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Posted Friday, 18 May 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Matt Follas, winner of Masterchef in 2009 liked wild garlic so much that he named his award winning restaurant after it. The season for wild garlic, also known as ramsons, is usually coming to an end around now but the cold, wet weather means there's still plenty of it around. Get yourself down to your local woods and follow your nose.

To avoid damage to the plants, just pick a few leaves off each one - if you find them they're usually in abundance so it wont take long to pick a good bagful. Then have a go at this delicious pesto recipe.

Wild Garlic Pesto

• 150g fresh wild garlic leaves, finely chopped
• 100g shelled and crushed cobnuts (walnuts will work too)
• 150ml rapeseed oil
• 50g grated hard cheese (you can, of course, use parmesan but we prefer to try a British equivalent such as Bookhams)
• Sea salt and a black pepper to taste

Simply throw the leaves, nuts and cheese together and blitz with a hand blender. Drizzle in the oil until you have the desired consistency then season to taste. Enjoy as you would a traditional pesto.

Posted Friday, 4 May 2012  /  Written by Alex  /  Post a Comment

Well, some of us are taking a break.....whilst the Twig rubs shoulders with the great and good down at River Cottage HQ we thought we'd take the chance to talk about beetroot.

Whereas we used to have to wait until mid-summer for our first 'beets, this new darling of the veg box now seems to be in season earlier and earlier. Perhaps more grist to the mill of the global warming movement or more likely a result of the increase in popularity of this humble root. Raw, roasted, juiced, pickled: it’s pretty good whatever you do with it and we’ve made some tasty things already this Spring. So, in homage to one of our favourite vegetables, here’s a simple recipe to get you in the beetroot groove:

Beetroot and Chive Sauce

This a cracking sauce for pasta or the UK's more robust fish, such as Pollock, Salmon or Whiting. We tried it recently with some roasted salmon and fresh taglietelli.

2 x beetroot diced into about
1cm cubes
A handful of chives, finely diced
Half a glass of white wine
200g creme fraiche
Glug of cold pressed rapeseed oil.

Parboil the beetroot then drain. Throw into a hot pan with a good glug of the rapeseed oil and cook gently until the beets take on some colour. Turn up the heat and add the white wine until 1/2 reduced. Turn down the heat and add the creme fraiche. Season to taste then throw in the chives . Poor over the main event or toss your pasta into the sauce.

Posted Wednesday, 25 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Occasionally dancing to Status Quo is the nearest that any of the Well Seasoned team came to any Latin at school, but every day's a school day on the WS blog and today we're learning about Maja squinado. "Maja" derives from the month of May and "squinado" means angular or spiky.

And that very neatly describes the spider crab. These unearthly-looking creatures turn up on our shores in early May and can be found throughout the Summer months. They congregate in huge clusters off the coast; no one is totally sure what they are up to but it's likely to be something to do with mating and moulting. Importantly, however, they make for excellent eating and this is the time to catch them.

You can catch your own spider crab quite easily and without a pot. At low tide, snorkelling for them on any sand or shingle beach, especially where you can see patches of seaweed offshore, will usually be fruitful. You'll find them loitering around the rocks and seaweed but they're also out in the open more (and therefore easier to catch) than their brown cousins. Alternatively, if you don't fancy getting wet, any angler will tell you that spider crabs will latch on to most baits left on the sea bed for long enough. Casting any smelly bait, like mackerel, a few metres off the beach and leaving it for 15 minutes or so will often result in a crab holding on when you reel in (it feels like an enormous dead weight so many people assume they've caught a lump of seaweed. As long as there's still bait on the hook, the crab will usually hang while you retrieve with a slow, steady pull).

There are two types of spider crab you want to avoid eating - any who have recently moulted and females carrying eggs. Both are easy to spot - you'll see the eggs on the underside of egg-carrying or "berried" females and recently-moulted specimens will have pristine shells. Look for older specimens covered in barnacles and seaweed (which they apply as a camouflage). It's generally better to eat the males because they have bigger claws with more meat. Once you've caught your crab you can kill and prepare it in the same way as a brown crab (see our tutorial).

Cooking spider crabs is easy too - simply boil for 20 minutes per kilo. Most good sized crabs will be around the 1kg mark. Let it cool completely then get to work. Compared to a brown crab, you won't find quite as much meat in the claws but it's well worth the effort picking all of the leg and body sections because spider crab meat is very, very tasty. It's sweeter than the brown crab and you can substitute it in any crab recipe.

It's a good job that spider crab are easy to catch because, even in these more enlightened foodie times, you'll find it very difficult to get hold of one in a fishmongers. Pretty much all of ours is shipped across to the continent. The French and Spanish discovered this tasty secret many years ago but it can only be a matter of time before we're eating more of it in the UK. In the meantime, you'll need get friendly with your local fisherman or get your mask and flippers on.

For a perfect late Spring or Summer dish, try our Spider Crab Linguine recipe:

Serves 4

• 3 tsp olive oil
• 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
• 1 clove garlic, crushed or finely chopped
• 6 fresh ripe tomatoes, chopped roughly
• Tbsp tomato puree 50ml creme fraiche
• 1 medium red chilli, finely chopped (seeds removed)
• At least 250g white crab meat (preferably spider but brown crab will work too)
• A good handful of fresh basil, torn into small pieces Pasta (spaghetti, linguini or similar)

Sauce: Start by heating the oil and lightly frying the garlic, chilli and onion for 6-8 minutes until soft. Then add in the tomatoes and puree and cook down for around 6 minutes until it forms a good sauce consistency. Stir in the creme fresh then the crab meat and basil. Warm the sauce through, season to taste and pour over the bowl of pasta, stir through and serve immediately.

Pasta: Prepare for 4 x people as per instructions.

Posted Monday, 23 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Today (23rd April) is St George’s Day. George was a saint, martyr, slayer of dragons and, as far as history is concerned, probably nothing whatsoever to do with England. Hagiographic uncertainties aside, St. George’s Day was traditionally a big British feast day. As we’ve commented before, it’s a shame that so many of our foodie traditions have all but died out and St George’s Day is no exception. Worse still is that fact that, as a nation, we still don't seem to be particulalry comfortable celebrating Englishness. With a bit of luck the various festivities this year will help with that.

In terms of seasonal foods to look out for, two in particular Spring to mind (geddit?) today: Asparagus and St. George’s Mushrooms. 23rd is officially the first day of the asparagus season and St. George’s Mushrooms are a rare exception to the fungi “season” which, for most UK species, is autumnal. They generally grow in grassland and woodland, particularly those on rich limestone soils. Of course, they get their name from the tradition that they first appear in the UK in mid to late April. Did you know that 23rd April is also William Shakespeare’s birthday? Doesn't get much more English than that now, does it?

If youre looking for something really English to celebrate with tonight, how about Mark Hix's Asparagus and St George's Mushroom risotto?

Posted Wednesday, 18 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Foraging books and forums are filled with stories of what can go wrong if you don't do your homework properly. Some seem to delight in tales of sickness and even the death of those misfortunates who dropped a tasty-looking but wrongly-identified plant into the cooking pot. Fortunately, however, nature isn't always so cruel and occasionally it presents us with something that is so easy to identify that even the Well Seasoned team can get it right with their eyes closed.

The smell alone will alert you to any crop of Ramsons or wild garlic within a few hundred yards. Also known as 'bear's garlic', the air in woodlands throughout Britain is currently thick with the pungent, garlicky whiff of this real foragers' treat. Once you do find them, you can confirm your identification by looking for unique star-shaped white flowers and waxy green leaves. In fact, so familiar and identifiable are wild garlic colonies that 'garlic woods' feature as landmarks on many old maps of the British countryside.

Despite the strong odour, the taste is mild and you can use them as a substitute for spring onion or chives in pretty much any dish. So get out there and get picking, safe in the knowledge that your prize will be unmistakably tasty.

The wild garlic season usually lasts until early June. For an embarrassingly simple wild garlic recipe, check out our wild garlic butter.

Posted Tuesday, 3 April 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

There's no getting away from it - grey, pointy snails were never going to set the culinary world on fire. But whelks don't do themselves any favours either. While they are waiting for the pot, and indeed while being cooked, they produce a fair amount of (completely harmless) slime which is not exactly going to win them many fans. Nor does it get much better once they've been shelled; you are rewarded with an fairly unpleasant-looking muscley mass on your plate. But - and it's a big but - whelks are in fact very tasty. Give them a chance and this meaty mollusc can be a real Spring treat.

Having been out of favour for some time, it's actually pretty tricky to track whelks down and, when you do manage it, recipes for them are hard to come by. On the plus side, if you do manage to find a friendly fishmonger with some to flog, chances are they'll be at a pretty decent price.

To prepare they just need to be boiled for 10 minutes and no more (unless you enjoy the experience of chewing on a tyre). Although the traditional way to serve them is with a simple splash of vinegar, they lend themselves to quite a range of hot and cold dishes. For a very simple starter you can serve them warm with some DIY garlic and herb mayonnaise and crusty brown toast. If you're feeling adventurous, try this rather more exotic baked whelk recipe from Mark Hix.

And finally...Did you know, that whelks are carnivourous? In fact, they are active predators. They have special mouth parts that enable them to bore through the shells of other molluscs. They then inject digestive enzymes into the hole and suck out the liquidised shellfish. Sorry, that's probably enough to put you right off your food. We told you they didn't help themselves...

Posted Friday, 30 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

It's April Fool's Day on Sunday. We'll leave the pranks to someone else....probably. But in the meantime, what about a real April Fool recipe? Outdoor rhubarb takes over from forced rhubarb at this time of year and this beautiful, under-appreciated veg (yes, it's a vegetable. No, this is not an early April fool) is now coming down from Yorkshire's "rhubarb triangle" in regular shipments. How better to celebrate the beautiful, warm Spring we're having?

Rhubarb Fool recipe (serves 4):

450g trimmed and roughly chopped rhubarb
100g caster sugar
Zest of one orange
200ml whipping cream
3 ginger nut biscuits

Place the rhubarb in a pan with the orange zest and sugar. Add just enough water to cover and boil until the rhubarb is very soft. Blitz in a processor or with a hand blender until smooth and then chill. Whip the cream until stiff and then carefully fold in the chilled puree. Crush the biscuits (by placing in a teatowel or plastic bag and bashing with a rolling pin). Spoon the fool into tall glasses and sprinkle a teaspoon of the crushed biscuit over each one. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

Posted Thursday, 29 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Asparagus is a quintessentially English dish. So English, in fact, that its official season starts on St George's Day. However, the mild Winter and Spring this year mean that growers have already picked their first crops and we're enjoying this succulent and tasty dish nearly a month early.

Asparagus has been eaten since Egyptian times (it is pictured in wall carvings dating back to 3000 BC) and recipes for it were recorded in Roman cookbooks. So it's been around for a while. The British season is lamentably short and usually runs for just six weeks from the saint's day on 23 April to the beginning of June, but no further. Among its supposed properties are its low calorific value and aphrodisiac effects. We can’t really vouch for the second of those but there is no doubt it's both delicious and healthy.

In common with most vegetables, as soon as asparagus spears are picked, the sugars in them start to turn to starch so it really is important to eat them fresh (and good reason not to buy cheaper imports flown in from abroad). The Vale of Evesham is arguably the country’s capital of asparagus. Why is this particular corner of our green and pleasant land so good for the Spring superfood? Opinions differ between it being something to do with the sandy soil, the mild climate and the husbandry of the local farmers. Probably it's a combination of all three. 

Our favourite accompaniment is a simple hollandaise sauce. Despite what you might think, hollandaise is actually pretty easy to make. Here's our recipe:

Place two egg yolks in a small bowl, season and then whisk or blend them in a food processor. Next gently heat the juice of half a lemon and a tablespoon of white wine vinegar in a small saucepan until the mixture starts to bubble. Pour the hot lemon and vinegar into the eggs whilst further whisking or blending them. Now melt 100g of butter over a gentle heat. Once the butter has foamed, whisk/blend the butter into the eggs, lemon and vinegar mixture. The final product should be a rich buttery sauce perfect for dipping spears into.

Delicious.

Posted Tuesday, 27 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Mushrooms are Autumnal, right? Well yes, but not exclusively. And over the next month or so we'll be looking out for two real mycological treats in our fields and woodlands. The St George's Mushroom is so named because it usually appears around St George's Day (23 April) and slightly before then (around now) the morels will pop up. We'll come back to St George's next month; morels are special enough to warrant a blog of their own.

They are a strange looking mushroom, quite different to most of the edible species we encounter. The best description is something like a coarse sponge on a stick. As they can't be cultivated (at least, all efforts to date have failed) they are a wild and rare treat. You'll find them in sandy soils in woodland, under trees and hedgerows. They often grow where the land has been burned. In fact, in the in the eighteenth century a notorious spate of forest fires in Germany was caused by mushroom-mad locals trying to create perfect morel growing conditions!

Morels appear in the same place each year but pop up and then disappear very quickly. So you need to keep checking your favourite spot and take advantage as soon as they have shown. On the plus side, they don't have to be eaten immediately; they dry very well and can be found hanging on long strings in some artisan shops.

The fact that they are tasty and grow in the wild means, naturally, that other things like eating morels and you need to give them a good shake before cooking if you want to avoid any unwanted extra protein in your meal! More importantly, you also need to be 100% sure that what you have picked is a morel. Unfortunately there is a species known as the False Morel which looks very similar but is very poisonous.

