The Northamptonshire Food & Drink Awards 2013-2014

I have never considered entering a food competition before and, to the best of my knowledge, have never worked in an establishment that would aspire to win any kind of award for their business. I have now!!!!!
The Rogers family have spent years of hard graft building their businesses and take great pride in everything they do. As an outsider looking in I can see they set themselves goals and, as each goal is achieved, set the bar just a little bit higher!
Now that The Old Red Lion seems to be establishing itself as quite a popular and well liked village pub with a reputation for serving good, quality homemade food in a warm, friendly atmosphere it is time for the next goal- To Win Awards!
We were made aware of The Northamptonshire Food & Drink Awards in the form of a letter from Heygates , our local mill, from where we are supplied with all of the flour we use in the pub.
It seems that Heygates are sponsoring 'Artisan Local Product of the Year' within the competition and suggested that it might be a category that we considered entering.
"Artisan" we discovered on research, describes a product handmade by traditional methods.
Vicky & I, to say the least, got a little excited at the prospect of entering this category. With her passion for homemade cakes and mine for pies we knew we wanted to have a go.
  The entrance forms were daunting I must say. Lots of writing to describe the product, why it was considered Artisan, where ingredients were sourced from, why it was value for money and proof that it was made locally in Northamptonshire.
But we did it, and the forms are signed, sealed and, hopefully by Monday, will be delivered.
So I guess you now all want to know what our entrance products are?
For Vicky, she decided that her lemon drizzle cake would be best to enter as it sells best out of all her cake range. With flour from Heygates and free range eggs from Radmore farm it certainly is made with local produce and all the beating, whisking, lemon zesting, juicing  and baking certainly make it eligible as an "Artisan" product.

Vicky's Homemade Lemon Drizzle Cake

And for me? Well I chose from the many pies that I make to enter my steak and ale pie with bubble and squeak topping. Made from the best beef from Radmore Farm, flour from Heygates and even potatoes grown on the farm it also is certainly made from local produce and with the braising, rubbing ,rolling, mashing, and chopping I certainly would consider it "Artisan" also!



 

Steak & Ale Pie with 'Bubble &Squeak' Topping

So for now all we can do is wait, with our fingers tightly crossed!!!!!!!

In addition to these entries we have also entered Toby into "Young Chef Of The Year" so best of luck to him and The Old Red Lion is entered into "Food Pub Of The Year". We await our mystery customers to dine with us in the very near future!

Wheat Tortillas - Bread Challenge No.13

I have been determined to make these for ages and with only a few hours left before completing the bread challenge I finally made them and they tasted good!!
Easy peasy too!
 Recipe below folks!

Ingredients:
250g/9oz Plain Flour
1/2 Tsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Salt
55g/2oz Lard or Butter
175ml/6floz Lukewam Water

Method :
Sieve the flour,baking powder and salt into a bowl. Cube the lard/butter and rub into the dry ingredients with your fingertips.

Ready To Rub In The Butter

Make a well in the centre, add the water and mix together to form a soft dough. Wrap in oiled clingfilm and leave to rest for half hour. 

'Dough Bal'

Unwrap from the clingfilm and divide into 6 equal portions. Roll each one out into as best a circle that you can and as thin as you can.

Rolling Out The Dough

Heat a heavy bottomed frying pan or griddle pan and brush with oil. Transfer one of the dough circles to the pan and cook for a couple of minutes, then turn to cook the other side. The dough will bubble and brown patches will appear.

Cooking In The Frying Pan

Remove and transfer to a cooling rack and cover with a tea towel to keep warm. Repeat the process with the other 5 circles.

Hot Tortillas Straight from the Pan

Spread with your favourite filling, roll up and serve as a snack or light lunch wrap.

Homemade Wrap With My favourite Filling

Mine was delicious!!!!!!!!

Lemon & Poppy Seed Plait - Bread Challenge No. 12

I flicked through the telly channels this week and came across an episode of last years 'Great British Bake Off' featuring bread making. Of course I 'flicked' no further and sat myself down to watch it with great interest. As the contestants made their show stoppers at the end of the episode I heard one of them say Lemon & Poppy Seed amongst their bread flavours and I thought how nice that sounded so I decided that would be my next recipe to try, and, because I want to challenge myself decided that this bread would be in the form of a plait.
I used my basic loaf ingredients with the addition of poppy seeds, lemon zest and lemon juice and took a chance that all would turn out well!

Ingredients:
500g Strong White Bread Flour
1 1/2Tsp Salt
2 Tsp Sugar
25g Butter, cubed
1 Tsp Fast Action Yeast
2 Tsp Poppy Seeds
2 Lemons, zest and juice
7 Floz Lukewarm Water
For The Top:
1 Egg White
1 Tbsp Water
2 Tsp Poppy Seeds

Method:
Place in a bowl the flour,salt and sugar and rub in the butter with your fingertips. Add the yeast,poppy seeds and lemon zest.
Add the juice from the lemons to the water and add to the bowl of dry ingredients. Mix together to form a dough. Turn on to a lightly floured board and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth. Return to the bowl, cover with clingfilm and put in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.
When risen, punch back and turn out onto a board and knead for a couple of minutes then divided into 3 equal pieces.
Stretch and roll each piece, lay beside each other and plait. Cant plait? Basically it's over one and under the other repeatedly!

