Pear and almond cake

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This soft, moist, dense almondy cake can be served warm for pudding, with lashings of cream, or cold, with a cup of tea or coffee. Firm conference pears should work a treat here.

Serves

Six people

Ingredients

  • 350g unsalted butter, softened
  • 250g caster sugar, plus 1 tbsp
  • 4 eggs
  • 150g whole blanched almonds or ground almonds
  • 150g self-raising flour
  • 5-6 pears, firm but not too hard, peeled, cored and quartered
  • Cake tin about 20cm in diameter and 5cm deep (a springform one is best)
  • Baking parchment

Method

Preheat the oven to 160°C. Your esse dial wants to read hot but not the far side of hot. Grease a 20cm diameter, springform cake tin with a little of the butter and line the base with baking parchment.

Put a saucepan over a medium heat and add 25g of the butter. When it’s sizzling, add 1 tbsp sugar and stir until it dissolves. Add the pear quarters and fry in the buttery caramel for a couple of minutes, until they start to brown. Put the pan to one side to cool a little.

Put the remaining butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream together until light and fluffy. Beat in the two eggs, one at a time.

Whiz the whole blanched almonds in the food processor for about a minute to grind them. Tip them into the cake batter (or add the ready-ground almonds), then sift in the self-raising flour and fold in gently. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin. Arrange the pieces of pear on top of the cake. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a knife pushed into the centre comes out clean.

Place the tin on a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or cold.

Meringue Pudding prepared in the bottom oven

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Enjoy the best of British food with ESSE range recipes with the help of River Cottage head chef, Gill Meller.

Here, Gill Meller takes us through a step-by-step demonstration recipe. Learn how to make a delicious Rhubarb Meringue Pudding using the ESSE range cooker with companion.

Scallops with Jerusalem artichokes and pancetta

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Enjoy the best of British food with ESSE range recipes with the help of River Cottage head chef, Gill Meller.

Here, Gill Meller takes us through a step-by-step demonstration recipe, cooking scallops with jerusalem artichokes cooked using the ESSE flued Gas range cooker with Plus 2 companion.

ESSE slow roasted shoulder of Lamb

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Enjoy the best of British food with ESSE range recipes with the help of River Cottage head chef, Gill Meller.

Here, Gill Meller takes us through a step-by-step demonstration recipe, cooking slow roasted shoulder of lamb, cooked on an ESSE Range cooker.

Braised flat mushrooms with soft polenta & dressed shredded greens

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Mouthwatering vegetarian recipe for your ESSE Range Cooker from Tim Maddams
February representative demonstrations prepared by Tim Maddams of Green Sauce

Ingredients

  • 6 large flat mushrooms
  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 pint dark beer
  • Guiness etc
  • Fresh thyme
  • A small pinch of caraway seeds
  • Salt and pepper

In a casserole dish that is stove top safe, begin by frying the sliced onions in plenty of olive oil. Add shopped thyme, garlic then the mushrooms, a few at a time. Once everything is ticking over add the caraway and then the beer, season well and bring to the simmer and then transfer to your low oven or cook at ESSE dial guide COOL to MODERATE (150) for at least an hour.

Diced pancetta can be added if meat as required, this should go in at the start with the onions, around 100g.

For the polenta:

  • 1lt milk
  • 1 clove garlic
  • Chopped fresh rosemary – 1 teaspoon
  • A pinch of chilli flakes
  • Salt to taste
  • 200g quick cook polenta
  • 100g extra mature organic cheddar – or Lancashire!

Warm the milk with everything except the cheese and the polenta until its just simmering, add the polenta and stir, it will cook in around 10 minutes and have the consistency of a very thick porridge. Season well, adding more milk if needed, then grate the cheese and add half of that to the polenta.

For the greens

  • A few stems of cavolo nero, kale or a bit of good old savoy cabbage
  • Olive oil
  • Fresh lemon
  • Salt, pepper and English mustard.

Wash the greens well and de stem if they have tough stems. Chop finely and dress in a little olive oil, mustard and lemon juice, season with a little salt.
Plate the dishes up, starting with the polenta, then the mushrooms and a little cheese, finish by sprinkling with dressed greens.

Spiced Lamb Burgers

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These cheeky lamb sliders are fun to make and of course can be scaled up for bigger burgers or down further for mini canapé bites.

