Welsh Wine and Bilberry Pancakes

Back from camping and the Green Man Festival  it was a wonderful opportunity to camp on the site a few days before the festival started properly , despite it being the 4th time I have been to Green Man you never get the chance to explore the area.

The festival is held near Sugar Loaf Mountain on the edge of the Brecon Beacons, Wales  the mountains around dominate the festival but I have never climbed them.

During the three days we managed a walk a day but the most major of which was a walk was up Sugar Loaf Mountain

At the foot of the moutain is the  Sugar Loaf Vineyard well worth a visit they do tours, and wine-tastings with welsh cheese.

Apparently the grapes grow well, so long as there is no heavy rain before the grapes fill with juice and the skin become thin and easily bruised. We bought a couple of bottles an Abergavenny, a medium dry fruity wine and a Rose , which is a new wine for the vineyard but is thriving in Wales. While there I heard an ansaphone message placing an order for a few cases of the sparkling wine, so business is good.

We enjoyed the Abergavenny on the campsite it was delicious and nice to be having something so unexpectedly local.

Some other delicious little berries to be found  this time growing wild on Welsh mountains are  Billberries a little like Blueberries or Blackcurrants they are tart little berries growing close to the ground, flame red and yellow leaves and the season wears on.  Plenty still available on the hillsides though it is coming to the end of the harvest.

They take some gathering without a proper tool but are delicious in pancakes should you inbibe a little too much Welsh wine

Pancake Recipe
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1 tsp sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 cups milk
butter for frying

Make a well in the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar, beat in the eggs, melted butter, and milk, and transfer to a jug
Leave the batter for 20 minutes before using it
Add a dot of butter to a hot pan , once the top begins to blister add the billberries and turn the pancake cook for a few minutes

Off to the Green Man Festival

Girl Interrupted is off on holiday …. I am off  to see the folks then camping for a few days before the Green Man Festival next weekend… Looking forward to some excellent food and tunes.

Salt Fish , Chorizo, Roasted Pepper and Onion

A few weeks back I bought a packet of salt fish I wasn’t really sure what to do with it , a little googling revealed it goes well with chorizo so after a good soak and rinse, I combined it with some cooking chorizo and plenty of onions and roasted peppers. Delicious

Salt Fish , Chorizo and Roasted Pepper and Onion
100g of cooking chorizo cut into 1cm rings
200g of salted fish soaked for 4  hours cut into 2 cm
2 large onions finely sliced
3 cloves of garlic grated
1 tbsp of paprika
300g of chopped tomatoes
2 roasted peppers
1 tbsp of olive oil
2 tbsp of sherry vinegar
Salt and pepper

1. Fry the onion , chorizo,  garlic in the olive oil until softened
2. Add the salt fish , peppers and paprika
3. Add the tomatoes , vinegar and bake at 200degC for 20 minutes

Fish Pie

I love fish pie it a conforting dish and made with everything in one dish. The weather has turned again with rain replacing the scorching BBQ weekend so I wanted something conforting.  With a day working from home I was back earlier enough to have some proper cooking time. Once all the preperation is done this is one of those classic dishes for serving to a big family. It doesn’t need an accompanients really.

Pies are also a good way of using up ingredients in this case languishing frozen scallops and salmon neither of which standout enough to be principal but contributing delicious texture in a pie.

For the topping and a summer theme a new mashed potato topping this
time of year skins remain papery enough light they can just be scrubbed
and mashed.

Perhaps wanted a hint of smokey BBQness I added a little smoked salmon which goes a long way but for added smokiness in the topping a little recently picked up some Lincolnshire Poacher Cheese a strong mature cheese the smoked version is delicious and deep flavour.

