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Winner! Best Asian Book in UK

What a way to start 2020 – Delighted to hear that My Bangladesh Kitchen was awarded Best Asian Book in the UK at the prestigious Gourmand International Cookbook Awards.

To celebrate: here is one of my favourite, and quintessentially Bangladeshi, recipes. Shorsher darrosh ar aloo, otherwise known as mustard okra with potatoes.

Okra is a really popular vegetable in Bangladesh and it makes a good vegetarian main course as well as a side dish. The use of mustard is very common in Bangladeshi cuisine and adds an interesting piquancy to the dish. Traditionally you would grind whole mustard seeds with salt and water to make the paste, but nowadays I find it a lot quicker (and easier on my nasal passages) to use a ready-made whole-grain mustard instead. I like to cook this dish in a mixture of mustard oil and vegetable oil for extra mustard sharpness, but plain vegetable oil will also work.

Ingredients
175g / 6oz okra, fresh or frozen
200g / 7oz new (waxy) potatoes such as Charlotte
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp mustard oil
1 small onion, sliced finely
4 cloves garlic, finely sliced
2 green chillies (chiles), cut in half lengthways
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp chilli powder
½ tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp whole-grain mustard
1 tsp salt
250 ml / 8fl oz / 1 cup water

Method

First prepare the okra. If the okra are quite small they can be left whole. If they are larger than 5cm/2in then they can be sliced in half, lengthwise through the stalk end. The stalk can be retained if the vegetables are quite young and tender.

The potatoes should be washed but not peeled and sliced into long wedges no thicker than 2cm/1in. Keep them in a bowl of cold water whist preparing them to avoid any discolouration.

Take a sauté-pan or wok and place it on a medium-high heat. Add both the oils to the pan and when the oil is hot add in the onion, garlic and chillies (chiles). Fry them for 5-6 minutes until the onion is turning brown at the edges and the garlic is golden in colour.

Add the turmeric, cumin, chilli powder, salt and mustard paste and stir together well. Then add in the cup of water and continue to cook and stir over a medium-high heat until the mixture is bubbling well. Add the potatoes and okra and stir well to combine. Wait until the pan is back up to temperature and bubbling nicely. Then reduce the heat to a low simmer and cover the pan with a well-fitting lid.

Cook the vegetables like this for around 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the okra and potato are softened and cooked through. If the vegetables are catching on the bottom of the pan during cooking, you can add a small amount of hot water from the kettle, but only do this if you really need to as it will dilute the flavours in the pan.

Once the vegetables are cooked and the sauce has thickened the dish is ready to serve. This can be served as a side dish or on its own with either rice or with any Indian bread. Enjoy .

New for 2019

My Bangladesh Kitchen – a new cookbook from Saira Hamilton

Bangladesh is a land of contrasts, from busy cities to the verdant and fertile countryside, with fish ponds, lakes and rivers at every turn. The cuisine reflects the abundance of vegetables and fish, and has a distinctive taste defined in particular by tamarind, the ubiquitous mustard oil, and the spice blend called panch poran. In this book Saira has brought together her much-loved recipes, with 100 everyday classics, regional specialities, street snacks, and impressive celebration food too. It is packed with background detail and anecdote, vibrant photographs of every dish, and an informative introduction describing the ingredients and cooking techniques of Bangladesh.

“Bangladesh is a country everyone has heard of, but few people know. On one hand, you have the high-energy bustle of the city, enveloped by the dusty, smoggy air, diesel fumes and heady street-food smells. At the other end of the scale you have the beauty of the countryside, with its reddish heavy-clay soil, lush greenery, and the abundance of water in ponds, lakes and rivers. The Bangladeshi connection to the land is still incredibly strong. There are many years and many memories held within these recipes from across the range of Bangladeshi cuisine. These dishes will introduce you to some of the ingredients and cooking techniques which make Bangladeshi cuisine what it is, and I hope that they will become as familiar and dear to you as they are to me.”
Saira Hamilton, 2019

Saira Hamilton is a chef, cookery demonstrator and food writer, specialising in her Bengali-inspired food. Saira reached the finals of MasterChef 2013, and during the competition won high praise for her delicious dishes and deft spicing. Saira’s family settled in the UK but always maintained a close relationship with the country, and spent many holidays in Bangladesh. Saira’s love of cooking was inspired by her mother Nadira, and the passion she kindled in her for the food and culture of their motherland.

