Recipe Round Up 15/4/2013 Comments Off

We’ve been taking a look at some of the food blogs out there and we’ve come across some lovely topping recipes and ideas for our crispbreads. Here’s a small selection for you to try.

Jenni of Palate for Hire organised a beer tasting and made 3 different toppings to serve with our crispbreads and match the beers. You can find her recipes for Smoked Trout Pâté, Mushroon Pâté and Pork Terrine here:

Rachel of Marmaduke Scarlet made a hot smoked salmon pâté as an easy starter or party dish that you can prepare ahead.

Lynne made the most of things she had to hand to create a quick mini feast of crispbreads with pâté, ham and cheese with chilli jelly.

Sabrina stayed traditional with gravadlax but also drew on her Persian background with feta and pistachio pesto.

You can also find more topping recipes in our recipe section.

If you’ve got a favourite topping recipe you’d like to share with us then let us know on Facebook or Twitter.

A new blog and lots about cheese 14/11/2012 Comments Off

Winter is approaching and the nights are drawing in so we thought we would sit down and share our news and stories with you.

Edinburgh Bakery

Our bakery team are a sociable bunch and are sharing their latests news on ‘The Yard’, a home-baked behind-the-scenes blog.

Here’s how they introduce themselves:

It’s almost 4 o’clock in the morning in Edinburgh and Middle Meadow Walk is quiet. Every now and then someone passes by on their way to an early shift or home from a night out and they can’t miss it: the smell of freshly baked cardamom buns wafting from our air vents, telling the story of Peter’s Yard. It’s the story of Swedish baking traditions finding a home in Scotland, which you can read more about on www.petersyard.com

And although buns can tell stories pretty well, we felt that it was time to take that rich cardamom smell and turn it into something more visual online. After all, not many people are awake at 4am.

This blog is an extension of our glass-walled cafés and see-through bakery: It’s a new window onto our daily activities, baking techniques, staff members, local suppliers, and the weird & wonderful world that surrounds Peter’s Yard. This way, you won’t miss a thing.

You can find them at : www.theyardbakery.co.uk as well as on Facebook and Twitter

In December our master baker Jan Hedh will be visiting Edinburgh and we’ve a few events planned for his visit. The best place to find out what’s happening when he is here is The Yard blog.

Crispbread

Meanwhile the crispbread team have been searching for the perfect cheese board. They’ve been chatting to various experts on what makes a great cheese board and taking rather wonderful photos of cheese to whet your appetite.

They managed to catch up wth Patricia Michelson of La Fromagerie at the Southbank Cheese and Wine Festival in October and made a short film where she explains how to go about picking a perfect cheese board.

We recently won 2 gold stars for our sourdough crispbread in this year’s Great Taste Awards and we have been told by top chefs and cheese experts that their delicate flavour and crisp texture make them the perfect host for cheese, so we have spent some time with cheese experts discovering more about what makes their perfect cheese board. Over the next few months we will share their stories and advice with you here in the newsletter and on the website.

We are also running a competition to allow you to win a year’s supply of crispbread so that you can experiment with your own cheese board selections. Update 1 December 2012: THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.

New Crispbread Topping Recipes 27/7/2012 Comments Off

We are always on the look out for peoples’ favourite toppings for our crispbread, we’ve collected together some that that have been shared with us recently. From earthy sweet beetroot, smokey fish, and spicy avocado to a fruity dessert we hope you will find something you like. All are perfect for summer eating whether you are entertaining friends or just treating yourself to a tasty lunch.

Beetroot, feta and walnut

Avocado and curry leaf chutney

Smoked Mackerel Pate

Beetroot and fennel

Fruity bite size dessert

Don’t forget to check out the rest of the recipe section for other ideas.

If you’ve got a favourite topping you’d like to share with us then email linda@petersyard.com and if we feature your recipe we will send you some crispbreads as a thank you.

Spring’s simple pleasures 2/4/2012 43 Comments »

Spring has arrived this year in great style. Warm days, blues skies and the burst of colour from the suddenly opening blossom and daffodils has put a spring in our step. Here at Peter’s Yard people are starting to enjoy their coffee and cake at the tables outside, sipping up the sunshine. Each season has it’s own simple pleasures and we want to encourage you to take time to enjoy them.

This time of year brings fresh things food wise with wild garlic to be foraged, elderflower to be collected later in May and herbs starting to appear in the garden. We can also start to plan our food around the season’s run of delicious fruit and vegetables from rhubarb and fresh asparagus to Jersey royal potatoes. For those of us who love to cook it’s the start of an abundance of fresh ingredients and a shift from hearty winter dishes to lighter fare.

