More than tea & cake at T&Cake?

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Stephen JacksonWe wondered how long it would be before Stephen Jackson dusted off his whites. A man with this amount of talent, energy, creativity and curiosity would be satisfied serving mushrooms on toast (brilliant though they are) for a limited time. With his wife Tracy he ran the Weavers Shed in Golcar for a couple of decades then decided to step away and enjoy the freedom; ergo the cool, stylish caff in Almondbury. But he can’t help himself. He’s seen what’s happening around him (with a couple of notable exceptions “Neaversons and the brilliant Erics“) and thought ‘Hmm. I could do this blindfold with one arm tied behind my back ..’ So it’s finally got to him; he’s intent on getting his cheffy rocks off. So, a series of nights, ‘The Odd Dinner’ at T&Cake’ with a grown-up menu. The first is on 20 July and from there, who knows? Only one way to find out … call Chef Jackson on 01484 430005 or tweet @TandCakeCafe

New Chef for Devonshire Arms

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Adam SmithAs we reported a couple of weeks ago, Steve Smith has departed the Devonshire Arms’ Burlington Restaurant at Bolton Abbey for Bohemia on Jersey and the search has been on for his replacement. News is they’ve appointed Adam Smith, an aspiring young chef from the Ritz.

Only 25 years old, Smith has had an astonishing trajectory. Eight years ago he was washing pots in a Birmingham pub; last year he won a Roux Scholarship and was named Observer Young Chef of the Year followed by a three month stage at the three star Le Meurice in Paris.

Announcing the appointment of Smith to the Burlington Restaurant, General Manager Andrew Mackay said: ‘This is a great opportunity both for us and for Adam. Rather than bring in someone who has already made his mark with Michelin stars who would be doing just more of the same, we wanted to take the chance to support a rising star where he can make our restaurant his own and give it his personality.’

It’s good they’re supporting ‘a rising star’, but I can’t help thinking the management will still have their eyes  on a Michelin. We look forward to see what this Smith can do. He arrives in July.

Star Inn the City

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Andrew Pern photo: Andrew McKinstry

Museum Gardens is the green heart in the centre of York. Its lovely lawns and flower beds are bordered by centuries of history with the ruins of St Mary’s Abbey, the Roman multangular tower, a delightful little observatory and the timbered Hospitium. On sunny days visitors and office workers spread across the greensward for impromptu picnics. All that’s missing is a café. Not any more. Andrew Pern of the much loved Star Inn at Harome is to open The Star Inn the City in the old Engine House close by the river. It’s a peach of a location – as long as the building can cope with the flooding that afflicts this corner of York. The 130 cover restaurant promises to be a fantastic addition to the city and – for me – it’s a tough five minute walk from home. Result.

Taste the Wild

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Chris_BaxI’d heard a lot about Chris Bax and his Taste the Wild courses but had never met him until I found myself sitting next to him at at a dinner at the Star Inn to launch Yorkshire Food Finder and discovered what a charming, enthusiast and knowledgeable guy he is.
Chris is a former chef who loves travel, the outdoors and became increasingly interested in wild plants through his partner Rose who is an expert in plant identification. Together they set up Taste the Wild with the aim of promoting ‘wild foods as exciting ingredients to use in innovative ways.’
Through the seasons, their promise is to find tasty wild food: ‘tender shoots and blossoms in spring, flowers and herbs in summer, and autumn fruits and mushrooms’.Their base is an 18 acre wood and barn near Knaresborough from where they run day and weekend courses on wild food foraging and artisan skills such as bread and cheesemaking.  Their coastal fishing and foraging courses are held in Staithes and Flookburgh near Morecambe Bay. Their newest course, if you have the stomach for it and veggies look away, is ‘A Deer in a Day’ where you learn to skin, bone and joint a roe deer from the start!
To find out more and to book onto a course look at the website
www.tastethewild.co.uk
 

Wild Gorse Flower Ice Cream

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gorse-flower-jelly-ice-creamThe lovely team at Taste the Wild who run courses about wild food foraging, have supplied us with two recipes for gorse. Yes that’s right … gorse, that spiky, shrub with bright yellow flowers that grows around moors and heaths and is in flower right now. The branches are covered in spikes, but according to Taste the Wild, you can collect the flowers to make a delicious ice cream or jelly. ‘They smell and taste something between coconut and vanilla” they say. You can also crystallise them, make up a syrup or pop the flowers into a salad.

Gorse Flower Ice cream

•    200ml milk
•    2 egg yolks
•    150g sugar
•    200ml double cream
•    2 large handfuls of gorse flowers
•    A few grains of salt

Put the egg yolks, sugar and salt in a large bowl and beat until well
blended.

