The Kelburn Garden Party – Part Two

Here we resume our tale of a long weekend of drinks, midges etc and yet more food. I will continue with my alphabet theme, because if I abandoned it half way through I’d have to consider myself an utter philistine and delete myself from my own Facebook friends, which would be a bit tricky and possibly involve dividing by zero. If you missed the first post, you can find it here.

First for today is the Harajuku Kitchen. The ladies at the Harajuku Kitchen provided my very first meal of the festival,  in the form of these pork dumplings:

They came with soy, chili oil and coriander, and I asked if I could add some spring onions, too. They were a great snack, exactly what I wanted at the time and really beautifully made. Lovely to look at, enticing to sniff, the meat was moist and the dumpling wrapper just the right texture.  Obviously these ladies are experts.

We also ate a couple of portions of soba noodles over the weekend. These, by all accounts, were just as good as the dumplings. What I particularly liked about them was the evidence of fresh vegetables, the importance of which cannot be overestimated when it comes to a weekend of day drinking.

Everything was thoroughly enjoyed, and I only wish we’d been around longer to try their sushi, veggie dumplings and miso soup. There was only so much eating (and spending) a person could do, really. Harajuku Kitchen are based in Edinburgh and you can also find them on Facebook.

My next food-based discovery was Twirly Tatties. I am sad to say that I can’t find any more info online about Twirly Tatties and will simply have to attend every UK festival from now on, seeking their crispy delights. I took a few photos of the process, and the two vendors were so friendly and happy to oblige me that I felt even better about eating approximately my own body weight in potatoes over the weekend.

First you use a special potato peeling device, powered by an electric drill, to reduce a formerly solid member of the potato community to a long strip of ruflles. Then you drop these into a huge trough of hot oil, drop into a tray and season with sea salt, then pack into a paper cone.

Mr J ate one of these and said ‘danger’. This is exactly right. Three of the four of us are self confessed crisp addicts and we appreciated these twirly tatties more than your average human might. They are crispy and salty, just as you’d imagine a great, freshly cooked crisp, but then in some places they are just a little soft and chewy, and that, my friends, is the hook. There’s another festival coming up in August that we’re going to, if Twirly Tatties aren’t there I’ll be sad.  Look at their friendly faces! And that friendly tattie!

Second to last is the first place I handed a business card to, and was so reassured by Rob’s reaction that I proceeded on a one-woman  spree of photo-taking and business-card-handing. You all have him to hold responsible for it. Well, and me… This place is called Wild Rover Food, and by heavens, there are a lot of cool things about it. Firstly, they rock up at festivals and markets in a 1961 Land Rover with a reconditioned army field kitchen, ready to set up and start cooking at a moment’s notice. They place great emphasis on local, fresh produce, and they were offering wonderful Scottish food for our delectation. Rob even let me take a couple of photos of him at work:

This was the breakfast special, created with great skill and love and displayed with a great lack of same. Scrambled eggs (and perfectly scrambled, might I add), smoked salmon, parsley in a buttered whole wheat roll. I hoovered this up in no time at all. Simple food, done exactly right.

This was the Game-On Wrap, displayed again with no aesthetic ability on my part. I was so ready to get tucked in, I’d had my eye on this since we arrived at the festival. It’s pigeon sauteed with bacon and onions, laid on a wrap with beetroot puree and salad leaves. That beetroot and pigeon mix – oh man. I couldn’t stop talking about it, it was even better than I imagined.

Wild Rover are regulars at Stockbridge market and at festivals around the country, plus they do catering for functions and such. You can keep track of their movements here – I’m delighted to see that they’ll be at Doune in August, can’t wait to see what they’re dishing up then.

The last of the food tales from Kelburne is Woodburns Espresso Pizza – and let me tell you, these people sure know how to whip up a pizza in no time. They came prepared with their wood burning stove and a great big tent; I got a couple of snaps:

The sign was not co-operative…

…but the people were!

