Stephanie Moon, Author at The Stray Ferret

Stray Kitchen with Stephanie Moon: Free Food

Stray Kitchen is our column all about food written by renowned local produce expert, food writer and chef, Stephanie Moon. Stephanie is a champion of food produced in the UK and particularly in Yorkshire and the Harrogate district.

There is an air of optimism about the Moon household these days, a light at the end of a very long tunnel for us all and of course our beloved hospitality industry.

On my walk today out in the sunshine I was in high spirits, delighted to see the green shoots of wild garlic peeping out and even a few fresh nettle shoots. Free food is all around now, and it is the time to start getting out there to find your own.

I have always been interested in wild food. I can remember bringing in the cows for my Dad at milking time as a young lass, eating the wild strawberries growing in the side of the road. One year the farm had a field mushroom phenomenon, and we ended up filling washing baskets and cardboard boxes to give to relatives and friends. This is a hobby that is healthy and great for mindfulness, as it gets you outside soaking up the sun and breathing the fresh air. What is not to love?!

We are always encouraged to make the most of natures bounty, so here are a few easy tricks to foraging if you are new to the pastime.

Start with something easy
Nettles or Wild Garlic are great this time of year, with young tender shoots
Nettles grow everywhere, but you should avoid picking from roadsides where car pollution may have occurred. Wild garlic likes leafy woods and often with water nearby
Wild garlic tends to have long green leaves, white delicate flowers on a tall chive-like stem, and a bulb like a garlic bulb but much scrawnier. The amazing smell of the leaves will hit you before you see it, so if in doubt just rub it: if it is wild garlic, it will give off a garlic aroma. The young tender shoots are the most tasty

A wild garlic leaf

If picking nettles, wear plastic gloves to avoid being stung – if you are stung this is very mild with tender shoots and wears off fairly quickly. Someone once told me a nettle sting is good for arthritis, but that could be an old wives tale. Once you have cooked a nettle it looses its sting and the young ones are very tasty- a massive hit with the Victorians apparently, although not so much in food fashion these days unlike its punchy partner wild garlic on every chef’s ingredients list this time of year
Be careful not to pick on land where pesticides may have been used
You cannot dig for free without permission

This is a very old photo of my dog Honey who is now 8 years old… yes I know, ‘Honey Moon’! As a puppy she started her foraging years early.

Watch out for dogs! For fairly obvious reasons, do not forage where dogs are walked
Try to pick under the shade of a tree, as the leaves are often juicer having been less baked by the sun
Avoid picking right next to the water’s edge. Not only because you might fall in, but who knows what you might pick up
Avoid picking lots of one plant in one area. To be respectful of nature, spread out instead so it does not affect next year’s crop
Make sure you know what you are picking and avoid picking other plants at the same time. If you rush, you may get more than you bargained for as not all plants are edible!

Happy cooking,
Steph x

Stray Kitchen: the most fun you’ll have with a frying pan

Us Brits have loved pancakes since the 15th century and as a nation we devour over 53 million eggs on pancake day.

I think we are all happy to go a bit barmy on Shrove Tuesday, or so called ‘Shrive Tuesday’ because people would confess to their sins.

This is an excuse to go flippin’ crazy on Pancake day – anything to bring out a smile and a flash back to our childhood. I can more or less guarantee it, perhaps even a belly laugh if you try the tricky to master pancake art!

Art in a pancake is not as weird as it sounds and there are varying ways to do this. You can make a basic pancake batter and pour it into a squeezy bottle, then pour into the pancake pan in an artistic fashion. Chocolate cocoa pancake batter gives you more defined outlines alongside the basic mixture, and there are plenty of fun videos on the web to guide you.

Most people can eat at least two or three Pancakes and as a young girl my mother would cook us pancakes the traditional way, with sugar and fresh lemon juice. If we had not eaten the first one before the next one was ready, we had our noses dusted in soot from the fireplace. She explained this was an old tradition – although I have never heard or seen this since so I’m pretty certain she was playing a joke on us – but it did make us hurry up and eat our dinner!

Who gives a toss? Well, the highest recorded pancake toss was 31ft which is vertically impressive and I’m glad if I can successfully manage 2ft! if you are braving the toss always remember have a little extra batter ready for the ones that end up on the floor!

So many countries have their favourite pancake batters: the Americans their pancake stacks, the French their crepes, and the Indians their dosas. As for Russia, I can honestly say I have tried Blinis in Moscow where I went to do a battle of the batters cook off in the kitchens of the Hotel Metropol in Moscow. The chefs were fiercely proud and their Blinis and Yorkshire puddings really did match up well (even though Yorkshire Puddings are technically not pancakes if you make them right!). Thankfully, we where declared equals by the general manager.