Spiced lamb burgers, mq-0+
mini baps, roast garlic and mint by Tim Maddams

Ingredients

  • 500g standard bread dough (fermented)
  • 150g bread flour
  • 150g plain white flour
  • 2 teaspoons fast acting dried yeast
  • 200ml warm water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 whole bulb of garlic

Method

Mix all the ingredients together and kneed the dough until smooth and elastic, around 4 or 5 minutes should do, shape into a ball and place in an oiled bowl and cover with cling film. Allow to prove for an hour on your ESSE stove top or so somewhere warm.

Shape the dough into squash ball sized balls and place on a lightly floured tray, press them down lightly to flatten a little and leave to prove again, once doubled in size, spray with water and place inside your hot oven for 10 mins or until golden brown and cooked through, they should feel light to the touch. Place on a cooling rack to cool.

Mean while, drizzle the garlic bulb in olive oil, season and wrap in foil, place in a moderate oven to bake for an hour or so. Remove form the oven and allow to cool.

For the burgers
Ingredients

  • 500g minced lean lamb, or mutton
  • 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon ground coriander
  • 1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes
  • 1 teaspoon nigella seeds
  • Salt, pepper
  • 1 handful of washed and picked mint leaves

Method

Mix the mince with the spices and season well, cook off a small amount to test the seasoning. Shape into small burger shapes, starting with a gob stopper sized ball and flattening it out, place on a plate and refrigerate until needed.

Cook the burgers straight on the top of your ESSE cooker or on a griddle pan and rest them for a few minutes before placing inside the mini buns, add a few mint leaves and squeeze out a little of the roasted garlic form the bulb and spread a little of this onto each burger, serve and enjoy.

Broken Broad Beans & Fennel Seed Gluten Free Crackers

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Broken Broad Beans and Fennel Seed Gluten Free Crackers
Second May recipe prepared by Tim Maddams and the ESSE demo team

For the crackers
Ingredients

  • 100g gluten free flour
  • 1 teaspoon fennel seeds
  • 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 100ml water – check and test

Method

To make the crackers, heat your oven to 180 degrees c, or aim for the dial reading to be at the top end of moderate or very low end of hot, and line a baking sheet with non stick parchment.

Drizzle a little oil onto the parchment. Mix all the ingredients together to make a flowing batter. Pour the batter onto the baking sheet and place the sheet in the oven for around 15 minutes, once crisp and golden turn the oven off or remove to a cooler oven to thoroughly crisp up the cracker. Break into pieces for serving.

For the broken beans
Ingredients

  • 200g podded broad beans
  • A few thyme leaves
  • 2 lemons, juiced
  • 200ml good olive oil
  • Fresh oregano
  • Salt, pepper
  • 1 clove of garlic chopped
  • 100g mature cheddar cheese, grated

Method

For the broken beans, we are aiming for a nearly pesto come hummus type thing but very much more chunky with plenty of bean like bits to add texture and flavour peaks to this dish that makes an excellent starter or snack course. Begin by blanching the beans in a little salted water very briefly, just for a minute perhaps and then remove them to cold water to rapidly cool them so you can then remove their little bitter outer skins. If the beans are very young and small, you can skip that step but as the beans get bigger the skins will toughen up and become bitter.

Pop the beans in a blender with half the oil and half the cheese along with all the rest of the ingredients except the fresh oregano. Blend on pulse until a coarse paste is formed and remove from the mixer. Add a little more oil and the oregano and season to taste.

Serve up with the remaining cheese sprinkled over and the crackers on the side.

Chocolate and Strawberry Brownies

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These are very moreish rich brownies made with fresh strawberries.

For this reason they need to be kept in the refrigerator after making and will only keep for 2-3 days (not that they will last that long!).
If you want them to keep longer then don’t add the strawberries to the mixture but serve with them instead.

Serves

Makes 16 squares.