The G man is a particular fan of pizza, and really enjoyed Woodburns’. It looked and smelled like the real thing, similar to home made pizzas I tried in Italy with a crisp crust and few toppings, all of great quality. The staff were friendly and knew what they were about, and there were certainly a lot of people milling around with pizzas and happy faces.

Woodburns can also be found at festivals around the country, and I intend to try them properly for myself the next time.

Alongside all the snacks, we had drinks. Many drinks. The bars were stocked with local ale, beer and cider. Being more of a cider drinker myself, I opted to stick with the Thistly Cross cider, which hails from East Lothian. I tried the original, ginger and strawberry varieties, because I am very thorough in my research methods, and the strawberry suited my sweet tooth down to the ground. Or the root, I suppose. Here is just one of the lovely bar staff who was providing these lovely ciders, and a surprise giraffe:

There were also some excellent cocktails which cost less at the festival than they would in the pub, and therefore we drank a few of them because it would have been costing us money not to. Something along those lines, anyway.

Here is a Gallery of Booze:

As you can definitely tell, I’ve never really taken Rock Salt on the road before. I had a great time at the festival, and part of that was identifying myself as a blogger and interacting with people who usually I would just have exchanged please and thank yous (and money and food) with. It was a great experience, and even if my photography isn’t the finest, I think it gives a flavour (ahahaha) of the Kelburn Garden Party, and the great, local food vendors who are working their socks off in difficult conditions and when faced with crowds of drunk (though good natured) people. I take my pirate hat off to each of the companies I’ve mentioned in these posts, and to all the rest who I didn’t get the time to speak to and buy from.

Thank you all, so very much.

The Kelburn Garden Party – Part One

Well, what a weekend that was. A weekend of music, camping, dancing, drinks, midges, more drinks and, most importantly, delicious food at the Kelburn Garden Party. More than three meals a day, and all from wonderful, friendly vendors selling food from around the world. We were spoiled for choice. That’s why I’m writing two posts – there was so much to choose from, and between four of us we tried to choose it all… We didn’t exactly succeed, but we did get a good sample of what was available. On the second day I even plucked up the courage to approach people and describe myself as a blogger – only the second time I’ve ever done that, and the first time it was sort of surprised out of me. Everyone was so friendly, and happy to have their photo taken for inclusion in one of these posts, I am truly grateful and quite abashed by everyone’s enthusiasm. A couple of the vendors even took time out to talk to me about their products, which they were obviously and quite rightly so passionate about, and I’ll try to remember the details here.

It’s probably important to say that I was offered a sample of chocolate from one vendor, but no other incentive to write this post – in fact, I approached the vendors for photos because either I or a friend had purchased and enjoyed their food over the course of the weekend. The opinions are honest and my own.

I’ll go in more or less alphabetical order, because it seems a fair way to do it. We will begin with the fine coffee merchants Artisan Roast. I had a Rose and Black Pepper Hot Chocolate, which was warm, sweet, delicate and beautifully crafted. This is the first time I’ve had a pretty shape on top of a beverage, and I truly believe that it tasted better for it.

Next on the Kelburn Alphabet is The Chocolate Tree. This was the place I took the most photos, and I chatted to Ali for a long while about the products they have, about the importance of supporting local business and about his new baby – congratulations! I really appreciated the time Ali took to chat to me, and it’s clear how much he cares about the quality of the products he and the rest of his team sell. I took a lot of photos of the range of chocolate bars and of a couple of hot chocolates that some lucky customers were treating themselves to.

I tried one of their diabetic chocolate bars, which was made with Peruvian cacao beans and xylitol instead of sugar. It was excellent, without the unpleasantly waxy texture that diabetic chocolate can have. Miss K tried two of the gelatos – mango and chocolate – and pronounced them amazing, and ate them while I was off gallivanting around so I don’t have a photo of them. I do have some photos of the gelato being scooped though, which is actually better:

Ali explained to me that you scoop the gelato several times not only for shape, but also to introduce air into the scoop and improve the volume and texture. Gelato is richer than ice cream, and whipping it up a little with air prevents it from being too heavy. It was an educational stop, The Chocolate Tree! They are a company dedicated to Fair Trade, organic, high quality chocolate. On one hand, they sell chocolate made to traditional methods – one of the photos at the top shows one of the oldest known chocolates – but on the other hand they work on new and contemporary flavours and presentation. It’s the best of both worlds.

