Going Nuts at Christmas

At fig1.co.uk we're looking forward to the Christmas Eve shut down. The team here has been working extra hard to dispatch the last few of the Christmas orders and serve all the shop customers, and after we shut on Christmas Eve we'll be celebrating with a few drinks and bite to eat at my house. I've been putting together this recipe for rosemary and honey nuts as part of the celebrations. It is a variation of a recipe my mum made us all for Christmas last year. They make a good small gift for people too and I am going to jar some of them up for friends. With a cool gift tag and ribbon they make an alternative to the classic Christmas card.

Sticky Rosemary and Honey Nuts

200g almonds

200g walnuts

200g hazelnuts

2 tsp whole fennel

1 tbsp whole cumin

200g pumpkin seeds

4 tbsp runny honey

2 tbsp olive olil

4 tsp rosemary, finely chopped

1/2 tsp clove powder

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp smoked paprika

Sea salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 190C

• Line a baking tray with foil or baking parchment. Roast the almonds, walnuts and hazelnuts for 5-8 minutes on the tray. The tray should be large enough for the nuts to be spread out in a thin layer so they toast evenly. They should turn a pale golden colour
• Lower the oven to 140C
• Toast the fennel and cumin seeds in a dry frying pan over a medium heat, tossing occasionally, until they start to brown. Be careful not to burn them as they go bitter. Roughly grind them in a pestle and mortar.
• Put the pan back on the heat. Toast the pumpkin seeds for a few minutes until they too start to brown and pop. 
• Making sure the heat isn't too high, add all the ingredients to the pan including the toasted nuts. Stir them really well to make sure the nuts and seeds are coated. The honey should start to caramelise. Season with sea salt, tasting until they are of your liking. Personally I like a salty-sweet combination  but if you are trying to be healthy or are serving them to children hold back a little.
• Put the mix back on the lined baking sheet and pop them back in the oven for a further 5 minutes. The mix should start to dry and set, but be careful not to overcook them.
• Remove from the oven and cool. Store them in air tight containers. 

Picture above: presented as a gift in this lidded French jar by Bloomingville. 

Fig1: the Party Season

Christmas is coming so naturally our thoughts at Fig1 are turning to the party season ahead. We get really busy at this time of year, but Christmas has always been the high point of the calendar in my family and I fully intend not to miss out, which means getting organised early.

When we were growing up my family owned busy restaurant businesses, but Mum would always insist on closing Christmas Day. Despite the heavy workload she never lost her enthusiasm for Christmas and all my 3 siblings have inherited the Christmas bug. Presents in our family are carefully chosen and beautifully presented, given with love and often homemade. Everyone takes part in preparing the Christmas meal - we have also all inherited a passion for good food from Mum - and this year I am officially putting myself in charge of cocktails.

I wanted a little bit of winter sun for Christmas day, so have made up an Orange and Rosemary syrup recipe to use as the basis for 2 different cocktails. It also has the advantage that rosemary sprigs used as decoration, plus a couple of frozen raspberries in the champagne version, make them look very festive too.

Orange and Rosemary Syrup

Ingredients:
Zest of 2 oranges
1 pint Orange Juice
60g Rosemary
1/2 pint sugar

I remove the zest from the oranges in strips using a peeler for ease. You can use the juice of the oranges as part of the pint of orange juice, or eat them and use it all from a carton, but I usually use a good quality fresh orange juice.

Put all the ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 minute and then allow to cool. If you have time leave overnight, covered, in the pan to infuse the rosemary flavour further. Strain.

The syrup will keep for a  couple of weeks in a clean jar in the fridge.

Below are two recipes that use the syrup. You can also drizzle it over vanilla ice cream, add fizzy water for a non-alcoholic festive drink or ... think of something else entirely.  It's Yummy!

Orange and Rosemary Margarita

Prepare your glasses and decoration first. I put half and half fine sea salt and caster sugar mixed on a saucer so there is a fine covering. For each cocktail I choose a sprig of rosemary long enough to stick out of the top of the glass you are using, in my case these funky martini glasses by Sagaform. I use a wedge of lime to rub a little juice round the rim of the glass and on the end of the rosemary sprigs. I then dip the glass in the salt / sugar mix and do the same with the end of the rosemary twig, making it look like a snowed-on Christmas tree.

Mix in a cocktail shaker with ice, per person:
1 shot / 25ml syrup
1 shot tequila
1 shot lime juice
1 shot triple sec

Serve in the glass over crushed ice

Champagne, Orange and Rosemary Cocktail

Prepare the rosemary twig as above. I also like to add 2 or three frozen raspberries to the cocktail at the end as the red and green give it a really Christmasy look. Use a champagne flute.

In the base of your glass tip 1 measure (25ml) or syrup and 1 measure brandy. Top up with a dry Champagne, Cava or Proseco. Give it a stir, gently or it will loose all its lovely fizz. Decorate the glass and serve.

The Blog Launch

The Blog Launch

We love what we do at fig1.co.uk and we do what we love. As a small business engaged with finding the best designed unusual and quirky lifestyle goodies we come across all sorts of creative ideas. We have a diverse and raggle taggle bunch of creatives linked to the business, from illustrators to jewellery makers, gardners to cabinet makers, cooks, graphics experts, computer geeks, musicians ... oh, and sometimes we run a shop and internet business.

The shop was always set up to support a local creative community in Bristol, but as the business has grown we have developed links with all sorts of people and want to share some of the best ideas we have come across along the way.

We want this blog to be more than just a list of products we have discovered - we want it to be a collection of ideas.

-Mark Fletcher, Director fig1.co.uk

Roast Winter Squash Salad

At this time of year with the nights drawing rapidly in I find my thoughts turning more and more to comfort food, luckily comfort food for me doesn't need to be unhealthy. I grew up in a family that owned local restaurants and, Mum in particular, was always great at working with whatever was seasonal to create meals and menus. With any meal I always start with the vegetables. Since I work from home a lot of the time, doing marketing for fig1.co.uk, I find recipes like this winter squash one really good: it is the sort of thing which doesn't take too long to prepare (approx 15mins) and which will happily cook itself in the oven while I work.

Ingredients

1 large winter squash
1 bag of shallots
Sprigs of winter herbs such as rosemary and thyme
1 lemon
A handful of pumpkin seeds
Half a pack of feta

Preheat your oven to 180 centigrade / gas mark 4

Cut the squash into 1-2 centimetre thick slices.  Pop in a roasting dish with the lemon cut in half, the shallots peeled and halved if they are large or left whole if not, the olive oil and the herbs, plus a little salt and pepper to season. Toss the ingredients together so the seasoning and oil is on all the vegetables.

Roast for an hour or until the squash is soft. Next pop some pumpkin seeds on top of the dish and up the temperature to 220c or gas mark 6 for 10 minutes  to brown the squash and the seeds.  Once it is out of the oven leave to cool for 10 minutes, then squeeze the lemon over the squash and discard the shells and pull out the biggest lumps of rosemary / thyme stalks.

Crumble over half a pack of feta and serve with some crusty bread.

Vary the recipe as you like - carrots with cumin and feta work well as an alternative. Or mix into cous cous with olives for a salad for your lunch box.