Wild garlic and cheese scones

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I love a scone, cream and jam, or jam and cream I care not, just hand them over. Here though is a thing I like at this time of year – a savoury scone seasoned with, well, the season.

Pre heat your ESSE top oven, steam vent closed to start with to 190 C

Ingredients

  • 150g cold butter
  • 100g wholemeal flour
  • 200g self-raising flour
  • A pinch of salt
  • Around 50g finely chopped wild garlic
  • 75g grated strong cheddar
  • A little milk (a few tablespoons approx. 150g), and a little more for glazing the scones

Method

  1. Dice the butter into small chunks and place it in your kitchen food processor with the flour and half the cheese. Add a pinch of salt. Pulse this to make a loose breadcrumb mixture. Now add the chopped wild garlic and pulse again. Now, drizzle in a few tablespoons of cold milk to bring the dough together whilst still pulsing the machine. Don’t make it too wet – or too dry – just moist enough that you can easily bring it together into an “almost” dough.
  2. Now, time to move fast – tip the dough out into a lightly floured surface and finish bringing it together – do not over work it! – it wants to remain not quite mixed all together.
  3. Roll roughly out to around 2cm thickness and then use a knife or scone cutters to cut to your preferred size.
  4. Space these out on your ESSE non-stick baking tray, brush them with a little milk and sprinkle over the last of the cheese – bake at 190 for 5 mins with the steam vent closed, then open it and give them another 20 – 25 mins until golden brown on top, and hopefully nicely risen.
  5. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool (if you can!) for a few minutes on a wire rack before serving.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Wild garlic soup with baked eggs

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Wild garlic season is upon us!

It’s funny how things go in cycles, how the ordinary can become extraordinary and the fanciful mundane. Cookery is no exception to that and in many ways the alchemy of a busy household kitchen can become common place and ordinary until someone who misses that from their home points it out upon visiting. Add social media to the mix and you have another dimension of this same thing, bear with me.

20 years ago you were certainly considered a bit radical in the kitchen if you used things like wild garlic and cooked seasonally, yup, that was me, a bit on the wild side. 10 years ago if you posted about wild garlic on your social feed it said something about you, you knew your stuff, you cooked with the seasons, you were still a bit of a rebel, these days if I were to post about using wild garlic on my socials I’d probably be drummed out of town for mundanity, or for having the audacity to point out the common place or the everyday.

Luckily, I don’t really care about that. I care about tasty, simple food cooked well in the heart of my home, and a core principal at the heart of great cookery, is a great cooker – something else I am very happy to say I have found with my ESSE, like the wild garlic, the cooker evokes a kind of thoughtfulness and awareness in the kitchen that, well, good cookery happens here, it’s important. Nuf-said.

Wild garlic soup and baked eggs

Like any other green soup, this one needs to be made fresh and used quickly or it will lose some of its vibrant bright green colour – though that won’t affect the flavour much, so unless you are very particular about how things look, maybe it matters less.

Serves: 2 for a good lunch or 4 as a starter
Prep time: 30 mins
Cookery time: 15 mins

Ingredients

  • 150g peeled and washed potatoes very thinly sliced
  • 25g standard extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium onion finely sliced
  • ½ stick of celery, finely chopped
  • A little fresh thyme, salt and pepper
  • 200g (ish) washed wild garlic leaves and stems

To serve

An oven proof pan, 4 eggs, some crusty bread and some proper olive oil, you know, the good stuff you save for best. You can add some grated hard cheese if you like.

To begin with

  1. In some olive oil in a large, flat but deep sided pan you know you can trust, over a moderate heat, slowly sweat your potatoes, celery and onion with some thyme, salt and pepper until half cooked and sweetened a little.
  2. Adding just enough hot water to cover the other ingredients in the pan plus an extra slosh, turn up the heat and simmer until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked. Season this soup base a little. Now, roughly chop all that wild garlic and toss it into the pan, simmer and stir for just one minute until the garlic is all immersed and had a good swish round in the pan.
  3. Now, transfer everything to a jug blender (maybe in two batches to be on the safe side) and blitz on full power for around 1 minute. Pour the soup back into the pan and season it well, taste it, make sure it tastes good. Set it aside off the heat – unless you want to use this later after re heating in which case, pour it into a bowl, that is sitting in another bowl full of ice – you need to cool it down quickly or you will lose the vivid green.
  4. Crack 4 eggs into the soup in the pan, and carefully place the soup dish into your top oven with the steam vent closed at around 180 C for about 5 mins until the eggs set, but the yolks still have some run about them.
  5. Remove the baked soup from the oven, drizzle with good olive oil, add a few chilli flakes over the top if you like, and some cheese too if you want. Serve it up right away on the table, allowing everyone to scoop out their own egg and soup – it’s a lovely dish that sings of the season. The wild garlic is up, the hens are laying, and the days are lengthening, time to feel good.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

The Family Loaf

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I’m eating stews, curries, soups, broths and braises and much if not all of these are accompanied by some of what I have come to think of as “the family loaf”. I love sour dough, but I am a busy guy and not everyone in the house delights in the crust of a formidable sour dough loaf – and so I have drifted again, away from the shoes of sourdough into that seldom whispered about territory of the yeasted dough, hush now, yeast is fine.

There are various needs to balance within the daily bread, My kids aren’t keen on tough chewy bread, my beloved wife is not at all impressed with white bread and I like a versatile loaf that can cope with various uses from a late night toastie to croutons through to a reasonable flat bread or naan too. Quite the thing!

It keeps reasonably well 3 or 4 days without too much issue in the bread bin and it freezes excellently so I don’t have to worry if I’m busy, we can just defrost a loaf and we are safely back in the game.

The ESSE cooker top oven is excellent for baking this in the “Bloomer” style and I prefer to make a larger loaf than two small ones – it just bakes a little better that way. The ability to trap steam into the baking oven using the top controls allows me to get a really good crust, starting off with the steam trapped in the oven and then allowing it out to finish the loaf makes all the difference to the end product. As the ESSE is always the centre of warmth in the kitchen, its also a great place to prove the dough If like us, you have a cold house or, you are simply in a bit of a hurry.

