Ingredients:
1 cup of flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
Quarter cup of beer
Large handful of wild garlic
4 spring onions
Method:
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, eggs and beer.
Roughly chop the garlic and onions and add to the batter. Mix well.
Heat some butter in a frying pan and, once hot, add the batter in large tablespoons, leaving space between each one.
Once the underside is golden, flip and cook the other side. Serve while still warm.
Ingredients:
2kg Goat or sheep Offal (approx 2 plucks - lung, heart, liver and kidney)
4 Tsp Peppercorns
3 Tsp garlic salt
2 Tsp coriander seed
2 Tsp dried sage
2 Tsp caraway
2 onions
240g suet
500g oats
Ox Bungs
Method:
Dice the Offal and boil them in water for 1 hour.
Drain the Offal, reserving the stock. Either finely chop or run the offal through a food processor and set to one side.
Grind the herbs and seeds together finely in a pestle and mortar. Finely chop the onion.
Mix together the offal, reserved stock, herbs/seeds, onion, suet & oats. Kneed, mash and work it together with your hands until its consistent.
Stuff the mixture into Ox bungs, tying the ends with string. Be sure not to overfill, as they expland while cooking and may explode.
These can be frozen for later use at this stage.
Too cook, prick with a fork and boil for 1 1/2 hours. Ensure the haggis is hot through before serving.
To eat, slice the haggis lengthways and eat the filling. Discarding the bung.
Great served with my ember baked veg, such as turnips.
Ingredients:
apples
turnips
onions
Method:
Carefully place unpeeled onions, apples and turnips onto hot embers. Turn them occasionally.
To see if they are ready to eat, gently poke with a sharp knife. They are done when the knife easily inserts to the middle.
Timings will vary depending on the fruit or veg, apples and small onions should take around 10-15 minutes. Turnips around 30 - 40 minutes.
Carefully cut the fruit and veg in half and add some salted butter to the turnips before eating. The onions and apples will be deliciously sweet and smokey.
Ingredients:
250g Wholemeal bread flour
250g White bread flour
1 tsp Salt
200g Beetroot
200g Starter
300ml Warm water
Method:
Put the flours and salt into a large bowl and mix together. Grate the beetroot and add to the flour, along with the starter. Slowly add the water and mix together to form a dough.
You can add more or less water depending on how your dough feels; I find it
varies slightly every time.
Tip the dough out onto a lightly oiled worktop and knead for 10 minutes.
There are various ways to knead your dough. I like to stretch it out, then roll it back in and give it a 90 degree turn, before stretching it out again.
Put your dough into a lightly oiled bowl and cover loosely with a damp cloth to stop it drying out. Place somewhere warm, I usually put it near our wood-burner.
Leave to prove for several hours until the dough has roughly doubled in size. Sourdough takes longer to develop than bread made with shop bought yeast, but benefits from the extra time, as it develops a better flavour.
Tip your dough back out onto your lightly oiled work surface and carefully deflate it by poking it with your fingers. Reshape by folding in half four times and forming a nice tight ball. Coat with a little flour.
Place it in a lightly greased loaf tin for a square sandwich loaf, or into a floured proving basket, if you have one. Cover loosely with a damp cloth and leave for another hour or more to prove again. If using a tin, it should rise to the top.
Heat your oven to its highest temperature and boil the kettle. If using a proving basket, you will need to place an oven tray in to heat.
Place some hot water in a baking tray at the bottom of the oven, this will help to create a good crust on your loaf. If using the proving basket, tip your bread out onto the hot oven tray, slash the top and get it in the oven and shut the door, as quick as possible, to avoid heat loss. If using a loaf tin, slash the top and put your loaf tin in the centre of the oven.
Cook for 10 minutes before dropping the temperature to 200 degrees if the crust is looking pale, 180 degrees if the crust is noticeably browning, and 170 if it seems to be browning quickly. Cook for a further 40 mins.
When using a loaf tin, I like to take it out of the tin and place the loaf back in the oven for the last 10minutes.
Remove from the oven; the loaf should sound hollow when you tap it on the bottom.
Leave to cool fully before cutting.
