Pavé, that is a word that I know very well. Learnt it years ago when I was shopping for diamond jewellery and learning about different stone settings. Pave setting is when a lot of stones are set very close proximity to each other, with no metal showing, creating a smooth surface. I would never have associated that word with meat, let alone rump steak.
At a recent visit to the Donald Russell operations centre in Inverurie in Scotland, we were introduced to this cut of meat. A perfectly sculpted piece of meat sculpted from the centre muscle of the rum steak, the Pavé Rump. This cut has been trimmed of any fat or sinew and resembles a fillet steak but is much thicker than a normal rump steak you would find at your local supermarket.
Pave rump steak
Danny of Food Urchin fame and I arrived in Aberdeen on a uncharacteristically warm winter’s morning and were driven over to Inverurie where we were to undertake a Butchery Masterclass.
Donald Russell, the online butcher, has been selling meat for many years but mainly to trade and not retail customers. They have been supplying restaurants and hotels like the Grand Hotel in Monaco and Simpsons in the Strand. They also hold a royal warrant for supplying to Kensington Palace. Their business suffered during the BSE crisis in 1996, causing a rethink in strategy and repositioning. To diversify their business and reduce the reliance on a few trade customers, they decided to start a mail order business and this has now grown into the largest seller of meat online in the UK.
Donald Russell buys in their beef from a number of slaughterhouses in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland but their beef is not selected by breed, rather they buy the best tasting beef. This is dependant on feeding, breeding, husbandry and maturation which they do in house. They only buy in meat from audited farms and slaughterhouses. I expect they have similar accountability measures when they buy lamb, game and fish from other suppliers, but we didn’t have time to get into that.
Up to this point, my only impression of Donald Russell were the ads in newspapers, suggesting a large faceless corporation. It has never occurred to me to buy meat online as I like to see and touch what I am buying. I am also very geeky about the provenance of my meat and tend to now buy from the higher end butchers in London than the local supermarkets. One exception is a Scottish Aberdeen Angus farm, Hardiesmill, that I visited where they sell exceptional 100% Aberdeen Angus beef which they sell online in small quantities.
So, on touring the butchery, we were pleasantly surprised to find out that they are more like a massive butchers shop than a large corporate machine.
We were first shown into the room where they receive the ribs that are bought in. Racks and racks of prime beef, meat heaven. What hits you first is the smell of fermentation in the air but it’s a sight that will get any meat lover salivating. These are placed on racks and aged before they are cut up and sold. The level of aging can be seen by the level of oxidation on the surface of the meat and it gets darker as it ages. They use the dry aging method which allows moisture to evaporate which enhances the flavour of the meat. This aging process causes the total weight of a piece of rib to reduce, hence the higher cost of dry aged beef. Wet aging is when they age it in a sealed bag where evaporation is not possible, the weight remains the same which works out better for selling but not for the flavour.
Next we were shown into the massive cold room where several rows of carcasses were hung. These carcasses are also know as “roastings” which is basically half a cow (or steer or whatever the technical term is.)
Mark Farquhar, Head Butcher
The main butchery floor was a bevy of activity with rows of butchers deftly demonstrating traditional butchery skills, carving away at racks of lamb, ox cheeks, slicing up steak, all with such speed and precision. Most of their butchers were obviously quite experienced and have been with them a number of years and noticably, quite a few were from Eastern Europe. The most experienced butcher(ess) was a lady, which I understand is quite unusual. They are talking about running butchery apprentice schemes to train up some young blood, which were noticably absent.
In other parts, they were busy churning out pure beef patties for burgers and hand rolling pastry for sausage rolls. It might not be a corporate machine but the operation seemed like a a very well orchestrated dance. It also struck me that the staff were all happy and smiling and there seemed to be a family vibe of carmaderie.
By now, we were absolutely freezing as all those rooms were super chilled. Thankfully, our next stop was lunch in their warm test kitchen.
