Sarah’s Relish Review
There must be hundreds of artisan chutney and relish producers across the UK, every county must have these great producers, who you will find come wind, rain and snow on farmers markets all over the country. If you have ever made a chutney or relish at home you will know how much hard work and time goes into making just a few jars, now imagine making them on a bigger scale, it is not easy. So I take my hat off and applaud every one of the artisan chutney, relish, jam etc. producers across the UK, keep up the great work.
One of these great producers is Sarah Stanton owner of Sarah’s Relish, who lovingly produces great relishes from her home in Sennen (near Lands End), with her kitchen looking out over the ocean, and with chillies and garlic grown by Sarah, and apples grown by Sarah’s partner in his ancient orchard in the Teign valley near Dart moor which has had no chemicals on it for the last 20 years. Other ingredients used are Fairtrade, and also locally sourced where possible. For me before I have even tasted these relishes, I know that they are going to taste great with such good ingredients.
I was sent the following relishes to try:
- Sarah’s Cider Apple Relish; this had a lovely texture, with lovely pieces of apple and plenty of sultanas. This worked well with a good slice of cheese and crackers, but my favourite way of eating this was with a lovely joint of pork and crackling…..delicious.
- Sarah’s Mild Chilli Relish; the very first thing that I tasted was ginger, which I am not a great lover of, and then there was a lovely mild chilli kick and then the sweetness of the raisins, and finally the great taste of vinegar, the flavours all worked very well. This relish was lovely at a recent winter bbq that we had, smothered on hot dogs and burgers, but also works well with a nice chunk of cheese.
- Sarah’s Hot Chilli Relish; now we are talking, as far as I am concerned the hotter the better suits me as long as I can still taste the other ingredients, which are the same as above but with an extra chilli kick, and boy do you notice it. There is not as much Ginger in this relish which works for me, just at the end of this the chilli kicks in and it is great. This I have been stirring into chilli con carne and lovely chicken madras I made last week. This also received Silver at the Taste of the West festival.
- Sarah’s Mumbai Banana Relish; I have saved the best till last…..I really did not know what to expect, and I will be honest I was not looking forward to this relish, surely banana would not work in a savoury relish, but boy was I wrong this tastes amazing. The first taste was the vinegar and then the sweet banana, with onions and peppers followed by a very mild curry spice, wow what a taste sensation. I just wanted to eat this with poppadum’s or cheese wafers, if there are any Indian restaurants that want to add something a little different to their chutney range then this would work very well.
Another great detail with these relishes is that each label is hand coloured with a pencil, what a great idea and it really works well.
You can purchase these great relishes online from www.cornishfoodmarket.co.uk or throughout the West Country from the tip of Lands End to the River Cottage Canteen in Axminster. So please go out and get some of these relishes and let us know what you think, and finally Sarah keep up the great work, and when we are next down in Cornwall I will pop in and say hello
Link: http://bookhams.com/
If you read our earlier post here with a special discount code, you will already know about the great products that you can purchase from Bookhams Fine Foods.
I have been sampling these products now for a few weeks, and here are my thoughts on them:
Formerly Known as Twineham Grange Vegetarian Parmesan and currently 'Not Just a Pasta Cheese'
RECOMMENDED BY DELIA SMITH IN HER LATEST COOKERY BOOK 'Happy Christmas'
This Medium Fat Hard Cheese, is made from unpasteurised milk, but unlike Italian Parmesan, is suitable for Vegetarians. We use a Vegetarian Rennet to coagulate the milk; Italian Parmesan is made using an animal rennet. The milk is higher in Protein and Butterfat, resulting in a cheese that is sweeter and more palatable than one would expect. When it is first opened, shave it with a potato peeler or Parmesan shaver and eat with an apple or pear, lovely with a glass of wine. A great source of zinc, calcium and protein and stores for five months from opening. So don't just grate it over your pasta, proudly display it on your cheeseboard!
This cheese does not have to be opened for at least 2 months and then will last 5 months from date of opening. Once opened, wrap in greaseproof paper, place in an airtight container in the fridge.
It can also be frozen! Fed up throwing away mouldy cheese? Simply place this in the freezer, take it out when needed, grate whilst frozen and then put it back in the freezer.
