Sunday 29 July 2012

The Allotment

I wandered along to the allotment this morning to continue the gargantuan task of weed control. If I'm honest, these photos are deliberately deceiving, the bigger picture is full of towering weeds, with little patches of produce here and there. I zoomed in on the good bits! It hasn’t been a very good year so far, it's been cold, it has rained continuously, the weeds have taken over and things just haven’t really grown. All the plants are tiny compared to last year, the remaining courgettes are just hanging on in there, but half of them have died. The peas and french beans are non existent and the sweet peas that were taking over the plot last year covered in flowers are about 10cm high and pathetic to say the least...

On the plus side I have radishes, beetroot and parsnips that are battling on, lots of broad beans, tons of apples, sweetcorn and potatoes all still alive. It is some consolation that no one else seems to have the huge amounts of produce spilling from their plots that I have seen in previous years, but saying that they are all still tidier than mine...








Tuesday 24 July 2012

The Ouseburn Festival Feast

After the success of Spring Graze, The Ouseburn Festival approached me to organise a food market as part of their weekend of events. I was very happy to help out, so Sunday saw the courtyard at Hotel du Vin turned into a busy market place. There were over 20 stalls of food and drinks all laden with amazing produce. A little rain at 9am had us a bit worried, but it ended up being beautiful sunshine all day. Hundreds of people came to visit and feast. Thanks again to all the great stallholders, it was a really delicious day.









Sunday 15 July 2012

The Ouseburn Festival Feast

The annual Ouseburn Festival is due to take place next weekend over Saturday and Sunday. This year I am helping organise their food market and it is set to be a pretty tasty day.


The festival itself runs for two days, with music, parades, food, pony rides, art, tours and markets all taking place down in the Ouseburn area of Newcastle. If you don't already know the Ouseburn it is definitely worth a visit. My office is down there, 10 minutes from the city centre and I look out of my window at an amazing Victorian viaduct, fields of goats, men mending their boats that never seem to go anywhere, a coffee roastery and enough independent pubs to keep you going for quite a while...

The Ouseburn Festival Feast will be on Sunday 22nd July from 11am - 4pm at Hotel du Vin.

It sees a lot of Spring Graze stall holders return and some new faces. Hotel du Vin will be on the BBQ, Cafe 21 will be there with their amazing spread of pastries and Broad Chare pies and scotch eggs. Carruthers and Kent with their wines, Riverford Organics with fruit and vegetable boxes, The Meat Merchant with fresh meat and chutneys, Tyne Bank Brewery and Foodie Face. The French Oven will be laden with macaroons and tarts, the Pet Lamb Patisserie girls with their beautiful cakes and Garden Kitchen. Zen Baker and Dough Works with fresh breads. Archers Ice Cream with their ice-cream cart, Emily Botham Brownies, Davenport Chocolates, Corn Again Popcorn and Deli Fina with lots of goodies from The Feathers Inn. Teasy Does It, Localicious and finally the Northumberland Sausage Company. It's a pretty delicious line up!

I'm already working out what I want to buy! Hope to see you there...





Sunday 8 July 2012

Broad Bean, Mint and Pomegranate Salad

The flood warnings didn’t put us off heading over to the Lake District this weekend. Having survived an epic storm and a flooded basement last week we shrugged at flood warnings and set off. There was another little guy along for the ride too, apart from TLI, Mr. Smokerson, my newly acquired smoker and firm friend; but more of him to come... My adventures in smoking have begun...


The weekend turned out to be warm and dappled in beautiful sunshine most of the time, apart from the bit when we were an hour from home up a deserted valley and the heavens opened. I thought it was snow at one point, but no, just huge, huge raindrops soaking us to the skin. Sheltering in the forest seemed a good idea at first; but when the rain stopped outside, we were still in the forest and the water falling from the trees continued to saturate us...


A few hours later I was sitting in the sun making a salad, it is a pretty funny kind of summer we're having... This salad is a little preview of sorts. I am hosting, alongside Carruthers and Kent wine merchants of Gosforth, a little food and wine evening. A taste of the Middle East with lots of different courses of sharing plates matched with different wines, I do the food, they do the wine. The event is part of the EAT Festival, which is currently in full swing. Our original date for the 19th July sold out more or less straight away, so we have decided to do it again, on the Friday 27th July. If you would like to come along you can find all of the details here.




This broad bean and pomegranate delight forms one half of the salad course, alongside a tomato, feta and tarragon salad with sumac dressing. As well as smoky dips, Moroccan breads, slow roast salted lamb, pistachio bombs, Lebanese reds, raki and more, it promises to be a lovely evening...

Shell and peel about 600g of broad beans and set them to one side. Then cut a pomegranate open and remove the seeds, you only need the seeds from one half, make sure you pick out all the skin. Finely slice 4 radishes and add them to the bowl with the pomegranate seeds. Remove the leaves from 4 sprigs of mint and finely shred them, add them to the bowl too. Then pick the leaves from 6 sprigs of parsley and add them whole.



Drop the broad beans into a pan of boiling salted water and blanch them for 2-3 minutes. Allow them to cool then add to everything else. At the very last minute dress everything with a glug of extra virgin olive oil and a splash of sherry vinegar. These amounts will serve 4 with other salads, or 2 as a larger portion.

It is a salad full of flavour, crunchy sweet pomegranate seeds, creamy smooth broad beans, peppery radishes and tons of herbs. We ate it in the sun alongside Mr. Smokerson, while he did his smoky thing with a piece of pork for 9 hours. I'm currently documenting the build, the smoking and the mistakes made...



Monday 2 July 2012

Oysters and Cake

To commiserate turning yet another year older I've been consoling myself with oysters and cake. It's been comforting (and filling) to say the least...