20 minute read
Food & Drink
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Gainsborough, Milborne Port, Sherborne DT9 5BA From the moment you enter The Clockspire, you know you’re going to be treated to a memorable experience. Ensconced in a nineteenth-century former schoolhouse, guests step under its carefully restored stone arches and are welcomed into the most spectacular space. Large windows cast dappled light across the original features of the building, while lofted ceilings and statement chandeliers provide a touch of elegance. Head Chef Luke Sutton and his team showcase modern English dishes inspired by seasonal ingredients, using market-led British produce and vegetables from their nearby plots at Ven House. Service is first class yet unfussy, and the general vibe is one of great value for money and warm hospitality. Wander upstairs to the mezzanine level to find a marble-topped bar and velvet-covered stools, where you can sip a cocktail or a chilled glass of champagne.
LIVING THE GOODDEN LIFE
Nico and Chrystall Goodden
May is finally upon us and this means the danger of frosts is rapidly decreasing. Give or take a few days we should see our last frost around the 10th of this month and what a relief, for the gardener and for wildlife.
Inevitably a few plants in the garden have suffered from some quite mean April frosts. Some fruit trees with particularly early blossoms are always a tricky affair, many a little too keen to erupt in outstanding beauty, only to get a rather rude frosty reminder that it was just a little bit early to show off.
I desperately want my grapevine to do well this year. All its flowers died from frost last year and we didn’t manage a single fruit!
At last, all tomatoes and chillies can be placed outside and when one lives in a ‘compact’ house while caring for 50+ chillies and tomatoes, it’s good news. This year we will split them into groups grown in various areas of the garden to run comparisons.
Some will grow against the wind-sheltered south-
facing wall of the house which radiates heat at any sunny opportunity – this is possibly our best spot. Others will be greenhouse-grown but with special attention given to ventilation as greenhouses can get too hot and too humid which often leads to mildew or moulds and can slow growth rates. Some will end up in full-sun no-dig beds where we get the most sun throughout the day but are quite exposed to the wind and so extra support will be required. The wind may be beneficial though to avoid stagnant air which leads to mildew and other issues.
For four years now we have been growing strawberries with increasing success. We started with six plants which we propagated to fifty in four years. I said it before… I love free plants.
Admittedly we did suffer great setbacks. Gone are the days of growing them directly in beds – they are just too vulnerable to pests (ants, rodents, woodlouse, slugs…) even when growing among straw. Last year we grew them in suspended gutters filled with compost in the greenhouse. This yielded well and stopped pests (you’d have to be Supermouse to fly to these suspended gutters) but proved too demanding to water twice a day and the greenhouse may have gotten a bit too hot.
So this year we started our fifty plants in the greenhouse to give them a head-start and this month as the temperatures rise we will move them outside, each in its individual 2-litre pot on some form of shelving against the house.
Another experiment we are conducting is comparing whether removing early flowers leads to larger plants with more foliage producing far more in the long-run.
I have to admit I far prefer growing fruit over vegetables. I have a sweet tooth and picking ripe fruit you have grown yourself, to be eaten on the spot, is one of the greatest joys in life.
I’m keen to harvest gooseberries which we have so many of and yet the birds always get them first, so this year I have all my gooseberry bushes netted. Gooseberries remind me of my childhood back in France. Mum grew them and I’d pick the ripest that had warmed up nicely in the sun. They’d burst between my teeth, sunkissed, very sweet yet with a tart edge and simply delicious.
Wildflowers are a passion of ours and link directly with growing food. Since we stopped mowing our lawn, the garden has turned into a beautiful meadow that slow-dances with the wind and where we sow as many wildflowers as possible. This again was a learning curve but we now have a good technique and luckily many self-seed for the next year.
This attracts not only pollinators who are vital to the production of fruit and veg but also many other beneficial insects including my all-time favourite: The Ladybug.
Ladybug larvae are my little army of volunteer helpers. I’ll spend hours among the long grasses that they love, collecting them in a jar to then place them strategically in the greenhouse on my chilli plants and tomatoes.
Why? Because they are very hungry for aphids. Just watching these armoured warriors run like mad, scanning the entire plant looking for food at an incredible speed is very satisfying. If I could give out Employee of the Month awards, the ladybug larvae would get it without a second thought.
We also grow many roots and tubers here. We previously mentioned potatoes – we also have a good few carrot plants. This year we are trialling Resistafly F1 carrots. This is hopefully one that will, as its name suggests, resist the attacks of carrot flies.
One of my latest interests is yacon, this sweet crunchy and juicy South American tuber of the same family as Jerusalem artichoke. People are getting excited about this plant which contains a type of sugar diabetics can enjoy without harm as it doesn’t get processed by the body. I enjoy it greatly either as raw fruit with a dash of lime juice or included in curries where it always retains its crunch (think water chestnut) and soaks-up sauces without imparting too much sweetness to the dish.
