Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

BBC Three Counties

Food on BBC Three Counties Radio and a Mushroom and Thyme Cream Bruschetta Recipe

On Saturday I was very lucky again to be invited back onto BBC Three Counties Radio as a guest on Nick Coffer’s Weekend Kitchen. What fun! It’s always such a great show to listen to and even more enjoyable to take part as a guest. The show involves two hours of food, talk and music along with host Nick Coffer. What’s not to love?! I was slightly thrown by the fact that it was a vegetarian-themed week, but I managed to pull three tasty and easy recipes out of the bag and luckily, there were no Bridget Jones-type moments live on air. 

My veggie offerings included a Mushroom Bruschetta with Thyme Cream, a Roasted Farmer’s Market Vegetable Penne Pasta with Local Goat’s Cheese (Childwickbury) and to finish, Victoria Plum & Almond Muffins with lashings of warm vanilla custard.

Three simple vegetarian, seasaonl treats

My two co-pilots were local foodies too, a lovely lady named Kate Keane who has impressively launched her own company called Whole Food Creations making wholemeal pizza and wholemeal pizza bases. Kate cleverly spotted  a gap in the market for wholemeal pizza and started her company by making them from home and selling them at her local farmer’s market. The pizzas are now produced on a larger scale and can be found in shops and online. They were thin, crispy and delicious and Kate was kind enough to share her recipe for the wholemeal bases, too. I’m definitely a convert and the kids would never know they were eating something that is good for them, especially piled high with lots of veggies.

We were also joined by Frances Hale who runs at vintage tea room at the Copper Beach Art Gallery in a Hertfordshire village called Little Wymondley. Fran made a Spinach, Pesto and Ricotta Quiche as well as her brilliantly named Disgustingly Gorgeous Chocolate Cheesecake. The best tip I took from the show was from Fran who said that she lines a deep cake tin with tin foil first, before lining the tin with pastry – letting the edges of the pastry hang over the edge. After blind baking the pastry until it is almost fully baked, she then spoons a layer of red or green pesto in the bottom before filling with the pastry with the creamy quiche mix. Once cooked, she takes the quiche outside and gently chops away the edges, leaving the crumbs for the birds! Adding pistachio to the crumb of her cheesecake was also a great tip, too.

To say that we were well and truly spoilt and well-fed would be an understatement. I made two new friends and am looking forward to visiting Fran and her fellow artists at the art gallery and tea rooms soon.  

Fran’s ‘Disgustingly Gorgeous Chocolate Cheesecake’

You can find all the recipes via the link to the Weekend Kitchen Fact Sheet here. In the meantime, I’ll leave you with my Mushroom and Thyme Cream Brushetta recipe in case you are in need of some inspiration for tonight’s supper.

You can listen to a recording of the show here on iPlayer up until this Saturday.    

Ren’s Mushroom Bruschetta with Thyme Cream

Ingredients

Serves 4

  • 4 slices artisan baked bread, such as sour dough
  • 300ml double cream
  • 2 springs fresh thyme
  • 1 garlic clove, whole
  • 50g vegetarian Parmesan cheese, grated
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped/minced
  • 500g mixed mushrooms, such as chestnut, oyster, finely sliced

Method

  1. To make the thyme cream, pour the double cream into a small pan, add the thyme springs, whole garlic clove and grated vegetarian Parmesan cheese and leave to boil gently. The cream will reduce and become thicker.  
  2. In a separate frying pan, pour in two tablespoons of olive oil, add the onions and gently fry for 2-3 minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Add the finely sliced mushrooms and stir well, cook gently for five minutes, or until the mushrooms are soft.
  3. Take the double cream off the heat and carefully take out the thyme sprigs and garlic clove. Stir well. Pour the thyme cream over the mushrooms, stir well again.
  4. Toast the sourdough bread and drizzle over a tablespoon of olive oil. Spoon the creamy mushrooms over the toast and serve immediately.  

 

Thank you to Nick, Emma and Alex at BBC Three Counties for inviting me back onto the show.

 

Food on the Radio and Rose Petal Jam Review

Yesterday saw Luton celebrating Britain’s biggest one-day carnival as thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate diversity and culture. As Poles make up a large part of the community across Herts, Beds and Bucks, I was invited back to BBC Three Counties Radio to talk to Toby Friedner about Polish celebratory food and culture.

It was a lovely opportunity to be able to reminisce about my own Polish foodie upbringing and to highlight some of my favourite Polish dishes, such as pierogi (filled dumplings) bigos (a Hunter’s stew made with sauerkraut, Polish sausage and mixed meats) and traditional Polish desserts such as Makowiec (poppy seed cake) and Nalesniki (pancakes filled with sweet cheese). I took along some Polish beer for Toby to try, a traditional Sałata Jarzynowa (mixed vegetable salad) some open sandwiches and a couple of Pączki (Polish doughnuts with jam) for good measure.

I was able to point Toby to some of the Polish recipes I have tried and shared on here, such as my mama’s Polish Apple Cake which makes a great teatime treat, ‘Kluski Lane’ or Poured Noodles or the delicious Apple Pancakes.
Though it rained towards the end of the day, I’m sure the Polish crowd in Luton celebrated in style, showcasing their carnival costumes depicting the legends and fairy tales of Poland. Thank you so much to Toby for having me as his guest and to Niki for arranging it in advance. To listen, you can click on this BBC Three Counties Link (iplayer) and catch me talking to Toby from around 1:37 onwards.
If you enjoy listening about food on the radio don’t forget to tune in weekly to Nick Coffer’s Weekend Kitchen  – a fun dinner party on the radio with three rotating guests, usually a chef, a home cook and a wine expert.  You can also listen out for me during the show (usually around 12.30pm) highlighting a great seasonal product every week for you to keep a look out for and try, such as British asparagus, seasonal strawberries or new season’s lamb.
Speaking (or writing) of Polish food, this week I received a newly published book called Rose Petal Jam – Stories and Recipes from a Summer in Poland written by Beata Zatorska & Simon Target which offers a collection of recipes gathered from across Poland intertwined with stunning photography depicting the Polish landscape and history. After 20 years away from home, Beata, a doctor in Sydney, returns to Poland with her English husband Simon, to spend the summer recreating her grandmother’s recipes and exploring the country. This is a book I will certainly be referring to often and I look forward to trying some of the recipes in the book as well as collecting more of my own from home.

