Readers’ favourite farmhouse recipes
Farmers Weekly readers have been scouring their recipe books for their best farmhouse recipes – Rachel Jones picks a handful of her favourites, just in time for British Food Fortnight
Saturday 17 September marks the start of British Food Fortnight – 14 days dedicated to championing the best produce that is grown, reared, brewed, baked, matured, cured and cooked in the UK. Now in its 10th year, this national event will see food tastings taking place in supermarkets, cookery lessons held in schools, all-British menus in pubs and restaurants, and food festivals running up and down the country. Of course, no one knows more about British ingredients, and the best way to cook them, than the farmers and farming families who produce them. With this in mind, we asked readers to dig out recipes for their favourite farmhouse fare – the dishes that never fail to get the kids running for the kitchen table and have the whole family demanding second helpings. The only question is, which one will you be cooking this British Food Fortnight?
Apple cake
Rachel Warwick used to make this apple cake as little girl with her mum on the family’s beef farm in north Cornwall. These days Rachel is one half of online cake business The Nutty Tarts, but she’s still making the same apple cake today. “Home baking has always played a big part in our lives and at Nutty Tarts we are passionate about real cake – cakes made using real ingredients,” explains Rachel’s business partner Deborah. “This recipe represents all that we are about.”
175g/6oz self-raising flour
85g/3oz caster sugar
1 level tsp baking powder
1 egg, beaten
6-7 tbsp milk
50g/1¾oz melted butter
For the topping
50g/1¾oz melted butter
2 cooking apples, peeled and thinly sliced
85g/3oz caster sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
Handful sultanas (optional)
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Line the bottom of a 20cm x 24cm (8 x 9½in) cake tin with greaseproof paper and set aside. Beat all the cake ingredients together in a big bowl until light and fluffy. Spoon the mixture into the prepared cake tin. Pour the melted butter over the top and sprinkle with sultanas. Arrange the apple slices on top. Mix the sugar and the cinnamon together in a small bowl, then sprinkle over the apples. Bake in the preheated oven for about 35 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool then remove from the tin. Store in an airtight container for up to five days.
Pork and apricots
This tasty pork dish comes courtesy of Anne Shedden, whose family farms pigs in Tollerton, North Yorkshire. Why should you give it a go? It’s quick and easy to prepare, it can be made using cheaper cuts like pork shoulder, so won’t make a big dent in the family food budget, and it’s adaptable too: “My twin grandsons aged 12 months really enjoy this dish when I make it with apple juice instead of cider or wine, so it is a hit with all my family,” explains Anne.
Small onion chopped
2lbs/900g diced pork (leg or shoulder)
1 tbsp flour
12 dried apricots chopped
½ pint dry white wine (or cider or apple juice)
1tbsp redcurrant jelly
¼ pint double cream
Knob of butter
Salt and pepper
Melt the butter and sauté the onion. Add the pork and sauté again briskly until brown. Stir in flour and add salt and pepper to taste. Add the apricots and wine. Cook for 45min to 1 hour at 180C/350F/Gas 4. Before serving stir in redcurrant jelly and cream and allow to heat through. Serves 6.
Sticky toffee pudding
Husband and wife Clare and Sam Fairs sent us this recipe for that old British classic – sticky toffee pudding. In a departure from the traditional however, it calls for rapeseed oil (which they produce on their family-run farm outside Halesworth in Suffolk), instead of butter. The recipe was specially developed for the couple by local chef Galton Blackiston.
110ml rapeseed oil
175g/6oz light, soft brown sugar
4 eggs
225g/8oz self raising flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp Camp coffee
275ml boiling water
225g/8oz stoned, chopped dates
Line a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin with greaseproof paper. Mix together the oil and sugar, then slowly add four beaten eggs. Fold in the sieved flour and set aside. Meanwhile mix the bicarb and Camp coffee and pour this over the dates, followed by the boiling water. Mix well, allow to cool for 10 minutes and then pour onto the creamed mixture. Bring together to create a very runny batter. Pour into the prepared cake tin and bake at 180C/350F/Gas mark 4 for 1 hour 15 minutes or until springy to touch. Serve with butterscotch sauce and cream.
Savoury leek pudding
This savoury leek pudding is a favourite of Anne Lawson‘s, not least because it cooks in only seven minutes. She likes to serve it up as an accompaniment to a rich beef and beer stew, which she makes with braising steak and Guinness, along with a generous mound of mashed potato. “This is an old recipe which originally would have been steamed for a couple of hours,” says Anne, who lives on the family’s 210-acre stock farm in Hallington, Northumberland. “I experimented and found it worked just as well in the microwave.” British leek season is a matter of weeks away, so cut this recipe out and keep it to hand for when the veggies are at their best.
225g/8oz self raising flour
100g/4oz suet
Chopped leeks (2 small or 1 large)
Salt and pepper
Water
Put flour, suet, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well. Add chopped leeks and stir in enough cold water to make a doughy consistency. Put into a large greased pudding dish and cook for seven minutes in the microwave. Stand for about a minute before tipping upside down onto a serving plate. Divide it up into individual portions. Serve topped with stew and accompaniments of your choice. Serves 6.
Mulled cider
Having a party? Why not save yourself a catering headache and make one giant batch of “Wiggly Frolic Mulled Cider”. This extra boozy concoction was sent to us by farmer’s wife and owner of Wiggly Wigglers garden supplies business Heather Gorringe, who likes to serve it to her guests in jam jars. “The recipe comes from Herefordshire cider maker extraordinaire Tom Oliver, and will blow your socks off!” she says.
5 gallons of Tom Oliver’s cider
1 bag of brown sugar
Half a bag of white sugar
Half a little bag of ginger
2 oranges chopped up
6 sliced apples
5 apples with cloves stuck in them
1 lemon chopped
and a bottle of rum!
Put all the ingredients in a huge pot. Allow an hour to heat it all through. Do not boil but make sure all the sugar is melted. Serve in jam jars.
What’s cooking in your kitchen?
Have you got a favourite recipe that you’d like to see in the pages of Farmers Weekly? Whether it’s an old favourite that has been handed down the generations like Rachel’s, a dish that you’ve concocted yourself from scratch, or a well-known classic that you’ve tweaked over the years to call your own – we want to hear about it. Just go to and fill out the details (it’s really easy and only takes a few minutes). The Farmlife team will pick their favourites and print them periodically in the magazine and online.