Posts Tagged ‘Fairtrade’

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

Kit-Kat Goes Fairtrade

Monday, December 7th, 2009

Fairtrade has just announced that Kit-Kat, the massive brand of Nestlé in the UK, is switching its cocoa over to Fairtrade.  This will start in mid January 2010 and is obviously a reaction to Cadbury’s Dairy Milk going Fairtrade in Summer 2009.  See press release.

That’s great news for the Fairtrade movement and cocoa farmers. 

However, I am sure that many fairtrade compaigners and ethical entrepreneurs will be bemused, and have quite a lot to say, that Fairtrade has become so mainstream that Nestlé, often regarded as the devil incarnate, should be embraced so closely by Fairtrade.

It will be good news in terms of cash, but it probably means that small businesses like Steenbergs will become ever more marginalised within Fairtrade as we become regarded as irritable fleas upon the greater ethical system, and (horror of horrors) views and opinions on Fairtrade.  Internal systems will be devised to meet the requirements of big business, rather than being entrepreneurial in its structure, so discriminating against smaller UK manufacturers; but does that matter if producers in the developing world are benefitting from the extra cash – probably not as long as the influence of the large brands and multiples does not start to dilute down the principles of Fairtrade and/or the rake off of the Fairtrade premium to the producers.

We shall plough on regardless, however.  Maybe, there could be a system more focused on smaller family-owned enterprises in the UK that target the independent sectors, rather than the major multiples, but ideally such an initiative would be within the wider Fairtrade framework enabling it to nurture newer ethical brands.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Ethical living | No Comments »

Time to check your Christmas cake etc

Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009

It’s been so wet and miserable over the last few weeks and we’ve had a tsunami of orders at Steenbergs so I’ve had no time to think about my blog, but it’s 6 in the morning and I’m up and awake. 

The River Ure broke its banks by Ripon Race Course, so we had to drive through a ford where the two flooded fields overflowed into each other.  The Ure also flooded by the bridge at Boroughbridge and their sandbags were still out last night, and someone said the bridge may have moved, but I saw no-one looking at it so I guess it has been checked.

The beginning of December is the time when I take a peak at my Christmas cake and mincemeat.  You can also do the same with your Christmas pudding if you wish but I tend to leave that alone.

Carefully unwrap the Christmas cake and when open drizzle perhaps 2 or 3 tablespoons of brandy or whisky (depending on what you used when you made your cake).  Give it a few minutes to ooze into the cake and then carefully wrap the cake up again and put it back somewhere cool.

Then I have a look at the mincemeat, which you can give a stir and check the ingredients are well mixed.  If you feel it’s looking a bit dry, you can add maybe a tablespoon of pure orange juice, but it should be okay. 

Our mincemeat is dryer and less sweet than most of the recipes you find as we don’t add dark sugar to it, but I do not have a sweet tooth; the moistness really comes later as the suet adds the fat when you cook it, but even so it is still less fatty than most mixtures.  So apologies to anyone who prefers the classic style like Delia Smith’s recipe.

We’ll be marzipanning the cake this weekend, so be prepared.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | No Comments »

Steenbergs in the press

Monday, November 9th, 2009

Steenbergs Organic is in the press again with some nice articles. 

At the weekend, we were in a beautifully photogenic piece the The Mail on Sunday’s magazine for our organic rose water; amusingly we were also in the same article for Renaissance Stardust by Laura Santtini’s Easy Tasty magic range as this is something we have developed with her and will be packing up for sale shortly.

Today, we are in an article in The Ecologist which talks a bit about us and how we go about our business.  It’s really quite flattering to be written about in The Ecologist as (for me) they are the granddaddy of the green movement.

Here’s a link to the article:

http://www.theecologist.org/green_green_living/food_and_drink/352912/10_organic_spices_to_cook_with_this_winter.html

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Steenbergs | No Comments »

Recipe – Making Your Own Christmas Pudding

Sunday, November 8th, 2009

We have had a brief hiatus from Christmas preparations with Halloween and Bonfire Night, but this weekend I’ve got back to the task of preparing for Christmas.  This weekend was the turn of the pudding.

I started making my own Christmas puddings several years ago as an experiment and you know what – it’s way better than the things that you get from the shops.   It also gives you a great sense of achievement.  It does takes ages to steam though.  Also, the recipe does make masses of Christmas pudding, but then we usually make two and give one away to great friends of ours, the McMurrays.

