As I drive out of Ross, the market is just swinging into life - traders are setting up their stalls and I quickly stop off to buy a few bits. There is low-lying mist hanging over the Wye and the sun is a milky gold and full of promise. Spring is bursting in every direction and hedgerows and woodlands are bourgeoning with every kind of wild flower.
The woods that straggle the steep and winding road up the mountain to Blaenavon from Abergavenny are fast budding green. The once barren ground on the top beyond the trees and the cattle grids sports a richer and brighter cover each year and the sheep that graze on it look ever more affluent. New born lambs totter dangerously near the road's edge. One tiny lamb abandoned by its mother is sitting in the road chewing a long stalk. I wonder does he know how close he is to becoming Welsh lamb?
I arrive at the Chef’s Room just after eight and Chris, Vin Sullivan’s factotum has already opened up. I unload the car and start to set up. The morning is bright but my goodness it is cold up here. The snow was still on the ground weeks after it had disappeared elsewhere.
Today we have a small class, of six maybe seven. I had a call last evening from someone who had been recommended by a friend and sounded interested but could not commit. I set up for seven anyway and seven come. Johnny would be bringing the shellfish through later, a cock and hen crab, some dive caught scallops, if he can get them, squid, cockles and mussels and in the mean time I get on weighing out the other ingredients.
Very soon Franco’s smiling head appears around the door, wild garlic in hand, full of energy and enthusiasm. Our prep was soon finished in spite of the gossiping. Franco and I work together two or three times a month and we are both busy elsewhere in between so there is always” stuff” to catch up on. Franco wanders off to look for the fish and soon returned with Johnny, the seafood, an extra table to make pasta on.
Nine forty five and the first of Franco’s victims (as he calls them) arrive. Cappuccino, espresso or tea all round before the work begins - the last victim appears on the dot of ten so Franco who is always as eager as a race horse under starter’s orders to get going, can be let loose. First he walks the crabs, cock and hen around the class, pointing out the differences, their claws waving aimlessly in salute. “Always hold a crab by a claw not the big pincers – they give a nasty nip” he warns. Once everyone has made their acquaintance they are dropped into a pan of simmering court bouillon and the class moves over to make the pasta for the crab sauce and some biscotti for after lunch.
The crabs have cooled and so everyone sets to learning what is edible and what is not and picking out the white and brown meat. Back to that later - we always make something early on in the day that the class can enjoy for elevenses with a glass of Prosecco. This generally ensures that everyone relaxes and enjoys themselves, not that Franco is a hard task master - his school boy humour generally gets everyone laughing. This morning we make cockle fritters with lavabread one of Franco’s Welsh Italian fusion dishes. Salute!
Franco shows everyone how to clean the scallops and squid. The class has a go at cleaning, cutting and scoring the squid for a delicious warm squid and chick pea salad, then cleaning the mussels, chopping, parsley, herbs, garlic, chilli and so forth ready for the other seafood dishes. Franco shows how to make “cozze in potacchio” mussels Le Marche style which the class pauses and eats for “twelveses” There is then the pasta to roll and cut which with the help of Franco’s amazing electric pasta making machine everyone really enjoys making.
The home stretch now – the squid salad to finish and serve and the crab sauce to make for the pasta and everything is done. We have never yet had a group that was not sociable and fun - we attract all ages, male and female. Today three of the group are friends, one of whom had been before and talked two friends into coming along, others had been given their lesson as a birthday or Christmas gift. Franco as usual thanks everyone, no longer victims but now “children” for being a good audience and the groups heads off to the shop to buy fish before they return home.
www.thechefsroom.co.uk
Sunday, 25 April 2010
Wednesday, 12 August 2009
The Mushroom man cometh
I got a call yesterday from Raoul. I have been meaning to get in touch ever since the butcher in Monmouth gave me his number. Anyway he called to tell me he had been picking Mirabel plums on the banks of the Wye and would I like some. Well as I am heavily into pickling right now and the damsons are still like little bullets I thought it would be fun to try them, especially as I had never heard of them. Not cheap tho' at £7.00 a kg but as I wanted to meet him and he said he was coming over to Ross and could drop them in it seemed like a good deal.
Good to his promise he turned up around 6.30 with the plums which he decided were a gift. They will make perfect pickles as they are small and round and are lovely delicate shades of creamy yellow and soft red. They are surprisingly sweet and very fleshy and juicy for a small fruit and have a tiny stone. In the boot of the car Raoul also had a heap of pristine apricot fragrant plump chanterelles gathered locally and a basket of fir apples grown by a neighbour and a tiny car vac which he uses to gather seeds in the woods.
