Ceviche in Cheltenham

Grandfa and Oliver

Food shows come and food shows go. As an exhibitor, you don't always know what to expect: plenty of opportunity to catch up with fellow exhibitors, a mad panic to protect your stock from being ruined in a downpour of English weather or lots of enthusiastic people eager to talk about artisan food production.  And so it was in Cheltenham last weekend where I attended the Food Festival for the first time...

On the way there very early on the first morning of three, I had time to work out that it was fully 29 years since I had been at school at Cheltenham College. Maybe I should not have been so surprised to find myself having become a grandfather to a very beautiful boy called Oliver in the same week!


The festival was in the beautiful setting of Montpellier Gardens. We were in a large marquee surrounded by lots of other lovely producers like Cotswold Gold, Grumpies Pies (thanks for the lunch!) and Artisan Smokehouse who use maple for all their smoking, which makes particularly their smoked duck taste really sweet and tender. Being practically unique, we rarely find ourselves having to compete with many other fruit vinegar producers so we enjoy talking to people about how to use them and how to be creative in the kitchen with a good glug of our vinegars. When possible, though, we try to ensure our vinegars are included in the cookery theatre or we work with a local chef to showcase a recipe. I had recently met a charming fellow called Wayne Sullivan at an event at the impressive herb and micro leaf growers, Westlands, near Evesham and found out he is a head chef in Cheltenham, so I asked if he would like to do a demonstration on our stand on the Sunday. He loved the idea and, fresh from having moved house, he turned up with his whole family to show just how easy it is to make a delicious salmon ceviche. And, being a chef, this was also a great opportunity for visitors to ask questions about food preparation and mixing flavours and what is ceviche! (Ceviche is, put simply, raw fish marinated in citrus juice or vinegar and spices; the acid in the juice denatures the proteins in the meat in much the same way as cooking would. The flesh becomes opaque, the texture firmer and dryer, yet the flavours remain spanking fresh. Naturally, our vinegars do the job beautifully).
So, on a day off from his role as Head Chef at the local Storyteller Restaurant, Wayne made a delicious salmon ceviche with our Strawberry & Mint vinegar and finished with our Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender for a punchy sourness.

Salmon Ceviche with

Strawberry & Mint and

Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender

Vinegars

by Wayne Sullivan

Ingredients:
200g fresh salmon, diced as fine as you can make it
1 red chilli, finely sliced up to the seeds (or a little further up for more spice)
1 whole spring onion, finely sliced
10g coriander, finely chopped.
1 lime, zested & quartered
Sea salt
10ml Womersley Strawberry & Mint vinegar
Toasted ciabatta, crackers, biscuits (anything crispy)
Womersley Lime, Black pepper & Lavender Vinegar (for drizzle before serving)

Method:
Prepare all ingredient in a bowl as fine as you can as this will ensure the vinegar can infuse, cure and tenderise.
Try not to prepare too far in advance but the longer you leave it then the more cured the fish will be.
Simply spoon small quantities on to pieces of toasted ciabatta, drizzle over the Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender vinegar and serve.

This recipe was inspired by Wayne's time as head chef at Storyteller, an eclectic fusion restaurant in Cheltenham that blends traditional Californian cooking with modern and European techniques.

After training at a local college, Wayne worked his way around Gloucestershire, fronting up some premier kitchens as well as working for a while in Australia. He then went on to stage at Petrus under Marcus Wareing, and over in the United States at Wheatleigh Hotel, in Lenox, Massachusetts.

A big fan of Sat Bains, Richard Davies and Daniel Clifford, his ultimate goal is to have his own little place where he can cook food that people will come from all over to eat, preferably by the sea.

You can follow Wayne at twitter.com/ChefWayner 

 

Wayne Sullivan

Strawberries!

Well, if it does ever stop raining and the Summer arrives this year, you can try this lovely salad recipe by Simon Blackwell.
As promised in my last blog post, here is the amazing dish Simon (aka The Buff Baker) did for us at the recent BBC Good Food Show in Birmingham. Of course, you don't have to wait for the sun to come out: the flavours in this salad are so vibrant and Summery that it will bring a smile to your face

Simon doing the prep...

Fig, Strawberry and Mint Salad

with Strawberry & Mint Dressing

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Bag of Baby spinach

2 Tbsp Agave Nectar

2 Tbsp Strawberry and Mint dressing

2 Tbsp freshly chopped mint

4 sliced soft dried figs (or fresh, if available)

6 large fresh strawberries, sliced and with stem removed

Walnuts

Method:

Rinse spinach leaves under cold water and shake off the excess, before placing into a large bowl.

