From the fforest kitchen: Salted caramel recipe by chef Michelle

Perfect for Christmas; in tarts, brownies, on toast, or as a homemade gift, fforest's chef Michelle has perfected her salted caramel recipe to share with you.

Ingredients:

250g granulated sugar
100g salted butter
150ml double cream
1-2 tbsp Maldon sea salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract

Method:

• Choose a thick bottom pan with high sides and clean, non-wooden utensils to melt down the sugar
• Pour all the sugar into the pan and wait for it to brown, the outside will start to turn before the middle. Begin stirring the sugar once you see a brown rim to make sure it doesn't catch. Chef Michelle says its fine to stir as it helps the sugar melt evenly
• Watch the sugar closely as it can burn quickly, when you can no longer see sugar granules at the bottom of the pan, the sugar is ready for the other ingredients. The colour should be a golden brown 
• Bang in the butter and whisk vigorously, the mixture will rise and spit so be careful!
• Pour in the cream and keep whisking, cook the mix out for 3-5 minutes
• Add the vanilla and salt, mix through, cook out for a few more minutes letting it bubble away to make sure all the salt dissolves
• Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool in the pan before pouring into hot sterile jars and sealing.

Jars:

You can choose whichever jars you like for your salted caramel. To sterilise your jars, put them in the dishwasher or hand wash them thoroughly. After washing, use a teatowel to transfer them to an oven preheated to 80°C and leave them in there until completely dry. Remove the jars from the oven and place onto a teatowel, making sure they aren't in contact with cold surfaces, ready for the warm caramel to be poured in. Seal the jars tightly and keep in the fridge for up to two weeks.

We love to use this salted caramel recipe in our signature chocolate tarts, a desert we recently served at our fourth fforest feast. Gone in a flash!

Foraging with Jade: Gorse Flower cordial

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Wild Pickings is a small rural business based in West Wales and run by professional forager, Jade Mellor. 

As well as selling her seasonal foraged foods at farmers' markets and food festivals, Jade runs wild food walks and courses throughout the year. We have worked with her before at fforest and this year she will be foraging nettles and wild garlic for our Fools Feast on the 1st of April. We are delighted that Jade will also be joining us again at fforest Gather in August.

Jade has shared with us a fantastic seasonal recipe for gorse flower cordial. This time of year is the perfect time to have a go, when the gorse has come into flower most strongly and the vibrant yellow petals are at their brightest. Gorse flowers have a slightly bitter, floral flavour, with a hint of coconut. They make a delicate, refreshing cordial. Read Jade's ingredients list and method below:

Ingredients:

As many gorse petals as you can pick! Ideally, at least a litre jugful.

Water

Sugar

Juice & zest of two oranges

Method:

Pick the gorse flowers on a dry sunny day, ideally when you can smell the coconut fragrance as this will give a more flavoursome cordial. Put the blossoms in a pan and cover with boiling water. You want to add just enough water to submerge the flowers. Leave to steep overnight. Strain through a jelly bag or piece of muslin. Add the zest and juice from the oranges. Measure out the liquid and pour back into the pan. Add 700g of sugar per litre of liquid and heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Pour into hot sterilised bottles if you want to keep it for a few months, otherwise bottle into clean containers and keep in the fridge.

Thank you for the recipe Jade! For more information about courses and workshops, visit Jade's Wild Pickings website.

some more foraging photos from fforest farm...

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Pancos! Pancws! Crempog!*

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*whichever word you choose to use, they are all Welsh for pancake! This year shrove Tuesday falls the day before St David's day so what better time to dig out our Welsh pancake recipes ready for a proper Welsh teatime. Bigger and better (& fluffier) than the classic pancake, pancos are traditionally cooked on a cast iron bakestone (but you can use a frying pan if you don't happen to have one to hand...)

You will need:

2 oz/ 55g butter

15 fl oz/ 450 ml warm buttermilk

10 oz/ 275g all purpose/plain flour

3 oz/ 75g sugar

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp vinegar

2 eggs, well beaten

Method:

Stir the butter into the warmed buttermilk until melted. Gradually pour the milk and butter into the the flour and beat well. Leave the mixture to stand for at least 30 minutes (or a few hours if possible) before stirring in the sugar, bicarbonate of soda, salt and vinegar into the beaten eggs.

Pour this mixture into the flour and milk mixture and beat well to form a smooth batter. Heavily grease a griddle/ frying pan and heat, then drop the batter a tablespoon at a time onto the griddle and cook over a moderate heat until golden brown on both sides. Keep the pancos warm and continue this method until all the batter is used up.

Top with banana, syrup, lemon, sugar, chocolate...whatever you like! Try mixing some currants into the batter for a twist on traditional Welshcakes.

We had a go ourselves at fforest...

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Our recipe is adapted from Visit Wales

fforest Granola: The Secret Recipe Revealed

This recipe has been secret for more than 10 years. However, after finding a disgruntled ex-fforest elf has passed the recipe to Wikileaks (Julian looks like he needs some roughage), we felt we had little choice but to publish it.

Before fforest began and we were talking about how it could be and what we would do, breakfast was always going to be included as part of staying here. I love breakfast and can't go without it, not a massive fry up, but boiled egg and dippy soldiers, toast and honey, granola, banana and yogurt kind of thing. A simple yet satisfying start to the day. 
We have been making granola to this recipe for ten years now at fforest and it has been on the menu since day one. We also have a really good muesli but it's the granola that is the firm favourite. Sometimes we can't keep up with demand and have to make it on a daily basis.  
It's the perfect mix of oats and nuts/seeds and the way it’s cooked guarantees a super-crunchy outcome. Crunchy is what we love about it and crunchy it is.  
We have often been asked for the recipe, so now here it is, ten years of tried and tested, delicious and easy to make fforest Granola.    
                                                                                                            
The recipe is adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian. It's a simple, not-too-sweet granola that's good with milk or yogurt and added fresh fruit.  
Because this recipe uses water, the granola takes an extremely long time to dry out. If the granola isn't completely dry by the end of the baking time, I suggest turning off the oven and leaving it to cool. To get the crunch it has to be properly dry.
 
Ingredients
1 kilo Jumbo oats
60g sliced, blanched almonds                                            
100g omega seed mix including unsalted sunflower seeds, sesame, linseed, pumpkin seeds
50g desiccated coconut
50g raisins, sultanas, currants or dried cranberries, dried apricots(optional)
 
300 ml water
180 ml wild flower honey
130 ml sunflower oil
3 tbls brown sugar
1 pinch sea salt
 
Preheat the oven to 180° C
Mix oats, almonds, sunflower and sesame seeds together in a high sided baking tray
In a small sauce pan heat the water, honey, oil, brown sugar and salt until simmering until dissolved
Remove from heat and pour the liquid over the grains and mix until all the oats are moistened. Roughly spread out on the tray and bake in the oven for20 minutes at 180C. Take out and stir and lower heat to 140.C and cook for another 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Turn down the heat to 120.C and bake for 30 mins turning every10 minutes. If you think it needs to cook more to be dried out, leave it in at 110C until it appears dry and golden. Remove from the oven and toss it a few times until it cools completely and then add the dried fruits.            
Store in an airtight container.

From our kitchen to yours,

You are welcome.