Top 50 Foods AND Small Artisan Producer of the Year

In addition to the one star, two star and three star awards given out at the Great Taste Awards, the three star award winning products are also entered into further judging to determine the top 50 foods.

This year the list of th top 50 foods included
 Blaisdon Red Plum Jam from The Artisan Kitchen.
 Wild Rata Honey from Wedderspoon Organic.
 Easy Thai Green Curry Paste from coconut kitchen.

Also Sarah, who single handedly is The Artisan Kitchen, was voted Small Artisan Producer of the Year. Here she is beaming at the golden forks awards dinner! Fantastic achievements all round.

Coming Soon! Bacon.

I've been testing out a potential new product for the shop. Bacon. Sounds simple, but in fact, I've been on a Goldilocks style quest for some time. But I think I have found THE ONE. In fact it's an organic smoked Spanish pancetta, very thinly sliced.

Here it is in a salad with broccoli (a Jamie Oliver recipe)

I'm really impressed with it. Lovely flavour, crisps up beautifully, from organically reared happy pigs and not packed with any weird preservatives. Its flavour is so good, that a little bit goes a very long way. I only used two slices in the broccoli salad, which yielded two huge portions and the bacon flavour really came through.

You'll find it for sale in Tastes, soon, but sadly only in Eton. It needs to be kept refrigerated so we won't be selling it in our online shop.

Great Taste Awards 2014

The Guild of Fine Food hold an annual event described as the ‘Oscars’ of the food world and the ‘epicurean equivalent of the Booker prize’: The Great Taste Awards. Thousands of food producers enter their products, which are blind tasted by a team of more than 400 judges over 50 days. This year there were 10 000 products entered and just 34% of those were awarded one, two, or three stars.

Every year I scour the results, looking for names I recognise. Because I know most of our product producers personally, I love to see their names on the list as I know what a big deal this event is for them. To win a star means their product has been independently recognised as tasting great.  And to win the top accolade of three stars, well that is pretty much as good as it gets!

For the last seven years I have been writing a blog post to list all our winners (you can still read them all: 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 (part one and part two) and 2013). As much as I love seeing more and more of the products we stock being given Great Taste Awards, my job of list making gets harder each year! This year I started early and pinned a few winners every day to our 2014 Great Taste Award Winners pinterest board. But it has still taken me until November to write the full list, and it is basically just a list, but even so took me an entire day to write. But here it its. More than seventy award winning products I believe! Well done everyone!

 *** 3 stars
 
Out of 10,000 products entered this year and just 123 were awarded the highest accolade of three stars.

One of these went to the Blaisdon Red Plum Jam from The Artisan Kitchen. Here are some of judges' the comments:

• Lovely deep ruby colour and sheen, a good set, and fruity aroma. A delicious jam with deep dark flavours and a hint of tartness.
• Nice to find a jam that tastes of fruit not sugar.
• It was very well cooked, the aroma was fresh. A jam with a variety of uses.
• This is an old fashioned fruit jam, the plum comes through uncluttered with additives or over powering sugar. 
• Flies the flag for doing the simple things very, very well. 
• There's a lovely set to this jam and the plum flavours carry great balancing acidity and tartness.
• A well made jam with a distinct, pronounced plum flavour.

Sarah also received four one star and three two star awards for her other preserves, including the Blood Orange Marmalade we also stock.

Wedderspoon Organic also received three gold stars this year. For their incredible Wild Rata Honey. Judges' comments included:

• An utterly gorgeous honey
• This honey tastes amazing!
• Winnie the Pooh would choose this honey for his pot. it is delicious, smooth, sweet, floral with a little pine-iness on the back taste giving it a clean bright flavour

Wedderspoon Organic also received a gold star for their raw manuka honey.

The coconut kitchen were awarded a fantastic three stars for their Easy Thai Green Curry Paste. Judges' comments included:

• It has a good deep flavour profile.
• Great umami hit of fish sauce that has been balanced against the other flavours very well.

Wessex Mill achieved a clutch of awards again this year, including three stars for their mixed grain bread flour, four two star awards and four one star awards which included: Wessex Cobber bread flour, half & half bread flour, wholemeal bead flour, six seed bread flour, plain flour, strong white bread flour, self raising flour and French bread flour.

