Food Fun at Northampton

Living Heritage brought their Food Festival to Northampton this weekend.  I was delighted to be given tickets to visit as there were lots of chances to watch some great food demonstrations.

First I started my day with a demonstration by Holly Bell, former Bake Off contestant.


Holly made some delicious vegetarian sausage rolls.  She demonstrated how to make rough puff pastry and how to get lots of layers in the pastry.  This was very interesting to watch since I had recently made some pain au chocolat using the same method just recently.  Holly then made a delicious Lemon and coconut tart. 

Rolling pastry - roll in one direction

Mixing a lemon and icing sugar icing

The amazing caramel skills of Jean Christophe Novelli were shown throughout his entertaining demonstration.  He made a wonderful caramelised apple tart with a combination of Cox and Granny Smith apples.  He showed us how to reduce the saturated fat from the bake by pouring off the fat at the bottom of the tart before baking.  He said how important it was to buy local food, and food that is in season. His kindness to the public shone out all the way through the demonstration.

Waiting for the sugar to caramelise

Making a sugar basket for strawberries

Jean Christophe, Holly and I

The most well attended session was Levi Roots demonstration.  Levi Roots began playing Bob Marley's "Dont Worry" on his guitar.  This gave a happy Caribbean atmosphere to the tent.   He told us about when he went on the Dragon's Den, and how he did not know what it was before he applied - he thought it was like "I'm a Celebrity".  We heard about the success of Reggae Reggae sauce. 

We were then entertained as Levi made his wonderful  Martinique Chicken Curry  This was packed with a variety of Caribbean spices and the aroma was amazing.  He also demonstrated how to make some simple Caribbean dumplings with flour and water.

Levi dashing through the audience with his Martinique Chicken Curry

 

At the end of the demonstration, I was invited to come and try the Levi's curry which was the most amazing curry I have ever tasted packed with the fruit, vegetables and spices of the Caribbean.  I also joined in with Levi on stage to sing the "Reggae Reggae" song, which made everyone laugh.

Having a laugh with Levi

Thumbs up for Levi's curry

We went along to a demonstration by Carmela Hayes, from Northampton.  She made herb pasta and spinach pesto.  I have been to several of Carmela's previously and enjoy the recipes which are tasty and easy to make.

Carmela with her pasta demonstration

For the final event, I went along to the Crabstock demonstration.  We were shown how to take meat from a crab, and I tasted scallops for the first time which were delicious.

Andy Hunting from Crabstock kindly invited me on stage and I had lots of fun helping him make a crab linguine.  I would love to make this dish at home.  Andy told the audience about my success in jam and marmalade.  I have done talks about my jam and bread making in the past and one day I hope that I will be able to talk at a food festival like this.

Adding Parsley to the Crab Linguine with Andy Hunting

Crab Linguine made by Andy and I

Before we went home, we made a point of tracking down some local produce and were glad to see Nature's Fayre had a stall.  They had lots of jams and honey samples for us to try.  We took home two bags of their delicious honey fudge and a pot of their honey with ginger.

Thank you to all the organisers of the event, I thoroughly enjoyed the demonstrations and hope you come back another year.

Finally, this is what Levi Roots had to say after I went on stage with him
"Yeah big respect, loved da blog, man you were great on stage, up up, way up! More love LR"