Food & Drink

LIVING THE GOODDEN LIFE

Nico and Chrystall Goodden

We live near Sherborne where we are caretakers for a secluded woodland’s edge garden bursting with life. Chrystall works for a local company and I’m a photographer/ writer currently finalising the last chapters of my first book commissioned by a London publisher, aimed at helping others become better photographers.

We focus on creativity in whichever form it comes, always learning and making great food. In 2017 we decided to start growing our own for our love of good ingredients. We stopped mowing, leaving only narrow paths between wild meadow areas which welcome wildlife. It saves work and looks beautiful. We practice no-dig gardening, never disturbing the soil and life it harbours. Through maintaining a healthy ecosystem all the way down to the root of what we grow, we ensure our plants grow as nature intended. Plants in the wild don’t struggle without human intervention. This is what we aim to reproduce. We never apply pesticides, herbicides or synthetic fertilisers. The life in the soil feeds our crops which in turn are healthier for it.

So, how about March? I liken March to an F1 race (only with rakes and wheelbarrows). The starting grid, the anticipation… After a long but kind winter, gardeners lacking vitamin D emerge and are raring to go at last. But not so fast! This is gardening, it’s a yearround endeavour and it’s not about being first to reach the first corner but about endurance and patience. Too often will the keen gardener sow prematurely indoors resulting in seedlings stretching uncontrollably from low light levels and too much warmth. To remedy this, and since we know frosts are a very real threat until mid-May, some seeds are germinated indoors on a heated propagator by our brightest window and then transferred and grown under T5 fluorescent lights. These are energy-efficient fluorescents that deliver the right spectrum of light for seedlings to develop sturdily and with a strong root system, key to a good start in life. The bigger the root… the bigger the fruit. It is then a balancing act of finding space to juggle all these young plants until they can safely go out after the last frost as we do not heat our greenhouse.

Chillies which are delicious and highly ornamental are one of our top crops. They were sown back in late January. We like big plants by the time they go out. Last year we grew 27 plants from seven varieties. This year we are looking at 20 varieties but no more than 30 plants with many rare and wild types. Other crops to be sown include tomatoes and possibly squashes, cucumbers, melons, although we often find that seedlings grow much

Images: Nico and Chrystall Goodden

faster than we first thought, especially under lights.

Seed-sowing is only a small part of what we do this month. March is a time for final preparations; the greenhouse gets a final tidy, we mulch beds generously with homemade compost, we propagate raspberry canes and strawberry plants, tidy some more and make adjustments to our ever-changing plans. There may be an increased spring activity but as we aim to supply ourselves with homegrown food year-round, our beds remain active and maintained throughout the year.

During the winter months, I was busy building a much-needed potting shed and clearing invasive brambles and nettles. I also grew frost-hardy pak choi and salad leaves in the greenhouse. I foraged kilos of wild oyster mushrooms locally which I’m now planning to grow in dedicated straw beds. Chrystall focused on trouble-free garlic and onions grown on otherwise empty beds. Used in most dishes, their green shoots pushing through the frost are a hopeful sight.

The local pheasants seeking refuge in our garden during shoot season devoured and flattened our crop of chicory ‘Rosalba’ and ‘Rossa Di Treviso’. Hopes for pink winter salads with blood orange were quashed but, as always, lessons were learned. Our beds are now protected with unsightly horticultural fleece, a drastic but effective measure that also raises the temperature beneath it by a degree or two.

Chrystall’s work desk is invaded by an army of seed potatoes, chitting away quite happily in the bright winter sun adjacent to her keyboard and computer screen. We’ve had an increased focus on salad potato varieties this year – their taste and texture unbeatable and incomparable to what can be found in supermarkets. With some ‘first-early’ varieties ready within 10 weeks of planting, their speed reaching maturity reduces the risk of blight. They will provide the ultimate side dish to our early summer BBQs.