The batter for pancake day is amazingly simple and only really needs three main ingredients: milk, flour, and eggs. As a dairy farmer’s daughter, it’s no wonder it was a big day in our house!

Everyone has a pancake batter mix that is their favourite, but my top tip is to cook the pancake in melted bubbling butter instead of oil, unless you are trying pancake art then plain vegetable oil is better to see the outlines of the pancake art.

So get your pancake groove on and serve with fresh lemon juice and a spoonful of sugar, fill savoury pancakes with a rich prawn double cream and cheese mix, pack a pancake full of Nutella and bananas or try your hand at pancake art. Whatever you choose, it’s guaranteed as much fun as you can have in a frying pan!

Happy pancake day!
Steph x

Stray Kitchen with Stephanie Moon: Green shoots of hope will spring through snow

When I was a kid, I loved sledging. We had a field on the farm where you could really pick up some speed and hurtle down the hill holding your nerve before you caused yourself to stop in an unladylike crash. The alternative was to continue on and be impaled on a barbed wire fence below!

As Harrogate has been covered in snow, it has given lockdown a magical quality that takes me right back to the bright red faces of my sledging youth. With big smiles, wet socks, and old feed bags full of straw that was the farmers’ kids’ sledges.

It seems so weird to be stuck at home again! This lockdown is the toughest I am sure for many, and what we are all needing right now is comfort food and nostalgia – and lots of it. It could be a heart-warming crumble & custard or a simple bubbling cheese-on-toast with a hearty splash of Henderson’s relish, that famous Sheffield sauce. I have just had a big bowl of sausage & mash with gravy for lunch and the local farm shop sausages did the trick – I am feeling nostalgic in the snow.

I think the birds in my garden are loving the fact the Moon’s All-You-Can-Eat buffet on my bird feeders is in full throttle – niger seed and sunflower seeds meet fat blocks and peanuts – I must admit feeding the birds this lockdown has been a great pleasure (once a caterer always a caterer, we chefs are feeders!). I have learnt what each species likes now and like a demanding guest with the goldfinch, nuthatch and woodpecker being regular dinners to impress. With all this coming and going it is the busiest bird restaurant for miles around.

Under all the snow lies the green shoots of spring. They seem so far away right now and the thoughts of sitting at a table with the family a distant memory that I long to recreate. A big family meal with all the laughter and joy that will bring is my own motivation to stay the course and do our bit to get through this lockdown.

If you are looking for some foodie ideas to get through lockdown, a great idea for a seasonal food is our friend forced rhubarb. A great way to cook it is very simply:

Cut your rhubarb into sticks about 3 inches long, place them on a tray and sprinkle over some caster sugar before you place on a tin foil lid to the tray – place this in an oven at 180C for 8-10 mins and your rhubarb will be perfectly cooked; it won’t be mushy like when you cook it in a pot on the stove. Serve with lashings of custard or some heathy yoghurt and granola. Either way – yum!

So my advice now is to find your comfort food, no matter how simple, and take a moment to look ahead to when we can sit with family again. Lord knows it does us all good from time to time.

Stay safe,

Steph x

Stray Kitchen with Stephanie Moon: How a chef tries to get thin

Never has it been more important to wish someone a Healthy and Happy New Year than at the start of 2021.

A new year and a fresh start and most of us are glad that 2020 has long gone and have an opportunity to make some great plans for the New Year. After a Christmas of too-many-good tidings and lots of socially distanced good cheer, now is the time many of us focus on being happy and healthy in the months to come.

Can you still fit into those pre-lockdown jeans? Or is it that we are all thinking it is time to go on that diet? As a Chef I am surrounded by food and I love food, so it is a constant battle. For me, the key is to get a balance right and not beat yourself up if you fancy eating something you perhaps should not!

How can we get fit? The old adage “never trust a skinny chef” just does not cut it these days; we are watching our weight and being sensible with our fitness – I know some chefs obsessed with fitness and a pastry chef who is now a personal trainer, thinking more about being body-beautiful than he does about his Choux Buns.

I am a far cry from that! But for me, it has always been a balance of dog walking and eating a plate laden with vegetables. Don’t get me wrong, I do fall off the wagon many times.

January is also Veganuary. As a young schoolgirl I once remember saying to my Dad (now retired, but then a busy farmer) that I wanted to became a vegetarian as one of my friends had just done. His curt reply was “over my dead body!”. The truth is I now love vegetarian and vegan food and relish the challenge of cooking this, but I personally enjoy meat too. It is about buying good quality local meat but less of it. Quality and less quantity are, in my opinion, the way forward.