Tuck in the ends, cover and leave to rise for a further hour.

Before baking, mix the egg white and water together and brush over the top of the loaf and sprinkle the poppy seeds on top. Bake at 200C .for about 20-25 mins.

The smell of lemon from the oven as the bread baked was lovely and I'm pleased to say, when eaten, the lemon flavour isnt over powering and the poppy seeds give a lovely texture. Would certainly recommend this one!!

Parmesan & Garlic Rolls- Bread Challenge Number 11

So as I am nearing the end of my bread challenge now, the final challenge date being 11th April, I have to admit I have only really shared with you the best of my recipes and have not disclosed the disasters!!
 I seem to have mastered a basic loaf with different flavours and textures but, as yet, cannot master a basic bread roll. The main 2 problems usually being under cooked or over cooked.
On Wednesday I attempted iced buns but they were not successful at all, tho I believe that may have been due to the flour. Note to self "cheaper flour does not always produce best products"!
 So yesterday I allowed Vicky to pick the next recipe and she chose to challenge me with Parmesan & Garlic rolls from the bread book as I really need to master the art! So glad she did!!

So first I stir-fried 3 crushed cloves of garlic in 2 tbsp of olive oil in a pan for about a minute.
I added this, with 300ml lukewarm water, to a bowl containing 400g strong white bread flour,1 1/2 tsp salt,1 sachet fast action yeast, and 40g finely grated parmesan cheese. I mixed it all together to form a soft dough then turned it out onto a floured surface and kneaded it for 10minutes.
I left this to rise for about an hour then punched down the dough and gave it another kneading just for a couple of minutes. I then divided it into 12 equal pieces, shaped each piece into a smooth round and placed on a baking tray.

Parmesan & Garlic Bread Rolls proved and ready to go in the oven

I left them for another hour in a warm place, covered until doubled in size then brushed the tops with milk and sprinkled some extra grated parmesan on each top (about 15g) before baking for 12  minutes in the oven at  200C.
The recipe says 12-15minutes, but I wasnt taking any chances, and at 12 minutes they looked a nice colour brown so I took them out.
They looked lovely!

Parmesan & Garlic Bread Rolls

The final test was to cut one open and to check there was no raw dough in the center, and guess what?
Challenge number 11 completed with a perfect bread roll!!

Parmesan & Garlic Bread Rolls

Seeded Loaf - Bread Challenge No. 10

 Happy Easter!
Yes the day finally crept up on us and, after losing an hours slept last night due to the clocks moving forward an hour, it was a very tired me in The Old Red Lion kitchen today cooking roast dinners. 
I didnt receive any Easter eggs today unfortuntely but I did get to open my Secret Easter Bunny gift that I received in the post yesterday as part of an online craft forum swap that I entered. My gift was made by someone that I have actually been in awe of for the past couple of years and her gift to me was these seriously cute bunnies that she made herself. Ros has a fantastic blog which is full of tutorials, her makes and a little bit of gossip!

Back to bread making!! This week we have started to make plans for a new menu for the summer months. One idea I had was mushroom pate as a starter. In the week I made a sample but, although it tasted lovely it needed to be eaten with something textured. We had some slightly stale, seeded loaf from the shop so we used that to experiment on taste and it really worked well together, so yesterday I attempted my own seeded loaf.

It came out BEAUTIFUL!! You must try this one it's a lovely taste and today, a day later, still was very soft and fresh tasting.

Here's the recipe.

Ingredients:

375g Strong White Bread Flour

125g Strong Brown Bread Flour

1 1/2 Tsp Salt

1 Tbsp Light Brown Sugar

1 Tsp Fast Action Dried Yeast

1 1/2 Tbsp Sunflour Oil

2 Tsp Lemon Juice

300ml Lukewarm Water

1 Tsp Poppy Seeds

1 Tsp Sesame Seeds

For The Topping

1 Egg White

1 Tbsp Water

1 Tbsp Pumpkin and Sunflower Seeds Mixed

Method:

Put the flours,sugar,salt, yeast and seeds into a bowl.Add the oil,lemon juice and water and mix together to form a dough. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead for 10minutes or until the dough is soft and pliable. Return to your bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place for about an hour..

When risen, punch down the dough to release the gas and knead for a couple more minutes and press into a large loaf tin and leave to rise again.When risen, mix the egg white and water and brush the top of the dough with it then gently press in the pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Bake in the oven about 20-25 minutes at 200C until golden brown.

Homemade seeded Loaf

Doesn't this look good!

