Recipes From Countryside Connection Members

This delicious tart recipe was shared by one of our vegetarian members, Isobel Davies. Isobel lives her life based upon her beliefs and values and conducts her businesses in the same way. She created a Sheep Sanctuary saving the lives of hundreds of rare breed Yorkshire Sheep and employs the talents of local women skilled in knitting, to supply her company Izzy Lane which offers exquisite handknit creations. Her other two companies, offer organic fruit and vegetable boxes home delivered to your door ~ Farmaround in London and FarmaroundNorth in Yorkshire and the Northeast.

Ingredients:

400g puff pastry, rolled to 1/2cm thick
4 slices aubergine, 2cm thick
1-2 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp pesto
5-6 pieces of semi-dried tomatoes, chopped
150g mozzarella
a few basil leaves to decorate

Heat some of the olive oil in a heavy frying pan and cook all the aubergine slices for a couple of minutes on each side until lightly coloured. Remove from the pan and drain them on kitchen paper. Preheat the oven to 200C / Gas 6. Cut the puff pastry into circles about 2cm larger than the aubergine slices and place on a baking tray. Mix the pesto with the chopped tomatoes and spread in the centre of the pastry then place the slice of cooked aubergine on top and season. Score the pastry around the aubergine once you have placed it on the pesto mix. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until the pastry has risen up around the aubergine and is golden. Slice the mozzarella into 1 cm slices and place one on top of each aubergine. Season and return to the oven for 3-4 minutes. Drizzle with olive oil, add garnish and serve.

Please visit Isobel's listings for Izzy Lane in our Farm and Art Categories & Farmaround and FarmaroundNorth in The Farm Category

This wonderfully unique french toast recipe was a great favourite with our Beckwood Pond guests and remains a favourite of family and friends today. In France, it is known as pain perdu “lost bread” and was originally created to revive day-old or stale baguettes. In fact, I do find it works much better with bread that is at least a day or two old and works equally well with Italian or French bread (with crusty loaves I still leave the crust on and it works perfectly), challah or larger loaves of homemade bread. The completed dish offers enticingly puffy, wonderfully scented French toast fresh from the oven with the added benefit of having been put together the night before and left in the refrigerator ready for baking in the morning.

BAKED ORANGE SCENTED FRENCH TOAST

Serves 6.

Ingredients:

1 large (approximately 14” long) loaf of Italian, French, Challah or Homemade Bread

2 oz / 56 grams unsalted butter, softened

¼ teaspoon salt

2 large free-range eggs

11 oz / 325 ml. whole milk

3 oz / 85 ml. orange juice

Zest from one large orange

1 generous teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Confectioners / Icing Sugar – Lightly sprinkle before serving.

Accompaniments: Maple Syrup or Fruit Syrup (warmed is best) and Fresh Berries

Method:

Cut 12 (1 inch-thick) diagonal slices from bread (the original recipe, without my personal changes and additions, and many other similar ones often suggest cutting off the crusts, but I prefer to leave them on and they are always completely absorbed by the custard)

Generously butter one side of each slice and arrange slices buttered sides up, in one layer in a well buttered (important to avoid sticking) 13”x 9”x 2” glass baking dish. If necessary, squeeze bread slices slightly to fit in.

Whisk together eggs, milk, orange juice, zest, vanilla and ¼ teaspoon salt until well combined. Pour evenly over bread. Chill overnight, covered with plastic wrap/cling film, until bread has absorbed all of the custard. If necessary, time can be reduced but must be no less than one hour and chilled in refrigerator.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. / 220 degrees C.

Bring mixture to room temperature. Bake, uncovered, in the middle of the oven until bread is puffed and top is golden, about 20-25 minutes.

Serve immediately with accompaniments of your choice.

Please visit Cally’s listing in our category ‘Relocation and Restoration Services'.

Recipe contributed by Sandra Morton, 'Perilla'  (Alpaca Wool Socks & Other Items)

This is my children's favourite recipe as it involves fillet steak which they wouldn't buy themselves and they have never managed to make chips like mine. I have told them that the secret to good chips is making the chips quite chunky, deep fat frying until they are 3/4 cooked - wait until the food is ready and then plunge the chips back into the hot oil (I always use organic rapeseed oil)  until golden and serve.
 