How to Cook Steak
Chef Eddie McDonald had prepared 3 pieces of Pave Rump for us to cook. Using the instructions in the Pave Rump instruction booklet, How To Meat Perfection, (which they supply with all purchases), we attempted to cook these to rare, medium and well done.
Steps to cook steak:
1. Make sure that the meat is at room temperature
2. Oil the meat, not the pan as the oil in the pan will burn too quickly
3. Make sure that the pan is super hot so that the meat sizzles when you place it down on the pan.
4. Cooking times : (this is for the thick cut Pave rump steak, other cuts differ)
- Rare : 4 mins each side
- Medium : 5 1/2 mins each side
- Well done : 8 mins each side
5. On finishing, brush with melted butter
6. Rest the steak for as long as you have cooked it to allow the meat to relax and the juices that were forced out with the heat to migrate back to the centre of the meat, making it juicier.
In the meantime, Chef Eddie was cooking a few different cuts of steak; a fillet, a sirloin and a rib eye, on a low temperature in the oven using a meat thermometer. I have always pan fried my steak and have never considered this method but the results were stunning. The meat is seared before being placed in a low temperature oven, at about 80C and cooked for about 2 hours, depending on the weight.
While waiting, we got to sample their fish cakes and amazing sausage rolls. These are the tastiest sausage rolls I have had and they were enormous too. We were also introduced to their range of ready to bake German breads, a product that Hans Baumann, their Swiss managing director found at a food show.
The tasting: of all the cuts, the rib eye had the most flavour, helped along by decent marbling and a seam of fat through the meat. The pave rump was tender but since all the fat had been trimmed off, lacked a bit of flavour. Interestingly, the rare and medium cuts ate well but the well done piece was a total waste of time. Tough and horrible. Really not the best way to eat steak.
The fillet was tender but again, did not compare favourably when tasted with the other cuts as is a part of that doesn’t do any work, has no muscle and very little marbling. The fattier end of the sirloin was great.
We also got to sample their range of ready to bake German breads their new range of puddings. The lemon meringue was terrific.
Butchery Masterclass
After lunch, dressed in an added layer of a body warmer, we ventured back into the butchery. This is where it all got a bit more hands on and the fun began. Andy Grant one of the master butchers demonstrated how he would carve up a “roasting” into all the different cuts that we are more familiar with. (see video)
There was so much information to absorb about the style of butchery, the different steaks, etc. From the video above, you can see Andy breaking up the Roasting into the 4 main parts below and then these are cut into steaks.
- The fillet
- ladies steak, what a stupid name
- chateubriand
- fillet Tails
- the sirloin
- rump end which is seamed off to create Pave Rump steaks
- vein end - skimmed off for sirloin steaks. The smaller end pieces are then sliced thinly and sold as minute steaks
- tail end – sirloin with an added piece of muscle, not a true sirloin. Never noticed this before and is not the best cut of sirloin, take note when you next buy a piece of sirloin. Lower parts are used sold cubes or strips for dishes like stroganoff.
- the prime rib
- rib eye
- rib trims, the meat between the ribs which are great slow roasted or boiled like in Pastrami
- the rump
- rump steaks
- rump cap is usually cut into a roasting joint
- the tafelspitz (an Austrain cut, traditionally boiled with vegetables as a quick meal, a recipe that was devised for the court of Franz Joseph I) This is where the uber trendy cut of Picanha steaks are cut from against the grain.
The other trendy new cut is the Flat Iron which is very popular in the US and has been increasing in popularity over this side of the pond. This is cut from the shoulder feather blade and Andy demonstrated this and it was super fiddly and looked really sinewy.
Out of the 30kg of Roasting, the resulting saleable meat is about 15kg. The waste meat is sometimes used in other products.
Danny and I then had a little competition cutting up steaks. This involved getting kitted out in a chain mail apron and chain mail gloves. Funnily, the chain mail apron resembled a chain mail dress from Burberry Prorsum that I had seen recently and just as heavy. So that’s where Christopher Bailey gets his inspiration from.