Please contact Joanna on jlorenz@anness.com for more information, reviews and features.

£20.00 / $35.00
288 pages, 255 x 208 mm, hardback
ISBN: 9780754834502

Cambridge Food, garden and produce show – 15-16th September 2018

Not long before I show up on Parker’s Piece again in the centre of Cambridge to do my thing on the live cooking stage at Oakleigh Fairs. I’ll be cooking alongside GBBO finalist Ian Cumming, Chef James Barber from the White Lion in Aldeburgh and Ondine Hartgroves from Jasmine Kitchen.

See me at 12pm on Sunday 16th, when I’ll be cooking up a delicious pumpkin and prawn curry with home made parathas. Can’t wait to get my autumn cooking mojo back on. See you there!

Tiptree Patisserie

There’s a brand you might be familiar with, even if you haven’t quite appreciated the history behind it. Wilkins and Sons Ltd have been making jams since 1885 in the Essex village of Tiptree, and their distinctive labels are on the shelves of supermarkets across the country. If you haven’t bought them yourself, it’s more than likely that you’ve seen the little mini-jam pots at a hotel breakfast table; last year they sold more than 50 million pots in over 60 countries worldwide. As a proud Essex girl, Tiptree is a brand I have always loved (the Raspberry Seedless jam is my favourite) so when I had the chance to find out a bit more, I jumped at the opportunity.

A mutual friend had put me in touch with Daren McGrath, who is the Managing Director of Tiptree Patisserie, part of the Wilkins and Sons family of companies. He was kind enough to show me around their bakery in Witham, Essex for a look behind the scenes of this local food business, which operates on a global scale.

Many of us know the English fruits and jams that Tiptree are famous for, and as much as possible of the fruit is still grown on their own farm, including of course the very special heritage Little Scarlet strawberry (to find out more about Little Scarlet visit www.tiptree.com). However, given the range of products it can’t all be grown here in the UK. For example, the oranges used in the marmalade come from Seville. I was pleased to learn that Tiptree has their very own ‘man from Del Monté’ (can I say that?!) called Robert, who inspects the crops of known and trusted producers in warmer climes, ensuring only the best are given the Tiptree label.

The company has grown immensely since the 19th century and now boasts a wide range of products in addition to the jams and preserves including condiments, juices, jellies, gin liqueurs, Christmas puddings and even the most delicious fruit smelling candles and diffusers. There are 11 Tiptree tearooms across the country and a growing bakery business which makes a range of bread, cakes, scones, pastries and patisserie for a variety of commercial and private customers.

The patisserie business started to provide cakes for the tearooms but now has a much larger customer base. Sitting down for a chat with Daren before touring the bakery, I was amazed to hear that Tiptree Patisserie products are sold as far field as Singapore and China, providing customers in the Far East with a genuine taste of the English countryside. Daren has personally toured China, giving live cookery demonstrations to thousands of people, educating them on the delights of an English cream tea. He is even a bit of a Chinese social media star!

Daren wouldn’t give away all his secrets but I got a few titbits, such as a spoonful of apricot jam in the Coronation chicken sandwich fillings and carrot cake laced with Tiptree’s finest marmalade. It was fascinating to hear how passionately the Chinese have embraced the concept of the cream tea. Daren admitted to being nervous when he realised the Chinese palate isn’t particularly fond of jam and they don’t really have an equivalent there. But he has obviously worked some magic, as the company is now exporting tens of thousands of scones, clotted cream and jam to China every month.

