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April Recipe: Spring Morels on Toast

Morels grow in just the strangest places. The new forest is famous for them, and our recipe author once spent 3 hours tramping around in the woods only to find them scrunched up by the car park. These spring mushrooms have a woody, earthy flavour. As with most mushrooms it makes sense to see them as a yearly glut. Process one large batch and find a few different ways to enjoy them.

This recipe will give you preserved mushrooms and an oil you can then use in a myriad of ways. It works well for all types of mushrooms, just adapt the herbs / oils / acid to fit. Same goes for the uses: serve on toast as we have here, add into a risotto, stuff into pasta, or use to pep up a pie. Quite literally kitchen gold.

SPRING MORELS ON TOAST

Portions below should suit roughly 5 slices of toast, with oil leftover.

INGREDIENTS:

Olive oil 200g
Champagne vinegar 100g
Sea salt 10g
Honey 10g
Morel mushrooms (or a mix) 500g
A head of garlic, halved
Juniper crushed lightly 10g
Pink peppercorns, crushed lightly 10g
Bay leaves 5g
A bunch of thyme or rosemary
Freshly baked sourdough
Spinach 100g
Fresh ricotta (as much as you like)

METHOD:

Pour the oil, vinegar and salt into a large, high-sided pot. Gently bring to a boil. Add the herbs, garlic and spices. Turn your oven to 120c.
Wash your mushrooms, making sure you get all the grit out. A soak first helps, flush the water a couple of times and then a good once over followed by a dry out on a kitchen towel.
Once your oil & vinegar is at a boil, drop the mushrooms in, bring back to a boil and pop into the oven for 1.5 hrs
Check the seasoning, all the flavours should have harmonised, and the balance of acid shouldn’t blow your head off. If too strong, add a little honey.
Jar in a piping hot mason jar and store at room temperature for up to 3 months. Ensure the mushrooms are always submerged under oil. Store chilled once opened.
To serve on toast, sauté your spinach in a dash of good olive oil (feel free to add some garlic for extra flavour). Toast a bit of sourdough, add a good heap of ricotta, a spoonful of the morel mix on top and drizzle a little oil as a dressing.

The oil is outrageously good even once you’ve finished your mushrooms and should be used to dress earthy salads throughout summer – try it with celeriac, chicory, apple and hazelnuts. Or drizzle over fresh asparagus, peas and fresh burrata.

April Wine Tasting Event “Lesser Known Regions”

Join us for a tutored wine tasting with canapés “Lesser Known Regions” with our wine experts Annette Scarfe MW and Christine Parkinson on April 20^th at 6pm.

This is a ticketed event (£10) – to register, please call us on 0277228162.

We’ll be tasting our wines of the month from Lebanon and Uruguay:

WHITE

Château Ka, Source de Blanche, Bekaa Valley, Lebanon

Aromatic, floral and zesty: Grapefruit, orange blossom and lemon zest

Lebanon has a winemaking history stretching back over 7000 years. Akram Kassatly built his winery in 1973 but with political turbulence in the country the winery was forced to close and the first wines were only bottled in 2005. Akram brings winemaking expertise from Dijon, where he learned how Burgundy is made. The vines are planted in the Bekaa Valley, an inland plateau situated 1,000 m above sea level providing the ideal climate for grape production. Château Ka is said to be the only winery in Lebanon to produce wine entirely from their own vineyards.

Source is loosely translated as “the beginning of a river or stream” and we have chosen this wine to mark the start of spring.

An unusual blend of Chardonnay , Muscat, Viogner and Sauvignon Blanc the wine is perfect as an aperitif, with seafood or to accompany turkey at Easter.

RED

Preludio, Famila Deicas, Uruguay

Juicy creamy mixed black fruit compote: Blackcurrant, chocolate and vanilla

Lesser-known Uruguay is the fourth largest wine production region in South America and a relative newcomer starting as late as 1830. The climate is influenced by the Atlantic and is similar, although wetter, to Bordeaux. This wine is made from Tannat, a thick-skinned grape variety best known in Madiran, France, where it produces deeply coloured tannic wines. In the 19^th century Basque settlers took the variety to Uruguay where it is now the dominant variety. In a similar vein to the success of Malbec in Argentina, Tannat thrives in the warmer South American climate creating age-worthy wines with a subtle yet robust structure. Juan Carlos Deicas was a pioneer in the drive for quality establishing his first winery in 1979.The family created their flagship Preludio range in 1992. The wine ages for 9 months in the best barrels prior to release.