Dress the leaves with Agave nectar and Strawberry & Mint dressing and toss thoroughly.

Add fresh mint, figs, strawberries and walnuts, give a few final tosses to mix and coat well.

Turn out onto a board finish with a splash or two of the Strawberry and Mint dressing.

This was consumed by the visitors in seconds!

Do come to see us at the BBC Good Food Show in Winter from 28th November to 2nd December, when Simon will be doing another great demonstration for us. You can book your tickets here.

Wimbledon Trifle

We were fortunate enough to have the aptly named Buff Baker, aka Simon Blackwell, doing a couple of recipes with our Strawberry & Mint at the BBC Good Food Show last week. First up was a tantalising salad which I will also post here soon, but since Wimbledon is nearly upon us, I thought you would love to have a go at this truly scrummy and very fruity Wimbledon Trifle.

Simon Blackwell, the Buff Baker

Womersley Wimbledon Trifle

Serves 4

Ingredients:

12 Ladies Fingers sponge biscuits

500ml double cream

6 mini meringues

8 strawberries cut into chunks

75ml Strawberry & Mint dressing

75ml cold water

150g caster sugar

4 strawberries cut into fans for decoration

Whip the cream until thick but not stiff, so that it can be just about poured.

Add cut up strawberry chunks to cream.

Crush meringues and drop into cream.

Mix cream, thoroughly combining ingredients.

Heat water, sugar and Strawberry & Mint dressing over a low heat until sugar is totally dissolved.

Pour sugar syrup over the sponge fingers, allowing it to soak in completely.

Allow sponge fingers to cool.

Place two fingers in the bottom of each bowl and then cover with a generous layer of the cream mixture.

Repeat this until a generous pile of cream sits above the rim of each glass.

Place your fanned strawberries on top of the dessert and then refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.

Womersley Wimbledon Trifle

Simon was one of the brave bunch on BBC's "Great British Bake Off" in 2011 and he also did a very tasty vegan Drizzle Cake for us at BBC Good Food Show last November. 

He is currently spending much of his spare time supporting the very worthwhile charity, CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably),which is a charity set up to reduce the high suicide rate amongst men under 35 years old: the single biggest killer of young men in the UK. You can follow Simon's work with CALM on twitter. And we hope Simon will be able to join us again at BBC Good Food Show Winter for another cracking recipe...

Turkish recipe by Hulya Erdal

After corresponding with Food Writer and chef, Hulya Erdal, for several months, we finally met earlier this year at IFE in London when Hulya got to taste all our flavours and walk off with a couple of bottles to play with.
Since then, Hulya has been experimenting with recipes using our Strawberry & Mint Vinegar dressing and I was delighted to receive this lovely idea recently. Hulya is justifiably so proud of this recipe that the picture for it appears on her home page.

Biography

Having spent years as a Marketeer and PR in the food sector, Hulya is now a lecturer and writer in food and culinary skills.  She contributes to many national publications including writing a regular weekly column on all things foodie.  Hulya runs her own catering business and gives private talks and demonstrations to those interested in learning how to eat well and create fabulous meals.  With a few TV appearances under her belt including Channel 4's all new Iron Chef UK, F-word and BBC One London News, Hulya's first and last passion will always be food!  

I love the range of Womersley vinegars and dressings, they are versatile and marry well with my Turkish infusion of cooking.  Why not try my Turkish filo parcel served with a baby leaf and pomegranate salad and Womersley strawberry and mint dressing. Eye catching but so simple, you're sure to impress all your friends!

Turkish Filo Parcel served with a Baby Leaf and Pomegranate salad and 

Womersley Strawberry & Mint Dressing 

Photo by Soley Mustafa, Courtesy of Hulya Erdal

You will need (serves 4):
1 pack of chilled filo pastry, most supermarkets sell them, try Jus Rol.

150g feta cheese or something similar

50g Ricotta cheese

100g Halloumi, grated

A few leaves of fresh mint, dried will do if you can't get fresh

A sprig of fresh parsley, curly leaf or flat leaf

75g melted butter

For the salad:
Lambs lettuce, baby leaf spinach and some pomegranate kernels

Olive oil   
Womersley Strawberry & Mint Dressing 

Equipment: 

4 ramekins and one similar size diameter pastry cutter, palette
knife

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 190ºC/Gas mark 5.

