Salami classes at the Lit and Phil...

EAT! Festival is in full swing at the moment, cookery classes, eat along films, markets, pop ups, naked dinners on top of buildings, cities made of cake... they have everything going on that you can imagine really.. I have a couple events going on as part of the festival, salami making classes and a SuperRaw Food Supperclub and brunch! Both quite new avenues to me...

The salami making classes took place on Sunday in the Eat 'Speakeasy and Salon' a brilliant space in the depths of the Lit and Phil Library in Newcastle, they have transformed a room into an amazing hideaway, full of tea cups, books, low lighting and lovely music. While I was there setting up and demonstrating there was also a fish masterclass going on, a Jewish cookery class and film, a food poetry event and a cocktail bar in full swing, it was lovely buzzy and fun, loads of lovely folk and lots to eat and drink!

 

Now I am no expert in the ways of charcuterie, I just dabble in making my own with varying degrees of success. But it was a really fun afternoon sitting with some interested folk experimenting with a lot of different flavoured salami. I set up a 'flavour station' with fennel seeds, juniper, paprika, cumin, chilli, garlic, black pepper, coriander seeds, red wine, walnuts and more... I'll be interested to see how they all turn out. Most people there had never made anything similar before, and I was pretty impressed with their efforts. The first time I turned my hand to salami making was a disaster, but everyone who attended went away with a pretty professional looking salami!

 

I thoroughly enjoyed my afternoon and met some lovely people, it's great to see so many people getting involved in all the amazingly diverse events that Eat have organised, we're very lucky to have it in our city! I'll be dining on top of Fenwick's tomorrow night, I can't wait...

A Lakeland Jaunt

I've been on a short jaunt to the Lake District, in a quiet little valley, with only deer and sheep for company. We took Mr. Smokerson and a stack of cooking books and enough food to feed a small army for a few weeks... I made some old tasty favourites and discovered some lush new things...

On the first evening by the fire the best new discovery, ham hock with parsley sauce, new potatoes and broad beans. Slowly simmered ham hock, with a delicious mustardy white sauce packed with parsley poured over the ham, fresh broad beans and new potatoes that have been browned in butter and ham stock... so good...

My next favourite was a St. John side dish that I made to go with some smoked duck; fresh green beans from the allotment, dressed in roasted garlic and shallots, capers, anchovies and parsley, pretty simple but totally tasty...

 

We had lush smoked ribs, even though I think Mr. Smokerson is having some issues with his thermometer, poor guy... a quick blast in the oven saw them right, delicious smoky and sticky in a paparika, garlic and mustard rub, lots of coleslaw and homemade white buns... they didn’t even need bbq sauce.

We had a bag full of beans, courgettes and beetroot from the allotment to get through so made lots of salads, pizzas and a delicious orzo pasta dish with beetroot, pinenuts and feta which I'll have to share too...

 

It sounds a bit like I didn't do anything but cook, but it was actually pretty relaxing and there was plenty of time hanging out by the stream... A few walks, actual swimming in an outdoor steam (my feet are just about back to life), fishing (we caught a baby brown trout, unfortunately far too small for supper) some driving round the countryside in circles lost and a general good time all round...

Roast Courgette and Garlic Soup and Lemony Courgettes on Toast

Two more courgette recipes today, neither of which are going to win any prizes in the beauty stakes... but are pretty damn tasty! And you shouldn’t judge those courgette books by their mushy covers... Lots of people have been tweeting me saying they are experiencing glut related problems, even throwing in a few courgette facts... and tips about fritters, ratatouille chutneys and little Italian courgette cakes... and I only have about 15 more courgettes to get through...

A very simple soup to start... Roast Courgette and Garlic, simply chop up 4 large courgettes into bite size chunks, 2 onions into quarters and add 6 cloves of garlic still in their skins, a big glug of olive oil and a large pinch of salt and pepper. Roast for about half an hour at 180°C, giving it a stir every so often, until it has begun to brown and the water has disappeared. Some of those massive guys from my allotment produced a lot of water, it varies each time... Give the roast courgettes a good stir and check to see if they need more salt, squeeze the garlic out of their skins, then add everything to a pan with a chicken stock cube and 600ml of water.

Finally blitz and serve, this should be enough for 2 big bowls of soup, sprinkle a bit of mint on the top and a slice of buttery toast...

Next some Lemony Courgettes on Toast, of Guardian Cook supplement fame, one of the highlights of my blogging career so far was not the fact that this was published in a article about favourite things on toast, more that in the comments section below someone wrote 'the day I make Lemony Courgettes on Toast is the day you can take me out the back and shoot me'... it still makes me laugh...

So if you want to make them, rather than get shot, you just need to chop up 3 courgettes, add to a big glug of olive oil and cook slowly for about 10 minutes, add a finely diced clove of garlic and continue to cook. All the water should cook off and the courgettes start to fry rather than simmer in juices. This can take a while depending on the courgettes, about half an hour usually. Then add the juice of quarter of a lemon and a big handful of chopped mint. Pour the soft minty courgettes and the tasty lemony oils over two slices of hot toast and share...

Courgette and Lemon Salad with Feta and Mint

I picked over twenty courgettes the other night and they are growing faster than I can keep up. I have other people offering me courgettes, I'm trying to give away courgettes, everyone seems to be growing them, even people I didn’t know grew vegetables are growing them... In social situations people have started asking what to do with their glut of courgettes, not your average party chat, but a glut needs ideas and I've discovered a few good recipes recently...