With experience from past failures and successes, we understand better what can and cannot grow in our garden, with each area having its own specific conditions or microclimate, with varying light and shade at different times of the day, different soils, rainfall, last frosts, etc. From now on everything will ramp up, increased light levels mean increased growth, more seedlings to care for, more slugs and aphids to remove by hand, more pots to be cleaned but most importantly: more joy. We made it through winter and now’s the time to enjoy the garden and grow with it.

RUM BABA WITH RHUBARB CREME CHANTILLY

Sasha Matkevich, The Green

Image: Clint Randall

The slightly acidic but complex flavour of forced rhubarb works very well with this quintessential French classic.

Ingredients Serves 8 60ml milk 20g fresh yeast 230g plain flour, sifted 720g caster sugar 3 large eggs 120g salted butter 700ml water 400g rhubarb, roughly chopped 12g pectin 1tsp lemon juice 100g whipping cream 100g double cream 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways 100ml good quality dark rum

Method 1 In a small saucepan mix the milk and yeast until dissolved. Add 30g of the sifted flour. Mix and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes or until it doubles in size. 2 In the bowl of an electric mixer put the remaining flour, 20g of sugar, eggs and milk mixture. Mix with a dough hook on a moderate speed for 15 minutes.

Add the butter and continue to mix for 5 minutes. 3 Remove the mixture and put it into a large bowl, cover with cling film and leave to prove in a warm place until it doubles in size (approximately 50 minutes). 4 Meanwhile, put the rhubarb, 100ml of water and 200g of sugar in a pan and cook over a low heat

for 20 minutes. 5 Mix together 200g of sugar and pectin and add to the rhubarb. Cook on a low heat for 5 minutes. Add lemon juice and bring back to the boil. Remove from the heat and gently pass through a fine sieve.

Put aside the glaze and refrigerate the remaining rhubarb purée to cool down. 6 Knock back the dough (pressing it down after its first rise to remove air bubbles) and using a piping bag divide into 8 medium size (8 cm in diameter) nonstick dariole moulds. Leave to prove in a warm place for 30 minutes. 7 Bake in a preheated oven, on 200C, until golden brown and cooked in the middle for approximately 25 minutes. 8 In a large saucepan mix 600ml of water and 300g of sugar. Scrape the seeds from 1/2 the vanilla pod into the syrup and bring to the boil. Remove the babas from the moulds and place into the pan with the syrup. Use a large spoon to cover the babas in syrup, making sure the pastry is fully soaked. Leave to cool and pour dark rum all over the babas. With a slotted spoon remove them from the syrup to a tray and using a pastry brush put warm rhubarb glaze over the babas. 9 In a large mixing bowl whisk together the double and whipping creams and vanilla seeds (from the other 1/2 of the pod) until you get soft peaks. Add the chilled rhubarb purée and mix well using a rubber spatula. 10 Present the babas on small plates with a big spoonful of the rhubarb cream Chantilly.

SCALLOPS WITH WILD GARLIC

Mat Follas, Bramble Restaurant

It is wild garlic season and it is one of my favourite ingredients. You will only need a leaf or two for this recipe. Ransoms are the most common variety of wild garlic but, if you are lucky, you might find some three-cornered leek which is more delicate in flavour or even some garlic grass growing which is more onion-like… good luck garlic-hunting! As with all foraged plants make sure you have the right plant – your nose is the best guide with garlics though as there are no poisonous ones out there!

Cooking scallops is often made out to be difficult on cooking shows – nothing could be further from the truth. The key thing to remember is to cook for less time than you think! Conventional wisdom is to cook them in a very hot pan for about 30 seconds per side to sear the outer and just cook the centre. I prefer a slightly slower method that requires a little bit of skill to make foaming butter but the resulting taste is so much better!

Ingredients (per person): 25g butter 3 scallops 1/2 tsp finely chopped wild garlic

Method Use a heavy pan if you can as it retains the heat and won’t cool down too quickly. If you are cooking for several people you might want to cook only a couple of portions at a time so the pan doesn’t cool down too much when you add the scallops to it.

