Oyster & Otter

Today we visited the Oyster and Otter seafood restaurant in Feniscowles near Blackburn, on the way back from picking up some of foody prizes from Blackburn market. The restaurant is a former pub site that has been extensively refurbished into a chalet style building, interestingly as well as the restaurant, there is a fish and chip shop on site for take aways.

Eventhough we arrived just on noon, there were already a couple of cars on the car park, always a good sign. We were warmly greeted and quickly seated with menu's to peruse, lots of choice and plenty of seafood dishes obviously. We both plumped for the great value lunchtime menu of two courses for £15.95 including a drink. Thwaites "Wainwright" was one of the beer options which won hubby over immediately.

Twice baked Lancashire cheese souffle with a walnut and apple salad was my choice for starter, hubby ordered the Potted Goosnargh duck and mushroom country pate, toasted onion bread, shallot and mustard seed relish. The souffle was very light and a lovely contrast to the crisp fruity salad and very tasty. The pate was served on an attractive wooden platter, hubby's only criticism was the onion bread was a bit over crisp to spread the chunky pate on. Still very tasty though.

On to the mains, Malaysian seafood curry, coconut rice, lime pickle for me, beautifully presented with pea shoots, delicious with scallops, king prawns amongst other fish. The rice however was served cold, but I didn't really need it as the curry also had spring onions and butternut squash in it. Classic fish and chips with a twist for Mr B , black peas rather than the usual mushy, parched peas for those in the know. Fabulous fresh fish, yummy chip shop style chips, what more do you want.

Overall very nice restaurant, the decor is nice too all driftwood tones, very cosy. We will be visiting again.

NW Fine Food awards Hamper

Whey hey, Mr B won a hamper of foodie goodies , from NW Fine Foods. All he had to do was like a facebook page to enter ! "Lancashire Food" is a great supporter of everything food in the North West so the prize couldn't have come to a better place. It was delivered by the lovely Clare ( who has a blog as well ) - who is an ardent foodie like myself and hubby,she also wants chickens too !

The hamper contained goodies from many of this years prize winners of the "NW fine Food awards"

Agnes Rose - Damson Vinegar, Blackberry and Mint Vinegar

Hawkshead Relish - Damson Extra Jam

Bowland Brewery - Headless Peg, Cromwell Stout and Admiral of the Blues

Reedys - Blackberry Vinegar

Masons Gourmet Foods - Rich Genoa Fruit Cake

Vouchers for

Dales Butchers - Pork & Mr Vikkis Chill jam pies, Pork and Mr Vikkis Chilli jam sausages

Capra Products - Voucher for meat or cheese.

Fantasy Cupcakes - Voucher for 12 cupcakes

The Original Cheshire Cake Co - Voucher for Cheshire Cake

H Clewlows Butcher - voucher

Backford Belles - Jersey Ice cream voucher

Cheshire Farm Ice cream - voucher

Fabulous prize, couple of the vouchers present slight logistical problems however,so we will have to see what we can sort out.

Banana Tea Loaf

Every wondered what to do with slightly manky banana's, the very spotty soft ones. Not one to waste food I have a number of recipes that I use to make the best use of these sweet fragrant goodies. This one is called a tea loaf even though it doesn't contain any tea. Its also pretty healthy too !

Ingredients

• 200g self raising wholemeal flour
• Salt / baking powder pinch
• 1tsp cinnamon
• 75g soft brown sugar
• 3 mashed bananas
• 75g polyunsaturated margarine melted ( use microwave)
• 100g raisins or chopped dates or other dried fruit 2 Eggs- lightly beaten

Method

Place all ingredients except dried fruit in mixer or food processor, mix well until smooth and then add dried fruit. Pour into a lined and oiled 2lb loaf tin. Bake in a pre heated oven @ 160C for 1-1 1/4 hours, until cooked through when tested with a skewer. Cool on a wire rack

Delicious if left for a couple of days to mature in foil, could serve buttered or with cream cheese but that would not be as healthy !

Enjoy !

Daily Bread !

I love fresh artisan bread, I would dearly love to have enough time every day to make fresh bread. Instead I make do with buying good bread when I see it or making my own. At last weekend's Food show , I got chatting to a representative from Clitheroe Food Festival , she recommended the "Michel Roux" Sandwich bread loaf recipe as a quick and easy recipe. So hear goes.

Ingredients

• 20g/1oz golden syrup
• 25g/1oz melted butter
• 350ml/14fl oz warm milk
• 10g/½oz yeast
• 250g/8oz plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 250g/8oz strong bread flour
• 10g/½oz sea salt

Method

Stir the golden syrup and melted butter into the warm milk until well combined. Stir the yeast into the warm milk , until dissolved.

Add the remaining ingredients and mix until a smooth dough forms. I used my mixer to knead the dough or you could do this manually until dough is smooth and elastic.

Return the dough to the bowl, cover with cling film and place into a warm place for 1 hour, or until the dough has nearly doubled in size

Meanwhile, grease and flour a 12cm x 20cm/5in x 8in bread tin.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface again and knock back a few times. Divide equally into two pieces and shape into balls. Place the dough balls side by side in the prepared bread tin, cover with cling film and set aside to rise again, until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 220C/410F/Gas 7.

Using a sharp knife, slash the dough a few times and place into the oven immediately. After 10 minutes, reduce the heat to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and bake for a further 30 minutes, or until the bread is golden-brown. To check if the bread is done, remove from the tin and tap the bottom with your knuckles – it should sound hollow.

Leave the loaf to cool on a wire rack.