This was the first time that I had tried Vegetarian Pasta Cheese, and it did not let me down, it may not be as hard as Parmesan, but grates well. I used this last week to make some pesto using wild garlic and it was lovely, so please try it out……you will not be disappointed.
Gold Award winner at Great Taste Awards for 5 years in a row.
The cream is stored for three days before traditionally churning it into butter, the butter is then washed with ice cold water before being extruded and then it is packed by hand. Previously, you could only find our butter in such places as the QE2. Now you can get this award-winning butter, freshly churned and slightly salted, in a handy 200g hand packed roll. A real hit with our Farmers’ Markets clientele. South Downs Butter is also available unsalted and in 2kg tubs.
South Downs Butter can be frozen and has a fresh shelf life of 3 to 6 weeks - ideal for use at home and within the retail trade. Endorsed by many quality local producers.
In today’s healthy society, how many people eat proper butter, I know in our house we don’t, we go for the so called “Healthier” spread. When I was sent this butter I must admit I was really excited, sounds silly I know but how I missed butter. There was only way to do this butter justice, and that was spread over freshly baked bread, that was still warm so the butter just melted into the lush bread……wow childhood memories came flooding back of tea and toast, butter is now back on the shopping list in our house.
Claire Bookham spent seven years in Italy and was disappointed by the lack of fresh, quality pasta products in the UK. This prompted us to create a range of pasta, which is able to compete with the very best of “Made in Italy”. In order to offer our customers more convenience, we have moved away from fresh pasta to concentrate on creating a range of quality dried pasta. Committed as we are to supporting British Agriculture, we source our durum wheat from Norfolk, where it is both grown and milled. Unlike other processed flours, durum wheat flour retains more of the whole wheat. This helps the pasta to maintain its consistency AND flavour during the cooking process, unlike cheaper pastas that create starchy foam as they cook, becoming insipid and rubbery. Furthermore, the use of a coarse bronze dye gives our pasta a roughness that helps the sauce grip the pasta. The result, we are sure you will agree, is a pasta so full of flavour that you will be hard pushed to tell it from its fresh counterpart. We also dry the pasta slowly, most pasta is fast dried which means it forms an outer skin, from which the sauce will slide off. Our pasta is able to absorb the sauce, combine this with the convenience of a long shelf-life and a short cooking time, as well as a total absence of eggs and you have a product you’ll wonder how you ever managed without!
The convenience of dried pasta, but with the taste of fresh. Made with 100% UK milled durum wheat and extruded through bronze dies. Our dried pasta does not contain any eggs and therefore suitable for vegans. It is so easy to cook and served with one of our award winning pasta sauce makes a great meal from the store cupboard in under 10 minutes. One bag will serve two and has a shelf life of at least 3 months and does not have to go in the fridge. We used our dried pasta in our Sussex Charmer Macaroni Cheese which won Gold at the Great Taste Awards 2010.
I have to admit that this pasta is right up there with some of the best Italian dried pastas that I have tasted, it is lovely and combined with the Bookhams pasta sauces and cheese you instantly have a fantastic, healthy and tasty tea time treat.
Pasta Sauce: Truly Tomato Sauce:
Made by hand, slowly, with no added sugar
our no-nonsense pasta sauces are made by hand, using simple, natural ingredients and absolutely no dodgy stuff like artificial flavourings or preservatives. We cook them nice and slowly, gradually infusing the tastiest and juiciest tomatoes known to man with a delicate blend of olive oil, onions, basil and oregano. But that’s not all. The secret of our sauces (and we may now have to kill you) lies also partly in the fact that we don’t add any sugar, relying instead on pureed carrots for that extra bit of sweetness.
OUR SAUCES ARE SUITABLE FOR DIABETICS, CELIACS, VEGANS AND VEGETARIANS. THE SALT CONTENT OF OUR SAUCES IS LESS THAN 1%
This is our basic sauce, containing only natural ingredients and no added Sugar; we prefer to use puréed carrots as a natural sweetener. This sauce has no spice but a good tang. Full of the flavour of quality Tomatoes, infused with Onions, oregano, basil, puréed carrots for natural sweetness. You won't find and artificial bits in here just natural ingredients. Real Food for Real People.
