When I dream about markets I dream about this place

Neighbourgoods Market, Old Biscuit Mill (375 Albert Road, Woodstock, Cape Town)

Check out their website here

OMG this place is like heaven.

Feels like Bourgh Market with space and more light during a street party. Its part independent designer goods, part food. I hung out with the beautiful clothes for a bit, but the lure of the gormet treats in the next building was too much and I was off.

The market was founded in 2006 by Justin Rhodes and Cameron Munro and comes to life in a sky-lit Victorian warehouse. Communities have always flourished around lively food markets and the concept behind Neighbourgoods was to rejuvenate a district through a 'local food market' - make a hub of energy by creating community and transform a space.

As you walk around the market you are surrounded by buzz words, heavy on the locally sourced, fresh and organic stalls. This is so exciting to see here and much needed forward thinking in a country that at times seems dated. There's organic fruit and veg stalls, raw chocolate, french specialty delights, heaps of uber fresh bill-tong, pure white mozzarella, roasted mushrooms with garlic salt. The warehouse is lined with high quality and beautifully presented food wares, and you kind of long to buy a little from each. 

The real indulgence, however, is the amount of time you want to spend here - esp sitting at those long, long, long tables that stretch along the center of the market -  where everyone crams onto wooden school benches to devour their food bootie. People are drinking champagne (well Cape Sparkle), Mojitos or 1 quid beers and it's not even midday. This community vibe is the highlight and the energy force behind this market, creating a total stir to Saturdays afternoons in Cape town.

I'll eat anything that swims (nearly)

BBQ Lemmon Pepper "Shad" from Coffee Bay (serves 2) 

Seems like it's taken forever to have my first bite of scaly goodness. So far, fish, along the Wild Coast have been pretty unremarkable - over cooked mussels, battered KFC tasting line caught pong - but that track record is history - for about 2 quid you can get yourself a fish from a local fisherman - fillet it (Mamma Bat took charge) - wrap in tin foil with heeps of lemon pepper and cloves of garlic and then go right back out and do it again - cause believe me, when your finished, your yearning for one more bite.

 

1 fresh lemon sliced (juice poured on fish)
1 med Shad fish (I think seabass tastes pretty similar)
1 tsp salt
3 tsp palm sugar
1/2 tsp paprika
handful of crushed black peppercorns 

1 tsp of whole pepper corns

hearty drizzle of olive oil

So after you fillet the fish, place each fillet on a tin foil crafted plate and add all the ingredients, by rubbing them into the fish. Close the opening of your tin-foiled fish so none of the juice gets out and cook on a BBQ for about 13 mins on each side (until it's not translucent anymore and it has a nice firm texture).

My friends have good taste

Eating London H I T L I S T


A few dayz until my African food Odessa and I got a chance to catch up on some hot spots to dine in London. But when choice is endless and time is short, it felt like the best route to follow were friends favs - and this is where they brought me.


Caravan (11-13 Exmouth Marker, London): I am such an easy please for a weekend breakfast, any combo of streaky bacon and poached eggs will normally suffice, but C A R A V A N is a new moment in food time - totalz going straight to the top of my best breakfast of 2010. Toasted sour dough bread, slow roasted tomatoes - gorgeously amber with burned edges, soy creamed mushrooms - with that amazing truffle quality and deep chocolatey taste (I somehow managed to keep a couple to savor in my last bite), on top of these you have perfectly cooked streaky bacon that's crispy and oily and two runny poached eggs. The rest of the menu was totally great and exciting too, mackerel / avocado with chilli flakes - they also roast all their own coffee downstairs. UNREAL

The Breakfast Club (Camdem Passage, Angel): The portions sprawl upwards and outwards from the plate - gee this it - exactly how you imagine it - and a challenge worth attempting. I got chicken burrito - it was so chubby - rammed to bursting with rice and chicken and beans and cheese - served with sour cream and 3 tomato chutney. This is dream hungry lunch material - pure satisfaction. The menu is piping with things I wanna try next. BTW NEW B'FAST CLUB OPENING SPITALFIELDS EARLY NEXT YEAR with Jen the Ren manning this food den eco style. LOVE. 

Song Que Cafe (Kingsland Road, Easy London): The bottom end of Kingsland road is a total hub of Vietnamese food spots - app the Song Que is Jamie Olivers fav - also my friend Alex's so this is where we all went. Nice canteen style feel with high ceilings, paintings of running horses and pretty rammed. Hands down the best spring rolls, the battered king prawns were abit 'cheap take away' to look at but such a hearty bite. The spicy salt squid had translucent seemed like egg white batter - so light and crisp - also check out the poached ginger and chilli sea bream. . .  so much flavor, that awkward plate licking thing happens.