Suitable with any roast dishes

TO REGISTER: This is a ticketed event (£10) – please call us on 0277228162 to secure your spot.

Panzer’s Milking Station

Join us for a fresh-off-the-farm experience.

We’re introducing our very own milking station in the form of a darling British Fresian cow taking residency outside the coffee bar for the month of April. Pedigree Fresians produce an incredible 6020 litres per year. No fresher way to add milk to your morning coffee than by getting your own milk straight from the source! Launches April 1st.

March’s Seasonal Recipes

Our favourite March seasonal recipes featuring the best from our greengrocers.

Wild garlic, our favourite thing to forage, comes into season this month until early June (but its flavour is best when young.) Try Delicious Magazine’s Wild garlic, tarragon and mint roast chicken. Or try our wild garlic aioli recipe below.

Nduja croquettes & wild garlic aioli

A fun little snack to use this amazing wild foraged delicacy. These killer treats can sit in your freezer ready for a drink at the end of the day. Not every day, mind!

For the croquettes

50 g Butter
60 g Flour
160 g Milk
240 g Nduja
1 Egg yolk
100 g Breadcrumbs

Heat the flour and butter until it smells like biscuits and has gone brown. Whisk in the milk and cook to a thick bechamel.
Add the nduja and mix until smooth. Pour into a tub and chill in the fridge. Overnight is best.
Shape the mix into croquettes with two spoons, creating quenelle egg shapes between them and toss them in some flour.
Whisk the egg yolk with a little water in a bowl and toss croquette shapes.
In another bowl, add your breadcrumbs and toss the eggy croquette shapes until covered.
Store in the fridge or better yet the freezer, they can be cooked from frozen.
To serve, heat sunflower oil in a large wide high pot. Do not fill any higher than 1/3 full, heat to 170c. Fry in batches of 2 or 3 until they are all fried golden. Check the temperature inside is above 60c.
Sever with the wild garlic aioli and a squeeze of delicious lemon

For the wild garlic aioli

90 g Wild garlic
450 g Sunflower oil
3 Egg yolks
30 g Cider vinegar
15 g Dijon mustard

Blitz the oil and wild garlic until it becomes hot in a good blender.
Pour it through a very fine sieve or even better a coffee filter.
Whisk the egg yolk, mustard and vinegar together and then, slowly at first, the bright green wild garlic oil, whisk until it is nice and tight. Season with salt and pepper.
Store for up to 3 days in a fridge, use it liberally with everything, lamb chops are incredible.

Hares, rainbows and… purple sprouting broccoli, a UK crop that should have a much higher status. Bright green stems and dark purple flowers on this stunning late winter brassica. The taste is deep but sweet and suits simple pairings that let it speak for itself. Think asparagus but much earlier in the year.

Purple sprouting broccoli & gribiche

Feeds 4 (6 as a starter)

600g Purple sprouting broccoli
3 x 7 min boiled eggs
15g Dijon mustard
15g Red wine vinegar
150g Sunflower oil
20g Capers
20g Cornichon
Handful Parsley
Handful Chervil
8g Salt
Pinch of Pepper
Olive oil

Drop the eggs into boiling water for 7 mins. Run under a cold tap for a minute after cooking, then peel and chop.
Mix the vinegar and mustard and whisk in the sunflower oil.
Chop through the capers, cornichon, parsley and chervil.
Stir all of the above into a delicious melange and season. This keeps in a fridge for 1 day safely.
Cut the purple sprouting broccoli into long think stems.
Blanche for between 5-7 mins in salty water. Toss in a little olive oil and salt.
Serve on a big generous platter with a huge dollop of the gribiche beside it!

Sweet & savoury recipes for February

If ever there was a month to keep it simple it was February. And, we would argue, with as much colour as is allowed. Forced rhubarb! Why yes please! Hello, cavolo nero! Where have you been all my winter? Tasting their best when the world is at its coldest. Recipes so vivid and deliciously easy they will become instant classics.

A celebration of rhubarb

Everyone should have one dessert that is just so delicious that anyone will fall in love with you. This flamey, boozey hit of crepe suzette hits the spot. Here we have used our poached rhubarb but blood oranges, which are still brilliant just now, would be equally delicious.

