Sprouts on sticks and farmers markets

Is is just me, or does the festive period bring forth thoughts of traditional food, ingredients and a dickensian christmas packed full of culinary delights? What better way to cement this than to visit a Christmas Farmers' Market. Now, I tend to visit these all year round anyway and frequent local farm shops throughout the year, but for my Christmas purchases, it takes something a little different, and that usually the Christmas Merchants Market at Hoghton Tower in Lancashire.

This year we took foodie friends of ours Gaynor and Chris, and promised them a day of wonder with hog roast butties, sprouts on sticks and all sorts of lovely dairy and meat products. In short, it was absolutely flippin freezing, but armed with scarves and gloves we soldiered on. The Christmas Merchants Market at Hoghton tower isn't huge, it tends to have a good 12-15 stalls outside selling anything from smoked produce, locally grown chillis, vegetables, pastry products, rabbits/hares and cheese - not to mention to ubiquitous hog roast stall. The remaining stalls are inside 2 small barns and include hot apple juice, black puddings, cakes, more cheeses and an array of butchers selling anything from fresh poultry, mutton, beef etc. It doesn't take long to walk around, and including 10 minutes for hog roast queuing and eating, it was all over in 90 minutes.

So what did we buy? Well Gaynor and Chris managed to get a fabulous looking free range turkey. I bought a prepared rabbit which has now been transformed into a rabbit pie with madiera and juniper, and a whole salmon which is filleted in the freezer awaiting adornment for christmas day. Of course we simply had to purchase the main reason for going to the market, and thats sprouts on stalks, as in our house christmas wouldn't be christmas without sprouts.

Cath

BBC Good Food Show

Well what did you expect?! Surely any foodie would have also been hot-footing it down to birmingham from 29th November to go to the Good Food Show at the NEC.

I went with a friend of mine Gaynor, a fellow foodie, and armed with rucksacks (vital for carrying home bottles of millers gin), comfy shoes and some cold hard cash we set off for a day of foodie fun, and it was not disappointing.

So what did we see? Well first of all, how bizarre to travel all the way from lancashire to Birmingham to buy some smoked goats cheese and salmon from the Port of Lancaster Smokehouse. Secondly, a vital trip to Fox's Spices for some Ras al Hanout and varied spices, before we tracked down the Miller Gin stall - a fabulously smooth icelandic gin.

We were booked in to see the Jamie Oliver Masterclass at 3.45, and whilst we expected to see the odd telly chef, nothing could have prepared us for the plethora of TV bods, including:-

the hairy bikers
James Tanner
Toby Tobin
Gordon Ramsey
Jamie...of course
Angela Hartnet
Ching's kitchen star Ching He Huang
Gennaro Contaldo
Jimmy from Jimmy's farm (ok not a chef)
but best of all, Jimmy's sidekick Dolly - what a hero

It was a fantastic day, and laden with cheese, booze, fish, spices and some great smoked garlic we headed home, weary but happy.

Happy Christmas and happy cooking

Cath

Christmas Cake Recipe...and an old Mrs Beeton's Book

Ok ok, so i'm suggesting this a little bit late, as I made my christmas cake at the end of September and have been 'feeding' it every few weeks with the contents of the drinks cabinet - but at least that's given me time to try this new recipe, and see how good the chrimmy cake is. So where did the recipe come from, well thats just it, I simply don't know, and may need the power of "t'internet" to help me.

On our wedding day my hubby Mark bought a copy of Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management, a second edition from 1861. A lovely old, well worn book that has obviously been enjoyed and you know has that lovely musty old book smell. What a fantastic present.

Upon opening the book, a small pink sticker shows that at some point its been sold by a bookseller called T A Palmer in Grantham. However the best bits are the handwritten names in the book, that I assume refer to the owners, namely:-

Mrs White, Whitby 1862, L C King (no date), Mrs White, Stainby 1869.

...and this is where my christmas cake recipe is from...now before you shout with horror, and accuse me of plagurising the great late Mrs Beeton, fear not. The recipe is a handwritten recipe in the back of the book, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Wouldn't it be excellent if the original owner of the recipe could be traced. Anyway, I therefore feel, as owner of the book from 2006 that I ought to share this person's notes. Enjoy (ps, this makes a really crumbly, pale christmas cake that really benefits from a few slugs of booze, but tastes great). The quantities below make one (8inch) 20cm circular cake.

You will notice that the cake has no spices, thats because it seems to rely on regular feeding with alcohol once cooked. Or rather thats my interpretation as the recipe doesn't mention alcohol at all or nuts - I've just added them in. Actually the recipe didn't give any instructions or cooking temperatures either, but through trial and error thats been worked out for you.

Christmas Cake (unknown)

450g raisins
450g currants
340g butter
220g sugar
110g candied lemon peel
2tsp baking powder
680g self raising flour
3 eggs
Optional - 75g pecan nuts/almond slices

Preheat the oven to 180oc

Prepare a 20cm diameter spring base cake tin by greasing and lining with a double layer of greaseproof paper.

Cream the sugar and butter together until smooth, sieve the flour and baking powder into a bowl and fold in alternative spoons of flour and egg mixture until the cake mixture is smooth. Stir in the dried fruit and candied peel.

Spoon the cake mixture into the cake tin and cook for approximately 1.5 hours. After 60 minutes check the cake by piercing with a skewer.

Once the cake is cooked, prick the cake with a fine skewer and brush 2-3 tbsp brandy, port or whisky on the cake every 3-4 weeks. Each time you 'feed' the cake, turn it over. In the meantime keep the cake well wrapped in tinfoil and cling film. After a month or so you will notice the cake darkening and becoming more moist.

Anyway, shouldn't recipes be about sharing, tweaking and re-sharing.

Cath