Wild garlic and cheese scones

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I love a scone, cream and jam, or jam and cream I care not, just hand them over. Here though is a thing I like at this time of year – a savoury scone seasoned with, well, the season.

Pre heat your ESSE top oven, steam vent closed to start with to 190 C

Ingredients

  • 150g cold butter
  • 100g wholemeal flour
  • 200g self-raising flour
  • A pinch of salt
  • Around 50g finely chopped wild garlic
  • 75g grated strong cheddar
  • A little milk (a few tablespoons approx. 150g), and a little more for glazing the scones

Method

  1. Dice the butter into small chunks and place it in your kitchen food processor with the flour and half the cheese. Add a pinch of salt. Pulse this to make a loose breadcrumb mixture. Now add the chopped wild garlic and pulse again. Now, drizzle in a few tablespoons of cold milk to bring the dough together whilst still pulsing the machine. Don’t make it too wet – or too dry – just moist enough that you can easily bring it together into an “almost” dough.
  2. Now, time to move fast – tip the dough out into a lightly floured surface and finish bringing it together – do not over work it! – it wants to remain not quite mixed all together.
  3. Roll roughly out to around 2cm thickness and then use a knife or scone cutters to cut to your preferred size.
  4. Space these out on your ESSE non-stick baking tray, brush them with a little milk and sprinkle over the last of the cheese – bake at 190 for 5 mins with the steam vent closed, then open it and give them another 20 – 25 mins until golden brown on top, and hopefully nicely risen.
  5. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool (if you can!) for a few minutes on a wire rack before serving.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Wild garlic soup with baked eggs

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Wild garlic season is upon us!

It’s funny how things go in cycles, how the ordinary can become extraordinary and the fanciful mundane. Cookery is no exception to that and in many ways the alchemy of a busy household kitchen can become common place and ordinary until someone who misses that from their home points it out upon visiting. Add social media to the mix and you have another dimension of this same thing, bear with me.

20 years ago you were certainly considered a bit radical in the kitchen if you used things like wild garlic and cooked seasonally, yup, that was me, a bit on the wild side. 10 years ago if you posted about wild garlic on your social feed it said something about you, you knew your stuff, you cooked with the seasons, you were still a bit of a rebel, these days if I were to post about using wild garlic on my socials I’d probably be drummed out of town for mundanity, or for having the audacity to point out the common place or the everyday.

Luckily, I don’t really care about that. I care about tasty, simple food cooked well in the heart of my home, and a core principal at the heart of great cookery, is a great cooker – something else I am very happy to say I have found with my ESSE, like the wild garlic, the cooker evokes a kind of thoughtfulness and awareness in the kitchen that, well, good cookery happens here, it’s important. Nuf-said.

Wild garlic soup and baked eggs

Like any other green soup, this one needs to be made fresh and used quickly or it will lose some of its vibrant bright green colour – though that won’t affect the flavour much, so unless you are very particular about how things look, maybe it matters less.

Serves: 2 for a good lunch or 4 as a starter
Prep time: 30 mins
Cookery time: 15 mins

Ingredients

  • 150g peeled and washed potatoes very thinly sliced
  • 25g standard extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 medium onion finely sliced
  • ½ stick of celery, finely chopped
  • A little fresh thyme, salt and pepper
  • 200g (ish) washed wild garlic leaves and stems

To serve

An oven proof pan, 4 eggs, some crusty bread and some proper olive oil, you know, the good stuff you save for best. You can add some grated hard cheese if you like.

To begin with

  1. In some olive oil in a large, flat but deep sided pan you know you can trust, over a moderate heat, slowly sweat your potatoes, celery and onion with some thyme, salt and pepper until half cooked and sweetened a little.
  2. Adding just enough hot water to cover the other ingredients in the pan plus an extra slosh, turn up the heat and simmer until the potatoes are thoroughly cooked. Season this soup base a little. Now, roughly chop all that wild garlic and toss it into the pan, simmer and stir for just one minute until the garlic is all immersed and had a good swish round in the pan.
  3. Now, transfer everything to a jug blender (maybe in two batches to be on the safe side) and blitz on full power for around 1 minute. Pour the soup back into the pan and season it well, taste it, make sure it tastes good. Set it aside off the heat – unless you want to use this later after re heating in which case, pour it into a bowl, that is sitting in another bowl full of ice – you need to cool it down quickly or you will lose the vivid green.
  4. Crack 4 eggs into the soup in the pan, and carefully place the soup dish into your top oven with the steam vent closed at around 180 C for about 5 mins until the eggs set, but the yolks still have some run about them.
  5. Remove the baked soup from the oven, drizzle with good olive oil, add a few chilli flakes over the top if you like, and some cheese too if you want. Serve it up right away on the table, allowing everyone to scoop out their own egg and soup – it’s a lovely dish that sings of the season. The wild garlic is up, the hens are laying, and the days are lengthening, time to feel good.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Slow cooked spiced rhubarb

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The forced rhubarb season is upon us, these beautiful tender shoots of veg are bright pink, full of flavour and deliciously fresh and crunchy – sadly, it is almost always over cooked – or stewed, which can be a good way to cook later season rhubarb, the stuff grown outside that is more green than pink, but is a bit of a waste of this tender, early season indoor grown stuff.

So, I like to cook mine for a long time at a very low temperature – this is an ideal chance to use the bottom oven of my ESSE. Cook it, setting it on its “slumber” mode, or rather, just leaving it on that setting but making use of that gentle heat , if like me you have total control of the bottom oven, set it to about 80 degrees.

