Recipe: Scallops and Oyster Mushroom in Cava w/ Crunchy Potatoes - Celebrating the Potato

This isn't a roastie it's a fondant (melts in the mouth) potato : )

by Simon Fernandez of ferdiesfoodlab

WIth all these fad diets sweeping the nation many of which remove the lovely carb element from the menu it would seem that everyone  has turned their back on the humble potato!!! In retaliation Jean Christophe Novelli has set up a competition to celebrate the potato. So I spent a little time today looking into this and blimey it's a versatile beasty indeed!

The potato is a fantastic vehicle for flavour and a great conveyor of slow release energy, and it's prepared in soooo many ways I couldn't cover them all in detail here, but I'm going to try at least skim over them.

There are a few things that have a bearing on the outcome of a culinary potato adventure. These might seem obvious but how the potato is cut has a huge effect: it alters the crunchiness, how quickly it cooks and has an impact on texture. Of course, another element that's very important to take in to account is the type of potato, and whether it has a waxy or floury flesh. This also affects the texture and in turn what the potato should be used for. Incidentally, there's a great list of potato qualities here (loads of potato varieties!), but in general use floury types for baked, mash and roasties, and waxier varieties for boiled, fried, and salads.

Quick comment on roasties….

What would life be without these nuggets of beauty? I can't remember the number of Sundays that I've sat down with family or friends for a fab roast dinner and a couple of pints or a glass of wine. What a brilliant combo. The problem is you get a rubbish roastie - waiting for hours in a baking tray hoping it might retain it's glory - as often as you get a good one! Sad times!

There's no excuse. Make sure your potato is cooked (boiled), then roughly mix with fat, (I use olive oil but goose fat is popular) salt and  pepper. Put them into a hot oiled baking tray so they sizzle when they hit the tray. Put 'em in at 180C and turn only when the bottoms are crunchy!! Wait till the new bottom is crunchy! Job done.

Scallops and Oyster Mushroom in Cava w/ Crunchy Potatoes

INGREDIENTS

6 scallops

200g mixed mushrooms including oyster (chopped)

150ml cava

25g butter

6 cloves of garlic

6 olives (quartered)

5 medium potatoes floury (peeled and chopped)

little oregano or thyme

15g parsley.

METHOD

Cook the garlic on a low heat in olive oil until completely soft.

Boil potatoes and then cut them up, or vice versa!

. . . and smash them . . .

. . . then sit them in a heavy based pan on a medium heat and leave to brown . . .

In another pan add the butter, heat until brown then add the mushrooms sweat them off.

Once they've lost most of their water add the cava.

Make sure you turn the potatoes so they brown on both sides.

At this point the scallops can be added to the potatoes.

And if you're feeling a bit naughty add a little cream! Tut tut!!

Once the scallops are done, add the mushrooms, olives and herbs. Mix and serve.

I was feeling virtuous so I added leaks cooked in chicken stock.

You can also celebrate the potato with these inexpensive and very tasty recipes:

-   Celeriac & Potato Rosti

-   Patatas a lo Pobre - Cheap and tasty comfort food

-   Arroz al Horno (Baked Rice)

-   Ensaladilla Rusa (Russian Salad / Salad Olivier)

Recipe: Churros with Chilli & Orange Infused Chocolate Dip (and Chocolate Spread!!)

by ferdie, in partnership with Unearthed for Agtion Against Hunger

Churros are one of those fantastic foods that is filled with so many memories for me. You can find churros all over Spain and I have happy memories of them from all ages. My first memories of churros were on holiday visiting gran who was always so delighted to see us would make the dunking chocolate and biscuits for break fast and if we were really lucky we'd get churros yeay!

In August, traditionally the holiday month in Spain - although it's spread to July too - all the villages in the area have fiestas. Each village has it's fiesta on a different dates, which is cool because it means you can go to neighbouring villages a wooing the girls ; ) or depending on how old we were setting fire crackers off just behind them to hear them squeal, he he!

Our village had a massive band!


