We are so lucky in Cornwall to be surrounded by some incredible chefs, and so lucky here at Philleigh Way to count some of them as tutors. Our Pâtisserie and Chocolate course tutor Emma Adams is one such incredibly talented chef. Emma started her career in the kitchen of a Michelin star restaurant, and went on to become the go-to pâtissier called upon to create delicious deserts for private celebrity events and weddings. She’s catered for famous names such as Elton John, Robbie Williams, and the Beckhams, and now you can come to Philleigh Way to learn the secrets of her incredible creations. Ahead of her upcoming courses teaching Pâtisserie (November 26th – now sold out) and Christmas Chocolate (December 11th), we sat down with Emma at her café in Truro’s creative quarter (where she’s brought baking back to the Old Bakery Studios for the first time in a quarter of a century) to find out a bit more about her back story and her baking.
Did you go into the hospitality industry with the aim of becoming a pastry chef and chocolatier, or was it a role that you developed into? No, I started out at the bottom as a 2nd commission chef working in the main kitchen. I moved to the south of France, and I was put on the pastry section, and that was the start of my patisserie journey. I actually love cooking starters and mains too.
What is it that you love about pâtisserie? I love patisserie because everything is a science. Get one thing wrong, and it won’t work! I enjoy the challenge of that. You can never be complacent that it will work ,no matter how many times you’ve made the recipe. Plus the end results speak for themselves.
You’ve worked with high profile chefs and in Michelin starred establishments, and catered many celebrity weddings and parties. What does it take to work at that level? It takes many hours of hard work to learn the trade, giving up my weekends, bank holidays and evenings, sometimes working 60 to 70 hour weeks. I’ve probably worked double the amount of hours to most people. Also a passion for cooking and detail is absolutely essential. I try to work to the best standard that I possibly can.
What skills from those experiences do you bring to your courses at Philleigh Way? I am classically trained but love a modern twist, so modern classics beautifully presented with some tips and tricks and a bit of science as well.
You’re also teaching a Christmas Chocolate course on December 11th – what can attendees expect from that? For the Christmas chocolates, we will be making beautiful bon bons and truffles and Christmas treats with festive flavours.
What is your favourite recipe to make, and your favourite to eat, and why? I actually love making south east Asian food, anything spicy. My favourite patisserie or dessert would be something fruity with exotic flavours like a delice of passionfruit, mango and coconut.
An Interview With Cookery School Tutor Amelia Hollis
Philleigh Way’s Amelia Hollis spent nearly a decade cooking at sea aboard some of the most spectacular super yachts to ever set sail, before returning to the UK and settling in Cornwall. Her experience cooking on various vessels, as well as in high end restaurants in London and Sydney, makes her the perfect person to lead our brand new five-day Yacht Chef Course, setting students up with all of the skills required for seasonal chef jobs at sea or in ski chalets. For anybody considering skilling themselves up for a stint at sea, we sat down with Amelia to learn more about her time working on boats – the realities of cooking in a galley for a hungry crew or super yacht owners, plus all of the incredible opportunities that come with the job.
Were you a chef before going to work on boats, or was it a role that you took on once at sea?
After graduating from Leiths Cooking School, I started my career at a fine dining restaurant in Marylebone, London as a Commis Chef. A couple of years later I completed my STCW 95 course for the yachts (the basic safety training certification required by anyone looking for commercial work aboard vessels over 24 metres, such as superyachts and cruise ships) in the Isle of White and left for Antibes to search for a chef role on a super yacht.
How and why did you go to work on Yachts?
I had heard about yacht work through a family member who had been in the industry, and the thought of being able to travel the world as well as doing what I loved appealed to me greatly.
28 50, the wine bar and restaurant in Marylebone close to Oxford Street and Bond Street where I got my first chef role, was a great starting point for my career as a chef. It instilled in me a huge discipline and work ethic, and I learnt some incredible skills and knew for certain that this is what I really wanted to do. However, being 21 years old and having a twin at university, I knew in myself that I needed something more from my early twenties before really committing to the London chef life that was made up of 18-hour days and zero social life.
Where did the job take you, and what opportunities did you get as a result of it?
My first port of call was Antibes where I had to “Dock Walk” which is the term used for all green seafarers who have to find day work or, if you are lucky, a full time job on a super yacht. This is rather a daunting challenge, especially on your own. I was very lucky because the crew house I was staying in had an ex yacht chef agent running it and that resulted in me getting an interview over the phone. Two days later I found myself in St. Maarten in the Caribbean where I joined the 62 meter long Motor Yacht Sea Owl, a privately owned yacht. This boat took us all around the Caribbean, the Mediterranean and some of America. I was cooking for the 21-strong crew and helped the head chef when the family who owned it were on board. After four Atlantic crossings I was offered a job at Quay Restaurant in Sydney.
After spending a year in Australia (the length of a working holiday visa) I then went back into yachting and landed a job on my second boat – Motor Yacht Senses. This was a very special boat in terms of where it was based and what the program offered us. We travelled around the Pacific Ocean visiting the most beautiful places, including Fiji and Tahiti. This is where I learnt how to surf and kite surf! After just over two years as chef on that vessel it was time for me to move back home to England.
Working on the yachts enabled me to buy my first home when I got back, and I decided to settle in Cornwall to stay close to the sea and continue to cook.
What are the main differences between being a chef on shore and cooking at sea?
It is extremely hard to compare the two jobs. Both require discipline, a great work ethic and a good skill set. Cooking on land teaches you the structure of commercial kitchens, patience, learning to cope with a strict hierarchy. It is very long hours and very limited social life. One of the most rewarding feelings is having completed a long service with a team that you love, knowing that you have brought food joy to a full restaurant of diners.
Cooking at sea is also demanding as you really are on your own and do not have the support of a team. You must do all of the ordering and provisioning in isolated places, all of the menu planning, and you have to cater for every dietary requirement under the sun. You must be flexible in every way, extremely patient and accommodating as timings and the menus can change at the drop of an owner’s request! What the owner says, goes. There is nowhere to hide, and you truly do have to show your skill and organisation as a chef. The financial rewards in yachting far exceed land-based jobs, though!
How did you manage the different requirements of feeding super yacht owners and guests, and feeding the crew?
This can vary depending on what size yacht you come to work on. Both yachts I was lucky enough to spend my time on had two chefs in the galley when owners were on board for a “Boss Trip”. We would work together as a team to feed both the crew and the guests. The most important thing is being organised for the guest trips with menus being pre-planned so we would have an idea of what we were going to cook throughout the weeks ahead for both sides. It changes all the time however, depending on what the provisions are like when they arrive, the guests’ requests, dietary requirements and what situations you may find yourself in such as storms, rocky seas, impromptu beach picnics and so on. We would have our provisioning, menus and time management down to a T before guest arrival with an outline plan to follow so that whatever might be thrown at us, we could work around to make sure that everyone – both crew and guests – were eating the best food possible and as happy as could be. Crew would always eat breakfast, lunch and dinner before the guests so that it was cleared and out of the way in the galley, then we could concentrate on cooking each meal for the boss and family, or guests. The crewmembers on yachts eat extremely well, as they are the ones who need the fuel and motivation to continue working the long hours and demanding boss trips for weeks on end. Any allergies or dietary needs for the crew were catered for. There were always various options served family style to choose from in the crew mess – a happy and well-fed crew is a must! As both of the boats that I worked on were privately owned, we would always have preference sheets on board for each guest and know exactly what the family likes and dislikes – from drinks, to snacks, to allergies basically everything is thought of to make sure that the experience was effortless and easy from the outside looking in. Nothing was ever too much and we never said “no”. The longer you stay on board the more you get to know the boss and how to cook for the family.
What were your signature or go to dishes when creating meals in a small space or with in a limited pantry?
Luckily when the owners were on board, we had no issues with a limited pantry as we would always be able to get what we needed. However, when on long passages such as crossing the Atlantic or the Pacific, when we would be at sea for two or more weeks without being able to provision after leaving the dock, I would have to be very clever with what produce we had available, what fresh produce would turn the easiest, and what would last the longest. For example, fresh salad leaves and potatoes! Organisation and planning were always key. Working on a boat you are pretty much always in a small space, but you definitely get used to your galley over time and how it works with the space that you have, and they are generally kitted out with what you need – adaptability is always very important. I would make fresh bread every day, healthy soups, I would generally follow a type of cuisine for each meal so Italian one day, Japanese the next, Mexican, Spanish and so on. My favourite go to menus were southeast Asian cuisine such as Vietnamese beef pho, pork laarb from Laos, rice paper rolls with chili dipping sauce, fresh Thai curries and coconut rice. I loved making Italian cuisine – fresh pasta dishes and fresh breads. Indian curries and fresh naan. It was always great exploring the area you were in cuisine-wise so I would always try and learn a dish or a few from the local area we would find ourselves in. One of my favourites was a very simple Tahitian dish called poisson cru.
Cooking on a yacht and cooking for the crew gave me free reign and inspiration to really explore the world of food and to push myself outside of my comfort zone. You have to change it up all the time otherwise the crew you are cooking for can get very bored, so making sure your repertoire is boundless and ever changing is hugely important.
What transferrable skills do you develop cooking on a yacht perhaps for other seasonal cooking jobs, for chef work ashore or just for life in general?
There are many transferrable skills that you can develop, not only from cooking on a yacht but living on a yacht. It becomes your life, and you are living in a small space with many different personalities – some that you may not necessarily click with day in and day out. You learn self-awareness, organisation, time management, keeping tidy and clean, saving (most of the time you’re at sea and can’t even spend the money you make), and patience. You feel very privileged to have seen so much and humbled at what you get to experience and in the way you experience life. The people you meet and work with become your family and friends for ever, from all over the world. It opens so many possibilities not just in your career but in your personal life. It will push you to limits mentally that you never thought you could go to, and it makes you a stronger person.
What Advice would you give to anyone wanting to do a season or pursue a career working on yachts?
It really is an opportunity that, if you have the chance to take, then take it. You have nothing to lose. If you figure out that it is not for you, which for some people it isn’t, then you can finish a season and go home. But if you fall into it solidly then it can be the start of an incredible journey and career that can change your world for the better. It’s not for the faint hearted and it takes a certain type to be able to cope with all the moving parts and all the rules, so you need to be sure that it is what you want. You don’t see your family very often, you have no solid home except for the boat, you have to share a small cabin with one or more people, it can be the most stressful job at times and you can get fed up very easily however it takes you to the most incredible places around the world, you make friends for life and from my experience it is something I would not have changed. It has taught me so much about myself as a person and as a chef, and given me the most wonderful memories and life.
If Amelia’s story has got you thinking about setting sail and working at sea on super yachts, or if you’ve got your heart set on a chalet season this winter, arm yourself with all of the kitchen skills required to make you indispensable and super-employable on our 5-day Yacht Chef course. Find out more and book your place, here.
There’s no denying the change of seasons any more. Autumn is here, and it’s the start of comfort food season! That usually means melted cheese. Quesadillas are a traditional Mexican dish that is basically a cheese toastie made with corn (or wheat flour) tortillas, heated in a dry pan rather than being fried in oil. This version adds refried beans, another Mexican staple, to make the dish into more of a meal. Beans are a great source of plant-based protein and fibre, and they’re cheap and a very sustainable ingredient, helping to save your pounds and the planet. Furthermore, like many low-cost folk recipes with many variations, quesadillas are a great vehicle for leftovers – you can add leftover roast sweet potato, fried mushrooms, shredded leftover roast meat… it won’t be a traditional quesadilla anymore, but it’ll be delicious. Here’s our base recipe, which makes a great quick autumn lunch or light dinner.
INGREDIENTS
1tbsp olive oil 1 onion, finely chopped 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 tsp cumin seeds 400g can of beans (black/red kidney/cannellini 2 tsp smoked paprika 8 flour tortillas 100g cheddar or comte, coarsely grated Spring onions Coriander leaves(handful)
METHOD
Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion and garlic for about four minutes until softened. Add the cumin and cook for one more minute. Tip in the beans, paprika and a splash of water. Using a fork, break the beans down as they warm through to make a rough paste. Season generously. Spread the refried beans onto 4 of the tortillas and scatter over the cheese and coriander, then place another tortilla on the top of each like a sandwich. Wipe the frying pan with kitchen paper and return to the heat, or heat a griddle pan. Cook each quesadilla for 1-2 minutes on each side until the tortillas are crisp and golden and the cheese is melting. Serve warm, cut into wedges, with chopped spring onions and soured cream for dipping, and any extra beans on top.
