Manna from Devon & Morso at Toby’s Garden Festival

Manna from Devon & Morso at Toby’s Garden Festival – we hooked up with Hearth & Cook to rustle some delicious food on the Morso Forno on the Saturday of the annual garden festival at Powderham Castle.

We cooked some dishes on top of the Forno showing how unexpectedly versatile it is – do check out those recipes here Favourites like Welsh cakes, potato farls, slow cooked tomatoes and more.

As well as on top of the forno, we obviously cooked inside the oven as well. Here’s some of what we did but if you’d like to learn more, do join us here at the cooking school for one of our woodfired courses.

Hot smoked salmon is always a big hit – this is from our Woodfired Fish & Seafood and you can see how we make it on our youtube channel here.

Our fish curry disappeared in seconds and with a creamy coconut sauce and lots of aromatic spices, it will taste like you’ve been working on it for hours when in fact it’s a deliciously straightforward recipe to create. See how we make it here.

We served the fish curry with saag aloo (spiced potatoes and spinach) and a chickpea curry. Curries are fantastic from the woodfired oven as they pick up a delicious smokiness to compliment the spices and when we travelled in India, we saw a lot of cooking over fire.

Saag Aloo 

• Sunflower oil
• 1/4 teaspoon cumin seed
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 large potatoes, cubed or 200g baby potatoes quartered
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 400g spinach
• salt

The oven wants to be at about 2-3 Mississippi and keep a small fire burning to keep the heat up.

1. Fry the cumin in a bit of oil until just starting to brown.
2. Add the onion and fry until it too starts to brown.
3. Add the potato, garlic, turmeric, ginger and garam masala and fry until the potato starts to soften.
4. You may need to add water and cover to keep the potato from sticking and to help it cook.
5. Add the spinach and cook until it collapses over the potato and season to taste.

Chickpea Curry

For the paste

• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 small fresh red chilli, deveined, deseeded and finely chopped
• 9 garlic cloves (approx 1 small bulb)
• 5cm piece ginger, peeled
• 1 tbsp ground coriander
• 2 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp garam masala
• 1 tsp tomato purée

 For the curry

• 2 x 400g cans chickpeas, drained
• 400g can chopped tomatoes
• 1 x 400g can thick coconut milk
• ½ small pack coriander, chopped, plus extra to garnish
• 2 big handfuls fresh spinach

Your oven wants to be at around 2-3 Mississippi

1. To make the paste, heat a little of the 2 tbsp oil in a pan in the oven,  add the onion and the chopped fresh chilli and cook until starting to soften – about 3-4 minutes.
2. Whizz together the garlic cloves with the ginger and the remaining oil, then add the spices, the tomato purée, ½ tsp salt and the fried onion/chilli. Blend to a smooth paste – add a drop of water or more oil, if needed.
3. Cook the paste in a small frying  pan for 2 mins or so stirring from time to time.
4. Tip in the drained chickpeas and the chopped tomatoes. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 mins or so until the sauce has reduced and thickened.
5. Add the coconut milk, cook for 5 mins more then add the spinach and cook until it has wilted.
6. Garnish with chopped fresh coriander and serve with rice or dhal (or both).

Flammkuchen

We know everyone expects  a pizza out of a woodfired oven but we like to ring the changes. Try our flammkuchen  – basically a German pizza but with creme fraiche, bacon and red onions.

Egg and Bacon Muffins with Feta

Have you tried out breakfast muffins (equally good for brunch)? Do give them a go and as an added bonus they are extra light as there are no carbs involved.

12 rashers thin streaky bacon

18 large cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped

1/2 block Feta cheese, cut into 1/2 cm dice

6 large eggs

2tbsp chopped fresh herbs – parsley, chives, oregano all work well.

30g softened butter

Salt and pepper

Have your oven at around 2-3 Mississippi and you’ll need a heavy duty deep muffin tin

1. Smear the butter into the muffin tin and then neatly wrap a rasher of bacon into each muffin hole and divide the tomatoes equally amongst them.
2. Beat the eggs with the herbs and some salt and pepper and pour this into the muffin tins over the tomatoes.
3. Put the muffin tin in the oven and when the eggs are half-set, add the feta cubes over the top. Turn the tray round regularly for even cooking and keep the fire burning by adding small pieces of wood.
4. When the eggs have puffed up and are golden brown and the bacon is cooked through, take the breakfast muffins out of the tin and serve whilst still hot.

Happy cooking everyone – do let us know how you get on and we may well see you at another Morso event over the summer months

David and Holly

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