Homemade Seeded Loaf

Hot Cross Buns - Challenge No. 7

So with Easter upon us tomorrow I thought my next challenge needed to be Hot Cross Buns.
A Hot Cross Bun is a sweet,spiced bun made with mixed fruit and marked with a cross on the top. Traditional they are to be eaten on Good Friday.
Nowadays major supermarkets stock a variety of different taste variations such as toffee, orange & cranberry, and apple & cinnamon.
I always wondered what the cross on top was made from and have found out today that it's traditionally shortcrust pastry though mostly nowdays a paste made from flour and water.
As with all the bread recipes it's a long process  making the buns because of the rising times.
I've cooked at home today and my cooker was far too hot despite setting the temperature lower than the recipe said, so, gutted that the outside got slightly overcooked whilst the inside was underdone. But I lowered the temperature as soon as I realised and though disappointed they were still enjoyed by all at home!

Todays recipe comes from The BBC - Food - Recipes site so instead of me writing it all out here's the link and below are a couple of photos (new camera definately on my christmas list this year! Excuse the quality of the images!)

So after putting all the ingredients together, and kneading til smooth, put your dough in a bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place.

Several cups of tea later punch down your dough and divide into 12 equal mounts. Roll into balls, flatten slightly and place on a greased baking tray. Make your paste with the flour and water and pipe a cross on the top. I made 2 pastes as the first ran out. Think my 2nd paste had a better effect after cooking as it was slightly runnier than the first.

Bake in the oven 8 - 12 mins. As I said earlier my fan oven was far too hot despite me reducing the temperature to 200C. For me 170C would have been the best temperature I think.
Brush with melted golden syrup straight from the oven.

Hot Cross Buns

Lovely hot with soft, melting butter

Courgette, Parmesan & Basil Loaf - Bread Challenge No. 5

"Pick a recipe" I shouted to Toby, my partner in crime in the kitchen of The Old Red Lion. Toby scoured the 100 recipe bread book and made several suggestions and I decided that this would be a nice combination flavoured loaf for the customers in the restaurant tonight. Unfortunately, due to the mad, snowy March weather we are experiencing, not many customers got to taste this rustic loaf tonight. Not my favourite flavour so far, I have to admit, but was a nice change to create a loaf without using yeast.

So here goes with the recipe.
Ingredients:
225g/8oz self raising white flour
225g/8oz self raising wholemeal flour
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Pepper
1 1/2 Tsp Mustard Powder
55g/2oz butter,diced.
225g Courgettes, coarsly grated, and patted dry
140g/5oz Parmesan cheese, finely grated
2 Tbsp Basil
2 eggs, beaten
About 175ml/6oz semi skimmed milk

Method:
Pre heat the oven to 190C/375F/gas mark 5
Put the flours,salt,pepper,mustard powder in a bowl then lightly rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Stir in the courgettes,parmesan and basil then mix in the eggs and milk to form a soft dough.
Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface a knead lightly before shaping into an 8ins round shape (mine you will see was more oval shaped!)

Place on a greased baking sheet and cut 3 slits in the top with a sharp knife. Bake in the oven for 40-50mins or until well risen and deep golden brown.Transfer to a wire rack and cool.

Serve warm or cold in slices.

Homemade Pizza - The Bread Challenge No.2

Friday night is pizza night at The Old Red Lion, Litchborough.
 It's quite an original concept, I think, and we make them entirely from scratch, and to order, with several different toppings to choose from.
So this is number 2 of my bread challenge.
Have made the pizza dough twice now. Not quite sure if truely mastered it yet but tastes and looks good when cooked!
Very difficult to roll out as shrinks back each time like elastic. I need to learn to throw it around maybe to stretch it like the professionals!
So here's the recipe for the dough. I think it is a Jamie Oliver recipe but don't quote me on that. I can usually get 6 or 7 large bases from the recipe and have found it freezes well too if you don't use it all.

Ingredients:
800g Strong White Bread Flour
1 Tbsp Salt
14g Easy Blend Yeast
1 Tbsp Sugar
4 Tbsp Olive Oil
650ml Lukewarm Water

Method:
Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the olive oil and water and mix together to form a dough.
Knead the dough.( I find I have to add more flour to dry the dough out). Place in a bowl, cover, and leave to rise somewhere warm.

When you are ready to make your pizza, remove the dough from the bowl. Divide into balls and roll individually. Remember I said it will probably shrink back as you roll? Well I lift it up and stretch it in my hands then place on a baking sheet.




We buy in some lovely homemade tomato sauce which I spread a layer of over the base first. You can use normal ketchup or even tomato puree, your choice.
Now top with your favourites, your choice entirely!
The pizza below has peppers,onion,sweetcorn,choritzo,pepperoni and big handfuls of grated cheddar.
Place in the oven at about 180C for about 15minutes or until the dough is golden brown.

Serve immediately with salad and homemade coleslaw.

Homemade Pizza