Over the August Bank Holiday weekend we had the pleasure of feeding hundreds of happy festival-goers at this year’s Big Feastival. Hosted by Alex James on his farm in The Cotswolds, the weekend is a celebration of food, producers, music and good times. We got stuck into all three, hosting the Feast On The Farm tent for the second year running with a menu championing the best Cornish produce, and then enjoying ourselves as a team once service had finished and the music got going.
A HUGE thank you to the hard-working, hard-playing team who made this year another huge success for us. There’s not really a “front of house” and “kitchen” at an event like this – it’s all on display and everybody gets stuck in, and they were absolutely amazing.
Below is a menu of what we cooked up for brunch, lunch and dinner over the long weekend, and a few of the photos snapped on our various phones in and around cooking and serving!
BRUNCH
Loaded Cornish Buns
Hogs pudding, sausage, & bacon rolls with onions & potato OR Herb vegetarian patty, fried egg with onions & potato ~0~ Complimentary Mimosa & soft drinks
If you grow any vegetables in your garden or pots at home, then chances are that you’re growing courgettes and tomatoes and will have them coming out of your ears right now in the height of summer. This is a great recipe to help you get through a glut of homegrown veg, or a lovely summer supper if you buy your veg from a supermarket.
Pilaf, or pilau, is a rice dish found originally between the Mediterranean, Middle East, and South Asia, but is popular around the world. The common theme is that the rice is cooked in stock with spices and vegetables. This dish is a variation on classic stuffed Mediterranean vegetables, but without the hassle of stuffing – just pile it all up on a plate and enjoy!
INGREDIENTS
1 courgette per person Handful cherry tomatoes per person 1 cup of rice per person 1 small onion (chopped) 2-3 cloves garlic (chopped) Cumin (ground) Coriander ground) Fennel seeds Pinch chilli flakes 1 lemon Water or vegetable stock Tahini
METHOD
Sweat off the onion and garlic in a heavy saucepan over a medium heat for a few minutes until translucent. Add the cumin, coriander, fennel seeds and a pinch of chilli flakes. Add the rice and mix with the spice mix, the juice and some zest from the lemon, then add the stock or water to cover and simmer until all of the water has been absorbed. If the rice isn’t fully cooked then add a splash more stock or water and keep cooking until absorbed. Meanwhile, split your courgettes in half lengthways and pan fry, cut half down, with the tomatoes over a high heat for a few minutes. You want colour! Transfer them to the grill, and cook until there’s some charring. Alternatively, you could cook them on the barbecue.
Assemble by placing the courgette on your plate and then spooning some of your pilaf rice over the top, placing the tomatoes around it and drizzling some tahini dressing over the top. Garnish with a sprig of a Mediterranean herb like fresh oregano or marjoram, if you have any in your garden or window box!
Fat is almost as essential for cooking as heat, and you’ll struggle to find a single kitchen that doesn’t contain a bottle of cooking oil. But which one should you be cooking with, and when? Most of us will have a collection of bottles, so here’s a short guide to the most common edible oils that you’ll have in your kitchen and what to use them for.
What Does Cooking Oil Do?
Cooking oil is most often used for frying, roasting or baking, and fulfills a number of important roles. Oil transfers heat from the pan to the food, and because oil can be heated to a much higher temperature than water it allows food to be cooked faster. It also acts as a lubricant to prevent food from sticking to the cooking surface. Fat is a flavour carrier so improves the taste of food, and also the texture because oil facilitates the Maillard reaction, which is what gives us a crispy, golden crust on fried or roasted foods.
Oil For Flavour
Oils aren’t only used in the kitchen for frying. As well as enhancing the flavour of a dish they also have flavour in their own right, and can carry flavour. The choice of oil used in a salad dressing will have a significant impact upon the flavour of the dressing, and oils flavoured with chilli, garlic, truffle and so on are often used to add that flavour to a risotto, pizza or similar dish.
How Edible Oils Are Produced
Some oils, such as olive oil and coconut oil, are made by pressing the flesh of the fruit, however most oils are extracted by pressing the seeds (sunflower oil, rapeseed oil, sesame oil, peanut oil and so on) and then in many cases solvent extraction is used to collect the maximum yield. Taking olive oil as an example, the different types and grades available are based on how the oil was extracted – extra virgin olive oil comes from the first cold press, and has the strongest flavour. The second press will be heated to help extract more oil and the product will be lighter in colour and flavour, and so on. Sunflower, rapeseed and peanut oils can also be cold pressed by squeezing the oil out of the crushed nut or seed. Cheaper oils, of the sorts used in high volumes for frying, are pressed and then the “oil cake” of crushed seeds has any remaining oil harvested by a process called solvent extraction which uses a volatile hydrocarbon to dissolve the oil out of the cake before using fractional distillation to remove the solvent. These oils are then refined (unpleasant sounding industrial processes to “degum”, “bleach” and “deodorise” the oil) before bottling. You can see why so many chefs advise you to buy good quality oil, particularly for use in salad dressings.
The Cookery School’s Store Cupboard Selection, From Left to Right:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Extracted from the first cold pressing of the olives, this oil has a richer, sometimes “earthier” flavour so is great for salad dressings or dips where you want that flavour. You can cook with it, but it has a low smoking point and it’s expensive so you might want to save it for specific uses rather than frying your eggs in it.
Cold Pressed Rapeseed Oil
A lighter oil for cooking or salad dressings with a delicate nutty flavour. Rapeseed oil is high in mono-unsaturated fats so is one of the only unblended oils that can be heated to high temperatures for frying without the risk of spoiling. Rapeseed is the bright yellow flowering crop that fills British fields in the early summer months, meaning that you can buy locally produced rapeseed oil (because there aren’t too many olive groves here in the UK).
Olive Oil
It’s good to have a lower grade olive oil to hand for occasions where you don’t need or want to cook with your precious first cold pressed! Virgin olive oil also comes from the first pressing but is slightly more acidic and can be used for cooking. Standard “pure” olive oil is blended and its flavour is blander, but it is a good multi-purpose cooking oil.
Sunflower Oil
Sunflower is your go-to cooking oil for higher temperature methods, such as roasting, frying or deep frying, because of it’s high smoke point (the temperature at which the oil starts to smoke). It has a mild flavour so is a great general cooking oil, but wouldn’t be a good choice for salad dressings.
Sesame Oil
A must if you cook any Asian cuisine, sesame oil is great for stir-fries, dressings and marinades. It has a pretty intense nutty flavour, so you’ll know when you’ve used it.
White and Black Truffle Oil
Flavoured oils are often the sorts of things that you might bring back from holiday, or that a relative might give you for a gift. They’re also super common in hampers. Truffle oil is wonderful though. Because of the high value of truffles, infusing slices in oil is a great way of imparting some of the highly sought-after aroma and flavour into a dish. White truffles are one of the world’s most expensive foods, so don’t expect these bottles to be big or cheap! Truffle oil is strictly a finishing oil, to be drizzled over a dish just before serving (don’t cook with it!) – creamy dishes such as risotto are the most obvious choice, but have you ever drizzled truffle oil over scrambled eggs?
Chilli Flavoured Rapeseed Oil
Another “back of the cupboard” bottle, so many of us will have bottles of infused oils that don’t often see the light of day. These are finishing oils for drizzling over things like pizza – this chilli flavoured rapeseed oil makes the most of the rapeseed oils delicate flavour to focus on the chilli. You might have a similar bottle of garlic or herb infused oil, or you can make them yourself.
Summer has hit good and proper, so if you’re cooking up at the beach over the next few weeks, here are Rupert’s top tips for an easy and delicious experience:
Take a reusable BBQ (check out the ProQ Smokers Flatdog, but don’t overfill it with charcoal because this piece of kit gets super hot, so it’s better to start small and top-up). They’re more efficient, great value for money over the course of their lifetime, and cool down quickly enough that you can carry it back to the car after finishing your beers.
Kebabs and koftas… prepared and ready to go… bang them on a ready-made flatbread and you’re winning. Check out our recipe here.
Portobello mushrooms with butter and herbs. Prepare them at home and they’re ready to put straight on the grill.
Ice cold beers, of course.
Enjoy the sun, be careful and sensible when cooking outside over fire given the recent dry conditions (this article is about barbecuing at the beach, but you might be barbecuing in your back garden), and if you’re cooking and eating in a public space then leave no trace.
Stone fruit season is finally here in the UK – as sure a sign of summer as any. This recipe makes the most of in-season peaches, and is a delicious desert but you should definitely save some leftovers for breakfast. Speaking of breakfast, for this crumble topping I added some leftover granola to give it a bit of extra crunch. Serve it hot or cold, but always with clotted cream.
INGREDIENTS
At least 6 peaches, halved and stone removed
Demerara sugar
Cinnaomon or mixed spice
Sherry
Plain flour
Caster sugar
Unsalted butter (cold, from the fridge)
Granola
METHOD
Preheat your oven to 220C.
Place the peach halves skin-side down on a lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with demerara sugar, cinnamon or mixed spice, and a splash of booze (I used sherry, last time I made this).
Roast for 20 minutes.
After removing the peaches, turn the oven down to 180C.
Meanwhile, make your crumble topping in a large bowl. Using a 2:1:1 ratio of flour:sugar:butter, combine the flour and sugar in the bowl, then cut your cold butter into cubes, add to the bowl and rub-in using your fingertips and thumbs. You should end up with a breadcrumb consistency. Add any left-over granola you may have for some added texture and crunch.
Lay out your peach halves in shallow baking dishes, skin-side down still, and sprinkle your crumble mix over the top.
Bake your crumble in the oven at 180 for 35-40 minutes, or until you can see the fruit mix bubbling and the topping has turned golden.
Lobster is considered something of a luxury these days, but that shouldn’t stop you from treating yourself every now and then. A few weeks ago we paid a visit to the National Lobster Hatchery at Padstow, to learn about how they’re working to conserve and restore populations of wild lobsters in our coastal waters – the benefit for the rest of us being that there should then continue to be enough lobster to allow some to be caught, cooked, and consumed.
These rolls can be served hot or cold, but must always be served outside in the sunshine, preferably with a sea view.
PREPARING YOUR LOBSTER
If you’ve picked up a pre-cooked lobster from your fishmonger then follow Cornwall Good Seafood Guide’s instructions on how to humanely kill your lobster. Boil your lobster for six minutes, then remove from the pan and allow to cool. When you’re ready to make your lobster rolls you can then split the body and tail down the centre line with a sharp knife and grill shell-side-down on the barbecue, and crack the claws to remove the meat which you can then pan-fry in a good amount of butter. I also added some nduja to the tail meat (completely optional) as it warmed, for some of that unbeatable spiced pork and seafood flavour.
TARTAR SAUCE INGREDIENTS
Good mayonnaise
Gherkins
Dill
Tarragon
Chives
Dijon mustard
Lemon – juice and zest
METHOD
Finely chop the gherkins and herbs. Then combine all ingredients together, season and serve.
CUCUMBER SALSA INGREDIENTS
1 tomato
1/2 cucumber
1 garlic clove
1 red onion
2 tsps red wine vinegar
METHOD
Finely dice all the ingredients, mix in a bowl with vinegar. Season and serve.
ASSEMBLY
Take your roll – I used potato rolls, but a popular choice is a good hot-dog style bun – butter it and toast it on the grill. Then simply load it up with your lobster and either a decent helping of tartar sauce or cucumber salsa, and get stuck in!
A few weeks ago, we paid our friends at Padstow Lobster Hatchery a visit to learn more about these incredible crustaceans, and the conservation work being done to ensure that stocks remain at sustainable levels. It was a fascinating day.
Lobster is a delicacy, both because of its sweet and succulent meat and because of the price tags attached to them. That price tag is well deserved; lobster are wild creatures and the specimens that end up on people’s plates in European restaurants aren’t farmed, or fished; they are trapped in baited pots by fishermen in small boats who have an intimate knowledge of the coastal waters in which they fish. It’s a game of tempting and trapping a wild and wily creature, and it is hard, skilled, and often dangerous and uncomfortable work.
Padstow Lobster hatchery sits on the waterfront of Padstow harbour on the Camel Estuary. It is a marine conservation, research and education charity with a popular visitor center where the general public can learn about the lifecycles of lobster and the pioneering work that they do to conserve and regenerate native lobster populations. The aim of the lobster hatchery is not to stop people from consuming them (I’m not sure they’d have welcomed us as they did, if that was the case!), but to work to restore and maintain the wild population at a level that is healthy and acknowledges and allows lobster to continue to be caught and consumed in sustainable numbers.
