Black Pudding & Buffalo Cheeses!

I was lucky enough to have recently been sent some delicious goodies from Laverstoke Park Farm to try out and see what I could do with! If you don't already know, Laverstoke is "2,500 acres of bio-dynamic and organic farming in Hampshire ... owned and run by ex-racing driver and Formula One World Champion Jody Scheckter. He wanted to create a farming environment that would follow nature as closely as possible, combining 21st century science, together with the most environmentally friendly farming methods available," with a view to creating "Better tasting, healthy food.
Without compromise." 

The cheeses are all produced from the milk of the Asian water Buffalo herd who graze freely on organic pasture, full of 31 different herbs, grasses and clovers. Meanwhile, their kitchen is one of the few in the UK who use fresh pig’s blood in their black pudding. This is made using a rare Scottish Hebridian style recipe that uses medium sized oatmeal as opposed to fat additives and has no added nitrates, preservatives or colours. Even reminding my 6 year old it's prime ingredient was fresh pig's blood, didn't put her off - she just loves black pudding!

I began my recipe ideas by trawling the internet to see more traditional pairings and recipes for the cheeses I was sent: Buffalo Mozzarella and Buffalo Ricotta. And also for the Black Pudding. Then I narrowed down what I'd like to do with it and began devising my own! Obviously, crusty bread is a big winner with both cheese and the black pudding, so that features heavily, but also the freshness and cleanliness of ripe, crispy fruit, such as pears and apples works well with both and cuts through the creaminess of the cheese. I always feel ricotta needs a little help to encourage the flavours to come through and develop too, so tend to add black pepper, thyme, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil to this. In fact, a very simple recipe is to do just that and smear onto hunks of sourdough!

A quick idea is to add a big dollop of the ricotta to tomato based stews. This was the first thing I did as I was part way through cooking a sausage, chorizo, mushroom and paprika stew type thing when the produce arrived and I just couldn't resist adding a mild creaminess to it. Simply fry off chopped sausages and chorizo with olive oil. Add mushrooms, smoked paprika and a tin of chopped tomatoes. And, as usual, a pinch of sugar to counteract the acidity form the tomatoes. Bubble until thickened. Take off the heat, season well and add a large spoonful of ricotta, stirring through before serving. 

Black Pudding Huevos Rancheros

This very British take on a classic Mexican egg dish is very quick and easy, especially for a weekend brunch. 

Ingredients: Serves 4 as a small brunch portion

Half a red onion, sliced

2 crushed garlic cloves

Small piece of chorizo - cubed

Small piece of Laverstoke Park Farm black pudding - cubed

flat tsp smoked paprika

Can of chopped tomatoes

half tsp dried oregano

pinch of sugar 

4 eggs

 

Method:

Fry black pudding and chorizo in a tiny little bit of olive oil over a high heat.

Sprinkle over smoked paprika and toss in the pan for half a minute.

Add sliced red onions and crushed garlic. Keep the ingredients moving and fry until beginning to soften. Turn heat down lower and leave.

Once softened, add can tomatoes and dried oregano and a pinch of sugar. Keep simmering to reduce liquid. 

Once at your desired consistency pour into one large of 4 individual oven dishes, top with egg and bake until white is cooked and the yolk still runny.

Serve with crispy dippable bread.

Disclaimer: The products I received were complimentary for review and recipe development purposes. All opinions given are my own, honest and truthful.

Damson Jelly

Damson Jelly

Plonked on the staffroom table the week before half term were several bags of 'nearly ready to turn to mush' damsons. Thanks to Stacy's mum's next door neighbour! Now, never one to let bags of food go to waste, I hastily looked up a damson jelly recipe: I've previously made plum jam and spiced plum chutney, so I needed a slight change!

The bag arrived home safe and sound with only a little juice leakage onto the floor amt of the car! They had to sit for another day at home while I found some preserving sugar, as stated in the recipe. I then followed all the instructions, to the point of making my own strainer with a j-cloth and sieve! I was, however, a little over-zealous with the 'bubbling' stage of it, and it became thick rather too quickly for my liking! Once done, I chose to pour a shallow layer into a silicone baking tray and let set.

By the time I came to cutting it into little squares to serve with cheese, it was incredibly gooey! So much so, that when you eat it, it gels and melts in your mouth. Ok, so not easy to cut and slice with the cheese but very tasty nonetheless.

Marmite Cheddar

What could be better than Marmite-smeared toast topped with melted cheddar? I think the pictures might be a bit of a give-away! I never knew Marmite made cheese but they have certainly stumbled upon a niche in the market here. Marmite combined with Cheddar.

Despite my desire to eat all of this as soon as returned from purchasing it, the tempting little package lay in my fridge rather a long time before I got round to eating it and the anticipation grew over time. So, when I finally broke through the brown wax layer I was, to say the least, mildly disappointed. My first wonder had been the colour; how could you blend cheese and Marmite without it being brown? The answer is, apparently, you don't. The Marmite was simply little flecks that ran across the cheese.

The Cheddar itself was delicious, crumbly and light with a good flavour, but not of Marmite. As a keen Marmite lover, as you'd presume if I've chosen to buy this product, I was expecting that sharp bitter punch that hits you when you smear a little too much on a slice of toast, but there was no fear of this happening. The flavour was apparent, just, when eaten on its own, but as soon as it was melted over toast, whilst the cheese was good, there was a distinct lack of Marmiteness.