Nigel Howarth's Fantastic Food Show

Just arrived back from "Nigel Howarth's fantastic food show, which has been held for the last two days @ Ewood Park, home of Blackburn Rovers Football club. This is the second year for this foodie event and its getting better year on year, still needs a bit of assistance on the organisation front, but the featured food needs no help at all, its wonderful already. The vast majority of the local food was great, fabulous cheeses and meats and loads of local producers.

Of special note are More Artisan bakery, who had a wonderful array of stone baked breads , sourdoughs, foccacia's and rye breads. The bread looks and taste's stunning, this is real bread with holes and a proper crust, not the pap that's normally sold around here.

I was also pleased to spot a locally produced Cider from Lancashire apples, Ribble Valley Gold is produced using locally grown apples by Dove Syke Cider company, naturally we had to sample some and very pleasant it was too.

Lots of samples of cheese's, sausages, wine, gingerbread and the like were on offer , plus we saw our Slow Food Friends too. A great day out was completed by a lunch of Pork and Black pudding pie from Dales Butchers.

Looking forward to Clitheroe Food Festival on 13th August 2011, see you there.

Lancashire Elderflower delight

I love this time of year when the Elder tree is in flower, from earlier blog posts you can see I have somewhat an obsession with the flowers and what you can do with them. So when I purchased River Cottage Handbook no 7 Hedgerows I was pleased to see another way to use them. Elderflower delight. I just had to have a go, especially as on my last visit to The Red Cat, my favorite restaurant, the team had prepared their own Turkish delight which was served with coffee.

Ingredients

• 20 Elderflower heads
• 20g leaf gelatine
• 700g granulated sugar
• Juice of 2 lemons
• 400ml water
• 130g cornflour
• 30g icing sugar

Method

Soak the gelatine in a shallow dish of water, meanwhile strip the elderflower heads of the flowers and place in a piece of muslin which you are going to make into a bag tied with string. Take the granulated sugar, lemon juice and 300ml of the water, put in a saucepan and heat gently until all the sugar is dissolved, leave this to cool.

In a bowl mix 100g of the cornflour with the remaining water until smooth, then mix into the cooled lemon sugar syrup. Put the saucepan back on a low heat, add the gelatine sheets, squeezed of any excess water and whisk until throughly dissolved.

Bring back to the boil slowly and simmer for 10 minutes stirring all the time. suspend the muslin bag in the mixture and simmer for a further 15 minutes, squeezing the bag to release the flavours. The mixture will become very sticky and gloopy, keep stirring, when ready cool for 10 mins.

Mix the remaining cornflour and icing sugar in a bowl to create the tossing powder, line a shallow baking tin with baking parchment and dust with a tablespoon of the tossing mixture. Poor in the warm delight, removing the bag. Leave to cool fully and then put in the fridge to firm up until rubbery. Cut up with a knife or scissors into cubes and toss in the tossing mixture.

Very impressive and very delicious. The ideal gift.

Easy Peasy Yoghurt Cake

Thought I would quickly share with you one of my all time favorite recipes, its so easy , it doesn't even involve weighing scales. All the measurements are based on the yoghurt pot that your yoghurt has come from. If you have bought your yoghurt in a large pot just use a tea cup / american cup or similar. It scales perfectly. You just might need more baking tins !

Ingredients

• Carton of yoghurt, plain , can be 0% fat if you want
• 1 1/2 cartons of sugar (caster preferably)
• 1 carton vegetable oil (sunflower I use)
• 3 cartons self raising flour
• 2 eggs free range of course
• Vanilla extract / paste - a drop

Method

Mix all ingredients together until smooth and put in a greased and lined 2lb loaf tin, bake @ 350F, 180 c, Gas mark 4 for approx 1 hour until firm and cooked through, test with a cocktail stick. Leave to cool in tin for 10 minutes and then carefully turnout onto a cooling rack. Best kept for a couple of days wrapped in foil. Freezes beautifully.

A taste of the unexpected

I recently purchased a copy of this book after becoming aware that this was the same chap who did the majority of the food gardening for River Cottage. Mark Diacono of Otter Farm has developed what he calls a “climate change farm” , it run on loose permaculture principles, but more on the basis that he got bored with growing mediocre standard fruit and vegetables and thought he would try something different.

He was inspired by the “mulberry” initially, I agree with Mark, life is too short to be growing vegetables that you can buy cheaply locally , plus these are always the vegetables that are most susceptible to pests and disease because they are grown commercially.

It’s a beautiful book and Mark is very knowledgeable and his enthusiasm comes over well in the book. He also recently featured in the Radio 4 food programme and advocated hosta’s as a vegetable, this meant that myself and Mr B dashed to the garden to try our selection. He tweets and has a blog if you are interested in finding out more.

Inspired by his book we have planted a goji berry and a Japanese wineberry in the garden, so lets see how we go on. I would also like to try a blue honeysuckle as well.

Kitchenaid !

My beloved mixer, after coveting Kitchenaid mixers from a far for a number of years, in February of this year for valentines day my husband purchased a Kitchenaid Classic mixer for me. For the uninitiated the classic is exactly the same as the artisan mixer, other than the bowl supplied is slightly smaller , it only comes in white not the funky colours of the artisan and most importantly is about £100 cheaper !

The mixer is a classic, my favourite local chef (Chris Rawlinson) has a kitchen aid classic , so has Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa), so it comes well recommended. Its chunky , classic and will last you a lifetime, the design is fab as there are no awkward bits that you can’t clean and the different mixer heads are a breeze to swap over. Everything is metal, no plastic bits, I love love love it :-)

Must also say I bought mine via a family firm in Cumbria and they were fab, customer service wise as these mixers can be hard to get hold of.

