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:
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.
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.
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:
1/2 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.
Ingredients:
1 goat leg
2 onions
1 leek
2 carrots (white or purple)
1 tsp of fresh or fermented wild Garlic
1 tsp juniper berries
4 cups of elderberry wine
2 cups of beef stock
Method:
Put the leg into a large pot. Roughly slice up the onions, along with the leek and carrots, and add them to the pot with the garlic & juniper berries.
Top up the pot with Elderberry wine and leave to soak for a few hours or, ideally, overnight.
Add the beef stock to the pot and place over a fire. Bring to a boil and simmer for around 2-2 1/2 hours, until cooked through. Alternatively this can be cooked in the oven at 180 degrees celsius.
During this time top up with water, or more wine, as necessary, to keep the joint covered.
Remove the leg from the pot and leave to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Ingredients:
2 cups elderberries
1 cup water
1 cup honey
Method:
Put the elderberries and water in a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.
Strain through a sieve.
Measure the liquid and put it back into the pot with equal parts honey. For example - 500ml liquid will need 500g honey. Heat for around 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the honey has dissolved.
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.
This syrup is said to be great for colds. Either way it tastes great on porridge, or mixed with hot water to make a tea.
Ingredients:
Whole chicken
2 cups of Cider
A few Juniper berries
A Small Handful of fresh Sorrel
A Small Handful of Wild garlic
A Small Handful of Ground elder
A slice of Stale Bread
Olive oil
Method:
Put the chicken into a large pot or cauldron and add the cider and juniper. Top up the pot with water, ensuring the chicken is completely covered. Heat the liquid to a simmer and parboil the chicken for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile roughly chop the sorrel, garlic and ground elder. Tear the bread into chunks and mix into the chopped leaves, with a little oil.
Carefully remove the chicken from the pot (reserve the liquid to use as stock in another dish). Stuff the bread and sorrel mix into the cavity, and place the chicken on a spit. Rub a little oil onto the chicken skin and cook over hot embers for about an hour and a half, turning occasionally.
Be sure to avoid any flames coming into contact with the chicken, or it will burn before cooking all the way through. Skewer the chicken and check the liquid runs clear before serving.
The year was 878. King Alfred the great was the ruler of Wessex, and not a lot else. He was pinned down to the Isle of Athelney in Somerset, battling the hairy and brutal Viking armies on a daily basis.
Another Viking army had made a base in South-west Wales, under the leadership of a fearsome Chieftain named Ubba, son of the infamous Ragnar Lothbrok.
They formed a plan to trap King Alfred and attack from another side. They sailed across to North Devon with 1200 men on 23 ships. Upon arrival in Devon, in a field now known as ‘the bloody corner’ a large battle took place against a defending party, under the leadership of Odda, Ealdorman of Devon.
The Vikings had pinned Odda and his men into a fortress, known as Cynuit. All seemed lost for the Saxons, so they made one final charge at Ubba and his men.
The Danes managed victory over Odda, but after losing 840 men, including their leader, Ubba, the Danes could not continue with the campaign to defeat Alfred the great.
Ubba’s men retreated to Lundy island before burying him in a place near the river, at Appledore, now known as Hubbastone, under a cairn made from Lundy granite. No longer visible, either washed away or built over, a memorial has been installed by the river in his honour.
King Alfred went on to successfully defend Wessex, and his descendants eventually ruled over England, for a time. And Odda, for his efforts, got a street named after him in Appledore, now called ‘Odun road’
Ingredients:
Salt
Wild garlic
Method:
In a large mixing bowl or trough, layer garlic leaves and flowers with a small amount of salt.
Leave for several hours.
Massage and squash the leaves, working the salt into the leaves and leave for a couple more hours.
Transfer to a bowl or suitable container and weigh the leaves down with something heavy. Leave overnight.
Tightly pack the garlic into a jar and weigh the contents down using a bottle filled with water, squeezing the juice from the garlic and ensuring all the leaves are fully submersed in the extracted liquid. If there isn’t enough liquid top up with spring water, not tap.
Leave to ferment for a minimum of one week before consuming
Ingredients:
4 Oysters
Knob of butter
1 tsp finely chopped parsley
1 tsp fennel seeds (freshly ground)
1 tsp finely chopped wild garlic (or 1 garlic clove)
Method:
Melt the butter in a pan. Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley, fennel & garlic.
Shuk the Oysters, discarding the flat pieces of shell. Add 1 teaspoon of the garlic butter to each shell.
Carefully place the Oyster shells onto hot embers and leave to cook for 3-4 minutes.
Remove the hot shells from the embers and serve immediately.
Ingredients:
100g oats
100g barley
1 onion
100g pork fat
3 tsp salt
3 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp ground coriander seeds
1 tsp ground mustard seeds
1 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
1 tsp finely chopped fresh savory
50g dried blood
150ml cold water
Sausage casings
Method:
Cook the barley until soft, drain and leave to cool.
In a large bowl, mix together the oats and barley.
Finely chop 1 onion and cut the pork fat into cubes. Add to the bowl of oats and barley, along with the salt, pepper, coriander, thyme and savory. Mix well.
Mix 50g dried blood with 250ml of cold water and stir into the oat/barley mixture.
Attach a length of sausage casing to a sausage horn or funnel, tying a knot in the bottom.
Stuff the mixture through the horn into the casing.
It's a messy job, best done outside, or in the sink. Avoid over filling the casing, or it will split when being cooked later, as the filling will expand during the process.
Tie the end of the casing, and cook in hot, but not boiling water. If you have a thermometer, you are aiming for around 80 degrees Celsius.
Cook for 60 minutes. Once cooked leave to cool fully.
To eat, slice and fry for several minutes.
<Ingredients:
Butter
1 onions
2 celery sticks
2 carrots, including the greens (white or purple – not orange!)
2 chicken breasts
A few rashers of bacon
600ml/2 cups chicken stock
300ml/1 cup ale
2 bay leaves
A few sprigs of thyme and marjoram
1 cup podded broad beans
Method:
Melt the butter in a large pan or cauldron. Chop the onion, celery & carrots and add to the pan. Fry for a few minutes to soften.
Dice the chicken & slice the bacon. Add to the pan and fry for a few minutes. Pour over the chicken stock and ale, add the herbs and the beans.
Stir well, bring to a boil and simmer for about 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and serve with fresh sourdough bread.