Ingredients:
250g Caster sugar
125g Salted butter
2 Tablespoon black treacle
400g Plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 Teaspoon black pepper (2 if you really love Pepper)
1 Teaspoon ginger
1/2 Teaspoon ground cloves
250g Dried mixed fruit
3 Eggs
1/2 Pint of stout
Method:
Pre heat your oven to 170 degrees Celsius and grease and line a 7’’ cake tin with greaseproof paper.
Melt the butter, sugar, and treacle together in a pan.
Put the flour, baking powder, spices, and fruit, into a bowl and mix together. Add the melted butter, eggs, and stout, and mix well.
Pour the mixture into your greased and lined cake tin and cook on the lower shelf of your oven for 1 - 1.5 hours, until a skewer can be cleanly inserted and removed from the centre of the cake. Best serve with a pint of stout or afternoon tea.
Ingredients:
300g plain flour
250g unsalted butter (cut into cubes)
Pinch of salt
2 Eggs
100 ml Water
250g Minced venison (or beef)
250g mincemeat (see previous page)
100g Suet
Method:
Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius and grease a cupcake tray.
Add the butter to the flour and rub it into the flour with your fingertips. Keep rubbing until the mix resembles breadcrumbs.
Add a pinch of salt, 1 of the eggs, and the water, and mix together to form a stiff dough.
On a lightly floured surface, roll the pastry out as thin as possible - 1 or 2 mm is best. Cut rounds for the bases using a pastry cutter and place into your greased cupcake tray.
Mix together the minced venison, mincemeat, and suet, and fill the bases with the mix. Cut slightly smaller rounds to use as lids. Whisk an egg and where the pastry lids and bases join, using a little egg to seal the edges together.
Prick the tops in the middle with a fork, and brush the tops with a little egg.
Cook in the centre of your oven for about 30-35 minutes, until golden in colour and cooked through.
Ingredients:
2 Goat heads
1 leek
1 onion
Butter
1 teaspoon Caraway seed
Method:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 2 whole goat heads to the pot. Simmer for around 2 hours. Remove any scum from the surface as it appears.
Remove from the pot and when cool enough to handle, remove as much flesh as possible from the skulls. Remove the jaw bones and cut or pull out the tongues. Finely chop all the meat. Crack open the skulls with a heavy knife and scoop out the brains.
Roughly chop a leek and peel and chop an onion.
Melt some butter to a pan and add the leek, onion, meat and brains. Add a teaspoon of caraway seeds and fry for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with flatbreads.
Though you can get traditional ceramic rumpots, you can use any clean, large container.
As well as making a deliciously fruity rum, you also get boozy fruits to eat with ice cream, cheesecake, pancakes, flan, porridge etc.
Ingredients:
• Rum
• Sugar
• Fruit (apples, pears, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, damsons, plums, gooseberries, cherries, blackcurrants, rhubarb- anything you can get your hands on)
Method:
Remove any stems, seeds and stones from the fruit. Cut larger fruits into smaller pieces.
Put the fruit into a large pot, or rumpot if you have one. For every 500g of fruit, sprinkle 250g of sugar over the top. Add enough rum to cover the fruit, by at least 1 inch.
Cover the top of the pot with cling film, to stop the alcohol evaporating.
Throughout the summer continue to add more fruit as it becomes available. Every time you add more fruit, add more sugar and rum, until the pot is full.
If all your fruit is available at the same time, you can add it all at once.
Once the pot is full, allow at least 6-8 weeks before straining the fruit from the alcohol and eating/drinking.
Ingredients:
700ml Gin
200g Granulated sugar
Young beech leaves (enough to fill a jar)
200ml brandy
Method:
Pack the leaves and sugar into a large jar.
Pour the gin over and put the lid on. Shake the jar to mix in the sugar. Shake once a day, for a few days, until the sugar remains dissolved.
After 3 weeks decant the gin and mix with the brandy. Pour into bottles, placing one of the beech leaves into each of the bottles.
While this can be drunk straight away, it is best kept for at least a month.
