Is Bampton really mid Devon? With Somerset only a few miles up the
road, it does feel like we are really on the edge, so in saying that it meant
that we got an invite (sneaky) to attend Somerset Chefs Club first ever dinner
at The Beach Hotel Minehead. The hotel has been taken over by the YMCA and is
run as a training school in all forms of the hospitality industry, well not
everyone is cut out for schools or college. The young people are taught and
supervised at all time by a group of fully qualified professionals, some attend
college on day release or are assessed on the job, so they can gain suitable
levels at NVQ to move forward with there chosen career, one of the young chefs
was leaving the following week to start a new job in Scotland at a Michelin
starred hotel. What a great bunch of people they were, they were so
enthusiastic and proud of their achievements, from the minute we entered to the
moment we left we were given 5star treatment, we could have been at the Ritz.
The staff showcased their food and front of house skills and a wonderful night
was had by all. So if you are wandering along Minehead seafront and fancy
something to eat, bare The Beach Hotel in mind a great cause and well worth a
visit.
June is always a busy month for us, with Fathers day, the start of
wedding season and the Iron Man competition at Wimbleball Lake increasing the
number of people wishing to eat, added to this we lucky to be chosen to cook
for The Cannonball Chefs, this caused much excitement on Facebook and Twitter.
The country is split into 4 areas and a team of 4 has 48 hours to eat at 24
restaurants ending at the 25th one in Birmingham where all the teams
meet up. It might all sound very glamorous but the guys that visited us looked
absolutely broken by it all, there’s a heck of a lot of miles traveling around
the southwest area to visit all of these foodie places, I know they had a great
time and ate some amazing dishes, but I’m sure they slept for a couple of days
when it was all over.
We branched out last week and had a pop
up bar at Tiverton's Electric Nights food festival, selling some amazing local
cider, we had a great night, met some wonderful people and of course sampled
some awesome and filling food, all with bands playing in the background. So if
I were you, I would look out for the next Electric Night food festival and go
along, take the kids and the dogs all are welcome. I'm sure you'll have a real
fun night.
Back to Plymouth for a Devon chefs club
dinner, the Greedy Goose was once again the venue, this time Ben was assisted
by Mike Palmer (who runs the chefs club) head chef at The Two Bridges Hotel in
Princetown, who teamed up with the guys from Tigermilk a cocktail bar, so not
only did we have great food we had matching cocktails. (At least I've eaten two
good meals this month)
The end of the month saw features in
Devon life magazine, catering the crew from Come Dine With Me (no they didn’t
tell me any gossip) and a day with David Griffin award-winning food photographer
taking pictures of our food, so all in all a hectic but fun end to the month.
Soft fruit is obviously bountiful this
year and suddenly we find ourselves inundated with gifts from customers.
Unfortunately these fruits don't last too long and there are only so many you
can freeze. We have made some great purees for decoration and we will be making
jams and chutneys but I have found a great looking cake recipe so you can use
up any of your excess fruit. Enjoy
Summer Fruit Drizzle Cake
INGEDIENTS
2 large eggs
2
tsp vanilla extract
175g
fruits, stoned and diced weight
140g
granulated sugar
1-2
tbsp citrus juice - lemon, lime or orange
175g
very soft butter, plus extra for greasing
175g
golden caster sugar
250g
self-raising flour
Method
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Grease a
900g/2lb loaf tin and line the base and ends with a long strip of baking
parchment. Put the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and vanilla extract into a large
bowl and beat with an electric hand mixer for 5 mins until pale and creamy –
the mixture will be very thick.
Spread one-third of the cake mix into the tin,
then scatter over 50g of the fruit. Carefully dot and spread another third of
the cake mix on top, and scatter with another 50g fruit. Finally dot the rest
of the cake mix over and gently spread with the back of a spoon. Bake for 1 hr,
until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Poke the cake all
over with a skewer. Put remaining 75g fruit into a bowl with the granulated
sugar. Stir in 1 tbsp of the citrus juice first with a fork, mashing a little
of the fruit as you go. If it’s a bit dry, add a splash more juice and spoon
over the cake. Leave in the tin until the cake is cool and the topping is set
and crisp.
