Food Event: Chocolate Festival, Oxford

This weekend was the inaugural occurrence of the Oxford Chocolate Festival. Chocolate is just about my favourite thing on the planet, so with the event taking place practically on my doorstep I just had to go along.

The fact that the admission was free was always going to help...

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The festival was held on Broad Street, right in the middle of the city of Oxford. Pretty easy to get to, and in a pedestrian area as well.

The first thing I noticed though was just how small the festival was - there couldn't have been more than about 10 stalls in the place. Considering the volume of people that go through the area every day, I would have thought that more of the smaller chocolatiers would have wanted to have taken advantage of the publicity and business that such an event would have offered. Indeed some of the exhibitors listed on the website I linked above weren't there (though I only attended the Saturday, they may have been there today). Maybe It's because it was the first one to be held in Oxford, I don't know. But I hope it's bigger in the future.

Those businesses that turned up though put on a reasonable display and variety of goods and demonstrations for the attendees.

One of the more interesting stands was the one operated by Chocolution. With a talk on how to make chocolate from scratch, lots of unusual products (like chocolate filled, decorated hen's eggs, cacao pods and so on), and an entertaining spokesperson, they were definitely the stand-out business of the event.

That said, their policy on promoting chocolate as a health product has always been something that rankles with me. While it is true that 100% pure cacao has proven health benefits (being an anti-oxidant, etc), I felt they were taking the idea a little far - manipulating the chocolate at lower temperatures to maintain minerals and vitamins and so on in the chocolate making process. This must only take away from the flavour of the finished product which is surely what people buy chocolate for?! Having purchased one of the hen's eggs, I'll have to decide what I think of the chocolate when I eat it. I hope it's better than I think... Well done to them though for trying to do something a little different than usual.

One of the bigger stands was held by Co Couture, a Belfast based company that operate out of a little boutique in the city. Having flown over that morning with all their gear, the folk manning the stand were understandably tired, but still up for a good chat about the business and their wares.

Their chocolate was a little more mainstream than Chocolution. Like most stalls, they'd opted (somewhat inevitably) to cash in on Mother's Day and Easter, offering an array of aptly themed chocolates. Apart from the more commercial products, they also offered various signature bars and their award winning truffles.

As well as all the chocolate stalls, there were a couple of other food stalls, notably a churros stand, a Mexican food stall and a wonderful continental bakery.

The absence that I felt was the biggest loss to the event was Montezuma's. Like I say, I wasn't there today, so it may just have been that they were only scheduled to turn up on the Sunday. They are one of Britain's more recognizable gourmet brands though - and deservedly so. I think they are the best UK chocolate manufacturer. While their chocolate is readily available at most supermarkets, I always find a trip down to their shop in Spitalfields Market, London to be an absolute treat. Their butterscotch 54% bar sits at number three on my list of best bars.

There were a few other chocolatiers present I haven't mentioned, but you might get a wee glimpse of what else there was if I show you what I bought!

As I've already said, I picked up one of Chocolution's hen's eggs. Also from there I grabbed a couple of flyers - one with their chocolate making techniques, and another on how to make your own chocolate filled hen's eggs.

From Damian Allsop's stand, I just had to have one of his salted caramels in dark chocolate - salted caramels are the absolute pinnacle of chocolate heaven. No picture of this one - I ate it before I got home. They really can not be beaten. If I'd had a few hundred pounds to spare, I'd have been very interested to try more of his range. He's a ganache specialist, employing unusual techniques, removing cream and butter from his recipes to give a fresher, cleaner taste to the chocolate. Check him out.

The other pictured delights are a bar of 83% Ecuadorian chocolate from Red Star Chocolate (who make one of the most delicious milk chocolate bars I've ever tried), a passion fruit ganache from Paul Wayne Gregory and finally a 69% signature bar from Co Couture which is so delicately designed (even featuring a little gold leaf in one corner) I hardly want to eat the thing!

All in all, the festival is a good way to kill an hour and see some of the up and coming chocolatiers from the UK. For foodies, it's definitely not to be missed - just hoping it's a little bigger next year!

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Coming up:

- Bits and pieces...

Cooking for 50+

Last weekend was a work event for our younger constituents. That should immediately tell you that this blog is about cooking for a high number of people, rather than cooking for the older generation.

The brief was to cook dinner and dessert on Friday and Saturday night, and lunch on Sunday afternoon.

