Recipe – aromatic winter vegetable soup

This is my 200th post, seems OK to mark that with a recipe. Today’s been a bit of a tidy-up and use-up day, so after spending the morning clearing up the garden to get it ready for spring planting, I headed inside to see what the fridge could muster after a few days away. Not much really was the answer, but I had a few veggies that needed using and the forage in the garden reminded me that I had some cavolo nero out there that was looking great, and would make a good garnish for a chunky soup. Jane and I are both feeling a bit under the weather so a fragrant and spicy sinus-clearing soup was in order. I didn’t have any onions but have included them in the recipe, as it definitely would have benefited from a bit of lasting backbone as it slipped down the throat. I also realise that sweet potatoes aren’t really an English winter veg, but they really helped this dish, giving it a little sweetness that lightened the whole thing.

Ingredients (serves 4):
50g unsalted butter
1 medium onion – finely diced
3 cloves garlic – finely chopped
2 small sweet potatoes – 1.5cm cubes diced
1 small swede – 1 cm cubes
1 green chilli – finely chopped
Cinnamon stick
2 bay leaves
1 Star anise
1 thread of mace
About 20 sprouts – outer leaves stripped and halved
10 small shoots of cavolo nero (black kale) – cleaned and left whole

Method:
Put a medium-large saucepan on a medium heat, and melt the butter. Add the onions, sweet potato, garlic, swede, chilli, all the aromatics, and a decent pinch of salt, and turn the heat down to low. Stir occasionally, ensuring nothing sticks or burns, for about 20 minutes, until the swede and sweet potato is starting to tenderise. Add 600ml of boiled water from the kettle and return the heat to medium. After 5 minutes add the sprouts and simmer for 6-7 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick, star anise bay leaves and mace, and mash the remaining soup lightly with a potato masher to thicken it. Add the cavolo nero, taste and season, and cook for a further 5 minutes. As there was no bread in the bread bin on returning home from being away, I knocked up some quick soda bread to go with it. It tasted wonderful, had a great texture and was just what we needed after a morning in the garden.

Birmingham Independent Food Business of the Year Award – voting open!

The voting for the inaugural Birmingham Independent Food Business of the year 2010 is now open! We’ve had some great nominations over the past few days, and now you have a week to have your say on who you think should win the award. Who’s done the most to promote good food and drink this year in Brum? Who’s brought great new products to the market, done things differently, taught us about food or drink, got people excited about food, or promoted Birmingham as a food destination? Have your say until New Years Day, voting is open below – you can only vote once, any duplicate votes from your IP address will not be counted!

Birmingham independent food business of the year award – 2010

It’s about time Birmingham started celebrating it’s food hero’s, after all we’re one of the country’s top food destinations now with a big fine dining scene, and a growing grassroots local food scene. So, in the vein of B:iNS’s ‘Brummie of the Year’ competition, we thought we’d have a bit of fun and run an annual award for the best independent food business in Birmingham.

Here’s the rules:

1. ‘Food Business’ – is very loosely defined – any business or organisation working in the food or drink industry in Birmingham – retailers, producers, restaurants, farmers market, coffee shops, cookery schools etc etc…

2. Birmingham means under the jurisdiction of Birmingham City Council, so includes Sutton Coldfield but not Solihull. Business should either be based in Birmingham, or do virtually all their business in Birmingham.

3. Independent means no more than three owned-outlets anywhere.

4. To nominate, a single comment is required on this blog post.

5. Nominations are open from now until Boxing Day.

6. Voting will then commence until New Years Day.

Any suggestions of refinements of these rules are welcomed. Loaf is excluded from the competition for reasons of impartiality.

the winner gets a 3 month small ad on this website for free and a little logo for their own website and promo materials – if anyone wants to design one in return for a couple of loaves of sourdough, please get in touch (tomATloafonline.co.uk), otherwise i’ll knock one up with my limited design skills!

