National Vegetarian Week and Greenhalghs

Greenhalgh's Butter pie served with brown sauce

This week is National Vegetarian Week  a great celebration of vegetarian food. One great Lancashire delicacy is a great dish for vegetarians and that is Butter Pie. A pie that has its history firmly fixed in Lancashire and the area surrounding Preston in particular as a economical and nutritious meal for catholic mill workers. Butter pies are still produced by a number of local north west bakeries to satisy local demand, one of which Greenhalghs recently approached me to review their butter pie, obviously as a connoisseur  of the butter pie I was more than happy to undertaken this task.

A butter pie has a filling of potatoes, onion and butter, plus a little seasoning this is all in cased in a shortcrust pastry parcel, happily all the fats in Greenhalghs pastry are of vegetable origin so no worries there if you are vegetarian  I found the freshly baked pies to be delicious, juicy and tender and the pastry having just the right amount of crumble combined with melt in the mouth filling. Some people may think a pie with only potato, onion and butter in its filling would be a little bland, but far from it in a Butter pie the potato flavour comes to the fore. It is also nice that the pie has potato slices which create a nice texture rather than a mush I have seen in other butter pies.

Most high streets in the North west have a Greenhalghs so its easy to pop in and stock up on this great tasty vegetarian snack , especially during National Vegetarian Week.

                                           
Alternatively if you are feeling creative you could always make you own , check out the recipe in the popular posts.

Baking Brave for World Baking Day ! Rhubarb Custard cake

                                                       


Its world baking day and in its honour and to use some of the rhubarb rapidly taking over the garden, I am baking brave "Rhubarb custard cake ".

 I have never made this before and also never used straight custard powder in a cake before, I snaffled the recipe from Morrisons website here and have followed it to the letter, so we will see how it goes.

As for World baking day, as you know I don't need many excuses to bake but this sounds like a good one, an international celebration of baking across the world, and an excuse to try to something new, in other words to bake brave ! so here we go.

I'm also submitting this as part of Calender cakes run by Lauralovescakes and Dollybakes 
                                              

Chocolate Courgette Loaf

BBC Radio Lancashire came to visit us yesterday for the Lunchtime Favourites programme and this is the cake I chose to feature when Maria Felix Vas was visiting, its a difficult task to select just 12 tracks that represent your life so far, I enjoyed the making the programme and the bake went do very well. 

I thought I'd refresh the post in honour of the visit, I hope you enjoy the bake!

This recipe was created in celebration of the annual courgette glut , I am revisiting my Prize winning Chocolate courgette loaf, as published in Green and Blacks - Chocolate Recipes - Unwrapped.

Its a really easy recipe if a little fragile when it first comes out of the oven. If you wish to guild the lily you can ice and fill if with jam or cream, it is quite rich already so I prefer it plain.

Ingredients

• 175g Dark chocolate ( at least 60% cocoa solids)
• 225g courgettes
• 200g Plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp bicarb of soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp vanilla paste (optional)
• 110g caster sugar
• 175ml sunflower oil
• 2 medium eggs

Method

Preheat oven to 180c / 350f/gas mark 4

Greased and lined 2lb loaf tin

Melt the chocolate, I use the microwave, but be careful don't overheat. Grate the courgettes in your bowl, sift the flour, baking powders and spices into the bowl, add the other ingredients and mix well, lastly add the slightly cooled chocolate. I use my food processor but a bowl is fine too. Pour into your prepared tin and bake for approx 50 mins, test with a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Leave in the tin to cool, before finishing the cooling process on a wire rack.

The loaf stores well in a tin and also freezes well.

Rhubarb and maple syrup crumble muffins

Whilst playing with the samples of maple syrup from Clarks I dreamt up a recipe to use that lovely seasonal ingredient of rhubarb in combination with maple syrup, loosely based on a previous muffin recipe with a crumble topping, my I present Rhubarb and maple syrup crumble muffins. Almost healthy as they contain fruit, a natural sweetener and wholemeal flour, I hope you enjoy them.