Put the milk and flowers in a pan and heat on a medium heat until
very nearly boiling. Then pour immediately onto the egg and sugar mixture
stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Pour the mixture through a sieve
into a clean bowl pressing the flowers to extract all the flavour.

Add the double cream and leave to cool. If you have an ice cream maker, pour in the cooled cream mixture and churn for 30 minutes or until ready.

If you do not have an ice cream maker put the mixture in a freezer proof box and freeze until nearly set, then stir vigorously. Repeat this until the mix becomes ice cream.

Gorse Flower Jelly

Citric acid is usually available from chemists or online

½ ltr water
2 large handfuls of gorse flowers
3 tbsp sugar
¼ tsp citric acid
4 sheets of gelatine

Put the water, flowers, sugar and citric acid into a pan and bring to the
boil stirring occasionally to dissolve the sugar.

While you are waiting for the pan to boil put the gelatine in a bowl of cold water to soften for 5 minutes.

When the flowery syrup comes to the boil remove it from the
heat and leave for around 5 minutes for the flavour to develop.

Remove the gelatine from the water when it is ready and squeeze out any excess
liquid. Put it into a clean bowl big enough to hold all the liquid. Taste
the syrup and when the flavour is good, strain it through a fine mesh sieve
onto the gelatine and stir until dissolved. Refrigerate for a couple of
hours to set the jelly.

gorse flowers

To find out more about Taste the Wild and to book onto a course go to: www.tastethewild.co.uk

 

 

 

Yorkshire Mangoes

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MangoesYorkshire mangoes? Not quite, global warming hasn’t got this far, but we do have plenty of Asian shops in the county and now is the time to go and buy a box or two of Indian mangoes. They are here right now, but not for long. I bought four boxes last week in Leeds, and another two today. These beautiful, tender, sweet, yellow-skinned mangoes are only in season for a brief period from the end of March until the end of May. but those who know, and that’s you, are snapping them up.

I discovered Indian mangoes years ago, when I was with a YTV film crew in Multan, in Pakistan. We were working with a group of doctors who took us round the area and pointed out the beautiful groves of mango trees and telling us proudly that Multan was the mango capital of the Punjab.

It was only when I got back to the UK and bought a box of Indian mangoes from Maumoniat’s Supermarket in Leeds, that I discovered just how wonderful they were and I’ve been tracking them down each spring, ever since.

Alphonso (or any other Indian variety, I’d be hard pressed to tell the difference) are far softer, sweeter, juicier and less fibrous than the Costa Rican mangoes you find in the supermarket. So go buy them by the box (approximately £1 per fruit) from your local Indian grocer. You’ll see them stacked up – ripe mangoes sitting in their shredded paper nests just waiting for you to enjoy them with a squeeze of lime, or just peeled and eaten as they are with the juices running down your arm.

 

Yorkshire Crab & Lobster

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The fishing boat, All My Sons in Staithes harbour

The rocky shoreline form Staithes to Spurn Point provides some of the best Yorkshire lobster and brown crab in the world.

In 2007 the lobster fishery along this length of coast, failed a sustainability assessment  by the Marine Stewardship Council because stocks were not strong enough to sustain. However new information has led to a re-assessment and the MSC though we still haven’t heard the results of that new survey. If it is judged sustainable the crab and lobsters caught here will be given an eco label certifying they are from a sustainable fishery.

This will be good news for the fleet of self-employed fishermen who are out every day throughout the spring and summer in small boats checking their pots identified by coloured flags bobbing in the water that reach down to depths of up to 190 feet.

It’s hard graft winching them all up – some fishermen own hundreds – checking them for size and throwing back any that are too small. They put elastic bands round the vicious claws, re-bait the pots and drop them back again for another day.

Fisherman Sean Baxter checking his pots from the shore

For the fishermen, crab and lobster are a valuable crop though they get nothing like the amount charged by restaurants in Europe where Yorkshire shellfish often ends up.

Yorkshire east coast crab, lobster and langoustines are still so highly regarded that Spanish vivier trucks transport them live across the continent as prizes for the markets and restaurants of Madrid.

Given that the Yorkshire coast is so rich in seafood, fresh local lobster is surprisingly tricky to find on a menu. ‘Too expensive’ say the chefs, who can’t risk being left with any uneaten lobsters if there are no takers.

Whitby’s famous Magpie Cafe

You can find lobster thermidor at the Magpie Cafe in Whitby or at Estbek House at Sandsend though there it’s a whopping £32. Woodlands-Eat sometimes serve it as part of a posh fish stew.  But is there anything sweeter than the prime brown crab or North Sea lobster that you’ve cooked yourself? You can buy both, cooked or live from Whitby Seafish in Staithes. Best between April and December

Twelve minutes in a pan of sea water or well-salted tap water and served with mayonnaise, home made if possible, but Hellmanns will do, and some crusty bread – heaven at a fraction of the restaurant price.

