September Shows

A busy month for us with the following shows (hope to see you enthusing there):

2nd-4th Chatsworth Country Fair  

10th-11th Ludlow Food Festival 
We are delighted to be exhibiting for the first time ever in the beautiful Shropshire Town of Ludlow for one of the shows of the year.
This was Britain's first successful food and drink festival when it started back in 1995. It's grown considerably since then, with large numbers of visitors from throughout the UK, as well as from overseas.

16th-18th Harrogate Flower Show

As a bonus, we are delighted that on the Friday 16th, the programme includes a "Ready Steady Cook" style competition with the students of Leeds City College using our fruit vinegars.

Jonathan and Stephanie Moon dressing the fish with our Strawberry & Mint!

17th-18th Abergavenny Food Festival 
Another first for us! This year we will be making our first appearance at this prestigious food festival. Come and find us in the Brewery Yard with lots of other great producers. If you would like to see what the festival is like you can watch a video of last year's.

24th Thame Food Festival

Thame Food Festival is a wonderful showcase for local artisan food and drink producers. It is a celebration of everything that is right with food and is a great, bustling, fun filled FREE family day out in the centre of this historic Oxfordshire market town.

Visitors can choose to watch local and celebrity chef demonstrations, including for the first time in 2011 chefs from   Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, or hear expert opinion and talks on selected food topics. There are food based treasure hunts, hands-on food making stalls and a huge variety of wonderful exhibitor food stalls to sample and buy from. Events will also include children’s workshops and competitions, street music and street entertainment.

BBC Radio Oxford

Jo Thoenes

Listen out for a guest appearance we have with Chef Mark Lloyd on BBC Radio Oxford's "Jo in the Afternoon" programme this Friday between 1 and 2 o'clock.

Chef Mark Lloyd

Mark is a keen forager and will be talking about the Autumn harvest to be found by getting out there and making the most of the countryside and all that it has to offer. We will also be looking at how you can use your finds to make various larder essentials like fruit vinegar. This will hopefully be where I might get a chance for a word or two!

UPDATE: You can Listen Again, from about 36 minutes! We had fun, with discussions including Sloe Vodka and making the most of your foraging finds.

Summer Holidays in Greece

And now, as they say, for something completely different....

My wife, Jani, and I have taken the young 'un to Kephalonia in the past two years, so we fancied a slight change this year- the Peloponnese!

View from Ilyria

The Greek economy is highly reliant on tourism these days and we find the mixture of Summer heat, welcoming people and good Mediterranean food is a winning combination. 

Know your onions in Petalidi

Through our local Travel Agent in Chipping Norton, we were introduced to a lovely family-run place in the village of Chranoi, in the famous olive-growing region of Kalamata. We have two weeks to forget about everything which ususally crowds in and just relax as much as posible: this was the perfect place for that.
Jani and I could enjoy the relative peace and health of the sea a few metres away whilst young 'un enjoyed the company of others of his age in and around the pool. Bliss!

We decided to visit the local market one Friday morning, but after waiting for "Greek time" for the bus to arrive, it was the afternnon when we arrived at the harbour town of Petalidi. We stocked up on the juiciest, ripest peaches, massive tomatoes and dark plums. A good Greek salad lunch preceded another long wait for the bus back....

Watching the dragonflies

Following this experience, we sought a charming local who hired us a tiny car (the best sort when driving in this part of the world, some of the streets are VERY tight) so we could explore the area for a couple of days.

Once we had the car, we were able to travel to the lush forest surroundings of Polilimnio which has the most stunning setting of lakes and waterfalls, resplendent with wildlife. We enjoyed a long, cool walk with irridescent dragonflies fluttering around us as we made our way through the rustic path.

The waters are invitingly crystal clear, but beware of the freshwater crabs. There are some delightful myths surrounding the pools and falls which are told in an interesting translation on a few boards along the way. This walk would certainly not pass UK health and safety guidelines, being very treachorous in plases- all part of the fun!


There are a lot of Australian plants in Greece, including several varieties of Eucalyptus and bottle brush, but I was particularly taken with this fabulously colourful bush which we found in the mountain village of Kallithea. Can you identify this:

Fredo Cappuccino

Made a discovery whilst on holiday, as well. I do love my coffee, but it is just too hot for a mid-morning cappuccino, so we were both delighted to discover the refreshing delights of a Fredo Cappuccino...







