Recipes
Special Valentine's Day Menu
By Caroline Taylor
Beetroot and Goat’s Cheese Risotto
For an interesting way with beetroot, try this extremely pink risotto. Wonderful sweet beetroot, traditional risotto base and tangy goat’s cheese; a perfect Valentine’s Day dish.
Start by boiling the beetroot; for two people you’ll need two or three largish beetroot. Boil these in salted water until they are tender and then rub the skins off. While the beetroot cooks make the risotto. Put a pan of chicken stock on the hob to warm up. Finely chop a small onion, a clove of garlic and a stick of celery. Fry these with a little olive oil until soft and then add 150g risotto rice. Leave the rice to absorb a little of the oil before adding a small glass of white wine. When most of the wine has been absorbed, add a ladleful of the warm stock at a time massaging it into the rice. You will need anywhere from 500ml to 800ml of stock. Test the rice after about 20 minutes to see if it’s cooked and season if needed. When soft but the rice has a little bite, add a handful of Parmesan, stir, remove from the heat and keep the lid on.
While the risotto keeps warm, blend the peeled beetroot with a little salt and pepper. Add this to the risotto and it turns a beautiful deep pink. Serve with some soft goat’s cheese crumbled on top.
Boeuf Bourguignon with Dauphinoise Potatoes and Purple Sprouting Broccoli
A wonderfully rich, hearty dish to warm you from inside out with some lovely seasonal purple sprouting broccoli. Fantastic because it can be left to cook on a low heat while you lay the table, make the risotto or get on with other things.
For the Boeuf Bourguignon you’ll need some diced braising steak, brisket or other stewing beef; around 400g for two. Start by frying the beef in a little oil until brown and then sprinkling over a tbsp of flour and cooking for a few minutes. Add a sprig of thyme, two glasses of red wine and 250ml of beef stock, reduce the heat and cook for an hour. Then fry a handful of chopped button mushrooms, two or three chopped shallots, one chopped carrot and three or four rashers of diced bacon together in a pan until starting to brown. When browned, add this to the beef and continue cooking for another half an hour. Check the seasoning before serving with the potatoes and broccoli.
For the Dauphinoise Potatoes, peel and finely slice 400g Maris Piper or Desiree potatoes. Finely chop a garlic clove and butter a baking dish. Layer the potatoes in the dish sprinkling over garlic, salt and pepper and ending with a layer of potatoes. Mix together 250ml double cream with 50ml milk and pour this over the top. Cook in a preheated oven at 160C for an hour and a half.
Just before the Dauphinoise and Bourguignon are ready bring a pan of salted water to the boil and add the purple sprouting broccoli. Cook for five minutes so they retain a little crunch.
Dark Chocolate and Hazelnut Tart with Rhubarb and Blood Orange Compote
You can’t have Valentine’s Day without a little chocolate. This tart is great because you can make it in advance and leave it in the fridge so there is no last minute pudding fretting!
Start by making the pastry. Blend 50g cold butter with 100g plain flour until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add 15g caster sugar and 25g chopped, toasted hazelnuts and then bring the pastry together with one small egg. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill in the fridge for half an hour. Roll the pastry out on a floured surface, line a 20cm loose bottom tart tin and prick the base all over with a fork. Line with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Blind bake for 15 minutes at 190C, remove the baking beans and return to the oven for a further five minutes. Remove from the oven and once cool, remove from the tin.
Put a bowl over a pan of simmering water so that the bowl and water don’t touch. Melt 100g dark chocolate in the bowl, remove from the heat and stir in 150ml of double cream. The mixture should be quite thick and easy to spread over the tart base. Once the tart is done, put it in the fridge to set.
To make the compote, squeeze the juice of a blood orange into a pan with one stick of chopped rhubarb and a tbsp of sugar. Leave over a low heat to let the rhubarb soften. Once soft, increase the heat until the compote has thickened. Serve with a nice thick slice of the chocolate tart.
For more farmers' market recipes: http://www.allthatimeating.com/index.html
Questions or comments: caroline@allthatimeating.com
@ Copyright 2012. Caroline Taylor
Golden Beetroot Soup
By Caroline Taylor
The beetroot is a vegetable of many guises. I have been fortunate enough to obtain, consume and even grow some of the purple, the pink and white striped and the golden. There's nothing quite like a beetroot; so earthy and yet so sweet. Growing beetroot has been, in my experience, immeasurably easy. I think it helped that I slightly cheated and bought plug plants rather than seeds but irrespective of this they were all a success. If you were to grow just one thing, broad beans or beetroot would be my recommendation to you. It's only January so there's plenty of time to get some dirt under those fingernails.