Cooking time: Is around 2 hours

Ingredients:

  • 500g rhubarb
  • 10 black pepper corns
  • 1 star anise
  • 150g soft brown sugar
  • A suitable piece of stoneware or a stainless-steel baking dish and a lid or some cling film.

Method:

  1. This is so simple, just trim the unusable leaves off the end of the stems and tidy up the thickest ends where they have been torn form the plant.
  2. Use a sharp knife to cut the ‘barb stems into 3 o 4 cm long pieces – I like to do this on an angle, but it is by no means essential, just a fancy of mine.
  3. Rinse these in a colander and then tip them into your cooking vessel with the sugar, star anise, thyme and peppercorns. Toss everything around gently using your hands to coat the stems in sugar.
  4. Cover the cooking vessel with either a tight fitting lid or a layer of cling film and pop it in to the ESSE in the bottom oven for around 2 hours – you can check it after an hour and maybe gently agitate it all around a little. You want the stems to be tender but still firm, this is when you can take them from the oven and allow them to cool – they are ready!

I like to use this either as a dessert of have a little added to yoghurt for a breakfast dish – you can blend half of the rhubarb with the pink juices if you like to make a sauce to serve with the un blitzed pieces of stalk, add to this a nice shortbread and some whipped cream and you have a dessert to die for – the perfect pre spring time pudding, it has a real whiff of daylight and warmth to come about it – just the tonic when were not quite there yet but very much wish we were. Speaking of tonic – any leftover juice is really very good shaken over ice with large quantities of dry gin…. apparently……

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

The Family Loaf

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I’m eating stews, curries, soups, broths and braises and much if not all of these are accompanied by some of what I have come to think of as “the family loaf”. I love sour dough, but I am a busy guy and not everyone in the house delights in the crust of a formidable sour dough loaf – and so I have drifted again, away from the shoes of sourdough into that seldom whispered about territory of the yeasted dough, hush now, yeast is fine.

There are various needs to balance within the daily bread, My kids aren’t keen on tough chewy bread, my beloved wife is not at all impressed with white bread and I like a versatile loaf that can cope with various uses from a late night toastie to croutons through to a reasonable flat bread or naan too. Quite the thing!

It keeps reasonably well 3 or 4 days without too much issue in the bread bin and it freezes excellently so I don’t have to worry if I’m busy, we can just defrost a loaf and we are safely back in the game.

The ESSE cooker top oven is excellent for baking this in the “Bloomer” style and I prefer to make a larger loaf than two small ones – it just bakes a little better that way. The ability to trap steam into the baking oven using the top controls allows me to get a really good crust, starting off with the steam trapped in the oven and then allowing it out to finish the loaf makes all the difference to the end product. As the ESSE is always the centre of warmth in the kitchen, its also a great place to prove the dough If like us, you have a cold house or, you are simply in a bit of a hurry.

For the dough

  • 600g Shipton mill number 4 organic strong bread flour
  • 200g stone ground organic wholemeal flour
  • 200g light organic malthouse flour
  • 680g warm water
  • 15g dried fast acting yeast
  • 20g fine salt

Method

  1. Just weigh everything in to the mixing bowl on your Kenwood / kitchen aid / planetary mixer or indeed a large mixing bowl if you are going to be kneading by hand. If using a machine, simply attach the dough hook attachment and begin on a slow speed to bring the dough together.
  2. Once the dough has come together you can either turn the machine up a little or kneed by hand using a folding and pushing motion until you find it begin to resist – it will go quite tough as the dough stats to develop and now is a good time to allow the dough (and your arms) a short rest. After a couple of minutes of inaction, your dough will soften and be ready for some more work – it is now that I like to give the dough it’s most lengthy workout. Re-knead the dough for around 5 minutes this time, slowly – let it have a little time to itself.
  3. Once you have a smooth, elastic and pliable dough you can shape it into a domed blob and lightly cover the bowl with a tea towel or a plate, pan lid or some such whilst it has its initial prove. You want the dough to double in size before you make you next move. This could take a few hours or somewhere nice and warm and with a nice warm dough this could take as little as 45 minutes.
  4. Once the dough has doubled in size you will need to tip it out onto a floured surface and shape your loaf.
  5. I like to make one big loaf but I sometimes take off about a third of the dough and keep it in the fridge for use as flat breads, pizza or Naan depending on what’s going on elsewhere in the kitchen and with the menu plan for the coming days, if there is indeed, a plan.
  6. On a well-floured surface, shape the loaf out to about half the thickness that you would like it to end up – were looking for an elongated rugby ball type shape, gently place this into your ESSE non-stick baking tray, lightly cover the loaf again with a lid or a tea towel, and allow the loaf its final prove. Meanwhile ensure that you have set your ESSE oven to 190 degrees and closed the steam vent.
  7. Within about half an hour – depending on temperature, you should find that you loaf has now doubled in size, now, select your sharpest serrated bread knife and cut deep slashes almost half to two thirds of the way though the loaf across the width of the loaf at angles, roughly a couple of cm apart.
  8. Bake in the top oven on 190 degrees for 15 minutes then open the steam vent and bake for a further 15 minutes.
  9. Remove your loaf from the oven, place it on a cooling rack and relax – try and avoid snacking on the loaf until it’s had at least half an hour cooling as the cooking process is continuing to finish inside the crust there.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Cauliflower Cheese

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Cauliflower cheese is a family favourite but adding wild garlic pesto to the cheese sauce makes it into a special spring tasting dish! Make the most of the first green leaves of the year. The large almond-like leaves grow in moist woodland and in damp hedgerows and shady lanes. Wild garlic can be distinguished by its strong garlic smell and the young leaves are the most flavoursome. When the flowers start to appear the leaves are starting to loose flavour. The flowers are wonderful in salads and the flower buds can be pickled to use throughout the year.