Azada were awarded three stars for their virgin almond oil for the second consecutive year! 

** 2 stars

There were 697 two star awards given out this year. This included Mike's Smokehouse Manuka Smoked Salmon which we've been stocking since we opened and it's still a favourite.

Olive Branch's Sweet Olive, Fig and Almond relish was awarded two gold stars. The unique product is similar to a sweet chutney, and pairs particularly well with goats cheese. It can also be used as a luxury topping for ice cream or over Greek yogurt as a snack. Olive Branch were also awarded a gold star for their red wine vinegar with orange honey and their red wine vinegar with thyne honey. 

Our newest tea blender, Tea Huggers,  received an amazing two gold stars for no less than three products! Good Morning Tea, Good Night Tea and Skinny Fit Tea. A great start from a new start up.

Teapigs' were awarded two stars for their  rooibos creme caramel tea and one star each for chamomile flowers tea, tung ting oolong tea, liquorice and peppermint leaves tea and jasmine pearl tea.

Like Teapigs, Tracklements come away from the awards each year with a collection! This year they received two stars for their chilli jam (again), and one star each for fig relish, strong English mustard, strong horseradish & cream, beetroot & horseradish relish and apricot and ginger chutney.

* 1 star

Brand new business, fairly local to us in Eton, BakedIn entered their Chocolate Brownie Kit and Carrot Cake Kit. Both were awarded gold stars.

Other products which are new to us also won gold stars; sweet chilli popcorn from Popcorn Kitchen.  Turron de Guirlache from el Lobo, English Truffle Oil from The Truffle Hunter and Pineapple Fruit Crisps from Nim's.

Along with lots of old favourites, most of which are available in our online deli.
Anila's Tamarind and Date Chutney.
Real Organic Food's Korma Curry Sauce.
Luscombe's Wild Elderflower Bubbly.
Granny's Secret Wild Apple Juice.
Pukka Herbs' Three Fennel Tea.
Grumpy Mule organic EthiopianYirgacheffe coffee.
Meridian 100% peanut butter and smooth cashew butter.
Stokes were awarded a gold star for the real mayo, real tomato ketchup and real brown sauce.
Piper's Chorizo Crisps.
Azada Olive oil and lemon and base olive oil which are included in our olive oil gift boxes, both were awarded one star.
Oro Bailen extra virgin olive oi.
Biona raw virgin Coconut Oil.
Dressing number 3 (sweet honey paired with tangy wholegrain mustard) and dressing number 14 (a delicious, spicy dressing for salad, pasta or fish) from the French Dressing Company.
Iliko's clotted cream caramel sauce.
Cartwright & Butler Butter Thins.
Peppersmith's Lemon Peppermints (which also won a gold star in 2012).

In our fridge, our Spanish chorizo from Brindisa was also awarded a star as was Colston Bassett Stilton, Barkham Blue, Rosethorn Blue and Cornish Blue, Shemin's medium curry paste, Tim's Dairy Greek Yoghurt and Tom's Pies; Chicken, Ham Hock and Leek. Along with Mike's Smoked Duck and  Smoked Salmon Pate which complete yet another hat-trick for the smokehouse.

Even our Christmas turkey producer, Copas, was awarded gold stars, one for their organic turkey and one for their free-range chicken. Loseley bakery, who make quiche for us throughout the year, were award a gold star for their Stollen, which we will have for Christmas, and Lewis and Cooper's Plum Puddings (which we also have each Christmas) won another gold star.

Thanks to all our producers for creating such delicious foods for us to sell and enjoy!

Thai Cooking with Coconut Kitchen

I've been testing out our new range from the wonderful Coconut Kitchen. A selection of sauces based on those used in the Coconut Kitchen restaurant in Abersoch, North Wales.