• Remove the filo pastry from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature for about half an hour. Meanwhile, grate the halloumi and finely chop the mint and parsley. Crumble the soft cheeses in a large bowl and then mix together all the cheese and herbs. Season with a little pepper but no salt as the cheese mixture has enough. 

• Set aside. 

• Melt the butter and set it aside.

• Take the pastry from it's pack and lay out flat. You'll find it will be 3 or 4 layers of pastry. Keep all the layers together for now, cut rounds in the pastry with the cutter.  You are aiming to have about 12 layers in total for each ramekin.

• Separate the layers out.

• Brush each ramekin with some melted butter. Now separate all the layers of rounds of pastry. 

• Place a sheet of pastry in each ramekin, brush the pastry then lay another sheet on top. Do this until you have six layers in each. 

• Now top each with some of the cheese and herb mixture.

• Repeat the process for the final six layers. Finish the top with more melted butter and if you like some toasted sesame seeds and nigella seeds.

• Now bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes until crisp, risen and golden.

• Whilst the borek bakes, make the salad by mixing the baby leaves in a bowl with the pomegranate kernels and then drizzle over a little olive oil and some of the delicious Womersley Strawberry & Mint dressing.

• Carefully lift each borek from the ramekin using a palette knife to tease it from the bottom. Place on individual dishes with a some salad, serve to your friends, smile with pride and enjoy!

You can Follow Hulya on Twitter at twitter.com/Madebythechef

BBC GOOD FOOD SHOW, THE AFTERMATH

In case you were ever in any doubt, it is pretty exhausting doing five days of exhibition at the NEC, but it is also very rewarding...
I arrived very early on Wednesday morning to see what an amazing job our Wendy and Mark had done in designing and assembling our new stand specially for the show. Together with some well disguised kitchen cabinets, Wendy had also brought some aromatic fresh basil, rosemary and geranium to make it all look a lot fresher. This is how it looked half an hour before the first day began:

We exhibited in the Food Lovers area which was a really great part of the hall to be in, since we were with all the artisans and other food producers, rather than competing with appliance and hardware. Also, we had a great position so we saw a lot of people over the five days, all keen to add a touch of fruitiness to their vinegar!

One of the joys of being a producer of a food ingredient with which many are unfamiliar, is that it gives us the opportunity to have a lot of conversations about food, meals, matching flavours, suggested uses and just to discuss how very versatile our fruit vinegars and dressings are. And, at the NEC, we could really give vent to this to thousands of visitors. Also, we took all four of our herb jellies: Rosemary, Geranium, Apache Chilli and Lavender. These proved to be more popular than ever, and led to one customer commenting that "this is the best thing I have ever tasted from a jar!"

We also reintroduced our pouches of olives at the show. My parents used to add two of our flavours to olives and put them in jars: Green olives with our Strawberry & Mint and Black Olives with our Blackcurrant & Rosemary. Needless to say the samples were wolfed down, but the pouches also proved very popular, so we hope to start making these in earnest for you very soon.

"Womersley" is a difficult word to pronounce until you are familiar with it, so it was a joy to meet several people who know the village where I grew up in Yorkshire (and where our story began) as well as a few called Womersley. (If you want to know how to pronounce it, say the "o" as you say the "o" in "woman").

FREE PRIZE DRAW RESULT

We were delighted to get lots of entries in our free prize draw and can report that Mrs Stewart of Newport Pagnell was the lucky winner of 4 Wensleydale Cremaery Cheeses, one of our beautiful slate display stands and some olives, jelly and vinegars. 

 ------------------------------ 

SATURDAY

As a bonus on Saturday, we were joined by Urvashi Roe and Simon Blackwell from BBC Great British Bake Off who both did recipe demonstrations using our fruity vinegars. I will post Urvashi's later, but here is Simon's delicious recipe which he used to make two cakes: after barely a few minutes, they were all gone!

Simon cuts the cake...

Vegan Lemon Drizzle Cake

     By Simon Blackwell 

Ingredients:  
  
  Cake:
            200g  Self Raising Flour
            125g  Caster Sugar
           ¼ tsp  Salt
           ½ tsp  Bicarbonate of Soda
           200ml  Soya Milk
           100ml  Corn Oil
           2 tbsp  Golden Syrup
           ½ tsp  Womersley Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Vinegar Dressing
                     Rind of 1 Lemon

 Drizzle:
                     Juice of 1 Lemon
           2 tbsp Womersley Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Vinegar Dressing
               25g Caster Sugar
 Approx 1 tbsp Icing Sugar to thicken

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C/350°F.