It would start with a procession, quite a religious affair, and would end up in the main square by the disused - except for at fiesta time - school building. At fiesta there would be games for the kids during the day and in the evening a giant cazuela (a cauldron) of chocolate sauce was brewed up to be served with churros at 7pm to the delight of all the kids and adults and crones, and hairy old men of the village. You know a guy has seen a a lot of years go by when you look over and you notice that somehow - god only knows how - he's got chocolate sauce on his ferociously overgrown nostril hair.

The second day the school hall is used as a bar and banqueting hall where everyone goes have a few wines or beers and each others company and great sides of slow roast lamb, a local speciality from neighbouring village. There aren't words to describe the kind of smile that just the smell of this stuff would bring to my face, to everyones! I'm going on a secret mission to find out how this is reared and cooked! But that is another story!

Years later a little more grown up I'd visit Madrid to see my cousins, I remember one year them surprising we with a visit to Las Ventas, the bull ring in Madrid, thankfully for an evening of entertainment that put the rather impressive building to much better use that it's intended purpose: and ACDC concert! Thunder! Needless to say churros were consumed on the way home…..

And my most recent memory at our Unearthed event getting some fantastic smiles and moans of delight from our guests.

Any way I'll stop rambling, here it is:

Churros with Chilli & Orange Infused Chocolate Dip (Serves 6)

INGREDIENTS
For the Batter
200g plain flour
1/4 tsp of salt
80g unsalted butter
120ml water
1 egg
1/2 tsp baking powder
veg oil (for frying - at least 1.5 inches deep)

For the hot chocolate Sauce
125g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids) plus extra for grating
300ml double cream
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1 red chilli
zest 2 oranges

For the sugar coating
100g caster sugar for dusting
2 tsp ground cinnamon
piping bag & star nozzle

METHOD
For the Chocolate Sauce
Put everything but the chocolate into a pot and bring it to the boil, CAREFUL it doesn't boil over it makes a lot of mess!!
Simmer for 10mins allow the flavours to infuse into the cream and milk.
Break the chocolate into small pieces.
Sieve the mixture and remove from the heat, then add the chocolate pieces, and stir until the chocolate has melted forming beautiful chocolate sauce, my ran used to make this for my brother and me for breakfast when we went to visit her tiny mountain village Barahona in central Spain

For the Churros
Do the Churros in two halves - too much to do in one go!!
Put the flour into a bowl, mix in the baking powder and make well in the middle
Melt the butter in the water - don't boil just let it melt and cool a little
put the eggs and water into the well and mix in carefully until you have a smooth paste
put into piping bags and put in the fridge for half and hour, let the baking powder do it's work - makes them lighter!

Heat a pan to full heat or a fryer to 180C.
Hold the piping bag in one hand and the scissors in the other - if you dip the scissors in the oil it stops the churros sticking to them - and snip equal length churros into the oil. Take them out and place on kitchen towel to dry the oil off.

Tip 1: If you're making a lot (when we make it we use a kilo of plain flour) mix in 2 batches half ingredients in each.

Tip 2: When mixing by hand make a well in the flour and gradually mix in the the flour this will stop lumps forming in your batter.

Tip 3: When zesting the orange use a zester (as in picture) or a microplane, they are a lot better at getting into the peel with a lot less effort and rewarding you with a lot more zest.

Tip 4: Take care not to squeeze too hard if you're using disposable (recyclable) piping bags because you might find a massive bloaty churro following your piping nozzle right into the fryer! Creating a bit fat doughnut with a beak, resembling some kind on munchable jurassic treat.

Tip 5: If there's leftover dip, or you've "accidentally" made too much pour it into a jam jar and let it set over night then seal it with an air tight lid, it makes great chocolate spread.

We did these in partnership with Unearthed for Agtion Against Hunger

Churros w/ Chillie & Orange Infused Chocolate Sauce
Unfortunately unearthed don't sell these so you'll have to have a go yourselves!! You can find the whole 7 course menu we served here.