Beetroot soup has always had a whiff of borscht about it and I'm not one for cold soup. Not even the most delicate of gazpacho can tempt me to more than a few spoonfuls. I wanted a warming, hearty soup but I did not want to redecorate the kitchen in varying shades of fuchsia while trying to achieve this. Purple beetroot is a glorious colour but there's always varying degrees of risk when cooking with it. Every person, pet and piece of kitchen equipment is playing beetroot roulette. There's not much point in wasting the striped beetroot in a soup either. Rumour has it that instead of being the baby pink you envisaged it goes more of an off-grey. The only other off-grey thing I can think of is gruel. Nobody wants to eat gruel. By happy chance there is another shade of beetroot that can save all this heartache. A beetroot that results in soup that looks like a bowl of sunshine.
If you are brave, dressed head to toe in beetroot proof gear and preferably cooking outside, you can of course attempt this with the purple beetroot. If you do, I would recommend roasting the beetroot first, peeling it and then adding it to the soup as detailed below. This way you will only have carmine fingers to worry about. Not only does the golden beetroot look happy, it makes you happy because there's much less messing around. Peel the beetroot and chop into chunks, there's no need to cook it first. Fry an onion, a carrot and a stick of celery in a little butter until softened and add the beetroot. Fry for a few more minutes before adding a bay leaf and some vegetable stock. Leave to simmer until the beetroot is soft, time will depend on the size of your chunks. Blend the soup to the consistency you like it and serve with a dollop of crème fraîche.
Good bread is non-negotiable. Proper butter is absolutely essential. Depending on the intensity of your soup, sunglasses may be advisable. This soup would cheer up even the most downhearted of individuals. It is an odd one though; you taste beetroot and you therefore expect it to be purple. The wondrous yellow seems like a surprise with every spoonful. It is sweet, robust and homely. With a bowlful of this dull, grey January days could be a million miles away.
The golden beetroot used in this recipe supplied by D S Paget.
For more farmers' market recipes: http://www.allthatimeating.com/index.html
Questions or comments: caroline@allthatimeating.com
@ Copyright 2012. Caroline Taylor
Sprouts in Bacon
By Caroline Taylor
The poor sprout. I don't know of another vegetable that has to put up with as much ridicule. People turning their noses up at even the slightest mention of this poor brassica must be hard to deal with if you're a sprout. Chances are those that turn up their noses have only tried them boiled to within an inch of their life. There's much more to a sprout than as a soggy green mess at the side of the plate. There is a rumour that sprouts can cause side effects of the flatulent sort. This rumour is also rife for baked beans but it doesn't seem to put people off.
The sprout has the potential to crisp up and caramelise just like a leaf of kale or cabbage would in a hot pan. The crispy edges of a cabbage leaf are one of the most enjoyable and tasty things to eat. With one leaf though there is only so much crispiness it can deliver. Sprouts on the other hand can crisp all over and gently caramelise leaving them sweet, juicy and crispy. This sweetness is at its best with salty, fatty bacon and crunchy walnuts.
I picked off about fifteen sprouts from the sprout tree for two people. I'm not sure what the actual term is but sprout tree shall suffice. Cut the bottom part of the sprout off; only a little bit to make it easier to remove some of the outer leaves if necessary. I take off any leaves that look like they've been nibbled at or are turning black. Cut the sprouts in half, thirds or quarters depending on their size.
Any bacon would be fine to use but streaky bacon feels slightly more festive and crisps up nicely. Put the bacon into a pan with a little butter. When the fat is starting to crisp, add the sprouts and a little more butter. Turn the heat down so that the sprouts can soften while they soak up the bacon and butter. When they're looking golden, turn the heat up so that they can get crispy and throw in some broken up walnuts and season. Lovely jubbly.
I had this with a few roast potatoes and it was just the right amount of food. The sprouts were just perfect and sort of had their own nutty flavour. The bacon was wonderfully crisp and salty and the walnuts added a flavour of their own. It's hard to describe the oomph that the walnuts added to the dish but it wouldn't be the same without them.
This is fabulous, seasonal food which is perfect in a bowl on its own or in a magnificent serving dish on Christmas day. If you've previously regarded sprouts as nothing more than vile please try them like this, it will change the way you see them. They are not pale, sulphurous lumps with the texture of wallpaper paste; they are glorious.