Slow Food Wild food forage

Just returned from a "Wild Food Forage" organised by Slow Food Lancashire. What a great day we had , rambling around the beautiful countryside nibbling all sorts. We weren't lucky enough to find any edible funghi on this occasion, but we did find loads of edible greens. Hogweed shoots, cleavers juice, sweet cicely, pignut, ramsons and many others. The walk was led by Jesper, who was very knowledgeable and hosted by Andrew and his family from Corless Mill Farm.

After the rambles we enjoyed an alfresco snack of fresh bread, fabulous bacon from Andrew's pigs, shaggy ink caps (Jesper collected these earlier) and steamed hogweed shoots, all washed down with Andrew's homemade cider. Yum, local food at its best.

Bring on the autumn fungal foray !

Panna Cotta and honeyed Rhubarb compote

Inspired by a recent re-run on the TV of River Cottage Everyday , I decided to give a Pannacotta a try. Hugh was making this with his son Oscar. I love all Italian food but I had never attempted making this beautiful wobbly dessert, well executed there is nothing to beat a creamy gently trembling dessert.

As the Rhubarb plants in the garden where developing triffid like tendencies, a honeyed Rhubarb compote was in order to accompany this dessert. You can flavour your pannacotta with coffee, chocolate, elderflower and many other delights but I thought vanilla would be fitting for my first attempt.

Firstly to make your compote poach trimmed rhubarb in a little water with local honey added for flavour and sweetness. Once just soft, remove from heat and allow to cool.

For the pannacotta you need

Ingredients

• 100ml milk ( I used skimmed)
• 250ml double cream
• 40g caster sugar
• Vanilla paste
• 2 gelatine leaves
• 150ml plain yoghurt
• 4 diarold molds / ramekins or similar

Method

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water for about 5 minutes until soft.Combine the milk, cream and sugar in a pan and bring just to the boil, do not let it bubble. Remove from heat. Add the gelatine leaves to the hot milk / cream mix, ensuring you squeeze out any excess water and stir until dissolved. Now leave the mixture to cool fully, stirring every now and then. Once fully cool add the yoghurt and vanilla paste and stir until combined and the mixture is flecked with vanilla seeds.

Pour / spoon in to your molds and leave to set fully in the fridge, takes at least 4 hours. When you are ready to eat briefly dip the mold in hot water and then invert on your serving plate, drizzle over the Rhubarb compote.

Yum, yum, delicious and with just the right amount of wobble. Some cheaty restaurants put too much gelatine in them and they end up rubbery.

Classic Victoria Sponge

Apologies for not blogging in a while, naughty facebook has been distracting me. Over the next few days I plan to do a number of back catalogue postings.

Victoria Sponge cake is one of my favourite cakes and not the easiest to do well. I love the light but decadent taste sensation that results. However since I was treated to a Kitchen-aid mixer by my lovely husband, I have found that I can whip a cake in minutes. Filled with homemade jam, there is no better cake. My current recipe is taken from the “The Great British Book of Baking”, one of my favourite cook books currently, with the slight tweak that I tend to use a good quality margarine and of course home laid eggs from my hens.The margarine seems to give a lighter result to butter, but if you prefer butter, use that.

The mixture makes 2 cakes for a round sponge sandwich approx 8 inches in diameter

Ingredients

• 175g softened butter or high quality margarine
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 eggs , free range
• Vanilla extract / paste – approx 1 tsp
• 175g Self raising flour - sifted
• 1 scant tbsp milk ( not always required)
• Jam for filling , whatever flavour your like or have to hand
• Icing sugar for dusting

Optionally you could fill with cream and / or fruit if you wish to elevate this to even greater heights.

Method

Firstly grease and bake line your cake tins, then pre heat your oven to 180 deg c / 350F / gas 4. Whisk the sugar and margarine / butter, until light and fluffy, this is much easier with a food mixer.Beat in the eggs and vanilla, if it looks like your mixture may split add a little flour to prevent this happening, then add the flour and gently combine. Some bakers recommend folding with a metal spoon, but I don’t seem to have any problems using the mixer to give the mixture its final mix. Add the milk if needed.

Place to mix into the tins, splitting the mixture evenly and spreading out across the tin, trying to leave a slight dimple towards the middle so the mixture will rise evenly.

Bake in your oven for approx 20-30 mins, it all depends on your oven, until golden, well risen and springs back when pressed. Cool in tin for a few mins before removing to a wire rack until cold. Fill your cake with jam and place other cake on top, dust with icing sugar and enjoy with a cup of tea.

Glut of Courgettes

I do this nearly every year, get too ambitious and plant too many courgette plants in the garden. Fine for the first couple of weeks but once in full production, I end up fighting a never ending battle trying to keep up with the mountain of produce from the garden. Rather than waste food , Mr B found a recipe for creamy courgette soup which sounded promising.

Ingredients

• 60ml/2fl oz extra virgin olive oil
• Handful basil leaves , chopped ( homegrown)
• Sea salt and ground white pepper, to taste
• 750ml/1¼ pint chicken stock
• 60ml/2fl oz double cream / creme fraiche
• 50g/2oz freshly grated parmesan, plus extra to serve
• 1kg/2¼lb green courgettes, cut lengthways into quarters then into 1cm/½in slices
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic , (homegrown in our case)

Method

Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan over a medium heat.

