A Rainy Lakeland Holiday

I've been on a summer holiday, a week in the Lake District saw a little sunshine and much, much more rain, which seems pretty typical for August in the Lakes these days. We had suncream and hailstones both in one day, swimming in the river by morning followed by evenings where you could see your breath, and rivers so full of rainwater they looked like white water rapids. British summer time at it's best...

It did allow plenty of time to faff about in the kitchen however, I think I found my inner baker... I produced some beautiful white rolls I was very proud of, a white loaf and a damper bread full of smoked red peppers and anchovies. Staying about an hours drive from the nearest shop it came in quite handy baking bread daily, rarely having to leave our remote little hideaway. Mr. Smokerson came too and produced a lovely piece of slow smoked pork and some equally delicious very smoky duck breasts.

We invited The Blonde and her boys to visit and set off on a picnic up the valley... It looked like it was going to clear up at one point, but we ended up sitting in a tree, trying to eat a picnic in the rain, getting wetter and wetter. We gave it a good go, but ended up back at the kitchen table with clothes drying in front of the fire. Sitting in front of the fire was a pretty good place to be for the majority of the week...

Courgette, Chorizo and Gruyère Muffins

I love picnics, actually any excuse to eat outside, even if it is a bit cold; lunch in the garden, a BBQ, a table outside a restaurant... We spend so many hours cooped up in houses and offices that I'll take any opportunity to sit out, and food always seems to taste that bit better in the fresh air. I have a growing collection of old picnic hampers and I love packing them up with various treats and setting off to some sunny spot. My favourite picnic spot, at the moment, is hidden in the dunes at Druridge Bay, you can see out but no one can see in to the sheltered little nook. On a sunny day with the rug laid out and the picnic basket overflowing with treats it is a pretty lovely place to be.

I've been reading Elizabeth David's chapters on picnicking that leaves my efforts to shame somewhat... Her companions have been known to visit the picnic site the day before to bury the champagne, ready chilled for arrival. She was once guest to a family whose idea of a picnic was walking through their formal Dutch gardens to the woodland beyond, followed by butler, chauffeur and footman 'bearing fine china plates, the silver and tablecloths, a number of vast dishes containing cold chickens, jellies and trifles'. I'd like to go to a picnic like that...

Mini tarts or pasties, sausage rolls with sage and apricots, salads in pots, bread rolls, little cakes. There is often a high quota of hand held food, things in pastry, muffins, pork pies, scotch eggs, easy to eat but also tasty. Sandwiches with no crusts, potted meats, cheese or pates and a lovely refreshing home-made mint lemonade to wash it all down. Hand held is preferable, things that require cutlery should at most be a scoop with a fork, trying to hold a knife, fork, plate and cut something just isn’t what a picnic is about. Lots of things baked into a muffin or a pie are good; getting all your food groups at once should be straight forward and tasty! Nothing that squashes, apples are better than bananas; nothing that melts, cake is better than chocolate, nothing that makes your sandwiches soggy! The planning can end up quite intricate.

So if this summer manages to show us a little bit of sunshine I'll be off to the beach, or up a valley, or by the river or even just in the park armed with a tightly packed little wicker basket and a rug.

These muffins are a perfect picnic treat and make about 6. Simply mix 225g of self raising flour with 1 teaspoon of baking powder, 100g of grated courgette, 50g or grated Gruyère, 40g of finely cubed chorizo and some salt and pepper.

In a mixing jug whisk together 175ml of whole milk, an egg and 75ml of olive oil. Pour this into the flour and courgette mix and combine it all thoroughly. Finally spoon into an oiled muffin tin and put in the oven at 180°C, bake for 10 minutes then take out and add a little more grated Gruyère to the top of each, then bake for another 15 minutes. Eat warm with butter or fresh out of your picnic basket...

Experiments in Smoking: Part 1

I have a new best friend, he is a smoker, not of cigarettes, of food, an actual smoking vessel. He looks a little bit like a second world war bomb and was a very gratefully received birthday present; that I fear is going to take over everything I cook from now on...

He travelled to the Lake District with us still wrapped up in his box, ready to be unveiled and to begin his life as a fully operational smoking machine. He needed a name. Old Smoky perhaps, Sir Smoke-a-lot? I spent the car journey trying to think of something fitting... The First Earl of Smokington, Mr. Smoky Smokerson? Mr. Smokerson seems to fit, he looks a bit like an old formal butler standing to attention in the corner of my yard, it suits him!