Win A Seat At Our Exclusive Dinner Party In Aid Of The Jamie Oliver Foundation

By Leluu

Yesterday, we found out that we are in 5th place for the Best Food Blogger of 2010 as voted by people to Quadrille on Twitter. How fantastic is that? We are ever so chuffed! We absolutely love cook books in any shape or form and Quadrille publish many of our heroes such as Janet Street Porter, Mark Hix, Antonio Carluccio & Simon Hopkinson among many greats. So as you can imagine, we are thrilled!.

And we've got more good news for everyone as well! We've teamed up with Yell.com for an amazing supper club event in aid of The Jamie Oliver Foundation and we are really pleased to announce that you can win a fantastic meal at our supper club on Tuesday 1st March 2011.

Yell have set up a reviews site, you can let others know what you think of the meal you had at Fifteen to Pizza Express and every time you review a place, Yell donates 25p to a list of charities you can chose from including The Jamie Oliver Foundation. For this event only, they will be donating 50p to the foundation.

How "flipping" cool is that - I think Moss from The IT Crowd would be very happy indeed! Not only will you be telling everyone about how great a place is (or maybe to avoid it), you get Yell donating to The Jamie Oliver Foundation for writing as little as 140 characters!

We are huge fans of Jamie Oliver himself. In the last 10 years, we've followed Jamie through his cooking to all his great political achievements and movements in food knowledge. The man is a hero! I love that his passion never ends and how he has this charitable foundation for the importance of awareness of food and nutrition and how that impacts everyone's lives as well as children and vulnerable groups.

 

We met Jamie a few months ago and became even bigger fans. He is just such a great bloke - very charismatic but also down to earth and humble - much like how we see him on TV.

To enter the competition, go to Trusted Places's blog here - all the instructions are there, when you select The Jamie Oliver Foundation and review something, you are entered into the competition and we will get to pick the best written, quirky and funny review. You will then win a dinner at our supper club.

Unfortunately, Jamie will not be there himself as he's probably trying to change the way Americans are eating at that time but there will be Naked Wines - a great independent wine maker - almost on tap - 'cept it'll be pouring from bottles! Prosecco from Follador, it’s been around since 1750’s and very prestigious in Italy, but only just launched in the UK.

For food, Fin & Flounder have sponsored some sustainable fish for a couple of dishes and Habour & Jones will be supplying us with ingredients as they already do so for Fifteen. Simon will be making some great food - you heard he is good, well, I tell you - the guy can really cook well and he is getting one of Jamie's apprentices from Fifteen to help out too. Sold? Go and enter. You can sweet tooth us by commenting here too.

Recipe: Ensaladilla Rusa (Russian Salad / Salad Olivier)

by ferdie, in partnership with Unearthed for Action Against Hunger

This is one of the staples of tapas houses all over the Iberian peninsula and into France!! What I find though is that it's rare that you get served a good one. In fact, the number of places that serve truly appalling potato salad is a bit depressing. Usually substandard ingredients with little variety, thin mayonnaise and undercooked potatoes - so disappointing because this is truly one of the kings of comfort foods. I often get a portion before ordering anything else to gauge if the rest of the tapas will be up to par. I do get excited if it's a good one cos when this is made with love it's fantastic and there's a good chance the other tapas have been made with love too : )

Ensaladilla Rusa by wiki accounts was first created in 1860 by Lucien Olivier of the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow. Me thinks the original - which apparently used venison and cray fish amongst other things - has gone through a few Chinese whispers to reach it's current incarnation.

Whenever we went to visit my grandparents in their remote little mountain village for a big old family reunion, this dish would always make it onto the feast menu. Usually in the first or second round served with fresh French stick! That aside, this is how my auntie showed me how to make it, with some small adjustments of my own.

Ingredients (makes 12 large portions or 24 small)
2.5kg  Maris Piper potatoes  (cut into 1-2cm cubes and boiled)
400g   tinned peas  (drained)
400g   tinned artichokes or from deli counter  (drained and diced)
4         carrots  (diced and boiled)
6         spring onions  (sliced - small rings)
18       boiled quails eggs peeled  (6 garnish) or 6 medium eggs hard boiled
24       garlic and chilli flavoured olives  (pitted and sliced)
6         pickled picante peppers  (finely chopped)
3         whole roast peppers  (coarsely chopped - keep 1/2 for garnish)
4         gherkins  (chopped)
750g   mayo  (150g for garnish)
100g   cured tuna  (for garnish optional - or anchovies)

I did this one so that it was vegetarian friendly (simply don't garnish with tuna or anchovy) but more often than not tuna is added to the mix, as are prawns, which I prefer. In fact a friend who was eating with us that night said it was perfect but was rather upset about the lack of prawns! Can't please everyone although this one come close.