Cook the garlic, basil, salt and courgette slowly for 10 minutes, or until the courgettes are lightly browned and softened.

Add white pepper, to taste, then pour in the stock and simmer for 8 minutes, uncovered. Remove from the heat.

Put three-quarters of the soup mixture into a food processor and blend until smooth.

Return the mixture to the pan and stir in the cream, parsley and parmesan.

To serve, ladle the soup into a bowl and season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Sprinkle over more parmesan, to taste.

Yummy, what a discovery a delicious recipe which uses loads of courgettes. Please try it.

Broad bean Pate

It still rains and everything is growing like topsy. Picked the last of the broad beans today, there were only a few pods so decided to make pate with them .

Ingredients

• Half a bag of broad beans (handful of pods)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Drizzle of olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Sprig of thyme, chopped

Method

Remove the broad beans from their pods and boil them with the garlic cloves for about 15 minutes. Drain and cool.

When the beans are cool enough to handle, remove the outer skin of each bean to reveal the brighter green 'inner bean'!

Blend the beans and garlic with a hand blender and add the salt, pepper and thyme.

Spread on crackers or bread.

Absolutely delicious, a real surprise ! Best of all all home grown, well other than the olive oil !

Zoom - Rocket soup

After the recent rains and wind, the vegetable garden was looking rather shabby. Every year self seeded rocket appears and takes over the garden unless I’m super vigilant. I decided to clear an area of one of the raised beds and was faced with the prospect of composting a large volume of rocket. I needed a recipe that appealed to my sense of using any garden produce. I thought I would given Rocket Soup a try.

Take a few small potatoes and slice two small onions and put them in a pan with some boiling water. Not too much water, but enough to cover it and simmer until soft, I added a vegetable stock cube.

I then rinsed a colander full of rocket leaves, and chopped them fairly coarsely and added them to the soup. The rocket leaves don’t need as much cooking as the potato and onion. Rocket leaves cook down. Liquidise and serve. It’s deep, bright green, having cooked it a bit the rocket isn’t too powerfully strong, as you might expect. Hubby liked this soup, I thought more of an acquired taste.

Roping Garlic

How do you make a garlic rope ?, after harvesting for the first time ever a decent crop of garlic from the garden and drying it for a couple of weeks in the greenhouse. I needed to find out how best to store our bumper harvest. I tried you tube but to no avail, the nearest we got was onions an even then the video wasn’t very good on detail mainly due to the guy demonstrating being stoned ! So hubby and I decided to have a go ourselves with what appears to be great success. Secret seems to be having a cane to work off and loads of string.

Garden Vegetable Soup

As the weather has decided to turn unseasonably unpleasant, thunder, wind and rain. Thoughts have turned to soup , my other half loves soup and would happily eat nothing but if I let him, I am rather more fussy and only really enjoy homemade soup and even then only periodically.

Yesterday whilst surveying the damage in the garden caused by the wind and rain, I collected together the ingredients for what ended up a rather tasty lancashire version of a sort of minestrone. To make the soup just use whatever you have to hand, in my case that was a couple of tomatoes, courgettes including the flowers and a few new potatoes.

Firstly I sweated off a recently picked onion and chopped onion in a little oil, then I added 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped and cooked until the onion and garlic were soft but not coloured, I then added the tomatoes chopped into small chunks, skins, pips and all and cooked for a another 4 or 5 minutes, next the courgettes and potatoes went in . In goes about a pint of vegetable stock and the soup is simmered for about 15 mins, until all the vegetables are soft and then add a couple of fresh basil leaves. Serve with crusty bread. Delicious.

Amalfi- Chorley

In an unassuming side street in Chorley sits Amalfi , a friendly Italian restaurant. We visited on a Tuesday lunchtime, the day of the week when Chorley comes alive for its weekly “flat iron “ Market. Amalfi is a contemporary restaurant serving traditional Italian fare. For the budget conscious at lunchtime there is a special menu and also in the early evening an early bird special.

We were warmly welcomed and seated , the lunchtime menu was extensive , I choose the bruschetta mista, Mr B the funghi trifolia, whilst waiting for the starters we nibbled on good black olives, admiring the photographs of Italy on the walls. Our starters arrived piping hot, my bruschetta was rather large for a lunchtime starter , having no less than 4 different types to sample. The funghi starter was more lunch sized, both were a good start to our meal.

The mains arrived after a suitable break , Spaghetti alio, aglio and pepercino and spaghetti carbonara , both cooked well and very filling. All in all a pleasurable lunch venue and good value too !

Now blogging on Lancashire Life !

I have been invited to blog on Lancashire Life's website, just posted my first restaurant review, check it out !

New Season Gourmet Restaurant Chorley

Last weekend we had booked for Laura Solon, Perrier award winning comedian at Chorley Little Theatre. So I booked a table for an early pre theatre dinner at New Season, a Mediterranean style restaurant in Chorley. We arrived a little early for our booking and were welcomed warmly. The menu is a mix of tapa’s and mezze and larger Mediterranean style dishes. The decor is cool Moroccan / Tunisian and the music chilled out .

Now to the food , we ordered a starter each, bruschetta and breads and olives and olive oil. The portions despite being a starter were quite large, the bruschetta crunchy and smothered with juicy tasty tomatoes, the olives were of really good quality and the oil / Balsamic mix well flavoured. On to the mains, I ordered Chicken Dianne which a arrived both with seasoned rice and little roasted potatoes and fresh vegetables, the chicken was moist and succulent and the sauce excellent. My other half ordered the lasagne, accompanied by both garlic bread and salad, the plate was quickly cleared which I always take as a good sign.

