Blog Forman and Field

We love this website. The wonderful Roy Ackerman visits Restaurants, Hotels, Chefs and Food Producers to interviews, taste and test. The filming is stunning and covers some of the true greats of the food scene – Raymond Blanc, Brian Turner, Theo Randall, Giorgio Locatelli, Mark Hix, Anton Mosimann, Michel Roux, Richard Shepherd, Rick Stein, Catherine Parisot… and many more.

In the latest episode he visits Forman’s to talk to Lance about our smoked salmon and his family company’s history. Our world record smoked salmon slicer Darren demonstrates his skills – yet again, we can’t keep a good man down! – and Forman’s Restaurant Chef Mike Smith demonstrates how to produce his tian of Salmon with Orange, Lemon and Keta.

Visit the site for many more excellent films – http://coolcucumber.tv/index.html

This is a recipe full of the rich flavour of late summer – deeply savoury grouse and heady truffle. It keeps the lean meat moist and creates a delicious sauce as you cook.

Ingredients
• 2 Grouse, oven ready and well seasoned
• 4 slices of Streaky Bacon
• Oil for frying
• 20g Minced Black Truffle
• 1 Onion, 1 stick of Celery, 1 Carrot – all diced
• 1 clove of Garlic, chopped
• 1 small bunch of fresh Thyme
• 150ml Red Wine and 150ml of Beef, Chicken or Game Stock
• Butter, salt and pepper to taste
• Serves 2

Preparation
• Preheat oven to 180 C / 350 F / gas mark 4.

• Wrap the bacon around the breasts of the grouse (if you buy from Forman & Field we do this for you in advance), get the oil quite hot in a heavy based frying pan and sear the birds all over so they have a good rich colour, just a couple of minutes each side.

• Take out the birds and set aside, reduce the heat to medium and soften the onion, celery and carrot and fry gently for another few minutes. Then add the garlic and give it another minute.

• Pour in the wine and stock and warm through.

• If your pan is oven friendly – if not, transfer to a casserole – pop the birds on top of the veg and liquid, add the thyme, loosely cover with foil and put them in the oven.

• Roast for 20 minutes, take out and give the breasts a squeeze. If they feel firmish on the outside but with a bit of give inside that should mean they are just cooked through but nice and pink and juicey. Reduce the roasting time by a five minutes if you prefer them rare, or add five minutes for well done.

• Once cooked take out the birds and set aside to rest for at least 5 minutes. Return the pan to the hob and bubble whilst vigourously scraping all that good stuff off the bottom until it is thickened to your liking – you can add more wine/stock if it’s already gone very syrupy whilst roasting. Strain, taste and season, return to the pan and whisk in a knob of butter for extra richness. Finally stir in the minced black truffle.

• Serve the birds with the sauce, Herb Mash is an ideal side dish.

A foolproof roast for any leg of lamb but right now look no further than the fabulous organic meat we’re getting from Rhug Estate in north Wales. Order while you can as this is a proper seasonal delicacy that’s only in stock for a short month or so!

Ingredients:
1 leg of salt marsh lamb
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
4 cloves garlic
30g butter
salt and pepper
500ml lamb or chicken stock
4 cloves garlic

Serves 8-10

Preparation:
Take lamb out of the fridge an hour before cooking to allow it to reach room temperature. Remove from packaging. Heat oven to 190′C.

Use a small knife to make approx 15 holes roughly 2 cm deep evenly spread over the joint. First chop and then use a pestle and mortar to pound the garlic into a paste with a teaspoon of salt. Pick and chop the rosemary leaves, then add them to the garlic along with the butter and a good grind of black pepper. Mix together well with your pestle, then massage all over the lamb, rubbing it into the holes you created as much as possible.

Transfer the joint to a roasting tin, add the stock and loosely cover with foil. Roast for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and roast for a further 50 minutes for medium or adjust time to cook to your taste.