Smokey Summer Fish Pie
Serves 4 ( or two greedy people)

Filling
50g of Smoked Salmon cut into 1cm strips
250g of fresh salmon steaks skin removed cut into 2cm square chunks
4 small scallops cut in half
100g of peas ( frozen is fine but if you can get fresh even better)

Potato Topping
400g of new potatoes scrubbed
50g of smoked cheese ( Smoked Lincolnshie Poacher
20ml of milk
1 tbsp of butter

White Sauce
300ml of milk
1 tbsp of butter
2 tbsp of flour
1 medium onion

Method

1. Slice the onion and place in a pan with the milk , salt and pepper
2. Bring to a gentle simmer then turn of the heat cover and leave to steep for at least 20 minutes
3. Meanwhile scrub the new potatoes cut any that are larger than a large egg in half place in a pan cover with water bring to the boil until soft about 20 minutes.
4. Prepare the fish by seasoning well with salt and pepper in put it in the bottom of a oven proof pie dish with the peas.
5. Melt the butter in a sauce pan add the flour and slowly add the milk and onion to form a roux sauce add half the cheese
6. Mash the potatoes with the skins on , add butter and milk
7. Pour the roux sauce over the fish top with the mashed potatoes and finally scatter over the remaining cheese.
8. Bake in a hot over ( 200degc) for 20 minutes until golden on the top.

This doesn’t require anything to serve it with

Blackberry and Apple Galette and Cake

Managed a lovely walk not to far from home on Saturday, just round the corner in fact. I busied myself picking blackberries. Growing up I was regularly press-ganged into service,  gathering blackberries, fungi , mussels , bricks from skips and I expect a level of foraging focus, with no thought for personal safety this is perhaps why my lower legs are now covered in bites and nettle stings. Is it wrong I am starting to get a slight buzz from the nettle tingle.  LBF has a more relaxed (less obsessive) approach proferring just a few handfuls of berries and  observing the native wildlife.

I was so busy giving my foraging work ethics lecture that it was up to LBF to spot a  fruit laden apple tree on the way home and filled the rest of my bag with apples, avoiding the wasps eating the rotten apples

Perhaps it was the excitement of some fresh ingredients but I woke up very early on Sunday morning before dawn in fact , but after sunrise I sat on the patio peeling apples, drinking tea and catching up on the Archers. By the time LBF surfaced at 11.30am I was a picture of domesticity and had decided to make a couple of cakes, one to take down to the folks next weekend and one for us should I need a sugar hit in the week.

Apple and Blackberry Galette

Galette is a pie for those that cannot make pies all it requires it the ability to gently gather together pastry and pinch, the result is attrative money bag shaped pie this works for soft fruits like nectarines , peaches and plums too.

Pastry
200g of plain flour
100g of butter
40ml of cold water

1 egg yolk to glaze

1. Rub the butter into the flour to form breadcrumbs
2. Add the water slowly to form a dough
3. Place in the refridgerator for at least 20 minutes

Apple and Blackberry Filling

200g of apples
200g of blackberries washed
2 tbsp of demara sugar
1 tbsp of cinamon

Peel the apples , core and finely slice
Mix with the cinmon and sugar and leave for 20 minutes

To form the galette

1. Roll out the pastry in a disk shape til 5mm thick, lay onto a flat baking sheet onto a sheet of baking paper
2. Place the apples into the centre of the disk and pile high with the blackberries
3. Gather the pastry up around the apples a pinch at the top forming an open sack
4. Brush the pastry with the egg yolk
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 180degc for 40 minutes

Blackberry and Apple Cake

Blackberry and Apple Cake , I used this recipe from BBC Good Food , but I trippled the amount of apple, though I thought this might make it too moist it worked fine. I love these kind of cakes , thick slices with cups of tea.

BBQ Bream In Newspaper

We headed out for a long walk but got stuck in endless traffic but we did end up going past a DIY store there are some big discounts on BBQs to be had a result of the no-show BBQ summer,we have a small BBQ that has been doing us proud over the last few months with BBQs most weekends. However  I have been lusting after a lidded affair the easier to cook joints of meat, a few supermarket affairs have been rejected as looking unsteady or being too small , finally we have treated ourselves to a swanky Weber .

It was tested out on Saturday night with Hugh FW recipe for BBQ fish wrapped in newspaper.  We have had a couple of bream in the freezer since a trip to Nottingham Market , last time we cooked bream on the BBQ , they are such thick fish I resorted to slashing them to ensure they cooked through without drying out . Cooking in paper guaranteed the fish stayed moist.

