Food, drink and recipes from Pendle!

8 oz figs
2 eggs
4 oz suet
4 oz brown sugar
6 oz breadcrumbs
1 large tablespoon syrup

Beat the eggs in a basin and chop the figs into small pieces. Combine all the ingredients and mix them thoroughly. Put everything into a well buttered basin, then cover with grease-proof paper and steam for about three hours. Serve with custard.

Stuffed Pendle Potatoes

Already cooked jacket potatoes (medium to large)
Sausage meat
Sage and onion stuffing

Cook the sausage meat in a frying pan over a low heat for about fifteen minutes, then add the stuffing mixture and in the ratio of one teaspoonful per three to four ounces of meat, and then remove from the stove heat. Cut the potatoes in half along their length, scoop out the potato insides, but leave a good amount of potato lining the skins, then place the potato in the pan with the cooled sausage meat. Mix well and place it back into the potato skins, put in the oven for about twenty minutes or until nice and golden.

Colne Loaf

Use young and crisp celery, with a good amount of heart and young centre leaf.

A couple of good sticks of celery
8 oz pork sausage meat
4 eggs
Seasoning
1/2 large onion (more to taste)
2 oz breadcrumbs
2 firm tomatoes, chopped
A little dried sage
1lb boiled bacon (or ham)
1/4 pint of water

Hard boil three of the four eggs and remove the shells. Mince the boiled ham or bacon and chop the onion; mix these with the sausage meat and the chopped tomatoes. Chop and dice the celery and simmer for ten minutes in salted water. Add the boiled celery and one egg-cupful of water from the celery to the bacon, also add the breadcrumbs, the dried sage and the fourth, well whisked.
Put half this of mixture into a loaf tin, well oiled with a little butter, then add the whole hard boiled eggs and finally pour in the last of the bacon mix. Put this loaf tin in a larger tin containing water and bake the whole thing for upwards of an hour at 350F.Serve hot or cold.

Savoury Flaps

This recipe is made all across Lancashire, in various forms. One alternative is to use two duck eggs.

2 or 3 eggs
1 small onion, chopped
1/4 lb corned beef
1/2 pint of full cream milk, including the cream
3 ripe tomatoes, skinned and chopped (or half a small tin of tomatoes)
1/4 lb plain flour
Mixed herbs to taste
Coarse grated tasty Lancashire cheese

Make your batter from the eggs, flour, salt and full cream milk as for pancakes, then make four pancakes and keep them warm. Chop the corned beef into a saucepan, and add the ripe tomatoes, the chopped onion and a pinch of herbs. Cook this mixture until soft, then fill each pancake. Fold them up and sprinkle the grated cheese on them. Grill the pancakes until the cheese melts and browns.

Parkin

2 pints of SR flour
1 pint oatmeal
1 pint sugar
Half a pound of lard

Take half a pint of treacle and add half a pint of boiling water; stir together. Rub the lard into the flour, oats and sugar, then add the treacle and water and put in a roasting tin. Cook at gas mark 3 for one and a half hours.

Ginger Parkin

A cup of water
1 beaten egg
A cup of sugar
2 cups of flour
4 ozs margarine or butter
teaspoonful of ginger
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1/2 teaspoonful bicarbonate of soda

Place the water, sugar, margarine or butter and syrup in a pan and heat gently until it's melted. Add the other ingredients to this pan and mix well. Pour the whole lot into a well greased tin and bake until golden in a moderate oven.

Burnley Parkin

12 oz plain flour
12 oz warm golden syrup
4 oz oatmeal
1 oz sugar
2 oz lard
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 oz butter
1/2 teaspoon bi-carb
1 teaspoon ginger
1 egg dropped in whole

Mix together the dry ingredients, then rub the fat well in and add the golden syrup and the egg; mix the whole lot well and then spread it all into a large well buttered tin. Bake for ten minutes at Mark 4 then for fifty minutes at Mark 3.

Stovies

1 lb potatoes
1 lb onions

Slice all the ingredients thinly, then layer them alternately in a baking dish, adding butter and salt and pepper on each layer. The top layer is potato; bake in a moderate oven for one to one and a half hours.

Broth and Dumplings

Place a piece of brisket into a large pan of water. Cut up a swede, a few carrots, a cabbage, some onions, a few potatoes and peas - add more or less of any ingredient according to taste and boil slowly until the meat is cooked. Skim off any fat.
Make dumplings from 1/2 lb self-raising flour, 1/4 lb suet, grated; salt and pepper to taste. Rub the suet well into the flour, form the mixture into balls, and boil in the broth for twenty minutes before serving. Wonderfully warm and sustaining.

