Hester’s HESTER’S TOMATO RELISH (WITH AT LEAST A NOD TO THE BALLYMALOE COOKERY SCHOOL)

This relish is made in not much more than an hour and is delicious with both Middle White sausages and Longhorn beef burgers (and lots of other things besides!) – and we think adds a special touch you don’t get with a bottled sauce. If you have tomatoes in the garden, some of them a bit misshapen or under- or over-ripe like ours, this is the perfect recipe to use them for. Ingredients 1kg tomatoes 250g apples – I used windfalls from the garden but any good, tart apple like a Cox will do 250g onions 175g plump raisins 225ml white wine vinegar 300g granulated sugar Thumb-sized piece of ginger 2 heaped tsp sea salt 1 tsp allspice ½ tsp ground ginger ½ tsp freshly (and coarsely) ground black pepper Scant ½ tsp cayenne pepper Makes 4 pots Chop the tomatoes. Core and chop the apples (no need to peel them). Peel and chop the onions. Peel and grate the fresh ginger. Put the chopped tomatoes, apples and onions in a heavy pan with all the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil, stirring regularly to dissolve the sugar. Simmer gently for an hour, stirring frequently to prevent the mixture from ‘catching’ on the bottom. Cool and taste for seasoning – you might need to increase the salt or cayenne pepper or both. When completely cold pot, cover and label – or serve straight away.

Rosamund’s Middle White Pork Belly with Fennel and Lemon and Herb Rice

This is a good recipe for our Middle White belly and it also works well with the small roasting joints from the shoulder, leg and belly which come in our Huntsham Special Box and our Summer Box – they will need an extra 10 minutes cooking time. Middle White pork needs an accompaniment which cuts through the richness of the meat – see my Lemon and Herb Rice recipe. It makes a good summer dish served with a crisp salad. At this time of year, I put one together with Romaine lettuce, wild garlic leaves, plenty of sliced radishes, cucumber and a few pomegranate seeds with a simple French dressing.

MIDDLE WHITE PORK BELLY WITH FENNEL

Ingredients

1 Middle White Pork belly, boned and rolled – it will weigh about 1.25kg

2 large bulbes Florence fennel

150ml inexpensive dry white wine

Sherry glass of Pernod (or similar aniseed flavoured tincture)

Scant tbsp light olive oil

4 cloves garlic

1 lemon plus the zest of a second lemon

Good sprig of thyme

A couple of bay leaves

Salt and pepper

Serves 4

Pre-heat the oven to 220℃ – you need it nice and hot for the crackling.

Dry the pork, particularly the skin, thoroughly with kitchen paper. This is very important – our Middle Whites produce wonderful crackling but the skin needs to be really dry for best results. Slather on the oil and sprinkle on plenty of sea salt. Put into a hot oven.

Remove any fronds from the fennel bulbs and cut into quarters. Peel and slice the garlic cloves. Remove the zest from the lemons with a potato peeler and squeeze the juice from one of them.

Check the meat after 15 minutes – it will have begun to turn gold and harden but you may need to turn it to so that it browns evenly. After it has been in the oven for a total of 20-25 minutes and it nicely burnished, remove it from the oven and take the meat out of the roasting tin. Tip off the surplus fat (keep it in a jar in the fridge – it makes wonderful roast potatoes).

Put the roasting pan on the hob and tip in the Pernod and wine, allowing them to bubble up, and scraping up any crispy residue. Put the pork (and any juice that has come out of it) back into the pan and tuck the fennel quarters in around it. Add the garlic, bay leaves, thyme, lemon juice and season.

Reduce the heat of the oven slightly (to about 200℃) and cook for a further 40 minutes or until the pork juices just run clear – Middle White pork is best served lightly cooked.

Remove the pork and dish the fennel round it. Some fresh thyme and bay leaves are a nice touch for serving. Taste the juice in the pan and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Bring it to the boil and either serve in the meat dish or separately.