Maven Pop-Up

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Having now been to two not wholly successful pop-ups in which location took precedence over the food, I vowed I would stick to proper restaurants from now on where the chef is not feeding 50 on a Baby Belling or indeed in one case, with no kitchen at all

But I’ve just heard of a brand new pop-up at The Maven, the coolest cocktail bar in Leeds, that I feel confident about recommending.  I’ve promised not to reveal the name of the chef, that’s a secret on the night, but if you book a table you won’t be disappointed.

You know about The Maven of course, the bar with no name mixing fabulous cocktails and run by ex-Harvey Nichols bar manager Nino and his team of cool dudes. So cocktails, music and a six course tasting menu in the private dining room is shaping up as a terrific mix.

The first in a series of dinners will be on 3rd May. It’s priced at £26 with groups no bigger than four. For booking details go to Facebook/Twitter @themavenbar.

Having been dubious about pop-ups I have to confess to supporting one  in our favourite seaside spot of Staithes. In a village that once had a top rated Good Food Guide restaurant in the Endeavour and now has pub grub and a tiny bistro, we couldn’t resist linking up with the lovely Lisa Chapman, ex-Endeavour owner/chef, in helping to run a series of convivial dinners in the splendid room above the Staithes Gallery.

Lisa and gallery owner Alison Milnes now have a programme running through spring and summer, (not with Squidbeak this time). The next one is this Friday 26th April with a beautiful spring menu that has crab, pigeon breast, lamb with wild garlic and primrose and champagne jelly. Sounds good? The price  of £39.50 includes a drink on arrival and wine with the meal. To book 01947 841840  or 07972 012464.

A local shop for local people

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We love this kind of initiative. A group of producers get together and open a shop. Simple, eh? Well, yes, many of us have thought about it but this lot got up off their bums and the Great Rock Co-op was born. Sally and Jonathan Stansfield farm on top of the Pennines and had been selling their free range meat at farmers markets but wanted to bring it all a bit closer to home .. a bunch of neighbours felt the same way, and almost a year of planning later, ta-da! Buy bread, cakes, Pextenement cheese, locally brewed beer and fabulous fruit wines from Luddenden. For me, it’s a vertical walk up the hillside and on a warm, sunny spring morning a complete joy. If  you find yourself in the Calder Valley between 10 and 2 on a Saturday, call in, support them, it’s fab. And nothing like Royston Vasey.

The shop is at Staups Lea Farm, Higher Eastwood, Todmorden, West Yorkshire OL14 8RR

Open Saturdays 10am-2pm

Au Revoir Artisan

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On 27 April, Richard Johns will cook dinner at his small and delightful Artisan at Hessle and when his wife Lindsey, front of house, says goodbye to the last customer they will lock the door and close for good.

The Johns created Artisan from nothing and went on to pick up cracking reviews. They were rated a highly reputable 5/10 in the Good Food Guide and for what it’s worth I was on the judging panel that awarded them Yorkshire Life Restaurant of the Year in 2008. It was very good.

Artisan is not closing because of the recession. According to Johns, they are financially sound. No, Artisan, a valuable little restaurant in a gastronomic desert, is closing, they say, because they’ve won everything but a Michelin star and there’s nowhere else to go.

What a shame. How sad that a brilliant restaurant should close purely because the owners believe  it has not been sufficiently recognised by a guide that we feel is an anachronism.

We don’t know anyone who actually buys the Michelin guide. Do you? For punters and people like us who write about food, a Michelin star is merely shorthand for a certain sort of top end restaurant and yet for many chefs, Johns included, it means everything.

He’s been quoted as saying they wondered why they weren’t good enough. That if they’d got a star things would have been different, and any chef cooking at this level who doesn’t want a star is lying.

He’s probably right. A star would have propelled Artisan into a brighter limelight and brought them new business, but for those of us who couldn’t care an out of season fig for Michelin, it’s terrible that a) Michelin has so much power and b) that it matters so much to chefs. Remember the French chef Bernard Loiseau who committed suicide after it was suggested he might be stripped of one of his three Michelin stars?

We wish Richard and Lindsey the greatest of good luck for the future. We hope that time away from the restaurant will give them a different perspective, that they will come back and open somewhere else, and trust that a Michelin star really doesn’t matter to those of us who like good food.  Like the Star at Harome who lost theirs, or Anthony’s in Leeds, who thought they should have got one but didn’t, we continue to love them anyway.

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