Martin's blog

Jane Hasell-McCosh and this years Marmalade awards

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 11:03:00 GMT

Ivan Days piemaking extravaganza

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Cumbria is open

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:28:00 GMT

Baking your own bread

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 18:02:00 GMT

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 kilo of white organic flour, salt, yeast, milk (1/2 pint) and sugar. I pup all this in the mixer/blender with the dough hook on, then leave it running until I get a nice elastic dough, quite fluid. After leaving this to rise on the tray I am going to bake it on, it goes into the oven at 200 degrees for around 20-25 minutes. The glaze comes from brushing the risen dough with an egg wash. The end result is great. A lovely tasting bread, light and airy, with the caraway seeds adding a lot. - It's a hit with Cecilia who can't eat it fast enough. For me I love Brioche best, and when toasted, so does Luke it appears.

Martin

Why does naturally produced pork cost more

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 03:42:00 GMT

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 maybe more dramatically to reach 75kg, its 28 weeks for a rare breed free range, vs 16 weeks for an intensively reared pig.

So in essence you can expect to pay more for your fine tasting, slow grown, free range pork. But isn't the like a lot of things in life, you get what you pay for. Martin

Pips in the post...

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:21:00 GMT

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 straight forward, but Seville versus Yuzu might prove much more difficult. I guess I'll just have to consult some experts.

I already have one citrus plant in the house, it's great and cycles between producing small white flowers, replaced by green fruit, that then grow larger and eventually turn into small orange type fruit. They taste pretty bitter and should be perfect to make marmalade at some point, once I have harvested enough. I have last years fruits in the freezer, about 10 small oranges, this year it looks like the plant has doubled the amount, so who knows maybe I'll enter a jar of it into the Marmalade competition.

Spurred on by the success of growing the citrus fruit from seeds, and probably more encouragingly keeping them alive inside our flat for over a year and a half, I have now planted several varieties of Chillis and some tomatoes. As you can see the common theme is, plants that produce things we cook with. It's a no brainer for me, I love plants and I love food, the only limitation is I have to use space by the kitchen sink as we have no garden, but what I have found is that because I'm always in the kitchen, I have no problem watering and misting these delicate plants. It just fits into my routines.

Martin

Cumberland Sausage competition - Winner announced

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 19:26:00 GMT

The Traditional Cumberland Sausage competition was judged during the Fell Gather event in Cockermouth on June 13, and the winner was B.McKay of McKay’s Meats in Ulverston. Congratulations to them!

The Traditional Cumberland Sausage cook-off final will be held in Cockermouth at Fell Gather, a celebration of Cumbrian food and craft on Saturday 13th June at 12.30pm. The sausages will be judged on their taste by Annette Gibbons (T.V. Celebrity Cook), Douglas Dale (Operations Director English Lakes Hotels) & Eric Robson (Celebrity Cumbrian born British Broadcaster).

Ten of Cumbria’s finest food producers have been selected for the cook-off final in a competition to find the best tasting Traditional Cumberland Sausage.

Made in Cumbria is running the Traditional Cumberland Sausage competition for the second year as part of the campaign to give the sausage the same protection as products like Champagne, Parma Ham and Greek Feta cheese.

The shortlist was selected by chefs from five hotels – North Lakes Hotel and Spa; Penrith, Duke of Edinburgh Hotel; Barrow, The Famous Wild Boar Hotel; Crook, The Crown and Mitre Hotel; Carlisle and The Waterhead Hotel; Ambleside.

The finalists are: B.McKay, McKay’s Meats, Ulverston: 01229 582425
Peter Gott, Sillfield Farm Products Ltd, Kendal: 015395 67609
Graham Gordon, G Gordon Butchers, Carlisle: 01228 522827
Kerry Pollard, Slacks, Orton: 01524 411611
John Dawson, Greystone House Farm Shop, Stainton, 01768 866952
Mr T Hodgson, Cottage Pie Ltd, Dearham, 01900 817003
Fred Garside, F.W.Garside, Ambleside, 015394 32211
Paul Harrison, Plumgarths Farmshop, Crook Road, 01539 736300
Bryn Jones, Burton Butchers, Burton-in-Kendal, 01524 781219
Garth Steadman, Steadmans Butchers, Sedbergh, 01539 620431

The Traditional Cumberland Sausage cook-off final will be held in Cockermouth at Fell Gather, a celebration of Cumbrian food and craft on Saturday 13th June at 12.30pm. The sausages will be judged on their taste by Annette Gibbons (T.V. Celebrity Cook), Douglas Dale (Operations Director English Lakes Hotels) & Eric Robson (Celebrity Cumbrian born British Broadcaster).

The competition is being sponsored by English Lakes Hotels who will be providing the winner with dinner, bed and breakfast in one of their luxury hotels. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd winners will also receive a Traditional Cumberland Sausage trophy provided by Made in Cumbria.

John Anderson from Made in Cumbria, which is organising the Traditional Cumberland Sausage competition and campaign, says: “This is the second year that we have run this very popular competition and we were very pleased to receive nearly forty entries for 2009.
The quality of this iconic sausage is very important to the local producers and consumers alike especially as the application for a EU Protected food name for Traditional Cumberland Sausage is now in its final stage of completion in Brussels.
It is hoped that in the spring of 2010 the Traditional Cumberland Sausage will become the first meat product in the north of England to be a fully traceable and high quality guaranteed product in the EU protected food name scheme.”

For more information about the Traditional Cumberland Sausage visit www.traditionalcumberlandsausage.co.uk
For information on Made in Cumbria visit www.madeincumbria.co.uk.

Sillfield farm shop

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 01:47:00 GMT

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

Belted Galloway

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 05:00:00 GMT

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