May is another busy month but we are now enjoying a daily dose of healthy homegrown veg and will for months to come, hopefully even through the winter if we can get sufficiently organised.
Start growing your own today, even if all you grow is a planter on a balcony – the joyous feeling it gives remains the same.
Nico: @nicholasgoodden Chrystall: @thegooddenlife creativebritishgarden.com
ASPARAGUS WITH POTATO GNOCCHI, CRÈME FRÂICHE AND GARDEN HERBS
Sasha Matkevich, The Green
Image: Clint Randall
We’re lucky to have wonderful local asparagus at this time of year. Served with potato gnocchi it’s a perfect lunch. For best results use a waxy potato.
Ingredients Serves 4 2 bunches of local asparagus 150g crème frâiche 1tbsp chopped basil 1tbsp chopped parsley 1tbsp chopped tarragon 1tbsp chopped chives 200g waxy potatoes 90g plain flour 1 medium egg Pinch of nutmeg Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method 1 Stir the chopped herbs into crème frâiche and adjust the seasoning if needed. 2 Boil the potatoes in their skins in plenty of
boiling salted water. Drain and peel. 3 Purée the potatoes through a fine sieve onto a work surface. 4 Add the flour, egg, nutmeg, salt and pepper and mix until you have a smooth dough. 5 On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to make long tubes about 1cm in diameter. Cut into 0.5cm lengths. 6 To shape the gnocchi, slide each one down the prongs of a fork. Cover and refrigerate while you cook the asparagus. 7 Snap the asparagus stalks close to the base to remove their woody ends and peel the skin from the bottom third of the stalks. 8 Bring a large pot of well-salted water to the boil and drop in the asparagus. Bring back to the boil and cook until just tender (1 to 1.5 minutes). 9 Drain the asparagus immediately and place on warm serving plates with the potato gnocchi and a generous scoop of herb crème frâiche.
PAN-FRIED SPRATS WITH AIOLI
Mat Follas, Bramble Restaurant
Image: Steve Painter
On several occasions last year my foraging groups came across large shoals of sprats on Chesil beach. They were still alive and had beached themselves trying to escape from hungry mackerel. Their loss was a lovely addition to the group lunch. If you aren’t lucky enough to be on the seashore on one of the 4-5 days a year when they leap onto the beach, they are one of the cheaper fish available to buy and remarkably simple to cook. I know eating a whole fish is not for everyone but this is the place to start. A whole sprat is delicious, simply cooked and eaten with a big dollop of garlicky mayonnaise, or to call it its posh name, aioli.
Preparation time: 10 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes Serves: 6
Ingredients 400g fresh whole sprats (no more than 4” in length) 100g plain flour Salt & pepper 150g unsalted butter 100g mayonnaise 2 cloves of garlic (sliced into 3 pieces) Small bunch of salad leaves
Method 1 Cover a plate to a thickness of about 3mm of Plain
Flour. Generously season with salt and pepper. 2 Lay the sprats on the Flour, turning once so they are evenly coated. 3 In a large flat saucepan, heat with enough butter to cover the base. When the butter is foaming hot, carefully place the garlic in the pan. 4 Cook on a medium heat for 2 minutes until just beginning to brown. 5 Remove the garlic from the pan and with a garlic press, crush the garlic and mix it with the mayonnaise to make the Aioli, using a stick-blender. 6 Place the sprats in the pan. Cook on a medium heat for 2 minutes, then turn the Sprats over, cooking for a further 2 minutes until a golden brown on both sides. 7 Remove the sprats and place them on some kitchen roll to drain any excess oil. 8 Serve on a plate dressed with salad leaves and a generous dollop of Aioli.
Tip: If the butter starts to get too brown or too hot, reduce the heat, then add a little more butter to the pan which will foam and bring down the heat of the pan immediately.
bramblerestaurant.com
Recipe from Fish by Mat Follas. (Ryland Peters & Small) £14.99 (hardcover). Sherborne Times reader offer price of £12.99 from Winstone’s Books
THE CAKE WHISPERER Val Stones
CHOCOLATE CHIP SHORTBREAD BISCUITS
These biscuits are crisp and crunchy because they are made with caster sugar and the addition of semolina. I love making them because they are so quick – if someone says they are coming over for coffee I can get them in the oven and ready within an hour.
The flavours can be played with and they are ideal for batch-bakes, ready for cake sales – bagged-up they sell like hot cakes. Here I have used semi-dark (54% cocoa solids) chocolate chips.
