Coming up next week… our Shellfish course

Seafood Two: Shellfish course

This Wednesday 23rd October – 6.30pm to 9.30pm.

Being one of the furthest cities in the UK from the coast it’s not surprising that so many of us in Birmingham love seafood but don’t know where to start when it comes to shellfish preparation. It’s a forgotten food skill that our coastal ancestors would have passed down through generations, but in recent years we’ve begun to lose.

Here’s how the evening will look…

Shellfish Masterclass

Clean, prepare, and cook a range of shellfish such as crabs, oysters, and lobster.
Master how to cook beautiful Asian & European style shellfish dishes.
Take away tips and recipes to create the magic at home in your own kitchen.
Under the expert guidance of fish expert Lap-fai Lee

Evening Meal included
Enjoy a fantastic shellfish feast such as crab linguine, dressed oysters, and chargrilled squid, at the end of the evening.

Receive a Loaf Loyalty Card for future discounts on Real Bread in the shop.

Afterwards why not take a visit to to the fantastic wholesale fish market in Birmingham city centre brimming with a wide range of fish and shellfish, and begin to create the magic again at home.

For more info and to book click here Seafood Two: Shellfish

And if f you like the sound of this why not try our Seafood One: Fish course two

Indian Flatbread Workshop – with Gujarati food expert, Mohini Howard

Indian Flatbread Workshop – Weds 6 November 2013, 6.30pm to 9.30pm.

This is a one -off workshop, so places are limited and book fast.

If you were here for our Pop-up Paratha event back in September, you’ll remember how tasty Mohini’s massala stuffed indian flatbreads were. So, with such interest, we’ve decided to put on an Indian Flatbread course to teach you the secrets too.

Returning as our guest tutor Gujarati food expert, Mohini Howard, will take us through making a basic wheat-based dough, which will be rolled by us into chapattis, puris and parathas. We’ll also be making Mohini’s great potato massala stuffing for parathas. We’ll then move on to a maize flour paste which is turned into a Gujarati classic – rotla. We’ll then finish up by cooking our chosen breads and sharing them together with Mohini’s killer daal and if you’re lucky some homemade chai.

Dosa, the classic south Indian rice-based flatbread is not covered on this course, but has a course all of it’s own – check it out here.

The Indian Flatbread Workshop Costs £50 (including VAT).

For more information and to book click here

Indian Flatbread Workshop – with Gujarati food expert, Mohini Howard

Indian Flatbread Workshop – Weds 6 November 2013, 6.30pm to 9.30pm.

This is a one -off workshop, so places are limited and book fast.

Dosa, the classic south Indian rice-based flatbread is not covered on this course, but has a course all of it’s own – check it out here.

The Indian Flatbread Workshop Costs £50 (including VAT).

For more information and to book click here

Birmingham Post Review – Forage and Cook Course

If you missed it, last week we had another wonderful piece of press coverage in the Birmingham Post, thanks to feature writer Mary Griffin.

Mary, who rolled up her foraging sleeves and joined us, alongside other course participants including Halo Garrity, Rob Walker, Dave Smith, Chrissa Murrell and her husband Stu, discovered that you really can find bounteous edible wild foods on your urban doorstop. Even in Stirchley.

Birmingham Post, Life (25 September 2013, page 11)

Mary’s list of wild foods found in Stirchley near Loaf included:

Hawthorn (whose berries can be used in a hedgerow jelly)
Sumac (the red conical flowers can be dried and sprinkled on a salad)
Wild cherries (Tom tells us where to look out for them around Birmingham)
Meadowsweet growing in the long grass (a little sprig can infuse tea or cream)
Horseradish (which we dig up a thumb-sized chunk of)
Nettles (Tom shows us which bits to pick and which to avoid) and vetch (with a peppery, rockety flavour)
Yarrow (a good substitute for lavender or rosemary)
Dead nettles (no sting and you can suck the nectar out of the flowers)
Himalayan balsam (a non-native invasive plant with tasty pink flowers)
Rowan (which makes a good jelly mixed with apples)
Wood avens (which can make dandelion and burdock if you infuse the root)
Rosehips (which make good syrup)

…as well as mint, sloes, elderberries, blackberries and hazelnuts.

Amazing really. And that’s just a small sample of hundreds of wild foods that can be found locally, and in cities across the UK.

For more information and to book on any of our courses visit the Loaf Cookery School page

To read the review online visit the press section on our About Us page and click on the link to the Birmingham Post. Or if you have a printed copy, it’s on page 11 of the Life section.

Birmingham Post Review – Forage and Cook Course

If you missed it, last week we had another wonderful piece of press coverage in the Birmingham Post, thanks to feature writer Mary Griffin.

