Guest post from Simon Jury

After some months of Tweeting to each other, I was delighted to receive this guest piece from Chef Simon Jury recently and hope you will enjoy reading it, too:

"Duck and cherry, two of my favourite flavours. I love that gamey meat flavour of the cherry and fresh fruity freshness of the duck...... no, hold on, I think I may have got something mixed up there. I'm also a fan of flavoured vinegars but have found that many cherry vinegars are often lacking or are a bit sharp and, much of the time, too vinegary. Yes I know that sounds a bit odd saying they are a bit vinegary, there are just a lot of flavoured vinegars that really don't offer more than, well, vinegar.

"A few weeks ago, I happened to be talking on the subject of vinegars and dressings and Rupert from Womersley Foods joined in asking if I have tried their vinegars. To my shame I had to admit I hadn't. Shame because I've spoken to Rupert on Twitter for a while now and hadn't really looked at the products that Womersley do. So when Rupert offered a bottle to try, I jumped at the chance. Well I jumped after deliberating over which flavour to choose. I was allowed any bottle I wanted so I had to choose wisely. I saw the cherry flavour straight away and looking back, I'm not sure why it took me so long to decide.

"The package arrived and like an excited child on Christmas morning I tore it open and didn't wait to taste it, I tipped a bit out, dipped my finger in and couldn't taste a thing. This is no sleight to the vinegar, I had a stinking cold and hadn't been able to taste anything for days. A course of antibiotics later and the taste buds were back. I had another tasting session with a ciabatta loaf and dipping bowls with unrefined olive oil and the vinegar. The vinegar is great: fresh, full of cherry flavour and not the usual harshness of vinegar. You could get away with the vinegar on its own as a dressing as it is that smooth. Also it is the first cherry vinegar I've tasted for a while that actually tastes of cherry.

"Finally I got to match the vinegar to duck which I had been waiting for during my cold filled weeks. (Please note I did not have man flu, I really was ill!) I kept the duck salad very simple as the star here was to be the vinegar. I pan-fried two duck breasts, skin side down until the fat was rendered and the skin was crispy. I then turned the duck breasts over and took off the heat to continue cooking through while I made the salad.

"I made a quick red onion salad by peeling, halving & slicing one large red onion, added some chopped cucumber , quartered cherry tomatoes and a few sliced spring onions. I made a dressing using half and half of the vinegar and unrefined olive oil and a pinch of salt. That's all you need for the dressing as there is so much flavour and sweetness in the cherry vinegar. I put half of the dressing in with the red onion salad and mixed this to coat.

"To serve, I made a bed of peppery salad, rocket, watercress & baby spinach and piled the onions salad on top. The duck, now nicely rested, was sliced and placed on top. The remaining dressing was then drizzled over to flavour the duck breast and drip through the salad. Cherry and duck is always a winner and maybe a little bit predictable, but when it tastes this good, who cares?

"Many thanks for the vinegar, it really is great and found out a friend of mine is a big fan too..."

You can follow Simon on Twitter @Simonlovesfood 

Simon also has a lovely blog title: saidsimontothepieman.com

Valentine Supper

As wonderful as it is to go out for dinner on Valentine's Day, I can't help feeling a little sorry for all those restaurants having to cope with rooms full of tables for two. And, is it just me, but there is something of an air of blokes putting in a minimum amount of effort to treat the one they love so much....
Of course, it is not always like that and many ladies will tell you they love being taken out for Valentine's dinner; also, and particular these days, many restaurants would far rather a full list of covers than a quiet Tuesday night.
Me? Well, I am a very lucky man. I'm married to a beautiful Kiwi who does nearly all the cooking at home. So, this year I decided that it would mean more to her if I put in the effort to make her a romantic dinner (albeit with our 11 year old son very much in evidence).

We both prefer unfussy food done well, so I decided to keep it fairly simple:

Smoked Mackerel Pâté

Warm Duck Salad with Blackberry Vinegar Dressing

Raspberry Yoghurt with Raspberries and Shortbread

Should you fancy giving them a go, here are the recipes:

Smoked Mackerel Pâté
Mum gave me her "Smackerel Pâté" recipe recently, so this was a good opportunity to try it out. It is so simple that the most tricky part was removing the bones from the fish!

