Inspiration and perspiration.

There are very few new ideas in food. Most interesting ideas in modern food are modern twists on old classics or an introduction of new ingredients or cuisine to a different context. Calital food was probably the first of these to be given a name. The sheer glory of Californian produce with Italian cooking wasn't actually to big a leap of anyone's imagination but it did produce some stunning dishes. Those few cooks and chefs who go beyond innovation into invention usually end up with Michelin stars or bankrupt or both.
Most of us mere mortals search for inspiration from the familiar places: a stunning ingredient, and old classic, a particular location, the work of a "proper" chef and such.
The dish below comes from a few of these!
In February, before the world shifted on its axis, the Beautiful Wife and I were invited out to dinner at the Sir Charles Napier near Chiner on the edge of the Chiltern Hills. The meal was a triumph with that rare combination of great food, great wine and great company. The quality of the cooking was really very high - The memory of the Rhubarb Souffle will stay with me for ever.
For my main course I had the Navarin of Lamb. This in its purest form is a rustic lamb and vegetable stew, very "paysan" and hearty. However, the chef had taken this ancient dish and completely re - thought it. I have never been a fan of the idea of de-constructed dishes but to a degree that is what he did. It was a piece of exemplary cooking. I have endeavoured to recreate it since then and now have something of which I am proud. I have served it with different vegetables as we are later in the year.

Braised Neck Fillet of Lamb with puree of Cauliflower, Roast Beetroot and Thrice cooked chips.

1 large neck fillet of lamb
2 or 3 long shallots
Red wine
Lamb stock
2 carrots - diced
3 or 4 celery stalks - diced
1 medium onion  - diced
1 tbsp plain flour

Cauliflower puree
1/2 head of cauliflower
250 ml double cream
1/2 onion finely chopped
1 clove garlic

Thrice cooked chips
2 large baking potatoes
Lard
Salt

Roast beetroot
1 large beetroot
Oil

In a large saucepan or stock pot heat a little oil and brown the meat until the surface is a little caramelised add in the celery, onions and carrots and fry them with the meat for a couple of minutes until they are just starting to take colour. add in the flour and stir into the mix. Then add half a bottle of wine and a similar amount of stock and stir in gently but thoroughly. Cover and allow to stew on the hob for a couple of hours till the meat is just starting to fall apart. 
In the mean time cut the potatoes into neat large chips wash them in cold water to remove excess starch and boil until they are becoming just tender. Dry them and allow them to cool then chill them in a fridge for an hour or so. Bring 1/3 of a large pan full of melted lard up to a temperature of about 160 centigrade. Fry the chips until they are soft but have not taken any colour. Again cool the chips. Just before serving fry the chips in the fat at 180 centigrade. 
Also while the lamb is cooking the beetroot should be cut into equal sized cubes and popped into the oven with the oil to roast (This takes about 45 mins to an hour.)
To make the cauliflower puree, break the cauliflower into small florets and put them in a pan with enough veg stock to just cover them boil until the cauliflower is very soft and then add the cream. Boil this to thicken a little and then blitz to a puree. This maybe to thin, in which case pop it back in the pan and continue to thicken. Incidentally, you probably wont use all of the puree but it makes a great base for a cream of cauliflower soup (I always thin it out a bit with cream and add crumbled Stilton)
About 20 minutes before serving peel the shallots and cut in half, keeping the root bit attached. Pop this with a little oil in the oven to roast down, caramelise and become all sticky. 
Meanwhile, back at the lamb. Remove the neck fillet from the stew and place somewhere warm; it should be falling apart like pulled lamb. Strain the liquid of the all the veg. They have done their job. Take about 200 to 250 ml of the liquid into a clean saucepan and reduce fast to create a shiny syrupy sauce, maybe add a little butter to add some gloss. Slice the neck fillet in half. Place a piece of neck fillet on half the roast shallot and plate up the rest as you see fit!

A word about presentation: My default position on presentation is "Bistro / Brasserie / Family" I have no aspiration to produce works of art on a plate. Though I always want my food to look like one would want to eat it. For this reason (and many others) it was never in my destiny to win Michelin Stars!
However, with this dish I did go a little to town and showed off, on our best china.

The finished article.

A Year in Bread - Back to the bread.

