Posted by on March 30th, 2010
Abdul Husen of Cafe Saffron, Shropshire Curry Chef of the Year
Four curry chefs faced a Master Chef type competition in the kitchens of a Shrewsbury catering college with local cook Abdul Hussein taking top prize. Abdul Husen of Cafe Saffron cooked a Tawa Labra – marinated, grilled chicken spiced up with the usual spices including ginger, garlic, coriander, chillis and a healthy pinch of Adbul’s special spice mixture.
The competition was organised by Shropshire Council and was lead by the environmental health team. Four finalists were whittled down from an original list of 16 restaurants and takeaways. The four finalists are: Eurasia Tandoori Restaurant, Bridgnorth; Cafe Saffron, Shrewsbury; Mahim Indian Takeaway, Bayston Hill, and Oswestry Tandoori (takeaway) in Oswestry.
I was one of the four judges, including Andy Goldsmith, assistant director for public protection with Shropshire Council; Andy Richardson, Shropshire Star food writer and Sean McNulty, head training chef and lecturer at Radbrook College.
With just 45 minutes to cook in a very different kitchen to that they are used to in the regular job, the chefs all produced three dishes: a rice, side dish and main dish curry.
Abdul’s was the unanimous choice of the judges winning on his balance of flavours across the three dishes, good use of seasoning and presentation.
Judging a competition is great fun but comes with responsibility. While this competition wasn’t as tense as perhaps TVs Masterchef, although the theme was the same, with the chefs as nervous as their TV counterparts. The winner gets lots of PR and a lovely glass prize and poster for the wall and so it was important to really appreciate the work that went into the cook-off. The four restaurants were also top of the environmental health check-list that was part of the competition’s remit and was a good way of reminding restauranteurs that a clean kitchen is good for business.
Posted by on March 23rd, 2010
Fifteen spicy restaurants in Shrewsbury and Bridgnorth have been whittled down to just four to compete on Monday, 29 March in the final of a competition to find the first Shropshire Council ‘Curry Chef of the Year’. The four finalists are: Eurasia Tandoori Restaurant, Bridgnorth; Café Saffron, Shrewsbury; Mahim Indian Takeaway, Bayston Hill, and Oswestry Tandoori (takeaway) in Oswestry. The finalists cook-off will take place at Radbrook Catering College in Shrewsbury. They each have 45 minutes to cook and display their chosen menu, which must consist of one curry dish, one complementary side dish, and one bread, or rice dish. All Indian, Bangladeshi, Balti and similar restaurants and takeaways in the Shropshire Council area were invited to enter the competition, and fifteen entries were received.
Those lucky people charged with judging the competition are Andy Goldsmith, Assistant Director for Public Protection with Shropshire Council; Andy Richardson, Shropshire Star food writer; Bruce McMichael, blogger and editor of Taste Shropshire; and Sean McNulty, catering manager at Radbrook College.
Posted by on March 22nd, 2010
Congratulations to Lesley for opening her new deli in Oswestry, north Shropshire. After a career in medical sales, the Lesley has taken the brave step to open her own food shop. The shop sits on the corner of Willow Street in the centre of the town, on Willow Street. With a Stunning Window display of cakes and lots and lots of delicious foods for lunches available today! The shop will offer local produce, meats, cheese and bread as well as offering hot food and sandwiches for lunch.
It was a great pleasure and honour for Lesley and her business partner, husband Ian (a local photographer at www.photographer-shropshire.co.uk) to ask me to cut the ribbon at the opening and then celebrate with a glass of pre-lunch champagne.
You can follow Lesley and her adventures in food on twitter at @sophieschoiceos!
Posted by on March 21st, 2010
| March 28, 2010 |
| 12:00 am | to | 11:00 pm |
Sunday, 28th March
7 for 7.30pm
The Unicorn Inn, Corve Street, Ludlow
Quiz, £1.50 per person
Bake a free standing (ie. fully encased in pastry) fidget pie with a minimum diameter of 8inches. Lots of prizes, food and a quiz!
www.tasterealfood.com
Posted by on March 21st, 2010
| April 10, 2010 |
| 7:00 pm | to | 11:30 pm |
Saturday, 10th April
From 7pm till late
£10 per adult, £5 per child
Book in advance, call (01630) 638696
www.fordhallfarm.com
Posted by on March 21st, 2010
| April 11, 2010 |
| 11:00 am | to | 4:00 pm |
Sunday 11th, April 2010
11am – 4pm
Free entry
Plenty going on at Fordhall with baby lambs, guided walks, Easter Egg Hunt, Sculpture walk and plenty of hot tea and cakes.
Posted by on March 21st, 2010
fidget pie poster
Sunday, March 28, at The Unicorn pub, Ludlow
Chefs and home cooks will be beating a path to the Unicorn Inn in Ludlow and the first Shropshire Fidget Pie Competition. Fidget pie is a a traditional Shropshire dish, traditionally made with potatoes, gammon or bacon, cooking apples and onions.
The name fidget is said to come from the term ‘fitched’, or five sided in shape. Like many traditional recipes, other English counties claim the pie as there own. We like to think that with Shropshire’s reputation as a richly endowed farming region and source of all the ingredients of the pie holds as good a claim as any other county.
Posted by on March 14th, 2010
Fresh coriander makes a delicious chutney style tapenade that gives the simplest baked fish a more interesting flavour. There’s no need to discard the coriander stalks as they’re just as flavour packed as the leaves
Ingredients
3 tbsp olive oil
4 x wild salmon fillets, each about 125g, skinned
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
25g pack coriande, chopped
1 tsp cumin seeds, lightly crushed
25g sultanas
Instructions
1. Heat the oven to 190oC, gas mark 5.
2. Brush the base of a shallow ovenproof dish with a little of the oil. Arrange the salmon fillets in the dish, spacing them slightly apart and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 10 minutes.
3. While cooking, heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a frying pan and gently fry the onion for 5 minutes until golden brown.
4. Add the garlic coriander, cumin seeds, sultanas, 4 tbsp water and a little seasoning. Heat for about 2 minutes until the water has almost evaporated.
5. Pile the chutney over the fish portions and drizzle with the remaining oil. Bake for a further 8-10 minutes or until the fish flakes easily when pierced with a knife.
Cook’s Tips
Plump salmon fillets are particularly good in this recipe but other pieces of fish like cod, haddock, monkfish or halibut can be used instead. Sultanas accentuate the ‘chutney’ like flavour of the topping but if you don’t like them, use a handful of lightly toasted pine nuts instead.