I like to be a bit nerdy with the stout or beer that I use.  I like to find something a bit special, slightly quirky.  This year I have used Titanic Stout from the Potteries, brewed at the Titanic Micro-brewery run by Dave and Keith Bott in Burslem Stoke-on-Trent.  It is the CAMRA Champion Bottled Beer of Britain for 2009.  Titanic Stout is full-tasting and full of character, with a roasted grain, coffee, licquorice and tangy hop resin aromas.

Some of the ingredients for Christmas pudding

Some of the ingredients for Christmas pudding

Another great thing about using beer rather than the brandy that most chefs use is that (and anyone who’s done the maths will see where I’m going) you’ve bought a 500ml bottle of gorgeous beer but only need 150ml, so in the best “waste not want not” attitude I think I better enjoy the rest of the beer myself!

This year I am also reviving an old tradition and have stuck some Christmas favours into the Christmas pudding.  Silver charms were popular in the past, with the traditional shapes like a boot (for travel), ring (for marriage), a button (lucky for men) or silver sixpences for general good fortune.  To stop them tainting the pudding, I have wrapped the coin tightly in baking paper.

The recipe I’ve got down below is an evolving recipe.  I think that my original recipe came from  a Keith Floyd book, but I’ve looked back at his books and I must have changed it a heck of a lot over the years as it bears no relation to his recipes anymore.

That’s one of the things I love about real cooking – you start with the germ of an idea (either from a book, something your mum does or just something that seems to fit with the ingredients you’ve got in front of you) and then you play with it, changing ingredients for those that you’ve actually got in the cupboard or just because they seem to have the right taste, then (when it works) you’ve got your own recipe.  I guess what I mean is don’t be beholden to a recipe book, you’re your own best cook – experiment and play and the more enjoyment you have in doing the experimentation the more happiness will flow into your food.

Ingredients

This recipe does 2 x 1.2 litre puddings, so if you want only the one pudding, simply halve the quantities.

25og/ 9oz vegetarian suet (you can use Atora if you want)
350g/ 12oz sultanas
350g/ 12oz raisins
250g/ 8oz currants
50g/ 2oz almonds
100g/ 4oz mixed peel (I use Crazy Jacks)
75g/ 3oz glace cherries, snipped with scissors (use Crazy Jacks as it includes no horrible added colours)
75g/ 3oz crystallised or stem ginger, snipped with scissors
350g/ 12oz Fairtrade dark Barbados sugar, such as Traidcraft Muscovado
2 grated eating apples
250g/ 9oz fresh white breadcrumbs
175g/ 6oz plain flour, sieved (we use Sunflours who are a fab local hand miller of flours)
1tsp Steenbergs organic Fairtrade mixed spice
1tsp Steenbergs nutmeg powder
½tsp fleur de sel
6 free-range organic eggs
Grated rind and juice of 1 lemon
Grated rind and juice of 1 orange
1tsp Steenbergs natural almond extract
150ml/ ¼ pint pint stout

DSC_0719_edited-1Toast the almonds in an oven for 5 minutes or so. Mix all dry ingredients together. Beat the eggs; add lemon, orange, Steenbergs almond extract and stout. Make a well in the dry ingredients, pour in all other ingredients and stir thoroughly.

Now make a wish! Cover and leave somewhere cool overnight.

Turn into greased basins, cover with butter papers and a double layer of cloth.   Sneak a silver coin into the mixture; I wrapped a cleaned 20p or 50p piece in some baking paper and push it into the mix.  Tie securely with string going right round the bottom of the bowl to make a strong handle to lift the bowl.

The Christmas pudding all wrapped and ready for 7 hours of steaming!

The Christmas pudding all wrapped and ready for 7 hours of steaming!

Steam for about 7 hours.

On Christmas Day, steam again for about 1½ hours or until heated right through.

