Filed under: Events | Tags: alea, casa mia, chef, chefs, city cafe, festival, Food, harvey nichols, james, Leeds, loves, martin
Leeds Loves Food “a food lovers festival” runs from the 2nd until the 5th July 2009, events include, live cookery demos in Millennium Square with James Martin and chefs form top Leeds Eateries Harvey Nics, Casa Mia, City Cafe & Alea. Food tastings, chocolate trail, promotional offers and giveaways at various venues.
Leeds Loves Food Festival
Details of the Leeds Loves Food Twitter Food Review Competition
“Leeds Loves Food – and we know that you do too, so why not let the world know? We’re holding a competition for the best restaurant micro-reviews. To enter, all you have to do is write your review in less than 140 characters and text it to Twitter with “#LLF” at the beginning of your text.” More details on LeedsLovesFood.
Filed under: Events, Yorkshire Dales Food | Tags: aroma, bollinger, books, champagne, chapel down, clicquot, colour, flavour, fountaine, jouet, kent, linton, palate, perrier, primrose hill, rose, tasting, tenterden, veuve
More from the Grassington Festival…
After an entertaining evening with Blowers – Henry Blofeld “My dear old thing” earlier in the week Tuesday evening brought Champagne Tasting with Joe Fattorini at the Fountaine Inn, Linton.
Joe Fattorini Champagne Tasting
With a similar format to the Beer Tasting Evening Joe Fattorini who is one of the world’s leading wine experts introduced “Champagne” and his talk included some history, methods of production, grape varieties and a few good stories, we tasted 6 Champagnes from a variety of houses.
The six Champagnes we tasted :-
The Mystery Wine and not strictly a Champagne but the English equivalent Primrose Hill from Chapel Down, Tenterden, Kent and very good it was! Colour = delicate hue of summer roses, light aroma, spritzy feel and full palate, flavours of redcurrants, creamy strawberries & a hint of rosehip. Available from Booths @ £16.99
- Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label NV, Golden colour, aromas of bread, yeast. £33.58
- Bollinger Special Cuvee NV, one of my favourites and our guides favourite Champagne house, intense & aromatic. £34.01
- Nicolas Feuillatte Rose NV, from a cooperative with an onion skin salmon pink colour, tastes of alpine stawberries and a light bodied balance, blended style. Available from Oddbins £35.99
- Perrier Jouet Blason Rose NV, more restrained but complex nose and a bit more peppery, liqorice, strawberries and redcurrants. £39.78
- Bollinger Rose NV, red cherry & raspberries, complex, this newly launched champagne was exclusive to Selfridges now available elsewhere. £41.40
What did we learn?
Some of Joe’s musings included – Champagne is traditionally grown on Limestone areas as are Sancerre and Chablis, the same Limestone geography of the Champagne region emerges under the channel in Kent giving the English the favourable possibilities of replicating Champagne growing possibilities along with climate change adding to the effect.
Champagne is made from 3 main grape varieties but a few houses use others, the main grape varieties are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier and the lesser known grapes include Pinot Blanc, Arbanne & Petit Meslier. Only one Champagne House “Moutard” use all six grape varieties in its ‘Cuvée aux 6 Cepages’.
It is said that the more expensive Champagnes have more bubbles and the older the Champagne the slower the bubbles, books have even been written just on the topic of Champagne bubbles and its true!
The magic letters of wine when tasting and describing are B L I C, that is
Balance
Length
Intensity
Complexity
Most good wines taste of 2 or 3 things, very good wine may taste of 4 or 5 things and excellent wine can taste of 10 things!
Food and Champagne matching suggestions :-
Champagne is brilliant with Lamb or even with a curry!
Joe had lots more to say and explain on the subject of Champagne and it is well worth attending one of his events or presentations, Joe recommends further reading on the subject in the following books:-
Uncorked: The Science of Champagne
The Healing Power of Champagne: History, Traditions, Biology and Diet
World Encyclopedia of Champagne and Sparkling Wine
Filed under: Events, Yorkshire Dales Food, beer | Tags: ale, appletreewick, batemans, beer, brakspear, brewery, bubblegum, craigmill, craven arms, dark horse brewery, festival, fullers, grassington, grozet, jane, peyton, tasting, Ventnor
Grassington Festival 2009 here in the Yorkshire Dales is now well under way with a varied choice of events from the arts, entertainment and even some food and drink events. Last nights event was “Beer Tasting with Jane Peyton” at the Craven Arms, Appletreewick out the back in the beautiful Cruck Barn. Jane is originally a local lass from Skipton but now living in London, Jane is an author, beer & wine tasting tutor, events producer and public speaker.
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- Jane Peyton Beer Tasting Tutor
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- Grassington Festival 2009
What did we learn?
How to taste beer of course and a little about beer ingredients and flavour, colour, aroma, taste, feel and head. We tasted and marked 6 beers and tried to guess if they originated from the North or South! the bees and results are shown below.
Jane was an excellent tutor and speaker and kept us amused throughout with gems of information and beer anecdotes, great fun and very informative.
The main ingredients of beer are water, hops, malted cereal and yeast.