Birmingham Post, Life (25 September 2013, page 11)

Mary’s list of wild foods found in Stirchley near Loaf included:

Hawthorn (whose berries can be used in a hedgerow jelly)
Sumac (the red conical flowers can be dried and sprinkled on a salad)
Wild cherries (Tom tells us where to look out for them around Birmingham)
Meadowsweet growing in the long grass (a little sprig can infuse tea or cream)
Horseradish (which we dig up a thumb-sized chunk of)
Nettles (Tom shows us which bits to pick and which to avoid) and vetch (with a peppery, rockety flavour)
Yarrow (a good substitute for lavender or rosemary)
Dead nettles (no sting and you can suck the nectar out of the flowers)
Himalayan balsam (a non-native invasive plant with tasty pink flowers)
Rowan (which makes a good jelly mixed with apples)
Wood avens (which can make dandelion and burdock if you infuse the root)
Rosehips (which make good syrup)

…as well as mint, sloes, elderberries, blackberries and hazelnuts.

Amazing really. And that’s just a small sample of hundreds of wild foods that can be found locally, and in cities across the UK.

For more information and to book on any of our courses visit the Loaf Cookery School page

To read the review online visit the press section on our About Us page and click on the link to the Birmingham Post. Or if you have a printed copy, it’s on page 11 of the Life section.

Forgotten Food Skills: Shellfish

Seafood Two: Shellfish

Join fish expert Lap-fai Lee for a hands-on evening introduction to cooking shellfish, including crabs, oysters, and lobster. Identify, prepare and cook shellfish in a range of Asian & European style dishes, and discover how quick & enjoyable eating shellfish in your own home can be. The evening course will include a shellfish feast including crab linguine, dressed oysters, and chargrilled squid.

Our next course is on Wednesday 23rd October from 6.30pm to 9.30pm.

For more info and to book click here

Afterwards why not take a visit to to the fantastic wholesale fish market in Birmingham city centre brimming with a wide range of fish and shellfish, and begin to create the magic again at home.

Seafood themed CANeat pop-up dining experience.

Birmingham Mail feature Syrian inspired bread for Oxfam appeal

Last Saturday 20 July, our bakers teamed up Oxfam Midlands to bake a one-off Syrian yoghurt flatbread to help raise awareness of Oxfam’s Syria Crisis Appeal. We’re pleased to say that the Syrian bread was a huge success and sold out within an hour. We were also featured with Oxfam Midlands in today’s Birmingham Mail (Thursday 25 July, page 16).

We’d like to thank all our customers for their enthusiasm on the day, and Dom for baking the bread in the Loaf Community Bakery. We would also encourage everyone to continue their support by visiting the Oxfam website or reading our previous Syria inspired bread blog.

Bakers use loaf to boost charity - Birmingham Mail (25 July 2013) — Bakers use loaf to boost charity – Birmingham Mail (25 July 2013)

One-off Dosa Making Workshop – Thurs 29 August, pm

Exciting news – we’ve teamed up with Kings Heath’s Pop Up Dosa for a fantastic one-off dosa making workshop. Taking place on Thursday 29th August from 6.30pm to 9.30pm at Loaf cookery school, this is likely to be the only opportunity to run this course in 2013, so book while you can!

Pop Up Dosa have been bringing fantastic street food from Kerala in the south west of India to the streets of Birmingham for well over a year now. From their home-cafe in Kings Heath to guest appearances at markets and takeovers of other cafe’s, they’re an integral part of the grassroots food landscape developing in Birmingham right now, and for good reason. During this three hour workshop Head chef Haseen will teach you the secrets of this south Indian speciality – the right consistency of fermented ground rice for the dosa mixture, the correct texture of the lentils for the gunpowder chutney, the secret flavours of the essential sambar, and of course the cooking techniques for the perfect dosa. It’s a very hands-on workshop where’ll you’ll see or do all of the recipes involved and there’s plenty of time to try out you’re dosa cooking skills on the hot tava’s at the end. And of course, we’ll be eating dosa too. Arrive hungry!

To book you place visit: www.loafonline.co.uk/shop/dosa

One-off Dosa Making Workshop – Thurs 29 August, pm

To book you place visit: www.loafonline.co.uk/shop/dosa

Syrian inspired speciality bread for Oxfam

This Saturday 20 July, our bakers are teaming up Oxfam Midlands to bake a one one-off Syrian yoghurt flatbread to help raise awareness of Oxfam’s Syria Crisis Appeal. The bread will be sold in the Loaf Community Bakery, 1421 Pershore Road, Stirchley, Birmingham, B30 2JL from 8.15am to 2pm. Look out for it on our specials table in the shop window.

Every day at Loaf we bake a different speciality bread, often inspired by cultures and flavours from around the world. As a former Media Campaigner for Oxfam Midlands and having had friends who lived and worked in Syria, this is close to our hearts. Baking bread in solidarity with the Syrian people, is one way that we can do our bit to help. What is happening in Syria is a tragedy so we want to do whatever we can to make a difference. We would encourage our customers to join us and come and buy the bread and/or make a donation to Oxfam’s Syria Crisis appeal.

www.oxfam.org.uk/syria

See our article in the Birmingham Mail on Thursday 25 July, pg 17 – “Bakers use loaf to boost charity”.