To flame the Christmas pudding, place the cooked pudding on a plate with a decent curve.  Then warm 2 – 3 tablespooons of brandy or whisky (I use whisky) without boiling.  Pour over the Christmas pudding then set alight with a match, being very careful not to set yourself alight!  I am sure there was a useful purpose for the flaming ritual but nowadays it’s just for the flamboyant show.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 3 Comments »

Bonfire Night and Delicious Parkin Recipe

Friday, November 6th, 2009

Another symbol of the passing year.  Another memory of cold, dark evenings.  Another thread perhaps back to simpler times, perhaps even to pagan times.  Bonfire Night has a special place in our annual celebrations, even though I know it’s not very PC:

1.  Guy Fawkes was born in 1570 just down the road at Scotton on the way to Harrogate, so there are quite a lot of places locally that go out of their way not to celebrate Bonfire Night; he went to school at St Peter’s School in York, together with some other Catholic conspirators.

2.  Also, I have fond memories of warm mugs of slightly revolting soup around huge bonfires and fantastic fireworks displays which used to have a Guy on their top being cremated (I was brought up in Northumberland where we were less prissy about these things);

3.  I love traditional parkin that is eaten on Guy Fawkes – “Th’ children’s all lukkin’ forrad to th’ plot an’ parkin”.  I love any cake or biscuit with ginger in, so I am sucker for parkin.

The one that I made on Wednesday was lighter than the real one which should have black treacle in it.  Our kids are less sure about the dark treacle, so this one went down much better last year and so I’ve made it again; both work and home love it.

A light Yorkshire parkin

A light Yorkshire parkin

Ingredients

110g/ 4oz self-raising flour (not wholemeal)
110g/ 4oz wholemeal self-raising flour
110g/ 4oz butter
140ml/ ¼ pint milk
2tbsp golden syrup
110g/ 4oz Fairtrade caster sugar
55g/ 2oz sultanas (optional)
2tsp Steenbergs ginger powder
1 free range egg (lightly beaten)

Preheat the oven to 190°C/ 375°F.  Grease a metal baking tray with a pastry (or paint) brush or butter paper; turn the baking tray upside down after greasing with organic sunflower oil to allow any excess oil to drain away.

Melt together the organic butter, milk and organic Fairtrade golden syrup in a pan.

Put all the dry ingredients into a bowl, sieving the flours.  Add the melted butter-syrup liquid and the beaten egg to the dry ingredients.  Stir well.

Pour into the greased baking tray and bake for about 40 minutes.  Test for its readiness with a skewer or gently touching with a finger to see whether firm.  Leave to cool and cut into squares.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | No Comments »

November Steenbergs Newsletter

Monday, November 2nd, 2009

Steenbergs is here to help with all the Christmas baking

Traditionally a family time of year and it’s not just Christmas, it’s the time of year where everyone seems to be baking. This year we’ve pulled together lots of the essential baking ingredients to help you as well as our spice and tea boxes which make wonderful gifts. One person described opening up one of our boxes with the leaflet as just  opening up an “Aladdin’s cave of spices.”  We’ve all the usual news and information as well as an apology and an offer to make amends. Happy November and Guy Fawkes night enjoy the preparations for the end of the year…

Steenbergs tea gets a colour make over

Steenbergs has been selling tea since 2006 – we’ve always specialised in organic and Fairtrade tea but we decided to go colourful for 2009! We’re concentrating on our blended teas, many of them using spices. We’ve also switched the majority of our chai teas to be Fairtrade as well as organic. The new look tea comes in organic Fairtrade black chai (formerly our sweet chai); the seasonal – organic Fairtrade Christmas tea ; organic Fairtrade green chai tea and organic red chai (using redbush as the base tea). The chais or spiced teas are very warming and a great way to banish winter blues. Drink the black, red  or Christmas tea with or without milk or/and sugar whilst the green chai works well without milk but with or without sugar to taste. Have fun and let us know which is your favourite.

Other teas in this new livery are our popular organic Fairtrade English breakfast tea; organic Fairtrade Earl Grey tea and organic green tea with peppermint (formerly Moroccan mint tea). When the Steenberg house runs out of  Steenbergs English breakfast life the morning never quite starts properly until we’ve limped into the office – to begin again. Steenbergs Earl Grey tea is a delicious light tea which we particularly like in the afternoon – weak and black whilst Steenbergs green tea with peppermint is an all day winner. Drink our green tea with peppermint on its own or with a little sugar or honey. It works well as settler as well as making a delicious all day round drink.

Other new teas in the new livery include our organic white tea – bai mu dan or pai mu tan depending on your translation from Chinese – very cleansing and easy to drink all day through, can be an acquired taste; organic jasmine tea – always a winner in terms of calming and relaxing; and organic redbush tea – particularly popular as no caffeine and can be drunk very much as a black tea substitute, our loose leaf redbush tea is naturally sweet.