I made a more seasonal version of this for the Alfreds Cake chat at Shaftesbury Abbey Museum & Gardens with Penny-Jane Swift for Will I Vike It. I swapped out the soft fruit for a grated apple and some roughly chopped walnuts and a little extra flour to make up for the wetness of the apple.
Ingredients:
2 cups of berries (whichever berries are seasonal/local - think elderberry, bilberry, blackberry, raspberry etc. Or a mixture)
2 tablespoon Malt extract
1 cup of oat flour
Method:
Roughly mash the fruit using the back of a spoon or rolling pin.
In a bowl, mix together the malt extract and mashed fruit. Stir in the flour until combined.
Heat some butter in a frying pan and, once hot, add the fruit batter in large tablespoons, leaving space between each one. Once the underside is golden, flip and cook the other side.
Leave to cool before eating.
Ingredients:
3 tsp dry blood (ask a butcher or check online retailers)
200ml/3/4 cup warm water
500g/2.5 cups bread flour (+ extra for coating)
10g/2 tsp salt
200g/3/4 cup sourdough starter
50g/2.5 tablespoons honey
Method:
Mix the dried blood with the water and whisk to a smooth consistency.
Put the flour and salt into a large bowl and mix together. Add the starter and honey and slowly add the blood solution and mix together to form a dough. You can add more or less water depending on how your dough feels. I find it varies slightly every time.
Tip out onto your worktop and knead for around 10 minutes.
Roll your dough into a ball, and dust with a little flour. Put it into a bowl and cover loosely with a damp cloth, to stop it drying out. Place somewhere warm.
Leave to prove for 3-4 hours, until the dough has roughly doubled in size.
Tip your dough back out onto your work surface and carefully deflate it by poking it with your fingers. Divide the mix into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball and coat with a little flour.
Place onto a baking tray, that has been dusted with flour, and leave for another hour or to prove again.
Heat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius and cook for about 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven, the rolls should sound hollow when you tap them on the bottom.
These can also be cooked in the dying embers of a fire.
Leave to cool fully before serving with butter.
Ingredients:
200g/1 cup wholemeal bread flour
300/1.5 cups strong white bread flour
10g/2 tsp salt
100g/3/4 cup walnuts (roughly chopped)
200g/3/4 cup sourdough starter
50g/2.5 tablespoons honey
250ml/1 cup warm water (give or take)
Method:
Put the flour, walnuts and salt into a large bowl and mix together.
Add the starter and honey. Slowly add the water and mix together to form a dough.
It needs to be workable, so as not to stick to your hands too much, but too dry and it will fall apart. You can add more or less water depending on how your dough feels. I find it varies slightly every time.
Tip out onto your worktop and knead for around 5-10 minutes. I don’t bother to flour or oil the worktop, I never really found it necessary.
There are various ways to knead your dough I like to stretch it out, then roll it back in and give it a 90 degree turn, before stretching it out again.
Cover with a damp cloth and leave to prove, somewhere warm, for a couple of hours, or until it has roughly doubled in size.
Tip the dough back onto your work surface and shape into a loaf, then place on a baking tray.
Leave the loaf to prove for a further 30 minutes. Meanwhile, pre-heat the oven to 250 degrees C.
Slash the top of the loaf, and leave to prove for a further 10 minutes.
Pour some boiled water on the bottom of the oven.
Cook for 10 minutes before dropping the temperature to 200 degrees if the crust is looking pale, 180 degrees if the crust is noticeably browning, and 170 if it seems to be browning quickly. Cook for a further 40 mins.
Remove from the oven, the loaf should sound hollow when you tap it on the bottom, if not return it to the oven for a little longer.
This can also be cooked in the dying embers of a fire, just divide the dough into small rolls first, rather than a loaf.
Leave to cool fully before cutting.
Ingredients:
220g beef (Around 1 steak)
60ml/4 tablespoons cider vinegar
20g/1 tablespoon honey
2 tsp juniper berries
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Method:
Freeze the beef for about 45 minutes, this will make slicing it easier.
Slice the frozen beef as thinly as possible and place in a suitable container for marinading.
Mix together the rest of the ingredients and pour over the beef. Marinade for a couple of hours.