He had parked under our yew tree which of course sparked off an immediate exchange on the yew berry which he suggested to my horror would make wonderful jam. I have always been led to believe the yew berry is poisonous but he insists it is the seed in the middle that is the offender and offered me one to eat. I refused. He ate one and enthused and then offered me another. My curiosity aroused I tried one and was amazed by the rosehip/raspberry flavour….but would I dare make jam?
Good to his promise he turned up around 6.30 with the plums which he decided were a gift. They will make perfect pickles as they are small and round and are lovely delicate shades of creamy yellow and soft red. They are surprisingly sweet and very fleshy and juicy for a small fruit and have a tiny stone. In the boot of the car Raoul also had a heap of pristine apricot fragrant plump chanterelles gathered locally and a basket of fir apples grown by a neighbour and a tiny car vac which he uses to gather seeds in the woods.
He had parked under our yew tree which of course sparked off an immediate exchange on the yew berry which he suggested to my horror would make wonderful jam. I have always been led to believe the yew berry is poisonous but he insists it is the seed in the middle that is the offender and offered me one to eat. I refused. He ate one and enthused and then offered me another. My curiosity aroused I tried one and was amazed by the rosehip/raspberry flavour….but would I dare make jam?
Tuesday, 18 November 2008
The charcuterie boys
I finally got around to meeting the charcuterie boys at Trealy Farm; a picture book farmhouse at the end of a long climb with a rewarding crystal clear view to the Sugar Loaf mountain and a yard animated by strutting hens.
It is here that enthusiasts, James, Graham and John produce an array of artisan charcuterie from locally bred free range pigs. Like so many other farmers finding themselves in difficult times they had wanted to do something more profitable with their pigs. It took time to find one another and to get the know-how together; finally setting up in business 3 years ago.
They have been to Germany, France, Italy and Spain in their search for expertise and now produce a large range of traditional British specialties such as their award winning sausages and bacon and products rarely made in the UK such as chorizos, air-dried hams, loins and pancetta and a range of salamis including lightly smoked snack-sized ‘salami’ and cabanos.
Serve a selection of their cold cuts with handmade cheeses, pears cooked in perry, farm house butter and crusty bread washed down with local cider or perry......... a true taste of the British countryside today!
Check out the website and farm markets from Cardiff to Cheltenham.
http://www.trealyfarm.com/
It is here that enthusiasts, James, Graham and John produce an array of artisan charcuterie from locally bred free range pigs. Like so many other farmers finding themselves in difficult times they had wanted to do something more profitable with their pigs. It took time to find one another and to get the know-how together; finally setting up in business 3 years ago.
They have been to Germany, France, Italy and Spain in their search for expertise and now produce a large range of traditional British specialties such as their award winning sausages and bacon and products rarely made in the UK such as chorizos, air-dried hams, loins and pancetta and a range of salamis including lightly smoked snack-sized ‘salami’ and cabanos.
Serve a selection of their cold cuts with handmade cheeses, pears cooked in perry, farm house butter and crusty bread washed down with local cider or perry......... a true taste of the British countryside today!
Check out the website and farm markets from Cardiff to Cheltenham.
http://www.trealyfarm.com/
Thursday, 17 July 2008
I drew the line at the redcurrant jelly but now I have to go back and get the gooseberries
Driving to a hospital appointment yesterday through the south Herefordshire countryside washed by mellow sunshine, filled me with the kind of well being normally associated with uber chic spas and treatments. My hospital visit was unusually efficient and good humoured and I was back on the road, still cheerful and with half an hour to spare before the next stage of my day.
Over the past week or so it has dawned on me that I have not seen two lovely friends for the best part of a year and luck would have it that I was about to pass their farm gate. Sarah is from Tasmania originally and has a wonderful sunny disposition much of which I am convinced is rubbed off onto her excellent produce. She and her husband George run Treberva farm. George conducts the serious business of a modern farm in a competitive market all be it in idyllic surroundings. Sarah lovingly tends the human resources that oil the wheels of the business, the local post offices and corner shops that pass on the fresh seasonal produce around the district, and her farm gate shop and customers.