Christmas and Steenbergs

Spices have long been associated with Christmas in terms of baking, the Christmas kitchen and presents. This year we have pulled together much of the essential items to help you with the baking and created the Steenbergs Christmas baking shop, we’ve also pulled together some ideas for Christmas drinks and Christmas presents.

All our boxes make excellent presents for cooks of all abilities and interests – the choice is wide it’s just choosing which one for which person – whether it’s the Thai box for the globe trotter or the Christmas box, which is a good all round box, or the mini Fairtrade spices box or the storecupboard minis or the Smoke and spice box for the BBQ / grill or bake expert. For advice or help with choosing the right box for individuals please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’ll even wrap them up for you – don’t forget to let us have a message if you are sending it onto a different address. This year we have revised all our tea boxes to go with the new look tea – so again there’s something for all tastes and interests.

One of the simplest – if a little time consuming – Christmas spicy things has to be making a pomander – this traditional orange studded with cloves and then “set” with orris root makes a great traditional addition to the house. Somehow in our house it almost symbolises the start of the Christmas preparations almost as much as making Christmas cake!

What’s new with Steenbergs

Since the last newsletter we’ve been at Olympia at the Speciality and Fine Food Fair. It literally finishes the day before school’s back so we are always the bleary eyed parents who stagger into school the first day to be greeted by lists and questions! (We’re just trying to get through the day.) The Fair is always a good one in terms of meeting retailers who stock or might stock our products and passing on new products and sharing our enthusiasm – hopefully and news about Steenbergs.

 This year we were showcasing our new home bakery range, our new look tea range and our new look premium range – more about this shortly. All of which seemed to go down very well. We have, as always, added to our stockists list and with the home bakery range and mulled wine sachets going through distributors there should be some Steenbergs products available near you.

We’ve also added additional Steenbergs products to the range including two new single Estate peppers – Tasmanian Mountain pepper - which is roughly 10 times hotter than normal pepper and Madagascan wild pepper – for more information on all our peppers and these two new ones look at our recent entry on the blog. Two new flavoured salts have also just been added – porcini salt and truffle salt - both are intense flavours and will add a wonderful flavour to your cooking. Flowers also seem to be featuring at Steenbergs with Cornflowers, Marigold flowers, Jasmine flowers and orange blossom featuring on the list for the first time – you can use all of them in your recipes and meals – work well in salads and added at the end of meals so that you don’t lose the glorious colours of the flowers.

Organic Fairtrade Mulling wine spices

We now offer organic Fairtrade mulling wine spices in sachets! If sachets aren’t for you we also offer organic Fairtrade mulling wine spices loose in a jar and pre-blended into an organic Fairtrade mulling wine sugar . The joy of the sugar is that it is very easy to simply make a glass of mulled wine or gluwein.

We even offer a luxury version with orange for extra flavour. So however you like to create your perfect mulled wine – we’ve got it covered, we even sell the individual spices to allow you to create your own individual recipe if so desired.

Our tips for making this drink include adding orange juice to the wine – as opposed to diluting it with water – and the odd sliced orange always adds to the ambience and flavour if you are entertaining.

The sachets are going to be available via Suma and Green City distributors as well as ourselves so you should see them around and about, as well as in our stockists and  direct.

Postal strikes

Normally many of our parcels go by post, however, during the postal strike we have made alternative arrangements with courier companies. We won’t send anything by post the day before or the day of a postal strike. Ones sent previously should be fine as the majority go by tracked post which we understand is being given a priority by the Post Office. We will continue to monitor the situation and make arrangements and improvements as required. So it is even more important to leave instructions for deliveries if you are going to be out and not available for signature. Don’t forget that we can send your parcel to work address or leave it in a safe place, if you’ve left us instructions to do so.

New products

Once again there’s lots of new things at Steenbergs online shop. Getting ready for stir up weekend and Christmas baking we’ve got in organic mixed peel and organic glace cherries . Also new is organic Agave syrup and organic tahini. D2W products also seem eminently sensible and their biodegradable food and freezer bags join the ranks of their biodegradable bin bags.

Dried mushrooms – chanterelle, porcini and shiitake are now  available. And to help you with winter puddings we also now stock natural custard powder, as well as vegetarian jellies. If you are making your own – don’t forget our vanilla extract and/or vanilla pods they are ideal for this.