We had a choice of weapons, a butchers knife and were let loose on some nice hunks of beef. We had to slice them up to within 10g of 220g portions by eye. Watching the butchers do this with such speed, it didn’t seem too difficult but most my attempts were out by 50g. Not so easy, but Danny hit bullseye when he managed an exact slice at 220g and did a little victory jig. Seriously competitive that food urchin.
For our efforts, we got a little certificate but I would have loved to have had a go at breaking up a roasting than just slicing up steaks. Another time maybe.
Donald Russell’s Ready to Eat Range
So in addition to beef, they sell lamb, pork, game, fish and added value products like burgers, sausages, delicious sausage rolls and even puddings. We didn’t get a chance to talk about where the other meat, game are from but this seems to be a growing part of their business, with beef still making up about 60% of total sales.
In February 2012, Vestey Group, a privately held food company bought a majority stake in Donald Russell, signalling a possible shift in direction for them. Management has retained a stake in the company and have been told that their existing businesses strategies will be upheld. This might see a significant shift for Donald Russell using the synergies of Vestey Groups food businesses to expand their reach and market.
Our butchery day ended with a much greater appreciation of butchery skills and all the different cuts of meat and how muscles affect the flavour and how a steak eats. I was impressed by the skilled butchers and was pleasantly surprised at how artisanal the whole operation was, which is not reflected in Donald Russell’s slick sales brochures or website. I found out that they ship their meat after blast chilling it, in insulated boxes that can keep meat optimum for 72 hours. This will be a great way of buying beef to take back for my trips to Asia, as they can’t get decent steak out there. Will definitely do this for my next trip. Buying meat online? I think I might just be a convert.
SlowFoodKitchen was a guest of Donald Russell’s.
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Bermondsey Street near London Bridge is turning into a bit of a foodie haven. With Jose and the newly opened Pizarro along the same stretch and the hip Zucca down the road, you are not short of options to eat along here.
Delfina is an unusual restaurant housed in a cavernous minimalistic white space. It’s previous incarnations as a chocolate factory are not distinguishable now. We went for lunch recently and my dining companion’s text to me before I arrived as ” I’m waiting in the hangar”. Having so much space, the tables are set quite far apart so it would make a great venue to have a business lunch without being overhead by the next tables.
From the ala carte menu we hadthe wild mushroom ravioli with truffle cream (£5.95) was a bit dry and the portion could have been a bit bigger. The Rosary Ash goats cheese, trio of beetroot with a honey dressing (£5.50) , which was quite a delightfully well balanced combination.
For mains, it was a fish kind of day so I opted for the fish of the day with a lemon and mustard dressing (£13.75). The fish was perfectly cooked, quite a large portion and well seasoned. The other fish on the menu was cod, which for a restaurant that boasts of supporting sustainable fish is a bit off.
The second main course was breaded taleggio cheese with roasted tomatoes (£9.95). My friend said that the cheese was rather bland and felt it lacked an element.
For puddings, there was the blood orange pannacotta with pistachio syrup (£4.50), lovely to look at and qutie delicious.
The fig and frangipane tart (£4.95) was light and not overly sweet but rather over powered by the cinammon ice cream.
Delfina is a good choice for lunch around the London Bridge area, not over priced and nicely excuted food (if you choose correctly) with a seasonal menu. The service was unhurried but at times inattentive. They also offer a set lunch menu at a very reasonable price.
Delfina is open for lunch on Mon – Friday and for dinner on Fridays.
Bermondsey Bees and Bermondsey Honey
A while back we were invited to Delfina for a special event highlighting it’s menu with Bermondsey Honey. This had just won the best Restaurant Honey award. A bunch of us were invited to see the hives before a dinner at Delfina.
Who knew that there were beekeepers in this very urban part of London. Dale Gibson keeps 2 hives at the top of his house on Bermondsey Street. It might seem unusual but there is ample vegetation in the area for the bees to feast on and it’s unique location gives this honey its distinctive flavour. The honey is available for sale locally but there isn’t a lot of it as there are only 2 hives. If you do see any, do buy some. London Beekeepers need to be supported and encouraged to help the declining population of honey bees.