For the dough

  • 600g Shipton mill number 4 organic strong bread flour
  • 200g stone ground organic wholemeal flour
  • 200g light organic malthouse flour
  • 680g warm water
  • 15g dried fast acting yeast
  • 20g fine salt

Method

  1. Just weigh everything in to the mixing bowl on your Kenwood / kitchen aid / planetary mixer or indeed a large mixing bowl if you are going to be kneading by hand. If using a machine, simply attach the dough hook attachment and begin on a slow speed to bring the dough together.
  2. Once the dough has come together you can either turn the machine up a little or kneed by hand using a folding and pushing motion until you find it begin to resist – it will go quite tough as the dough stats to develop and now is a good time to allow the dough (and your arms) a short rest. After a couple of minutes of inaction, your dough will soften and be ready for some more work – it is now that I like to give the dough it’s most lengthy workout. Re-knead the dough for around 5 minutes this time, slowly – let it have a little time to itself.
  3. Once you have a smooth, elastic and pliable dough you can shape it into a domed blob and lightly cover the bowl with a tea towel or a plate, pan lid or some such whilst it has its initial prove. You want the dough to double in size before you make you next move. This could take a few hours or somewhere nice and warm and with a nice warm dough this could take as little as 45 minutes.
  4. Once the dough has doubled in size you will need to tip it out onto a floured surface and shape your loaf.
  5. I like to make one big loaf but I sometimes take off about a third of the dough and keep it in the fridge for use as flat breads, pizza or Naan depending on what’s going on elsewhere in the kitchen and with the menu plan for the coming days, if there is indeed, a plan.
  6. On a well-floured surface, shape the loaf out to about half the thickness that you would like it to end up – were looking for an elongated rugby ball type shape, gently place this into your ESSE non-stick baking tray, lightly cover the loaf again with a lid or a tea towel, and allow the loaf its final prove. Meanwhile ensure that you have set your ESSE oven to 190 degrees and closed the steam vent.
  7. Within about half an hour – depending on temperature, you should find that you loaf has now doubled in size, now, select your sharpest serrated bread knife and cut deep slashes almost half to two thirds of the way though the loaf across the width of the loaf at angles, roughly a couple of cm apart.
  8. Bake in the top oven on 190 degrees for 15 minutes then open the steam vent and bake for a further 15 minutes.
  9. Remove your loaf from the oven, place it on a cooling rack and relax – try and avoid snacking on the loaf until it’s had at least half an hour cooling as the cooking process is continuing to finish inside the crust there.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Wild garlic bread

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Recipe by Philippa Vine, Philippa’s Seasonal Kitchen @philippavinecooking

Wild garlic is only available in the spring. You can substitute with flavouring it with some chopped rosemary and 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Ingredients

  • 250g strong white bread flour
  • 150ml warm water
  • 15g fresh yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons of chopped wild garlic leaves

Method

  1. Preheat ESSE to 200C/ESSE dial guide HOT, aim for the dial reading to be in the middle of HOT (ESSE oven steam vent closed).
  2. Place your flour in a large mixing bowl and add the salt, olive oil and wild garlic if using.
  3. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the honey.
  4. Add the yeast mix to the flour and mix with a table knife.  Add a little more water if it is too dry or some flour if it is too wet.
  5. Turn it out onto your work surface and knead to a smooth dough.
  6. Put the dough back into the mixing bowl and place a clean cloth over the bowl.  Put the bowl at the back of the ESSE on the left hand side.
  7. When it has doubled in bulk, knead until smooth and elastic.
  8. Roll out to a shape that you like and place it on an oiled baking sheet.  Put back next to the ESSE to prove again until it has doubled in bulk.
  9. Then place direct on the bottom of top ESSE oven and bake until golden brown all over, approximately 15 – 20 minutes, depending on the shape of your loaf.

Happy cooking on your ESSE.

Philippa Vine has worked with, and demonstrated, ESSE Wood-Fired and Electric Cookers since 2018. Philippa owns a 1000 T and a Bakeheart and produces seasonal recipes from Bates Green Farm in East Sussex. She is an ambassador for Love British Food.

Sausage Rolls

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Whenever I’m baking I’m often ignoring the cake tins and focussing on the savoury side of life.

Shop bought puff pastry has become the norm, even in the majority of restaurants and bakeries a “bought in” puff pastry solution is very much the order of play – which I always think is a shame – not only because of some of the more dubious ingredients contained within the vast majority of said products but because making your own “rough puff” takes minutes, is super easy and the results are epic – less “fully puffed” than the full on puff pastry but really easy to work with, pretty much impossible to get wrong and much, much tastier. So, really this is a simple recipe for rough puff pastry, but I’ve also included another seasonal ingredient – Venison, as it’s such a tasty and sustainable option, it can be a little lean but with the buttery pastry I hardly think you will notice.

Because I also like some spice – I have made these more along the lines of a chorizo in terms of seasoning too, the results are somewhat addictive – if you have a handy supply of pheasant you can substitute minced pheasant in or of course get yourself to the local butcher for some quality coarse minced pork and stay traditional – it is totally up to you.

Makes: 6 med sausage rolls
Prep time 1 hour
Cooking time 30 mins

For the pastry

  • 175g strong white bread flour
  • 150g cold butter, diced small
  • A good pinch of salt
  • A little ice cold water

Place everything except the water in the food processor. Pulse the machine a few times to begin to break up the butter, but not too much! We need lumps of butter in there, start drizzling in some water as you keep pulsing the machine, you should quickly find you have a very lumpy buttery dough, in short it will look like it’s gone horribly wrong.

Tip this out onto a lightly floured surface and bring the dough together a little using your hands. Now, with a rolling pin roll out the dough till its half its original width, then fold the top into the middle and repeat with the bottom so you have effectively created a 3 layer scenario. Repeat that process twice more, what we are doing here is gently adding a few layers to you pastry, which will add lift, character and joy – then set the dough aside and leave it to chill in the fridge for 30 mins before removing it and allowing it to come up towards room temperature again before you make the sausage rolls.

