Out and About

Eating up a storm at Taste of London

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This year we had the privilege of being guests at Taste of London thanks to the lovely events team. The damp weather held and it was great to take in the sights and smells as visitors again after hosting our first store there last year - we had a chance to bump into old friends, suppliers and try some very good food and wine.

Star of the show for us, and a worthy winner of Taste of London’s Dish of 2012, was Club Gascon’s inspired Marmite royale and soldiers – a delicious duck liver parfait with a marmite glaze, served in little marmite pots alongside an almost malty dark sourdough for dipping. Clever, inventive and so good we devoured ours in a matter of seconds.

Next up was Bocca di Lupo with their charcoal grilled cuttlefish salad with raw courgettes, gremolata, lemon segments and Pantellieria capers – light, fragrant and summery and just the kind of thing to be washed down with a minerally chilled white wine.

Then there was a major flavour hit from the Padpi channa chaat from restaurant Tamarind. Their interpretation of this simple Indian street food was brilliant – lovely soft spiced chickpeas, tamarind chutney, sweetened yogurt, gram flour crisps and blueberries, which provided a totally unexpected and very clever flavour burst at the end of each mouthful.

Alongside the dishes on offer, the stars of the culinary world were out in force - we said hello to our neighbour from last year Michele Roux Jr. who was doing his Le Gavroche Daube de boeuf a la nicoise with braised beef cheeks, olives and polenta – a real winner from last year which we were glad to see back on the menu.

Angela Hartnett, our Camden neighbour from when she was at the York and Albany, was doing a demo from her Whitechapel Gallery Dining Room menu, while Jason Atherton mixed with the crowds outside his Pollen Street Social stall nearby.

Before we knew it our whistle stop tour was up – mental note to take the full four hour session next year – and we had to go, only leaving time to say a quick hello to our friends and suppliers from the Tomato Stall who were showcasing their exceptional heritage tomatoes, sauces and juices from the Isle of Wight.

Tickets to Taste this Saturday can still be bought from their website.

 

Edis Street Jubilee Party

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Last Saturday the residents of Primrose Hill organised a party on Edis Street to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

The soggy morning didn’t phase residents as families gathered to embark on a day of fun, picnics and jollity - aided by a couple of huge Melrose and Morgan hand made swiss rolls filled with strawberries, blueberries and butter cream in patriotic red, white and blue and Will Borrell from Vestal Vodka who was dishing out his Amber Summer Cup cocktails to the crowds.

The day started off with the Edis Street 2012 Children’s Olympics hosted by Formula One’s James Allen. Children of all ages leaped through hula-hoops and raced against one another to win medals and cupcakes, followed swiftly by local mums and dads who also joined in the fun.

Local musicians played music throughout the day. Guy Chambers made a surprise appearance to play the piano, which he then signed and put up for auction to benefit the Primrose Hill Community Association, which the day was in aid of.

Queens No1 pub owner Tony Peters’ dog, Pepsi, went on to win the Pup Idol fancy dress competition and many children showed up in their best red, white, and blue to compete in their own fancy dress contest judged by no less than The Times fashion editor.

The party ended with local resident, David Milliband, auctioning off a variety of amazing prizes, including the piano and signed autobiographies, which collectively with the raffle raised over £1,500 for the local Community Association cause.

A brilliant day out in London indeed.

Parmesan as it should be

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A couple of week’s ago we were invited to the launch of a new Cravero Parmesan from Neal’s Yard Dairy at Quo Vadis. Quite an event in the cheese world as for the last ten years nothing has met the standard of the Cravero Baruffi, the only other Parmesan Neal’s Yard carry.

To show off the new San Pietro Reggiano, Jeremy Lee had put together some fantastic salsify nibbles wrapped in crispy little parcels and covered in a fine grating of the Parmesan and olive oil. All washed down with a glass of bubbly and really delicious.

As we jostled and devoured more chunks of the deep savoury, brothy San Pietro, I had a chance to chat to Giorgio Cravero – from a long line of ‘Giorgio’ and ‘Giacomo’ Cravero’s (yes his father and son are both Giacomo and his grandfather of course another Giorgio) who have been selecting and maturing Italian cheese near Piedmont since 1855.

Giorgio is emphatic about his Baruffi and new San Pietro, but he’s also utterly committed to protecting the heritage of the artisanal Parmesan industry. Over 1,000 artisan Parmesan producers in the region have dwindled to nearer 300 in recent years, where commodity prices have forced farms to join forces or just sell up to larger creameries.

His mission is to protect and foster the few remaining real artisans so we can continue to taste the intense, complex flavours of Parmesan as it should be – quite literally a world away from the dry, dull, powder that most of us grew up on in the UK.

San Pietro is one of these exceptional cheeses - made by the Libbra family at their tiny farm in Modena, it is quite different from the fruity, aromatic sweetness of the Baruffi made by their neighbouring producers, with its rich, beefy flavours.

Massimo and Laura Libbra make only six wheels of Parmesan a day using unpasteurised milk from cows fed on the sweet tasting local forage, which gives the cheese is distinctive characteristics.

Best eaten just as it is with a glass of dry white wine.

Available at both our stores now at £36.05/kg

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

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It was the Hampstead Village and Primrose Hill Christmas Fairs last Sunday and the Melrose and Morgan team took our stalls out to join in the fun. Our pitch outside Nicole Farhi in Hampstead looked particularly festive with our gorgeous gold wrapped Christmas puddings.

Amazingly we took our first Christmas order back in October! But now that we have been out mingling with the friendly faces of Hampstead and Primrose Hill we are feeling very Christmassy and are really gearing up for the yuletide rush.

Strange fruit and a perfumed road trip

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We are creatures of habit at Melrose and Morgan, and Christmas with all its tradition and comforting familiarity seems to bring out theses tendencies even more. We like knowing our turkey will always be a Goodman’s turkey, our roast potatoes will always be crisped to perfection in goose fat, that we’ll tell the obligatory bad jokes around the table and knowing we’ll definitely eat too much trifle!

The making of our Christmas puddings is very much part of that tradition for us, and something that we are very proud of. Call us crazy, but Mr James and I insist on making the pilgrimage ourselves to go and collect the quinces direct from the farm in order to make our puddings each year.

Clay Barn Orchard in Essex is a truly beautiful place and we gladly pack up the car and head off to collect the incredible ‘Vranja’ variety from Charles and Shirley that we love. These huge knobbly yellow beauties then fill the car with their heady perfume as we carefully escort them back home to Melrose and Morgan HQ.

Once back home our chefs can’t wait to get grating, chopping and steaming in order to get our puddings into our shops. We use a blend of dark and light sugars, which, alongside the quince and brandy, gives our pudding its unique auburn colour, lighter texture and deeper more complex flavour.

We then steam our puddings long and slow for a full five hours, and before they cool douse them in more brandy – this ‘feeding’ really develops the richness. After their feed our puddings are then put to bed for a short rest to allow the flavours to fully mingle.

So, if you imagine, after a four hour drive, a five hour steam, a feed and a sleep, each and every pudding has been given more than 24 hours worth of Melrose and Morgan love and attention before it arrives on your Christmas table.

Strange fruit that we are, we wouldn’t do it any other way!