I’m more likely to have lemons in stock than limes, so in this version I’ve dropped the lime. If you have a lime, it subs for one of the lemons in the cake / drizzle ingredients.

Delicious lemon drizzle cake

Lemon Drizzle Cake (Serves 10-12)

For the cake
125g butter at room temperature
2 small lemons
225g caster sugar
3 large eggs
200g self raising flour
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
4 teaspoons natural yoghurt (or cream)

For the drizzle
Juice of lemons zested for the cake
4 teaspoons caster (fine) sugar

For the icing
180g icing sugar
1 lemon
Sprinkling of poppy seeds

First, check you have the right size loaf tin! The quantities here need a 30cm loaf tin, a 2lb tin – it’s a big one!

Grease and line your tin, get the oven up to 180C.

Cake
Using an electric hand whisk, whisk up the butter until light and fluffy. Add the caster sugar and whisk again. Add the 3 eggs and whisk again until light and fluffy. That’s your whisking bit done.

Grate in the zest of 2 lemons, and put the naked lemons aside to juice later. Add the poppy seeds and yoghurt (or cream if you don’t happen to have yoghurt in stock) and mix in lightly. Add the self raising flour. Fold in lightly with a spatula.

Transfer the mixture immediately to your loaf tin, and bake in the oven at 180C for 45 minutes (Aga roasting oven with cold shelf for 35 minutes, then check and finish in simmering oven if need be).

Once the cake is cooked, (e.g. a skewer stuck into the cake comes out clean etc. etc.), leave it in its tin on a cooling rack whilst you rustle up the first drizzle:

Lemon Drizzle
Juice the two zested lemons, and put juice plus three teaspoons of caster sugar into a saucepan. Warm over a low heat until the sugar is melted, then pour over your warm cake. If you have an URGENT need for Lemon Drizzle Cake, probably best to stab the cake a fair bit with skewer first so that the drizzle can get into the cake quickly. If you have planned in advance, feel smug – and just pour the drizzle over the cake to seep in gradually.

This is one of those cakes that does actually taste better the next day … but let’s face it, waiting till the next day is not always going to happen, is it??!

Wait to eat? Hmm ... maybe

Leave the drizzled cake to cool, and when cool turn it out on to your serving plate.

Lemon Icing
To make the icing, add the zest and most of the juice of one lemon to your icing sugar. Mix well to get read of any lumpy bits, and get the consistency right: Ideally, runny enough to ooze over your cake, but not so runny that it floods off the cake on to your plate – add a little more lemon juice if need be. Once satisfied, pour the lemon icing rustically over your cake, sprinkle with poppy seeds, and if you still can resist, leave it for an hour or so for the icing to set a bit.

For walks, I make this cake the night before so the syrup has overnight to soak the cake. I add the icing first thing in the morning, and it’s safe enough to slice and pack into a container by the time we’re off walking.

Cake in the Mountains

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Ohhhhhh .....

Banoffee Cakes (Makes 12)

225g plain flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
0.5tsp bicarbonate soda
150g caster (fine) sugar
2 ripe bananas
2 medium eggs
4 tbl yoghurt
½ tsp vanilla essence
80g butter

Toffee Sauce
110g Brown Sugar
60g Butter
70ml Cream

First make the toffee sauce: Gently melt the butter & brown sugar in a non-stick pan, and stir until the sugar has all melted. The butter is unlikely to get absorbed, don’t worry about that. Just get the sugar melted, then take it off the heat, beat in the double cream. It’ll all look & smell irresistible. However, resist and put to one side.

Now for the cake:

Pop cases into a 12-cake muffin tray.

Mash the bananas to a pulp. Beat the eggs.

In a big bowl, mix together all the dry stuff – the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and caster sugar.

Melt the butter on a very gentle heat – you want liquid yellow butter, not burny brown butter.

When you’ve got everything ready, add the bananas, eggs, yoghurt, vanilla and melted butter to the flour etc. and beat briefly until all combined.

Spoon the mixture into your 12 cake cases.

Add a teaspoon of the toffee sauce on top of each cake. It doesn’t need to look pretty, its job is to seep through your cakes as they cook.

Bake in the oven at 190C (Aga roasting oven with cold shelf) for 15 minutes, then check them and turn the tray around if one side is going browner than the other. They should be done after 15-25 minutes depending on your oven.

