Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Smoked salmon on olive bread with pesto and salsa

Whilst I was (briefly) enjoying the sunshine in Devon over the bank holiday weekend, my wonderful customers were inventing recipes using their Saturday purchases. Doesn't this sound (and look) like a lovely lunch:

Ingredients (to serve 4):

Fresh Olive bread
2 Tablespoons Seggiano Basil Pesto
4 Tablespoons Stokes Real Mayonnaise
A squeeze of lemon juice
Green leaves
Mike's Smokehouse Smoked salmon

Salsa:
2 Tomatoes (skinned, seeded and chopped)
1/2 Onion (chopped)
Fresh Coriander (2 Tablespoons, chopped)
Drop of Dragon's blood
12 Grapes (sliced)
Juice of 1/2 a lime
Seasoning

Method:
  1. Combine the salsa ingredients.
  2. Split the olive bread horizontally.
  3. Toast the top of the olive bread.
  4. Combine the pesto and the mayonnaise with a squeeze of lemon.
  5. Spread the pesto/mayonnaise mixture on the bread.
  6. Sprinkle green leaves on the bread and cover with the salmon.
  7. Top the salmon with the salsa.
Thank you Graham!

Friday, August 24, 2012

Christmas is coming!

The end of a busy week of paperwork! Most of our Christmas stock has now been ordered. If there is anything you want to see here, do let me know.

And if anyone else is fighting with Picasa and wants to know why it only shows 60 pictures in a folder when you know there are more than 80, try selecting "view" and ticking the box next to "show small images". If I'd known that earlier, I would have had a far more productive afternoon! You live and learn!

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Twitter Cookies

An unexpected advantage of using twitter is the little recipe tweets I keep finding! Just when we don't need any more biscuits at home, and I would never have looked for a biscuit recipe, one appears right in front of me. And looks really nice. And uses things I have to hand. It would have been foolish not to have a go!

So I made these from a Delicious Magazine recipe.

My mixture was a bit dry, possibly the lovely Meridian peanut butter was too crunchy and not oily enough. The cookies were fine, but I couldn't roll the spare dough into a sausage to freeze, so just had to bake them all. Which was fortunate as they are quite moreish.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

New Stock AND Special Offer

Calista Mediterranean Vegetables are a new range of delicious sun ripened vegetables blended with tasty herbs and spices all sourced in the Mediterranean region. They make fantastic additions to any summer salad, as a pre-dinner snack/starter, or nibble with drinks. Many can also be used as a base for soups and casseroles.

We are now stocking:

Tricolore - A delicious selection of roasted aubergines & peppers full of Mediterranean flavours & colour.

Cheesy Mushrooms - Filled with a soft cheese these mushrooms can be used as an accompaniment to cold meats & barbecues or as a succulent starter.

Aubergine in Adjika - A strong, spicy salsa sauce similar to pesto used as a base for a range of warm dishes. Mix with minced beef or spread on pork or chicken or simply use your imagination.

Mixed Cheesy Assorti - A selection of delicious vegetables stuffed with soft cheese, perfect as an appetiser, with salad or for adding colour & variety to cold or barbecued meat.

Aubergine Medley - Aubergine with sweet peppers & tomato. Use as a base for a range of dishes & casseroles or simply as a vegetable accompaniment for hot or cold meats.

Throughout August (while stocks last) we have a special offer - buy any three for £12 (Usual price £4.95 each). They aren't on the web site yet, but you can order them via the form on our site and still take advantage of the offer.

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Beautiful Eton # 6 - The Adam & Eve

While digging around in historical archives for interesting Eton history I have found a lot of pubs. At the moment there are three pubs and a hotel bar on the high street. I know of at least 15 former locations on the high street and 7 on other roads in Eton. The old newspapers have great articles about the goings-on in these establishments and I need to look at them further. The nearest former pub to Tastes was the Adam and Eve (at 51 High Street, Eton). Fifteen of my steps from the front door of the deli, would have taken me inside the ale house 110 years ago. The metal bracket suspended from the front of the building may well have held the old Pub sign.


The building is timber framed believed to date from 1398. If you look at the roof you can see how numbers 47 to 51 were all built together. They now have very different frontages, having understandably been altered over the past 600 years! According to the listed buildings register the red brick frontage to number 51 is 18th century and the shop front is neo-georgian.

Apparently, the ale house was originally located a few doors away at number 47, but outgrew the premises (which are now The Tiger Garden) and by 1597 had moved to number 51. Looking at its history, the landlords of the ale house include Thomas Goddard (1830 Pigots Directory), Samuel Rahey (1839 Robsons Directory), William Cooley (1842 Pigots Directory), Henry Harding (1863 Duttons Directory), Henry Pardoe (1899 Kellys Directory). In September 1890 the license was provisionally transferred from Edward Couter to Joseph Dominey (of Datchet) and then from James Coster to Joseph Domeney in November 1890 (Slough Observer). After 2 years Joseph Dominie transferred the license back to Henry Pardow (of Clewer). Henry Pardoe held the license for a further 14 years and in September 1906 transferred it to George Thomas Williams (Slough Observer). George transferred it back just a few weeks later. Henry was still the landlord in the 1907 edition of the Kelly's Directory. But in February 1907 at the annual licensing sessions, magistrates were in favour of renewing all licenses in the region except the Adam and Eve, on which a decision was deferred. In March Messrs Nevile Reid and Co made a formal application for the renewal of their license. The bench at the Slough Police courts referred the matter to the Quarter Sessions on the grounds that the license was not required. The license renewal was not granted. By January 1908, the ale house had closed, after more than 400 years. Which saw the end of the press reporting news items such as the recovery of stolen books from a bag found in the Adam and Eve (Windsor & Maidenhead Observer, August 1892), and the arrest of a man in the Adam and Even with 8lb of Stolen pork (Windsor & Maidenhead Observer, October 1895).