For the filling

  • 30g olive oil
  • 350g minced venison
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 2 table spoons red wine
  • 1 pinch chilli flakes
  • 30g smoked paprika
  • A good pinch of mixed dried herbs
  • A few rasps of lemon zest
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed
  • 5g salt

Crush then finely chop your garlic, add this to everything else and mix it well.

You can store this mix in the fridge until needed – it should keep in a tub very well for 4 or 5 days.

Making the rolls and baking them

Set your ESSE oven to 190 degrees and open the steam vent.

You will need

  • 1 egg, beaten
  • A pastry brush
  • A little flaky salt and a few fennel seeds
  • Flour for dusting

Roll out your pastry on a lightly floured surface – you are aiming for a long oblong shape about the thickness of a 50p piece, so don’t worry too much, but do you best to make it long and it wants to be roughly three times the width that the sausage meat will be – I like a thick sausage roll so I tend to aim for 15 – 20 cm roughly.

Shape the sausage meat filling onto the pastry more or less in the middle of the pastry. Brush a little beaten egg onto the front edge of the roll and then put the top edge over the filling and “glue” it to the egg washed strip.

Prick holes in the pastry along the top of the roll and then egg wash that too – sprinkling with salt and a few fennel seeds afterwards, all that remains is to slice the long roll into the sizes you want. Then place these on a non-stick baking sheet or one lines with non-stick parchment.

Depending on the size of your sausage, they will cooking in between 20 and 40 mins, you want them golden brown on the top and crisp on the bottom – and it is worth turning the tray round half way though. Once you are satisfied that they are nicely cooked move the tray from the oven. Using a palette knife or some trusty tongs move to a cooling rack for 10 mins before you get carried away and eat them all.

There you go, a super simple recipe that will show off your baking skills and your oven beautifully – enjoy.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Toad, in the Hole

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Sausages, one of the greatest things on earth. Batter puddings, another example of simple but excellent food, put it together though, and what you have transcends the mere mortal realm and becomes food heaven.

Not a huge amount to say here other than keep the temperature at 180 (ESSE dial guide MODERATE), have the steam vent open and do not open the door of the oven after you have the batter in UNTIL at least 20 mins after you have closed it. This can be nerve wracking but trust me on this, you do not want flat hole! It’s happened to us all at some point it’s really not the dream.

Serves: 4

Prep time 10 mins
Cooking tome 40 mins
Oven 180
Stove top 4 5ths

Ingredients

  • 8 Good snags
  • 50g lard
  • 2 large eggs (est 120g)
  • 120g flour
  • 200g milk
  • 1 pinch salt
  • Ground black pepper
  • 1 pinch dried mixed herbs

Method

  1. You need a good oven proof pan for this, or a good pan and a decent oven proof dish which will require a swap round and a little extra washing up but is better than melted pan handles or failed attempts. I’m lucky, I have a trustworthy stainless steel lined copper pan that is just about perfect for this.
  2. Make a batter by mixing the eggs, herbs, salt, pepper, flour and milk together in a mixing bowl, give the mix a good whisk then let it rest for ten minutes whilst you do the other bits and bobs.
  3. Heat the pan on the stove top and add a little lard, begin to fry the sausages to get a good colour on them – around 4 5th’s of the full throttle on the ESSE hob controller.
  4. Once you have a decent browning on your snags, lob in the rest of the lard and pop the whole thing in the oven for just 3 mins, using a cloth or oven gloves on the now “hotter than the sun” pan handle, remove the pan and place it on the hob, but just on the side where it won’t get too much more heat.
  5. Make sure the sausages are evenly spread out and ideally not touching each other and then pour in the batter.
  6. Replace the pan in the oven and gently (or as gently as possible) shut the oven door, make sure the steam vent is open and leave the magic to happen behind closed doors for a minimum of 30 mins, and if you are brave enough, aim for 35.
  7. After that time, gently open the door and take a squint inside – hopefully you have a risen pudding and it may want a few more minutes to crisp up or it may not – technically I always think around 35 to 40 mins cooks a batter pudding beautifully, but your idea of perfect could be different from mine, You definitely do NOT want the top of the pudding to get burnt, but a crispy base and sides is a thing of joy.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Roasted Cauliflower, Spices and Tahini

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Technically, only technically, your average cauli is in fact a summer vegetable – however they go into a sort of stasis in the field when the day light and temperature drops and lose almost no condition until hard frost hits them (By which time the farmers have got them off the fields and into cold store) and it is for this reason you will notice that they are more expensive than other brassicas in the winter.

Anyway, onwards with the foodie bit, If like me you tire easily of brussels sprouts and kale fatigue is kicking in, then some cauliflower could be just the ticket to save you reaching for the imported veggies, but I am always surprised how few folk will roast a cauli – it really is a game changer and the way the ESSE can keep in some of the steam as you cook them is a big help too. Here I have gone spicy to try and liven things up a bit and also, well, because sometimes a bit of spice can lift a whole meal from the tolerable to the excellent and cauliflower LOVES spice.

Serves: 6 as a starter, 4 as a main, or 8 as a side

Main oven, 180 degrees (ESSE dial guide MODERATE), steam cap closed for the first ¾ of the roasting process.

