Spring Green!

 Spring is here and we've been giving the shelves a spring clean for a fresh new look.
Before...

Applying the white undercoat before the country style cream and green paint.

Volia! The fresh green compliments our great range of coffee makers.

http://www.kitchenercookware.com/

Scream For Pancakes!

You can never have enough pancakes...

I love sugar and I'm not afraid to say it, so this pancake day I'm planning to go crazy for sweet pancakes. If you're like me and have a monster sweet tooth, you're going to love love love these simple banana pancakes, with a choice of three different fillings, mmmmmm.

First up, here's how to make the quick and easy batter.

Ingredients

150g Plain Flour
1 tbs Sugar
2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Salt
300 ml Water (For a even smoother batter use 250 ml water and 50 ml soya milk)
1 tbs Sunflower Oil
1 Mashed up Banana

Now simply mix the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder together, now add the water, oil and banana and stir until most of the lumps are gone! (You'll have a few left because of the banana.)

Grease your chosen pan lightly, too much grease will result in oily pancakes! Get the pan nice and hot, a good way to test if it's hot enough, is to drop the tiniest speck of batter into the pan, if it starts fizzing straight away you're good to go!

I chose to keep my ingredients simple and sweet, with a combination of raisin and chocolate, blueberry and maple syrup and of course, the classic lemon and maple syrup.

When cooking your pancakes, you'll know when to flip them by watching the edges. When they start to curl it's ready to flip! Aim for a lovely golden brown colour, like this.

For the raisin and chocolate, I poured the batter into the pan, then sprinkled on a handful of raisins. I then flipped the pancake and once cooked served with chocolate grated over the top.

It's the same with the blueberries, pour your batter on, then add the blueberries before flipping. The heat makes the blueberries so soft and yummy! Serve with maple syrup poured generously.

For the classic, simply cook your pancakes, smother in lemon and maple syrup and enjoy!

Happy pancake day everyone! Hope you all have fun experimenting and make sure you eat way too many!

Millie Fraser

New Window Display!

So, we've had the decorators in and the ceiling is looking fabulous...however the window had seen less dusty days. So with the day of many pancakes looming, and of course Valentines, we decided to beautify the window with Emma Bridgewater pottery and textiles, heart shaped cake tins and crepe pans for one big, loved up Shrove Tuesday.

Emma Bridgewater 'I Love Chocolate' 1/2 Pint Mug, Boxed and 'Sampler' 1/2 Pint Jug

If you're baking biscuits this Valentines why not bake a selection of hearts and apples? They look so sweet together! Stay tuned to see how to turn simple biscuits into a fabulous gift.

Heart Shaped Tom!

Emma Bridgewater 'Luster' Gallon Jug

Our Lovely Emma Evans! Get the recipe for Emma's yummy pancakes here!

http://www.kitchenercookware.com/

Millie Fraser

Cheesy Curried Veg Pancakes

TIME FOR SOME VEGGIE PANCAKES!

These are a great alternative pancake to try this Shrove Tuesday and a new favourite of mine!

Ingredients (4-6 pancakes)

PANCAKE BATTER:

220g Self Raising flour

1 teaspoon Salt (or to taste)

2 teaspoons Mild Curry Powder

350g Skimmed Milk

A Knob of Butter

THE REST:

3-4 Spring Onions

Half a Courgette

4-5 fresh Mushrooms

A handful of fine Green Beans

2 large handfuls of Spinach

A large handful of your favourite Cheddar

Half a teaspoon of Paprika

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sweet Chilli Sauce to serve with (optional)

METHOD:

Put some cooking butter in your frying pan of choice and waiting till it's fizzing. Then throw in your diced spring onions and cook them for a minute on a high heat until they soften slightly.

Then add your sliced courgette, turned down to a more medium heat. I like to grind some pepper over the mixture at this point.

Add your chopped green beans and chopped mushrooms and stir until the courgette softens and start to become more translucent. This should take no more than 5 minutes. The mushrooms should be squeaking and basically cooked too.

Turn the heat down to low and cover your mixture with as much spinach as will fit. Leave it on top for 30 seconds then stir it in and it will start to wilt down very quickly. Repeat until you've ran out of spinach.

Take your pan off the heat for a minute while you make the batter. The mixture will continue to cook down for a bit.

Mix the flour and milk together in a bowl with a whisk. Add a knob of butter and microwave it for a minute to melt the butter into the mixture. Stir and add the curry powder.

Take most of the veg mixture out of the pan, leaving enough for one pancake. Put the pan back on a high heat and spoon the batter on top of the mixture till it covers the veg and forms a circle.

Sprinkle the grated cheese on top of the pancake and wait till tiny bubbles start to form in the mixture and the edge of the pancake starts to set. This should take about 3-5 minutes depending on how hot your pan is.When this happens use a spatula to ease the pancake loose and then flip it over. Cook it on this side for the same amount of time.

Now it's time to put your pancake on a plate! As you lift the pancake be careful to include the now melted cheese on the first side.

