Fruit, vegetables and competitive baking
Moving home to a new area has provided lots of opportunity for new culinary adventures, OK, maybe the perfect excuse not to start stripping wallpaper, fixing dodgy electrics and replacing lead pipes but food always comes first. As well as a selection of new cafes and pubs, we are now in walking distance of a traditional baker, butcher and green grocer and a monthly farmers market held in a medieval market square. To date, we have visited three of the five pubs, one already a clear favourite with its cosy bar and chalkboard menu of gin cocktails, both of the Indian restaurants (of course) and made frequent forays to the baker for Eccles cakes and iced buns. Although tiny, the farmers market is popular and busy. Local farmers selling local bacon, a cheesemonger, stalls selling bread and cakes, locally made charcoal for BBQs, locally roasted coffee and an ancient smallholder with baskets of wild cobnuts and sloes. Occasionally a new stall pops up, this week a van selling artisan ice-cream and another with hand made truffles and tray bakes. My favourite of all is the greengrocer, a tiny stone shop with abundant displays of cabbages, carrots, plums and apples. Outside, tables display boxes of Turkish figs, punnets of raspberries, leafy carrots and buckets of flowers. Inside, sacks of earthy potatoes, pots of herbs, salads and fragrant quince sit amongst the shelves of local honey, chutneys and flagons of vinegar for pickling.
On one of my many early visits I enquired about the possibility of a weekly veg box and to my delight they were happy to oblige. Now, once a week, they prepare a random selection of seasonal produce for £15 and deliver it to my door. 'Veg Box Day' is always anticipated with excitement, what will the week's delivery bring? Instead of shopping for the same usual things, each delivery has changed as the weeks multiply moving from summer to late summer and early autumn. During the hot summer days of July and early August, the weekly box overflowed with runner beans, salads, tomatoes and voluptuous peaches and nectarines. Now the deliveries come with golden sweetcorn, pumpkin and courgettes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, apples and pears. Occasionally there is an exotic treat, tiny black grapes so dark my tongue is stained purple or a perfumed striped melon.
The weekly box has also made cooking more inventive, the seasonal supply has meant some serious research for different ways to use its contents. Sweetcorn, for example, has been simply boiled then anointed with butter, turned into spicy fritters with chilli, blitzed into blinis with ricotta and stirred into a Caribbean inspired vegetable stew. Evenings are happily spent searching my cookbooks (now finally sorted on a bookshelf) for ideas and inspiration. There has also been a huge reduction in plastic, no more plastic bag wrapped veg from the supermarket, each box comes in a recycled cardboard box or wooden pallet and anything delicate is supplied in a brown paper bag. Food miles have reduced, much of the contents come from farms within the local area and best of all it is significantly cheaper. Our diet is very much more vegetable based too.
As well as the delivered veg box, Dad has also been providing his usual allotment supplies, most recently several very large courgettes, purple beans, a spaghetti squash, an enormous pumpkin (almost Cinderella size) and even more sweetcorn.
Our neighbour, with at least four large and very productive apple trees in her garden has handed over two large bags of windfall apples, which despite the bruises and wasp holes are very delicious. Our Sunday walks have supplied boxes of wild blackberries and with all the rain of the past week, it will soon be time to look for ceps, we will be well stocked for winter.
For a bit of fun, I entered the local Horticultural Show's baking competition in September, held in an ancient building once part of a medieval monastery. The categories were limited to two types of cakes and sausage rolls. Despite never having made sausage rolls before and being somewhat limited with an elderly malfunctioning gas cooker (part of our desperately in need of a refurb new kitchen) I decided to have a go. The entry form asked simply for six sausage rolls, recipe to be decided by the entrant. Practice runs included sausages mixed with our neighbours windfall apples and sausages smeared with wholegrain mustard, both very good but the mustard definitely a clear winner. An obscene amount of sausage roll tasting later, I madly opted for a spicy chorizo style sausage filling combined some chickpeas. Show Day was exciting and I eyed up the competition as I delivered my rolls for judging early in the morning. Judging took place behind closed doors and was surprisingly stressful, how would my rolls perform? Sadly, it was not to be, 'over-baked' was the judges verdict, although I expect they were perhaps just a bit to spicy for traditional tastes. Never mind, it was a bit of fun. Watch out fellow bakers, I'll be upping my game next year!