Sadly, even the best holidays have to come to an end, and it was on a glorious morning that we had to say goodbye to this delightful little corner of Greece. Full of pounds of feta, olives, tomatoes, Total Greek yoghurt and baclava, we made our way back to our green and pleasant land...

Sunrise in Chranoi on our last day

How to jazz up your BBQ

A Great idea from Veronica Hayes

 

A fab BBQ last night using a trio of Womersley Foods divine products. Here's the first idea I had...

Some kind friends had given us some super fresh produce from their garden and included in our windfall of goodies were some lovely beetroot. I used 3 of them, sliced in half from stem to root, and then placed them on 4 sheets of foil. 1 -2 dessertspoons of the oil from a bottle of Italian sundried tomatoes plus about the same of Lemon, Basil, Bay and Juniper vinegar. Scrunch up the foil to make a pouch and then sling the pouch onto the bbq. I left mine in for about 1 hour and they were tender, tender, tender. And delicious! 

I think you could happily use any of the superb vinegars that Womersley make ...mmmmmm

 

"Made in Yorkshire" cocktail competition 2011

Womersley Vinegar Dressing: Key Ingredient in Yorkshire's Best Cocktail As mentioned elsewhere on this blog, my father was notorious in his youth as a mixer of deadly Calvados cocktails which rendered the drinker fairly helpless! So he would have been delighted to learn that one of his proudest concoctions for Womersley has been chosen as the key ingredient in Yorkshire's new winning cocktail...
On Yorkshire Day, August 1, while we were joining in the festivities at Wentbridge House with some of Yorkshire's finest chefs, the final of the Made in Yorkshire cocktail competition was taking place as 10 bartenders battled it out for the winning crown.                The winning cocktail is about to shake up the bartending world after judges named the inaugural winner as the "Sage & Onion Gibson" by bartender Dean Railton from SkyLounge at the Mint Hotel. His winning concoction proved to be the outright favourite of every one of the judges.The winner was crowned ‘Made in Yorkshire’s Best Bartender 2011’ and handed an engraved bespoke Alessi cocktail shaker trophy to display in their bar. The final judges included Cocktail guru Simon Difford (Difford’s Guide and Class Magazine), Christine Austin (the Yorkshire Post’s wine and spirits expert), Douglas Blyde (gastronomer and contributor to Harper’s Wines & Spirits who has also written about this story on his blog), and Vikki Harris, Marketing Manager from Welcome to Yorkshire. Dean Railton’s Sage & Onion Gibson has the added twist of our Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper-infused Vinegar Dressing and the recipe,below, will be circulated to bars across the county who will be encouraged to serve up the new creation to celebrate God’s Own County. The Made in Yorkshire competition, run by SLB PR with support from Welcome to Yorkshire, involved inviting bars from across Yorkshire to enter new, original cocktail recipes. The brief was to use at least one key ingredient produced in Yorkshire and, after a series of heats, the 10 finalists shook, strained and poured in front of a panel of experts at the SkyLounge bar at Mint Hotel in Leeds on August 1. Gary Verity, Chief Executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, said: “The idea behind the competition was to celebrate the countless array of high quality produce from our great county and for bartenders to use their talents to craft something new. Not only has the competition showcased our many excellent bars, but it also helps promote Yorkshire as a cosmopolitan destination – and it would be great to see lots of bars serving up this winning Yorkshire cocktail.” Winning bartender Dean Railton said: “It’s really overwhelming to win this cocktail competition and represent how great the Yorkshire bar scene is. It’s time for the bar scene in the North to make sure we’re always better than the South.”  Dean Railton’s Sage & Onion Gibson Sage and Onion Gibson, Photo Courtesy Douglas Blyde Ingredients 15ml Womersley’s Lemon, Basil, Bay & Juniper Vinegar (available from DeliFresh, Bradford and Womersley Foods) 15ml Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth 50ml Chase Potato Vodka 6 Sage Leaves 1 twist red onion Method Put vinegar and Vermouth into a Boston glass Press the six sage leaves into the mixture Fill the glass with ice Add the Potato Vodka Stir until cold and delicious Fine strain into a chilled Martini glass Rim the lip of the glass with a sage leaf that has a drop of vinegar on it. Garnish with the red onion twist and pop a bay leaf in the middle.

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.