Get nominating (remember only one comment needed to nominate a business – voting opens on boxing day)…

School of Green Living

We’re teaching one of these courses at Northfield Eco Centre’s new School of Green Living, you’ll never guess which one!

Christmas Meat

I was chatting to Steve Rossiter (who runs Birmingham’s only registered organic butchery) last night at our joint poultry butchery workshop, and amidst general chit chat, he quietly mentioned that he’s throwing a charity hog roast outside his shop for Christmas. Brilliant!! If you’ve ever been to Rossiters for meat in the week running up to Christmas, you’ll know there’s always a queue going out the door, with Paul Leverton from the deli opposite often running across the road with hot teas and coffees for the crowds. Steve says the 23rd December is normally the busiest day for order pick-ups (you really must pre-order if you want any joints of meat or turkeys/geese that week!), so this year he’s asked one of his farmers, Adrian to come up from his farm in Stroud with a pig and a hog roasting oven, and feed the hungry hordes outside the shop. Steve’s throwing in the pig, and Adrian’s coming out of his own good will, all to raise a bit of cash for Acorns Children’s Hospice. So if you’re ordering meat from Rossiters this Christmas, come and pick up on the 23rd December, have a hot pork roll, and give generously to Acorns!

You can pre-order your meat by popping into the shop at 247 Mary Vale Road, Bournville, or by calling 0121 458 1598. I’ve ordered a rib roast this year and will definitely be picking up on the 23rd!

Award Winning!

We won an award – community business award for Selly Oak Constituency! Thanks to Matt Powell for nominating us, and great respect to Rob Grovesner of Headmasters and the girls at Maggies Munchies, also nominated, who are both doing great things in the community.

Loaf’s TV debut!

Next week on the Good Food Channel, Market Kitchen will be featuring the food scene in and around Birmingham, and Loaf is a part of it! During the summer the Market Kitchen team went on the road on it’s ‘Big Adventure’, visiting food hotspots all around Britain and filming chef’s, producers, and individuals with something interesting to say about food from their region. At the beginning of October they visited Birmingham and regular host Matt Tebutt teamed up with local chef Glynn Purnell to tour the regions food highlights. I had the pleasure of welcoming them both to Loaf HQ (aka my house) to chat to them about what I do, and take them on a little foraging foray down the River Rea. It turned out Matt is pretty familiar with foraged ingredients already, but lots of it was new to Glynn. Anyway we went out specifically for horseradish and nettles which we found, and I even got them eating raw nettles! The studio part of it was filmed a couple of weeks ago in London and my mate and local grocer Paul Leverton went down to the studio to give his expert opinion on all the dishes they concocted in the studio. You can catch Paul several times next week at 7pm on Monday-Friday, but I’ll be on the show on Tuesday. Sadly as I don’t have sky and am out anyway at an event i’m not going to get to watch it, can anyone record it for me?!?

Soul Food Project go Christmassy

Just a quick update on the excellent Soul Food Project’s plans for keeping you well fed this Christmas. Sunday’s have been working really well for the Soul Food lads, being their busiest day every week, so they’ve decided to go big and go Christmassy on two Sunday’s in December – the 12th and 19th. On both dates you’ll be able to sample their exclusive Christmas menu which features dishes like clove studded honey-glazed ham, root veg and corn chowder, and sweet potato pie with cranberry compote, alongside the traditional turkey (with an SFP twist of course!). At £12.50 for two courses and £15 for three, it’s an absolute steal as usual, and of course with the Soul Food Project music will play a big part too – they’re giving away free soul food mix cd’s, having DJ’s playing jazz and festive swing, and on the 12th the Whitmo Deans will be playing live. Check out the menu below (click to enlarge), and to make a reservation email info@soulfoodproject.co.uk or call Matt on 07704 834008.