We didn’t have a desert as by now we were quite full but the menu choices sounded very appetizing, the bar is also well stocked, cocktails available and its the first restaurant I have every seen "Tunisian" wine being featured. All in all we were very impressed and will definitely be visiting again.

The Original farmers Arms Eccleston

Lunch stop for a post xmas walk, pleasantly surprised with the quality of food on offer as I have heard mixed reviews. Wide pub grub choice very nicely done. We choose from the light bites menu but the portion size were ample. Country style pub with rooms.

Fusion Room - Preston

Excellent city centre venue, pity about it being on Frairgate but otherwise fab. A party of 18 of us visit for a Xmas lunch package, the food was excellent , beautifully presented and very flavourful. Very Reasonable prices too. I have promised hubby we will visit next time we are in town.

Warehouse Brasserie - Southport

Wow, what a find, tucked down a side street near Lord Street in Southport is the Warehouse Brasserie, we visited for Lunch on a recent shopping trip. We opted for the bargain priced "Lunch Special", 3 courses for £10, we weren't disappointed in any way. The decor is modern and funky , the staff friendly , service attentive. The food was fresh, modern , portion size ample and well presented. We will be visiting again soon

Southport by The Sea and the chippy tea

As Southport is so well served with theatres, we often visit in the evening to attend gigs, concerts, plays and the like. One of our favorite venues for that Lancashire favorite - the "chippy tea" is the Sandgrounder Chippy on Victoria Street. The cafe upstairs is open on Friday and Saturdays in the early evening so you can sit in, its clean , welcoming and the staff are very attentive. Best of all they serve a great selection of meal deals, fish & chips, pie & chips, Pud & chips, even spam fritter, all accompanied with the regulation peas or beans and gravy, bread and butter and choice of tea or coffee. Great value prices too.

Who ate all the pies ?

On a recent shopping trip to Wigan, a town famous for its love of pies, we visited what must have been the only cafe which does not serve this local delicacy. The Stables Brasserie was a revelation , a cosy brasserie / cafe on Millgate. Lovely contemporary style decor, good brasserie style food and attentive service. Delighted to note that they have monthly theme nights featuring different countries cusiene. Visit them soon, it gets very busy at lunch time.

More tomato recipes - Tomato Tart

Further way of using up the glut of tomatoes, Tomato Tart

Using ready made puff pastry , lined an oven tray, spread the base with pesto sauce or oil and chopped basil, then cover with slices of tomatoes, drizzle with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt, pepper and a sprinkle of sugar. Bake in the oven @ 200 deg C, until the tomatoes are soft and golden. Serve a large slice with rocket salad or a balsamic dressing.

Butternut squash

Look what I found in the garden today !

I have never grown squashes before so I am pretty impressed with the results. I love butternut squash roasted , so after a few days hardening in the conservatory I will be cooking roast autumn vegetables.

Tomato Ketchup

Still trying to deal with a glut of tomatoes from the garden and no more will fit in the freezer, so ketchup it had to be.

Ingredients

• 3Kg tomatoes roughly chopped
• 4 onions sliced
• 1 red pepper, chopped

Place in a large pan and cook until soft. Push this through a sieve into a large pan.
Add

• 100g soft brown sugar
• 200ml cider vinegar
• 1/4 tsp english mustard powder

Add the spices in a muslin bag

• Piece of cinnamon stick
• 1 1/2 tsp whole allspice
• 1 1/2 tsp whole cloves
• 1 1/2 tsp ground mace
• 1 1/2 tsp celery seeds
• 1 1/2 whole black peppercorns
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 garlic clove, bruised

Method
Bring to the boil and simmer , remove the spice bag after 20-30 mins , cook until pulpy , pour into sterilised bottles.

Best used with chips, burgers, etc. Result is pretty almost as good as heinz

Sweet chilli sauce - a taste of lancashire

Last year due to a glut of peppers and chilli's in the garden, I made sweet chilli sauce and very impressive were the results, particularly popular with one of my friends Jo. So this year I promised her we would make her a supply using a combination of our garden produce.

Artichokes, lifes too short

We have been growing globe artichokes for the first time this year and to our surprise they have actually produced a couple of heads. I consulted several books for guidance on the best way to prepare, but what a faff ! by the time you have peeled, acidulated, trimmed and removed the choke there isn't much left to eat, you then got to cook it. Life's way to short, I like the flavour but might try the baby ones next time.

Rather beautiful to look at though

Oak Leaf Wine - result

We have just racked off the first couple of bottles of Oak leaf wine, (see earlier post), and I must say it's pretty good. Slightly sweet but with a dry edge, very palatable. Just had a glass with my dessert

.

Beetroot ice cream anyone !

I know it sounds revolting, but it isn't, rather delicious actually. Following another HFW recipe as a guide and using homegrown beetroots. Its fairly simple, just a rich egg custard, cream and beetroot puree. Yummy ! Photos to follow shortly

Stirk House Hotel Gisburn Lancashire

Just returned from a Shakespeare evening at Stirk House Hotel, Gisburn. Fabulous country house hotel,which practices special attention to local sourcing. We enjoyed a fabulous 2 course dinner, we started with smoked haddock canapes, followed by sea bass on samphire for hubby and Pea lettuce and lovage soup for me. The main courses we beautifully presented , slow cooked lamb shank , soft and tender, falling of the bone with peas, beans and seasonal vegetables, I chose Organic salmon with watercress sauce, again served with seasonal vegetables. Everything was cooked with precision and attention to detail. On leaving the table we were given a basket of goodies to enjoy with the performance, this included champagne, strawberries and cream and sweets.