So, I shall stop drinking alcohol this month, eat more vegetarian meals and eat smaller portions of locally sourced meats and fish. Importantly keep exercising and just do what I think most of us did last year too – try our best to get through it!

Happy New Year, much love for 2021 and happy cooking!

Steph x

Stray Kitchen: Last minute Christmas tips

As Christmas is a reindeer’s breath away, here are some quick ways to bling up your Christmas dinner with some simple store cupboard staples that can really enhance your Christmas meal.

In a year where many people are having a smaller Christmas than planned, I’ve also included some ideas for how to use up the rest of your turkey – as sadly, turkeys do not come in small sizes!

Add some sparkle to your food

Turkey – why not give your stuffing a twist this year? Smokey bacon and roasted shallots, sage and onion with apricot, you can choose whatever you like

Roast potatoes – try cooking in goose fat… once you try it, you’ll never look back, especially with the addition of some garlic and fresh thyme on the roasting tray

Brussel sprouts – some say balsamic, some say cut into four and roast with chestnuts. Vegans swear by Yeast Flakes (which are particularly good, I must say), but I love sprouts with chestnuts and redcurrant jelly, so they are glazed and nutty.

Yorkshire puddings… or no Yorkshire puddings? Let’s not open the door to that discussion, or we will be here all day!

Proper gravy – it’s delicious and I always add lashings of it

Christmas pudding –flambéing the pudding is a brilliant idea. Make sure you place it on a strong dish to withstand the heat and warm the alcohol gently before igniting. One ladle will do, light it on the ladle then spread the liquid over the pudding and it will look amazing- dim the lights for extra effect! Rum or brandy are the best kind of alcohol for this, but others work too. If you are adding a shiny penny to your Christmas pudding, remember to warn people!

Jazz up your drinks

For ice with a difference, add some pomegranate seeds to your ice tray and fill them up with water or cranberry juice – even simply freezing your lemon/ lime segments instead of ice is great.

Mulled wine is very tasty with an extra shot of Cointreau or Grand Marnier and it really gets the party started! If you have drivers celebrating with you, mulled cranberry or apple juice is a nice touch, so they can feel part of the party

For curing that Boxing Day hangover… a smoothie! Bananas, milk, a few porridge oats, and a splash of maple syrup is delicious!

What to do with the extra turkey

Here are a few tips for going international with your leftovers…

A biriyani curry makes a great change to simple curry, and is incredibly tasty
Schnitzel – slice the cooked turkey slightly thicker and coat in flour, eggs and breadcrumbs
Ramen is simple but delicious
Enchiladas with a festive feel

Enjoy this festive time as best you can and always remember… let your turkey rest well before carving!

Happy Christmas
Steph x

Stray Kitchen with Stephanie Moon: Did somebody say cheese?

Stray Kitchen is our monthly column all about food written by renowned local produce expert, food writer and chef, Stephanie Moon. Stephanie is a champion of food produced in the UK and particularly in Yorkshire and the Harrogate district.

I adore cheese… everything about it! And at Christmas, cheese is the thing we all love to nibble on, so let’s take a look at how to pick a good cheese and how can you make this years Cheese board the most interesting and fun board your family have tasted.

Where to buy your cheese.

If it is wrapped in clingfilm or shrink wrapped in a plastic wrapper, chances are it has been there for some time and has sweated. This will damage the cheese and should be avoided. Try to look for a specialist shop – we are lucky enough to be surrounded by them in the Harrogate district. In the town centre is The Cheeseboard– great ladies, plus The Artisan Cheese Company Wetherby, cheese counters at Fodder or Weetons, Bowe and Co deli counter in Boroughbridge and so many more to mention.

One of the best gifts I received in recent years was from one of my sisters and her family – 3 months of cheese from The Courtyard Dairy just outside Settle. Delivered to my door during the first week of the month, this box includes some great cheeses and crackers and even chutney.

Which cheeses to choose?

Your cheese board needs to have variety. It can be international, British, or even Yorkshire cheeses only, but they must be different and offer a choice of textures and flavours as well as strength and depth. There are even some good vegan options out there too.

I would always try to have three different cheeses as a minimum and say five maximum- or things can get crazy!

I would recommend at least three Yorkshire cheeses on your board. These can be blue, goats, sheep, or traditional dairy cheese, but let’s support our artisan cheese makers.

It is important to consider your guests and their special likes – for the Moon family (although vastly depleted in number this year due to you-know-what,) we will be having a Yorkshire cheese board with a bit of runny Brie de Meux.

To cracker or not to cracker?

