Abergavenny Box Office News

Just a week until the Abergavenny Food Festival Box office goes live on Wednesday 16 July. The full programme will be released that day on line on line at abergavennyfoodfestival.com and tickets can be bought there or through the Borough Theatre on 01873 850805. If you buy buy tickets on line you will be entered into a prize draw. One lucky winner will walk off with a fabulous Flint & Flame Classic Knife Set worth over a thousand pounds.(This is an on line only draw)

As always there is a stellar line up of chefs demonstrating, holding masterclasses or talking about food and their craft which this year includes Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall who’ll be appearing at the Borough Theatre on the Friday evening,

With Wahaca opening its first restaurant outside London in Cardiff this autumn Tommi Miers will be a big attraction.

Cyrus Todiwala has long been a Festival Favourite, whether for his spicy delights served up in the Castle area or for his entertaining views in the Rude Health Rants, and this year he is teamed up with Incredible Spice Men partner Tony Singh. Whatever the pair get up to will be highly entertaining and full of flavour.

There's a distinct taste of the  Middle East as Sam and Sam Clark of Moro bring their Moorish foods  and Iranian born Sabrina Gayhour introduces the taste of Persiana, 

More chefs will be appearing but these may just whet your appetite. Though demos in the market hall are free some events are ticketed and the Box Office can supply those that you want.

The Children's Food Academy has been a consistent feature, this year sponsored by the Organic Centre Wales, and adults get their chance too.

Amongst the new skills you can acquire at The Artisan Kitchen School (in the Masonic Hall) are making Bacon with James Swift from Trealy Farm, brewing your own Sake with Marie Cheong Thong and entering the world of Seasonal Fruit Liqueurs with Lindy Wildsmith. 

 With a full programme of events around town, over 200 stalls and a brand new Night Market on the Saturday with Street Food in the Lower Brewery Yard, as well as the Party in the Castle there really is something for everyone.

Stroller Tickets  for the main markets start at £6.50 (early-bird prices) and children accompanied by a paying adult get in for free, the Night Market is free to Stroller holders or £2 if you don't have one. Ticketed events start at £8.

The Box Office goes live on 16th July and you can download a full ‘diary at a glance’ to help plan your visit.

Finally a question, What do Abergavenny Food Festival favourites Tommi Miers, James Ramsden and Arun Kapil have in common?  They all trained at Ballymaloe Cookery School and were taught by Rory O'Connell.

Rory is a highly regarded chef and teacher and his first book Master It was Observer Food Magazine Book of the Year 2013.

I'm delighted to say that Rory will be taking part in the festival this year and is a MUST!

Check http://www.abergavennyfoodfestival.com/ for further information and to book tickets from 16 July or call The Borough Theatre 01873 850805

Abergavenny Food Festival -The Excitement Mounts

The countdown has begun. At 9:30 this morning the box office for the Abergavenny Food Festival went live! As usual I was waiting with phone and card in hand though not counting down as per Euro2012.

Thanks to a subscription to Fork Magazine I had received the programme some weeks earlier and had time to plan my two day experience.

In addition to the 200 plus stalls there are a range of Tastings, Master classes, Food Talks, Book signings, Chef demos and foraging opportunities, a real cornucopia of choice. This year’s really big hitters have to be Richard Berthinet, Atul Kochar, Yotam Ottolenghi, Claudia Roden and Pierre Koffman so demand for tickets for their events will sell out rapidly.

 If you feel brave enough the scary Monica Galetti is running a master class and I am sure she is a lovely person in life and not at all like her television image!

I will be going to Atul Kochar’s “Curries of the World” master class on the Sunday. Having loved his food at Corrigan’s – tasting menu by Atul and Arun Kapil of Green Saffron – I really want to find out more and, short of a spell in his kitchen at Benares where better?

The other master class that I will attend is Tom Parker Bowles, Matt Tebbutt and Matthew Fort on the Saturday cooking recipes from Tom’s new book –Let’s Eat. Two years ago they put on a totally entertaining 45 minutes, the highlight of which had to be overheating chillis to the extent that a wave of chilli hot smoke rolled down the room reducing the audience to tears as if they had been gassed by Chinese Riot Police. Though a repeat is not hoped for the three have a chemistry that sparkles.

I shall, however, start on Saturday morning with Raw Milk 2. A tutored tasting. Last year Abergavenny Food Festival hosted the world’s first Raw Milk tasting, despite concerns raised by some over letting the public taste the stuff as nature intended. What was clear was that Raw Milk tasted a lot better than pasteurised and infinitely better than a certain “Triple Filtered” brand. The same held true for creams and butters. This year will be a taste off between unpasteurised milks, creams and butters from Jersey, Guernsey, Friesian and Shorthorn herds, with the audience determining the winner.

Just one other ticketed session is on my agenda (at the minute) Scott Davis from Cnwd leading us through the Gourmet Harvest of West Wales and, having enjoyed his Smoked Sewin from Riverside Market, this is  a must for me.

