Midland Food Bloggers . A big THANK YOU

Louise, Jo and the rest of a very friendly group of affable foodies came to visit 99 Station Street for lunch and then back to the house for some hands on stuff. We start with a quick test on the difference in flavours of shop bought salted peanuts. One of the packets was smoked at home, just before the folks arrived and the other, not. Then we did a test on some thinly sliced salmon which had been cured and another not. Both of these where put into the smoker as we went for a wander around the village.

After pointing out a few local landmarks we returned with a bag filled with nettles leaves at their prime and some of the last of the wild garlic. Both of these were added to the simmering liquid I had used to reconstitute an air dried chorizo. A quick whizz and we had a soup with homemade and foraged ingredients, made in minutes.

Then the salmon was taken from the smoker and sampled for differences between cured and uncured. The verdict was unanamous, they had spotted the cured very easily and preferred that sample.

Lots of photos, sampling and discussion on books, including a very specific selection of over a dozen from our library of about 300. The knowledge of food around the table was very high, it was great to be asked focused questions by people who knew what they were talking about. Just the day before I had been featured in an article in a local paper which was a 5 minute Q&A about my life, which was fun, but certainly did not put me on the spot as much as these guys did.

Again, a big thank you folks, we look forward to seeing the photos and videos