Sloe Gin

This year on my birthday i was in Cornwall. One of the gifts i was very happy to receive was the River Cottage Handbook 2 - Preserves. This has been an important resource in the Keston Kitchen, particularly at this time of year, very glad to now own a copy myself as the previous one moved to Camberwell with Charlotte!

When i got the book i was keen to use some of the recipes from it as soon as i could, where we were staying by the Helford river, the blackberries were not quite ripe. There was one thing though that could be found growing along the shore in vast quantities - sloes.
I filled a bag full of the fruit, they were small and took some persuading to be parted from the blackthorn bush. As i understand you ideally wait until after the first frost before picking your sloes but if you are concerned about the birds eating them all before this has happened, or if like me you have to grab them while you can, the alternative is to freeze them. This process helps break down the internal structure of the berries and gets the juices flowing.

When i got home to London i popped the sloes in the freezer for a couple of days and then let them defrost before following the recipe below. These instructions make about a litre of sloe gin but i just worked out how many sloes i had an adjusted the other ingredients proportionally.

Mine has been infusing for about a week now, should just about ready in time for Christmas!

Ingredients:

450g sloes, frosted or pricked
450g granulated sugar (or less for a more tart gin)
600ml gin
A large glass jar or bottle - Make sure your jar has a good seal and you will be shaking the contents around and you don't want the precious liqueur leaking out. I found that for the quantities above i needed a jar with a capacity of about 2 litres because the fruit takes up a lot of space.

Put the defrosted sloes into your jar or bottle. Pour over the sugar, followed by the gin. Secure the container with the lid and give it a good shake to mix up the contents. For the next week shake it daily to prevent the sugar from settling on the bottom and to help get the juice out of the sloes. Thereafter shake and taste once a week for 8-10 weeks.
When the sloes have instilled their flavour, pass the mixture through a fine sieve. Pour the strained liqueur into bottles.
Ideally, you should leave sloe gin for 18 months before drinking to allow the flavour to mature and mellow but i know from experience that it rarely lasts until the end of the festive season.
In the preserves book they recommend keeping the sloes, removing the stones and eating them with ice cream or folded into melted chocolate, i have not tried this yet myself but i will report back!

Of course if you don't have sloes you can use different fruit like damsons or blackberries and apple. One year some friends brought round their greengage rum which was delicious! Adding fruit and sugar to any half empty bottles of spirits sat in your cupboard is definitely the way forward.

Rachael x

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Chocolate Guinness Cake

This very indulgent cake has been made a few times in the Keston Kitchen to mark special occasions and I have intended to post the recipe for ages. It being St Patrick's day and the key ingredient being Guinness, I thought it was appropriate that I finally got round to writing about it today.
We have tried out other Guinness cake recipes which have also worked well but this Nigella version is the easiest (and definitely the naughtiest - the amount of sugar in this recipe is outrageous!).
The creamy icing is delicious and when spread on top of the dark rich cake it completes the cake like the head on a pint of Guinness.

Most recently I made this cake last week, it was Pierre's birthday (Keston Kitchen calendar photographer). We arrived at the pub in Camberwell where the festivities were taking place to find that he already had one chocolate birthday cake (and a selection of novelty moustaches which his guests were sporting)! We lit the candles on both cakes and everyone tucked in.
I think the Guinness cake was well received as I returned home with an empty plate.
This recipe is great if you are looking for a rich, moist chocolate cake, I have to say you can't really taste the Guinness but we have never had any complaints from its recipients!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Rachael xx

Ingredients for the cake:
250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter
75g cocoa powder
400g caster sugar
142ml sour cream
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the icing:
300g cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double cream or whipping cream



Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line a 23cm round cake tin with baking parchment (grease the paper with a little butter).
Pour the Guinness into a large wide saucepan, add the butter in pieces and heat until the butter has melted. Then, whisk in the sugar and cocoa powder.
In a separate bowl beat the eggs with the sour cream and vanilla extract and then add it to the rest of the mixture in the pan.
Finally mix in the flour and bicarbonate of soda, a bit at a time (you may need to decant the mixture into a bowl before adding the flour if you pan is not big enough).
Pour the cake batter into the lined and greased tin and bake in the oven for 45-60 minutes (mine took a good hour). Once cooked (a skewer comes out clean from the centre of the cake), leave it to cool in its tin. Because it is such a sticky, damp cake don't try and take it out of the tin too soon as it may not stay in one piece.
To make the icing, put the cream cheese in a bowl and stir in until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and mix them together. Then add the cream and beat until it thickens into a spreadable consistency. Once the cake is cool, cover the top with the icing.

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Rainbow Cake

Last weekend we were celebrating the birthday of one of the ladies of the Keston Kitchen. The party theme that Julia decided upon was 'the skys the limit' (themes and fancy dress are compulsory at all Keston parties). We were most impressed with the assortment of pilots, clouds, deities, birds and other creative costumes that turned up at our door. The birthday cake had to of course also fit the theme, it didn't take long before I decided a rainbow cake was called for, with a different colour for each layer of the cake. I consulted Abbie (office baking expert) and she advised using the trusty Madeira cake recipe which I had used for the Keston kitchen cake in November as it is nice and solid and easy to pile high.
I remembered that Philippa (friend from school) had put pictures on facebook of a rainbow cake she had made, she advised using food colouring paste rather than the normal liquid stuff which isn't as effective (i tried making a green velvet cake with normal food colouring once but it came out rather grey!). Apparently Hobby Craft stocks the pastes but I don't have one near me so I bought some online instead, you don't need to use much so they will last me for years.

Rainbow Madeira Cake

The following ingredients will make 2 layers of your cake (so you will need 3 times the ingredients if making 6 layers), my layers were quite big so if I made it again I might use less cake mixture.

175g unsalted butter (at room temperature)
175g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
225g self raising flour
Zest of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt
Splash of milk
A little bit of food colouring paste (i reckon about 1/4 tsp per layer), the brand I used was Wilton and the colours I used for the 6 layers were red-red, golden yellow, leaf green, royal blue, violet and I made orange by adding both red and yellow.

Method:
Assuming you make two layers at a time, line two 7inch cake tins with baking parchment and pre-heat the oven to 170C.
Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together with a fork making sure the ingredients are fully combined and the mixture has a paler appearance than when you started.
Whisk in the eggs. Fold in the flour a bit at a time. Then add milk a little at a time until your mixture has a soft drop consistency.
Put half the mixture in another bowl and then add a different colour paste to each bowl. The food colouring paste is gloopy in texture so I just added it a drop at a time until I decided the batter was a suitable shade.
Scrape the mixtures into separate cake tins (which you lined), make sure the mixture is level in the tins so it rises evenly and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. When cooked a skewer will come out clean, don't worry if you cakes look an odd colour as when cut open their true glory will be revealed!

Ju was busy in the kitchen in the lead up to the party and I didn't want her to cotton on to what I was making so I did some serious mid-night baking on the friday and hid the cake before going to bed. I then waited until the party was in full swing on saturday, banned the birthday girl from the kitchen and recruited Fern, Ceri and Tessa to help with the icing.

I used a thin layer of strawberry jam and whipped cream to glue the layers together and then we slapped on the blue cream cheese icing (cream cheese, butter and icing sugar). As I said it was quite late on in the party and I didn't measure the ingredients so the sky blue icing was somewhat runny but it did manage to hide the cakes beneath. I topped the cake with a yellow sun made from roll out icing and a few white clouds on the side which immediately started to slide downwards!

This cake was somewhat of an undertaking but definitely worth it just for the look on Julia's face when she sliced into the tower of cake having no idea what was inside. It also went down well with the rest of the party too!

