BANANA LEMON TART

SUNDAY ROAST is getting popular here at Skylark Farm and i like to keep as fresh with ideas for desserts as i can.
Having been given some soft lemons from the farmshop at the weekend i googled recipes with lemon in and came up with BANANA LEMON TART.

First thing needed is sweet shortcrust pastry.
*250g Plain Flour
*50g Icing Sugar
*125g Butter
*1 Large Free Range Egg (beaten)
*Splash Milk

Sieve the flour and sugar.
Rub in the butter.
Add the egg and milk to form a dough.
Wrap in clingfilm and rest for 1 hour in the fridge.
The lemon flavouring in the tart comes in the form of lemon curd so whilst the sweet pastry was chilling i popped over to one of my favourite blogs RosMadeMe where i knew Ros had a recipe for making lemon curd. You can find that recipe here
SO, having made my lemon curd i began on the tart.

First roll out the pastry dough and lay into a 9ins flan dish. Prick the bottom of the tart case. Bake blind on 160C (Fan Oven)/325F/Gas Mark 3 for 10 minutes, then remove the paper and beans. Bake for a further 5 minutes. Remove from the oven.

Spread 4Tbsps Strawberry Jam over the base of the pastry case.

Slice 3 Ripe Bananas and arrange evenly on the top.

Take your Lemon Curd from the chiller and measure out 5Tbsps.

Whisk in 2 beaten Free Range Eggs and 250g Creme Fraiche or Fromage Frais (entirely your preference).

Pour over the bananas.

Pop it back in the oven for about 30 minutes or until the filling is set and slightly browned.

Banana Lemon Tart

Leave to cool to room temperature before serving.

Once again i'm entering into Handmade Monday to see what the crafting community have been up to this week.

SKYLARK FARM NEW SUMMER MENU

THERE'S SOMETHING NEW HAPPENING AT SKYLARK FARM.
Today saw the arrival of the new summer menu at the Farmhouse cafe.
Designed by Create-a-Brand  , a local marketing company, the menu has a warm feel to it with a large sunny egg on the front.
The breakfasts remain constant as always.

Skylark Farm Summer Menu

Teacakes and homemade scones are still there.

Lovely photos of the farmers breakfast and sunday roast.

Farmers Breakfast and Sunday Roast

Sandwiches now come with a flowerpot full of chunky chips and side salad.

Brie and Bacon Sandwich served with Flowerpot chips and Side Salad

And introducing the new summer salad.

Scampi Salad

Truely scrumptious in the heart of the beautiful Northamptonshire countryside. Hope to see you there soon.

HOW TO MAKE SCOTCH EGGS

So the warm weather has finally arrived and the view from Skylark Fields Farmhouse Cafe is beautiful. What better way to spend your lunch break or day off than on our new picnic benches looking out over the yellow sun drenched Northamptonshire fields.
Our new menu is planned for the weekend too so it's hopefully going to be busy, busy, busy this weekend.

View From Skylark Fields Farm

 As the warmer weather comes many people like to have days out with picnics and what nicer picnic food than homemade Scotch Eggs. So easy to make and tasty either hot or cold.

So first hard boil your eggs. Put them in a pan of water, bring to the boil then time them for 10 minutes. Remove from the stove and run the cold water tap over them til cooled. Peel when cooled.

Hard Boiled Free Range Eggs

Wrap sausage meat around the eggs until you can see no white. It's a little fiddly but be patient.

Set out 3 bowls. One with seasoned plain flour, one with an egg and milk mixture ( i used 2 eggs and 1/4pint milk), and the 3rd with breadcrumbs.
Take each egg, roll in the flour then in the egg mixture, then cover with breadcrumbs.

Deep fry for 5 minutes at 170C. Then finish off in the oven at 160C for a further 15 minutes to ensure the sausage meat is cooked through.

Leave to cool for your picnic lunch or serve for tea with chips and beans. If you've never tasted hot scotch eggs before i recommend you try them as they taste lush!!

Scotch Eggs

*TOP TIP* Once you have mastered these have a go at curried scotch eggs by adding some curry paste and mango chutney to the sausage meat before wrapping it around your egg. A taste sensation!!

