Demonstrated by the Experts
Lyn and Dawn, two experienced cooks, demonstrate new seasonal recipes using glorious local ingredients. This takes place in Lyn’s cottage kitchen in Winchcombe where the atmosphere is welcoming, fun and friendly and the groups are small and like-minded.
Both have taught cooking for years in the UK and across the world, and are still keen to share their enjoyment of cooking by providing delicious fail-safe recipes that are bound to inspire. Providing plenty of modern cooking techniques, hints, tips and treasures from their recipe collections, this enjoyable event lasts about four hours - from coffee, tea and home-made biscuits to a final sumptuous tasting of all the recipes. Whilst most of the cooking takes place on a large and roomy AGA, Dawn and Lyn are equally at home on gas and electric cookers. All recipes are annotated accordingly. One-to-one AGA clinics with Dawn, after the demonstration, are free.
Whether you’re a complete beginner or a confident cook, an AGA-lover or not, there is something for you. By booking a place for only £45 you will also be supporting the work of the admirable charity, Kate’s Home Nursing.
Waste not, want not
Imagine having a use for all those peels and cores after squeezing fruit and slicing apples! Try this wonderfully frugal and delicious preserve - Pam the Jam’s Compost Heap Jelly, ideal when you have a guest for breakfast and the Seville is finished. Weigh out 500g each apple cores and skins and shredded citrus peel. Soften in 1.5 litres water, strain through a jelly bag. Boil about 10 minutes for a set with 450g granulated sugar for each 600ml juice. Pot up into sterilised jars.
OUR DEMONSTRATIONS
Led by the seasons,
Autumn
Even through the pelting rain, we still remember those last bright, warm days of summer – its finale celebrated by beautiful clear sunsets.
Watching the grain harvest in our Cotswolds was a joy. The massive combine harvesters operated in the cornfields amid huge halos of chaff. Field after field was shorn of its bounty, turning the countryside from deep gold to a stunning pale blonde. It’s a special time for us. We try to give the farmers and their heavy machinery the space they deserve. This means driving at a snail’s pace behind the tractor-drawn metal carts laden with hundreds of thousands of bushels of grain. And waiting at crossroads for the lorries to pass with mountainous trailers of hay, followed by even more machinery to deal with the stubble and soil.
At this time, sales in small vegetable shops virtually come to a standstill as everyone harvests their own veg, sharing gluts with friends. Never is there been a nicer time to eat green beans, so crisp, plump and juicy, they seem a different species to those sold in the supermarket.
In the garden, the leaves are a-twitch: birds are everywhere. Blackbirds are gorging on the Brandt grapes at the kitchen window, tugging the tiny yellow pea-sized fruits off the Malus Transitoria and pecking holes in the apples. The squirrel litters the shed roof with hazelnut shells and leaves divots in the lawn after hiding his nuts.
Apples must be one of our most iconic autumn fruits. Winchcombe is surrounded by little wild apple trees and the remains of the traditional orchards. The size, acidity and complexity of flavours has inspired a long history of culinary uses. The various textures when cooked offer plenty of ideas for pureés, crumbles, tarts and cakes. Lyn’s Cox’s Orange Pippins are diced for Dawn’s Toffee Apple Traybake, and her espaliered Fiesta apples are very successful in Judith Hann’s soft and yielding Apple and Rosemary Cake.
FAVOURITE RECIPES
Fig and Fennel Tart
"A treat for the dark months"
A perennial good-looker - we love the way the golden frangipane puffs up between the figs whilst absorbing any fig juices, ensuring the pastry remains dry and short. The anise-flavoured fennel seeds bring out the sweetness of the ingredients, whilst reminding us of all things good in the last summer days in Provence.