Spring also brings the traditions of Lent and Easter. Whilst many here enjoy pancakes at the start of Lent, in Sweden we enjoy wonderful semlor; light, yeasty cardamom-scented buns filled with delicious marzipan and a vanilla cream. We make them here at Peter’s Yard Coffee Shop and Bakery following the traditional Swedish recipe of Jan Hedh, our uncompromising and passionate master baker. They are available through to Easter – perfect for “fikapaus” (a break with coffee, buns and company) in the sunshine outside Peter’s Yard.

Of course eggs are traditional at Easter which stems from the fact that hens start laying again as the days get longer providing an abundance of eggs for decorating and eating. In Sweden decorated eggs and feathers are hung from freshly cut birch branches in bud to create a bright, fresh in-door display. Egg decorating competitions, the giving and receiving of chocolate eggs and egg hunts are popular for children across much of Northern Europe but in Sweden there is another tradition which children follow. Dressed as witches (Easter hags) with headscaves, long skirts and red painted cheeks, young girls take paintings or drawings and knock on doors in the hope of receiving sweet treats in return. According to Swedish folklore during Easter the witches fly to Blue Mountain (Blåkulla) to meet the devil.

For many, Easter is an opportunity to break from work, gather with friends and family and take time to enjoy being in each other’s company, sharing a meal together around the table. The warmer weather and longer days means time to enjoy a walk or egg hunt before a generous lunch. It’s one of life’s simple pleasures at this time of year. If you are thinking of doing something similar, here’s a lovely lamb recipe that is perfect to slow roast in the oven. Serve it with new potatoes, fresh asparagus and free flowing conversation.

Herby rolled lamb

This uses two cuts of lamb rolled together but you could also use a boned leg or shoulder. We’ve used a mix of chives, parsley and mint all of which are coming into season now but you can adapt it with your favourite herbs.

For four people:

1 breast of lamb
1 piece of lamb neck
a handful of each of fresh chives, mint and flat leaf parsley
salt and pepper
butchers string

note a whole boned leg will serve upto 8

Method:

Lay out the piece of breast meat skin side down (or the boned leg/shoulder if thats what you are using).
Season with salt and pepper.
Chop the herbs roughly and spread over the meat.
Lay the piece of neck on the herbs (you may need to lay it at a slight angle to be able to roll the breast meat round it).
Roll and tie with butchers string.
Slow roast in the oven at gas mark 3 (150-160C) for four hours or longer (up to 6 hours) if it’s a large piece of leg. You may want to cover the meat part way through and add a splash of red wine for extra flavour.
Allow the meat to rest for 10-15 minutes (in the roasting tin or on a warmed plate and covered with foil) then carve into thick slices.

Serve with new potatoes and seasonal vegetables; or why not add a touch of Sweden to your lunch this year and make Janssons Tempation. Usually served as a side dish in Sweden, it’s a great alternative to potatoes dauphinoise.

Spring’s pleasures

Here at Peter’s Yard, we’ve been chatting about what we like most about spring and found so many things we loved we thought we’d share a few of them with you:

Wendy: daffodils, the birds singing as they go about nest making, the sound and smell of cutting the grass for the first time since winter

Kerry: children playing outside, the weather being warm enough to cook outdoors, the first shoots of spring flowers

Linda: the cherry plum blossom, fresh green buds on the trees full of promise, the weather warm enough to have lunch outside, English asaparagus

Georgie:watching the beautiful sunrises through the bakery windows, seeing groups of people sitting at the tables having a coffee outside “The Yard”, the daffodils in Middle Meadow, the tree outside the bakery coming into leaf

We wondered what you love best about spring? If you’ve got a moment to pause and share your favourite things then we’d love to hear from you. Let us know via Facebook or Twitter before April 30th for a chance to win a copy of our friend, Signe Johansen’s book Scandilicious: Secrets of Scandinavian cooking (which has a great semlor recipe in it by the way!) and some of our award winning sourdough crispbreads, perfect partners for cheese, smoked salmon or anything you fancy.

Competition Rules:

The prize is a Peters Yard jute bag containing Scandilicious: the Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking, 1 x 105g pack of mini crispbread, 1 x 350g pack of large crispbread, 1 x 300g tim of medium crispbread. Approximate value £30, no cash alternative.
The prize can only be shipped to UK mainland adresses so although overseas entries are welcome you will need to have a UK address to receive the prize (it would make a lovely gift).
Entries must be submitted by one of the following means (words or photographs):
- by email to linda@petersyard.com
- by posting a comment or picture on our Facebook page www.facebook.com/PetersYard under the item posted by us called ‘Spring Competition’
- by posting a comment or picture on Twitter mentioning @PetersYard and using the hash tag #PYSpring
- by posting a comment on this blog post
The entry that delights the judges the most will be selected by 5 May 2012. The judges decision is final. We reserve the right to publish the competition results and entries on all of the above media.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts on what makes Spring wonderful for you.

