Taste of the Teign Food and Drink Festival 25 September - 1 October 2017

South Devon’s third year of the most exciting celebrations of local produce is Taste of the Teign Food and Drink Festival. 

This festival puts produce that’s been picked and reared in the surrounding fields, caught in local waters or harvested from the hedges firmly at the heart of this food and drink celebration.

This is held in Teignmouth, Shaldon and Bishopsteignton.  This year it will be held Monday 25 September - Sunday 1 Oct.  Over the course of the festival many  events will take place; each one using locally sourced produce as the centrepiece for culinary creativity - it is usually a combination of demos, workshops and other events like cream teas; sausage tasting; a food quiz and tours of local food producers

For more information on the festival visit: http://facebook.com/tasteoftheteign 

It's such a good festival with lots to see and do and I think this year they have permission to host events on the Den, Teignmouth on the Saturday and Sunday.

See you there!

Devon Cafe Review: Venus Cafe, Blackpool Sands, Dartmouth

I was a guest at Venus Cafe at Blackpool Sands near Dartmouth.  The location is stunning.  The privately owned beach is immaculate and the rather grey sky revealed some sunshine and blue sky.   The beach has been in the same family for 400 years and is a wonderful place.

The beach is golden, the sea is blue and the red cliffs are covered in trees and vegetation.  It is a great place to walk, laze, do water sports (surfing, sea kayaking, swimming...)

or eat....

The inside of the cafe at Blackpool Sands cafe is relaxed and large and has great views of the beach through the huge windows and doors.  This place is licensed for weddings - that would be incredible.  What a wonderful venue to get married: plenty of parking, space inside and outside, great food, and that view!

The food was plentiful and great tasting.  There was a huge emphasis on locally-caught fish, shellfish plus some delicious Eversfield steak too.  The owner, Michael, really respects the environment and has more than a vested interest in the whole venture - his wife owns the beach.  The magnificent beach.  Dogs are allowed on the beach from 1 November until late March.

The John Dory was served 'en papillote' and was very tasty.  I loved the delicately seasoned crab crostini and the crab bisque for starters.  The sticky toffee pudding was also delicious.

Venus also has takeaways scattered around the South Devon coast: Bigbury-on-Sea, East Portlemouth, Tolcarne and Watergate Bay in Cornwall.  There is also a Venus cafe at Dartington.  They are a 'small, local' chain that I thoroughly recommend.               

Wind Meal at River Cottage Canteen, Plymouth + Mount Edgecumbe, Torpoint

I was invited to hear all about Wind Energy at Mount Edgecumbe and enjoy a meal at the River Cottage Canteen last week.

We were whisked over by ferry boat from Royal William Yard to Mount Edgecumbe (only takes about ten minutes and with the sun shining, it was very pleasant).  Royal William Yard needs some signs for car users!  I love going there and know about it - but what about others who do not?!  

Mt. Edgecumbe is a very grand building and parkland with stunning views over the River Tamar.  It would be an amazing wedding venue...and there was a wedding appointment after we left.  An interesting discussion (just about the right length too!) was held about the benefits of renewable energy, Wind power, in particular.  There were five speakers and about 150 of us in the audience.

The speakers were: Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall; Nicky Conway, from Forum for the Future; Maf Smith, Deputy CEO of RenewableUK plus Robin Hanbury-Tenison Bodmin farmer, explorer and author; Bill Martin chaired the discussion, Editor of Western Morning News.

We then returned by electric cars and Land Rovers to get a ferry back to Royal William Yard.  I met a really nice Cornish food blogger, Kate (yes, another one) but the weather was now windy and grey with the threat of rain so we sat inside for the journey. This is a link to her blog which has a review of the same event (her photos are brilliant, her review of the speakers' arguments is concise, plus there is lots of other really good stuff and some delicious recipes.  There is also another really good review of the day here on Robert's blog.