Luck would have it that Sarah is in the shop bobbing around between produce, paperwork and customers. Tender lush broad beans, peas, baby carrots, beets and new potatoes, waxy young courgettes, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, red currants, black currants, black and green gooseberries and seriously fresh free-range eggs are picked daily. She insists everything is picked young, dew fresh, tender and flavoursome.
My problem is, knowing where to draw the line. This time of the year I make big bowls of leaf and herb salads mixed with the prime of the season’s veg cooked al dente and dressed while still warm to give them extra flavour. These make good starters especially if there is some roasted beetroot in them too. They also make lively accompaniments to simply cooked fish and meat dishes so suited to summer. I load up the back of my car which now looks like a harvest festival and drive on to work full of the joys of spring.
Now the jelly bag is dripping with the clear claret colour of redcurrant juice and later, on will go the preserving pan and soon there will be rows of little pots of crystal clear jellies.
................I must go back at the weekend and pick a basket of those gooseberries I drew the line at. I want to smoke some duck breasts and I just can’t get the thought of smoked duck and gooseberry jelly out of my mind………
Let me know if you would like the recipe!
Over the past week or so it has dawned on me that I have not seen two lovely friends for the best part of a year and luck would have it that I was about to pass their farm gate. Sarah is from Tasmania originally and has a wonderful sunny disposition much of which I am convinced is rubbed off onto her excellent produce. She and her husband George run Treberva farm. George conducts the serious business of a modern farm in a competitive market all be it in idyllic surroundings. Sarah lovingly tends the human resources that oil the wheels of the business, the local post offices and corner shops that pass on the fresh seasonal produce around the district, and her farm gate shop and customers.
Luck would have it that Sarah is in the shop bobbing around between produce, paperwork and customers. Tender lush broad beans, peas, baby carrots, beets and new potatoes, waxy young courgettes, cherries, strawberries, raspberries, red currants, black currants, black and green gooseberries and seriously fresh free-range eggs are picked daily. She insists everything is picked young, dew fresh, tender and flavoursome.
My problem is, knowing where to draw the line. This time of the year I make big bowls of leaf and herb salads mixed with the prime of the season’s veg cooked al dente and dressed while still warm to give them extra flavour. These make good starters especially if there is some roasted beetroot in them too. They also make lively accompaniments to simply cooked fish and meat dishes so suited to summer. I load up the back of my car which now looks like a harvest festival and drive on to work full of the joys of spring.
Now the jelly bag is dripping with the clear claret colour of redcurrant juice and later, on will go the preserving pan and soon there will be rows of little pots of crystal clear jellies.
................I must go back at the weekend and pick a basket of those gooseberries I drew the line at. I want to smoke some duck breasts and I just can’t get the thought of smoked duck and gooseberry jelly out of my mind………
Let me know if you would like the recipe!
Thursday, 17 April 2008
Cherries under threat
I love cherries and growing up on the boarders of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire they were very much part of my childhood summers. There was the White Heart tree at Babylon Farm at Gorsley producing chip basketsful of pale peaches and cream coloured cherries. Then there were the little brown paper bags of dark blood red fruit oozing with juice bought with my pocket money on school outings. Today I look forward to the appearance of all the local fruit as the summer months come and go but cherries are still my favourites.
It was therefore quite a wake up call to hear that this luscious fruit is under threat from cheap foreign imports; not just here in the county but nationwide.
Help is at hand in the form of Cherry Aid, to be launched at the Real Food Festival at Earl’s Court in London on 24 April. It is spearheaded by Henrietta Green and supported my some of the country’s top chefs and will bring together consumers, cherry growers, and producers of cherry-based delights in what if hope will be a fruitful fight for survival. As the resource for the campaign, FoodLoversBritain.com will be packed with ways in which we all can do our part to help save the glorious cherry. The campaign will culminate in British Cherry Day on 19 July.
Plump, ripe and juicy, the British cherry is a burst of home-grown sunshine but sadly, this heavenly little fruit is in a pickle. Since their introduction by the Romans in the first century AD, our cherry orchards have survived wars, floods and droughts; now they are being destroyed at the hand of unfavorable economics.
It is sad to say that most of the frothy cherry trees (aptly described so by screen writer, Dennis Potter) that once blossomed across the country have been grubbed up. Figures for the decimation vary but one estimate is that the area under orchard in Kent alone has shrunk by a massive 85% in the past fifty years. With the market flooded by ever cheaper foreign imports, the few remaining local commercial growers are being forced to consider if their orchards can survive.
