food & drink

Feeding of the 4,000 at food festival

Pictures by Neil Barnes and Ines Cavill More than 4,000 hungry punters poured in for Bridport’s annual celebration of food and drink – which had a no waste theme this year. Despite disappointing weather, people arrived at Askers Meadow to enjoy food and drink from the 50-plus local producers and suppliers, mostly from within 25 miles of Bridport, and the many food-based activities put on to entertain them by the crew of volunteers. The cookery theatre was buzzing all day and was the home for the day for a number of local chefs: Gill Meller, Pam Corbin (affectionately known as Pam the Jam), Jemima Giblin from Leakers Bakery, Chris Chatfield Head Chef at Station Kitchen and Mark Hix with Sally Allen who cooked up some delicious seafood dishes that were sold to members of the audience in aid of Fisherman’s Mission, raising £230. For children there was a full day of free foodie fun to enjoy; In the children marquee children were invited to celebrate the pleasure of making and sharing food together by preparing the dishes, drink and decorations for their own special All Taste No Waste Tea Party. Ines Cavill, who organised the children’s activities and also looks after the Community Cooking Kit which is available for all to use, said: “We were delighted to see over 50 children sit down together to enjoy the delicious tea party that had been made during the day’s sessions in the marquee – and using the terrific Bridport Community Cooking Kit that has everything needed to prepare, cook and eat a collective feast.” In the Youth Zone, organised and managed by the Bridport Youth Club, the theme was Dorset Farming, where they made butter, cheese biscuits, put names to the scarecrows that had been made at the Youth Club and competed for prizes for naming the joints of meat you get from a pig.

n Mayor Ian Bark and Dave Levi make a smoothie using pedal power n Sarah Hunter with strawberry tarts n Linda Woodhouse with ideas for reducing waste

n Mark Hix with Sally Allan from Sally’s Fish Camp n Jeannette Wood and Claire West from Leakers

WATCH AND LEARN: The busy demo tent at Bridport Food Festival

and it’s All Taste and No Waste here

BUZZING: Keeping Bees talk by Chris and Deb Childs of Corscombe JAM-TASTIC: Chrissy Regler and Natasha Laws and their preserves

SWEET: Daisy Morris, Shannon Cross and Gareth Morris of Aleksandra’s Chocolatiers STAYING COOL: The popular Baboo Gelata stall

WHAT A DELIGHT: Very busy gin and cheese stalls

When visitors had tired of shopping they were able to sit and enjoy a cup of Dorset Tea with milk from Hangers Dairy, and a delicious slice of cake made by Colmer WI or a cream tea with scones from West Bay Tearoom and listen to the programme of live music put together by Chris Deacon of Bridport Folk Festival, or visit the Bridport Round Table Beer Festival. A raffle raised around £1,000 for the Burnt Chef Project, which provides mental health help and support to the UK hospitality trade, and the Dorset Air Ambulance. Bridport Local Food Group chair Kathy Green said: “Special thanks to the Bridport Town Council, in particular the Town Surveyor (Daryl Chambers) and his team. The event certainly wouldn’t be able to go ahead without them!”

Vittles (food & drink)

Karen Broad lives in Burton Bradstock, with her husband and two mad dogs. She ran The Mousetrap in Dorchester, has lived in France and loves discovering new food producers.

My total knee replacement was finally carried out last Friday and as I write this, I am now back home recovering. Much has been said about ‘hospital food’, which thankfully I have never had to encounter before, so, I thought this was a good opportunity to write about my three-day stay. After surgery, I was presented with a ham salad. A good start, the ham was good quality, plentiful, and the salad fresh. A jacket potato for supper with cheese and beans, good comfort food I thought…my ‘words’ would have been more palatable. Unfortunately, it arrived cold. I’m sure there were some beans, but they proved elusive. The potato was dark, hard, and inedible, something more at home at the bottom of a compost heap, that even Mother Earth was refusing re-entry. The next day I ordered ratatouille; it was enjoyable, just tepid! I have always thought that hot toast was one of those things that uplifted any jaded soul, the smell alone comforting. So, I was surprised that this did not appear on the breakfast menu and couldn’t be produced even if I ‘was’ prepared to sell my soul. So, it was sliced bread or nothing. Sunday lunch, my expectations heightened by fellow patients extolling its virtues. The roast potatoes were excellent, the cabbage was recollections of school meals, but it was surprisingly tasty. The gravy held onto the beef for grim death, clinging to it for fear of exposing the unfortunate inedible slices of dry beef, it could have been so good. It was flavoursome. Hospital stays are an eclectic hubbub of activity, busier than London Waterloo station on a bank holiday weekend. Let me be clear, this is in no way a criticism. Feeding over 400 patients is no easy task, as a former caterer I know. Its failings are not down to the quality of the food, it was in the logistics of delivering hot meals to everyone in this massively busy environment. Maybe, the answer is subsidised takeaways on site like those found on busy stations and airports, or more localised catering facilities in each department, rather than a central kitchen. My stay was memorable for the consummate professionalism of all the amazing people who cared for me. The first thing I did when I arrived home was to have some toast, lots of hot toast, lathered with butter and Marmite.

