food by day » misc

Blaggers Banquet – 15th Nov 09

Neil — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:00:35 +0000

So, I disappear for a month long jaunt round south america and come back to see the foodies in my twitter stream talking about a ‘Blaggers Banquet’. Much confusion ensues until I find some information from Niamh at eatlikeagirl.com, which explains that the concept is to host a banquet where all the food has been blagged from providers. Whether it is the salt, gin or meat.

The concept sounded great, but alas it was on a Sunday AND in London. Nevertheless, I decided that on Sunday morning, whilst sitting in Birmingham having my lunch that I would indeed attend, that evening the Blaggers Banquet, at Hawksmoor.

Nothing like a pop down to Euston, a tube across to Liverpool St, a wander in Spitalfields market before arriving at Hawksmoor (after walking past it twice) just before 6.

There was a good crowd, with what appeared to be an even amount of Bloggers/Blaggers – who had been prepping the veg, venue, and goodie bags all day, to punters – aka me.

There was some amazing attentive service, Martinis and Canapes were had. Before being seated for some familystyle food service, along with matching wines. We had some lovely Monkfish to start (which had been driven up from the coast that morning), then moved onto a Beef Stew, Lamb Hotpot and Buffalo Steak with Bernaise sauce. Yes thats correct, three different meats for mains – I certainly enjoyed the food – but felt a bit full by the end of the course.

The table, by now was full of plates, and glasses – everyone seemed to have a few cocktails, red and white wine, plus some water. It was amazing to think that everything being consumed had been donated in the name of charity – and just shows what can be done with determination.

Raffle time commenced, where I managed to take home both the Bols Genever and the X chocolates. 2 prizes from 5 tickets is a rather splendid result. There were some other fabulous prizes including a cookery lesson with Thomasina Miers, no dud prizes here!

Dessert – well Jelly Boobs by Bompas and Parr and Chocolate Fondant Cake. The jelly was lovely, and half the fun was watching the ’staff’ release the jellies from the mould. I do like this trend of having two or three things per course!

It was a delightful time, and certainly worth the effort to get there and back ( I ran out into a taxi to the station at 11, got back at 2AM)

As well as the auction on the night, I believe more goodies will be appearing on eBay here: Blaggers Banquet Ebay Horde.

Further pictures on the night from me : Blaggers Banquet (Picasa)

Gin Day

Neil — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 18:53:51 +0000

Folks,

It’s been quiet round here, thats partly because my friend Gin has been over.

Therefore, I’ve declared Saturday 13th June 2009 to be Gin Day.

Check it out, spread the word, and lets all enjoy a drink this weekend:

http://ginday.tumblr.com/

Delightful Chocolate Truffles

Neil — Mon, 04 May 2009 15:00:33 +0000

Back with the chocolate theme (at this rate the blogs more about sweet things than savoury, though I’m not saying that it is a bad thing!)

For those who like chocolate, things need to be simple, nothing too fancy. I adore chocolate truffles, you get the luxurious flavour of chocolate melting away. The issue is, they see to be damn expensive for just one or two little truffles with your coffee.

Fret not, as they are easy enough to make, as long as you don’t mind getting your hands messy.

Makes 18-24 truffles (dependent on size/greed etc)

Heat the cream(115 ml) and butter ( 15 gm) in a saucepan, and bring to the boil
Pour this over 150 gm of broken dark chocolate
Allow this to stand (2/3 minutes) to melt the chocolate
Stir with a whisk till smooth

Then just take this mixture, and put it in your fridge for a couple of hours (or overnight)

It is then onto the fun part, take spoonfulls of your truffle mixture and roll them into a ball and coat with cocoa powder.

Once created, place them back in the fridge to firm up. They will last for a week or two, but it is likely that friends and family will have made sure they don’t!

Unadulterated Chocolate Making

Neil — Fri, 01 May 2009 12:11:57 +0000

Who can resist chocolate? Not many people for sure, there are those of us who like the dark deep flavour of high cocoa chocolate. Whilst others amongst us love the light rich flavour of white. Of course, some prefer the middleground of milk. Where do you fall, let me know in the comments.