The verdict? Although the cheese was lovely, for £1.69 for a little round, I'll stick to spreading Marmite on toast, then adding cheese before popping under the grill. At least if you're going to call it 'Marmite Cheddar Cheese' give it some taste. More Marmite please!

Mushroom and Spinach pancakes

This was meant to be Wednesday's dinner with a traditional asparagus wrapped in pancetta with Hollandaise for starters. Scallops on leek puree and home-made pasta stuffed with ricotta and spinach and a sage butter sauce should have been Tuesday's dinner. The boyf, him again, was out for a work leaving do on Tuesday, however, and really wanted scallops so 'suggested' I swap the two days so he could have the scallops on Wednesday.

This was no skin off my nose as I was having trouble finding rennet to make my own Ricotta-type cheese, so it gave me an extra day! Still haven't found any in a real-life shop - any ideas? And I love these pancakes, always wanting one more, so was happy to eat alone. I think the recipe was originally a Good Food one, but can't remember. Anyway, this is generally how it goes:

First, fry off some chestnut mushrooms and chopped garlic until soft.

Remove from the pan when done and wilt the spinach.

Either use ready-made or make your own savoury pancakes - I always use a Delia recipe, though feel I should be able to remember it without the book by now!

Make a cheese / bechamel sauce. Just mix flour with butter and stir in milk on a hot heat little by little until a thick consistency is reached. Add cheese to taste.

Spoon the ingredients onto a pancake with a little of the sauce. Roll and place into an ovenproof dish.

Dollop over the rest of the cheese sauce and sprinkle a little more grated cheese over the top. I find that the sauce always disappears so add a few more dollops than you think it needs.

Bake at 180 for about 20 minutes.

My Guilty Pleasure

What more can I say? I couldn't help myself. A fellow Twitterer blogged about her Guilty Pleasures Dinner Party and it all sounded great fun - I might even hold one myself. Well, this is certainly one of mine. Bacon, fried egg and cheese bap. It's not that unusual for breakfast, but when it's for tea, it doesn't really offer a balance of nutrients does it? Oh, well; once in a while won't hurt. :P Thanks Lizzie!

Raclette

As you know, I live from one meal to the next and am, generally, always thinking about food! The book I'm currently reading is, also, based around the nutritious stuff: Julie and Julia; My Year of Cooking Dangerously, by Julie Powell. It documents her year trying to cook her way through an old classic - Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Childs. I must admit, I'm a little disappointed: The food and adventures sound great, such as the first time she flips a pancake successfully (can you believe that someone can reach the age of 30 without flipping a pancake? No, neither could I!) and are very interesting. A couple of times I've laughed out loud, but on the whole, it's really not that well written. For a start, I didn't expect her to be American, (don't ask me why but I presumed the author was British) and therefore, because cooking is quite a specialised subject, the vocabulary is also quite unusual. It's still recognisable, but I think American cooking is, on the whole, very different from British cooking - not for the worse, or better, but just...different. Only a few chapters left to go so I'll keep you updated!

Talking of foods from around the world...last night was Raclette. For those of you who haven't heard of this, Raclette is actually a hard Swiss cheese, but also a 'dish'! The idea is you chop up mountains of vegetables into thin strips, add any bacon / prosciutto / pre-cooked cubes of potatoes / herbs / creme fraiche - really whatever you'd like, and grated Raclette. If you can't find Raclette, a Mature Cheddar, Gruyere or Emmental will do the trick.

Now comes the fun part - the cooking! It's sort of a DIY 'at the table' barbeque! There's a little portable electric grill with a hot plate - sometimes a hot stone - on the top. The idea is that you choose your mix of ingredients, cook it lightly on top, then put into the little pans, sprinkle with cheese and pop under the grill part of the machine. You can be as inventive as you'd like with the ingredients and even use it to cook kebabs, but I'd suggest the cubes of meat weren't too chunky.

A demain,
Merlotti x

Stuffed Chicken Breast with Roasted Vegetables

As I sit here writing this, my boyfriend has decided he too would like to write a blog and is asking all sorts of questions regarding how I know about blogging; what it costs; what I am writing about; why I am doing it, etc, etc! My mouth is watering, not because of all the questions and answers, but because the beef (cooked to perfection - rare) on the television looks fantastic. My dinner is still in the oven!


I guess the purpose of this is to see what happens. It's like when I pick up a wet leaf from the pavement - just to see; you never know what amazing patterns you're going to find underneath. Look at my little dinosaur leaf in Budapest! I couldn't just leave (he he he) him lying there on his own! So that's what this blog is: a leaf, well, the pattern left by it on the pavement. An experiment. To see what happens if I write a blog. I've chosen to keep food as the main topic as this is my passion. I live, breathe and eat the stuff, literally. Even as a child I needed to know what I was having for tea (does that give away that I'm a Northerner ;) ) before I left for school so I could look forward to it during the day.

To be fair, I arrived home fairly early and had time to make a meal and begin this blog - I don't know which I'm more excited about, food or blogging...

Tonight it's Stuffed Chicken Breast with Roasted Vegetables.

A quick and easy Thursday tea. I stuffed the free-range chicken with garlic, garden herbs and cheese, then wrapped them in bacon. Before transferring to the oven, I pan fried them to add colour and flavour. Yum! Can't wait until the summer when I can use veggies from the garden!
(oops - spent too much time doing this and just rescued the veggies in time!)


A demain,

Merlotti x