In my view, everyone expects crackers, although some use bread. You can buy a few more ‘unusual’ types like the charcoal Duchy crackers, but some people are much happier with a more traditional Bath Oliver, oaty Nairn, Carrs water biscuit, or even a box of Jacobs. Here in Yorkshire we know our crackers and there are many local companies that make a crispy favourite, from your local baker to Lottie Shaws, even Grandma Wilds gets in there.

What else do we need on a cheese board?

I love Quince Cheese – it is a real treat and not ‘actual cheese’, but a sweet, sharp, puree-like jelly that is heaven with your cheeses.

I do make chutney every year so we also have a jar of that too, but you can buy stunning Yorkshire chutneys like Rosebud Preserves, The Fruity Kitchen, Bracken Hill and Mercers.

Nuts – preferably in the shell (simply for the fun factor!), ideally walnuts but I love them all.

Celery – well worth it as celery is one of the only foods you can eat without putting on weight! The energy it takes to eat it burns more calories than you intake. So for that reason alone, it is a good idea to have that celery on your board too.

Grapes – I always buy both red and green as the board looks better, but the green ones are always left in the Moon household!

Apples – sliced up like little fans. This reminds me of learning how to do this years ago when I was a 17 year old student at Craven College, and still makes me smile today – get on YouTube and get creative with your apples.

Christmas cake? Or Dundee cake – as it is Christmas, some Christmas cake seems festive and bountiful (if a little decadent). Us Yorkshire folk know that Wensleydale belongs with fruit cake anyway!

Drinks

Lastly – but perhaps most importantly – what to drink with your cheese board?

Why not do a pairing of a different drink with each cheese? Set your cheeses out in a row, starting with the milder and finishing on the blues and stinkys! Pair these with interesting wines and ports. I love a glass of Dunesforde Yorkshire Wine – the Solaris with Shepherds Purse Harrogate Blue Cheese is really a great pairing. Or try a tawny port with Wensleydale Creamery‘s Kit Calvert – delicious!

Always remember to let your cheeses be served at room temperature, they will love you for this and taste so much better. Most of all, have fun with your cheese board.

Stray Kitchen with Stephanie Moon: It’s Apple Time

Stray Kitchen is our monthly column all about food written by renowned local produce expert, food writer and chef, Stephanie Moon. Stephanie studied at Craven College, Skipton. She then did a work placement at London’s five-star hotel/restaurant, The Dorchester. Stephanie was offered a full-time job, where she worked for world-famous chef, Anton Mosimann.

In the spirit of Autumn and Halloween, Stephanie’s first column will be talking about the delicious ways of using apples in various dishes.

I love this time of year. Our region has a real history with the Great British Apple. Did you know the Ribston Pippin was grown back in 1708 from apple pips which were sent to Henry Goodricke of Ribston Hall? This was the runner up of the Cox’s Orange Pippin.

In Little Ribston, there is still a Ribston Pippin tree growing in the grounds. Nick Smith, the Director of the Harrogate Flower Show, took me along to cook the apples under the tree years ago. This was filmed for Look North. I created my version of an 18th Century recipe ‘A Fraze of Pippins’ (basically a batter-like pancake, heavy on the spices with lots of apples). It was great fun.

Do you have an Apple glut?

My advice is to invest in an ‘apfelschaler’; a plastic contraption (you can get metal ones too) that peels an apple in seconds whilst you wind the handle. When you literally have kilos to peel it really helps.

The apfelschaler peeling an apple.

My Dad gets given boxes of apples and I help him to cook through an apple mountain (not even an exaggeration). We peel, cook the apples and place them in take away pots, lots of apple sauce, and freeze them. I now have a whole shelf of apple sauce in my freezer that is not mine.

Chutney made with apples is mind-blowingly good and great for Christmas gifts. If you make batches it becomes easy (just watch out for apple volcanos), then you cook the chutney as a hit with some boiling hot apple chutney will smart.

But perhaps you have no apples?

If you are lucky enough to look around villages surrounding Harrogate, they give them away for free by the side of the road. Local farm shops and fruit and vegetable shops have fruit racks that are groaning under the strain with every variety – much better than the supermarket fruits that can sometimes be months old.

Stephanie cooking.

There is always the plan to let someone else do the work. Nothing beats an Elite Meat pork and apple burger, a Taylor’s apple cinnamon tea or a Rosebud Preserves wild crab apple jelly.

Can you Adam and Eve it?

Till next time!

For more information on Stephanie Moon’s career in food click here.

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Add some sparkle to your food

Jazz up your drinks

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What to do with the extra turkey

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Do you have an Apple glut?

But perhaps you have no apples?

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