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I wasn't alone in the kitchen - I had the help of the lovely Liz, Alta, Emma, and the microwave specialist Luke (microwaving steaks, Luke, really?) to get me through.

Friday night was chilli and rice followed by swiss roll. I've blogged my chilli recipe before, so really it was just a case of multiplying up the numbers.

The swiss roll was an adventure though. I've only done it once before, so cooking it for 50 kids was worrying me a little. Thankfully we had a whole host of other cakes and goodies, so even though I only made enough for about twenty in the end, it was still okay.

You will need:

- 225g self raising flour

- 225g caster sugar

- 9 eggs

- Jar of jam

Thankfully for my whisking arm, the kitchen was equipped with a wonderful Kenwood mixer. This meant that beating all the sugar and all 9 eggs together was completely hassle free.

Once the eggs and sugar were well whipped (forming stiff peaks), it was just a case of folding in the flour and then pouring the mixture into a big baking tray.

I'd preheated the oven to 180°C, and then just shoved in the tray for twenty minutes.

Once the cake had risen a bit and coloured nicely, it was time to take it out. Hopefully you'll have greased your tin a wee bit better than I did...

Lay out a clean tea towel and sprinkle it quite generously with caster sugar before turning the cake out onto it. If you haven't greased the tin, be prepared to give it a good old whack - and pray you don't break up your swiss roll.

Then it was time to spread the roll with jam (all the way to the corners!) and then carefully, very carefully, roll it up using the towel to lever it over without breaking.

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Saturday was undoubtedly the success story of the weekend foodwise. With a menu that boasted both lasagne and trifle, I was always going to be onto a winner.

I had never cooked lasagne before - so starting by cooking for 50 was a little nervewracking. Thankfully though, I had much support from Alta to bring it all together.

You will need:

- 1kg lasagne sheets

- 7kg beef mince

- 6 tomatoes

- 4 cans chopped tomatoes

- 1kg onions

- 4 cloves garlic

- 3tbsp tomato puree

- 4tbsp mixed herbs

- Plenty of salt and pepper to season

- 2 beef stock cubes

- 1kg cottage cheese

- 1kg cheddar cheese

I haven't included the ingredients for the white sauce here. It's just flour, butter and milk, but I'm unsure of the quantities we used. It was a lot. An awful lot.

We started by greasing two very large, deep sided baking trays.

Then, while I got the mince mixture ready, Alta put together the white sauce.

First, I minced the garlic and finely chopped the onions, frying them off in a little oil. Quickly following this was the mince - browning 7kg of mince takes about thirty minutes.

Once the mince has browned, add in the tinned tomatoes, chopped fresh tomatoes, the tomato puree, herbs, crushed stock cubes and just a ton of salt and pepper. Leave this for another half an hour to an hour to cook through and allow all the flavours to come together.

Once you've made your basic white sauce (mix together the butter and flour to form a roux, then add in milk until you have the quantity and consistency you want), take it off the heat and stir in the cottage cheese and a good helping of cracked black pepper to taste.

Once your sauce and your mince mixture are both cooked, it's time to construct your lasagnes. This recipe would easily serve 60 - so make sure you have two big trays or three reasonably sized ones to build it all in.

Start by laying a little white sauce on the bottom to help stop the pasta sticking. Then apply one layer of pasta, a generous layer of mince, then the sauce and repeat, finishing with a layer of pasta topped with white sauce. Grate your cheddar over this and then whack it in the oven for a good forty minutes at 180°C.

While it was in the oven it was time to sort out the trifles. I'd set the jelly with some fruit in the night before, so it was just a case of piling on the custard and whipping several litres of cream (again with the magical Kenwood mixer) to spread over the top.

I will admit now, that for the sake of time and convenience I was using packeted jelly and custard. Maybe I'll make it all properly some day, but I really wasn't going to be faffing about when I already had so much to make.

The final touch was to grate some chocolate biscuits over the top. Job done.

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Sunday was by far and away the simplest to do - just putting 50 or so baked potatoes in the oven (for four and a half hours!!) and preparing plenty of salad, beans, tuna and grated cheese to go with them. Easy.

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And that was my biggest catering adventure to date - bring on more!

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Coming up:

- No idea...

Burns Lunch

Work is now over and I'm home blogging about lunch today - as it was a late celebration of Robert Burns' Birthday.

