James Martin's Great British Adventure

by James Martin

  Place a saucer upside down in the bottom of a large saucepan. Lift the basin onto the saucer with the foil strip underneath and folded on top so you can lift the bowl out later. Pour boiling water into the pan to come two-thirds of the way up the bowl then cover with a lid and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1–1½ hours until a skewer inserted into the centre of the pudding comes out clean. Keep an eye on the water level while the pudding is cooking – add hot water from the kettle if it’s getting low.

  Heat the rhubarb, sugar, orange zest and juice and 75ml water in a saucepan over a low heat. Cover with a lid and simmer gently for 10–15 minutes, until the rhubarb is tender but still holds its shape.

  To make the custard, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl. Pour the cream and milk into a pan over a medium heat, add the reserved vanilla pods and bring to the boil. As soon as it comes to the boil, pour it into the egg mixture and stir thoroughly to mix together. Remove the vanilla pods and pour it back into the pan and stir constantly over a gentle heat until thickened, taking care not to overcook or you’ll end up with scrambled eggs!

  Lift the pudding out of the pan and leave to cool for 5 minutes. Take the foil and greaseproof paper off the basin then upturn the pudding onto a large plate. Serve with the custard and the poached rhubarb alongside.

  BREAD & BUTTER PUDDING WITH CHERRY COMPOTE

  The keys to a great bread and butter pudding have to be the egg and egg yolk combo, the cooking time and temperature of the oven. Too many eggs and it tastes eggy, too hot an oven and the mix will soufflé and split, too long in the oven and it will be too firm. When made right, it’s a great dessert and one that should be on menus around the country. By the way, Paul Ainsworth doesn’t make a bad one at Number 6 in Padstow.

  SERVES 6–8

  100g butter, at room temperature

  1 loaf medium-sliced white bread

  4 eggs

  8 egg yolks

  200g caster sugar

  1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

  300ml milk

  300ml double cream

  2 tablespoons icing sugar

  For the compote

  200g cherries, pitted

  50g caster sugar

  Preheat the oven to 150°C (130°C fan)/300°F/gas 2.

  Butter each slice of bread on one side only, then cut off the crusts. Slice each piece in half diagonally to make 2 triangles. Lay them in a 30 x 20cm ovenproof dish, overlapping each slice as you go.

  To make the custard, put the eggs and egg yolks into a large bowl and add the sugar and vanilla bean paste. Whisk together to break down the eggs then pour in the milk and cream and continue to whisk until smooth. Pour as much of the mixture over the bread as possible to cover and set aside to soak for about 20 minutes – you won’t use all the custard at this stage. Keep topping up with more custard until all of it has been poured into the dish.

  Transfer to the oven and bake for 35–40 minutes. The pudding should be bubbling hot but not necessarily golden brown.

  To make the compote, put the cherries and sugar into a saucepan. Heat gently to dissolve the sugar then bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and pour into a bowl.

  Dust the bread and butter pudding with the icing sugar and use a blow torch to caramelise the sugar or place it under a hot grill for a couple of minutes.

  Spoon into bowls and serve with the compote alongside.

  SHERWOOD FOREST PEARS WITH WALNUTS, STILTON & OAT PANCAKES

  North Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent are the main homes of oatcakes. Derbyshire has its version, too, and I’ve also seen Pennine oatcakes on my travels but these are usually made with buttermilk. Whichever type you make, they will all work with simple poached pears and blue cheese. I love them in this salad with honeycomb and walnuts. It makes a great end to a meal (or even a starter).

  SERVES 4

  6 small pears, peeled, halved and cored

  100g caster sugar

  4 fresh elderflower heads (optional, when in season) or 1 tablespoon elderflower cordial

  For the pancakes

  125g medium oatmeal

  125g wholemeal flour

  1 teaspoon sea salt

  1 teaspoon caster sugar

  500ml full-fat milk

  1 tablespoon vegetable oil

  For the candied walnuts

  200g walnut halves

  100g caster sugar

  To serve

  8 celery hearts and leaves

  4 fresh elderflower heads (optional, when in season)

  200g blue Stilton, crumbled

  25g honeycomb

  Start by making the pancake batter so it has a chance to rest. Whisk the oatmeal, flour, salt, sugar and milk together in a bowl until smooth. Cover and leave to rest for 1 hour.