Beyond that there are new tastes to try, old friends to meet, Chef Demos to see and purchasing plans to be drawn up. You can’t do everything in a day so two days is the only realistic option and they will be two full days!

Most of Wales True Taste ward winners will be there including local producers such as Trealy Farm, Ty Mawr Organics,and Black Mountain Smokery. Otley Brewing will run the Blorenge Bar and a burgeoning Fringe Festival is developing year by year.

So get there! You can order weekend wristbands on line or by phone on 01873 858805 and get tickets for the talks master classes and tastings the same way. Whatever else happens on September 15^th and 16^th Abergavenny Food Festival is the only place to be.

Visit UK Food Bloggers Association

The Perfect Ploughman's

In September Monmouthshire will host the All Wales Ploughing Championship near Shirenewton.

That means there will be a lot of hungry ploughmen in attendance and got me thinking about the Perfect Ploughman's Lunch. No I don't mean the old joke about a plate of fish fingers and tomato sauce - that's what Old Ted,our local ploughman has, but really good locally sourced ingredients for a tasty nutritious lunch.

Monmouthshire and the area around has some of the UK's best produce and combining them into a simple but classic meal gives real pleasure.

At the heart has to be bread, the major source of carbohydrates, and I do not mean that pappy cotton-wool supermarket stuff but some real honest bread with taste and texture. Something you can really get your teeth into - in a good way.

Monmouthshire has good bakers, including the excellent Wigmores of Monmouth who still use traditional methods of baking, one of the last bakeries in Wales to do so. They use high quality British flour with locally sourced and traceable produce.  Available through their shops and cafe and also in Farmers Markets and Farm Shops their bread is really good with the superb Cobber Cob being my favourite. No matter how I try and use proper Cobber Flour I cannot match it but I guess that's what 100 years of baking experience does!

Roisin at Burren Bakery makes seriously good bread too. Soda Bread from her native Ireland is all that a good soda should be. Soft and well textured with a great crispy chewy crust it is good before she makes it even better with additions of Walnut and Honey, Raisins or Herbs. This is definitely what an Irish ploughman would be having for lunch.

So a good start with the breads, now for the cheese!

Though I cannot track down a specific Monmouthshire Cheese maker much of the Blaeafon World Heritage site lies in Monmouthshire and is home to the Blaenafon Cheddar Company. Susan Fiandr-Woodhouse makes an exciting range of cheeses including an award winning Goats cheese. She also combines local produce such as the excellent Reverend James Ale into her flavoured cheeses. One of my favourites is Pwll Mawr which is aged underground at the bottom Of Big Pit a former coal mine and now part of the National Museum of Wales, and I am a huge fan of the Smoked Cheese which is treated by Black Mountain Smokery in Crickhowell just over the border in Powys.

Of course over the border the other way ids Gloucestershire and the home of both Single and Double Gloucester cheese. Diana Smart makes both and they are regularly available in Usk Farmers Market. The cheeses, which are made from very old recipes, are equally lovingly cared for, from the mild smooth Single
Gloucester, which is made from the evening milk, which is skimmed and added to the mornings whole milk, (and for which they have the PDO) to the mature full flavoured whole milk Double Gloucester, and the strong hard Harefield, which can be used as an excellent substitute for Parmesan.

So a good selection of local cheeses to go with the breads for an excellent locally sourced Ploughman's.

Of course you need really good butter and I source mine from Abergavenny Market -  local farmhouse butter.

What's a Ploughman's without Pickle? A cheese sandwich! So local pickles are an essential.

Rhian Short runs Usk River, a pickle company also used by chef Wes Harris at the Charthouse restaurant. Where possible ingredients are sourced locally and all recipes are rich in ingredients prepared by hand from scratch with no bulking ingredients, ready made or artificial additives. Ingredients which are not available locally are sourced for their quality and food miles are taken into consideration when choosing suppliers. Quality red and white wine vinegars, sugars and whole spices are used.

Ham is often key to a good ploughman's and I will be including it in my bumper feast. Again the thin flaccid over pink tasteless supermarket hams should be avoided to get true taste. Trealy Farm do a great Air Dried Ham but for everyday use it is hard to beat Abergavenny butchers HJ Edwards. Whether it is the sliced ham or the really good Ham Hocks that they sell it will be ham that tastes like ham should and has texture. Another favourite is NS James in Raglan where again the quality is superb.

Some vegetable accompaniment is essential so what about really great tomatoes from Ty Mawr Organics or Whitebrook Organic Growers?

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and an apple or two for a healthy dessert?  Breakwell’s Seedling, Frederick, Monmouthshire Beauty and St Cecilia are all Monmouthshire heritage apples with great taste.

Obviously with that fruit growing heritage the ploughman's has to be washed down with a Cider, or indeed a Perry. Wern Ddu Wines and Perry offer a good range of Ciders, Wines and Perry's though other local vineyards include Sugar Loaf, Parva and Ancre Hill.

All in all local producers can provide the Perfect Ploughman's Lunch and can more than satisfy the appetites of all those competing in the ploughing match.