Thanks for popping by.

MEATBALLS WITH CHUNKY TOMATO SAUCE AND SPAGHETTI

MINCED BEEF , a most versatile and economic meat and the housewives favourite i would say. I remember when my children were small, and we were strapped for cash, i used to make as many different meals with mince as i could during a week.
But just because it's economic doesn't mean it cant be extremely delicious!
I first made this recipe for meatballs years ago but it is so tasty i have tended to put it on the specials board of every establishment i have worked at over the years and it is always enjoyed immensly.

FOR THE MEATBALLS
250g Minced Beef
6 Slices Bread (processed to make breadcrumbs)
1 Onion (finely chopped)
Clove Garlic (crushed)
2 Tbsp Mixed Herbs
Salt & Pepper
1 Large Free Range Egg (Beaten)
FOR THE SAUCE
2 14oz Tins Chopped Tomatoes
1 Onion
2 Courgettes
1 Red Pepper
4 Tbsp Tomato Puree
1/2 Vegetable Stock
Clove Garlic (Crushed)
Glass Red Wine (Optional)
Double Cream (Amount to suit taste)

Put all ingredients for the meatballs into a mixing bowl and work together with your hands until all ingredients are evenly mixed in.
Divide the mixture and roll into individual balls. I cant say how many balls you'll make as it will depend on what size you make them!

Heat a small amount of oil in a frying pan and add your meatballs. Seal the outside of the balls, then put in an ovenproof dish.

Make your sauce.
Chop the onion, courgettes and red pepper and fry off for a few minutes in an oiled pan with the garlic. Add the tomatoes, puree and stock (red wine also if desired), bring to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes. Pour over the meatballs, cover with foil and cook in the oven at 180C (160C Fan), 350F, Gas Mark 4 for approx 30-40 mins.
Cook spaghetti and portion on plate. Remove your meatballs from the sauce and place on spaghetti. Stir some double cream into your sauce for that lovely creamy taste and pour over the meatballs.

Meatballs And Spaghetti

Serve immediately!

CHOCOLATE AND GUINNESS CAKE

GUINNESS, a popular Irish stout and one of the most successful beer brands worldwide, being brewed in almost 50 countries and sold in 100.
I often use it in the filling for my steak and stout pies but this week I saw a recipe for a chocolate and guinnes cake. Bit like chilli and chocolate I was curious to see what it would taste like in a cake rather than a main dish.

 

INGREDIENTS

4oz Butter (Room Temperature)

8oz Light Muscovado Sugar

6oz Plain Flour

2oz Cocoa Powder

1/2 Tsp Baking Powder

1 Tsp Bicarbonate Of Soda

3Free Range Eggs (Beaten)

7Floz Guinness

Cream the butter and sugar together then whisk in the eggs gradually. Sieve all the dry ingredients into the bowl and mix in. Finally whisk in the Guinness.

Line an 8ins cake tin with greaseproof paper, add the mixture and bake in a pre-heated oven 160C/325F/Gas Mark 3 for approx 30-40mins.

Turn the cake out on a cooling rack and whilst cooling make a buttercream for the top.

*Top Tip*  As a guideline, quantities for basic buttercream is double icing sugar to butter.

In this recipe I used 5oz butter to 10oz icing sugar. Beat the butter til soft then beat in the icing sugar. Add a couple tsps of milk if required to loosen the mixture.

Spread over the cooled cake and use a fork to pattern through the mixture.

Cut yourself a slice and enjoy this dark, rich chocolate sponge.

Homemade Custard

Ok, hands up who has a jar of Bird's Custard in their store cupboard??
I must confess, up until i started working at Skylark Farm i had only ever made Bird's Custard or worse just bought a tin!!!



But now that i work on a free range egg farm it is imperative that i use our fresh eggs in as many dishes as possible.

And i cant believe how easy fresh custard actually is to make!

You will need:

1 Pint Hot Milk

2floz Single Cream

1tsp Vanilla Extract

4 Egg Yolks

1oz Caster Sugar

2 tsp Cornflour

Method

Place the egg yolks,caster sugar,cornflour and vanilla in a pan and mix to a paste.

