Southport Market Launch

Today saw the long awaited launch of the re-furbished Southport Market Hall, which despite a few local stalwarts, Southport has been a little bereft of good opportunities to buy great local produce despite being surrounded by fantastic growing land and the Ribble estuary coast. Today changed all that, smack bang in the town centre the market hall has been brought up to date with a multi million pound project which creates a new market quarter for the town.

Visitors were welcomed with a local jazz band and demonstrations from local tv chef Simon Rimmer and a visit from peppa the pig, the market had a real buzz and was very busy for the launch and features stalls to cater for all your needs, not just food.

A couple of months ago I was pleased to hear that my ex work colleague and excellent cheese-monger Vickie @ Liverpool Cheese were to open a stall on the market. Liverpool Cheese are award winning cheese-mongers who have been purveying fine cheeses of all types since 2006, they love local produce and have a particular skill for producing some beautiful cheese wedding cakes too.

The market also features several butchers, a fishmonger, try the Southport Shrimps they are delicious,a greengrocer, deli's and many many other great stalls. There are also two  gorgeous cafe's and a italian pizzeria.

Please pay them a visit if you are in Southport and #loveyourlocalmarket , shop locally and buy local produce.In Southport you can also find lots of lovely independent shops too.

Almond breeze, strawberry breakfast pancakes

I never tried Almond milk before so I was really happy to receive a sample from Blue Diamond Almonds via  Foodies 100 to experiment with.

I really enjoy recipe development and particular like it when it working with healthier ingredients. Almond milk is a great alternative to skimmed milk especially for those who are lactose intolerant and its also 60% lower in calories too, contains no cholesterol and almost no saturated fat either. 

The range from Blue Diamond Almonds also includes a sweetened and chocolate version too, the challenge it to come up with a healthy breakfast recipe. After all breakfast is the most important meal of the day so way not make it a healthy one too !

Now I don't know about you but I love thick american style pancakes, served drizzled with maple syrup or agave nectar when warm, I can eat them at any time of day.


This is an easy recipe and can be made the evening before and left in the fridge, but it only takes moments to whisk up, the choice is yours. You could add any fruit you like, blueberries, raspberries, bananas , whatever you want.

Ingredients

• 175g plain white flour 
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 large egg - free range
• 1 tsp syrup, you could also use agave nectar, maple or honey
• 150ml Almond Breeze 
• Sunflower oil
• Handful of Strawberries - chopped finely

Method

• Mix all ingredients , except the oil , in a large bowl

• Whisk until you have a smooth-ish batter, it will be quite thick
• Heat a heavy bottom frying pan
• Oil with sunflower oil, then wipe the excess with a folded piece of kitchen paper
• Drop approx tablespoon sized dollops into the pan , do not move it and watch for little bubbles appearing on the surface
• Once you see a few bubbles pop, turn your pancake and press gently down, until nicely golden on both sides
• Serve warm, sprinkled with more strawberries and drizzled with maple syrup or agave nectar.

Tenderstem speedy gratin

Here's a second recipe with the versatile tenderstem, this can be served as a side dish or a quick lunch dish, may be with crusty bread on the side. Its still made in less than 10 minutes so no excuses, cook from fresh. 

Ingredients

• pack of tenderstem
• 100ml Double cream
• Cheddar cheese or Lancashire Cheese - grated
• Couple of anchovies in oil, drained 
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method

• Preheat your grill
• Steam or microwave your tenderstem for 3 minutes until tender
• Meanwhile heat your double cream and anchovies to boiling point in a pan
• Drain your tenderstem into a gratin dish, sprinkle with your grated / crumbled cheese and pour over the hot cream
• Sprinkle with more cheese and slam under the grill until golden and bubbling ( this will take about 5-6 mins)
• Finish with freshly ground black pepper 

The anchovies melt into the cream and give an deep umami hit to the sauce, delicious served as a side or lunch dish.

Elderflower Challenge blog round up

Thanks to all my lovely food blogging chums my blogs first challenge has been a roaring success and saw no less than 14 blog link up posts. This celebration of this great foraged ingredient had bloggers taking part from all over the country eventhough the summer weather has been dire in the UK.

Several of the posts were from the lovely Karen at Lavender and Lovage, Strawberry and Elderflower cake and tart topping was her first, a very versatile recipe that can be used in all manner of ways for topping cakes, ice cream and pancakes. I really like that.