Padiham Pie

1 lb cold roast beef
good teaspoonful gravy powder
1/4 lb onions
pepper and salt
1 small tin each of tomatoes and baked beans
1 and a half lbs potatoes (Pilling potatoes if possible, since the flavour is so good)
1 good teasponful flour
1/4 lb Lancashire cheese

Mince the beef and chop the onions, then mix in the tomatoes, beans, flour, gravy powder and seasoning. Place in a suitable dish and cover with slices of Pilling potato. Bake at about 375F (Gas Mark 5) for forty five minutes, and after about thirty minutes, top with grated cheese.
Filling and delicious, this recipe serves four to six, depending on how hungry people are.

Syllabub

1/2 pint fresh double cream
2 level teaspoons very finely grated rind of lemon
1/4 pint white wine
Juice of a small lemon
3 oz castor sugar

Put all the ingredients except the cream into a bowl and stand for three hours. Even better, leave it to mingle overnight. Add the cream and whip until the mixture stands in soft peaks. It will keep for several days, but will be used much more quickly! Looks good when piled high into wine or sundae glasses.

Nettle Champ

Basically Champ is always composed of freshly boiled and mashed potatoes, with butter and milk added. For Nettle Champ:

1 and a half lb potatoes
1/4 pint of milk
1 teacup of chopped young nettle tops
Pepper and salt

Boil the nettles in the milk for ten minutes, then add them to the already mashed potatoes. Season to taste and serve hot. Alternatively, try it with chives, spring onions, cabbage, greens or tender peas or even young dandelion leaves.

Meat & Potato Hash and Dumplings

4 or 5 carrots
King Edwards potatoes (about 5 or 6 medium ones)
2 onions finely chopped, or if you prefer 1 onion and 2 leeks
500 grams of mushrooms cut into quarters
1 lb stewing steak
1 lb mince beef
1 tin of corned beef
2 Oxo or Bovril cubes
2 tablespoons of Worcester sauce
gravy powder/thickener
Packet of peas - frozen will do nicely
dumplings  (see recipe for Broth and Dumplings above)

Brown the mince, stewing steak, onions and mushrooms in a large pan. Peel and chop vegetables into biggish chunks and add to the cooked meat, with enough water to just cover the mix. Next add Oxo cubes, then bring it all bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 minutes stirring now and again. After 30 minutes you can chop the corned beef in to chunks and add it along with a packet of peas. Add the dumplings and simmer for another 20 minutes or until the dumplings are cooked. Then thicken as necessary or desired, add the Worcester sauce to taste. Serve with crusty bread and red cabbage or sliced beetroot.

Pea and Ham Soup

This freezes well and will reheat in the microwave. 

Take 1 kilo bag of dried marrowfat peas (from the supermarket) and soak overnight in cold water.  Leave out the soaking tablets as they are only there to make the peas look greener. Take one ham shank, wash it and simmer the whole hank in a large covered pan in ample water until the meat is falling off the bone (this may take a couple of hours or more). Then allow the shank to cool before putting it into the fridge overnight - make sure you keep the cooking water as this is now a ham stock. Next day, rinse the peas and add them to the stock. Bring the water and peas to the boil and simmer for about 1 hour or until really falling apart. If you need to add salt to taste, do it now. Next take the meat from the ham shank, chop it all into small pieces and add the pieces to the peas. This will make a dozen good portions. If you have too much meat, use it wisely in another recipe!

Lancashire Hotpot

A traditional hotpot has a crust, not potatoes on top! (Well, that's one school of thought!) A hotpot with a crust has to be wet but not too liquid because the crust cooks in the steam underneath, which makes it  feather light underneath and lovely and crunchy on the top where it was exposed to the heat of the oven.

Here's Irene Smith's recipe for a real hotpot:

Use a brown earthenware basin. Cut up stewing or braising steak (smaller pieces cook more quickly), slice a few carrots, roughly cut up some onions and potatoes, using more potatoes than the other ingredients -  approximately one inch pieces will be fine. The potatoes should be King Edwards. Then layer the dish with the ingredients, seasoning each layer of meat layer. Leave about 4 inches at the top. Pour in boiling water so it nearly reaches the top and place the whole lot in a hot oven (Gas 7) with a tin plate  or foil on top. After about an hour, take it out and stir well. Judge whether to turn the heat down if you think this necessary - the dish usually takes at least a couple of hours, but when the meat is tender, make the crust. After you have added it, turn up the oven to Gas 8 - you can turn it down later if the crust is browning too quickly.

