Greetings from Tbilisi in Georgia! I have the usual blog backlog with a couple of recipes to share with you this week – including an aromatic poached chicken (poached with lemongrass, galangal, chilli and such) – and also my mini guide to Gothenburg after last weeks trip. First though, while I am here, I want to share some photos of Tlibisi, the capital of Georgia, where I am spending my weekend.

Highlights? The food market was a huge one, the flea market also, although I resisted buying anything despite the many amazing gems. Having spent the last month sorting items for storage, I had to talk some sense to myself before embarking on the flea market voyage.

Lunch today was also great, featuring giant dumplings similar to my favourite Chinese Xiao Long Bao with soup inside. It turns out that they influence these, as they travelled to Mongolia, who brought similar here. That’s a rough summary, budding food anthropologists, but I just love a little cultural food quirk. Dinner was too, but I’ve not edited the photos yet, I’ll be back with those soon.

Khinkali: beef & pork dumplings with soup inside

Inside the dumpling :)

Lots of delicious walnut bits

Traditional sulphur baths - smell like rotten eggs but apparantly amazing for your skin and lungs

Two old ladies chinwagging by the cathedral, flower in the foreground

This made me smile! Extremely happy sculpture of a Georgian film director

Pomegranate flower

Squash!

Grapes

Pomegranates

Preserved wild yellow Ppums - cooked traditionally with lamb & tarragon

Fresh walnuts

Marigolds and chillies

Pickled garlic

Some lovely friendly locals

Terrific Georgian smoked cheese

Icons watching over the cheeses

Another friendly local who requested that I take his picture :)

Flea Market

Flea Market

Flea Market

Flea Market

Photo from OFM article "Electric Ladyland" in the OFM this Sunday :)

I am still absolutely thrilled as I type this, and a little stunned. Last night I was at the OFM Awards and was awarded Best Blogger. It was a great night and the awards themselves were a really positive celebration of good things in food. To say I was honoured is a massive understatement.

Lots of inspiring people were celebrated like Michel Roux for lifetime achievement in food, The Ethicurean in Somerset (only open a year but doing something wonderful and rightly being commended for it), Tristram Stuart for his work on food waste (including his book Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal).

Johnny Pusztai from JT Beedham was best producer, and I really need to try his pork, the secret to the flavour is that he feeds the pigs smokey bacon crisps. I love it! Best restaurant was Dinner, to my great shame I have yet to eat there but must rectify that soon.

I was delighted to see some of my favourite regular haunts awarded too: Koya for cheap eats (I can’t get enough of their noodles, they really are the best in London and I go there all the time), The Bull and Last for their terrific Sunday lunches and Mark’s Bar at Hix for Best Bar. We finished our night there and hugely enjoyed it.

Maltby St Market also got a well deserved nod for best newcomer and Yotam Ottolenghi won Best Cookbook for his lovely vegetarian tome Plenty. Food Personality was Hugh Fearnley-Whittingsall for his brilliant work on his Fish Fight, and Young Chef was
Paul Foster from Tuddenham Mill, Suffolk who has spent time in the kitchen of Sat Bains, The French Laundry and WD-50 and seeks influence and ingredients from his local surroundings.

I also got to meet some of my food heroes that I have admired for a long time. I spotted Claudia Roden but was too shy to talk to her and was a little gobsmacked when she came over to congratulate me. What a lovely lady. Of course she got no sense from me, and all I could do was tell her repeatedly how much I love her books. But I really do.

That’s all from me for now, I have a hangover to nurse, but do head on over to the Guardian to take a look at the pics of the winners.  And do make sure to buy The Observer on Sunday for more details on the awards in the OFM, as well as all of the lovely regular stuff.

Ps. thanks SO MUCH for the votes, and I am aware that I owe you all a chorizo jam recipe. Coming soon :)

Interview in Agenda Magazine in The Sunday Business Post

There’s a little interview with me in The Sunday Business Post’s Agenda Magazine today, if you’re interested :)

You can click on the image above to see it in higher resolution.

The side of Saluhallen (the food market) at night

It’s my last night in Gothenburg. I have really enjoyed it, and I have only seen the tip. It’s been quite food-centric, as you might expect, but next time I do want to get out and see the islands and get out to the surrounding countryside. This all hinges on me learning to drive this Winter, which I have promised myself I will.