2. Line the base of a 7 inch cake tin with baking paper.

3. Sift flour,salt and sugar into a bowl and make a well in the middle.

4. Dissolve bicarb into the milk and then pour into the well.

5. Add corn oil, syrup, Womersley Foods Lime, Black Pepper and Lavender Dressing and lemon rind.

6. Beat until the mixture is a smooth lump free batter.

7. Pour batter into the lined tin and bake in the lower middle part of your oven for 25 minutes until golden brown, and until a metal skewer comes out of the middle of the cake clean.

8. Whilst the cake is cooking, heat the lemon juice, Womersley Foods Lime, Black Pepper & Lavender Dressing and sugar until the sugar has dissolved to make a lemon syrup.

9. When you have removed the cake from the oven and it is still warm, prick all over with a cocktail stick and drizzle some of the syrup over the cake so that it soaks into the sponge.

    
Save half back if you like to drizzle over the cake just before serving.

I got a slice!

Many thanks to Simon for this recipe and for entertaining us all on Saturday afternoon. Also, thank you to Callie Blackwell for the slice photo.

Squash Recipe

A little while ago, I got a very enthusiastic Tweet from Jacqui Smith of Homesmiths Interior Design Services. Homesmiths are based in Sussex and are a dynamic husband and wife team who bring to their clients a blend of sound technical ability and creative flair. Jacqui and her husband David are based in Haywards Heath, very close to our old family home of Nymans, where our story began...
In her Tweet, Jacqui took time off from her busy day with fabrics and furniture to share one of her kitchen tips; she mentioned what a great addition our Strawberry & Mint is to one of her favourite recipes. Fortunately, she has decided to share her discovery with us all, so here is her recipe for you, too.

Butternut Squash Salad with

Womersley Strawberry & Mint Vinegar Dressing

Serves 2


Ingredients

Half a Butternut Squash
Olive Oil
2 large peeled Garlic Cloves
1 Pack feta cheese, cubed
Handful of almonds, blanched and toasted
Fresh Garden Mint & salad leaves

Method

1. Roast the squash with the Olive Oil and garlic
2. Assemble the salad leaves, roasted squash, cubed feta and almonds in your bowl
3. Mix pureed garlic from the roasted cloves with olive oil and seasoning. Drizzle over the salad
4. Dress with Womersley Strawberry & Mint vinegar dressing
5. Garnish with a sprig of fresh Garden Mint

Jacqui says of using our vinegar in this dish:

"The mint from the vinegar adds depth to the fresh mint and the fruitiness of the strawberry just seems to complement the tang of the feta. More generally, I find that the vinegars are complex enough to use on their own as a dressing, which I do regularly!"

If you would like to buy some of our Strawberry & Mint vinegar Dressing, please see our Where to Buy page.

Thame Food Festival

We had the most beautiful day in Thame on September 24th. The large crowds enjoyed a fabulously sunny day and many exhibitors sold out! 

The Ubiquitous Tasty Food Festival Hog Roast

One of the down sides of being a food producer at a food festival, is that we usually don't get the opportunity to get around and see the other exhibitors. At Thame, however, I was very lucky to have help from Annie's Kitchen, Just Biscuits and Sainsbury's chef who all spent a while on my stand while I stocked up on tasters, took a few snaps, spoke to a few visitors and went to see some other excellent displays from Charlie Beldam of Cotswold Gold, Robert from GranaryDeli, and No2 Pound Street (basking in the glory of their new Award for Best New Cheese Retailer, 2011). 

Some Button cheeses at No2 Pound Street

Lotte Duncan

Lotte Duncan's fairy cakes

The Patron of Thame food festival is Lotte Duncan, pictured right, who also has a fabulous food shop and loves using our vinegars and dressings in her salads. Lotte took time out from being on her stand to give the audience a demonstration using some local ingredients and included our Strawberry and Mint Dressing on her dish which ensured lots of visitors to our stand wanting to repeat the dish themselves with one of our bottles! 

Opposite me, there was a fine Paella cooking for much of the day, so at least I got a great lunch!

 I was amazed at how many people had seen the first episode of Nigel Slater's new TV series, Simple Cooking, in which Nigel made a Beetroot and Goat's Cheese Salad with some Raspberry Vinegar. Needless to say, I made sure we had plenty of Raspberry Vinegar on our stand, which proved to be just as well! You can find his recipe on the BBC website and even see it again on iplayer.

A bustling Thame, full of food lovers

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.