Turn the cakes out on to a baking rack to cool (or get nearly cool if someone is already pleading for afternoon tea.)

Put them on a plate, drizzle with the toffee sauce – which will probably overflow with happy toffeeness… and eat.

Sweet

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Ingredients for Slow Roast Belly Pork

Simple Slow Roast Belly Pork (serves 3-4)

1kg Belly Pork, on the bone (ask the butcher to score the skin)
3 carrots, peel and chopped in half lengthways
3 sticks celery, washed and chopped in half
2 red onions, peeled and halved
Sprig of fresh sage
1 bay leaf
Sprinkling of fresh rosemary
Salt
Balsamic vinegar
Red wine (optional)

First step is to rub the pork belly with salt and pop into a hot oven, uncovered for about 20 minutes. If you’re using an Aga, put it skin side down in your roasting pot, on the floor of the roasting oven. Otherwise, put it skin side up with the oven temperature at 200C.

Veggies into the pot ...

... Pork sits on top

After 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 140C. Lift up the pork, pop your prepared vegetables and herbs in the pot, sit the pork back on top of the veg, add a splash of water, and seal up the pot with foil and/or a good fitting lid: You want to keep all the moisture and flavours in.

Cook in the oven at 140C for 4 hours (Aga simmering oven), or an even lower temperature (110C) for longer.

Half an hour before serving, remove the skin from the pork. It will probably lift off, but if not just slice it off gently. Put the skin on a baking tray, and put it back in the oven at maximum (200C or more). I’ve never sussed reliably perfect crackling, but this seems to produce something pretty good every time Just keep an eye on it and take it out of the oven before it carbonises.

Whilst your crackling crisps up, put the pork onto a warmed serving dish, together with the carrot, celery and onion. Keep it warm to rest.

In the roasting pan make a nice little gravy – remove the big herb sprigs, add a little balsamic vinegar, splash of red wine. Boil it down so it thickens a bit; or add a bit of cornflour, or that gravy powder that makes you go Aaaah, mixed with water.

Don’t even think about tidy carving, this is a flakey, spoon and fork sort of roast. Serve with roast potatoes, braised red cabbage with apple, green veg, and whatever wine you didn’t consume whilst making the gravy.
 

Cooks whilst you're out walking too

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Where to start… this has been so what I needed: The views, the ambiance, the ‘away-from-it-all-ness,’ the wonderful food that so calmly and magically appeared, the log fire…. You have created a perfect space for people just to be – thank you so, so much. It’s been a joy to relax with other people ‘just being’ and have your quiet, wise support. The perfect recharge, refocus, relax…

Earthy porcini, sweet potato, ginger, parsley, spring onions and cumin

Sweet Potato & Chestnut Cakes (Serves 4)

450g sweet potatoes
25g dried porcini mushrooms
50g butter (or dairy-free spread for vegans)
10 spring onions
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tbl fresh ginger
200g cooked chestnuts
2 tbl parsley
salt and pepper

The Potato Bit
First stab the sweet potatoes with a fork a few times, place in a roasting tin and cook in a hot oven (200C or Aga roasting oven) for 40-60 minutes until soft.

Whilst they’re in oven, put the porcini in a jug and add 250ml of boiling water. Cover and leave to soak for at least twenty minutes, then strain and chop up fairly small. (If you’re in a cooking mood, use the strained liquid to make a mushroom sauce, or add to soups or gravy).

Once the potatoes are cooked and really soft, cut them in half and scoop the soft inner flesh out into a bowl. Mash it until it is really smooth – a spoon should be fine for this. Add the chopped up porcini, crumble up the cooked chestnuts and mix the lot together.

Flavourings
Finely chop the spring onions, peel and grate the ginger, chop the parsley, and powder the cumin seeds in a pestle & mortar.

In a saucepan, fry the spring onions, cumin and ginger in butter (or a vegan dairy-free spread) for a minute or so until softening. Add them to the sweet potato mix, together with the chopped parsley. Mix well. Season with salt and pepper, taste check.

Gentle sizzling spring onions, ginger, cumin

Shaping & Cooking
Spread a generous amount of plain flour onto a plate, then take a heaped tablespoonful of the potato mix and with a very light touch, roll it in the flour to form a ball, then flatten gently. Repeat for each potato cake.