I love the pace here. It’s all happy and very relaxed. Everyone is just getting on with their everyday business. For a city of its size (500,000) the food on offer is really terrific – 5 michelin starred restaurants and great mid-range ones too. It is expensive, but there are great offers too, which I have been exploring and will write about soon. For now some more photos. Enjoy!

Chefs in synchrony at Basement, Gothenburg

Amuse of beef tartare with goats cheese sauce, thyme & capers served with a shot of onion soup, at Basement

Variations of Swedish Lobster, Scallop & Seaweed Served with a Lobster Emulsion, Crispy Mature Cheese, Dill & Cucumber at Basement, Gothenburg

Great coffee at Bar Centro, Gothenburg

Familjen Restaurant, Gothenburg

Greetings from lovely Gothenburg! I am here for the weekend to explore and eat (of course). One day in and I feel so relaxed. I love a second city – really I do! Hello Cork, one of my favourites where I lived for 8 years, and I really did prefer Split in Croatia to Dubrovnik. Hey, I am already wildly off the point.

Gothenburg boasts 5 michelin starred restaurants and lots of mid range. I am exploring the gamut, hoping to get a little bit of everything. I am letting the trip evolve day by day, which I love to do.

Here are some photo highlights of the trip so far. Enjoy!

Some pizza at the end of my rainbow yesterday - pretty!

Can I have this in A3 please?

Smoked quail egg with bleak roe, reindeer and other wonders at Sjömagasinet

Sjömagasinet

Diners at the Central Food Market

Feskekörka (Fish Church) in Gothenburg

Catch of the Day (Plaice) at Restaurant Gabriel, Feskekörka (delicious!)

Superb chocolates from Jeanna Kanold in the Central Market or nearby at Victoria Passage

Fantastic Blueberry & Cardamom Chocolates from Kanold

de Matteo - great coffee

HALLO!

Abergavenny Food Festival seems like a long time ago now, it wasn’t even a month! Such a great festival and it was lovely to get this video reminder of our masterclass and time there. Although, I think it’s only fair to say that I need to learn to shut up occasionally. Sorry, James!

One of my biggest “beefs” in food, is that we now seem to have been persuaded that in order to keep ourselves nourished, we need to be immensely talented. Chef talented. When really all it is, is in the best way, to learn as a child in a natural way, at home or in school.

Now before, you slam your laptop lid shut and roar, HOW DO WE DO THAT, WE ALL HAVE TO WORK! My mother and father both worked, but I learned in school, as well as occasional baking forays with my mother and other family at the weekend.

So, I was absolutely charmed when recently flicking through one of Quadrille’s most recent Classic Voices in Food, The Gentle Art of Cookery by Mrs CF Leyel & Miss Olga Hartley, originally published in 1925. Tucked towards the back of the book is a gorgeous and comprehensive chapter on cooking with children.

Contained within are lots of classics that I remember making like fudge, meringues and toffee. There are some unusual things which probably wouldn’t wash now, like an ostrich egg made using a dozen hens eggs with a pigs bladder for a mould (!!!). I love it. There are many other chapters of course, including one dedicated to chestnuts, home made wines and cups and the more traditional fish, meat, poultry

The pre-amble to the chapter is beautiful, and I think conveys a message most of us have now forgotten. And that is, just how magical it is for a child to cook in a kitchen. I’ve reproduced it here for you. I would highly recommend buying the book.

Many children listen to the story of Cinderella with their sympathy for the heroine warped by the reflection that at any rate she was given the free run of the kitchen when the family departed for the ball. Most children prefer the kitchen to the nursery or drawing-room. If the cook is an Irishwoman, she will welcome the society of five or six children in the kitchen at all hours; if she is any other nationality she will probably prefer them one at a time or not at all. But it is a pity when a child is debarred from all contact with the practical affairs of the home during its impressionable years, and anyway, the time to interest children in cookery is when they are under twelve, when their education cannot or should not be all book work, and when it is undiluted bliss to be allowed to shell peas, pick currants and whisk eggs. By the time they are eighteen the glamour of life will be re-oriented. but when they are very young there is romance in the oven and the singing kettle.

A child in the kitchen is an alchemist learning the properties of these mysterious elements – fire and water. A saucepan is a crucible in which anything might happen. Cooking is sheer magic to the child, pure white magic. A child watches the kneading of flour and water into dough and the transmutation of the pale dough into crusty loaves and brown cakes with the delighted wonder with which the cherubim and seraphim must have looked on at the creation of the world.

