Food banks in Sheffield

You may well have, like me, noticed a growing number of references in the news to food poverty in the UK and the growing need for community food banks supporting families who are struggling to buy food in times of financial crisis. Not surprisingly, given that this is a food blog, food is something of an enthusiasm of mine – not just the presence of it, but the absence too. (Clearly I’m not enthusiastic about its absence, but you get my drift. It’s a subject that catches my attention). There are a great many fantastic charities that work internationally to provide essential nourishment – for example, Mary’s Meals who received a fantastic donation and lots of publicity via the Never Seconds blog – but there are some on our doorstep here in Sheffield too.

This weekend, I was looking to find out where my nearest food bank was, as I wanted to make a donation – I was aware of the Trussell Trust, who run banks in Upperthorpe and Burngreave, but there are several other independent food banks run by community groups or religious organisations around Sheffield, and given the rapid growth of food banks in Sheffield – numbers have doubled in the last year – the total may well increase. They generally ask for donations of non-perishable food items, such as cereals, tinned puddings, biscuits, pasta, tinned vegetables, tinned meat and fish and UHT milk – apparently the last item is always in demand so why not pick up a carton or two next time you’re shopping, and drop it off at your nearest food bank? The items on the list (have a look at the Burngreave food bank shopping list for a guide) are individually all quite cheap, so adding one or two to your shop won’t greatly affect the bill. Alternatively, between a group of friends or an office, it wouldn’t cost much more than a few pounds each to do a big stock-up for a food bank that could feed a family for several days.

My aim here is to try and collect as many links to Sheffield food banks as I can, so that if you want to donate – or if you need help from a food bank – you can easily find one that is close to you. Here are the banks I’m aware of so far:

Walkley/Upperthorpe:
S6 food bank at St Thomas’ Church on Gilpin Street

Burngreave:
Burngreave food bank at Rock Christian Centre on Carlisle Street

Fir Vale:
Fir Vale food bank at St Cuthbert Church on Barnsley Road

Shirecliffe:
Jubilee Food bank at Shirecliffe Community Centre on Shirecliffe Road (also on Twitter: @JubileeFoodbank)

Firth Park:
Firth Park food bank at Brushes Community Centre, West Quadrant

Sheffield Castle:
Sheffield Castle food bank at Castle Court on St. John’s Road – phone 0114 273 1778

This list may change, so I’ll try and update it with anything I hear about. If you know of another food bank in Sheffield, or in the surrounding region, please add a comment and a link to make readers aware of it. Thanks!

A Sunday Italian feast

This weekend I had a craving for pork cheek ragu, and as we had a few people round, I whipped up a small Italian style menu.  I LOVE this pork cheek recipe – as long as you check the recipe and realise you need to give it some time (marinating the cheeks in wine before and allowing it 4 hours in the oven), you’ll be rewarded.  Other than the time, it’s very simple and absolutely delicious.  The cheeks shred apart after slow cooking to make a rich, tender sauce.

Pork cheeks marinating with red wine, thyme and peppercorns

I left the pork cheeks marinating overnight the day before cooking.  In fact I cooked the ragu the day before I needed it so that I could prepare the rest of the meal on the morning before guests arrived, but you’re not interested in details, so we’ll move on.

We started with crostini – squashed cannellini beans with garlic and rosemary (Jamie Oliver’s recipe) and mushrooms with homemade pesto and ricotta.

Crostini with squashed cannellini beans

Crostini with pesto and ricotta mushrooms

Next up was the ragu, which I served with tripoline pasta and parmesan to go with it.

Pork cheek ragu with tripoline

Thick ribbons of pasta, like pappardelle, fettucine or tripoline go well with this ragu.  Have I mentioned that I love it?  I love it.

For dessert, I made a chocolate ricotta cheesecake.  It was a bit of an amalgamation of a few recipes, so I’ve listed my version below.  Admittedly the picture doesn’t do it justice – it was slightly burnt on top (took my eye off the game!) which you couldn’t taste, and I nearly dropped the whole thing when trying to extract it from the tin so some of the biscuit base was lost. And it’s a bit cracked.  But never mind all that, I never said I was a chef.  It was tasty and chocolatey and people wanted to take the leftovers home, so job’s a good un.