Poached rhubarb

1kg forced rhubarb, cut into 1 inch batons
300g water
300g natural cane sugar
1 orange skin peel
2 star anise
4 bay leaf
5 pink pepper whole
5 green cardamom pods

Bring the sugar, water and aromatics to a boil for 5 mins
Slide the rhubarb batons in and immediately take off the heat.
Allow to cool, store in sterilised jars, or use straight away. Will keep for 3 months.

Rhubarb crepe suzette

Crepe (you can use bought, honestly, no one will know, but for the completists)

30g butter, melted
150g plain flour
350g milk, whole
1 egg, whole

Suzette

150g poached rhubarb juice
175g butter
100g poached rhubarb
80g rhubarb liqueur, or Grand Marnier

Blitz the melted butter, flour, milk & egg together, rest for at least 3hrs or overnight in the fridge
Warm a pan over a medium heat, add a little butter and wait for it to foam, add a ladleful of your batter and swirl to coat the pan as thinly as possible.
Once cooked you can save them stacked up on a plate. You should have about 10 crepes from this mix, you can make these in advance.
Bring the poaching juice and the butter to a boil and bubble away until it gets syrupy, about 10 mins. Again, this can be done in advance.
To finish, fold the crepes into quarters, arranged in a heatproof dish or pan. Gently warm the crepes, poached rhubarb and the syrupy rhubarb juice together over a low flame. Heat the liquor in your once syrupy pan, pour over the crepes and set alight! Serve immediately with some ricotta or ice-cream for a little hot/cold fun.

Cavolo nero, almonds & spaghetti

1 bunch cavalo nero, picked and chopped
50g ground almonds
6 large garlic cloves
100g high quality olive oil
25g butter, unsalted
50g pecorino
1 lemon
1 pack spaghetti

Bring 2 large pans of salted water to a boil, add the garlic & cavalo nero. Set a timer for 7 mins one. Cook the spaghetti in the other pan.
Meanwhile, grate the pecorino, zest the lemon and select some good music for supper, maybe even light a candle or two, this is a romantic supper.
Once the timer goes off, take a cup of the cooking water from the cavolo nero pan, drain the rest into a colander before dumping garlic and into a blender along with the butter, pecorino and oil. Blitz until smooth, add enough cooking water to get a nice glossy sheen.
Drain the pasta before it is over cooked, remember it will keep cooking a little after you drain it, toss the pasta and the sauce in a large bowl, squeeze a little lemon & salt to taste, plate up with extra a few chilli flakes, pecorino & oil.

January recipes to celebrate citrus and chicories

January is one of our favourite months for produce in the year, full of sour citrus and bitter chicories. Essentially salad based negronis! Here’s a larder project for January for you: a pickle and a salad that will have your tastebuds tingling.

Pickled fennel

Ingredients:

800g of sliced fennel. (Not too thin.) Keep the ends for soup.
1200g water
30g Maldon sea salt
500ml vinegar (raw cider, or even sherry or white wine)
50g sugar
Blood Orange zest
Star anise, fennel fronds, black pepper, fennel seeds, pink pepper.

Instructions:

Slice the fennel, keep it a bit crunchy.
Whisk the salt and water to dissolve the salt.
Chill the fennel in the brine overnight in a large bowl in the fridge
Bring the pickle to a boil quickly & rest overnight on the counter.
Next day: Strain off the brined fennel. Mix all the spices, fronds and orange zest. Squeeze it all into the 1 litre jar and pour the pickle over the top.
The pickle will be ready in a couple of days. Or hours if you’re peckish.
Goes brilliantly with beef, fish or in the following little salad.

Puntarelle, pickled fennel, anchovy & blood orange salad

Feeds 4

200g puntarelle, thinly sliced
200g pickled fennel (see recipe above)
1 blood orange, peeled and sliced
1 small tin of anchovies
1 small chilli
1 clove of garlic
50g Panzer’s olive oil
1/2 a lemon

Puntarelle is a bitter winter veg from Italy and tastes a bit mad on its own. But it will balance the sweet fennel and sour orange for the salad equivalent of a negroni!