For more farmers' market recipes: http://www.allthatimeating.com/index.html
Questions or comments: caroline@allthatimeating.com
@ Copyright 2011. Caroline Taylor
Caramelised Apples
By Caroline Taylor
Apples are everywhere at the moment. They are falling out of trays at the market, falling off the trees along the road and falling onto my plate at any given opportunity. As much as I enjoy an apple on its own, it has to be a good one mind, sometimes you can have too many to know what to do with. Apple cakes, crumbles, pies and flapjacks are all lovely but I wanted to enjoy some apples at their very best and not shrouded by too many other flavours.
These caramelised apples are so quick and simple. They are wonderful to have for breakfast, a light, filling snack for the afternoon and an unctuous end to a meal. Get yourself four apples, any will do but I prefer sharp, juicy apples. Core the apples and cut into slices or chunks. Melt 75g butter and 2tbsp muscovado or soft brown sugar together in a pan. Leave for a minute or so to allow the sugar to dissolve.
Add the apples to the pan and cook for five or so minutes until they are soft. Sprinkle in a little cinnamon if you like. While the apple alchemy occurs get yourself some bread; fruit bread, tea bread or any other sweet bread and get it nicely toasted. When done put the apples onto the toast and then pour over the sweet, sticky caramel sauce. It would be rude not to add a little cream.
This is a great thing to do with apples as it is so quick to make and really delivers on flavour and texture. I find using apples in cakes can sometimes make the apple flavourless but with this it's all about the apple. The caramel takes on some of the apple flavour and you end up with a surprising amount of sauce to drizzle at will.
For more farmers' market recipes: http://www.allthatimeating.com/index.html
Questions or comments: caroline@allthatimeating.com
@ Copyright 2011. Caroline Taylor
Damson and Apple Crumble
By Caroline Taylor
Crumble is the food I turn to when the evenings start getting darker and it starts getting cooler. The way the sweet, slightly tart fruit of choice bubbles and seeps through the crunchy, crumbly, biscuity top is a sure fire way to warm you from inside to out. What I love about crumble is that it's so versatile; the fruit is whatever fruit you can get your hands on. I think that a person's crumble is as unique as their fingerprint. Some crumbles are like a great wave of shortbread on top of the fruit, some are all big and little bits scattered willy nilly all over the place, some add extra sugar on the top, some add nuts and some add oats. Whatever your crumble style, it's your own.
When I noticed some lovely damsons at the market I just had to have them - they were crying out to be made into a crumble. As I didn't have that many of them I added an apple to make it go a bit further and add a little sweetness.
As much as damsons are worth the effort, getting the stones out is a bit of a pain. Nonetheless it had to be done and was successfully completed with a knife, perseverance and brute force. Simmer the halved and stoned damsons and chopped apple with a little water and sugar until they are only just soft and the sweetness you want them to be.
Put the fruit into an oven proof dish and get the oven on at 190C. For the crumble, rub 175g flour into 75g butter until you've got lumps, breadcrumbs or whatever level of crumbliness suits you. Stir in 50g light muscovado or caster sugar and then put this on top of the damson apple mixture. Place in the oven and wait 45 minutes or until lusciously golden brown.
The damsons add such richness and gorgeous colour, the apple is just detectable in the background giving it a lovely homely feel. This crumble had extra caramelised bits on the edges of the dish and peeling them off and chewing them has to be one of the most enjoyable things there is. If you've not had damsons before or are unsure how to deal with them then I urge you to give this a try. Crumble is such a tried and tested favourite, how could it go wrong?
For more farmers' market recipes: http://www.allthatimeating.com/index.html
Questions or comments: caroline@allthatimeating.com
@ Copyright 2011. Caroline Taylor
Purple Cauliflower cheese
By Caroline Taylor
When you have a cauliflower and you add a little cheese you can't fail to make something unfathomably gorgeous. There is no other place I know of that you can get a purple cauliflower apart from my local farmers' market. If you saw it at a glance you may have to do a double take to reassure yourself that it is both real and not a brain. I think the cauliflower is a very lucky vegetable. It's no looker but I'm yet to meet someone who doesn't think the union of cauliflower and cheese is glorious. Being purple as opposed to its equally delicious, much paler white cousin adds something extra to what might otherwise have been a beige overload on the side of the plate.
To make yourself an unctuous, cheese laden, bubbling cauliflower cheese you'll need butter, flour, milk and some stupendously delicious cheese. All the measurements depend on how much cauliflower you have and how much sauce you like. First of all steam the cauliflower until it still has a little crunch left otherwise it may have the texture of porridge when finished. I can't emphasise the importance of steaming it to retain as much colour as possible. If you boil it the finished dish might look like an accident.