Now take a look in your cupboards and I am sure that you will all have a shop brought Tomato based sauce, now look at how many ingredients are in the sauce, there will be emulsifiers, additives, food colourings and god knows what else, compare that to a Bookhams Pasta Sauce and there is just the minimum of ingredients needed, and boy can you taste the difference. Use this basic sauce in anything from Spag Bol, Chilli, Shepherd’s Pie, Stews oh and the list goes on….and on
Awarded Best New Dairy Product for 2008 at the prestigious Nantwich International Cheese Awards.
We've married the production methods of a traditional farmhouse cheese with that of Parmesan and invented a new cheese. This cheese is a result of a joint venture between Bookham Fine Foods and R.Harrison & Sons; we exclusively use milk from the cows at Pallinghurst Farm, Rudgwick, West Sussex. They are a mixed breed herd and are grass fed, this results in very high quality milk, which is ideally suited to producing a creamy and full bodied cheese.
Sussex Charmer has a creamy mature Cheddar taste followed by a zing of Parmesan. It is great with apples and pears; its long taste profile works well with pickles and is great for use in your cooking. When grating over pasta it adds a great creamy taste. Charmer on toast is simply divine!
And what a great product to finish our review, a great cheesy taste sensation that is perfect grated on pasta, on crackers or back to basics with a great cheese sarnie on thickly cut fresh bread, and using proper butter…..now that’s proper tasty food.
Please try out these products; you really can taste the difference in flavour.
Visit the Bookhams Fine Foods website HERE, follow on Twitter, and please like the Facebook Page.
A healthier, slimmer you in 2012 with Easy Bean
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A healthier, slimmer you in 2012 with Easy Bean - the original and tastiest one-pot meals
Feeling time poor after a busy Christmas? Wanting to shed a few pounds after the festive excesses but still eat healthily? A tasty solution to your problems is the Easy Bean range of one-pot meals, approved by Slimming World and Weightwatchers.
Easy Bean’s pots are wholesome and delicious. They are a healthy addition to any diet as they are naturally low in fat and salt and high in fibre. Packed full of pulses and chunky veg, each 320g pot provides 2 to 3 of your 5-a-day.
The one-pot meals are based on authentic recipes from around the world and are dairy and gluten free. Cooked in small batches in the Easy Bean Somerset kitchen without the use of starch thickeners they taste as good as homemade.
As well as being ethically sourced and hand prepared, the meal pots are multi-award winning and completely natural. They can be bought at selected Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Booths and independent stores and on-line from Sainsbury’s, Ocado and naturalgrocery.co.uk
The Moroccan Tagine pot contains 211 kcal and 8g of fat per 320g and is a delicious mix of chickpeas, aubergine and butternut squash infused with aromatic spices. New Mexican Chilli – Fairtrade red beans with sweet pepper in a richly spiced tomato and jalapeno chilli sauce - contains 214 kcal and 5.8g of fat per 320g. These are nutritious and filling lunches which will help keep New Year’s resolutions on track. They taste delicious on their own or can be combined with healthy salads or rice to make a substantial evening meal. Or as Easy Bean promises ‘Lunch on the go or supper in a mo’.
Easy Bean was established in 2007 by Christina Baskerville , the daughter of a Warwickshire farmer who has worked in Zambia , the Sudan , Belize and Bolivia , helping to improve farming in those countries.
Christina and her team of five prepare Easy Bean pots at a converted dairy farm near Castle Cary, Somerset, and the range is inspired by her work in different countries
The Easy Bean range of dishes:
- New Mexican Chilli, Our inspiration comes from the state of New Mexico. We use a classic combination of Fairtrade red beans with sweet peppers and tomatoes, spiked with jalapeño chilli. Known to aficionados in that part of the world as "Bowl o’ Red". I really enjoyed this chilli dish, it has just the right amount of chilli heat. I enjoyed this with a couple of jacket potatoes and would be great with boiled rice as well.
- Moroccan Tagine, A staple dish of North Africa and named after the vessel in which it is traditionally cooked, our tagine is a hotpot of slow-cooked chickpeas, Mediterranean vegetables (aubergine, courgette, butternut squash), apricots and aromatic spices – very Moorish! I had this at work one lunchtime with some couscous and pitta bread, very very nice.