FILLET STEAK WITH A PEPPERCORN and MUSHROOM SAUCE
 
4 x Fillet steaks - good and thick - crush peppercorns in pestle and mortar and pat into steak on both sides.
Chop a shallot finely and fry in a knob of butter
Slice organic chestnut mushrooms (amount to suit you) and fry with the shallot

Add another knob of butter and a small drop of rapeseed oil (stops the butter burning) and when that is foaming add your fillet steak and do to required level of cooking - rare probably two minutes a side and should feel as soft to the touch as your cheek! Remove from pan and put in very low heat oven, bottom of AGA to rest.
 
Put a couple of dashes of Worcester Sauce (Lee and Perrins) into the delicious goo left in the pan and some sea salt flakes and add 400ml of good Double Cream - you can add some crushed peppercorns at this stage if you like it really peppery.

As it starts to bubble add the mushrooms and shallot and any juices from the steaks and serve poured over the steaks.

Please visit Perilla listing in our Artist and Craftsmen and also our Farm, Artisan Producer Categories.

 I have been baking this cake for family, friends and guests at our former inn, Beckwood Pond, in Vermont, since I first discovered the recipe in 2001. My parents were both New Yorkers, and I first lived in the city from the age of four until I was nine when we joined other family members for the move west to California. Returning to New York for extended stays with family and friends, then later for graduate school and work and even more recently, to visit our daughter during the year and a half she lived there before returning to England, I immediately rushed to the first bakery I could find that served it. It is one of those unique elements of a city’s food culture that reminds you in a million different ways of what the city means to you and the memories you hold within your heart. I have yet to find another cake that for me shouts “New York City” the moment it first comes into view and quietly whispers memories of childhood from the first bite through to the very last crumb, This to me is the epitome of the perfect New York Crumb Cake and I am deeply indebted to Sara Foster, owner of two market/cafes one in Durham and the other in Chapel Hill, both in the state of North Carolina. At the time I first discovered the recipe online in 2001, Sara was estimating that her shops sold three to four pounds of crumb cake every day, mostly to transplanted New Yorkers. It is one of the few recipes I have never attempted to change in any way as I cannot imagine the possibility of improving upon its taste and texture! As they say in certain New York locations, “Try it, you’ll like it!”

NEW YORK CRUMB CAKE  

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons canola oil, plus more for pan
4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Directions:

Place rack in center of oven, and heat oven to 325 degrees. Lightly brush a 9-by-12 1/2-inch baking pan with canola oil, dust with flour, and tap to remove excess. Set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together 1 1/2 cups flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a second bowl, whisk together egg, milk, canola oil, and vanilla. Using a rubber spatula, fold dry ingredients into egg mixture.

Spread batter evenly into prepared pan, and set aside. In a medium bowl, combine remaining 2 1/2 cups flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Pour melted butter over flour mixture, and toss with a rubber spatula until large crumbs form. Sprinkle crumbs over batter.

Transfer pan to oven, and bake, rotating pan after 10 minutes. Continue baking until a cake tester comes out clean, about 10 minutes more.

Transfer baking pan to a wire rack to cool. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Using a serrated knife or bench scraper, cut into 3-inch squares. Store in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

Makes one 9-by-12 -inch cake

Here is a recipe for a simple skin balm (this should make enough for a 60ml jar)

SKIN BALM RECIPE

You will need:

10g Beeswax (ask your local honey producer!) Jane asked me to note that she is not the one shown in the adjoining image as she isn’t that brave – nor am I!)
25g Olive Oil
25g Sweet Almond Oil
5 drops Pure essential oil (Sweet orange is really nice, or Sandalwood, or Lavender)

Combine all the ingredients except the pure essential oil in a small saucepan over a low heat. Heat until the besswax melts. Remove from the heat, allow mixture to cool slightly and then add the essential oil. Stir, then pour into a clean jar, and allow to cool.

The balm will be of a fairly soft consistency, great for massaging into dry hands and feet!

Please visit Jane Maddern’s listing in our Farm Fare, Artisan Producers Category for a full range of her wonderful handmade goat’s milk soap and range of skin products.

Jill Adams, Adams Family Farm, Brattleboro, Vermont

Please visit Adams Family Farm listing in our Farm Category.