The food at the River Cottage Canteen was superb.  They were catering to many media and PR people, but nevertheless I would never have guessed that they were serving to so many people.  The food was from wind-powered farms (and was not necessarily local - a fact that Hugh mentioned and apologised for)  but it was wonderful.

I had the following and it was all of the highest order and absolutely delicious:

Vine House organic cauliflower soup with Lincolnshire Poacher fritter

Sheepdrove organic farm lamb, parsnip and thyme gratin, green sauce (amazing!!)

Caramelised apple tart with Mackie's traditional ice cream and yummy Yorkshire organic vanilla ice cream (also amazing - a true 'caramelised' Tarte Tatin style one, and the two types of ice cream perfectly matched it, there was also a splash of custard!)

Over lunch, I sat opposite Nicky Conway from Forum for the Future.  And yes, we talked a little about renewable energy....but mostly about Devon and food!  There was no time for tea or coffee as my lift arrived and we were a little bit later than anticipated.

Thanks to all the wind powered food suppliers, Renewable UK plus the River Cottage Canteen and Forum for the Future plus the fab PR agency, HK Strategies.

I was a guest, but I was free to write what I wished.  

Pipers Farm - Ethical, Tasty Mail Order Meat from Devon

I have been hearing a lot about Pipers Farm.  They've been recommended by Rick Stein and won countless awards.  These Devon farmers certainly seem to know what they're talking about.    Everything is slowly matured and hung for a good long time in order to maximise the flavour of the meat, the animal breeds are traditional and the feed, maintenance and slaughtering seem to be above 'Organic' standards.

Their website has an awful lot of stuff on it.  I was a bit confused when I tried to add the 'Easy Selection' Family Survival Pack into my basket and yet when I clicked on the items e.g Streaky bacon or Chicken Korma to select them it returned the message that the item wasn't available.  I'm sure this is just a glitch.  They offer a great service, a money-back guarantee on all their products and next day delivery when ordered before 4pm.  Free delivery once a fortnight to Bristol and free delivery to most of Devon.

I received a package of mixed meat and ready meals to sample and overall I was very impressed.  The packaging took a bit of getting used to.  For instance, the chicken breasts stuffed with pesto had all been 'blast-frozen' (ie frozen immediately) in separate plastic bags and then all placed within one large plastic bag.  My initial reaction that this was a surplus of packaging, but when my son decided he didn't want one, I was able to just take three out of the four out and leave one for another day.  The instructions say that if you don't have time to let the meat defrost naturally, each pack can be placed in a bowl of cool water for half hour and can then be cooked immediately.  I didn't mind trying this for the lamb steaks and beef steaks, but for the chicken I chose to let them defrost completely - I'm too risk-averse!

To cook this tenderloin I used Fay Ripley's Recipe, served alongside chilli spinach - the family loved it

The steak, pork and lamb were excellent: extremely tasty, tender and succulent - certainly no harm done during the freezing process.  I did give them a very thorough dry off with kitchen roll before grilling them as they were a little damp when they came straight from the bag - there's nothing worse than getting your pan sizzling and ending up with a semi-boiled piece of steak that doesn't go properly brown and crusty on the outside.


The pesto chicken was good - not as oily as supermarket pesto - I think it was made with cashews rather than pine nuts which was a nice change.  My daughter preferred it cold in a sandwich. The chicken breasts looked attractive tied up with string with a single herb stem.

It's tricky to make sausages photogenic?!

The pies were pretty good - it may have been my oven setting but when I followed the cooking instructions, the pastry lids were all lifted off a bit and lots of the filling overflowed, but they were tasty and I loathe making pastry so this was a welcome short cut.

My least favourite item was the venison sausages -  but my husband loved them.  There were large pieces of fat speckled throughout the sausage and that's fine in chorizo or salami, but I prefer cooked hot sausages to not have visible lumps of fat.  Luckily my other half is less fussy and was happy to have all the leftovers.

Overall it was interesting to try out some ready meals from a quality producer.  I have always preferred fresh meat from the butcher's rather than the frozen variety but Pipers Farm have won me over