Vegan Mofo Day 7 - Derbyshire Oatcake with Chai Spiced Apples and Birdhouse Peak District Tea


The prompt for Day 7 is to blog about a food from your county, state or home town. Although I am not originally from here I have lived in the Peak District for over two years now and hope to be here for many years to come. The town I live in is part of the county of Derbyshire and as I am also doing a breakfast theme I thought I'd blog today about Derbyshire oatcakes.


Not to be confused with the hard oatcake biscuits that you eat with cheese, the Derbyshire oatcake is a kind of yeasted pancake. I have to confess that I haven't made these as my local health food shop Peak of Health sells them ready made in packs of three. I simply wrapped my oatcake it foil and warmed it in a hot oven for ten minutes.


 It's served with some apples that I stewed the night before. I made a Redbush chai syrup at the same time which I stirred into the stewed apples when they had finished cooking. The oatcake is topped with a heaped spoonful of Coconut Collaborative plain yoghurt and a sprinkling of toasted almonds. Just perfect for a lazy Sunday morning breakfast.


I felt that the tea based syrup with the apples called for a beverage of tea rather than coffee to accompany the breakfast. I recently received a box of Peak District teas for reviewing from Birdhouse Tea Company. I will be sharing more about the rest of the range after Mofo which contains green, herbal and black tea blends. For this breakfast I fancied a black tea and selected the Duchess Georgiana named after the Duchess of Devonshire who was a celebrated beauty, socialite and infamous lover of Charles Grey, the 2nd Earl Grey!


How beautiful does this blend look? It also smells fantastic. Alongside the black tea there is grapefruit and rose, mallow and marigold petals. I love the punchiness that grapefruit can give to a tea blend. It really is something special. The mallow gives it a lovely rounded softness that compliments the citrus flavours well. I have to admit that I usually add soya milk to black tea but not when I get a blend like this. It tastes better drunk without. If you are interested in interesting, quality loose leaf teas then definitely check out Birdhouse Tea Company. There's ranges for other areas of the country as well as the Peak District and teas grouped into collections such as Wellbeing and Sweet Shop. I have my eye on the Black Jack and Strawberry Laces teas!

Comments

  1. Anonymous7 November 2016 at 10:49

    I love an exciting tea blend, especially if it's got rose in it! I'd never heard to Derbyshire oatcakes, but I'm a big fan of anything pancake-y. I'll keep an eye out!

    ReplyDelete
  2. vegan.in.brighton7 November 2016 at 15:00

    I've never heard of a Derbyshire oatcake but now I want one. Or three! Are they always vegan or does your health food store have an accidentally vegan kind?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tea and Sympatico6 December 2016 at 12:41

      I'm not sure Jojo. I've only ever bought them from there. We will get some in next time you guys visit.

      Delete
  3. Emma7 November 2016 at 16:59

    I remember last year commenting that I had yet to try a Derbyshire oatcake, this year I am still in the same boat! I was going to make some for this prompt but I chose Bakewells instead. I'm intrigued by the tea - I'll have to look out for some caffeine-free varieies!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cola de Mono

Image
Colo de Mono (Tail of the Monkey) is a Chilean concoction traditionally drunk ice cold at Christmastime. Obviously their winters are a lot warmer than ours so in the UK it's more suited to this time of year. The Chileans use aguadiente an overproof cane spirit. I use Cachaca 51 which I have in for Mojitos and Caipirinhas. Traditionally made with cows milk, here is my vegan version. Colo De Mono Makes 1 pint Serves 4 2 cups of vanilla soy milk 1/3 cup of caster sugar 1/3 teaspoon of cinammon 3 teaspoons of instant coffee 1/2 cup of spirit* Bring the milk, sugar and cinnamon to a low boil in a pan stirring until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off the heat and stir in the coffee. Leave to cool. Once cool add the spirit and chill in the fridge. It will keep for 2 weeks. Serve over ice or straight up but make it cold. * Spirit - I use Cachaca but have heard that people use tequila too.
Read more

Interview With Lisa Goddard of Lily and Dilly

Image
If you've eaten vegan cake in Manchester City Centre in the last few years then chances are you'll have eaten cake baked by Lisa Goddard of bakery Lily and Dilly . We caught up with Lisa to find out what set her on the vegan baking path! So, Lily and Dilly? What made you set up as an independent bakery and where does the name come from? Having worked as a stop frame animator for 12 years, I was getting rather fed up with short term contracts, so the last time I was made redundant, I decided not to chase work round the country, and if that meant a career change, then so be it. A friend of mine had just set up The Cocoa Emporium as an independent Chocolatier, so I gave her a hand whilst navigating through the benefits system, mostly to get me out of bed on a morning! Doing baking for her farmers market was fun, as it was one of my main hobbies, so when she asked if I fancied getting a little shop  with her, it seemed a nice chance to start something new. We got the shop
Read more

Growing your own, bargains and a breakfast recipe

Image
I've started sprouting again! In my old flat I used to do sprouting all the time. The flat was in an old 1930's building and had radiators run from a central boiler room and it was always nice and warm. The constant warm temp made sprouting pretty fail safe. Now I'm in a Derbyshire stone house where it's not as warm the results haven't been as great and I gave up trying  but with this very hot summer we are having I thought I would give it another go and I'm glad I have done. As I already have the seeds it kind of feels like free food too! I'm using these sprouts  from A Vogel. This week I've grown alfalfa but pictured is my first attempt from the week before which was a mix of radish, lentil and rocket which grew into lovely peppery tasting sprouts that we used to garnish our bowl meals for the week. These took 4 days to grow and I nearly gave up on day 2 because I could see mold. Luckily I googled and found out that it wasn't mold at all but r
Read more