I then had a tour of the bakery, which I was completely blown away by, but not for the reasons you might think. The bakery operates 24hrs a day, 6 and a half days per week making breads, cakes, scones, biscuits, patisserie and savoury pastries. They make around 900 different products, as well as bespoke cakes for all sorts of occasions. From the spectacular – the largest cake they ever made was a 3 metre high carrot cake in the shape of a life-sized giraffe to celebrate a birthday at Colchester Zoo, which had 4000 portions – to the more prosaic – 14,000 Victoria sponges to a specific height, so they could be stacked on the trolleys they had at the event venue.

The bakery makes products for a wide range of customers from small scale caterers to big hotels and grand functions, but it wasn’t the range of customers that I was so impressed with. It was the fact that every cake, scone, biscuit and bread is made by hand, in small batches, by humans using equipment any of us would recognise. They had the same gingerbread man cutters that I have at home! They bake in batches to a maximum of 40 and yet they offer consistency and quality in everything they produce. Daren knows exactly which baker has made every item that is sent from the bakery. Their name is on the box and everyone working there prides themselves on delivering a quality product for every customer, big or small.

Daren summed up the ethos of the bakery perfectly when he said to me, “There’s cake, and then there’s cake made with love”. At Tiptree we have real passion for what we do. It’s our name on the box.”

There was so much I loved about my visit to Tiptree. Not just meeting Daren, whose enthusiasm and vision for the future of the business was genuinely inspirational. Not just that as the business expands it stays true to its ethos of having staff as part owners of the company, making everything by hand and allowing no additives in anything they make. Not just that the staff there clearly understand that the relationship people have with cake is special; we have cake to celebrate all the special moments in our lives and the staff at Tiptree understand their role in that. And not just that you can now go to a department store in Singapore and have a proper English-made scone with clotted cream and Essex jam, the idea of which makes me immensely happy.

And finally, Tiptree are committed to developing the future of the industry, by training apprentices that are passionate about the business, to ensure that the renowned and trusted Wilkins and Sons Ltd. fruit farmers legacy of making quality products continues for another generation.

Looking to the future, Tiptree sponsors the World Bread awards (worldbreadawards.com) which are always looking for new entrants, particularly younger bakers. So if you have a budding bread-head in your family make sure they get their applications in. Daren and the other judges will be waiting!

Green Street

There’s a place I go to called Green Street. In the heart of Forest Gate (that’s E7), just down the road from the old West Ham ground at Upton Park, and I’ve been going there ever since I was a little girl. Growing up in Harlow in the 70s and 80s, we didn’t have the luxury of big supermarkets stocking everything we needed from chillies and coriander to black lentils or cumin seeds. So there was a fortnightly trip to Green Street to stock up on all our Asian grocery essentials. And if you need dozens of types of lentil or any spice under the sun, it’s still the place to go.

These days I can get all my Indian cooking essentials at the Asian and Oriental supermarket in Harlow (it’s called M18, off Edinburgh Way, tell Shahid I sent you!) but I still love a trip down to Green Street when I need something special. These photos are from Bharat Stores, which is my first stop for any trip to Green Street.

If you’ve never been down there and you have any love of Asian food, culture or fashion, you won’t be disappointed. Another added bonus of visiting from May through July are the stacks of boxed mangoes which can be bought in the greengrocers or just being sold by some guy on the pavement. There’s something about the mango-selling guys, they really are the Del Boys of the street. Lots of banter, lots of chat about how their mangoes are better than the other guy across the road and lots of offers which always tempt me to buy 2 boxes when I really only wanted 1!

But it’s so worth it. The flavour and melting texture of the Kesar, Chausa, Honey and – the king of all mangoes – the Alphonso, are positively ambrosial. If you’ve only ever tasted a supermarket, South-American mango, you’ll be amazed at how different the two fruits are. They are smaller and sweeter and not at all stringy or fibrous inside. But watch out for the juice! It’s been said that the best place to eat a mango is in the sea or in the bath, but careful use of a napkin can be just as effective.