Chocolate ricotta cheesecake

200g dark chocolate digestive biscuits, crushed
75g unsalted butter, melted
250g ricotta
200g half-fat creme fraiche
300g dark chocolate, melted
1 tbsp vanilla essence
4 tbsp plain flour
25g sugar
2 eggs

1. Pre-heat your oven to 175 degrees.
2. Line the bottom of a loose-bottomed cake tin with a sheet of greaseproof paper.
3. Mix the crushed biscuits with the butter and press into the bottom of the tin.
4. Beat together the eggs, ricotta, creme fraiche, vanilla and chocolate, gradually adding the flour and sugar as you beat them to a smooth mixture.
5. Spoon the mixture onto the biscuit base and put into the over for 35-40 minutes to bake.  When the time is up, turn off the oven and leave it in to cool with the oven door open.  This is supposed to stop it cracking, which usually works well for me but this was not to be today!  If it does crack, you could always cover the top with a layer of cream or sauce to hide it.  Clearly I couldn’t be bothered.

Asian style noodle soup with turkey meatballs

pak choi

Not the catchiest title for a dish, admittedly, but I was really pleased with this quick recipe.  It’s low-fat but hearty and wholesome and pretty adaptable – you could use a different kind of mince for the meatballs, chicken strips instead of meatballs, left over shredded meat chucked in at the last minute, different vegetables…today I wanted to use my home-grown pak choi, which has coped brilliantly over the winter in a mini-greenhouse.  I only planted it in October and it’s been the easiest thing I’ve ever grown.  It’s an F1 variety called Rubi with lovely purple leaves – great in winter salads as a ‘cut and come again’ leaf with a light mustardy flavour or in oriental dishes and soups.

Purists out there will probably scowl at my willy-nilly mixing of pretty much all the Asian ingredients I had in my kitchen and I’m sure I could do better in terms of authenticity if I learnt a little more about specific regional ingredients.  But my husband described the result as tasting “like real-live Asian food” which is pretty much what I was aiming for.  Some recipes for similar soups suggest frying the meatballs before adding into the soup, which would improve appearance – poached turkey mince ain’t that pretty looking – but poaching means less oil and an easier one-pot approach.

Ingredients:

300g turkey mince
2 teaspoons grated ginger
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 bunch spring onions
1 carrot
1 red pepper
3-4 mushrooms
2-3 good handfuls of pak choi leaves
1 litre hot chicken stock
2 nests of dried egg noodles
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Sweet chilli sauce (to taste – I added about 4 tablespoons)
Soy sauce (to taste)
Fish sauce (to taste)

This was a quick dish to prepare, about 10 mins prep and max 30 mins cooking time.  It served 2 generously as a main meal, with a leftover lunch portion for one (ie, me).

1. Slice and finely chop 2 spring onions.  Mix together in a large bowl with the turkey mince, a small amount of lime juice, 1/2 a teaspoon of grated ginger and some salt and pepper.
2. Form the turkey mix into small meatballs and set aside

Turkey meatballs

3. Heat some oil in a large saucepan – I used olive oil, with a glug of sesame oil for extra flavour.  Gently fry the crushed garlic and the rest of the grated ginger.
4. Add the hot chicken stock and sweet chilli sauce (use more/less than I did depending on preference) and bring to the boil.
5. Gently drop in the meatballs and reduce heat to a simmer for 15 minutes.
6. Whilst they’re cooking, thinly slice lengthways the carrots, red pepper, spring onions and the mushrooms.
7. After 15 minutes, cut open one of the meatballs and check that it is cooked.  If it is, add in the carrots and noodles for 2 minutes, then the peppers, mushrooms and spring onions for 2 more minutes.
8. Add the lime juice and soy sauce and/or fish sauce to taste, checking the flavour of the broth.
9. Just before serving, add in the pak choi leaves.  Serve in bowls and sprinkle with fresh coriander.

Asian style noodle soup with turkey meatballs

Hash Brownies

A few weeks ago I spotted an offer on Twitter from Sheffield’s Hash Brownies or #brownies as they brand themselves, for some free (free!) brownies for anyone interested in trying them.  As it happens, I was interested.  I got in touch with Andy from #brownies who obliged by very kindly dropping off a selection box to me a few days later.

#brownies selection

Andy’s a very chirpy, friendly man, who stayed to chat for a bit to tell me more about the business, which has been up and running since January.  #brownies is run by Wendy and Andy who have 20 years experience as pastry chefs – Wendy’s biog on their website is pretty impressive, having trained at Le Gavroche and cooked for numerous celebraties.  They were developing quite a fan base of their creative range of brownie flavours and so the time seemed right to launch out with #brownies.  They’ve recently moved into new units to meet the growing demand – #brownies are supplying a number of premises in Leeds with their fantastic brownies and are winning more customers here in Sheffield too, with Bragazzis on Abbeydale Road recently stocking them.