Rachael x

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Keston Kitchen Birthday Cake

This month is the one year anniversary of the Keston Kitchen blog! In order to celebrate our first birthday I decided to make a cake to mark the occasion.

If you have read Julia's previous post about the exciting calendar announcement you will have seen the fabulous new logo which has been created for us by Nick Ritchie. The logo was the obvious choice for the birthday cake design.

I knew it needed to be a fairly substantial cake to do the logo justice, so I turned to my friend Abbie in her capacity as the office baking expert and general wizard with icing for advice. Abbie suggested making a Madeira cake and text me the recipe her and her mum use for many of their cake creations.

Madeira was definitely the right choice as the result was a sturdy cake that was easy to cut in half to add a filling and it provided a nice flat surface for icing. Although solid, it was not too heavy and had a lovely subtle lemon flavour.

The ingredients below are for a 7 inch round or 6 inch square tin, I was filling a 9 inch square tin and so used 7 eggs instead of 3 and adjusted all the other quantities accordingly.

Ingredients:

175g butter (room temperature)

175g caster sugar

3 eggs

225g self raising flour

pinch of salt

dribble of milk

grated zest of 1 lemon

Method:

Line a 7 inch round cake tin with greased baking parchment and pre-heat the oven to 170C.

Cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together with a fork, making sure the ingredients are fully combined and the mixture has a paler appearance than when you started.

Whisk in the eggs and then fold in the flour a bit at a time.

Finally add a little milk until the cake mixture is a soft drop consistency.

Scoop the mixture into the lined tin and make sure it is levelled off so it does not rise unevenly.

Place in the oven and cook for 1-1.25 hours until a skewer comes out of the centre of the cake clean (the larger cake took about 1.5 hour)

By the time the cake had cooled last sunday, I'd run out of energy for the icing part (plus we had to fit in watching an episode of the Wire that evening) so the cake lived in a tin for a couple of days before completion.

I sliced the cake in half and filled it with strawberry jam and whipped cream. I then heated a bit more jam with a splash of water to make a glaze to help the icing stick to the cake.

I used a packet of white icing which comes ready to roll. I used a 1kg packet for this cake but if you are making a 7 inch round cake a 500g packet would do.

After covering the cake in a layer of icing a few mm thick I cut out the design from the remaining icing using a stencil I created from a print out of the logo. Abs advised me to paint the food colouring onto the icing rather than mixing it in to produce a more vivid colour.

I left the painted icing letters to dry before putting them on the cake (just using water as glue) and so finished it hastily in the morning before work. We had a quick candle ceremony before I chopped it up to distribute to the other Keston Kids and the office where I work.

I was concerned the it may not have been as enjoyable 3 days after it was baked but the Madeira cake was still yummy and by the end of wednesday at work there were only a few crumbs left as evidence.

Thanks for your help Abbie (and Mrs M)

Rachael x

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The Easter Bun-off

by Charlotte x

As I delve deeper into my late twenties I begin to notice that my sweet tooth is often piping up, requesting desserts, chocolate delights and cake! I am a savoury tooth by nature and tend to cook savoury, salty dishes over baking sweet things. BUT, more recently I have decided that I need to be good at things like baking and pastry, in order to class myself as an OK creator of things in the kitchen.

Easter suddenly popped up, so a couple of days ago I decided to try my hand at hot cross buns, choosing a trusty Delia recipe to follow. They worked out rather nicely so I thought I would bake them again when back in the Shire for the four day Easter break. More to the point, I knew that once I got to mum and Big Al's there would be a bit of a competition on offer. Al is not often seen donning an apron but Easter time brings out his culinary side and every year he makes his buns in a very precise, delicate manner with a face full of concentration.