Here's a link to one of our favourite morel recipes. It's fiddly in places but nowhere near as tricky as you might first think.

Mini Beef Wellingtons with Morel Mushrooms

Posted Tuesday, 20 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Last Autumn we featured a guest blog from our chum James Whetlor, chef at River Cottage's Axminster canteen and huge goat lover (not in an unsavoury way, you understand). At that time James was just thinking about going into serious business selling goat meat. Well, we're very pleased to report that the dream has become a reality and James's new company "Cabrito" was launched this week.

Cabrito is the Spanish word for a young goat and on the few occasions that goat features on UK menus, it is usually under this name. Under the Cabrito brand, James has teamed up with Somerset goat famer Jack Jennings to offer a simple but enticing proposition: high quality, naturally reared goat meat delivered to high end British restaurants.

The time feels right for the great British public to embrace a "new" product like goat meat. People have never been so willing to try unfamiliar foods and experiment with new flavours. The low fat label and ethical credentials will help too. So when you're next out on the town, if you see cabrito on the menu think about giving it a go. It's sure to taste good and might even be from James's own herd.  

For more information, check out the Cabrito website and James's blog piece for some great goat recipes.

Posted Thursday, 15 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

We've been seeing signs of an early Spring across the country since mid-January. The mild winter certainly put the shrubs and flowers in a bit of a spin with crocuses, snowdrops and daffodils all blooming very early this year. But it seems it's not just the flowers...

One of the real pointers that Spring has arrived is the mackerel arriving on our shoreline. Having spent the winter in deep water, they move inshore as the water gets warmer and, when they are close enough, they can be caught from the beach. Their numbers increase over the Summer to a first peak around July. Strangely, they then tend to disappear for a month or so and return again in September. It's an odd phenomenon that no one has quite got to the bottom of but it's likely to be something to do with the movements of the smaller bait fish they are chasing. Anyway, we've had reports that the first mackerel are already being caught off the south coast shoreline. That really is early - we wouldn't normally expect to hear about them until April.

What we don't yet know, of course, is how the Summer is going to pan out and an early Spring is no guarantee of good weather. Last year we had a mini heat-wave in February followed by a pretty miserable high season so we'll just have to keep our fingers crossed!

If you do happen to be at the coast this weekend and get lucky with the rod and feathers, try our recipe for oat-rolled mackerel and horseradish mayonnaise.

Posted Wednesday, 14 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

This weekend is brought to you by the colour green. As usual, the run up to St Patrick's Day includes a week of racing at Cheltenham with the traditional Guinness-fuelled celebrations. It's estimated that 220,000 pints will be drunk at the four day festival (along with 18,000 bottles of champagne). Not content with dominating the Sport of Kings, Saturday is St Patrick's Day itself and sees Ireland take on a youthful but improving England team in a potential 6 Nations rugby decider at Twickenham. There's no getting away with it, mid-March belongs to the Irish and to celebrate, here's a whole menu of our favourite recipes which include the black stuff (in BBC-style impartiality, we should say that any good stout can be used).

Enjoy and Beannachtai na Feile Padraig!

Starter: Stout mushrooms on toast 

Main: Beef and Irish Stout

Pudding: Sticky Guinness pudding 

Posted Wednesday, 7 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Last month we blogged about potted meat and how so many of our food preparation methods are born out of necessity rather than taste. It just so happens that some of these methods also produce amazing flavours so, even in in the days of fridges and freezers, when the old methods of preservation aren't strictly necessary, we continue to use them just because they taste great. Another good example of this is smoking, a method of preserving food that dates back hundreds or even thousands of years.

Smoke preserves in two different ways: first, it dries the food (most commonly meat or fish), making it a less comfortable environment for many bacteria. Secondly, the smoke itself has antibacterial qualities. The combined effect is a greatly prolonged shelf life accompanied by a delicious smokey flavour. For the DIY-foodie it's also fairly straightforward to make your own smoker. So, even if you have no interest in preserving your food it's well worth having a go. Regular readers will know that smoked mackerel pate is a favourite Summer treat for the Well Seasoned team.

These days, of course, smoking is definitely more about flavour and a great deal of thought goes into producing artisan smoked products, with carefully selected smokes infusing a wide variety of meats and fish. Last weekend we were lucky enough to taste some new products from one such artisan producer - Smoked. Smoked is a young company run by Julianna Barnaby and Jon Elliott. They produce a range of smoked and cured products from their farm in the beautiful Wealden downland in East Sussex. Local is the word here: the meats are all sourced from the farm or nearby countryside with oak shavings from a nearby timber yard being used for the smoke. Julianna and Jon use various cures, blended from spices, herbs, sugar and salt. We pressed them for some more details but the actual recipes are a closely guarded secret!

The current range of Smoked products include Cinnamon and Orange Smoked Duck, Cold Smoked Peppered Venison and Harissa Smoked Pigeon breast. We sampled the Harissa Smoked Pigeon and the Scandinavian Style Cold Smoked Venison. Two distinctly different and inventive products with very different tastes. The pigeon was a firm, meaty texture with a punchy, but not overpowering harissa and lime flavouring - evocative of North African souks and a baking desert sun. The venison was a more delicate affair; a moist, carpaccio-style thin sliced meat with a gentle smokiness. We thought the venison would make a brilliant canape topping whilst the pigeon is perhaps more suited to a summer salad with couscous for that authentic Morroccan experience. Both products are delicious with a wide range of possible uses.

Smoked is a great example of a small scale producer, using creative flavours and ingredients to produce fine artisan foods. Their products are sold online or you can catch Julianna and Jon at various markets including Maltby Street Market once a month, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells Farmers markets.

As a green, manic comic book hero once said - Schmokin'!

Posted Thursday, 1 March 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

1st March is St David's Day so an extra warm welcome to all our Welsh readers. We tried to find a recipe that worked with daffodils but there aren't many of those around and leeks are SO Autumn 2011. So, how about something a bit different: Laverbread.

We have to admit that, at first glance, a plate of greeny-black gunge isn't that appealing, but bear with us. Laver is the name of a particular seaweed that grows in the littoral zone (that's the beach to you and me) of the UK and around the world. It is widely eaten in Asia and you might have seen it as "nori" on Japanese restaurant menus. The green outer layer of sushi rolls (which you can buy dried in many Asian supermarkets) is also nori. To make Laverbread (Bara Lafwr in Welsh) the raw laver is boiled then finely minced to create a thick paste. Most commonly the paste is coated in or combined with oats before frying and the usual accompaniments are bacon and cockles to create a hearty breakfast fit for any hardworking coal miner or fisherman. For some reason the English and Scots never go near the stuff and yet the delicacy is a national dish for the Welsh. It has a distinct flavour that owes much to its high iodine content. Other foods with lots of iodine include olives and oysters so you can get an idea of the sort of taste your letting yourself in for - flavoursome and pretty unique.

Did you know...? There are no poisonous seaweeds in the British Isles. Some don't taste great but none of them will kill you. So when you're next down the beach, have a nibble! If you're not quite ready to forage your own you'll find laverbread in some supermarkets and several online fish retailers sell it as an accompaniment. We found this traditional recipe for first timers:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cockleslaverbreadand_92241

Dydd Gŵyl Dewi Hapus!

Posted Friday, 24 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

At this time of year we start to see the first signs of new growth in the garden. Unfortunately for the purely aesthetic horticulturalist, that often means weeds rather than seedlings. You really need to stay on top of things from the very beginning if you want to avoid a sea of undesirable intruders. Fortunately for the seasonal foodie who is willing to entertain a small number of green interlopers, these young weeds can be a source of free and delicious food. Nettles in particular feature on the Well Seasoned menu (more as a consequence of our rubbish gardening skills than anything else - there always seem to be plenty around).

To get flavoursome and delicate leaves, only pick the first few centimetres of the plant tips.The standard measure of nettles in any recipe appears to be the "plastic bag" so get one of those and don a pair of good gloves. As with most freshly picked, green leaves, nettles will keep for a good few days in the fridge.

There is a definite spinachy tang to nettle leaves and they can be used in most recipes as a substitute. Just don't be tempted to go for a salad! In terms of accompaniments, you'll find that nettles have an affinity for nutmeg and most recipes will be perked up by a fresh grating. Nettle soup is delicious but very straightforward (and there are lots of recipes out there to try). Why not try something a little more adventurous this weekend? There's a triple whammy of in-season ingredients in this Seabass with Scallops and Nettles

Posted Monday, 20 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Spinach is one of the first leafy greens to make an appearance after winter. It's abundant and versitile and should definitely be near the top of your vegetable list at this time of year while we wait, with bated breath, for Spring to show its face.

The theory is that our English word Spinach derives from the Catalan word "espinac". And that certainly makes sense, given that it was the Spanish who first introduced it to us. In the 14th century it gained quick popularity because of its availability in Spring and the fact that it provided a good source of vitamins, especially during Lent when many other foods were off limits. In the 1500s, Catherine, the queen of France loved Spinach so much that she insisted on eating it with every meal! Having been born in Florence, this gave the name "Florentine" to many of the dishes we love that use spinach.

As every child knows, spinach is a great source of iron. Unfortunately, it's not really true. There art two major problems: First, German scientist Emil von Wolf got his sums wrong. By putting a decimal point in the wrong place he over estimated the iron content by a factor of 10! The faulty measurement apparently was not spotted for many years, by which time the myth was already widely spread. Secondly, more recent studies have shown that, while there definitely is some iron in its leaves, spinach also contains other substances which prevent the body from absorbing it.

OK, so maybe the health benefits aren't everything we originally thought they were. But there's still plenty of good stuff in spinach...and of course it tastes great. Why not take this simple recipe, forget any notions of looking like Popeye and enjoy an early Spring treat.

Creamed spinach

400g fresh spinach
25g butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp plain white flour
200ml milk
100ml single cream
fresh nutmeg

Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the onion and gently fry for 5 minutes until soft and translucent. Stir in the flour and cook for two minutes, then slowly start to whisk in the milk to create a roux. Keep whisking to avoid lumps. When all the milk has been added, simmer the roux for 5 minutes until it has thickened. Place the spinach in a colander and pour a kettle of boiling water over it to wilt it. Leave to cool then pick it up and squeeze off any excess liquid. Then roughly chop and stir into the sauce. Add the cream and heat through. To serve finely grate some of the nutmeg and season well with salt and pepper.

Posted Wednesday, 15 February 2012  /  Written by Patrick  /  Post a Comment

Cockle picking during February is an excellent seasonal activity with great rewards - we're right in the middle of the cockle season but there are fewer beachcombers out harvesting the fruits of the sea. It can be, however, a very cold activity as I found out on a recent trip to Studland beach in Dorset. Given this, it is very important to ensure that the cockles are as tasty as they can be and not full of grit as can so often be the case. Whilst down in Dorset last weekend, the people we were staying with suggested a technique for purging cockles that I can confirm worked a treat:

1. Put the cockles in cold or sea water
2. Add a sprinkling of porridge oats
3. Change the water after 4 or 5 hours
4. Add some more oats
5. Repeat the process for as long as you can until the time for eating

The idea is that the cockles feed on the oats and as they feed, they discharge the grit which may be caught up in their shells. We changed the water for tap water about 3 times over a 24 hour period and this resulted in a complete purging of the cockles with no grit tasted. 

Our recipe for cooking the cockles was not dissimilar to a classic moule marinières:

- About 3 dozen cockles
- One onion finely chopped
- Two cloves of garlic
- 2-3 glasses of white wine
- half pint of vegetable or chicken stock
- Parsley
- Dollop of creme fraiche

Fry the onions and the garlic until they are soft. Add the purged cockles and white wine until the alcohol has been burnt off. Add the stock and cook the cockles until they open. Add the parsley, creme fraiche and season. Serve with warm crusty bread and a spoon. We actually had a few clams (smooth rather than ridged shell) in the pot as well. They take a fraction longer to open (and therefore indicate that they are cooked), but otherwise are a welcome addition to a February beachcomber's broth!

Posted Sunday, 12 February 2012  /  Written by Patrick  /  Post a Comment

At this time of year, we tend to have a bit of extra game in the freezer which could do with eating up. Pheasant often tends to dry out as a meat when roasted, but last week we tried a slightly different and novel way of using up the leftover pheasant from the season just passed: Pheasant Biryani!

Ingredients

2 Pheasants
400ml chicken stock (cube is fine)
250 ml natural yoghurt
500 grams wholegrain basmati rice
2 large onions
Ghee/Butter
Cashew nuts
Raisins

Biryani spice mix:

1/2tsp chilli powder
4 small green, medium heat chillies, finely chopped
A good pinch of curry leaves
2tsp ground cumin
30g fresh ginger, scraped and finely grated
4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
2tbsp garam masala
1tsp cumin seeds
The seeds from 12 green cardamom pods
2tbsp chopped coriander leaves
2tbsp chopped mint leaves

Cut the whole pheasants into four (i.e 2 breasts and two legs each) and mix the pieces of the pheasant with the Biryani mix (chilli powder, chillies, cumin, curry leaves, cardamom, ginger, garlic, garam masala, turmeric, coriander and mint). Marinade this for at least half an hour.