We seem to have gone rose mad  – it must be the end of summer in recent weeks and new additions to the toiletries include the Duchy original rose and mandarin shower wash, and the Weleda rejuvenating wild rose range. All of these have that lovely rose fragrance that somehow just brightens up your day.

Staff choice

The second in our irregular series of staff choices of our products. This time features Lucy, who has been with the company pretty well since it began.
Favourite Steenbergs product: Green tea with peppermint.

This is a brilliant tea and has been very popular with my friends who always ask for it instead of a coffee after a meal.

Favourite non Steenbergs product: Country products Bombay mix.

This is very moreish I have had to restrict myself to a bag a week or there would be no stock left for our customers.

Environmental tip: My husband and I couldn’t understand why our electricity bills were so high, we bought a gadget that tells you how much electricity you are using at any one time and we found out that someone had left our immersion heater on. Whoops. I think we managed to save ourselves £50 since we bought it.

Apology and offer

First of all an unreserved apology. The offer in the newsletter wasn’t properly set up. The mistake was noticed quickly and rectified and we have been through all those who placed an order using the code and refunded the people who were charged the incorrect amount. Some of the invoices are incorrect but the amount charged through your credit/debit cards was correct. Anyone who has any concerns about this should contact us at enquiries@steenbergs.co.uk

However, we know that some of you tried and failed so for those in particular we apologise profusely. We extended the offer for a further few days and we are offering by way of peace offering a free box of Peace Tea to anyone who orders up until 30th November 2009 using the offer code FREE TEA.

Stockists and blog update

New stockists include Jenners Food Hall, Edinburgh, now run by Valvona and Corolla. For a full list of your nearest stockists, click here and tap in your postcode. Whilst every effort is made to keep this list up to date we can only try our best. Our baking range and mulling wine also goes through distributors so we don’t always know the end shop.

Blogs recent blogs have included making our Christmas cake, delivery of our organic Fairtrade mulled wine spices, unusual peppers, Diwali, Kulfi, how our organic audit went (we passed) and Afghanistan. It’s wide ranging and we love to hear back from you via comments or suggestions of topics you’d like us to cover from recipes to spices to organic and Fairtrade issues.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Spices & herbs | No Comments »

Recipe For Homemade mincemeat – Countdown To Christmas

Thursday, October 29th, 2009

DSC_0652_edited-1Mincemeat is delicious and really easy to make.  The aroma and flavour of homemade mincemeat is fantastic, making the shop-bought commercial stuff pale into insignificance – a travesty of taste, lacking in depth, rich or any booziness.

It’s name harks back to it’s original recipe which used to contain a little bit of mince.  However it has now (thank God) dropped the minced meat and become a wonderful melange of exotic dried fruits, nuts and spices, together with some delicious whisky or brandy, creating an almost invigorating preserve.

The origins of the mince pie lie in the medieval chewet, which was a pastry that contained chopped liver or other meat mixed with boiled egg yolks, dried fruit, and spices.  By the 16th century, the mince  pie was a Christmas speciality.  During the 18th century and by the 19th century, meat was rarely used in the “mince” having been replaced by suet.  Note that I use a vegetarian suet but you can use a more traditaional beef based suet, such as Atora, but then make sure you don’t serve it to any vegetarians or vegans.

It’s simply a matter of collecting and weighing out the ingredients and then bunging them all together, giving them a good stir and leaving them to mature.  The key is getting the best quality ingredients and giving the mixture time to mature.  You should make it ideally 2 – 3 months in advance of Christmas, so mid to end of October to early November is spot on.  In fact, the best time may be mid-October as you can then pick apples direct from your garden; luckily we had a few still hanging on our tree of eating apples today, but then we live quite far north.

Ingredients

Getting the ingredients for mincemeat

Getting the ingredients for mincemeat

175g/ 6oz raisins
175g/ 6oz sultanas
250g/ 8oz currants
85g/ 3oz chopped mixed peel
85g/ 3oz flaked almonds, toasted
500g/ 1lb eating apples (Cox’s are good), cored and chopped but not peeled
125g/ 4oz shredded suet (I  used Community Wholefood’s vegetarian suet)
1tsp organic Fairtrade nutmeg powder
½ tsp allspice powder
½ rounded tsp organic Fairtrade cinnamon powder
Grated rind and juice of 1 orange (or 50:50 orange and lemon)
75ml/ 1/8 pint “good” whisky or brandy (I use Bruichladdich from Islay)

1.  If possible, use organic ingredients and/or Fairtrade ingredients, as they are good for the environment and the people who grow the crops.