Dale Gibson Bermondsey Street Honey
Hives on the rooftop
Slowfoodkitchen was a guest of Delfina.
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Small but perfectly formed 10 Cases, a British Bistro, is a relative newcomer in Covent Garden. There are not many tables but they have a bar you can perch on for a quick drink or some outside tables if you want to brave the elements. It is run and operated by 2 newcomers to the restaurant world, Ian Campbell and Will Palmer.
As there are only 2 people in the kitchen, the menu is short and sweet, which is chalked up on overhead blackboards on the wall. On this visit, we had a starter of garlic snails on toast, which kicked off the meal with a garlicky hit. Well executed, crisp toast, properly seasoned but be warned, enough garlic to fell a vampire from a mile away. (Not suitable date food!)
For mains there were only 3 choices, so we had was the Steak with Foie Gras, a nice chunk of beef fillet topped up with foie gras, simple presentation but ate well. Nothing to fault there. and the Poached Tornedos, which we found out that the beef was very quickly poached which surprisingly was very tender. Both were served with no frills accompaniements. The meat was supposedly Scottish beef but the waitress didn’t know much more.
The name give you a hint as to the choice on the wine list. They buy only 10 cases of whites and reds and at any one time, there are 10 choices on offer. Every wine is available by the glass or bottle. Prices per glass range from £5- £9 and there is not an excessive mark up. If you just wanted a drink, you have to sit at the bar as the tables are often reserved for diners.
On the evening we were there, it was very busy. People who walked in were turned away so do book if you wanted to eat here. It’s a welcome addition to Covent Garden, a simple approach, done well.
A meal for 2 with a couple of glasses of wine, about £80.
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This recipe is inspired by the dish that was made for brunch on Something for the Weekend. Since I had all the ingredients required, I whipped this up in a flash, well almost and it was the most delicious quickie meal ever.
Nduja is a soft salami from Calabria which is made from offal and lots of chilli and it works brilliantly in making a delicious potato hash. Alternatively, you can use the Spanish Sobrasada as it is quite similar.
Nduja Hash - Fried onions, crispy potatoes, spicy and eggs. A perfect combination for brunch.
Ingredients
- 300g new potatoes
- 1 sliced onion
- A few rashers of bacon, ham or any leftover cold meat of sausages can work too.
- 2 free range eggs
- 80g - 100g nduja (Available from supermarkets and the De Calabria stall in Borough Market)
- 2 tbsp cold pressed rapeseed oil
Instructions
- Par boil the new potatoes but don't over cook it. Drain them when cooked.
- Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the onions until soft, about 10 minutes.
- Add the bacon and fry for a short while until cooked or crisp, as you prefer.
- Add the nduja to the pan and stir it into the onions until it melts.
- Now add the potatoes and leave it to cook until the potatoes get crispy, even slightly burnt.
- When the potatoes has crisped, break 2 eggs onto the hash and cover it until the eggs are cooked to your liking.
- When done, pile it on a plate and devour.
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Not enough excitement over Christmas? How about winning another cool prize. The lovely people at Olives From Spain have offered 2 kits to giveaway.
Olives from Spain have shared a few recipes for cooking with olives and I have shared one of the recipes here.
Each kit would include a t-shirt, apron, 2 x jars of olives and a mini cookbook.
Details of the Giveaway
- This giveaway ends at noon, Saturday 7th January 2012. Winners will be picked by Random.org and will be announced on this page.
- The winners will be contacted by email.
- This giveaway is being done on behalf of Olives From Spain and they will be sending out the prize directly to the winners.
- Their decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
How to Enter:
Multiple ways to enter including making a blog comment, tweeting, etc. See below for details. If you don’t see the box to enter, refresh the page or use a different browser that has javascript enabled.
Good Luck!
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Laurent Perrier’s Champagne Pairing Christmas Menu at The Greenhouse
Posted on 14. Dec, 2011 by London Food Blogger.