To save you squinting at the photo, here are the flavours we had (a mixture of blondies and brownies):

Minty aero brownie
Turkish delight brownie
Rocky road brownie
Candied orange and cointreau brownie
Raspberry and vanilla blondie
Peanut butter and jelly brownie
Snickerlicious brownie
Bounty blondie
Triple chocolate and macadamia nut brownie

They didn’t last long sitting in the box before we started on them.  The first flavours to go were the raspberry and vanilla blondie and the candied orange and cointreau – both were lovely, with the soft slight gooey-ness you want from a brownie.  Next down the hatch, seconds later, were triple chocolate and macadamia nut (great nutty texture) and minty aero – now I know that chocolate mint is divisive, but I love it, and this had for me the perfect flavour combination – probably top of the box for me, closely followed by the candied orange and cointreau.  Some of the flavours that I was less sure about by name – such as the Turkish Delight and peanut butter with jelly (not flavours I would normally go for) – were actually very well balanced, so the brownies had a hint of a different flavour rather than being overpowered – I surprised myself by successfully putting those away too!  All with a cuppa, of course.  You can see a growing list of their impressive range of flavours on the website – banana and toffee is next on my list to try.  Or maybe spiced gingerbread…

Turkish Delight brownie and Bounty blondie,

Andy says that the most popular flavours so far are the peanut butter, sour cherry and bourbon, and pecan and amaretto.  A great selling point is that the dark chocolate brownies are flour free (as they use cocoa powder instead of flour) and a gluten-free flour is used in the blondies, so they’re a fabulous treat for those on a gluten-free diet, something which I’m reliably informed is difficult to find.  Andy did point out that some of the brownies have biscuit toppings which may contain gluten so it’d be best to check with them first.

Look out for #brownies at the twice monthly Leeds Farmers Market and hopefully at a few more spots around Sheffield too.  Oh, and just in case you’re wondering…as Andy and Wendy carefully point out on their website, #brownies’ ingredients are all fully legal and above board!

Garden gluts

At the moment I’m constantly trying to come up with new recipes to use up the produce in the garden – I’m a bit overwhelmed with runner beans, there are tonnes of blackberries (not literally tonnes obviously but I picked 450g tonight and there’s plenty more ripening), a multitude of apples are on their way and there’s still plenty of beetroot, with a late crop to come, as well as leeks and broccoli later in the year.  Courgettes have let me down this year, although last year they were bountiful.  Whilst obviously I can pickle, preserve and freeze (and I do) we’re always a bit overrun with chutneys and jams and so I try to use as much as I can as it’s ready from the garden.

Here’s a selection of some of my favourite recipes that I’ve found for using up my garden gluts (including the courgettes as I had great plans for them – I’m hoping this is just a 2011 lapse):

Runner beans

I love this runner bean salad from Asda recipes – really flavoursome with slightly salty edge from the capers.  Goes beautifully with quiche, ham, spanish omelette and no doubt lots of other dishes.  This week I’ve added green lentils and tuna to make a fuller salad for lunches, which works really well.

For some reason, the idea of runner bean dhal popped into my head this year and I’ve become a bit obsessed with it, especially since going on my Tideswell School of Food Indian cookery evening and learning to make fresh naan bread.  You could adapt any vegetable dhal recipe, but here’s the one that I used as a base, adding extra chilli  from the garden (tick!).

My runner beans

I’ve been putting runner beans in so many different dishes – I like them in curries, stir-fries, risottos (especially with a bit of chorizo) and casseroles as well as simply steamed on the side.  They also work well in place of savoy cabbage in this bacon and savoy cabbage pasta recipe I posted in January.

Here’s a recipe I can’t wait to try – I was thinking of some sort of chorizo con judias verdes (chorizo with green beans) tapas idea, and I came across this recipe for creamy chorizo and green beans.  I’m sure runner beans would fit in perfectly well.  I was slightly hesitant about the addition of cream at first, but the author – Kristina of the Fifth floor cooking blog in Denmark – sells it pretty well as ‘one of the most scrumptious dishes I’ve ever had’.  Pretty convincing.

Blackberries

Freshly picked blackberries

I’m not a massive baker (much to my husband’s chagrin) but I’ve found a few good recipes which use blackberries.  I love blackberry and white chocolate muffins – there’s loads of muffin recipes around, and really you could substitute blackberries for any fruit in other recipes, such as raspberries, blueberries, strawberries… the recipe I’m using at the moment is from the Goddess’s Kitchen blog.

I also like the idea of apple and blackberry cake – I use the recipe that my mum uses, so I think I’ll try sticking a good handful of blackberries in as it’s already a lovely moist cake, but there are lots of other recipes here and here and here…

As for savoury recipes, this roast duck with blackberry sauce recipe caught my eye last year, and I was reminded of it by Nibbly Pig on Twitter the other day when we were chatting about blackberry recipes.  It looks glorious and I’ll definitely be trying it.