1 To prepare the scallops, pinch off the tough part of the muscle (about 1/8 of the total) and remove the roe. Keep the roe for cooking and either discard the tough piece or, better still, freeze it in a bag to make a stock when you have a handful. 2 Once your scallops are prepared, heat your pan on a medium heat with a good knob of butter, enough to cover the base when melted. As the butter melts it will start to bubble as the water in it cooks off. Use your nose to tell when the water is nearly all boiled off – the butter will start to smell like roasted hazelnuts – this is when you add the scallops to the pan. 3 Turn the heat right down at this point, or even off if you have a really heavy pan, and keep turning the scallops so they brown evenly. I like to cook mine for 3-4 minutes – you can feel when they are done as they will become tighter. 4 After a couple of minutes add the roes to the pan as they need less cooking. We want the flavour of the sea to permeate the butter and the scallops to be just cooked. 5 Serve the scallops onto a heated plate, or use a shell, as I have. Save some of the butter in the pan and toss in a little chopped wild garlic for 30 seconds over the heat before spooning the wild garlic and remaining butter over the top of the scallops.

bramblerestaurant.com

THE CAKE WHISPERER Val Stones

PECAN PIE

Ihave a very sweet tooth so this recipe is ideal – sticky, nutty and a perfect treat. Serve with fresh, whipped cream, pouring cream or even ice cream for a cool contrast to the pie. This is a recipe I began making some 20 years ago and although it’s traditionally a Thanksgiving Day pudding I always make it for Christmas and for when family guests visit at any time of year. When I visit my sister in New Jersey I stock up on ‘Trader Joe’s’ candied pecans and maple syrup. When I make this pie at home I daydream that I am with my sister in her kitchen chatting and baking...

Preparation time: 20 minutes Cooking time: 1hour 15 minutes What you will need: A 23cm deep loose-bottom flan/quiche pan, greased well. Either baking beans or dried peas/beans for baking blind. A piece of baking parchment to fit in the pan

Ingredients: Serves 8 Shortcrust pastry (or you can use shop-bought pastry) 250g plain flour plus extra for dusting 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt 125g butter unsalted, cubed 25g caster sugar 1 medium free-range egg, lightly beaten 40-50ml chilled water

Filling: 75g butter, softened 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt 90 g caster sugar 180g maple syrup 180g golden syrup 3 free-range eggs, beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 325g pecan halves (keep back 100g of pecan halves for decorating)

Method: 1 Place the flour and salt in a large bowl, add the cubed butter and lightly rub the butter into the mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs, stir in the caster sugar. 2 Make a well in the middle of the mixture pour in the egg and 40ml water sufficient to bind the pastry into a firm dough, add a little more water if needed.

Gently knead the pastry to form into a round and flatten slightly, wrap in film and rest in the fridge for at least 20-30 minutes. 3 Grease the flan tin. 4 Remove the pastry from the fridge, allow to come to room temperature for about 5 minutes. 5 Lightly flour a work surface and roll out the pastry to form a large circle to fit the flan case, the thickness of a pound coin, fold the circle of pastry in half and then quarters. Place the folded pastry into the flan tin and open out carefully and press gently into the tin. With the rolling pin roll across the top of the flan tin to cut off the surplus pastry. With a fork mark the base evenly as this will help the base to remain flat.

Place in the fridge to chill for 15-20 minutes. 6 Set the oven for 190C, 170C fan, gas mark 5.

Line the pastry case with baking parchment – if you scrunch up the parchment and then un-crease it, it will fit into the shape of the flan dish more easily. Fill with baking beans and bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes, the sides should be set. Remove the beans and parchment and return the pastry into the oven and bake for a further 5-10 minutes when the pastry shell should be lightly golden. Set aside to cool. 7 Turn the oven up to 200C, 190C fan, gas mark 6. 8 Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy, gradually add the syrups, then the eggs, salt and vanilla, continue whisking until all combined. 9 Place the pecans, except those set aside to decorate the top into a plastic bag, and crush them into small pieces using a rolling pin. Stir the pecans into the filling mixture and then pour into the pastry case. 10 Bake for 10 minutes then turn the oven down to 160C, 140C fan, gas mark 3 for a further 25-30 minutes – the middle of the filling should wobble a little when the tart case is shaken. Allow the pie to cool in the tin, before taking out of the pan – it may stick so use a knife to run around the edges before lifting out. Serve with whipped cream, custard or ice cream or a little of each!