So, he got up at 9 and made his buns, using the Chorleywood method, something I have never heard of which involves putting viatmin C in the recipe to decrease the time you leave the dough to rise for, a method widely used in the UK bread making industry. My sister and I used Delia; I forgot to put the teaspoon of sugar with the water and yeast, so I then had a small strop because I thought they would not rise, complained about the temperature of my mum's house (not a good excuse as by this point Al's buns were the size of melons) and then decided it would all be fine as I could make 8 instead of 10-12 so that they were still of meritable size.

Is this cheating? Al says yes. Is vitamin C cheating? I say yes.

Two hours later and all was rosy. We glazed our buns in harmony and sat down to tea and a bun - half a bun of each recipe.

Al's buns: best served with a knob of butter.

Charlotte's buns: best served with a Haliborange.

Ingredients:
2 oz (50 g) caster sugar, plus 1 level teaspoon
1 level tablespoon dried yeast
1 lb (450 g) plain flour
1 level teaspoon salt
1 rounded teaspoon mixed spice
3 oz (75 g) currants
3 oz (75 g) currants
2 oz (50 g) cut mixed peel
1½-2 fl oz (40-55 ml) warmed milk
1 egg, beaten
2 oz (50 g) butter, melted
For the glaze:
2 level tablespoons granulated sugar

Method:

First stir the teaspoon of caster sugar into 5 fl oz (150 ml) hand-hot water, then sprinkle in the dried yeast and leave it until a good frothy 'beer' head forms.

Meanwhile sift the flour, salt and mixed spice into a mixing bowl and add the remaining 2 oz (50 g) of sugar, the currants and mixed peel. Then make a well in the centre, pour in the yeast mixture plus 1½ fl oz (40 ml) of milk (again hand-hot), the beaten egg and the melted butter. Now mix it to a dough, starting with a wooden spoon and finishing with your hands (add a spot more milk if it needs it).

Then transfer the dough on to a clean surface and knead it until it feels smooth and elastic – about 6 minutes. Now pop it back into the bowl, cover the bowl with a lightly oiled plastic bag, and leave it in a warm place to rise – it will take about an hour to double its original size.

Then turn it out and knead it again, back down to its original size.Divide the mixture into 12 round portions, arrange them on the greased baking sheet (allowing plenty of room for expansion), and make a deep cross on each one with a sharp knife. Leave them to rise once more, covering again with the oiled polythene bag, for about 25 minutes.

Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to gas mark 7, 425°F (220°C).Bake the buns for about 15 minutes. Then, while they're cooking, melt the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water for the glaze over a gentle heat and brush the buns with it as soon as they come out of the oven, to make them nice and sticky.

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Simply the Nest

Here on the Keston kitchen blog we like to provide a wide range of recipes - from the simple and straightforward to ones that are far more complicated and challenging.

So brace yourselves - this recipe is aimed at the most skilled and experienced chefs out there - yes, it's the Easter nest!

I have been making chocolate nests every Easter since I can remember and this year is no different. I have concluded that shredded wheat is definitely the tastiest (and most nest like) cereal to use, and that Bournville (40% cocoa) chocolate is the best because it is not too sweet or too bitter.

The ingredients below make 12 Easter nests:

Ingredients:

5 large Shredded wheat

200g Bournville chocolate

2 or 3 mini eggs per nest (a 100g bag of Cadbury mini eggs contains about 33 eggs)

12 paper cases

Method:

• Melt the chocolate by placing it in a mixing bowl over a pan of boiling water, stirring until runny
• Then turn off the heat and add the already crushed Shredded wheat - keeping the bowl over the hot water keeps the chocolate warmer and so makes it easier to combine it with the cereal. You can add less than 5 Shredded wheat if you want them to be more chocolatey
• Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and stick the mini eggs into the nests before the chocolate sets
• Place the nests in the fridge to speed up the setting process so you can eat the sooner

Enjoy!

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Burn's night

Burns Night

Last week we celebrated Burns Night, although we didn't manage to hold it on the actual day (Robert Burn's birthday, Jan 25th) we did have all the essential ingredients for an authentic Burns Night: Haggis, plenty of whiskey and 3 Scottish guests (4 if you include Louise's bump).