Time - 15 minutes to make, 30 minutes chilling time, 25-30 minutes baking time
Ingredients (makes 12) 230g plain flour 100g semolina 230g unsalted butter 100g caster sugar (plus a little extra for dusting) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 125g chocolate chips
You can turn these into almond shortbread biscuits by leaving out the vanilla extract and chocolate chips, replacing them with 1 teaspoon almond extract and 50g flaked almonds.
What you will need 30cm x 23cm tray bake tin 8cm plain round pastry cutter Offset spatula (these really do make lifting and spreading so much easier than a flat spatula).
Method 1 Pre-heat the oven to 160C fan assisted, 170C conventional, gas mark 3. 2 Lightly grease the baking sheet. 3 Place the flour and semolina in a bowl and combine, or use a food processor. 4 Add the butter, sugar, vanilla extract and chocolate chips and rub in by hand with your fingertips until it begins to come together then knead lightly until the mixture forms a ball. 5 Place the dough on a lightly floured work top, dust a rolling pin with flour and roll out the dough to the thickness of 1cm, dip the cutter into flour to prevent the cutter from sticking to the dough and cut out 12 rounds. 6 Put the biscuits on the baking sheet, spacing them out as they spread a little, and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes until firm. 7 Place in the oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (check after 25 minutes) – the shortbread should be lightly golden. 8 Take out of the oven and allow to cool on the sheet for a few minutes. While still warm, dust with caster sugar before carefully lifting onto a cooling rack using the offset spatula. Allow the biscuits to cool completely before packing into an airtight container or placing in cellophane bags for sale.
If you don’t wish to bake the biscuits straight away, they can be ‘open frozen’ when you reach number 6. in the recipe and, once frozen, packed in an airtight box. When required, place on a baking sheet and leave to defrost slightly for 15 minutes before baking.
A MONTH ON THE PIG FARM
James Hull, The Story Pig
Image: Katharine Davies
This month I wanted to write not about the farm, pigs, mud or the seasons, but to write about other people, you.
Charlotte and I had a dream, an idea, a wish to succeed and a lot of perseverance to create something special, but we couldn’t do it on our own. So, just under a year ago we opened our doors, or in our case our tipi front. We were nervous, excited, damn tired and apprehensive – how would we do? And since that day lots of you, our customers, have flocked to see us. All through last summer as we felt our way, as I learnt how to make coffees and Charlotte worked out how much baking she had to produce each week, our customers were there – with lovely comments about what we had achieved, how fantastic our garden looked and what an amazing view we are blessed with. They learned about some of Charlotte’s Swedish influences in her baking and showered us with compliments for her quite incredible homemade cakes.
But something I wasn’t really ready for was the fact that so many of you would come every week (and in that I include through the winter) and become
our friends. We have couples who bring their own cushions to put on our metal chairs, and parents who bring their little toddlers whom we have seen start to grow up and learn to walk. Older couples that if we don’t see them for a few weeks we hope they are ok. Couples that let us know they are going away next week so we won’t see them for two weeks. We have ladies that come and sometimes allow their husbands to come with them, but other times they natter with their friends. We have couples who proudly introduce their friends to us, saying they have brought them especially to show them our special place. We have children that visit on their own and are always well behaved. We have families that walk every week before stopping in for hot chocolate and cake – come rain or shine they arrive. We have sons that bring their mums every week, daughters that do that too. Mums that come after school and give their little ones a Friday treat and of course choose a cake for Daddy. We have had first dates, family reunions and catch-ups. We have little ones making us the most beautiful Christmas decorations for our Christmas tree, toddlers that just love to stare at our tractor, children that quietly come up to the counter to ask a question about the pigs, or ask where Blue is or what the cats are called. We have customers who fly in just for meat, load up their arms and are off. We have so many of you that we chatted to over the coffee machine, about politics or whatever else is going on in the world or in our lives or theirs. Customers who have made bunting for us for nothing to brighten the tipi, customers who have become volunteer gardeners for us every week, customers who bring us recipes they have tried using our pork, little customers who have made us such lovely cards and posters that they have humbled us and brought tears to our eyes with their kind acts.
Of course, anyone dealing with the public will tell you, not everyone is lovely, but honestly, I can count on one hand the number of difficult and rude customers we have had. I am sure there will be more but once we have processed their visit and put it to one side the rest of our lovely customers take over.
So, really, any small business like ours whether they sell sausages or soap, bicycles or milk relies on their loyal customers to support them. We want to thank all of you for your quite incredible support through our first year, through the cold winter months and now into hopefully a beautiful spring and summer.
Our garden is turning greener in front of our eyes. We have piglets everywhere down at the farm and we have our two pet lambs Brownie and Socks. The view is constant come rain or shine. We will have much more of Charlotte’s baking and my coffee making and many more chats and laughs. I can’t wait to see you all. Now you just have to read this again and work out if I was writing about you!
See you soon.