The building became a shop, and since 2006 has been the home of, Eton Design who have lovingly restored, and beautifully decorated the premises.

UPDATE: I have found an old photograph of the Adam & Eve and the bracket is indeed the one used to hold the pub sign.

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Tastes Tweets

I've gone and done it. I have joined Twitter. Apparently it's going to be great for business. Reluctant as I was, I'm finding it really interesting! My "handle" is @TastesDeli if you want to follow. I've even added a selection of "follow us" logos to our website. And I've bookmarked some great recipes which other people have tweeted. And been kept up to date on all the Olympics news. That wasn't really why I joined, was it?

Monday, August 06, 2012

The list goes on

Still plenty of Great Taste Awards to mention....

Our new supplier Bim's Kitchen received a Gold Star for each of their African Bean & Nut Curry Sauce, Baobab Chilli Jam and Spicy African Ketchup. Mike's smokehouse's brand new smoked tomatoes were also awarded a gold star.

Bessant and Drury were given gold awards for both their lemon and strawberry frozen desserts, when blind tasted with dairy ice creams. An amazing achievement for a dairy free ice-cream.

Susie's Preserves' Raspberry Jam, Henshelwoods' Raspberry and Orange Jam, and seville marmalade with whiskey won gold stars.

Teapigs were awarded a collection of stars, including one each for Darjeeling Earl Grey, Jasmine Pearl Green Tea, Mao Feng Green Tea and Chamomile Flowers. Yogi Tea's Choco Tea also won an award. As did a number of teas from Pukka Herbs, and Campbell's Perfect Tea, again! The coffee award winners included another coffee from Grumpy Mule (who also won a three star award and about half a dozen two stars!).

Gold star were also give to Oliflix Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Anila's Hot Mango Pickle, Stokes Real Tomato Ketchup, Tracklements apricot & ginger chutney, and their fabulous onion marmalade.

Pipers Crisps were awarded a gold star for both their sea salt crisps and sweet chilli crisps. Olives Et Al also won awards for lots of their olives and their Dukkah.

A collection of awards went to local chocolateir L' Auberge du Chocolat and local flour mill Wessex Mill.

Our roast ham from Dorset Farms Ham received a gold star. As did Midfields Granola and Chocolate Peppermint Creams from Summerdown.

Lewis & Cooper's Handmade Luxury Fruit Cake again won a gold star, and again will be stocked by us at Christmas. As will the Copas Sage and Onion stuffing which also won an award (to accompany their 3 star winning turkeys)

I think that is everyone, if I've missed you out, do let me know. This year's list of winners didn't include the product names, so its been a lengthy process checking producer names and product descriptions to try to work out what has won. Please forgive any errors or omissions.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Great Taste Awards 2012

It's time for the Olympics of the food world! The Great Taste Awards results have been announced and yet again, the products available at Tastes Delicatessen have collected lots of awards!

This year 8,807 food and drink products (from more than 2500 producers) were blind-tasted over the course of 45 days by 350 experts. 123 products were awarded three stars, and 50 of those were selected as the Top 50 Foods and Drinks available in Great Britain.

You can read about who won awards in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 in my previous blog posts.

And here are this year's winners.

*** 3 Stars, "Wow you must taste this"
Barkham Blue Cheese, Teapigs' Liquorice and Mint tea and Tracklements' Strong Horseradish & Cream were all awarded three stars and included in the Top 50 Foods list.

Wessex Mill Flour and Copas Turkey were also awarded three stars.

** 2 Stars, "Faultless"
631 products were awarded two stars and included Teapigs Peppermint Leaves and Pure Lemongrass tea, along with Imporient's earl grey.

Oro Bailen Extra Virgin Olive Oil was awarded two stars, continuing their success of gold at The Mario Solinas Extra Virgin Olive Oil Quality Awards.

Tracklements' added to their collection of awards with two stars for their Fig Relish as did Olives et al with their Pistou Olives. Peppersmith won their first award, for their delicious Lemon Peppermints.

Two stars were also award to Salcombe diary Rum and Raisin Ice Cream and Mike's Smokehouse Smoked Salmon Pate - Hot roasted smoked salmon mixed with yoghurt and creme fraiche to maintain a 'homemade' feel to the result.

I'll be back next week with the results of the one star awards!

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Top 50 Foods in Britain

The annual Great Taste Awards are the biggest independent award scheme for local, regional and speciality foods in Britain and has been since 1994. Over 350 professional foodies take part in 45 days of judging, deciding which foods deserve one-star, two-star or the ultimate three-star awards. This year, for the first time, the results include a list of top 50 greatest food and drink available in Britain.

Included in the list you will find our most local, and much loved, cheese; the Barkham Blue from Two Hoots Cheese, Berkshire, along with Strong Horseradish & Cream from The Tracklement Company and Liquorice & Peppermint Tea from Teapigs. Well done everyone!