Tag: New Forest

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Blog Mains

Baked Mackerel Al Fresco

This weekend we spent a few days down in the New Forest in our motorhome. A short cycle ride down to the beach, and along the coast, brought us to Mudeford Quay, a local sea fishing centre and home of a fresh fish stall.

Being a working quay, there is always lots going on to watch and do. Think you can catch a crab with a line and some bait? This is a good place to have a try (see below). Just make sure you don’t fall off that wall into the Solent!

There are views over to the Needles on the Isle of Wight, and a little ferry traversing the strong currents between here and Hengistbury Head.

The sea fish stall is as unpretentious as the rest of this delightfully busy area. Here it is tucked away behind the nets and lobster baskets, its roof heavily weathered by the sea air.

Inside, local catch of the day is sea bass, mackerel and bream. We chose a couple of mackerel, which this helpful lady cleaned and filleted for us, before biking them back to the camp site.

That evening, I wrapped them in foil parcels and cooked them on my Cadac Safari Chef. This is a portable and versatile grill that plugs directly into the gas tank of the motorhome. It makes al fresco cooking a breeze.

As you can see from my photo, it is obligatory at this stage of the process for the chef to have a chilled craft beer alongside 🙂 . Today’s choice is Neck Oil by Beavertown Brewery.

12 minutes later and the foil parcels are opened carefully, revealing the tender flakes of the baked fillets.

Cooked, freshly caught mackerel tastes great, so needs little added – just some lemon and a few twists of black pepper. We ate them with steamed new potatoes and broccoli as the sun was setting. Oh, and with a glass of chilled Pinot Grigio, of course.

From sea to plate in under 24 hours!

So what musical track can I pair with this post? There is such a choice: Hooked on a Feeling? Under the Sea? Maybe Rose Royce with Fishing on a Star? Anything by Fleetwood Mackerel?

I’ve settled on this one: Kayleigh by Marillion. The name of their lead singer? Fish, of course 🙂

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Bakes Recipes

New Forest Buttermilk Scones

Mmm….freshly baked buttermilk scones with butter and home made plum and apple jam. Yes!

This week I found myself with a tub of buttermilk to spare. The by-product of an exercise in making butter from Jersey cream, I was vaguely aware that it could be used in baking scones.

A little further research taught me that its acidity makes it react well with bicarbonate of soda to give a light texture to baking. It also brings a slightly sour, but pleasant taste to a scone mix.

I decided to give it a go, thinking that the scones would make a tasty picnic lunch the following day, when we had planned to go cycling in the New Forest. A remote national park that has changed very little over the decades, the Forest has an extensive network of tracks exclusively for non-vehicle traffic – just walkers, cyclists and horseriders.

And so it worked out! My photos show the plate of golden brown scones, as we prepared to devour them after a morning’s cycle in the peace and solitude of the Forest. Look carefully in the background and you can see some of those famous wild ponies that roam the New Forest.

Just make sure you eat the scones before those ponies do 🙂

Servings

This made 12 scones and, with a couple of re-rolls of the remaining scone mix, another 2 – 3 on top.

Timings

15 mins to make, 20 mins in the oven at 160C.

You Will Need

  • 450g self-raising flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 100g butter or baking spread
  • 85g caster sugar
  • 300ml buttermilk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • a splash of milk for basting

Method

  1. Switch on the oven to 160C. Sieve the flour into a large bowl with the salt. Add in the butter or spread in cubes or small pieces, and mix with an electric whisk until it has the consistency of breadcrumbs.
  2. Tip in the sugar and whisk again to mix in.
  3. Warm the buttermilk and vanilla in a saucepan on the hob for 2 – 3 mins. Then gradually add it in waves to the flour mix, turning over with a spatula after each addition to mix it in. Keep going until all the buttermilk has been incorporated, and a cohesive scone mix has formed in the bowl.
  4. Tip the mix out on to a well-floured surface. If the mix is still a little too wet to work with, don’t be afraid to sprinkle over more self-raising flour until it has a consistency that can be pressed and moulded with the fingers, and rolled out to around 2cm thickness.
  5. Press a scone or biscuit cutter into the mix to produce rounds – mine are around 7cm diameter, and this gave me enough for 12 scones. Re-roll the leftover mix and this should give you another 2 – 3.
  6. Place on a metal tray lined with baking paper. Brush each with a little milk on a pastry brush and bake for 20mins at 160C.
  7. Remove and place on a wire rack to cool.
  8. Serve with butter or spread and jam. We had ours with home made plum and apple jam, as shown in my photo at the top of the post. The scones are best eaten within a day.

Customise it!

If you can’t get your hands on buttermilk, I have read that adding 1 tbsp of lemon juice to ordinary dairy milk can be a useful substitute.

The colour of the scones reminded me of this track, so I have been playing it this week. I don’t think The Stranglers intended the song to be about making scones, or cycling amongst the ponies in the New Forest, for that matter. Never mind – here they are with Golden Brown.

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Blog

New Forest Afternoon Tea

Now here’s a real treat: a recent family celebration took us to the Montagu Arms in Beaulieu, at the heart of Hampshire’s New Forest, for an English Afternoon Tea.

The New Forest is a slice of traditional old England. Originally a hunting forest for royalty from the 11th Century, it has benefitted from environmental protections over the centuries, and is now a National Park. This means that the beautiful scenery and wildlife have changed little, and the region is rich in heritage. One of its most famous aspects is the New Forest Ponies, who freely roam the land.

History lesson over – on to the food. Afternoon Tea was served in the Dining Room, with china tea service and the elaborate three tiered cake stand shown in my main photo.

Starting with the bottom plate, we had a selection of finger sandwiches: thinly sliced Cucumber with Cream Cheese; Longman Cheddar and Chutney; Honey Roast Gammon with Dijon Mayonnaise; and Smoked Salmon with Creme Fraiche. There were also slices of Pork Sausage Roll and Mushroom Vol Au Vents.

Once you’ve polished off the sandwiches, you move to the middle plate, which has warm Fruit and Plain Scones, with Strawberry Jam and Clotted Cream.

The top layer has the cakes: Chocolate Brownie with Salted Caramel and Kirsch Cherry; Blood Orange Choux Balls; and Carrot Cake.

Situated alongside the Beaulieu (it is pronounced Bewley) River, the Montagu Arms is an enchanting old country house hotel. The current building dates from the 1880s, and oozes traditional English charm with its interiors of oak flooring, wall panelling, original brick fireplaces and grandfather clocks. You would not be surprised if you bumped into Basil Rathbone or Wilfrid Hyde-White on the stairs (note to younger readers: look them up on Google).

When the likes of Netflix are trying to create a location for an Agatha Christie movie or period drama, this is the look they are aiming for – except this is the real thing. Even the plush carpet is eccentrically unique, with a quirky design based on the famous New Forest Ponies.

The food was delicious, the service friendly and efficient, and the surroundings relaxed. It is almost impossible to finish all the food, so you are able to take home whatever you can’t eat, to enjoy later. I can wholeheartedly recommend it for a birthday, anniversary or special celebration.

Musical accompaniment for this post has to be something quintessentially English. To me, that means Kate Bush. I saw her live in 2014, at her Before the Dawn residency at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. She is a captivating presence, whether with a full band accompanying her, or alone on stage with just voice and piano. This is one of many great tracks she performed, from the Aerial album – Joanni.