Meat and two veg........

With the Food4families cookery demo coming up I took the opportunity to meet up with this years RSC runner-up Rick Wyatt to discuss what we are going to cook and how the programme of events would pan out.

Rick is very much a "from the earth" cook, he sources most of his ingredients from his surroundings either foraging for vegetables and herbs or hunting for game in the countryside, it's quite inspiring really.

Food4families is all about growing your own produce and sourcing ingredients from your immediate surroundings and as a town Reading has so much to offer in that respect so it's not really all that difficult to come up with recipes that'll fit the brief. I suppose being inland that slightly hinders the choice of saltwater fish that you can source but we do have an abundance of lakes, rivers and fish farms which are well stocked with trout etc etc.

That's not to sat that you cannot get saltwater fish because the famous Smelly Alley fish company stock super fresh fish daily from the fertile British coast.

I was going to use fish but then again I was going to do three dishes which although achievable within my thirty minute slot is probably a bit too adventurous.

Instead I'm going to go for my take the great family staple that is meat and two veg and I'm going to follow that up with a dessert that makes the most of two classic British fruits.

For the meat and two veg I'll be pre-preparing some slow cooked pork belly and serving that up with a celeriac mash and some fresh peas. I'm also going to make use of the bottle of Calvados that I won at a recent raffle and create a sauce from that and as a little bit of extra pork flavour I'm thinking that I might crisp up some bacon then chop it up into very small pieces or grind into a powder then sprinkle over as a garnish.

For the dessert I'm going to do a simple dish of poached pears with raspberry sauce and chantilly cream, maybe shave some chocolate over the top too.

How does that sound?

Why not come along and have a taste for yourself? October 1st from around midday at Forbury Square in Reading town centre. Rick and myself will be leading up to a demo by Reading's number one chef Paul Clerehugh and there will also be plenty of stalls setup by people who have grown their own produce as well as local professional producers so it'll have a kind of farmers market/family fair atmosphere.

A great deal of the produce in the Food4families program is grown at local schools and it really gets the kid interested in producing vegetables and more importantly they get enthusiastic about eating their greens :-)

Toodlepip xxx

How about this.....

Had a few editorial comments about my food article which I've taken onboard and now submitted a second draft. I happy that my first ever effort at a proper article got some uplifting comments but me being me I want it to be perfect.

If I'm honest when I read through the first draft I did feel that it was lacking something and I can't say that I ever felt it was right. It shows the importance of always giving yourself plenty of time and seeking advice rather than leaving it to the last minute because this time round I feel it's much more complete and I'm really happy with it.

I feel like I'm back at school again but this time paying attention and not messing around!

Another positive is that the blog has hit 7000 viewers (although Google analytics suggests over 10,000 !?!?)

Given the July menu some thought and here's what I'm thinking. Please feel free to add comment or suggestion.

Starter -

Wild mushroom terrine with poached quails egg and white truffle oil.

I don't think this need to be a substantial portion at all because there are some quite rich flavours going in there. Still deciding as to whether the terrine should be served warm or cold. I'm going to add a bit of dill in there too which may give it all a little lift.

Fish -

Crab and chilli linguine with saffron cream

I love the combination of fish with spice because it makes the flavour so much fresher on the palate and enlivens the tastebuds. Again the portion doesn't need to be big and I'm thinking swirled up fist sized ball of the crab and linguine would be ample.

Main -

Venison loin, potato mousseline and cumin carrots with red wine jus

Just classic flavour combinations really. Venison is my favourite meat and it's a pretty similar dish to the one I cooked in the RSC 2010 final but this time I hope to add more finesse to it.

Dessert -

Raspberry three ways with dark chocolate and a frangelico shot

I can't resist a raspberry. I might try and get hold of some black raspberries for this too as I've been hearing about them recently and I'll try mix up the reds and blacks to be a bit artistic in the presentation. The three raspberry elements will be a mousse, a jelly and a purée. Not really settled on how I want this to look yet but I have a few ideas so may just have to give them all a go.

Toodlepip xxx

Submitted.....

Well my first draft has been submitted and I suppose I should really wait until it's actually published before adding "Food writer" to my list of skills for the CV.

Not that I have a CV of course. I have done one in the past but I'm not sure I've ever actually submitted one to anybody. I've never needed to thankfully!

I'm already thinking of a new seasonal menu for July and this time I'm going all out on a full 4 course effort and I'm going to concentrate on one key ingredient for each dish.

Starter - Wild Mushrooms
Fish - Crab
Main - Venison
Dessert - Raspberries

Again it'll be easy to cook with plenty of elements being able to be prepared in advance....or if you want to be extra gastro "Mise en place".

I'll also be pairing up wines with each course too but for the time being I'll just get on and research some ideas that I already have.


Apart from all this I had a rather wonderful weekend. Saturday was spent over at a friends house for a birthday celebration BBQ. Beforehand I popped into Binghams brewery in Twyford and picked up a minipin of Twyford Tipple. I realised not long after arrival that I'd be the only person drinking this and lets say it was going down nicely! Not quite all 18 pints of it mind you.

Sunday we invited our good buddies Martin & Ellie over for dinner but prior to that we hopped in the car and all headed over to the Hurst country fayre. It was a glorious day and naturally most of the time was spent in the firstly watching some falconry followed by a street dance troop then finally some good old fashioned morris dancing.

Martin won't thank me for informing the world that morris dancing used to be one of his favourite pastimes but I was glad for this as he was a wealth of information....all very interesting too....uh hmm!!


On the back of the programme we noticed that visitors to the fair we're entitled to a free tasting session at our local vineyard "The Stanlake Park wine estate". Not being ones to pass up a free libation we decided to stop off on the way back and I'm so glad we did. It's a really wonderful place and taking the weather into account we could have been anywhere in the world. It reminded me of the winery tour I did when visiting Melbourne earlier in the year. It's a real gem and I'm going to give it it's own write up in due course.




Needless to say we were always going to buy a bottle or two so six purchases later we were on our way back for a nice Sunday dinner.

We had an alfresco starter of chargrilled vegetables, stuffed olives, seafood salad, hummus and pitta bread which went perfectly with the wine and sunshine.

For main I'd made a chicken, asparagus and tarragon pie with some potatoes and peas with panchetta. I've understated the potatoes a bit there because they we're in fact potato mouselline from a recipe by Larousse. Absolutely stunning they were too. I'm, not sure I can ever have potatoes done a different way again !!

I need to tweak the dish a little more before giving the recipe because I wasn't particularly happy with the pie filling and I want to work on it a bit.

Highlight of the weekend though was getting my first feel of a Bumpska bump :-)

Toodlepip xx