It is easy to give children the natural primitive pleasure of making things themselves. They can make or help to make their own toffee and ginger beer; they can cut their own gingerbread ducks and whales. Not all of the following recipes are intended to be made by children themselves. The “ostrich-egg” calls for some skill, and the point of others is their surprise. But they have been chosen because they will appeal to children by providing the combination of the familiar with the unexpected, which is the real zest of pleasure to children all over the world.

It’s a terrible photo, isn’t it? TERRIBLE. Not only do I not have a proper camera as before, I have now mislaid the charger for this one and am on my last percentile of battery. So I had to take this shot in a dark kitchen (the bulb is gone), with a bright flash, in 15 seconds. I want to write about this though, so here you go. Normal service should resume soon.

Trina Hahnemann, Nordic food goddess, shared this recipe with me last Xmas. I meant to make it but never did. Then she shared it at her Abergavenny Masterclass and brought it to my attention once more. I tasted it again and knew I had to make it as soon as I got back to my kitchen.

Halen Mon salts were also at Abergavenny. I am already a huge fan of their salts (I would walk miles for the vanilla salt in particular), and discovered a new one (to me), spiced sea salt. It’s addictive.

Halen Mon sea salts are large flakes of Anglesey sea salt from Wales, with so much flavour. They started simply making it in a pot on her aga, stocking it first in a local shop. Halen Mon salts are now available in 22 countries and they supply some of the worlds best restaurants incl the now closed El Bulli and The Fat Duck. They also supply my kitchen – I love the stuff and treat myself to it. It’s quite simply a delicious and fantastic ingredient.

image nicked from the Halen Mon website

The spiced sea salt is a wonder. Heady with 8 warm spices, giant flakes nestle among smaller ones, and brown in colour it is magical. I knew that I would need to use it for the slow roast whole celeriac recipe.

Preperation time for this is 5 minutes, tops. Clean your celeriac and cut off only the most grizzly bits. Leave the skin on, it’s delicious, nutritious and gives the crust great texture. Coat in extra virgin olive oil and then cover with sea salt. Cover with foil and roast for 2 hours at 175 deg C. Next time, I would leave it uncovered for the last 10 minutes to get a crisper, drier crust.

Serve whole and cut into slices as you would a roast. It’s a fantastic centre piece and the smell! Oh, the smell is wonderful. Especially with that spiced sea salt in the mix. The celeriac will be cooked through but retains it’s firmness. It’s a real joy to eat.

Enjoy!

A Chat with Ferran Adria of El Bulli

I know, right? *Pinch* Ferran Adria, at Google HQ. For a geek who is into food that’s a pretty dreamy combination.

Ferran was visiting to promote his book – The Family Meal: Home Cooking with Ferran Adria – and was cooking lunch at the Google London HQ Canteen. It started badly as I got lost, which was frustrating, and that is all too regular an occurrence too, but an hour later, I found myself in a room with Ferran Adria, with an unexpected opportunity to interview him.

Ferran Adria's New Cookbook - The Family Meal

Now, I never expected this so I wasn’t prepared. I didn’t even know how to change the setting on my camera so that the video could be in colour. I had had a few too many glasses of red wine the night before. BUT, an opportunity to interview Ferran Adria, I couldn’t refuse. It was more of a chat really.

What a lovely man he is and he is hugely inspiring. PLUS, he gave us an exclusive. As part of his new initiative, the el bulli foundation, he is organising a conference in Spain that will gather food bloggers from all over the world in October at his first Gastronomy & Technology Day. His innovative brain stretches beyond food, and he will be publishing his research at the foundation online daily. So he wants to have a conversation with us.

It will be in Spanish but he was very encouraging. I will go if I can. As a technologist before food writer, and scientist before that, I am hugely interested. It also kicks off a series of events leading up to the launch of the el bulli foundation. Here’s hoping he hosts one here too.

Video chat with Ferran Adria with May of Slow Food Kitchen follows.

Oh, it breaks my heart to publish photos now, it really does. Whoever stole my SLR, lenses and iPod, may – whoever is in charge – smite you down with a giant lens shaped object. Anyway, I don’t want to stop blogging, so to fill a temporary gap, I bought a cheap point and shoot, hopefully it will be for just a short time. I felt this keenly, when I went to Lucky Chip recently, and had to use my flash instead of my lens for lowlight, but I liked it so much, I wanted to tell you about it anyway.