Heat some ghee/butter and fry the onions on a medium heat in an oven proof pan until they are golden brown and set to one side. Remove the pieces of pheasant from the marinade and reserve the marinade. Fry the pheasant on a high heat, lightly browning them in the same pan. Add the stock, yoghurt, browned onions and any marinade that's left and cook on a low heat for 25-30 minutes until the pheasant is tender, then remove from the heat. Meanwhile cook the rice.

Pre-heat the oven to 220C/gas mark 7. Add the rice, cashew nuts and raisins to the pheasant mix and put the pot over a high heat for a couple of minutes to bring the contents to the boil. Transfer to the oven for 40 minutes. Stir the whole pot and then serve with poppadums, chutney and a raita.

If the thought of preparing the Biryani mix is too much to bear, then we recommend trying using this mix from the Curry Tree as a pre-prepared option:

http://www.currytree.co.uk/view/curry-tree-biryani-spice-mix

It is very good and does save a considerable amount of hassle. We have tried both and whilst the home made mix is better, it is not overwhelmingly so.


 

Posted Friday, 3 February 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

The passing of 1 Feb marks the end of the game season for another year. Pheasants, partridges and other feathered game can all rest easy until the Autumn. But where does that leave the meat eaters among us for the next few months? Well, it's a little too early for Spring lamb. That will hit the shops in the run-up to Easter but, even then, it's not always the most flavoursome meat around. New season lamb is expensive generally just because it's a new season and not necessarily because of the quality of the meat. Autumn lamb is usually more flavoursome, the result of the animals having a full Summer of grazing in lush green pastures.

One good option available is venison. Although there are legal seasons for deer, they vary between breeds and sexes, meaning that you can get decent meat most of the year round. Like many game meats, venison is flavoursome and low in fat. Since the extinction of wolves from the UK, deer have needed to be controlled so we have very healthy numbers of all the breeds which can withstand (and indeed need) regular culling. The culling itself is highly regulated and usually carried our by skilled individuals causing minimum stress to the animals. So, wild venison is, as far as meat goes, an ethical and environmentally friendly option.

As I write this, the Met Office have issued a weather warning and predicted temperatures of -11C with heavy snow in some places. It will come as no surprise then, that our recipe recommendation is a warming stew. This weekend, get down to your game dealer and ask him for some venison...provided you're not snowed in, of course.

Mark Hix's Venison Stew with Dumplings Recipe (in the Independent)

Posted Monday, 23 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Most people know pollock is a fish but few would claim to have eaten it. As it happens, pollock is a member of the cod family, so it has a familiar taste. However, because it has an off-white or grey flesh, rather than cod's bright white lustre, it is rarely eaten as a fillet. Instead, it is usually minced and used as a filling for fish fingers or fish pies. So, the chances are you have eaten it, you just didn't know! For some reason, the West Country has traditionally embraced pollock as an eating fish and given it due respect. The Scots also eat their fair share (and like to give it an oatmeal coating). But apart from that, for no good reason, it has historically been regulated to cat food. In recent years pollock has regained some popularity and you will now find it in many supermarkets, especially as frozen fillets but increasingly on the wet slab. In 2009, Sainsbury's inexplicably tried to rebrand it as "Colin" (the French name for the fish) and market it as a sustainable alterative to cod. Top marks for intention, none for execution JS. In fact, pollock already has plenty of alternative (and perfectly marketable) names. Depending on the exact species and your location you might also know it as lythe, coley or saithe. Whatever it's called, whilst we'd have to admit it doesn't look quite as appetising as cod, it really is every bit as flavoursome and very considerably cheaper. We tried it recently in this really simple recipe from Jamie Oliver. If this wasn't a family blog we'd say it was the dog's pollocks (sorry).

Pollock is good to eat all year round but at its best from now (late January/early February) through to the end of the summer. Next time you're knocking up a fishy dishy, give pollock a go.

Posted Wednesday, 18 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

All plants need light to thrive, right? In most cases that's true but rhubarb is something of an exception. Originally native to Siberia, this hardy stem crop (technically a vegetable rather than a fruit) thrives in the cold, wet northern winters of the UK and one variety, forced rhubarb, is coming into season right now.

The method of forcing rhubarb has been around for some three hundred years. The rhubarb starts, alongside its outdoor counterparts, outdoors in fields. After a couple of years of growth, the plants are uprooted and transferred to long dark sheds. This usually happens in late Autumn, after the first frost. Inside the sheds they live in nearly complete darkness. The sheds are heated and lit by candlelight but only so the workers can see their way around. As the rhubarb is, in essence, tricked into thinking it is still underground, it puts all of its energy into growing its long, slender, pink stalks. The result is a tender stem (with an odd looking yellow leaf) which is quite delicious. The forced rhubarb harvest continues through to mid Spring when the outdoor rhubarb season starts.

West Yorkshire once produced more than 90% of the world's forced rhubarb and, at the peak of production, whole trains ran from Yorkshire to London carrying the rhubarb to market. The area of Yorkshire where all of the production takes place has become officially known as the Rhubarb Triangle and Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb, coming from the Triangle, has now been given Protected Designation of Origin status, putting it in the same league as Champagne, Camembert cheese and Melton Mowbray pork pies.

Here's our absolute favourite recipe for rhubarb crumble which is just perfect at this time of year when only something sweet, warm and filling will do.

Forced Rhubarb and Ginger Crumble

Serves 6

600g rhubarb, trimmed and roughly chopped
50ml water
1 tbsp preserved stem ginger, chopped
100g caster sugar
125g demerara sugar
200g plain flour
100g butter
3 ginger nut biscuits

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Put the rhubarb and ginger in a good sized ovenproof dish, add the water and sprinkle the caster sugar over. Cube the butter and place in a large bowl. Now, mix in the flour, rubbing the butter and flour together with your fingertips until you have a crumbly consistency. Add the demerara sugar and crumble in the ginger biscuits. Now spread your topping over the rhubarb and ginger mixture. Bake in the oven for 35 minutes or until the top is just golden.

Posted Monday, 9 January 2012  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Just in case you missed it, here's the intro to our January newsletter, The Bramble. The Bramble comes out on the first Friday of every month and is packed full of recipes, event and competition news. If you want to avoid missing future editions you can sign up for them here.

Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year? Hopefully not. It won't be any surprise when we tell you we had a pretty good time of it over Christmas. There's no seasonal feast bigger than Christmas and if we can't get that right we'd be in trouble. What did we eat? Well, pretty much everything you would expect with goose and wild boar topping the list as our meaty alternatives to turkey this year. It's always hard to choose a favourite vegetable from the smorgasbord on offer but our newly discovered balsamic sprouts (see below) deserve a special mention for changing the way we think about the little green veg we so love to hate. Talking of things we hate, around this time of year you can always rely on the papers printing two stories. First, there is the claim that a particular day in January is the most depressing day of the year. Secondly, there will be a story from divorce lawyers claiming that another day of the month is the day when they receive most new enquiries. In some ways a dislike of January is understandable - the big celebrations are over yet the cold, wet weather continues (see last week's storms for details). But here at Well Seasoned we think January gets a bad rap. There's loads of reasons to be positive about it. Cold crisp mornings, bright blue skies, Burns Night, walks in the countryside, not doing anything in the garden, the days getting longer, snow, robins...the list goes on. And of course, there's still loads of great food on offer. So, as John Lennon so nearly said, give January a chance. Anyway, it'll be the Olympics soon...or does that just make it worse?

Did you know...? The Anglo Saxons called January Wolf Monath because it was the month the wolves came to the villages to look for food. Eek!

And here's that sprout recipe we mentioned...

OK, it might be 355 days before we eat them again but we discovered this recipe over Christmas and wanted to share it with you. There are still some great sprouts around so consider accompanying your next roast with them.

350g brussels sprouts
150g bacon lardons
30ml good balsamic vinegar
25g butter

Boil a pan of water, add a couple of good pinches of salt. Boil the sprouts for 2 minutes then drain and set aside. In a frying pan, fry the bacon over a moderate heat until crispy. Add in the sprouts, balsamic and butter and fry for a further minute. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Posted Friday, 30 December 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

We’re well into the game season now and there’s a good amount of partridge, pheasant, rabbit, venison and duck around at very reasonable prices. Recently we were given a teal, a mallard, pigeon and a rabbit by a friend who has a small farm in Cambridge. It’s a great mixed bag but we needed a recipe that: a) was simple to prepare; b) was impressive enough to serve at a small dinner party; and c) wouldn’t frighten our guests as an introduction to game.

So, some pretty stringent requirements. But thankfully, guru of game and self-sufficiency Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (www.rivercottage.net) provided the answer. His game terrine recipe is perfect and not too prescriptive on the type of game you use so you can accommodate pretty much any selection of meat. The abridged recipe below is a slight variation based on what we had (or didn’t have) around the Barn at the time. It really is very easy and it can be prepared several days in advance for a dinner party.

Oh, yes – all our guests thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a great game course for anyone who is a bit squeamish when it comes to anything that isn’t a chicken. It also provided an unexpected but hilarious party game as guests spent a good 15 minutes trying to guess the various types of game involved. We can thoroughly recommend it and looking forward to a couple more before the season ends.

Ingredients (serves 6-8)

1kg/2¼lb of game meat. We had teal, mallard, rabbit, pigeon
500g sausage meat
2 handfuls fresh breadcrumbs
5-6 juniper berries, crushed
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp port
300g streaky bacon
vegetable oil 
salt and pepper

Slightly briefer method than the official version: Mix the sausage meat, breadcrumbs, egg, parsley, juniper, and garlic in a large mixing bowl. Add the port, season with the salt and pepper and mix everything together thoroughly. This is your forcemeat. Cut the game meat into strips, about 3cm thick. Heat the oil and fry all the game for 2 minutes until browned. Line a loaf tin or terrine dish with the rashers of streaky bacon. Use the blunt edge of a knife to press it into the corners and ensure the layers are overlapping so that the terrine will be completely encased by the bacon. Add a layer of the forcemeat to the bottom of the tin, followed by a layer of game meat, then a layer of forcemeat followed by another layer of game meat etc. Ensure you finish with a layer of the forcemeat. Fold the end of the bacon striped over the top of the terrine. Add a final strip of bacon if needed. Cover with kitchen foil. Place the terrine dish in a roasting tin half-filled with hot water. Cook in the oven at 160°C for 1½-2 hours. Press the terrine as it cools, with a weighted piece of wood or a brick. Leave until completely cold. This will take several hours or overnight. The terrine will keep for several days in the fridge. When you’re ready to serve, slice the terrine thickly and serve with toast, or warm crusty bread, and a good chutney.

Posted Thursday, 22 December 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Living seasonally isn't just about eating what happens to be growing at any particular time of year. It's also about bottling and preserving the best of our produce so that, when the leaner seasons come round, we can pull a little bit of summer or autumn sunshine out of the larder and enjoy the flavours of the more bountiful months.

Back in September we blogged our traditional and simple recipe for sloe gin and this week we cracked it open for a first taste. We can report that it is (of course) delicious, punchy and sweet and we're looking forward to more over the festive season.

If you're not a spirit fan or you fancy something with a bit less kick, John Wright, in his latest piece for the Guardian suggests adding sloe gin mulled cider - we can definitely recommend it!

So, by now presumably you've all done the Christmas shopping, wrapped the presents and are ready to sit back and enjoy the festive treat that is Christmas. That's always the plan and yet it never seems to work out like that, does it? Last minute dash to the shops on Christmas Eve? See you there!

Posted Wednesday, 30 November 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Celeriac, sometimes known as celery root, is technically a type of celery. Its strong flavour and robust constitution makes is a firm winter favourite and whilst it might not be as popular as some of its veg patch neighbours, it really is a delicious, readily available ingredient for those winter recipes. We're very nearly at the end of Autumn and although it's been pretty mild so far, if the forecasts are to believed we're in for a prolonged cold spell. That, of course, means we're going to need soup...and lots of it.

For six portions of celeriac soup:

A large knob of butter
1 celeriac, peeled and roughly diced
1 medium potato, peeled and roughly diced
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 a large leek, roughly sliced
1 litre of vegetable or chicken stock
Salt and black pepper

Melt the butter in a large pan. Add all of the vegetables and sweat over a medium heat for ten minutes until they have all softened slightly. Season with salt and pepper. Add the stock and cook on a low boil for another 20 minutes until everything is tender and soft. Remove from the heat and liquidise until smooth (you can use a hand blender directly in the pan or carefully pour out into a liquidizer). Return the soup to the heat and bring back to the boil. Check the seasoning and serve piping hot with a swirl of homemade pesto, if you have it, and some crusty bread.

Posted Tuesday, 22 November 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

If you got our November newsletter you'll know that for the Well Seasoned team November is the month when we really get stuck in to game. For some people the word "game" conjures up visions of powerful tasting, rich and livery meats. Whilst some people do like their game to taste strong, it really doesn't have to be and most game dealers have cottoned on to the fact that the public don't want anything too punchy these days. If you fancy dipping your toe into the world of game, you can't go too far wrong with pheasant; there's lots around at the moment so it is excellent value and it tastes very much like a flavoursome chicken. This simple recipe is also a great way of getting the kids to try something new.
 