Recipe for the wild garlic pesto

  • 100g pistachio nuts or sunflower seeds, lightly toasted
  • 100g Parmesan style cheese, grated
  • 150ml olive oil
  • Two large handfuls of wild garlic leaves, washed and dried (I use a salad spinner)
  • Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method: Simply blitz the wild garlic leaves, cheese, nuts/seeds to a rough paste in a food processor or use a pestle and mortar (that is the traditional method and that is where the name comes from in Italian!). Then slowly add the olive oil and season with ground black pepper. I don’t add salt as the cheese is salty. For the cauliflower cheese recipe you don’t need it too thin. If you are making the pesto for another recipe then do add more olive oil to make it thinner. Transfer the pesto into a clean jar and keep in the fridge until needed.

Recipe for the cauliflower cheese

  • A whole cauliflower, taking a few of the green leaves but leaving some
  • 50g strong cheddar cheese, grated plus extra the topping
  • 20g butter
  • 20g plain flour
  • 350ml milk
  • 2 heaped tablespoons wild garlic pesto plus extra for garnish
  • A handful of chopped pistachio nuts, lightly toasted for garnish, optional

Method: Steam the cauliflower in a little water for about 10 minutes until just tender, depending on the size of the cauliflower as it may take longer. Transfer to an ovenproof dish.

To make the cheese sauce: Melt the butter in a saucepan over a gentle heat, then stir in the flour. Mix to a smooth paste. Cook for a couple of minutes. Then gradually add the milk, a little at a time, whisking it well into the roux as you add it until it is all mixed in. Simmer for a minute and then add the grated cheese. Take off the heat and add the pesto. Taste and add more if you like it strong flavoured! Add more milk to make the sauce the consistency you like, as it may become thick with adding the pesto.

Heat up the ESSE grill.

Pour the green sauce over the cauliflower and around it. Grate extra cheese on top. Grill until the topping and sauce is golden and bubbling.

To serve add extra pesto and nuts if you wish and serve with a green salad.

If you want to make this dish in advance, cool it once assembled and refrigerate. Before serving, bake in the oven at 180C for about 30 minutes.

Philippa Vine has worked with ESSE Cookers for approaching ten years. Initially owning a wood-fired ESSE range cooker, Philippa opened a cookery school at her farm in East Sussex showcasing the benefits of cooking with both electric and wood-fired ESSE cookers. Philippa now produces colourful, seasonal recipes using her ESSE 1000 T in her own kitchen, presents exciting cookery demonstrations and is an ambassador for Love British Food. Discover more by visiting Philippa’s Instagram profile @philippavinecooking.

Watercress Baked Trout with Eggs and Sour Cream

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This dish is a joy to make, far quicker and simpler to do than it appears and tastes – a really lovely dish for a celebration lunch or supper using brilliant British ingredients. This light yet filling and clean tasting dish has indulgence, flavour and freshness in equal quantities.

Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 20 minutes

Have a large ceramic baking dish to hand – one that is big enough to hold the whole trout fillet. You will also need a jug blender

Ingredients

  • 1 large (side) British trout fillet, approx. 600 – 800 g
  • 200g washed watercress
  • 2 large potatoes
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • Salt and pepper
  • 40ml light olive oil
  • 80 ml the best olive oil you can get
  • ½ teaspoon mixed dried herbs
  • 120g pot sour cream
  • 4 (or 6) eggs
  • Pinch of chilli flakes
  • 50g butter
  • Water approx. 750 ml
British Trout Association Logo

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (no fan).
  2. Wash and thinly slice the potatoes – you can leave the skin on. Peel and chop the garlic, peel and slice the onion.
  3. Begin sweating the onion, garlic, and potato in a saucepan with the light olive oil over a moderate heat. Once things begin to soften a little, add some seasoning and then add some water to comfortably cover the onion, garlic, and potato – bring to a simmer and cook gently until the potato is tender.
  4. Meanwhile, generously butter your baking dish and lay the trout fillet in it, skin side down. Season well with salt and pepper and sprinkle over the dried mixed herbs.
  5. Once the potatoes have softened, add almost all the watercress to the pan (keeping a handful back for a garnish) and simmer for just 30 seconds – then pour the contents of the pan into the jug blender – place the lid on securely and cover with a tea towel and place your hand on top of the blender to help avoid re-decorating the kitchen. Blend for 30 seconds, open, taste, correct seasoning and give it another 15 seconds – you should now have a bright green and peppery watercress sauce.
  6. Pour the still hot sauce around the fish in the dish, then crack an egg into each “corner” of the dish. Next to each egg add a good dessertspoonful of sour cream and sprinkle the eggs and the cream with a few chilli flakes. Drizzle half the good olive oil over the top and then place the whole thing in the hot oven for 20 mins (checking it after 15 to see how it’s getting on) – after this time, the eggs should be just set and the trout cooked.
  7. Rest the dish for 2 minutes then spoon out generous portions into shallow bowls, drizzle with the best olive oil, a few flakes of sea salt and scatter with the remaining watercress before serving.

Recipe created by chef Tim Maddams for ESSE Range Cookers. Tim is a huge advocate of living a more sustainable life and protecting wildlife for the future – so this recipe is a move away from polluting salmon farming to cleaner fresh water trout aquaculture as an alternative.