The value of traditional and heritage varieties to our landscape, culture and local livelihoods is at last being recognized. Backing up the old guard, new varieties have been developed to be more resilient to our climate, mature more quickly and grow on smaller trees that are easier to harvest. These factors promise a plentiful and stable domestic supply but only with our help.
FoodLoversBritain.com would especially love to hear from people who:
Sell British cherries.
Produce or sell food or drink made from British grown cherries.
Own a cherry orchard in which visitors can taste and buy cherries; can sponsor a tree; or can enjoy a picnic under the trees.
Will be featuring locally-grown cherry dishes on their summer menu.
Organise a competition for the best cherry pie, cherry jam, cherry wine or other British-cherry-based goodies.
Have any other suggestions for how to support one of our great natural treasures.
Those wanting to sign up for action should contact Jo Dodsley at FoodLovers Britain jo@foodloversbritain.com; or you can nominate a business in the Food Finds section at FoodLoversBritain.com.
It was therefore quite a wake up call to hear that this luscious fruit is under threat from cheap foreign imports; not just here in the county but nationwide.
Help is at hand in the form of Cherry Aid, to be launched at the Real Food Festival at Earl’s Court in London on 24 April. It is spearheaded by Henrietta Green and supported my some of the country’s top chefs and will bring together consumers, cherry growers, and producers of cherry-based delights in what if hope will be a fruitful fight for survival. As the resource for the campaign, FoodLoversBritain.com will be packed with ways in which we all can do our part to help save the glorious cherry. The campaign will culminate in British Cherry Day on 19 July.
Plump, ripe and juicy, the British cherry is a burst of home-grown sunshine but sadly, this heavenly little fruit is in a pickle. Since their introduction by the Romans in the first century AD, our cherry orchards have survived wars, floods and droughts; now they are being destroyed at the hand of unfavorable economics.
It is sad to say that most of the frothy cherry trees (aptly described so by screen writer, Dennis Potter) that once blossomed across the country have been grubbed up. Figures for the decimation vary but one estimate is that the area under orchard in Kent alone has shrunk by a massive 85% in the past fifty years. With the market flooded by ever cheaper foreign imports, the few remaining local commercial growers are being forced to consider if their orchards can survive.
The value of traditional and heritage varieties to our landscape, culture and local livelihoods is at last being recognized. Backing up the old guard, new varieties have been developed to be more resilient to our climate, mature more quickly and grow on smaller trees that are easier to harvest. These factors promise a plentiful and stable domestic supply but only with our help.
FoodLoversBritain.com would especially love to hear from people who:
Sell British cherries.
Produce or sell food or drink made from British grown cherries.
Own a cherry orchard in which visitors can taste and buy cherries; can sponsor a tree; or can enjoy a picnic under the trees.
Will be featuring locally-grown cherry dishes on their summer menu.
Organise a competition for the best cherry pie, cherry jam, cherry wine or other British-cherry-based goodies.
Have any other suggestions for how to support one of our great natural treasures.
Those wanting to sign up for action should contact Jo Dodsley at FoodLovers Britain jo@foodloversbritain.com; or you can nominate a business in the Food Finds section at FoodLoversBritain.com.
Monday, 14 April 2008
Asparagus
Wow, what a week it’s been; well that is my excuse for not posting any news since last Monday. I had a training course which went on all weekend to prepare for and G2 always keeps me pretty busy. All the recipes turned out well and I shall be very happy to cook them all summer long - no doubt some new dishes will present themselves, they normally do.Two recipes had warm asparagus in. One was a salad with warm roasted beetroot and soft boiled eggs, the other a bruschetta with mozzarella. The Chin family, Wye Valley asparagus is exceptional this year. I don't think I have enjoyed asparagus like it since we grew our own in the garden at home. It is so tender but solid and has a delicate flavour. I can't stop eating it and just think in recent years I have been saying it is over rated I would just as well have broccoli. Forget that!
Needless to say it is grown in poly tunnels, but it does the little blighters no harm. It is an extraordinary sight too, mesmerising in fact, to see the pickers silhouetted against huge expanses of whiteness like peasants toiling in the snow on the Russian Steppes. It is strange though to be eating local asparagus in April, such a cold one too, but much as I love seasonality on the table I just don't want to resist this one and anyway it is grown on the doorstep and picked the same day we eat it. Food does not get better than that.
I noticed the Lilly of the Valley are up early too - no thanks to poly tunnels either. When I lived in Penzance they were always in flower for Helston Flora Day on May 8th (or is it 9th) and always bloomed a week or so later here.
