East Anglian Food Events - October to December 2011

I love visiting farmers markets or taking part in local food events but often have trouble remembering when they're on, what time etc. So, to help myself as much as anything, I've decided to start a monthly feature detailing all the upcoming foodie events happening in East Anglia, and bigger events further afield, that I've heard about. I'm sure there are many more events out there, farmers markets in particular, that I haven't included, but hopefully I'll be able to add more as I find out about them.

If anyone has anything they'd like me to include then please let me know.

OCTOBER

Farmers Markets

1st - Jimmy's Farm, East Suffolk - 10am to 2pm

8th - Rickinghall Farmers Market, Mid Suffolk - 9.30am to 12.30pm

15th - Aldeburgh Farmers Market, Village Hall, East Suffolk - 9.30am to 12.30pm

22nd - Easton Farm Park, East Suffolk - 9am to 1pm (£5 carpark charge redeemable against purchases)

Every Saturday - Wyken Vineyards, West Suffolk - 9am to 1pm

Other Events

3rd to 17th - London Restaurant Festival, various locations

14th to 16th - London Cheese & Wine Festival, Southbank - 11am to 8pm (6pm on Sunday)

22nd - The Secluded Tea Party, Cambridgeshire - Vintage Tea Party - Brunch/Afternoon Tea/Midnight Feast

NOVEMBER

Farmers Markets

5th - Snape Maltings, East Suffolk - 9.30am to 1pm

5th - Jimmy's Farm, East Suffolk - 10am to 2pm

12th - Rickinghall Farmers Market, Mid Suffolk - 9.30am to 12.30pm

19th - Aldeburgh Farmers Market, Village Hall, East Suffolk - 9.30am to 12.30pm

26th - Easton Farm Park, East Suffolk - 9am to 1pm (£5 carpark charge redeemable against purchases)

Every Saturday - Wyken Vineyards, West Suffolk - 9am to 1pm

Other Events

5th & 6th - La Hogue Farm Christmas Tasting Extravaganza, Nr Newmarket

19th - Bite'n'Write Food Blogger Event, Birmingham

19th - The Secluded Tea Party, Cambridgeshire - Blogfest - 10am to 2pm

23rd - 27th BBC Good Food Show, Birmingham NEC

25th - 27th - Bury St Edmunds Christmas Fayre - 10am to 7pm (5pm on Sunday)

DECEMBER

Farmers Markets

3rd - Snape Maltings. East Suffolk - 9.30am to 1pm

3rd & 4th - Jimmy's Farm Christmas Fayre, East Suffolk - 10am to 2pm

10th - Rickinghall Farmers Market, Mid Suffolk - 9.30am to 12.30pm

17th - Aldeburgh Farmers Market, Village Hall, East Suffolk - 9.30am to 12.30pm

17th - Easton Farm Park, East Suffolk - 9am to 1pm (£5 car park charge redeemable against purchases)

23rd - Snape Malting Christmas Market, East Suffolk - 9.30am to 1pm

Every Saturday - Wyken Vineyards, West Suffolk - 9am to 1pm

Other Events

TBC - The Secluded Tea Party, Cambrideshire - Vintage Xmas Tea Party

Banana Rock Cakes

This another great recipe for those times when you have some spare bananas sitting in the fruit bowl. I love rock cakes anyway as they are the perfect store cupboard bake and you can have them on the table in about 45 minutes, but adding some mashed banana to the basic recipe is an inspired idea. The banana adds an extra sweetness and they make your kitchen smell fabulous while they're in the oven.

The recipe comes from The Little Red Barn Baking book, an American book which I really should dig out more often as it contains some great recipes.

Being American, the measurements are in cups, which I've always found a bit of a faff to be honest, so I've converted the flour and butter into ounces and grams. I used cup measures for the raisins and chocolate but if you don't have these you can use something of a similar size as the amounts don't have to be exact. For reference, 1 cup = 250ml.

Banana Rock Cakes

(adapted from The Little Red Barn Baking Book by Adriana Rabinovich)

1 3/4 cups/250g/9 oz all-purpose (plain) flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/3 cup/75g/2 3/4 oz unsalted butter, cut into chunks

1 tablespoons light brown sugar

1/3 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup chopped semisweet chocolate

1 cup ripe bananas (about 2 medium bananas)

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 egg

1) Preheat the oven to 400f/200c. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

2) Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Rub in the butter then stir in the sugar, raisins and chocolate.