- Indian Sambar, Sambar is a well known vegetable Dhal curry from South India. It is served as an everyday dish as well as the first part at any feast. Traditionally it is eaten as the accompaniment to dosas – a pancake like preparation made from rice and dhal flour. The chunks of vegetables cooked in a dhal sauce and seasoned with South Indian spices, makes the perfect comfort food. We had this one night with some other indian dishes, and was very well recieved, the spices were just right and not to overpowering.
- French Cuisinées, The full title should be French Lentilles Cuisinées, as cuisinées simply means cooked, but we like simple! This provincial classic is a popular choice in France and is typically served as a vegetable through the winter. We have given the recipe an authentic twist by adding sweet chestnuts. High in starch but low in fat, the chestnut makes a good substitute for potatoes and from its early origins in Mediterranean countries, it is used in stews, soups, and as flour to make delicious bread and pasta. This was lovely with some creamy mashed potato, and a couple of rare breed sausages.......very very tasty.
- Spanish Puchero, A puchero is a hearty, sustaining hotpot eaten across Spain and South America, and named after the bulbous earthenware pot in which it is traditionally cooked. The aptly named butter bean has a rich, almost buttery flavour, complimented here by spicy chorizo sausage and an oak smoked paprika from the Extremadura region of Spain. I actually turned this into some little pasties, filling some circles of pastry with this puchero and then shaping into a pasty shape and baking in the oven, very nice.
- African Palava, This delicious West African hotpot is a colourful profusion of fairtrade brown beans, free range chicken, peanuts, sweet potatoes and spinach; so perhaps that’s why it’s called "Palava" which means to talk profusely in that part of the world! Anyway, this combination of superfoods is sure to keep you energised all day long. This dish is that good it does not need anything to go with it, maybe a few flatbreads but thats it.
In her four years of running Easy Bean, Christina has gained six Gold Great Taste Awards – for English Potager, French Cuisinées (twice), Spanish Puchero and African Palava (twice). Her products have been described by Food Magazine as ‘As close to home-cooked as you’ll get in a tub’.
Please visit the Easy Bean Website , and also follow on Twitter and check out the Easy Bean Facebook Page.
Our day out watching the Cobblers at Sixfields
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Am I a footie fan or not, that is the question I have been pondering before writing this post. You see I am to a certain extent, but then I’m not, very strange and harder to explain than the offside rule.
When I was very young and just started school, you always got asked “what footie team do you support”, well I just chose Arsenal because my friend supported them, no other reason, it could have quite easily have been any other club in England, but I have stuck with supporting them all my life, and well I suppose you have to support your local footie club, which in my case is “The Cobblers”.
Now I enjoy watching a good game of footie, but will not go out of my way to watch it if it’s on TV, if England are playing in any of the tournaments I like to watch that, other than that whenever I buy a Sunday paper the first thing I do is go straight to the footie results to see how Arsenal and The Cobblers got on. But what’s all this got to do with my foodie blog, well…………………….
I am a member of the 4N Networking group, and we have our meetings up at Sixfields, which is home to the Cobblers, and I was chatting to Andy Wooldridge, the Sixfields Commercial Manager one week, who consequently invited us up to a game and try out there corporate package. Now I must admit that we were really looking forward to the game and experiencing the package, and wondering what kind of response I would get from Bev, who like me is not the biggest footie fan in the world.
So we arrived at Sixfields on December 10th, to watch the game against Crewe Alexandra and on arrival were pointed to our parking space just at the side of the stadium, once parked up we made our way to the Reception where we were greeted by Andy and introduced to some of the staff who then showed us to our seats in the restaurant area. Straight away I cannot express how polite, friendly and helpful all the staff were, we were very impressed.
Once seated our host explained to us what we could expect, with a Stadium Tour, 3 course meal, entertainment, half time refreshments, great stadium seating, and the opportunity to view all the post-match presentations including Man of the Match. We ordered our drinks and then were taken on the Stadium tour, before returning for some entertainment in the form of some competitions.
And so to our meal, which was a Christmas Dinner, to start I had Homemade Vegetable Soup with Crusty Bread, while Bev had Chicken Tikka Strips, the soup was lovely, full of flavor and well-seasoned while Bevs dish tasted very nice from what I tasted.