Mustard sausage rolls (the ones I should have entered)- makes 12
1 packet of shop bought all butter puff pastry
6 good quality high meat content sausages
wholegrain mustard
1 egg
1 tbsp milk (any kind, I used almond milk)
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds
Preheat your oven to gas mark 7 or 200℃. Following the instructions on the packet of pastry allow it to sit out of the fridge for about 10 minutes, then unroll and slice into 12 even sided rectangles. Cover each rectangle with 1-2 tsp of mustard, leaving the long edges free. Remove the sausages from their casing and break each one in half. Place each half down the middle of each rectangle of pastry. Whisk the egg with a tbsp of milk and using a pastry brush, add this along the edges of each pastry rectangle. Fold over and make sure the join sticks together and then place join side down onto a baking tray. Brush the remaining egg wash over the tops of each roll and sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool before eating, these are best at room temperature.
On one of my many early visits I enquired about the possibility of a weekly veg box and to my delight they were happy to oblige. Now, once a week, they prepare a random selection of seasonal produce for £15 and deliver it to my door. 'Veg Box Day' is always anticipated with excitement, what will the week's delivery bring? Instead of shopping for the same usual things, each delivery has changed as the weeks multiply moving from summer to late summer and early autumn. During the hot summer days of July and early August, the weekly box overflowed with runner beans, salads, tomatoes and voluptuous peaches and nectarines. Now the deliveries come with golden sweetcorn, pumpkin and courgettes, sweet potatoes, mushrooms, apples and pears. Occasionally there is an exotic treat, tiny black grapes so dark my tongue is stained purple or a perfumed striped melon.
The weekly box has also made cooking more inventive, the seasonal supply has meant some serious research for different ways to use its contents. Sweetcorn, for example, has been simply boiled then anointed with butter, turned into spicy fritters with chilli, blitzed into blinis with ricotta and stirred into a Caribbean inspired vegetable stew. Evenings are happily spent searching my cookbooks (now finally sorted on a bookshelf) for ideas and inspiration. There has also been a huge reduction in plastic, no more plastic bag wrapped veg from the supermarket, each box comes in a recycled cardboard box or wooden pallet and anything delicate is supplied in a brown paper bag. Food miles have reduced, much of the contents come from farms within the local area and best of all it is significantly cheaper. Our diet is very much more vegetable based too.
As well as the delivered veg box, Dad has also been providing his usual allotment supplies, most recently several very large courgettes, purple beans, a spaghetti squash, an enormous pumpkin (almost Cinderella size) and even more sweetcorn.
Our neighbour, with at least four large and very productive apple trees in her garden has handed over two large bags of windfall apples, which despite the bruises and wasp holes are very delicious. Our Sunday walks have supplied boxes of wild blackberries and with all the rain of the past week, it will soon be time to look for ceps, we will be well stocked for winter.
For a bit of fun, I entered the local Horticultural Show's baking competition in September, held in an ancient building once part of a medieval monastery. The categories were limited to two types of cakes and sausage rolls. Despite never having made sausage rolls before and being somewhat limited with an elderly malfunctioning gas cooker (part of our desperately in need of a refurb new kitchen) I decided to have a go. The entry form asked simply for six sausage rolls, recipe to be decided by the entrant. Practice runs included sausages mixed with our neighbours windfall apples and sausages smeared with wholegrain mustard, both very good but the mustard definitely a clear winner. An obscene amount of sausage roll tasting later, I madly opted for a spicy chorizo style sausage filling combined some chickpeas. Show Day was exciting and I eyed up the competition as I delivered my rolls for judging early in the morning. Judging took place behind closed doors and was surprisingly stressful, how would my rolls perform? Sadly, it was not to be, 'over-baked' was the judges verdict, although I expect they were perhaps just a bit to spicy for traditional tastes. Never mind, it was a bit of fun. Watch out fellow bakers, I'll be upping my game next year!
Mustard sausage rolls (the ones I should have entered)- makes 12
1 packet of shop bought all butter puff pastry
6 good quality high meat content sausages
wholegrain mustard
1 egg
1 tbsp milk (any kind, I used almond milk)
1-2 tbsp sesame seeds
Preheat your oven to gas mark 7 or 200℃. Following the instructions on the packet of pastry allow it to sit out of the fridge for about 10 minutes, then unroll and slice into 12 even sided rectangles. Cover each rectangle with 1-2 tsp of mustard, leaving the long edges free. Remove the sausages from their casing and break each one in half. Place each half down the middle of each rectangle of pastry. Whisk the egg with a tbsp of milk and using a pastry brush, add this along the edges of each pastry rectangle. Fold over and make sure the join sticks together and then place join side down onto a baking tray. Brush the remaining egg wash over the tops of each roll and sprinkle over the sesame seeds. Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, until golden brown. Allow to cool before eating, these are best at room temperature.
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