3) In another bowl, mash the bananas then add the lemon juice and egg, and mix well. Combine the bananas with the flour mixture to make a sticky dough.

4) Spoon the dough equally into 10 lumps on the baking sheet, leaving some space for spreading. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the cakes are golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 10 cakes

Meal Planning Monday - 26th September 2011

No meal planning post for me last week as I wasn't feeling particularly inspired, although I did discover this fantastic recipe for Peanut Butter Squares. This week, however, I'm a bit more on the ball and have a few really nice things lined up. At the moment I don't have anything new on the agenda but, having said that, I might switch the Cottage Pie for something different depending on what I fancy on the day.

So here's the line-up as it stands at the moment...

Monday - Curried Sweet Potato Soup with a granary loaf from the breadmaker

Tuesday - Jacket Potatoes & Salad

Wednesday - Ricotta & Sun-Dried Tomato Pasta Salad

Thursday - Summer-in-Winter Chicken

Friday - Roasted Pepper, Pancetta & Mascarpone Risotto

Saturday - Delia's Souffled Macaroni Cheese

Sunday - Cottage Pie

As always, if you'd like to share your plans for the week either leave a comment or log your post on Mrs M's blog, At Home with Mrs M.

Peanut-Butter Squares

This is why I love blogging. Because it gives me the opportunity to share fantastic recipes like this one!

This recipe has been on my (very extensive) to-do list for a very long time now but last weekend I finally found myself with all of the necessary ingredients AND an excuse to make it and boy do I wish I'd tried it sooner!

Peanut butter and chocolate make such a great pairing and this recipe brings them together in a simple but devastatingly effective way, with just the addition of sugar and butter to create a rich, sweet and very addictive mouthful. These squares take just minutes to prepare, especially if you have a food mixer to do the hard work for you. Even melting the chocolate in the microwave was quick and easy (why have I not tried this before?). I imagine they keep pretty well for a few days but I doubt a batch of these would ever last long enough to test that theory!

For another fabulous way to use up peanut butter have a look at this recipe for Snickers & Peanut Butter Muffins.

Peanut-Butter Squares

(adapted from How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson)

For the base

50g dark muscovado sugar

200g icing sugar

50g unsalted butter

200g smooth peanut butter (if you keep it in the fridge, take it out well in advance for easier mixing)

For the topping

200g milk chocolate

100g plain chocolate

1 tablespoon unsalted butter

1) Line a 23cm square brownie tin with baking parchment.

2) Stir all the ingredients for the base together until smooth and press into the lined tin. If some of the muscovado sugar stays in small lumps don't worry.

3) To make the topping, put the chocolates and butter in a large jug or bowl and melt in the microwave (this should take two to three minutes on medium). Once melted together spread over the base and then put the tin in the fridge to set.

4) When the chocolate has hardened cut into small squares.

Meal Planning Monday - 12th September 2011

Well the summer holidays are over, everyone is back to school or work and I'm gradually getting used to the routine again. Hopefully that routine will include a bit more blogging that of late - my last post was on the 22nd of August (although I have fitted in a holiday between then and now) and I haven't done a Meal Planning Monday post since the 18th of July! Where has the time gone?

So let's kick things off again with my meal plan for this week. As always I hope to fit in some baking at some point but I haven't decide what as yet.

Monday - Spanish Omelette & Salad

Tuesday - Spaghetti with 5-minute tomato sauce

Wednesday - M&S Vegetarian Kievs with Rice and Veg

Thursday - Jacket Potatoes

Friday - Bacon and Vegetable Pasta

Saturday - Chicken Korma with Rice and Veg

Sunday - Nigella's BBQ Mince

If you want to share your foodie plans for the week just leave a comment below or post a link on Mrs M's blog, At Home with Mrs M.

Hotel Chocolate - Adventurous Chef's Collection Part 2

In my previous post I told you about the arrival on my doorstep of a Hotel Chocolat Adventurous Chef's Collection hamper and my adventures with the sweet items included in the box. This time, it's the turn of the savoury items.

First up is their Cocoa Honey & Mustard Dressing, which is a classic mix of honey, dijon mustard and balsamic vinegar with the addition of some crushed cocoa nibs.

I used this in a salad recipe I found on the label, which combined salad leaves with cooked chicken and peppers. This turned out really well and the dressing added great flavour to the dish, although it was quite heavy on the mustard.

Next up was a jar of Chocolate & Chiptole Chilli Sauce, a ready-t0-use sauce that be used in a number of ways - in hot dishes, as a salad dressing, in sandwiches etc.