We’re also using up lots of blackberries in breakfast smoothies, mixed in and blitzed up with whatever other fruit we have lying around.  I’ve usually got some in the freezer, which gives the smoothie a nice chill on a warm summer’s morning.  Not that there are many of those about.

Courgettes

Tiddler

My husband and I are massive fans of courgette lasagne – I’ve cooked it for some friends as well and it always goes down fabulously well.  The recipe includes ricotta, but I’ve made it with a standard cream cheese too, which is a good substitute if you’re using up ingredients or looking to cut costs a bit.

I’ve made a grilled courgette tapas recipe quite a few times.  You end up with really succulent, flavoursome discs of courgette.  It’s such a simple recipe and barely needs any ingredients – I use the thyme from my garden, so it all feels fresh and homegrown.  Here’s a photo of the recipe I use, from this little book a friend gave me a few years’ ago:

Courgette tapas

This courgette, potato and mint frittata is great warm, but I think it’s even better cold.  It makes a fabulous packed lunch.  I recommend adding LOTS of mint to this, much more than the handful it suggests.

Apples

Apples ripening

This is where my glut really becomes a challenge and I hated having to throw away some rotten apples this year, that I just wasn’t able to use up.  Some of the recipes I found only used 1 or 2 apples, so whilst they were lovely, they didn’t make great inroads into the stacks of crates sitting in my basement.  However, there are some great recipes in this selection and a dash of tangy apple in a savoury dish always appeals to me and if I achieve my aim of making cider this year, then that will tackle a good number of the pesky things.

Apples

Delia’s curried parsnip and apple soup is one of my favourites – I don’t tend to bother with making the parsnip crisps, because I’m lazy, but it makes the whole kitchen smell beautiful.  It freezes well and is such a great winter warmer to take into work for lunch.

I also adore Delia’s tomato, apple and celery cream soup – it’s heavenly,  the apple gives it a really unique flavour.  For some reason her original recipe isn’t online, but I found this one from the Tomato Lover blog which is essentially the same but for 2 details:

1. The sherry is omitted in her blog – I say it’s essential!
2. It doesn’t mention straining through a sieve after blending, which is a bit of a pain, but I do think it needs it to give a really smooth soup.

Delia once again…this time I’m praising her fast roast pork with rosemary and caramelised apples – each time I’ve made this, it’s worked perfectly and has been lick-your-plate-clean delicious.  She suggests using Granny Smith apples but it’s worked fine with apples from my trees in the garden, whatever they may be!

I couldn’t really omit a classic apple tart from this list…my freezer gets stocked up with lots of stewed apples, which I use as the filling for this tart, then I glaze it with my homemade apple jelly.

Any more ideas for using up my garden produce, or great recipes you’ve found for the veg from your own garden?

The Schoolrooms, Bradfield

I headed up to Bradfield Farmers Market on Saturday afternoon with a friend but I think we left it a bit late.  By the time we got there (1.45), stalls were already clearing up and many were looking low on produce, so we bought a few bits that we needed and decided a late lunch was needed.  Well, not for me as I’d gorged that morning on a full English breakfast from Forge Dam Cafe and was still full, but my friend was peckish.

The Schoolrooms, Bradfield

We walked back around the village green, past the picnickers and cricketers and over the bridge to the Schoolrooms, which opened in May in the old school house of Low Bradfield School.  It now houses a deli and cafe with a focus on local food, including meat from the co-owner’s farm (you can order meat boxes of mixed meats), bread from the Bakewell Pudding Shop and beers from nearby Bradfield Brewery.  They also sell plenty of treats from further afield in the deli, such as Lime Tree Pantry Pies from Nottinghamshire, delicious puddings from Cartmel Village Shop in Lancashire and a good selection of cheese, including Lincolnshire Poacher, Cornish Yarg, Brie, Wensleydale and others.

Fresh fruit and veg

Ensalata counter

Wines, vinegars and oils

Free bay leaves!

We went upstairs for a quick bite – it’s a light and airy room and the air conditioning was welcome, as it was a warm day.  You can also eat outside in the garden.

The Schoolrooms cafe

I liked the look of the menu, although prices are perhaps a touch above what I’d called ‘cafe’ fayre, as you can pay upwards of £6 for a light lunch.  Still, portions are good (see the pate photo) and ingredients are high quality, so you pay for what you get and it’s by no means extortionate.  My friend ordered the tasty smooth pate, which came in decent proportions with a mountain of melba toast, well dressed leaves and a little pot of chutney.

Pate and melba toast

There’s plenty of other appealing dishes on the menu including mackerel and horseradish fishcake (£7.25) and burgers and sausages from their own butchery.  The full cafe menu is online as well as a menu for their most recent bistro night (£24.95 a head for three courses with coffee), with further dates listed on a fortnightly basis.  The Schoolrooms is fully licensed for both the cafe and bistro nights.