So a few hours browsing the jewellery, beautiful sarees and shalwar kameez (just looking!) and more importantly cookware and vegetables is always a pleasure and never a chore. Do you have any top tips for Asian groceries? Where to buy them? How to use specialist ingredients in your dishes? Can you find fresh turmeric for sale somewhere near you? If you do, I’d love to hear from you. Contact me on Facebook (Saira Hamilton Chef), Twitter (Saira Hamilton) or by leaving a comment below.

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BBQ weather! The recipe everyone needs…

It’s time for a recipe. I’ve been working on an exciting project with a charity called Find Your Feet which runs a brilliant campaign called ‘Curry for Change’ every year. This encourages anyone who can cook, from top restaurant chefs like Vivek Singh to supper club hosts and food bloggers, to hold events to raise money for people suffering from food poverty in Asia and Africa. Click on the link to find out how you can join in!It’s a great campaign that I have supported in the past and this year I am helping them with a new angle to the campaign which encourages home cooks to host a dinner party at home. This is called ‘Host at Home’ and what with my ambition to get everyone cooking authentic Indian food and curries from scratch, at home, it was a no-brainer for me to offer my services to help them.

So watch this space for my Host-at-Home recipe pack, which will come with full recipes for a 3 course meal and step-by-step instructions on how to deliver a fabulous evening with a minimum of stress and fuss. As I was working on my recipes, I realised that there is one recipe I use probably once a week during the summer that I haven’t shared for quite a while.

Sheek kebabs are traditionally made with minced meat, often mutton but they can be made with beef, lamb, pork, turkey or anything else you like to eat to be honest. If I can’t get mutton, my preference is to use a mixture of lamb and beef mince, as I think you get the depth of flavour from the beef and the nice juiciness that comes from the higher fat content in the lamb.

The recipe is in fact terribly simple. Shove all the ingredients in a bowl together and mix them really, really well. I don’t mean just move them around in a clockwise direction, I mean really get in there and squish it all together so that every mouthful of the finished kebab is soft and yielding, and has a good mix of all the flavours and spices. And then you grill them. Simples!

The mixture can be made well ahead of time (24 hrs in advance if necessary) and stored in the fridge. At the last minute add the lemon, form the kebabs on skewers and the grill on a pre-heated barbecue for 6-8 minutes. Job done! Served with yoghurt raitha and some salad, these kebabs will enliven any BBQ spread. Much more interesting than just the usual burgers and sausages. So give this super-simple and delicious recipe a try and I promise you won’t be disappointed.

Recipe: Sheek kebabs

600g minced beef or lamb (or a mixture)
2 tsp garam masala
½ tsp turmeric
1½ tsp ground cumin
1½ tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
1 red onion finely diced
1½ tbsp garlic paste (crushed or grated fresh garlic is perfect)
1½ tbsp ginger paste (crushed or grated fresh ginger is perfect)
2 green chillies, finely chopped
big handful of chopped coriander (or mint and parsley)
1 egg, beaten
40-50g breadcrumbs*
zest and juice of half a lemon

Method

Place the minced meat in a large mixing bowl, and add in all the other ingredients. Mix together really well, with hands is always best! If you can leave the mixture to develop the flavours for an hour or two, the resulting kebabs will be better. If the mix feels too wet, add more breadcrumbs. If it is too dry you may need to add more egg. If you are preparing the mixture in advance, leave out the lemon zest and juice and only add this just before cooking.
Divide the mixture into 16 equal portions, by dividing the mixture in half and then half again until you end up with 16 balls of kebab mix. Take each portion and roll into a long thin sausage shape; the easiest way is to crimp it around a metal or bamboo skewer. Wet your hands between each ball for a smooth finish. Press the mixture together well whilst shaping the kebabs to ensure you have a good texture to the finished product.
Once formed, cover with cling film and allow the kebabs to rest in the fridge until you are ready to cook them (at least 30 minutes). When you are ready to cook, pre-heat your BBQ to a medium-high heat. Carefully place the kebabs onto the BBQ and grill. The kebabs will need to be turned several times, but wait until they have a good caramelised colour on one side before turning to avoid them breaking apart during cooking. They should only take 6-7 minutes, but always check the meat is cooked to your liking before serving. Serve with raitha and lots of salad dressed with lemon juice, oil and a pinch of salt.