Ready to cook

Chill the shaped cakes in the fridge for about half an hour which will help them firm up, then fry gently for about 5 minutes on each side until the outside is crispy.

Serve with rich wintery green veg like spinach, curly kale or maybe with some roasted onions.

Who do you know who could do with someone taking care of them for a change?
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OMG. The food. THE FOOD!!!! Amazing. My belly salutes you.

Twice Cooked Belly Pork with Black Beans & Herbs

Twice Cooked Belly Pork with Black Beans and Herby Salsa (serves 4-6)

Pork and Pork Spices
1.5kg Belly Pork, with skin scored
2 star anise
1 tsp black pepper corns
1 tsp juniper berries
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 bay leaves

Marinade
1 orange
2 tsp honey
1 tsp ground cloves

Black Beans
500g black beans
4 red peppers
1-2 red chilli
1 large red onion
3 cloves garlic
3 strips lime peel
1 teaspoon cocoa powder

Herby Salsa
5 spring onions
Small handful fresh coriander
1 tablespoon lemon thyme, leaves stripped from the stalk

Night Before
Put the black beans into a big bowl and fill with cold water – leave to soak until needed next day.

Cooking
You need to start this recipe about 4 hours before you want to eat it … but the actual preparation is not so very much. Honest.

Pork – first cooking
Put the belly pork into a large saucepan or casserole, add all the pork spices and cover with boiling water. Bring back to the boil, and simmer gently for about 20 minutes.

Flavoursome

Black Beans Prep and Pork Marinade
Whilst the pork is simmering, quarter the red peppers and remove the seeds. Cut the chilli in half – remove seeds if you’re a chilli woose like me, or leave seeds in and add extra chillis if you’re a fan of heat. Place all pieces skin side up on a baking tray, cover liberally with olive oil and sprinkle over a little salt.

Put into the oven at 200C and roast for about 30 minutes, until the skin is blackening.

Whilst they’re roasting, finely chop the onion, crush the peeled garlic and saute both gently in sunflower or olive oil until translucent.

Once the roasted peppers and chilli are ready, put them in a plastic bag, seal it and leave it to steam whilst you do the next bit. Save the oil in the baking tray, that’ll be added back in later.

Make the marinade for the pork – grate the zest of an orange into a small bowl, add a tablespoon of the juice of the orange, large teaspoon of honey, a teaspoon of ground cloves and a large teaspoon of salt.

Back to the belly pork – second cooking

Take the pork out of the water and put it skin side up into a large casserole dish. Rub the marinade over the pork (use spoons or rub in by hand if you have heat-resistant fingers) Add a strained ladle full of the pork cooking water, cover well and put in the oven. Turn the temperature down to 140C, and leave the pork to slow roast for up to 4 hours.

Black Beans
Peel the skin off the peppers, chop roughly, and chop the chilli roughly.

Strain the rest of the pork cooking water into a jug. Cover the black beans with pork cooking water. Add the chopped red peppers and chilli, and slices of lime zest. Do NOT add salt at this stage – that’ll come later.

Bring it up to the boil and boil rapidly for 10 minutes before turning the heat down to a low simmer and cook for 2-3 hours. Keep an eye on the water level and top up with more pork water whenever it gets low.

Lastly
For the last 20 minutes or so, take the pork out to rest, and lift off the skin. Return the skin to the oven to crisp up a bit.

Mash the beans briefly so the crushed up beans add a nice richness to the sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning – it’s likely to need a little more salt at this stage.

Make the little herby salsa by mixing together finely chopped spring onions, lemon thyme leaves and coriander

To serve: Flake the pork from the bones – it should fall off very happily Add the bits of crackling. Ladle black beans into bowls, pork on top, sprinkling of herb salsa, and serve with some baked potatoes or potato skins. Yum.

Last year, we enjoyed the Breakfast Outside sort of week:

I spent St. David’s Day grinning madly all over the route from Capel-y-ffin to Bal Mawr. March 1st gave of its best!

Walking along towards Twmpa aka Lord Hereford’s Knob, the mountain ponies were enjoying the early Spring warmth too.

And this chap was wonderful!



Crisp mornings continued all week, my early morning mug of tea accompanied by a mesmerizing vapour show at the farm.