With so much going on in Bradfield food-wise (like the Farmers Market, Our Cow Molly farm and Bradfield Brewery to name but a few), The Schoolrooms is well worth a trip, not just if you’re in the area but as a destination for lunch, coffee and a good bit of food shopping.

Tasting menu at the Wig and Pen

A couple of weeks ago I was invited down to try the Wig and Pen‘s new tasting menu on Campo Lane, just behind Sheffield Cathedral.  The Wig and Pen closed in its previous incarnation last November and re-opened under the new management of the team at the Milestone – already well-known in Sheffield for its award winning and TV-famed gastropub and with a reputation for being one of the city’s best places to eat.  Marc Sheldon and Matt Bigland, owners of the Milestone had previously worked in the city centre and Marc told me that when the chance came to get back to the bustle of the centre, they jumped at it.  They’ve worked out a balance for the different markets they cater for at different times of day: a range of sandwiches and light lunches for those needing a snappy business lunch break; a pre-theatre menu including the option to return for your dessert after the performance and an evening menu to show their flair, as the Wig and Pen pitches itself as the more experimental sister venue to the original Milestone.

This wasn’t my first visit here – I chose the Wig and Pen for my birthday earlier this year, and wasn’t disappointed at all.  Food, drinks, presentation and service were all immaculate.  I had tartar of smoked salmon with creme fraiche and beetroot, followed by a fine piece of lamb rump steak.  Dessert was a beautiful smoked rosemary chocolate mousse.  Portion sizes weren’t immense – they weren’t small either –  but just the right amount for three courses without leaving you feeling uncomfortably full.

Given how good my first experience was at the Wig and Pen, I was really excited about the tasting menu.  I’d browsed the menu online before going to give me an idea of what to expect – but even so, I wasn’t totally able to predict how it would be presented and so each course still retained an element of surprise.  Here are my pictures to talk you through the menu, course by course:

Pea veloute, truffled pea tortellini with mint

We started off with a warm pea veloute, with a lovely slightly sweet taste from the peas. The tortellini was nicely al dente with just the right hint of mint to flavour it.

Pork belly with langoustine, carrot and star anise

The pork belly was deliciously soft and tender, really nice and juicy, as was the langoustine. I’m not generally a fan of star anise but the flavouring here was subtle, and a really good balance. I liked the pork with a dash of the sweet carrot puree – the red strips you can see in the photo were marinated carrots and they added a contrast of texture.

Halibut with curry oil, chicken wing, raisin and shallot

This was probably my favourite course – I loved this and was pleased to see that it’s available as a starter on their main menu so I can get an even bigger portion next time!  The halibut was perfectly cooked and nicely soft without falling apart, accompanied by a lovely crispy piece of well seasoned chicken.  I loved the combination of the raisin puree with the curry oil with both the chicken and the halibut as well as the crispy crunch of the light shallot rings.  I could have merrily eaten this ten times over.

Beef rump with pureed potato, cep, and short beef rib

This was the ‘main’ course, although still a smaller portion than a traditional main. Up to this point we’d been slightly concerned that we might leave still hungry as taster portions are by definition small – however this course was much heartier. There were several good pieces of beef rump, which was really melt-in-the-mouth tender. They lay on a bed of intensely flavoursome slow cooked beef rib, which had a mushroomy taste to it to go with the ceps scattered around the plate.  It was a rich dish, so some seasonal greens might have cut through the richness slightly – but at the same time, very luxurious and, er, meaty.  Which is a good thing.

Basil granite and balsamic jelly

This course was a delicate palate cleanser – however, with really distinctive flavours.  As well as the basil, there was a definite hit of mint; all very clean and fresh.  The balsamic jelly was great, all the sweetness of balsamic but no sour vinegary taste – very smooth jelly.

Passion fruit jelly, compressed watermelon and coriander

It’s hard to describe the intense flavour of the passion fruit jelly – so you’ll just have to go and try it for yourself.  It was truly gorgeous, wobbly just as jelly should be with a perfectly smooth texture and consistency.  My husband thought that a chocolatey finish would be a better end to the meal and I would never turn that down – but this was really lovely and I wouldn’t have wanted it replaced.

There is an optional cheese board at the end of the meal for £5, but we felt that we’d had plenty and didn’t need it.  We also decided not to have the suggested wines with the meal (£14.50 for 5 different 75ml glasses of wine, with every course except the basil granite), simply because it was a Tuesday night and I had an 8am start at work the next day!  At a weekend, however, I’d be much more tempted to add these onto the £36 per person for the tasting menu for the whole experience.

