Happy New Year from Wiltshire!

A bit late, but Happy New Year! The sun is shining as I write, it’s chilly outside, but as always, it’s toasty in the kitchen.   

We’ve just published the menu for the next ‘Cooking the Books’ Pop Up dining events, which we’re offering for the first two weekends in March.  There are some new ideas going down as always, bigging up the vegetarians without eschewing the carnivores.   I picture a world where they will eat side by side, in harmony and mutual respect.  That world is called Longford Farmhouse, the epicentre of the Zen kitchen, and ‘showcasing the pioneers behind the zeitgeist of Avant Garde eating’. 

We’ve plundered the ‘Terre a Terre’ cookbook again.  It’s totally irresistible and we would love to get those guys out of their award winning restaurant in Brighton and over to join us for a cook-a-thon sometime.   

This time we’re cooking ‘Kibbi Our Soles’, I would say no pun intended, but clearly there is in this instance. It comprises halloumi and almond kibbi, a bit like a vegetarian kofta, wrapped in aubergine, dunked in chermoula spice seasoning and served with a big bean tagine, and an olive, sultana and bulgur wheat salad.  We don’t do ‘veggy alternatives’ here at Bread and Flowers, they are the main event. 

The meat event in this instance, cooked with love for the dwindling ranks of carnivores, myself included, is a lovely leg of culled local venison from the Bisterne Estate, just south of Ringwood.  We separate the individual muscles, pulling them off the bone, then marinade them in crushed juniper, fresh rosemary and thyme, pepper, lemon and olive oil for 48 hours.  Next, they are seared over scorchingly hot charcoal on our ‘Drum-be-ques' to seal the meat, before oak smoking them, using the chippings discarded by our friendly furniture maker next door; David Mouland.  Finally, they are flashed through a hot oven, then rested for half an hour before carving, plating and serving. 

I’m just going to say this once, ‘Game Faggots’.  First encountered on November 10th, 2021, cooked by the legendary Tim Wilson at one of our first ever Guest Chef events.  We’ve now made our own, a culmination of ideas from various sources and cooked to perfection in our testing kitchen last week.  They are the perfect accompaniment to the venison, doused in a Bordelaise sauce and accompanied with beetroot and potato dauphinoise, truffled cauliflower puree, roast florets, mulled red cabbage and pan fried Cavalo Nero, finished with cider vinegar. 

We’ve pulled out all the stops for these Pop Ups and tried to make them as accessible as possible, but can I say right away, apologies to the vegans, we haven’t provided for you this time round.  As a small consolation, can I just point you to the best vegan chocolate torte recipe I’ve ever tasted.  We’re adding it to our repertoire going forward and serving it, in March this year, for a private birthday party for 60 guests at Longford Farmhouse, with orange, blood orange, torn mint, cinnamon, icing sugar, rosewater and whipped, plant-based cream – Delicious!