Method
Prepare the ingredients as per the ingredients list. The important thing is to use tinned peas, not fresh or frozen, as they contribute to the texture of the mix, use fresh boiled carrots, and raw spring onions finely chopped into small rings.

If you've got the time to roast peppers then that's great but the ones that come in glass jars do a nice job too. You can also do the peppers in a heavy based pan with a lid and some extra virgin olive oil on a medium heat the way my mum does them, turn up the heat just at the end to blacken those sweet little babies off.

But the most important thing is how you cut and cook the potatoes. The secret to a good potato salad is not just nicely cooked small(ish) potato but also the gloop that binds the whole ensemble together and no! that gloop isn't just mayonnaise. It's juice and flavour from the peppers and other ingredients mixed with light mashed mayo potato hmmm : )

Question is how do you get that and it's very simple. Firstly don't cut the potatoes up larger than 2cm, 1cm - 2cm is perfect. Smaller than  that and you're potatoes will quickly turn to mush. Larger than 2cm and you end up with bits of potatoes too large to eat and the balance of potato to lovely gloop is too potatoey. Put the potatoes into the water and add salt. When the water starts to boil, set your timer for 7 minutes, when it goes off they should be perfect. But check them with a knife to be sure, I usually check them at 6 minutes just in case. Then drain them in a colander for a couple of minutes. At this point you need to fluff the potatoes. Once drained pour them back into the pot, season with salt and pepper, get a large fork, and roughly stir up the potatoes until they're kinda fluffy around the edges.

Put the eggs you're going to use as garnish aside, then roughly chop up (or grate) the remaining eggs and add them along with the rest of ingredients that aren't to be used as garnish to the potatoes and mix all together until it's evenly mixed. Check for seasoning and adjust as required.

We garnished our with cured tuna, quails egg and piquant pepper.

This is a version we did in partnership with Unearthed for Action Against Hunger
The course was Pork Meatballs in Chipotle Sauce w/ Ensaladilla Rusa
We used Unearthed pork meatballs and garnished the salad manzanilla olives and sun dried tomatoes and prosciutto. You can find the whole 8 course menu we served here.

As you can see you can present this in all sorts of ways only limited by you imagination!!

Of course if you're a Spaniard or a foodie there's a good chance you'll want to make the mayo yourself so here's how!

Tips: You can cook the potatoes with a stock cube for added flavour, this works well if you're doing a really simple potato salad, with, for example just the green part of spring onions. Which is ultra quick and quite tasty.

When you put love into you're food people will notice!!!!

Shacklewell Nights

By Leluu

There is something happening to the London food scene and its fantastic! Obviously the supper club phenomenon has hit it and it’s changing the way we are interacting. Like how technology has changed the way we have interacted over the years – from snail mail to email to social networking. The way we are eating out has blossomed like a wild red rose.

Last weekend, we took some time off to spend with our foodie friends and support other ones who have their own ventures in supper clubbing.

As our dear, Vintage Macaroon is leaving to live in her native Australia, she booked a table to eat at Shacklewell Nights which is run by Claire Roberson from Green Onions who has teamed up with Jonathan Woolway to formulate ‘hidden dinning’- cross pop up in-between-restaurant-/supper-club events at a top floor warehouse in Dalston.

 

Wonderful Claire Roberson

We entered into a gorgeous environment of people mingling around chatting to each other as if it’s an actual event or a private party. Everybody comes with an open mind and a great willingness to integrate with other people. Only one or two years ago, integration was out of the question unless it’s a private party!