I started with the Wok fried Pad Thai Noodles recipe from the Pad Thai Sauce bottle. I didn't have any chicken or prawns so used a lot of vegetables (carrots, mushrooms, peppers, sugar snap peas, and sprouted chick peas instead of bean sprouts). I'm pretty sure the flavours would be better if I'd used something to absorb more of the sauce, rather than the al dente vegetables. I did toast the peanuts in the pan before frying the onions, so they were ready to garnish. That is my only tip here! This is the coconut kitchen recipe:

Ingredients, Serves 2:
Rice stick noodles (partly cooked in hot water), vegetable oil, 2 garlic cloves (crushed), 1 chicken breast or 16 king prawns, ½ onion (sliced), 50g  beansprouts, any other vegetables of choice (carrots,
mushrooms, sugar snap peas, broccoli or peppers are good), spring onion, coriander, lime wedges and crushed peanuts to garnish.

To cook:
Fry the garlic and onion in the oil and add the chicken or prawns and vegetables, cook for 2 minutes, add the partly cooked rice noodles. Then add 1 bottle of Coconut Kitchen Pad Thai Sauce, stir fry the noodles in the sauce until fully cooked. Add the beansprouts, serve and garnish with the spring onion, coriander, peanuts and lime.

I made some simple sweetcorn fritters as a starter, mainly because I wanted to try out the dipping sauce!

To make the fritters boil 2 sweetcorn cobs and slice off the kernels. Put half of the kernels along with 1 egg, 1 spring onion, 1 de-seeded red chilli (or more if you like the heat), 30g plain flour (white or wholemeal), and half a teaspoon of baking powder into a blender and puree until fairly smooth. Small lumps are fine. Stir in the rest of the sweetcorn. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pan and spoon in the batter. I use about 1 tablespoon per fritter. Fry until browned (about 1 minute), flip over and brown the other side. I served them with Coconut Kitchen Sweet Chilli & Garlic Sauce  and chopped avocado and was really pleased with them.

With the abundance of vegetables I used, we had a lot of Pad Thai left over, certainly enough for another two meals. I used the left overs as an accompaniment to baked salmon. The rice noodles didn't really survive the reheat, but the flavour from the Pad Thai was still delicious, possibly better than it had been the night before. Of course, I marinated the salmon in Coconut Kitchen Chilli & Garlic Sauce. And that was wonderful! The chilli sauce is divine. Just the same as you find in good Thai restaurants with the right level of sweetness, and other flavours complimenting the chilli - not just hot and sweet like some can be.

I've been sneaking it into a lot of things. Like the avocado salsa I made to go with some sweetcorn muffins (using up both the half avocado I had left from the weekend's starter and more of the glut of fresh sweetcorn).

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Last week I received a batch of brand new recipe booklets from Olive Branch. The little books contains nine inventive ways to use Olive Branch products (plus a few more ideas on the back cover). Things like Poached Chicken with Lentils and Dill using their olive oil and red wine vinegar. Or Baked Cod with Sundried Tomatoes using sundried tomato mix. There is even a recipe for Sweet Olive and Ice Cream!

On Thursday, just before heading home, and in need of a quick supper for one, I flicked through the booklet and found something perfect:  Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms.
All I needed was:

• Olive Branch's Green & Black Olives with Sundried Tomato, Feta & Greek Basil.
• Some Cheddar cheese (I used Keen's).
• A large flat mushroom.

I had all of that in stock, so collect them up and headed for home.
Within half an hour, I had a delicious light supper ready. I even tweeted about it!
In fact, I liked it so much, that on Monday, in between working on paperwork at home, I made the same dish again for lunch. Still delicious!

Next time you're in Tastes pick up a free booklet from the display on the wall but the steps. You won't be disappointed.

Questions

Last week, while meeting with a supplier, someone popped into the shop to ask a question. I can't remember what the question was, but the supplier found it amusing and asked if that happened a lot. To me, it was perfectly normal. So maybe my normal is not so normal after all. As an experiment I thought I'd keep a list of all the non-deli related questions I was asked today. Just to see how interesting they really were. My list reads a little like a foreign language phrase book! What I realised is they are mainly from tourists and actually knowing what tourists need to know might be helpful to someone. There are definite themes. In case anyone fancies analysing them, here are the questions:

How can I walk to Dorney Lake?
Is there a cash machine near here?
Is there anywhere in Eton I can I buy plain black socks?
Can you give me ten pounds in change?
Where's the nearest taxi rank?
Can I have one of your carrier bags?
Do you have change for a twenty?
Eton College?
Is the parking free for blue badges?
Where's the high street?
Is there a Boots or something here?
Do you give change for the car park?
Where's the nearest cash machine?
Where are the shops?
Is the college open?
Which is the best restaurant?
Can I get into the castle? How much is it?
Can I get some change?
Where are the toilets?
How far is the college?
Do the pubs allow children?
Can only residents park here?
Where do you recommend for lunch?
Can I swap this 10p?
Is there anywhere doing afternoon tea before three?
Can you tell me which way the toilets are?
Give us some change for the parking, love.
Does the open top bus stop near here?
When is the parking free?
Top up?
What are the flags for?
Can you give me ten pound coins for this?
Trick or treat?

