BBC Radio 4 Food Progamme Recipes

On a lovely warm, sunny day in April, we welcomed Sheila Dillon and Dilly Barlow to my mother's house to record part of a special programme they recorded on Vinegars. We were also joined by Seafood Chef of the Year 2009, Rob Green.

Rob Green, Sheila Dillon, Rupert Parsons

On a break from his excellent restaurant, Green's of Whitby, Rob cooked the most amazing dishes to tempt us all and here they are, in full for you now:

Oysters with red onion and
Womersley Golden Raspberry & Apache Chilli Dressing
Ingredients
1 small red onion
4 oysters
50ml Golden raspberry and Apache chilli vinegar

Method
Finely dice the red onion and marinade in the vinegar for at least 1 hour
Open oysters and spoon over the dressing and onions

Smoked salmon with fresh herb salad and
Womersley Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender dressing
Ingredients
Use a quality smoked salmon for this dish.
Mixed garden herbs (chives, parsley, thyme) dressed with a little virgin oil
Lime, black pepper and lavender vinegar to taste

 

Method

Slice the smoked salmon thinly, sprinkle over the herbs and drizzle over the dressing. Leave to stand at room temperature for around half an hour. 

The action of the Lime dressing on the smoked salmon makes it really succulent and brings out a fabulous flavour in the salmon.

Hot smoked Whitby Seafish salmon with English asparagus and Hollandaise made with
Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper Dressing

Serves 2 as a starter

Had to snap this fast, it was eaten in seconds!

Ingredients
1x 250g fillet of hot smoked salmon
8 English asparagus spears, washed and trimmed

For the hollandaise

250g melted unsalted butter
2x egg yolks
75 ml Womersley Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper dressing

 

Method
Place the salmon fillet in a pre-heated oven (180°C)
The salmon is already cooked, so we are just gently warming it through.
Place the Asparagus in a pan of boiling salted water and cook for 2-3 mins until just tender, sprinkle with sea salt and keep warm.

 
Whisk the egg yolks and dressing in a small mixing bowl over the pan of water which we used to cook the asparagus until it starts to thicken and go slightly pale. Slowly whisk in the melted butter until you have a thick rich hollandaise.

Place two of the asparagus spears on a serving plate and half the oak smoked salmon on top.
Place two more asparagus spears on the salmon and spoon over the hollandaise.


Sautéed Whitby queen scallops with Yorkshire chorizo, spring onions & chilli with a Womersley Cherry Vinegar butter sauce.

Serves 4

Ingredients
32 Queen Scallops, shucked, cleaned and washed. Wash and reserve the shells
¼ of a Yorkshire chorizo diced
3 Spring onions, sliced
1 Green chilli sliced, seeds removed
25g Cold, unsalted butter, cubed
75ml Womersley Cherry vinegar
Virgin oil for cooking

 

Method
Pre heat a non stick pan over a high heat. Add a little oil and wait until it starts to gently smoke. Carefully add the queen scallops. Leave for 30 seconds then add the spring onions, chorizo and chillies. Toss the pan and sauté for another 30 seconds. Remove from the pan and keep warm.
De-glaze the pan with the cherry vinegar and reduce by ½. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter.
Place the scallop sauté mixture into the shells on a serving plate and spoon over the cherry vinegar butter reduction.



Marinated strawberries with ground black pepper and
Womersley Strawberry & Mint dressing

Method
Wash and chop the strawberries in half. 

Cover with strawberry and mint vinegar and a few grinds of black pepper. 

Leave the strawberries at room temperature for 20 mins before serving. 

This is particularly good for slightly under-ripe strawberries as the action of the vinegar makes them lovely and sweet and tender.

ARE YOU GAME?

CLA Game Fair, The Aftermath

Lots of families and foodies turned up, did some shooting, shopping and munching and were spoilt for choice with hundreds of stands ranging from ethnic clothing and tax planning to gunshops and fine foods.

Some of the stands at the CLA Game Fair 2011

Chef Rachel Green

Chef Ralph Skripek loving our Fruity vinegars

The cookery theatre was fortunate enough to have the very entertaining chef, Rachel Green doing a couple of demonstrations on the Friday. Rachel was her usual flamboyant self as she used our Lemon, Basil, Bay and Juniper Dressing to add succulence and flavour to salmon fillets wrapped in foil and baked in the oven.
And, to show how versatile it is, Rachel also used the Lemon dressing to tenderise and enhance the flavours of the mixed vegetables she prepared to go with her main Duck dish; though this was nearly ruined as Rachel went to entertain the audience, leaving a worried Alex Albone (Piper's Crisps) to tend the pan! Also doing demonstrations was chef Ralph Skripek who specialises in doing Game recipes at food and county shows. We were delighted to welcome him to our stand afterwards, not least because we were at opposite ends of the show ground (about 20 minutes walk through the crowds)!

The stand we shared with Cotswold Gold

We had three long and very busy days on the stand, too. We decided to share with our friends at Cotswold Gold, to show how the mix of a good quality extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil and our fruit vinegars makes an excellent dressing. We used our Taste Award winner, Blackberry Vinegar for the first day, then had to switch to the equally intensely fruit flavoured Raspberry for the other two days after we sold out of Blackberry!

Next year's CLA Game Fair will be held at Belvoir Castle in Lincolnshire.

CLA GAMEFAIR 2011

ARE YOU FAIR GAME?

Come and find out how you should be dressed:
If you be venison or lamb, maybe our Blackcurrant & Rosemary Dressing is just the thing...
If you be fishy, perhaps our Lemon, Basil, Bay and Juniper Dressing  will bring out the best in you...
or, if you be in a stew, our Gold Star Taste award winner, Blackberry Vinegar will round you off nicely...

This weekend, we transfer our fruitiness to a little closer to my home, Blenheim Palace. After years of enjoying family walks in the grounds of Blenheim, it will be a real pleasure to be fighting the crowds of game folk to show just what a fabulous sauce our award-winning Blackberry Vinegar can make for pigeon (as shown by Stephanie Moon on Great British Menu), venison, duck...

This is a very popular show and the signposts for traffic queues have already been up for weeks, so we will be doing our best to make your visit worthwhile.To make a difference, we are exhibiting with Cotswold Gold Rapeseed oil, the ideal accompaniment to our fruit and herb vinegars. And we have a surprise treat for you, too...but you'll have to come along to see for yourself!

 The CLA Gamefair is at Blenheim on 22-24 July.

For ticket information, please see the CLA Gamefair website

And here is a treat for you: a lovely recipe with Blackberry Vinegar on Venison supplied by Holme Farm Venison in Yorkshire

Perfect Pan Fried Venison with Womersley Blackberry Vinegar

Serves 2

Choice cut of Holme Farm Venison

Ingredients
Venison Steaks and Womersley Blackberry Fruit Vinegar

Method
2x 180g Venison Steaks, cut from the loin / haunch
Salt & Pepper
Groundnut or Olive oil

1) Heat the griddle pan or frying pan.
2) Brush the steaks lightly on each side with olive oil or groundnut oil.
3) Season with coarsely ground black pepper.
4) Once the pan is nice and hot, place the steaks in the pan and sear for 3-4 minutes on either side or longer according to your own personal preference. You may need to turn the heat down a little to avoid over charring the exterior of the steaks.
5) Once the venison steaks have seared, grind a little coarse sea salt over them.
6) Leave the steaks to stand for a few minutes then serve with a drizzle of blackberry fruit vinegar and seasonal vegetables.