Smoked haddock chowder with parsley essential oil

Smoked haddock chowder is a wonderful, rich, filling and warming dish which can be served either as a starter or as a main course. When you add parsley essential oil to the chowder it gives it a tasty kick and unique twist which you can call your own. It’s very easy to make and shouldn’t take longer than about 30-40mins from start to finish. The below recipe serves 4-5 as a starter or 2-3 as a main course so scale up or down as necessary.

Equipment
Large saucepan
Sharp knife
Chopping board
Wooden spoon

Ingredients
Large knob of butter
2 x rashers of streaky bacon, chopped into 1” pieces
1 x medium onion, finely chopped
500ml/15fl oz milk (semi skimmed or soya can be used as an alternative)
2 x medium sized potatoes, chopped into 2cm cubes
2 x smoked undyed haddock fillets, roughly broken up into large chunks
140g of tinned or frozen sweetcorn
1 x drop of Florame’s parsley essential oil

To make
Heat the butter in a large saucepan. When sizzling add in the bacon & fry until it starts to brown, stirring all the time. Add in the onion and fry until glazed and soft, stirring all the time so that nothing sticks to the bottom of the saucepan. Add the milk and chopped potatoes, bring to the boil then reduce the heat as much as possible to a simmer. Simmer for approx 10 mins or until the potatoes are soft.

Once the potatoes are soft, add the chunks of haddock, stir and simmer for a further 10 mins. Add the sweetcorn and parsley essential oil, stir through and simmer for a further 2-3 minutes.

Put the smoked haddock chowder into warmed bowls and serve with chunks of crusty bread.

SAUSAGES IN CIDER WITH ORGANIC JUNIPER ESSENTIAL OIL

This is my favourite version of bangers and mash. The cider, apple and organic juniper essential oil gravy is totally more-ish and goes perfectly with plain mashed potato. This version is for 4 people so scale the ingredients up or down as you see fit. I am not giving the recipe here for making the mash – just the sausages. It’s really simply and Florame's juniper essential oil adds a unique flavour. So here goes:

Equipment
Sharp knife
Large frying pan
Large flame proof casserole dish or deep, lidded frying pan
Plate
Wooden spoon
Apple corer

Ingredients
8 x fat pork sausages
2 x tbsp olive oil
1 x eating apple (cored & sliced into rings)
1 x cooking apple (cored & sliced into rings)
1 x medium onion (sliced into rings)
1 x clove of garlic (finely chopped)
2 x rashers of streaky bacon (chopped into 1cm pieces)
15fl oz (500ml) dry cider
1 x tbsp cider vinegar (but white wine vinegar will do if you don’t have cider)
1 x heaped tbsp plain flour
1 x good pinch mixed herbs
2 x drops of organic juniper essential oil
Salt & pepper


To make
On a high heat, heat one tablespoon of oil in the frying pan, wait until shimmering hot then plop in your sausages to brown and reduce the heat to medium. Turn them regularly until they are browned on all sides. Take off the heat, put the sausages on a plate and set aside (keep them warm in a low temperature oven if poss). Into the same frying pan put the garlic, onion rings and bacon. Fry until the onion and bacon are browned and the rings are very slightly black at the edges. Take off the heat and set aside.

Put the casserole dish or deep frying pan on to a high heat and add the other tablespoon of olive oil. Once shimmering, reduce the heat and add in the sliced apple rings. Fry for 3-4 mins on either side until brown. Once browned, add the onions, bacon, garlic and sausages to the apples and reduce to a low heat. Stir together with a wooden spoon then sprinkle over the heaped tablespoon of flour, stirring all the time until the flour soaks up the juices. Then slowly, a couple of splashes at a time, add the cider and the cider vinegar, stirring continuously. Add the pinch of herbs, salt (not too much as the bacon is salty) and pepper and the two drops of organic juniper essential oil.

Mix together then turn the heat to its lowest setting, put the lid on the pot and let the mixture simmer very, very gently for about an hour. Take the lid off every 5-10 mins and stir with your wooden spoon to ensure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning – especially if you’re using an electric hob or range cooker as these often remain quite warm on their lowest settings whereas gas hobs are much more controllable.

Serve with mashed potato. Gorgeous!

Roast Gammon with organic clove essential oil

Modern curing methods mean that gammon no longer needs to be soaked for hours before cooking. These days it’s as easy to cook as any other roast joint and the following recipe uses Florame's organic clove essential oil instead of cloves themselves so there’s no danger of you accidentally biting into a whole clove! In addition, there’s a recipe for a yummy gravy to go with it which includes organic sweet orange essential oil.

The following recipe feeds up to six people so increase or decrease amounts as required.