LEMON AND HERB RICE

Ingredients

250g Basmati or other good quality long grain rice

Good bunch each of parsley, tarragon and chives

2 knobs unsalted butter

Squeeze of lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Serves 4 as an accompaniment to Roast Middle White pork

Bring a large pan of well-salted water to the boil. Meanwhile, wash the rice well in a sieve under cold running water to remove as much of the starch as possible. When the water is boiling hard, tip in the rice and bring back to the boil. Cook for 11 minutes from that point.

Meanwhile snip the chives into small pieces, remove the leaves from the tarragon and chop it and the parsley together. Take a small knob of butter and thoroughly butter a pudding basin or similar.

When the rice is cooked, tip it into sieve and tip a kettleful of boiling water through it. Drain and tip the rice back into the warm pan and add a walnut sized knob of butter, the herbs and a squeeze of lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Pack the rice quite tightly into the buttered pudding basin and put it into a warm oven for a minute or two – just enough to melt the butter but no longer or the nice fresh taste (and colour) of the herbs will be lost. Invert the pudding basin onto a suitable sized plate and give a gentle shake to turn the rice out like a sand castle. This last step adds absolutely nothing to the taste so you can omit it if you think it is too much hassle – but it does look nice!

Rosamund’s Cherry Sauce – For Serving with Suckling Pig

The cherry trees in the orchard have been dripping with cherries this year. Even so, we only had a couple of pickings of the sweet ones before the birds (and squirrels – they seem to like cherries too) got the rest. But there were still plenty left of the smaller and slightly tart old-fashioned cherries which made a delicious sauce to go with our Middle White Suckling Pig.

The cherries you find in the shops are sweeter and larger and that is reflected in the recipe. Our suckling pig is as delicious cold as it is hot. Roasted the day before you want to eat it and carved at room temperature, it makes a lovely light dish for a hot day. The first time I made this sauce, the weather was cold and I kept the sauce hot to serve with meat straight from the oven. The second time, we had friends for lunch in the garden and I wanted to serve the pork cold. The sauce was just as good cold.

The only effort is de-stoning the cherries. Even if you can get nice fat cherries rather than my little ones from the tree, I wouldn’t embark on this sauce unless you have one of those gadgets which I think are intended for destoning olives. If you have one of them, getting rid of the stones isn’t too laboursome – and the rest is easy.

Ingredients

300g cherries

4 small shallots

50g butter

2 tbs red wine vinegar

100ml chicken stock

150ml red wine

2tbs (at least!) Kirsch

Zest of one lime

Sugar to taste – see recipe

Salt and black pepper

Serves 4

De-stone the cherries (over a bowl to catch all the juice). Peel the shallots.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and brown the shallots all over. Add the cherries and their juice, the vinegar, the stock and the wine and cook over a low heat for about 15 minutes until the shallots are cooked through and the liquid has reduced by at least half – you want the sauce to be quite syrupy. Add the Kirsch and boil for a further couple of minutes. Taste for sweetness – because my cherries were quite tart, I added 2 heaped tbs granulated sugar but start with 1 tbs if you have sweet cherries. Boil briefly and then add the lime zest. Season well with sea salt and black pepper and taste again to make sure you have the right balance between sweet and sour. Add a touch more sugar if necessary and bring the sauce to the boil to melt the sugar.

This sauce can be reheated easily if you want to serve it hot or simply left to get cold – bring it back to room temperature if you have to put it in the fridge.

Rosamund’s Suckling Pig with Rhubarb and Ginger Wine

This recipe is a delicious way to eat our Middle White suckling pig while rhubarb is still in season. The recipe uses a leg but the shoulder or loin will do just as well – both will need an extra 15 minutes roasting time. It also works very well with joints from our Middle White porkers – with suitable adjustment for the roasting time.

Ingredients

1 leg of Middle White suckling pig

4 sticks of rhubarb, forced if possible

6 shallots

Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger

2 cloves of garlic

Sprig of rosemary

200ml (or thereabouts) Stone’s Ginger Wine

75-100ml good chicken stock (or water – in which case keep to the lower amount!)