Another of Karen's post was an Old fashioned English elderflower cordial, the quintessential way of capturing the fleeting flavours of elderflowers. Aren't Karen's images stunning as well.

Lavender and Lovage's next post was the very delicious looking Royal Elderflower and Lemon Curd Butterfly cakes, which she devised in celebration of the Queens Diamond Jubilee celebration. The cakes do look fit for a Queen. 

Thanks Karen for all your support and helping to interest so many bloggers to be involved in the #Elderflowerchallenge.

The next link up came from Chris at Cookingaroundtheworld with his Elderflower cordial cocktails , he posts not only how to make the cordial but a few good suggestions of how you can use the cordial in some nifty little cocktails, including elderflower martini which I am sure James Bond would have approved of. Hick !

The next two posts come from All that I am Eating blogger, who has quite a few lovely elderflower posts on her blog, so I think it was probably a bit difficult to choose which to share for the challenge, her first post is  Elderflower sugar and elderflower cakes, gorgeous sweet looking little cupcakes which I am sure tasty equally delicious as well.

The second post is for Rhubarb and Elderflower crumble a classic seasonal combination of  wild and cultivated ingredients, I have tried this combination myself previously and its delicious, the elderflowers adding a delightful muscat flavour to the crumble.

Our next post was from Diana from Gelsomina's Cucina with a delightful Elderflower Panna cotta, I love panna cotta and have made HFW version of this. This is another excellent way of capturing Elderflower fragrance in a delicious summer dessert.

Kate from Turquoise Lemons contribution to the challenge is a Gooseberry and Elderflower Jam, I love gooseberries but don't seem to be able to beat the dreaded gooseberry sawfly so I will just have to lust after this from a far. When Kate posted this recipe there was some discussions on Twitter and the general consensus was scones would be the preferred accompaniment , I think this would be delicious with clotted cream as well.

To my surprise the next link up was from Transition Plymouth and it wasn't recipe it was a whole selection, they call their page Elderflower alchemy and it is the post features herbal teas, compote and elderflower fritters. Please check out the page.

The blog challenge baton ( well I had to get an Olympic pun in somehow) was picked up next by Laura at How to Cook Good Food and she added Strawberry tart with Elderflower pastry cream to our delicious and varied collection of recipes. Given the write up on the blog post this proved a winner with her family and is one I need to try in future.

Inspired by the Gooseberry and Elderflower Jam from Turquoise Lemons, I decided that I would make a strawberry and elderflower jam, minor cheat I know but hey , it contains elderflowers !

Loving all things chocolate I was pleased to see the next linky from Choclette , some very delicious looking Elderflower and White chocolate cupcakes from Chocolate Log Blog, unusually the cupcakes feature Truvia one of the new natural no calorie sweetners. Very helpful  as always, Choclette has provided links to the website for conversions for the Truvia.

Our penultimate linky is from Vivien Lloyd - The Preserves expert, she has kindly posted Elderflower Moments from the fabulous Miranda Gore Browns book - Biscuits ( this is by the kind permission of Miranda and Ebury Press). So that went on my Amazon wishlist immediately. Delightful melting moments filled with a decadent elderflower flavoured buttercream filling, perfect for afternoon tea in the garden.

Last but no means least our final post came from Mainly Baking, a beautiful Gooseberry, almond and elderflower cake. I think the combination of almonds and elderflowers is an inspired one, thanks for the post.

In summation, I have really enjoyed looking at all the lovely elderflower posts contributed to the blog link up, we are so lucky to have so many talented food bloggers in the UK. Thanks everyone for taking part and for making my first linky blog challenge such a success.

Tenderstem and chorizo spaghetti

I have been having fun today as I am one of the lucky bloggers to be chosen to take part in Tenderstem in Ten challenge, basically the challenge is to make a meal in 10 minutes or less with 10 or less ingredients which includes Tenderstem.

Tenderstem for those of you who don't know is a broccoli originally grown in Japan, that you can eat from head to tail, and it cooks in 3 minutes. Its a really versatile ingredient and given the speed of cooking is a healthy addition to any recipe. The Tenderstem website has loads of inspiration on it on how to use this ingredient.

I had great fun devising a recipe that would be cooked and ready in less than 10 minutes and achievable for anyone. 

This recipe serves 2 adults and is flexible enough for you to free style with other ingredients if you so wish, you could add crushed garlic or finely chopped chilli.You could also subsitute another type of pasta as long it cooks in less than 10 minutes.