Serve with some sweet chilli sauce or your favourite sauce of choice and enjoy! Then repeat the last part to make more until all the batter is gone!

Emma Evans

The Prettiest Marmalade

When I think of marmalade I think back to being little, sat at the big wooden kitchen table in my parents house. It's morning, the fires burning, warming up cold fingers and toes and the smell of thickly cut toast is all through the house. My dad sits reading the paper, there's a huge mug of hot coffee to his right and in the middle of the table is an open jar of orange marmalade with a butter knife sticking out of it. 

As a child it was only strawberry jam that held a place in my heart, but as I've grown older marmalade has started to become more appealing.

So as a compromise I decided to make a sweeter marmalade, and if like me, you're more of a jam kind of gal I think you'll find this marmalade a rather nice surprise.

Pomegranate, Apple and Vanilla Marmalade

Ingredients

This recipe is quite small, making only two medium jars. Perfect if you're in need of a homemade birthday present and don't want to be eating left over marmalade for years!

3 Cooking apples

1 Lemon

1 Pomegranate

1lb Sugar

1 Vanilla pod

1 tsp Rose water

1) Righty ho, first things first, peel the apples... 

A little note: The small pretty knife in the picture is by Kuhn Rikon and comes in all different colours! Available in our shop! 

2) Now slice the apples into thin chunks and pop them into your favourite large pan!

A little note: If you want to invest in a large pan then Le Creuset or Kilner do some fabulous large Jam Pans. Or you could use a large casserole pan, and if Le Creuset pans are a little bit on the heavy side of life for you, Stellar do a lovely range in Easy Lift Cast Iron. 

3) This next part can take a while, but it's worth it when your don't have any of the nasty sour white pith! Cut the pomegranate in half and remove half to three quarters of those lovely dark pink seeds. (Save the seeds that are left because you'll need them in a moment!) I tend to use something small, like an olive or pickle fork.

4) Now then, add the seeds to the pan along with the juice of the lemon, as it combines with the bittersweet pomegranate and sour apples the smell will make your mouth water!

5) Throw in a few drops of Rose Water and then add enough water to cover all fruit. Now simply simmer until all apples and seeds are soft.

6) Once the fruit is mushy, strain it through muslin. If you leave it for a few hours or over night (and resist the urge to stir it around with a spoon!) the liquid will be a beautifully clear pink. However, if you're pushed for time you can always strain it quicker, it will be just as yummy and just as pink, but maybe just a little bit cloudy.

7) Cut the vanilla bean length ways and scrape out the seeds. Then cut the two halves of the vanilla pod into thinner strips.

8) Pour the liquid back into your pan and add the remaining pomegranate seeds and vanilla seeds. (Not the strips of vanilla pod though, hang on to them to use a little later.)

9) Stir in all the sugar, let it start to boil and then turn it down and simmer gently for about two hours. 

You'll see it reduce down and go all gooey and thick, mmmm! 

10) Now all you need to do is pour the yummy sweetness into jars.

A little note: Kilner jars work very well as they're airtight and look mighty pretty along your kitchen shelves!

 As a finishing touch you can push the strips of vanilla pod down into the marmalade and you'll see them along with the pomegranate seeds through the clear jelly. 

And boom! You're done! Enjoy spread onto homemade scones, sourdough bread, stirred into porridge or with a spoon straight from the jar!

Oh, just one more little thing! All that fruit you strained? The mushy apples and pomegranate? Why not make a cheeky crumble with it? All you need to do is stir a bit of sugar into the fruit and then spread it into the bottom of a small but slightly deep baking dish. Now sift 8oz of flour into a mixing bowl, rub in 4oz of butter and then stir in 2oz of sugar. Sprinkle the flour mixture all over the fruit and bake at about 180c until golden brown and the fruit begins to bubble through. 

And there you go, homemade marmalade and a lovely crumble, do I hear you say domestic goddess?! 

http://www.kitchenercookware.com/

Millie Fraser

The Best Orange Marmalade

Hi Guys
Okay so we were asked last week to make our favourite Marmalade recipe and write up how to make it.
I immediately started thinking about all sorts of exotic recipes. Like how about i cook it with star anise, chili, whisky, nutmeg or cloves. Even add beetroot, plums, blood oranges or carrot.
I went away trying to adapt and decide how i could make such an exotic marmalade, but my dreams were quickly shattered when I went home for the weekend.
My beautiful Irish mum is the BIGGEST fan of marmalade. Even would go so far as to claim, having tried every type of marmalade in the world. I spoke to her about all my ideas for this exotic marmalade i was going to make. However i was quickly corrected, and it was decided it was a classic homemade marmalade we were going to make.
Apparently there is nothing nicer.
So here is the recipe for a Seville orange marmalade, and it is terribly easy. The intensely sharp, bitter Seville oranges hold their own with the sweetness of the sugar and the fragrance of the orange peel.