Equipment
Sharp knife
Roasting tin
Zester
Large frying pan
Measuring jug
Skewer
Juicer

Ingredients
For the joint
2.25kg/5lb gammon joint
1tbsp black treacle
Rock salt crystals
3 x drops of organic clove essential oil

For the gravy
1 large orange – zested & juiced
300ml/10fl oz chicken stock
2tbsp port or rum
2tbsp medlar jelly or apple jelly
2 x drops of organic sweet orange essential oil

To make
Once you’ve bought the gammon, take it out of its packaging and rub dry with kitchen paper. Then score the top fat skin in crisscross fashion into one inch ‘diamonds’ using a sharp knife – just as you would the crackling on a pork joint. Then store in the fridge uncovered to allow it to dry out as much as possible. Do this as early as you can on the day you plan to roast it – or even a couple of days beforehand – to allow the skin to dry so that you get a really good crackling when it’s roasted.

When you’re ready to start cooking, preheat the oven to 240C/465F/gas mark 9. Put the gammon joint in a roasting tin then get a skewer and pierce the joint through the middle from top to bottom making a hole by wiggling the skewer around. Into the hole pour 3 x drops of organic clove essential oil. This will ensure the whole joint is gently flavoured with cloves. Then get your soft (i.e. warm) black treacle and smear it over the crisscrossed skin followed by a sprinkling of rock salt which you should press well into the scored skin.

Bung the joint in the oven, skin side up, for 25mins then reduce the temperature to 180C/350F/gas mark 4 and continue cooking for 1 ¾-2hrs (approx 25 mins per lb/500g). To ensure the joint is cooked take your skewer and pierce in the middle from side to side. The meat should feel tender all the way through. Once cooked, cover with foil to keep warm and let the joint rest for 30 mins.

While it’s resting, make your gravy. Get a large frying pan on a high heat and into it pour the chicken stock, followed by the juice & zest of the orange, then the port/rum, the jelly and the 2 drops of organic sweet orange essential oil. Stir well with a wooden spoon until the jelly has dissolved and let the juice reduce by approx two thirds, or until it feels quite thick.

Take off the heat, then carve the gammon, giving everyone some cracking, and serve with your favourite veg.

BEETROOT CHUTNEY WITH ORGANIC ESSENTIAL OILS

Beetroot has been a forgotten vegetable for the last 30 years or so but now is enjoying a renaissance. It is one of the most versatile of our root vegetables, certainly one of the tastiest and without a doubt the healthiest as it’s full of nitrates that lower blood pressure, it’s a great source of fibre, it’s high in iron and so on.

Many people who were force fed beetroot when they were little – either pickled or boiled – dislike the taste but it’s actually very easy to make beetroot taste yummy and this chutney recipe, using Florame’s organic essential oils, is not only a great way to preserve beetroot but also tastes fab and goes incredibly well with cheeses, cold meats and game. I’m not usually a fan of chutneys and pickles but this really is a stand out flavour!

Equipment
V large saucepan or preserve making pan
Wooden spoon
Knife
Chopping board
Peeler
Grater
Corer
4 or 5 large jars (mayonnaise size)

Ingredients
1.5kg/3.5lbs raw beetroot, trimmed & peeled
3 medium sized onions
3 eating apples, peeled, cored and grated
3 oranges
2tbsp mustard seeds – preferably yellow or white
1 tbsp coriander seeds
2 drops clove organic essential oil
2 drops cinnamon organic essential oil
1 drop sweet orange organic essential oil
700ml/1pint (just over) red wine vinegar
700g/1.5lbs golden sugar or unrefined sugar

To make
As you chop the ingredients chuck them into your large saucepan.

Firstly dice your trimmed & peeled beetroot into squares about 1cm/0.5inch large. Then peel & chop your onions to approximately the same size. Grate the zest of the 3 oranges as finely as you can (use a proper zester if you’ve got one – you can buy them at any decent cook shop or department store) then juice the oranges and add to the onions and beetroot. Core and peel the apples then grate the flesh. Add in the mustard and coriander seeds, the organic essential oils, the vinegar and sugar.

Mix everything together in the saucepan, bring to the boil then reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and leave for at least 1 hour, stirring every now and then, until the chutney is thick and the beetroot feels tender.

This will make your kitchen pong (because of the vinegar) but it’s worth it for the end result!

In the meantime wash your jars then, when the chutney is ready, bung your jars in a hot oven for approx 15 mins to sterilise them. Meanwhile take the chutney off the heat and set it aside to rest for 10 minutes. Spoon the chutney into the jars and enjoy!

You can eat this chutney straight away but if you leave it for a month or longer you’ll get the full, rich, seductive flavour of this wonderful accompaniment. The beetroot chutney will keep for 6 months if stored in a cool, dark place. Once opened, keep in the fridge and use within 6 weeks.

