Fresh Cranberry and Almond Slices

It's always around about this time of year that I start craving fruit. It must be something to do with the change in the weather; possibly also due to the fact that more and more chocolate and festive treats are becoming part of my daily diet.

I love the colour of cranberries, so bright and cheerful. They are relatively undiscovered in this country other than the ubiquitous cranberry sauce. Our friends over the Pond however, use this beautiful berry in a  range of bakes, both fresh and dried.

Since discovering this recipe I have already made it a couple of times, once for a birthday cake for a close friend and  again for my work colleagues who loved the bake as a tasty contrast to all the mince pies and chocolates at this time of year.

Once baked, the berries keep their lovely bright pinky-red colour and the almonds provide a crunchy contrast to the soft almondy sponge.

If you want to serve this for a special occasion, just cut it into dinky little squares and serve on an attractive platter dusted with icing sugar. If you can find some suitable "kitsch" decorations, why not accessorize accordingly. 

What you need

• 1 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup softened butter 
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 eggs - free range (whisked together with the milk)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla paste
• 1/2 tsp almond extract
• 1/2 cup milk ( I used skimmed)
• 1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries (chopped in half)
• Flaked almonds

You will need a non stick baking tray about 9" by 5" and approx 1" deep, sprayed with oil or cake release

What you do

• On a plate or a shallow dish, sieve the flour and baking powder to remove any lumps
• In your mixer cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
• Add the vanilla paste, almond extract to the mixer and the egg/milk mixture and the flour, whisk briskly until you have a smooth mixture
• Gently fold in the chopped cranberries by hand
• Tip into your prepared tin and smooth the top
• Sprinkle with flaked almonds
• Bake in a pre heated oven at 180c (160c fan) for approx 35 minutes until golden, well risen and cooked through
• Cool in the tin
• Cut into slices or squares

I am linking up this post to Blue Kitchen Bakes - Fresh Cranberry Recipe Linky

                                                    

                                                

#Boothcheers - South African version

We will be taking part in #Boothscheers - the South African version tonight from 7pm on most social media channels, why not join in the fun ?

We are tasting two wines from South Africa - Boschendal 1685 Chardonnay and a Boschendal 1685 Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon. Use the hash tag #Boothscheers on twitter and join in the discussion.

#Boothscheers is back !

#BoothsCheers is back and this time we are tasting two wines from New Zealand. Both from Insight, a delicious light fruity almost fragrant pinot noir, it ends with a clean fruity mouthful.

The Sauvignon Blanc is fresh grassy and green, really refreshing and would be ideal served on its own or with seafoods such as seared scallops or smoked salmon, the ideal drink for summer in the garden.

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.

#Boothscheers - the beer and cider festival !

#BoothsCheers with The Spice Tailor

                                     

We lucky to have been invited to take part in #Boothcheers again, this time excitingly we have a very special guest, TV chef Anjum Anand who will be joining us to discuss Indian food and her delicious Spice Tailor range. 

In our lovely VIP parcel from Booths we also have received a bottle of Spice Trail Hungarian  Pinot Grigo / Irsai Oliver, wine specially blended to match Asian and pan asian food and a bottle of Wye Valley brewery HPA which again is a great match for spicy food.

Why not join in the fun ?

Minestrone soup with orzo

Minestrone must be one of the easiest soups in the world to make, infinitely forgiving as it uses what ever vegetables you have left moldering in the fridge and any small starch grain to bulk it out to give that rib sticking quality that you need on a cold day. In fact as long as it contains tomatoes it pretty much qualifies, Italian in origin and you can see why this is frugal cooking at its best, it can be a vegetarian or meat based soup, its a great dish served with homemade bread.

Ingredients

• 2 sticks of celery chopped
• Tin of tomatoes
• 1 onion - chopped
• 1 small red pepper chopped
• 2 small carrots - peeled and chopped
• Couple of cabbage leaves - finely chopped
• Vegetable stock
• Handful of Orzo pasta ( rice, vermecelli, broken spaghetti, etc)
• Salt and pepper
• Parmesan cheese to serve
• Little oil or butter
• Herbs

Method

• Heat the oil or butter in a large saucepan
• Add the onion and garlic and sweat off to soften without colouring
• Add the carrots, celery, pepper, to the pan
• Now add the tomatoes and the vegetable stock just enough to cover the vegetables
• Bring to a gentle simmer 
• Add the cabbage, and continue to cook until all the vegetable are softened slightly
• Now add the orzo and herbs if using and simmer until the orzo is cooked
• Serve in warmed bowls with grated parmesan cheese and chunky slices of bread.

Ferrero biscuits

Italian inspired biscuits, apparently chocolate hazlenut spread known the world over as Nutella was invented in Italian by a gentleman named "Ferrero" , who later used this ingredient in the ambassadors favourite chocloate Ferrero Rocher. These little biscuits use chocolate hazelnut spread as their source of chocolatelyness, very easy to make and bake.They are also a perfect foil to a delicious creamy prosecco, ideally served with quality vanilla ice cream or the classic  wobbly delight of pannacotta.