Remove from the oven and set somewhere warm to rest for at least 20 minutes. Serve with the juices from the tin poured over the meat, or even better with our red wine jus and herb mash.

Click here to order salt marsh lamb and enjoy our recipe!

There’s an immaculately photographed set of recipes for our smoked salmon on the brilliant Aesthetics and Gastronomy blog. Click through to the blog and read them in full here.

We’re delighted to be introducing The Ginger Pig to our group of speciality producers. They farm Tamworth pigs, Longhorn cattle and sheep to the highest standards in the beautiful North York Moors.

They produce some of the best meat we have ever tried and as Jay Rayner put it recently, “There are many great butchers in Britain but no single company which covers the whole process from the happy animal in the field, to the terrific cut of meat in my kitchen in the way they do.”

We have a great value selection box of their meat as well as individual cuts of fresh and cured pork and beef available throughought June. Order now while stocks last!

Ginger Pig Selection Box £49.95

Ginger Pig Sirloin Steaks x 2 £19.95

Ginger Pig Pork Chops x 2 £13.50

Ginger Pig Sausages £6.95

Ginger Pig Bacon £5.95

Ginger Pig Salt Beef £5.95

The Ginger Pig Meat Selection

To give some more inspiration Lucas Hollweg of The Times recently compiled some fabulous recipes from the new Ginger Pig cook book.

More delicious smoked salmon recipe action here from Cook Sister! Now we’re torn as to whether to go for Girl Interrupted Eating’s homemade beigels or these smoked salmon and avocado stacks for our Easter brunch.  Then again, we might just keep it simple with brown bread, black pepper and lemon.

This is also a great essay on our London Cure production method and what to look for in good smoked salmon.

http://www.cooksister.com/2011/04/smoked-salmon-and-avocado-stacks.html

We love this post on serving smoked salmon from the gorgeous Hand to Mouth blog. This is just how we like it, brown bread, plenty of butter and a good twist of black pepper.

http://www.handtomouthblog.com/simple-pleasures-1-smoked-salmon/

We sent a taster of our smoked salmon to Becky who writes the fabulous Girl Interrupted Eating blog and she has produced a lovely boiled beigel recipe. We can’t think of a better way of enjoy our smoked salmon.

The blog is an outstanding source of beautifully described and photographed  recipes made with seasonal, often foraged ingredients. She makes the kind of uncomplicated food that we love at Forman & Field, where quality ingredients are the stars and with influences taken from the best of world cuisine.

Click here to read her recipe and don’t miss the rest of the blog, definitely one of the best out there.

http://girlinterruptedeating.wordpress.com/2011/04/17/h-forman-smoked-salmon-with-homemade-bagels/

Last but by no means least, we have Essex man Dan and his rather impressive dishes. Living with his  charming, career-cook lady friend is clearly having an effect on Dan, who constructed a neat little tartlet of smoked salmon and scrambled egg, a technically impressive stack of beetroot jelly, Forman’s Royal Fillet and  horseradish cream, a delicate Regent’s Park honey parfait, ginger crumb and cherry coulis and a showboating finish of honey oatcakes with Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese. Are you sure you didn’t have any help, Mr Essex?

Twitter: @essexeating

Fighting talk: “I will obviously win as I’m a naturally gifted cook, highly intelligent and also staggeringly beautiful. The only way is Essex. *thumps chest*”

Soundtrack: Cab Calloway – Everybody eats when they come to my house

Read the full entry here: http://essexeating.blogspot.com/2011/01/forman-field-valentines-cook-off-and.html

All recipes serve 2

Sliced Smoked Salmon, Scrambled Egg Tart with a Tarragon Jelly glaze
Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs are a classic match, I thought it would look more impressive and elegant in a tartlet case, with the tarragon jelly brushed inside to glaze and give an interesting contrasting flavour.