  Put the pears, sugar and fresh elderflowers or cordial into a pan and pour in enough water to cover. Pop a lid on and bring to the boil then simmer for 10 minutes. Drain well and set aside.

  To make the candied walnuts, put the walnuts and sugar into a medium saucepan with 1 tablespoon water and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Turn the heat up slightly to caramelise the sugar and stir constantly to coat the nuts until they are candied. Tip onto a plate lined with baking parchment or silicone to cool.

  Heat a large, flat griddle pan (or use a large, heavy-based frying pan) over a medium heat until hot, drizzle with oil and spoon about a dessertspoonful of the pancake mixture into the pan. Fit as many pancakes as you can in the pan, and cook for 1 minute until golden. Flip over and cook for a further minute on the other side until light golden. Continue cooking the pancakes until all the batter has been used up.

  Put the celery hearts and leaves and elderflowers (if using) into a bowl of iced water to crisp them up.

  To serve, pop the pancakes onto a platter, top with the pears, crumbled Stilton and celery. Scatter over the walnuts, dot with pieces of the honeycomb and finish with the elderflowers.

  DAMSON UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE WITH CIDER CUSTARD

  ‘Plant a plum for your son but plant a damson for your grandson’ – that’s how long these trees take to bear fruit. I should know – I’m still waiting for a crop from the trees in my garden. If you’re lucky enough to have damsons, this is the perfect cake to make but you can use regular plums instead.

  SERVES 8

  200g butter, softened

  200g caster sugar

  4 eggs

  200g self-raising flour

  1 apple, cored and sliced

  200g damsons, halved and stoned

  For the custard

  8 egg yolks

  75g caster sugar

  100ml cider

  300ml double cream

  Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan)/350°F/gas 4. Grease a 23-cm round cake tin and line with baking parchment.

  Put the butter and sugar into the bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with a K-beater. Beat together on a medium speed until the sugar has mixed into the butter and the mixture looks pale and almost white. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, adding a little flour if the mixture looks as though it might curdle, then take the bowl out of the stand. Use a large metal spoon to fold in the flour, along with half of the apple.

  Arrange the remaining apple in the bottom of the tin, spaced apart, then scatter over the damsons evenly. Spoon the cake batter on top, spreading it out so it covers the fruit and is even, then bake in the oven for 40 minutes or until golden and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

  Make the custard. Whisk the egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl until just combined. Pour the cider and cream into a medium pan and heat gently until warm, then pour over the eggs and sugar and whisk everything together. Pour the custard back into the pan and heat gently, continuing to whisk until it starts to thicken. It’s ready when it coats the back of a spoon. Strain through a sieve resting over a bowl, then pour into a jug.

  Upturn the cake onto a plate and peel off the baking paper. Slice and se
rve with the custard poured over the top.

  WELSH CAKES WITH BERRIES & HONEY

  Welsh cakes, or bakestones, are simple to make and taste so much better to me if they’re made by rubbing the ingredients by hand. Cooked on a flat griddle pan with no fat, they can be eaten hot or cold but I think they’re best at room temperature. There are different variations, including Welsh dragons, which have grated apple added; jam splits, which are popular in South Wales; and in the Welsh mountains they add baking powder to make them rise more.

  MAKES 16

  350g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting

  2 teaspoons baking powder

  1 teaspoon mixed spice

  100g currants

  115g caster sugar, plus extra to serve

  175g butter, diced and chilled

  1 egg, beaten

  2 tablespoons full-fat milk

  To serve

  400g raspberries and strawberries

  runny honey

  Heat a flat griddle pan over a medium heat until hot.