Why Do Lobsters Need Protecting?
In the late 1980s, Chief Fisheries officer and former fisherman Edwin (Eddy) Derriman MBE noticed that lobster catches and therefore populations were declining. The Scandinavian lobster fishery had seen a similar drop in the late 1960s and early 70s and the fishery ultimately collapsed, and Eddy was seriously worried that the same could happen in Cornwall. He put in place measures to manage the fisheries, and in 1998 he founded the lobster hatchery in an effort to conserve still vulnerable stocks and support wild populations of native lobster. The National Lobster hatchery was officially opened in 1998 and became a charity in 2004. Since its creation, the hatchery has released over 250,000 baby lobsters into the wild, and well over half a million visitors have visited the hatchery to learn about the sustainability issues associated with fishing, and in particular lobsters.
What The National Lobster Hatchery Does
The National Lobster Hatchery works to increase the survival rate of baby and juvenile lobsters, with the ultimate aim of ensuring a healthy and sustainable wild population that can withstand the pressures of fishing. A female lobster can carry between 4,000 and 40,000 eggs, however only 1 in 20,000 of these are expected to survive in the wild. Only approximately 0.005% survive to become adult lobsters. When they first hatch, baby lobster larvae are so small that they float in the water column and are essentially a type of plankton – meaning that they’re a food source for fish, jellyfish, anemones and even sea birds until they are around a month old and are large enough to burrow into the sea bed and find protection from predators. To increase survival rates, the team at the NLH collects lobster eggs and raises the larvae until they are around three months old and large enough to have a much higher chance of survival in the wild, at which point they are released. A number of local fishermen around Cornwall are licensed to land “berried hens” which are egg-bearing female lobsters. These lobsters have their claws bound with colour-coded tape to denote the fisherman who landed it (and to prevent them from fighting in the tanks) so that the lobster can be returned to the fisherman later for sale or release.
“Lobsters take approximately seven years to reach adulthood, but the crucial thing that we capitalise on is the difference between being plankton as larvae, and being part of the food chain, and being a juvenile and being able to burrow.”
– Chris Weston, Senior Hatchery Technician
The gestation period for a lobster egg is between 9 and 12 months, with the temperature of the water impacting how quickly an egg will hatch. Female lobsters lay their eggs under their tails between June and September, but the team at the NLH can control the volume of lobster larvae and juveniles that they are raising in the hatchery by controlling the temperature of the water in the “Maternity Ward” tanks that the berried hens are kept in. Colder water slows down development and extends the gestation period. They also hold lobsters in colder water during busy periods because slowing down their metabolism stops them from fighting so much so more lobsters can be accommodated within each tank. When we visited, Chris showed us one tank where hens were being kept in 11 degree water and another where hens were being held in 17 degree water to encourage faster hatching.
“We’re in constant communication with the twenty or so fishermen who we work with who are licensed to land berried hen lobsters, demanding different amounts of lobster at different times of year. It depends on how full we are and how many lobsters we can handle, and therefore what stage of egg development, indicated by the colour of the eggs, we’d like them to land for us.”
– Chris Weston, Senior Hatchery Technician
Most of the eggs hatch at night and it’s believed that lobster larvae use the moon to orientate themselves and move towards the surface of the sea – there is naturally more phytoplankton here (tiny plants) that the zooplankton (tiny animals, like the lobster larvae) want to feed on. For the first few hours after hatching the larvae are positively buoyant which helps them to get to the surface. At the hatchery, these buoyant lobster larvae are filtered out of the maternity tank and every morning they are collected from a holding tank and transferred to communal cones.
The communal cones are large aerated tanks and each batch of larvae will stay in there for approximately 16 days. The water is constantly moving to mimic their natural environment in the water column, and to minimize the chances of them bumping into each other – lobsters are carnivorous from birth and when they bump into something in the water column they will grab it and try to eat it, even if it’s another lobster larvae. Each brood is grown on in those communal cones through their first three stages of development, and once they reach the 4th stage – the point at which they are around 20mm long and look and behave much more like mini lobsters – they are moved into specially designed trays. These trays have individual compartments to keep the juvenile lobster separated (that cannibalism issue again!) and the trays are stacked in upwelling tanks so that the stage 4 juveniles can be fed and reared until they are around three months old and ready for release.
Juvenile lobsters are released when they are large enough to settle on the seabed and burrow into it for protection. From their burrows they hunt for worms and other invertebrates, moulting several times as they grow. Lobsters are cold water crustaceans and grow slowly, taking around seven years to reach adulthood. When their carapace (the shell covering their head and upper-body reaches 90mm in length they are large enough for fishermen in Cornwall to legally land them – under that, or if they are “notched” (when breeding age adults have a notch cut in their tail to signal that they should be left as breeding stock) or are egg bearing females, then the fishermen must return them to the wild. Some lobsters that find their way onto diners plates are in the region of twenty years old; that’s why preservation of stocks is so critically important.
Chris and his colleagues at NLH release juvenile lobsters either from the shore (into rock pools), by tube release from boats in partnership with fishermen who have identified suitable release sites, or directly onto the seabed by divers. They have recently trialed a scheme, the ‘Lobster Grower’ project, releasing juvenile lobsters into a large enclosed pen at a site in St Austell Bay off the south coast of Cornwall, so that the development of released juveniles can be measured and analysed by re-trapping and measuring the NLH hatched lobsters at intervals.
The team at the National Lobster Hatchery estimate that through their work they are able to increase the survival rate of lobster larvae by 1000 times, so from 1 in 20,000 to a 1 in 20 chance of survival. Every year they aim to release around 50,000 juvenile lobsters into the wild. It’s inevitable that some of these will in due time be trapped and served up as somebody’s dinner, but they are realistic about what they do. “It’s not helpful to pit the local small boat fishermen against the conservation sector,” Chris told us, “Up to 95%, we want the same thing: we want a healthy population of lobster. Whether that’s for the ecosystem benefits, or so that some of them can be used for food is the last 5%. From our perspective, we want a healthy population of lobsters around Cornwall and the South West, but we understand that the pressures come from fishing and that there’s a massive market for them. If you take a step back and look at the broader scheme of things, lobster probably isn’t the worst thing that people have eaten. There are a lot more destructive forms of fishing so if people can’t eat lobster perhaps they’ll turn to something else that isn’t being careful managed or fished. If done properly and sustainably, it doesn’t have to be a terrible thing, but it’s a very nuanced topic.”
As well as working with local fishermen to source egg-bearing females, the team at the National Lobster Hatchery also work with chefs and restaurateurs, and run a very successful fundraising partnership scheme called ‘Buy One, Set One Free’. Participating establishments simply include an opt-out customer donation of £1 onto every lobster dish sold, which goes directly to the National lobster Hatchery to enable them to raise and release baby lobsters back into coastal waters on customers’ behalf.
“You are not only offsetting a little of what’s been caught, but longer term it’s an investment in the sustainability of the fishery and your ability to get hold of and enjoy lobster.”
Clare Stanley, NLH Business Development Manager
It’s pioneering schemes like ‘Buy One, Set One Free’, and the clearly forward thinking and determined nature of the NLHH’s founder and team that have allowed them to have achieved so much. There is no doubt that they’ve had a huge impact on local lobster populations, saving them from the threat of imminent collapse and providing ongoing safeguards for our fragile marine resources and the people whose livelihoods depend on them. If you’re in a situation to be able to afford to order lobster from a restaurant menu, then please look for or ask them about the National Lobster Hatchery’s ‘Buy One, Set One Free’ scheme, consider donating via their website to support their work, and if you’re ever visiting Padstow then pay them a visit on the harbour side.
For our next article, and in full recognition of the fact that we’re a cookery school that sometimes teaches how to cook and eat lobster, we’re going to post a recipe for amazing lobster rolls. Eating lobster isn’t a bad thing, as long as you’re buying your lobster from a sustainable source (preferably a small day-boat fisherman, like Callum at Fresh from The Sea in Port Isaac who is one of the fishermen who works with the National Lobster Hatchery) and all thanks to the great work of the NLH ensuring that local lobster populations are healthy enough to support them being fished and consumed. Check back next week for that recipe!
Join us for a spectacular evening of food, drinks and dancing, all whilst floating in the middle of the Fal river on board the King Harry Ferry. This will be an evening to remember! There will be a bar on board, and we’ll be serving up the following menu – and you don’t have to choose, you get all of it! We’ll have vegetarian and vegan options available too, and if you have any other dietary requirements please just let us know when you book your ticket.
This is an amazing dessert to try next time you are barbecuing or cooking outside. It’s got everything going on and tastes like sunshine – charred and caramelised pineapple, with flavours of coconut and mint, and the crunch of nuts. One pineapple will serve eight people, and other than cooking the pineapple over the coals the rest of it is an assembly task. If you’re cooking this as part of a bigger barbecue meal and there’s meat involved, cook the pineapple first or on a separate grill rack.
INGREDIENTS
1 pineapple Brown sugar 1 large tub of Greek style yoghurt 1 handful desiccated coconut Half a handful of mint Small bag of mixed nuts and raisins
*Optional* Knob of butter Splash of rum 8 small meringue nests
METHOD
Cut the top and the skin off the pineapple, and split into eight lengthways (quarter it and then cut each segment in half again). Cut out the central core part of each slice, and place on the grill over the hot coals to cook. Allow the pineapple to char, before turning. Once charred on several sides, you can remove the pieces using tongs and place in a bowl. If you are not doing a vegan version then add some knobs of butter to melt and coat. Sprinkle brown sugar over liberally and, if making boozy, a splash or two of rum. Return to the grill to caramelise. Meanwhile, roughly chop the mint and combine with the desiccated coconut.
On each plate place a large dollop of yoghurt, some crushed meringue (optional), a sprinkling of nuts and raisins, and a sprinkling of the mint and coconut mixture. Place the caramelised and charred pineapple slice on top, and serve.
Once a month the team at Petalon Flowers down tools at their Cornish flower farm for a few hours, lay a long table, and sit down to enjoy a special lunch together and each other’s company. Outside, if at all possible. This month Rupert cooked for them, and they set their table out under a tree at the top of one of their flower fields. Vases of flowers grown in those very fields were spread along the table (several planks screwed together and set on six fence posts hammered into the ground), and Rupert served a vegan feast prepared on a barbecue and the tailgate of the Philleigh Way truck.
Menu
Mechouia Beetroot relish Romesco dip Charred hispi cabbage and tahini coleslaw Potato salad Middle Eastern three bean salad Fresh bread
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Charred pineapple with coconut yoghurt, mixed nuts, desiccated coconut and mint
“Buy less but buy better” is a phrase that’s become increasingly common and important in the world of fashion, but we think that it’s just as relevant to the meat that we eat. It’s arguably better for you and the
“Buy less but buy better” is a phrase that has become increasingly common and important in the world of fashion, but we think that it is just as relevant to the meat that we eat. It is arguably better for you and the planet if we reduce how much we eat in the western world, and make sure that the meat that we do eat is high quality, high welfare and ideally farmed using regenerative practices. Homage To The Bovine’s product is a great example of this; beef from ex-dairy cows who are “put out to pasture” on well managed grassland, creating an incredible product and adding value, reducing waste, and honouring the animals that they farm.
We’ve worked with Debs and Nathan Pryor and their team before, celebrating their produce at dedicated feast nights, we will be teaming up even more this year when they take up a residency at Origin Coffee’s Roastery HQ in Porthleven and at a series of summer pop-up feasts in sight of their farm at Stithians Lake.
Ahead of all of that, we caught up with Debs one windy and rainy day this winter to find out more about how they came upon the idea of retired-dairy beef and the ethos behind Homage To The Bovine.
We have a dairy herd that has been in Nathan’s family for two generations before us. He came back from university in 2002 and his Father had forty cows. Now there are five hundred. He’s built a large dairy herd and they are all born and raised on these two farms. We get to see the whole process. We see them born, they come onto the herd, they milk for up to twelve years. Once their milk yield is dropping off, normally they would trot along to the abattoir and they’d be a cull cow – just finished with. Instead, we now give our cows a retirement, and they go into our retired dairy beef herd.