I had great plans. This year was to be a year of making bread, Then Covid19 arrived and everything changed. Along with their toilet rolls people bulk bought flour and yeast. I should be pleased about this, after all, I have been suggesting people should learn to make their own bread for ages and telling them about the joy of a home made loaf and the house smelling a little like a French boulangerie. Then they all go ahead and do it! It is only in the last few weeks that I have been able to get my hands on any strong bread flour, and I still have not found any yeast, dried or fresh! (I do have a small stash of dried yeast so all was not lost.
There is, however, a bread that requires no addition of yeast, just flour, water, salt and a strange flour and water mix that has been kept captive for a while, being fed flour and water every so often. I write of Sourdough bread.
Sourdough relies on the naturally occurring yeasts in flour and in the air to create enough carbon dioxide to leaven a loaf. It has become, over the past 15 years, very trendy and a little bit over burdened with snobbery, both direct and inverted. At its best it is delicious, at its worst quite plain.
My first memory of Sourdough was in San Francisco in 1995. I was back packing across the States for a month and, owing to jet lag, woke very early in my youth hostel. I headed of on the short walk to Fisherman's Wharf where the was a coffee stand just opening up. I ordered a coffee and a roll for my breakfast. It was a revelation. This chewy, slightly acidic, thick crusted bread was quite delicious. I will always link sourdough to that beautiful, sunny, August morning in California.
I have tried several times to cultivate my own sourdough, starting with following instructions online to purchasing several starters. I have not been able to get these to work for me in any meaningful way and I have certainly not been able to sustain them. However, in times of crisis we must show some determination! So I started another batch and have just baked my first loaf this morning. The loaf is not perfect, but the first few loaves are not supposed to be, and it was quite delicious with my own marmalade for breakfast.
If you search the internet for recipes to create your own sourdough starter then you will find hundreds of different ways of doing it; from adding grapes to the initial mix to mixing many flours and I'm sure these all work well in context but I went for pure simplicity and it appears to have worked.
Below you will see my recipe but I make no guarantee that it will work for you. It is worth bearing in mind that Corner Cottage is a Victorian farm labourer's cottage and is home to both normal bread making and brewing so there may well be some interesting wild yeasts that have got into my mix that might nor find their way into yours.

Sourdough starter
In a large jar with a seal add 50gms of strong bread flour to 75gms of water. Mix thoroughly and then seal the jar for 24 hours. Add the same volumes of flour and water for 4 more days, stirring thoroughly every time. It should be the consistency of thick double cream. You can adjust the flour and water to achieve this consistency as you go. By day 4 or 5 you should start to see bubbles rising to the surface of the sourdough and a definite sour smell should be coming off! By day 6 you should be ready for your first loaf!
After you have taken your first batch of sourdough starter of the process of feeding the starter begins again.

Sourdough loaf

Sourdough starter with the finished loaf.

250gms Sourdough starter
400gms Strong bread flour
200gms Water
15gms Salt

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and bring together. Kneed in your usual manner for a wet dough. (It's worth checking out Richard Bertinet on line for this. He demonstrates a fantastic way to knead any dough with over 65% hydration, there are some quite good spoofs on this too)
Pop your soft, kneaded dough into a clean bowl with a dusting of flour and cover. Put the bowl in a warm, draft fee environment.
Now comes the wait. Depending on the liveliness of your starter and about 10,000 other variables your dough may take a couple of ours to double in size or even as much as a working day (mine took 7 hours yesterday).

Knock the dough back (how I hate that term) folding it gently in on itself to form a small ball again and then pop it in a loaf tin (or banneton) for a second prove (I left mine overnight for this one!).

At the start of the second prove. Patience is all.

Finally the simplest bit. Bake in a very hot oven for about 25 minutes until dark golden brown and a little bit shiny (yes really). If you are using a banneton turn out the loaf and bake on a pizza stone or hot baking sheet.

And in the morning, ready for the oven

Allow to cool before eating (if you can). It incidentally makes the best toast on earth.

Such great toast

A Year in Bread - Plain White Loaf

This is my first recipe for bread of the year. It is for a very straightforward, 'never fail' loaf.

1 kg Strong White Flour
600 gms water (it doesn't have to be warm)
15 gms salt
15 gms fresh yeast
15 gms butter (cut into tiny pieces)

Put all the flour into a large bowl. Crumble in the yeast (if it is fresh it will crumble). Add in the butter and the water and begin to mix the dough.