Beat the Blues with mood lifting organic essential oils

For many of us who live in the northern hemisphere, January can be a bit of a downer for several reasons. In fact, the third Monday (though some say fourth) in January is now widely referred to as the most depressing day of the year in the UK – it’s a Monday, it’s January, it’s four weeks since Christmas, it’s a week and bit until pay day so we’re all skint, most of us have broken our New Year resolutions and there’s a general sense of nothing to look forward to on the horizon. In addition, the lack of sunshine really doesn't help. Great!

In order to help you beat the blues this January we have devised a mood lifting aromatherapy cocktail of essential oils. These mood enhancing organic essential oils with anti-depressant properties and wonderful exotic fragrances will help create a light, stress free, happy ambience in your home or office.

You can diffuse the organic essential oils in a perfume burner to release the fragrance, just ensure that you put a tablespoon of water in the burner first before adding the oils and lighting the candle. This stops the oils from burning and congealing on the surface of the burner. Alternatively, you could use one of Florame’s electric diffusers which don’t heat the oils and as a result the essential oils retain their molecular composition, so that the molecules remain suspended in the air for a much longer period of time than when heated, thereby giving a much stronger ‘hit of happiness’.

When blending essential oils you need to ensure that you mix the blend properly otherwise the base note oils will overpower the top note oils and you won’t get an even spread of the different fragrances. However, you should experiment in small quantities until you get a blend that you really like as our sense of smell, just like our taste buds, is unique to each of us.

A good rule of thumb is to check the perfume note as well as the aroma family of each essential oil. See Florame’s tips on blending to help you get started.

So for a generally uplifting, mood enhancing, anti-depressant blend we would recommend the following:


3 drops of Yunnan verbena essential oil (aka may chang)
3 drops of grapefruit essential oil
3 drops of clary sage organic essential oil
3 drops of sweet orange organic essential oil
2 drops of frankincense essential oil
2 drops of complete ylang ylang organic essential oil
2 drops of bourbon geranium organic essential oil
2 drops of neroli orange blossom organic essential oil
1 drop of jasmine organic essential oil
1 drop of myrrh essential oil
1 drop of amyris sandalwood essential oil
1 drop of vetiver organic essential oil

All of the oils listed have either healing, wellbeing, calming, stress relieving or relaxing properties and generally blend well together to create a gorgeous, rich aroma. However, one of the best ways to learn about which essential oils tickle your scent buds is to experiment so whilst this is a guide, feel free to mix and match your own essential oils based on your favourite smells, be they herby, woody, earthy, floral, spicy, minty or whatever. Have fun and beat those blues!

Christmas pudding with organic frankincense and myrrh essential oils

Stir up Sunday is on 29 November this year so plenty of time for you to get all the ingredients and Florame organic essential oils you need to make an unforgettable Christmas pudding. The organic cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon, tangerine and sweet orange essential oils serve to really lift the flavours and aroma of the pudding, creating an aromatic, zingy bite! The frankincense and myrrh essential oils help to create a rich, spicy undertone.

The below Christmas pudding is very traditional but to be honest I’m not that keen on a lot of the ingredients so I’ve added in my own preferred alternatives in brackets – and you should do the same. This is a great recipe for adding your own special twist!

For example I really like lots of nuts so I’ve added a few more in and I dislike raisins so I’ve suggested chopped dates as an alternative.

If you’d like to make a vegetarian Christmas pudding then substitute the traditional suet with vegetarian suet or with butte or margarine. If you want to make a vegan Christmas pudding use the vegetable suet and you’ll need to leave out the eggs. The eggs bind everything together so perhaps you could just add more alcohol - but I’m not sure it would have the same effect!

The following recipe makes one large Christmas pudding to serve 8-10 people. However you could divide it into 8 small puddings instead & give to friends & relatives. If you don’t need to make such a large Christmas pudding simple scale back the ingredients.

You should make the pudding the day before you steam it as it needs to settle & the flavours need to merge. The day you steam it, start in the morning because it takes all day.

Equipment

Day 1
Large mixing bowl
Wooden spoon
Sieve
Fork or whisk for beating the eggs
Tablespoon
Measure
Small mixing bowl
Knife
Chopping board
Apple corer & peeler
Grater
Rolling pin (to roughly smash up the nuts)

Day 2
2 pint (1.2lt) greased bowl/basin for steaming
Baking parchment
Foil
String
Large saucepan with steamer