Homage To The Bovine came about because Joel, my eldest son who is 14, is a bit of a carnivore. At the start of lockdown I was looking for a butchery course for him. Because we have the dairy herd I started googling dairy beef, local butchery courses, and so on, but I couldn’t find any. I did find one in Essex, a guy called Thomas Joseph. Tom has his own hanging rooms and his own butchery, it goes into various high end restaurants and directly to the public. That is how we stumbled onto it. Then we realised that we had the grass land that enabled our herd to rest and fatten, and we thought why not just try it?
We sent half of our first batch up to him to his ager and left it up there for forty days… he came back with it that August as he was down in Cornwall on holiday, and he said it was extremely good and that he would like to buy some! We knew we were onto something, and figured we had nothing to lose.
Barney our Head Butcher.
How We Farm
The farm was originally mixed dairy and beef, but when Nathan came home and took over the family farm and got more serious on the commercial side of it, he implemented New Zealand style farming which is spring calving in a block, everything gets managed as a herd so you don’t have calves popping out in August. If you had 500 cows calving here and there and everywhere it’d be absolute chaos. It is a very natural existence because everything comes from pasture. They do get buffer fed in the winter when it is extremely wet, but the cheapest and best way is to feed them all off pasture as much as possible. Nathan is really keen on getting the grassland just right, he is more of a grassland farmer than a cattle farmer. The grass is the backbone of his business. Nathan is a grassland biologist, really, always monitoring his seeds, covers, leys… he knows about worms.
The dairy beef just runs alongside the dairy herd, they’ll go to peripheral parts of the farm where we can monitor them but leave them for three or four days, then just move them on to fresh pasture. They’re not monitored as intensively which is great for us because there are blocks everywhere that we rent, we can just leave them there and check them every few days.
The retirement is a rest for at least 18 months from last calving. They’ll calve in February or March, they’ll milk that season, and then if they come to the end of their dairy life they’ll then go out to pasture and get rested on grassland for 18 months.
The grass is the fundamental backbone of our business. You can spot our fields from others – it is almost flourescent. Dairying is all about pasture management, because that is the cheapest and best food source for a cow. Anybody that cannot grow grass will be buying in silage or concentrates to buffer feed their animals. Our cows are milked twice in one day and then once the next. It puts less pressure on them, and it is better for staff and costs less because we’re not firing up the milking parlour twice a day and working silly hours.
The biggest part of our farm income is from liquid milk – that is the core of our business. Homage to the Bovine beef is a spin-off, but it is good in terms of educating consumers and it is an excellent product because of the age. Normal shop-bought beef would usually be under 30 months old.
Cows that go into the abattoir that are over 30 month old have to have their spinal columns removed and that adds another layer of cost. Commercial producers do not want this expense, so to maximise profits they send their animals to slaughter before they reach that age. When a cow is older the fat spreads through their whole body. They have a supreme deep beefy flavour. The beef is a dark, deep red with great marbling. Putting ordinary supermarket beef against ex-dairy beef is like putting a £5 bottle of wine alongside an expensive port; it is the age that makes the difference in flavour. Producers will not finish beef for 12 years. Ours is hung on the bone for 28 days before being cut.
Supermarkets often “age” beef in the vacuum pack, rushing the product through because it’s more cost effective for them. They don’t want to hold it in a chiller for that long because of the cost, and they don’t have enough space for the sort of volumes they deal with. Ours is an artisan product.
Skills on the knives in the butchery
Farming And The Environment
Right now, fertiliser prices have gone through the roof like all fuels, and farmers are having to be much more extensive in their grazing. We rent as much land as we can so that we are not putting as much pressure on the fields and do not have to put on as much fertiliser, because we don’t want to and it is just not cost effective. The leys (the mix of plants in the fields) will include clover for fixing nitrogen. We keep permanent pasture and manage it to get the most from the land without damaging it. Cows spread their own poo, the worms are doing their thing. If the cows chew the grass down to a low level it will shoot and start again, but if you leave the cows in too long and let the cows chew it too low it damages the roots, which is why we move ours frequently and spread them out.
Environmentally, when you think about the dairy industry you have to go beyond where that milk has come from – how the cow is fed and what it is doing. Most liquid milk producers try to get 11-12,000 litres of milk per year per animal, whereas ours produce just 4,000. They are compact animals, Jersey cross Friesians for a richer milk – because we sell our milk based on protein and fat content to be used to make butter and cream, rather than selling by volume. Milk sold by volume is just more of a white water, and those animals do not have such a nice life. You do not know anything about that when you are buying your two liters of milk for a pound from the supermarket. Milk is undervalued; it is cheaper than premium bottled water. If we could be a bit more like France, where the supermarkets are stocked from within that region, then we could start to see more benefits for everyone and everything involved. Supermarkets push the price down and until consumers start to shop outside of supermarkets and asking questions, it’s at the the cost of taste and quality because those are the only things that can give – and that includes animal welfare too. We do not work like that and so we are happy to talk openly about what we do. People are pushing on prices and supply chain systems that are unsustainable. It is easy to get into the routine of ordering online and having something delivered, but as a result many consumers have lost touch with where their food has come from and how good their food could taste.
How To Enjoy Ex-Dairy Beef
I like a simple medium pan-fried steak! It depends what cut you are dealing with though. Chefs love the fillet and steaks but some are really good at taking the other lower cost cuts too, like topside or shin, because they can use them for ragus and so on. Adam Handling at The Ugly Butterfly in Carbis Bay uses our beef in his restaurant and has just obtained a Michelin star. He started buying select cuts from us for his restaurant because of their sustainable ethos and trying to close the gap and buying local. To be associated with him has been huge for us really, and it has given a lot of people a lot of confidence in our product.
Our retired dairy beef does not need to be prepared or cooked any differently to any other beef, but the key is not to over cook it. The grain is looser in our beef, so you have to be aware that it is a bit different to a standard steak, but essentially you can enjoy it just the same way – only there is more flavour and you have the knowledge of knowing exactly where it has come from and how it has been raised and that has got to be worth something.
We’ll be joining them for some pop-up feast nights this summer, but until then you can catch them at the Origin Coffee Roastery at Methleigh Bottoms, Porthleven between 5-8pm every Saturday through the summer where they’ll be serving up their Txuleta burgers and beef dripping chips.
At the start of last year, during that third lockdown that we’d all rather forget, Lori of restaurant and recipe blog mybossbuysmelunch and her Mum joined one of our online enriched dough courses for a day of stay-at-home baking.
“I ate three in ten minutes and I’m totally on board with that. So damn good I am going to have to ration how many times I make these!”
Lori shared the recipe for our cinnamon twists with her followers shortly after, and it’ll come as no surprise to anyone that they proved mighty popular. We thought it only fair then that we share her write-up with everybody else too!
INGREDIENTS
200g Full Fat Milk 2 Medium Eggs 600g Strong White Bread Flour 12g fast action yeast 50g caster sugar 10g Salt 200g unsalted butter at room temperature For the filling: 150g soft brown sugar 75g unsalted butter at room temperature 2 tbsp ground cinnamon For the glaze: 50g caster sugar dissolved in 2 tbsp water to form syrup
METHOD
In a stand mixer with a dough hook, mix together the butter & flour until well combined then add the sugar, salt & yeast. Whisk together the milk and eggs then add to the stand mixer & bring together for circa 5mins until the dough has formed a ball. Once happy place the dough in a bowl, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to prove for 2-3 hours until it has doubled in size.
Then, lightly flour a surface & roll the dough into a rectangle (30 x 25cm). For the filling, beat the butter & sugar together until a smooth paste forms & add cinnamon. Spread the filling over the top of the dough.
With the long side of the dough facing you, fold a third across towards the middle and repeat on the other side to enclose the filling. Then slice width-ways into 12 even strips. Next, use a sharp knife to cut down the middle of each strip leaving an inch in tact at the top. Twist the two strands together and then roll up to stand on the flat end. Grease a 12-cup muffin tray and pop the knots into the tray, leaving them to prove for 15mins.
Preheat your oven to 200°/ 180° fan. Brush the knots with egg glaze and cook for about 15 mins (our oven is super hot and only took 11, so check!). Once cooked and still hot, brush the knots with sugar glaze and leave to cool slightly before tucking in.
As our business grows, we are finding a rapid rise in demand for all of our services and are now looking to expand our team. Our aim is to make the reputation of Philleigh Way synonymous with culinary excellence, community and celebration and we are looking for special people who share our passion and creativity to deliver exceptional standards, every time, both here at the school and to join us for our exciting schedule of events this spring and summer.
We currently have vacancies for both Chef and Front of House positions on a casual basis, for pop-up events across Cornwall as well as The Big Feastival this summer. We offer good rates of pay and mileage, as well as a fun and positive work atmosphere. With the FoH roles you also get a discount on any cookery courses that catch your eye.
As with any position here, a positive attitude and defaulting to a smile is the most important criteria. Events are all about team work.
For FoH roles experience within the hospitality industry is preferred, but isn’t essential; if you’re a people person with a good work ethic, a customer-focused approach and a willingness to learn then that ticks a lot of boxes for us.
For The Tutor & Chef Role
Do you consider yourself to be a great Chef? Are you willing to develop your skills and learn on the job? Are you confident with people & do you have excellent communication skills? Are you looking for flexibility & a great fun team to work with?
Main Duties
To deliver a wide range of Cookery Courses based at our Cookery School on the Roseland Peninsula (candidate must have own car) – training will be offered Prepare for the courses, including stock control / ordering from suppliers Assisting Rupert Cooper (Owner & Head Tutor) to deliver consistently high quality catering services to various pop-up events, private dinners, parties & weddings as and when required throughout the year Sous Chef for private events with the opportunity to develop skills in order to deliver Private Chef experiences independently (under the Philleigh Way name)
The Package
£25,000 pa (pro rata), for a 32 hour week Flexible working hours to cover seasonal peaks & troughs although a consistent monthly salary is offered Usual working pattern: Wednesday to Saturday inclusive – usually between the hours of 9am and 6pm (some flexibility required depending on the needs of the business) Overtime for specific Private Dinners, pop-ups or Weddings at an agreed hourly rate depending on the event 21 days holiday per year Contributory pension Full training provided & the opportunity to further develop your career
Must Haves
Confident in front of people Approachable, fun & charismatic personality Proven track record as a Chef in the hospitality industry Sense of humour & a “can do” attitude Flexible & reliable
Please email info@philleighway.co.uk for more information, or to submit a CV and cover letter.
Fennel is a really underrated vegetable here in the UK, whereas in Italy it’s incredibly popular. It’s an umbellifer from the same plant family as carrot, celery and parsley, and has a mild aniseed flavour and the whole plant is edible from the bulb up to the leaves and flowers. In this recipe we’re going to use the bulb to make a fantastic gratin that can be served as a side with roasts, or as a light lunch. It’s pretty similar to boulangère potatoes, and is really easy to make.
INGREDIENTS
1kg fennel
50ml dry white wine or 1 x tbsp white wine vinegar
All of these storms call for a healthy serving of comfort food, and it doesn’t come much more comforting than a big bowl of ribollita. Ribollita is a traditional hearty Tuscan soup or stew, made with stale bread and featuring “dark greens and lots of beans”. Ribollita translates as “reboiled” which, along with its loose recipe gives away it’s Italian peasant origins; it was made by reboiling leftover vegetable or minestrone soup and bulking it out with beans and leftover stale bread. The bread should be crusty and a little stale, so that it soaks up some of the liquid but retains its shape rather than dissolving! As yet more named storms batter the country, I’d encourage you to make a big pot of ribollita, hunker down, and get comfy!
Ribollita (serves 4-6)
INGREDIENTS
Cannellini beans (or any tinned/dried beans) if dried, soak overnight
1 bay leaf
High welfare pancetta
1 tomato
2 red onion
2 carrots
2 sticks of celery
3 cloves garlic
Tsp fennel seeds
½ fresh chilli (optional)
1 tin tomatoes
1 handful of stale crusty bread
⅔ cavolo nero
¼ of a cabbage
FOR THE ANCHOVY DRESSING
1 tin anchovies
Handful parsley/dill/basil
1 clove garlic
Red wine vinegar
Olive oil
METHOD
Finely chop your carrot, onion, celery, garlic then heat a large pan with a splash of olive oil, bay leaf and pinch of salt. Add the pancetta then sweat the veg very slowly, adding water if necessary. Sweat for a good 10-15 mins, not browning the vegetables.Then add the tomatoes and season. Add the beans with a little water and generous amount of black pepper, bring back to the boil. Then slice the cabbages and add to the pot. Roughly tear the bread and throw it in. The soup wants to be thick but not dry, so just keep an eye on the water level and adjust if necessary. For the dressing finely chop the anchovies, herbs and garlic. Then combine with the vinegar and oil. Ladle into warm bowls and finish with the dressing on top. Serve on a cold and wet evening.
