HANDMADE PIE PRIDE

I never intended to become a chef when i was younger. Infact, i got unclassified in my cookery O level at school and trained as a nanny at college before realising that children actually really annoyed me!!!
To me, nowadays ,my job cooking is as much a handmade craft as is my hobby of sewing. Each dish i create contains as much passion, time and patience as any other craft.
Over the years my forte has become Handmade Pies. Infact it was one of my steak and ale pies that secured my job as head chef at Skylark Farm last year!!
So imagine my sense of pride this week when a lady popped into the cafe asking for 8 pies to take home to Oxfordshire with her and would pop into the local town to kill time whilst i cooked them for her.
And then, the following day, a very posh lady from the village came to see me with 2 large dishes. She was having a dinner party and could i make her 2 large pies , enough to feed 9 guests!
For me that was the best praise for my work that anyone could give and i was truely proud.

I now produce several pies per week for our farm shop.
Below are a batch of Chicken, Bacon and Leek straight from the oven. If you look closely you will see i even put a pastry chicken shape on top of each one.

And here are a batch of Steak and Ale. Look closely and see the pastry cow shape on!

So that's my week, now pop over to Handmade Monday blog hop to see what other passionate crafters have been up to this week

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.

SUMMER FRUITS CRUMBLE

WE use such a huge amount of bread at Skylark for our breakfasts each week that we end up with a pile of crusts from the ends of the loaves.
I tend to store them in the fridge for a week then process them into a big batch of breadcrumbs. I never realised until starting this job just how many things breadcrumbs can be used for. Our main use most weeks are for the sage and onion stuffing for Sunday lunch or our Homemade scotch eggs. Meatballs are a firm favourite too!

For our fruit crumbles i usually just make a topping from flour,sugar and rubbed in butter but this week discovered a new method using breadcrumbs so i decided to try it out and so glad i did.

Today the farm's shop had given me some soft strawberries, plums and peaches that couldnt be sold so i chopped them all up and put in a heatproof dish with a sprinkle of water and a shaking of sugar over the top. I put this in the oven for 10 minutes for the fruit to soften.
In a bowl i measured out 100g breadcrumbs, 100g oats, 100g sugar and then rubbed into the mixture 60g butter.
I took the fruit out of the oven and covered with my crumble topping and baked for a further 15 minutes.
Served with some gorgeous homemade custard this deliciously crunchy crumble sold on the specials board in no time at all!

ORANGES AND LEMONS

Oranges And Lemons  say the bells of St Clements.

Did you know this is a line from an old English nursery rhyme and singing game which refers to the bells of several churches, all within or close to the city of London? To see the full version of the rhyme take a look at Wikipedia. 
To me it refers to what i did with a box of fruit i was given today from the farm shop which was not good enough to be displayed on the shelf any more!

Oranges and Lemons


It was a very, very hot day and i remembered a recipe i had used once before to make old fashioned traditional lemonade and thought it would work just as well combining oranges and lemons to make a very refreshing St Clements drink.

INGREDIENTS

1 Cup Water

1 Cup Sugar

1 Cup Freshly Squeezed Orange And Lemon Juice

3-4 Cups Cold Water

METHOD

Put 1 cup of water with the sugar in a pan and boil until all the sugar is dissolved and a syrup is formed. Add the juice and carry on boiling for a few minutes. Take the pan off the stove and add 3-4 cups of cold water, depending on how strong a flavour you prefer. Refridgerate until cold. Add lots of ice when serving for a very tasty refreshing fruit drink. Perfect for the extremely hot weather we are experiencing at the moment!

Skylark Homemade Orange And Lemon "St Clements" Drink

I obviously made this in a much larger quantity for the cafe. All in all we have sold 8 jugs of juice this weekend and lots of people have commented on how tasty it was, so go on give it a go!

This week i'm entering this post in Handmade Monday which can be found at Handmade Harbour and is organised by Wendy of 1st Unique Gifts in the hope that a few of you may be tempted to give the recipe a try.

I'm off there now to see what has been happening in the world of handmade 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.

SAUSAGES IN RED ONION MARMALADE SAUCE SERVED WITH BUBBLE AND SQUEAK

MRS DARLINGTONS  Jams, Marmalades and Chutneys sell rather well here at Skylark.
It all started for The Darlingtons in 1981when a surplus of eggs from their farm were used, to save waste, to make some lemon curd with the intention of seeing if they would sell to local villagers.
They did sell, and further requests poured in for possible other jams and chutneys.
Sales increased and by 1985 farm buildings were converted into a new kitchen with local village ladies drafted in to help with production. Another move to bigger premises came in 1992 with the addition of mustards,table sauces, pickles and now a new range of cooking sauces.

For todays Special's Board in the farmhouse cafe i have used Mrs Darlingtons Red Onion Marmalade.

First i browned off some sausages in butter in a large pan. I made half a pint of chicken stock and topped up to a pint with red wine and added to the pan with a whole jar of the red onion marmalade.

 

I brought it all to the boil, stirring well and left to simmer and reduce for about 20 minutes.