Prep and cook time, around 50 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 cauliflower
  • 1 teaspoon harissa paste
  • 1 bulb, yes bulb, of garlic
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon nigella seeds
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • A handful or two of watercress or winter cress, or even rocket at a push
  • 1 orange
  • 1 tablespoon of tahini
  • A little water
  • Some extra good olive oil for drizzling
  • A few leaves of sage

Method

  1. To begin with you need to find a decent baking tray, then it’s time to gather the ingredients and set yourself up ready to so some chopping – start with the cauliflower and I like to divide it first in half, saving the leaves and stems and slicing those more finely then the “curds”, which I will divide into wedges.
  2. Toss the chopped cauli under the cold tap in a colander to remove any traces of unpleasantness and then pop them in the baking tray, drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil and the harissa. Now sprinkle over half the spice seeds, it’s starting to look quite funky already, isn’t it?
  3. Tumble that all around and add a good few sea salt flakes to help season things up. Fling the whole tray in the oven and close the steam vent – it’s going to want around 30 mins of uninterrupted oven time to get going.
  4. While that happens, peel and roughly chop your garlic, finely chopping 1 big clove to go in the tahini mix in a minute.
  5. Juice the orange and take a few swipes of zest too.
  6. Make the tahini dressing; In a small bowl, add the tahini, 1 finely chopped garlic clove, the remaining spice seeds and some water to create a light but glossy dressing, season this with salt, but no pepper – remember that harissa on the cauliflower.
  7. Open the oven and give the cauli a good ‘shuggle’ about, now open the steam vent and to the baking tray add the sage leaves, the orange zest and juice and all that roughly chopped garlic, make sure the cauli looks like it still has enough olive oil and pop the tray back in the oven – this time for just 20 mins, it may want a little longer, but you do not want to burn that garlic.
  8. Find a nice flat serving dish, scatter the now fully roasted and spicy cauliflower over this, adding any oil or juices in the tray over the top.
  9. Fling the green leaves over the top, drizzle with the tahini dressing, scatter over the remaining seeds and then relax, it’s all done and it’s not quite like cauliflower as you thought you knew it.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Baked Squash and Parmesan Soup

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November

I love the abundance of November, there’s still just about stuff tumbling from the poly tunnel including a few very late and not all that sweet tomatoes, we have had our annual batch of pigs taken care of so there’s bacon to make and a freezer full of wonder, squashes and herbs to use up and well – darkness, the smoke of bonfires and the cosy heat from the ESSE lending a new warmth to this old farmhouse kitchen, full of drafts, holes, dogs and the occasional intrepid slug.

So, with the possibility of the last fun before Christmas resonating in the background of life I’ve put together a couple of really simple warming and spicy crowd pleasers for this month’s kitchen diary, I hope you like them, I hope you find them super simple to make and I very much hope you will share them with friends.

Baked Squash and Parmesan Soup

Cooking squashes needn’t be the peeling and coring gruelling exercise it seems to mean to most people. I bake almost all squashes I use whole, after a brief scrub and a good drizzle with olive oil and a generous sprinkling with salt and pepper. You can then, once baked and cooled, core the squash out very easily, scrape the flesh from the skin should you decide not to use it and then you have lots of tasty baked squash flesh to use for whatever purpose you like; salads, sides, sauces or indeed, soup.

Often I will make a soup out of a baked squash, using the scooped out seeds and a little onion as the base for a stock, retain the flesh of the squash with the skin on as it adds extra healthy fibre and wont effect the delicious texture of the soup whilst the same time enhancing the depth you will get in flavour by including all the lovely browned and caramelised “roasty” bits – a “win win” effectively – it’s also an easy one to sling on whilst you are using the oven for another dish – thus saving you energy too.

Less of a recipe and more a guide to getting the consistency right, the following step by step will help you find the right spot. You don’t need to use parmesan, or finish the dish with crispy sage, but both work excellently to elevate this simple pottage to supper party status.

So, here we go then;

Ingredients

  • 1 squash
  • 1 onions
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 8 or 12 sage leaves
  • 1 tablespoon of butter
  • Some water
  • A few black pepper corns
  • 1 glass of dry white wine
  • A little cinnamon powder
  • Olive oil
  • Salt

Method

  1. Set the top oven of your ESSE to around 180 degrees Celsius and close the oven steam vent.
  2. Wash and scrub your squash and select a suitable baking dish or oven proof pan, drizzle the whole top of the squash with olive oil season with salt and pepper, and fling it in the oven. More or less forget about it but perhaps set a timer for an hour and then have a look, you want the whole thing to be fully cooked so prod it with spoon back and see if it gives.
  3. Different squashes will have different cooking times and the size will also come into it, I used a Japanese winter squash the specific name of which escapes me but it is a little like a Crown Prince, so fairly firm fleshed and quite robust – mine was about the size of a volley ball and needed almost two hours to be full baked. If you are using a spaghetti squash or similar it will take far less time, a butternut will probably be somewhere in the middle.
  4. Once your squash is cooked, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool down – this can take rather a long time, and they can be handled whilst they are hot, but I prefer to let them come down to something approaching safe to handle before I get too involved with them, this I think improves the flavour of the end result but I maybe imagining it. Discard the stalk and the hard bit on the bottom.
  5. Scoop out the seeds into a small saucepan and add any fluid that has gathered in the baking vessel. Add a halved onion with the skin on and a few cloves of bashed garlic, pinch of salt, dash of white wine, sprig of thyme, a few black peppercorns and a fresh bay leaf if you can manage it. Top this up with cold water and bring to a gentle simmer, before leaving to steep for about 20 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile, break up your squash flesh and skin and add as much of it as you think you will need to the jug blender, set the rest aside for use in other things. Strain the stock into the blender over the baked squash within and blitz. As a rough guide I’d say you really want the fluid to come around 4 5th’s of the way up the squash you have in the blender – but some squashes are more densely fleshed than others, remember the old chef maxim here, it is easier by far to add more fluid if required than to remove it.
  7. Season, adjust consistency, add a dash of cinnamon powder, a pinch of chilli flakes and blend again, this time with a timer running for 1 minute – you will feel like it is a very long minute but trust me, let it have the time, the results will be silky smooth, tip and scrape out the soup in to a pan and allow it to just re heat nicely without boiling it, adjust the seasoning as required. Grate about a handful of parmesan cheese and fling half into the soup. Stir it in.
  8. In a small frying pan melt a tablespoon or 2 of butter until it is almost but not quite turning brown then add a few sage leaves and spoon the butter and leaves about a bit, remove form the stove but leave the leaves in the butter to go crispy, serve the soup in bowls with a few sage leaves, a drizzle of the butter from the sage pan, a further sprinkling of grated parmesan and a few more chilli flakes.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Chilli Style Pork Meat Balls

by

November

I love the abundance of November, there’s still just about stuff tumbling from the poly tunnel including a few very late and not all that sweet tomatoes, we have had our annual batch of pigs taken care of so there’s bacon to make and a freezer full of wonder, squashes and herbs to use up and well – darkness, the smoke of bonfires and the cosy heat from the ESSE lending a new warmth to this old farmhouse kitchen, full of drafts, holes, dogs and the occasional intrepid slug.