In mid January, just before our 2022 schedule of cookery courses got back up to full speed, I spent a couple of days making a kitchen knife of my own with my friend Dan Maltwood of Pareusi Knives.
Dan is a former chef who made the transition from using knives to making knives several years ago. He still puts on his chef’s whites from time to time to cook at his partner’s family’s hotel, which gives him a great insight into what chefs and enthusiastic home cooks need from their knives.
The Pareusi workshop is in a beautiful location, in a historic farrier’s workshop next to the National Trust café (meaning easy access to great cake) at the foot of St Agnes Beacon, just a few hundred meters back from the cliff top and the Atlantic Ocean. His workshop is set up for Dan to not only make knives himself, but to host people keen to make their own on one of his knife-making workshops. Dan has a range of knives in the Pareusi range, so for the two-day workshop it’s a case of selecting the style of knife and the handle material, then getting to work. I chose to make a Nakiri knife, a historic cleaver style shape from Japan designed for chopping vegetables. This is the style of knife that I reach for most often in the kitchen, so if I had to choose one knife that I was going to keep and use forever, one that I’d made myself, it’d have to be a Nakiri. Nakiri knives are designed for (fast) straight up-and-down chopping, rather than the rocking motion of chef’s knives. The straight edge of the blade means that they cut cleaner (less chance of not cutting all the way through something) and the thin blade makes for thin and uniform cuts.
Dan’s knives are all full tang, which means that the steel shape is the same as the complete final silhouette of the knife, handle included; the handle is made of two wooden (or other material) “scales” that sandwich the steel and are held in place by epoxy and pins, leaving a strip of steel visible the full length of the top and underside of the handle. Partial tang knives mean that the part of the blade that attaches to the handle (the tang) is shorter and is inserted into the handle. Dan collects all sorts of interesting wood for his knife handles and had some very old pieces of Rosewood (a tropical hardwood that you can’t buy anymore) that I chose for my knife. The outline shape of the knife is pre-cut (a long, laborious, difficult and fairly unpleasant job best left to experts or automation) so it was a case of tempering the blade under Dan’s expert supervision (which involved heating the steel and then quenching it in oil), cleaning the outline shape up, grinding the profile of the cutting edge into the blade, and then setting the handle scales on either side of the tang and securing them in place with brass pins whilst they set.
I wanted my new knife to have a patina on the blade rather than being mirror-finish shiny. Dan showed me how to make a mustard and vinegar mix that I “painted” onto the blade and left overnight to let the acid eat away at the surface of the steel to leave a randomly patterned black finish.
The next day was all about shaping the handle with progressively finer grades of abrasive paper until it was a comfortable fit in my hand and nice and smooth, then sharpening the blade. Sharpening is something that I teach on our knife skills courses, but then it is all about maintaining a keen edge on a blade. This was starting from scratch, taking the ground profile and using various wet stones (starting quite coarse and getting progressively finer) to final profile both sides of the blade and get it devilishly sharp.
The final step uses a leather strop to get it really sharp, before the ultimate test of slicing (not tearing) a sheet of paper. The handle is treated with a beeswax that makes the beautiful grain of the wood pop out and makes the handle shiny whilst retaining a nice texture and not becoming smooth and slippery.
I’m so pleased with the knife that I took away from my time with Dan at his workshop. It’s proper sharp and is going to see a lot of use in the kitchen classroom here at Philleigh Way.
Over the course of the two days Dan and I discussed offering another combination experience weekend, offering you the chance to make and use your own knife with the two of us, and with the two of us cooking for you. Drop me an email if you’re interested and want to be the first to know when we get some dates in place, or keep your eyes peeled on our newsletter and social media channels for an announcement.
As a cookery school in Cornwall, our half-day Cornish pasty cookery courses (that run regularly throughout the year) are understandably popular. You can’t visit Cornwall and not eat a Cornish pasty, but it’s even better if you not only eat one that you made yourself but also take the recipe away with you to repeat at home forever more!
The Origins of the Pasty
Pasties date back as far as the 13th century, at which time they were a pie baked without a dish of French origins, with a rich filling of venison, veal, beef, lamb or seafood, gravy and fruit. The name pasty is a mutation of the Medieval French “paste”, for pie. One Royal charter from 1208 binding the town of Great Yarmouth in Norfolk to “send to the sheriffs of Norwich every year one hundred herrings, baked in twenty four pasties, which the sheriffs are to deliver to the lord of the manor of East Carlton who is then to convey them to the King [John].”
The History of the Cornish Pasty
It wasn’t until the 1700s when historic references to pasties across the rest of the country started to decline, and pasties began to become popular in Cornwall amongst working class families. These weren’t the rich, decadent pies of the previous centuries however; filling a simple short crust pastry case with potato, swede and onion, all common vegetables, and occasionally some cheap pieces of meat if available, was an affordable and easily transportable meal. As mining boomed in Cornwall, pasties became a go-to meal for the miners’ crib break (a Cornish colloquialism for a mid-morning break): they were an all-in-one meal that could be taken down the mines, particularly if they were so deep that it was impractical for the miners to return to the surface during the day for a crib or lunch break. Sometimes fruit was cooked into one end of the pasty to provide a sweet treat at the end of their meal. Carrying a warm pasty in a small bag under their work clothes also helped to keep miners warm underground!
Not all miners carried their pasties with them, though. Some mines had stoves installed in them to cook pasties for the miners, whilst at other mines the pasties were cooked and the miners either returned to the surface for a break, or they were carried down to them. This is how the chant “Oggie, Oggie, Oggie!” “Oi! Oi! Oi!”, since appropriated by Australian sports fans (who shout “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!”), originated. If pasties were being cooked at the surface by bal maidens (from the Cornish for mine, bal, and the English maiden), young women who worked at the mines, they would often shout the Cornish word for pasty, “hoggan”, three times down the mine shaft to notify the miners that their food was ready. In the depths of the mine, these shouts were heard as “oggy”, and the miners would chant “Oi! Oi! Oi!” back in acknowledgement. Many people believe that the classic D shape and side-crimp of the Cornish pasty was so that the crust could be used as a handle by the miners. This makes sense, as mining was filthy work and there was a risk that miners hands could contaminate their meal with traces of arsenic (a by-product of processing tin and copper ore) or the explosives that they used. Others say that miners carried their pasties in muslin or paper bags so that they could eat from that and enjoy the entire pasty. Some say that miners’ wives carved their husbands’ initials into the end of the crust so that they could identify their food and also leave the very end for the “Knockers” – the mischievous underground pixies of Cornish folklore who needed bribing with food to stay on good behavior.
From Cornwall To The World
As the mining industry declined and eventually collapsed in Cornwall in the 19th century, many mining families emigrated to emerging mining areas around the world. The “Cousin Jacks and Cousin Jennies” as they were known, traveled to America, Canada, Australia, Argentina, Brazil and South Africa where there was demand for their mining expertise. They took their pasty recipes with them, and in many of these areas pasties (or variations of them) are still enjoyed.
What Makes An Official Cornish Pasty?
In 2011 the Cornish pasty was awarded Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status in Europe, meaning that for a pasty to be sold as a Cornish pasty is must meet certain criteria:
A Cornish pasty must comprise savoury pastry (usually shortcrust) with a filling of beef, potato, swede (often called a turnip in Cornwall, but it’s not!), onion, seasoned with salt and pepper.
There must be at least 12.5% beef and 25% vegetables in the pasty as a whole.
All the ingredients must be uncooked when the pasty is assembled before cooking.
The pasty must be sealed by crimping it along one side (not over the top).
To qualify as a Cornish pasty, it must be produced west of the river Tamar
Tips For Making Your Own Cornish Pasty
A Cornish pasty traditionally uses cheap cuts of beef, such as beef skirt (from the diaphragm/underside of the cow) or chuck steak (from the shoulder), both of which have little fat and require low and slow cooking to make them tender and create a gravy. Because the pasty is assembled with raw ingredients that all cook together at the same time, the size of your dice is important so that ingredients with different cooking times are all cooked properly. I’d recommend chipping your swede so that it’s smaller than your diced potato, otherwise there is a risk that it will be undercooked and hard. Likewise, a hard waxy variety of potato (such as Maris Piper) is better so that the potato chunks retain their shape and don’t disintegrate. Of course, if you want to make your own Cornish pasty then for a start you need to be here in Cornwall and the best way to ensure absolute success is to come along to one of our half-day Pasties and Cream cookery courses so that I can guide you through every step of the process and share even more tips with you (the cream element refers to a traditional Cornish Cream Tea – you’ll learn how to make one of those too whilst your pasties are baking).
Bread, cheese, yoghurt, tea, wine and beer; most of us already consume lots of fermented food and drink on a daily basis. Fermentation has been used all around the world for thousands of years (we haven’t always had fridges and freezers to store perishable foods!) initially as a method of preservation that then developed as the various benefits of fermentation became apparent (to health, flavour, and so on).
Fermentation involves allowing naturally occurring or introduced bacteria (the good sort, known as probiotics) or yeast to develop in the food or drink. These microbes convert the starches and sugars present into acids or alcohol, which are natural preservatives. In many cases, this action improves the taste and or the texture of the product. There are also, in most cases, multiple health benefits to including more fermented food and drink in your diet.
Can you tell us a little about the different types of fermentation?
There are two main types of fermentation. Firstly, you have wild fermentation where you’re allowing the naturally forming bacteria that’s found on the vegetables and fruits anyway to grow and thrive. All you’re doing in that situation is manipulating the environment to promote those desirable bacterias and yeasts to grow. With the second form of fermentation you’re adding a starter culture to a substance to kick-start fermentation. For example with kombucha, a fermented sweet tea, you’re adding what’s called a scoby to the sweet tea to inoculate it with the bacteria and yeasts to allow it to ferment. Scoby stands for “symbiotic cultures of bacterias and yeasts”. It’s the same with milk kefir where you’re adding milk kefir grains to milk to kick-start the fermentation process. You can find it in bread making and yoghurt making as well. There are of course crossovers with wild fermentation and starter cultures, so sometimes you can use a bit of brine from a previous wild fermentation ferment to kick start another batch, but essentially those are the two main ones.
Why are fermented foods good for our gut health, and why is this important?
All humans have what’s called a human microbiome. These are bacteria and yeasts that live on us and in us, and they carry out a lot of functions that we wouldn’t be able to survive without. The majority of this microbiome is found in our gut. The gut microbiome helps us to digest our food and get nutrients from our food, and it also helps our immune system – 70% of which is found in our gut. There’s also ongoing research to show the relationship between the gut and the brain, called the gut-brain axis, and there’s research to show that a good gut microbiome can help with things like depression and anxiety. The gut microbe composition can actually determine how much weight you put on, how you metabolise sugars, how you deal with food intolerances and things like that. So the gut microbiome is very, very, important. All the knowledge of the human micro biome and the health benefits of fermented foods is still developing. It’s a very new field of study so there’ll be more research as time goes by.
This relates to fermented foods because live unpasteurized fermented foods contain a lot of these beneficial bacteria that live within our gut or can help our gut. These are called probiotics. When you consume raw unpasteurized fermented foods you’re introducing live bacteria into your gut that can act as a blueprint for other beneficial bacteria to grow and thrive within your gut as well. Not only are these bacteria great probiotics, they also help to break down the foods that you’re eating. For example in a jar of kimchi of sauerkraut or other fermented vegetables, the bacteria within that jar of ferment has almost predigested a lot of those foods, making nutrients more bio-available to us. So when we’re consuming those fermented vegetables they’re easier for us to digest and easier for us to get the nutrients from, in comparison to cooking, where you are perhaps boiling the vegetables and a lot of the nutrients are leached out and you’re not getting them. Also some of the enzymes aren’t broken down in traditional cooking so we can’t access a lot of those nutrients either, whereas fermented foods are a really good source of nutrients because they have been broken down for us so we can digest them more easily.
Another great example is milk kefir. A lot of people have a dairy intolerance where they can’t break down the lactose within milk. What happens with milk kefir is once you introduce the milk kefir grains to the milk those bacteria feed on the sugars – the lactose – within the milk so a lot of that lactose is broken down. Many people with milk intolerance can actually drink milk kefir because the lactose has been broken down for them.