Speak soon Lindy
Needless to say it is grown in poly tunnels, but it does the little blighters no harm. It is an extraordinary sight too, mesmerising in fact, to see the pickers silhouetted against huge expanses of whiteness like peasants toiling in the snow on the Russian Steppes. It is strange though to be eating local asparagus in April, such a cold one too, but much as I love seasonality on the table I just don't want to resist this one and anyway it is grown on the doorstep and picked the same day we eat it. Food does not get better than that.
I noticed the Lilly of the Valley are up early too - no thanks to poly tunnels either. When I lived in Penzance they were always in flower for Helston Flora Day on May 8th (or is it 9th) and always bloomed a week or so later here.
Speak soon Lindy
Monday, 7 April 2008
Abruzzo, Frosinone, and Jorg Hagemeyer
Drove to NEC this morning, no problems arrived on the dot of ten. No hold ups on the M42. Beautiful sunny morning so walked from the car park.
The Abruzzo stand was very limited, not like the Italians at all. Really disappointing as I had hoped to pick up some artisan meat curers and the like. There was also a Frosinone (Lazio, south of Rome) stand; they were much more switched on but again a fairly limited range of producers.
The Welsh stand stood out - eye catching - well thought out with an amazing glass box kitchen with a kind of sushi bar conveyor belt spilling out great tastes into the hall. Designed I was told in Italy. Bacheldre Watermill was there with their speciality flours and Michael Leviseur from the Organic Smokehouse with his beautiful smoked salmon. Came across, The Knobbly-Carrot makers of great soup....
The best of the rest: Delicioso - I tasted some Spanish acorn fed ham to die for - Bellota Negra – it’s just salted and air dried - very soft - melt in the mouth - a cross between cooked ham, cured ham and cream. The pigs have a pedigree akin to that of a race horse which may explain its price tag of £19.00 per 100 g in a certain food hall in Knightsbridge......delicioso though!
Dinky queen scallops on their shells from Island Seafare, Isle of Man and traditionally smoked Manx kippers
Then there was Mr Jorg Hagemeyer export manager of the German spice and additive company AVO. Struck me immediately as a bon viveur, well suited, very charming. He told me about Sauerbraten a traditional home marinated beef dish from Cologne - can’t wait to try it - I will let you know how I get on. It involves rubbing the meat with spices and herbs and leaving it for some days. I need to research it a bit more first though - German food it very under rated!
Got home around three and had to set to and get my boxes ready to set up for tomorrow. then a meal to cook as no Sunday left overs. Did a small pice of boiled ham with watercress sauce celeriac and purple sprouting and now its ten o'clock and time for bed!
A presto.
The Abruzzo stand was very limited, not like the Italians at all. Really disappointing as I had hoped to pick up some artisan meat curers and the like. There was also a Frosinone (Lazio, south of Rome) stand; they were much more switched on but again a fairly limited range of producers.
The Welsh stand stood out - eye catching - well thought out with an amazing glass box kitchen with a kind of sushi bar conveyor belt spilling out great tastes into the hall. Designed I was told in Italy. Bacheldre Watermill was there with their speciality flours and Michael Leviseur from the Organic Smokehouse with his beautiful smoked salmon. Came across, The Knobbly-Carrot makers of great soup....
The best of the rest: Delicioso - I tasted some Spanish acorn fed ham to die for - Bellota Negra – it’s just salted and air dried - very soft - melt in the mouth - a cross between cooked ham, cured ham and cream. The pigs have a pedigree akin to that of a race horse which may explain its price tag of £19.00 per 100 g in a certain food hall in Knightsbridge......delicioso though!
Dinky queen scallops on their shells from Island Seafare, Isle of Man and traditionally smoked Manx kippers
Then there was Mr Jorg Hagemeyer export manager of the German spice and additive company AVO. Struck me immediately as a bon viveur, well suited, very charming. He told me about Sauerbraten a traditional home marinated beef dish from Cologne - can’t wait to try it - I will let you know how I get on. It involves rubbing the meat with spices and herbs and leaving it for some days. I need to research it a bit more first though - German food it very under rated!
Got home around three and had to set to and get my boxes ready to set up for tomorrow. then a meal to cook as no Sunday left overs. Did a small pice of boiled ham with watercress sauce celeriac and purple sprouting and now its ten o'clock and time for bed!
A presto.
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