Mr Lancashire Food (our official photographer) has taken some absolutely stunning photographs of these muffins which really make them look very special. Check out his new pinterest page

Muffin mixture

• 1/4 cup light brown soft sugar
• 1 egg free range
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 5 tbsp melted butter - then cooled
• 3/4 cup plain low fat yoghurt
• 1 cup wholemeal flour
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 cup chopped rhubarb
• Pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder & 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Crumble topping

• 1/4 cup plain wholemeal flour
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 2tbsp maple syrup
• 2tbsp light soft brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
• Pinch of freshly grated nutmeg
• 3tbsp butter

You have options on the crumble topping either melt the butter for a more crunchy topping or rub in for a soft sandy crumble topping, the choice is yours.

Method

• Pre-heat the oven to 180C
• Prepare your muffin pan with large muffin cases - 12 cases
• Prepare the crumble mixture in a small bowl and put to one side
• In a seperate bowl mix the dry ingredients and in another bowl mix the wet muffin  ingredients, then combine gently together, do not over mix, lumpy is ok.
• Lastly add the rhubarb and 1/3rd of the crumble mixture to the muffin mixture
• Spoon into the muffin cases and top with the remaining crumble mixture
• Bake for 15 -20 minutes until cooked and golden
• Cool on a wire rack and dust with icing sugar when cool

I used Clarks maple syrup in this post which was kindly supplied free of charge by Clarks for recipe development purposes. If you would like to win some of Clarks syrups or honey's check out our rafflecopter giveaway.

I am also entering these muffins in the lovely Ren Behan for Simple and in Season Blog event

                                                

Clarks Maple syrups and Honeys - taste testing !

I love maple syrup, so was pleased when Clarks Maple syrups and honey's sent me some of their lovely products for taste testing and recipe development and what's more you can win some of their lovely products too in an easy to enter rafflecopter competition (please see below).

Clarks are based in Newport in Wales were they blend the finest quality pure and blended maple syrups, honeys and fruit syrups. Their maple syrup is collected in the beautiful province of Quebec in Canada between February and April. Maple syrup is graded according to its light transmission the more it transmits the lower the number. Maple Syrup is now classed as a superfood being a good source of manganese and also rich in antioxidants.

Clarks Pure Canadian Maple Syrup (Medium no 1) - this is traditional maple syrup, light with a good maple taste , mild and sweet and ideal for using drizzled on pancakes, waffles and in cooking.

Clarks Pure Canadian Maple Syrup (Amber no 2) Darker in colour than the above syrup with a stronger more pronounced maple taste which may be a little strong for drizzling purposes for some. Ideal for using in cooking and baking where the  maple flavour is to be combined with other ingredients.

Clarks Original Maple (blended with pure carob fruit syrup) - with a  great maple taste this is ideal for using as a sweetner for porridge or cereals or drizzled on yoghurt and fruit. Ideal for using in when baking  Parsnip, apple and syrup cake.

Clarks Original Vanilla Maple (blended with pure carob fruit syrup),a great syrup with a good vanilla hit , you could use this drizzled over fruit or in coffee or chai as a sweetner.

Clarks Clear blossom honey - blended from blossom to produce a versatile honey which is great on toast and as a general honey for the kitchen cupboard. Its a handy sugar substitute.

Clarks Orange blossom honey - is blended from honey from orange groves across the world, with a slight citrussy note, this versatile honey is delicious in recipes which are enhanced by the orangey flavour. Golden and bright in colour.

Clarks Acacia honey - a mild and delicate honey with a very slight vanilla note, this honey is a delicious substitute in any recipe which calls for honey.

Clarks Lavender Honey - a gorgeous honey with a lovely lavender note, collected from Spanish lavender groves this is a delicious addition to desserts and cake recipes or drizzled over scones and cream.

Our Clarks prize giveaway consists of 2 prizes, a maple syrup selection pack and a honey selection pack  which will be sent to the lucky prize winners addresses by those nice people at Clarks.(Sorry UK only)

How do I enter the Giveaway?

• Simply follow the instructions on the Rafflecopter widget below. 
• To be in with a chance of winning you must complete ALL the required fields. 
• All entries will be checked and verified before a winner is announced.
• You can increase your chances of winning by Tweeting on a daily basis.
• Rafflecopter will pick a random winner.
• The competition runs from 15/05/13 to 31/5/13 .
• If you win, you MUST send me your delivery details before 12pm on 02/06/13, or the prize will be passed to the next person.
• The first prize drawn will be the maple syrup pack
• The second prize drawn will the honey pack
• Please see the Terms and Conditions on the Rafflecopter widget for the rules and more information.