Next I’d like to mention the Courtyard Cafe. This place is a fixture in Kelburn, not like the other vendors who were there only for the festival. I was a little worried that the full time staff at the Country Park would be a bit fed up with us festival go-ers and our shenanigans by the end of the first day, but the staff in the Courtyard Cafe were welcoming and friendly the whole time we were there, and served us up some really hearty, home-cooked food. Alas, I have no photos of the food itself (we ate it all tooooooo fast) but it included a barbecue of burgers, chicken or vegetable skewers and corn on the cob. Inside, there was chicken or veggie curry with pita bread, chips and curry sauce and if I recall rightly a big pot of soup. On Sunday morning they were selling breakfast rolls, which is precisely what your average sleep-deprived, hungover or possibly still drunk person requires of a morning. There was also tea, coffee, soft drinks and cakes. All the food that we tried was great, but more to the point the service was wonderful. In particular I’d like to thank Joanna, who was there all weekend and who I never saw without a smile on her face. I hope I have spelled her name right – she’s the lady on the left. Go to Kelburn. Visit the cafe.

The last of today’s highlights is Haggis Haggis, a stall selling (you guessed it) haggis, but also stovies, hot and cold drinks and some sweet snacks like cookies, doughnuts and muffins. The chaps at the stall were very shy, as you can see.

‘Eat haggis and ceilidh on’

I think all of us ate haggis at some point over the weekend – as far as I’m concerned, haggis is one of the perfect festival foods. It’s warming and spicy, it’s filling and satisfying and frankly, it’s as Scottish as the midges and the drizzle. This particular haggis was really peppery, available in original and veggie varieties and came with rustic mashed neeps and tatties in abundance. Huge portions, cheerful staff and all round happy campers.

Veggie haggis, neeps and tatties

Let me round off this first post with a few of our own, tent-made creations… I brought the trusty camping stove and we had tea with powdered milk, which took a bit of work to get right but, by Jove, I got it in the end. We also toasted marshmallows over it with medium success (the trick is to actually set them on fire), and we drank tent drinks out of matching blue plastic glasses. The boys had tumblers, the girls had cocktail glasses. This is not because we conform to gender rules, just because we liked the glasses.

As you can tell, we had a wonderful time at the Kelburn Garden Party. I have another four vendors plus a brief discussion of the available booze coming up on Friday, come back then and check it out. If you’re at a festival this summer and you see any of these guys, go and sample their wares – and by all means, tell them I sent you! I handed out business cards to everyone, which made me feel like a bit of an 80s throwback but people were so receptive to them that I felt much less self conscious by the end of the day.

Many of the vendors have real life shops you can visit, too. Artisan Roast have shops in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Kuala Lumpur (true story). The Chocolate Tree has a shop in Edinburgh and regularly visit two farmers markets in Edinburgh and one in Haddington. The Courtyard Cafe are open from 10 – 6 throughout the summer, and can even host a private party for you if you’re of a mind.

Our tent was a temporary fixture, I’m afraid to say, so you’ll have to fix your own toasted marshmallows.

Jerk Chicken and Festival

Festival – never heard of ’em. Except I obviously have, since I’m blogging about them, but I’ve only *just* heard of them and I thought maybe a lot of other people hadn’t, and that might make a good blog post. I did start it out with a tiny fib, for dramatic effect, which I immediately ruined by confessing so it shouldn’t even really count…

Festival are little cigar-shaped dumplings from Jamaica, made with flour and cornmeal, and they traditionally go with jerk chicken or fish. They are so easy to make, and use ingredients you might already have in the cupboard, especially if you’re like me and have bought a big sack of cornmeal because it was a good price… You can find the recipe for festival here – it took me half a cup of water to bring the dough together, and when you’re frying them make sure not to crank the heat too much and to keep an eye on the colour of them. The dumplings are very crispy on the outside and dense and chewy inside, if you over cook them they’ll be too crunchy.