2.  Simply mix all the ingredients together and seal in a large tub, or ideally a bucket with a lid.  I used a small bucket that used to contain raw cacao nibs from Barry Callebaut, the chocolatiers.

Mixing up the mincemeat

Mixing up the mincemeat

3.  Stir it once or twice in the maturation period – at the end of November and maybe mid December.  Pot it up into a couple of good sized Kilner-style jars on or about the 20th December.

4.  It lasts for a good 2 – 3 years, so don’t worry if you haven’t used it all in one Christmas period.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 7 Comments »

Organic…What’s In A Name?

Friday, September 25th, 2009

What’s in a name?  Everything according to branding consultants. 

I think this is an area that the organic movement has got badly wrong.  Everyone knows what fair-trade should be about just from the name, so while there are various different systems, they are all the same really, i.e. it’s all about being fair to everyone you trade with.

Yet what does organic actually mean?  I know that there are loads of standards and rules and regulations etc etc.  And I know that lots of famous people, from The Prince of Wales through to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, all explain why organic is good for us and the planet.

To me, however, organic means chemicals that contain carbon atoms; I remember with a cold sweat my second year organic chemistry at Kings Buildings at Edinburgh University.  Even if it also means something that is derived from or has characteristics similar to living organisms.

I am sure that you will think, so what. 

However, organic chemicals actually includes all the petrochemicals and many of the pesticides, herbicides and chemically-based fertilisers that the organic farming movement finds abhorrent.  It would include DDT and dieldrin, as well as many of the currently available commercial industrial products.

So in effect, organic refers to many of the chemicals that organic farming bans, as well as natural farming without those chemicals.

Confused.  I am not surprised; it’s a branding disaster area.  Have I got a clue as to what to call it; of course not, I am a scientist rather than a marketing consultant.  But it’s a good challenge for someone to come up with something better.

No wonder lots of people come up to me and say “aren’t all herbs & spices organic anyway?”

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Ethical living | 3 Comments »

Recipe for Autumnal Apple Crumble

Monday, September 21st, 2009

I love the melancholic atmosphere of this late summer time.  The leaves are beginning to turn a beautiful orangey-red and the air is turning cooler, yet it has a warm, damp smell to it. 

Then if you are a lazy gardener like me, the apple trees have miraculously done all the hard work for you and the trees are covered in beautiful ripe apples.  I enjoy just going out into the back of our garden, looking at the cows in the field and munching on a perfectly ripe apple; these have the sweetness of summer coupled with the softness of silk, with none of that bitterness and tough bite of shop bought apples, which makes your gums tingle and hurt.

So it just had to be homely crumble as pudding with our Sunday roast this weekend. 

We have 2 types of cooking apples in the garden, so I mixed up the apples and stewed them gently in a dark muscovado sugar, some Fairtrade organic mixed spice of ours and a dash of orange juice (it gives it some citrusy taste while stopping the apples from turning brown as you peel and cut the others, plus it’s much less harsh than using lemon which some people suggest).

Also, when I make the crumble, I quite like adding extra flavours to it (which I am not going to include in the recipe), so this weekend I added some ground almonds and othertimes I have added some crushed digestive biscuits or mixed the flour types up, for example using wholewheat flour gives the crumble more of a chewiness than crunchiness.

This is all part of my cooking style.  It is good to start with the basic recipe idea, but then to gently adjust it to create a much greater depth of flavour or to change the texture.  It adds a certain mysterious quality that means your crumble will never quite be repeated by anyone else, or by you ever again. 

I suppose it’s all about making home cooking – real amateur cookery – unique and the antithesis of industrial food, which is all about keeping the same taste over gazillions of meals that are being bashed out by machines or cooks; industrial food has to be very simple and easily repetitive and have an unchanged taste whatever the quality of the ingredients, i.e. no tweaking for flavour.  It’s food of the lowest common denominator.

Here’s my attempt at recreating what I made.