 

While the sausages were cooking i chopped an onion and sweated it off in a pan then added it to mashed potaoes, carrots and cabbage left over from Sundays roast dinner. A little mixed herbs,salt and pepper were also added for seasoning then i cooked in batches on the griddle til browned.

 

And here is the finished result and mighty tasty it was too!!

 



sausages served on bubble and squeak with red onion marmalade sauce

If you want to find out more about Mrs Darlington or the companys products take a look at their website here .

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.

STRAWBERRY, CHOCOLATE AND CREAM MERINGUE STACK

SO summer is coming and strawberries are appearing on the shelf at Skylark Farm shop. Thinking cap on for me again and looking at the tub of egg whites i have in the fridge i think MERINGUES!
Even though these take a while to cook in the oven they are an easy dessert to make and very effective to look at. The meringues can be made in advance a day or 2 before you need them.
So to make 8 stacks i used:
4 Egg Whites
8oz Caster Sugar
3ozs Dark or Milk Chocolate (depending on preference)
10-12 Large Strawberries
8Floz Double Cream

First whisk the egg whites. Make sure both the bowl and whisk are dry and completely grease-free. If you drop any yolk at all into the whites when seperating your eggs, scoop it out with a piece of shell, as even the tiniest amount of yolk will prevent the eggs from whisking.

Whisk until very thick and form firm peaks. If you are not sure whether they are ready, turn the bowl upside down- if they stay put then they're ready!!!

*Top Tip* Egg whites whisk to a greater volume when at room temperature.

Gradually whisk in the sugar an ounze at a time. It may seem a slow process but it creates a thick meringue.

Spoon the meringue into a piping bag. I then pipe in a long row, side to side, about 2 1/2 ins wide on greaseproof paper, the length of my baking tray, as shown in the photo below.

Set your oven to 100C/220F/Gas Mark 1/4 and bake for an hour and half. Turn off your oven and leave the meringue inside until the oven has cooled.

Divide the meringue rows into 16 equal pieces and cut.

Whisk the cream until stiff and pipe or just spread a layer onto each meringue piece.

Slice the strawberries and lay on top of the cream.

Melt your chocolate, and using a teaspoon, flick it in an erratic manner over all the strawberries.

Each stack is made of 2 meringue slices so sit 8 pieces on top of the other 8.

Dust with icing sugar for effect and serve.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

What better way to finish off Sunday Lunch at Skylark Farm than a big helping of Sticky Toffee Pudding. A very popular addition to our dessert list at present and not too complicated to make. Give it a go at home with this lovely recipe i found on the BBC food website.

For The Pudding
150g/5oz dates, stones removed, chopped
250ml/9floz Hot water
1Tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
60g/2 1/4 oz butter, softened
60g/2 1/4 oz Caster Sugar
2 Free Range Eggs
150g/5oz Self Raising Flour

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/370F/Gas 4
2. Mix the dates, bicarbonate of soda and the water together in a bowl and leave to soak for 10 minutes.
3. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
4.Still stirring the butter mixture, gradually add the eggs, making sure they are well mixed in.
5. Still stirring, gradually add the flour, then add the date mixture.
6. Pour the mixture into a 20cm/8in square cake tin. Bake in the oven for 35-40 mins or until cooked through.

For The Toffee Sauce
200g/7oz Butter
400g/14oz Brown Sugar
Tsp Vanilla Essence
250ml/9floz Double Cream

1. Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat.
2. Add the brown sugar, vanilla essence and cream and stir well. Simmer for 5 minutes.
Portion the pudding and pour the hot sauce over.
Serve with custard, cream or ice cream.
Delish!

Wild Boar Sausage and Red Wine Casserole

It's important to promote produce in the cafe that is sold in the farm shop at Skylark Farm.
As i looked through the chiller this week my eyes caught sight of Wild Boar Sausages and i thought they would be tasty in a casserole with maybe a touch of red wine. And i was right!!!

So i fried off the sausages in a pan with a small amount of oil until browned all over, then removed from the pan and set aside. At the same time i put on some new potatoes to boil and chopped some carrots and an onion.
In the sausage pan i added my onion and carrots and cooked on a medium heat for 5 minutes until golden. Reducing the heat i sprinkled about an ounze of plain flour in the pan and cooked for a further 2 minutes. I poured a good amount of red wine in the pan and topped up with some beef stock. The 2 together probably equated to about a pint of fluid. I had some tomato puree in the pantry so i added 3or4 tbsps of that too. I brought the mixture to the boil stirring until the sauce was smooth, then simmered until thickened. To the pan i added my sausages (sliced) and some thyme, salt and pepper.

I transfered my mixture to a heatproof dish, sliced up my cooked new potatoes and layered them on top.

I then baked in the oven for about 20minutes on 180C.

Serve hot from the pan with mashed potatoes and peas.

Very popular on the specials board and extremely tasty!

The Farmers Breakfast At Skylark Farm

After weeks of waiting our opening day is almost here!
One more day of practising and preparing our menu and on Thursday we finally open to the public!
Today i prepared breakfasts and designed how they would be served.
This is the farmers breakfast for the big appetite.
This is the Peckly Breakfast for the smaller appetite.

Both come with tea and toast included in the price.

Delish!

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