I’d say, health benefits aside, another benefit to fermented foods is that they taste great. They’re packed full of flavour, especially if you’re on a vegan diet. It’s something different. They’re so, so flavourful… it can be a flavour that people need to get used to, but they taste great! They’re vibrant and when you’re eating them you can feel the life within them. Fermented food is also a great way of saving on food waste – it’s an amazing way to save on food waste because fermenting improves the longevity of food. It’s an ancient form of food preservation. It’s such an easy and simple tool to have if you have too many vegetables that you’ve grown in your garden, for example, it’s a quick and easy way to preserve them.
What’s the difference between shop-bought fermented products, and making them yourself?
It’s really key when you’re buying fermented foods that you look out for raw, unpasteurised, or live, written on the label, and they need to be found in the refrigerated section of the supermarket. If they’re just on a shelf, it means that those beneficial bacteria have either been removed or they’ve been pasteurised, or there were never any live microbes in there to begin with. A lot of kimchi, a lot of sauerkraut, and a lot of even kombucha, sits on the shelves in health food shops and people buy them thinking that they’re getting beneficial fermented foods that are going to be full of probiotics, but in actual fact they’re not getting any of those benefits at all. Even ferments that are raw and unpasteurized and found in the refrigerated section – in particular milk kefir – you’ll find that the bacteria and yeasts that are in there have been kind of standardized, because the manufacturers want certain bacteria in there that they know have benefits, so they’ll make sure that they’re the only bacteria that are in that product. In a bottle of milk kefir purchased in a shop there may be six different strains of probiotic bacteria, but in homemade milk kefir there can be as many as 40 different bacteria, so you have a lot more diversity in homemade milk kefir that the bottles from the shop. When you make at home, you know a little bit more what you’re getting. You know that they’re raw, unpasteurized vegetables full of those live microbes, because you can see it for yourself. You can feel the process and watch the process. When you leave a jar of fermented vegetables like sauerkraut on the side you can see the bubbling jar over the three weeks that you leave it for, and it’s alive. It’s really fun to watch. You can also get a wider variety of microbes, as I mentioned with the milk kefir. It’s a lot more beneficial to make from home, and it’s so simple to do. It’s just having the confidence to know what the process should look like. I think we’ve been so scared of bacteria, we use a lot of anti-bacterial sprays, especially now since the start of the pandemic with hand sanitisers etc. We’ve become very afraid of bacteria but they’re not all bad and we need them to be able to survive. We’ve also become very reliant on best before dates and use-by dates. As soon as something is out of its use-by date we’re told to discard it even if our instinct would say, “that looks ok”. That’s another aspect – people think of bacteria as a sign of something having “gone off” and I really want to reconnect people with their senses – their sense of taste, their sense of smell, and their sense of sight, to know when something has gone off. I want the workshops to be a space for people to reconnect with their food reconnect with their senses, and gain confidence in working alongside these live microbes and that live microbes are not all bad – we need them!
What sort of things will attendees learn to make, and take away, from your course at Philleigh Way?
Within the workshop we’ll be doing both of the two forms of fermentation that I outlined. We’ll use wild fermentation to make kimchi and sauerkraut and a brine pickle ferment. We’ll also delve into the world of using starter cultures to ferment things as well – we’ll learn how to make kombucha using a mother or scoby, we’ll learn how to make milk kefir and also water kefir and how to flavour those. There’ll be lots of tasters to that attendees can try them all for themselves and know what they should taste like and we’ll talk about what to look out for. There’ll also be live cultures to take home, so attendees can take away some starter cultures like the kombucha mother and kefir grains to make more at home. I’ll also be demonstrating how to use the ferments, like how to turn kimchi into kimchi ketchup and how to include ferments in their meals, because often people don’t know what to do with them and how to use them in day to day cooking.
It’s turned out to be another “dynamic” Christmas party season, but regardless of whether and how your plans have changed, you should still be able to enjoy some canapés and drinks over the festive period – even if it is just at home with your nearest and dearest. Whenever we serve canapés at an event, this one is always so popular, and the one that the most people ask me for the recipe for. And, it’s so simple and quick to make, which means less time in the kitchen and more time enjoying those Christmas drinks.
INGREDIENTS
4 x smoked mackerel fillets
1 tbsp dijon
4 tbsp creme fraiche (sour cream or cream cheese instead)
Handful of dill, finely chopped
1 tbsp horseradish cream
Lemon zested and juiced
3 tbsp capers
Crusty bread to serve/pickled shallots
METHOD
1. Remove skin from fillets and place them into a bowl.
2. Zest the lemon and then squeeze half the juice in. Save the other half to adjust seasoning later.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix together thoroughly with a fork try not to use a blender or food-processor as you’ll get a much better consistency by hand.
4. Taste, then add black pepper and more lemon juice if required.
5. Serve with pickled shallots and crusty bread. Perfect as a starter, light meal, or canapé!
This Christmas I have teamed up with fellow former professional rugby player and past-Cornish Pirates captain Tim Cowley and his Bordeaux based business Oui Cellar Wine Club.
Oui Cellar is a subscription wine delivery club that Tim created when the pandemic paused Tim’s Bordeaux-based wine tour business, Rustic Vines Tours. Using his exceptional connections within Bordeaux’s wine industry, Tim personally selects the best wines direct from the chateaux and ships a mixed case of 12 bottles to Oui Cellar members all over the world every three or six months. Tim’s selections are always exceptional, and each delivery is also accompanied by an online tasting video that Tim produces on location with each of the chateau owners and winemakers, tasting notes, and recipes for perfectly paired dishes. Tim asked me to provide the recipes for Oui Cellar’s December delivery, and it’s been a fantastic experience working with him to match meals to his selections.
As an early Christmas present Oui Cellar have kindly offered a 10% and 15% discount respectively on their initial Silver and Gold subscriptions for December delivery. Subscriptions can be paused or cancelled at any time so if you love Bordeaux wine then use the discount code “PHILLEIGH SILVER” or “PHILLEIGH GOLD” now.
For an example of the tasting videos at the Chateau itself check out this cracker with Tim chatting with 17th generation owner of Chateau Coutet, David Beaulieu. They go into the reasons on why David believes that their 2017 vintage was their best on record!
Please note that to utilise the discount codes in time to give the wines the best chance of arriving before Christmas you will have to purchase the Silver or Gold subscription by Wednesday the 8th of December.
The role of what we eat in contributing to or helping to avert the worst of the unfolding climate crisis is increasingly well publicised. When it comes down to what we can do as individuals, it is often cited as being as impactful as the other obvious lifestyle changes that we can make such as how we power our homes or travel. It’s a complex issue, though, and definitely not as simple as many campaigners would have you believe. You don’t need to switch to a completely plant based diet (although there’s nothing wrong with that), all you have to do is consider what you eat, how and where it’s produced, and make a few small changes. It’s not a binary issue. Reducing the impact of your diet on the planet runs through a lot of what we do here, albeit usually quite discretely (zero waste recipes or sourcing ingredients that are sustainable or from regenerative sources), and this article and recipe is no different.
“The Planetary Health Diet emphasizes a plant-forward diet where whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes comprise a greater proportion of foods consumed. Meat and dairy constitute important parts of the diet but in significantly smaller proportions than whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes.”
EAT-Lancet Commission
Autumn and winter are stew season. From the warming spices of North African tagines, through cassoulets to casseroles and hot pots, this is the time of year when a big pot of hearty food provides comfort and warmth.
GUERNSEY BEAN JAR
The Channel Island of Guernsey is within sight of the north coast of France, and the island’s traditional cuisine is a blend of English and French influences much like many other areas of the island’s culture. Guernsey bean jar is a slow cooked bean-heavy casserole that dates back hundreds of years and takes obvious cues from French cassoulets. These days it’s more of a novelty item on menus or is served up at special events and occasions on the island, but until the 1920s it was still commonly eaten for breakfast. It was traditionally prepared by islanders at home in a ceramic pot (the “jar”) that was then taken to the local bakery after they’d finished baking for the day to be left in their cooling oven to cook overnight (usually on a Sunday) before being collected in the morning. Like so many folk dishes, there is no set recipe and many families had their own versions, with recipes passed down orally or by demonstration. As long as it contains beans, carrots, onions and a cheap cut of meat with the bone in (the bone helps to produce a rich, thick gravy), and is cooked low and slow, then it qualifies as bean jar. It’s incredibly easy to make (perfect if you’ve got a slow cook pot or work from home and can put it on in the morning ready to eat for dinner), uses cheap and often unpopular cuts of meat that reduces waste (it’s a great one for nose-to-tail eating), and those all-important dried legumes that we all need to eat more of are the main ingredient. Here’s how to make Guernsey bean jar.
INGREDIENTS
200g dried haricot beans
200g dried butter beans
1 large onion chopped
2 carrots chopped
1 pigs trotter or a slice of shin of beef, bone-in
1 bay leaf
1.5 litres beef stock or water
METHOD
Soak the beans overnight in water.
In the morning, put all of the prepared ingredients and about ¾ of the stock into a large casserole dish or slow cook pot. Put a lid on or cover and put in an oven at 150-170°C for 6-8 hours. Check the bean jar occasionally and add more stock or water as required to stop it from drying out and to produce a gravy. Remove from the oven, take the bone (and any cartilage, if you used a pig’s trotter) and bay leaf from the stew, and adjust the seasoning before serving.
As there is no strict recipe, you can use all haricot beans (just double the quantity), add more vegetables or potatoes, or make it vegetarian by omitting the meat and using vegetable stock.
*It’s worth noting here, on the environmental front, that haricot beans (the most popular pulse in the UK, because they are the beans in baked beans) are not grown commercially in this country. Almost all of the beans in tins of baked beans consumed in the UK are imported from the US, Canada, Ethiopia and China. Shipping dried beans is a very efficient way of freighting food (because you’re not transporting a large weight of water, and the good news is that new varieties of haricot bean are being bred to grow successfully in British sunlight. Like I said in the introduction, the environmental impact of what we eat is a complex topic!
Saffron buns are a traditional Cornish teatime treat – a rich yeast bun not dissimilar to a teacake, only better! Saffron is the world’s most expensive spice by weight, so how did it end up being a key ingredient in Cornish baking? Spices such as saffron were often landed in Cornwall, both legally and illegally, with records showing that it was once traded with the Phoenicians for tin and copper. The county’s mild maritime climate also made it one of the few places in the UK where the crocus flowers that produce saffron could be grown commercially. It’s been a couple of centuries since saffron was produced commercially in Cornwall, however one farm is now growing it here on the Roseland Peninsula. With such ready access to saffron, it was baked into revel buns on special occasions with so much being used that it gave the buns a characteristic yellow colour. For the past hundred years it’s been prohibitively expensive to use that much saffron, so many bakers used food colourings to turn their buns yellow. This recipe that I recently baked for Rodda’s Cornish Clotted Cream uses a decent pinch of saffron and clotted cream to create a rich, spiced, teatime treat. Enjoy!
INGREDIENTS
300ml whole milk Large pinch of saffron 50g Rodda’s clotted cream, melted 2 tsp mixed spice 550g strong bread flour 1 tsp fine sea salt 80g caster sugar 1 x 7g sachet fast-action yeast 100g sultanas/currants 4-tablespoons of milk For the glaze: 50g caster sugar 2 tablespoons of water
METHOD
Gently heat the milk with the saffron in a small pan until it’s steaming. Add clotted cream to the saffron-infused milk and return to a low heat for 2-3 minutes. Gently whisk until melted and combined.
Take the mixture of the heat and allow to cool until it is warm to the touch
Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the salt, spices, sugar, and yeast.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the warm milk. Mix and bring together into a soft dough. Knead on a slow speed in a free-standing mixer with the dough hook attached for 7-10 minutes, or slap and fold a few times to bring it together. After 5 minutes, incorporate the currants. To check if the dough is ready, when the dough is touched it should bounce back.
Cover the bowl and leave in a warm place for 45-60 minutes or until doubled in size. Knock back the dough and turn out onto a floured surface and knead briefly.
Divide the dough into 10 equal portions to make buns and place on a lined baking sheet.
Cover the buns and leave to prove again for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200°C, fan 180°C, gas mark 6. Then brush the top of the buns with a little milk and bake for 20 minutes until golden.
Once the buns have baked, its time to make the glaze. To make the glaze – put 50g of caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in a saucepan. Gently heat until the sugar has dissolved and then boil for 1 minute. Then brush the mixture over the warm buns and transfer them to a wire rack and leave to cool.
Slice in half and enjoy the buns fresh or toasted, spread with more clotted cream.