Onto the mains and we both opted for Roast Beef with Yorkshire Puds and Veg, and again the meal was faultless, for dessert I had the cheese board while Bev had the Chocolate & Raspberry Tart, which I was not given any to try but was assured in Bev's words was "Lush".
Now the food and service was fantastic, I really was looking for faults but I could not find any, don’t get me wrong the food is never going to win any Michelin stars, but it was lovely and the service was excellent, in fact the service was better than what I have received in some top establishments.
Once the meal was over, we had some more entertainment before going to watch the match, we had fantastic seats, right on the halfway line and sitting with some of the Directors, and with some of the press behind us it was really quite funny listening to the live commentary whilst watching the game. Because this was Aidy Boothroyd's first home game in charge of the Cobbler’s the atmosphere was really upbeat. Once the game had started it did not take long for Bev to start getting into the game and before long she was yelling obscenities at the referee and linesman. I think that even if you are not real/proper footie fans like us, you really can’t help but get caught up in all the excitement of watching a good game of football, whether it is watching your kids play, to Sunday league right up to watching the world’s greatest teams play, they all walk out onto the pitch wanting to win.
Once half time arrived, we didn’t have to queue for refreshments as we went back to the restaurant area for plenty of tea and coffee and some very nice mince pies, and then back to the second half. After a very exciting game, the match ended 1-1 so not the best result, but better than coming away with nothing.
On returning to the restaurant after the match, there was even more entertainment with some more competitions, and then the awarding of the Man of the Match, which Bev enjoyed!!!
So to conclude whether you enjoy football or not, going to a corporate event at Sixfields is well worth trying, the food was great, the service and staff were amazing and the whole experience was really good. We will go again before the end of the season and will take some friends with us this time.
For more details on Corporate Packages please contact the Commercial Department on 01604 683734 or email commercial.admin@ntfc.tv
All images are copyright and courtesy of Pete Norton
The Dosa Hut Restaurant Review (Northampton)
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The Dosa Hut Review (Northampton)
Last week we visited the Dosa Hut which specialises in Sri Lankan and Indian cuisine in Northampton, as we thought we would try somewhere different instead of opting for our regular Indian restaurant.
On arrival we were greeted by the manager and shown to our table, the restaurant was not very busy at that point, and there were a couple of Indian people having a meal there, which I took as a good sign. The restaurant was very clean and décor was very tasteful, with a type of Thai/ Sri Lankan feel to the surroundings.
We ordered our drinks and ordered our starters and mains, with a couple of poppadum’s and chutneys to nibble on while we waited for starters……..and wait we did, just under an hour for our starters to arrive (the reason for this explained later). I had the Devil Mutton which was a lovely and very hot dish of mutton cooked with onions, spices and green chillies and was very tasty, while Bev opted for the Cochin King Prawn Fry, which is a battered prawn dish with spices created in a little fishing village called Cochin, we thought that although the dish tasted nice it was quite greasy.
And so the mains which we tucked into after being in the restaurant now for 1 ½ hours now, I was going to go for a Dosa which is a paper thin pan cake made of rice and black gram in south Indian style served with vada, sambar and chutney, but instead I decided to play safe and opted for a chicken madras, while Bev decided to play safe and had a Chicken Korma, we also had some Mushroom Rice and a portion of Coconut Rice. The food was presented well, and tasted ok, although I would have liked my Madras a bit spicier as it was too mild for my taste and Bevs, Korma tasted like it was made with caramel instead of coconut milk and was not to her liking. I think the problem was that we were comparing the food to what we are used to in your every day run of the mill balti hut, and remember that the Dosa Huts cuisine has a Sri Lankan vibe to the food so different spices and flavourings are used.
And so to the wait, well I mentioned the waiting time to the manager, and the poor chap had 2 people off sick, 1 chef and 1 front of house, so he was doing all the front of house, bar work and waiting himself, while there was only 1 chef trying to deal with the ever filling restaurant. Some of the other guests were now getting rather restless, and personally I feel that if the manager had mentioned to everyone that there was a long wait, instead of being kept in the dark, people would have been a touch more understanding.
So please pop into The Dosa Hut and let us know your thoughts, as I hope that my experience was a one off.
(I apologise for the quality of the pictures)
Review courtesy of Northampton Life
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