The start. Mixing the ingredients

I use one hand like a claw to start with until it all starts to come together. At this point add the salt and continue mixing until it form a sticky dough, it should leave the bowl almost completely clean. Your hands will get covered in sticky dough, this may feel a bit weird at first but you will get used to it.
Place the dough on a flat surface and begin to knead. There is no need to flour the surface. This is a very personal process.

Ready for kneading.

For a 60% hydration loaf (the ratio of water to flour) like this I find that a pushing away from you with the heal of the hand whilst holding the edge closest to you work well. Then I pull the dough back slightly rolling it back on itself. I then turn the dough through 90 degrees and start again.
Kneading should take between 5 and 10 minutes depending on how hard and fast the dough is worked. It will feel light and smooth and will return to its original shape if a finger is gently poked into it.
I tend to use an earthenware bowl for bread making (Mason Cash no 9) and I now clean out any of the original mix using very hot water and I allow the bowl to get warm. The bowl should now be dried carefully and the tiniest pinch of flour thrown in. I then place the dough in the bowl and cover it tight with cling film.

Time for patience.

This is then placed in a draft free place at a constant room temperature for an hour.
The dough should have doubled in size and now it must be 'knocked back' (a term I hate).

Fully risen dough.

Simply take the dough out of the bowl and reshape it back to a much smaller ball forcing some of the carbon dioxide out.

Bubbles before "knock back"

Place the dough back in the bowl and cover again for another hour.
After the dough has risen for the second time take it out of the bowl and divide it into two equal parts, shape these into the particular style of loaf desired place these on a floured baking sheet and leave alone for 20 to 30 minutes. Turn the oven on to 250 degrees and place a roasting dish at the bottom of the oven.

Final prove 

When the loaves have risen for the final time dust them with flour and cut them to enable the to rise in the oven without bursting out of the side! Do not use anything blunt for this; A scalpel or razor blade works well for this.

Cut loaves, ready for the oven

Slide the loaves into the oven and add about 150ml of boiling water to the roasting dish. Allow the loaves to bake without disturbing them too much. Take a look once and turn them if you know your oven has a hot spot. The loaves are done when you turn one over, tap it and it sounds hollow. (Be careful doing this they will be hot!
Take them out when "hollow" and the crusts looks right for you, some like it darker than others!
If you can bear it, let them cool a bit before tucking in.

Loaves ready for butter.

A Year in Bread - Beginings

To everyone ho reads this blog may I first wish a very happy New Year, may it bring us all what we want and need without giving us what we really deserve.
As you can probably tell from the title, having written last year about preserving, this year i intend to blog about Bread.
Bread, in all its forms, carries massive significance socially, religiously and politically. It is the staff of life a simple mix of flour, water yeast and salt which can lift our spirits an satiate out hunger. I has also been abused and downgraded in the interests of profit. The last few years have seen a return to a demand for higher quality bread and this is, without doubt positive.
It is perfectly possible to make great bread at home with the minimum of kit and this year I be posting my regular attempts to try new recipes using new flours and techniques. As I type I have very simple white dough proving in order to make a couple of loaves to see us through to the weekend.
It is worth remembering that when we eat together we "break bread" and in almost every culture there is a bread with massive significance.
During the year I am also looking to do research into the the global significance of bread and the components of bread too. Here's to a great 2020!

At year's end - A Year in Preserving

Nearly a year ago I decided to write about preserving food. Ensuring that I made as much of seasonality as I could. I have blogged about many of my experiments and regular preserves but there are a few more which, through time or technological constraints, I have been unable to report on. Green tomato ketchup, Chipotle Ketchup, Preserved Lemons and Cranberry sauce (which is really a jam) were a few of those who did not receive a blog to themselves.
The question which I must ask myself now is:" Has my view on seasonality or preservation of gluts changed at all?" I think that the answer is a very non-committal "sort of". The reason for this is actually in the fact that most people see the preservation of good things not as a way of extending natural seasons but as a way to add value. I buy salmon at £17 / kilo and turn it into Smoked salmon of such quality that it would probably retail at £40 / kilo.
There are many positives that come from this sense of luxury is that i have nbeen able to give away much of mt stash of preserved goods as presents. My Brother and his partner recieved a hamper of good things including 400gms of smoked salmon!
I am already preparing next year's theme but you will have to wait couple of days for that. I leave 2019 with a photo of just some of the bounty of the year.