Ingredients

• Spaghetti ( approx 75g per person)
• Pack of Tenderstem 
• Olive oil
• Ring of Chorizo - sliced
• Freshly grated paramesan - to serve
• Freshly ground black pepper - to serve

Method

• Steam or boil your Tenderstem for 3 minutes
• Whilst cooking your Tenderstem, put your spaghetti on to boil for the time on the pack, mine was 7 minutes.
• Meanwhile fry off your sliced chorizo in plenty of olive oil, until the chorizo starts to go crispy and the paprika oil is mixing with the olive oil.
• Drain your broccoli and add to chorizo pan to keep warm, whilst your spaghetti is finishing cooking
• Drain spaghetti and add to the chorizo pan and mix well
• Serve sprinkled with freshly grated parmesan and freshly ground black pepper
• Done in 10 :-)

CCC No 7 - Get Fruity - Blackberry, lavender rose and white chocolate cake

Our latest Clandestine Cake club was held at the newly opened Da Vinci Italian Wine Bar and restuarant in Leyland and the theme was "Get Fruity".

This was my first meeting as an organiser and given that I had  a friends wedding the day before the meet, I had to get organised and make sure I baked ahead. The base sponge was baked a couple of days before and stored in a cool place. My bake for the Get Fruity theme uses homegrown blackberries from the garden and as I wanted a cake that was understated and highlighted the subtle flavours of summer, I choose a Blackberry and White chocolate cake. This cake features, rose and lavendar as flavourings in the compote and ganache, to give a twist to the ordinary.

Once again our membership excelled themselves and really embraced the theme of the event. Strawberry, raspberry, lemon, orange, blackberries, apples and cherries were just some of the fruits featured in the bakes. We ere also lucky that Crossmoor Honey brought along a selection of honey's for our members and guests to sample and purchase ( this was on request of the membership)

The meeting was busy and we welcomed new bakers and new guests. Discussions included our cake for Preston Cake City and the forthcoming Leyland Festival Bake off ! We even had a quick chat by the organiser to drum up a few more entries for the Leyland Cake competition from our membership.

Back to my cake, a relative easy bake due to the time restrictions I had.

Ingredients

150g Quality baking margarine

200g white chocolate

200ml skimmed milk

250g self raising flour - sifted

1 tsp baking powder

250g caster sugar

3 large eggs (free range please)

1tsp vanilla paste

300g blackberries, I used homegrown frozen from last season, defrosted

1 tbsp lemon juice

150g granulated sugar

1 tbsp of dried lavender flowers ( in a muslin bag )

200g white chocolate 

200ml double cream

2tsp rosewater

You will also need 2 greased and based lined sandwich tins, approx 20cm across, I use 1 cal oil spray to grease my tins , it makes a doddle.

Method

Preheat your oven to 180c, slightly less if you have a fan oven 160c, watch the cake for over colouring as the white chocolate can make it brown quickly.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water and add your vanilla paste and milk to it once melted.Leave to cool.

Mix the flour, margarine, sugar and eggs together, then add the chocolate mixture, mix until you have a smooth mixture and then pour into the two tins.

Bake for approx 30 - 35 mins until cooked through when tested with a skewer, leave to cool in the tin, then remove from tin, remove the baking paper and allow to cool fully on a wire tray.

Make your compote by cooking the blackberries, granulated sugar until the berries are softened and the juices running, I made this the day before and infused the lavendar into the compote using a small muslin bag and left it in the fridge overnight. Drain the excess moisture from the compote before using.

To make the ganache I brought the cream and rosewater to the boil before pouring over the broken up chocolate and stirring until melted. This was then allowed to cool in the fridge and whisked to thicken.

To assemble place your base cake on your serving plate and fill with a little of the ganache and the drained blackberry compote, then place the top layer cake on top. Spread with the remaining ganache, decorate to your taste.

I used 

• Dried lavender flowers (I got mine from Steenbergs)
• Rose flower and petals from the garden

I also had a go at an Audioboo too for the event

listen to ‘clandestine cake :-) ’ on Audioboo

Radio Lancashire appearances

Mr Lancashire Food aka as Synergy Digital Imaging has very kindly edited the recordings of my other appearances over the years on BBC Radio Lancashire and they are now avaliable on Youtube.

http://youtu.be/S2bfKduUs-w 2009

http://youtu.be/h_ShK9BwNcs 2010