If I could have eatin all 6 I would have

Rosemary and garlic prawns wrapped in Parma ham (makes 6)

In need of a starter – I’ve regressed to my cooking staple – garlic. Skewered prawns it is - these savory badboys become tip of the tongue irresistible when left to marinade for a few hours. Grill them until they turn pink…. then the secret - pan fry them for 40 seconds – they’ll sizzle as the Parma ham crisps up and releases those salty juices that then seep lustily into the skewered prawns – total tease of a starter

Marinade:

Handful of fresh rosmary (finley chopped)

Good splash of white wine vinegar

4 garlic cloves (finely chopped)

2 tsp palm sugar (or muscavodo sugar could be used)

1 tsp salt

1tsp runny honey

good grind of black pepper

30 king prawns

6 slices of Parma ham

a few sprigs of rosemary

Make your marinade – keep tasting it as you add the ingredients and when it tastes balanced i.e sweet, savory and a twang bringing the flavor up at the back, add your prawns and leave to marinade for a few hours. Prepare the prawns – skewer the prawns, 5 per skewer, stick in little sprigs of rosemary to the prawns themselves. Take a slice of the ham, tear in half, and wrap each half around the skewered prawns – do this for all 6 skewers. Then cover and leave in the fridge until ready to cook. Grill the prawn skewers for about 5 minutes on either side – until pink – no more – then remove from the grill and heat some oil up in a pan, pan fry the prawns on each side for about 20 seconds.

Mrs Pork

Gluttony and the Pig: The Tesco Taste Northern Ireland Event 17th -18th September (nb. where not to go if you like food) 

A day with the hog and 11 hours later my legs feel like they've been run over by a tarmac flattener - or maybe that's my food soul from such rotten supermarket dumping. Once a pretty vibrant food stop on the food market track - now a cesspit of oven pasties, battered cocktail sausages and microwavable burgers. The Belfast city council, could not this year bring us the taste festival without a "little help" - so thanks to Tesco’s - the Taste NI Festival was made possible this September. But not without a price.

Caoimhe Mannion, Marketing Manager with Tesco NI said "We are committed to supporting producers across Northern Ireland and this event, which celebrates the very best of the region’s food and drink, is testament to that.” Hardly, any small producer who was not a supplier to Tesco was pushed out to the back corner and not mentioned in the press release naming exhibitors Press release (insert names of retailers here). They also had to deal with unending food sluttery from Tesco's relentless sampling. These are the independent food retailers - the ones that have been here each year, providing a real sense of local and innovative food. 

What the guts of the problem appeared to be was that the market goers, were plied with such an overload of free food (super uninteresting food btw) and drink on the part of Tesco suppliers that this led to serious magpie greed - the idea of paying for food's worth drowned outside along with the gardens - people seemed to resent money changing hands, which is so different to a proper food market - where your excited to hand the money over to make that delish something yours. In no way is this the fault of the retailers there today or those that were hired to work the stalls - it was the atmosphere created when a giant super market chain sets up base in a market place setting. So a headz up - avoid - unless of course, your heading straight to the Pheasant Hill Hog - the real gem in the pack - for some rare breed, free-range hog roast - alternatively, if you feel like pre packaged chicken wings on your cheek, this is the market for you. Whatever your taste is eh

I need Truffle restraints

Chambord and Brandy Truffles (makes about 40)

Faced with a birthday desert challenge, I made chocolate heaven. I hadn't quite grasped how the different layers of a truffle are what make it great - this recipe brings that out nicely. The alcohol gives fruity depth and changes the texture of the inside of your truffle, the dark chocolate coating adds bite, and rolling in coco powder gives sweetness with that messy talc like touch.

Truffle Mix:
60g milk chocolate
150g dark chocolate
150g unsalted butter
40mls brandy
120ml Chambord

Rolled in:
120g melted dark chocolate
40g coco powder

Break the milk and dark chocolate into small bits and heat until nearly melted. In a small saucepan heat the brandy and the Chambord - just until too hot too touch, not boiling. Add this mix too the nearly melted chocolate. Chop the butter into little cubes - gradually mix the butter into the mix. Line a square / rectangular (one that is nice and deep and not too wide, about 14cm squared is good, depth anything from 2 inch’s up works) with cling film. Pour in the mix and refrigerate for 3hours or until set. Take out cut into small cubes, roll in melted chocolate then coco powder and place back in the fridge. Ready when you are.

Somtimes I feel like I live for bites

Mini Berry Crumbles (makes 12) 

I had some extra ingredients from the mammoth Sunday galette, so mini tartlets followed. What's nice about these is their individualism ensures a light and flakey pastry- equally satisfying is that the bite sized tart is a little less intimidating than a real life tart - they just disappear - where as the big old galette's consumption is a much more visible affair.

Follow the recipe for Sweet Berry and Macarpone Galette to make the mascarpone cream, the cumble and the pastry.

Ingredients

12 raspberries

a couple of handfuls of bueberries

1 tbl spoon of melted butter

Roll out pastry so it's 2cm thick. Rather than using a tart tin - cut out 8cm discs of pastry and roll the pastry to about half a cm thick, lightly dust a bun sheet or muffin tray with flour. Lay the pastry discs into the cavities, pressing in around the sides. Bake the tarts cases blind for about 10-12mins gas mark 5 - take out of the oven when they start to puff out slightly. Add a spoonful of mascarpone cream, top with some blueberries and raspberries, brush the fruit with melted butter, sprinkle with crumble. Bake until the sides of the pastry start to go golden brown and the crumble begins to crisp.