CAFFI FLORENCE RECIPES
Turnip, Potato & Parsley Soup : posted 19 June 2013
It may be summer but we are still making gallons of soup and this recipe using baby turnips has a wonderful new season taste to it. If by the time you are reading this we are in the high 20s, it will be equally delicious chilled.
Although everything is growing vigorously through June and July with the warm weather and inevitable rain, it can be a challenging time for locally sourced vegetables. The winter roots have all finished and the summer courgettes and beans have not quite got going yet. So, it was wonderful when grower extraordinaire Phil from Mostyn Gardens arrived bearing among other things baby turnips.
To serve 4
300g turnips
200g potatoes
2 carrots
2 medium onions
1 litre vegetable stock
sprig thyme
large bunch parsley
2 tbsp olive oil
30g butter
salt & pepper
Roughly chop peeled or scrubbed turnips, onions, carrots and potatoes.
Add olive oil and butter to a large pan and heat gently until butter has melted.
Add chopped vegetables and sauté over a low heat until starting to soften but not brown.
Separate parsley leaves and stalks. Put the leaves to one side.
Add thyme, parsley stalks and stock to the vegetables and bring to the boil.
Simmer gently for about 30 minutes until vegetables are soft.
Remove from heat and remove thyme and parsley stalks.
Add parsley leaves and blend until smooth.
Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Cabbage & Bacon Soup : posted 5 Dec 2012
This recipe was requested last Saturday by a gentleman who visits regularly. It is one of our most popular soups and was especially loved by some Polish visitors recently who became quite dewy eyed - must be a good Eastern European dish.
Savoy or white cabbage
2 large onions
1 large potato
4 rashers of bacon or 250g bacon pieces
1 litre bacon stock
2 tbsp olive oil
Pepper
Sauté chopped onion in olive oil. When soft, add bacon, chopped into small pieces together with finely chopped potato and ¾ of shredded cabbage. When soft add stock and simmer for 20 minutes. 5 minutes before serving add finely shredded final ¼ of cabbage and allow to soften slightly but retain bite.
Gooseberry Streusel Cake : Posted 30 June 2011
This is a delicious cake that we have been making with fresh local gooseberries that are just perfect at the moment. It is great either as a straight cake or served as a dessert. It has a sponge base, a layer of gooseberries and a ‘streusel’ topping that is a cross between cake and crumble.
The cake
125g butter
125g castor sugar
2 eggs
180g self raising flour
2 tbsp milk
The topping
100g butter
100g castor sugar
125g self raising flour
1tbsp cold water
500g gooseberries – topped and tailed
To make the cake
Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy
Add eggs and mix until well incorporated
Fold in flour
Add milk gradually until a dropping consistency is reached – the mixture should drop slowly from a spoon held sideways
Spread cake in a 20cm round tin.
Cover cake with prepared gooseberries
To make topping
Crumb butter into flour with finger tips until the mixture is like bread crumbs
Add sugar and mix
Add water until mixture just clumps together – it shouldn’t be a dough like pastry but still crumbly.
Cover cake and gooseberries with topping. There should be some small gaps left on surface for gooseberries to bubble through.
Cook at 180C, gas 4 for about 1 hour. The top should be slightly brown, the gooseberries should be bubbling through and the base cake layer should be set. If you check with a skewer, take account of moist gooseberry layer.
Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve as a cake with afternoon tea or as a dessert with ice cream, cream or yogurt.
CARBONARA Posted 13 Sept 2010
We held our cookery for students workshop last week and this was one of the most popular dishes they made -quick and easy to make, nutritious and using bacon pieces from the butcher, very cheap. Too good just for students - makes a great Friday evening supper!!!
To serve 2
200g pasta
150g bacon pieces
1 large or 2 small onions. Chopped
1 free range egg
30g parmesan cheese
1 tbsp olive oil
Add boiling water to a large saucepan and return to boil. Add pasta, ensuring pasta is well covered. Keep water boiling well and stir to avoid pasta sticking to bottom of pan.
While pasta is cooking, heat oil gently and add onions and cook until soft. Add bacon pieces and cook for a couple of minutes until slightly browning. Turn off heat.
When pasta is cooked, drain and return to pan. Add onion, bacon, egg and parmesan. Stir well. The egg should cook and cheese melt in hot pasta. Serve with a green vegetable such as broccoli or peas or a salad.
BREAD posted 11 August 2010
We held a bread day recently to celebrate Lammas, the ancient celebration of the beginning of the harvest. We baked about 12 different types of bread and had great fun making bread hedgehogs with children. I promised several of our visitors a very basic bread recipe, so here it is. You can also use it for a 100% wholemeal but I would suggest the 50 : 50 or white loaf to get started as they are more forgiving. Once you are confident about the kneading and proving process and how your dough should look and feel then move onto the wholemeal and more adventurous recipes.
Basic Bread recipe
375g strong bread flour
Pinch of salt
225 ml of tepid water (38 degrees C)
10 gram of sugar
25 gram of fresh yeast or 3 tablespoons of dried yeast.