Matt brought home a 10 person Haggis which we wrapped in foil, placed in water and cooked in the oven for 2 hours. Meanwhile Ceri and Charlotte brewed up the whiskey gravy and put the potatoes, parsnips and swede (we couldn't find any turnips but they would be good too) onto boil which were then mashed up with butter, milk, salt, pepper and a few cloves of garlic.

Ceri, who was sporting an excellent tartan dress, created a vegetarian Haggis which in my opinion tasted just as good - if you would like the recipe for the veggie version please bombard Ceri with messages on the blog/facebook and join the campaign for her to make her blog debut!

Charl made some whiskey cream to add into mix (the main ingredients for which were of course whiskey and cream with a spot of dijon mustard and a seasoning of salt and pepper).

Everything was served up with some kale and a generous tumbler of single malt.

Whiskey Gravy:

Vegetable stock (carrot, onion and celery)

corn flour for thickening

mustard

wine

red current jelly

salt and pepper to taste

WHISKEY

Before we could tuck into our Burn's Night supper we had to get one of our scottish guests (Martin) to address the Haggis. Armed with an iphone from which to read the poem and a big shiny knife, he read out the first few verses and stabbed the haggis to within an inch of its life. I think we got about 3 verses in before our hunger took over and we had to serve it up!

Address To a Haggis
Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, Great chieftain o' the puddin-race! Aboon them a' ye tak your place, Painch, tripe, or thairm: Weel are ye wordy o' a grace As lang's my arm.	(sonsie = jolly/cheerful) (aboon = above) (painch = paunch/stomach, thairm = intestine)
The groaning trencher there ye fill, Your hurdies like a distant hill, Your pin wad help to mend a mill In time o' need, While thro' your pores the dews distil Like amber bead.	(hurdies = buttocks)
His knife see rustic Labour dicht, An' cut you up wi' ready slicht, Trenching your gushing entrails bricht, Like ony ditch; And then, O what a glorious sicht, Warm-reekin, rich!	(dicht = wipe, here with the idea of sharpening) (slicht = skill) (reeking = steaming)

Once the giant haggis had been polished off, it was time for dessert...

Cranachan & Shortbread:

Making Cranachan is very easy as it just involves chucking lots of yummy ingredients together. I started by toasting some porridge oats by putting then under the grill mixed with brown sugar until the browned (stirring frequently to stop them burning).

We then whipped up some double cream (i think me, Rob, Annie and Martin all managed to tire out our arms before it formed peaks) and mixed it with mascarpone cheese, a glug of scotch whiskey and a few spoons of scottish heather honey.

I spooned the creamy mixture into wine glasses along with a few raspberries and topped it off with the crunchy oats.

I've made shortbread a few times before and I always use James Martin's recipe, it produces crumbly, buttery shortbread that is even better when dipped in the cranachan!

Ingredients

• 175g chilled unsalted butter, plus more for greasing
• 225g flour
• 60g caster sugar, plus more for dusting
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Dice the butter and putinto a mixing bowl to soften a little. Sift over the flour, caster sugar, salt and vanilla extract. Rub together with your fingertips and form the mixture into a ball.

2. Lightly flour the work surface. Roll out the shortbread and cut into strips approximately 4cm wide and 10cm long. Lay the biscuits out on a greased baking sheet and prick the surfaces all over with a fork. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

3. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4.

4. Sprinkle sugar over the shortbread then bake for 8 minutes, or until firm to the touch. Cool before removing from the baking sheet. Dust with caster sugar before serving

All in all, i think it was a successful Burn's Night, in order to try and beat it next year - we'll have to get some bagpipes!