I made jerk chicken and vegetables to go with the festival. I based my jerk chicken recipe on this one but made a couple of changes – here’s my method:

• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp dark rum
• 2 Scotch bonnet chilis
• 1 red onion, roughly chopped
• 4 spring onions, roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp dried thyme or 2 Tbsp fresh thyme leaves, chopped
• 2 tbsp rapeseed (or other bland) oil
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 4 teaspoons ground allspice
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 2 teaspoons treacle
• six chicken thighs
• juice of one lime
• Salt and pepper to taste

Nutmeg, allspice, ginger and cinnamon

Colourful Sweet Bite Peppers

A word on Scotch Bonnet chilis first of all: they are hot. They will burn you if you’re not a bit careful. Remember this and take even more precautions than usual not to touch your eyes (or other sensitive areas, you now the ones I mean) after you’ve been handling them. Instead of wearing gloves, I like to give my hands a thorough coating of oil before I slice hot chilis like these. It’s especially important to cover over any minor cuts you might have, and to get in among your cuticles and maybe even under your nails, depending how fastidious you’re being. The oil creates a barrier between your skin and the hot stuff, and you can wash it right off when you’re done. Be careful when using a knife though, obviously your hands will be a little more slippy than normal. The actual flavour of Scotch Bonnets is hot, yes, but also very fruity and long-lasting, completely different to your standard long green or red chili pepper. I used to small peppers in this recipe, but next time I’d use bigger ones, they weren’t as mouth-on-fire, I-can’t-taste-any-food-for-three-days hot as I was worried they’d be.

First I put all the ingredients up to the chicken in my blender. Then, my blender broke. Then I ran out to the local Argos (other shops are available, but Argos did save dinner that night) to buy a new stick blender, ten minutes before they closed. Then I came back, scraped the half-blended mixture into a tall jug and finished the job. It didn’t look like much except a beaker full of mud (at best), but the smell was wonderful, even if it did singe a few nose hairs.

My now-deceased blender

The finished paste

Once the blender emergency was over, I poured the lime juice over the chicken thighs, mixed well to coat, then poured over two thirds of the jerk sauce and marinaded for an hour. As with any marinading, the longer the better – overnight would have been ideal, but I was too excited about trying it to wait. The rest of the jerk sauce I kept aside for serving; I thought the festival would benefit from some sauce to dip them in. Once you’ve had marinade over raw meat, you can’t serve it up without cooking it through first, so I thought it’d be easier to keep a little.

I cooked the chicken thighs in my griddle pan, which I rubbed with rapeseed oil and put over a high heat. I griddled the chicken for about fifteen minutes each side – make sure to give it a prod before you eat it, if the juices coming out are pink it needs a bit longer to cook. I wanted to get the classic jerk chicken look, with blackened parts on the meat, so there was quite a lot of smoke – be prepared!

After the chicken had cooked for twenty five minutes, I pushed it to the front of the pan and put in some sliced green pepper and orange sweet bite peppers, diced pineapple and a small corn cob to take on the flavour of the meat and spices. Frozen corn cobs are one of the vegetables I usually have in the freezer; they’re not as good as fresh, but good enough when it’s winter and you want some sunshine. I boiled the corn for seven minutes before finishing it off in the pan.

While the chicken was marinading, I prepared the festival – it took so little time to do, I could easily have waited until the chicken was cooking before I did. They take eight minutes to fry, so I put them on for the last eight minutes of the chicken’s cooking time and everything was ready to be served all at once. I put the fried dumplings on to a layer of absorbent kitchen paper to drain and slightly cool off while I put everything else on the plate, then added them and sat down to eat.

Festival before cooking

While I don’t think festival are the prettiest things I’ve ever made, they were a good accompaniment to the jerk chicken, and also satisfied my need to try new things. When I was reading a bit more about them I learned that a variation is to add corned beef or cheese to them before frying – this sounds like it could be an excellent snack on its own.