Day Four: Eating to a Size Sheffield
07 July 2011
During my Eat Sheffield Food Week 4th – 10th July, I will be Blogging about my experiences for each meal.
I will tell you blow by blow what I’ve eaten today for breakfast, lunch and dinner (each day) and will also include any snacks I’ve had or if there was anything I’ve craved or missed from my old usual ‘supermarket’ diet. I’m over half way through my food challenge week, but have been feeling very tired (all this eating is exhausting stuff) and feel awfully ‘cleansed’ on Sheffield goodness…
Breakfast:
Sheffield Gooseberry Pancakes served with Sheffield Honey – Gooseberries were from PJ Taste’s allotment (Woodhouse area).
Light, fluffy and fruity, these pancakes are the perfect special breakfast. It was my first time cooking and eating fresh gooseberries. This was definitely an experience. They were very tangy, sour and ‘sharp’ in taste, I suppose I didn’t know what to expect really from these fruits – I actually thought they’d be similar to grapes?… I’m still learning a lot about different types foods.
Fresh gooseberries for breakfast
Ingredients
200g Yorkshire wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs (Whirlow Hall Farm)
300ml milk (Our Cow Molly farm shop)
50g sugar (Cafeology)
30g butter (Our Cow Molly farm shop)
220g gooseberries – washed and chopped into smaller pieces
(gooseberries Sheffield grown and picked in Woodhouse)
a little butter for cooking
Sheffield Honey to serve
Instructions
1. Mix together the flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Beat the eggs with the milk, make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and whisk in the milk to make a thick smooth batter. Beat in the melted butter, and gently stir all the gooseberries.
2. Heat a small knob of butter in a large non-stick frying pan. Drop two large tablespoonful of the batter per pancake into the pan to make pancakes about 9cm across. Make two or three pancakes at a time. Cook for about 3 minutes over a medium heat until small bubbles appear on the surface of each pancake, then turn and cook another 2-3 minutes until golden. Cover with kitchen paper to keep warm while you use up the rest of the batter. Serve with Sheffield Honey.
This batter has that perfect consistency (not too liquid not to thick) that can be hard to find in pancake recipes. Try it and let me know what you think too? try the recipe with different fruit like strawberries, blueberries or rasberries. Yum!
Fresh gooseberry pancakes served with Sheffield Honey
Lunch:
PJ Taste Ultimate Cheese Toastie with caramalised local onions and Henderson’s Relish with glass of Citrus Hits.
PJ Taste Ultimate Cheese Toastie with caramalised local onions and Henderson’s Relish
Dinner:
Homemade ‘Missie Cindz’ burgers using Sheffield’s Moss Valley sausages with herby potato wedges. Classic and delicious. Oh yeah!
Homemade burgers using Moss Valley sausagemeat, or meat squeezed from 8 large Cumberland sausages
Well, who doesn't love burgers!?
Serves 4 persons
3 large baking potatoes, cut into wedges
8 Moss Valley Cumberland pork sausages
1 onion, grated
50g spring onions (from Cindz mum’s allotment), chopped
a small handful parsley and chives, chopped
1 tsp clear Sheffield Honey
1 egg yolk, beaten
sunflower oil
To serve:
4 grilled rashers streaky smoked Moss Valley bacon,
4 large bread rolls from Cat Lane Bakery, halved and lightly toasted
Taste carrot chutney made with Sheffield carrots, splashes of Henderson’s Relish and a healthy portion of homecooked potato wedges (using potatoes bought at Sheff’s Castle Market)
Instructions
1. Heat oven to 230C/210C fan/gas 8. Toss the potatoes with 1 tbsp oil and 1 tsp herbs on a large baking tray. Roast for 25 mins, turning once, until the chips are golden.
2. Meanwhile, snip the tops off the sausages and squeeze the meat out into a bowl. Stir through the grated onion, spring onions, chives and parsley, then shape into 4 burgers. Can now be frozen. Heat a frying pan, add 1 tsp oil, then cook for 15 mins, turning halfway.
3. Grill bacon until crispy and brown (8 mins)
4. Season the wedges. Place a burger in each bread bun, slice of bacon and cheese then top with some chutney, fresh salad and cheese (you’ll be lucky if this doesn’t start toppling over by now :)
Moss Valley Fine Meats provide local pork, bacon, sausages, ham – basically, anything from a pig! You can collect direct from their farm (see address details below) or at local farmers’ markets – they’re a regular at the Sheffield’s FM in the city centre.
Moss Valley Fine Meats
Povey Farm
Lightwood Lane
Norton
Sheffield
S8 8BG
Stephen/Karen Thompson
Tel: 0114 2396904
Email: info@mossvalleyfinemeats.co.uk
Web: www.mossvalleyfinemeats.co.uk
The burger buns were monsterous too (and that’s a compliment. I love bread! :) – my breads this evening were provided by Sheffield’s Cat Lane Bakery. Who have been producing quality artisan breads from organic stoneground flours from Mount Pleasant Windmill in Kirton in Lindsey and Shipton Mill. They aim to make great bread available across Sheffield and the surrounding region and you can also buy Cat Lane bread more closer to home in their very own outlet Beanies Whole Foods, and in other outlets such as: Crumbs, Down to Earth, Zeds on the Edge, PJ Taste and Café Juniper at Bank Street Arts. I was really lucky to get the chance to pop up to bakery on Cat Lane and to meet Christopher Baldwin, one of the head-bakers there – I’ve always had a fascination with bread and bakeries so it was one of my dreams to see how a commercial bakery functioned – but all these rambles and pictures I took of the morning’s adventures will be in a blog post on its own (so keep a look out for the delicious read!)
If you’re interested in more infor regarding Cat Lane breads, you can contact them directly via email: catlanebakery@yahoo.co.uk or give them a ‘like’ us on facebook (afterall who doesn’t love bread!?)
Dessert: provided by Victoria Made Cakes
I felt one of the luckiest girls ever when Victoria wanted to participate in my Sheffield Food Week Challenge. I’d seen her beautiful cakes at the first ever Devonshire Market in Sheffield city centre back in April. Based in Sheffield, Victoria Made designs and creates wedding, corporate and occasion cakes for clients throughout Yorkshire – and her cakes are so artistically beautiful, I was gawping at the cupcakes for ages before ramming one down. You can really tell each and every cake Victoria creates prides themselves with personal touches, extra care and attention – my pictures don’t do them justice, you really must see them for yourself!
White chocolate & vanilla cupcakes with homemade strawberry compote.
Rich Valrhona chocolate mud cake and chilli cherries with cupcakes
A 3/4 eaten strawberry and vanilla cupcake. Magic!!
All her baked goodies are made from top quality ingredients and she uses as much Sheffield produce as she can – for instance in the cakes (pictured above) I was informed by Victoria most of the ingredients were from Sharrow Marrow on Sharrow Vale road and Whirlow Farm eggs. Yorkshire milk and butter! (is Victoria doing my Sheffield Food Challenge too? these places sound familiar). Her product list include larger cakes and favours for weddings and other occasions, and smaller cakes and other products such as cookies for other events.
If not all, of these producers will be in full force at the Sheffield Food Festival’s Producers Market on Fargate from 8th July to 10th July. Plus, there’ll also be the much talked about and utterly delicious Sheffield Food Showcase where you will be able to find Moss Valley Fine Meats, Sheffield Honey, Our Cow Molly, Catherine’s Choice, PJ Taste, Cat Lane Bakery, Tea Box and Fancie.
Missie Cindz