Beer was the third alcoholic beverage to be invented, the simpler process of making Mead and Wine coming along first. The word Honeymoon is about beer! from the suggestion that to aid fertility you should drink Honey Beer for a month after your wedding.
The UK is the 5th biggest beer drinking nation by capita and whilst we import 99% of wine we produce 92% of our own beer!
Food and beer matching suggestions :-
Traditional Porter and Oyster or chocolate e.g. Fullers London Porter and chocolate, really brings out the flavour in good quality chocolate.
Smoked beer and bbq food, Chinese black bean sauce dishes and smoked food in general.
Fruity beer and cheese e.g. Brakspear Triple and Blue Wensleydale.
The six beers we tasted :-
- Hetton Pale Ale, Dark Horse Brewery, Hetton, Yorkshire Dales, ABV 4.4%
- Sand Rock from Ventnor in the Isle of Wight, a smoked ale, ABV 5.6%
- Combine Harvest, Batemans, Lincolnshire, a multigrained beer of malted oats, malted rye, and malted wheat, ABV 4.7%
- Grozet, Craigmill brewery, a fruity gooseberry ale with a hint of honey, Scotland, ABV 5.0%
- Triple, Brakspear, Oxfordshire, ABV 7.2% a triple fermented, triple hopped strong beer with a hint of Fruity Bubblegum, HubbaBubba maybe!
- London Porter, Fullers, Smooth, rich, and strong, ABV 5.4%
and the scores on the doors, not everyone appreciated the smoked beer therefore coming in at 6th place, some very close scoring put many of the beers on a par but the winner was the Brakspear Triple with that hint of bubblegum! looking forward to next years event already and I do have the Grassington Festival Champagne tasting still to look forward to and I won a prize – dinner for 2 at the Craven Arms so I will be back again soon!
Filed under: Food, Yorkshire Dales Food, butcher | Tags: butcher, drake, gravy, kidney, macefield, pie, pork, pudding, settle, skipton, Steak, steam
Drake & Macefield Butchers in Skipton & Settle produce my favourite Sausage Roll, they are very popular and always run out when I arrive so tried the pork pie and I spotted one last lonely Steak & Kidney pudding, had to try that as well and they were both excellent. You must try the Steak Pudding, full of steak and some nice chunks of kidney, enrobed in a rich meaty gravy and a light herb suet crust, steam over a pan of water for 20 minutes and make some rich gravy to go with it, fantastic!
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- Drake & Macefield Pork Pie
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- Drake & Macefield Steak & Kidney Pudding
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- Drake & Macefield Steak & Kidney Pudding
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- Steak Pudding Dinner
Filed under: Recipes, Yorkshire Dales Food | Tags: asparagus, bacon, black pudding, drycured, homecured, leeks, pork loin, stuffed
After the Take 3 chefs event at Settle thought I had to try the recipe demonstrated by Richard Wallbank from Ravenous, I’m not sure my attempt looked as good but it was very very tasty!
Trimmed pork loin stuffed with black pudding and wrapped in bacon, cling film and roll and refrigerate for a couple of hours before roasting. Cut the pork on an angle to give larger slices.
I served with fried potatoes, griddled asparagus and leeks in a white sauce.
Richards original recipe was :-
Black N Blue Pig (serves 2)
- 1 lge pork tenderloin
- 2 rashers of streaky bacon or shoulder bacon
- 1 slice black pudding
all the above are Blue pig company products
- Trim the tenderloin of any fat and push a long blade knife into the fat end of the meat making a caviyt along the fillet
- Break the black pud up into small pieces and push into the fillet until it is full
- Wrap the tenderloin with the bacon and place on a baking tray.
- cook at gas mark 7 for about 20 mins
- slice diagonally into 1/2 inch slices
- serve with mustard sauce or a red wine gravy or apple sauce or anything you like really
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- Pork Loin stuffed with Black Pudding and coated in bacon with asparagus and leeks
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- English Asparagus
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- Pork loin stuffed with black pudding and wrapped with bacon in cling film ready for the fridge
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- Cooked stuffed pork loin
Filed under: Events, Recipes, Yorkshire Dales Food | Tags: 3, chefs, falcon, festival, haddock, Lamb, leeks, manor, micro herbs, mushroom, pear, pikelets, ravenous, risotto, salad, sea bream, settle, smoked, take, three, traddock, walnut, warm
Take 3 Chefs made a return visit to Settle Victoria Hall on Wednesday the 13th of May, organised by Settle Festival a full house were treated to a variety of menus from 3 local chefs -
- Richard Wallbank from Ravenous, Market Square, Settle – Black ‘n’ Blue Pig & Mushroom risotto
- John Pratt from The Traddock, Austwick – Yorkshire Pikelets with creamy Smoked Haddock, leeks & soft poached egg and stuffed breast of Swillington Duck with a warm salad of pear, walnut and perry dressing garnished with capers, balsamic syrup, croutons and a whole poached pear
- Ben Atkinson from The Falcon Manor, Settle – Sea Bream with vine cherry tomatoes and Lamb with Summer Salad
All three chefs were brilliant performers in front of the crowd and produced some fantastic dishes.