Scotland's national poet and one of her greatest heroes, Burns is remembered for his often satirical poems on the church and politics, as well as his beautiful works written in old Scots dialect.

As I was in Egypt last week (Burns' birthday is 25th January), I held a wee shindig at work this week to remember him - and to give all the English a wee taste of Scotland... The haggis!

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For those who don't know, to celebrate Burns Day, it is tradition to bring the haggis to the table to the sound of a tumultuous pipe band (sadly the music at work wasn't quite so loud as it could have been), and is then recited to with one of Burns' most famous works - the Address to a Haggis. The haggis is ceremoniously sliced open with a sgian dubh during the third verse.

The haggis will be served with mashed potato, mashed turnip (sometimes mixed with carrot), and whisky (and sometimes a whisky sauce... or just whisky poured over the haggis. Really.). But for the purposes of work, we drank Irn Bru with lunch.

Then, time is taken to recite Burns' poems or sing songs. I've uploaded a video of me butchering 'A Red, Red Rose' too... Just for you all to have a laugh.

All in all, I think it was a good wee change from a usual work lunch, and something new for a few of the staff. Superb.

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Coming up:

- Egypt blog.

Food Event: Foodies Festival, Oxford

Finally, the 28th August has come and gone (just!), and with it the Foodies Festival has passed. Following is a summary of what went on...

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Claire, mum and I made our way into Oxford for the show I've been waiting for for a good while now. As usual, I made sure we were early... in fact, we were the first to arrive by about ten minutes!With most of the stalls still setting up, it meant that things were a little quiet when we first went in, but after half an hour of wandering round the various active stalls, the rest had opened up.

Having arrived at ten, we were able to register for the various attractions we most wanted to see which freed us up to wander round the event without worrying about getting in to anything, or not getting seated.

We signed up for the cupcake masterclass, the chocolate tasting session, Mark Chandler at the chef's theatre, and finally, a cheese tasting session (which we decided not to stay for).
With this out the way, we roamed round the vast majority of the stands until the cupcake class at 11.30.
There was a lot to see. Most stalls were local producers or local shops selling specialist produce. All sorts of oils, sauces, cheeses and meats were the most recurring themes, though there were some more unusual stalls... like the hemp stall, featuring everything from hemp cereal, to hemp chocolate, to hemp crusted cured meats.

The one of most interest to me though, was the Chocolate and Love stand - a company which travels the world sourcing the best chocolate from all across the globe. They had an impressive arsenal to choose from, including the famous Amedei, but I was surprised to see omissions in the shape of Valrhona and Montezuma. Of course I made some purchases here - Amedei's 55% with almonds, and Chocolate and Love's own 'Crushed Diamonds', a 55% bar with crushed cacao nibs. This last is sitting very near the top of my favourites list at the moment (though I am loathe to give up the current top spot, Valrhona Guanaja).

There was a lot to see and do at the various stalls, not to mention all the free samples! Before lunch I'd already sampled a variety of sauces, oils, chocolates and olives. Many of the stalls were competing in the spicy market, from Italian dried chilli sauces to more standard Indian varieties. However, the biggest kick came from an olive spiked through the middle with a whole chilli. Very tasty, but very hot!

After our look around it was approaching time for the first attraction of the day - the cupcake masterclass with 'Holly Cupcakes'.

The session was not so much a cupcake masterclass as an icing and decorating demonstration, but it was a good laugh anyway.

Interesting decorations included some rice paper flowers and edible glitter. Much mess and hilarity ensued, as I'm sure you can imagine. Our finished creations are below:

With the first class out of the way, it was back into the marketplace to finish having a look around the various stalls and to grab some lunch.

It being the Foodies Festival, the local restaurants and food places were well represented. From burritos, to Chinese cuisine, to paella and Mexican, most bases were well covered.
We finally settled on the Indian offering though, Chutneys Indian Brasserie. Mum and I went for the lamb balti, while Claire chose the chicken tikka masala. Both were especially good, and you can expect a full review of Chutneys at some point, as we'll definitely be going there to see the restaurant itself.

Having finished lunch, we still had about an hour before the chocolate tasting. If there was any complaint about the day, it was maybe the small size of the event - there were not a whole lot of stalls, and once you've been round them once, all there is to do is go back round again... and unless you have bottomless pits of cash, this isn't the best idea!