50 ml olive oil
For brown bread use half-and-half wholemeal flour and strong bread flour
Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the tepid water, the sugar helps to activate the yeast. After about 5 minutes the water should make a fizzing sound if you hold your ear to it. Place the flour, salt and oil in to a bowl and roughly mix together. Add the water and knead until a soft dough is formed. After the dough is formed place onto a floured bench and allow to rest for a couple of minutes. The dough should have a elasticity texture, and be able to be stretched. If it is a little tight it needs kneading a little more.
Shaping your bread Now is time to decide the shape of the bread you want to make. You could place it in a floured bread tin or create a bloomer or cottage loaf on a floured baking sheet
Glazing
Once you have picked your shape and moulded it, it is a good idea to brush the dough with egg wash (this is not essential to the cooking but it does give the bread a nice shine). Now place the baking tray with the bread on in a warm place. The top of the stove whilst the oven is on is ideal. To prove the bread leaves it until it has come up in size by 1/3 rd. This should take about 10 – 20 minutes depending on the temperature of the room.
Baking
The bread should be cooked in a hot oven at about 180 C or gas mark 6 and cooked in the middle of the oven, this ensures even cooking.
Depending on the size of roll/loaf you are making the bread should take between 15 and 30 minutes to cook. When you think the bread is ready and it is nicely coloured on the top pick the loaf up in a tea towel and hold it to your ear. Tap the bottom of the bread and it should make a deep hollow sound. If it doesn’t place it back in the oven for a few more minutes. Then allow the bread to cool.
Elderflower Fizz Posted 16 June 2010
We have recently held a Food from the Wild workshop and this was one of our most popular recipes. It is a very refreshing drink that is perfect for a lazy summer evening.
Our lanes and hedgerows have a lot of Elder and late June /early July is peak flowering time.This recipe only needs 4 flower heads so there will be plenty left for my bees and other insects. Do pick away from main roads and you will get better fermentation if you collect flowers on a dry sunny day.
Makes about 6x 75cl bottles
4 elderflower heads
1 lemon
650g granulated sugar
2 tbs white wine vinegar
4.5 litres water
Dissolve sugar in 1 litre of warm water and add remaining water. Squeeze lemon into sugared water and roughly chop rind and add to mix with vinegar and flower heads.
Cover and leave to steep for 4 days. Strain and bottle. It should be ready in 6 – 10 days. Check after 6 days to ensure it is not too fizzy. Serve with ice and a slice of lemon.
Bara Brith Posted 18 March 2010
I guess our bara brith might be described as one of our 'signature cakes'. It is certainly one of our best sellers and is actually pretty healthy, so long as you don't laddle a load on butter on the top!
There are probably as many recipes for Bara Brith in Wales as there are Jones', Davies' and Williams'. Some are made with yeast and are more of a fruited tea bread. This recipe doesn't use yeast, has no added fat but eggs and baking powder to help it rise. The demerara sugar and wholemeal flour give it a dark colour.
The real key to making this recipe delicious rather than just nice is making sure it is moist enough. It should definitely be sloppier than a sponge mix. It is incredibly quick and easy, you just need to remember to put the sultanas to soak in advance.
450g Sultanas
325ml Tea
2 Eggs
225g Wholemeal flour
225g Plain flour
275g Demerara sugar
4tsp Baking powder
2 tsp Mixed spice
Milk
Make tea and pour into bowl with sultanas. Soak for several hours or preferably overnight.
Add all other ingredients apart from milk to sultanas and tea and mix. Add milk to obtain a soft dropping consistency.
Add to prepared tins: 3 x 1lb
Bake for approximately 1 hour 10 minutes at 160oC, or at 140oC in a fan assisted oven (gas mark 2).
Welsh Rarebit
posted 7 Jan 2010
375g grated cheese
75 ml beer or milk
15g plain flour
25g bread crumbs
2tsp mustard
1 egg
1 egg yolk
Melt cheese in beer in saucepan over gentle heat. Mix in flour, breadcrumbs and mustard and cook gently. Remove from heat and add egg and stir well. Spread over toast and place under grill until brown and bubbling.
Cranberry Sauce
posted 4 December 2009 for Jane's Mum and others we hope!
Nothing quite beats freshly made cranberry sauce rather than the jam like sauce that comes ready prepared. It is incredibly easy to do and can be made in advance and frozen or kept in the fridge for several days.
Ingredients
200g cranberries
1 large cooking apple
100g castor sugar
1 orange
50ml port
Zest the orange and add to cranberries with 100ml water. Bring to the boil in a pan and simmer for about 5 minutes until fruit has softened. Add juice from the orange, sugar and port and stir until sugar has dissolved.
Cool and refrigerate or freeze. This can be served warm or cold with your turkey and is great cold with your cold meats.
CAFFI FLORENCE’s Bilberry Muffins
Posted 6 August 2009
We made this recipe last week with 30+ people who had been on a bilberry day with the Countryside Service. They spent the morning on the hills picking and then came back to the cafe to make the Muffins.
This recipe makes 10 - 12 muffins.
They are delicious eaten warm but keep for several days in a tin or plastic container with a lid
375g Self Raising flour
330g castor sugar
90g butter or margarine
310ml milk
1 egg
75g bilberries
Demarara sugar
Rub fat into flour.