Enjoy a Christmas party with a difference at Philleigh Way this year, spending some time together as a team socialising, cooking and eating, instead of just working.
No set dates, no set menus, no set itineraries. Let’s work out what works for you.
You can bring your team along to do a half day cookery course together, or let us do the cooking and simply book a long lunch with a menu of your choosing. Or, combine the two in an afternoon of eating, drinking, demos and some hands on cooking all based around the chef’s table.
We can host you inside the cookery school or roll the canvas sides down on our outside cookery. We can light up the woodfired oven and do a short pizza course and dinner for you all, or if there’s a cuisine that you’d all like to learn more about then we can build a bespoke Christmas party course around that – sushi, pasta, live-fire cooking, vegan food, baking; you name it, we can do it.
We’ll create a comfortable environment for your team, feed and water them well, and ensure that you can all forget about work for a few hours and simply enjoy each others’ company.
Get in touch with your ideas, or to ask us for our ideas. We can work to budgets, diaries and dietary requirements.
There are several different types of paprika, but hands up if you’ve read a recipe requiring paprika and just used whichever one you have to hand in your store cupboard? Because they’re all pretty much the same, right? Wrong! You should be able to buy at last three different types of paprika from your supermarket, and here’s why you should have all three in your spice rack, and use the right one for the right recipe:
What Is Paprika?
Paprika is a spice made of sweet red peppers that have been dried and then ground to a powder that varies in colour between terracotta and dark red. It ranges from mild to hot, but is primarily used to add flavour and colour to dishes rather than heat. Paprika is used in a lot of Spanish and North African dishes (think: chorizo), but is an essential spice in Hungarian cuisine (dishes such as goulash). Historically, peppers originated in Mexico and North America before being introduced to Europe in the 16th century – initially into Spain before spreading across Europe and North Africa. It didn’t become popular in Hungary until the late 19th century, however its popularity there means that the country is a major producer, alongside Spain where it is known as pimentón. Many different varieties of paprika are available, listed as either sweet, mild, spicy/hot (picante) or smoked, or as combinations of the above!
Sweet Paprika (right)
Also labeled simply as “paprika”, sweet paprika has a sweet pepper flavour and adds colour to a dish, but not heat. If your recipe simply says “paprika” then use this, because substituting in hot or smoked paprika will impact the flavour and warmth of the dish and may not work.
Hot Paprika (centre)
As the name suggests, hot paprika is spicier and is used to add heat to a dish, as well as flavour and colour. Hot paprika is the paprika of choice in Hungarian dishes such as goulash and paprikash, in which it is the key flavour. If you don’t have any hot paprika to hand but a recipe calls for it, then you can use sweet/regular paprika instead and use cayenne pepper to add the required heat.
Smoked Paprika (left)
In Spain it is common to dry paprika over oak fires, giving the paprika a rich and smokey flavour. Smoked paprika is usually available as mild (pimentón dulce), mildly spicy (pimentón agridulce) and spicy (pimentón picante), or you can buy Spanish pimentón de la Vera, which is smoked paprika from the La Vera region of western Spain that has EU “Protected Denomination of Origin” status (just like Cornish pasties, clotted cream and Fal oysters). Smoked paprika is used for its rich and smokey flavour, so you could use sweet/regular paprika at a push but the dish will lose that signature flavour that the smoked paprika is used for.
St Ives Food & Drink Festival took place on Porthminster Beach on the weekend of September 17th, 18th and 19th. Whilst it rained on the Friday, by Sunday when I was hosting the Asado Pit Chef’s Stage, out on the sand with St Ives Bay and Godrevy Lighthouse as our backdrop, the sun had come out and we had a glorious day on the sand.
Photo by Adam Sargent
I spent most of the day up front with a microphone in my hand, alongside some amazing chefs like Jeffrey Robinson, the owner and executive chef of the New Yard Restaurant, The Idle Rocks’ head chef Dorian Janmatt, and Simon Hulstone of The Elephant in Torquay. I had a lovely catch up with Porthminster Beach Café’s chef de patron Mick Smith and we spoke about collaborating on some future projects (watch this space) and I even managed to squeeze in a demo of my own!
Photo by Adam Sargent
If you didn’t get a chance to get down to St Ives for this year’s event then I’ll share the recipe for my demo dish below, which I can best describe as “posh kebabs”, and be sure to mark your diary for next year’s event. There really is no other food festival quite like this one!
Photo by Michelle Nash
Flatbreads with venison, beetroot relish, tahini yoghurt, smoked mushroom and burnt leeks.
As I was cooking on the Asado Pit Chef’s Stage, I was cooking over fire. Therefore, these instructions are for cooking on your barbecue, but you can adapt to cook it inside on your hob. I cooked venison loin from Westcountry Premium Venison – I’ll repeat it later, but that’s because it’s important: DON’T OVERCOOK YOUR VENISON! It’s really lean so you want it no more than medium-rare. Ok, here’s the recipe:
First up, to make the flatbreads get a mixing bowl and use a spoon to mix together 350 g self-raising flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 350 g natural yoghurt, then use clean hands to pat and bring everything together. Dust a clean work surface with flour, then tip out the dough. Knead for a minute or so to bring it all together (this isn’t a traditional bread recipe, so you don’t need to knead it for long – just enough time to bring everything together). Put the dough into a floured-dusted bowl and cover with a plate, then leave aside for a while. Dust a clean work surface and rolling pin with flour, then divide the dough in half, then divide each half into 6 equal-sized pieces (roughly the size of a golf ball). With your hands, pat and flatten the dough, then use a rolling pin to roll each piece into 12cm rounds, roughly 2mm to 3mm thick. Cook each flatbread on the grill for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until bar-marked and puffed up, turning with tongs. Brush the flatbreads all over with herby garlic butter or oil as they come off the griddle.
To make the beetroot relish, grate or finely shred beetroot and mix with red wine vinegar, sugar and mixed spice, then set aside until later.
I smoked the mushrooms by placing them on the grill and covering them with a metal bowl (or you could use a lid) to retain the smoke and moisture. Cook the leek “dirty” directly on the coals, and once softened you can strip back as much or as little of the charred outer leaves as your like.
Take your venison and cook that dirty too, putting it straight onto the coals. Venison only needs a couple of minutes – cooking it any more than medium rare will make it tough and leathery as it’s such a lean meat. Don’t overcook it! Take the meat off the coals and rest it in a warm place until you assemble your kebab. If cooking inside on your hob, simply cook your leeks and venison in a very hot pan.
To make the tahini yoghurt mix one part tahini with four parts yoghurt, a crushed clove of garlic and a pinch of salt. Gently cook off the beetroot relish in a hot pan for a few minutes.
Photo by Michelle Nash
Bring it all together by slicing your venison, then pile a bit of everything into a flatbread and tuck in!
Over the first weekend in September we were delighted to cook for guests attending the annual Park House Opera, at Park House, St Clement, Truro. This year, Duchy Opera performed Donizetti’s comic Opera The Elixir Of Love to over 600 guests over three evenings. The weather was fine and, as with every event that we were involved with this summer, it was obvious to see the joy on guest’s faces at being able to gather again to enjoy good food, company, and music. Take a look at the video and photographs of the evening below, captured by Harry at South Coast Media Co. (with photos of the production by Linda Petzing), and the menu that we served. You can find out more about Park House Operas upcoming performances here.
MENU
TO START
Focaccia with rosemary & Cornish sea salt Grissini Black olive tapenade Duchy charcuterie selection Pea & ricotta dip with mint & olive oil
~0~
MAIN COURSE
Smoked chicken with lemon & thyme Roasted squash with sage & fennel or Italian beans, with artichoke salsa verde Confit tomatoes with pangrattato
Over the late August Bank Holiday weekend, we were lucky enough to be cooking for crowds of happy festival-goers at the amazing Big Feastival, on Alex James’ Farm in The Cotswolds. This year was the festival’s 10th birthday, and was two years in the making having been cancelled last year. That extra long wait only made it more the sweeter, though, and it was an amazing event to be a part of.
We were invited to host the Feast On The Farm tent for the weekend, which was the festival’s sit-down dining offering. For a festival that’s all about food and music, this was a real honour. We served breakfast, lunch and dinner all three days of the festival, feeding an estimated 500 hungry people over the long weekend. Our menu was a celebration of Cornwall, featuring a selection of produce from some of the great growers, farmers and fishermen that we are lucky enough to have on our doorstep. If you want to see what we cooked up for folks, and what Cornish produce we championed, then scroll on down to see the menus.
A huge thanks to The Big Feastival’s arts and entertainment director Felicity for inviting us to host the feast tent, and to the crew of Cornish champions who travelled up to cook and host alongside me. Keith, Molly, Tom, Gee, Sam, Liz, Louise, Libby, Alex, Alice, Tom, Bambi, Gemma and Paige, you were incredible. It was a full-on weekend, and so much fun, and I hope that we’ll be invited back next year – I’ve already got ideas for how we can make things even more special.
Summer’s not over yet. If you’re keen to make the most of every opportunity and enjoy a beach feast at least one more time before the end of the summer holidays (not to mention the fact that most establishments in Cornwall have been fully booked all summer), then don’t settle for sandy or soggy sandwiches or a disposable bbq. Here are my top three tips to make it a simple, fun and memorable experience.
A fish clamp or grill basket is the only piece of kit that you need to cook over fire at the beach. Use it for grilling veg, sausages or meat as well as fish over a fire or bbq, and simply flip it over – no more chasing sausages around a grill with tongs, or dropping them on the coals.
Buy cooked crab from a fishmonger and on your way to the beach stop off for some chips from the takeaway for an amazing, messy, seafood feast on the sand. Don’t forget some crab cracking tools, though!
If you want to barbecue at the beach, then get yourself a bucket bbq, wood and charcoal, rather than a disposable bbq. Light a fire in it, add charcoal, then cook over it, thus avoiding the flavour taint of firelighters. It’s also tidier and better value for money because you can reuse it.
In our latest recipe video, I’m preparing and cooking a beautiful “Jacob’s Ladder” short rib of beef from Meat & Co. Jacob’s Ladder is the crème de la crème of beef ribs, cut from the front ribs of the chuck and plate of the beast to give a neat cross section of shortened ribs with plenty of meat attached. Click play and I’ll show you how to slowly braise it with spices (in this case a Middle Eastern mix, but you could also do a classic barbecue blend or a Chinese style spice mix) and red wine beef stock in the oven, before smoking it on the barbecue, creating ribs that are the best of both worlds. I find that if you smoke a joint like this on the barbecue the whole time it can get a bit tough, whereas by braising the ribs low and slow in the oven for 3-4 hours first before finishing it on the barbecue with some oak smoke, it retains a lot of moisture and the end result is much better.
WARNING: once you’ve made this you’ll be putting it with everything. Chorizo jam brings all the flavour, and is really versatile. You can stir it through leftover roast potatoes or a hash, dollop it in burgers, serve it as part of a cheese board, add it to a tomatoey pasta sauce, pair it with scallops, or just eat it straight off the spoon…
INGREDIENTS
Chorizo
Dark Brown Sugar
Apple Cider Vinegar
METHOD
Put your chorizo in a food processor and blitz it with some dark brown sugar. If you are using a shop-bought chorizo (usually about 225g) then go for about 2 tbsp/50g of dark brown sugar, and adjust quantities accordingly. Add a splash of good quality apple cider vinegar. Cook the mixture gently in a saucepan until it has reduced and thickened to the consistency of… well, jam! You can adjust this recipe to suit your tastes – more sugar for a sweeter jam, more vinegar for a bit more tang, a pinch of paprika for more heat or a smidge of chipotle for a bit of smokiness. Spoon your chorizo jam into sterilised jars, seal, allow to cool and keep it in your fridge for as long as your willpower lasts.
At this time of year, lots of us are taking every opportunity that we can to cook outside, over fire. Unlike in your kitchen, where you turn on the stove and easily controllable heat just happens, cooking over fire involves you creating and managing your heat source, as well as cooking. That means selecting fuel, lighting a fire and tending it until it is at the right temperature to cook over. Most people barbecue over charcoal, although you may also use firewood to start or feed your fire. But not all charcoal is created equal. What’s the difference between different charcoals, and which is best?
What Is Charcoal?
Charcoal is wood that has been burned (or cooked) slowly in a kiln in the absence of oxygen, burning off the water and volatile compounds and leaving black carbonised material. Artists draw and sketch with it, and chefs cook over it. When you burn it again it burns as embers do, hot and pure, and holds an even heat for a long time. This makes it easier and more predictable to cook over than flames from a live fire.