- Atlantic Cod with leek fondue , smoked potato,yuzu and Champagne sauce
Just when we thought that the inventive combination of flavours could not be topped, the next dish of Poached Scottish Lobster with cep mushroom ravioli, chicken oyster and lobster bisque was just stuning. Interesting texture to the cep ravioli where it was fried rather than boiled providing a contrast to the poached lobster.
The Champagne that was paired with this dish was the favourite of the evening. It was the Laurent Perrier Grand Cuvee- Grand Siecle which was the only bottle to be poured from its sexy black bottle from its own cradle.
This is their first multi vintage prestige cuvee and has been aged from over 6 years. This Champagne has a long history and was inspired by old tasting notebooks of the cellar masters. Smooth, complex, more please. All this being expertly served by The Greenhouse’s charming sommelier, Marc Piquet.
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Nduja Cooking Club at The London Foodie
Posted on 12. Dec, 2011 by London Food Blogger.
A perfect recipe for a leisurely Sunday is a warm kitchen, lots of friends around a table laden with fabulous home cooking. Recently, The London Foodie hosted another London Cooking Club and theme was not around a cuisine but an ingredient, Nduja. This year seems to be the year of the nduja. It seems to be everywhere now and it’s even recently been featured on BBC’s Something For the Weekend where they made Nduja Hash.
Nduja is a spicy sausage from Calabria and is traditonally made with fat, offal and lots of chilli. Due to it’s s high fat content, it melts when heated so it works best when used in recipes to spice up a sauce of just to spread on a piece of toast. It’s an incredibly versatile ingredient.
Unearthed, a company that sources interesting products from Europe and beyond to introduce to the British public has added Nduja to their list of offerings. The inspiration for this cooking club came about after the recent nduja recipe challenge. The menu for the cooking club includes some of the recipes that were submitted to the competition and some extras to round off the menu.
Canapés
Spicy Nduja Palmier
(Prepared by May – Slow Food Kitchen)
Unearthed Mezze Platter
(Prepared by Unearthed)
Starter
Linguine with Nduja, Cherry Tomatoes & Basil
(Prepared by Fede – Pasta Bites)
Mains
Pan-Fried Cod on Butter Beans and Nduja with a Lemon and Sage Dressing
(Prepared by Luiz & Rosana – The London Foodie & Hot and Chilli)
Pimp My Piri Piri Poussin
(Prepared by Qin & Nic – In Pursuit of Food and Cherrapeno)
Accompaniments
Buttered Samphire & Crispy Roast Potatoes
(Prepared by Luiz & Rosana – The London Foodie & Hot and Chilli)
Greek Salad
(Prepared by Sian – Domestic Sluttery)
Dessert
Lemon Posset
(Prepared by Cassey – A Girl Has to Eat)
My favourite dish from this menu was the” Pan-Fried Cod on Butter Beans and Nduja with a Lemon and Sage Dressing” which was served with the very moreish bean stew what went with the fish.
As per the usual London Cooking Club tradition, there was way too much food. As some of these dishes were really substantial and it was like having 3 full meals in one seating. Do try some of these nduja recipes or make up your own recipe with Nduja which is available from major supermarkets or check out their website for more outlets. http://www.discoverunearthed.com/
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Malaysian Pineapple Tarts
Posted on 25. Nov, 2011 by London Food Blogger.
Pineapple tarts are little short crust pastry tarts with home made pineapple jam. In Malaysia, these are made for special ocassions like Chinese New Year, Deepavali and Hari Raya (Eid). Families used to make it but in this age of “I don’t know how she does it”, we tend to buy them from the many cottage industry vendors in town.
I made these for Vanessa Kimbell’s Let’s Make Christmas bloggers’ swap recently as they were suitably festive. The only concession that I made was to use a star shaped cookie cutter instead of the usual round ones.
Every one has their own favourite version of these tarts. I like them with crumbly buttery, short crust pastry and a sweet but tangy pineapple jam. You can cheat by buying in the jam instead of making it yourself but it is quite easy to make. It just takes a bit of time but well worth the satisfaction.
Delicious Pineapple Tarts for any ocassion.