So, Lucky Chip is a burger van located in Netil Market Car Park, around the corner from Broadway Market. You can’t miss it, it’s just a van, and the only one in there. This weekend it was licensed with drinks from Off Broadway, but normally it is BYO.

The menu is simple and offers simple burgers – just burgers with cheese in a bun – right through a menu with Burgers like the Selleck through to the burger of the week. We opted for burger of the week, the Jeff Bridges True Grit Burger: Dry-aged Beef Patty, Smoked Bacon, Apple, BBQ, Onion Grits and Cheddar. We opted for some chilli cheese fries on the side, as my American friend Denise misses them very much.

To drink, a bottle of red and a cheeseburger pickle back to drink – three shots: tomato juice, followed by bacon bourbon (my bacon vodka and bourbon recipes will be coming soon!), followed by a shot of pickle brine. Now that was good. I suspect a trace of influence from the Pitt Cue Co boys here, but they had been there the night before, so it’s only natural.

Now, the burgers take some time, but that’s fine, as they are made fresh and they’re very good. The burger was perfectly pink, and huge. Which is not something I normally like in my burger, but this Jeff Bridges burger was an animal of a thing with good flavours and great ingredients. I loved it, I really did. I really need to go back and try the simple one soon.

Jeff Bridges Burger

The chilli cheese fries were also great. Good beef and beans and great fries with decent cheese. I hate the slappy crap that burger obsessives would have you stick on your burger. Although there is one exception to that, the Meatwagon, as their slappy cheese actually has some flavour. I could have done with a bit more heat in the chilli but I am a chilli fiend. So, I will add some chilli next time.

£21 for 2 Jeff Bridges burgers and the chilli cheese fries. The normal burger is cheaper. Worth every penny. I’ll be going back to try the beetroot flavour onion rings which were finished when we visited, the simple burger and naked fries.

Not food related but important, bonus points go to Lucky Chip for a great playlist.

Follow them on facebook as that seems to be where they most frequently update on menu changes and location changes.

Lucky Chip, Netil Market, London Fields, E8 3RL, Tuesdays-Sundays

http://www.facebook.com/Luckychip

Claudia Roden's Gateau Au Chocolat with Ganache Frosting

I have a Kitchenaid. At last. I feel like I have always wanted one, perhaps I have, although it’s realistic to say that in my early years, I was craving sweets a big stronger.

It is bright pink and stands proudly in my kitchen. I have been sent one to review – disclaimer – and I have been happily whipping up cakes and brownies and all sorts of other bits and pieces that are detrimental to my waistline but so, so good for my soul.

My Bright Pink Kitchen Soldier

It has made life very quick and convenient. We had a few run ins but I soon realised that that is because I was putting too much in the bowl. 1.5kg bread too much. That was a bit silly, it is a home mixer, not an industrial one, and treated as such – with one cake mix, not three – it works like a charm. It is tough and quick, and the patisserie attachment has been very useful, especially for my new baking experiments that have been taking place in my kitchen.

I don’t often write about cakes, for several reasons. They require precision and following the rules, and I find this restrictive and annoying. I can almost see my Home Economics teacher watching me carefully from the corner of the room. I think it’s part of my rejection of my previous scientific education. I have now decided to embrace it and learn the language properly, not just the stuff I know and learned at home in school, but more ambitious stuff, so that I can be as creative with my baking as I am with everything else that I cook at home.

This seems a pointless pre-amble now as Gateau au Chocolate is not my recipe but one from food superstar Claudia Roden. But I can’t resist a rich, dense chocolate cake. It is full of great stuff: eggs, ground almonds, butter and rich dark chocolate. I used Green & Blacks Cooking Chocolate which I find rich and dense with some lovely orange / citrus undertones. It’s protein rich, with just a whisper of sugar, a proper adults chocolate cake. You kids will need to look somewhere else.

Chocolate Ganache

I thought it looked a bit naked just on its own, so I whipped up a quick chocolate ganache to cover it with. It worked very well. Any leftovers can become truffles too.

The recipe has featured in many books, I got this from the Green & Black’s Ultimate: Chocolate Recipes: The New Collection, which has been sitting on my shelf for a year now unloved, I am ashamed to confess. It’s a lovely book with some gorgeous recipes and I will be trying more of them soon.

