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Latest Blog Story

FOOD HEROINE 2017!

Published 30th October 2017

Well I hope you got involved with British Food Fortnight this year which ran from 23rd September to 8th October? From taking a look at www.lovebritishfood.co.uk and checking out all the ways to buy British food and attend British food events during the 14 days of these celebrations.

I was busy showcasing Lincolnshire primary, secondary and special schools who work throughout the year to educate their children about British food and farming.  But now the work has begun for us all to prepare for next year's celebrations.  I've already started planning and have decided to make use of the fantastic "What's in Season" chart on the Love British website to create recipes based solely on what's in season for each month.  So look out for some of my recipes appearing on this website, but especially on our @Ownsworths facebook page and my very own @TheBritishFarmer'sWife facebook page!  Here I'll share my recipes, tell you a more about the great producers and farmers locally and provide links to useful websites.

I've got some great news to share with you all!  As you know we are members of Love British Food and you'll remember back in 2015 the people at LBF asked me to be their Community Volunteer (East Midlands).  Well - for all my hard work promoting British Food Fortnight 2017 (especially showcasing our local schools' food education) the National Co-op (the sponsors behind British Food Fortnight) and Love British Food have awarded me one of their Food Heroine 2017 plaques.  I'm absolutely delighted! and very humbled.  Work now starts on engaging with others next year.

And I'm keen to hear from anyone in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Northamptonshire, Rutland who would like to report back to Love British Food on what's happening in their county as regards preparing events for British Food Fortnight 2018 and beyond.  Become a Community Volunteer for your county - it's great fun! you learn so much about what is happening food-wise and farming related.  It's great if you are a farmer's wife or are involved in the food or catering industry, but honestly, you don't have to be - as long as you have passion for the course and a couple of hours spare a month to source information from your local glossies/newspapers, engage with groups through social media or email, or can inspire others to create a food event, however small, for British Food Fortnight - that's great!

Do take a look at "Our Volunteers" section on the www.lovebritishfood.co.uk website to read up on what you can do to help - they're better than me at explaining it all!

I know it's not Christmas for a few weeks yet, but I thought you might like to try this recipe with some of the stilton cheese you might have left at Christmas.  Either eat them warm, or they're great as a little canape/starter.

Stilton & Bacon filled mini Yorkshire Puddings

First make the basic white sauce:

2 tablespoons Ownsworth's Rapeseed Oil
45 g (1 1/2 oz) plain flour
600 ml (1 pint) milk
salt and pepper

Method:

Gently heat the rapeseed oil in a heavy saucepan over a low heat.  Remove from the heat and add the plain flour, stirring with a hand whisk or wooden spoon to make a smooth paste (or roux).  Add approximately  150 ml (1/4 pint) of the milk to the paste and beat well with the whisk.  Once smooth add the remaining milk.  Return the pan to the heat, turning it up to bring the white sauce to a boil, whisking continuously.  Once the sauce begins to bubble and thicken, reduce the heat to allow the flour to cook out.

Now add some crumbled stilton cheese (the amount depends on you and your taste and the strength of the particular blue cheese you have).  Let this melt into the warm white sauce.  Next fry off some bacon until golden and crisp, chop into small pieces and mix into the stilton sauce.

Spoon this tasty filling into mini bitesize yorkshire puddings - you can either make these yourself with your own favourite recipe and using muffin tins or you can buy them from your local supermarket.

Eat warm or have instead of vol-au-vents for a nice change!