OK, I'll admit that last one was unusual for the 27th September and along with the encroaching darkness, signals time to close the shop for the night!

A Hug from a Cup of Tea

After a long day in the shop, an evening building a cheese wedding cake for a really lovely couple, followed by a three hour drive to my weekend, I was certainly ready for bed. In my overnight bag I'd packed a selection of tea bags I fancied trying. And first up was certainly appropriate. Tea Huggers' Good Night Tea. Not only did the soft purple-blue packaging match the colours in my hosts' kitchen, but the tea's on box write-up sounded like just what I needed:

Pop the kettle on – and your slippers. This is a gorgeous, sweet blend of soothing lavender and fruity blueberry flavour on a base of caffeine-free rooibos. Blended with lemon balm and lots of fruity flavours from orange peel, apple and hibiscus petals, it’s the perfect brew to relax your mind and body at the end of a long day.

I'd definitely had a long day, and had driven round the M25, so soothing was certainly in order. I've no idea whether I slept better for having had the tea (it could have been exhaustion), but I certainly enjoyed drinking it. The first thing I noticed was the aroma, lots of delicate flavours and not overpoweringly of lavender which I had thought might be the case. The colour was vibrant. The taste was as good as the smell; intense, not disappointingly wishy washy. It was sweet, yet clean and fresh. If a cup of tea could give a bedtime hug this is how I imagine it would feel!

Next morning, I, appropriately, tried Good Morning. While goodnight is cosy and comforting, good morning is its opposite. Its stronger, earthy and smokey. A really unique blend with a lot going on. It is still well balanced and mellow with no single flavour dominating. It certainly awoke my taste buds.

Four of the tea huggers range of teas are now available at Tastes Delicatessen.

Still Great!

One of our customers is currently working on a project which involves reading more than four hundred letters written by a single solider during World War I. He brought one of these fascinating letters in to show me. And I'm sharing it with you! On the 4th May 1915, Major Robert Hermon's letter to his wife, Ethel, included the following request:

"I want you to arrange with Harrods or some one like that to send us a £1 box of stores every week......The jam is essential and must come without fail.....Cherry jam occasionally but the main jam supply to be Little Scarlets."

That will be the Tiptree Little Scarlet jam we sell here at Tastes, nearly 100 years after that letter was written. Some preserves really are that good!

The perpetual pound

The flat above Tastes Deli has been renovated this summer. Since early July the building has been covered in scaffolding. We've managed to keep the shop open most of the time. But it is summer (and a very nice one at that) and while many of our regulars are on holiday we rely on the tourists. Sadly, this year they don't know we are here, and certainly don't know we are worth walking under ladders for.

A few weeks ago our suppliers started to notice I was ordering less. Last week I heard that a supplier's supplier also noticed! Which I think sort of proves how money spent in small shops is spent again and again within the community. When money isn't spent the reverse applies. I guess that's economics. Surprisingly interesting really!

Fortunately, this is only a temporary blip and business should return to usual very soon. I promise to order lots of lovely things as soon as it does, so my suppliers can order more of what they need, and their suppliers can order more of what they need etc etc.

Birthday Party Activity / Goodies

How's this for a kid's birthday party idea? 

By a batch of plain mugs and let the children paint them during the party. While they tuck into jelly and ice cream, pop a BakedIn mug brownie pot and instructions into each mug, wrap them in cellophane, maybe add a few sweets, tie a pretty bow and voilà, take home gift taken care of!

Photo is for illustration only. I did not paint the mug and didn't really spend very long colour coordinating the ribbon etc!  

A gluten/wheat/dairy-free version of the mug brownie kit is also available.