Filed under: Events, Recipes, Yorkshire Dales Food | Tags: Lamb, mushroom, salad, settle, risotto, haddock, smoked, festival, take, chefs, 3, three, traddock, ravenous, falcon, manor, sea bream, pikelets, leeks, micro herbs, warm, walnut, pear
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.
