Relish Cooks.....with Tanroagan

Read an article in The Times today including one of my least favourite words......Foodie....that word really gets up my nose. People who say ‘Oh I’m a real foodie’ T*****s. Why do we have to have such a silly name to categorise someone who enjoys good food? In Italy we’d be called humans.

Things are busy busy in the Relish camp this month with cookery classes, demonstrations (cookery ones, rather than the ‘Maggie Out’ type) plus various catering bits and pieces. I harvested my first wild garlic of the season and used it in homemade mayonnaise for the lovely St.Johns WI ladies who came to the cookery school for a night out.

And I’ve had a cookery book binge, exciting times. I can particularly recommend the following:
‘Gourmet food for a fiver’ by Jason Atherton, chef at Maze. I went there last year you know.
‘Eat Me’ cupcake book by Xanthe Clay, slightly annoying tone and some poor piccies but good recipes. Love the look of the Bollywood cupcakes
‘Dough’ by Richard Bertinet. Using his French style kneading technique even I can make edible bread. Result.

Errm anyway where was I? Oh yeah, we’re at Tanroagan this month. Hanging out with, chef and owner, Joan Mowatt. I am addicted to their scallop/foccacia starter and chocolate rolo brownie dessert, yum. I have even managed to persuade Joan to teach a class at the cookery school, wahoo!

Joan has plenty of experience in the catering trade, having owned a hotel in Lincolnshire before moving to Island to retire. So, the retirement hasn’t exactly gone to plan as her restaurant is always packed.

Joan loves her desserts just as much as me so she has treated us to ‘Gorseflower Pannacotta’ which uses an abundance of local produce. The gorse flowers, cream and milk.

Gorseflower Pannacotta – serves 6

You’ll need to collect a few branches of gorse and pick the flowers. The prickles are super-sharp so definitely arm yourself with gloves and scissors. Or if you’re like me forget both and feel the pain!

700ml double cream
100ml milk
100g gorse flowers
110g caster sugar
3 gelatine leaves

Put the cream, milk, gorse flowers and sugar in a heavy-based saucepan and bring gently to the boil. Take off the heat and leave to infuse for 40 minutes.

Soak the gelatine in cold water for about 5 minutes, until soft and pliable, then remove and squeeze out all of the water. Bring the gorse flower mixture back to the boil, remove from the heat again and whisk in the gelatine, making sure it has dissolved. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve, pressing the gorse flowers to extract as much flavour as possible. Leave to cool, then pour into lightly oiled dariole moulds (about 130ml capacity) cover and leave in the fridge overnight to set.

Great served with coconut sorbet to complement the coconut-y flavour of the gorse flowers.

Full article with photos and video in the Manx Independent around 7th May

Next month we’re with the lads down at Paddy’s Market as they prepare for the Queenie Festival

Cupcakes a-go-go

I had a little book buying binge on Amazon. 5 new cookery books....exciting times. This incuded a couple of cupcake books as I had a job coming up that required the mastering of the cupcake.

The client wanted some fun pastel ones to appeal to all of the guests aged 6 months to lots of months. I used the Primrose Bakery book, their amounts were absolutely spot on, I'd highly recommend it.

I did some more classic ones for .....ahem....testing too :o)

These are now a Relish service, just starting the next commission......

Relish news - Dates for your diary

Hi Everyone,

As usual life is busy in the Relish corner of the world. Research trips to London and more recently Harrogate, oh and loads of actual real work too. For a peek at what I got up to in Harrogate as a pupil at Bettys Cookery School check out the post below

So you want to know what's coming up over the next few weeks?

First up, Saturday 27th March. Milntown House will be hosting their 2nd restaurant evening. On the menu are dishes such as Carpaccio of beef, Confit duck with juniper reduction, Chocolate bread and butter pudding, hmmmm I promise that not all of their dishes begin with 'c'. For more information or to make a booking contact Jen on 818091.