Breaded pheasant dippers
 
Serves four
 
4 pheasant breasts (boned and skinned)
75g plain flour
1 large free range egg, beaten
75g breadcrumbs
25g butter
2 tsp rapeseed oil
Salt
Ground black pepper
 
Cut each breasts into three of four chunky strips. Season each strip well with salt and pepper. Season the flour. Then arrange three bowls in a row with your seasoned flour in the first bowl, the beaten egg in the second and breadcrumbs in the last. Coat each pheasant strip in the flour, then dip into the egg and then the breadcrumbs, coating thoroughly. When you have prepared all of the strips, heat a frying pan on a medium heat. Add the butter and oil. When hot, fry each pheasant breast for two to three minutes on each side, until golden brown. Serve with a seasonal salad and some home made tomato ketchup for dipping (or any other favourite dipping sauce).

(Sorry, the picture isn't of our dippers - but it's definitely a pheasant)

Posted Friday, 28 October 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Thanks to the country going bonkers for Halloween, pumpkins are everywhere from the beginning of October. People too readily sacrifice these fruits (yep, just like tomatoes, they are not a vegetable) for 31 October and rarely eat them, but treated properly they are delicious. Here are two of our favourite recipes that everyone should have in their Autumn locker.

Roast Pumpkin Soup

1 x 2kg pumpkin (smaller pumpkins contain less water and are more tasty)
2 x onions
750ml vegetable or chicken stock
142ml (ie. one pot) single cream
Smoked paprika
Salt and pepper

1. Preheat your oven to 180C.
2. Quarter and deseed the pumpkin (if you clean the seeds, they can be roasted - free muesli!).
3. Peel and quarter the onions.
4. Sprinkle the pumpkin and onions with olive oil, a generous amount of smoked paprika, salt and pepper then stick them in the oven for an hour.
5. 30 minutes in, you will need to drain some of the water from the bottom of the roasting pan so that the pumpkins have a chance to take on some colour.
6. Remove the roasted pumpkins from the oven and drain the remaining water. If they haven't browned, leave them in until they do but an hour should do you.
7. Skin the roasted pumpkins and add the flesh to a blender along with the onions.
8. Blend until as smooth as possible. Pass through a sieve if you really want to; The Twig does NOT sieve.
9. In a saucepan, add the stock and cream to the pumpkin puree, give it a good mix and bring to just shy of a simmer.
10. Season to taste.
11. Give it the Well Seasoned twist by finishing your soup with a swirl of our cobnut pesto.

And if you can wait a bit longer to enjoy the delights of your labour, and make some delicious chutney to see you through into the Winter. Try it with your Christmas ham.

Pumpkin and Red Chilli Chutney

1.5kg of pumpkin (or other squash)
300g of apples
200g of onions
700ml of cider or malt vinegar
250g of soft brown sugar
2 x medium sized red chilli, deseeded (unless you like it hot) finely sliced
1 tsp of ground ginger
A bunch of thyme
A good pinch of salt and grind of pepper

Carve your pumpkin flesh into 1cm cubes and finely dice the apple and onion. Put everything into a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 45-60 minutes then spoon everything apart from the thyme into sterilised jars. Store until Christmas, at least.

Posted Thursday, 20 October 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  3 Comment(s)

If I say chestnuts to you, what comes to mind? I'd wager good money that a cosy fire, dark nights and a general sense of snug nostalgia would be among your first thoughts. Is any other food so comforting and emotive?*

Late October is the season of the sweet chestnut. A native of the Mediterranean, many of the original chestnut trees in the UK were planted by the Romans and the Latin name "castan" can be found in various guises across Europe including Wales (castan) France (châtaigne) and our own derivation, chestnut. Interestingly, for a food now so quintessentially seasonal and British, very few of the chestnuts sold in the UK are grown here. The chances are that, if you buy chestnuts in the UK (even from a market) they will have come from abroad. We're not quite sure why that is but presumably the 20 year growing period of your average tree makes it, at the very least, quite a long term investment.

I suspect we've all lobbed the odd stick into a chestnut tree in the hope of dislodging a spiky prize or two but (and this is speaking as someone who has had a "discussion" with the Royal Parks Police on the matter) it's best not to do this unless you own the tree. Picking them up from the ground will ensure they are ripe, although of course you need to get there before the squirrels do, but getting to them early will also ensure that they don't get damp. Damp is the enemy of the chestnut as they will quickly rot so, once foraged, make sure you store them in a dry, well ventilated place.

For the Well Seasoned team, nothing beats a traditional roast chestnut. Get a crackling fire going and throw a handful of chestnuts into a roasting pan (make sure you cut a small cross in the top of each nut first, to prevent any unwanted explosions and a dash across the living room to stamp out burning embers). After about 10 minutes, depending on the heat of your fire, your nuts should be beautifully roasted and easy to peel. If you haven't got an open fire you can roast in the oven at 200 C for about 25 minutes (again, cutting them first). If you've got a large number you can grind the roasted nuts into chestnut flour which makes a delicious (and gluten free) base for pancakes and shortbread. There are plenty of other recipes out there. Here's the BBC's helpful archive: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/chestnut

There's an old Corsican saying that "he who has nothing will not eat. If you want flour, go gather chestnuts." I'd love to end this blog on an educational high note by telling you what it means. Unfortunately, I have no idea. Enjoy your chestnut season!

(*it's technically possible that you were involved in a horrific chestnut-related incident as a child and the word invokes nighmarish green and spiky flashbacks, in which case, apologies but, for most people, I'm pretty sure I'm right.)

Posted Monday, 3 October 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

I decided to write this piece last week. It now seems horribly premature. You see, I wanted to talk about the first frost and as I tap this out, well, it's at least 25 degrees outside and with more of the same forecast for another few days at least, it seems rather absurd to think about sub-zero temperatures. Anyway, I'm going to forge ahead, not in hope of a sudden cold snap but in the hope that a forgiving readership will see it as just one of those things that's bound to happen when you're writing about the seasons!

One of my absolute favourite vegetables at this time of year is the parsnip. Its sweet, nutty flavour is, in my mind, superior to pretty much anything else you'll find on the table alongside the Sunday roast during Autumn. And yet, on the continent they are essentially relegated to animal fodder. I've a huge amount of respect for the culinary histories of France and Italy but those two great food nations virtually ignore the parsnip, possibly allowing it a small cameo in a peasant stew but rarely permitting it to partner a roast or any other fine dining.

Historically, it would seem that the potato is to blame for the parsnip's European demise. The discovery of this bulbous competitor ensured the parsnip was destined to be a become a bit player in continental cuisine. Still, the Brits, always ones to cheer the underdog, stuck with it and were way too canny to let it all go to the cows.

Parsnips will grow most of the year round but are traditionally at their best just after the first frost which will intensify their sweetness. A good parsnip will be packed full of flavour and can be accompanied by some pretty punchy spices, particularly the cumin that we've used in our recipe.

So, far away as it might seem right now, the first frost IS on its way. Once it comes, get your woollies on and get stuck into some sturdy British parsnips. Oh, and if by any chance this weather does continue indefinitely, it'll actually work pretty well as a chilled soup too, so there's no really excuse for not having a go!

Super-Simple Spicy Parsnip Soup

4 large parsnips, unpeeled and roughly chopped
1 medium onion, peeled and chopped
750ml vegetable stock
½ tsp ground cumin
250ml milk
salt and black pepper to season

Put all ingredients apart from the milk into a large saucepan. Bring to the boil and continue to boil for 20 minutes until the parsnips are soft. Pour into a blender and blend until smooth. Return to pan, slowly add the milk and reheat. Season with salt and plenty of black pepper to taste. Serve with crusty bread.

Posted Sunday, 25 September 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  4 Comment(s)

September is a month of plenty...sometimes too plenty! This year (as in most) our allotment produced a huge glut of marrows and we didn't really know what to do with them. So, we had a go at coupling them with another autumnal favourite, pears, to create this scrumptious chutney. It's an absolute delight with cheeses and cold meats. The warming spices and the fact that it will be at it's very best after a couple of months in the larder, mean it will make it a perfect accompaniment to the traditional Boxing Day cold cuts.

1kg marrow, peeled and roughly chopped (with seeds removed from larger marrows)
500g onion, peeled and chopped
400g pears, unpeeled, stalks and hard cores removed, roughly chopped
1 medium chilli, seeds removed and finely chopped
40g fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
350ml cider vinegar
300ml water
300g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp mace
1/2 tsp ground allspice
black pepper

Place all the fruit and veg into a large pan, add the spices and sugar, pour in the vinegar and water and bring the pan to the boil, stirring to dissolve all of the sugar. Simmer for about two and a half hours, stirring occasionally to avoid it burning on the bottom of the pan. As the chutney thickens you'll find you need to stir more frequently. The chutney is ready when you can draw a wooden spoon across the bottom of the pan and see the base for a moment before the mixture oozes back. Pour into sterilized jars and leave to cool. You can eat as soon as it's cooled but it will be at it's best after a month of allowing the flavours to mingle.

Posted Tuesday, 20 September 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

We had planned, in the third and final installment of our Esssex Food Odyssey, to tell you about Maldon Sea Salt. On our final day, we went looking for the producers of that fine seasoning but have to confess that, whilst we searched for high and low, we couldn't find them! We only found their distribution centre and so, somewhat disappointingly, we have nothing of any interest to report on Maldon Sea Salt other than a photo of a sign and a link to their website.

We did, however, get hold of an excellent and good value butterfly leg of lamb from the excellent Ansells' butchers in Maldon (wonderful old fashioned butchers and definitely worth buying from if you are in the area) and bbq-ed it the following night with some Maldon Sea Salt seasoning. As regular readers will be aware, we love late Summer leg of lamb as there is a decent amount of meat on it and a more developed flavour than the Spring lamb.

This was the rather ad hoc marinade we left the lamb in for 4 hours:

good slurp of olive oil
zest of 2 lemons
3 tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
3 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
6 garlic cloves, crushed
3 fresh bay leaves

We seasoned the lamb (approx. 2.7 kilos) before bbq-ing over a medium heat for 45 minutes or so. It came out beatuifully pink in the middle and crispy on the outside. A stunning end to our trip. And on that high note, we ended our foodie tour of Essex. As we reflected on our Odyssey, we concluded that, at lesat in respect of some foods (jam, oysters and salt!), it's really true that the only way is Essex.

Oh, and if anyone ever comes across a large sea salt plant in the area, do let us know...

Posted Monday, 19 September 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Last week we picked the remaining crop of tomatoes from the WS allotment. They were a rum old bunch - some too ripe, some not quite ripe enough - with the best having already been picked. However, for what we had in mind it made very little difference. It's time for homemade tomato ketchup. It's incredibly simple to make, really flavoursome and happily lasts in the fridge for weeks, meaning there should be no need for the shop-bought stuff until some time in mid-winter!

2kg tomatoes
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 red chilli, sliced thinly (leave the seeds in)
Olive oil
100g Demerara sugar
100ml cider vinegar
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper

Roughly chop each tomato into quarters and place in a baking dish with the onion, garlic, chilli and bay leaves. Drizzle a good glug of olive oil over the whole lot and season with salt pepper. Place in the oven at 180C for 40 minutes. At the end you should have a pulpy mass of soft tomato. Allow the pulp to cool slightly then remove the bay leaves and pour the pulp into a blender. Blitz for a few seconds until you have a rough puree (you can add a splash of water to loosen if needed) then sieve in batches. It will take a bit of time but keep sieving for as long as possible to get everything you can out of the tomatoes apart from the skins and seeds. At the end of the sieving process you should have about three quarters of a litre of smooth tomato sauce base. Now, transfer the base into a saucepan and simmer. Add the vinegar, sugar and remaining spices and stir until dissolved. Keep simmering for 20 to 30 minutes until you have a nicely reduced, thick sauce. Now taste and adjust your seasoning, spices, vinegar and sugar. Once you've got the taste just right, pour into sterilized jars and leave to cool.

Posted Thursday, 15 September 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

As you know, the British hedgerows are jam-packed with fruit at the moment and early Autumn is prime time for making sloe gin. Here's our really simple recipe:

• 450g sloes (available now from your nearest hedgerow)
• 225g caster sugar
• 1 litre gin

Wash the sloes and prick each one a couple of times with a needle or fork. Place into a large jar or empty gin bottle. Pour in the sugar and then the gin (using a funnel will make it easier). Screw the lid on well and give it all a good shake. Store in a cool, dark cupboard and give the bottle another good shake every week for at least two months. The end result is a sweet, rich red spirit, perfect for a cold winter's day. It will keep for many more months and indeed improves with age.

Posted Monday, 12 September 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

The Sunday roast is, of course, integral to the British way of life and the colder days of Autumn together with the new game season put it firmly back on the menu. Delicious as they are though, it's not the roasts themselves that this blog piece is about; we're talking about what you should do with the leftovers.

Most people don't bother making their own stock these days and prefer instead to rely on shop-bought cubes. But, as with so many things, if you rely on the processed version, you're missing out on some truly superior flavours. Only with a fresh, homemade stock will you experience the meaty intensity of the real thing. And don't tell anyone but it's also incredibly simple.

This recipe assumes you've just roasted and eaten a couple of new season pheasants (the season starts on 1 October) but you can use pretty much any chicken or game bird provided you enjoyed the flavour of the meat.