Favourites in the book (written in English with UK friendly weights and measurments) so far are the Roast Duck with Apples, Cabbage Rolls, Pork with Caraway and Onion, salads, soups and desserts such as Rose Petal Jam filled doughnuts, the Makowiec cake mentioned above and a traditional Miodownik, a Honey cake with Plum jam – delicious! If you like Polish or Eastern European food I would highly recommend this beautiful book! 

I hope everyone enjoyed their bank holiday weekend. The radio chat was a lovely way to round off a very relaxing weekend for me, having spent the first part of ours visiting friends and seeking out delicious cream teas in Devon.

Look out this week to a round-up of the first installment of Simple and in Season – thank you so much to everyone who took the time to enter and link-up!

Radio Show Write-Up

I am very pleased to report that yesterday’s stint on Nick Coffer’s Weekend Kitchen at BBC Three Counties Radio was a great success!  It was a truly exciting experience for me, quite unlike anything I have ever done before.  It was such fun to meet the host Nick Coffer from My Daddy Cooks as well as television presenter, food writer and cookery book author Lotte Duncan.

We spent two hours eating, drinking and chatting our way through the show.  The food, which included Lotte’s Macaroni Cheese (her mum’s recipe) along with her Nutty Tart to follow, as well as my own Polish meatballs and “Szarotka” Polish apple cake (my mum’s recipe) was washed down perfectly with Neil Irvine’s selection of wines from No.2 Pound Street.

We fought over the crispy bits from Lotte’s scrumptious Macaroni cheese which was laced with Worcestershire sauce, whole grain mustard and bound in a Gruyere and cheddar sauce.  Lotte’s Nutty Tart, made with pecans and almonds nestled in thick maple and golden syrup on a crisp pastry base was gooey, sweet but perfectly crunchy on top. Nick described it as being “smooth with nutty textures” as Lotte explained that the inspiration behind it was a cross between a traditional British treacle tart and an American pecan tart, suitable for any dinner party or gathering. Both recipes are from her new book, Lotte’s Country Kitchen.

My own offerings seemed to also go down very well (huge sigh of relief!)  The Polish meatballs were described by Nick as being “really, really tasty” and Lotte as being “unctuous, moist and flavoursome.” The apple cake was also enjoyed by everyone, all the flavours came through; almond, vanilla, cinnamon, against tart Bramleys on a crumbly shortcrust-style cake base and topping. All our plates were wiped clean leaving very little to take home…a sure sign of great food enjoyed by all.

It was also really interesting to see how a real live radio station works. It’s been a dream of mine ever since being a huge fan of Frasier!  As we joined Nick in his studio, we sat  poised, headphones in place, microphones ready to pick up every sound.  It was a bit nerve-wracking but Nick was the perfect host, chatting away about our dishes which ran alongside the theme of  food from our childhood.

With his new producer Nadine, Nick expertly manned the decks, reading out Tweets and text messages from callers and playing a few songs we had each chosen.  Everyone was so welcoming and friendly that the two hours passed by super quickly.  I could easily have done it all over again as soon as it had finished!

The show is available on BBC iPlayer for a week, after which it will be replaced by next week’s show.  There is also a fact sheet which you can download from the BBC Three Counties Website with all the yummy recipes on it.

I would like to say a huge thank you to Nick Coffer for very kindly inviting me on his show as his “home cook” guest as well as to Nadine and everyone at BBC Three Counties for making us all feel so welcome.

Tomorrow, I will be writing up my Polish apple cake recipe for my blog, along with step-by-step photos for a Monday afternoon teatime treat!

Radio Show Guest!

I’m getting very, very excited as tomorrow I am going to be a guest on a two-hour Food and Wine show on BBC Three Counties Radio.  The show (or rather two-hour lunch and chat) is called Nick Coffer’s Weekend Kitchen.  As well as presenting this fabulous show every Saturday afternoon, Nick and his son Archie have a video blog called My Daddy Cooks. Nick and Archie have also written a cook book due to be published in Spring.

During the show Nick will be bringing in one of his own recipes, as well as talking to his cheffy guest, television presenter and cookery book author Lotte Duncan.  Lotte will also be bringing along two dishes for us all to try from her new book Lotte’s Country Kitchen.

As the theme for this week’s show is “Tastes of your childhood” I (home cook guest) will be taking along two Polish-inspired dishes – Meat Balls (Kotlety Mielone) served with a wild mushroom sauce over noodles and a lovely traditional Polish Apple cake called ‘Szartolka.’  Thank you Mama for the recipes!

We will also be joined by a local wine expert, hoping to bring the flavours of all our dishes out perfectly! Since listeners will only be hear, not taste, our job will be to let you know how yummy (and easy-to-make) these recipes really are!

All the recipes discussed will be available on a Fact Sheet and you can listen to the show live or can find it on iPlayer for 7 days following the show.

Tune in here to listen from 12pm-2pm Saturday lunchtime – Live Link