The atmosphere was brilliant; there was a bar, lovely waitresses, nice random furnishings (just my style), great lighting, nice cutlery and crockery – a welcoming and happy place that you’d want to spend an evening in.

I have gotten to know Claire a bit since we first came to her supper club (post here) -Green Onions. I just think that its amazing how she has done this, managed to fill the place out with 72 guests over and over. Claire is very entrepreneurial and we are all really looking forward to whatever she does.

LibbieLush, Vintage Macaroon and I were sat next to three very handsome boys – who had in fact been to our supper club before. Nikhil, Nick and Jamie who were also big fans of The London Foodie and didn’t realize he were sitting on our table too. They were best pleased – also to be introduced to Dr G too – they were clapping like penguins in their minds. We talked about why single, straight men do not really get together to go to these dinner events like girls do and congratulated them on being clever enough! It’s the best place to meet women – I tell you boys! Get your skates on!

To eat, we had:

Smoked Eel & Celeriac

Watercress, Braised Beef & Swede

Chocolate Terrine

Neal Yards Cheese Plate with Hackney Chutney

It all tasted really good, the idea of the sharing plates were great – doing this just brings us all closer together and breaks the boundaries of social conventions. However, I have a big appetite and should have asked for seconds. Instead, I got totally drunk on the boy’s port, their promo whisky and all of our red wine! Was not feeling too hot the next day! This is only happening because I am in my thirties! Got to get that dang time machine working!

www.shacklewellnights.com
£40 min donation per person

Recipe - Duck in Quince & Red Peppercorn Sauce w/ Cassoulet, Green Beans and Edamame in a Basil Emulsion

by @theferdie

We were invited to attend a fantastic Green & Blacks event this week with various prizes including a KitchenAid mixer, one piece of kit that I'd love to have so I didn't need to be asked twice here's what I made! (serves 4)

Micro Cassoulet
400g tin flagiolet beans (in juice)
3 medium red onions (finely chopped)
4 tbsp suet
2 large pinches oak smoked salt
2 small catalan sausage (a couple of slices french pave equally good)
285g jar of artichokes (sieved and chopped)
1 pack pancetta (125g?)
1 1/2 tsp orange blossom honey (a clear runny honey)
Basil leaf for garnish

Duck in Quince and Red Peppercorn Sauce
4 duck breasts
2 tsp red peppercorns
4 tbsp of brine (from the red pepper corns)
50ml water
16 blueberries (optional)

Green Beans and Edamame w/ Basil Emultion
300g green beans
150g edamame beans
1 chicken stock cube
2 large pinches maldon salt
2 egg yolks
40ml basil infused olive oil

Apparatus!
1 medium frying pan
2 boiling pans
4 7cm (2.5 inch) ring molds
electric whisk (or hand whisk)
1 heavy or rubber based mixing bowl (so you can mix and pour without holding the bowl!)

Competition
The aim of the competition - 15:15 - was to prep and make a sweet or savoury course for one in under 15 minutes with a huge budget of less than 15GPB. I've changed this a little so that if you're following the recipe you won't be running around like a lunatic, even so it's shouldn't take much more than half an hour and it will feed four, simple to make and looks the part! Oh, and it doesn't taste too bad either!! He he! The recipe is pretty faithful to the way I cooked it, on the day. I totaled it up and it comes out at about 6.00GBP per head.

Pans at the ready and all the ingredients setup for each part of the plate. I start to group things together so I don't forget anything in the frenzy, all garnishy things on one side of the hob, all bits to be prepped and cooked on the other.

At this point I realise I am missing two eggs, and there's about 5 minutes before things kick off! Holy chickens what am I going to do, I ask about and no one is actually using any eggs let alone got any spare, I wonder over and ask Uyen and company if there's somewhere I can get eggs. "Oh they were on the table" pipes up Uyen! (And why didn't you mention that on the way out??? Grrrrr!) "Oh oh, there a little shop just outside!!" OK lets check that. I popped next door and inquired about eggs, they looked at me like I was mad as a hat. Time wa running out, about 3 minutes before start! No time to go John Lewis find the food dept, queue and get back. Thiiink! Aha, I cross the road pop into Pizza Express, straight to the open kitchen and explain to the chef that I was in a competition, and could I have two eggs? Fried or poached he exclaimed! Very helpful but no, raw. Raw, and whole! I need them to cook with. As soon as he realised what I was asking he gladly handed me two eggs, for which I thanked him kindly and hurried off to cook! You can see me gripping my eggy prize here!