On Friday 2nd April (Good Friday) and Saturday 3rd April, from 10am to 3pm, Paddy's in Port St Mary is holding a special two-day Easter Market, showcasing the best and most delicious produce the Isle of Man has to offer. There'll be stalls with mouth-watering treats, freshly-made food and drink to go, live music and Easter-themed activities for the family. Just a few of the treats to choose from: Cocoa Red chocolates, The Good Loaf, Staarvey Farm, Ellerslie Oil, Radcliffe's Butcher, Marianne's Flowers, continental cheese and charcuterie selection, plus all of Paddy's usual delicious fresh and smoked fish. Oh and I'll be there too, selling Indian street food under the watchful eye of Meena!

Heading into May the cookery classes rev up again:

Saturday 8th May - Vegetarian Cooking - including Massaman curry, Blue cheese and poppy seed biscuits and wild garlic frittata

Sunday 9th May - Midweek Meals II - including Lemon and garlic chicken, Braised pork belly with fennel and Linguine with prawn and avocado.

Sunday 23rd May - Breadmaking with Liz from The Good Loaf - learn how to knead and shape like a pro. Including 2 kneading techniques, 6 different shapes and a simple foccacia.

Have a great Easter,

Kathryn @ Relish

Mmmmm canapes

Had a little canape job on last week, only 40 people so nice and easy. Thought you might like to see what the finished result looks like so here is a wee selection.

First up 'Curry Puffs' these had a samosa style filling .......potato, pea, loads of spices......often I do these with minced chicken too which are Stokesy's favourite for packed lunch.

Aaah the 'Garlic Butter Popcorn' you all know that savoury popcorn is well trendy nowadays? Course you do! I went for individual bags rather than serve a big bowl of popcorn, not only does it look a lot cooler, it is also waaay more hygienic.

I made the popcorn for gathering at home with garam masala, chilli and butter.....t'was good

Last, but certainly not least 'Meringues with Baileys cream, toasted hazelnuts and chocolate', I guess these little beauties are my signature canape. I would tell you how to make them but I'd have to kill you.

I managed to eat 15 one day, in my defence they are quite small :o)

Testing testing - on the menu for January

After a Christmas/New Year of making almost nothing new at home it was time to get motivated, get the books out and plan some new menus. Luckily Mitler (aka Big Momma) and her accomplices CB + BB got their cooking mojo back which encouraged me. So.........new stuff cooked in the last week (which will follow on da blog) has been:

• Creamy coconut curry with aubergine and courgette
• Welsh rarebit with leeks
• A new dhal with stir-fried sweetcorn and chilli
• Salted caramel ice cream
• Self-saucing chocolate pudding

Plus.....still to come!!!

• Duck ragout - from Maze cookbook
• Pork belly with fennel - actually an old favourite but we haven't had it for ages - pre-blog!
• Crispy Chinese belly pork
• Slow braised shoulder of lamb - Heston-style
• Kharma soupra - from the Leon book
• South Indian rice soup
• Spicy lamb pastry
• Shellfish bisque

Yes, you guessed right, I got recipe books for Christmas. The Fat Duck, Anjum's New Indian....oh and Stokesy gave me a really rubbish Indian one which I generously passed on to my brother :o)

However, since Christmas I have treated myself to a few little purchases which have just started arriving....wahooo! Maze by Jason Atherton arrived yesterday and currently in transit are: Caramel (Trish Deseine), Ottolenghi and Cook at Home with Peter Gordon (the guy that runs the Tapa Room where we had amazing brunch in London)

Oh and I've just done my Spring/Summer menus for the catering side of things....I'll post them up too so you can check them out.

Summer events on IOM

Summer is approaching and with it a whirlwind of food events. Yippee!

I Love ManxChef - Get involved with this fantastic cookery competition and show us what you can do with local produce. I know that lots of you have been to the cookery school and would be perfect for this. So just go to http://www.ilovemanx.org/ download an application form and I'll see you at the heats.