Ingredients:
2 Smoked Mackerel Fillets, boned and flaked
3oz Cream Cheese
1 tsp Horseradish Sauce
2 tsp Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper dressing
Black Pepper

Method:
Place all ingredients into a blender and blend until achieving a smooth consistency. You may need to add a little more Horseradish or Lemon Dressing to get the taste to your liking.

Serve with warm french stick or Water Table biscuits.

Warm Gressingham Duck Salad with Flaked Almonds, Pine Nuts and Blackberry Vinegar Dressing

I have the lovely Xanthe Clay to thank for this one. On January 26th, page 3 of The Daily Telegraph featured news on The Duchess of Cornwall's challenge for school children to devise a Diamond Jubilee dish. Next to this was a "Royal Recipe" from Xanthe Clay which featured our Blackberry Vinegar: that was a delightful surprise! I adapted it a little for last night's dinner (exchanging Mangetout for Fine Beans and adding Pine Nuts).

Ingredients:

A bag of rocket salad leaves
2 Gressingham Duck Breasts
100g Fine Beans
40g Flaked Almonds and Pine Nuts
3 tbsp Womersley Blackberry Vinegar
2 tsp Wholegrain Mustard (I used Black Sheep's Riggwelter)
9 tbsp Cotswold Gold Rapeseed Oil
Salt crystals

Method:

• Spread a handful of rocket onto two plates
• Roast the nuts in the oven for around 2 minutes at 200°C until golden
• Steam or boil the beans so they remain just firm. Drain.
• Put 1 tbsp Rapeseed Oil in a large non-stick frying pan and fry the duck breasts face-down for around 10 minutes then turn and continue to cook on a high heat for a further 4 minutes. A pan with a lid is handy- it spits a lot! Check that the meat is cooked so still pink in the middle then remove from the pan and leave to rest
• Whisk 2 tbsp of the Blackberry Vinegar with the mustard and a good pinch of salt then add the remaining 8 tbsp of Rapeseed Oil
• Slice the duck and arrange on the rocket. Add the beans and sprinkle over the roasted nuts. Drizzle over the dressing.
• Pour off the oil from the pan, add the final 1 tbsp of Blackberry Vinegar and, over a high heat, reduce the remainder and keep rubbing the pan with a spatula to retain all those lovely flavours. Drizzle the reduced glaze over the dish and serve.

 

Ok, I admit it, I cheated a bit for pudding: some good quality Raspberry yoghurt and fresh raspberries in a glass with a heart shaped Raspberry Shortbread. But it did round off the meal quite well.

♥ Happy Valentine ♥

Key Lime Pie

My father enjoyed most vices in his youth and these caught up with him eventually, as he had a heart attack when still quite young. This did, though, have the effect of making him reconsider his smoking habit (which went from around 40 a day to zero!) and he barely touched another Gin after that scare.However, this event also resulted in him acquiring something of a sweet tooth.
As a family, we never really did puddings but, with my father's new tastebuds starting to quiver, he became interested in an area of our local farm shop which had previously gone almost unnoticed: the sweet section. Sadly, it is no longer there, but the next village to us, Darrington, sported an excellent butcher's which expanded to a popular farm shop employing a few locals. One of these locals was  a specialist in making Key Lime Pies and so we thought we would give one a go...fatal! From then on, the weekly shop always included at least one of these delights, always modestly decorated with a little twist of lime zest.
And so it was, many years later, that my wife and I found ourselves in an American diner in Boston with Key Lime Pie on the menu. I couldn't resist the idea. However, when it arrived, I sure could resist the amount: it was a VAST portion. The flavour did not quite evoke those childhood memories (how often do we find that happening) and so I assigned the Key Lime Pie to my memories.
And then, a couple of weeks ago, we offered to make the pudding for a friend's 40th birthday party and, in going through recipes, we found one for Key Lime Pie without eggs. We had a little play with it and wanted to introduce an element of sourness to counteract the rich sweetness which can overpower. So we tried using some of our Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Vinegar to the recipe and reduced the amount of lime juice. It was pretty good....not the same as those childhood ones, but a whole new fantastic experience.