2 heaped tbs. granulated sugar – you man need to add a bit more at the end

2tbs. light olive oil

A walnut sized knob of butter

Sea salt (such as Maldon) and pepper

Serves 5-6

Heat the oven to 220°C. For the best crackling, the oven needs to be really hot when you put the meat in.

Dry the meat very thoroughly all over with kitchen paper. Slather it with olive oil (the easiest way to do this is with your hands) and give it a good sprinkling of sea salt. Sit it on a sprig of rosemary in a roasting tin and roast for 45 minutes.  Baste and turn the oven down to 180°C. Roast for 15 minutes at 180°C and then for a final 15 minutes at 220°C (check that the crackling isn’t burning before turning the oven up for the final 15 minutes – you may need to leave it at the lower temperature for slightly longer).

Meanwhile cut the rhubarb into 1″ pieces and peel the shallots (leave them whole). Peel and grate the ginger and peel and chop the garlic.

When the meat is cooked, dish it up onto a warmed plate and leave to rest, covered loosely with a clean tea towel. Tip off most of the fat (and keep it in the fridge for roast potatoes) and remove the rosemary. Return the roasting pan to the oven with the shallots for 5 minutes. Turn the shallots so that they caramelise all over and then add the rhubarb, sugar and garlic. Cook for another 5-10 minutes. Keep a watch – you don’t want the rhubarb to collapse or the garlic to burn. Remove the rhubarb and shallots carefully with a slotted spoon and put them round the meat. 

Deglaze the pan with the stock (or water), add the Ginger Wine and the grated ginger and reduce by a third. Add the knob of butter, adjust the seasoning and also the sweetness – if the rhubarb is young and pink you will not need any more sugar (the wine is sweet). Strain the sauce over the shallots and rhubarb and serve.

Rosamund’s Apple Sauce

Everyone has their own apple sauce recipe but I think my version goes particularly well with our Middle White, both the porker and the suckling pig. A lot depends on the apples. I like to use Coxes at this time of year but this sauce is even better with some of the lovely old varieties of tart eating apple we have in the orchard, particularly Worcester Pearmain.

Ingredients

4 apples – not too sweet

Granulated sugar – how much depends on the apples but Coxes need a couple of teaspoons

Juice and grated zest of 1 lemon

A walnut sized knob of butter

Salt and pepper

Serves 4-6

Peel, core and roughly cut the apples into about 8 pieces. Put in a saucepan and immediately cover with ½” of cold water. Add about a teaspoon of sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer until the apples collapse – about 10-15 minutes.  Keep a watch and be ready to top up with boiling water – you don’t want the apples to boil completely dry and catch but you don’t want them swimming in water either – if there is more than a tablespoon left, strain it off and discard. 

Purée the apples in a liquidiser and add the lemon juice and, importantly, zest. Add the butter while the mixture is still hot and whizz again. Season with salt and pepper and taste for sweetness – I like it quite sharp but how much sugar it needs depends so much on the apples. Serve warm.

Rosamund’s Apple Sauce

Everyone has their own apple sauce recipe but I think my version goes particularly well with our Middle White, both the porker and the suckling pig. A lot depends on the apples. I like to use Coxes at this time of year but this sauce is even better with some of the lovely old varieties of tart eating apple we have in the orchard, particularly Worcester Pearmain.

Ingredients

4 apples – not too sweet

Granulated sugar – how much depends on the apples but Coxes need a couple of teaspoons

Juice and grated zest of 1 lemon

A walnut sized knob of butter

Salt and pepper

Serves 4-6

Peel, core and roughly cut the apples into about 8 pieces. Put in a saucepan and immediately cover with ½” of cold water. Add about a teaspoon of sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer until the apples collapse – about 10-15 minutes.  Keep a watch and be ready to top up with boiling water – you don’t want the apples to boil completely dry and catch but you don’t want them swimming in water either – if there is more than a tablespoon left, strain it off and discard. 