New timetable - Yes it's that time of year, the new cookery school timetable is here. With loads of dates, brand new classes and a new teacher for our bread-making class (hi Liz). Check it out at www.relish.co.im/cook_school.html

Queenie Festival - We're doing the final date of the Queenie Roadshow @ Tin Bath Championships this Saturday. Then it's all down to Port St Mary for a whole week of queenie activity including Seafood Theatre on Saturday 4th July 11-5pm, I'll be hosting and celebrity chefs Mitch Tonks and Mark Hix, specialists in all things marine will be hands-on and giving us queenie-inspiration. For details of the week-long event go to http://www.queeniefestival.com/

Manx Food Fair @ Tynwald Day - 6th July 2-5pm - Get yourself down to the DAFF Forestry Headquarters in St. Johns for food stalls, demonstrations and tastings from local suppliers. I advise coming with an empty stomach.

My dedication to work knows no bounds, so I have been tirelessly testing and consuming kilos of local produce to prepare for the food shows over the summer. Last night's success was Mushroom and Pak Choi Stir-fry. Mushrooms from Greeba Farm via Shoprite, Pak Choi from Dot (Purely Plants Produce) via the Ramsey Farmers Market.

Ingredients - Serves 2
2 large handfuls of mushrooms - thinly sliced
1 head of pak choi - roughly chopped
Splash of sunflower oil, soy sauce, worcester sauce, sweet chilli sauce
Sesame seeds

Method
Heat your oil in a big frying pan. Add the veggies and all of your splashes, keep stirring. Add a splash of water a put a lid on your pan for 3 minutes. Remove lid, sprinkle with sesame seeds and devour.

Apologies for the misty looking photo, steam was causing me issues!

House of Mannanan

After a quick turn-around after cookery school it was down to Peel to do a dinner at the House of Mannanan. The only small problem being that there was no kitchen to from and initiall...no lighting! You can see me working in the dungeon once we got some lights hooked up


Candy from Finishing Touches had the table all set up.....ooh doesn't it look lovely. Candy was also very helpful with the 'no kitchen' issue. Her house is just round the corner so I finished cooking the main (Lamb Tagine) in her oven and then ferried it to the job where I had a hot cupboard. Easy!
Mmmm canapes. I love canapes!!! I love making them all cute and pretty.......oh and eating them of course. Here we have frittata with roasted tomatoes and wild garlic flowers. I got the idea for these as I was driving home on Thursday and saw the flowers absolutely everywhere. Aren't they gorgeous?

Starter was big sharing platters of hot and cold smoked salmon with pots of dill + mustard mayo and lovely crusty bread. Mmmm mmmmmmmmmmm

Torta di Ciocolatta

Mmmm more party food. This is the posh version of the Chocolate Danger I wrote about earlier in the week. Whipped butter/chocolate/eggs encasing toasted almonds, hazelnuts and crushed biscuit. One of the latest additions to my catering menu. Testing to perfect this recipe was really tough.

Mini Fruit Pavlovas

Don't these look gorgeous! Yes I know not only can I cook but I'm pretty modest too. We served these at a birthday party at the weekend. Michelle (my dictator friend) was waitressing and almost got rugby tackled to the ground by the guests going for the last ones of these little babies.

Little pies

Today I did some final testing for a party next week. One of the items they're having are cute little 2-bite size chicken and leek pies. The testing was to determine the amounts I'll need for next week. Portion control plays a big part in catering, too much and you're wasting money. Too little and people go hungry, not good. I'm still learning about portion control and all the amounts get written in my little book for future reference.

Plus my mum (Wee Jan) was coming round for lunch so it was nice to make these for her. Wee Jan makes very good what I would call classic food and I'll add her stuff to posts the odd time as well. Let's hope she makes her amazing Eve's pudding (gooey apple sponge stuff) sometime soon. When me and my brother used to come home from boarding school that was always our request for the first meal at home.