Wonderful food, a warm welcome and a beautiful location.

Lunch and Dem for the Bovey Tracey Activity Trust Lunch Group

What a joy to welcome the Bovey Tracey Activity Trust Lunch Group to the cooking school for a dem and lunch last week. A more super-energised group of people we couldn’t wish to meet including nearly 93 year old Betty who is putting younger types to shame with her zest for life. Thanks so much to Chris and Colin for sorting it all out and we look forward to welcoming you back again another time.

David, Holly and Kit x

Recipes for the Bovey Tracey Activity Trust Lunch Group

Here’s what we cooked. All the recipes will feed 4-6  –

Ginger Cake with Black Treacle

This was a big winner and very easy to do as you melt the butter and treacle together and then just mix everything up together.

225g Butter

350g Black Treacle

225g Soft Light Brown Sugar

4 Free-range Eggs

450g Self Raising Flour

1tsp Baking Powder

2tsp Ground Ginger

1tsp Ground Cinnamon

1tsp Mixed Spice

50g Rolled Oats

1. Melt the butter, treacle and sugar together over a low heat in a large pan.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients and stir in the treacle mixture. Best the eggs and stir them in too.

3. Pour the batter into a 25cm loose bottomed cake tin lined with baking parchment and bake in the oven at 190C for about 50 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.

4. Take the cake out of the tin, peel off the baking parchment and leave to cool.

5. This cake will keep really well but you better hide it as it will disappear quickly!

 

After coffee and cake, we told some tales of our travels to India, talked about spices and woodfired ovens and more importantly cooked some lovely food which disappeared very quickly, even with the lady who didn’t like spicey food!

Bovey Tracey Activity Trust Lunch Group

Holly and David’s Indian Adventure

Pan Pakora

Pakora would normally be deep fried but these work well and make a great nibble or vegetable accompaniment to spicy chicken.

  • 150g gram flour, sieved
  • 100ml cold water
  • 1tsp ground cumin
  • 1tsp ground turmeric
  • 100g frozen peas, defrosted
  • 1 medium red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
  • Handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
  • 1 fresh red chilli, finely chopped
  • 1 egg white
  • 2tbsp sunflower oil
  1. Heat the oven to 200C.
  2. Mix the gram flour with the spices and 1tsp salt. Add the water and whisk to make a batter the consistency of single cream.
  3. Mix in the peas, onion and fresh coriander.
  4. Whisk the egg white until it’s at the soft peak stage and fold into the batter.
  5. Wipe a 12 space jam tart tin with the oil on a piece of kitchen paper and heat the tin in the hot oven.
  6. Spoon the batter into the patty tin and top each pakora with some of the chopped chilli.
  7. Bake in the hot oven until the pakora are risen and firm – about 10-12 minutes.

Serve with a squeeze of lime, fruity chutneys and some plain yoghurt for dipping.

Spiced Hake with Coconut and Pepper Sauce

800g piece hake fillet

1 onion, peeled and roughly chopped

1 red pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped

1 small carrot, peeled and roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled

3cm piece root ginger, peeled

2tbsp rice flour

1tsp each ground turmeric, cumin, coriander, garam masala

1/2 tsp each chilli powder, black pepper, salt

2tbsp sunflower oil

1 tin good qulity coconut milk

1 lime

Fresh coriander

  1. Put the onion, carrot, red pepper, garlic and ginger into a food processor and whizz to a pulp. Add the coconut milk and whizz again until smooth.
  2. Turn this into a large wide pan and cook slowly on the hob until the sauce has reduced and thickened. Season well.
  3. Mix the spices with the rice flour. Rub the oil over the hake fillet and rub over the spice mix.
  4. Bake the fish on a baking sheet or in a roasting tin in a pre-heated hot oven – 200C – for around 15 minutes until the fish is cooked through. This may take more or less time depending on how thick the fillet is.
  5. Serve the cooked hake fillet with the red pepper sauce and garnish with some fresh coriander and squeeze over the lime.

Lentil Dhal

Bovey Tracey Activity Trust Lunch Group

A Spice Shop in Udaipur

Serves 6 as a side dish.

Pulses are a staple source of protein to the Hindu population of Northern India. On their own they are the dullest food on the planet. Jazzed up they become ‘dhal’. Dhal is awesome! Do not, under any circumstances be bound by a recipe, just think to yourself, ‘How am I going to jazz up these lentils today?’

  • 1tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
  • 1tsp ground cumin
  • 1tbsp ground coriander
  • 1tsp ground turmeric
  • 100g red lentils
  • Water, vegetable stock or chicken stock.
  • 1tsp salt
  • Juice of 1 lime
  • 2tbsp chopped fresh coriander.
  1. Heat the oil and add the onion and garlic. Cook gently until soft.
  2. Stir in the dried spices and cook for 30 seconds.
  3. Stir in the lentils and cover with twice their volume of water. Add the salt and bring to the boil. Simmer gently until the lentils are tender.

Stir in the lime juice and fresh coriander and serve with roti/chapatti

Stuffed Paratha

Bovey Tracey Activity Trust Lunch Group

 

  •  200g chapatti flour (or 160g white bread flour and 40g wholemeal bread flour mixed)
  • 30ml sunflower oil
  • Around 100ml hot water
  • Extra ghee or butter and oil to cook the paratha
  • 1 green chilli, finely chopped
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 100g floury potatoes, peeled, boiled, cooled and mashed
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tbsp sunflower oil
  • Handful fresh coriander, chopped very finely

 

  1. To make the filling, heat the oil in a large non-stick pan. Add the chilli and onion. Cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes or until very soft. Add the ground coriander and cumin. Fry for a few minutes.  Mix into the potato and season with salt.
  2. To make the dough, take a bowl and add the chapatti flour. Add the oil. Stirring with a spoon, slowly mix in enough warm water for you to be able to form a fairly firm dough. When cool enough to handle, knead until you get a soft and smooth, non-sticky dough. If it’s sticky, add a little bit more oil and a dusting of flour and continue to bind.
  3. Take a ball of dough, slightly larger than a golf ball and another of the cooled potato filling. The potato ball should be larger than the dough. Roll the dough to about 3-4″ in diameter and place the potato ball on top.
  4. Using your thumbs and forefingers, pinch the dough closed around the filling, starting in the middle and working your way outwards. The filling wrapped in dough should be fully enclosed with no gaps or holes. Flatten the ball using the palm of your hand. Dust with flour on both sides and flip over. You will need to roll the smooth side.
  5. Roll the dough again or flatten out using your hand. The paratha should be 3 – 4 mm thick.
  6. Heat some oil or ghee in a non-stick frying pan and carefully slide in the paratha.
  7. Cook on a medium heat on both sides until golden brown all over, adding more ghee or oil to the pan for added indulgence.

David and Holly

 

Hope you enjoy the recipes. We loved our morning with the Bovey Tracey Activity Trust Lunch Group – come and see us soon!