BBQ Bream In Newspaper

2  bream cleaned ( bream have very thick scales which need scraping off
A few bay leaves and thyme sprigs
A few knobs of butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon, plus wedges for serving

1. Lay each fish on some newspaper (three sheets of the Guardian) with a bay leaf , wedge of lemon, thyme sprig and knob of butter  in the belly.
2. Season with salt, pepper  then wrap it up so you have a snug parcel.
3. Soak the parcels in water until wet through.
4. The BBQ embers were white hot and we cooked the packages until charred  about 10 minutes on each side , its very strange cooking some on the BBQ but not really knowing how well they are cooking , but 20 minutes was enough to produce deliciously cooked moist flesh scented with the herbs

.Peeling off the paper the skin came too and it was hard not to get ash onto the fish but it was a really fun way of cooking definitey something to bear in mind for our next camping trip.  I was a bit worried about the safety of the ink , originally fish and chips stopped being served in newspaper due to concerns about hygeine and potential toxicity of the printing ink but modern ink are perfectly safe

To accompany, I sliced leeks and carrots thinly and placed them with a knob of butter , thyme , salt and pepper in a foil parcel which also went on the grills for 15 minutes. These were perfectly cooked and served onto the table in the foil

Piri Piri Guinea Fowl

In the butchers last week they had Guinea fowl delicious  game birds  covered in a beautiful yellow marble of fat. Portugese sailors first brought the Guinea fowl  to Europe from Africa , many people keep them in England for meat and egg they are also  apparently  great guard-birds ( like Geese).  Adventurous Portugese sailors were also introducing Africa to Portugese piri piri chillis regularly turned into a spicy sauce for meat and fish. I figured at some point the paths might have crossed on the high seas so I want to put them together again.

I planned to BBQ the bird  which meant I had to try spatchcocking, which is just a case of cutting out the backbone of the bird and flattening it out. This means it can be grilled or fried and it cooks quickly preparing it in this way means you can get the marinade everywhere . Thankfully the power of You Tube means you can have your own personal lesson in bird butchery

A long marinade and quick cook meant a sticky zingy slightly charred guinea fowl devored without cutlery .

Piri Piri Guinea Fowl
1 medium guinea fowl (spatchcocked)
4 red chillis -birds eyes preferable
2 cloves of garlic
Juice and zest of 2 limes
2 tbsp of coriander seeds
Handful of fresh parsley or coriander leaves
2 tbsp of sunflower oil

Serves four

1. Grind together the coriander , chillis and garlic
2. Mix with the limes and sunflower oil
3. Rub the marinade over the guinea fowl and leave for at least 8 hours
4. After marinade roast a hot oven at  200degC for three quarters of an hour turning half way through.Or BBQ for half an hour over hot coals

Served with brown rice, chick peas and coriander

Beetroot and Goats Cheese Tart

There is lots of beetroot around at the moment it sweetness is lovely in salads but here I wanted to make it the star of the show in a lazy Sunday lunch.

Beetroot and Goats cheese love eachother and I was tempted to use thyme as the classic triad in the combination . However I decided to break with tradition and use a little sage and  fennel , the combination worked well the sage is earthy and works well with the beetroot and I love the hit of crunchy fennel seeds. The wholemeal pastry has a much nuttier texture than plain pastry adding a lovely note next time I would add a little walnut oil to the pastry.

Beetroot and Goats Cheese Tart

200g of beetroot cut into quarters
2 tbsp of balsamic vinegar
50g of hard goats cheese ( or feta)
3 tbsp of fresh sage finely chopped
1 tbsp of fennel seeds

Wholemeal Pastry
100g of wholemeal flour
50g of butter
10ml of water
Pinch of salt

1. Crumb the butter into the flour & salt
2. Add the water and form a dough.
3. Leave in the fridge while you prepare the beetroot
4. Place the beetroot quarters in a roasting pan with the balsamic vinegar and drizzle of olive oil
5. Season with salt and pepper and roast at 180degC for 20 minutes
6. Roll out the pastry and line a 30cm diameter greased metal tart dish
7. Place in the the lined case in the oven for at least 10 minutes
8. Meanwhile crumble the goats cheese and mix with the sage , and fennel seeds season well with salt and pepper
9. Remove the beetroot and pastry case from the oven
10. Fill the case with the beetroot and goats cheese
11. Return to the oven a bake for a further 15 minutes