FOOD & DRINK
Foodie travels Food & Drink
with flowers in bloom and thanksgiving in the air, not feeling remotely Christmassy, not a piece of tinsel nor a tin of Quality street in sight. one of the best ways we’ve found to learn about
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food is to travel and talk to the people who are doing it day in day out. we’re half way through our barbeque discovery tour in the states and what seemed like a fairly straightforward subject is becoming more intricate and complicated the further we go into it – we just don’t know what we don’t know having only started scraping away the layers of this way of cooking … the intricacies, nuances and rights and wrongs are endless. what has been fantastic is the
riting about Christmas when we’re in the southern states of America feels a bit odd to be honest. It’s warm (and wet)
Holly & David Jones 01803 752943
www.mannafromdevon.com LoCAL pRoDUCE • RECIpES • EvENTS
will be teaching bbq at the school from next spring once we’ve processed it all. we’ve learnt about pork butts (don’t worry – they’re shoulders) brisket, ribs and chicken; 3 kinds of sauce so far with more to come; red, yellow and white coleslaw and a whole variety of sides. one thing that is noticeable is the similarity with
People are happy
to talk about what they’re doing and delighted to share their enthusiasm.
incredible warmth shown to visitors – the famed southern hospitality is not something just in movies but is very much alive and genuinely welcoming. we’ve been visiting restaurants and caterers around Virginia, north and south Carolina and Georgia asking them questions about recipes, techniques, styles and flavours. the response to us american bbq novices has been remarkable – huge amounts of experience, tips and knowledge passed on to virtual strangers with remarkable amounts of passion and enthusiasm. we’re so appreciative of this sharing of their knowledge and
other foodie trips we’ve taken – people are happy to talk about what they’re doing and delighted to share their enthusiasm. their knowledge is based in their upbringing and the passing on of recipes from one generation to the next until it becomes second nature. this does mean that they may not be so open to other interpretations of their food and recipes. In India we spent a memorable day with friends and their family cooking in their kitchen and trying out new recipes. their response was “this is really good but we would never do it like this!” equally
in our travels in spain, we’ve made delicious variations on traditional recipes with our friend Conchi not being even able to taste what we did as it was so far (she thought) away from what she had grown up with. we just don’t get this stridency with British cooking
– we’ve adopted so many flavours and influences from around the world that it’s all pretty relaxed and almost anything goes. Chicken tikka pizza anyone? It does mean we can be magpie-like, get the best bits and create something new. so, on that theme, here’s our mince pie recipe for this year – a version of the spanish empanada with a walnut and date filling. we’re using Delia’s cheat’s flaky pastry – light and crispy and so much easier than the original requiring dabbing, layering and chilling. the filling has a mincemeat feel, but again much more straightforward and delicious. It’s so far from the original empanadas though, we haven’t dared to tell Conchi about it yet …
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