food & drink

Vittles (food & drink)

Karen Broad lives in Burton Bradstock, with her husband and two mad dogs. She ran The Mousetrap in Dorchester, has lived in France and loves discovering new food producers.

Its official, this country is ‘weather’ obsessed! Yes, it was hot, but seriously, how many of you can remember the summer of 1976, when there was no rain for four months and we basked in 15 days of relentless scorching sunshine and soaring temperatures? I remember it well, as I was in labour. Give it a month and it will be the beginning of the storm season, and colour-coded warnings will be issued with possible ‘threats to life’. Walking down the road can be a ‘threat to life’. Like me, you have probably experienced reduced appetites during the hot weather? There are a couple of reasons for this, firstly, your body is fighting to keep itself cool. All our body’s functions create heat, especially the digestion, so a body that is working hard not to overheat will shut down your appetite to lessen its load. The other reason is that slaving over a hot stove is ‘not’ an attractive prospect, that’s reasonable! In countries more accustomed to heat, they have adapted the way they eat. Little and often! Lots of ‘picky’ foods, tapas for example, tempting one’s appetite, including salty hams and pickles, increasing the need to drink. A trick adopted by medieval Andalusian taverna owners, the saltier the meats, the more alcohol consumed. Centuries later it’s a technique still used today in various guises. Today I have come up with an easy, refreshing, and cheap recipe to enjoy with a lush green salad and sour dough toast.

IDEAL FOR SUMMER: The ham hock terrine When it’s too hot, time for the hock

Ham hock terrine 1 ham hock (cheap joint from the butchers) Half a jar of gherkins Few capers (optional) 3 Leaf gelatine Baby carrots, blanched 4 tablespoons of cider vinegar Tarragon and parsley Wholegrain mustard (optional) Method Boil the ham hock for a few hours, or until meat falls off the bone When cooked remove hock from the liquid and allow to cool. Do not discard liquid. Strip the lean meat from the bone, discarding fat. In a bowl chop the ham. Chop the capers and gherkins, herbs and mustard and add to meat. Mix and Season with pepper. Bring one litre of the fluid to the boil and add vinegar, to boil reducing liquid by half, add gelatine. Line a terrine dish with food safe cling film Layer the hock mix, adding the cooked carrots for colour and texture. Pour over liquid and refrigerate until set.

Mum’s Kitchen...

Raspberry, Ricotta and Hazelnut Cake

This unusual cake might also work well with blackberries as these come into their season

Ingredients 100g blanched hazelnuts 200g caster sugar 175g plain flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 3 eggs 250g pot of Ricotta 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Grated zest of 1 unwaxed lemon 150g raspberries

Method: Preheat the oven to 180C/160C fan. Spread the hazelnuts out on a baking tray and roast for around eight minutes or until they are golden. Set them aside to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 170C/160C fan. Put the cooled hazelnuts into the food processor with 1 tablespoon of sugar taken from the measured 200g and whizz until the nuts are finely ground. In a bowl, stir them into the sugar, flour and baking powder. In a large bowl whisk together the eggs, ricotta, vanilla and lemon zest until it is soft and fluffy. Add to the dry ingredients and gently

with Diana Holman

Vittles (food & drink)

Lizzie Crow – AKA Lizzie Baking Bird – is a self taught baker, who has a stall outside her home in Upwey each Saturday. See her scrumptious eats at lizziebakingbird.co.uk or find lizzibakingbird on Instagram.

Use my loaf and enjoy a perfect picnic

Picnic loaf

3 large tomatoes, sliced 1 orange pepper, sliced lengthways 1 yellow pepper, sliced lengthways 1 courgette, sliced into 5mm rounds 1 aubergine, sliced into 5mm rounds 1/2 red onion, sliced in 5mm rounds 4 tbsp olive oil Dried basil Salt & pepper 600g round boule or crusty cob 3 tbsp vegan mayonnaise 2 tsp vegan pesto

Switch the oven on at gas 6/200C. Place each of the prepared vegetables on a lined baking tray. If you keep the veggies separate you can layer according to the rainbow. Drizzle olive oil over the top, sprinkle with dried basil, salt and pepper. Pop them in the hot oven for about 20 - 25 minutes until softened. Cut the top off the bread and scoop out the crumb. Leave the crust relatively thick so that the loaf holds together. Mix the mayo and pesto together. Add salt and pepper. Spread the inside of the loaf and lid with this mixture. Layer the cool vegetables, beginning with the tomatoes, in the base of the bread. Follow with yellow pepper, orange pepper, courgette, aubergine and finish with onion on top. Pop the lid on. Wrap the entire loaf with cling film and keep in the fridge for two hours (or overnight if you prefer). Next day cut into 8 pieces and wrap it back up in the cling film and it’s ready to go.