Rachael x

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A Keston Christmas

Happiness is a good ham

Christmas at Keston was, as you can imagine, a flamboyant affair.  What with chutney making, fruit preserving, damson gin infusing ... what time has a girl for blogging?  So our ambitious aim of getting the annual Christmas dinner on the blog in time to help you all with the big day, was as likely as a big fat Gloucester Old Spot circling the skies of London.

However - better late than never!  Rather than bombard you with recipes for moist turkey, cruchy roasties and succulent sauces, I decided to limit the post to the piece de resistance: THE HAM.  Oh the ham, it makes my mouth water just to think about it.  The most succulent, juicy, tender meat I ever did taste.

Yes, it was the perfect addition to our traditional Christmas dinner.  After the meal, where was Matt to be found all night?  With his head in the fridge peeling off moorish morsels of meat, of course.

The Keston Kids would like to thank all our wonderful guests for their delicious contributions to the feast, for not minding that it was 5 hours late and for decamping to the pub so that we didn't get evicted.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Rachy's mince pies which kept the edge off the huger while everyone waited patiently for hours.

Ceri as Queen of the Stove as she kept bread sauce, two types of gravy and a cranberry boiling to perfection.

Charlene's very naughty celeriac creamy side dish.

Julene's manhandling of the super-size turkey.

Jake and Will's bake-off involving the most indulgent puddings ever.

Martin and Louise's home brewed plum rum.

Lucinda coming up trumps with the sprouts yet again.

Matt's pigs in blankets (the man likes his pig meat)

Tenille's braised cabbage

Steph's cranberry classic

Bec's beets

Poo's nut loaves

Carol's crackers

Louise and Bruce's snowflakes

Clare's cheesy Christmas mix

And all of the above for their excellent rendition of the twelve days of Christmas, despite my shody accompaniment on the ol' cornet.

In honour of that stirling singing effort here's a Keston version (best when sung)

A Keston Christmas

On the first day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me
Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri

On the second day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me
Two oven gloves, 
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.

On the third day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me 
Tree hanging stars, 
Two oven gloves, 
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.  

On the fourth day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me
Four sequined frocks, 
Tree hanging stars, 
Two oven gloves, 
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.  

On the fifth day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me
Delia Smith                                                                                                                      
Four sequined frocks,  
Tree hanging stars, 
Two oven gloves, 
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.  

On the sixth day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me
Sixteen friends arriving
Delia Smith
Four sequined frocks,
Tree hanging stars,
Two oven gloves,
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.

On the seventh day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me
Severn cider mulling, 
Sixteen friends arriving
Delia Smith
Four sequined frocks,
Tree hanging stars,
Two oven gloves,
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.

On the eighth day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me
Ate til bellies bursting, 
Severn cider mulling,
Sixteen friends arriving
Delia Smith
Four sequined frocks,
Tree hanging stars,
Two oven gloves,
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.

On the ninth day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me
Nine pints of gravy,
Ate til bellies bursting,
Severn cider mulling,
Sixteen friends arriving
Delia Smith
Four sequined frocks,
Tree hanging stars,
Two oven gloves,
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.

On the tenth day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me
Ten pounds of turkey
Nine pints of gravy
Ate til bellies bursting, 
Severn cider mulling, 
Sixteen friends arriving
Delia Smith
Four sequined frocks,
Tree hanging stars,
Two oven gloves,
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.

On the eleventh day of Christmas,
the kitchen gave to me
Heaven ham so juicy
Ten pounds of turkey
Nine pints of gravy
Ate til bellies bursting, 
Severn cider mulling, 
Sixteen friends arriving
Delia Smith
Four sequined frocks,
Tree hanging stars,
Two oven gloves,
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, 
the kitchen gave to me
Twelve corks a popping
Heaven ham so juicy
Ten pounds of turkey
Nine pints of gravy
Ate til bellies bursting, 
Severn cider mulling, 
Sixteen friends arriving
Delia Smith
Four sequined frocks,
Tree hanging stars,
Two oven gloves,
And Julene, Charlotte, Rach and Ceri.