The recipe is unchanged except for the ordering of it. I changed it simply so that it was more practical for me.

Recipe: Claudia Roden’s Gateau Au Chocolate with a Lick of Chocolate Ganache Frosting

Ingredients

CAKE

250g dark chocolate (70% or above recommended)
100g unsalted butter (optional but I used it), plus extra for greasing
6 large free range eggs, seperated
75g caster sugar
100g ground almonds
Flour or matzo meal for dusting

GANACHE

150ml double cream
150g dark chocolate

Method

CAKE

Preheat your oven 180 deg C. Grease a 23cm cake pan and dust with your flour / matzo.

Melt the chocolate and butter in a pan over another (slightly larger) pan of water, or a double boiler.

Whisk the egg whites in a clean mixer bowl until white and fluffy with dense peaks, as you would for meringue. Leave to the side.

Refill your mixer bowl with sugar and butter and beat until light and fluffy (they will be pale and creamy).

Add the ground almonds and melted chocolate and butter and mix thoroughly. Gently fold in the whisked egg whites, taking care not to knock out the air.

Pour into your cake tin and make for 30 – 45 minutes. Test it by sticking a metal skewer or knife through it, when it comes out dry, it’s done. I found mine was perfect at 35 minutes.

GANACHE

Just as the cake is cooled, melt your chocolate as before. Stir through the cream and spread all over the cake once it’s cooled and out of the cake tin.

There was a nice piece published today on Irish food bloggers in The Irish Examiner featuring Clare Kleinedler, Aoife Ryan the IFBA and me.

The Irish Examiner: Laying a love of food online.

Kids sliding down the castle hill in cardboard boxes at Abergavenny - loved it

Everyone loves Abergavenny. Touted as one of the best food festivals for very serious food lovers such as us, I don’t know why it took me so long to get there.

Abergavenny (or in local speak Aber-gaa-veiny) is a sleepy town in Wales, and home to two of the best restaurants in Wales and – I have been told and am yet to eat at either – the UK generally: The Walnut Tree and The Hardwick.

Giving the New Voices Masterclass with James Ramsden at Abergavenny

The festival was charming. Gentle corporate sponsorship that didn’t interfere with proceedings supported it. It was rich with masterclasses from the likes of Bill Granger, Angela Hartnett, Fergus Henderson, Lucas Hollweg, Henry Harris, Richard Bertinet, Signe Johansen, Trina Hahnemann, James Ramsden and lil ole me. I made lots of blaas – literally hundreds – and homemade butter from raw cream. I loved it. What brilliant company too, I had to pinch myself.

Highlights for me were:

The Radio 4 Food Programme

Food Quiz from the Radio 4 Food Programme

Entente Cordiale from Richard Bertinet & Henry Harris

The Nordic Terroir with Trina Hahnemann and Signe Johansen

Antics at the castle at Abergavenny

The G & Teas from the Rare Tea Company and Sipsmith

Rude Health Rants - I did one too

Terrific Light Masala Dosa from Café Spice Namaste

Great hat

Angela Hartnett at her Taste of Home Masterclass

The Dr Henderson - ultimate hangover cure - from Fergus Henderson

Amazing stripes action from Fergus Henderson

Hangover Cures – Fergus Henderson, Shaun Hill and Chris Hirst

Fig Tart from The Secret Larder at Dewsall Yurt Village

Scouting Shenanigans

Down to Earth – Jane Baxter and Lucas Hollweg

Maria Elia at Joe's in South Kensington

Hello London! I am back. I didn’t want to come, but then when I did, I remembered how much I love it here. Hello, hello, hello.

So, I have lots of places to tell you about that I have been to over the summer. I’ll start with one that really charmed me, Joe’s Cafe in South Kensington.

Owned by the Joseph clothes brand – now stay with me and don’t be put off – they very sensibly have paid attention to the food that they are serving and have put Maria Elia at the helm. Maria Elia grew up in her Cypriot parents restaurant kitchen in London, before spending time at El Bulli and Elena Arzack. Impressive, no? She most recently worked at The Whitechapel Gallery Dining Room before moving on to Joe’s earlier this summer.

Why did I like it? Maria is clearly very talented, and the food it effortless and flavourful. No doubt it is very complicated and detailed, but the food belies this. There is no pretentiousness, this is simply great food from a talented chef who loves what she is doing, I can’t wait to go back again soon.