A MONTH ON THE PIG FARM

James Hull, The Story Pig

Itrudge determinedly across a muddy paddock with a bale of straw slung on my back, strategically balanced to not feel too heavy. I’m taking it to one of our many pig arks, but as I approach the baler cord starts to cut into my hand and as I fling it down quickly I’m joined by 40 squealing, inquisitive and growing pigs. I crouch and thrust the bale inside, dragging it to the back of the dry, warm shelter, where I find my knife and cut the strings. The pigs start to stream into the ark to see what I am doing – these are big pigs, boisterous and I exit to one side. They won’t hurt me but they might knock me over in their collective excitement. I repeat my trudging with two more bales on my back – the first is already trampled and torn apart in a collective frenzy of excitement. I shout to them my re-arrival, the more timid ones bolt out the entrance past me, squealing as they go. Some fly through the back window, this is not designed for flying pigs but still they use it as an escape route. The most confident of the group stay put and push the bales around as I cut the strings. The sun is shining and shafts of light stream in – the sunbeams are filled with dust as they kick the straw around. As I leave the whole group of 40 are chewing and munching – they do an amazing job of making their bed, chewing the straw into tiny fragments. I move on to the next group and repeat, getting warmer and warmer until I am boiling hot with all my layers on – even on a freezing cold day this job gets me hot. Some groups are sows with piglets, these are smaller arks, and if the mother is near I don’t go inside, I cut the bale from a safe distance and throw the sections in, keeping a watchful eye on a protective mum. If the piglets squeak she will come after me, mouth open, barking! We have about 16 different groups to bed up – I do it on a Wednesday every week and it takes me most of the morning. It is one of the many workouts that mean I can eat Charlotte’s amazing cakes without getting fat – a fair trade-off I guess.

Elsewhere, small signs of the impending spring are popping up; catkins wave gently in the cold breeze and somehow snowdrops are pushing up through the cold, wet soil to brighten the days. We planted quite a lot of snowdrops here last year so Charlotte and I look for them popping up. To be honest, there doesn’t seem to be as many as we planted – where have they gone? The days are longer now so we can be outside until it’s dark at about six. We are busy planning our move back outside with the tipi – not long now. If everything goes to plan and we don’t return to the depths of winter we are planning to move back outside on the weekend of 26th / 27th March. We have sown hundreds of packets of seeds in our polytunnel (at the time of writing they are not up yet, but hopefully soon!) – some to plant in our garden and many to grow on and sell to all our customers. True to form we have gone for the more unusual plants that you won’t see everywhere else.

I can’t wait for spring proper to arrive. The trouble is farmers always have one eye on the weather and this year we have had an extremely dry winter so far, and I find myself saying to Charlotte on a regular basis ‘we will pay for this’ so I sincerely hope I am wrong and that we have escaped the worst that winter can throw at us. But just in case I have filled our big emergency water tanks up and covered them with old blankets, so if the weather turns and all our pig’s water freezes we will be sort of prepared! Down on the farm, basically everything changes and nothing changes. Hope to see you all soon!

@thestorypig thestorypig.co.uk

REAPING REWARDS

David Copp

Demand for fine wine soared in 2021 and the trend for its increased consumption and investment shows no sign of slowing. If you are seriously interested in investing, I would turn to someone in the trade you trust to advise you. This article is not so much about specific wines to invest in, but what is happening to fine wine prices worldwide and why.

I start with Champagne for two reasons. Firstly, because it was the star performer in 2021 with prices for good vintage wines up by 25%. Good vintage Champagnes are a sound investment for two reasons; there is a growing worldwide demand for them and there is little available.

