Taste of Christmas, 2012

Ben Tish (left) with assistant

Let the countdown to Christmas begin – whoop! What really got me in the mood for it this year was going to the UK’s biggest Christmas food festival, Taste of Christmas, event a couple of weeks ago. It was a fab opportunity to sample the food from the many stalls, buy Christmas presents and visit the Electrolux Food Theatres that had cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs such as; Jamie Oliver, Rachel Allen and Jean-Christophe Novelli.

I got to see Ben Tish, from Salt Yard’s demo, who’d made a delicious looking goose and white bean dish. I then spent a lot of time sampling the wares of various stalls. I can’t tell you everything I bought as some are presents and the recipients might just be reading. But I can tell you that I particularly liked the fresh curry sauces from The Curry Sauce Co., which tasted just like the ones you get from a good Indian restaurant.

Balti curry sauce from The Curry Sauce Co.

I’d reviewed a set of knives by Kitchen Devils not that long ago and was in need of a sharpener. So was I particularly interested in the  Zwilling demo, who make two very excellent ones. One is like a steel rod where you need a good technique to get the best out of it, mostly by sharpening at a 45 degree angle. The other (in the below pic) is more forgiving and has two separate sharpening modules. The first removes small damages from the edge of the blade and the second smoothes the edge and restores sharpness, which is important as I’m told that a blunt knife is a dangerous knife!

Hungry after the demo, I used the crowns (the dining currency for the event) I’d been given, to spend on a couple of the Street Food options. Mark Hix’s Fishdog van was there. I remember seeing it at Jamie Oliver’s Feastival and wished I’d gone for that at the time instead of Jamie’s Italian. So I wasn’t going to be passing that one up again and glad I didn’t. A coley fillet coated in breadcrumbs, in a bun with sweet, minted mushy peas and a dollop of tartare sauce was simply delicious. The other Street Food I tried was from The Bowler with the festively titled ‘Jingle Balls’.  These were cumin flavoured, free-range, hand-made, meatballs with a lovely note of cumin spice, served with wild rice and a delicate red cabbage slaw – meatylicious!

Jingle Balls from The Bowler

 Mark Hix’s Fishdog

The day was topped off with a cooking demo, this time a participatory one, with Simon Hulstone. Hulstone is the head chef at the Michelin starred restaurant, The Elephant, in Torquay. We used Electrolux induction cookers to make egg nog bread with caramelised apples and mincemeat clotted cream, recipe here. Apart from a bit of apple chopping, and bread slicing, everything else was measured out and the appliance easy to use. Hulstone’s instructions were swift, but clear, and I knocked the dish up in no time. It was a wonderfully calorific end to a fun, Christmas inspired day.

Simon Hulstone

Egg nog bread with clotted cream

Many thanks to the sponsors Electrolux for the invite, and to all the stall holders and demonstrators I visited.

Have a lovely Christmas, dear readers! Tash. x