Wild garlic bread

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Recipe by Philippa Vine, Philippa’s Seasonal Kitchen @philippavinecooking

Wild garlic is only available in the spring. You can substitute with flavouring it with some chopped rosemary and 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

Ingredients

  • 250g strong white bread flour
  • 150ml warm water
  • 15g fresh yeast
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon honey
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons of chopped wild garlic leaves

Method

  1. Preheat ESSE to 200C/ESSE dial guide HOT, aim for the dial reading to be in the middle of HOT (ESSE oven steam vent closed).
  2. Place your flour in a large mixing bowl and add the salt, olive oil and wild garlic if using.
  3. Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with the honey.
  4. Add the yeast mix to the flour and mix with a table knife.  Add a little more water if it is too dry or some flour if it is too wet.
  5. Turn it out onto your work surface and knead to a smooth dough.
  6. Put the dough back into the mixing bowl and place a clean cloth over the bowl.  Put the bowl at the back of the ESSE on the left hand side.
  7. When it has doubled in bulk, knead until smooth and elastic.
  8. Roll out to a shape that you like and place it on an oiled baking sheet.  Put back next to the ESSE to prove again until it has doubled in bulk.
  9. Then place direct on the bottom of top ESSE oven and bake until golden brown all over, approximately 15 – 20 minutes, depending on the shape of your loaf.

Happy cooking on your ESSE.

Philippa Vine has worked with, and demonstrated, ESSE Wood-Fired and Electric Cookers since 2018. Philippa owns a 1000 T and a Bakeheart and produces seasonal recipes from Bates Green Farm in East Sussex. She is an ambassador for Love British Food.

Sausage Rolls

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Whenever I’m baking I’m often ignoring the cake tins and focussing on the savoury side of life.

Shop bought puff pastry has become the norm, even in the majority of restaurants and bakeries a “bought in” puff pastry solution is very much the order of play – which I always think is a shame – not only because of some of the more dubious ingredients contained within the vast majority of said products but because making your own “rough puff” takes minutes, is super easy and the results are epic – less “fully puffed” than the full on puff pastry but really easy to work with, pretty much impossible to get wrong and much, much tastier. So, really this is a simple recipe for rough puff pastry, but I’ve also included another seasonal ingredient – Venison, as it’s such a tasty and sustainable option, it can be a little lean but with the buttery pastry I hardly think you will notice.

Because I also like some spice – I have made these more along the lines of a chorizo in terms of seasoning too, the results are somewhat addictive – if you have a handy supply of pheasant you can substitute minced pheasant in or of course get yourself to the local butcher for some quality coarse minced pork and stay traditional – it is totally up to you.

Makes: 6 med sausage rolls
Prep time 1 hour
Cooking time 30 mins

For the pastry

  • 175g strong white bread flour
  • 150g cold butter, diced small
  • A good pinch of salt
  • A little ice cold water

Place everything except the water in the food processor. Pulse the machine a few times to begin to break up the butter, but not too much! We need lumps of butter in there, start drizzling in some water as you keep pulsing the machine, you should quickly find you have a very lumpy buttery dough, in short it will look like it’s gone horribly wrong.

Tip this out onto a lightly floured surface and bring the dough together a little using your hands. Now, with a rolling pin roll out the dough till its half its original width, then fold the top into the middle and repeat with the bottom so you have effectively created a 3 layer scenario. Repeat that process twice more, what we are doing here is gently adding a few layers to you pastry, which will add lift, character and joy – then set the dough aside and leave it to chill in the fridge for 30 mins before removing it and allowing it to come up towards room temperature again before you make the sausage rolls.

For the filling

  • 30g olive oil
  • 350g minced venison
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 2 table spoons red wine
  • 1 pinch chilli flakes
  • 30g smoked paprika
  • A good pinch of mixed dried herbs
  • A few rasps of lemon zest
  • ½ teaspoon fennel seeds, lightly crushed
  • 5g salt

Crush then finely chop your garlic, add this to everything else and mix it well.

You can store this mix in the fridge until needed – it should keep in a tub very well for 4 or 5 days.

Making the rolls and baking them

Set your ESSE oven to 190 degrees and open the steam vent.

You will need

  • 1 egg, beaten
  • A pastry brush
  • A little flaky salt and a few fennel seeds
  • Flour for dusting

Roll out your pastry on a lightly floured surface – you are aiming for a long oblong shape about the thickness of a 50p piece, so don’t worry too much, but do you best to make it long and it wants to be roughly three times the width that the sausage meat will be – I like a thick sausage roll so I tend to aim for 15 – 20 cm roughly.

Shape the sausage meat filling onto the pastry more or less in the middle of the pastry. Brush a little beaten egg onto the front edge of the roll and then put the top edge over the filling and “glue” it to the egg washed strip.

Prick holes in the pastry along the top of the roll and then egg wash that too – sprinkling with salt and a few fennel seeds afterwards, all that remains is to slice the long roll into the sizes you want. Then place these on a non-stick baking sheet or one lines with non-stick parchment.

Depending on the size of your sausage, they will cooking in between 20 and 40 mins, you want them golden brown on the top and crisp on the bottom – and it is worth turning the tray round half way though. Once you are satisfied that they are nicely cooked move the tray from the oven. Using a palette knife or some trusty tongs move to a cooling rack for 10 mins before you get carried away and eat them all.

There you go, a super simple recipe that will show off your baking skills and your oven beautifully – enjoy.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Toad, in the Hole

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Sausages, one of the greatest things on earth. Batter puddings, another example of simple but excellent food, put it together though, and what you have transcends the mere mortal realm and becomes food heaven.

Not a huge amount to say here other than keep the temperature at 180 (ESSE dial guide MODERATE), have the steam vent open and do not open the door of the oven after you have the batter in UNTIL at least 20 mins after you have closed it. This can be nerve wracking but trust me on this, you do not want flat hole! It’s happened to us all at some point it’s really not the dream.