Oxfam is working with refugees from Syria in Lebanon and Jordan to provide access to housing water and sanitation but the charity needs to raise more funds as soon as possible to reach thousands more refugees who need emergency help. The situation is getting more desperate as the UN’s latest figures show that the number of people killed in Syria has reached a staggering 100,000. Eight million Syrians are in desperate need of aid and almost 1.8 million forced to flee to neighbouring countries.

As well as at Loaf, a series of events and fundraising activities in the West Midlands have been taking place to raise awareness and money for Oxfam’s Syria Crisis Appeal. Oxfam in the Midlands are asking local people in Birmingham and the Black Country to get in touch to find out how they can get involved to raise awareness, campaign and/or fundraise.

Katy Cook, Community Campaigns Coordinator for Oxfam Midlands said: “Many people in Birmingham and Wolverhampton will have heard about the conflict in Syria in the news but not many people will know what it is like to live there.Through the baking of speciality Syrian bread at Loaf in Birmingham and sharing personal stories of refugees in Wolverhampton we want to bring the experiences of ordinary Syrian people closer to home to people in the West Midlands. The refugees we are working with are ordinary people like us who are bystanders to the conflict but the fighting, bloodshed and violence has forced many families to leave behind everything they know. There are many heartbreaking stories of people who have watched their children die or lost family members but even amidst the despair there are some amazing and inspirational stories.”

For more information please go to www.oxfam.org.uk/syria or call the Oxfam Midlands office on 0121 634 3611

Jane Baker

Loaf, Building Community Through Food

As a social enterprise Loaf was set up with the purpose “ to promote good food and healthy living in communities and build community through food ”. This means putting our profits towards social projects, primarily in our local community.

This month we welcomed year 6 children and parents from our local Stirchley Community School on Pershore Road to Loaf Cookery School for their very own bread making workshop. The afternoon was a huge success and as teacher Karen Sweeney said “They had an amazing time! The children they were raving about it!”. With three year 6 workshops in total, and comments shared that it was one of the best workshops we’ve ever been to, we’ll take that as a thumbs up! In June we also hosted an enjoyable bread workshop with adults who are deaf and hard of hearing through the work of national charity deafPLUS.

For more Stirchley Community School workshop photos visit their school website – you may even spot a few familiar local faces.

Stirchley Community School Bread Workshop at Loaf — Year 6 pupils, parents & teachers from Stirchley Community School enjoy making bread at Loaf

Parents & children from Stirchley Community School at Loaf — Parents and children from Stirchley Community School at Loaf

We also offer occasional work placements to individuals with a passion to develop a professional career in baking, which this month included Megan Jones who is studying for a Diploma in Artisan Baking at the prestigious School of Artisan Food.

Megan Jones on student placement at Loaf from The School of Artisan Food — Megan Jones on student placement at Loaf from the prestigious School of Artisan Food

New Round of Kitchen Essentials Dates

We’ve recently added a new round of dates for our series of Kitchen Essentials courses, between July and September 2013, so if you’ve been looking for a cookery course with Loaf, there might be one in there just for you.

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Kitchen Essentials is a series of short evening workshops, designed to quickly improve your cooking skills in particular areas and make you a better, faster, and more efficient home cook. The series is broken down into bite-size chunks that you can dip in and out of depending on what areas of cooking you’d like to learn or improve on.

July – September 2013 dates are as follows (spaces available – first come first served)

Knife Skills: Tuesday 23rd July
Stocks and Sauces: Tuesday 30th July
Cooking Vegetables: Tuesday 6th August
Herbs & Spices: Tuesday 13th August
Beans, Pulses & Grains: Tuesday 10th September
Cooking Meat: Tuesday 11th June, Tuesday 17th September

Like all our courses at Loaf Cookery School, Kitchen Essentials workshops are very hands-on, and we guarantee you won’t leave hungry, but you will leave with a host of new skills to get perfecting at home. All workshops are led by chef and baker Dom Clarke, run on a week day evening from 7-9pm, and are priced at £30 per person (except ‘Cooking Meat’ which is £40).

For more information about each course visit: www.loafonline.co.uk/shop/kitchen-essentials/

Earth oven Building Course – 15 & 16 June

Sunny weather this weekend certainly brought the whiff of BBQs and outdoor cooked food in the air. For us this means firing up our wood fired oven in the garden and inviting friends and family round for a relaxing evening. Whilst we often make wood fired pizzas, and enjoy a glass of wine in the garden, we’ve been know to prepare a slow cooked roast too, plus sweet treats as the heat of the oven cools down, and even leave a meringue cooking overnight, ready for the next day.

If the idea of cooking in your own garden takes your fancy, our next weekend Earth Oven Building course is coming up on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16th June in Stirchley at the home of our baker Dom.

As well as choosing suitable materials, you’ll learn how to build the oven floor, and construct and shape the thick oven walls using cob, cut a door and decorate the outside. You’ll also learn how to cook in and maintain your oven. Top notch grub will be provided for lunch and snacks on both days as well as drinks throughout the day.

For more information visit the Loaf Cookery School pages on our website.

Earth oven Building Course – 15 & 16 June

For more information visit the Loaf Cookery School pages on our website.