Ingredients

For the fruit:

750g cooking apples
50g Fairtrade muscovado sugar (or more to taste)
1tbsp orange juice
50g raisins
1tsp Fairtrade mixed spice
1 Fairtrade cinnamon stick

For the crumble:

175g plain flour
75g butter
75g Fairtrade caster sugar
1tsp Fairtrade cinnamon powder

  1. Put on the oven to about 180oC.
  2. Peel and chop up the apples into slices.  Bung these into a large heavy-bottomed pan with the butter, Fairtrade dark & sultry muscovado sugar, Fairtrade mixed spice, Fairtrade cinnamon stick and orange juice.  Cover and cook gently until just tender, making sure that you do not overcook it as this just results in a stewed mush.  Mix in the raisins and remove the cinnamon quill.  Put all of these into the bottom of a medium-sized ovenproof dish.
  3. For the crumble, sift the flour into a ceramic mixing bowl and add the cinnamon powder, mixing them together.  Chop up the butter into cubes and then drop these into the flour.  Now rub the butter into the flour (using clean fingers please) until the mixture has the consistency of breadcrumbs.  Stir in the caster sugar and rub together.  Cover the top of the apple base thoroughly and smooth over.
  4. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes until golden brown and the inside is bubbling hot.  Serve with custard – sorry, it’s just got to be custard.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Recipes, food & cooking | 1 Comment »

STEENBERGS SEPTEMBER NEWSLETTER

Saturday, September 5th, 2009

Beat the autumn blues with Steenbergs

Once again its been a packed summer with lots of new products and events happening at Steenbergs – so it certainly has not been a wash out in Yorkshire!

We’ve got lots of new things to share with you as well as a special offer for you.

Don’t forget our recipes and our blog for ideas to inspire. Happy autumn from us all at Steenbergs.

Thank you for all your support and we are always interested in hearing from you.

Steenbergs home baking continues its colour campaign

After the success of Steenbergs extracts and floral waters, we’ve continued the new look throughout our home bakery range. The seven organic Fairtrade flavoured sugars have all taken on colourful labels – vanilla, cinnamon , lemon, lavender, mulling wine, chai and our award winning rose . They are joined in this range by our organic Fairtrade mixed spice, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.  They make a colourful and useful addition to any kitchen.

If you’ve never tried flavoured sugars before start off on pancakes or over fruit to get the flavours and then try baking with the different flavours. We’ve all got our own favourites but it also depends on our moods – lavender and lemon work well in dressings and over meat as well as in puddings. Steenbergs lavender sugar was used by Sophie Grigson in the Fairtrade cookbook for lavender scones.

Cinnamon, vanilla and rose are slightly more traditional in that they can be used in pretty well any sweet dish. Try the first two in home made hot chocolate as another suggestion.

Although the summer is still on its way out it won’t be too long before we are turning our heads to making Christmas puddings and cakes so don’t forget our Fairtrade mixed spice, as well as a tasty addition to plain yoghurt and a host of other baking dishes.

New products

The range of products available at the Steenbergs online shop grows all the time. Favourites from our recent additions include “The world famous Spice and herb playing cards” – the spices version of these cards are packed with nuggets of information about spices as well as beautifully illustrated. Fantastic for playing anything from patience and hearts to bridge.

We’ve added a shaving area to the web shop. Axel was amused when his 6 year old daughter pounced on his shaver and asked whether she could take it to school as an example of something “old”. The truth is that “an old fashioned” razor as opposed to disposable or electric is still one of the classic eco friendly products – you don’t have to change your razor very often just your blades.

Another new area is for babies and children – this area has been introduced as we know that many of our customers are families. It is has a selection of more eco-friendly products. Before we start the debate on “real” nappies versus disposable. We are looking into “real” nappies as a next step  and  these disposable ones are more biodegradable than normal disposables.

On a more fragrant note the new products we now stock include incense sticks and natural protectors for clothes and against shoe odour.

New organic food includes Duchy Original biscuits, organic teriyaki sauce and even more choice in our cereals and vitamins/ supplements.

We’ve also just started stocking a whole variety of Tyrrells hand cooked potato crisps – Tyrrells grow all the potatoes they use for the crisps on their farm in Hertfordshire – very tasty. There are two sizes the handy snack size and the more sociable larger pack. These are available in cases as well to make it easier for stocking up your larder.

