This recipe is based on a traditional North German recipe, but will be perfect with any variety of English cooking apple.

Apple cake with a crispy almond topping

Serves 6 to 8

For the pastry:

300g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 large egg
80g sugar
Few drops vanilla extract
150g butter

For the filling:

Six large peeled apples sliced
1 tablespoon water
60g sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon rum

For the topping:

80g butter
80g sugar
2 dessertspoons honey
150g sliced almonds
1 tablespoon milk

Make a pliable dough from the plain flour, egg, baking powder, vanilla extract and butter.

Line the bottom and sides of a well buttered (or greaseproof paper lined) spring form cake tin with half of the dough and blind bake for 10 or 15 minutes at 180 degrees Celsius. Allow to cool.

For the filling, slice the apples and simmer gently in a pan containing the water, sugar, cinnamon and rum for 5 minutes. Once cooled, add to prebaked pastry shell and top with the other half of the dough.

Make the topping by heating up the butter with the sugar, honey and almonds. Once melted, add the milk and pour onto the top of the cake.

Bake for 20-30 minutes at 180 degrees until the topping is golden brown.

Remove from oven and allow to cool fully before removing from the tin.

Slice and serve on its own or with whipped cream or ice cream.

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Washed Pant Nettles ready for the pot

Even if your garden isn’t plagued with nettles, there are always plenty to be found in and around Pant. Nettles are best harvested – using gloves – before they flower (around May) and the further away from a road or an area sprayed with pesticides the better.

Pant Nettle Soup – turning weeds into food

Chose only the smallest leaves to cook, you will have to pull up the rest of the plant if you are trying to rid your garden of the plant. But if you do get rid of them all, you might have to go foraging further afield next year if you acquire a taste for these shoots.

If you haven’t had nettles before the best way to describe the taste is spinach-like. The acid that is contained in the sting is diluted by cooking, so they won’t sting the mouth. Finally, only collect plants you can positively identify, as some wild plants are, of course, poisonous.

Pant Nettle Soup

Serves two

200g washed nettle leaves
1½ tablespoons butter
30g plain flour
Small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 vegetable stock cube dissolved in 500 ml boiling water
¼ teaspoon mixed herbs
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
100 ml single cream
Salt and pepper to taste

Deadnettle flowers, chopped hard boiled egg and olive oil to garnish

Collect only the smallest nettle leaves (don’t forget to wear gloves). After washing, add to enough boiling water to cover and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Use a blender to finely chop the cooked leaves and a little of the cooking water. The rest of the cooking water can be discarded.

Make a roux by melting the butter, adding the flour and cooking for a couple of minutes.

Add the onion and garlic and fry for 10 minutes on a gentle heat. Blend in the stock, herbs and nutmeg. Use a whisk to avoid lumps.

Then, add the nettles and the cream. Stir through and pour into bowls, garnished with the flowers, egg and oil.

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Homemade chocolate truffles make ideal Christmas gifts

Since taking over as head chef at the hotel, Thomas says he has been passionate about making everything from scratch. “From our breads that we serve in the restaurant, right down to the homemade fudge we put in our hotel bedrooms, we make it all,” he says.
According to Thomas, Christmas is a time for sharing. And what better way to show you care than to make a handmade present using Thomas’s recipe for homemade chocolate truffles?

“This is a nice and simple recipe,” he says, “and it makes beautiful truffles, perfect for a gift or to impress your dinner guests.”

www.sweeneyhall.co.uk

Homemade chocolate truffles

Makes approx 25 truffles

For the truffles:
175g of chocolate – any of your choice. I use a dark chocolate with a high cocoa content.
40g unsalted butter
25g caster sugar

For the coatings:
100g of hazelnuts, toasted and chopped for hazelnut truffles
2 tablespoons of icing sugar and 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder combined for chocolate dusted truffles
Mixed colour sugars for sugar coated truffles
Crushed meringue for meringue truffles
Plus many more – you can be as creative as you like with the coatings!

Put on a pan with some water in the bottom and bring to a simmer. Place all the truffle ingredients into a metal mixing bowl and place over the pan of water.

Mix until smooth and then place the chocolate into a fridge for approximately four hours – just long enough to partially set the chocolate, but still easy enough to handle.

Break up the mixture into small pieces, enough for 25 truffles, and roll each one into the different coatings. My personal favourites are the hazelnut truffles as they roll easily and look the most effective.

Place the made truffles into truffle cases and you’re done!

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Alter the amount of chilli in this pumpkin curry to suit your taste

Most, if not all, of the ingredients are available at the Co-operative store in Pant or at Llynclys Farm shop, although if there are no pumpkins around, you might need to substitute butternut squash or marrow.  The advantage of making your own pumpkin curry is that you can decide how much chilli to use and therefore how hot it will be.

Per portion this is a very economical meal to make –  don’t forget to use a windfall apple, if you can get one – and served with some mango chutney and perhaps some poppadoms, it spices up any lunch or dinnertime.

Pumpkin and butter bean curry

Serves 4 to 6

Half a medium pumpkin – approx 1kg – peeled and cubed
One medium onion finely sliced
2 cloves of garlic crushed
One yellow or red pepper sliced
200g mushrooms chopped roughly
1 medium cooking apple peeled and cubed
400g tin of butter beans
1 tin of coconut milk
1 tablespoon hot curry powder
2 teaspoons crushed chilli flakes (optional)
2 vegetable stock cubes
Chopped coriander leaves (optional)
Half a lemon or lime
Salt and pepper to taste

Fry the onion in a little butter or oil until soft. Then add the pepper, garlic and mushrooms and fry for a couple of minutes without burning.

Turn down the heat slightly, add the curry powder and fry for two more minutes.

Then add the coconut milk, stock cubes and chilli flakes and bring to a gentle simmer. Add water as required to maintain a thick but not dry consistency.

Add the pumpkin and apple pieces and simmer for 30-40 minutes until soft. Check the consistency of the curry regularly and add more water if required. Just before serving, add the butter beans to warm through and season to taste.

Squeeze the lemon or lime juice into the pumpkin curry and serve with plain boiled rice, sprinkled with coriander leaves, or naan bread.

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