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A fine taste of the local life
Inspired by Sadie Frost’s comments in last week’s New Journal, Clare Latimer tries out some comfort food from the local store
GOOD for Sadie Frost for publicly pointing out the importance of buying locally in these times of cutbacks (February 26).
I have noticed in my shop that we now have many more people coming for takeaway meals and freezer food, partly conscious that they do not want to see us disappear and also to have a treat of eating take out with the flavour of home-style cooked food.
One local client who has just travelled around the world in four months rang his cousin the day he returned and when she asked about his trip his answer was: “The best news is that Clare’s Kitchen have got a wonderful new freezer!”
She rang me instantly to say that we had scored!
Our outside catering has definitely fallen in one area but with family events like birthday parties, christenings and weddings, we are finding people almost spend more as they are not spending on other treats.
At the moment, with swings and roundabouts, we are standing in much the same place financially – so fingers crossed, except when we are cooking, and all will be well.
As Sadie said: “Think local” in every thing you need to buy and then hopefully all the special independent shops all over Camden may survive.
It is quite hard to think of very local food at this time of year so following on from this theme I will now give you two of our most popular freezer portion dishes and then you can stock up your freezer or just have jolly good meal right now.
Cottage pie
This dish is perfect comfort food but also, being topped with potato, it also produces a complete meal.
We leave the mushrooms out for one dear client and you can mix and match with flavours that you like.
I have jazzed this recipe up a bit by adding other veggies to the topping.
Ingredients
Serves 4
1 med onion, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
350g lean minced beef
1 tbsp flour
2 fl oz red wine (optional)
Splash of meat stock or water
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 desp tomato puree
1 teasp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teasp oregano, finely snipped
1 teasp rosemary, finely snipped
350g potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
125g celeriac, peeled and roughly chopped
50g butter
3 fl oz milk
1 teasp horseradish sauce
50g Cheddar cheese, grated.
Method
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6.
Put the onions and the oil into a saucepan and cook slowly for five minutes or until softened but not browned.
Add the meat and stir over the heat for one minute.
Mix in the flour and add the red wine and the stock or water. Stir and leave to simmer very gently for about five minutes.
Add the tomatoes, tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and then herbs and stir well. Remove from the heat.
Cook the potatoes and celeriac in boiling, salted water for about 20 minutes, or until soft.
Drain well and return to the saucepan. Add the butter, salt and pepper and then mash well, adding the milk a little at a time.
Add the horseradish sauce and mash well again until light and fluffy.
Put the meat into an ovenproof dish and smooth over.
Cover with the mashed potato mix, smoothing the top with a fork to leave some rough edges. Sprinkle over the cheese and cook in the oven for about half an hour or until the potato is golden brown.
Nutty Banana Bread
This is one of the most popular things we sell in the shop and it freezes very well.
We often keep one in store for the last-minute birthday cake rush – by the time it has been taken home it has thawed out and a candle has been stuck in the top. This recipe is also very good for over-ripe and left-over bananas. I serve each slice spread with butter!
Ingredients
450g self raising flour
2 heaped teasp baking powder
¼ teasp salt
50g butter, softened
225g sugar
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
125g pecans, roughly chopped, optional.
Method
Preheat the oven 180C/ 350F/gas 4. Line a 600ml loaf tin with greaseproof paper. Put the flour, baking powder and salt in to a bowl and mix well. In another bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and continue beating. Add the rest of the ingredients, stir well and pour the mixture into the loaf tin.
Smooth over the top and bake for about one hour or until cooked. Check by spearing the loaf with a skewer – it will come out clean when cooked.
Serve warm or cold. |
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