* if you need to make these gluten-free you can use GF breadcrumbs or gram flour instead

New resolutions

Sometimes you have to stop talking and just get on with it. Silence the internal editor that tells you to wait until your website is finished and you have the perfectly crafted blog post and a photo in all its filtered glory and with no stray shadows or double chins lurking. So from now on dear reader, you are going to get a regular blog from me, hosted on my imperfect website. I will share with you great recipes, tips and advice on cooking for the season and special occasions and news on what I’m up to and where I’ve been cooking lately.

So first, an update. I have wanted to write and publish a cookbook ever since my MasterChef experience, and I wrote and independently published 3 cookbooks called Kitchen Favourites with Saira: Chilli, Ginger and Garlic in Spring 2016 – which are all still available to buy on Amazon . And now I am delighted to say I have also secured a publisher for a brand new cookbook, different to anything else currently available, on authentic Bangladeshi home-cooking. The book will contain 100 fabulous recipes accompanied by beautiful photographs showcasing the wonderful cuisine that reflects the heritage of my Bengali family. I can’t wait to share it with you. Publication is planned for Spring 2018, so we have a little while to wait!

I had the pleasure of being asked to participate in one of Hari Ghotra’s networking events #HariHosts at the Shard where I was on a great panel of women sharing knowledge about publishing a cookbook. Hari, who runs the UK’s top Indian food website, organises several of these events and had gathered a great panel together. Alongside Suzy Pelta (author of Miracle Mug Cakes and other cheat’s bakes: Ryland, Peters & Small), Xa Shaw Stewart (senior editor at Bloomsbury) and Kirsten Gilmore (chef/patron Mountain Café, Aviemore), the panel was joined by lots of enthusiastic foodies and bloggers all thinking of writing their own cookbooks. It was a wonderful evening, full of positive energy and enthusiasm and it was a privilege to be there. My first time up the Shard, but I hope not the last.

Another exciting announcement to make is a new partnership I have embarked upon with one of my MasterChef buddies Juanita Hennessey, who was a finalist in MasterChef 2016, famous for her strawberry patch dessert. She and I bonded instantly over rum cocktails and Rick Astley at CarFest for BBC’s Children in Need (it’s a long story!) and have been working on a few projects since then. I don’t want to say too much yet but we have already appeared at a few food festivals with our #HamandHen double act and there will be more to come! Come and watch us in action soon – it’s a hoot!

Here we are pictured with Suzy Pelta (ITV1’s Lorraine‘s Cake Club winner) and Saliha Mahmood-Ahmed (winner of MasterChefUK 2017) at a recent Foodies Festival where we had an absolute ball cooking aloo paratha and orange and polenta cake for a packed out crowd in the Stoves Chef’s theatre.

So in these interesting and sometimes turbulent times we live in, I am really looking forward to sharing my cooking adventures with you. So please share and subscribe and I’ll see you soon.

Saira x

Sweet treats in the Shire

This time a year ago we were in North Devon. We stayed in a pretty little village called Chittlehampton near Barnstaple, although Jim insisted on calling it the Shire. I think this was mainly influenced by the fact that the cottage (which he called Bag End) had very small doors and low ceilings which meant that the only place Jim could stand up straight was on the stairs, he had to shower on his knees and bend nearly double to get through the doors. I, on the other hand, found the cottage perfectly proportioned and very cosy with the added bonus that I could reach all the cupboards and fittings very easily.

We had a good time, helped enormously by the fact that the village had a great pub called the Bell Inn, which served good food and had an extensive gin list, including a new one on me, Wicked Wolf of Exmoor, a small batch-made spirit made in the wilds of Exmoor. The village also boasted a post office and shop which sold locally-made cheddar and clotted cream which you had to request from behind the counter and was spooned into a unmarked plastic tub for you to take home with you.