Cider Ham with Brown Sugar Mustard Glaze

Tip: don't bother soaking the ham overnight, just boil in water for 20mins to get rid of the salt, then continue to boil in the cider.  YUMYUM.

Recipe by: REDFIORO 

 |  Photo by: Allrecipes

     

(2)

EASY |

Ready in 11 hours 30 mins

Reviews  (3) | Tweaks   (1)

Added to favourites by 34 cook(s)

Prep: 8 hours Cook: 3 hours 30 mins

Serves: 6

Ham soaked overnight in cider is slowly boiled and then baked with sugar and mustard. Delicious served with cauliflower cheese and roast potatoes.

Ingredients

1 whole leg of ham on the bone

2 (500ml) bottles dry cider

8 whole peppercorns

1 bay leaf

175g (6 oz) light brown soft sugar

3 tablespoons mustard powder

whole cloves for studding ham

Preparation method

1. Place ham in a large stockpot and cover with cider. Leave in a cold place to soak overnight.
2. Heat the stockpot over medium high heat. Add the peppercorns and bay leaf and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes per 450g (1 lb). Remove from heat.
3. Preheat oven to 220 C / Gas mark 7. In a small bowl, mix the sugar and mustard.
4. Remove the leg from the stockpot, carefully peel off the skin and score diamond shapes into the fat with a sharp knife. Stand the ham in a roasting tin with a small amount of the cider to cover the bottom of the tin. Spread the sugar and mustard mixture over the fat on the ham. Press a clove into the corner of each diamond shape.
5. Roast the ham in preheated oven for 20 to 30 minutes until the fat is crisp and golden. Remove and allow to cool before carving.

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Festive Foods: Somerset Mulled Cider

by Charlotte x

Tis the season to warm the cider, throw in some spices and apples and get festive! Seeing as we're all from the West Country and live pretty close to other West Country folk it would be wrong not to include this in our festive repertoire.

OMG this recipe is brilliant. It will be loved by everyone, even non cider drinkers as you can tame down the amount of cider, up the juice and the brandy, whatever takes your fancy... it also makes the house smell amazing! Rach isn't isn't a big hot drinks girl but she cannot say no to this. Of course this doesn't replace mulled wine but goes nicely alongside.

So, I would advise that you make this on a cold day, or a dark day, or a wet day or a Sunday (other days will of course also work well). Sunday night has been a winner at our house - mug of hot spiced cider, newspaper, tv, music, it's great with most things really. Of course, the cider used is not Strongbow as this is a whole other level - quite classy in fact.

Rach and I initially tried it out and invited a couple of people over for a tasty. It was short notice and in the end nobody turned up so we had to consume several mugs each! oops. What's really ace is that it involves baking whole apples with sugar and cider and then throwing them in the pot so essentially you're getting a lot of fruit and goodness out of this recipe. Enjoy.

Makes 12-14 servings
Ingredients
1 litre premium English cider
250ml Somerset cider brandy or calvados
1.5 litres cloudy English apple juice
A thinly pared strip of lemon rind
2 sticks of cinnamon
8 cloves
For the roasted apples
10-12 small Cox’s apples
About 75g light muscovado sugar
100ml premium English cider

Method
Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5. Wash and core the apples and score them around their middles. Put them in a baking dish and stuff the centre of each with the sugar. (It’s easiest to do this with the handle of a spoon or fork). Splash over the cider and roast in the oven until soft and beginning to split (45-50 minutes).

Meanwhile put the cider, cider brandy or calvados, and apple juice in a large pan, together with the lemon zest, cinnamon and cloves. Heat through gently then leave over a very low heat until the apples are cooked without allowing the mixture to boil. When the apples are ready, tip them and their juices into the mulled cider. Taste, adding a little extra sugar if you think it needs it. Serve straight from the pan into heat resistant glasses or cups or transfer to a warmed bowl.

 

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