Melt the butter then stir in enough flour to make a dry paste. Cook this for a minute or two so you don't end up tasting the flour when it's finished. Add the milk a little at a time whisking it in like your life depends on it. Keep it over a low heat until it has thickened slightly. If you have the time it's great to infuse the milk for about an hour with onion, cloves, bay and nutmeg before you use it.
Grate your chosen cheese; I used a lovely young blue cheese so it was more of a crumbling than a grating and stir this into the sauce with the heat turned off. Put a little to the side for later. Put the cauliflower into an oven dish and then pour the sauce over the top. Sprinkle over the remaining cheese and if you have some breadcrumbs lying around all the better. Bake in a preheated oven at 200C for 20-30 minutes or until golden and bubbling.
I'm not sure if there's anything as comforting or as soul warming as cauliflower cheese. I could eat it on its own quite happily but this particular one was enjoyed with some magnificent, proper, meaty sausages. The sauce that went in as white does tend to come out with a slight periwinkle hue but if you dim the lights no one ever need know. At the end of the day when something tastes this good, who cares what it looks like?
For more farmers' market recipes: http://www.allthatimeating.com/index.html
Questions or comments: caroline@allthatimeating.com
@ Copyright 2011. Caroline Taylor
Bubble & Squeak
By Caroline Taylor
Potatoes will always crop up in some form or other at a BBQ. Chips, baked, in salads, boiled and any other form you can find. I wanted something that hit the potato spot but that was also a little different. I call these mini bubble and squeak but call them potato cakes or what you will. They have potato, a hint of onion, a bit of earthy cabbage with a golden, crispy, salty outside and delicate white fluffy middle...what more could you want? Start by peeling and then boiling the potatoes until soft. Drain the potatoes and leave them to cool. While they cool, chop a few spring onions, a good handful of spring cabbage (as much or as little as you like) and some chives. I like to put the chive flowers in too if not just for the colour. Mash the potato, mix in all the other ingredients and season. Take small handfuls of the mixture, form into balls and then squash to make them flatter.
Heat some butter in a pan until foaming. If you want the outside golden and with the slight saltiness you must use butter, it's just not the same with oil. I do add a little oil to stop the butter burning but not much. These little cakes like to soak the butter up so have some spare to dot around the pan. Place the cakes in the pan, you may have to do more than one batch, and wait until they are golden until you turn them over.
Turn them too early and you might end up with a right mess. They are done when they are golden brown enough for you. Keep the heat low/medium as you don't want any burning before browning. A treat for a BBQ but great with anything else too.
For more Farmers’ Market recipes visit http://www.allthatimeating.blogspot.com/
Questions or comments allthatimeating@gmail.com
@ Copyright 2011. Caroline Taylor
Farmers' Market Asparagus with Hollandaise
By Caroline Taylor
I had been waiting and waiting until the asparagus turned up at the Farmers' Market and last weekend it finally did. I had heard whispers and rumours that this fine vegetable had pushed its purple head through the soil but didn't want to get my hopes up until I saw it with my own eyes.
The first asparagus of the year I always find is the best. It comes at just the right time, after the snowdrops and daffodils have been out, as an indication that Spring has sprung. Its lovely flavour and delicacy has to be enjoyed, at least once in the short asparagus season, with the classic partner...Hollandaise sauce.
To make a Hollandaise without all the faff, get yourself 3 egg yolks and 220g unsalted butter. You will also need 1/2 a lemon, a splash of white wine vinegar, salt and pepper and biceps like Popeye. Put a bowl over a pan of simmering water so that the bottom of the bowl and top of the water don't touch. Keep the temperature as low as possible.
First, put the egg yolks into the bowl and give them a quick whisk about. Cut a bit of butter off and whisk this in. Keep cutting bits off and adding it in until all the butter is incorporated. Squeeze in the lemon juice and drip the vinegar in until it has reached your desired acidity and then season.
The sauce may look at first like really thick creamy Hollandaise but only about half the butter will be in at this stage so keep going. It might look like a whole bowl of melted butter near the end but if you take it off the heat once all the butter is added it will come back to a Hollandaise.
Serve with griddled asparagus.
For more Farmers’ Market recipes visit http://www.allthatimeating.blogspot.com/
Questions or comments allthatimeating@gmail.com
@ Copyright 2011. Caroline Taylor
Farmers' Market Chicken and Vegetable Pie
By Caroline Taylor
This is a perfect recipe for the long Easter weekend break. It's a celebration of Spring vegetables in the best wrapping of all...pastry. It is extremely versatile as you can change the vegetables depending on what is in season. It is also great for using up leftovers.
For this particular pie, I used 1 whole chicken from Eadles and all the vegetables from D S Paget. In addition to this you will need a glass of white wine, 300ml double cream, 1/2 a chicken stock cube, bay leaves, ready made shortcrust pastry and an egg.
This recipe serves 6-8 people.
First of all, roast the chicken at 180C for an hour and a half or until cooked through. If you like, you can stuff half a lemon and half an onion inside the chicken before you cook it to give it extra flavour. When the chicken is done and cooled down a little remove all the meat and set aside.
Chop up the vegetables as the chicken is cooling. For this pie you will need to chop:
1 medium onion
1 leek
3 carrots
Several large pieces of Kale
Start by frying the onion and leek in some butter until softened in a large pan. Add the chicken and fry for a few more minutes. Add the glass of wine and cook until almost completely reduced and then add the cream and 1/2 a chicken stock cube. Add the carrots, kale and bay leaves and season. If it is looking a little dry add some water. Leave the mixture simmering for 10 minutes or until it is as thin or thick as you like it.
While the pie filling is cooking, prepare your pastry. Roll the pastry out and cut into two; one piece a little bigger than the other. Line a nice big dish with the bigger half of the pastry and then put the filling inside. Use the other smaller half for the pie lid. Once the lid is on, use a fork (or your hands) to press the two halves together and brush the top with some beaten egg.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 170C for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown. Serve with creamy mashed potatoes and purple sprouting broccoli.
For more Farmers’ Market recipes visit http://www.allthatimeating.blogspot.com/
Questions or comments allthatimeating@gmail.com
@ Copyright 2011. Caroline Taylor
Easter Biscuits
By Caroline Taylor
I discovered this recipe when rifling through recipes with my Nana. It seems fitting to make Easter biscuits at this time of year. They are so easy to make, wonderfully crisp and have lovely subtle flavours.
To make your own Easter biscuits you will need:
75g margarine
75g caster sugar
150g self raising flour
1 egg split into yolk and white
Zest of 1 lemon
Pinch of cinnamon
25g currants
Cream the margarine and sugar together in a bowl until smooth and then mix in the egg yolk. Sift the flour and cinnamon into the margarine mix and stir in.
Add the currants and lemon zest and bring the biscuit mix together into a ball. You might need your hands for this bit! Dust a surface with flour and roll the biscuit mix out until about 1/2 a centimetre thick. Cut the biscuits out with a fluted biscuit cutter (Nana says they must not be plain edged!) and put each one onto a greased baking tray.
Brush the top of each biscuit with the egg white and sprinkle with caster sugar. Bake in a preheated oven at 180C for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. When done, put on a wire rack to cool. They won't be around for long!
For more Farmers’ Market recipes visit http://www.allthatimeating.blogspot.com/
Questions or comments allthatimeating@gmail.com
@ Copyright 2011. Caroline Taylor
Farmers' Market Purple Sprouting Broccoli Pasta
By Caroline Taylor
For this recipe I used; Extra Mature Cheddar cheese from J Gould, Collar Bacon from The Complete Pig and Purple Sprouting Broccoli from D S Paget.
In addition I used 235g cottage cheese, a little single cream and pasta.
Broccoli and cheese were made for each other and this recipe is a great way to showcase new season purple sprouting. It’s hearty, filling and just what you need for a dark, rainy evening. This is one of those recipes where you can add as much or as little of the ingredients as you like.
To serve 4 you will need:
3 bunches of purple sprouting cut into stems and leaves,
6 rashers of collar bacon diced,
1 wedge of strong Cheddar cheese grated,
235g cottage cheese,
2 tablespoons single cream,
400g pasta,
Salt and pepper.
Put two pans of salted water on to boil (one each for the pasta and the broccoli) while you cook the bacon. Fry the bacon until really crispy and put to one side. Next, put the cheese, cottage cheese, cream and plenty of black pepper into a saucepan on a medium heat stirring continuously. It might look really thick at this point but it will thin.
At the same time, put the pasta into the boiling water. Depending on the cooking time of your pasta, cook the broccoli separately for 3 minutes so they are both ready at the same time. Drain the pasta and broccoli. If you want the sauce to be thinner you can mix in a little of the cooking water from the broccoli – it gives it a bit more flavour too. Mix the bacon into the cheese sauce and pour over the broccoli and the pasta.
If you have any cheese sauce left over, it’s great for dunking crusty bread.
For more Farmers’ Market recipes visit http://www.allthatimeating.blogspot.com/
Questions or comments allthatimeating@gmail.com
@ Copyright 2011. Caroline Taylor
Disclaimer: Please note that the opinions expressed in Caroline Taylor's blog are not necessarily the opinions of the Thames Valley Farmers' Market Co-operative board of directors or members.