Maple Syrup Prize Pack

Honey Prize pack

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cereal loaf cake

On this years schedule for the Lancashire Federation of Womens Institute county show one of the set recipes is a Weetabix cake. I remember this cake from my childhood as one that my Nanna would bake, I think she also did an All bran version too which would give a very similar result. I haven't decided as yet if I am going to enter any of the baking classes and do foray with the local equivalents of Mary Berry but in the meantime I baked this classic to remind me how it tastes. Its a pretty easy recipe and the secret is the soaking of the fruit overnight to ensure that the dried fruit is plump and juicy. There are a myriad versions of this recipe on the internet but I am using the classic supplied by the WI (the measurement is in ounces so its old time for sure).

The cake is better if wrapped for a couple of days as it improves with keeping , its great served plain or buttered.

Ingredients

• 2 weetabix or similar quantity of all bran, bran flakes, etc
• 1/2 pint of milk (I used skimmed)
• 8 oz demerara sugar
• 8 oz mixed dried fruit
• 1 egg - free range
• 8 oz self raising flour
• 1 tsp mixed spice ( this is my embellishment or not to schedule in WI speak)

Method

• Crush the weetabix in a bowl, add the sugar, milk and dried fruit. Stir well and leave to soak overnight
• Add the egg and flour and mix well
• Scoop into a lined 2lb loaf tin
• Bake at 160c for 1 hour or so (mine took 1-20 mins) until tested cooked with a skewer
• Cool on a wire rack

I was recently on BBC Radio Lancashire and took a sample of this loaf in with me and it proved very popular with the presenters.

I have been having a rummage in my old recipe archive some of which has been passed to me by my Mum and have found a couple of postcards with variations on a theme for this recipe in my Nanna's writing.

Pork tenderloin with cider and caramalised apple sauce for #Boothscheers

Shh ! I have secret , I'm not really a fan of pork unless its in the form of  bacon, sausage, ham or gammon, this cut of pork however is my favourite if we are talking roasts, its also very quick to cook which in my book is always a bonus. Pork tenderloin or pork fillet is a very tender part of Mr Piggy and therefore doesn't take long to cook, here I am serving it with the traditional accompaniment of apples and cider which makes for a great quick roast dinner or supper, ideal for serving for that after work dinner if you have friends round.

The cider used in this recipe is one of the selection from #Boothscheers for their Beer and cider festival

Ingredients

• Trimmed pork tenderloin
• Fresh rosemary, picked and chopped
• 2 apples (ideally english if in season), skins on and chopped chunky
• Garlic cloves 2 or 3 peeled , sliced finely if using
• 2 tbsp creme fraiche or double cream
• Demerara sugar 
• 1 large onion, peeled and cut into chunky pieces
• Cider about 150ml 
• salt and pepper
• Oil - about 1tbsp or small knob of butter
• cider or wine vinegar about 1 tbsp
• Fresh thyme, picked and chopped

Method

• Preheat your oven to 210C fan, 230c non fan
• Place the oil, cider vinegar in a bowl to mix, toss the apples and onions in the mix and place in your baking dish
• Now if using the garlic make slits all over your fillet and squish in the slithers of garlic, gently toss in the oil and vinegar mixture
• Now sprinkle the onion and apple with a little sugar and the herbs , sprinkle the herbs also on the pork, season the whole dish with salt and pepper
• Bake for 25 - 30 minutes until the pork is cooked and apples and onions have softened and started to caramalise.
• Remove from the oven and put the pork and apples in a seperate dish, keep warm.Bring the the roasting juices and cider to the bowl in the roasting pan, bring to the boil and reduce by half.
• Wrap the roasting dish in foil , turn off oven and place dish in oven to keep warm
• Once the sauce has reduced add the creme fraiche / cream
• Serve with your chosen vegetable and slice the pork diagonally, serve accompanied by some of the caramalised apples and onions and your delicious cider sauce.

Ale and spelt bread for #Boothscheers

Mr Lancashire Food is developing quite a talent for bread baking and one of his tastiest bakes so far has been a Ale and spelt bread he baked specially for #Boothscheers Beer and Cider festival, this bread is great served with soup, cheese and particularly smoked fish such as hot smoked salmon or gravalax as the beery hoppy nutty notes particularly complement the oilliness of the fish. Its a relatively straight forward recipe in bread terms and also features my favourite bread grain spelt too.