To make 1 litre of stock:

2 pheasant carcasses (or one large chicken)
1 onion, unpeeled and quartered
2 large carrots, 1/2 parsnip, 1/2 large leek all washed, unpeeled and roughly cut into large chunks*
4 sprigs of thyme 
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon of whole black peppercorns
1.5 litres of water

(*it's perfectly acceptable to mix and match a bit with the vegetables here. Use whatever you have got in the store cupboard and don't worry too much about the proportions.)

Take your two pheasant carcasses (including any wing or leg bones), strip all the meat off (which should be reserved for pie or a coronation pheasant) and then break each carcass into two of three pieces. Place in a medium sized stock pot. Add all of the vegetables and herbs then top up with water until the ingredients are all just covered. You may not need all of the water. (By the way, don't worry about any salt. Decide how much you need when you come to cook with the stock rather than adding it now.) Bring to the boil and then turn down the heat so you have a vigorous simmer. Simmer uncovered for at least three hours (four if you have time), topping up occasionally with more water. In the last 30 minutes or so let the stock boil down to about a litre (two thirds of the original volume) to intensify the flavours. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and leave your liquid to cool. A layer of fat will separate out - skim and discard this. You should be left with a rich, clear stock which is the perfect base for a game soup or any recipe which calls for stock. It will keep for 3 days in the fridge and 3 months in the freezer.

Posted Wednesday, 7 September 2011  /  Written by Patrick  /  3 Comment(s)

About 8 Miles West of Mersea Island is the town of Tiptree, a name synonymous with jam, conserves and a successful British food brand.

For 125 years the Wilkin family have been making jam at their factory in Tiptree and now export it all over the World (I once found some in a hotel in Manila!). Most of the fruit is grown on their farms (including loganberry, medlers, mulberries and damson) and during the picking seasons (currently operating in earnest) holiday makers join the work force to complete the harvest. There is a little museum at the factory, together with a tea room. On our visit last weekend though, most of our time was spent in the shop and after much tasting we decided that Loganberry, narrowly pipped Little Scarlet Strawberry and Tiny Tip Raspberry as our favourite Tiptree jam.

A good jam obviously goes well with scones and later we made some scones using the recipe below:

Easy Scone Recipe

400g plain flour
100g caster sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
175g soft butter
250ml buttermilk

Preheat oven to 220 degrees C (Gas Mark 7). Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt in a bowl. Add butter and mix until it resembles dry breadcrumbs. Add buttermilk and mix further. Roll half the dough into a ball and flatten on a surface covered with flour. Cut into pieces with a scone cutter. Repeat with the remaining dough. Place on baking sheet and bake for 12 minutes.

Posted Monday, 5 September 2011  /  Written by Patrick  /  Post a Comment

This really is the time of plenty in terms of seasonal pickings (see the September edition of the Bramble). Last week, on a forage around my parents garden and local area, I collected plums, blackberries, apples and a few late raspberries from her fruit and veg patch. The plums found their way into a crumble and the apples, blackberries and remaining raspberries became delicious flapjacks.

Have a go at this really easy fruity flapjack recipe if you have some spare apples and blackberries from a countryside walk (not that we want to encourage scrumping!):

500g apples
25g caster sugar
Plate full of blackberries
40g dark muscovoda sugar
150g butter
4 tbsp golden syrup
200g oats

Pre-heat the oven to 190°C. Butter a 25 cm tin and line with buttered baking paper. Peel, core and slice the apples and then simmer gently with the caster sugar in a covered saucepan until soft. Stir in the blackberries. In a separate pan, gently heat and stir the golden syrup, dark muscovado sugar and butter until the sugar has dissolved and the butter melted. Stir in the oats. Use three-quarters of the oat mixture to line the tin. Pour over the apple and blackberry mixture and then cover with the remaining oats. Bake for half an hour. They'll still be a little soft when they come out the oven. Leave to cool then slice and enjoy.

Posted Thursday, 1 September 2011  /  Written by The Twig and James Whetlor  /  5 Comment(s)

We recently asked people on Twitter if they knew what the most popular meat in the world was. There were a lot of guesses including pork, chicken and beef. But only a shrewd few got the right answer... it's goat. Seen occasionally on our menus as chevon, kid or cabrito, there are nearly 800 million domesticated goats around the world. Yet, in 2010 just 11,000 were slaughtered in the UK. Compare that to the 3 million cows we eat every year and you'll see it's a pretty small part of the British meat market. We were lucky enough recently to catch up with James Whetlor, chef at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's River Cottage Canteen in Axminster. James is keen to increase the demand for this underappreciated, low fat meat and owns a small herd of his own. Here's what he told us about his experience of keeping (and cooking) goats...

It wasn’t meant to be like this. I was meant to have pigs. You have a bit of land and you have ambitions to be a bit of a small holder and you get pigs right? Well, the people that live next door to the land share I occupy weren’t too keen on the idea so I had to come up with something else and goats seemed like the perfect solution to the “need a mower/hedge trimmer and a bit of dinner” problem.

One of the great things about working for River Cottage is that if you have a growing/farming/food question there is always someone to ask. So I asked around and eventually I got in touch with Will at Hill Farm Dairy, the makers of Stawley cheese. He was happy to sell us a couple of boys and this is where it got interesting.....

The obvious by-product of the cheese making process is male goats. The majority of which are gassed or worse just bashed on the head, leaving them for dead as soon as they are born. This is a brutal and widespread practice. Will wanted no part of that so he has sold his boys to the neighbouring farmer who is going to bring them on in the hope of finding a market for the meat. This, given my obsession (and yes it is an obsession) with meat, meant I had to get it on the Canteen menu.

Apart from it being free range, outdoor reared and local to us at the Canteen, it being a pretty exciting and unusual product (in this part of the world anyway) and it being a new revenue stream for the much under pressure British farmer, these goats would otherwise be killed the second they were born. Which is an ethical car crash. We sat down and worked out a £ per kilo price that meant it was worth everyone’s while and I took my first delivery a few days later.

I will admit to some nerves at this point. I’d just invested in two goats and had no idea if they’d sell or not. It felt like a gamble. It would be the first time I’d put goat on the Canteen menu so, what to do with them?

A goat carcass on the block looks like a huge rabbit. All muscles and tendons with not an ounce of fat on it. It has the look of a game animal more akin to venison than anything farmed. The flesh has the milkiness of rose veal and it has that musky smell of hare. I butcher a lot. In fact, I butcher everything that comes into the Canteen and the goats have become one of the most enjoyable tasks. The lack of fat and the excellent muscle definition make them easy to cut and the small size of the kids makes them easy to handle.

So how was I going to sell the goats? What could I put on the menu that would ensure they’d sell? I decided on roasting the legs, braising the shoulders and the neck for a ragu and the rest I would curry. I was hedging my bets a little. If all else failed surely the curry would sell…

So, below are the three things I did with the first two goats I got in. We regularly turn to the River Cottage books for inspiration at the Axminster kitchen and you’ll usually find one or two ‘River Cottage’ recipes on the menu. These, however are mine. They went on the menu and honestly, I need not have worried. We sell out of goat every time we have it on; it’s always the first thing to go.

I’ll assume that you have a whole goat and include all the recipes. If you don’t have a whole goat (and I can help you with that, more later) just do the recipe that fits the bit you’ve got. The curry will work with any part of the animal. If have a whole goat, you’ll need a sharp knife and a saw. Remove the shoulders and you can either chop in the neck into 1-2 inch ‘chops’ or braise the whole neck as one piece. Saw the legs off just above the rump the down the middle so you have two separate legs. Finally trim the belly, the soft flappy pieces on either side of the loins. Then cut the loin in two.

Braised Shoulder (or neck) of Goat with tomato, anchovy and rosemary

If you have a neck, or two shoulders, double the quantities below. Serves 4/5

You’ll need:

1 goat shoulder
3 carrots
2 onions
2 bulbs of garlic
Tin of plum tomato
Bunch of rosemary
4 (fish forever) anchovies
A glass of red wine
Butter

Brown the seasoned meat in a heavy based ovenproof pan. Dice the onion and carrot and mince the garlic. (For the garlic I find chopping it fine, then sprinkling with salt and scraping the side of a knife over it works well) Roughly chop the rosemary. Once the meat is browned add a knob of butter to the pan, then add the onions, carrot, garlic and fry till soft but don’t let them brown. Once that’s done add the wine and let that bubble away until its almost gone then add the tomatoes, squishing them in your hand as you do it. Then add the rosemary and put the meat in too. You still with me? Great! Now you need to add some water so the meat braises rather than boils. Fergus Henderson has a lovely phrase “Alligator in the swamp theory.” You know how you just see the eyes above the water line? You want just enough water so the meat is half in and half out of the water. Lapping at the sides. Now cover it with silver foil and stick it in the oven at 160*c for an hour. (two hours for the neck) When the time is up remove the foil and if the meat comes away from the bone when pressed with the back of a spoon it done. If not put it back in the oven for 20 minutes. Once it’s done its best if you leave it in the fridge overnight to allow the flavors to develop. This isn’t essential but if you can do it you will notice the difference. You now have options. You can pick all the meat off the bone, shred it by pulling it apart with your hands and serve it with pasta, pappardelle is my favourite for meat braises, or chickpeas or another pulse. Or you can just pull pieces off and serve it with boiled potatoes and bread for mopping.

Roast leg of kid goat with lentils and salsa verde

I would take lentils and salsa verde as an accompaniment to roast meat over anything else and I include the Sunday roast in that. It is my all time favorite. Its also great with roast fish and even just on its own. Having a good lentils and salsa verde up your sleeve is very, very useful. I’ve read that some people find roast goat meat dry. Don’t worry. Roasting it on the bone will ensure it stays moist. Serves 4/5

You’ll need: 

1 leg of goat
350 grams lentils
2 carrots
2 onions
Spoon full of Dijon mustard
Butter
2 lemons
Bunch of thyme
Chives
Parsley
Tarragon
Dill
Mint
Cornichons
Capers
1 anchovy
Good olive oil

Preheat your oven to 220C. Season the meat and stick it in the oven for 30 minutes if you like it pink (medium rare) and 35-40 if you don’t. While it’s roasting, boil the lentils until they are soft. You can test them by dropping them on the work service. If they bounce, they aren’t cooked, if they splat, they’re done. Soften the onions and carrots in a knob of butter but don’t let them brown. Add the chopped thyme. Once the lentils are done, mix them with the softened onion and carrots so you have a nice pile of lentils with a decent distribution of veg. Stir in a spoonful of Dijon and squeeze in the juice of half a lemon. Adda few glugs of olive oil. You want the lentils quite ‘wet” So add a bit of water if they seem to stiff and dry. Check the seasoning and they are done. Now, for the salsa verde. You don’t need all the herbs listed so don’t worry if you don’t have them but I'd say parsley and mint are essential and go easy of the dill, it will take over given the chance. Chop the herbs together and put them in a bowl. Chop the cornichons and capers, throw them in too, then add the olive oil until you have something you can stir without all the herbs sticking to the spoon. Stir in half a spoon of the mustard, squeeze in the rest of the lemon juice and season. Take the leg out of the oven and let it rest for at least ten minutes. Carve it, stick it on a pile of the lentils and tip a spoonful of salsa verde over it. Wonderful.

Goat Rendeng

And finally, the curry. In some ways I can’t win here. Everyone likes their curry different and I’m sure there will be Malaysians out there cursing my name for ruining their national dish and for that I can only apologize and say I’ve done my best to do it justice. I’d also say that we are about to make our own curry paste. If you know you like it hotter add more chilies or with more cloves say, then add a few more. There are no rules here at all. Oh, and always try and use the whole seeds and pods rather than the ground versions of the spices. They always have a much better flavour. It may seem like a hassle having to pick the bones out at the end but the extra flavour it lends, by cooking it on the bone, to the finished dish is completely worth it and it means you don’t have to spend time butchering it.

Serves 4/5

You’ll need:

1 goat saddle (or just about any bit of goat really)
8 onions sliced
One bulb of garlic minced
Bunch of coriander, stalks chopped, leaves left whole
2 tins of coconut milk
Cloves
Star anise
Cardamom
2 whole dried chilies
Cinnamon
Ginger
Lemon grass
Tamarind paste
Turmeric Oil for cooking

Brown the seasoned meat in a heavy bottomed ovenproof dish then remove. Add onions and the garlic and soften then add the chopped stalks of the coriander. While this is happening make the curry paste. If you feel confident, make lots and it will keep. A teaspoon of each of the cloves, star anise and half a teaspoon of cardamom, one of the chilies and a whole stick of cinnamon is a good start. Put them in a dry pan and cook on a high heat until the flavors are released. It will be obvious when this happens. It smells amazing! Put the toasted spices in a blender and add a teaspoon of turmeric, a teaspoon of lemongrass, a thumbnail size chunk of ginger and two teaspoons of the tamarind paste. Wizz it. If it looks a bit dry pour in a little oil till you have a paste consistency. It will look like brown sludge and this is a good thing. Add your curry paste to your softened onions and stir. It will probably dry your pan out almost instantly, don’t worry just keep stirring on a low heat until you have mixed it into your onions evenly, adding a bit more oil if you need to. Once that’s done add you meat to your onions. Now you need to add the liquid to braise remembering the “alligator in the swamp” from earlier. Although this time using half water half coconut milk. Put it back on the heat and bring it up to the simmer, then cover it and throw it in the oven on 160c for well, at least two hours. It’s done when the meat falls off the bone when pressed with the back of a spoon.