Ingredients
-10 Seville oranges-2 lemons-1.5 litres water-2 kg sugar, 500g of which is preserving sugar
Method
Start by simmering the whole oranges and lemons, covered, in the given water until the skin is very soft; this takes between 40 minutes and two hours depending on the fruit. Use a smaller upturned saucepan lid that fits comfortably inside the preserving pan to keep the fruit immersed, but a plate with a weight on the top is a good alternative. Also piercing the oranges after about 20 minutes encourages immersion but rotate the fruit if not fully immersed.Next lift the soft fruit out into a colander over a bowl and leave to cool. Then tip the sugar into the hot orange water, stirring to dissolve. This takes several minutes but continue until the liquid is clear and no sugar catches on the bottom of your preserving pan.
Now you have to do one of the most time consuming parts of making your marmalade, but once its done its all very easy.
Firstly peel the skin of your oranges and lemons using a sharp turning knife, and then quarter the soft, cooled fruit and pile into a mixing bowl. Tip this debris into a fold of muslin and tie securely with white string and hang over the side of the pan. Slice the left over peel then into your preferred thickness... I always aim for something close to a matchstick. If you have a sharp knife this is very easy. Also do not worry about the thick pith left on your peel as this will melt to thicken the marmalade, and adds a nice bitterness.

Next stir the peel into the liquid. Bring the marmalade to simmer over your largest burner, stirring thoroughly and constantly with a long wooden spoon to avoid sticking points. Also if you use a decent preserving pan with a thick base, you get a very good even heat.Once the marmalade begins to simmer, increase the heat and boil hard, stirring occasionally, until setting point is reached. This varies depending on the fruit and may be as little as five minutes, but more likely to be 15 or even longer. Once it begins to look syrupy, test by placing a teaspoonful on a cold glass saucer that has been in the fridge or freezer. Once it has cooled then push with your finger. If it wrinkles it’s done.Lift out the muslin bag, suspend over the pan and squeeze as much juice out as possible. Stir again. Leave the marmalade to settle for five minutes. Stir again and pour, or ladle, the seemingly runny marmalade into hot, sterilised jam jars or kilner jars are even better.

Leave for five minutes then cover the top of the marmalade with wax disks and a lid, and then leave to cool. Rinse and dry the sticky jars, leave for 24 hours to set before storing.Then its ready to eat, and I promise it is so so much nicer than anything you would buy in the supermarket.
My mum certainly hasn't complained!

Everything you need to make this great marmalade is available from our shop in Cheltenham or online.

http://www.kitchenercookware.com/

Conrad Clarke

A Good Year For Cooking! Part 2

Things that you'll find in your cupboard...

Mixing bowls! Oh they do come in handy don't they? Get yourself a medium glass bowl for using as a ban marie when you need to melt chocolate.
Your main mixing bowl should be big enough so you can bake a large cake without whisking half of the mixture onto the floor! Mason Cash are my favourite, lovely traditional ceramic bowls and they're not too heavy.
It's also a good idea to have a melamine bowl. They can come in sets which is great because you get a range of useful sizes and there's lots of different colours to choose from. They're light and don't break if you drop them, great if you're baking with the kids!

Sieves are very humble in appearance and yet have the power to make your cake mixture lighter and your fruit puree smoother! You don't need anything too fancy, this stainless steel sieve by Paul Hargreaves will work wonders.

Everybody needs a good Colander. Use it to drain anything that takes your fancy, or place it over a pan of boiling water and use it to steam your veg! These stainless steel colanders are great for space saving as they can stack inside one another if you feel like you may need another size.

Measuring Jugs are not only for measuring! Oh ho no! They're great for mixing up liquids and having more control when pouring liquids into mixtures.

It's the new year, and as we all know, it's A Good Year For Cooking! So lets get back to baking good, homemade food from scratch. No more buying tasteless ready cooked meat balls or beefburgers, why not create you very own? A Mincer is what you need, allowing you to experiment with your own recipes for bolognese, re-design your mums lasagne and chase away any winter blues with warming home cooked shepards pie. This Cast Iron Mincer will clamp securely to your worktop and comes with three mincing discs of different sizes. It also has a sausage making attachment, for those days when only a sausage sandwich will do.

The good old Pestle and Mortar, great for when you feel like bashing herbs, crushing garlic, smashing spices and grinding things to make wonderful salsas and dips!
Kitcheners Tip: choose a design that you love and then use your pestle and mortar to serve your creations on the dinner table.

Take your home cooking to the next step and grab yourself a Pasta Machine. They're very simple to use and trust me, you'll never want to place a bag of dried pasta in your shopping trolley again. This one is my favourite! (Although you can choose from a great selection here http://www.kitchenercookware.com/)You can roll the pasta into thin sheets and then cut into spaghetti or tagliatelle, and a selection of additional attachments means you can make a variety of pasta dishes. The skies the limit!

All of the items mentioned above can be found in our shop and many on our website.

http://www.kitchenercookware.com/




Happy cooking!
 Millie Fraser