Ingredients
- 500g grated fresh pineapple. If you can’t find fresh pineapple, you can use the equivalent tinned pineapple in juice (remember to drain away the juice)
- 250g caster sugar. Adjust to your taste but reduce the sugar if you’re using tinned pineapples in syrup
- 4 cloves (optional)
- 2 cinnamon sticks (optional)
- 300g plain flour
- 175g salted organic butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg yolk for egg wash
Instructions
- Cook the grated pineapple, spices and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat until it starts to bubble, stirring as you go. Note, you can use an electronic chopper instead of grating if you prefer.
- Once the mixture is bubbling, reduce the heat to low and stir regularly for about 1 hour or until pineapple jam has reached a sticky consistency. You need the jam to be quite dry or it will run all over the pastry when you bake it.
- Make sure you keep stirring the jam as it burns quite easily. Once the jam has thickened, turn off the heat, remove the spices and allow to cool completely. You can bottle this for use later.
- Rub in the butter and flour until the mix resembles bread crumbs.
- Add in the beaten eggs to bind but don’t work it too much as the pastry will get too hard. If it is too dry, you can drizzle a few drops of water (ala Delia). Don’t be tempted to make it too wet.
- The dough should all come together into a ball. When it does, wrap in cling film and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.
- About an hour before you are ready to roll out the pastry, take the dough out of the fridge and let it get to room temperature or it will be too hard to roll out.
- Preheat oven to 180°C. Using lightly oiled hands, roll out about a teaspoon of the pineapple jam into balls and place aside. Don't be tempted to make the balls of jam too big as they will overflow over the pastry.
- Roll out the pastry dough to a 0.5cm thickness (pound coin) between two sheets of non stick baking sheet or use a lightly floured rolling pin. Remove the top sheet of paper and use your pineapple tart or cookie cutter mould to cut out shapes of your pastry. Use the handle of a wooden spoon to make a small circular dent in the middle. You can then either remove the excess dough and slide the baking paper with the pastry onto your baking tray or remove each cut piece and place it on a baking sheet.
- Place the prepared balls of pineapple jam into the middle of each tart and place decorative pastry on top of jam if you want. Traditionally, small pieces if dough will be rolled out and placed as a cross across the jam. In this case, I used some star shaped sprinkles to match the cookie shape after the tarts were cooked.
- Brush pastry with egg wash and bake on the top shelf of the oven for 15-20 minutes until the pastry is slightly golden. Cool on a wire rack to allow the pastry to crisp up and store in an airtight container.
Make a massive batch to give away. They are always better than the shop bought ones.
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Brazilian Chocolate Brigadeiros
Posted on 25. Nov, 2011 by London Food Blogger.
I found this recipe on another food blog and they looked so lovely that I had it on my list to try. Then came along the Let’s Make Christmas event, so I made it for my swap contribution. See below for my adapted recipe.
They are really easy to make and the recipe makes about 30 balls, depending on how big you roll them. This could be a really fun job to involve kids in. Get a lot of different coloured sprinkles and create a whole range of amazing looking sweets.
Sidebar: In the process of making this, I discovered the world of glittery sprinkles in a cake supplies shop nearby. It’s like a kid being let loose in a toy shop. Now I need to find more recipes where I can use the colourful icing, the icing pens, glitter, etc. Fun!
Really fun Brazillian sweets that you can make in a jiffy.
Ingredients
- 1 400ml Can of Condensed Milk
- 3 tbsp of Drinking Chocolate Powder
- 2 tbsp of butter
- Chocolate Sprinkles
- Fancy Sprinkles
- Baking glitter
- Crushed Pistachio nuts
Instructions
- Pour the condensed milk into a medium saucepan and place over medium heat.
- Add the drinking chocolate drinking and butter and keep stirring your Brigadeiro mixture until it starts to show the bottom of the pan when you scrape it with your spoon. This is the only crucial bit to watch out for. As you scrape the bottom of your pan with the spoon, the Brigadeiro mixture should be thick enough to show you the bottom the pan for a couple of seconds before the mixture levels out again. This takes about 10 minutes.