So, with the possibility of the last fun before Christmas resonating in the background of life I’ve put together a couple of really simple warming and spicy crowd pleasers for this month’s kitchen diary, I hope you like them, I hope you find them super simple to make and I very much hope you will share them with friends.

Chilli Style Pork Meat Balls

Everyone loves a good chilli, be it “Con Carne” or “Sin carne”, a chilli just hits that unctuous, spicy, rich and indulgent spot that so suits this time of the year. Being “pork rich” as I am at the moment I’ve deviated from the usual beef scenario and headed off in a more hybrid style, mixing the old meat ball routine with the familiar chilli riff – I opted to make this one 100% in the top oven, starting with the vent closed then opening it for a finish, a few simple stove top tortillas provide a carb and you could go with a guacamole as garnish but I simply chopped up some fresh tomatoes and finessed them with some herbs and garlic for a fresher lift – and also to use up more of those toms! A few green ones sneaking in too.

Serves: 8

For the mince

Ingredients

  • 1kg free range pork mince, with a bit of fat to it
  • 2 dessert spoons good smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon chilli flakes – fresh chilli if you have it
  • (You can use less chilli if you want, or more)
  • 1 teaspoon each coriander seed, cumin seed, fennel seed – toasted and crushed
  • 1 sprig each fresh thyme, and rosemary and couple of leaves of sage (or a teaspoon or two of mixed dried herbs)
  • 3 cloves of garlic grated finely
  • 10g salt
  • 50g breadcrumbs

Method

  1. Set the top oven of your ESSE to around 190 degrees Celsius.
  2. Finley chop the herbs and mix everything really well together in a bowl, separate into 8, 12 or 16 balls roughly even in size, heat a large oven proof dish in the top oven. Remove it from the oven and place it on the hob top whilst you drizzle in some olive oil and add the meat balls, replace in the oven and bake for around half an hour, making sure you open the steam vent, turning the balls occasionally using a pair of tongs and taking care not to burn yourself.

For the sauce

Ingredients

  • 1 tin of tomato pulp or 1 tin of tomatoes blitzed
  • 1 tin of red kidney beans – and the liquid!
  • 1 dessert spoon of treacle or malt extract

Method

Simply mix these things together and pour into the baking dish with the meat balls, return the whole show to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes or so

For the tortillas

Ingredients

  • 400g plain flour
  • 260g water
  • 10g olive oil
  • 2g salt

Method

  1. Mix into as dough and set to rest before kneading for 3 or 4 minutes into a smooth dough. Divide into 8 or 10 similar sized balls and roll out on a floured surface to make very thin rounds of dough.
  2. Cook these directly on the ESSE hotplate on around 90% power until they change colour a little, then flip them to do the other side – it’s nice to get a little colour on them if you can.

Lastly, the tomato salsa

Ingredients

  • 4 tomatoes
  • 1 spring onion
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 pinch chilli flakes or chopped red chilli
  • Dash of olive oil
  • Sprig of fresh mint and fresh coriander chopped

Method

  1. Dice the tomatoes, finely grate the garlic, finely slice the spring onion and then mix everything together in a small bowl, season with a little salt.
  2. Serve the meat balls with the flatbreads, some salsa and, if you like, some grated cheese for extra luxury.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Plum and Allspice Tray Bake

by

Plums, they are the very embodiment of here today and gone tomorrow. The whole year is no plums, no plums, no plums, then you get a brief interlude of almost plums, then it’s basically plums for about 4 seconds then it back to no plums again.

So, whilst they are here – if indeed they are still here wherever here is for you and if not file this one away for next year’s plums – let’s make sure we honour them with a recipe, not least because when they do all arrive all at once it’s good to have a few ideas to help you use them up.

I very often fall back on a basic sponge, I mean, the kids like a cake, everyone else seems to like a cake and it’s always good to have a bit of fruit inside your cake so that you can pretend it is in some way an allowable treat, despite all the sugar and butter.

Rich and aromatic plums that are properly ripe, not like those weird red golf balls you get at the supermarket with state on the pack “ripen at home” which proceed to remain rock hard for a month before going mouldy, are the very essence of deep and complex in terms of flavour, almost on the edge of fermenting by the time they are full to bursting with that delicious nectar like juice that dribbles down your chin as you sink your teeth in – balancing that needs dark brown sugar and a kick of spice, so here I’ve used all spice (no, not mixed spice, bear with me here it really works) and as it’s me I’ve gone for wholemeal flour and some ground almonds to help it feel more wholesome and taste way more interesting as well as the wholemeal flour helping things stand up to all that lovely juicy flesh we will incorporate in our cake.

Shall we begin?

Ingredients

  • 200g salted butter
  • 200 g dark brown soft sugar
  • 3 whole eggs
  • 150g self-raising wholemeal flour
  • 50g ground almonds
  • 1 tablespoon milk
  • 1 level teaspoon ground allspice
  • 1 tablespoon demerara sugar to sprinkle over the top before baking
  • 8 plums