Ingredients

4oz (110g) shredded suet (vegetarian or traditional)
2oz (50g) sifted self raising flour
4oz (110g) white bread crumbs
1 drop of frankincense essential oil
1 drop of myrrh essential oil
1 drop cinnamon essential oil
1 drop nutmeg essential oil
3 drops sweet orange organic essential oil
2 drops lemon organic essential oil
2 drops tangerine organic essential oil
8oz (225g) soft brown sugar
4oz (110g) sultanas (I’d substitute roughly chopped hazelnuts or walnuts)
4oz (110g) raisins (I’d swap for dried chopped organic apricots or grated carrot)
10oz (275g) currants (I’d substitute either chopped Eat Me dates or, if you’ve got dried dates I’d chop them, soak them in rum to soften them up then add them)
1oz (25g) candied peel
1oz (25g) chopped almonds
1 small cooking apple, peeled, cored and chopped finely
Grated zest of half an orange
Grated zest of half a lemon
2tbs dark rum
2.5floz (75ml) barley wine (I prefer ginger wine)
2.5floz (75ml) Guinness/stout (I prefer Kahlua)
2 large eggs preferably organic or free range

To Make
In the large mixing bowl add the suet, sifted flour, breadcrumbs and sugar. Mix these ingredients very thoroughly together, then gradually mix in all the dried fruit, mixed peel and nuts followed by the apple, the grated orange and lemon zests and the essential oils.

In the small bowl add the alcohol then add the eggs and beat these thoroughly together. Pour this over the ingredients in the large bowl & mix thoroughly. At this point, everyone in the family should be invited to have a stir and make a wish. You should also pop a couple of 5p pieces in at this juncture if you so desire. The mixture should have a fairly sloppy consistency – i.e. it should fall instantly from the spoon when tapped on the side of the bowl. If you think it needs a bit more liquid add a spot more stout or Kahlua or whatever. Cover the bowl and leave overnight.

The next day pack the mixture into the greased 2 pint bowl. Cover the whole bowl with a double skin of baking parchment and a single skin of foil & tie together securely with string. Then make a strong string handle on the top for easy retrieval from the steamer. Put the Christmas pudding in the steamer and steam for 8 hours on a low simmer, remembering to top up your saucepan with boiled kettle water every hour or so.

When it’s finished steaming, let the Christmas pudding get completely cold then remove the string, foil and baking parchment and replace with new ones. Store your pudding in a cool dark place until Christmas Day.

On Christmas Day the pudding will take approx 2.5 hrs to cook so don’t forget to put it on at the right time. Again, pop the pudding in the steamer once the water’s boiled, turn the heat down and let it steam for the duration. Remember to check the water ever hour and top up if necessary.

Once steamed, taking of the wrapping, slide a palette knife around the edge and turn the pudding out onto a warmed plate and decorate with whole nuts or holly. To get the brandy to flame as you pour, heat the brandy in a ladle over direct heat. Once the brandy is very hot, light it then pour over the Christmas pudding at the table.

If you’ve decided to divide the mixture into eight small 6oz (175g) Christmas puddings the method is the same but steam for 3 hrs then again for 1 hour on Christmas Day. Use metal ramekins for this.

Tarte au Citron (Lemon tart) with organic lemon essential oil

A lovely pudding either for winter or summer, this classic French treat can be made even more zesty & Provencal by adding a dash of Florame’s organic lemon essential oil. It’s best to make this on the morning of the day you want to serve it up.

Equipment

20-23cm/8 or 9” flan dish/shallow cake tin
Fork
Pastry weights or uncooked dry beans
Blender/food processor
Cling film or clean plastic bag
Rolling pin
Greaseproof paper
Whisk
Grater

Ingredients
For the pastry
150g/5oz butter
275g/9.5oz plain flour
1tsp grated lemon rind
2tbsp sugar
Up to 3tbsp chilled water

Icing sugar for dusting


For the filling
6 eggs
150g/5oz white sugar
150ml/5 fl oz double cream
75ml/2.5oz fresh lemon juice
1-2 drops of organic lemon essential oil

Instructions

First make the pastry. Chop the butter into small pieces then put it, the flour, grated lemon rind and sugar in the blender and whizz on high until the mixture looks like sand. With the motor running on low, add the chilled water in small drops until the mixture forms a soft dough – you may not need to use all 3 tbsps of the water. Wrap the dough in cling film and put in the fridge for 30 mins.
Turn the oven on to 200C/Gas 6.

Just before you take the pastry out of the fridge, lightly flour your kitchen work surface. Then roll the pastry out on the floured area as thinly as possible. Lightly butter and flour the flan tin then line the dish with the pastry and trim the edges. Prick the bottom with a fork, cover with greaseproof paper and fill with the pastry weights or beans. Bake for 20 minutes until firm but not brown. Carefully remove the paper and weights, and return the tart case to the oven for five minutes to dry the pastry base further, then remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Turn the oven down to 160C/Gas 3.

Beat the eggs and sugar until creamy. Gently whisk in the cream, then the lemon juice and drops of organic lemon essential oil.

Pour the filling into the tart case and bake for approx 45 minutes, or until the filling has just set, and is lightly golden. Cool the tart to room temperature. Dust with icing sugar and voilà!