Whisk in your hot milk.

Put your pan on the stove and bring to boil, whisking continuously. Simmer for 1 minute and remove from heat.

Stir in your cream.

Serve hot or cold.

Hope you found this recipe interesting and dont forget to keep your egg whites and use them to make the meringues in my Strawberry Meringue stack recipe http://chefatskylarkfarmhousecafe.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/strawberry-chocolate-and-cream-meringue.html

Please feel free to comment on any of my posts.

Chocolate Sponge with Chocolate Sauce

If you are like me and always look for a chocolate option on the dessert menu after your main course you will love this easy but tasty chocolate sponge topped with chocolate sauce.

FOR THE SPONGE
8oz Margerine
8oz Caster Sugar
4 Large Free Range Eggs
6 1/2oz Self Raising Flour
1 1/2oz Cocoa Powder

1. Cream the margerine and sugar.
2.Beat in the egggs.
3. Add the flour and cocoa powder. Mix well.
4. Line a 8ins cake tin with greaseproof paper and add your mixture.
5. Bake in a pre heated oven 180C/350F/Gas mark 4 for about 25 mins.

CHOCOLATE SAUCE
12floz Milk
1oz Butter
4 Tbsp Sugar
4Tbsp Cocoa
2Tbsp Cream
1 1/2 Tbsp Cornflour
1Tsp Vanilla Essence

1. Blend milk, sugar, cocoa, and cornflour to a paste.
2. Boil and simmer for 2 minutes.
3. Remove from stove, add butter and stir until it melts and blends.
4. Add vanilla essence and cream and stir well.
Serve with cream, custard or ice cream.
Delish!

Perfect Poached Eggs

I have never quite mastered the art of poached eggs and for the past 4 months on the farm have pulled my hair out quite often when an order has come on with the dreaded words "poached egg on toast"

It isnt just me either, both of the chefs that work with me pull their hair out too!

To help out, Sam bought a plastic device from Lakeland to cook the eggs in a microwave but, altho they cooked fine, personally i found it a bit of a pain keep checking the microwave and also that they looked quite "plastic".

So i googled results for perfect poached eggs and hey presto i found the solution!


To a pan of water i add a small amount of vinegar. Not masses else your eggs can have a sour taste.

Bring the water to just before boiling point. I crack each egg into a cup first then slide it into the water. Turn off your heat and add a lid to the saucepan, then set your timer for 4 minutes.

Remove the lid and serve - nothing could be easier!
And there you have it,

Skylark Farm's Perfect Poached Eggs!

Pecan Pie

BRITISH PIE WEEK is March 5th to 11th and at Skylark we are promoting homemade pies this week. Yesterday i gave you a savoury recipe and on todays menu is something a little sweeter!

I have never made PECAN PIE but it is a favourite dessert of mine and when i saw a recipe in "THE ULTIMATE DESSERTS COOKBOOK" i was keen to give it a try.


INGREDIENTS
For the pastry
115g/40z plain flour
50g/2oz butter, cubed
25g/1oz caster sugar
1 egg yolk

For The Filling
175g/6oz golden syrup
50g/20z dark muscovado sugar
50g/2oz butter
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2.5ml/1/2tsp vanilla essence
150g/5oz pecan nuts

METHOD
1. Place the flour in a bowl and rub in the butter cubes with your fingertips til it resembles breadcrumbs, then stir in the sugar,egg yolk and about 30ml/2tbsp cold water. Mix to a dough and knead lightly on a floured surface til smooth.
2. Roll out the pastry and use to line a 20cm/8 ins loose based flan tin. Prick the base , then line with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Chill for 30 mins and preheat the oven to 200degs C/ 400degs F /gas 6.
3.Bake the pastry case for 10 mins, then remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 5 mins.
Reduce the temperature to 180degC/350degF/gas 4.
4.Heat the syrup,sugar,and butter in a pan until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and cool slightly. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla essence and stir in the pecans.
5. Pour in the pastry case and bake for 35-40 mins until the filling is set.
Serve with cream or ice cream

Not sure the photo does it justice but i can assure you it tastes devine!

ENJOY!

Ready Steady Cook!