Warm the olive oil in a pan gently, grate in the garlic. Slice the chilli thinly and add. Now add the anchovies and stir to break apart. Once it smells garlicky and fishy, it’s ready. Pour into a nice bowl. Throw the rest of the ingredients on top and toss lightly. Serve with your favourite glass of wine.

Wines for the holidays

A delightful selection of whites and reds for your festive table:

Welschriesling, Andreas Gsellmann – £22.40

Bergunland, Austria

Marzipan, apple blossom, ripe yellow plums & marmalade. Fresh, gentle and easy to drink. Perfect for a long day of celebrations.

Frey, Pinot Blanc – £27.60

Rheinhessen, Germany

Candied peel, stone fruits and green apple flavours work wonders next to turkey and chestnuts. Silky, full bodied and opulent enough to stand up to a Christmas roast dinner.

Tablas Creek, Patelin Blanc – £31
Paso Robles, California

Honeysuckle, orange zest, sweet peas and rich fruit. An opulent, mouth-filling food wine. A Californian wine made from grape varieties better known in the Rhône – Grenache Blanc and Roussane.

Domaine Anita ‘Reine de Nuit’ Moulin à Vent – £27.75

Beaujolais, France

Cherry fruited with delicate rose petal aromas. Fresh, light bodied and supple. Refreshing with enough character to keep with Christmas.

Matthieu Barret ‘Petit Ours’ – £32.30

Cotes du Rhône, France

Vibrant, crunchy, redcurrant, black cherry and bramble. Bright & savoury spiciness. 100% Syrah (Unusual for Cotes du Rhone but perhaps not a surprise as it is made by a famous producer of Cornas).

Littorai, ‘Les Larmes’ Pinot Noir – £75.25

Anderson Valley, California

Bold and lively with a seductive aroma, packed with red and blackberry fruit with a hint of pine. Classy tannins and ready to drink. Sits comfortably with turkey but grand enough for a special occasion.

Pierre Mignon Brut Premier Cru Champagne – £33.75

Pale gold in colour with a delicate bead of bubbles, this is a stylish Champagne with citrus hints on the nose overlaid with touches of brioche and yeastiness. Wonderful for any special occasion but these bubbles shine with paired with mushroom dishes or sushi.

Panzer’s famous pecan pie recipe

A perennial Panzer’s favourite – we’re sharing our pecan pie recipe! Perfect to grace your holiday table (or you can always grab a slice in store.)

Ingredients

400 g sweet shortcrust pastry
5g butter, softened
200g pecans
1 tablespoon runny honey
110g butter, softened
110g caster sugar
3 medium eggs, beaten
110g ground almonds
25g flaked almonds
Icing sugar to dust
Raspberries
clotted cream or creme fraiche

Method

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pastry dough into a 1 cm thick large disc then place on a parchment-lined tray & refrigerate for 30 minutes. Grease the inside of a 24 cm diameter loose bottomed fluted tart tin with the butter and line with the chilled disc of pastry. Using a fork, prick the base of the pastry case all over. Put it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.)

Preheat the oven to 190°C fan/210°C/gas mark 6/2. Once rested, trim away excess pastry from the top edge of the tin. Cover pastry with baking parchment and fill with ceramic baking beans. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, line a baking tray with baking parchment. Mix the pecans and honev and spread them across the lined baking tray. Remove the baking beans and parchment from the pastry case and return to the oven along with the tray of pecans for a further 10 minutes. Take the tart case and nuts out of the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 180°C fan/200°C/Gas Mark 6.

While the pastry and nuts are cooling, whisk together the butter and sugar until Pale. Gradually whisk in the eggs, then stir in the ground almonds. Pour the frangipane mixture into the pastry case. Evenly spread the pecans over the top, pushing them down into the filling, and then scatter the flaked almonds all over. Bake for 35 minutes or until the frangipane has risen and is golden in colour.

Lightly dust with icing sugar. Serve while still warm with a handful of raspberries and some clotted cream or creme fraiche on the side.

ENJOY!

Producer of the month: Fabi Bakery

Fabiana Pragier’s gluten free cakes and desserts are undoubtedly one of our favourite discoveries of the last year. We asked her to share her story:

Your gluten free chocolate covered carrot cake is a huge success in store. Tell us a little bit about the cake’s origins back in Brazil.