I got baking as soon as we got home. Which of course meant we had to have the following 3 arguments:

is it scone rhyming with cone, or scone rhyming with gone?
should scones have sultanas in?
jam then cream, or cream then jam?

I’m not even going to try and answer the first question as I know it raises considerable agitation with certain people. I heard that the Queen says scone rhyming with ‘gone’, so that is some guidance I guess. I like sultanas but Tommy doesn’t, so we tossed a coin and he won. The Cornish tea has jam and then cream on top (which I prefer, with apologies to my Devonian mother-in-law) and the Devon cream tea should have the cream on first. What a minefield to pick your way across for a tea-time treat. The clotted cream was delicious, which was the main thing.

After a short break, I usually feel energised to get back into the creative side of cooking, so I decided to tackle something I have been meaning to try for ages. Marshmallows. I had bought a sugar thermometer a while ago but it was still in its packet and buried at the back of a drawer. But I found it and got to work.

The ingredients are really quite simple: white sugar, liquid glucose (which you can find in most supermarkets with the baking ingredients), water, gelatine leaves, egg whites and vanilla. The only tricky bit is getting the temperature of the sugar correct, but the thermometer takes all of the guess work out of that. The sugar has to be heated to the hardball stage. When I told Jim I was going to play hardball with the sugar he hurried out of the kitchen in case it turned violent.

I used a James Martin recipe for my first attempt and it worked really well. The main thing to bear in mind is that it takes quite a while for the sugar syrup to get to the right temperature. I used my digital thermometer as well because I didn’t trust the analogue one, but it worked okay. It is important to be very careful with hot sugar, don’t ever touch it with your fingers and use a good sturdy Pyrex jug to pour it onto the egg whites slowly. This is not a recipe to do with small children I would say. The other thing is that you will have to wash everything in very hot water afterwards as it is the only way to deal with the hardened sugar.

But it really wasn’t difficult and the results were absolutely delicious. Soft, pillowy, melt-in-the-mouth, more a texture than a flavour, and I felt inordinately proud of myself when they were done. If you want to have a go, here is the recipe I used:

Ingredients

450g granulated sugar

1 tbsp liquid glucose

200ml water

2 large free-range egg whites

9 sheets gelatine, soaked in 140ml water

1 tsp vanilla extract

vegetable oil, for greasing

5-6 tbsp icing sugar, for dusting

5-6 tbsp cornflour, for dusting

Method

Soak the gelatine leaves in 140ml cold water in a small bowl.
Place the granulated sugar, glucose and 200ml of water into a heavy-duty saucepan and bring to the boil.
Cook over a medium-high heat until it reaches 127ºC or the hard ball stage on a sugar thermometer. This could take up to 15 minutes.
Place the egg whites into a very clean grease-free bowl and whisk to firm peaks. An electric whisk or stand mixer is best as there is a lot of whisking!
Add the soaked gelatine sheets and water to the hot sugar syrup carefully. Stir through until dissolved, then pour into a heatproof jug.
Continue to whisk the egg whites, then pour the sugar syrup onto the egg whites, whisking all the time until the whites are shiny. Try not to pour the syrup directly onto the whisk attachments but rather down the side of the bowl.
Add the vanilla extract and continue to whisk at a medium-high speed for at least 5 minutes, but it may take up tot 10 minutes. The mixture needs to be thick enough to hold its shape on the whisk.
Lightly oil a shallow 30x20cm baking tray and dust the tray with some icing sugar and cornflour. Spoon the marshmallow mixture into the tray, smoothing the top with a palette knife.
Place in the fridge for at least an hour to set.
Dust some more icing sugar and cornflour over a board or clean work surface, use a palette knife to loosen the edge of the marshmallow, then turn it out onto the dusted work surface.
Cut into squares and roll in the icing sugar and cornflour to coat well and then store in an airtight tin or jar. Serve with chocolate sauce or fruit coulis for a yummy dessert .

