Two recipes and beautiful studio pottery!

In today’s post, I wanted to share with you a couple of recipes and show off two new pieces of handmade studio pottery I received too.

I’m a sucker for handmade items, especially pottery and these two beautiful pieces I am going to love using in my kitchen hopefully for many years to come. I’m already feeling nostalgic about them, and hoping that they are the kind of things my girls will remember me using.  I mean I’ve had them for 10 days and already used them on five separate occasions.

Flowers from my garden.

So here’s a little more about Canterbury Pottery :

Situated in the heart of the historic city of Canterbury, opposite the cathedral,  you will find one of the city’s treasures. Established in 1963 Canterbury Pottery is run by Richard & Jan Chapman. In the studio at the rear of the showroom, this husband and wife team are producing beautiful handmade pottery at affordable prices.

I went for this oven to table square dish and the pint mug.  They come in lots of choices in terms of design and colour.  I’d spotted this design on their Instagram page and instantly fell for it. I love how organic and simple the design is.

 

Oven to Table Dish Square £32.50

It has what are described as lug handles, they hug the sides of the dish and make it really easy to take the dish in and out of the oven.  Because of its size and shape it can be used for so many things cold or hot. It’s hand thrown on the wheel, and suitable to use in the oven, microwave and dishwasher. Perfect for cooking hearty dishes like shepherd’s pie, lasagna and pasta, crumbles and oven bakes. Its size is approximately 29 cms (12″) from handle to handle, 6 cms (2.4″) deep.

Please note : To avoid potentially damaging your oven-to-table dish, we advise you not to pre-heat your oven but to prepare the food in the dish, place it in the oven and then turn the oven on. Not suitable for use on the hob.

Pint Jug £17.50

Apparently, Canterbury Pottery has been making this Pint Jug for nearly fifty years! The traditional baluster shape, has a hand pulled handle and the perfect good pouring lip. Whether you use it as decoration, hot gravy or custard and cream it is a great size and even really thick custard pours brilliantly.

Also suitable to use in the oven, microwave and dishwasher.

OK, as I say I’ve made quite a few dishes so far.  Only last night I made a Jamie Oliver Baked Pasta Dish, that totally rocked.  I might share that with you next week.  Today I wanted to share a baked lentil and chickpea curry that I made and a crumble recipe.

Ingredients – Serves 4-6

• 3 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, crushed or finely grated
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds, ground
• 2 teaspoons cumin seeds, ground
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoons grated ginger
• ½-1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
• Pinch of ground cinnamon
• The crushed seeds of 4 green cardamom pods
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 250g (9oz) red lentils
• 1 small tin or carton of chickpeas
• 700ml (1¼ pts) chicken stock or vegetable stock
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2-3 tablespoons chopped coriander
• Squeeze of lemon

Method :

Heat the sunflower oil in a large saucepan over a low-to-medium heat, add the finely chopped onion and the crushed or finely grated garlic, whichever you’re using. Cover and cook for 8-10 minutes, until the onions and garlic are soft.

Increase the heat, add the ground coriander seeds, the ground cumin seeds, the black mustard seeds, the grated ginger, the finely chopped chilli, the pinch of ground cinnamon, the crushed cardamom seeds and the turmeric. Stir.

After one minute, add the tomato puree and the red lentils and stir, then add the chicken stock or vegetable stock, whichever you are using. Bring to the boil, season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Add to the casserole dish and bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the lentils are cooked and have soaked up all the liquid.

Because I didn’t preheat the oven (because of the dish) I left it in for 15 mins (if preheated it only really take about 10) at 180 degrees Gas Mark 4.

Add the chopped coriander and the squeeze of lemon and season to taste.

Another day we also made an apple and rhubarb crumble and custard which is such an easy dessert perfect for this colder weather we are having.

Ingredients

• 450g/1lb apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1cm/½in pieces
• 5 stalks of rhubarb
• 50g/2oz brown sugar
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 pinch ground cinnamon

Crumble

• 300g/10½oz plain flour, sieved
• A couple of tablespoons of oats
• pinch of salt
• 175g/6oz brown sugar
• 200g/7oz unsalted butter at room temperature, cubed, plus a little for greasing

Method

1. Place the flour, salt and sugar in a large bowl and mix well. Taking a few cubes of butter at a time rub into the flour mixture. Keep rubbing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

2. Place the fruit in a large bowl and sprinkle over the sugar, flour and cinnamon. Stir well being careful not to break up the fruit.

3. Butter a ovenproof dish. Spoon the fruit mixture into the bottom, then sprinkle the crumble mixture on top.

4. Bake in the oven (remember from cold with this dish) for 40-45 minutes 180C/350F/Gas 4 or until the crumble is browned and the fruit mixture bubbling.

5. Serve with thick cream or custard.

We cheated on the custard, and use a very thick vanilla custard.  Which I didn’t think would pour very well…however I was very wrong!

I hope you enjoyed this post about Canterbury Pottery, I’m more than a little obsessed with this pottery, and I’m loving making memories with them and we are all enjoying the meals!