- Pour the Brigadeiro mixture into a glass container and leave your Brigadeiros aside to cool until it’s room temperature, then you can put them in the fridge. The mixture can stay in the fridge for 3 to 4 days until you’re ready to roll them out.
- When you are ready to roll your Brigadeiros, remove the mixture from the fridge and let it warm up to room temperature again as this makes it easier to handle. Using a teaspoon, scoop a small quantity and roll it into a small round shape, about the size of chocolate truffle. If you spread a bit of butter on your palms before rolling, this will prevent the mixture from sticking. (You can make this a fun group activity to get the kids to do this part)
- Drop the Brigadeiro ball into a bowl containing your choice of topping and gently roll it around until it’s totally covered. I chose some chocolate sprinkles and some colourful edible star shape sprinkles from Sainsburys.
- Transfer your Brigadeiro to a mini cupcake cup. (I bought my mini cupcake cups from ebay where there are loads of choices.)
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Food Bloggers’ Swap at Let’s Make Christmas
Posted on 24. Nov, 2011 by London Food Blogger.
The fabulous Vanessa Kimbell started a conversation on Twitter to organise a Christmas gift swap between food bloggers, with handmade edible. This eventually turned into an event held at Fortnums and Masons and a very competitive competition judged by Dan Lepard.
Let’s Make Christmas was born. 50 food bloggers, many, many amazing handmade foodie gifts from Christmas cookies, seasonal chutney, very professional chocolates and sweets and an impressive range of alcoholic infusions.
After Vanessa announced a list of prizes for each category of baked goods, drinks, sweets and preserves, the competitive gene kicked in. The star prize was a Kenwood K mix for the winner of the baked goods category, so of course I had to make one thing for that category. I chose to make some Malaysian Pineapple Tarts which is something that we make in Malaysia (or rather, buy in from some lovely lady who bakes millions for each festival) for Chinese New Year or for Hari Raya (Eid).
I have not done much baking or pastry for ages so this was a great opportunity to start again. I totally under estimated the time that this would take and it was a mad scramble to make short crust pastry at midnight, while stirring a pot of pineapple jam on the side.
I had to improvise with some star shaped cookie cutters to make it look more festive. We usually make these in a round shape with a specially designed cookie cutter that simultaneously cuts the pasty and creates the indent in the middle for the jam. There was much improvisation but it turned out quite well in the end.
I had originally planned to just make some Brazilian Chocolate Brigadeiros which are just simply sweets made with condensed milk.The making of these were quite easy but it took hours of shopping to find the colourful sprinkles, the little gold cups and a suitable sized box to put the sweets in. Here are the finished results. I fell in love with the colourful sprinkles in different shapes and colours and have discovered a whole work of cake and cookie decorating goodies at the local cake shop. Oh no, I feel a new addiction kicking in.
Here is an idea of the competition on the day.
These are some of the entries for the baked goods category. There was a lot of talent in the room.
Entries for the sweets category.
Much serious judging by Dan Lepard and the man from Fortnums.
There was much socialising, networking and meeting food bloggers that we only know by their Twitter handles. So many people had come down to London for this event, it was really an amazing gathering.
Helen (Fuss Free Flavours), don’t know, Vanessa, Sarah (Food For Think) and not sure and didn’t have a chance to meet.
Fiona (London Unattached), Jackie (I am a Feeder) and not sure.
The winners: Jay (Jaynerly) , ?, ?, Urvashi (Botanical Baker), Dan and Vanessa. Sorry, can’t remember the names or the blogs of everyone I met that day.
These are the gifts I got from my swap. Chocolate Peppermint Crunch from Heidi Roberts and glittery Honeycomb rom Gail Doggett (One Million Gold Stars).
That was a really fun afternoon, met some new food blogger friends, got some delicious brownies from Michelle (Utterly Scrummy) and left with a little goodie bag from Fortnums. Big thanks for Vanessa for organising a really fab bloggers event.
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Photos on flickr