Ingredients

  • 350 g dark plain chocolate, broken into pieces
  • 250 g unsalted butter
  • 3 eggs
  • 250 g dark brown muscovado sugar
  • 100 g plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 250 g strawberries, halved

Method

  1. Line the base of a 24-cm square cake tin with non-stick parchment and oil the sides if not non-stick. Preheat the oven if necessary to 170 C/Fan 150C/Esse Dial Guide MODERATE. (Aim for the dial reading to be in the middle of MODERATE).
  2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over hot water and stir until smooth.
  3. Whisk the eggs and the sugar together in a bowl for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Fold into the chocolate mixture.
  4. Sift the flour and the baking powder together and fold into the chocolate mixture.
  5. Spoon about one-third of the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface. Top with the halved strawberries. Top with the remaining chocolate mixture to cover the strawberries and level the surface.
  6. Bake for 35-40 minutes until the surface is set or when the top just starts to crack. Allow to cool in the tin, cut into squares to serve.

Recipe by Carol Bowen Ball.

Grilled asparagus and spring onions with spiced yoghurt

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Grilled asparagus and spring onions with spiced yoghurt prepared by Tim Maddams of Green Sauce

Last Thursday, Tim Maddams joined the ESSE sales team at the Hearth & Cook showroom near Exeter, UK. Tim highlighted the benefits of the ESSE Ranges by demonstrating May’s recipes

May is all about the emergence of the new season, spring has sprung and the farms and gardens of this island are beginning to bring fourth their bounty, time to get stuck in!

Ingredients

  • 1 bunch English asparagus and 1 bunch organic spring onions
  • A little rape seed oil
  • Salt and chilli flakes
  • 1/2 a lemon

For the yoghurt

Ingredients

  • 1 small pot of organic natural yoghurt
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
  • 1 teaspoon each cumin and coriander seeds
  • 1 clove of garlic, finely grated

Method

Wash trim and slice the asparagus and onions in half lengthways. Dry on a little kitchen roll then dress with a little oil and salt. These can then be grilled till just tender wether on a griddle, on the stove top, directly on the stove top or even better roasted in the Fire Stone. What we are looking for here is tender but crisp veg, with a fair amount of charring to lift the whole thing up and make it feel nicely spring like.

Toast the spice seeds, crush them and add them to the yoghurt along with the paprika and grated garlic.

Once cooked, arrange on a platter and squeeze over the lemon and dress with the spiced yoghurt. Additional items such as lentils or crunchy croutons and fresh herbs can be added to beef things up a bit if you like. Chilli flakes are an option too, which I highly recommend.

Kale Crisps

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Demonstrated by River Cottage Chef, Andy Tyrell, using an ESSE CAT Gas Cooking Range

Kale crisps have become a rather fashionable snack in the past few years, and that’s hardly surprising, given how easy they are to make and how delicious they are to eat.

Making your own is a good way to use an excess of kale in the garden, even slightly-past-their-best leaves. They make a great nibble to go with drinks, or you can use them as you would crispy seaweed in salads, or sprinkled on soups.

Ingredients

  • Few handfuls of kale, thickest, woddy stems removed
  • 2-3 tablespoons rapeseed or olive oil
  • Flaky sea salt

Method

Preheat the oven to ESSE dial guide top end of MODERATE/180°C/Fan 160°C/Gas 4. Wash the kale and dry well: it will crisp up better if it is very dry. Tear the leaves into bite-sized pieces and place on a baking tray (or two if you’re making a lot – you don’t want to crowd the trays). Trickle over the oil and massage it thoroughly into every nook and cranny of the leaves. Don’t salt them yet – they roast better just with the oil. Spread the leaves out on the trays in an even, single layer. Bake for 10 minutes, then take the tray from the oven and give the leaves a good stir. Return to the oven and bake for a further 5–10 minutes. The leaves should be crisp but don’t let them get too dark or they will be bitter. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and serve.

Pork with Blackberries | Tim Maddams

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Scotts Arms Stoves invited guests to attend a wonderful evening with River Cottage and Green Sauce chef Tim Maddams.

This video shows Tim demonstrating the ESSE EL 13Amp Range Cooker and a simple and succulent Pork recipe.

Almond Cake | Sea Bass & Herb Crumb – Frances Atkins

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ESSE has been a proud manufacturer of heating and cooking appliances since 1854. We work to embrace innovation and technology in all of our appliances.

Michelin-starred Chef Frances Atkins demonstrates how to bake a gluten free, fat free almond cake on her ESSE range cooker.
She also takes you step-by-step through a delicious Sea Bass & Herb Crumb recipe.

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