I used this first of all as a dip to accompany some grilled pork steaks with roasted vegetables and potato wedges. The sauce had lots of smoky, spicy flavour and really added interest to an otherwise quite plain dinner.

I also added it to a marinade for chicken that I found in Thomasina Miers' book, Mexican Made Easy, together with a sprinkling of the cocoa bean shavings that were also included in the box. The marinade gave the chicken loads of delicious flavour and I could definitely taste the smoky chilli sauce in the background.

Chicken Adobado (Marinated Chicken)

(adapted from Mexican Made Simple by Thomasina Miers)

For the marinade

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 onion, chopped

8 cloves of garlic, chopped

4 heaped tablespoons tomato puree

juice of 2 oranges

45ml red wine vinegar

2 chiles de arbol, finely chopped

1 tablespoon Chocolate & Chipotle Chilli Sauce

30ml soy sauce

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano or 1 teaspoon dried

30g brown sugar

1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

1 tablespoon cocoa bean shavings

a few teaspoons of sea salt and some black pepper

1 medium-sized free range chicken, segmented, or 12 chicken pieces

1) Whiz all the marinade ingredients together in a blender and pour over the chicken pieces. Marinate overnight or for at least a few house in the fridge. Remove the chicken from the fridge at least half an hour before cooking to allow it to come to room temperature.

2) Either grill or barbeque the chicken until cooked through and nicely coloured (approx 6 minutes on each side).

Serves 4

Finally, I tried out the Chilli & Cocoa Glaze for Fish & Poultry. At first I thought this would be a sauce but it is simply unsweetened cacao chocolate with added chillies. It was very straightforward to use - I just added a tablespoon or so to the fish cooking in the frying pan and it melted away into a smooth sauce.

To be honest this was probably my least favourite item in the box as I found the flavour a little too dark and spicy for my tastes however my other half tells me he liked it.

Overall, this collection of goodies would make an excellent gift for any keen chef, especially one who likes their food with a bit of extra kick.

A big thanks to Hotel Chocolat for providing me with this fantastic selection to sample.

Hotel Chocolat's Adventurous Chef's Collection - Part 1

A few weeks ago I was very excited to receive a large parcel from Hotel Chocolat which contained one of their amazing hampers from their Cocoa Cuisine range. This particular hamper is their Adventurous Chef's Collection and contains a range of both sweet and savoury products beautifully presented in a large white box bound with black ribbon.

The first, and most intriguing, product I tried was their Penne Cocoa Pasta. This is just traditional penne with unsweetened cocoa powder added to it and can be used in both sweet and savoury dishes. The uncooked pasta had a lovely chocolatey smell but when cooked I found the flavour a bit more subtle than I expected, hence the addition of the chocolate chips to the recipe below.

Not surprisingly I decided to use it in a sweet dish rather than savoury and created a dessert version of a pasta bake, inspired by a favourite Cheesecake Brownie recipe. This turned out really well and the chocolate pasta worked really well with the rich cheesecake topping and sharply sweet raspberries.

Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake Pasta Bake

125g penne cocoa pasta

handful chocolate chips

1 egg

200g cream cheese

75g caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Handful of raspberries

1) Preheat the oven to 180c/gas mark 4. Cook the pasta as normal until cooked then drain and empty into a small oven-proof dish. Sprinkle with chocolate chips.

2) Beat the cream cheese, egg and icing sugar together until smooth then pour over the pasta.

3) Top with the raspberries and bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes until just firm.

Serves 2

Next up was a packet of Pure Cocoa Bean Shavings. This is just pure cocoa, with nothing else added to it, and it can be used in sweet or savoury dishes.

These are ideal for adding to savoury dishes to add some depth of flavour or to sweet dishes for an extra chocolatey kick and were perfect for a smoothie recipe I tried out recently. Have a look here for the recipe. I also added some to a chicken marinade I made using another of the products from the hamper and the recipe for that will appear in my next post.

The third and final sweet item was a packet of 70% Dark Chocolate Drops. I've used these before and they are definitely one of my favourite Hotel Chocolate products, mostly because the chocolate drops are so practical for cooking with and they come in a generous 400g bag so will usually last for two or three recipes.

Most of this particular pack were used to create a fantastic marmalade version of the classic chocolate brownie. Have a look here for the recipe - this is definitely one of my favourite recipes so far this year!

As I mentioned above, the hamper also contained three products designed for savoury dishes and the details of these items will follow in a separate post in the next couple of days.