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp chocolate hazelnut spread
• 50g caster sugar
• 3 tbsp soft brown sugar
• 50g softened butter
• 1 egg
• 100g of sieved self raising flour
• Orange rind, choc chips, raisins are all optional extras

Method

• Preheat your oven to 180c
• Mix all ingredients together throughly in one bowl
• Place dollops of your mixture on a ungreased baking tray
• Squish them slightly to flatten with a fork
• Bake for 15 - 25 minus until set but not coloured, cooking time depends on the size of your biscuits
• Cool on a wire rack
• Dust with icing sugar when cool or alternatively you could drizzle with chocolate

Fresh handmade tagliatelle and tomato sauce with sun dried tomatoes and creme fraiche

We are so happy to be invited to take part in a one off return of #BoothsCheers for the launch of Booths family of won label Italian wines. The selection includes a Chanti, Gavi Gavi, Pinot Grigio and a Prosecco all carefully sourced for the finest Italian vineyards by Booths.

We have devised this quick supper dish to perfectly complement the Pinot Grigio which is delicious chilled, the slight acidity of the wine perfectly cutting the creamy edge to the tomato sauce. The pasta of course is homemade using our homelaid eggs.

Pasta Ingredients ( per portion)

• 100g pasta flour
• 1 egg
• pinch of salt
• splash of water 

Pasta Method

• Sieve your flour and salt onto your work surface making a volcano crater like hole in the middle for your egg(s)
• Drop your egg(s) in to the hole

• Mix with your fingers until you have combined all the egg and have a soft sticky dough
• Knead this for about 5-7 minutes
• Leave to rest for approx 15 - 20 minutes , wrapped loosely in cling or a plastic bag, divide the dough by half to ease rolling out.
• If you don't have a pasta machine then you are now going to roll the pasta out manually, roll up your sleeve and flour your work surface well, Roll out until very thin and you can see a tea towel through the rolled out dough. 
• If using a pasta machine then put the dough through the machine on each setting approximately 5 /6 times, until the dough is smooth and very thin.

• Now leave the dough to dry for 10 minutes or so, on a clean  tea towel

• Cut the pasta into your desired shapes, I used my machine to make tagliatelle

• Toss in flour or polenta until ready to cook

• Cook by adding to boiling salted water , the pasta is cooked when it rises to the top of the water
• Drain and do as the italian's do and tosh the pasta with the sauce in the pan
• Serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

Sauce Ingredients

• 1 clove of garlic - crushed
• 1 tin of tomatoes - crushed
• 1tbsp tomato puree
• 3 tbsp creme friache
• 1 tbsp sun dried tomatoes - chopped
• Flat leaf parsley - chopped
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive oil or oil off sun dried tomatoes
• Splash balsamic vinegar

Sauce Method

• Heat a little oil in a saucepan and gently fry the garlic until lightly golden
• Add the tin of tomatoes and the tomato puree to the pan, cook on a gentle simmer for 5 minutes
• Next add the sun dried tomatoes and the splash of balsamic
• Cook for a couple of minutes longer, remove from heat and stir in the creme fraiche and parsley
• Bring back to hot , but don't boil as your creme fraiche may split.
• Taste for seasoning and dress the pasta.

Serve with freshly grated parmesan and a glass of #BoothsCheers Pinot Grigio 

#BoothsCheers - Beef in port wine

This weeks treats from Booths for their #BoothsCheers campaign include a delightful bottle of port. Also in the box was a letter with a "secret mission" (should I choose to accept it !), to come up with a great comfort food recipe to match one of the wines being provided.

Most people associate port with stilton cheese ( but its not from Lancashire and MR LF doesn't do Blue cheese so that's out) or rich dark fruit cake, yet its quite a versatile ingredient particularly in stews and casseroles producing a deliciously rich sweet edged sauce , its also excellent with or  in a chicken liver pate, with a rich chocolate dessert or even with a good chocolate brownie. As for cheese it works well with most, I particularly like goats cheese.

In this recipe its a great subsitute for a red wine, ale or beef stock, if you think its a bit decadent to use half a bottle of port in a stew, then mix and match depending on how frugal you feel.