During the performance interval we were offered home made shortbread and after the performance warm bacon barms.

In the morning we enjoyed a full Lancashire breakfast , of particular merit were the sausages and bacon.

We would thoroughly recommend a break at this hotel for the food alone, but don't miss out on the the wonderful setting and well appointed rooms.

Perry Fruit Jelly ala Mark Hix GBM

We hosted a dinner party recently for friends and wanted to serve a dessert that used fruits from the garden. Over the years we have always watched the "Great British menu" competition on the BBC and were particularly impressed with the perry jelly served a couple of series ago. I was surprised as to how easy the jelly was to make and how impressive the finish was on the completed jelly. The jelly was served with home made elderflower sorbet. Delicious and extremely light and refreshing on a warm summers evening.

Plum Job AKA its raining plums

Its raining plums in the garden, for the first time ever our plum tree has produced a decent crop, its taken about 10 years for this to happen ! I think the variety is called 'Avalon' , its was birthday present quite a few years ago. Its been a race against the wasps for who gets to the ripe fruit first, Due to the size of the glut I think I will be freezing most of it for pie, crumble and cobbler filling, but I also love English plums raw.

The garden has been particularly bountiful this year, currently I am picking

· Cucumber - I can thoroughly recommend cucumber sandwiches a la Val Warner

· Courgettes - that’s a story for another day

· Beans - broad and french

· Rocket

· Tomatoes

· Blackberries / loganberries

· Spring onions

· Beetroot

· Potatoes

· Baby Carrots

Wow that’s a lot of fruit and veg.

Radio Lancashire

Just had fun on Radio Lancashire with Ted Robbins,

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p003hxx9/Ted_Robbins_29_06_2009

listen to the last half hour

Sourdough using the creature in the cupboard

Well first sourdough loaf completed, for a first attempt not too bad even looks like the picture in the River Cottage Bread book I have been following.

The process took approx 36 hours to complete so this is real "slow food", firstly you make your sponge with some of the starter ( this is the creature in the cupboard), this is left over night, apperared to be successful and became all frothy, this is then the next morning mixed with more flour to form the dough, this is then needed as normal, the mix is quite sloppy and sticky, but after 10 mins kneading, looks a lot more light normal dough. This is then left to rise until doubled in size, this took about 3 hours for our mix, amazing considering we haven't added any yeast, this is then knocked batch and left to prove again to improve the flavour, this took about 3 hours, you then bake. Result is a very holey chewy and deeply satisfying bread, crust was a bit hard, but this was my first go at sourdough.

Elderflower sorbet recipe

Make this absolutely delicious sorbet with elderflowers and freeze for us later in the summer. Goes particularly well with strawberries / gooseberries, in fact any other soft fruit.

225 grammes white sugar, in 600ml water, boiled for 7 mins to make a sugar syrup, take off heat and add 8 elderflower heads, peel and juice of 3 lemons, allow to cool fully, then churn in ice cream maker. Alternatively if you don't have an ice cream maker, put in freezer box and freeze for an hour, then , beat and refreeze, keep doing this until you have a smooth finish to your sorbet.

Never wash the elderflowers as you loose the flavour, just pick off any insects , leaves etc

Elderflower Champagne recipe

Ingredients

• 4 litres of cold water,
• 2 1/2 cups white sugar,
• 4 large flower heads, (I sometimes use a few more depends on the size of the heads),
• 2 lemons sliced,
• 2tbsp white wine vinegar.

Method
Put all the above in a bucket and cover for a couple of days ( don't worry if it goes scummy), then strain and bottle.
Ready after approx 2 -3 weeks, best served chilled.
Just watch out for the pressure rise in the bottle, you may need to chill your bottles to calm fermentation or alternativelt degass every couple of days.

Cuerden jacobs lamb & mint sauce

I was very fortunate early this year to secure a whole Jacobs lamb which had been raised on Cuerden Valley park by the wildlife trust.Apparently they ahd been so sucessful that they needed to cull a few. The meat was a bargain and was of the highest quality and food miles were minimal given that it travelled approx 2 miles to be slaughtered. I then collected from the butchers in front of the slaughter house in Bamber Bridge. This has meant that my stock of home made mint sauce ran out a couple of weeks ago, so now is the time to replenish stocks, especially as the mint is going bonkers in the garden.

I returned to the faithful WI recipe I have used before, its easy peasy, just strip mint leaves from the stalks, chop the leaves fine (I do this in my food processor) and then pack in a clear glass jar, top up the jar until all the mint is covered with basic bog standard malt vinegar. Store in a cool dark cupboard.

Once you come to use it (leave for at least a few weeks, couple months even better) , dilute with more vinegar and a pinch of sugar.

Victoria's cafe Barnoldswick

Dropped in to this friendly very reasonably priced cafe, whilst detouring due to two sets of road closures. Food good basic cafe fair, but at very good prices.

So if your every in the Barnoldswick neck of the woods call in !

Re opened Travellers Rest Euxton

Visited with friends for Sunday Lunch, not much has changed inside, food average but thinks it something special. May be I'm fussy but I won't be visiting again

Chichory Lytham

Attended this fine establishment for a Lancashire Evening and wine tasting about a month ago. Firstly Lytham was a revelation, quietly sophisticated, Chicory was great, excellent food all sourced from within god's own county ( Lancashire) and accompanied by excellent wine.

A visit is highly recommended

Its food hero time again 2009

Heh, remember to vote for your local food hero at Good Food for 2009. So vote now !