Add the sugar and mix.
Add milk and beaten egg and mix lightly.
Add bilberries and mix in gently.
Place muffin cases inside a muffin tin
Spoon mix to fill cases to about 2/3
Sprinkle a small teaspoon of demarara sugar on top of each muffin
Place in a preheated oven at 180C gas mark 4 for about 20 mins until soft and spongy when pressed and lightly brown. Avoid opening oven until nearly done
Carrot and Butterbean Soup
Posted 21 January 2009
During the winter we really enjoy making soups – just making them seems to stave off the worst of winter. A bowl of soup at lunch time with some good quality bread is often all that is needed to beat mid day hunger, especially if you use pulses as in this recipe
Carrots are a great vegetable to use in soup, they add colour, flavour and taste. We use a lot of pulses to thicken soups. Red lentils are our favourite and we use them instead of flour or cornflour. Butterbeans are another good pulse for soup as they thicken the soup and give it a wonderful creamy taste and texture without the wickedness of cream.
We use dried beans but you can easily use a tin to avoid the soaking and boiling process.
To serve 4
225g butterbeans
1 litre vegetable stock
2 onions
500g carrots
salt & pepper
If you are using dry butterbeans, soak in cold water for at least 12 hours. Drain the beans, rinse and place in a large pan with the stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 1 hour until soft.
Chop onions, peel and chop carrots and add to butter beans and stock. Continue to cook for a further 30 minutes until vegetables and beans are soft.
Puree soup, taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
Rhubarb and Ginger Muffins
Posted 18 June 2008
We have recently recorded a feature for the Radio Cymru programme Blas, here at CAFFI FLORENCE. As part of this feature we cooked these fantastic muffins with their presenter.
Rhubarb is wonderful at this time of year and lots of people have a clump in their garden. It makes lovely moist cakes and as with all muffins these are quick and easy.
450g self raising flour
200g soft brown sugar
125g butter
2 eggs
254 ml tub of buttermilk
200g rhubarb (chopped into cubes of about 1cm)
ginger - we use 2 pieces of chopped stem ginger but 1 teaspoon dried ginger will do
1 teaspoon sugar(demarara is best but any will do) + 1 teaspoon cinnamon to sprinkle over top (optional)
Sieve flour and mix with sugar. Rub in butter to create a crumbed mixture
Add rhubarb and ginger and mix
Combine eggs & buttermilk in bowl and add to dry mixture. Stir carefully - it is important not to over stir muffin mix - stop as soon as ingredients are mixed. It should look lumpy.
Spoon into paper cases in muffin tin.
Bake at 190 C, 170C fan oven gas mark 6 for about 20 minutes. Muffins should be soft and bouncy when touched lightly.
Rhubarb and strawberry cake
Posted 18 June 2008
We have been serving a delicious rhubarb and strawberry cake over the last few weeks and here by popular demand is the recipe. Basically a victoria sponge with the fruit added.
125 g butter or margarine
125g castor sugar
125g self raising flour
2 eggs
2 medium sticks of rhubarb
6 - 8 large strawberries chopped into 4 pieces each
Lightly stew the rhubarb with a sprinkle of sugar.
Beat butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
Beat in eggs
Lightly fold in sieved flour
Fold in rhubarb and strawberries
Place in lined cake tin - we use either a round sandwich tin or sometime a 1lb loaf tin.
Bake at 190 C 170C fan oven gas mark 5 for 25 - 30 minutes. When done cake should spring back when lightly pressed. Avoid opening oven door until you think it is nearly done.
Wild Garlic Soup
Posted 10 March 2008
We had this on the menu yesterday served with our homemade olive bread and cheesy focaccia. It was delicious.
Early March has seen the emergence of the first leaves of wild garlic that grow throughout the Loggerheads Country Park and surrounding area. It is also know as ramson or bears garlic or its latin name Allium ursinumas and grows in wet shady areas.
The name bears garlic is said to come from North American bears waking from hibernation eating it to cleanse their metabolism and regain their strength.
All parts of the plant are edible and can be eaten raw or cooked. It is claimed to have great health benefits, especially the leaves.
The young leaves are the very best for picking. You only need a small handful - it is very powerful. Remember don't pick anything in the countryside if there is only a few sprigs. Also, take care to pick well away from footpaths and potential dog weeing areas!!!!
Recipe to serve 4
450g (1lb) potatoes
1 large onion
2 tbs olive oil
850ml vegetable stock
about 8 - 10 leaves of wild garlic
splash of cream if you're feeling extravagant
salt and pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a large pan and sweat the potatoes and onion for 10 - 15 minutes. Sweating means covering the pan to soften, taking care they do not stick.
Add roughly chopped or torn garlic leaves and stir to avoid sticking. The garlic should quickly turn limp.
Add stock and bring to boil and simmer gently for 15 mins or until potatoes are soft.
At this stage you can puree to create a smooth velvety soup or we tend to puree until just a few larger pieces are left and the garlic pieces are left intact.
Taste (very important!!) and season with salt and pepper.
