As much as I love getting back to London after long catering stints in Spain, I love getting out of London too. Last Summer my most memorable trip was to Kent, for a day of cherry picking, apple pressing and cake baking with a friend. This year I was kindly invited to experience Jamie Oliver's Big Feastival at Alex James' home in Oxfordshire. I asked my friend Squeeze if she fancied bombing it down the motorway for some sunshine, food, cocktails and an outdoor concert and we were there in a jiffy.
This is me looking chuffed with my Barbecoa chilli dog.
It was a celebration of food and music, the great outdoors and a bit of a mess about. I would really recommend anyone with kids to try it next year. Go for a day, or camp out all weekend, there are plenty of things for kids to do whilst you sample local produce, street food such (mmm...Pizza Pilgrims) and cocktails and you can all enjoy a wee boogie to the live acts, we got there in time for Paloma Faith and The Noisettes who were both fantastic.
So, the weekend got me thinking...Jamie Oliver
seems to be like Marmite in the love him/hate him stakes. Why is this? Which side of the divide do you fall, I wonder? People who have never met him in person
are very quick to pronounce their dislike which seems grossly unfair. Not only
in respect of his success in removing the “Turkey Twizzler” and other nasties
from school dinners and his Fifteen project amongst others, but also these
fault finders conveniently overlook the astonishing energy, entrepreneurism,
professionalism, courage, conscience, care and responsibility that this man
must have to have achieved and maintain what he has. Are his critics jealous that this cheeky chappy from Essex made it so big? I think the majority are trivial
and a tad petty in their judgement.
After all the excitement of the weather warming up again we had a barbeque on the Sunday. I've been a little obsessed with ribs this Summer and the smells wafting from the BBQ really got the dogs' tails wagging.
As if the weekend hadn't been heavy enough on the plate, on Monday Reiko and I popped to Richard Corrigan's Oyster Shucking Championships at Bentley's on a glorious sunny afternoon. A wee band tooted away, welcoming us in and we arrived at the same time as a dancing bottle of tabasco, natch. It was such a fun afternoon celebrating the start of the Native Oyster season, sipping on champagne and slurping down oysters. So, I think the rules were, to shuck a box of oysters (30)and to turn them over in their shell in the quickest time but cleanly, with no grit/shell.
I would love to be a purist and declare my love of an oyster unadorned. I however, love a little spice in the form of a splash of Tabasco and a squeeze of lime. I particularly enjoyed Corrigan's Vietnamese style oysters, recipe found here.
HAD to include this pic, I met Ainsley Harriot, what a charmer. If you are around my age, you would have been slumped on the sofa after school watching this guy add a bit of fun to the kitchen with his Percy Pepper and Susie Salt. Champ!
Rather ashamedly @Agirlhastoeat and I jumped straight on the tube after to Balham for a wonderful meal prepared by Omar Allibhoy. He also did some fab demos whilst we munched on olives and tapas. My favourite tip was never to beat eggs. Just to use a fork very lightly to break up the yolk and white, I tried it out and it is better for achieving that runny middle I so love and you don't get a smidgen of the egg being spongy. My tortilla-
Omar's recipe for Tortilla with chorizo and olives - Serves 4
- 3 Large potatoes for frying
- 1 Spanish onion
- 1 Spanish olive oil for deep frying
- 8 Large free range eggs
- 225 g (7.9oz) Hot chorizo sausage
- 1 handful Pitted Spanish olives (green olives)
- 1 pinch Salt to season
- Peel, wash and thinly slice the potatoes and cut in half into the shape of half moons. Repeat this with the Spanish onion.
- Pour olive oil in a deep frying pan over a high heat - use enough oil to just cover the onion and potatoes.
- Once the oil is hot, drop in a slice of onion and this should start frying immediately. Cook the onion for around 10 minutes until golden and then add the sliced potatoes. Stir occasionally for at least 15 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and cooked through.
- Drain the oil from the potato and onion and mix in the egg and place in a separate dish. Let it rest for 10 minutes while you cook the chorizo and olives.
- Chop the chorizo into chunks and halve the pitted olives.
- In the same frying pan you have used to cook the potatoes use a medium heat to cook the chorizo for 1 minute, followed by the olives for just 15 seconds before adding this to the potato, onion and egg mix. Season and stir slowly.
- To make the tortilla place a non-stick pan over a medium heat and drizzle in a drop of olive oil.
- Pour the tortilla mix into the pan and lower the heat. After 4 minutes use a large plate to cover the pan, hold it tightly and flip the tortilla onto the plate. Slide the 'non-cooked side' of the tortilla back into the pan to cook.
*I was very lucky to have been invited to the above events by the organisers but was not asked to write a review. I simply thought I would do a round up and include a couple of the recipes to share.*
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