Serves: 4

Prep time 10 mins
Cooking tome 40 mins
Oven 180
Stove top 4 5ths

Ingredients

  • 8 Good snags
  • 50g lard
  • 2 large eggs (est 120g)
  • 120g flour
  • 200g milk
  • 1 pinch salt
  • Ground black pepper
  • 1 pinch dried mixed herbs

Method

  1. You need a good oven proof pan for this, or a good pan and a decent oven proof dish which will require a swap round and a little extra washing up but is better than melted pan handles or failed attempts. I’m lucky, I have a trustworthy stainless steel lined copper pan that is just about perfect for this.
  2. Make a batter by mixing the eggs, herbs, salt, pepper, flour and milk together in a mixing bowl, give the mix a good whisk then let it rest for ten minutes whilst you do the other bits and bobs.
  3. Heat the pan on the stove top and add a little lard, begin to fry the sausages to get a good colour on them – around 4 5th’s of the full throttle on the ESSE hob controller.
  4. Once you have a decent browning on your snags, lob in the rest of the lard and pop the whole thing in the oven for just 3 mins, using a cloth or oven gloves on the now “hotter than the sun” pan handle, remove the pan and place it on the hob, but just on the side where it won’t get too much more heat.
  5. Make sure the sausages are evenly spread out and ideally not touching each other and then pour in the batter.
  6. Replace the pan in the oven and gently (or as gently as possible) shut the oven door, make sure the steam vent is open and leave the magic to happen behind closed doors for a minimum of 30 mins, and if you are brave enough, aim for 35.
  7. After that time, gently open the door and take a squint inside – hopefully you have a risen pudding and it may want a few more minutes to crisp up or it may not – technically I always think around 35 to 40 mins cooks a batter pudding beautifully, but your idea of perfect could be different from mine, You definitely do NOT want the top of the pudding to get burnt, but a crispy base and sides is a thing of joy.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Roasted Cauliflower, Spices and Tahini

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Technically, only technically, your average cauli is in fact a summer vegetable – however they go into a sort of stasis in the field when the day light and temperature drops and lose almost no condition until hard frost hits them (By which time the farmers have got them off the fields and into cold store) and it is for this reason you will notice that they are more expensive than other brassicas in the winter.

Anyway, onwards with the foodie bit, If like me you tire easily of brussels sprouts and kale fatigue is kicking in, then some cauliflower could be just the ticket to save you reaching for the imported veggies, but I am always surprised how few folk will roast a cauli – it really is a game changer and the way the ESSE can keep in some of the steam as you cook them is a big help too. Here I have gone spicy to try and liven things up a bit and also, well, because sometimes a bit of spice can lift a whole meal from the tolerable to the excellent and cauliflower LOVES spice.

Serves: 6 as a starter, 4 as a main, or 8 as a side

Main oven, 180 degrees (ESSE dial guide MODERATE), steam cap closed for the first ¾ of the roasting process.

Prep and cook time, around 50 mins

Ingredients

  • 1 cauliflower
  • 1 teaspoon harissa paste
  • 1 bulb, yes bulb, of garlic
  • 4 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
  • 1 teaspoon nigella seeds
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • A handful or two of watercress or winter cress, or even rocket at a push
  • 1 orange
  • 1 tablespoon of tahini
  • A little water
  • Some extra good olive oil for drizzling
  • A few leaves of sage

Method

  1. To begin with you need to find a decent baking tray, then it’s time to gather the ingredients and set yourself up ready to so some chopping – start with the cauliflower and I like to divide it first in half, saving the leaves and stems and slicing those more finely then the “curds”, which I will divide into wedges.
  2. Toss the chopped cauli under the cold tap in a colander to remove any traces of unpleasantness and then pop them in the baking tray, drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil and the harissa. Now sprinkle over half the spice seeds, it’s starting to look quite funky already, isn’t it?
  3. Tumble that all around and add a good few sea salt flakes to help season things up. Fling the whole tray in the oven and close the steam vent – it’s going to want around 30 mins of uninterrupted oven time to get going.
  4. While that happens, peel and roughly chop your garlic, finely chopping 1 big clove to go in the tahini mix in a minute.
  5. Juice the orange and take a few swipes of zest too.
  6. Make the tahini dressing; In a small bowl, add the tahini, 1 finely chopped garlic clove, the remaining spice seeds and some water to create a light but glossy dressing, season this with salt, but no pepper – remember that harissa on the cauliflower.
  7. Open the oven and give the cauli a good ‘shuggle’ about, now open the steam vent and to the baking tray add the sage leaves, the orange zest and juice and all that roughly chopped garlic, make sure the cauli looks like it still has enough olive oil and pop the tray back in the oven – this time for just 20 mins, it may want a little longer, but you do not want to burn that garlic.
  8. Find a nice flat serving dish, scatter the now fully roasted and spicy cauliflower over this, adding any oil or juices in the tray over the top.
  9. Fling the green leaves over the top, drizzle with the tahini dressing, scatter over the remaining seeds and then relax, it’s all done and it’s not quite like cauliflower as you thought you knew it.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Oxtail Stew

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This wonderfully simple stew lends itself perfectly to cooking on my ESSE 1000 T. The Instant heat from contemporary induction hob means I can brown off the meat effortlessly and quickly. While the gentle consistent heat of the top oven is just the thing for a long slow cook, the meat just falls off the bone. If you can’t get hold of Oxtail, you can do the same thing with pieces of shin of beef on the bone.