Stirchley Community Market Today

Today see’s the fifth Stirchley Community Market since its inauguration in July. We’ve moved the market indoors for the winter, although there is still some hot food happening outdoors, and it’s at the same venue, the Stirchley United Working Mens Club on Hazelwell Street, from 4-7.30pm. We’re doing bread at this months market and will be taking down about 75 loaves of various kinds. You can find details of the loaves and prices below:

White Tin – small £0.80

Malthouse Granary – small £1.10

Cotteridge Sourdough – large (800g) £3, small (400g) £1.80

Revolution Rye (100% rye topped with Pumpkin and Sunflower seeds) – small £1.80

Borodinsky Rye (100% rye with molasses, malt extract and caraway) – small £2

Ciabatta – small £1.50

‘The Stirchley’ (Crusty part-wholemeal potato loaf) – small £1

We normally sell out before the end so head down early to grab some!

We are one (again)

I know, I know, I’ve already posted about our first birthday back in August, however tonight is another one year milestone for us, as it’s exactly a year since we taught our first course (Handmade Pasta), and officially started trading. To celebrate we’re having a little party tonight at Loaf HQ with our bread club subscribers and a few significant others. Everyone’s bringing something homemade, so tonight I have no doubt that the best food and drink in brum will be right here! I’ve made Foccacia, mince pies, and chocolate tart, and I’ve heard on the grapevine that there’ll be homebrew, salt beef, Norwegian cake, and empandillias all arriving later. Now i’ve just got to get the place ship shape!!

Bone Meal

Check out this crazy menu for a food event tomorrow night in Digbeth. Shame I can’t go, but if you’re going i’d love to hear how it goes:

The Bone Dinner takes place at Eastside Projects on Friday 5 November at 7pm. To make a booking—tickets are £25—or for more info please visit www.companis.co.uk

In 1971 Gordon Matta-Clark co-founded Food, in SoHo, New York, a restaurant managed and staffed by artists. For two years the restaurant sought to make dining a unique experience, serving imaginative menus from an open kitchen. Next Friday at Eastside Projects, Birmingham-based artist-curator duo Companis present an evening of experimental eating in the spirit of one of Food’s famous events. Bone Dinner pulls together food designers, artists, performers, caterers and a jeweller to deliver a luxurious seven course bone-based menu, that you can even wear home. London-based foodies Blanch & Shock are preparing the feast, while after each course artists Juneau Projects and jeweller Elizabeth Short will be cleaning, drilling and stringing the bones that will surely become this season’s must-have fashion accessories. 70s primitivism is so hot right now.

Butchery: Nose to Tail Lamb

Last night saw another great collaboration with local artisan butcher Steve Rossiter, as Loaf ran it’s first lamb butchery workshop. We started off the evening with a grand tour of the locally reared organic Texel lamb that Steve had brought along, pointing out the familiar and the unfamiliar cuts. Steve then got to work on one side of the lamb, showing us the traditional butchers cuts. Under his expert guidance, he then passed over his knives and saws to the students, who got to work on the other side of the lamb, taking off first the leg, then the breast, chump, loin, rack, shoulder, and finally the neck – all done very skillfully!

We then had a break to eat our starter – chump chops with cannelini beans and salsa verde, washed down with a nice Cote du Rhone. It was back to the butchery soon though as Steve demonstrated how to bone out all of the joints we’d created, giving us lots of tips on knife skills. He then demonstrated stuffing and rolling on the breast of lamb joint (stuffed with a nice dry spiced chickpea stuffing), and taught us all how to tie proper butchers knots. The students then picked the joint they’d like to take home, and stuffed and rolled it themselves. Finally we sat down to a beautiful slow cooked neck of lamb curry with basmati rice and cucumber raita. All in all it was a fantastic evening, and I learnt just as much as the students. Steve is an incredibly talented butcher who shares his huge knowledge and passion with gladness and patience. It makes me realise just how important it is to cherish the artisans we have around us, in any area, but especially in food.