Best wishes and Happy Easter

Credits and copyright:
Herby rolled lamb recipe: Linda Williams
Egg decorations photo: Wendy Wilson Bett
Parsley photo: Peter’s Yard
All other pictures: Linda Williams

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions

No-compromise pizza 12/1/2012 Comments Off

This summer we set out on a mission to create a pizza that was the complete antithesis of fast food; a ‘no-compromise pizza’.

We brought together our bakery team in Sweden and they spent two days baking, taking the time to create a pizza without any short cuts. When Jan finally decided “this is it” we had our ‘no-compromise pizza’.

The rumour spread around and in the first 8 weeks we sold 5,000 pizza (that’s really not bad given we are situated in the heart of the Swedish country-side, in the middle of no where . . . )

Okay, let´s be honest – we didn´t invent the concept of a ‘no-compromise pizza’.

We´ve been very much inspired by The Cheeseboard in Berkeley, Ca. A great place!

Ever since summer faded we´ve been thinking about bringing our no-compromise pizza to Quartermile, Edinburgh. Being busy already, we just couldn´t make up our minds, if it was a good idea to add more work-load.

But we just can´t resist.

From Friday January 20 , we will be making our pizza everyday from 4 pm and extend our opening hours to 10 pm . We will take the same care and patience as we do in Sweden, using sourdough, Shipton Mill flour and our own special tomato sauce recipe.

Just as in Sweden you will only have a choice of 3 types of Pizza:

- Vegetarian

- Salami Ventricina or Parma ham.

- Anchovies

They will be £10 each .

We will also serve 3 red wines and a white at a fair price. No more.

There will be one or two desserts .

That´s all.

No table service and no reservations.

We want to keep things simple so that we can do it well.

Recipes for Entertaining 20/12/2011 Comments Off

Christmas is fast approaching and it’s time to get together to share good food and conversation with friends and family. We thought we would share with you some of our favourite seasonal toppings for our crispbreads. Along with our original medium and large sharing size we now have a mini crispbread that’s perfect for parties and get togethers. They are available from our online shop and stockists across the country.

We’ve new recipes for Anchovy and Butter Bean dip, really easy to make from store cupboard ingredients. A Cheese Terrine that’s very simple and a great way to use up some of your cheese board leftovers or as a special treat for cheese lovers. A wonderfully festive coloured Red Roe topping and a twist on the traditional open sandwich topping Skagen.

Our crispbreads remain crisp for sometime but if you want to make them well in advance, you can place a piece of lettuce under the toppings to keep them crisp and crunchy for even longer.

We also like to serve the crispbreads with a platter of smoked salmon or a good cheese board, simple but delicious. You can find some of our other favourite recipes here.

If you are placing orders through our website then the last order date for Christmas and New Year is Wednesday 21 December.

If you are visiting our Edinburgh coffee house or To Go shop please note that we will be closed from 24 December to 2 January so our staff can enjoy time with family and friends. We will re-open on 3 January at 9am.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas.

An evening with Scandilicious: Review 7/11/2011 Comments Off

On a wet October evening we hosted an evening with Signe Johansen, author of Scandilicious: Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking, at our Edinburgh coffee house.

About 35 regular customers and loyal friends came along to hear Sig talk about how her love of food started while growing up in Norway, particularly spending time at her grandparents’ fruit farm by the fjords. She learnt many recipes from her grandmother (farmor) and a love of learning about food that has stayed with her as she has travelled to different parts of the world. Currently based in London, Sig is keen to highlight how simple and delicious Scandinavian food can be and how it is often similar to some traditional British dishes. With an even shorter growing season than in the UK, Scandinavians make use of super fresh ingredients while they are plentiful and preserving methods to create delicious stores for winter.

Sig explained how to make two of the dishes we served that evening, Gravlaks with dill sauce and Goats cheese with radish and raspberry vinegar. Both are very simple to make and if you’ve never tried home cured gravlaks it is a revelation of flavour, so much better than you can find in the shops. You can find the recipes for both here along with a recipe shared by one of our guests that evening, Caroline von Schmalensee.

We served our guests the following to go with our crispbreads:

Gravlaks with dill sauce

Goats cheese with radish and raspberry vinegar

Chicken liver pate with pickled beetroot

Lightly smoked cods roe (we used Mills Kaviar, available in the UK at Scandinavian Kitchen)

A selection of cheeses

with traditional Swedish Kladdkaka (gooey chocolate cake) to follow.