Traditionally this would be cooked over an open flame, rather than in an oven so the sauce would have a chance to reduce. In the oven this won’t happen and you don’t want a runny Rendang. So I get round this by reducing the sauce, draining it off and boiling it until half is evaporated. Once this is done put the juice back on the meat and leave overnight in the fridge. The next day pick the bones out of the meat and you’ll have a lovely curry. Serve it with some boiled rice or chickpeas and the unchopped coriander you have left.

So there you go. Three different ways of cooking your Goat. I am amazed and very happy that it has proved to be so popular at the Canteen.

I really believe that with the right cooking and willingess from the public we could begin to appreciate this magnificent meat and wonderful creature a bit more. As you’ve probably guessed, I love goats. Adore them. They are very much individual characters but they are all mischievous, friendly, funny and bright. We keep four at the moment with plans to have many more next year, with most of them destined for the plate. In the meantime, we try to give them the best life they can have. It's not perfect and I have a great feeling of sadness that some of the boys are going to die at my hand. I am nowhere near as tough as I pretend to be! But surely this way of doing things is better than just leaving them for dead the moment they are born. If you’d like a butchered goat delivered to your door so you can try all the above please contact me via Twitter @nopigtoobig

Posted Wednesday, 24 August 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

If, like us you've been doing a bit of hedgerow foraging recently, you'll almost certainly have a few big tubs of blackberries at your disposal. Once you've had your fill of jam and crumble, and once the kids have gone to bed, you might want to try this recipe for blackberry wine, sent to us by Jess Crocker, Harvest Manager at Brighton & Hove Food Partnership.

The recipe was inspired by the ‘garden shed brewing’ course run by Harvest and is adapted from Andy Hamilton’s original version in the Guardian.

Blackberry wine

1 kg blackberries
50ml strong black tea
2 litres filtered water
750g sugar
Juice of ½ a lemon

Wash a food grade bucket with very hot soapy water and rinse well. Combine the tea, water and sugar in the bucket and stir until the sugar was dissolved. Then add the lemon juice and blackberries and cover with a tight lid. Check the brew once a day to stir and see if it is fermenting (there is natural yeast on the berries so there should be no need to add commercial yeast). After three days, remove the berries and strain through muslin into a bottle with an airlock fitted. After a month it can be decanted into old wine bottles and enjoyed!

Posted Friday, 19 August 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

You may recall that, last year, we supported the Game-to-Eat campaign which promotes eating game throughout the UK. As the new season kicks off, we have received an update from the campaign which contains some great figures:

• Over the last ten years (during which the campaign invested some £1.5m) game sales have increased 92%.
• The UK game market is now worth £75m.
• Last season the GtoE campaign reached 55.6m people

So, a success in anyone's book. To find out more, take a look at the campaign's new website www.gametoeat.co.uk which contains news and recipe ideas.

The campaign's 2011 recipe booklet, featuring original recipes from 'sleb chef Valentine Warner can be downloaded HERE for free. We didn't have to be asked twice to try Tandoori Partridge with Naan. Delicious.

Posted Thursday, 18 August 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

The elder tree must be one of the most recognisable and versatile trees of the British countryside. From May onwards we see the clusters of little white flowers emerging, their delicate floral flavour lending itself to a wide variety of uses. Leave the flowers for a couple of months and by August/September the Summer sunshine has turned them into an abundance of little purple berries, with almost as many uses again.

Once ripe, you only have a short period of time to harvest elderberries - use them or lose them...generally to the pigeons. We've never actually seen a smiling pigeon with purple juice smeared all over its face, but they must be out there.

Now for a small confession. If our elderberries for this recipe were a work of art, they might be described in the sale catalogue as having "unconfirmed provenance". That is to say, we pilfered them. But before anyone gets too excited, we should say that the particular tree we harvested from is in a local, council-owned park. The council certainly have no interest in harvesting the berries and most years they simply go to waste. We make no apology for putting good food to good use and so, one midnight foraging session later and we're sitting on a small bucket full of elderberries.

Jam would have been a good way of destroying the evidence, as would bulking out a blackberry crumble but we wanted to try something a little different and so we made a legendary recipe known as Pontac (or Pontack) Sauce. This particular recipe is a slight variation on the one contained in the well known foragers bible Food For Free by Richard Mabey.

Pontac sauce is not meant to be a thick ketchup but something more akin to Worcester sauce. It has a fruity, peppery taste and goes particularly well with game, especially venison and liver. A few dashes will spice up any gravy or casserole. It famously mellows with age and is reputed to be at its best after seven years. In fact, it will be pretty respectable after 6 months so if you get some bottled-up now, keep it in a dark cupboard and you will just be able to get it out of the larder for the end of the game season.

Unfortunately, the long maturing period does also mean that the proceeds of our crime could be around for the best part of a decade. Fingers crossed that the source of our sauce remains a secret and that we make better cooks than crooks!

Pontac Sauce Recipe

500g elderberries
500ml boiling vinegar or claret
1 onion or 200g of shallots, chopped
1 tsp salt
8 cloves
4 allspice berries
1 blade of mace
tbsp peppercorns
15g grated root ginger, bruised

Strip the berries off the stalks and place in an ovenproof dish with the vinegar (or claret). Cover, and place in a very low oven for 4-6 hours or overnight. Remove from the oven and put the berries in a saucepan with the salt, mace, peppercorns, allspice, cloves, onion and ginger, crushing the berries with a spoon or potato masher to release all the juice. Boil for 10-20 minutes. Remove, strain through a sieve. Discard what is in the sieve and return the strained liquid to the pan. Boil for another 5 minutes then bottle securely and store in a dark cupboard.

Posted Saturday, 13 August 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

Earlier this week a simple enquiry erupted into a countrywide debate. We just asked what the correct spelling was: Houmous, Hummus, or Humous? It seems everyone has a strong view...it's just that everyone's view is different. Consulting the dictionary didn't help us as it only confirmed that there's not really a right answer.

Anyway, whilst the Twittersphere struggled to reach a consensus, we decided it didn't really matter, popped a couple of slices of sourdough into the toaster and enjoyed our latest creation, a beetroot...um....chickpea-based Arabic spread.

Here's the recipe:

400g tinned chickpeas, drained,
2 large fresh cooked beetroot, diced 
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Juice of a lemon
50 ml of rapeseed oil (or olive oil)
Teaspoon of cumin seeds, finely ground

Simply place everything in a bowl and use a hand blender to process into a smooth paste. If necessary you can tweak the ingredients to get your preferred taste. Store in the fridge where it will last for several days. Enjoy with sliced fresh vegetable crudites, warm pitta bread or toast.

Posted Wednesday, 10 August 2011  /  Written by Alex  /  Post a Comment

Some of the WS team were on tour again last weekend. I crossed the channel for a friend’s wedding in Toulouse and whilst our warm weather often seems to result in the local Footlocker being ransacked then burnt to the ground, the heat and humidity of the Haute-Garonne (an area just north of the Pyrenees about 400km from Barcelona) appears to encourage people to grow some pretty special tomatoes.

Whilst my plants at home have struggled through the summer (“not enough soil” says the Twig), the market tables in Place Capitole in Toulouse were heaving under the weight of some really gnarly, beastly looking fruits (almost certainly a number of varieties of Heritage and Marmande in some extraordinary colours).

I know it's not the 1990s, Floyd isn't on the box anymore (RIP) and that we're all spending our summer holidays in teepees in Cornwall, but France and the French still do it for me every now and again. Gazing at the tomatoes in the market I had a bit of an RSM* when I thought of the insipid, underripe, flavourless, anaemic pish that we’re often sold by supermarkets over here.

However, I quickly pulled myself together when I remembered that we can grow (and I regularly buy) some very flavoursome, cooler-climate varieties of our own. Granted, we don’t have the sunshine to ripen the monstrous beefsteaks, but there is much to appreciate in the British tomato. The stats below (via the British Tomato Growers’ Association) show the type of tommies we grow in the UK and confirm that we very much favour the smaller, cool-climate varieties:

Classic 48%
Cherry 19%
Cocktail 11%
Plum (baby plum, midi plum and large plum) 21%
Beef 1%

But this does not mean that our fruits lack flavour. Far from it. Left to ripen fully, they have a deep, sweet, satisfying flavour that is magnificent and British. The majority of basic tomatoes imported from overseas have often been picked very quickly so that they’re firm, travel well, but taste dreadful. Don't waste your time. Do your best to find and support UK growers by asking for British varieties at the supermarket, heading to the farmers’ market or growing your own.

I have a summer obsession with a quick and easily-tumbled-together salad of heritage tomatoes, some sweet red onion, thyme leaves, good olive oil, quality red-wine vinegar (the current favourite, flavour savour) and some Maldon sea salt. Mopped up with a hunk of sourdough, this makes for an amazing weekend afternoon snack.

Keep it red, juicy and seasonal!

* Rick Stein Moment – noun. Spontaneous, critical rant focussed on the lack of quality produce sold in the UK, usually accompanied by an increasingly ruddy complexion (or sunburn), mild sweating and a restaurant plug.

Posted Sunday, 7 August 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

As you'll know if you read this blog regularly, we love our mackerel fishing, partly because we're rubbish fishermen* and they are very easy to catch. In fact, they are so easy to catch that you need a bit of self control otherwise you can end up with more than you can eat. We try to be pretty careful with what we take, but we're still working our way through a freezer-full of a haul we caught back in July. There's nothing better than a freshly grilled mackerel au naturelle, but having a small stock of them also allows us to experiment a little. Here's our latest very simple creation, which is great for a light lunch or simple starter.

Oat rolled mackerel fillets with horseradish mayonnaise

Mackerel fillets (2 per person for a main course or 1 as a starter)
Porridge oats (20g per person)
Egg
Knob of butter
Salt and pepper
Mayonnaise
Creamed horseradish
Lemon
Some good quality brown or sourdough bread

First, sprinkle the oats onto a plate and season with a good few twists of black pepper and a couple of pinches of salt. Break the egg into a bowl and beat lightly. Dip each mackerel fillet into the egg and then roll in the seasoned oats until well coated. Heat a pan to a medium temperature and add the knob of butter. Fry the coated fillets for no more than two minutes on each side. The fillets will turn crisp and golden. Whilst the fillets are frying, toast your bread and mix up as much horseradish mayonnaise as you fancy (one teaspoon of horseradish to two of mayonnaise). Spread a layer of the horseradish mayonnaise on your toast and place a fried fillet on top of each slice. Serve with a salad of your choice and a wedge of lemon.

(* this isn't strictly true. Alex is actually a very good angler. Just don't tell him I admitted that.)

Posted Thursday, 4 August 2011  /  Written by Alex  /  2 Comment(s)

The trout fishing season in the UK began a while ago on 22 March but, due to various small commitments (e.g. planning a wedding and then getting married), I’ve had little opportunity to break out the rod this year. Fortunately, I had one of last year’s catch still in the freezer.

The best wild fish are available from May through to close of the season in early Autumn, but of course not everyone has the luxury of being able to catch their own. You can get good quality farmed trout from fishmongers and supermarkets virtually all year round now. The best farmed fish (from organic farms with low stocking densities) are virtually indistinguishable from the wild ones.

Rainbow trout in the UK are generally farmed and often, if they’ve been caught from a lake, have quite a strong taste and slight earthiness which is well combated with some good acidity and strong flavours.

For 4 good servings of these trout cakes I used:

• 400-500g trout (baked, deboned and flaked)
• 500g Charlotte potatoes
• 1 x Scotch Bonnet chilli pepper (deseeded, because I am weak and they are strong)
• ½ a fennel bulb
• 1 x bulbous salad onion
• 1 x good size clove of garlic
• 2 x teaspoon of fish sauce
• 1 x teaspoon of shrimp paste (optional, it smells real bad)
• Juice of half a lime
• 2 x teaspoon of palm sugar (you can use caster, but probably best to dissolve it in the lime juice)
• Breadcrumbs from 2 slices
• salt and pepper

Boil your new potatoes. Bake your trout (15 minutes at 200C ought to do it. It should be firm to the touch). Blitz the bread in the food processer – remove, season the crumbs and set aside on a plate. 
Rinse the food processor and blitz the fennel, onion, garlic and scotch bonnet. Add your well drained potatoes to the processer along with the fish sauce, lime, shrimp paste and sugar – pulse until you have your preferred consistency. Taste and adjust as necessary. Having deboned the trout, discard the sking and bones, and add the flakes to the potato mixture. Stir in with a wooden spoon. Now make your patties - grab a good handful of the mixture, work into a ball and then flatten with your palm. The mixture should make 4 or 5 patties - one per person. Coat each one in breadcrumbs by pressing lightly into the crumbs. If they don't stick you can brush with some beaten egg to assist. You can either shallow fry them in a hot pan (about 5 minutes each side) or bake them in the oven at 180 C for around 20 minutes. Both methods will require a glug of oil to assist (try some rapeseed) and they’re done when browned on both sides. 

We ate our trout cakes with sprouting broccoli and a spinach salad. I made a simple yoghurt, lime and sweet chilli sauce to accompany.

Posted Monday, 1 August 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  3 Comment(s)

As you'll have seen if you've looked at our Events page, tomorrow (2nd August) is the Egton Bridge Gooseberry Show - the oldest surviving gooseberry fair in the world. To celebrate, we're reproducing our recipe (originally published in our July newsletter) for gooseberry bellini.