Would I recommend it?  Definitely – and I already have to several people.  Why?  It was a very different dining experience to most other things on offer in Sheffield – I’ve heard of very few places offering a tasting menu, with the exception of WasabiSabi‘s new menu.  Aside from being different, the quality of the food and presentation ranks the whole experience up a few notches – I really couldn’t fault the ingredients or the cooking.  It was a truly special evening, made even more so for us by Marc and the Wig and Pen team treating us to a meal on them – but I would have gladly paid for such excellent food and such an interesting meal.  I felt it was worth the price they’ve set it at for a special occasion and really look forward to returning soon.

Lamb breast with sweetbreads, pancetta, mashed potato, peas and mint

The tasting menu was launched a couple of weeks before the start of 2011’s Sheffield Food Festival, which is now underway.  The Wig and Pen have an amazing range of events on for this week, which you can check out here – not to mention their pop-up restaurant and bar at the top of Fargate, serving BBQ and British classics, including lamb breast with mashed potato, peas and mint and seafood chowder with market fish.  I ate there last night with Clare who writes the Love to Live to Eat blog as well as a foodie blog for Exposed Magazine and went for the lovely, tender and flavoursome slowcooked lamb.

As if the Milestone and Wig and Pen team weren’t busy enough, look out for courses at their cookery school, wine tasting events and exciting news about plans for their very own butchery near the Milestone in Kelham Island.  The Milestone is also aiming to be voted Yorkshire’s favourite pub – click here if they get your vote and enjoy all they have to offer this week at the Food Festival, and at their two great venues in Sheffield.

Nether Edge Farmers Market

Out of a slightly dull weekend, I somehow picked the two sunniest hours on Sunday 19th June to spend down at Nether Edge Farmers Market today and thoroughly worth my while it was too.  Organised by Nether Edge Neighbourhood Group, it takes place on a quarterly basis on Nether Edge Road and Glen Road – if you missed this one, your next chance is the 25th September 2011.  Here are some photos of what caught my fancy:

Indian Sheffs

Indian Sheffs, who I haven’t seen before, serving up hot bhajis, curry, rice and dips.

Cat Lane Bakery

Cat Lane Bakery – run by Beanies Wholefoods in Walkley – were selling a range of their great breads and cakes, including these fantastic looking vegetable foccacias:

Cat Lane breads

Pumpkin Oil

Pumpkin Oil is a relatively new addition to the Sheffield food scene.  The oil is cold pressed, 100% pure extra virgin Styrian pumpkin oil from Slovenia and brought back for bottling by a Sheffield family who fell in love with the oil on one of their many visits to the country.  Their website lists suggested uses for the oil, including drizzling over vanilla ice cream, dipping oil for crusty bread and a garlic and pumpkin oil sauce.  I’ll be testing these out with the bottle I bought – £4.50 for 100 mls, £11.25 for 250 mls or £20.25 for 500 mls.

Autumn Harvest Mushrooms

I was excited to see Autumn Harvest Mushrooms from Rotherham, as I do love my shrooms.  They were offering tasters of a delicious mushroom called eryngii – really rich and meaty.  They sell a great mix of dried and fresh mushrooms, as well as things like dried mushroom powder which can be used in a similar way to stock powder.  They farm most of the mushrooms themselves and forage for porcini too.  They visit a number of farmers’ markets around Yorkshire – contact them on autumnharvest@live.co.uk

Mushrooms

Heavenly Cheesecakes were at the market, with a range looking as delectable as ever – though by the time I got to them, the stall was looking a bit depleted so they must have had a rush on.

Heavenly Cheesecakes

Cheesecakes

Heard of the Sharrow Pie Experiment?  No?  Then head down to London Road and see what all the fuss is about.  Quite simply, they’re finding out if they can change the world by eating pie, and at the London Road site, they offer pie and space – the conversation (and the results of the experiment) are up to you.  Follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook to keep up with their events, and if their pies are as good as the root vegetable bhajis they had to try at the market, it’ll be worth your trip.

Moss Valley Fine Meats

There was plenty of hot food available, including smoked haddock fishcakes from Lincoln, bacon butties from Whirlow Hall Farm and sausage patties from Moss Valley Fine Meats, though today I went for a juicy venison burger from Round Green Farm before moving on to find pudding.  Another new find for me was Feel-Good cakes from Sheffield, who specialise in cakes suitable for people with food intolerances and health-related conditions, including gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan and no-added sugar cakes and bakes.  They use vegetables in the cake in place of fats, to add flavour and moisture.

Feel-Good cakes

Feel-Good fig, raspberry and almond slice

I went for one of their chocolate, orange and raspberry cakes, made with courgette – fabulously fresh and sweetened by the raspberry; highly recommended next time you spot them at a market.

