THE NEW COLCHESTER BREWERY

A good friend of mine has recently set up a new brewery at Wakes Colne.

We were privileged to have been invited to the site for a tour and a taste!

Will pulls a pint of Diesel
(for dad of course)

Me on the left with Tom Knox in the centre, brewer and partner at the

Colchester Brewery, Wakes Colne, Essex

Want to try? The Thatchers Arms, Mount Bures in Essex are serving No1

SALMON & BLACK PUDDING

Fast food - this literally took 20 minutes to make.

Quick and easy but with masses of flavour!

Grilled salmon fillet with black pudding and smoked streaky bacon

One of our very own free range eggs, of course!

Crushed new potato's with butter & cream, asparagus and baby sweetcorns

PECAN & BOURBON TART

Nutty tart with just a subtle taste of Bourbon coming through.  We served ours with double cream but creme fraiche, clotted cream or ice cream would taste just as good.

Recipe taken from the Popina Book of Baking

Date Sponge                                                              Pecan Bourbon Filling
60g dates, stoned                                                       1 tbsp Bourbon whiskey
30ml double cream                                                     40gm light brown soft sugar
1 tbsp water                                                                 55ml golden syrup
30g unsalted butter, melted                                       1 egg, beaten
30g light brown soft sugar                                          20g unsalted butter, melted
1 egg                                                                            60g shelled pecan nuts, rough chopped
a few drops of vanilla extract                                      
55g plain flour                                                              Sweet Shortcrust Pastry
1 tsp baking powder                                                   250g plain flour
                                                                                      125g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
18 pecan halves to decorate                                      85g golden caster sugar
Serves 8                                                                      1 egg

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) Gas 4.

Make the sweet shortcrust pastry and line the tart tin.  Trim the excess dough from around the edges and refrigerate while you make the filling.

To make date sponge, blitz the dates to a paste in a food processor or simply chop them very finely.  Mix with the cream and water and set aside.  Put the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and mix well, then add the egg, vanilla, flour and baking powder.  Finally, add date mixture and fold in well.

Remove the pastry tin from the fridge and spoon in the date sponge mixture.  Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven. 

In the meantime, make the pecan Bourbon filling.  Put the Bourbon, sugar and syrup in a mixing bowl and mix well.  Add the egg, mix well, then stir in the melted butter and chopped pecan nuts. Spoon the pecan Bourbon filling on top of the tart and spread evenly.  Decorate with the pecan halves and return to the oven for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool before serving. 

OUR FIRST EGGY PEGGY!

The chickens have been with us for three weeks now and on Sunday we got our first egg, a momentous day!

Dippy egg and soldiers

Guess with one is from our chickadees?!

Only eggs from your own free range chickens taste this good. 

Today we let them have free reign of the garden.

Very happy chickens indeed.

ROASTED STUFFED PEPPERS

2 peppers, 1 bread roll, 6 cherry tomatoes, 100g goats cheese, 6 basil leaves, 1/4 fresh red chilli,

6 black olives, olive oil

Finely chop up the bread, tomatos, goats cheese, basil, chilli and olives and mix together in a bowl with about 50ml of olive oil. 

Cut the tops off of both peppers and scoop out the seeds. Stuff in the mixture to the top and pop the pepper lids back on.  Bake in the oven at 190 degrees for about 20mins or until you can see the skin is no longer tight and the whole thing is starting to sag.

Serve on their own or with a crisp salad.

MUSSELS IN WHITE WINE

1kg of mussels will serve two courses or four starters

Soften an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic in a little oil in a saucepan big enough to take all the mussels.
Add a glass of white wine, a bayleaf and a few grinds of pepper and bring to the boil.
Chuck in the cleaned mussels, pop on a lid and cook for 10 mins or until they have all opened.
Take off the heat and stir in 100ml of double cream.

Serve in two large bowls with crusty bread or with chunky homecut oven chips as we did. Yum.

PEPPER & PARMESAN TARTLETS

Using pizza dough rather than pastry.

Ingredients

2 red and 2 yellow peppers, deseeded and cut into strips

1 red onion, thinly sliced

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp crushed black pepper

2 gloves of garlic, crushed

1/2 tsp freshly chopped thyme

1/2 tsp freshly chopped parsley

100g mature Cheddar, grated

50g Parmesan, grated

150g Greek yoghurt

Mix together the peppers and onion in a roasting tray. Drizzle with oil, season with the salt and pepper and cover the tray with aluminium foil. Roast in a preheated oven at 190°C for about 20 minutes.  Remove from the oven and drain any excess juice from the vegetables.  Leave to cool while you line the tartlet tins with pizza dough but do not trim edges. 

Stir in the garlic, thyme, parsley, 60g of Cheddar and the 50g grated Parmesan into the roasted peppers and onion and set aside. 

Mix together the yoghurt and the remaining Cheddar in a mixing bowl, then spoon into the tartlet shells.  Scatter the roasted pepper mixture over the yoghurt, spreading it evenly and finish with some shaved Parmesan.  Bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 170°C.