Creature in the cupboard

I've got creature in my kitchen cupboard, it needs feeding every day and doesn't like metal.

What is it ?

My sourdough starter ! recently I have really got into bread making and everytime I make bread things are getting better and better. Initially I had problems getting my dough to rise well and the laof was rather heavy, but I went with advice on the internet to have a more moist / sticky dough and not to be afraid of it. Well I am pleased to say this has really helped. I have now progressed to Sourdough, for the unitiatied amongst you, this bread raised with natural yeasts. I am into natural yeasts in a big way given that elderflower champagne uses natural yeast to create its sparkle. I have to keep feeding it for a week , before I bake with it.

I am hoping for a wonderfully flavourful bread , so lets see.

Oak leaf wine - are we too late !

Further inspired by HFW (Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall) on his recent River Cottage, a couple of weeks ago we set about our first real brew !

Early June saw us scouring our local hedgerows for young oak leaves to turn into wine. Apparently you need young leaves otherwise the end result can tan leather rather than produce drinkable wine, so following HFW recipes in his "A cook on the wildside" we started off the batch, initially in a large plastic bucket for its first ferment, and now in a demi john with airlock. So far so good, we have regualrly bubbles of C02 being given off, so the yeast is working. So will update you in a couple of months when we "rack" off into bottles and get to taste the fruits of our labours.

El ob ! or also know as The Black Bull, Mawdsley

I know the name is strange but this Pub is locally know as "El Ob", something to do with a large poker by the fire. Google it if you are interested in knowing more.

On to the food, hubby and myself decided we would have a relaxed Sunday lunch, the pub looks to be a popular local , very traditional inside, perhaps a bit over decorated in the country style. We ordered 2 typical pub dishes, scampi and pie, both with chips. The food arrived well cooked and with fresh vegetables, the pie and chips looked home made. Alll in all not bad , nice selection of real ales as well.

POND

The team that brought you DUK in Preston, how now opened a bar/bodega also in Preston town centre. My first visit to POND was for a good friends leaving celebration, as she is foolishly relocating down south. A group of 22 ordered a banquet for £16 ahead, the party was on a Friday night so the bar was very busy and noisy, I am quite sure if you visit during the week the atomosphere would be very different.

We weren't disappointed, the food was excellent despite being a little slow to initially appear. In all we shared 11 different types of tapa's , served in little dishes and pots distributed across the long table we shared. Of particular merit were the garlic butter king prawns and the sticky spicy chicken strips.

Great time had by all

DUK

Hey, every find yourself in Preston town centre and have a craving for fab tapas , then try DUK. This tiny basement restaurant serves excellent freshly prepared dishes. The menu is lengthy but covers all tastes . Give it a try you won't be disappointed. Its sister bar / bodega is POND

Railway at Euxton

I have know this pub under various names, The Railway, then The Ordnance, now we are back to The Railway and being advertised as the new gastro pub. We had to try it out.

So one Thursday after work Hubby and I ventured for our evening meal. Firstly the decor was different than last time and also the layout, the emphasis is now very much food.

On the evening we visited they had a special of two courses for £10.95, not bad. We were greeted an seated and pleased to see that at 6.30pm there were already half a dozen tables occupied.

I order the local chicken with creamy wild mushroom sauce, baby roasted pots and green beans, hubby ordered the pea and bean risotto. If you are on the special offer you have a choice of 3 dishes for each course. The food arrive after about 15mins and we were pleasantly impressed, hot, flavourful and well presented in large white bowls. No compliants on the mains.

We then went on to puddings, we both chose the egg custard with berries. The custard was everything we expected wobbly and good, the berry accompanying more of a berry mush, main problem was the chef trying to look funky and including toffee shards, which were to crunchy and hard to eat without fear of loosing a tooth.

All in all a good meal and have since recommended to friends how had much the same experience.

Jerry's or the Plough, Euxton

Technical I suppose this is my local, however probably only visit once every couple of years. Last visit was for lunch with friends, menu is extensive , i.e covers several walls and always makes me think how can one kitchen have all that ready to serve, frozen food must play a part. If you want average pub grub . Then Jerry's is your place.

Chorley Market and Taylor's Cafe

Lancashire in the sunshine, today we visited Chorley Market to introduce a friend from the other side ( I mean Yorkshire) to the delights of Lancashire. She actually lives locally and was wondering where I bought all my lovely produce from, so off we ventured to Chorley. After a quick round of Tyrers Fruit and Veg, so much cheaper and fresher than the supermarket, Pat's cheese stall, and fish stall. We were a little peckish, we had been recommended to try Taylors Cafe , near the town hall, a cut above most other cafes in Chorley which are of the greasy spoon variety. This one is more healthy and Eco in approach. The smoothies were particularly good, the food didn't arrive all at once but other than that pretty good. So if you in Chorley and wish for a healthy bite to eat try Taylors. We will visiting again I am sure.

Volcanic Elderflower champagne

We have always been fortunate to live in a house with a Elder tree in the garden. Guaranteeing pesticide and pollution free blooms for making elderflower cordial. So most summers when the tree is in full bloom I make cordial. A delightful summer treat which normally lasts into early autumn.

This year I thought we would give Elderflower champagne a try as it was my nephew's 21st ( by the way the celebration meal was at the Red cat - as usual fantastic food, service ).