Key Lime Pie

Serves 8
Takes just over 1 hour to make

Ingredients

Base:
250g Basics Digestive biscuits
100g butter, melted

Filling:
405g Can Condensed Milk
Finely grated zest and Juice of 4 limes
1 tbsp Womersley Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Dressing
300ml Double Cream

To decorate:
30g Bitter chocolate, grated
Grated zest of 1 lime


Method

1. To make the base, crush and crumb the biscuits until they are like fine crumbs. Then combine this with the melted butter in a bowl. Press the mixture into the base and 4cms up the side of a 20cm (8") loose-based, greased cake tin.
2. Place Lime juice and Womersley dressing into a large bowl. Add the cream and condensed milk and whisk until thick and creamy, approx. 1-2 minutes. Add the lime zest and lightly stir in. Spoon over the biscuit base and chill for at least an hour.
3. Remove the pie from the tin and place on a serving plate. Decorate the top with the chocolate and Lime Zest.

Tip
Do try varying the balance of Lime juice to our Lime Dressing

Ben's Canteen

One of the best parts of making a key food ingredient is the opportunity to meet chefs and compare notes on their menus to see how our delights can help make their dishes even more special whilst retaining their unique personality. Fortunately, our fruit vinegars have such "extraordinary depths of flavour" (thank you to Bill King for that quote) that a little goes a long way and they allow for real creativity in the kitchen. Over the past couple of years that I have been sailing the good ship Womersley, I have been lucky enough to welcome aboard many chefs who have shared their enthusiasm with us all. Many have provided recipes on our Trecipe page (Luke Mackay even suggest bathing in Raspberry Vinegar!) and others have also contributed longer recipes on these pages.

Dave Aherne at Real Food Festival

Certainly, one of the most entertaining chefs you could hope to meet is the lovable Irishman, Dave Aherne. On a trip to London the other day, my wife and I caught up with Dave for the first time in a while, at his current "home" of Ben's Canteen in SW11. Don't be fooled by his bluff, sweary exterior, he is a gentle giant whose piercing blue eyes can spot good food ingredients a mile off! 

I first met Dave at the Real Food Festival last year, when he came to our stand and got all ecstatic at our "feckin amazing" vinegars. We have kept in touch ever since...

But he didn't even get into cheffing until he was in his mid 30s! Dave told me he came to London hoping to do Event Management, but found himself working at the popular The Ship at Wandsworth (a job found through exchanging tweets with owner, Oisin Rogers). He had a great time there, but eventually moved on to a couple of other places before arriving at this buzzing little place near Wandsworth Bridge: Ben's Canteen.

So we decided to go and have a look and were joined by our good friend, Daphine, too. The three of us tucked in to these fabulous dishes. They were followed by a sublime carrot cake with coffee, but it just about arrived at the table and was gone, hence no photo!

The tenderest cod cheeks and home made Pesto

All day Breakfast Scotch Egg with the perfect soft yolk, mushroom and bacon breadcrumb coating and black pudding.
Very good for you....

Brisket and Bone Marrow Mayo in a bap

Dave works on many other projects including last year's successful Kaiwecare fund raiser for the victims of the Christchurch earthquake. He worked with Mat Follas and many others to raise a staggering £65,000. His next major project is the "Chefs for CALM dinner." CALM stands for the Campaign Against Living Miserably, a charity working exclusively with men who suffer from depression. This is a cause close to Dave's heart, following the sad death recently of promising young chef, Kevin Boyle. Dave will be joined once more by a host of great chefs and others to create a special evening catering for 200 guests in London on 30th April. If you would like to read more about this, do read his blog where you will also find details on how to help out, if you are able.

But, if you find yourself in the Wandsworth/Clapham area at any time, don't miss a chance to visit Ben's Canteen and get a "feckin' good feed."

