20 May 2010

New Indonesian Pepper Just Arrived at Steenbergs

I read a book last year called “The Scents of Eden” by Charles Corn – it’s a history of the spice trade.  It was great as the perspective was different from the histories that I had read in the past which always wrote them from the angle of European...

14 May 2010

Steenbergs In the Media

Lifestyle magazine has long been a big supporter of Steenbergs and use many of our products to be inspired with. Many of the products not branded Steenbergs are available in our online shop.  Lots of inspiration for everyone.

08 May 2010

Recipe For Rhubarb Crumble

Rhubarb is one of the first signs of the fruitfulness of the new season, and I really love rhubarb - we have always had lovely rhubarb at home.  There's a Steenberg family story that our sweet rhubarb came from the Russian Royal family, however I per...

02 May 2010

New Organic Vanilla From Tahiti

We've had a delivery of some gorgeous fecund organic vanilla from Tahiti.  It's brilliant kit and it's totally different from normal organic vanilla from Madagascar - firstly, it's a different species of vanilla orchid, called Vanilla tahitensis as a...

26 April 2010

Recipe For Chicken Breasts Stuffed With Sage And Onion Stuffing

Thursday last week was a gloriously sunny, late spring / early summer day.  The daffodils are looking gorgeous.  I am amazed anew every year at how the garden comes back to life, while I have been doing nothing to it, after a bitterly cold winter.  S...

21 April 2010

Recipe for Tagliatelli With Mushroom and Truffle Sauce

Simple is best sometimes.  Last night, I was struggling as to what to feed the kids now they have gone back to school and time at night has been squeezed ever tighter.  So hunting through the bare cupboards, I found some unfinished mushrooms and the...

07 April 2010

Recipe - Sweet Tart Dough or Sweet Pastry

I am not very good at making pastry.  Some people say that you need cold hands to make pastry and dough, but I have warm hands as I seem always to be burning away all that food - perhaps I just never sit still or my metabolism runs too fast. 

31 March 2010

New Penja Pepper from the Cameroon in Western Africa

I’ve got some new peppers and as usual I am bit over-giddy about it.  These ones are classic Piper nigrum – the traditional pepper plant for normal black, white and green pepper.   Usually, we get our black pepper from India and Sri Lanka, but these...

14 March 2010

Recipe for Simnel Cake

Today is Mother's Day and what a glorious sunny, Spring day it has been.  We gave Sophie a gorgeous bouquet of flowers - white roses, lilies and greenery - and went to church for a Mothers' Day Service, a bit of a rarity for me.  I liked the sentimen...

09 March 2010

Two Media Mentions In The Guardian

Steenbergs was mentioned two articles this weekend in The Guardian which was most kind of the two authors - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Yotam Ottolenghi - so thank you both. 

05 March 2010

Recipe For Granny Salad Or Cucumber Salad

Following on from the recipe for Yorkshire Salad, my mum makes a wonderfully refreshing cucumber salad, which has a similar sweet and sour flavour.  It's lovely in the summer for al fresco dining and great with fish all your around.

03 March 2010

Recipe For Yorkshire Salad

We have been discussing the ins and outs of Yorkshire Salad, and some of the different variations, including a very similar recipe called Granny Salad which Sandra (one of our amazing spice packers) was handed down from her Granny in Devon.  Sadie -...

25 February 2010

Recipe for Vanilla Fudge and Coconut Ice

I know this is really quite pathetic but I have only just cracked how to make fudge in the last year.  It always seemed to burn every time I tried to make it - the problem is that most recipes don't give the mixture long enough for the sugar to be tr...

15 February 2010

Recipe - Pancakes Stuffed With Mixed Mushrooms In A Cheese Sauce

Following on from making pancakes per Sunday's post, we used the 8 pancakes, or crêpes, that this made by stuffing them with a mushroom filling, covering them in a cheese sauce and baking them in the oven.  This is how we made it. 

05 February 2010

Steenbergs Launches New Design For Spice Tins

At Steenbergs, we have been doing a lot of work trying to refresh parts of our organic spices and seasonings range.  Now we have relaunched our spice tins into a bright new label and an elegant rolled tin.

04 February 2010

Recipe for Traditional Pudding: Queen of Puddings

I was listening to Radio 4 the other day and they were talking about steam puddings and how it is a truly English traditional that is not found anywhere else.  One of the puds they were talking about was Queen of Puddings which was being made  at Riv...

28 January 2010

Vanilla, Gorgeous Heady Vanilla

I love vanilla.  I really do.  I blogged about it as a spice back in May 2009 under Vanilla - the temperamental diva.

26 January 2010

Recipe - How To Make New Mexico Red Chile Sauce

Here is a way to use some of the new chillis that I introduced in a blog last week.  It is a traditional recipe for a New Mexican Red Chile Sauce (Chilli Sauce) that is preferred by northern New Mexicans and New Mexican old-timers, especially those w...