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

  • 1.2 kg oxtail, cut into pieces (ask your butcher to do this)
  • 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil or beef dripping
  • 2 onions, halved and finely sliced
  • 2 small celery sticks, trimmed and thinly sliced
  • A bunch of medium carrots  – about 6 – 8
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 1 a star anise bashed
  • 6 juniper berries, lightly bashed
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 6 thyme sprigs
  • 500ml of dark beer
  • 500ml (17fl oz) good-quality beef stock
  • 1 Tbls of corn flour
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 160°C / ESSE dial guide MODERATE
  2. Season the oxtail all over with salt and pepper. Heat the oil or dripping in a large heavy-based pan over a medium heat. Add the oxtail pieces and cook, turning regularly, for about 8–10 minutes, until they have a deep colour and are starting to crisp.
  3. Remove the oxtail from the pan and set aside. Add the onions, celery, garlic, anise, bay leaves, juniper, and thyme sprigs to the pan and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes, until the onions are soft.
  4. Place the oxtail pieces into a heavy cast iron pan with a lid, arranging them in a tight, single layer. Add the vegetables and pour over the beer and the stock so that the liquid just about covers the oxtail and bring it up to a simmer. Place a lid on the pan and place in the middle of the oven to cook gently for 3–4 hours, or until the oxtail meat falls off the bone. If at any point the pan looks a bit dry, add a dash of water or more stock to cover the meat.
  5. Remove the oxtail pieces from the pan and allow them to cool a little. Use a large spoon to skim off the excess fat from the surface of the sauce. Combine the cornflour with a splash of water, mix well then stir into the stew. Turn up the heat and bring the sauce to a simmer, it should thicken a little. Adjust the seasoning. Return the oxtail to the sauce, either in whole pieces or flaked off the bone and reheat gently.
  6. Serve with mashed or jacket potatoes, soft polenta or a just a slice or two of good crusty buttered bread.

Recipe supplied by Gill Meller. Gill is a chef, award-winning food writer, food stylist and cookery teacher, and was one of the first chefs to produce seasonal recipes for ESSE, working with ESSE cookers in his summer house since 2006. Gill’s recipes highlight how an ESSE transfers an unrivalled consistent and even heat to the dishes. For further information about ESSE’ partnership with Gill read on here.

Pecan and date tarts with cream cheese pastry

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Pastry chef Dominique Ashford treats us to a Christmas special, an alternative to the mince pie, pecan and date tarts served with homemade custard. The Christmas tree is up and the barn is feeling all cosy with the ESSE Ironheart pumping out warmth. The festive tarts are baked in the surround heat of the ESSE wood-fired oven and the custard is prepared using the cast iron hotplate above the fire.

Ingredients

Dough

  • 375g plain flour
  • 50g caster
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 226g cream cheese
  • 226g butter
  • Zest of 1 orange

Mix in a food processor or stand mixer, rest then roll out to about 2mm thick and cut into rounds to fit your tin. Fill with the date and pecan mix. Bake at 180°C [ESSE dial guide middle of HOT] for 15-20 mins.

Filling

  • 3 medium eggs
  • 200g dark brown sugar
  • 60ml maple syrup
  • 60ml brandy
  • 28g melted butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla essence
  • ½ tsp mixed spice
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 100g chopped pecans
  • 100g chopped dates

Combine all. Delicious served with homemade custard – chef’s tip – add a little cornflour to prevent splitting.

Custard

  • 250g double cream
  • 125g milk
  • 3 yolks
  • 50g caster sugar
  • 5g corn flour
  • Vanilla

Bring the cream and milk to the boil. Whisk yolks, caster, corn flour, and vanilla together in a bowl. Pour the simmering liquid on and mix, return to the ban, and gently cook out until it thickens.

Dominique Ashford was the pastry chef for the Houses of Parliament for 13 years. Dominique knows and loves her food and wants ESSE cooker owners to do so, too. Baking courses with Dominique are planned for 2025 at the ESSE factory showroom in Barnoldswick where gourmet cookery courses will be laid on using ESSE’s electric range cookers.

Almond and Apricot Bites

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A special Christmas recipe created for the ESSE Ironheart wood-fired stove by pastry chef, Dominique Ashford.

Ingredients

  • 500g ground almonds
  • 300g caster
  • Vanilla seeds from 1 pod
  • 4 egg whites
  • 50ml Amaretto

Method

  1. Mix, and roll into a long sausage shape approx. 4cm thick.
  2. Cut and shape into small mounds.
  3. Top with a slice of dried apricot, and dust with icing sugar.
  4. Bake 170°C [ESSE dial guide low end of HOT] for 15-20 minutes.
  5. Delicious served with an English Stilton.

Since 2019 Dominique Ashford has worked with ESSE on the development of the electric range cookers and wood-burning cook stoves immediately recognising their potential for baking amazing desserts. She joined an established product development and demo team that includes River Cottage chefs and cookery writer and tutor Philippa Vine. Dominique will be holding cookery and baking courses at the ESSE factory showroom in Barnoldswick in 2025, visit the ESSE Facebook page for the latest event dates.

 

Baked Squash and Parmesan Soup

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November

I love the abundance of November, there’s still just about stuff tumbling from the poly tunnel including a few very late and not all that sweet tomatoes, we have had our annual batch of pigs taken care of so there’s bacon to make and a freezer full of wonder, squashes and herbs to use up and well – darkness, the smoke of bonfires and the cosy heat from the ESSE lending a new warmth to this old farmhouse kitchen, full of drafts, holes, dogs and the occasional intrepid slug.