On display in the interval were local suppliers Growing with Grace, Paganum Produce, Booths and NYCC reduce waste display.
I could not resist giving this one a go myself so have recreated Richard Wallbank’s Black ‘n’ Blue Pig dish see Black N Blue blog post. Link to all the recipes and more photos here LoveSettle
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- Swillington Stuffed Duck – John Pratt – Traddock
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- Black ‘n’ Blue Pig – Richard Wallbank – Ravenous
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- Yorkshire Pikelets with Creamy Smoked Haddock – John Pratt – Traddock
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- Lamb Summer Salad – Ben Atkinson – The Falcon Manor
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- Mushroom Risotto – Richard Wallbank – Ravenous, Settle
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- Sea Bream with vine cherry tomatoes – Ben Atkinson – The Falcon Manor
Visited the 3rd Annual Skipton Beer Festival on Friday 24th April 2009 and it was big and very busy.
60 cask ales were stacked in the beer hall including several mild’s and a full selection of hand pulled Timothy Taylor’s and Copper Dragon ale’s accompanied by bottled continental lagers and a big selection of cider & perry.
My favourites on the night included :-
- “Dave” 3.8%abv Bitter, a dark, smooth velvety bitter from the Great Heck Brewing Co
- Yorkshire Penny 4.5%abv, classic dry stout from Yorkshire Dales Brewing, Askrigg
- and as these were all gravity pulled a couple of creamy beer engine pulled Copper Dragons and Timmie Taylors.
A very well organised event by Craven branch of Camra and the local breweries, well worth a visit next year.
I love asparagus but the all too short asparagus season in the UK only runs from Mid April to Mid June so make the most of it!
English Asparagus
Asparagus Tips!
- Buy & eat as fresh as possible for the best taste
- You only need to cut off the woody end (many recipes state cut of the ends of the asparagus and I have known people discard the tips! which is the best bit). The best way to know where to cut or break the asparagus is to hold the asparagus with 2 fingers in the middle of the spear and 2 fingers on the woody end and bend, the woody end should just break off perfectly
- Save these woody ends in a plastic bag in the freezer and by the end of the season you should have a decent pile to make soup from (recipe to follow on this blog)
- Asparagus is a perennial plant and is not too difficult to grow in your garden or allotment, why not start your own Asparagus bed. Best to plant your Asparagus crowns in a prepared trench in March/April and only lightly harvest in the first year, then for many years (up to 20) you should have a good crop of homegrown fresh asparagus
- Don’t overcook, boiled for 10 minutes should be more than enough, either in a frying pan of water with the spears laid flat or tie them into a bundle with garden or butchers string and boil standing upright in a pan then the thicker stems boil whilst the tips just steam!
- Asparagus is best served warm rather than hot, wrap in a tea towel when removed from the pan and it will dry and keep warm for 20 minutes.
Filed under: Eating, Food, Yorkshire Dales Food | Tags: amuse-bouche, Angel, black pudding, breast, chicken, cornfed, crab, dinner, foie gras, hetton, inn, North Yorkshire, pig, ravioli, restaurant, scallops, skipton, suckling, whitby
Surprise dinner for the birthday girl last night at The Angel Inn, Hetton, Nr Skipton, Yorkshire Dales.
The last few times we have been to the Angel have been for bar meals and the service has been disappointing but we tried the restaurant and A LA CARTE menu last night and all was forgiven, back to the usual quality service and excellent food.
We arrived on time (unusually for us!) and we were immediately shown to our table, 2 glasses of the Wine Cave Rose Champagne Cuvee Brut Bernard Remy ordered and arrived quickly while we perused the menu.
The Food:-
Selection of fresh warm bread rolls including walnut and Parmesan in brown or white.
To start I went for the WHITBY CRAB RAVIOLI with fennel and ginger cream and the better half had the old Angel favourite of ANGELS BLACKPUDDING with seared foie gras, artichoke veloute, grape and walnut salad both dishes were fantastic and my crab ravioli was particularly good!
An amuse-bouche of Cheese with an onion marmalade was served between courses, I didn’t quite catch exactly what the waiter said it was but I know it was tasty!
The main courses, CORNFED CHICKEN BREAST with spring asparagus, peas and beans, truffled pomme puree served with Albufera sauce. SEARED LOCH FYNE KING SCALLOPS WITH CRISPY YORKSHIRE SUCKLING PIG with apple and cauliflower, pomme puree and a red wine reduction. Both very well put together dishes with excellent taste combination’s and they looked fantastic.
The Beer:-
did you really think I wasn’t going to try the beer! Dark Horse Brewery, Hetton Ale was on hand pull and as it’s brewed all of 500 yds down the road from the Angel thought it rude not to try it! The sprinkler had been taken off to wash but the friendly bar staff were more than happy to oblige, replace and pour a pint, again an excellent creamy and very local pint!
No room for pudding so just had the coffee and sweet things which included a mini doughnut and soft vanilla fudge, a very enjoyable evening and I would heartily recommend The Angel, great service and top food.
Dinner is served Monday to Friday 6pm to 9pm and to 9.30pm on Saturday, The Angel Inn Website
The Angel Inn, Hetton, Restaurant
