Have You Been Tried and Tasted?

Over a period of time I have put together a series of blog posts reviewing various products, book recipes and even the odd restaurant that I've tried and I'm looking to reviewing more.
I'm particularly interested in championing my local producers, mainly from the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire area, but of course I'd be interested in covering other areas too.
I try to attend many of the food festivals in my region and London, so I generally meet people at the events and go on to cover their products in my blog.

If you are a local, specialist or artisan food producer and would like me to sample some of your wares and promote your business (particularly useful if you're just starting out), please drop me an email and I would be happy to review your product and you can become Cheeky Spouse Approved!

Drop me a line here.
To see my previous reviews click here

National Honey Week – 3rd-10th May and recipe for Persian Honey Cakes

The sun is shining, spring flowers are in full bloom and the warm air is already buzzing with the sound of industrious bees – what a perfect start to celebrate Britain's National Honey Week.

Now in its 12th year, the celebration, originally held in February has a more appropriate date in May, which seems much more fitting, as this is the time when the bees can really get to work, making that delicious sweet sticky stuff.

For thousands of years, man has gathered honey to use in food and medicine, it was also held in such high regard, that the ancient Egyptians offered it as a gift to the gods.

Throughout history it had long been used as a sweetener in cooking, until sugar took over. Because honey has a more complex flavour than sugar, I think it imparts quite a special taste to food and is particularly good in baking as the recipe, later on, demonstrates.

When we eat honey, we should always remember the bees that made it – they are the only insect that produce a food that we consume and they are very important to the survival of our planet and the human race. That sounds like a lot hanging on a seemingly small creature, but without bees, it would be very difficult to grow food, as we rely on them to pollinate our crops. Just think about it for a moment…

Currently, bees are under threat from viruses, parasites and the mysterious colony collapse disorder, which could prove devastating to their species. Sorry if this sounds all doom and gloom, but it's something that I care strongly about. Have a look at The British Beekeeper's website to learn more.

Bad news aside, I have decided to include a recipe from The Josceline Dimbleby Collection cookbook, for Persian Honey Cakes, that really celebrates the beauty of honey at it's best. I used Scottish heather honey, which is extremely fragrant.

It's an adaptation of an old Persian recipe. The nutty orange-flavoured cakes are left to absorb a scented honey syrup. You can serve them either for tea, with coffee, or as an after-dinner sweetmeat. As a dessert they are excellent with natural yoghurt.

Persian Honey Cakes

Makes approximately 16

Ingredients

8 oz fine semolina

2 oz icing sugar, sifted

4 fl oz sunflower oil

grated rind and juice of 1 orange

2 oz self-raising flour

half teaspoon baking powder

half teaspoon ground cinnamon

for the syrup

4 oz sugar

4 tablespoons honey

5 tablespoons triple strength orange flower water

quarter pint water

Method

Put the semolina and icing sugar in a bowl.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and pour it over the semolina. Stir well and mix in the orange rind and juice and then the flour sifted with the baking powder and cinnamon.

Heat the oven to Gas 3 / 325F / 170C.

Take up pieces of the mixture about the size of a ping-pong ball and form short sausage shapes, about 2 inches long. Arrange slightly apart on a large oiled baking sheet.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 35-50 minutes.

While the cakes are baking, make the syrup.

Put the sugar, honey, flower water and water in a saucepan.

Dissolve the sugar and honey over a low heat and then boil fiercely for 4-5 minutes.

When the cakes are baked, lift them out with a spatula and arrange closely together in a large shallow dish. Pour the syrup over them and leave for several hours, spooning the syrup over them occasionally. Then carefully pile the cakes on a plate, scraping up any remaining syrup and spooning over.
Product image from Rowse website

Focaccia with Rosemary, Chilli and Lavender

Lately I’ve been having urges to make bread. They are good urges as the results are for me, deeply satisfying.
For reasons that I won’t go into here, I now have more time on my hands and what better way to occupy those hands with the kneading of a big ball of dough. The action of working that dough also seems to relieve all the stresses and strains of life as I pummel and stretch the mixture, which will go on to yield a fulfilling and edible result.

Focaccia originates from Italy and is enriched with olive oil, which gives the bread a soft texture. It can be topped with a variety of things, but rosemary and sea salt is the most common. I chose to take that a step further and used chilli flakes and some dried lavender flowers taking the flavour into another dimension.