We started with a gorgeous halibut carpaccio which was delicate and flavoursome. The star dish, the “Textures of X” – I tried both pea and tomato, is a dish with 4 small dishes where X is the star. The tomato baklava was stunning, although it feels unfair to single out one thing as the pork was also delicious (and very large).

Go try it – you won’t be disappointed. I will be going back soon and am delighted to have found another great option near all of those fabulous museums (the other is Casa Brindisa of course).

Joe’s Cafe, 126 Draycott Ave London, SW3 3AH www.joseph.co.uk/joes-cafe/locations/

http://www.thisismariaelia.com/about.html

Pork

Textures of Tomato

Halibut Carpaccio

Texture of PeasTexture of Peas

Meringue Roulade for Dessert

WHAT A WEEK! I feel like I went 10 rounds with Big Daddy last week at Electric Picnic. I  am still shattered physically, which is ridiculous as I am not 95. El downside of this food writing business and my personality combined is that I am prone to laziness and indulgence (peppered with moments of frenetic activity), so recipe testing for my mini-tome Comfort & Spice and lots of Posh Lunch Clubs (mixed with Posh Dinners and more down and dirty guilty pleasures) mean I am now a little larger and more slow moving than before. A disgrace.

A good friend in Ireland dispensed some much needed advice this week: “Niamh, food and drink is your business. You will always eat and drink. Always. You need a personal trainer. ”

And woe, I fear it has come to that.

My Secret Life, The Independent Magazine; Saturday 10th September, 2011

There is a little interview with me in The Independent Magazine (My Secret Life – Niamh Shields) this morning with a really fun photo which was the result of a really fun shoot but all I could think was OOOOPS! Did I really do that to myself? So, personal trainer it is. I also thought it would be a head shot – I SHOULD HAVE IRONED MY SKIRT. Ah well. It adds character, no?

I am a happy sort though and just go with it, so I am not stressing or anything just acknowledging, it’s the downside of this business.

In other news, the Bridgestone Guide folks published a review of my book which nearly knocked me off my chair. I can’t tell you how much it means to me that people in Ireland – especially these people – like my book as much as they do. Thanks so much.

Niamh Shields, celebrated Waterford-born food blogger at @eatlikeagirl, has written her first cookery book and, in the process, she’s also written her first novel.

“We took the Eurostar at stupid o’clock…”.
“Add the spices and stir for a minute or so to temper them”.
”A Blaa is a fluffy white bread roll with a floury top, so expect to get a flour moustache as you eat them”.
“When you fry the rolls the meat crumbles, so when you bite in you find little pork crumbles fugitive amongst the noodles”.

Wow! What sort of inspired writing is that, and I could pull down fifty more examples where Ms Shields finds the perfect, poetic word: the pork crumbles fugitive amongst the noodles; stupid o’clock; the spices tempered; the funny, giggly flour moustache. Inspired. Most novelists never get with an ass’s roar of such wit and culture.

And if the writing is inspired, then the food is double inspired.

Before I go, let me leave you with a little Electric Picnic story which I have only recently heard and which granted me lots of laughter.

My friends who helped at the Comfort & Spice Pop Up Café at Electric Picnic are wonderful, but not all are comfortable cooks. One friend was shredding some spring onions for me, and really worried about it (I didn’t know), when Paul Flynn (of The Tannery Restaurant & Cookery School, ex head chef at 3* Chez Nico, tv celebrity chef and author of two books) saw her distress and asked: “Can I help with the onions?”.

My friend, who really is not into food and had no idea who Paul was asked frantically and in hushed tones so I couldn’t hear “Do you know ANYTHING about FOOOOOD?!”.

Paul graciously answered: “I think I can manage the onions”. And he did. Thanks Paul :)

Too funny.

Right! I have a date with those brownies from Electric Picnic. I will post the recipe soon. Have a lovely weekend all!

So, we did it. Two days of pop-up brunching at my favourite Irish music festival, Electric Picnic, at the new Theatre of Food in Mindfield.

Comfort & Spice Pop Up Café at Electric Picnic, Ireland

It was challenging. I have never delivered food on this scale with restricted access to equipment (pots, knives, you name it, my fault – bad planning and lack of experience). It didn’t help that I had to travel overnight from London the night before to even get there.

Electric Picnic

But I am so glad I did it. We delivered, people really liked it, and I have learned so much for next time.