Purée the apples in a liquidiser and add the lemon juice and, importantly, zest. Add the butter while the mixture is still hot and whizz again. Season with salt and pepper and taste for sweetness – I like it quite sharp but how much sugar it needs depends so much on the apples. Serve warm.

Rosamund’s Longhorn Beef Burgers

One of our packs of Longhorn Mince will make five generous burgers or six smaller ones. They take minutes to make and are in a different league to supermarket burgers.

Ingredients

1 x 500g pack of Longhorn beef mince

1 onion – not too large

A knob of butter

1 egg

A grating of nutmeg

Sea salt (such as Maldon) and freshly ground black pepper

Plain flour for dusting

Makes 5-6

Chop the onion finely and sweat it, very gently, in the butter without letting it colour. Leave to cool.

When the onion is cool, tip it onto the mince in a large bowl. Add a grating of nutmeg, a good grinding of black pepper and plenty (about a flat teaspoonful) of sea salt.

Break the egg into a mug and mix with a fork. Then add to the meat and onion mixture and mix it all thoroughly together – the only satisfactory way to do this is with your hands.

Divide the mixture into five (or six) equal sized pieces. Flour the work surface and your hands and make the first piece into a smooth ball. Flatten it on the floured surface and, using your floury hands, turn it round and round until it is an even ‘burger’ shape (as thick or thin as you choose though, if you make it too thin, it will have a tendency to break). Turn over and repeat the turning round and round. When the burger is a nice smooth shape, remove to a plate with a fish slice. 

Repeat the exercise with all the other pieces and, if there is time, keep the finished burgers in the refrigerator for half an hour to firm up before you cook them.

Rosamund’s Bearnaise Sauce

Everyone winter, I usually serve our Longhorn beef with horseradish sauce, made with freshly grated horseradish from the garden. At this time of year, I like to accompany it with a Bearnaise sauce – the tarragon and chervil in it give a lovely taste of summer. You can’t make this sauce without fresh tarragon but you can miss out the chervil at a pinch – though it is so easy to grow from seed and so hard to come by in a supermarket that I always keep a pot outside the kitchen window.

These classic French sauces have a reputation for being a bit of a fiddle. This one really isn’t provided you have an electric whisk. I think it is best served warm but you can make it in advance. However, in my experience the classic way to keep it warm – in a bain marie – is a route to disaster: a degree or two too much heat and the whole thing will dissolve into a curdled mess. A vacuum flask is the answer to your prayers and much more reliable!

Ingredients

3 small shallots

A good bunch of fresh tarragon – you are going to need at least 3 tbsp of finely chopped leaves

1tsp roughly crushed peppercorns

3 tbsp tarragon vinegar (or use white wine vinegar and be generous with the tarragon)

1tbsp cold water

4 decent sized egg yolks

250g good quality unsalted butter (I remain to be convinced that clarifying it, which is what good French chefs tell you to do, really improves either the taste or texture and it’s all extra effort).

A good bunch of chervil – or more tarragon

Salt and ground pepper

Serves 4

Peel and finely (really finely!) chop the shallots. Remove the leaves from the tarragon and chop them finely so that you have at least 3 heaped tbsp. Put the shallots and chopped tarragon in small pan with the peppercorns, vinegar and water. Reduce to half the volume (keep a watch – it only takes five minutes or so). Leave to cool and then put the contents of the pan in the top of a double boiler or a Pyrex bowl set over a saucepan of hot water – keep the base of the bowl clear of the water. Meanwhile melt the butter in a small pan (with a spout for pouring if you have one). 

Add the egg yolks to the bain marie but get the whisk and the butter ready before you put the pan over the heat. Put the pan on the heat and whisk hard for 10 minutes – or until the eggs are thick and creamy, taking care not to let the mixture get too hot. Take the pan off the heat but, keeping the bowl over the hot water and whisking constantly, very slowly add the warm butter (just a little splash at a time to begin with but speeding up to a thin, steady trickle). REMOVE THE BOWL FROM ABOVE THE HOT WATER.