In fact, rather than invest in wine, it would not be a bad thing to invest in buying good vineyard land in Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and here, in Dorset. Good agricultural land in southern England is a fraction of the price of land with the appellation Champagne. Tattinger bought Kent orchard land eight years ago and will produce their first wine in 2025. Such visionaries who recognised the potential of English sparkling wines deserve success.

However, we still have some way to go to catch up with the very best vintage wines of Krug and Tattinger. The secret of their success has been finding the best vineyards for their French vines and never compromising on the production of top-quality grapes. Their wines are sought-after because they pursue excellence.

Burgundy is another wine region that produces small quantities of very fine wines. Exceptional vineyards such as in Domaine Romanée Conti (DRC) produce wines with a richness of robe, intensity of bouquet and velvety finish for which wealthy men and women around the world will pay hundreds of pounds a bottle. The same is true in Champagne, where superb sites, low yields and a no-compromise philosophy in the production of sound, ripe fruit combines with centuries of know-how to produce outstanding wines. Thus the worldwide

Dario Lo Presti/Shutterstock

enthusiasm for blue-chip Burgundy is reflected in today’s prices for the best wines.

For a long time, the top Medoc chateaux - Lafite and Latour, Margaux, Haut Brion and Mouton Rothschild were the chief focus for investors. Today there is also great interest in Pomerol and St. Emilion. Chateau Petrus, a tiny estate with an iron-rich streak of blue clay perfect for merlot, only produces about 30,000 bottles a year. In the 1980s I bought a dozen bottles of the 1982 vintage (to drink) for £400. That vintage is now changing hands at around £50,000 a dozen.

Over the last 30 years, Italy has become more widely recognised as a fine wine producer. I have a soft spot for the ‘Super Tuscans’ because the late Tibor Gal, an outstanding Hungarian oenologist and good friend, was chief winemaker for Ornellaia and Masseto, and invited me to Bolgheri to taste them. Bolgheri had hitherto not been considered a classic wine-producing region, but the soils and maritime influence were perfect for cabernet sauvignon at Ornellaia and for merlot at Massetto. These two small but quite exceptional plots of land produce world-class wines. While in Italy, I also went to Montalcino and Barolo, both of which have exceptional terroirs for producing world-class wines.

Spain, with more old vineyard land than any other country I know, also produces truly great red wines. Rioja set high standards but more recently Ribera del Duero, the home of Vega Sicilia, has been recognised as a world-class red wine producer. Spain has found other outstanding sites. It also has many old vines. As vines age, so they push their roots deeper in the search for water and minerals. Older vines produce less fruit but fruit with greater concentration. Over the last 30 years or so Spain has uncovered several truly outstanding vineyard sites for producing world-class wines.

South Australia and Tasmania also produce exceptional wines. Grange Hermitage and Hill of Grace have set the pace but there are many others. Grange, the most iconic Australian wine, is actually a blend of (mostly) Barossa-grown shiraz and cabernet sauvignon but the accent is on buying the very best fruit wherever it comes from.

Robert Mondavi determined that California would not be left out of the reckoning when it came to fine wine. His liaison with Philippe Rothschild of Chateau Mouton Rothschild has produced Opus One, now widely recognised as a world-class wine. Other Californian estates have followed in his footsteps; Screaming Eagle, Dominus, Ridge Monte Bello, Scarecrow and Harlan are just some of the wines that are in demand.

I have also been impressed with the best Argentinian and South African wines I have tasted. Both regions have learned which grape varieties are most suited to their soils and climate. I find the best South African wines an intriguing blend of bright, vibrant fruit with old-world complexity. Their leading fine wine growers are beginning to reap the reward for many years of investment and hard work. Kanonkop, Mount Vernon, Glen Carlou and Bouchard Finlayson are just some of the more interesting I have tasted.

I have written mostly about red wines because that is where the greatest investor interest lies. But great white Burgundies of the Cote d’Or such as Le Montrachet are in demand as are the best western Australian whites. There is also a market for the truly magnificent sweet wines of Sauternes, Tokay, Rhine and Mosel.