Macaroni cheese cups

12 hole muffin tin 25g butter 25g flour 200ml milk 200g tasty cheddar (plus 25g for topping) 1/4 teaspoon paprika Salt and pepper Optional 100g cooked bacon, cut into small pieces (optional) 2 eggs 25g flour 140g macaroni, cooked according to the instructions 20g breadcrumbs 1 tbsp butter for greasing the tin

Melt the butter in a pan over a low heat. Pop in the flour and cook for around a minute. Add the milk in 3 batches – making sure that the flour absorbs the milk before adding more. Include the cheese, paprika, salt & pepper and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes. This is where you use the bacon. Give it good stir and allow to cool slightly (10 minutes). Add the eggs and macaroni. Grease muffin tins well and fill each with a tablespoon of macaroni, top with a few breadcrumbs and a sprinkle of cheese . Fling in the oven (gas 5/190C) for 15 minutes. When cooked take out and leave to cool for about 15 minutes. Using a flat bladed knife around the edge of each one loosen and turn them out. Allow to cool and store in the fridge overnight. n Make breadcrumbs with the bread you scoop out and put them in the freezer. Whenever you have a dish with a cheese topping sprinkle over the top for a crunchy finish. Lizzie is at the Old Ship Inn at Upwey each Saturday. Follow her on instagram: lizzibakingbird. lizziebakingbird. co.uk

fold together until combined. Grease a 20cm round cake tin and line with baking parchment. Spoon half the cake mixture into the tin and sprinkle it with 75g raspberries. Spoon over the remaining cake mixture and top with the other 75g raspberries. Bake for around 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. If you wish to make a drizzle topping (and save wasting the fruit of the lemon!), mix the squeezed juice of the lemon with 80g caster sugar and drizzle it over the hot cake.

A feast of epic proportions is set to be served up at Seafeast, The Dorset Seafood Festival, on September 10 and 11 at the Weymouth Peninsula. Miraval Wines is a new sponsor this year, and will be delighting festivalgoers with their delicious French rosé wines. Produced from grapes grown in Provence, the irresistible Miraval Rosé has a beautifully fresh taste with subtle fruity aromas that are a real palate-pleaser. Don’t miss their masterclass tasting session and food pairing demo, on the main stage each day. This year there will be a trio of fantastic Dorset wines to enjoy. The Dorset Sparkling bar will be serving English sparkling wines from Bride Valley, Furleigh and Langham. There will be a wine tasting session each day, with the brilliant Susy Atkins as host, giving the audience the chance to sample all three wines. For beer lovers, Hall & Woodhouse will be on hand to serve Badger beers, and back by popular demand, they will be hosting fun and informative Badger beer and cheese pairing tutorials on the stage. As always, the festival, sponsored by Miraval Wines, Hall & Woodhouse, Weyfish and Dream Cottages, welcomes some of the top names in seafood cookery. Chefs, local fishermen, fishmongers, top seafood organisations and wellknown names from the fishing industry will bring the peninsula alive with knowledgeable talks and entertainment. Two cookery theatres, live music and, of course, the seafood village, means there is something for everyone to enjoy. The children’s cookery school was a huge success last year and it returns in 2022. Weyfish, Weymouth’s harbourside fishmongers, will be supplying the fresh fish to be cooked by the chefs in the cookery theatre. They will also have their own Dorset zone, fine dining from Catch restaurant, street food from the Hatch, fresh shellfish pots and of course oysters galore, not to forget their fresh fish counter. The festival puts an emphasis on responsiblysourced seafood from the region where possible. It also helps raise money for the Fishermen’s Mission charity, and has raised more than £80,000 to date. Find out more at fishermensmission.org.uk You can book tickets at dorsetseafood.co.uk/book, when you can also donate to the charity. n Please see the Seafeast advert in this edition of West Dorset Magazine for a very special reader offer on Sunday tickets.

FISHY TAILS: There will plenty of demonstrations at the Dorset Seafood Festival A feast of epic proportions ... and we’ll sea you there!