Sausage & Prune Casserole ~ Jamie Oliver & Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall

Watched Hugh and Jamie prepare this Hearty Sausage & Prune Casserole straight after the Pear & Almond Pudding Cake and thought what a great weekend meal it would make especially in cold old February. The fresh ingredients could be picked up here at the Orchard Farm Shop including the sausages the others  are probably in your store cupboard.

Pear & Almond Pudding Cake from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall / River Cottage

Just stumbled upon this video of Hugh Fearnley - Whittingstall making a Pear & Almond Pudding Cake, have to say it looks seriously delicious and that my mouth is now watering... Maybe one for the tea room?
We grow (and sell) pears, sadly not almonds!

On the 3rd day of Advent the farm shop brings to you - Pears grown in Wisbech

Conference Pears grown in our own Redmoor Lane, Wisbech, orchard. Perfect with Stilton. Available by the kilo or a whole box. A box of pears would make a rather nice Christmas gift.

Here's a Pear Chutney recipe:

1 kilo of peeled, cored chopped pears
100 grams of white sugar
100 grams of soft brown sugar
2 teaspoons of mixed spice
250ml malt vinegar

Put all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil, simmer for about 30 minutes until the pears are tender, stirring to prevent sticking.

Bottle in sterilised jars.

On the 2nd day of Advent the Farm Shop brings to you - Honey (and some cold relief recipes)

Here at the Orchard Farm Shop we stock real Fenland honey ~ Bramblebee Honey. The beekeeper comes from a small village very close to us and his bees are kept all around the area including orchards!

Apart from tasting good honey has many, many health benefits, more on that another time, but with the run up to Christmas, and the first of the seasonal colds going round, today we're offering some cold remedies:

Honey and Cinnamon

Simply mix a quarter of a teaspoon of cinnamon with a teaspoon of honey and add to warm drinks, take straight from the spoon, spread on toast etc but take some every couple of hours. Both honey and cinnamon are anti-viral, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal.

Lemon and Honey

Mix freshly squeezed lemon juice with honey and warm water.

Ginger Honey and Lemon

Mix grated ginger with lemon and honey and brew a tea with boiling water.

And the proof that honey actually cures colds? Researchers from Jahrom University of Medical Science in Iran found that 2 ounces of honey a day significantly reduced cold symptoms and reduced the length of the common cold by up to 2 days!

So come to our Fenland Farm Shop to stock up with some delicious honey that will help keep those colds at bay during the festive season.

The Orchard Tea Room & Farm Shop

Redmoor Lane

Wisbech

PE14 0RN

Opening hours currently 8am - 4pm Monday to Saturday, 9am - 4pm Sunday.

Plum Chutney ~ Angela's recipe

We love it when customers share their recipes with us. This one is from Angela who bought the plums from us when they were still in season. She froze some and actually made her chutney with the frozen plums, Angela says it will be ready to eat with the cold cuts on Boxing Day.

Angela's Plum Chutney for Boxing Day

Ingredients (Makes about 4 jars of plum chutney)

675 grams of stoned and chopped plums
450 grams of chopped onions
225 grams of peeled and chopped apples
300 ml of vinegar
115 grams of sultanas
175 grams of sugar
1 chopped chilli (more or less to your own taste)
1 teaspoon of ginger

Method

Put all the ingredients into a heavy bottomed saucepan, or preserving pan if you have one, bring to the boil, then simmer for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. When the mixture has thickened it's ready for prepared jars.


Image:By Alois Lunzer (Brown Brothers Continental Nurseries Catalog 1909) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Pork and Bramley Apple Bake

We still have a few of the 2010 Bramleys for sale in the shop so we thought we'd share a favourite Bramley recipe with you.

Ingredients:

450g/1lb potatoes

4 small onions,

sliced into wedges

2 tbsp olive oil

450g/1lb (approx 3) Bramley apples, cored and sliced into wedges

lean pork steaks

1 tbsp fresh sage leaves or 1 tsp dried sage

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 200ºC/Fan 180ºC/400ºF/ Gas Mark 6.

2. Parboil the potatoes

3. Place the potatoes, onion and oil in a large roasting tray or dish. Toss together and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bake for 15 minutes.

4. Remove from the oven, then stir in the Bramley slices and lay the pork steaks on top. Season and sprinkle over the sage and then return to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes or until the pork is golden and the Bramleys and vegetables are tender.

5. Serve.

Dandelions - Dandelion Wine

Lots of dandelions flowering in the orchard at the moment so we thought we'd share a recipe for Dandelion Wine:

• 2 litre jug of dandelion heads


• 4 oranges


• 1500 grams of sugar


• 4.5 litres of water


• 50grams of all purpose yeast plus 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient

1. Cut away the green from the flower heads.Boil enough water to pour over the flowers to cover them completely and leave for two days to steep.


2. After two days, squeeze the oranges, retaining both the peel (without white pitch) and the juice separately.Gently re-boil the mixture with the peel of the oranges ,allow to cool slightly.Whilst cooling, add the sugar to a fermenting bucket and then carefully strain the hot mixture through a fine cloth or muslin. Stir the mixture afterwards to dissolve the sugar completely.


3. Allow to cool, before adding yeast nutrient, orange juice and yeast.Move into a fermentation jar and fit airlock, store in a warm dark place and allow to ferment.


4. Rack off as required & bottle when cleared.