Heat your oven to 80 degrees Celsius. Remove the beef from the marinade and place in a single layer in the oven. Cook for 2-2.5 hours, until dry.
This will make enough toffee for the apples plus a little extra. Poor the leftovers onto a piece of greaseproof paper and leave to set. Break into pieces with a toffee hammer or knife.
Ingredients:
300g caster sugar
200g golden syrup
100ml water
6 apples
Method:
Pop lolly sticks into your apples. Put the sugar, syrup, and water, into a pan.
Melt on a medium heat, stirring occasionally. Once the sugar has all melted and turned a caramel colour, stop stirring. Boil the sugar until it reaches 150 degrees (hard crack) on a thermometer.
If you don’t have a thermometer, drop a little of the sugar into some water, it should set hard instantly.
Turn off the heat and carefully dip your apples into the toffee. Place onto a piece of greaseproof paper until set hard.
Ingredients:
Salmon
Fennel seeds
Streaky bacon
Butter
Method:
Cut the salmon into bite sized chunks.
Put some fennel seeds on a plate and roll the salmon in the seeds, coating all sides.
Wrap a rasher of bacon around each of the salmon chunks. Repeat for all your salmon.
Heat a little butter in a frying pan over a fire and add the bacon wrapped fish.
Cook for 10-15 minutes, turning occasionally, until the bacon has browned and the fish is cooked through.
Alternatively cook in your oven at 200 degrees celsius.
Ingredients:
2 Goat heads
1 leek
1 onion
Butter
1 teaspoon Caraway seed
Method:
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add 2 whole goat heads to the pot. Simmer for around 2 hours. Remove any scum from the surface as it appears.
Remove from the pot and when cool enough to handle, remove as much flesh as possible from the skulls. Remove the jaw bones and cut or pull out the tongues. Finely chop all the meat. Crack open the skulls with a heavy knife and scoop out the brains.
Roughly chop a leek and peel and chop an onion.
Melt some butter to a pan and add the leek, onion, meat and brains. Add a teaspoon of caraway seeds and fry for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with flatbreads.
Ingredients:
1.8Kg of honey
4.5l boiled water
4 large oranges
1 tsp mead yeast
Method:
Orange Mead
Put half the honey into a clean, sterile bucket with the juice and rind of the oranges. Pour in the boiling water and stir until the honey is dissolved. When the liquid has cooled to room temperature, add the yeast. Leave to ferment for 2 days.
Strain the liquid through a clean muslin into a demijohn, fit with an airlock and leave to ferment for a further 5 days.
Syphon the mead into a clean demijohn, leaving behind any sediment. Add the rest of the honey and mix well. When fermentation ends (when bubbles pass through the airlock at less than one a minute) siphon the mead into bottles and cork.
Age for a minimum of 3 months before drinking.
Ingredients:
• 4 lemons (zest and juice)
• 1kg grated courgette
• 1kg jam sugar
• 100g freshly grated root ginger
• 200g crystallised stem ginger (finely chopped)
Method:
Put the lemon juice, zest and courgette into a large pan and warm gently to release some of the juices.
Add the sugar and the ginger and bring to the boil. Simmer for around 10 - 15 minutes until setting point is reached.
Leave to cool for 10 minutes, before pouring into warm, sterilised jars.
Ingredients:
1/2 a cup nettle seeds
1/4 cup salt
Method:
Pick the seeds when they are drooping from the plant. Leave the seeds for a few days to fully dry, before sieving.
Mix the salt and nettle seeds together and store somewhere dry.
Ingredients:
4 cups fresh rose-hips
8 cups water
2 cups honey
Method:
Clean and roughly chop the rose- hips and put them into a pot. Add eight cups of water and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat and simmer for around 15 minutes.
Strain the liquid through a muslin or cheese cloth, reserving the liquid, but discarding the rose-hips.
Transfer the liquid to a clean pot and add the honey. Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve the honey. Simmer until reduced to a syrupy consistency.
Pour into clean, sterile containers and store in a cool place. Proceed cautiously, as I have known this to start fermenting, which can lead to exploding containers.