Highlights for me were:

Comfort & Spice Pop Up Café at Electric Picnic, Ireland - getting started on the first day

• the people – lots of great lovely people from my friends who helped, to customers, to chefs and restaurateurs in the Theatre of Food (which was absolutely fantastic too and a credit to Electric Picnic, the chefs and artisan food producers of Ireland). On the morning of the first brunch, I had had hardly any sleep, having prepped into the early hours. Paul Flynn – legendary Irish chef and fellow Dungarvan local – got stuck in and helped us with our prep.doffs hat
• there was no pretentiousness anywhere, lots of enthusiasm, people wanted to be involved, share their knowledge, help each other out and then have a laugh over a drink at the end of each day, with some live music thrown in for good measure.

– we made it to the front page of The Ticket fromThe Irish Times, who said we were the best brunch at Electric Picnic. Brilliant, but I must confess it filled me with mild panic, I wondered how we could cater for more. We managed, warning people that they may need to wait, we adjusted the menu where we could, and slow roast pork hash replaced the wildly popular chorizo hash when we ran out of it.

– we won a Bridgestone Award – a Bridgestone Award! – amazing and totally unexpected. Also an indication of how seriously Electric Picnic take their food. The Bridgestone Guides are the leading Irish food guide, and John and Sally McKenna saw fit to award us one of 5 awards, the judges award. I was thrilled, I still am. I can’t quite believe it.

Some of my brave & fearless friend helpers, sadly we never got a team shot! :(

• my brilliant friends. I honestly had no idea how hard it would be, but they pulled together fantastically and we got it done. I owe them all a big dinner, at the very least.

So that was it! My camera was stolen but my friends and Aoife of I Can Haz Cook pooled together some photos for me. Thanks so much all.

My next festival will be Abergavenny in Wales where I will be giving a Masterclass with James Ramsden. It’s a brilliant festival – not corporate and all about the food – tickets on sale for our masterclass but also ones by Signe Johansen & Trina Hahnemann on the Nordic Terroir; Hangover Cures Masterclass from Fergus Henderson, Shaun Hill and Chris Hirst and Tapas Abergavenny Style from José Pizarro. Lots more too. Tickets available on the Abergavenny website – they are selling out too so be quick! 

Hope to see some of you there.
 

Hello folks! So this is not a recipe post or a food post, just a little plea. It looks like someone took my camera and lenses plus lots of memory cards not yet backed up, and my ipod touch from my prep kitchen at Electric Picnic last night. I was there until very late so it was late at night or this morning. I am hoping it was an accident and someone will find it. Or that if someone took it they will have a change of heart and get it back to me.

My camera has my only pictures of my pop up café and lots of my little niece and nephew. There’s lots of videos and pics plus recipe ideas on my ipod touch. They were both in a small black bag. I can’t afford to replace it just now so I am really in a bind. I don’t actually care if someone took it, just please get it back to me. Or the memory cards at least.

So, if you were there would really appreciate you asking around.

*fingers crossed*

Comfort & Spice Preview in Sainsbury's Magazine

The good folks at Sainsbury’s Magazine cooked some of their favorite recipes from Comfort & Spice and shot them to be included in October’s Sainsbury’s Magazine – which is in Sainsbury’s from today.

Comfort & Spice Preview in Sainsbury's Magazine

They’ve done a terrific job and I was positively beaming when I saw it. They selected Chicken & Chorizo Pies, Blaas (those beautiful fluffy rolls), Halloumi & Pomegranate Salad and Orange & Cardamom Jelly.

Comfort & Spice Preview in Sainsbury's Magazine

So, if you’d like a preview – hot foot it to your local Sainsbury’s today. Comfort & Spice is also available in book shops and on Amazon now.

Piri Piri Poussin. Say it. Fabulous, isn’t it? Also delicious, and one of my favourite things to make. I’ve pimped this traditional dish with my favourite n’duja sausage in place of chilli and it works a treat. Bling bling.

There’s no great secret to great meat on the barbecue or roasted in the oven. On a basic level, all you need is a proper marinade and to marinade it for long enough.

Vinegar works wonders with meat, and is terrific when balanced with sugars – whether molasses, sugar or honey. Piri Piri is a terrific vinegar and chilli based marinade with some herbs, often oregano, from Portugal originally, but most often now associated with South Africa.

I’ve pimped my piri piri with some N’duja, that wonderful Calabrian spreadable sausage which I love, well you must be bored of it now. I have been writing about it for years. Did you miss my n’duja pig? (no?!).