He is made up of quite a few different parts, so I will take you through how he works, even though I'm still figuring out the basics. The very bottom section contains a charcoal basket, where you put the charcoal funnily enough. Next up is the water bowl, this is filled with water for most hot smokes, it stabilises the temperature, you can also add beer or herbs to the water for extra flavour. Then there are two racks at different levels, just like the top of a BBQ, then finally the lid, which has hooks inside to hang fish from. It also has the temperature gauge on the top so you can keep an eye on things from the outside. There is a little metal box that you put wood chips in and place on the charcoal for hot smoking and a little metal maze type thing that you put wood dust in for cold smoking.

We assembled Mr. Smokerson carefully, a few weeks ago now, and ambitiously set about a 9 hour pulled pork as the first experiment in smoking, I used the Joe Beef recipe I have used previously and added some beer to the water bowl.

It took a while to get the temperature steady, lots of opening and closing of vents, but it was actually very consistent in the end, sitting at about 250°F for 4-5 hours. This is about 120°C, so quite low, the temperature is in Fahrenheit, which is a bit of getting used to, but I'm getting the hang of it.

I was unsure about how a basket of charcoal would last this long, as on a BBQ it burns out in less than an hour typically. But it does, one basket seems to burn for about 5 hours, it must be to do with the sealed container, and shutting the bottom air vents so it burns very slowly with not much air movement. You basically light the charcoal and put the water bowl in, seal him up and when it has reached the correct temperature put your chosen food in, place the little metal box with a handful of wood chips in directly on to the charcoal, I used apple wood, and wait...

We chose the wrong time to go for a walk, feeling confident that Mr. Smokerson was on a roll, and not knowing how long the charcoal would burn for, we set off, it started to rain and we came back to a burnt out, rapidly cooling, smoker... After some initial panic he was up and burning again and the pork back inside. It didn’t end up as pully apart as the first time I'd cooked it in the oven, I think it could have actually cooked for longer, as it was at a lower temperature, but it was 10pm and people were hungry! The flavour was delicious however, really deep and smoky and sweet, you can really taste the apple smoke... I was hooked!

So Mr. Smokerson travelled back to Tyneside and the next experiments were cold smoked cheese, hot smoked almonds and smoked pigeon. The cheese marinates in whiskey and maple syrup for 4 hours in the freezer, then into the smoker until it comes up to temperature.

Cold smoking is a different process. A little metal contraption, that looks like a maze gets filled with wood dust, which is then lit at one end using a little candle. When the wood has begun to smoulder and smoke you remove the candle, place the maze in the bottom of the smoker, with the cheese on the rack and leave for about an hour. This one was a triumph! Really smoky cheese, I used a cheddar and a ewes cheese, both delicious!

Last weekend's smoking adventures were two duck, out of the freezer from last season, the last two little fellas I had left. I followed a River Cottage method for them and cured them in salt, brown sugar, dried bay leaves, crushed star anise, crushed cinnamon sticks and lots of ground black pepper. The ducks sit in the mix for about an hour before going into the smoker. Then they cook at 220°F for 4 hours. I have much more to learn about curing, what it is doing, how long, which method...

There is the initial period of lighting Mr Smokerson and trying to get it to the steady temperature you require. This was difficult this time round. He was at 450°F for about an hour, opening doors, shutting vents, taking his lid off, it was a bit frustrating to say the least... It turned out I hadn’t put the water bowl in, which stabilises it at a lower temperature... First mistake of the day. Second mistake of the day was that one of the ducks was actually a pheasant! I didn’t notice this until we carved... oops...

Again I used apple wood, the smoky flavour was milder this time, but the duck was delicious, a touch dry, but the flavour had really got into the meat. I left the pheasant for the next day, I have found that the flavour develops the longer you leave things. The result was a delicious smoked pheasant and bacon sandwich with crisp little gem lettuce for lunch the next day.

I'm perhaps getting a bit carried away with my new friend, I'm constantly thinking about what to do next! Sausages, fish, a duck that you cure, smoke then confit! No wonder it is akin to a competitive sport in America, I'm totally hooked. We bought some herring to get them on the go, but didn’t read what to do with them first, it turns out that you need to cure them for a few days then cold smoke them for 5 days! This is perhaps not conducive with actually having a life, so we may just have to leave that to the guys in Craster...