  In a bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, spice, currants and caster sugar.

  Add the butter and rub into the dry ingredients using your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Pour in the egg and milk and mix with a spoon or table knife to form a soft dough. Shape into a round disc and flatten slightly.

  Lightly flour a clean work surface and a rolling pin and roll out until the dough is around 1cm thick. Use a 7-cm round cutter and stamp out 16 rounds, re-rolling the dough as necessary.

  Pop the cakes onto the hot griddle and cook in batches for 3 minutes on each side. Take them off the pan, set aside on a large plate and sprinkle with extra caster sugar.

  To serve, pile up the Welsh cakes, top with the berries, drizzle with a little honey and serve.

  BLACKBURN & ECCLES CAKES

  A combination of Blackburn cakes, which contain cooked apple, and the classic Eccles cakes, which are filled with currants, these delicious pastry cakes are a must on a cheese board. Other similar cakes from around the country are Chorley cakes, which are less sweet with a shortcrust pastry and Banbury cakes, which are a larger oval version of a classic Eccles.

  MAKES 12

  450g strong white bread flour, plus extra for dusting

  250g cold butter, grated

  a pinch of salt

  200ml iced water

  1 egg white

  25g caster sugar

  For the filling

  1 large Bramley apple (around 360g), diced

  35g salted butter

  100g currants

  25g caster sugar

  25g light soft brown sugar

  To serve

  Stilton and cheddar cheese

  First make the filling. Put the diced apple into a small pan with ½ tablespoon water, cover with a lid, and cook gently over a low heat until they start to break down. Spoon into a shallow bowl, spread out thinly (so it cools quicker) and chill.

  Melt the butter in a separate pan and add the currants and both types of sugar. Stir together and cook over a low heat for 2 minutes. Spoon into a bowl and chill.

  Now make the pastry. Tip the flour into a bowl and stir in the butter and salt. Drizzle the water over the top and mix with a round-bladed table knife to bring the mixture together to make a rough dough. Use your hands to gently and quickly knead the mixture until smooth. Form the pastry into a disc, wrap in clingfilm and chill for 30 minutes.

  Preheat the oven to 200°C (180°C fan)/400°F/gas 6.

  Dust a clean work surface with flour. Divide the dough into 4 even pieces. Roll out one piece until it’s around 3–4mm thick. Use a 10-cm round cutter to stamp out 3 rounds. Divide the apple mixture roughly into 12 and put a spoonful into the middle of each round of pastry. Do the same with the currant mixture. Fold the pastry over the filling and seal together tightly. Flip over, shape into a round, and pop onto a large baking sheet. Do the same with the rest of the pastry and filling until you’ve shaped 12 cakes.

  Brush each pastry cake with egg white and sprinkle with a little caster sugar, then cut 2 or 3 slits in the top of each with a knife. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until golden and the pastry is crisp.

  Cool on a wire rack until warm and serve with the cheese.

  CHOCOLATE STOUT CAKE

  Stout is a dark, rich top-fermented beer and is the only type of beer you can use for this cake and the icing, so don’t start going off-piste and using Stella or other stuff – it won’t work!

  SERVES 10

  200g butter

  150g dark chocolate, broken into pieces

  300ml stout

  4 eggs

  500g soft light brown sugar

  350g self-raising flour

  For the icing

  400g full-fat cream cheese

  25ml stout

  200g icing sugar

  a couple of squares of dark or milk chocolate, to decorate

  Preheat the oven to 160°C (140°C fan)/320°F/gas 3. Line a 27-cm, deep-sided cake tin with greaseproof paper.

  Put the butter, chocolate and stout into a large heatproof bowl and rest over a pan of just-simmering water, making sure the base doesn’t touch the water, until the butter and chocolate have melted. Lift the bowl off the pan and leave to cool slightly.

  Add the eggs and sugar to the mixture and whisk well, then fold in the flour until the mixture is smooth.

  Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour. Leave to cool in the tin before turning out.

  To make the icing, whisk the cream cheese, stout and icing sugar together in a bowl until smooth. Spoon on top of the cake and spread out to cover. Grate the chocolate over the top and serve.

  CHOCOLATE & CHERRY GIN CAKE

  Cherries, chocolate and kirsch are, of course, the classic ingredients of Black Forest gâteau, a staple cake in British homes and on menus in the 1970s and ’80s. This cake is a more up-to-date version using gin. The number of different varieties of gin being produced now around the country is crazy but my favourite from my travels is Forager’s Gin from the Snowdonia Distillery in Wales. It’s as delicious with tonic and ice as it is with this cake. They only make small batches of the stuff but get hold of it if you can and tell me what you think.

  MAKES 2 CAKES, EACH SERVES 8

  9 eggs

  250g caster sugar

  1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

  40g cocoa powder, plus extra to decorate

  200g self-raising flour

  For the syrup

  100ml gin

  100g caster sugar

  300g cherries with stalks

  For the jam

  300g pitted cherries

  50g caster sugar

  For the cream

  750ml double cream

  50ml gin

  Line 2 x 20-cm deep-sided cake tins with greaseproof paper. Preheat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan)/350°F/gas 4.

  To make the syrup, pour the gin and sugar into a saucepan. Heat to dissolve the sugar, then add the cherries and set aside to cool.

  Next make the jam. Put the cherries and sugar into a heavy-based medium pan and heat gently to dissolve the sugar. Bring to a simmer and cook for 2–3 minutes until the fruit has cooked down and is jammy.

  To make the cakes, whisk the eggs and sugar together in the bowl of a freestanding mixer until thick and mousse-like. This takes around 10 minutes. Whisk in the vanilla then add the cocoa and flour and fold in using a large metal spoon until everything is combined, making sure there are no floury bits left.

  Divide the cake batter evenly between the lined tins and bake for 25–30 minutes or until a skewer (or cocktail stick) inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn each cake out to cool completely. Wrap one in clingfilm and freeze for up to a month (see below). Remove the paper from the other cake.

  Whip the cream and gin together in a bowl until the mixture forms soft peaks. Spoon into a piping bag, fitted with a 1-cm nozzle.


  Place the cake on a board and use a serrated bread knife to carefully slice horizontally into three layers. Spoon some of the syrup over each layer. Put the bottom layer onto a serving plate, pipe cream all over and spread with jam. Lift the middle layer on top and do the same with the cream and jam. Finally, place the top layer on and pipe rosettes of cream all over (if you like). Dust with cocoa powder and top with the gin syrup-poached cherries.

  JAMES’S TIP

  This cake freezes beautifully and will still have a lovely light texture once thawed. Take out of the freezer the night before you want to use it and thaw at cool room temperature, then unwrap and fill, as above.

  LARDY CAKE

  Originally from the West Country, the lardy cake is the classic English tea bread. Some claim the cake came from Hampshire and Essex, others from Kent and the list goes on and on. Even Yorkshire can be in contention with its dripping cake. Either way, it graces menus everywhere from royal dinners to Gran’s suppers, so it rightly deserved a place on the show and in this book.

  SERVES 8

  450g strong white bread flour, plus extra for kneading

  150g lard, cubed

  50g caster sugar

  1 teaspoon salt

  225g mixed dried fruit

  10g fresh yeast

  300ml lukewarm water

  For the glaze

  250g caster sugar

  To serve

  clotted cream

  raspberry jam

  Grease and line a 23-cm round cake tin with baking parchment.

  Tip the flour into the bowl of a freestanding mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the lard and sugar and mix for 1 minute until combined, then add the salt and dried fruit.

  Put the yeast and water into a jug and mix together until the yeast has dissolved, then pour this into the flour mixture and mix to form a soft, sticky dough. Lightly flour a clean work surface, tip out the dough and knead for 3 minutes until smooth.