Anyway, this is a great dish. Piri piri poussin, spatchcocked to increase surface area, all chilli and vinegar and herbs normally, becomes spicy sausage and vinegar and herbs with tomato for sweetness and balance.

It may seem weird to spread sausage on a poussin but it is thin like a pesto and spreads perfectly adding a rich spiced umami layer to the poussin, which with enough marinading perforates and tenderises the flesh. The poussin is especially perfect for it, packed with flavour, quick to cook and a perfect portion for one. It’s also super delicious.

If you have some marinade leftover, heat it and serve it on the side like a chutney and dip the chicken in it. I would even suggest making a bit extra to do this.

Note on the recipe: don’t forget the marinade time!

Recipe: Pimp My Piri Piri Poussin

Ingredients

2 x poussin, spatchcocked
90g n’duja sausage
1 good tomato, peeled deseeded & diced
1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano leaves + some for serving
2 tbsp good red wine vinegar

Method

Peel the tomatoes by carving a cross in the base through the skin and submerging in boiling water for 15 – 30 seconds, until the skin starts to peel away. Remove the seeds and chop into fine dice.

Sauté over a low – medium heat for about 10 minutes until the tomato softens. Add the n’duja and stir until dissolved through. Add the vinegar and oregano.

Allow to cool and spread over the skin of the poussins. Massage into the skin and leave to marinade in the fridge for 2 – 4 hours or overnight if you have time.

Preheat your oven to 200 deg C.

Roast the poussins for 35 – 40 minutes checking on them and basting them halfway though. The sausage can get a bit crispy but basting prevents this.

Serve with some fresh oregano sprinkled on top, and enjoy, they’re delicious!

N'Duja Devilled Eggs

What, what, what? N’duja devilled eggs! What are those pray tell?

Well, dear reader, I think the devilled egg is much maligned. I love it in every form from the most simple, to one that’s been pimped with anything from spices to pork (or pork and spices), as I have done with this n’duja one.

I have written about n’duja many times, I even have an n’duja pig. It’s a spicy spreadable sausage from Calabria in Italy and is so utterly addictive, that I worry what is in it. This week, I have been working on some recipes that use it as an ingredient as I want to enter a competition (you know how I love them). So it’s been an n’duja kind of week.

I had a little left over at the end of my n’duja frenzy, and fancied something brunch-like and snack-like, so I pimped my devilled egg. This is simple, spicy and meaty, and is in an egg. What’s not to love?

Eggs love chilli and spices (egg curry, huevos rancheros), pork and eggs are a dream team (bacon and eggs etc.). I kept this simple, working with the strengths of the n’duja, the spiciness and richness, adding a little red wine vinegar to cut through the richness, a little fresh oregano to lift it and a fresh juicy seasonal English tomato, to give it some fruitiness.

It’s easy, quick and a little different for a weekend brunch. I think some little quail ones would make a lovely pre dinner canapé too.

Notes on the recipe:

N’duja is widely available through Waitrose and good Italian delis.

If in a rush you can substitute a tbsp of tomato puree for the tomato, but be sure to cook it through. A fresh tomato in season is fruitier though and will give better, lighter results.

To peel the tomato, cut a cross through the skin at the bottom and pour boiling water over for 15 seconds or until you see the skin at he cross start to pull away.

I think oregano works really well here but parsley would be a decent substitute.

Recipe: Naughty But Nice N’Duja Devilled Eggs

Serves approx 4 – they are quite rich

Ingredients

6 eggs
50g n’duja sausage
1 good tomato, peeled deseeded & diced
1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano leaves
1 tsp good red wine vinegar

Method

Sauté the diced tomato gently for about 10 minutes in a little olive oil until soft.

Chop or tear the n’duja and add it to the tomato. Stir thoroughly and let it sit over a low heat.

Add the oregano and vinegar, stir and taste, adding more vinegar if necessary (that depends on your n’duja and tomato).

Boil the eggs until hard boiled (about 6 – 7 minutes from room temperature with boiling water from the kettle to start).

Cool by submerging in cold water (they will continue to cook otherwise). Peel , half, scoop out the yolk and mix with the n’duja mixture. Season to taste although you may not need any.

Put a teaspoon of the egg yolk and n’duja mixture back in each egg. Leftovers are chefs spoils.

Serve cold. Enjoy!