Ingredients
1/4 pint hand hot water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp dry active yeast
500g strong white flour
2 tsp salt
6 tblspn olive oil plus extra
225 ml tepid water (more may be needed)
sea salt flakes for sprinkling
a couple good pinches dried chilli flakes
a couple of pinches of dried lavender flowers
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary
some semolina or polenta for dusting

Method
In large jug mix yeast and sugar into 1/4 pint hand hot water, stir to dissolve. Set aside for about 10 minutes until the liquid develops a froth on top.

In a large bowl mix together the flour and salt. Stir in the olive oil.
Add the yeast liquid and the water and use you hand to mix into a soft dough. The dough should be quite moist and sticky at first.
Turn out on to a well floured surface and knead the dough for about 10 to 15 minutes until the dough no longer sticks to you hands and it becomes elastic and springy to the touch.
It is important to work the dough really well, making sure you stretch it and fold it back in on itself. This works the gluten from the flour so that the dough rises.

Pour a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a bowl and smear around, drop the dough ball in and cover with a damp tea towel and place in a warm place to rise, for around 1 1/2 hours. After this time the dough should have doubled in size.
Slip the dough out the bowl on to a floured surface, knock back to remove air bubbles – you should be able to hear and feel the air puffing out – and knead again for 5 minutes. Then roll it out in to a flat oval shape. Not thin but slightly less thick than you want it to be when it’s baked.
Place on to an oiled baking sheet that has been dusted with polenta or semolina, cover with a damp tea towel and place somewhere warm for about 30 minutes until it has risen and doubled again.

While it is rising, preheat the oven to 200C, Gas 6.

When the dough has risen, make indentations in it using your fingertips. Drizzle with olive oil and a little water. Sprinkle with sea salt to give an even and light coverage. Do the same again with the chilli flakes. Sprinkle over the pinch of lavender flowers, but be quite sparing as they have a strong flavour. Then pull of a few leaves at a time off the rosemary and push into the dough.

Bake for approximately 20 minutes until golden brown and the loaf moves freely on the baking sheet. Slip on to a wire rack to cool.

Letchworth Food Festival 2010: Hurrah!

I’ve been thinking for a while now that it would be good to have some kind of food festival in my town. There have been a some fleeting visits from continental markets over the years and of course our monthly farmers' market, but nothing that truly celebrates the wealth of local produce out there.

Now I’m very excited to hear that Letchworth, the world's first Garden City (I’m quite proud of that!) will be hosting a foodie festival over the weekend of 22 and 23 May.
I’m looking forward to the variety of produce to taste and buy, including bread, meat, fish, jams, fruit juices, muffins and honey and everything in between. No doubt there will be regulars from the farmers' market, but as well as the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire contingent, producers will also be coming from as far afield as Norfolk and Suffolk.
Scanning down the traders expected so far, I see that Norfolk’s Samphire Shop and Brays Cottage who sell the most sublime pork pies. They’d better have plenty as I have plans to stock up my freezer!

There will also be food to eat on the go, including soups, stews, hot and cold salads, goat curry (or should that be curry goat?), paella, chocolate, handmade fruit cream ices and other mouth-watering goodies. Probably best to arrive hungry, I think.

And if that wasn’t enough, in true food festival style there will be cookery demonstrations too, including some famous faces to draw in the crowds.
Michelin Star Chef Phil Thompson, now executive chef of Brocket Hall’s flagship restaurant Auberge du Lac and TV Chef Paul Bloxham (he’s been on Market Kitchen, recently), who runs his award-winning pub, ‘The Tilbury’ in Datchworth, near Stevenage.
The Country Bumpkin, local food forager; cookery author Sally Bee and Xanthe Milton, aka Cookie Girl will also be there amongst local favourites.

Sounds like it’ll be a great weekend to grab an opportunity to have a chat with the stall holders and sample their wares and what’s more, the admission is free!

Letchworth Food Festival is open 10am to 4pm on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 May 2010, located in and around Leys Square and Leys Avenue in the heart of the Garden City.


For further information on the festival visit www.letchworthfoodfestival.co.uk as there are constant updates with new traders added and chefs.

See you there!