Method

  1. Split your plums in half in the usual way and discard the stones. Sprinkle a pinch of the dark brown sugar and another good pinch of the allspice over these and gently toss them in a bowl, set them aside and get on with making the sponge mix.
  2. Line a 20cm x 30 cm x 4 cm baking tray with non-stick baking parchment and lightly brush it with melted butter.
  3. In a mixing machine with the K beater attached, mix the butter, sugar and allspice until you get a nicely creamed smooth mixture – it is worth taking your time over this and also worth having the butter at room temperature before you start. Stop the machine occasionally and scrape down the sides to ensure you are mixing all the butter and all the sugar – you should eventually end up with a really smooth and light mixture.
  4. Break your eggs and lightly beat them in a jug before adding them a little at a time to the butter and sugar mix – allowing each addition to emulsify and become one with the rest of the ingredients – repeat this process until all the egg is incorporated and then add the almonds and mix again until smooth, switch off the machine.
  5. Now add the flour  to the machine bowl and then briefly mix that in with the machine on slow adding the tablespoon of milk to help things along. As soon as everything is nicely mixed, stop the machine and scoop all the mixture out into the tray.
  6. Pre heat the ESSE top oven to 160 degrees, and close the steam vent.
  7. Place the halved plums in two rows down the cake tin and push them in so they are almost, but not quite submerged. Sprinkle each plum with a little demerara sugar and then scatter any remaining sugar over the top as evenly as possible.
  8. Place the cake in the oven to bake, opening the steam vent after the first ten minutes and cooking for approximately 40 mins. Test the sponge in the usual way to ensure it is fully cooked before you remove it from the oven. Allow the bake to cool a little in the tray before lifting it out and onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

I love this cake with some thick natural yoghurt, but cream is good as well, of course if it’s warm still then ice cream might make a nice addition and make it more of a dessert.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Marrow Masala Turmeric Fried Basmati Rice

by

Marrow, what is it good for? I know, it’s not an everyday issue nor one that seems as prevalent amongst those that don’t grow their own courgettes but almost any honesty table, farm shop or harvest festival box will doubtless contain a leviathan of the marrow order, resplendent in its glorious green, cream and yellow armour they are a thing of wonder but also a thing of ancient terror. My granny, god bless her, was keen on a marrow – a stuffed marrow was her weapon of choice but sadly this was not accompanied by any seasoning, and her oven lacked a little commitment to the cause as well, so things tended to end up a little moist, dreary and dare I say insipid. I have tried here to make things more interesting; I have turned the good ship marrow away from its stuffing course and set its sights on horizons a little more suitable, spicy and also, simple.

This recipe can be made more complex if you make your own Garam masala, I’d suggest that you do as it makes such a huge difference, I recommend the recipe in the Rick Stein India cookbook, or the Mira Soda version is good too – ultimately you will want to make it your own. Shop bought might will be fine but make sure it is fresh and vibrant – not a spice mix that has stayed on the shelf for some time, losing the will to live.

I have used fresh tomatoes as they are still coming out of the poly tunnel – but tinned will work just fine and are probably better than most shop bought fresh toms by this time of year.

I am not brave enough to commit to a proper “Indian” title to this dish, as I simply don’t have the knowledge or experience to accurately do that – so I’m calling this a “Curried Marrow Spiced Basmati Bake” – we love it in our house and I hope you will love it in yours, I often serve this up with some fresh mint and garlic yoghurt, and a few mustard seed wilted greens and if you feel like you will miss the meat – some diced free range chicken thighs can be added when you are cooking the onions.

ESSE Settings

Stove top to 50%
Top oven (vent closed) to 160

Prep time 20 mins, cooking time 45 mins.

You will need a large casserole type dish with a lid, and a sheet of baking paper.

Serves 6

Ingredients

  • 2 medium red onions
  • 2 large cloves of garlic
  • 1 inch of fresh root ginger
  • 125g butter
  • 300g basmati rice (soaked in warm water for at least 20 mins)
  • 6 curry leaves
  • 1,2 or three dried chillies or fresh chillies – depending on their heat and your preference
  • 1kg marrow
  • 1 dessert spoon each of Garam masala and ground turmeric
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 500g fresh super ripe tomatoes, blended in a liquidiser or 1 tin of good tomatoes, and a little water to rinse out the inside of the tin and top up the moisture
  • 250 ml water

Method

  1. To start soak your rice, it’s really important to help make sure this works as well as it can.
  2. Now then, let’s get cooking. Heat your pan upon the stove top and melt the butter in it. Slice the red onions and garlic and add these, cook them stirring occasionally for around 8 minutes then add the finely chopped root ginger cook for another couple of minutes, add the turmeric and spice and again continue cooking – all very straightforward.
  3. When it comes to the marrow things are a little more complicated – marrow skin is often tough as old boots, and the seed are big so – I like to peel off about 2/3rds of the skin using a sharp knife and also trim out the seeds and the spongy flesh that surrounds them – if you trim off the end of your marrow to expose a cross section you will see that you can cut your marrow lengthways into three, this will leave you with easy segments to remove the seeds from. These segments can then be sliced into roughly pound coin thick pieces. I don’t like to remove all the skin as it’s a great source of fibre, full of goodness and lends a little texture to this dish – but you can remove it all if you want.
  4. Add the marrow to the onion mix and cook for a few minutes stirring well, add the blitzed tomatoes and cook again for a minute or two with the lid on. Once everything is simmering nicely add the salt and chillies and curry leaves , along with the water – bring this all back to the simmer.
  5. Now, drain the rice that has been soaking and add this to the pan – spread it out well without quite stirring it in, but making sure it is as submerged as possible.
  6. Make a close-fitting circle of baking paper to fit on top of the rice and place it on top of the rice, fit the lid to the pan and throw the whole thing into the oven for 30 minutes.
  7. After 30 minutes take it out of the oven but do not remove the lid leave it to stand for about 10 minutes.

That’s it – you are now ready to serve, the rice should be soft but not over cooked, the marrow flesh should be soft and tender, well spiced and unctuous – just spoon it out into bowls, add the garnish of your choice and serve – you may find yourself wishing for more marrows!

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Oven dried tomatoes with basil, and a stove top toastie

by

Tomatoes

Whether you grow your own, pilfer them from next door or simply buy them in the shops – UK tomatoes are at their very best this month, they are also at their most abundant so you should be able to grab a bargain – but whatever are you to do with them?

“Whilst the lovely autumnal tomatoes won’t be around for long they can be preserved and there are many ways to do so. I like to make soups and sauces and freeze them, I also like to ferment cherry tomatoes with Asian seven spices and my mate Bill makes the most wonderful green tomato chutney – ill see if I can prize the recipe off him…. My ultimate favourite though, and one that suite. The ESSE range cooker perfectly, is the oven dried tomatoes routine. This is a version of the way we used to make them at River Cottage Canteen, when I used to have hair and more energy, which I think is based on an old favourite of the River Café version that I used to make at Alistair Little’s in Notting Hill even further back in the day when I didn’t even realise I had hair and energy was crystallising out of the air and straight into my cooking. Enough day dreaming of active follicles, on with the cookery.”