Feel Good brownies, cakes and slices

In need of pudding pudding, we stopped at Yee Kwan Ice Cream to buy some to take home.  There was a debate over lemon tart vs. the salted butter caramel special (though green tea and chocolate & chilli are my favourites of Yee Kwan’s flavours) but my husband won and we went for a tub of lemon tart.

Yee Kwan Ice Cream

Only once we’d bought our ice cream did we stumble across Pimms on the bowling green, in the sunshine – but sadly too late for us, as the ice cream was calling for the freezer so we were now on a deadline.

Pimms on the bowling green

There was however just time to stop off at The Old Sweet Shop to pick up some Rhubarb and Custard tea from Tea Box. Here’s the sum total of my spoils from a busy afternoon’s shopping, including Stichelton cheese from Welbeck near Mansfield, Sheff’s Special Mojo sauce, mushroom powder from Autumn Harvest and great ham from Hall Home farm:

Spoils

 

Tideswell Food Festival

Taste Tideswell

A 30 minute drive outside Sheffield lies the village of Tideswell in the Peak District, where a food revolution is gathering pace.  Saturday 7th May saw their first ever Food Festival take place, with chances to explore and find out about all the food developments taking place round this area.  Here are some of my highlights from the day, the markets and my roaming:

Litton Larder

Litton Larder pickles

The very friendly ladies from Litton Larder (just outside Tideswell) were selling their pickles, jams, gluten free brownies and sticky toffee puddings.  Their entire range is gluten free and the sticky toffee puddings – Penny’s Puds – are the real stars.  Light, sweet and – predictably – sticky, you’d never guess they were gluten free and plenty of people seemed convinced by the tasters they were offering, as I spotted lots of the little tubs round the market in shopping baskets.

Penny's puds - sticky toffee pudding

The puddings are now available in Chatsworth Farm Shop, as well as Litton village shop and are definitely worth picking up for a treat if you see them.

Saint Basil Olive Grove

Saint Basil Olive Grove oil

A surprising find was this very special tasting cold-pressed olive oil.  Perhaps less surprising is that the olives are not exactly locally produced…it comes from Crete, where four friends from the UK ventured into the holiday villa market and found themselves owners of 200 odd olive trees.  The organically-grown olives are handpicked, cleaned and pressed in Crete, then the oil is brought back to the UK where it is bottled and labelled (using Kirsty’s – one of the owners of the olive groves and estate – own designs) in Litton Mill in the Peak District.  As the team are present from start to finish of the process, they guarantee that the resulting oil is single estate and unblended in contrast to many oils that we buy in the supermarket.  The flavour is smooth, fruity and peppery.  It’s a really impressive oil which I recommend you try if you get the chance – you can order the oil online, or contact the sellers to pick up in either Knutsford or Litton Mill.

Peak District Dairy Farm Shop

Peak District Dairy Farm Shop and Cafe

The farm shop is right in the centre of Tideswell and sells a wealth of Tideswell produce, as well as hot and cold foods in the cafe upstairs.  They sell jams and marmalades made in Tideswell, pickles from Ashford and of course a huge range of ice creams from the dairy itself.  As it was a fairly dreary rainy day, I wasn’t in the mood for an ice cream but next time I’m there I’ll be sampling the pistachio flavour.

Peak District Dairy ice cream

Tideswell marmalades

Tideswell community garden

I love my garden and especially my veg patch.  I’m lucky enough to have room to grow a few veggies of my own, but not everyone has that space.  That’s why the Tideswell community garden was so exciting to see – a dedicated community space for growing, learning and sharing in the centre of the village.  It forms part of Taste Tideswell’s ‘Grow It’ aim and uses compostable waste from the School of Food as well as the Vanilla Kitchen, a nearby cafe.  Volunteers are invited to their regular growing days to get involved.

Tideswell community garden

Cabbages in Tideswell community garden

Peas and broad beans in Tideswell community garden

Produce from the garden is used in the School of Food, as well as for educating school children and producing food for local charities and shelters and use in ‘Taste Tideswell’ branded products.

Tideswell School of Food

Tideswell school of food

This is the feature presentation.  Within easy distance of Sheffield, it offers a host of day and evening courses on a range of food topics, including tapas, Indian cooking, brewing, and foraging to name but a fraction of what you can learn about.  I’m booked on an Indian cooking course later this summer but am certain I’ll be booking on others and buying them for gifts too.