So, with the possibility of the last fun before Christmas resonating in the background of life I’ve put together a couple of really simple warming and spicy crowd pleasers for this month’s kitchen diary, I hope you like them, I hope you find them super simple to make and I very much hope you will share them with friends.

Baked Squash and Parmesan Soup

Cooking squashes needn’t be the peeling and coring gruelling exercise it seems to mean to most people. I bake almost all squashes I use whole, after a brief scrub and a good drizzle with olive oil and a generous sprinkling with salt and pepper. You can then, once baked and cooled, core the squash out very easily, scrape the flesh from the skin should you decide not to use it and then you have lots of tasty baked squash flesh to use for whatever purpose you like; salads, sides, sauces or indeed, soup.

Often I will make a soup out of a baked squash, using the scooped out seeds and a little onion as the base for a stock, retain the flesh of the squash with the skin on as it adds extra healthy fibre and wont effect the delicious texture of the soup whilst the same time enhancing the depth you will get in flavour by including all the lovely browned and caramelised “roasty” bits – a “win win” effectively – it’s also an easy one to sling on whilst you are using the oven for another dish – thus saving you energy too.

Less of a recipe and more a guide to getting the consistency right, the following step by step will help you find the right spot. You don’t need to use parmesan, or finish the dish with crispy sage, but both work excellently to elevate this simple pottage to supper party status.

So, here we go then;

Ingredients

  • 1 squash
  • 1 onions
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 8 or 12 sage leaves
  • 1 tablespoon of butter
  • Some water
  • A few black pepper corns
  • 1 glass of dry white wine
  • A little cinnamon powder
  • Olive oil
  • Salt

Method

  1. Set the top oven of your ESSE to around 180 degrees Celsius and close the oven steam vent.
  2. Wash and scrub your squash and select a suitable baking dish or oven proof pan, drizzle the whole top of the squash with olive oil season with salt and pepper, and fling it in the oven. More or less forget about it but perhaps set a timer for an hour and then have a look, you want the whole thing to be fully cooked so prod it with spoon back and see if it gives.
  3. Different squashes will have different cooking times and the size will also come into it, I used a Japanese winter squash the specific name of which escapes me but it is a little like a Crown Prince, so fairly firm fleshed and quite robust – mine was about the size of a volley ball and needed almost two hours to be full baked. If you are using a spaghetti squash or similar it will take far less time, a butternut will probably be somewhere in the middle.
  4. Once your squash is cooked, remove it from the oven and allow it to cool down – this can take rather a long time, and they can be handled whilst they are hot, but I prefer to let them come down to something approaching safe to handle before I get too involved with them, this I think improves the flavour of the end result but I maybe imagining it. Discard the stalk and the hard bit on the bottom.
  5. Scoop out the seeds into a small saucepan and add any fluid that has gathered in the baking vessel. Add a halved onion with the skin on and a few cloves of bashed garlic, pinch of salt, dash of white wine, sprig of thyme, a few black peppercorns and a fresh bay leaf if you can manage it. Top this up with cold water and bring to a gentle simmer, before leaving to steep for about 20 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile, break up your squash flesh and skin and add as much of it as you think you will need to the jug blender, set the rest aside for use in other things. Strain the stock into the blender over the baked squash within and blitz. As a rough guide I’d say you really want the fluid to come around 4 5th’s of the way up the squash you have in the blender – but some squashes are more densely fleshed than others, remember the old chef maxim here, it is easier by far to add more fluid if required than to remove it.
  7. Season, adjust consistency, add a dash of cinnamon powder, a pinch of chilli flakes and blend again, this time with a timer running for 1 minute – you will feel like it is a very long minute but trust me, let it have the time, the results will be silky smooth, tip and scrape out the soup in to a pan and allow it to just re heat nicely without boiling it, adjust the seasoning as required. Grate about a handful of parmesan cheese and fling half into the soup. Stir it in.
  8. In a small frying pan melt a tablespoon or 2 of butter until it is almost but not quite turning brown then add a few sage leaves and spoon the butter and leaves about a bit, remove form the stove but leave the leaves in the butter to go crispy, serve the soup in bowls with a few sage leaves, a drizzle of the butter from the sage pan, a further sprinkling of grated parmesan and a few more chilli flakes.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Chilli Style Pork Meat Balls

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November

I love the abundance of November, there’s still just about stuff tumbling from the poly tunnel including a few very late and not all that sweet tomatoes, we have had our annual batch of pigs taken care of so there’s bacon to make and a freezer full of wonder, squashes and herbs to use up and well – darkness, the smoke of bonfires and the cosy heat from the ESSE lending a new warmth to this old farmhouse kitchen, full of drafts, holes, dogs and the occasional intrepid slug.

So, with the possibility of the last fun before Christmas resonating in the background of life I’ve put together a couple of really simple warming and spicy crowd pleasers for this month’s kitchen diary, I hope you like them, I hope you find them super simple to make and I very much hope you will share them with friends.

Chilli Style Pork Meat Balls

Everyone loves a good chilli, be it “Con Carne” or “Sin carne”, a chilli just hits that unctuous, spicy, rich and indulgent spot that so suits this time of the year. Being “pork rich” as I am at the moment I’ve deviated from the usual beef scenario and headed off in a more hybrid style, mixing the old meat ball routine with the familiar chilli riff – I opted to make this one 100% in the top oven, starting with the vent closed then opening it for a finish, a few simple stove top tortillas provide a carb and you could go with a guacamole as garnish but I simply chopped up some fresh tomatoes and finessed them with some herbs and garlic for a fresher lift – and also to use up more of those toms! A few green ones sneaking in too.