For 2 glasses

• 100g ripe, plump gooseberries
• 3 dessert spoons of caster sugar (gooseberries are quite tart so this is rather than more than needed for more traditional fruits)
• Chilled cava or other sparkling wine (if you’d like to use a British wine try Denbies Whitedowns Cuvee NV)

Using a sharp knife, remove the stalks and stems from the gooseberries (this will take a little time but is worth doing to avoid woody bits in your drink). Place into a bowl and add the sugar. Using a hand blender, blend the fruit and sugar into a smooth puree. Strain the puree through a sieve. Take your champagne glass, pour in some of the puree up to about 1/3 and top up with the sparkling wine. Give a gentle stir and enjoy. You’ll have a refreshing, light drink perfect for a summer afternoon’s barbecue or a more sophisticated evening party. Cheers!

Posted Monday, 25 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  3 Comment(s)

A week today, 1st August, will be Lammas Day...loaf mass day. It's the ancient festival of the first day of the wheat harvest when, traditionally, farmers would bring bread or flour from the new crop to church. Tenant farmers would also be obliged to take a share of their flour to their landlord. These days, Lammas Day has fallen away as a food festival in favour of harvest festival which takes place a bit later in the year. Still, the Well Seasoned team love reviving some of the old traditions and have decided we should either take a bag of flour round to our landlord or bake some bread. He thinks we're pretty weird anyway so, rather than confirm his suspicions, we went with the latter. Here's a very simple recipe for soda bread. Seriously, if you think you can't bake bread, just have a go at this.

Soda bread

170g self-raising wholemeal flour
170g plain flour (if you prefer you can just use 340g of plain rather than mixing the two)
½ tsp salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ pint buttermilk
splash of milk

Preheat the oven to 200C.
Mix the flours, salt and bicarb in a large bowl.
Make a little well in the middle of the flour and pour in the buttermilk.
Stir well with a fork until you have an even dough. It should be very slightly sticky. You can add a splash of milk if its too stiff (or a little more flour it its too sticky.)
Flour a board or work surface and turn the dough out onto it.
Kneed the dough for a couple of minutes. If it starts to stick, just flour the board and your hands a little more.
Form into a nice round shape, cut a little cross in the top with a sharp knife.
Place on a lightly floured baking sheet in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes (it should sound hollow when you tap the bottom).
When cooked, cool for a while on a wire rack but its best eaten when still slightly warm.  

Posted Friday, 15 July 2011  /  Written by Alex  /  Post a Comment

Beetroot and mackerel, together on the same plate. No doubt a recurring nightmare for many of us as children, but today a combination that makes use of two increasingly popular and abundant ingredients. We're bang in the middle of mackerel season right now so it's also a very cheap dish to put together - a perfect Summer afternoon combo.

You’ll need:

2 x mackerel fillets per person (as fresh as possible!)
1x large beetroot (cooked) and quite finely diced
Crushed cumin
Brown sugar
Red wine vinegar
Thyme 

• Turn the grill on to full and rub the skin-side of your mackerel fillets with your best oil and dust with the cumin.
• Dice the beetroot into 0.5cm cubes and put into a pan with a few splashes of red wine vinegar.
• Reduce, add a little water to loosen things up and sprinkle in a heaped teaspoon brown sugar.
• Let this simmer away on a low heat whilst you put your mackerel under the hot grill, skin side up.
• Watch as the little fillets curl appreciatively towards the filaments then leave them for 4-5 minutes, give-or-take. When the skin has blistered your fish will be ready.
• Your chutney should now be quite syrupy and have a good balance between the sweetness of the sugar and the sourness of the vinegar. If not, mess around with it until you're happy, but don't let the fish go cold!
• Add a few thyme leaves to your chutney to finish.
• You might enjoy this served with pitta or flat breads and a green salad.

Posted Wednesday, 13 July 2011  /  Written by Patrick  /  Post a Comment

A couple of weeks ago we were all due to celebrate Alex’s wedding in glorious Hampshire sunshine. The setting was idyllic over-looking the Test which was busy with swans paddling up and down and swallows gliding along the surface catching the flies hovering above the water. Hampshire trout, lamb and Summer berries were all part of a suitably seasonal menu: Alex’s choices certainly showed that he lives by the Well Seasoned views he espouses.

Being a Well Seasoned wedding, and given that the ceremony wasn’t until the afternoon, a few of us (without Alex, who rightly considered it could be a little 'undiplomatic') judged there to be ample time to bag a few pigeons before the nuptials got under way.

June and July aren’t the greatest pigeon months, but through a friend at wherewisemenshoot we found ourselves in a promising hide with a suitable number of decoys prepared. Our anticipation was high.... but it turned out to be misplaced as very few pigeons came anywhere near the decoys all morning, and those that did continued largely unscathed (we put it down to sympathy pre-wedding nerves). After two and a half hours we had talked about a lot of rubbish and bagged just two pigeons.

Two pigeons don't go very far between six people which was a shame as I was hoping to try the pigeon, beetroot and watercress salad recipe below. This will obviously have to wait until the proper pigeon season gets going in August when the stubble is out. We might even be able to persuade Alex to join us then....

Ingredients (serves 2):

4 seasoned pigeon breasts
225g beetroot
A knob of butter
50g toasted hazelnuts
2-3 teaspoons mix of summer herbs (e.g. thyme, tarragon and parsley)
2 large handfuls of summer leaves including watercress

For the dressing:

100ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon mustard
A pinch of sugar Seasoning

Cooking:

1. Slice the beetroot into small wedges and parboil for 15-20 minutes.
2. Warm the butter in a pan on a high-ish heat and add the drained beetroot wedges.
3. Season and sauté until they start caramelising (10 minutes).
4. Turn the heat up and add the pigeon breasts to the pan, cooking them for 1-2 minutes a side (they should still be a little pink in the middle).
5. Remove the pigeon and beetroot from the heat and mix up the dressing using all of the above ingredients and any pan juices left over from the pigeon and beetroot.
6. Slice the pigeon and toss with the beetroot, nuts, herbs, leaves and dressing.

The lack of pigeons also means we don't have a picture for you, so you'll have to put up with an old picture of some pan-fried pigeon breast and horseradish (also delicious). We thought about a picture of Alex in his wedding kit too. Unfortunately the photographer was only there for five hours so there aren't many good ones :)

Posted Tuesday, 12 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

The heat of Summer tends to mean we tend to eat less meat and hot food. But sometimes only a filling warm meal will do and that’s when you might want to consider this zuppa di pesce (fish soup) as a slightly lighter option. It’s also happens to be very simple to make, leaving you plenty of time to enjoy those late Summer evenings.

The very first tomatoes and potatoes of the year from the Well Seasoned allotment went into this Summery soup. It requires a white fish and, as ever, we’d implore to you try something other than cod. Coley or pollock are ideal (we used the latter). People often consider both to be poor cousins of the cod because their flesh is slightly grey rather than bright white. But because it is in a thick soup you won’t notice the difference here and we promise they are just as delicious.

For two good sized portions of zuppa di pesce:

• 400g tomatoes, chopped (tinned will also work)
• 400ml fish (or vegetable) stock
• one clove of garlic, finely chopped
• half a red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
• half tbsp tomato puree
• bay leaf
• small onion, sliced
• one large potato, peeled and quartered
• 2 large white fish fillets
• tbsp olive oil
• salt and black pepper

Start by heating the olive oil and lightly frying the onion and garlic in a large saucepan for five minutes. Add the tomatoes, chilli, bay leaf, 300ml of the stock, tomato puree, potatoes, a couple of pinches of salt and a good twist of black pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes until the potatoes are tender and the soup is thick. If it gets too thick, add a little of the remaining stock. Add the fish and simmer for a further five minutes until cooked through. Serve in large bowls with a final twist of black pepper and some crusty bread to mop up.

Posted Sunday, 3 July 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

If it’s possible for a single fruit to sum up the best of the British Summer, cherries probably do it. Cherries come into their best in July and August whilst we’re still enjoying the long, hot days of Summer. They were king of the fruits in ye olden days; whole fairs devoted to them were very common in medieval times. Cherry growers did a roaring trade and the finest fruits were shipped to London to be sold direct to the public from hand carts. Rotherhithe, in the Docklands area, became famous for its cherry orchards (and Cherry Garden Street still exists there today).

We came across this old recipe the other day and couldn’t wait to try it. You can't do much better than a combination of cherries and slighlty boozy ice cream for a Summer treat. The recipe is called Cherry Ice Cream although, because of the mascarpone, it probably tastes more like a frozen cheesecake. Either way, it’s a delicious and very easy to make:

Cherry Ice Cream

4 oz caster sugar
150ml water
Juice of half a lemon
9 oz ripe stoned cherries
1 lb mascarpone cheese
1 tbsp kirsch

Heat the sugar, water and lemon juice in a pan over a low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil and boil the syrup for 3 minutes. Reduce the heat, add the cherries and simmer for 10 minutes until the cherries are soft. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool completely. Beat the mascarpone cheese in a bowl to soften. Then beat in the syrup from the cherries and the kirsch until combined. Finally, fold in the cherries and swirl them through the mixture. Spoon into a freezer-proof container and freeze. Before eating, transfer to a fridge for 25 minutes or so to soften slightly.

Posted Friday, 17 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Squid is great right now. It's a robust fish so can be accompanied by some pretty punchy ingredients and goes particularly well with fresh, strong flavours like lemon, garlic and chilli.

Probably because many peoples' first taste of squid is calamari on a Mediterranean holiday, they are often surprised to hear you can catch them quite easily in British waters. From July through to late Autumn, squid will be caught from boats and harbour walls all over the UK. They are cannibalistic and so the lures used by anglers to catch them are shaped like baby squid!

Their unusual looks scare a few people off but squid are actually very easy to prepare. Your fishmonger will be more than happy to do it for you but, if you fancy having a go yourself, here's what you need to do. 

One word of caution before you start: it's fairly straighforward to prepare squid without rupturing the ink sac. But the ink stains like nobody's business and so, just in case, you should avoid doing it in your Sunday best or on your finest wooden work surface! Wear and an apron and use a non-permeable surface like glass or stainless steel.

1. Place your fresh squid on the table in front of you.

2. Hold the head firmly and pull steadily away from the body. This should separate both the head and the innards, including the ink sac, from the body. 

3. Cut the tentacles and front part of the head, just in front of the eyes. Discard the eyes and innards.

4. Gripping the squid with a tea towel, peel off the skin and discard.

5. Pull the two side fins from the body and clean any membrane still attached to them.

6. Delve into the body and remove the cartilaginous transparent "quill" (which looks like a large plastic feather)

7. Rinse the inside of the body to remove any remaining mucus or innards. If you're cooking calamari you'll want to keep the body intact. Other recipes require you to slice the body open. This is best done by putting a knife inside and slicing outwards, which will leave you with a large triangle of beautiful white meat.

8. You can enjoy the body, tentacles and fins which are all edible. In general the tentacles will require less cooking than the other parts.

Posted Thursday, 16 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  3 Comment(s)

Rhubarb is perhaps the most under-appreciated of British fruits (although actually it’s technically a vegetable). Yet its two varieties (forced and outdoor) together provide for us from January right through to November. 

Try this delicious recipe to produce a thick fruity relish to accompany cheeses, chicken and fish. It goes superbly with fresh grilled mackerel if, inspired by our earlier blog, you've been down to the beach this month.

1kg rhubarb
500g unrefined cane sugar
100ml cider vinegar
100g raisins
100g crystallised ginger
cinnamon stick
Pinch of mustard powder

Put the sugar, vinegar and cinnamon stick into a large pan. Heat gently until the sugar is dissolved and the cinnamon has infused into the syrup. Cut the rhubarb into small (1cm) pieces. Remove the cinnamon stick from the syrup, add the rhubarb chunks, raisins, mustard and ginger. Boil the mixture gently for 20 minutes, stirring regularly, until you have a thick jam-like mixture. Pour into sterilised jars and seal. They should keep for 6 months.

Posted Friday, 10 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

This month, the first of the British fruit crops have been arriving and the wonder of seasonality means we should be able to harvest some form of fruity goodness every month from now until the end of Autumn.

At Well Seasoned we've spent a fair number of early-Summer evenings making jam to ensure we have enough to see us through to next year. If we time it correctly we should be finishing the last jar around this time in 2012!

Most jam recipes are pretty similar and involve roughly the same amount of sugar and fruit boiled to the "setting point" and then bottled. If the fruit you're using doesn't have natural pectin then you'll also need to use either jam sugar or another pectin-rich fruit like apple to ensure you get a set.

Both strawberries and blueberries have been plentiful rather earlier this year than previously because of our warm Spring so they were our starters for 10 and, inspired by BlueSauces, our Producer of the Month for June, this blueberry jam recipe is about as easy as you can get. Blueberries should still be in season until the end of August so you've got lots of time: For three or four jars of blueberry jam:

• 500g of blueberries
• 60ml of lemon juice
• 450g of jam sugar
• 20ml of water

Put the fruit, lemon juice and water into a large saucepan (make sure you have a fairly high-sided pan to allow the jam to boil up a bit) and simmer for about 10 minutes until the fruit is soft. Add the sugar and stir until it has dissolved. Bring the pan to the boil and boil steadily (a "rolling boil") for about 20-25 minutes, stiring frequently, until setting point is reached; you can test this with a jam thermometer or do the set test - see our Marmalade recipe for details. Skim off any scum with a slotted spoon. Let the jam cool for a few minutes then spoon into jars (a jam funnel will also be helpful here), seal and label. When your jam has cooled and set, keep it in a cupboard where it should last for up to a year.