Oven dried tomatoes with basil, and a stove top toastie there of…

I tend to do these in the bottom oven of the ESSE with the vent open and the best thing to do is to pop them on overnight, just don’t forget that they are in there – start on 160 for the first hour or two then turn it down to 120 and just forget about them till the morning – you can also pop them on in the morning and take them out in the afternoon – you get the picture…

Ingredients

  • Around a kilo and a half of well ripe tomatoes
  • A few leaves of basil
  • A clove or two of garlic
  • A glug of good olive oil
  • Salt and Pepper
  • A well trusted ESSE baking tray and a something else to do for a while

And later on you might want

A couple of slices of your daily bread, and some fine cheddar style cheese. A little pesto if you fancy it or some harissa paste of you like things spicy

Method

  1. To begin with you will need to cut up your tomatoes – you can cut them into eighths, or quarters or even halves – just remember the larger they are the longer they will take to dry out (due to the reduced surface area caused by cutting them less) – and try not to have too much of a variance in size of cut tomatoes across each batch you make so you don’t get too many really dried ones and too many not quite dried enough ones.
  2. Place you cut tomatoes onto an ESSE baking sheet skin sides down as far as possible, drizzle with a little olive oil and season well with pepper and a little salt. Tear a few leaves of basil and scatter a that around with the tomatoes and slice a large clove of garlic very thinly and place a little of that on top of each piece of tomato too.
  3. Pop these in the bottom oven of the ESSE with the steam vent open on 160 degrees for 1 hour or so then turn the heat way down to 120 and basically do your best to forget about them for at least 6 hours. You can check them every now and again if you like.
  4. Once you are happy they are ready – they will have lost around 60% of their moisture and will be starting to look a lot like sun dried tomatoes you might buy in the deli, you can remove them from the oven or just turn the oven off and leave them there for another little while if they want a smidgeon longer.
  5. Take them out of the tray and place them in a clean jar or tub, add a drizzle more olive oil and any oil and reduced tomato juice from the baking tray should be scraped into the jar along with them. These lovely rich and salty but sweet tomatoes will now keep quite happily in the fridge for weeks on end – they won’t last that long though! They are a delicious addition to a salad or pizza or risotto, even chopped and tossed through your roasties on a Sunday to elevate that particular dish just another small notch, they work very well in a salad with roasted squash, walnuts, rocket and sheep’s curd… I will leave the details to you BUT you might want to consider a stove top toastie.

Ingredients

  • A silicon baking sheet or a piece of baking parchment or, if you are like me, a devil may care attitude towards your cooking plate on your ESSE stove top.
  • A few slices of good cheddar type cheese
  • A few of your dried tomatoes
  • 2 chunky slices of your daily bread
  • Butter

Method

I won’t labour the point here, you all know fine how to make a toastie I’m sure, but I do like to butter the outside and season with salt and pepper, cook them on the stove top – it’s worth dropping the lid down too just to help trap some heat and give them a little squeeze too – watch out you don’t squeeze too much cheese out and start a smokey catastrophe!

Tim Maddams is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Aubergine and Red Pepper Chilli with Pickled Red Onions

by

I chose this recipe because I love the flavours and I love beans. It’s warming and colourful and adaptable to serve in different ways. The parmesan fried eggs are really delicious. As a variation I would serve it with rice (without the egg) or on a jacket potato.

Top tip – make sure you get the aubergine quite dark but also make sure it is nice and soft. I used the hot ESSE cast iron plate to sear the aubergine to get them nice and dark to help give a smokey flavour and the oven for slow cooking the red peppers. This tenderises and sweetens them. The induction was used to cook the chilli but equally I could have used the hot plate side for that too.

Ingredients

  • 2 x aubergines
  • 2 onions (and 1 red onion)
  • 3 red peppers
  • 1 dried chipotle chilli
  • 1 tsp cumin seeds
  • 2 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tbsp. brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
  • 300g cherry tomatoes
  • 400 g tin tomatoes
  • 2 cans kidney beans
  • Salt and pepper
  • 2 large handfuls of spinach leaves
  • 1 lime
  • Olive oil

Method

  1. Heat the hot plate to about 2/3 capacity. Slice the aubergines into 3cm thick rounds and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Sear the slices directly on the middle of the hot plate. Put the lid down to keep moisture in and cook on both sides until they are soft and browned.
  2. Half the red peppers and remove seeds and stalks. Place in a roasting tray with olive oil, salt and pepper and chopped garlic. Bake in the oven with vent open at 160c (ESSE dial guide middle of MOD) until soft (about an hour)
  3. Chop or slice the 2 white onions and cook with a little oil in a deep pan. Add the spices and the chilli. (Soak the chilli in hot water first and cut it up with a pair of scissors)
  4. Add the peppers, aubergines, tomatoes, beans, sugar, and vinegar. Allow to simmer gently and then check for seasoning and adjust to your taste.
  5. Finely slice the red onion, cover with some white vinegar and a little white sugar. Leave to soften in this pickle.

To serve; Stir the spinach into the hot chilli. Add a squeeze of lime juice to taste. Place chilli in a bowl with a grilled slice of focaccia and some of the pickled red onions.

Recipe prepared and served by Dominique Ashford at Dale House Barn and Kitchen in the Forest of Bowland, North East Lancashire. A warm welcome is offered at Dale House with delicious home cooked meals made using either the ESSE 1000 X electric range cooker or the ESSE Ironheart wood-fired cooking stove.

Dominique has trained in some of the best professional kitchens in the country under Michelin starred chefs such as the Roux brothers and Aiden Byrne. She was head pastry chef at the Houses of Parliament for 13 years and also at Sir Terence Conran’s flagship restaurant, Le Pont de la Tour. She continues to do private chef work and consultancy to restaurants, individuals and high end brands such as ESSE Stoves and Range Cookers. She now uses her skills and imagination to run cookery and baking courses, guests are in-store for a culinary treat.