Serves: 8

For the mince

Ingredients

  • 1kg free range pork mince, with a bit of fat to it
  • 2 dessert spoons good smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon chilli powder
  • 1 teaspoon chilli flakes – fresh chilli if you have it
  • (You can use less chilli if you want, or more)
  • 1 teaspoon each coriander seed, cumin seed, fennel seed – toasted and crushed
  • 1 sprig each fresh thyme, and rosemary and couple of leaves of sage (or a teaspoon or two of mixed dried herbs)
  • 3 cloves of garlic grated finely
  • 10g salt
  • 50g breadcrumbs

Method

  1. Set the top oven of your ESSE to around 190 degrees Celsius.
  2. Finley chop the herbs and mix everything really well together in a bowl, separate into 8, 12 or 16 balls roughly even in size, heat a large oven proof dish in the top oven. Remove it from the oven and place it on the hob top whilst you drizzle in some olive oil and add the meat balls, replace in the oven and bake for around half an hour, making sure you open the steam vent, turning the balls occasionally using a pair of tongs and taking care not to burn yourself.

For the sauce

Ingredients

  • 1 tin of tomato pulp or 1 tin of tomatoes blitzed
  • 1 tin of red kidney beans – and the liquid!
  • 1 dessert spoon of treacle or malt extract

Method

Simply mix these things together and pour into the baking dish with the meat balls, return the whole show to the oven and bake for a further 20 minutes or so

For the tortillas

Ingredients

  • 400g plain flour
  • 260g water
  • 10g olive oil
  • 2g salt

Method

  1. Mix into as dough and set to rest before kneading for 3 or 4 minutes into a smooth dough. Divide into 8 or 10 similar sized balls and roll out on a floured surface to make very thin rounds of dough.
  2. Cook these directly on the ESSE hotplate on around 90% power until they change colour a little, then flip them to do the other side – it’s nice to get a little colour on them if you can.

Lastly, the tomato salsa

Ingredients

  • 4 tomatoes
  • 1 spring onion
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 pinch chilli flakes or chopped red chilli
  • Dash of olive oil
  • Sprig of fresh mint and fresh coriander chopped

Method

  1. Dice the tomatoes, finely grate the garlic, finely slice the spring onion and then mix everything together in a small bowl, season with a little salt.
  2. Serve the meat balls with the flatbreads, some salsa and, if you like, some grated cheese for extra luxury.

Recipe created by Tim Maddams. Tim is a chef, food writer and cookery teacher who produces seasonal recipes for ESSE at his home in Inverness using ingredients grown in his kitchen garden. ESSE first met Tim over ten years ago when he regularly co-featured in the hit TV series River Cottage. During his time as head chef at River Cottage Tim pioneered ethical, local, seasonal produce and became a key spokesperson in the area of responsibly-sourced food.

Tim’s aim is to show off the “tremendous versatility” of the ESSE 600 X electric range cooker. The new 600 X has ESSE’s classic heat storage construction, patented ovens, beautiful colour finishes and the reassuring ‘solidity’ with modern, electric controllability and responsiveness.

Gill Meller’s Pork & Stilton Sausage Rolls

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How do you improve on the great British sausage roll? Add a crumbling of Stilton!

Makes: 8

  • 1kg finely minced pork, ideally a mixture of shoulder and belly
  • 75g fresh white breadcrumbs
  • About a 150 g of good Stilton cheese crumbled into chunks.
  • 2 tsp fine sea salt
  • 2 Tsp of thyme leaves roughly chopped
  • Freshly ground black pepper

For the rough puff pastry

  • 175g unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small cubes
  • 350g plain flour
  • A good pinch of salt
  • About 150ml of iced water
  • Egg wash (beaten egg mixed with a splash of milk), to glaze
  • Fennel seeds and flaky sea salt to finish
  • A chunk of stilton for grating (optional)

Method

  1. Mix together the pork, breadcrumbs, thyme, 2/3rds of the cheese, salt and pepper.
  2. Combine the butter cubes in a bowl with the flour and salt. Add just enough water to bring the dough together.
  3. On a well- floured surface, roll out the dough in one direction, away from you, to a rectangle about 1cm thick.
  4. Fold the two short ends into the middle so they overlap. Give the pastry a quarter-turn, and repeat the rolling and folding process five more times.
  5. Wrap the pastry then rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes–1 hour.
  6. Roll out the pastry on a floured surface to an oblong, about 45 x 12cm and 4mm thick.
  7. Lay the sausage meat along one long side of the pastry, about 3cm in from the edge.
  8. Scatter over the remaining stilton cheese.
  9. Brush this pastry edge with egg wash and fold the other side of the pastry over the top of the filling to enclose it. Crimp the edges together well to seal.
  10. Lightly brush the pastry with a little more egg wash, then scatter over the fennel seeds and a light sprinkling of flaky salt.
  11. Preheat the oven to 180°C/Gas mark 4/ESSE dial guide top end of moderate.
  12. Using a serrated knife, cut the sausage roll into 8 lengths and place on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.
  13. Bake in the oven for 20 mins, remove and grate over some extra stilton and a sprinkling of fennel seeds then return the tray to the oven and cook for a further 15 – 20 mins, until golden brown.
  14. Remove the sausage rolls from the tray to a wire rack to cool. Eat warm or leave to cool before serving. They can be kept in the fridge for a day or two.

This delicious recipe was issued with the compliments of Gill Meller to commemorate the coronation of King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Gill Meller is a chef, award-winning food writer, food stylist and cookery teacher. Known for sharing the stage with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall at River Cottage, Gill has partnered with the ESSE product development and testing team for approaching twenty years.

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