Add salt and grinding of pepper and, if you are serving the sauce straight away, chop the chervil or extra tarragon (leaves only if tarragon) finely and add to the mixture. If you want to keep the sauce until later, put it in a warmed vacuum flask and add the chervil/extra tarragon just before serving.

Rosamund’s Sauce Gribiche

Our Longhorn beef is so wonderfully succulent, it doesn’t really need a sauce but, if you want a gourmet treat on a summer evening, why not try this easy sauce with barbecued steak. A classic Sauce Gribiche calls for chervil which is difficult to find in a supermarket. It is ridiculously easy to grow – a packet sprinkled on a pot of compost and watered when you remember will be ready to cut in about 3 weeks – but  I think a combination of tarragon, chives and parsley makes a good alternative even if it’s not quite what a grand chef de cuisine might use. Whatever herbs you use, don’t stint on them – it is surprising how much you need to yield the good heaped tablespoonful which the recipe asks for once it has been finely chopped.

Like all recipes which involve making an emulsion, assuming you don’t have strong muscles and all the time in the world, you need to choose the right piece of equipment for the mixing. You can use a hand held electric whisk or the small bowl of a food processor but, if you have a liquidiser with a hole in the lid through which you can dribble the oil, I find that is the best choice. 

Ingredients

120ml light olive oil

3 small eggs, hard boiled

1 heaped tbsp smooth Dijon mustard

1 tbsp good quality red wine vinegar

1 tbsp warm water

1 tbsp nonpareille capers

A bunch of chervil – to yield a well heaped tbsp when finely chopped (failing chervil, the equivalent is a mixture of tarragon and chives and a little extra parsley)

A bunch of parsley – to yield a well heaped tbsp when finely chopped

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Serves 4-6

Put the mustard, vinegar and water in the liquidiser with a good grinding of black pepper and about half a tsp sea salt. Mix very thoroughly (at least 20 seconds). Then, with the machine running, start to add a dribble of oil, stopping the dribbling every now and then but leaving the machine running to make sure the mixture is thoroughly emulsified (just like making mayonnaise). Towards the end, the dribble can be increased to a thin stream. You should end up with an emulsion which is thicker than double cream but a bit thinner than a good mayonnaise. 

Shell and chop the hard boiled eggs fairly finely (but do this by hand – a food processor will turn them into a paste). Finely (really finely!) chop the herbs. You can very roughly chop the capers but I prefer to leave them whole. Put the herbs, capers and chopped egg in a bowl and add the vinegar and oil emulsion. Stir well to mix and adjust the seasoning.

Rosamund’s French Onion Soup

We will supply bones of our Longhorn beef free of charge with any order – they make delicious beef stock. Of course this recipe for French Onion soup can be made with tinned consommé – but it will not be nearly as good as this version made with stock made from Longhorn bones. The quantities for the stock can be increased or decreased. If you own a large stock pot, it is worth making more but, either way, it is  really not worth the hassle to make less than the quantity below.

BEEF STOCK

Ingredients

2kg beef bones, with or without marrow but a bit of marrow helps

2 pigs trotters (optional but they add subtlety and are available from Huntsham at £2 a pair)

2 onions

2 sticks of celery

2 leeks (white part only)

2 carrots

Light olive oil

1tsp black peppercorns

1 bay leaf

Small bunch of thyme

Preheat the oven to 220°C – you need a good hot oven for this.

Chop the beef bones and the trotters: this is a job for a heavy hammer on a hard surface and requires a certain amount of brute force. Do the best you can – it isn’t the end of the world if the pieces are large! Put them in the oven in a roasting tin with a little olive oil.  Turn them from time to time to avoid burning any of the corners – if you do accidentally blacken any pieces (which is very easy to do), don’t use those pieces – they will taint the stock.

While the bones are browning, peel and roughly chop the onion and carrot and chop the celery and leek.  When the bones have been in the oven for about 45 minutes, add the vegetables and brown them too (again discarding any that accidentally blacken).  The whole process of browning bones and vegetables will take about 1 ¼ hours.

