Deli goodies! 

There are also plenty of treats for the adults too, with lovely local wines & ciders, cheeses, preserves and much more, available to take home from the Deli. We will still be holding our regular Meet the Producer days over the holidays with Pink’s Organics on hand to liven up any store cupboard with their wonderful range of organic products, or perhaps you’d prefer to sample a range of fruit wines from Lyme Bay Winery!

Daytime Opening Hours
9am - 5pm (every day)
Breakfast 9am - 11.30am 
Lunch 12noon - 3pm
We also serve hot & cold drinks and delicious River Cottage cakes throughout the day.

Evening Service
Tues - Sat (from 6.30pm)

Booking is strongly recommended for evenings and Sunday lunch, you can reserve your table online or call the Canteen on 01297 631715. Lunchtime bookings are not available (except Sundays) - we have plenty of space, so just pop in!

Hope to see you soon,

River Cottage Canteen & Deli Team.

Does anyone know where I can buy unpasrurised milk direct from the farmer thus cutting the middleman out,the area is in and around Mansfield Notts

Regards 

Nigel

We haven’t tried the River Cottage onion recipes yet, but here are three of our favourite onion-based dishes:

Yotam Ottolenghi’s stuffed onions: a rare dish where onions are the main event rather than an additional flavour. Like many of his recipes, it’s a bit too fiddly, so we usually just lay the stuffing on top rather than rolling the onions around it. You can get away with half the stock and wine, and we fry the left-behind insides of the onions and sprinkle them on top.

Nigel Slater’s onion soup without tears: peel and halve one onion per person and roast in the oven with a bit of olive oil and butter, place in a casserole and add a glass of white wine, reduce and add vegetable stock, simmer for 15 minutes and liquidise to taste. As simple and delicious as it sounds.

Corinna’s pasta with red onions, peas and feta: a simple and quick recipe from a Swiss friend. Gently fry one red onion per person while the pasta is cooking; add a handful of frozen peas to the pasta 5 minutes before it is finished; combine drained pasta and peas with onions, 50g feta per person and some chopped parsley.

The last two are definitely quick and easy holiday recipes – and talking of holidays, why not take a look at Little Foxley, our one-bedroom Charmouth holiday cottage. www.littlefoxley.co.uk

Entries are in no particular order but these are some of our favourites.

David Bowie- Rashers to Rashers

Abba- The Weaner Takes it all

Led Zeppelin- Whole Trotter Love

Blur-Pork Life

UB40 – Red , Red Swine

Beatles- Eleanor Pigby , Lucy in the sty with diamonds, Bacon in the USSR

Lady Gaga- Porka Face

Elvis- Love me Tenderloin

Frank Sinatra- New pork, new pork

Commodores- 3 x a lardy

McArthur Pork

Stand by your ham

Hock around the Clock

Jailhouse Hock

The ham lies down on Broadway

Swill meat again

Rindstone Cowboy

Twist and Snout

Bacon up is hard to do

Piggie Sue

Pig Girls Don’t Cry

Hey pig Spender

Cracklin Rosie

Loin Eyes

Sitting on the hock of the bacon

Any further entries welcome!

Celebrate the best of British this year with our gorgeous Union Jack white chocolate and berries cake topped with buttercream. Homemade using pure Belgian white chocolate. Moist, dense and very satisfying. Served with seasonal fruit. Serves 10 – 12 people. You can buy it online from our website www.hotchocolates.biz. Local delivery only or pick up available.

Last year I was up at my in-laws in North Yorkshire taking their lovely dog Pippa for a walk when I came across a forest floor carpeted in wild garlic, something I had never come across before.

This year my wife Teresa and I decided that we should try and do something with this plentiful bounty and as we were up there this weekend for the Dales Food Fair we decided to go and forage some. Pippa was again up for helping us in our endeavours, although she seemed to find running up and down the hill in search of the endless number of sticks we threw for her far more interesting, so she wasn't much help in that regard. Despite her feeling that we were spending far too little time concentrating on her we managed to get a good bagful and brought it back to LB with us this morning.

First up was a wild garlic soup: a base of potatoes, onions and stock was blended with some quickly blanched leaves to produce a lovely, mild, extremely green soup. Maybe we should use more than the simple handful of leaves next time.

Secondly we had a pasta dish with chorizo, spring onions and again the wild garlic leaves. Although the leaves add a nice splash of colour they were unfortunately over powered some what by the strong (lovely) taste of the chorizo. 

So far it has been a 50:50 split in the voting on the uses for wild garlic but onwards and upwards, I think a little wild garlic pesto will be next (from Hugh's recipe with walnuts) and we'll see what else we can come up with - have just added it to a little salad for tomorrow so hopefully that will add a little flavour to that...

...on another note, I took a small jar of my mother-in-law's partner's sourdough starter to replenish my stock as I had left mine to die (inadvertently). From next week I am aiming to start making some of the many breads from Dan lepard's excellent book: The Handmade Loaf. I will be posting here how I get on....and maybe some pictures, who knows.