Other new products that we are excited about include our ecoforce recycled clothes pegs and sponges – making things out of things that would otherwise end up in landfill has just got to be good news. The clothes pegs are really good and seem to be coping with the weather that this Yorkshire summer is throwing at them!

Daylight bulbs, organic cotton wool, organic maple syrup…  there’s all sorts of new things at the Steenbergs online shop.

We add to these on a regular basis and if there’s anything that you would like us to start selling or that you don’t seem to be able to find please don’t hesitate to email us at enquiries@steenbergs.co.uk.

Special offers

We would like to offer you 10 per cent discount on all your orders in September if you quote the following code 0909. This offer is valid until the end of September. The perfect time to try out something new whether its one of our curry mixes, home bakery products or even hand soap.

We’ve also got all our Glenroyd organic chutney, mustards, marmalades and jams on special offer. There’s never been a better time to stock up.

FDA report on organic

The recent FDA report on organic food was a bit of a non event except for its release in the traditional “silly season” in August. For more information on our response to this report please look at our blog x 2 .

Alternatively we include our comments on the very recently revised standards for Fairtrade spices.

We keep the blog as up-to-date as possible with news and views which we hope are of interest. We always welcome feedback.

Ecoleaf home cleaning products

We are in the process of moving all our household cleaning products to Ecoleaf. Ecoleaf is a new brand on the market of eco-friendly household cleaning products and is produced for Suma workers cooperative. This organisation is one of the heroes of wholefoods and organic and has done much to help provide environmentally responsible products.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on their products, certainly we’ve been very impressed by their performance so far and the antibacterial hand soap has become a bit of a family favourite.

New Fairtrade products

New excitements from the Steenbergs camp of Fairtrade products include two of our curry blends going Fairtrade – organic Fairtrade garam masala and organic Fairtrade curry mix. We will constantly continue to look at new Fairtrade products as and when available and possible.

We are also now stocking in our online shops several other Fairtrade products including Fairtrade rubber gloves, Fairtrade chocolate crispy bars, as well as the Fairtrade cleaning cloths , cocoa, sugar, golden syrup and coffee that we currently stock.

Force cereal part of Steenbergs family history

We’ve recently started stocking Force cereal – which claims to be one of the first breakfast cereals. This is not the first time the Steenbergs family has been the purveyors of Force. Axel’s just discovered that his grandfather was the UK agent for Force cereal just under a century ago, before the first world war when Force was imported from America for the first time. At that time it was owned by A C Finckens – now it’s part of Nestle.

Staff choice

This is a new idea for the Steenbergs newsletter where one of our trusty staff share their own selections. This month’s turn is Lesley

Favourite Steenbergs product:-  organic Malay Masala. The whole family loves the curry I make with this – a definite winner.

Recipe – for 4

  • 1 tbsp organic coconut oil
  • 1 tsp organic malay masala
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tbsp onion granules
  • 1 tsp garlic granules
  • 1 red pepper, sliced
  • 5 closed cup mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 chicken breasts, cooked and diced
  • 1 large tin organic coconut milk

What to do:

Melt coconut butter, fry pepper and mushrooms until soft. Add malay masala, onions and garlic and fry for 1 min. Add turmeric, stir in and add coconut milk, bring to the boil, add cooked chicken and reduce to a simmer for approx 10 mins or until chicken is heated through. Serve with basmati rice. (You can also use any vegetables you have to hand and substitute the chicken for white fish).

Fav non Steenbergs product:   Biona organic Coconut oil  – this is great because we use it for cooking and moisturising

Environmental tip: If you have a multi-fuel or wood stove and no central heating, or would like to cut your gas bill, you can set up a closed radiator system to run by thermal syphoning from a radiator placed behind the stove. We installed this about 12 months ago and the difference has been amazing and we haven’t turned on our gas heating since.

Steenbergs out and about

Since our last newsletter, we’ve been delighted to be listed in The Observer’s top food gadgets listed – particularly for our sumac and Za’atar.

Our home bakery range was also listed in Woman and Home as website of the day.

Our natural almond extract has recently been reviewed favourably in Caterer and Hotelkeeper and our organic spray dried vanilla powder also received praise from the BBC Good Food Magazine.

Our list of stockists grow daily  and our home bakery range is now stocked by a variety of distributors so we don’t always know where our products are available. However if you have any problems please don’t hesitate to contact us and we’ll do our best to help you.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Steenbergs | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »