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Swedish celebrations |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Monday, June 22, 2009 5:27 AM
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If you want to celebrate Swedish style, you might not go for a sweet sponge cake (and nobody uses fruitcakes for decorating!), but rather you'd serve your guests what would have to be translated as a "sandwich cake".
Luke helped me make one to celebrate a birthday recently – perfect: lunch and cake in one! If you live in Sweden for any length of time, you will be served such a delicacy at some point; usually at a birthday reception, christening, funeral, or any other gathering where expedient food is required. It's a cake - but instead of being sweet it is made up of savoury goodies.
I had not actually ever made one before, but had eaten many, many, so tried to de-construct from memory. Which worked pretty well. The creamy looking substanc ...
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Baking your own bread |
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Martin's blog
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By admin on
Friday, June 19, 2009 6:02 PM
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When Luke was really little, I used to bake bread a lot as it fitted well with the early mornings. Luke now sleeps well at night and doesn't wake up too early, so my bread baking sort of stopped. Now that he is a little older, I have started baking with him instead, normally on a weekend morning whilst we are slowly getting up. I have to confess as a photographer, I find newly baked bread worth photographing each time it comes out of the oven, then I drop the camera, cut it open and put some butter on it whilst it's still warm.
This recipe is really very simple when your in a hurry and just want a nice loaf of bread that tastes good. It's based on a recipe I found in a book called Food of England, by Dorothy Hartley, with one addition, some caraway seeds. I use half a ...
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Why does naturally produced pork cost more |
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Martin's blog
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By admin on
Thursday, June 18, 2009 3:42 AM
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I have watched the progress of Peter Gott with a mixture of admiration and enjoyment. Peter works tirelessly promoting Cumbrian produce and in particular free range pigs and pork. The ones below are from Peters own Sillfield Farm.
I have noticed that when he get the chance to demonstrate some aspect of butchery and talk to the public, he always tries to explain the difference economically between a free range pig, and one reared intensively. I was watching him at the recent Fell Gather at Cockermouth, which was really worth going to and I noticed him holding up a chalk blackboard, with a simple parallel drawn between the two methods. Typically a rare breed sow, reared outdoors, will produce 20 piglets in one year, whereas an intensively bred one will produce 55. And may ...
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Pips in the post... |
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Martin's blog
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By admin on
Monday, June 15, 2009 11:21 PM
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Rather surprisingly, the Citrus seedlings that I planted, after receiving the pips in the post from Ivan Day, are still surviving and doing well. The seeds I got were from a Japanese fruit called Yuzu, sent to Ivan by the husband of the Japanese lady who makes Yuzu marmalade. Ivan shared them with me, I'll have to call him to see if his are still surviving.
As well as planting these seeds, I also planted some lemon pips and some Sevillle orange pips. The bad news is however that Yuzu's take about 15 years before they bear any fruit. The other piece of bad news is that the labels I put in the trays disintegrated and now it's impossible to say what is what. So I guess this citrus secret will unveil itself in time. Figuring out which one is the lemon should be pretty stra ...
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Two essential guides to Cumbrian food |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Monday, June 08, 2009 8:25 PM
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Two new publications about the county’s food offerings are now available.
The Lake District Cumbria Food & Drink guide by Christian Dymond,
part of his own Dymond Guide series, is an excellent and comprehensive
guide to the best of food in the region. It includes restaurants, pubs,
cafés, food and drink producers, food and farm shops as well as cookery
courses offered. It’s well organised; eateries are listed by town or
village, which is of course the best way if you are travelling around
the county looking for a top meal. The producers are organised by f ...
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The North West's Finest |
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Cecilia's blog
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By Cecilia on
Monday, June 08, 2009 5:49 PM
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About 50 foodies travelled to Ewood Park in Blackburn on June 3 to have our say on which food products from the North West stand out this year.
There were chefs, food writers, food producers and foodie members of
the public. At our table the representative of the latter category was
Lucinda Bryant, food and nutrition consultant, who was more
knowledgeable than most of the rest of us I think! She's on the left in the pic above, followed by Sue Souter, director of the eponymous PR firm
who, among other things, produce the Food North West newsletter Blend,
Ellen Rogers, who is responsible for the Northern Hospitality Awards
and Leigh Myers, group executive chef for the Nelson (Northwest)
Hotels, based in Cheshire.
Each table judged about six or seven of ...
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Sillfield farm shop |
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Martin's blog
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By admin on
Monday, June 08, 2009 1:47 AM
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If you are looking for a truly authentic butchers shop, then head on down to Sillfield farm. Peter Gott has opened his new farm shop and it's really brilliant. There is lots to choose from, including his fantastic wild boar.
As you would expect from Peter Gott who runs the very sucessful stall at Borough Market, his products have great taste and are good value for money. - Enjoy - martin
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Belted Galloway |
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Martin's blog
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By admin on
Sunday, June 07, 2009 5:00 AM
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You can get hold of some fantastic meat in Cumbria, not least from breeds such as the Belted Galloway. Yew Tree Farm near Coniston breeds these beasts as does several other farms around the county.
It tastes so much better than a lot of other breeds and looks distinctive on the fells. It's a pretty hardy animal being able to survive the Cumbrian winter outside. If you can manage to get hold of some you won't be dissapointed. - Martin
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