Personally, I fall at either extremes, really dark or really sweet. This is all about ‘real’ chocolate, nothing but the essentials are needed. Thanks to the people at Mayan Magic (yes that was a mini plug, I did receive the kit for free) I’ve had the opportunity to get messy in the kitchen with chocolate.

Mayan Magic Closeup

The kit itself has three main ingredients, powders, butters and agave nectar (for sweetening). Even if you can’t bake and have issues measuring things then do not fret. It’s as simple as :

Chop & Melt the butters (bain marie aka bowl over water)
Whisk in the powders till smooth
Taste, and taste again.
Add agave nectar till sweet enough.
Pour into moulds.
Chill
Devour

Finished and Nibbled Chocolate

I used mini silicone tart tins as my moulds, and had a little nibble as you can see. Check back in the next day or two (or have a look at you RSS) to see about the mess I made using the chocolate. Just think, pure unadulterated truffles.

Early Morning Markets

Neil — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 20:35:38 +0000

I love food, and I really enjoy visiting local markets. Last weekend I had the opportunity to see the Birmingham wholesale markets. There was one slight issue, I had to wake up at 3.40AM to meetup at 4AM.

Neil - Interviewed for Big Paws by @Bounder - Taken by Lee Allen

Yes you heard it, 3.40. That was taken shortly after 4, all in aid of the 4AM Project. So a group of 30 people, were off wondering around Birmingham New St station at this ungodly hour. Check out the flickr stream, to see the pictures from around the world.

We headed off to the wholesale markets, whilst walking past a cocktail maker who was flaring (aka showing off) by the bus stop at 4.30AM! He looked surprised to see us.

I was amazed at the size of the warehouse that hosted the fruit/veg. There were many stores selling their wares.

An array of colour - Fruit & Veg.

Flower Choice - By Pete Ashton

It was a really nice change to be up so early, though we were starting to get hungry. Luckily, we had been told about a cafe to hit, so at around 5.30 I ordered the ‘full’ breakfast for £4.50. Bargain I thought. Unfortunately, I hadn’t seen anyone else order this.

A Full Breakfast - By Nicky Getgood

Underneath all of that, theres a tin of beans. Suffice to say, I did not manage to finish it all. Infact I’d say I made a small dent into it. So if you hit the cafe, just order a bap – it will be big enough.

After all that fun, I hit home and slept for a few hours. Before heading back to the ‘normal’ markets, which only open at 9AM. I was after some ingredients for a pork pie, and other goodies (I couldn’t get into the Meat area of wholesale unfortunately). Though when I asked around for pigs trotters, I got told that I was too late.

Not impressed!

Market goodies lately have included: Boar Sausages, Local Ales, Pork Shoulder, Oysters, Mussels and a wide array of vegetables. Tasty.

food for when you are ill

Neil — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:14:37 +0000

Right,

It appears that I’ve come down with something since early monday morning, and still at the tail end now (hoping the rest will get rid of the final symptoms).

Unfortunately, my kitchen hasn’t really been brim full of anything of late. A combination of being away at the weekends (my usual food shop time) and trying to use up some bits in the larder/be inventive, left me with a desolate fridge.

This in turn lead me to get takeout on Sunday night, and ill soon after (anyone see cause and affect); the effect was me not being so good!

So things to eat/drink when you are ill:

Sips of water (don’t want to dehydrate)
Nothing but sips water (for a while to try and cleanse the body and settle a stomach)
Try some clear soups
Light fruit juices (not too much, can have unpleasant effects)
Some toast
Fruit pieces (again not too much, more about flavour)

This also doubles up as my week 9 summary, as thats pretty much my intake this week!

Any other good advice, or things to consume? Let me know below.

early bird

Neil — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 16:39:19 +0000

cheeky you, I’m still designing this place.

call back soon