Salvaged Fallen Mirabelle

I salvaged a basket of fallen Mirabelle yesterday at the side of a quiet country lane. As I arrived home I set to on the computer and totted up the numbers. I realised that there are still 96 more recipes to write up and 50 more to photograph. So there is still a long way to go. The deadline is December.

I am excited today, because I am going to Rococo in Weedon Northamptonshire, where Stephanie and her husband (I have yet to meet him) have a salvage yard. I’d like to have some pictures of one of the salad recipes on white washed aged floor boards. I know exactly what I want the photo to look like. I, or rather Bunny and I, will need to chop and saw and drill to get a small working floorboard prop for my mocked up studio in the lounge. I am however wondering how I am to get a reclaimed floor board back home in my car. There is a comedy moment looming. What treasure I will find .. and what fun.

In the mean time - I am about to cook a Mirabelle pie, as a thank you to Stephanie for allowing me to use her yard as a shoot location. These Mirabelle, rescued from the roadside,are so beautiful, bright, plump and shiny.. it almost..almost a shame to cook them.

Whoopie .. pies and Vanilla

Chocolate and Vanilla in any combination is terrific, but when it is combined in a biscuity cake sandwiching soft folds of whipped vanilla cream it is heavenly. Any good quality vanilla paste would do for this Whoopie Pie recipe; however, I do have a preference for Ndali vanilla, which my sister introduced me to several years ago. It is a little more expensive than other vanilla, but not much .. and to be truthful ,any really great cook will tell you that half the taste experience is in the quality of the ingredients, so the little bit extra is well worth it. Given a choice I prefer fair-trade and organic products, but I am also realistic in that some ingredients are not always available or affordable. With one of the chapters in the book dedicated to vanilla I wanted to get the very best from the flavour so I contacted Lulu, the owner of the Ndali Vanilla estate in Africa to see if she would help me out. I was absolutely delighted when she agreed. Originally from nearby Oxford she has an amazing story to tell, inheriting the vanilla plantation out of the blue about seven years ago. Whichever vanilla you buy it’s worth checking out her site.
As a box of darkest, sweetest delicious vanilla pods arrived straight from Uganda, arrived it was just in time to play with the taste combinations for the latest must have Whoopie Pie phenomenon from America. Originating from the Amish people in Pennsylvania, women made these chocolate mounds with butter icing sandwiched between them from their husbands. The husbands would be so pleased to find it in their lunch box they would shout whoopie .. which was exactly what I shouted as I was opening the beautiful box packed with Ndali vanilla pods. Whoopie!

Chocolate and Vanilla Whoopie Pie Recipe

Ingredients


120g of butter
200g of vanilla sugar or caster sugar & 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

2 medium eggs
280grams of SR flour 4 large heaped tbsp of cocoa powder
Pinch of salt
250ml of buttermilk

Filling
1 Level teaspoon of vanilla paste
3 tablespoons of icing sugar
300 ml of double cream

Method

Preheat heat the oven to Gas 4/350 F/ 180C
Grease two baking trays.
In a bowl combine the dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl beat the sugar and butter until pale and fluffy and then add the eggs. Add the dry ingredients and the Buttermilk and combine the ingredients. You should be left with a relatively stiff mixture ready to spoon onto the baking tray in round bite size blobs. To get 16 pies you will need 32 of these.
Bake in the oven for 10 – 12 minutes. They are a cross between a biscuit and a sponge, however there is a fine line between biscuit and burnt because of the high sugar content, so don’t leave them in too long. I found a much better bite to them if I left them in the oven to cool, but if you haven’t time transfer cool on a wire rack.
Add in the teaspoon of vanilla paste and icing sugar to the cream and whip. Make sure the cream is a nice thick consistency before sandwiching a dollop between the chocolate cakes. There you have a taste of America - 16 chocolate and vanilla Whoopie Pies.

I've been caught on Video judging Curry Chef of the Year!

Judging the Curry Chef of the Year .. .Heaven !

Several months ago I got a phone call from Anna Murby from Rachel Mallows asking if I should like to be one of the judges at the Northamptonshire Food and Drink Curry Chef of the a Year Award. These awards have been devised by Northamptonshire Enterprise Ltd and are aimed at celebrating all that is great about Northamptonshire’s produce and drink.

Now whereas most young people choose their universities based on academic performance, and the syllabus, I chose to go to University in Leicester because it is one of the best curry capitals in England. I am the original curry monster, so this was my idea of heaven. I accepted the invitation before Anna had finished her sentence.

This morning four curry chefs from across Northamptonshire, who had been selected from the many entrants, were invited to cook a curry meal for two people with a main course, a vegetarian dish, an accompaniment, and one complementary dessert. There was no restriction on the type of curry so I was anticipating a wide selection.

I was particularly excited to be seeing one of the other judges Richard Curtis, my lecturer from many years ago as the venue for the Curry cook off was my training ground Northampton College. The first week I spent at catering college was spent in the same room the competition was being held in. I had memories of the hours and hours I considered a waste of time, as I had stood in the kitchen chopping vegetables into matchstick size batons. Now I know and appreciate the relatively average knife skills I now have, when I watch other people using a knife. His standards were legend even then.

Even as I arrived the atmosphere was electric. With a Northamptonshire Television camera Crew and the other judges arriving, the contestants were already standing by their stations arranging pots of fresh herbs and exotic spices.

Initially all four contestants looked a little nervous. It was understandable, after all what could be more nerve wracking that having someone with a clip board and a set of criteria to judge your cooking on? After just a few minutes nerves seemed to dissipate as they set to. Within a short time the air was filled with layers of spice, fenugreek, cardamom, cumin, pepper, saffron chilli, all overlaid with sizzling onion and roasting meat. The rooms hummed along, with the judges examining, the camera crew filming and the chefs creating their master pieces. We were looking at range of things, not just the taste, including hygiene, skills, presentation, innovation and organisation.

By the time the clock stopped all the chefs had completed the task. The food was brought into a private room to be tasted. There was not a dish there that I wouldn’t have been delighted to have eaten out in a restarant. The spice blends were wonderful, the presentation was stunning and the various textures were delightful. There was a good mix of Indian, Bengal, Nepalese and Vietnamese curries. I had been initially worried that despite my many years of eating curries, I would find it difficult to differentiate the various flavours, especially when being presented with so much choice. Not so. The dished were all so individual there was no problem in discerning between them at all. I felt very privileged to be judging alongside a delightful chap, Ian Kellan, from British Pepper and Spice and as we compared notes we seemed to have exactly the same taste.

In the end someone has to win. It was really one of the most honestly judged events. I could not image how it could be any fairer. We were all given the opportunity to give our scores and it was totally impartial. The results stay secret until the announcement at the awards dinner in October, but I can tell you now that the winner was ......

Isn’t suspense delicious?