The sheer exhilaration of the mountains is there whether you get sunny days or wild days or something in between. So if you know you’re going to be hungry for a fix of hills after the winter, go for it!

Black Mountains in March

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Season opens March 1st 2013

We support Crickhowell Walking Festival March 1st-10th 2013

Jason kindly refined his own recipe for us earlier this year and cooked it in the Aga at the farm in Capel-y-ffin: Black Mountains Banana Cake. You can eat it anywhere, but this version now has a particular place here in the More to… Cook Book, inspired by the generously grand Black Mountains and one man’s passion for utterly delicious Banana Cake. Thank you Jason!

Black Mountains Banana Cake

Black Mountains Banana Cake (Feeds 8ish)

4 very ripe bananas, peeled.
125ml oil (vegetable or sunflower)
100g butter (plus a little for tray greasing)
150g caster sugar
4 free-range eggs
300g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
125g raisins
125g mixed nuts, chopped (optional, leave out if allergic)

Forging Process

Mash the bananas and oil together in a bowl and set aside.

In another bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and spices together. Set aside

In a third bowl, cream the butter and sugar.

Add the creamed sugar to the flour mix and work between the fingers until you get a bread crumbesque texture. Crack the eggs into the flour/sugar mix and beat wildly.

Add the banana mixture and lightly stir until combined. Gently fold in the raisins and nuts until all ingredients are combined.

Grease a baking tray or suitable size and depth (one of those new fangled flexible loaf trays is very effective. Pour the gooey mess into the baking tray

If using a conventional, fan assisted oven, cook in the middle of an oven at 180C for an hour, or until risen and golden-brown. (Always good to check after 45 minutes, and to reduce the temperature if the cake is browning too quickly on the top, or cover loosely with aluminium foil).

If using an Aga, cook in the middle of the top oven (with cold plate, so temp is about 180C) for 30 minutes and then move to the bottom oven for a further 30 minutes, (or until risen and golden-brown, etc).

Leave the banana cake to cool before turning out and scoffing.

Recipe by Jason

Sample venue for Black Mountains Banana Cake

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Horseradish & Wholegrain Mustard Dumplings

Beef in Beer with Horseradish & Mustard Dumplings (Serves 8+)

900g braising steak, cubed
2 tbl flour
Salt & pepper
3 tbl sunflower oil
2 onions, rustically chopped
3 carrots, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
440ml brown ale
440ml beef stock

Dumplings
150g self raising flour
40g butter
40g beef dripping
2 tbl chopped parsley
1 tbl creamed horseradish
1 tbl wholegrain mustard

You’ll need a casserole dish with a lid that seals well and a wide surface area to fit all the dumplings in!

As usual, pop to your local butcher to pick up some lovely braising steak – tender, local and wonderful! I have yet to discover any supermarket meat than can match the texture, flavour or quality of that from a lovely local butcher.

In a bowl, mix the flour, salt, pepper & beef until the beef is well coated.

Fry the beef off in batches until browned, ideally in your casserole dish, then remove from the dish and keep warm. Fry the onion in the same dish until soft, then add the chopped carrots, celery and roughly torn rosemary. Fry for a further 5 minutes, then add the beef and juices back in, plus the beer and beef stock. N.B. The better your stock, the better your stew will be – make your own, or use a nice rich stock from your butcher, Deli, or other good quality stock base.

Bring the whole lot up to a boil, then leave to simmer in the oven covered tightly for 1 – 1.5 hours.

About 20 minutes before you want to eat, make up the dumplings: Rub the butter & dripping into the flour, add salt and the chopped parsley. Mix in 7 or 8 tablspoons of water to make a soft dough. Shape the dough into golf-ball sized balls and drop them into the stew to cook for 10-15 minutes. When feeling fancy, I shape the dumplings by rolling them gently on a plate with some flour before dropping them into the stew. If you want a more rustic look or are just plain impatient, simply bung dessert spoon dollops of the dough straight in to your stew, they’ll cook just as well!

The dumplings will expand and puff up, probably covering the entire surface of your stew. Remove the lid for the last few minutes cooking so they get a little colour, then serve with seasonal greens and a nice creamy mash.