For the crust:
Use 4 ounces Atora dried Suet to 8 ounces self raising flour, add salt to taste and add cold water sparingly, mixing gently until it holds together do not over mix. Sprinkle flour on the worktop and gently  shape it with your hands until it fits the top of your dish. Make two slits in the middle for the steam to escape, and then lift out the dish and place the crust on top. Cooking it takes from 20 to 35 minutes - check it regularly, and when golden brown and firm to the touch, serve the Hotpot with pickled red cabbage or home cooked mushy peas.

Proper Mushy Peas

Cook them in a slow cooker - if you boil them, the skins separate. Use 2 boxes of Bigga marrowfats; soak overnight with (or without) the soaking tablets, then next day rinse the peas in a few changes of cold water. Put them in a slow cooker, cover with just boiling water and leave them to heat through for about 4-6 hours, or until soft. Don't add salt before cooking, as this makes them tough. They will be whole but have a nice bit of thick juice. You can add a sprinkle of black pepper and when cooked, salt to taste. They freeze superbly - and are great to get out of the freezer when you have fish and chips (you can just warm them in a pan)!

George Page's Lancashire Roly Poly

1lb SR Flour
8oz Suet
a pinch of salt
Cold water to mix 

You can fill this with sausage meat and leeks or a delicious mix of onion and bacon or a sweet mix of currants with sugar to sweeten. Cover with grease proof paper, roll up the roly poly in tinfoil, cover with water in a tin in the oven at 180 degrees and bake for at least 2 hours.

Lancashire Hot Pot

Hot Pot can be made from bacon (or bacon bits). Butter an oven proof dish - earthenware always seems to work better - then build up layers of bacon, cooked onion, partly cooked potatoes and baked beans until you reach the top of the dish - the last layer is lots of fatty bacon strewn over the potato. Cover with foil and bake in a hot oven for 30 minutes before turning down to a minimum setting, where the dish can be left just about all day - when you want to serve, turn the heat to maximum, uncover the top to brown and crisp. Very filling and great served with crusty buttered bread. Season with pepper and salt to taste. You can quicken up the cooking time by partly cooking the potatoes first if you wish.

Cheese and Onion Pie

Use good short crust pastry, buy it ready made or if you make it use half fat to amount of flour, preferably a mix of lard or dripping and butter, or use all butter. Use just enough iced water to bind together, roll out thinly on a floured work surface and cut the pastry to the shape of the plate to be covered. There's a saying that plate pies always taste better. Fill with a mixture of good Lancashire cheese and pre cooked and seasoned onions in layers, starting with the onions. Don't skimp on the cheese! Place rolled pastry on top, and finish with a little hole to let the steam escape. Bake in a hot pre-heated oven till golden brown and remember hot cheese is very hot so let it cool a little if you can!

Lancashire Hot Pot

2 oz eel (This makes all the difference)
8 oz lambs' hearts
3 Small Lamb chops
A medium size bag of potatoes (peeled and sliced)
3 Carrots (sliced)
1 Onion (chopped)
3 Table spoons of baby milk (Grandma's special ingredient)
8 Pints of water.
2 Oranges (peeled and chopped)
2 Egg white and 2 oz of Corn flour.

This is easy: put all the ingredients in a slow cooker for 8 hours, making sure you stir regularly. It sounds a bit unusual but apparently this is an old recipe.

Meat And Potato Pie

2lb potatoes peeled and diced
four carrots diced
1lb stewing steak
1 onion diced

Fry the steak and onion, cut up the carrots and place them in a pan, cook for five minutes. Brown the meat, then add carrots and onions to the meat. Make about a pint of Oxo stock, then pour into pan and add the potatoes, continue cooking until potatoes are cooked, before seasoning with salt and black pepper. Place everything into an ovenproof casserole dish. Put to one side and make the pastry with 4oz plain flour mixed with 2oz lard or butter and 2-3 teaspoons of water. Mix together to make a nice short pastry, then roll it out on a floured surface and place on top of your casserole dish. Cook in the oven for 25 - 30 minutes or until it is golden brown.

Chorley Cakes

Chorley cakes are  local dish made with shortcrust pastry, currants, raisins, butter and sugar. Mix a selection of dried fruit with butter and sugar. Roll out a suitable piece of pastry, cut a round and add a dollop of the fruit mix, wet the edges, fold the pastry to the centre, then gently press down. Brush with milk then pop into oven at 180 degrees C for about 25 minutes. Flaky or puff pastry is used in the smaller Eccles cakes.

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