BBC Radio Northampton show

Vanessa Kimbell

The Winter months can be a bit quiet for many of us Artisan Food producers, so this is a good time to try to generate a bit of publicity. So I was delighted when Vanessa Kimbell invited me to join her and presenter Kevin Saddington for their live radio show, "Kitchen Garden" on BBC Radio Northampton on Sunday morning.

We had a jolly good discussion all about the history of Womersley, the making of our fruit vinegars and a couple of recipes too, below. I "met" Vanessa on Twitter and have corresponded with her for many months, finally meeting her properly at the Real Food Festival at Earl's Court last year. I can still picture her first approach to our stand, beaming smile and enjoying all the food treats in the hall. Sure enough, we had a jolly good chat and I discovered Vanessa was once a grower of lavender but, as can happen when handling plants with strong essential oils, she suddenly became so sensitive to it that she can no longer use any at all....which is a shame, since my favourite vinegar dressing is our Lime, Black Pepper and Lavender! The Orange & Mace proved a real winner with Vanessa, though, as you can hear on our soundcloud widget, here:

During the show, Kevin played some appropriate Sunday morning tracks (and Abba's Dancing Queen!) while we all had a taste of our sausage casserole recipe (using our Blackcurrant and Rosemary) which we'd had at home for supper the night before as well as our own Lemon Drizzle cake recipe using our Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper to make it really moist and delicious...

Sausage Casserole with

Womersley Blackcurrant & Rosemary Dressing

SERVES 4

Takes 25 minutes approx.

Ingredients:

·         1 tbsp Vegetable Oil

·         8 Thick Pork Sausages

·         1 Medium Red Onion, cut into thick slices

·         2 Braeburn or other eating apple with the skin left on, cored and each cut into wedges

·         1 ½ tbsp Womersley Rosemary Jelly

·         300ml/ ½ Pint Chicken Stock (can be made using a stock cube)

·         1 ½ tbsp Grainy Mustard

·         2 tbsp Womersley Blackcurrant & Rosemary Dressing

Method:

·         Heat the oil in a large frying pan, add the pork sausages and fry for about five minutes, turning them so they brown all over. Add the onion slices and continue to fry until the onion and sausages have turned a dark gold, stirring occasionally.

Turn up the heat, add the apple wedges and stir them in carefully until they have glazed in the pan juices.

·         Stir the Rosemary Jelly into the chicken stock until it is dissolved, then add the Blackcurrant & Rosemary Dressing and mustard. Pour this in to the pan and cook on a high heat for 5 minutes.

·         Reduce the heat and leave to simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes until the sausages are cooked and the liquid has reduced to a syrupy gravy.

Serve with your choice of rice or potatoes and veg

Sausage Casserole with Womersley Blackcurrant & Rosemary Dressing

Lemon Drizzle Cake

 with Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper Vinegar Drizzle

Ingredients for the cake:

125g butter

75g caster sugar

2 large eggs

Zest of one lemon

175g self raising flour

Pinch of salt

4 tablespoons milk

Ingredients for the Drizzle:

2 tbsp lemon juice

100g icing sugar

2 tbsp Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper Vinegar

Method:

- Pre-heat oven to 180°C/ gas mark 4

- Butter and line a loaf or cake tin (make sure the lining goes well up the sides   of the tin)

- Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs and lemon zest and beat well

- Add flour and salt, folding gently until mixed

- Add milk and mix in

- Spoon cake mix into prepared tin

- Cook for 45 minutes until golden and skewer comes out clean

For the Drizzle:

(Make just before the cake is due out of the oven)

-    Put icing sugar, lemon juice and Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper Vinegar into a small saucepan

-    Heat gently until the sugar is dissolved and the vinegar has reduced the mixture to a viscous drizzle

-          When cake is ready, take out of the oven and pierce it all over with a skewer. Pour the drizzle all over. Make sure the cake is totally cooled before taking out of the loaf tin or it will crumble.

Note: For a Gluten free cake, use Gluten Free flour and add extra milk.

Lemon Drizzle Cake (right) with the rest of the day's baking