However, we were saved from boredom by the filming of a program for the Good Food channel. Matt Dawson of English rugby and Question of Sport fame was hosting a new game show, Monster Munchies. The challenge for the episode was for two teams to compete in creating the biggest, and best tasting trifle they could in 24 hours. The competing cooks were from Exeter College, Oxford, and the Anchor Inn.

The first to be judged was Exeter College's effort, which I have to say was one of the most disgusting things I've ever seen. So gross, I don't even want to describe it, so you'll just have to look at the picture of it above. I should note that the moustachioed man in the background is TV's Iron Chef, and Michelin starred chef, Martin Blunos. He was one of five celebrity judges, and he also hosted one of the Chef Theatre slots later on in the day (we only managed to catch the tail end of it though).The Anchor Inn's effort was slightly more palatable (at least to look at), and deservedly won over the other monstrosity. I can't imagine any of the judges were especially pleased to have to sample either though. Below is a fairly poor image of the other trifle, also featuring Mr Blunos.

Watching all the filming took us pretty neatly on to our next pre-booked slot - this time the chocolate tasting. I was pretty excited about this as it was being hosted by the impressive Chocolate and Love stall that I mentioned above, and I was looking forward to trying out some of the more unusual brands I hadn't come across, as well as trying Amedei for the first time.
I was a little disappointed by the speaker, as I genuinely think I could have given a better summary of chocolate and the chocolate making process than she did. However, she led the tasting fairly well, and overall it was a decent session (though I was disgusted to note that Cadbury's featured on the tasting plate - I left that piece untouched).

As I've said before, Chocolate and Love's own 'Crushed Diamonds' bar blew away anything else I tasted, though Amedei was good too. At the end of the tasting session the presenter held a small quiz, with correct answers being awarded a free bar of Chocolate and Love's Nirvanabar. Yours truly did indeed win one. It's true.

With the tasting out of the way, it was back to the stalls and the festival for one more hour until it was time for Mark Chandler's slot at the Chef's Theatre. I had picked Mark, mostly, if I'm honest, because he fitted into the timing schedule between some of the other attractions I wanted to see, but aside from this, he was one of the more local chefs attending (based in Fyfield), and as a self taught chef I was interested to see his take on things.

Mark had chosen to demonstrate one of the most popular dishes from his restaurant (The White Hart, Fyfield), the salmon Gravlax.

It being his first ever live demonstration, I thought he did very well, clearly outlining every step of the process and even cracking a couple of reasonable jokes. A lady on stage continually fielded questions to keep the dialogue moving, and overall it was a very entertaining piece. There were plenty of samples of the finished dish to go round at the end, and it really was fantastic. The sweet cucumber base complimented the well seasoned salmon, with the home made mayonaise really rounding off the canapés.

It was however a little short at just under half and hour, but by this point in the day we were flagging a little and were ready to go home. This was one of the main reasons why we didn't stay for the cheese tasting (though it would have also meant yet another hour wandering round the same stalls!).

Small as it was, the day had been excellent (not least because of the fantastic weather), and for the price (£10 for three day access to the event - there are different masterclasses and chefs on across the bank holiday), it was an absolute steal. Well worth a visit and I'm already considering making it a yearly venture.

I thought I'd finish by detailing my various acquisitions from the day:

- 3 bars of choclolate: 2 bought from Chocolate and Love, the 'Crushed Diamonds' and Amedei's hazelnut bar, as well as the one I won from the tasting quiz.
- A fresh coconut with the husk stripped off. A bit of a gimmick, I know, but it was delicious and the coconut water was divine.
- Three copies of Olive magazine (on a special deal at the BBC Olive stand - with free bag and seeds and other such goodies - man must I sound like a girl after that one...).
- A couple of posters I nicked from the Chocolate and Love stand.
- Some rapeseed oil and some of the best balsamic vinegar I've ever tasted.
- And finally, the most interesting one, was a two month trial membership to the Gourmet Society. This entitles me to all sorts of benefits from tons of restaurants around the UK - from two for one, to fifty percent off for a group, free drinks - all sorts of things! Free for two months, so we'll be making good use of that.

Do pay a visit to the festival next year (or even Sunday or Monday this year if you're not busy!) - you won't regret it!

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Coming up:

- I don't know... nothing planned, but maybe some restaurant reviews, or some details if I cook anything interesting - eyes peeled people!