For the Shortcrust Pastry: -
200g plain flour
Pinch of salt
75g cold butter, chopped
1 small egg
12ml water

Sift the flour with the salt. Rub the flour and butter together till it’s a crumble consistency. Add the egg and water and mix to form a smooth dough. Cling film and refrigerate for 30mins before using.

Roll out the pastry and line 2 greased tartlet tins, leaving the pastry overhanging to be trimmed later.

Line with greaseproof paper and baking beans, and bake at 180C for 15 mins.

Remove the beans and using a pastry brush coat the inside of the tarts with the Tarragon Jelly.

Return to the oven and bake for a further 10 mins.

Remove and put to one side to cool.

For the Scrambled Eggs: -
4x Large Eggs
Large Knob Butter
1 Tbs Double Cream
Salt and Pepper

I shouldn’t really have to give a scrambled egg recipe, but in the interests of completeness…

Add the knob of butter to a saucepan over a low heat and melt until foaming.

Beat the eggs with a fork, season and then pour into the saucepan. Stirring with a wooden spoon. Add the double cream and turn the heat down low, stirring regularly. The idea is too cook slowly until just set and creamy. Remove the eggs from the heat just before they seem ready.

Spoon into the tartlet cases.

Drape with sliced Salmon (Be generous).
Beetroot Jelly, Smoked Salmon and Horseradish Cream
I’d made a Beetroot Jelly before, and knew that this flavour partnered with Horseradish and Smoked Salmon is an absolute classic. I pictured how it would look and how simple it should be, but the whole thing turned out to be quite fiddly to assemble and get right. I used Agar Flakes to make the jelly as ‘E’ is a Pescetarian but if you’re not bothered about such things, you could swap for Gelatine, as it’s much cheaper.

First make the Beetroot Jelly

You’ll Need: -
250g Cooked Beetroot
375ml Vegetable Stock
½ Tsp Caster Sugar
3 Heaped Tsp Agar Flakes

Grate the beetroot into a saucepan and add 250ml of the stock. Simmer, covered for 10 minutes.

Pour the remaining 125ml of stock into another saucepan and sprinkle over the agar flakes, leave for a couple of mins and then warm through stirring now and again until all the flakes have dissolved. This should take about 10 mins.

Pour into the beetroot pan and stir together.

Pour the mixture through a sieve into a bowl, do not force the mixture through.

Set the bowl over a larger bowl filled with ice, and stir slowly with a metal spoon until a gel begins to form. Spoon the jelly into a small flat-bottomed bowl lined with Clingfilm. Ideally you want the beetroot mixture to be at least 1cm thick.

Refrigerate until firm. This should take a couple of hours.

Next, make the Horseradish Cream.

You’ll need: -
100ml Crème Fraiche
2 Heaped Teaspoons Moniack Castle Horseradish Sauce
1 Tsp finely chopped Chervil or parsley

Mix all of these ingredients together.

To Assemble: -
Using a square cookie cutter, or sharp knife cut an 8cm x 4cm oblong out of the Salmon Fillet and place in the centre of the plate.

Cut a piece with the same dimensions from the beetroot jelly, and place on top of the Salmon.

Finally top with the horseradish crème, and garnish with some finely chopped parsley or chervil.

Regents Park Honey Parfait, with Ginger Crumb and Cherry Coulis
This is a bit of a cack handed homage to the beautiful Regents Park Honey Ice Cream Sandwich they serve at The Restaurant at St Pauls. It’s awesome, truly one of the best things I’ve eaten anywhere. For this, I made my own gingerbread and blitzed it up, but you could save time by blitzing some bought gingerbread biscuits, I doubt anyone would notice.

For the Honey Parfait
You’ll Need:-
3 Egg Yolks
90g Caster Sugar
225ml Double Cream
75g Regent’s Park London Honey

Line two small (6cm across, 4cm deep) ring moulds with Clingfilm.

Break the eggs into a bowl and add the sugar.

Heat the honey in a saucepan until melted then pour over the egg and sugar mix.