N.B. this blog first appeared as a column in Herts & Essex Observer on 25 February 2016

When Harry met Saira

Meeting Harry Lomas MBE during my recent stint as a food judge was definitely one of the highlights of my chef career so far. Harry has been in the industry for over 40 years, he directed food services for the British Army, the 2012 Olympics and has worked in the Royal Household and yet he still has the most incredible passion and drive to achieve excellence and to pass his knowledge and passion on to the next generation of chefs.

When Harry asked me if I would like to come along to The Grove, where he is Executive Head Chef, to run a masterclass about traditional Indian spices and cooking, I was only too happy to do so. The Grove is a luxury hotel, golf and spa resort set in 300 acres of rolling Hertfordshire countryside in Chandlers Cross and only 18 miles from central London, the former home of the Earls of Clarendon and is dubbed London’s Country Estate. The fact that it is luxurious and run by impeccably courteous and groomed staff goes almost without saying. However it was the food and drink operation that Harry runs that I was interested in.

There are 3 restaurants at The Grove, Colette’s is the fine-dining restaurant, and the Head Chef is Russell Bateman, who you may have seen representing the South-East in this year’s Great British Menu. I also recognised the sous-chef Scott Barnard when I popped in to say hi, who was a finalist in 2015’s MasterChef: The Professionals. The Grove is set to get even more TV coverage soon as head pastry chef Reece Collier is leading a team in the next series of Crème de la Crème. The Grove also has a gastro-pub the Stables, and the Glasshouse restaurant both of which run by Andrew Parkinson (previously head chef at Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen and Brasserie Zédel). So a really stellar line-up in the kitchens at The Grove!

The scale of the operation is genuinely staggering. The hotel has 217 rooms, and lots of large events space meaning it is popular for weddings and corporate conferences. The hotel has around 10,000 plates and 5000 teacups. The kitchens get through 500 eggs and four 55kg sacks of potatoes every day! And we are talking 365 days of the year. They have fresh deliveries every single day of the week. I asked Harry what happened if he was let down by suppliers. “That wouldn’t happen”, he says, steely-eyed. I think the suppliers would know better than to mess Harry about! Harry is also very particular about provenance of his ingredients; all the fish is from sustainable sources and the beef is Aberdeen Angus or Charolais supplied by the Queen’s butcher Donald Russell.

My masterclass was with around 12 chefs in the 170 cover Glasshouse restaurant, demonstrating a lightly spiced sea bass, with new potatoes in pickling spices and a chilli sauce vierge, followed by a chicken bhuna curry and a cauliflower and cabbage bhaji. I was slightly nervy to have all these experienced chefs hanging on my every word as I explained to them that sometimes less is more, and a hint of spice can be just enough to enhance the flavour of an ingredient without masking it. They were also impressed (I like to think!) by the freshness and clean-ness of the flavours, which is how traditional Indian food should be. I left them with lots of notes and ideas for new dishes. Given that the Glasshouse boasts 190 different items on the buffet every day, I think some of my recipes may feature one day.

There is so much I could write about our amazing stay at the Grove. The friendliness and professionalism of the staff was impeccable, the food we had at Colette’s was magnificent and the sheer variety and quality of the food available throughout the operation was remarkable. But the Grove is more than a good place to eat and drink, it is an academy for the next generation. On our arrival we were greeted and checked-in by Chris, whom Harry had spotted when he was with his family in the restaurant celebrating his 18th birthday. Spotting something good in the young man, Harry encouraged him to get in touch, and he is now working there under an apprenticeship scheme. Just one more in a long line of Harry’s protégés.

Harry’s ethos is to train the next generation of chefs, which is why he wanted me to go there in the first place. Otherwise, he says, there won’t be a next generation. Unless the chefs of the old school continue to preach the basics of cooking from first principles, i.e. from raw ingredients, the art will soon die away. Harry is also passionate about competition cooking as he says it keeps chefs on top of their game, always learning about new products and new dishes. He also believes it is great for young chefs to have to talk and represent themselves on stand in front of judges, it develops character, self discipline and confidence.