Put the browned bones, trotters and vegetables in a large saucepan or stock pan with the thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns.  Pour the fat out of the roasting pan and deglaze with about 500 ml water, scraping up any tasty residue.  Add to the bones in the stock pan.  Then top up with more water so that the bones are covered by at least two inches of water.  Bring slowly to the boil and skim off any scum.  Reduce the heat – a simmering mat is useful if you have one – and simmer, covered, for at least two hours.  Check from time to time that the water level hasn’t dropped below the top of the bones.  When you do this check, also skim off any scum which has accumulated: it is important to remove the worst of the scum but remember this is stock not consommé royale – no need to go mad.

Strain and chill the stock and then put in the fridge. A layer of solid fat will form on the surface and can be easily removed.  Any stock that is not needed immediately will freeze well in plastic milk bottles.

FRENCH ONION SOUP 

Ingredients

1 litre beef stock (as above)

1/2 bottle inexpensive dry white wine

Wine glass of Madeira

Best part of 1kg onions

50g unsalated butter plus a little for spreading

2 tbsp light olive oil

6 slices one day old baguette, cut diagonally

200g grated cheese – I use a mixture of Parmesan and mature Cheddar, but Gruyere also works well

Salt and black pepper

Serves 6

Peel, and slice the onions. Melt the butter and one tablespoon of the oil in a large, heavy saucepan and stew the onion gently over a very low heat (the simmering mat comes in handy again) until they are golden brown, stirring from time to time so that they don’t catch. The more slowly you can do this, the better – it should take about an hour. 

When the onion are evening brown all over, add the wine and boil down until it is reduced by a third.  Then add the stock, bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for at least an hour. Add the Madeira and simmer for a further 15 minutes. Taste and add salt and pepper as required – remember the beef stock is unsalted up to this point.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and fry the baguette slices until browned – on one side only. Remove from the pan and spread with butter on the uncooked side.  Press the cheese onto the croutes (the butter will help it to stick) and then place them under a hot grill until the cheese is bubbling and lightly browned.

Ladle the soup into bowls, float a croute in each bowl – and enjoy!

Huntsham Farm Pork belly Tacos

Ingredients for two people

Half a Huntsham farm pork belly

3 Garlic cloves

2 Ancho chilli (can be bought from a Mexican online grocer or smoked chillies)

1 Large Onion

1Tsp Smoked paprika

10 Plum tomatoes

2 Red chilli

20 ml of Vegetable oil

Salt

20 Baby plum tomatoes

1 Red onion

1 Red chilli

20g Coriander

Salt

2 Avocados

1 Lime

10g Coriander

20 Corn tortillas

Picked Coriander leaves

Pickled jalapenos

Method

Take the pork belly and score the skin a couple of mm deep width ways 1cm apart place to one side. Next soak the ancho chilli in a little hot water once rehydrated chop finely. Then slice the onion finely, crush the garlic, chop the tomatoes finely and repeat with the chilli. Mix all of the ingredients together season the pork belly well with salt. Then place the remaining ingredients on to the flesh side and marinade over night.

To Cook the pork belly, place the pork belly into a baking dish with all the garnish with the skin side up cover with tin foil tightly and cook at 120c for two hours. Then remove the tin foil and bake at 200c till the crackling is completely crispy should take about 40 minutes. Then remove the crackling and break into pieces, then break down the strands of meat with a fork and mix it with the sauce, taste to check the seasoning, then place to one side for assembling the tacos.

For the salsa dice the red onion finely place into a bowl then cut the tomatoes into six and add to the red onion. Chop the chilli finely and add. Next chop the coriander and add then mix and season.

Now to make the guacamole remove the skin and stone and crush the flesh with a fork add juice of the lime and season.

Take the corn tortillas and toast in a hot pan till they puff up then turn and lightly toast the otherside and repeat till they are all cooked. Place a damp cloth over them to keep them from drying out. Then to build place the braised meat into then salsa then guacamole and finish some fresh lime juce and the picked coriander and pickled jalapenos.