Ingredients

• Beef skirt or beef shin- trimmed and cut into cubes (ask your butcher or Booths stock it if you ask)
• 1 large onion - chopped fairly finely
• 2 or 3 carrots - organic if possible as you can taste the different
• 1/2 bottle port ( or your frugal mixture - see above)
• Squirt of tomato ketchup
• 6 mushrooms - sliced
• Seasoned flour (flour , seasoned with salt and pepper)
• Oil

Method

• Preheat oven to 150c
• Tosh the cubed beef in the seasoned flour
• Heat a little oil in frying pan or if your lucky like me your cast iron casserole dish
• Fry off your beef in small quantities until well coloured, remove as cooked to a plate
• Now fry off your vegetables, soften without colouring
• Place the beef and vegetables in your casserole dish, add a squirt of tomato ketchup.
• Pour on your port / stock and put the lid on your dish
• Place in the oven and bake for about 1 1/2 hours , now add the mushrooms
• Continue to bake until the vegetables are soft and the beef falls apart and the sauce reduced
• Serve with mashed potatoes, chunky bread, rice and green vegetables

The port really makes a difference and the gravy was amazing, a delicious comfort food for #BoothsCheers

#BoothsCheers !

                                  

So very very proud to be asked to take part in the first online and in-store simultaneous beer and wine tasting event for Booths, the wonderful regional supermarket that really knows what it means to keep it local. Its a family firm founded in 1847 with a reputation for quality produce. They have 29 stores throughout the North West, the latest being Milnthorpe in Cumbria.

#BoothsCheers is running for the next 6 weeks up to Christmas and their are some great deals every week on beers and wines to get you in the festive mood, if you are lucky enough to live near a store you can visit and taste that weeks special offers, their will also be recipes and food matching advice being shared both in store and online. Lots of other bloggers are taking part too on instagram and twitter. So its a great excuse to have friends round for a sociable evening.

Well what a great time we had for the first #BoothsCheers event, the two wines that were sent for tasting were delicious, the Isla Negra Sauvignon blanc was crisp fresh and light with a slight hint of grapefruit, ideally for serving with fish. the Isla Negra Merlot was juicy and fruity and very easy drinking and would be ideal with steak and other red meats.The Marstons double drop beer was popular with the chaps and they thought would be great served with traditional party snacks such as sausage rolls. We had a great time swapping menu suggestions on twitter and posting pictures via instagram, we are all looking forward to next week. 

Week 2 we received a red  Emiliana camerenea chilean wine and a Emiliana  White chardonnay , along with a bottle of budvar budweiser. One of guests this week is a wine connisseur and particularly enjoyed the red , whilst his wife liked the chardonnay. The wines were food matched to a spicy chilli for the red and creamy chicken dishes for the white. It was felt the budvar would be a good match to hot dogs or similar . Mr Lancashire Food was also lucky enough to win one of the photographic challenges on the night too, not sure what his prize is though !

Looking forward to week 3 , we were pleased to discover that our wines are a Rose and Sauvingnon Blanc from Brightwater Bay from New Zealand and our selected beer is Cocker Hoop from Jennings. 

Week 3 , we received our lovely wine and beer and were joined by no less than two sets of couple friends, our first tasting was the Sauvingnon Blanc , this was more citrussy than our first bottle of this variety in week 1 with a tropically nose , very drinkable all the same. We then moved onto the Rose at 13% a pretty feisty bottle which we all thought tasted like fruit pastilles and was very quaffable  Our beer from Jennings a Cumbrian Brewery , was a nicely balanced hoppy ale, which we thought would be lovely in onion gravy with toad in the hole.

On the night @synergymono (Mr Lancashire Food's twitter handle) was delighted to  receive a personal message from Booths for his photographs.

Week 4  and we are tasting Saint-Emillion Grand Cru and a Croft 'Indulgence' Port. We have presented with a "secret mission" in our parcel this week and my mission challenger is fellow blogger Northwestnosh , we have to come up with a great comfort food that either features or match to our bottles tonight, check out the associated blog post here for a recipe of what we came up with. This week due to time pressures we are #BoothsCheers on our own, writing christmas cards and have a more relaxing evening than of late.

Week 5 - the penultimate #BoothsCheers party will see a Cote du Rhone and a Pouilly Fume. Lancashire Food was really lucky to have one of our recipes featured as the perfect match to the Cote du Rhone

 

Booths‏@BoothsCountry

Our recipe to match our #BoothsCheers red this week is by the talented cook@LancashireFood. Here's Slow Cooked Brisket http://bit.ly/YWFzGz 

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7:22 PM - 12 Dec 12 · 

and all received a lovely christmas message and thank you from the store on instagram.

Next week is the last week :-(, we have a chateau neuf de pap and a chardonnay to look forward to. ever inventive the PR company choose to mix things up by sending out different parcels to the online bloggers, our was a bottle of manzanilla sherry and a jar of ground cloves. That taxed us some what ! but after a bit of a think I cam up with a rabbit basque based on Delia Smiths classic chicken basque, which would use the sherry as part of the stock and a pinch of cloves to spice up the dish. A dry sherry can also be used in a cheese fondue which would be a great party dish. 

BoothsCheers has been a great online and instore event and has really brought peoples attention to Booths , we are so lucky in the north to have a great local supermarket chain, who knows the real meaning of local.