…..and everyone had a gift of crispbreads and cardamom buns to take home.

You can read a review by one of or guests, Edinburgh Eats here, and review of Sig’s book by another guest, Edinbugh Fooby, here.

An evening with Scandilicious 13/9/2011 Comments Off

Join us….

for an evening of Scandinavian food, drink and conversation with author Signe Johansen

When: 20th October 2011, 7-9pm

Where: Peter’s Yard Edinburgh

Spaces are limited please see the end of this post for details.

Signe Johansen grew up in Norway spending time learning to cook with her farmor (grandmother). She enjoyed learning about everything from cured fish dishes to the many traditional cakes and biscuits. In her first book Scandilicious: Secrets of Scandinavian Cooking she shares her passion for Scandinavian food showing us how simple and delicious it is.

Booking:

Tickets are only available online from We Got Tickets. They are priced at £20 which includes a goodie bag. In addition there is a 10% (£2) booking fee charged by the ticket agent wegottickets.com

We hope you will be able to come along and join us.

(Images from Scandilicious: by Signe Johansen. Hodder & Stoughton. Copyright Debi Trelor)

Cool Places in Edinburgh 1/3/2011 1 Comment »

Peter’s Yard has been selected to appear in Cool Places Edinburgh, part of a new travel-guide series created for the iPhone and iPad. The App is available from the iTunes store using the link below.

The guides have been created by the founders of Rough Guides and Cool Camping with a team of independent travel writers deciding on which places to recommend.

Swedish Christmas Traditions 9/12/2010 Comments Off

This time of year is quite magical in Sweden. As Christmas approaches, the celebrations start on 13 December with the festival of Saint Lucia. In the Georgian calendar the date coincided with the shortest day of the year and traditional stories suggest that Lucia was the bringer of light into the midwinter darkness. The celebration is a mixing of pre Christian Scandinavian folklore and Germanic Lutheran religious traditions. The day is observed widely across Sweden and in communities with a large Swedish population such as London, New York and other parts of the USA. The festival is also celebrated in other Scandinavian countries but its origins are truly Swedish.

Traditionally the day commences with a breakfast of golden coloured saffron buns (Lussekatter), often made in the shape of a cat with raisins for eyes. Later in the day, there is a candle lit procession of girls depicting Lucia, dressed in white robes, carrying candles, singing the haunting hymn of Sainta Lucia. The procession is lead by a girl wearing a red sash over her white robe, along with a crown of burning candles. This is a special day and an important part of the winter celebrations leading up to Christmas.

At this time of year, Swedes enjoy the chance to get together, share food and warm ourselves with a glass of hot glögg. Many people have their own family recipes for glögg and there are always plenty of invitations to join friends to try their spiced, warm wine. Here’s a favourite recipe that Peter recommends. It’s sure to warm you up and put you in the festive spirit.

Glögg

5 green cardamom pods, slightly crushed
2 cloves
3cm piece of cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon dried orange peel
2 tablespoons brown sugar
75ml Madeira or port
1 bottle good-quality red wine such as burgundy

Put all the ingredients in a pan (not aluminum) and slowly heat. Do not allow to boil. Strain and drink while still warm. For a more intense flavour leave the spices to infuse for several hours or overnight then strain and gently reheat when ready to drink. Serve in a heatproof bowl, with mugs or glasses and a large ladle.

The main Christmas celebration happens in Sweden on Christmas Eve. Many Swedes visit church in the afternoon and then families and friends come together in the early evening to feast on a traditional Christmas Smörgåsbord. This is similar in some ways to the food served in Britain on Boxing Day with a buffet of gravadlax, smoked salmon, baked hams and salads. Other traditional foods which are less familiar here in Britain over Christmas include a wide range of pickled and cured herring, smoked eel, meatballs, smoked sausages or roasted pork ribs. Hot and cold potato dishes are an important part of the feast as are a wide variety of breads from dense rye to lighter crispbreads. After dinner we exchange presents and children are allowed to stay up late to enjoy the celebrations. Christmas Day is a much quieter day with simpler food and a chance to spend time outdoors enjoying the few hours of daylight, perhaps with a walk followed by another glass of warming glögg.

At Peter’s Yard, we look forward to welcoming you in the run up to Christmas. We will be serving our own hand-baked Lussekatter to celebrate Saint Lucia at our Edinburgh coffee house and if you’d like to try your hand at making Lussekatter yourself then email wendy@petersyard.com for Jan Hedh’s recipe from his forthcoming book Swedish Breads and Pastries.

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