Like any other commercial outlet selling fresh produce Skylark Farm has it's fair share of waste each week.
Having the cafe now it is essential that we make good use of fruit and veg that are no longer nice enough to sell but still of a decent quality to be used in cooking.
So Sam set me a challenge today. I was given these 2 boxes of fruit and veg that had been removed from the shelf and told to create something with them and other store cupboard ingredients.
So in true ready steady cook style i got to work sussing out exactly what i had in my box. I seperated the veg from the fruit first and decided the veg would be my first challenge.
There were quite a lot of tomatoes and a real mixed variety of other veg so my decision was to make 2 soups.
For the tomato soup i roasted all the tomatoes in the oven first so that i could remove all their skins.
Then in a pan i sweated off some chopped onion, celery and carrot for about 5 mins before adding a couple of tbsps of tomato puree, 2 tbsp ganulated sugar, 1tbsp balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper.
Next i chopped the tomatoes and added them to the pot along with vegetable stock, enough to cover.
This all simmered away for about half hour before i removed from the heat, did a whizz in the blender then passed through a sieve. I put the soup back in the pan and seasoned slightly more to my own personal taste.


For the vegetable soup i used the same method though did not add balsamic vinegar or sugar.
And here is the end result. Thick, hearty soup which tastes delish!

After having used all the veg Sam gave me i still had onions, 1 red pepper, mushrooms and broccoli left to use.

Still with only the addition of store cupboard ingredients i decided to make quiche.

First i made the pastry base using shortcrust pastry. Very easy pastry to make so long as you remember it's half butter to plain flour with the addition of water.

I used 12 ozs of flour to 6ozs of butter for this recipe. Rub the butter in the flour (or whizz up in your food processor for quickness) and the add water to make a soft pliable dough.

Roll out and line your dish or tin with the pastry, (i treated myself yesterday to 4 small, fluted, deep, loose bottomed flan tins so i could make individual portions of quiche). You now need to bake this pastry blind.
Whilst that was baking i finely chopped up my veg and put in a bowl with some mixed herbs, salt and pepper. I whisked up 6 eggs (6yolks but only 4 whites), then added a pint of milk and whisked again.

When the pastry cases were ready i removed from the oven and put a layer of grated cheese in the bottom (bout 1/3 full), then the chopped veg on top followed by the egg/milk mixture.

Cook at 180 c/ 350 f / gas mark 4 (or if like me you have a fan oven that burns everything quickly turn your temperature down 10 degrees!) for about 35 - 45 mins.
Test to see if the inside is cooked by sticking a knife in the center of each pie and it should come out clean!
Best served warm but equally as nice cold!

So i did it and accomplished the challenge with some beautiful end results!

Pop by the blog tomorrow and i will show you what i've made from the waste fruit!

Welcome to Skylark Farm

Welcome to "Chef At Skylark Farmhouse Cafe", a blog to document my new journey as Head Chef at a new farmhouse cafe, opening (fingers crossed) early December.

Skylark Farm, situated in the Northamptonshire countryside, is primarily a chicken farm.

8000 chickens apparently!!!!!






That's an awful lot of free range eggs produced each day!

These eggs are sold through many small shops and supermarkets in the area, including Sainsburys.



Sam and Dave run the farm and 3 years ago built a farm shop to house and promote local businesses produce.


Inside the shop you will find a large selection of fresh veg, meat,bread and cakes as well as preserves, honey, cheese and of course eggs!

Last week they had their own homegrown pumpkins for sale as well!




Now that the shop is well established the couples next venture has been to build a new cafe to the rear of the shop serving good homecooked food.

And this is where MY journey begins!

After answering an advertisement in the local paper i took up the position of Head Cook on October 17th.

So far my role has been organising and cleaning equipment, devising menus, and all the behind the scenes jobs involved in starting up a business, as well as hours of research into baking, as that is an area i havent covered before.

I have learnt so much in such a short space of time and know that there is plenty more to learn which gave me the inspiration to create this blog in the hope that you will follow me on my journey, and just maybe i may even inspire the cook inside you to attempt my recipes!

If you want further information on Skylark Fields Farm you can find a warm welcome at their website HERE