I did, and as I got up on Sunday ruing the loss of an hours sleep my weariness fell away as I looked out to a beautiful scene. It was as if Mother Nature had been waiting for a trigger to begin her wonders for a new year; my Hawthorn is now starting to leaf and the snowdrops are definitely close to flowering, but more importantly my two apple trees are definitely starting to show signs of life.

I can’t wait for the first fruit to mature in the Autumn and I will certainly share some brilliant recipes with you when it happens.

In a normal year, the start of British Summer Time is a busy time for Essential Dressings (what with the increase in BBQs and picnics in the beautiful British countryside).  Each year I work very hard to replenish stocks of my dressings and dips to have them ready for all my loyal customers and start to think about ways of expanding what we offer.

However, this year the start of Spring brings with it a Royal Wedding. Whether you’re a fan of the royals or not I think this is a wonderful time for celebration to shake off the hangover of the New Year. I want to share with you a special recipe that would be at home at a street party or a small gathering of special friends and families.

Poached Pears with Raspberry Coulis

125ml White dessert wine

125ml Water

50g Granulated sugar

1 Vanilla pod (cut in half and scrape out seeds)

1 Pear (peeled, but still with stalks) – ‘Why not try and get some William Pears?’

1 Bottle of Essential Dressings Raspberry Coulis

Icing sugar (to dust)

1. To poach the pears, place the wine, water, sugar and vanilla into a pan over a medium heat and bring to a simmer (ensuring the sugar dissolves fully).
2. Carefully place the pear into your syrup and poach for approximately 10mins, or until soft.
3. Carefully remove the pear from the syrup and place in a soup bowl.
4. Warm the Raspberry Coulis and pour round the pear.
5. Dust liberally with icing sugar and use a cook’s blowtorch to caramelise.
6. Serve warm with a generous scoop of vanilla ice cream.
7. This recipe works well with several pears; just make sure you have enough syrup to cover them.

Don’t forget that you need a special drink with a special event, and I’m rather partial to a sparkling white wine with a twist. To give your glass a twist too, freeze some of my Strawberry & Vanilla Coulis in an ice cube tray and add to your glass. These ice cubes work equally well in soft drinks too!

Before I sign off and head back to my kitchen I would like to say a big ‘Kiitos’ to my Finnish customers.  Not only have my products been embraced by the Finns, but you will now find Essential Dressings on the cruise ships in the Baltic.

Happy Spring!

It’s been a while!  I have been so busy in production as we have launched a new product called Essential Luxury Mincemeat.

We just launched it at Ludlow Food Festival, which was a great weekend lots of familiar and new faces!!

The mincemeat is luxury mincemeat in a kilner jar (perfect for keeping Lentils or pasta in once empty) and is ideal for a Christmas gift or it will give those seasonal get togethers a more personal touch if you have some home made goodies to serve!

Don’t hesitate to get in touch for how to get hold of our amazing mincemeat!

Also see below how to create the perfect short crust mince pie!

Please let me know how you get on bye for now!

Kevin

Short crust Pastry:

• 200g soft flour
• Pinch of salt
• 100g butter
• 2-3 tablespoons of water

 Method:

• Make sure butter is at room temp.
• Sieve flour into bowl and add butter in cubes.
• Use fingertips to mix together to make a light breadcrumb mixture.
• Add small amounts of water and mix together until a solid ball is formed.
• Cover with cling film and rest in the fridge for 30 mins.

 To make mince pies:

• Heat oven to 200C/Gas 6
• Lightly grease patty tins with butter.
• Flour work surface and roll out pastry.
• Cut lids smaller than base.
• Put all bases onto the patty tin and prick bases to stop them rising.
• Fill each base with mincemeat (not too much as will overflow when cooking!)
• Brush the base edges with milk so that the lids stick when placed on top.
• Squeeze edges together and prick lids and brush with egg.
• Place in the oven until golden brown approx 20 mins.
• When cooked place on a wire tray to cool.
• Keep in an airtight container once cooled.

To Serve: Serve warm with a dusting of icing sugar.

TOP TIP:  Usually there is some pastry left over dependent on how thin/thick you have rolled it.  So not to waste this I like to create little shapes such as holly, Christmas trees ECT to use as decoration when serving my pies.

This is my chance to share with you my latest recipes and tips to help make the most of our range plus the latest news of what’s going on in the kitchens.

The past few years have been a real adventure, swapping the military kitchens for my own restaurant and then selling up to make the dressings and sauces that make up the Essential Dressing range. I can’t quite believe that I now have my own purpose built kitchen producing my recipes that are sold in farm shops and delis across the UK.

You’ll find the ‘official’ history of me on the ‘about’ page, but it’s here where I’ll be able to share with you some of my past misadventures and current exploits – so do come back and visit soon.

Oh …. And I love to hear what people are doing with the range, so get in touch or comment on one of my posts. I’ll be trying the best ideas in our kitchen for all the staff, so don’t be shy, they deserve a treat!