The use of carrots in cakes dates back to 1700, but unlike the American carrot cake that uses grated carrots in the dough, we blitz the carrots in Brazil. Even though Brazil is one of the greatest sugar producers in the world, sugar was expensive, so carrots were used as a sweetener. We also use a chocolate sauce as frosting rather than cream cheese.

How did you come to launch your business in London?

I went to Le Cordon Bleu in London and my plan was to go back to Hamburg, Germany where I used to live to launch a business there. As I specialised in gluten and dairy free patisserie from the beginning and realised that London lacked products like mine, I decided to stay!

Tell us a bit about your exploration in gluten free baking & dessert making?

I am dairy intolerant, so I always tried to replace dairy in recipes. But when I started to sell cakes from home, neighbours and friends asked if I could bake gluten free too! I went back to study in Brazil but the climate, ingredients & food preferences between the two countries led me to conduct my own experiments. I’m now an expert in the chemistry of gluten-free flours and you don’t notice the difference to the classic flours in my desserts.

What are other Brazilian foods would you encourage us to try? (gluten free or not!)

Brazil is very rich in fruits and vegetables. I really love cassava and all you can create with that. pao de queijo (cheese bread) is also something delicious and special. In patisserie, I really love quindim (an egg yolk based custard with coconut) and walnut cake with dulce de leche.

What other products do you love at Panzer’s?

I love the bread selection, fruits and sushi. And the Italian patisseries.

Find Fabiana’s delights in our dessert fridges, delivered several times a week.

Producer of the month: Kaveri Spirits

We caught up with our neighbour Varun Sarna to talk about his new spirit brand (we’re flattered, using our ingredients!) Kaveri.

What inspired you to create Kaveri?

Kaveri was actually created in my kitchen in St Johns Wood with fresh ginger, lime leaf and basil from Panzers, so it’s amazing to be stocked with you.

Kaveri was inspired by a desire to create a spirit that is truly natural. What we’ve created is one of a kind and completely unique. Instead of concentrates or processed flavourings, we blend in 100% organic Peruvian ginger juice which we lightly filter, so we look and taste like a fresh ginger shot. Unlike any other spirit, (and every other cold-pressed juice), you have to shake us before you pour. You’ll also see we look really different – more like a juice than a spirit!

Tell us about the magic of cold pressing ginger

The heat created by the blades in normal juicing alters the natural fibres in ginger, which makes for a duller taste profile that loses the freshness and power of our raw Peruvian ginger. We cold-press to protect those fibres and that natural zing.

Your product is truly global – tell us a bit more.

We juice and blend locally (in Kent & St Albans) to keep our carbon footprint low, but we’re global in inspiration. Kaveri is named after a river that flows through India, the country of my heritage. Our ginger is Peruvian, and our supporting ingredients from Ugandan Vanilla to Thai Lime Leaf are sourced from all over the world.

What is your idea recipe for serving?

For ginger lovers, I recommend taking the time to savour the spirit straight. We work amazingly well in a ginger spritz for warmer weather. As we move into autumn and winter, I would recommend trying us with hot water and a dash of honey (or agave for vegans) in a whiskey tumbler. Warming goodness!

What are your favourite bar snacks to serve alongside?

Two vegan suggestions as we’re an all vegan product. The Gordal Olives from Panzers are perfect for every occasion and every drink. I’m not joking! For something else fresh and healthy, bruschetta on rye pairs really well.

Find Kaveri Vodka in our spirits section near the wine racks in store.

journal

April Recipe: Spring Morels on Toast

SPRING MORELS ON TOAST

INGREDIENTS:

METHOD:

April Wine Tasting Event “Lesser Known Regions”

Panzer’s Milking Station

Join us for a fresh-off-the-farm experience.

March’s Seasonal Recipes

Sweet & savoury recipes for February

January recipes to celebrate citrus and chicories

Wines for the holidays

A delightful selection of whites and reds for your festive table:

Panzer’s famous pecan pie recipe

Method

Producer of the month: Fabi Bakery

Your gluten free chocolate covered carrot cake is a huge success in store. Tell us a little bit about the cake’s origins back in Brazil.

How did you come to launch your business in London?

Tell us a bit about your exploration in gluten free baking & dessert making?

What are other Brazilian foods would you encourage us to try? (gluten free or not!)

What other products do you love at Panzer’s?

Producer of the month: Kaveri Spirits

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