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Food & Drink

In Season: A Collection of Recipes from Sam Buckley

5 minute read

Chef Sam Buckley prepares a range of dishes using seasonal ingredients, many of which have been grown locally at The Landing: a collaborative community growing space designed and built by Sam's restaurant Where The Light Gets In, and Manchester Urban Diggers. Just five minute's walk from the restaurant, the garden provides produce for the restaurant as well as the local community. The Landing supports both WTLGI and MUD's objectives of promoting food sovereignty, community engagement in local food systems and increased biodiversity in our ever expanding urban environments. It is an oasis for learning, growing and socialising in an unexpected space, to encourage people to grow and share food wherever they can.

Pan fried bread with Welsh cheese & local honey

Firstly, Sam prepares a simple, seasonal dish that balances salty-sweet flavours, using a cheese sourced from a dairy in Wales. In the winter months, Sam and his restaurant team cure the cheese to turn it into a salted ricotta. The dish utilises any bread you might have that is beginning to turn or go a little hard, paired with the softer textures of cheese and the sweetness of honey.

“The crisping of the bread negates any staleness. It absorbs the deliciously floral honey, softening back up the toast, transforming into a perfect base to enjoy the crunchy ground cobnuts and tangy, salty, smooth cheese.”

Ingredients
Old rye sourdough bread (from their bakery, Yellowhammer)
Yellowhammer Honey (local Marple based beekeeper Gerry’s Honey)
Salted sheep's milk cheese (similar to Ricotta)
Fresh cobnuts (seasonal hazelnuts)

Method

  1. Toast thickly sliced bread until nicely golden brown in a pan with plenty of butter. Chop up and arrange on plate.

  2. Ground cobnuts up roughly in a pestle and mortar. 

  3. Sprinkle cobnuts over bread. Generously crumble up the sheep's milk cheese over the bread and cobnuts.

  4. Generously drizzle honey over the dish and serve.

Pickled cucumber and plum salad

Pickling is a much used method at WTLGI; a resourceful example of making what is fresh and abundant in the warmer months, last well into the winter when ingredients are more scarce. It can also be done quickly to make flash pickles that retain the same tartness and goodness for the health of the gut.

“This is a beautiful, fresh take on a sweet meets savoury summer salad, showcasing two seasonal ingredients that can be easily grown in our back gardens.”

Ingredients

Pickling liquid

3:2:1 ratio e.g. 300g vinegar (can be any type - white wine/red wine)
200g sugar
100g water

Seasoning for the pickling liquid

Fennel seeds
Peppercorns/star anise/cloves

Salad

Cucumbers (grown at the Landing)
Seasonal summer produce i.e. plums
Flaky salt
Micro herbs/pruned leaves from the Landing (Sam used thai basil, spicy vietnamese coriander and edible flowers)

Method

  1. Peel cucumbers, and deseed if desired. Then chop into batons and generously salt. The salt will draw out some of the cucumbers natural water (cucumbers are 97% water, enabling the pickling liquid to later re-absorb and take with it the tangy, aromatic flavour of the pickle).

  2. Combine water and vinegar in a pan over a gentle heat, then add sugar and seasonings until sugar has dissolved.

  3. Pour pickling liquid over cucumbers. Add thai basil, spicy vietnamese coriander as further fresh aromatics. 

  4.  Store in a jar for at least 1 hour / indefinitely. The cucumber leaf from the mother plant can be purposed as a ‘lid’ as Sam demonstrated for an visually and technically effective approach. 

  5.  Slice plums and remove the pit. Can be charred in a griddle pan, but Sam chose not too today. 

  6. Combine pickled cucumbers and sliced plums into a bowl, and toss together. Add a small amount of pickling liquid to bring together the two. 

  7. Transfer to plate, dress with micro herbs/ edible flowers/ more thai basil, spicy vietnamese coriander.

  8. Lightly drizzle spring onion/chive oil emulsion, and serve.

Tomato presse

A good tomato presse is a fantastic and easy staple recipe to have on your go-to list. Its versatility and simplicity lends itself to cocktails and dressings, or as a base to sauces for a variety of dishes.

“This liquid is gold, and is best made in summer when the tomato flavours have truly developed from the sunny weather.”

Ingredients
Variety of tomatoes (grown at the Landing)
Flaky sea salt
Any herbs of choice / pruned leaves (from the Landing)

Recipe

  1. Chop a variety of tomatoes into quarters, and add to a large jar. These tomatoes can be ones that may not be most aesthetically pleasing. 

  2. Do not forget their stems, these contain so much added flavour and umami depth.

  3. Generously season with flakey salt, and leave to marinate until enough presse has formed at the bottom of the jar.

  4. Leftover ‘pressed’ tomatoes can be repurposed into a salsa/base of a sauce

Read our interview with Sam Buckley here.
Photography: Jacob Timms
wtlgi.co

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