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall had the same idea and also made some on his tv programme. For the first fortnight nothing happened, the recipe for "champagne" is slightly different to the cordial in that you add vinegar so I didn't know what to expect. Then doing the 3rd week we saw small bubbles in one of the bottles, so tentatively we opened this bottle. WOW , POP , its a good job we opened the bottle outside as half the contents exploded out of the bottle. Once things calmed down we tasted the "elixir". It was fantastic a little warm as at this point we hadn't chilled the bottle. We quickly checked the other 4 bottles, still nothing happening with those, so later the same week, once we had go the the dregs of the fizzy bottle , we put a couple of drops in to the other bottles. This did the trick 1 week later all bottles fizzy and having to be tamed by de gassing periodically and chilled.

Try making some its great, friends, neighbour and relations suitably impressed. Next year we are making more ! hick !

Huntleys - Samlesbury

If you have every travelled along the A59 past BAe Systems at Samlesbury you will have seen the signs for this establishment. We first visited a couple of years ago and it was already shaping up as a good local food venue. However a rainy Lancashire summer day, saw 3 friends meet for lunch on a Saturday. Phew was it busy, after fighting our way on to the car park we had a quick look around and were all pleasantly impressed with the new food hall , so now not only can you sample Huntleys Ice cream, you can purchase made on the site bread and cakes and meat, fish , cheese, veg, wines from local suppliers. However we had come to lunch, we grabbed a table quickly as the large homey restaurant started to fill quickly. Hubby ordered the pie ( he's becoming a connoisseur of pies !), I ordered the roast beef and Zoe the Lancashire ploughman's.

Very impressed , all homemade by the look of things, the gravy with hubby's pie was amazing. And portions ample, especially the ploughman's, Zoe had to eat over half a pound of 2 types of Lancashire cheese. Recommend you visit and get there early as it gets very busy.

Newsflash - Clog & Billycock

The team behind the Three Fishes see earlier blogs is to open a 3rd pub in Pleasington, Blackburn. The Clog & Billycock is due to open late August 2008 .

Moonlight Walk Lunches

Firstly apologies for not posting for a while, I have been collecting new foody hot spots whilst training for the Moonlight Walk for St Catherines Hospice, a 13 1/2 mile walk to raise funds. I have completed this now but whilst training it was often the highlight of the training walk to visit a local pub / cafe for lunch.

Robin Hood Inn, Mawdsley - arrived on spec on a Sunday lunchtime and was pleasantly surprised to be able to get a table for 5 despite being a popular pub for Sunday lunch. Some of the party ordered snack type food , some full meal. Food was plentiful and well cooked, suspect most wasn't made on the premises but that's what you get in a lot of pubs now a days. 6/10

Ley Inn, Whittle le Woods - Visited this establishment a couple of times for lunch on both Saturday and Sunday, the ley inn is a large pub / restaurant so you shouldn't really need to book. Food in pub is very reasonably priced and pretty good portions, but on one visit did have a problem with sloppy service and a kitchen to professing to have run out of eggs !! 5/10

Malt House Farm, Whittle - Part of popular chain of food pubs, slight cut above basic pub grub. Particularly impressed with serving mash with a pie instead of the obiquitous chips with everything. British slant to menu, with Mediterranean influences. Prices slightly above some other local establishments, but I am great believer in you get what you pay for. 7/10

Squirrel Meat, is it good to eat?

Seeing that a top Lakeland restaurant is now serving Grey Squirrel on the menu, does anyone know of a butcher here in Lancashire that sells squirrel meat?

Euxton Mills, Euxton, Chorley

After driving past this pub at least twice a week for years, we finally paid a visit for Sunday lunch and were pleasantly surprised.

A traditional pub serving mainly home cooked food. Ok so its a pub, but its not trying too hard to be a gastro pub like a lot of other local venues and then failing badly. We opted for the roast dinner two course option which was very reasonably priced, we have the choice of lamb, beef or salmon. I chose the beef , my hubby the Salmon, both arrived hot and well cooked and with plenty of freshly cooked vegetables which still tasted of vegetables. A good indication of home cooking is when you are served cabbage as vegetable.

Dessert was cheesecake and applie pie. The pub appeared to be popular with locals which is always a good sign.

The Red Cat - Modern Relaxed Dining

This weekend we visited the RED CAT at Wheelton for lunch , despite being rather quiet when we arrived the welcome was warm and friendly and the experience just got better and better. The resturant has a relaxed semi formal atmosphere and the decor is tasteful but not trying too hard. We both opted for the set menu and we were not disappointed, the food was excellent , well presented and delicious. My husband was particularly impressed with the background music as it featured John Martyn, special mention must also go to the fantastic lemon sole I had. We will be back very soon.

UPDATE:

We have just returned from our 4th visit to The Red Cat , this was for our lunchtime Christmas dinner outing. During the Christmas period the team at the Red cat have devised a stunning lunchtime menu which reflects the festive period but still gives a gourmet edge to the food. We choose from 4 starters, I enjoyed the Chicken liver parfait with fig chutney and toasted brioche, hubby opted for the split pea soup with chive creme fraiche. Both fantastic and well presented. On to the mains, braised beef , chive mash, roasted shallots, baby onions and bacon , thyme jus for Mr B, Turkey, sage dumpling, roasted roots and potato dauphnoise for me. Again excellent, especially the potato dauphnoise and the braised beef which both demonstrated the love and attention the kitchen had put in to the dishes. To follow Christmas pudding with the faieres ( I won't spoil the surprise), brandy butter, and white chocolate cheesecake, with cinnamon tuile, vanilla beignet and sherry syrup.

Stunning ! and for £18 per head fantastic value, a deserved award winner. Lancashire Life Casual dining venue 2007