Can you spot the deliberate mistake? Yeah, it's strawberry jam in the pic. We forgot to photograph the blueberry!

Posted Monday, 6 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  1 Comment(s)

As you'll know if you follow our Twitter feed, our first scallop dive of the season was meant to be last month but was cancelled due to high winds. Such a shame but that's seasonality for you!

Last weekend, after several more weeks of anticipation, we finally made it to the South coast with our dive kit. We took our charter boat Atlanta, with experienced skipper Dave Pitman, out of Weymouth harbour and were destined for one of our favourite scallop spots - the Lulworth Banks, a flat, sandy area of seabed outside Lulworth Cove and near to the famous (if you did GCSE Geography) Durdle Door. Unfortunately, the weather was again to foil our carefully made plans. Having checked the weather forecast Dave told us that, although the dive was techincally still do-able, we probably wouldnt want to 'unless you want to see your breakfast again'. High winds and choppy seas had conspired to put the Banks off-limits. Thankfully, all was not lost. Dave knew a smaller scallop bed, just outside Weymouth harbour in the lee of the the Isle of Portland. There the boat would be sheltered from the highest winds and we'd have a much more comfortable day of it. It goes to show how a little bit of local knowledge can be a very valuable thing.

After a 20 minute motor out of Weymouth harbour we were kitted up and ready to dive. We dropped into the water (I would love to add “gracefully” or “elegantly” here but any of you who know about diving in the UK will also know that such things are impossible - check out this short video clip) and descended the 10m or so to the seabed. Our 50 minutes dive yielded about 50 legal-sized (at least 10cm across the shell) scallops.

If you ever find yourself doubting the mantra that fresh British seasonal food is best, I would urge you to try a fresh South coast hand-dived scallop and compare it to a foreign, dredged, frozen, supermarket one. There is absolutely no competition – an embarrassing Round One, knock-out defeat of the foreign contender. Victory to the eco-friendly British heavyweight.

On the topic of scallop dredging; we have dived previously on areas of the South Coast where dredging has taken place and the damage caused is horrific. If an equivalent activity was permitted on land where the eco-conscious public could see the result, it would be banned in weeks. A huge metal frame with spring loaded claws is dragged along the seabed, tearing up all in its path. It’s wholesale plunder of the seabed on an industrial scale and it devastates the entire area for years. If you are buying scallops, ask if they are hand-dived and, if not, think about choosing something else. And as a tip, restaurants pay a premium for the best scallops and so if your menu doesn't say that they are 'hand dived' or 'diver caught' then they almost certainly aren't.

Scallop cerviche:

A cerviche is a classic south American dish. If science is your thing, we are informed that the citrus juices denature the proteins in a similar way to cooking, meaning that no heat is needed. As it happens, scallops can be eaten raw anyway provided they are very fresh (we tried some completely raw on the way back into harbour and can thoroughly recommend it) so there’s no problem marinating for a very short time if you need to. This recipe is our own twist on the dish and serves four as a starter.

10-12 good sized hand-dived scallops, trimmed and quartered. Clean and reserve 4 shells to serve in.
Juice of 2 limes, 1 lemon and 1 orange
1 shallot or small red onion, sliced very thinly
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
1 fresh green jalapeno chilli, deseeded and sliced very thinly
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 level teaspoon unrefined sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 tablespoon parsley, chopped
1/2 tablespoon coriander, chopped

Combine all of the ingredients apart from the herbs in a bowl or plastic tub (not metal because it can taint the flavour). Ensure the scallops are submerged in the liquid. Marinate for half an hour. Stir in the chopped herbs and spoon the finished cerviche into the four cleaned shells to serve.

Posted Thursday, 2 June 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Following our big weekend fishing trip, we thought you might like to know what happened to the mackerel that didn't get barbecued on the beach. Well, the Twig's brother, who's a dab hand at these things, gave us this great recipe for a very simple smoked mackerel pate.

You can buy (or make) a smoker very cheaply and it really adds an extra dimension to a number of foods, especially fish. We went with an oak sawdust to create a really rich flavour which accompanies the strong horseradish very well.

• 400g smoked mackerel fillets
• 250ml crème fraîche
• 2-3 tbsp grated or creamed horseradish
• Zest and juice of half a lemon
• Freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp chopped dill 

Skin and bone the smoked fish then blend in a liquidizer (or mash well with a fork) with all the other ingredients and chill in a bowl or ramekins for 2 hours. Sprinkle with a little paprika for that cheffy touch and enjoy with a sourdough or brown bread toast and a squeeze of lemon.

Posted Monday, 9 May 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

Posted Thursday, 21 April 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  2 Comment(s)

We blogged earlier this month about how diversity is the key to sustainability and the more people who tell retailers that they want to broaden their fishy horizons, the better. Well, at first glance this month's star ingredient is pretty specialist, but stick with it!

If you ever wondered where science fiction writers get their ideas, our insect and marine life is often the answer and, over the years, we're pretty sure the cuttlefish must have been the inspiration for more than one author’s tales of alien invasion. 

Underwater they are a stunning sight - on night dives we've witnessed them effortlessly gliding along harbour walls changing colour in the blink of an eye to match their surroundings. Out of the water, they look a little less charming but if you can see past their odd looks, they provide an excitingly different fishy feast  - meatier and slightly sweeter than their cephalopod cousin the squid and, assuming you can find them, often cheaper. They are generally caught in British waters in good numbers from now (May), a month or so earlier than squid, through to late Summer.

To prepare a cuttlefish takes a bit of time. You start by removing the head, work out the innards and cuttle (the large bone-like cartilage beloved of budgerigars) and then remove the slippery skin. Preferably all of this should be done without rupturing the ink sac…and is best done in the bath or sink, just in case you do.

Although a little tricky the first time you can't go too badly wrong and it is well worth persevering because at the end of the process you are left with a huge amount of sweet, white meat, all of which can be cooked the same way as squid. As with squid, if you want to avoid eating rubber, the cooking either needs to be very quick or very long. For our cuttlefish and chorizo stew recipe below, we went with the latter.

We said earlier “assuming you can find them”. This is because getting hold of cuttlefish isn’t an easy task. Having made enquiries of several of London’s fishmongers it seems there simply isn’t much of a market for it and so (as with so many of our more obscure fish) most of the cuttlefish caught in UK waters are shipped abroad. We bought ours from a specialist online retailer but do ask your local fishmonger if he can get hold of one for you. It's well worth the effort.

Cuttlefish and chorizo stew (for 4 people):

1 medium cuttlefish (about 600g) prepared and chopped into bite size pieces
400g tinned chopped tomatoes
olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic
pinch paprika
175g chorizo cooking sausage
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
sprig of lemon thyme
salt and pepper to taste
splash of red wine
250ml fish stock (chicken or vegetable will do)

Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Fry the onion and garlic on a low heat for a few minutes to soften. Add the chorizo and fry for another 5 minutes until the oils start to run out. Add the cuttlefish and fry on a high heat for 2 or 3 minutes. Then add the tomatoes, paprika, stock, red wine and the thyme sprig. Boil for 40 minutes or so until the cuttlefish is tender and stew is thick. Sprinkle with the parsley and serve with crusty fresh bread

Posted Saturday, 16 April 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  2 Comment(s)

In the last two decades an alien plague has been sweeping through our rivers. The American Signal crayfish (pacifastacus leniusculus) was introduced to the UK in the 70′s. Many escaped from poorly managed crayfish farms and entered our ponds and river systems where they have wreaked havoc. Not only do the Signals compete for food with our native white clawed crayfish, they also carry a virus which, whilst harmless to the Signal, is deadly to its indigenous cousin. Worse still, the Signals have a significant impact on our fish stocks because they feed on, among other things, fish eggs.

What does all this have to do with seasonal food? Well, thankfully crayfish also happen to be delicious and they start becoming available around now. As a wild pest there is no legally-enforced season for them but they are easiest to catch from mid April through to October when the waters warm up and they become more mobile (for the colder part of the year they hibernate in riverbank burrows). The most common way to catch crayfish is to trap them. It's easy enough to get hold of traps; they come in a variety of shapes and sizes but all are designed on the same principles as lobster pots - it's easy to get in and hard to get out! Unfortunately, a sea (well, more of a pond) of red tape awaits you if you want to trap your own crayfish legally - you’ll need a licence from the Environment Agency and, to be safe, you’ll also need to read-up on the legislation which covers trapping, transporting and storing them.

Whilst the Well Seasoned team do have crayfish licences (what self-respecting foraging fanatic wouldn't?), we also have a strong sense of adventure and so decided to try something a bit different. Rather than wait for the crays to come to us, we thought we'd go in search of them. So, last week on a fairly grey afternoon, we packed our scuba gear and headed towards a lake somewhere near Heathrow airport. We'd heard rumours on the foraging grapevine that this particular lake was full of the palatable pinching pests. Crayfish are nocturnal so we waited until dark before donning our kit and plunging into the murky water (which could generously be described as "refreshingly cool"). We made our way round the edges of the lake shining our torches into every nook and cranny. Sure enough, the place was harbouring a good number of the critters, hiding under rocks, sunken logs and in burrows. As the dive went on we found more venturing out of their hiding places and into open water in search of an evening meal. We didn't catch every one we saw; they are remarkably nimble! If you don't manage to grab them at your first attempt there is a good chance they'll motor backwards with a flick of their strong tail, to be lost in a cloud of fine silt.

In the course of our 40 minute dive we managed to collect about 20 of the blighters. While underwater our neoprene gloves protected us from the worst of the nips but the odd profanity echoed around Berkshire as we transplanted them from our net collecting bags into a bucket for the return journey. Once back at the Barn the Signals were purged in fresh water for 24 hours to ensure they were free of muddy lake water (and other nasties that might be lurking in their digestive system).

If this all sounds like too much hard work you'll be pleased to hear you can also now buy crayfish live from some farmers' markets and fishmongers. Trapped crays cost the retailer very little so you can expect a bumper bag at a low cost. If they don't have them in stock they might be able to order you some in so do ask. Once you’ve caught or bought your crayfish, they are easy to prepare: the generally accepted humane way to deal with them is to put them into the freezer for half an hour (which sends them to sleep) before plunging them into a large pan of boiling water (which kills them instantly), bring it back to the boil and boil for another five minutes or so. They will turn bright red and look just like mini lobsters. Once cooked, allow them to cool and then peel in the same way as big prawns. Most meat is in the tail but with larger specimens it’s definitely worth cracking open the claws too.

You can substitute crayfish for lobster or prawns in most dishes. We kept it simple and put ours into a tasty, retro crayfish cocktail:

Wild Crayfish Cocktail (serves 4 as a starter)

20 crayfish
Fresh early salad leaves
2 tablespoons free range egg mayonnaise
1 tablespoons tomato ketchup
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper
Pinch of mustard powder
Half a lemon

Prepare the crayfish as above. Combine the mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard powder and cayenne. Pile crayfish onto the salad leaves and cover in the spicy sauce. Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice.

You'd be cray-zy (sorry) not to give crayfish a try and (if you have the kit and qualifications) night-diving for them is terrific fun. All this in the knowledge that you'll be giving the aquatic environment a helping hand at the same time. Ethical, cheap and tasty - doesn't get much better than that, does it?

Posted Sunday, 3 April 2011  /  Written by The Twig  /  Post a Comment

One of the things that really bugs us about ‘modern’ eating is the way in which proper food is replaced by processed varieties to the extent that people think the processed version is the ‘real’ one. Take a well-known brand of tomato soup for example. Now, in fact it’s a pretty good soup but it tastes nothing like freshly make tomato soup. If you order tomato soup from a restaurant menu you might be disappointed, not necessarily because it tastes bad but because it tastes completely different to the version you are used to. The same goes for a whole host of mass-produced staples including tomato ketchup, sausages and...fish fingers.

Next time you’re tempted to buy frozen fish fingers, why not make your own? As you can see, it really is simple and you can be assured your ‘prime fish fillet’ is exactly that. You’ll also be able to choose your favourite sustainable fish as the star of the show. At just over 10 minutes to prepare and cook, are you really saving anything by resorting to the frozen version?

Sustainable fish fingers (serves 4)

• 500g fresh white fish fillet from a sustainable source, skinned (try pollock or coley as good alternatives to cod, or use MSC certified products)
• salt and ground black pepper
• 3 tbsp plain flour
• 1 large free range egg
• 100g white breadcrumbs
• vegetable oil

Cut the fish into strips roughly 10cm x 2cm

Season each strip well with salt and pepper

Put the flour on a plate and season.

Beat the egg in a bowl and place the breadcrumbs in a separate bowl.

Dip each fish finger first into the flour, then into the egg and finally the breadcrumbs, ensuring an even coat.

Heat a tablespoon of the oil in a large pan and fry the fish fingers for a couple of minutes on each side until golden brown.

Serve with chips, vinegar and tomato ketchup (yes ok, from a bottle if you must!)

Enjoy, safe in the knowledge that your meal is the real deal