Focaccia

by

I’ve selected this recipe because it’s easy to make and very versatile in use (for example, toasted, grilled, croutons, sandwich etc.) and also the variety of toppings you can use to personalise your bread. It freezes well too.

You do really need to use a machine mixer as its a very wet dough which would be hard to do by hand. The main ESSE oven was used to bake the focaccia and I sat the dough onto of the lids to prove as its warm and cosy.

Ingredients

  • 600g tepid water
  • 700g strong white bread flour
  • 10g dried yeast
  • 15g caster sugar
  • 10g fine sea salt
  • 60g extra virgin olive oil, plus, extra for oiling your work surface

Toppings

  • Pickled ginger
  • Chilli and shallot oil
  • Flaked sea salt

Method

  1. Place flour, yeast and salt into mixer bowl and attach the dough hook. Add the water and oil gradually until you have a wet dough, then increase the speed and mix for 15-18 minutes until the dough appears much whiter and is leaving the sides of the bowl.
  2. Pour the dough onto a clean damp work top for its bench rest. Gently fold, rest for 5 minutes and fold again, repeat once more, then using a dough scraper move the dough into a well-oiled bowl cover and rest in a warm place for 1-2 hours, until doubled in size.
  3. Brush a large rectangular tin (30x25cm) with olive oil. Pour the dough in. Dimple, push in strips of pickled ginger (used in sushi), prove for a further 20 mins. Sprinkle with flaked salt.
  4. Place in an oven preheated to 220c (ESSE dial guide top end of HOT) 10-15 mins, with the vent closed, turn down to 200c (ESSE dial guide middle of HOT) for a further 10 mins, vent open.
  5. Turn bread out immediately. Brush with chili and shallot oil, place back in oven directly on shelf for another 5 mins. Then cool on a rack.

Recommended serving with Aubergine and Red Pepper Chilli, sliced and toasted directly on the hotplate.

Recipe prepared and served by Dominique Ashford at Dale House Barn and Kitchen in the Forest of Bowland, North East Lancashire. A warm welcome is offered at Dale House with delicious home cooked meals made using either the ESSE 1000 X electric range cooker or the ESSE Ironheart wood-fired cooking stove.

Dominique has trained in some of the best professional kitchens in the country under Michelin starred chefs such as the Roux brothers and Aiden Byrne. She was head pastry chef at the Houses of Parliament for 13 years and also at Sir Terence Conran’s flagship restaurant, Le Pont de la Tour. She continues to do private chef work and consultancy to restaurants, individuals and high end brands such as ESSE Stoves and Range Cookers. She now uses her skills and imagination to run cookery and baking courses, guests are in-store for a culinary treat.

Roast Chicken

by

Roasting a whole chicken is very economical and a great way to simplify the following night’s supper. Adding a Spring flavour of wild garlic gives it a lighter taste.

Serves

Approximately 6

Ingredients

  • 1 chicken, about 2kg
  • A handful of wild garlic leaves, or a sprig of fresh herbs (parsley/thyme)
  • A knob of butter, melted
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. Heat the oven 180C, steam vent closed.
  2. Place the chicken in a roasting tin, ideally a cast-iron pan, and season the chicken with salt and pepper. Stuff the chicken with the wild garlic leaves or herbs and pour over the melted butter.
  3. Roast in the oven for about 1 ½ hours. If you like crispy chicken skin then open the steam vent for the last half an hour of cooking. Check the chicken is cooked, the juices should run clear when the thigh is pierced with a skewer or use a meat thermometer (at least 75C).
  4. You will have some delicious juices in the bottom of your roasting dish which can be poured into a jug and served after carving the chicken.

Bread Sauce

A family favourite and a classic accompaniment to roast chicken plus it means you don’t need to make gravy and the sauce can be made in advance.

  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 75g butter
  • 600ml milk plus a little extra milk or cream to finish the sauce
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 10 cloves
  • 10 peppercorns
  • 110g fresh breadcrumbs, sourdough or white
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • A good pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Method

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan, add the chopped onion and gently cook until softened. If you use the induction hob you will have more control and you can leave it to gently stew.
  2. Pour the milk in a saucepan and add the bay leaves, cloves and peppercorns.
  3. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, remove from the heat and leave at the back of your ESSE cooker to infuse for at least 30 minutes. The longer you leave it then  the deeper the flavour.
  4. Strain the infused milk into the cooked onions, discarding the aromatics.
  5. Reheat over a low to medium heat and add the breadcrumbs, seasoning and nutmeg.
  6. Give it a good stir.  The breadcrumbs will absorb the milk to make a thick sauce, if you would like it thinner then add more milk or a couple of tablespoons of cream.  Taste for seasoning.

Baked cheesecake topped with poached rhubarb

by

This recipe is a classic and easy to cook in your ESSE cooker, gently baked in the bottom oven with the steam vent closed to retain the moisture. It’s a great gluten free dessert and can be bake ahead of time.

Serves

10 approximately

Ingredients

For the base:

  • 250g ginger nut biscuits or gluten free biscuits
  • 125g butter plus a little extra for the tin

For the filling:

  • 6 tablespoons caster sugar
  • 20g cornflour
  • 2 large tubs of Philadelphia full fat cream cheese
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 200ml double cream

For the topping:

  • Rhubarb, poached gently and sweetened with a squeeze of fresh orange zest and juice, plus a drizzle of honey

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 150C. Butter generously a 20cm springform cake tin.
  2. For the base, melt 125g of butter. Put the biscuits into a strong plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin, or whiz in a food processor. Tip into the melted butter and give it a good stir and press into your prepared tin.
  3. Then beat together the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, cornflour, cream and vanilla essence.
  4. Pour the mixture over the biscuit base and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the topping has just set, there should be a slight wobble as it will set completely in the fridge.
  5. Leave to cool in the tin, then chill in the fridge before carefully unmoulding. Then decorate with poached rhubarb.
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