Durham Food Festival

At the end of October, I went to the Durham Food Festival – it was wonderful! I ate way too many samples and bought lots of nice things. I managed to get some lovely and gingery wine, and just look at this beautiful salted caramel tart (from Charlie’s Country Kitchen ), and it tasted as good as it looks:

 went to a couple of demonstrations. I’m not going to lie, we only went to the first one so that we could have a seat to see a certain Jean-Christophe Novelli. So I’ve now eaten a little bit of food cooked by a Michelin starred chef!  I was expecting his demonstration to be very aspirational and rather unachievable but it was really good – he made a tarte tatin and a tomato sauce with salmon. In fact, when I got home, I even attempted my own version of the salmon and tomato sauce.

Jean-Christophe Novelli

For the Sauce -

2 cans of tomatoes (though this made a little bit too much sauce)

Half an onion (chopped)

Salt and pepper

A sprinkle of sugar

For the Rest of the Meal –

1 red and 1 green pepper

A couple of handfuls of spinach

2 salmon fillets

Pasta or Couscous

1.       Put the tomatoes and onions in a large saucepan and simmer until well reduced. Then season. At this point I took a few ladles full out to freeze as a plain tomato sauce as I’d made too much for 4 portions.

2.       Add the peppers and salmon fillets. Simmer with the lid on until salmon looks nearly cooked.

3.       Add the spinach leaves, replace the lid and cook until they become a vibrant shade of green (I don’t like more wilted spinach).

     

4.   Mix together and serve over pasta or with couscous

V x