Method
Having just grouped my ingredients into each of the dishes components, I suddenly realise that there's countdown going on in the background "OK you have 15mins get ready 3, 2, 1, GO"

GO!? GO! Shiiiiiit!! OK here goes!! Aaaaaaaargh!!!
Plates into the oven to keep warm, ready for service. If you're following these instructions, I hadn't even considered a plate at this point! Err oops!

Add enough water (400ml) to cook the edamame and the beans to pot 1 and turn on to boil.

Take the pancetta and without doing anything to it (other than unwrapping it that is) put it in the frying pan on a medium heat. The aim is to brown this off it will be the topping of the cassoulet. The layered pieces of pancetta will present well and it's tasty hmm hmm!

Add the suet to pot 2 on a medium heat, then chop the rest of the cassoulet ingredients  except the beans and add them all to pot 2 as well. Chop up the artichokes and put them to one side in a tub ready to plate up.

Turn the pancetta in the frying pan, it should be brown by now.

Stir cassoulet ingredients - you want them to start to brown.

Don't let the pancetta burn!!! Check take it off if its ready and put it onto some kitchen towel to drain off the excess fat.

Skin the duck, discard the skin, and trim the duck into regular thickness oblongs, so they cook evenly.
Take the duck trimmings finely chop and add them to the other cassoulet ingredients in pot 2.

Stir until the duck bits have just cooked through - you don't want them crisp, but soft and tender. Add 2 healthy pinches of oak smoked sea salt and the flagiolet beans and their juices mixing everything well. Leave on a medium heat.

Pot 1 should be boiling by now, chop up the chicken stock and add it to the boiling water, stir until its dissolved and add the beans and edamame, set an alarm for 6 minutes. (5minutes if you like your beens crunchier)

Add the duck breasts to the frying pan that the pancetta's just come out of, and leave to cook.

Now get the basil emulsion going while the duck and the beans cook.
Put 2 egg yolks into the mixing bowl add a pinch of salt and whisk until light, then start adding a steady stream of the basil infused olive oil as you would to make mayonnaise but don't go as far as mayonnaise, keep going until you have a smooth glossy liquid, taste and season if needed.

Turn the duck breasts, ooh, aah, ooh aah, aah, ouch, yeah that's me fingers burning!  Sometime around here a timer will be going off in the background - shiit what's that, what's that? Ahah the beans in pot 2 are ready! Sieve and leave in the sieve sat on the pot to stay warm.

Take a ring mold and with a sharp pointed knife, using the ring mold as a guide cut 4 circles out of the sheet of pancetta. Keep these to top the cassoulet.

Wearing your oven mits take the plates out of the oven and set out on the counter. It's at this point that one of the helpers cleverly asked what I was going to plate up on? "Can I get you a plate?" "oo crap! err yes please!!" 

Put a ring mold on each plate and put about 1.5cm of cassoulet into the bottom of each, then add a layer of artichoke, dividing the mix between the 4 ring molds then another layer of cassoulet.

4 minutes, 4 minutes everyone!!!  Yikes still got the sauce to do and the duck to cut!!

Take the duck out and put it on a cutting board to rest. At this point I'm thinking, stay on target, stay on target, bloody hell what next?

Add the water to the frying pan to deglaze and then the brine (4 tbsp) from the peppercorns, then stir in the quince jelly until the liquid is smooth, add the pepper corns and turn down to a medium heat.

Next put the cut out circles of pancetta into the ring molds and press down to firm up the cassoulet. Using a honey dipper drip a thin layer of honey over the bacon of each mold. Honey dipper, what? Don't have time for that, finger! (clean finger!) Dip, drip, circular motion, coat, done! Pinch 4 shoot tips off the basil plant and garnish. 