COLD COMFORT: My hospital ratatouille and, right, my leg in plaster A toast to our hospital food

Mum’s Kitchen...

Two quickly prepared dishes for summer picnics or lunches

Easy Homemade Sausage Rolls Homemade sausage rolls are a world away from their shop-bought counterparts, but the thought of having to roll sausage meat, chop onions, etc can feel like a step too far sometimes. Using ready-rolled puff pastry and robustly flavoured sausages makes the whole thing easy and quick. Ingredients: 375g sheet ready-rolled puff pastry Approximately 6 or 7 well-flavoured good quality sausages (My absolute favourite is The Godfather, from Weymouth’s Fantastic Sausage Factory) I egg, beaten Method: Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan. Unroll the pastry sheet. Snip each sausage skin gently down the length of the sausage, ease off the skins and discard. Line up the sausages across the pastry and simply roll to encase them

with Diana Holman

Vittles (food & drink)

Lizzie Crow – AKA Lizzie Baking Bird – is a self taught baker, who has a stall outside her home in Upwey each Saturday. See her scrumptious eats at lizziebakingbird.co.uk or find lizzibakingbird on Instagram.

Little cheesy tarts... you’ll love them

This is an easy peasy dish. Feel free to use your leftovers – that final spoon of pesto from the fridge, tatty old tomatoes, the last bit of brie, etc. In less than half an hour you’ll have lunch ready.

Tomato, Cheese & Basil Open Tarts

Serves 2

1 pack ready rolled puff pastry (360g) 1 egg, beaten 2 heaped tbsp store-bought or homemade tomato sauce - this is NOT ketchup but possibly passata 10 cherry tomatoes 2 slices brie or camembert 2 tbsp tasty cheddar 2 basil sprigs* Salt and pepper

Take a sheet of readyrolled puff pastry and unfurl. Using a 12cm round cutter cut 4 circles of pastry. Place a 7.5cm cutter in the middle of two of your pastry circles and cut out two inner circles, making them as central as you can. Place the new pastry rings on top of the circles so that you end up with a shallow centre in which you put your sauce. Brush beaten egg lightly over the rim of each pastry case. Spoon in enough tomato sauce to cover the base of each tart. If you find your sauce a little bland (or you’re using passata) add some salt and pepper and a half a teaspoon of pesto to the sauce. Pop the cherry tomatoes in the centre of the tarts then put them straight in the oven (gas 6/ 200C) to bake for about 15 minutes. Whilst the tarts are cooking, get your cheese ready. Take the tarts out of the oven, add the brie and sprinkle with cheddar. Put them back in the oven for around five minutes until they are golden brown and the cheese is just melted. Finally, remove the tarts from the oven, add a sprig of basil and serve while still warm. Did you know that if you pinch the tops of your basil out (about 5mm above a node) you will leave the smaller shoots underneath that will continue to grow.

n Lizzie can be found in Upwey outside her cottage every Saturday selling her wares. Check out www.lizziebakingbird.co.uk or follow her on Instagram @lizzibakingbird The recipe will be also be up on her reels if you want to see how to make them before you give it a go!

in pastry, brushing the edges with beaten egg to seal. Repeat until you have used up the pastry and sausages. Cut the sausage rolls into the sizes you want, brush them with beaten eggs and place them on a baking tray lined with non-stick baking paper, Bake for around 25 minutes until they are golden brown.

Orange, Black Olive and Red Pepper Salad Ingredients: 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 tablespoon sherry vinegar 450g jar roasted red peppers, drained and sliced 2 oranges, peeled, divided into segments and sliced 80g black olives Handful of parsley, chopped

Method: Whisk together the oil and sherry vinegar. Combine the oranges, olives and sliced peppers in a bowl. Pour over the dressing and scatter with parsley.