It certainly seems to work, the chefs I met were engaged, bright and curious to know more. I was so pleased to add my little bit of knowledge into the pool to be taken forward. For a truly memorable experience I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend a stay at the Grove. And if you see a Lancashire gent in a pristine white chef’s jacket and toque, don’t forget to say hi to Harry.

Find out more about the Grove at www.thegrove.co.uk or on social media
facebook.com/TheGroveHotel/
instagram.com/thegrovehotel/
twitter.com/TheGroveHotel

Cooking it large with the petrolheads at CarFest!

Is it possible to have too much fun whilst you’re working? I think the answer is very nearly after a packed weekend for the Hamiltons at CarFest South for Children in Need this bank holiday weekend. I confess I hadn’t heard about this festival before I was invited to take part, but I soon learned that it was quite a big deal. The brainchild of Chris Evans, CarFest is now in its fifth year. I was told that Chris gave up bread for Lent one year and to distract himself decided to create the best family-friendly festival in the UK. He obviously succeeded as CarFest now takes place over two locations (North and South) every year and is the second quickest selling festival in the UK after Glastonbury. The basic themes are cars (lots of fast, noisy cars), music, child-friendly entertainment and, for the first time this year, food.

My invitation to join a quite frankly stellar line-up, came from my work with the digital TV channel Simply Good Food TV, which is a free to download phone or tablet app full of existing and brand new food programming. Peter Sidwell, who is the driving force behind the app, invited me to join him on the bill for the brand new Food Fair Kitchen Live stage at CarFest South. The entire event is put on to raise money for Children in Need, so it was a very easy (and very quick) decision for me to make.

As well as Peter and myself the other chefs involved were the likes of superstar chefs and foodies Tom Kerridge, James Martin, Angela Hartnett, Olly Smith, and Great British Bake Off winner Jo Wheatley. We were also joined on stage by Rob Buckhaven, wine expert and TV presenter who looked after us all on stage to ensure we got through the demos without any hitches. I had a great time with the backstage crew and meeting Tom Kerridge and James Martin again was a pleasure as it always is. I honestly forget how short I am sometimes until I meet these guys and they all end up having to sort of crouch down to make sure they can get into the photos with me!

As you can imagine the crowds were massive; this is a huge event and the general atmosphere and vibe was incredibly uplifting and positive. There was so much to do and everyone is there to support a wonderful charity, and people seemed genuinely pleased to be there and just to be part of it. I even met up with some Bishop’s Stortford buddies who were there as well as making lots of new friends. The event took place on Laverstoke Park Farm in Hampshire, which is the vast organic and biodynamic farm belonging to former Formula 1 world champion Jody Sheckter. So the petrol-head theme ran through the entire event and some of the cars on display were really jaw-dropping; my childhood favourite the Lamborghini Countach the highlight for me. Chris Evans was a great host for the whole event, his energy and infectious enthusiasm truly remarkable.

The whole family went down for the festival and we all got right into the spirit of things with festival face-paint, Pudsey ears, wigs on #WigSunday (and Jim looked amazing as a head-banging platinum blonde I must say), a bit of a mosh in the mosh pit and dancing crazily in the middle of a field on my own to some top-notch music from the likes of Will Young, Rick Astley, Ronan Keating, The Feeling, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Status Quo and the Stereophonics whilst enduring constant eye-rolling from my children!

On the work front, I was demo-ing South Indian spiced crab cakes with a pink grapefruit, fennel and chilli salad and served with a chilli grapefruit rum punch. The back stage crew certainly enjoyed it and I even sent a portion to Chris Evans to say thank you for hosting us so hospitably. I’m not sure if he actually ate them, but presumably somebody did and you can’t say I didn’t try!

So a genuinely wonderful weekend, one of the highlights of the year without a doubt. If I had to pick my favourite moment: it would have to be meeting Pudsey – sorry Tom, but he was the real superstar of the show for me!