There were tours and demonstrations all day long, including wine-tasting and tea-tasting.  The demos were so jampacked that I couldn’t get in but I joined in with a tour to sneak a peek at the teaching kitchen, the commercial kitchen (where my massaman curry lunch had been prepared that morning), meeting rooms and nano-brewery.  Our tour guide, Tim – Tideswell’s ‘Village Champion’ – paused at the top of the building to show us the view back down the main street of Tideswell and to emphasise that this is what the Taste Tideswell movement is all about: supporting the local community and businesses by creating and sustaining jobs in the food and retail industry.  As their website says, they want to build:

A thriving prosperous community sustained by its own food economy.

An inspiring vision, both from the building and from the philosophy.  Check out the great range of courses and try out what they’re offering.

Whitehough Cottage Fudge

Mmmm…fudge…just time for a little sweet treat.  Beautiful hand-made fudge from the Peak District, sold with a range of flavours and a friendly smile.  Apologies for photographing the top of your head, nice lady, but the Baileys and White Chocolate Fudge was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

Whitehough Cottage Fudge

Sharman Cookery School

Sharman Cookery School

A final mention must go to the delightful Mrs Sharman who was advertising her own Pan Asian cuisine and courses.  She provided samples of her food which was truly beautiful – I tried a Malaysian curry as she told me about the blend of 25 different spices that combine to give flavour, without scorching heat.

Mrs Sharman offers cookery courses to book for individuals, groups or businesses – she was so charming and vibrant, I really think you couldn’t fail to have a fabulous time with her and she really can cook…

Sharman Pan Asian Cuisine

Much as I would love to point you towards her website, I can’t – she doesn’t have one!  But if it sounds like it would be up your street, call her on 01332 835485 or 07815 008632.  Seriously – she’s fab!!

I came home feeling so pleased I’d made the trip out to Tideswell, despite the grey and rain.  Taste Tideswell is a really inspiring initiative, tackling real challenges within a community with exciting solutions – well, I would find them exciting, as I really like grub.  But I’d defy you to visit, see what they’re doing and not come away at least a little bit impressed.  It’s a great foodie day out from Sheffield, so combine a course at the Tideswell School of Food with a trip around the village to see the project grow.

Zerboni Taste, Ecclesall Road

Zerboni Taste, Ecclesall Road

We were in search of a good brunch this weekend, and I’m pleased to report we found it here.  Zerboni Taste is a Italian cafe a bistro on Ecclesall Road just down from the Hunters Bar roundabout and a short walk from Endcliffe Park – here, to be precise. It’s owned by Marco Zerboni, who used to work at Nonna’s Cucina just off Ecclesall Road.  It was a beautifully  sunny morning, but sadly Taste is on the wrong side of the street for our purposes and so the seats outside were cast in shade.  However, they had thoughtfully placed some fleecy blankets on the chairs outside for those brave enough – this did not include us and so we squeezed into a corner by the window to watch the world go by.  There are more seats upstairs too.

Taste is open as a cafe in the daytime Tues-Sun, but it also opens Fri/Sat nights as a bistro.  There’s a sample menu on the website, but they also say that they vary the bistro menu regularly.  We only had eyes and stomachs for brunch however and I’d been browsing their daytime menu earlier in the week so already knew what I wanted.  The Groestl (£5.95) was what I was looking forward to – potatoes sauteed with red onion, chives, parma ham (though the online menu told me to expect speck) and served with a fried egg and bruschetta.  Amazing:

Groestl

The dish apparently comes from the Dolomite mountains, close to the Italian/Austrian border.  It met all my expectations – the saltiness of the ham was well balanced by the slight sweetness of the potatoes.  Well seasoned all round, with a fried egg that oozed yellow goo.  I didn’t really need the bruschetta as well, though I ate it anyway as it seemed rude not to, and it was well soaked with olive oil, but still crisp.

My husband went for the Full Italian (£6.50), the highlight of which for him were the Tuscan-stewed beans.  These are several cuts above a can of Heinz baked beans, made with (I think) cannellini beans stewed in a herby tomato sauce.  Wonderful.  The sausages were impressive too, really firm and dense so they must have had a very high meat content.

Full Italian

Taste serve a range of Teapigs teas with an extensive choice in the back of their menu – however they apparently don’t have all the teas listed in stock, so the chocolate flake tea I rather fancied wasn’t available.  As I had a sweet tooth, I went instead for the rooibos creme caramel tea.  It didn’t quite do the job for me; a hot chocolate probably would have been more what I was looking for.

Speaking of sweet things, Taste do a very tempting selection of cakes and desserts, all homemade. We were pretty full so didn’t need anything more but options included coconut macaroons, apple strudel, bigne, chocolate cake with marmalade topping, sbrisolona, toasted panettone and Sicilian orange and chocolate chip cake.  They also sell chilli infused extra virgin olive oil and homemade preserves to take away.

Definitely worth more visits – to try their evening bistro menu and to have another load of the delicious groestl.