Ingredients

• 175g spelt flour
• 275g strong white bread flour
• 7g of dried yeast
• 7g of salt fine grain
• 100ml of ale ( We used Stringers Delta V) but any ale would do
• 100ml of water
• 100ml of skimmed milk ( or you could use watered down yogurt) or just more water
• Good squirt of honey - (about 1/2 tbsp) you could use brown sugar
• knob of butter

You'll also need a round proving basket, floured well.

Method

• Place the butter, milk, beer, honey and water in a pan and warm until the butter has melted, leave to cool until just warm to the touch
• Place all the other ingredients in the bowl of your mixer and attach the dough hook , give it a quick run to distribute the yeast and salt .
• Now add the cooled liquid mixture to the bowl with the mixer running on slow until you have added all the liquid, don't worry if it looks like it won't come together as it will.
• Now leave your mixer doing the work on a slow setting for approximately 6 minutes or so until you have a soft elastic dough.
• Scrape out your bowl onto a floured surface and shape into a round , now place in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a shower cap and leave until doubled in size
• Turn out onto a floured surface and knock back the dough with your fingers, now reshape in a ball and place in your well floured proving bowl, cover and let prove until doubled in size again.

• Preheat the oven to 200c
• Gently turn out onto a silicone baking mat or silicone paper , bake for approx 30 minutes until well risen, golden and so that it sounds hollow when tapped.
• Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Boothscheers beer and cider festival

Those lovely people at Booths (that wonderful Northern supermarket chain) are holding another #Boothscheers celebration as they are holding their first beer and cider festival. They have very kindly sent us a parcel of 2 lovely beers and 2 lovely ciders, one of the beers  has been specially brewed for the festival aptly called "Festival Ale" for us to sample and tweet about.

Stringers Delta V -a pale ale brewed in Ulverston Cumbria, Stringers is a microbrewery and is powered 100% by renewable energy and uses the lovely lakeland water in all its brews. A lovely flavoured brew and a great ale to use in our Ale and Spelt bread.

Festival Ale - limited edition ( our bottle is 2710 of 6400 bottles) specially brewed for Booths by Hawkshead Brewery to celebrate Booths 2013 Beer and cider festival. Try and get hold of a bottle and use the #BoothsAle to share your comments. Light refreshing and summery ideal with the summer BBQ.

Browns Medium dry cider - organic medium dry cider, pressed, fermented and bottled at Dunkertons cider mill in Herefordshire. Browns is a special type of cider apple , hence the name. We have used this cider in our Pork tenderloin and cider, caramalised apple sauce.

Orchard Pig Reveller - medium sparkling cider from Somerset, this one needs to be served chilled orginating from a brewery nr Glastonbury.

Cheese of the Month

Lancashire Food has decided that as inspiration to encourage you to buy more British Cheese and to try something different, we are starting a monthly cheese club. We are really pleased to announce that we are linking up with Karen at the lovely Lavender and Lovage blog in this campaign to get you to buy more British Cheese.

We have a lovely logo too, kindly designed by Mr Lancashire Food also know as Sixes and Seven design house. 

So every time we are buying cheese we will attempt to purchase something we haven't tried before and blog about it, of course keeping it from within the UK, I am going to try were possible to feature Lancashire Cheese's too. Its also really important that if at all possible that you purchase your cheese from independent cheese shops, market stalls, cheesemongers and deli's, outlets such as these are much more likely to have a better selection of artisan local cheeses and know the provenance of their stock. Luckily near to me I also have the wonderful regional supermarket chain Booths who are also great supporters of British cheese, other favourites are Liverpool Cheese, Pats Cheese stall on Chorley Market and The Cheese Shop @ Botany Bay.

So follow our adventures in cheese and take a tour round the fantastic produce of the British Isles.

Ramshackle

This month sees our first foray into sheep's cheeses, Ramshackle is a soft sheeps cheese made by Leagrams Organic diary in Chipping, hand made and encased in a cute red wax coat. Soft and crumbly the lovely young cheese has plenty of creamy character as sheeps milk is rich in lactose and fats and is gorgeous spread on warm crumpets, oatcakes or crumbled over salads.