GREAT EUROPEAN WINE FAMILIES
David Copp
Iacomino FRiMAGES/Shutterstock
There are many truly great European wine families but space limits me to introduce you to just six of them. There is an association known as Primium Familia Vini and Fiona Morrison MW’s superb book about them, if you want to find out more.
I have selected six companies that I know well. The great thing is that they are still wonderful wine families in very good hands. These families have played a vital part in the development of the worldwide wine trade: all encouraging rather than hindering the innovative spirit.
I start with Antinori, one of the founder members of the Florentine Winemakers Guild of 1385. Their estates were in Tuscany and Umbria. Every generation since has made substantial quality improvements. More recently, Marquese Pierro Antinori has passed on succession to his three daughters who are making their own mark.
In his heyday, Piero Antinori challenged the Tuscan (Chianti) authorities who wanted to restrict
the production to domestic varieties. Antinori was considerably helped by his uncle exercising his right to grow Cabernets Sauvignon and Franc for his own consumption on a small plot in Bolgheri. Sassicaia, the first of the Super Tuscans as they became known, was an outstanding success as was Tignanello. The Chianti authorities were persuaded that better wines could be made with the addition of carefully selected other varieties. Thus cheerful but rather ordinary Chianti became something rather special when other varieties were added: the wines achieved an elegance and finesse that was widely appreciated.
The story of the Rothschild family is quite well known – bankers, merchants and traders who kept ahead of the game by keeping in constant touch with each other and exchanging reliable information quickly and accurately. In 1853 Baron Nathan Rothschild bought some superb vineyard land at Pauillac in the heart of the Medoc. By 1922 the land had been passed down to 20-year-old Philippe who, in 60 years, turned it into one of the great wine estates of the world. One of his many bright ideas was to commission a leading artist to design his wine label for each vintage, which has not only added interest to his wines but value as well. After his death, Baroness Philippine carried on where he left off before passing ownership on to her children – Camille Sereys de Rothschild and brothers Philippe and Julien. They now also own nearby Châteaux Clerc Milon and d’Armailhac.
I have a close association with the Bouchard family in Beaune: my friends are the sons of the Aine rather than the Pere Michel who founded the company in 1731. Michel Bouchard lived in Swiss border country trading in the finest Flemish cloth. On his buying trips to Flanders, he overnighted in the old walled city of Beaune and developed an appreciation of fine wine.
In due course, he preferred trading in wine rather than cloth. Always interested in trading at the top end of the market, he made it his business to know all the best vineyards in Burgundy. Gradually the company acquired 130 hectares of some of the finest viticultural land in Burgundy, most of it designated Grand Cru or Premier Cru. More recently it was acquired by the old Champagne House Henriot which has spent considerable time and energy maintaining the standards of their prized vineyards.
In 1820 Bouchard acquired the Chateau de Beaune, a former royal fortress with the deepest wine cellars I have seen. The temperature stays the same year-round and on my visit, I saw bottles of Meursault 1846 and Montrachet 1864 which, I was assured, were very drinkable.
The next great wine family on my list is in Alsace, one of the most famous of the smaller leading French wine regions. Hugel et Fils make beautiful and distinguished wines. I happen to love Gewurztraminer, a north Italian grape which they brought with them when they came to Alsace. It took very easily to Alsatian soils and its benevolent climate for vine growing. The vendange tardive, late-harvest version is a particular delight. If you haven’t already been there, it is close enough for a long weekend break from the south of England. And you can get there via Champagne.
Then comes Andrew James Symington, a Scot who worked with Grahams in London and went to Oporto in 1882. He married a Portuguese girl and started his own business. Five generations later the Symington family have come to dominate the fine port wine business, owning such celebrated brands as Cockburns, Dows, Grahams, Taylors and Warres.
The most impressive part of their story is their commitment to celebrating and preserving the uniqueness of their country and its people. They are dedicated to the pursuit of excellence and show their resolve in the way they treat their staff, local people and their customers. Yet they have to fight against the odds. The Duoro is the largest area of mountain vineyard in the world and costs are double that of vineyards on more level ground. Nevertheless, their policy of producing low yields of top quality grapes has helped them retain their position as the most successful company in the Port trade. They are delightful people to deal with. A trip up the Duoro will expose you to the wonders of their craft.
My final choice is Gran Familia Torres, a wonderful example of an old family business ahead of the times. Miguel Torres was a truly great winemaker who pursued excellence in everything he did. His son now runs the company with his sister, a gifted winemaker. They show the same flair and passion for their work as their father. Not just making very fine wines but taking care of the environment in the most complete sense of the word. It was an enormous pleasure for me to get to know the family well and I have nothing but admiration for what they have achieved in the years since the Civil War and the Second World War. It is largely thanks to the life-long work of Miguel Torres that Spain, once a back-marker in the European wine trade - is now one of the leaders.