Bloody hell! Err, err umm 2 minutes!!!! Ooooooh myyyy gooooood!!!

Take the green beans out of the sieve and plate, sprinkle the edamame beans around them and spoon on the basil emulsion, don't be mean!!

1 minute!! Craaaaaap. Crap!!  Put your finger in a tripod formation on the pancetta to hold the cassoulet in place and gently lift the ring mold off.

Slice the duck evenly and using a spatula (or the knife your cutting with!) plate the duck, spreading the slices evenly then dress with the quince and red peppercorn sauce, and surround with 4 blueberries. The blueberries are a nice compliment, even if they are a bit out of season. Time!!! That's it TIME!! Err blueberries? What blueberries, there aren't supposed to be any blueberries, I meant to do that, honest!

Stand there - rushing off the adrenaline - with a rather nice cocktail that's been handed to you! That will do nicely!! Glug hmmmm!


1st test, too many flavours! And a bad case of tuck your shirt in boy! Straighten that tie, do up your jacket! Comb your hair!

2nd test out of detention and generally smarter! And tastier!

Final version! What? Blueberries? No, there aren't supposed to be any blueberries. Honest!

Of course I wasn't the only one having fun! And I have to be honest this was easily one of the most fun foodie events I've ever been to! Hands down!

The other contributors & their contributions:

Meemalee: (Meemalees's Kitchen) WINNER WINNER but no chicken dinner
Shimeji Mushrooms, Salmon Roe, Mirin, & Shiso Leaf

Becci (Feed and Gastro): Crab Linguine - Lovely!

Sarah (Food for Think): Oreo Cheese Cake : )

Jack (Food for Thinks): Scallops w/ Green Pesto and Capers

Luiz (The London Foodie): Grilled Quails w/ Pistachio and Rose Petals

Laura (Feast on Scraps): Fillet Steak w/ Coriander and Coconut Rice

Kavita (Kavey Eats): Kavey Chutney w/ Selection of Croûte au Fromage

Jennifer (Chocolate Ecstasy Tours): Chocolate and Raspberries Mille Feuille

Uyens also posted more about everyone at the event here. 

As I was saying one of the most fun events I've been to, nice one Gail for organising this for Green and Blacks Chocolate. 

But what was it all in aid of I hear you ask? Well the head of taste Micah Carr-Hill (choc tips from him) at Green and Blacks is looking for an assistant a job you can apply for here. The event served to get the word out to the foodie community and test run the application process at the same time, which I understand will also involve cooking and taste tests but with rather less stringent time restrictions.  

We also had a very interesting talk from Matthew Stokes from Frutarom who kindly brought some pure bottled pongs for our delectation, from vanilla to cheesy feet, along with a little theory of smell! 

When sampling the taste chemical one should start as far above the product as ten inches while agitating said product. The reason being that this is where you'll fine the light notes. Start making sense Fernandez I'm hearing.... well a flavour is made up a lot of different flavour molecules, more than 400 in the case of chocolate around 150 for carrots etc etc. The smaller that molecule is, the more volatile it is and therefore the more likely it is to evaporate and be at the tip of your nose fastest. These are the lighter notes!! The base notes will be larger molecules that require more energy to evaporate. In essence, what you're doing as you near you nose to the glass is a kin to open air fractional distillation! Well blow me down with a feather I never thought of it like that. So each smell has a particular molecular signature that can be synthetically reconstructed, which one of Frutarom functions. Fascinating stuff. 

To test out our new knowledge, and taste buds and our built in gas chromatography kit (noses) we were mixed 2 cocktails by Johann et al from Drinks Fusion. 

There was also a ganache test, which was to assess which ingredients were in a white chocolate and dark chocolate ganache, I think these were which tea, these were rather subtle and I think even trying these with a clean palette at the beginning of the evening they would still have been a struggle to identify! I got the vanilla but only because you could see the seeds in the white chocolate. 

One last thing: Goodie box! Goodie box! Nobody went away empty handed, everybody was given a great goodie box with a taste testing kit in it, loads of Chocolate and a bottle of wine hurrah!!

Needless to say I think a great time was had by all!