Leagrams was the creation of the late Bob Kitching a true artisan cheesemarker who is sadly no longer with us, but his wonderful legacy is his fabulous range of cheeses , this being one.

I appreciate that if you don't live in Lancashire it may be difficult to get hold of this or another of Bobs creations such as the what I call "Baby Lancashire cheese" day old curd, but try one of the other sheeps cheeses avaliable locally to you.

These soft curd cheeses are a favourite of a number of local chefs, so much so that Great British menu favourite Nigel Haworth uses it in his curd cheese and onion pie which is a regular menu feature in his Ribble Valley inn pubs.

Kidderton Ash

This months selection ventures outside the county of Lancashire and is a cheese that is produced in Cheshire by the Ravensoak diary, marketed by Butlers Cheese (of Lancashire), this delicious handmade goaty cheese is an  outstanding goats cheese in my humble opinion.  Kidderton Ash is log shaped and features a delicate creamy flavour which when young is firm but as it ages it goes more gooey and creamy. Sprinkled with charcoal ash prior to maturing, this creates a snug coat which can be appreciated when the cheese is sliced.

The contrast of textures can be enjoyed from the soft white coat, the firmer charcoal ash layer and then the soft luscious goats cheese in the centre, nice and creamy and oozy when more mature. Made from local pasteurised Goats Milk the tiny  diary which is close to Nantwich was founded by Sarah Allwood in 2003.

Home to many other goats cheese such as  Ravens oak and Guernsey gold, all created by head cheesemaker Katy Hollinshead , the soft curds from the goat's milk are ladled by hand into the cheese moulds and drained before being dusted with food ash and left to  ripen slowly, the silky white mould coat blooms through the ash and creates and outstanding goat's cheese with a delicate yet distinctive creamy flavour.

We loved it especially on a croque monsieur of Kidderton ash, ham and spring onion served alongside a fresh green salad dressed with balsamic vinegar.

Bowland Cheese

My selection for this month is Bowland cheese, a variant of Lancashire cheese which is mixed with apple, cinnamon and sultanas prior to being molded into rounds. It is has a distinctive cinnamon coating and a sweet salty flavour, nicer than it sounds. I like it served with plain oatcakes. 

Bowland Cheese is a relatively new style of Lancashire cheese created by David Williams from Cheshire who's family had a delicatessen in Sandbach, originally created on a small scale , the idea spread and it is now commercial produced by several Lancashire diaries and is available all over the country.

The name Bowland is after the Forest of Bowland and area of outstanding natural beauty in Lancashire and reputed to be the area of the country where the Queen would like to retire to. The area has always been a royal hunting area and still has many shooting areas within it and the Queen visits privately most years. Who can blame her the area is stunning and the food amazing in this area. 

Leigh Toaster 

Now for those of you not in the know Leigh is a town near Wigan (of the pier fame) and in days gone by a place apparently famous for its variety of toasting Lancashire Cheese, apparently in the 1600 and 1700's large quantities where exported to London. 

Dewlay,  a Lancashire cheese manufacturing company  have revived this beloved variety of Lancashire cheese so we can all experience its claim to fame. It is made from locally sourced milk and is carefully matured until reaches the desired taste and texture.  Both tasty and creamy varieties of Lancashire Cheese toast well, but Leigh Toaster is in a league of its own , its a softer creamer variety of cheese and melts in moments under the grill and is deliciously still a Lancashire cheese at heart.

Here is a classic cheese on toast grilled until slightly golden , with just a splash of brown sauce (homemade) to make life more interesting still.

Double Gloucester

Karen's first Post can be found here she knocked up a great snack dish not dis-similar to my dish  with a lovely Double Gloucester cheese. Karen also tells you about how this cheese is made and its history. So pop across and read what she has to say !

                     

        

Garstang Garlicky Goats Cheese

Our first try something different cheese is a Garlicky Goats cheese made in Garstang, this firm creamy cheese is flecked with garlic, which packs plenty of punch and off sets most of the goatyness of the cheese, delicious served with homemade bread or crackers. We purchased the cheese from Pats Cheese stall on Chorley Market , a great cheese stall which supplies some great local and international cheeses.