Whisk the eggs, sugar and honey over a saucepan of simmering water until doubled in volume.

Remove from the heat and whisk until cool.

Whip the Double Cream until at the soft peak stage, and then fold into the honey mixture.

Pour into the lined moulds (you’ll have some extra, so pour that into a tub), and freeze until set (at least 3 hours).

For the Gingerbread Crumb

You’ll Need:-
110g Plain Flour
Pinch salt
1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
½ heaped Tsp ground ginger
¼ heaped Tsp ground cinnamon
25g unsalted butter
50g soft brown sugar
50g golden syrup
1 tsp treacle

Sift the flour, salt, soda and spices.

Heat the butter, sugar, syrup and treacle until melted and then cool.

When ready, pour into the dry ingredients and mix to form a dough.

Refrigerate for 30 mins.

Pre-heat the oven to 190C, and grease a baking sheet.

Roll out the dough to about 5mm thick, and cut out biscuit shapes.

Bake in the oven for about 7 mins, but keep an eye on it. Gingerbread although seemingly soft, hardens as it cools – it’s very easy to overcook, so be cautious.

Cool on a wire rack.

To Assemble: -

Blitz a couple of the gingerbread biscuits to a fine crumb and sprinkle onto a small plate.

Stone and Blitz a handful of brandied cherries to make the coulis.

Un-mould the Honey Parfait, and dip each end into the gingerbread crumb.

Top each with a whole brandied cherry and spoon cherry coulis around the plate.

Honey Oatcakes served with Mrs Kirkham’s Cheese
I wanted to use as many of the ingredients as possible, but still had some of the excellent Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire Cheese left (Lets forget about the anchovies yeah?). In the end I decided to use some more of the Regents Park Honey to make some honey oat biscuits and to serve these simply with the cheese at the end.

You’ll Need: -
90g Rolled Oats
60g Butter
60g Regents Park Honey
Small pinch of salt

Melt the butter, add the salt, honey and oats and mix until combined.

Pour into a greased baking tin and bake at 170C around 25-30mins or until golden.

Remove from the oven and leave a few mins to cool, then cut into squares.

So that’s that. ‘The stuff that I cooked’. I think that the tartlets and the honey parfait dishes worked best. Overall I was fairly pleased with how most of it turned out.

Foodie mistress of the midlands, our Nigella-devotee Jo is always looking to expand her culinary repertoire, frequently embarking on cookery courses, recipe testing and Masterchef challenges alike. She enjoys putting together invitingly scrummy homely dishes, and came up with a homemade anchovy focaccia, seared Royal Fillet of Smoked Salmon with Kirkham’s Lancashire Dauphinoise, topped off with some delectable Regent’s Park honey biscuits to accompany our brandied cherries. Didn’t she do well?

Twitter: @jos_kitchen

Soundtrack: Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen

Fighting talk: I will the win the cook off because I believe in simple home cooking and showing already fantastic ingredients at their best. It’s my Kitchen. It’s my Rules! Capisce?

Read the entry in full here: http://joskitchen.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/forman-and-fields-valentines-cook-off/

It took a few days of thinking but I managed to come up with a Valentine’s menu that I thought was simple to do and showed the amazing produce off at its best. To be completely and utterly truthful, I dislike anchovies with a passion, however I was determined to use everything that came in the box, so I thought that as the anchovies had garlic in them, I would make a foccacia as it is easy and a bit more upmarket then a pizza, where you usually find anchovies.

For my main, I simply griddled the salmon as it was too good to do anything else with, and served it with dauphinoise potatoes, with a generous grating of Kirkham’s Lancashire cheese on top and green beans, with both the tarragon jelly and horseradish on the side. For pudding, I made a chocolate pot with brandied cherries and honey biscuits. The pictures of my dishes and full recipes are below.