Some of this year's bounty.

Apple Jelly - A year in preserving

Marmalade was the first preserve I ever made. Spiced Apple Jelly was the second. the initial recipe came from the wonderful Women's Institute book edited by Midge Thomas. Even in a bad year there are nearly always apples to spare, especially cooking apples. I make it a matter of principle that i don't buy apples for this jelly so there is always a credit to the owner of the tree on the labels.
There is a lot of snobbery about the making of fruit jellies. I essence they can be made with any fruit that has a high pectin content as this is the setting agent. The clarity of the jelly is a matter of prie for some people. the simple truth is: the longer and less disturbed the time spent in the jelly bag the clearer the jelly. However, you may also loose flavour if you just leave it alone. It all comes down to the purpose of your jelly. For what it is worth, most of my jelly goes into gravy and sauces so a transparent jelly is not that important!
The good news about this recipe is that there are only two measurements that need to be made and you can make it with any amount of fruit.
A Jelly Bag is not a complex piece of kit. The first time i made this jelly I used a piece of muslin attached to the taps and handles on my bath with a bowl beneath. I now have a frame for muslin which is easier but much less dramatic.

An amount of apples. (I find cooking apples are best)
A lemon (optional)
Water
Spices (cinnamon, cloves, all spice, star anise, whatever you fancy)
Sugar

Before the boil

Cut up the apples into chunks (cores and all) and place in a preserving pan or large saucepan. Slice up the lemon if using and add it with the spices. Add enough water to, not quite, cover the apples and bring to the boil. Simmer for 20 to 30 minutes until you have a thick pulp.

Nearly cooked

Place your jelly bag over a bowl and fill it with the apple pulp. Allow the liquid to drain through until it stops. If you want a really clear jelly do not mess with the pulp during this time. If its all about flavour and volume give it a regular tickle with a wooden spoon to maximise extraction.

Jelly bag and frame

Now is the time for measurement. Measure the amount of liquid in Pints. Add this liquid back to your cleaned pan and add the same amount of sugar in pounds (lbds) as you have pints of liquid. heat the liquid to dissolve the sugar and then bring it to the boil. Boil until the setting point is reached. Jar and label.

The photos on this post come from the three batches I have made this year. It has any number of uses from enriching a gravy to accompanying cheese and biscuits.

In jars and labelled

Hawthorn Ketchup - A year in preserving

There are some very good reasons why Hawthorn Ketchup is not available on the high street. Firstly, in order to make two or three jars of ketchup one must pick, top and tail 1kg of Hawthorn berries; they each weigh about 1gm and its not called hawthorn for nothing!
Secondly, it really is a bit of a faff. there is a lot of of work in producing some of this interesting condiment.

The harvest of the hedgerow.

The area around Corner Cottage is full of hedgerows which are also full of hawthorne. In the Spring they are alive with white blossom and covered in insects and in the Autumn the palette turns to glorious reds and oranges, a feast for the birds filling up to get through the Winter. There are many different varieties of Hawthorn and as far as i know they an all be used in this recipe. certainly many different varieties go into my ketchup.
Incidentally, the leaves and flowers of the hawthone are also edible and have hundreds of names depending on where you are in the county.
This recipe produces a reddish brown, thick ketchup. This year I made two batches: one of the standard ketchup and one with dark sugar and chilli which I dubbed "Dark and Dangerous" (in truth it is dark but not very dangerous at all).

1kg Hawthorn berries
Water
500ml White wine vinegar (Cider vinegar would do)
350gms Sugar
Seasoning

Top and tail all the berries and pop into a large pan, a preserving pan is ideal.
Add enough water to cover and boil until the burst and then become soft. Drain through a sieve and then press the berries through the sieve to produce a thick paste. This will take some time and not a small amount of physical work.

Hard work!

Return the paste to the pan and add the sugar and vinegar. Boil until it is thick brown and lovely. Your bacon sandwich will never be the same again!

Adding the sugar and vinegar

For the Dark and Dangerous I substituted brown sugar for the white and malt vinegar for the white wine vinegar. I also added a couple of large red chillies to the initial boil.
I must apologise for not posting recently. The combination of a new school year and an enormous amount of preserving has meant that time has been pinched. I will try to catch up in the next few weeks

Ready for the bacon sandwich.

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