 

So I thought I would share a few of them with you over the next couple of days. My favourites include this lovely fresh salad, a cheesy courgette and herb risotto, garlicky buttery slow cooked courgettes, a grilled courgette salad with garlic and chilli breadcrumbs and a roast courgette soup. I've also been thinking about a courgette and lemon cake with lemon butter icing... I need to start experimenting with that one asap...

 

So I'll start with this light fresh salad, wafer thin slices of courgette dressing in lemon and oil, with crumbled feta and fresh mint. I had it for lunch today, outside in the Lake District, trying to pretend that it wasn’t raining...

To make a small salad for two people to share, take one courgette, any type and shave it into wafer thin ribbons using a vegetable peeler. In a bowl mix the courgette with a big splash of extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and the juice of about quarter of a lemon. Scatter the courgette onto a plate and then crumble about 50g of feta cheese over the top and a handful of chopped mint. It is delicious and fresh, full of lemon, creamy cheese and mint. The dressed courgette on it's own is lovely too...

My second very, very simple recipe, which isn't even really a recipe is just to grill them, cut into thin slivers about 4mm thick. On a plate pour over a little olive oil and a pinch of salt and coat them all over. Then either put them on the BBQ for a few minutes each side, or under the grill or on a hot griddle pan. The best I've found them so far is on the BBQ, courgettes can often be quite watery and the high heat of the BBQ works perfectly... You can have them hot from the grill or delicious left to cool their flavour really comes out...

The Farne Islands Supperclub

Photos by Mr. Greg McCarthy

Lemon and Rosemary Posset

I'm in a bit of a manic cycle of shopping, supperclubbing, travelling, packing, unpacking, washing up, shopping, supperclubbing... You get the picture. It's very challenging, particularly as I'm hosting suppers three weeks in a row... but also beautiful and fun. The Farne Islands was the latest challenge, this weekend just gone, a much more unusual dining location than Lindisfarne, but really stunning. The sun shone, looking back over the calm hazy sea to Bamburgh guests had drinks and watched puffins hop around, it was just beautiful... A minke whale was spotted passing just hours earlier... Each time I'm only envious I'm not joining in with them; but someone has to be in charge of the kitchen chaos...

Running the gauntlet through the diving arctic terns with plates of food was interesting, either getting pecked, or worse... the other end. Luckily they just missed the food each time, splatting only us, a camera lens, the dining table and the floor... the baby terns kept on making a run for our dining room determined to see what was going on in there... But there weren't many sand eels on the menu so they eventually lost interest...

 

I have served this Lemon and Rosemary Posset for pudding at both Lindisfarne and the Farnes so far, it's one of my new favourites... I love a lemon pudding but the addition of rosemary is really special. It's basically just cream, sugar, lemon and rosemary and pretty simple to make.

These amounts will make 8 little puddings or 4 large ones. Peel off two big bits of lemon rind and take two big sprigs of rosemary, add them to a pan and give them a bit of a bash to get their oils out. Add 300ml of double cream and heat till it is steaming, don't let it boil. Then leave to infuse, anything from half an hour to overnight.

 

Remove the rosemary and lemon from the cream and put the cream back on the heat, adding 110g of caster sugar, bring it slowly to the boil and simmer for two minutes, then remove it from the heat and add the juice of 2 lemons, about 60ml. Add to glasses, cups or bowls, however you want to serve it and pop it in the fridge to set for a few hours or overnight. It is so delicious and creamy, very lemony and sweet but also dusky with rosemary... It's gone down very well so far, I've been serving it with almond meringues and clotted cream, even more delicious...

  

Lindisfarne Summer Supperclub

I've been getting pretty used to hanging out at Lindisfarne Castle, I've dropped hints about moving in, but it hasn’t come about yet, strangely... Last weekend saw my first event in collaboration with the National Trust, the Lindisfarne Summer Supperclub. And it was pretty spectacular... I'm only jealous I wasn’t one of the guests dining on the Upper Battery high above Holy Island and the sparkling sea.

  

Twenty guests joined us on a warm Saturday evening for fizzy and canapés overlooking the stunning coastline, the sun even made an appearance after a cloudy warm day. People chatted and got used to their home for the evening, with introductions and a tour of the castle before sitting down to dine.

It has been months of hard work to bring it all together, but well worth the effort. Wandering round the castle, chatting to the lovely guests, composing the menu, even overheating in my castle kitchen trying to get everything ready on time, I enjoyed every second! It is such a beautiful peaceful place and I hope the first of many events to come there.

 

  

Our guests started their feast with a seafood smorgasbord, local langoustine, roll mop herring, devilled eggs with dill, buttermilk bread and homemade butter, samphire and watercress salad and Farne Island lobster. I picked the beautiful little fellas up from Seahouses harbour early that morning and drove straight up to Holy Island, they couldn’t have been fresher. The main course was slow braised lamb with shallots and garlic, anchovy Pan Haggerty, garlicky courgettes and condimint, a date, mint and horseradish jam, recipe courtesy of the legendary Joe Beef, that is delicous!

 

  

The bright red sun set over the Cheviots during supper and it couldn’t have looked more magical. I wonder how many people in the past have sat in that spot for supper, not many I imagine, I felt very lucky to be there... Pudding was a Lemon and Rosemary Posset with clotted cream and almond meringues and finally coffee with Chocolate Black Pudding.

This weekend sees the the next event on the Farne Islands, fingers crossed for more beautiful weather...

 

 

 

Photography by the wonderful Little Miss Boyco