Shop Local: This recipe debuted at the farm in September 2012: Thank you to Geraldine at Chris Gibbons Butchers in Hay-on-Wye for the awesomely gorgeous braising steak, and Stuart and Kieran at Castle Grocers for the veg. We love you lots!

Now then, who’s going to experiment with different local ales for this dish…. I’d love suggestions! Any volunteers??!

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Time for your self

Capel-y-ffin

If you’re walking down the right path and you’re willing to keep walking,

 eventually you’ll make progress. – Obama

Well, there’s a quote that I identify with! I love every aspect of mountains, walking and navigating, and it’s not just the literal act of walking: I find the parallels between how we walk in nature and how we find our way in life to be a very natural source of inspiration and insight. How about you?

Here’s some of the thoughts this particular quote inspired for me:

1)      If you’re walking down the right path: Taking time to identify, find or create the right path is the IMPORTANT bit, make time for it! Otherwise you’ll make steady progress towards something you don’t particularly want, which is a bit of a bugger.

Choose the right path for you

How you define, “right path” is also important. How much of its “rightness” is because it’s what others need from you? How much is it “right” because it’s what you feel you were born to do? How much is because it’s where you have the most fun?

2)      And you’re willing to… Being willing is a good sign that you’re on the right path I reckon: you see yourself choosing to do whatever you need to do to follow the path. So if you’re not willing, what’s that about? It’s likely to be important and worth attending to.

3)     … keep walking Even if you feel you’re not getting very far, every little nudge forwards is taking you along the route you’ve chosen. Be proud of the days when you whoosh. And proud of the days where you see only a teeny bit of progress: Frankly, facing forwards on those days is an achievement in itself.

4)      Eventually…: Get to know the speed that you are able to move at. If it’s slower than you expected, might it be your expectation that is off, not your speed? You wouldn’t be being a teeny bit judgemental of yourself, would you??

5)      … you’ll make progress: If you take even one step, you have made progress. If you keep taking the next step you will eventually reach the next place on your path that you want to reach. And it is YOU that makes progress. Others can help you, support you, bring out your strengths but the progress ultimately comes from the steps you take and your choice to keep walking your right path.

6)    You’re walking, not running! Epic days are exciting and you cover a lot of ground. Attempting to make every day an Epic Day may be unwise, donut!

7)    Breathers: Ok, it’s not explicitly in the quote, but remember to pause every now and again too – look around, realise how far you’ve come, refresh yourself, feed yourself, rest. That’s an important part of your progress too, or else you’ll go phut (*).

Look how far you've come already

8 )    Company: Er, this isn’t mentioned either. Never mind. It’s your path, only you can travel it. But you can choose company that adds to your enjoyment of the path and do nice things like chat, laugh, inspire and share cake.

Share Cake

9)      Keep Walking: Your path will always continue. It never ends. Keep walking!

Just keep walking...

So what do you identify with? What will you remind yourself to do more of?

Choose the right path for you, and keep walking!

Sarah xx

Choose your company

(*) Phut (technical term): To run out of steam physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually. Or all four, which is really not nice at all. Brought about by moving too fast, seeking too many Epic Days or ignoring your need for breathers, company and/or any other form of support.

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Time for your self

Beer Can Chicken... you just got to laugh!

Beer Can Chicken (Serves 6+)

One large chicken ~ 2.2 kg
One can of beer (with no plastic widget thingy)
1 tsp mixed herbs
Salt & Pepper
Small knob of beef dripping

This is a very simple recipe. I particularly like the second step… :

Mix the herbs, salt and pepper together and rub over the chicken.

Open your beer. Drink half. Yes, drink, share or otherwise use half of that beer.

Place the beer can on a roasting tin and, with whatever comments you feel are appropriate, sit the chicken onto the can so that about half the can is inside the chicken. (You need a bit of gap inside the chicken to create a nice beer steam bath )

Looking weird but ready for the off

Sit the beef dripping on top of the chicken, and put into a hot oven 190C, uncovered.

Roast for about 1 hr 50 mins or until cooked (juices run clear.)

Allow to rest for 5-10 minutes. The beer & juices in the can can be incorporated into the gravy, but will probably be pretty strongly beery – depending on size of can and how much you drank – so add to taste.

Carve on the can for added effect. Served with roast potatoes, veg and juices from the pan, this is tasty roast chicken with plenty of humour!

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Time for your self

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