Lumpwood Charcoal vs Briquettes
There are two types of charcoal that you can buy to barbecue with: lumpwood charcoal, and charcoal briquettes. Lumpwood looks like black and broken up bits of branches – it is still recognisable as something that was once wood. It is made from hardwoods (such as oak, ash or beech) and you can still recognise it as something that was once wood. It is pure, however less uniform in size and shape and it can burn faster and hotter. It can impart a woodsmoke flavour so you can treat it like an ingredient when cooking with it. Charcoal briquettes are manufactured using compacted charcoal sawdust, but made into uniform shapes (like small cakes). They often have other material or additives included to bind them together, to help them catch and burn, and to make sure that they burn at a steady rate. They are more predictable and can provide cooking heat for longer, but many chefs don’t like the fact that they have other ingredients that could potentially taint the flavour of their food. If you need predictable heat over a long period (if you’re cooking large cuts or joints of meat, for example) they can be a good option, and they’re a cheaper option too.
Where To Buy Charcoal
You can buy charcoal from supermarkets or even your nearest garage, but this will almost certainly be briquettes. Try to avoid the “ready to go” disposable barbecues or pre-pack bags, as most of these have additives to help them catch fire and burn faster and will almost certainly taint your food. Good quality briquettes will provide a reliable and even cooking temperature, and the heat will persist for long enough for you to cook over.
Restaurant quality lumpwood charcoal can be ordered directly from producers, and is well worth it if you’re serious about cooking over fire. I use Cornish Charcoal but you should be able to find a good producer local to you. Reputable producers will be using hardwood from well managed forests, and you can be confident in the provenance and quality of the product. None of us want to be cooking over the remains of virgin rainforest.
How To Cook With Charcoal
A hand-held charcoal chimney is a great bit of kit. Rather than starting your fire in your barbecue, you start it in the chimney and add charcoal. The chimney is designed to get a fire burning incredibly hot and incredibly quickly, and once your charcoal is glowing red hot you can tip it out into your barbecue or cooking base. If you need to add more coals later to prolong your cooking time or to expand your cooking area, use the chimney again so that you’re adding red hot embers to your cooking fire rather than messing with it by directly adding more fuel and introducing flames.
I won’t go into specifics like offset cooking or using specific hardwoods to smoke or flavour your food here – each of those warrant detailed articles of their own, and we cover these sorts of things in our woodfired cooking and asado cookery courses. Hopefully though, you’re now a little more knowledgeable about fuel for cooking outside and will be able to make an informed decision next time you’re preparing for a barbecue. Which will probably be this weekend, right?
It’s barbecue season (in fact, at the time of publishing, it’s the middle of National BBQ Week) and this is a must-make sauce for next time you’re cooking meat over a fire. Forget ketchup. This is the original. Chimichurri is an oil-based condiment from Argentina and Uruguay that is traditionally served with barbecued or grilled meats. It’s an essential element of our full-day Asado experience, but is a great sauce to make for any outdoor cooking occasion.
INGREDIENTS
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 fresh chilli, finely chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced or finely chopped
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp salt (plus more)
1tsp sugar
½ cup finely chopped coriander
¼ cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley
2 tbsp finely chopped oregano
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
METHOD
Finely dice the shallot and garlic and add to a bowl. Season, and pour over half of the vinegar and let it sit for 10 minutes. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, using a fork to whisk in the oil.
This summer we have a new regular guest tutor starting with us. Christian Sharp will be leading all of our Fish in a Day seafood cookery courses, and we couldn’t be more excited to have him join the team. Christian is one of the best fish chefs in the country, having trained and worked under Nathan Outlaw in Cornwall and London and then going on to work as Head Chef at Tom Brown’s award-winning The Cornerstone in Hackney Wick. He’s now back in Cornwall, and we’re very lucky to have secured him to share his knowledge, skills and experience on our fish courses.
Christian led his first course last week, and just before it we sat down to ask him some questions about his career and his love of fish cookery.
What was your journey into cooking in professional kitchens?
My journey into professional kitchens is probably a bit different to most other chefs. I first started working in a kitchen back when I was a teenager, working in a bakery and deli, and then at the local pub. I went off to study IT at Truro College and then after a gap year I went to study IT at university. I decided though that the classroom was no longer for me and that I was much better at learning in a hands-on environment, so I left university and I decided to comeback to Cornwall. I approached Nathan Outlaw on a bit of a whim. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, I just needed a job and I had all this kitchen experience from working in Di’s Dairy and at the Pityme Inn in Rock through my teenage years. Nathan decided to take me on as a commis chef at the St Enodoc Hotel in Rock back in 2012. Whilst working there I joined Cornwall College and went back to study part-time to get my level 2 and 3 qualifications. I went from commis to demi chef de partis, then chef de partis, and I then went to work at The Fish Kitchen in Port Isaac and was a sous chef there when we were awarded a Michelin star. I then went back to St Enodoc and ran the Seafood and Grill restaurant until we closed down the operation there in 2015 to move to London for Nathan.
And how did you end up specialising in cooking fish?
That all came about because I learnt my trade under Nathan Outlaw. It was very fish focused. I would say that I was also fortunate though, because working in St Enodoc Seafood and Grill and at Outlaw’s at The Capital we were also cooking with meat, so I had a fairly broad culinary education. I’m happy that I’ve ended up focusing on fish, though. I love fish and working for Nathan and then for Tom at The Cornerstone, and it’s part of my Cornish heritage. My grandfather was a crab fisherman from Port Isaac, a long time ago, and so it’s something that’s very close to my heart.
You were part of the vanguard of young Cornish chefs who worked under Nathan Outlaw and took London by storm in 2015 (?). What were those years like, initially at Outlaw’s at The Capital and then at The Cornerstone?
Just before we moved to London, I closed down the St Enodoc Seafood and Grill. Tom had already moved up there because at the same time Nathan was opening a restaurant in Dubai. It was a big transition period throughout the company. For me, moving to London was massive – I was excited but it was the first time that I was properly moving away from home. I’d been on a gap year and been to university, but home was always home and this was the first time I was leaving my parents house really. Going to work out at Outlaw’s at The Capital was an eye opener and a bit of a culture shock, but it was brilliant. Even though it was the same kind of food, Nathan’s food, it was a completely different restaurant. It was amazing. I was surprised that St Enodoc never got a Michelin star but The Capital did, because it was exactly the same, really. It was the same food, the same standard, the same team. The Fish Kitchen had a Michelin star, but I think I took it for granted at the time. Coming to work at this five star hotel in the middle of Knightsbridge was a whole new experience though, especially at 24 years of age. After a year or so at Outlaw’s at The Capital I was ready to take the next step in my career. Tom had always had plans to open The Cornerstone and going to work with him there was a great opportunity. The Cornerstone was my first head chef job. It was a massive new arrival on the restaurant scene in London and we took it by storm. I don’t know if we were quite ready for it! I put my absolute all into it, but there was no self-care and I was just all about the restaurant. I would do anything that I could to make sure that the restaurant was successful. We hit the ground running super fast, but it definitely took a toll on me – it started to impact on my health and wellbeing. My mental health started to suffer and so that’s the reason that I left and have come home to Cornwall. I still love the restaurant to bits and I keep in touch with some of the team there still. I’m working at Flying Fish now, supplying fish to the best restaurants in the country and am really excited about these courses at Philleigh Way. It all carries on my passion for fish. I love cooking it, dealing with it, supplying the restaurants in London with the best fish. I feel like I have so much to offer in that field. I’m looking forward to giving back to the industry.
From where or whom do you take your inspiration?
Because I worked with Nathan and Tom for so long, that’s very much led my cooking style in terms of it being simple, seafood cookery. I don’t like to overcomplicate things, I’m more than happy to do fish with a sauce and some vegetables. For me you’ve got to keep that fish nice and simple. If you buy the best fish then you don’t want to mask that flavour. So my inspiration originally came from Nathan, and from Tom. I like to read a lot from Mitch Tonks, I think his seafood cookery is amazing. I also like to step outside of my box in terms of the different kinds of flavours, but then simplify it so that I’m not taking all those flavours and detracting from my fish.
Consumers are becoming more and more aware of provenance and some of the issues surrounding the fish that we eat. What opportunities do you see for positive change and how do you hope to see things develop?
People are definitely becoming more aware about that. Across the world there are issues with harmful fishing practices, and that’s come to the public’s attention again recently. Fish is very good for you, it’s full of omega 3 and a great source of protein. I feel that we should always know where our fish has been sourced from and how it was caught. Your local fishmonger should know this (if they don’t, then you should probably find a different fishmonger!) There has to be traceability, and there has to be sustainable fishing methods. If you buy line caught fish from British day boats, or even fish that has been gill-netted, they’re more sustainable fishing methods. We have good fishing practices in Cornwall and all around the UK. So find out where you fish comes from. It’s the bigger picture, when you start looking at imported fish, and in lots of other parts of the world there are problems with overfishing. If we look after our local fish stocks then we shouldn’t need to worry about it.
If you could bust one myth about seafood, what would it be?
Lots of people say that seafood is difficult to cook, but for me this is not true. One of the things that I’m looking forward to sharing at Philleigh Way, is how fish doesn’t need to be difficult to cook, or overcomplicated. I want to share simple, unique and delicious ways to cook seafood. Some species are hard to get hold of, but I’ll also use species that you can get hold of really easily from supermarkets and show that it needn’t be intimidating
Do you have a favourite dish, to cook or to eat?
That’s a really difficult question to answer, because when I’m cooking fish, it really depends on the time of year. In the summer, who doesn’t love putting a mackerel on the barbecue? Then in winter, something nice and meaty like monkfish. It all depends on what fish is in season at that time, when that fish is at it’s best, that’s when I’m going to enjoy cooking it the most. The top restaurants only really use fish that’s in season because that’s when it’s at its best. I love cooking turbot on the bone and just basting it with butter, or something as simple as cooking a fillet of lemon sole that takes less than a minute. I love eating all fish, and I love Nathan’s versions of a cream based sauce, it’s basically a mayonnaise but it’s let down with stock and you get the same effect as a cream sauce but it’s a lot lighter. It’s so clever. But then also I don’t mind just a nice piece of fish kept very simple, with a lemon wedge and a bowl of potatoes. Let the fish shine.
Having worked for and alongside so many other talented and high profile chefs, what’s the best piece of advice that you’ve been given?
I’ve been given a lot of advice over the years, although I’ve not always taken it all onboard! The one piece that I stand by every day is not necessarily to do with the kitchen though. Because I was so stuck into my career and wanted the best for the restaurants I worked at, I really damaged myself. So the best piece of advice was from a chef called Phil Howard. He used to have The Square and I worked with him at Elliston Street for a month or so. It’s helped me get back to where I am. It’s simply that you need to look after number one. You’re the most important person to you, and if you don’t look after yourself then how can you do your job? I worked hard. I worked long hours and hard shifts, and I didn’t look after number one. I would probably still be cooking in London, if I had. But I burnt myself out. I’m back in Cornwall now, but I’m not disappointed about that at all. It was a tough time, but now I’m back, and I’m settled, and I’m getting a different kind of enjoyment from cooking. Now I get to share all of my experience from the top fish restaurants in the country with all of the people who’ll be coming on these courses, which I’m really looking forward to.
And what piece of advice would you share with enthusiastic home cooks?
Always use what’s in season. The best ingredients, when they’re at their best. It’ll elevate everything. When an ingredient is that good, the less you have to do to it. Give yourself plenty of time. Keep it simple. And, a workman should never blame his tools but a good pan, a good knife, and a good chopping board will help you no end… you’re only as good as what you’re using. Treat yourself to some of that.
What skills and recipes are you looking forward to sharing on your courses at Philleigh Way?
Coming from fish restaurants, the temperature of your frying pan or the cooking method and technique is going to be something that I really want to share on these courses. For example, if I was going to pan fry a piece of hake I’d use a hot pan, if I was going to pan fry gilt head bream, I’d start off in a cold pan. I love the variation in how to cook fish. Even not having to cook fish! I love eating raw and cured fish too, so we’ll be looking at some of those recipes. Little tips, like lightly curing your fish before cooking, to draw out a bit of the moisture and firm it up so that you can pan fry flaky fish like hake and cod and it’s easier to cook and it doesn’t fall apart in the pan. I want to share my tips for how to get the best results from your fish, because it can be an expensive ingredient and I want people to enjoy cooking it, and enjoy eating it.