Our next Butchery: Nose to Tail Lamb is on the 10th November, 6.30-9.30pm, and there’s still spaces – book now by emailing cookeryschool@loafonline.co.uk

Apple Day Sunday 24th October 11am-3pm Court Lane Allotments, Erdington.

This just in from Erdington artist in residence Eleanor Hoad:

Cotteridge pop-up pizza club round-up

Saturday night saw Loaf do it’s first ever (and perhaps the first ever?*) pop-up pizza takeaway. After the disastrous start to Saturday morning, the day turned fairly rapidly into one of the craziest and most fun of my loaf life. On the way back from the Jewellery Quarter towing our trailer of rubble, Jane and I tossed around ideas of how to use up all our ingredients ranging from making loaves of bread to sell the next day, to making quiches for sale at some local shops, to what we finally settled on doing – a pop-up pizza night. Over a calming cup of tea, we devised a flyer, wrote a blog post, and got the word out on Twitter about the pizza marathon, then headed out to pound the pavement and deliver some flyers to our neighbours. Twitter went absolutely crazy during the day, in a large part due to Jenny Drew’s hardcore retweeting and social networking on our behalf (thanks Jenny!). We were the most talked about thing in Birmingham for most of Saturday and the top trend in the UK for about 15 minutes – google analytics showed visitors to this website tripled on Saturday, so thanks to everyone who helped get the word out there.

The tension was building here at Loaf HQ ready for the 6pm start – the fire was lit in my earth oven, friends were drafted in to man phones and door, ingredients and rolling pins were laid out, and aprons were donned. We had a few pre-orders via twitter and other means, and the phone went crazy for the first hour of service, meaning people had to wait a little longer than the advertised ten minutes, so thanks everyone for your patience. The pizza’s were great on the whole with great feedback on twitter and text, although in the hurry a few may have come out overly ash-laden on the bottom (sorry if you got one of those!). By the end of the night I had met lots of amazing people, neighbours I never knew I had, and cooked about 70 pizza’s. I think we just about clinched victory out of the jaws of defeat!

A couple of special shout-outs to finish this post then. A massive sorry to everyone at the 24 Carrots Market for letting you down – I hope to return at a later date and do something extra special. A huge thank you to everyone who came and bought a pizza or seven (you know who you are). And finally massive thanks to my helpers on the night – the cool, calm, and collected Mike ‘Hello Loaf Pizza’s!’ Skinner, the charming host Martin ‘Martino Evano’ Evans, and my beautiful wife Jane, the fastest pizza maker in Cotteridge – I couldn’t have done it without you!

Finally, shall we do it again, whaddayarecon?

Cheers, Tom.

* I expect the first pizza’s were sold pop-up style in Naples all those years ago, so it’s nothing new really!

Dell Road Pizza Night Tonight!

Loaf were due to appear at today’s 24 Carrots farmers market in Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter, serving hot sourdough pizza’s from the mobile wood-fired oven. All was going well, up at 5am to hand-knead 20kg of dough, an hour of cheese grating last night, lots of kindling chopped and ready, oven looking fine. Having borrowed a van from local organic butcher Steve Rossiter, we hooked up the trailer and headed to the JQ at 8am. I drove really carefully, but sadly when we arrived at the market we were greeted by this sorry scene:

After a few moments of confusion, Jane and I had a cup of tea and came up with an idea to turn disaster into adventure…

So for one night only, Loaf will be hosting the first ever* pop-up pizza takeaway restaurant!

Here’s the deal:

Local artisan baker Tom Baker is firing up his wood-fired oven for one night only (Saturday 16th Oct) to offer amazing hot sourdough pizza’s to takeaway tonight.

only £5 for a 9” pizza

(collection only)

Choose from organic Gloucestershire ham and mushroom, or red onion, black olive and basil.

Call Tom on 07811 178272 between 6pm & 10pm with your order & collect 10 minutes later from 7 Dell Road, Cotteridge!

* It might not be the first-ever, but we’ve certainly never heard of one. We’re making history people… 🙂