Stuart and I really enjoyed the meal. The Royal Fillet was the best salmon I have ever tasted and the honey was delicious. I am now addicted to brandied cherries as well. My big jar will not last very long! One minor downside is that the foccacia did not really work. It was simply too fishy and overpowering. I have included the recipe here so that someone who likes anchovies can have a go and see if they can make it better than I did.

All Serve Two

Anchovy and Garlic Foccacia
Ingredients
•    200g strong white bread flour, and more for dusting
•    1 packet of dried yeast
•    2 tablespoons of olive oil
•    1 teaspoon salt
•    125ml warmish water
•    6 anchovy fillets, chopped up into small bits and some oil out the container they were in

Method
1.    Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl, add the olive oil and water and mix with your hand until its forms a sticky ball of dough.
2.    Put some flour on your work surface, and knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth and springy. Put in a oiled bowl, covered with a tea towel, cling film or even in a bin bag and leave in a warm place for an hour.
3.    After an hour has passed, knock back the dough and place in an oiled tin or tray and spread the dough out until it covers the bottom. leave it covered for another half an hour in a warm place.
4.    After half an hour, uncover it and spread out the chopped up anchovies and oil all over the top of the foccacia. Put in a preheated oven (180 degrees C) and let it cook for 20 minutes or until lightly golden. Serve with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and enjoy.

Griddled Salmon with Dauphinoise Potatoes and Green Beans
Ingredients
•    1 Royal Fillet of Smoked Salmon, chopped up into two portions
•    3 large or 6 small Maris Piper Potatoes, peeled and finely sliced
•    100ml double cream
•    300ml whole milk
•    1/2 onion, peeled
•    2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
•    Salt and white pepper
•    Generous handful of Kirkham’s Lancashire Cheese, grated
•    1 packet of green beans, cooked according to the packet instructions
•   Horseradish sauce and tarragon jelly, to serve

Method
1.    In a saucepan, put the potatoes, cream, milk, 1/2 an onion, salt and pepper and allow simmer gently until the potatoes are nearly cooked through.
2.    Remove the onion from the potatoes and place everything else in a lasagne type dish and put the grated cheese on top. Put in an preheated oven (180 degrees C) and allow to cook until slightly golden and bubbling.
3.    Meanwhile, preheat up a griddle pan and cook the salmon on both sides, until slightly charred and warmed through.
4.    Serve the salmon with the Dauphinoise Potatoes and green beans, with a spoonful each of horseradish and tarragon jelly on the side. Enjoy

Chocolate Pots with Honey Biscuits and Brandied Cherries

Ingredients for Chocolate Pots
•    100g 70% dark chocolate, chopped up
•    140ml double cream
•    35g caster sugar
•    1 egg yolk
•    1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
•    6 pitted brandied cherries and 4 whole, for the top

Ingredients for Honey Biscuits (Makes 12-14)
•    2 heaped table spoons Regents Park Honey
•    2 table spoons whole milk
•    1 teaspoon of Bicarbonate of Soda
•    175g plain flour
•    75g caster sugar
•    100g unsalted butter

Method
1.    (For the Chocolate Pots) Gently warm the cream and sugar in a saucepan until the sugar the melted.
2.    In a bowl, put the chocolate, 1 egg yolk and vanilla extract. Pour over the cream and sugar mixture and stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.
3.    Pop 3 pitted cherries into the bottom of each ramekin and pour the chocolate mixture on top. Allow to set in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
4.    (For the Honey Biscuits) Put the honey and milk in a saucepan and allow to warm through. Add in the Bicarbonate of Soda and stir until frothy. Set aside and allow to cool.
5.    Cream the butter and sugar together. Add in the flour and frothy mixture and mix until combined.
6.    Roll and shape a knob of the biscuit mixture and flatten onto a baking tray lined with parchment. Do not make them too big as they will spread during cooking.
7.    Bake in a preheated 2o0 degrees C oven for 10-15 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool slightly before serving with the chocolate pots and brandied cherries.