Dorset Food Week caters for every taste

8:34am Monday 27th October 2008

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IF variety is the spice of life, then we are headed for a flavoursome Dorset Food Week. The festivities, which began on Saturday, October 25, run until Sunday, November 2, with a daily geographical hotspot where the day’s activities will be focused. Today, for example, producers from Weymouth and Portland will gather in New Bond Street, Weymouth, to show off their wares.

Alongside the ‘hotspot’ events, a variety of tastings, tours and workshops will be going on with something to suit everybody’s tastes, be they sweet or savoury, local or exotic.

Starting with two very Dorset products, a honey and cider walk at Crabbs Bluntshay Farm in Whitchurch Canonicorum will encompass agricultural, archaeological and historical points of interest.

The highlights of the farm walk, which starts at 10am and continues until 1pm on Thursday, October 30, will include seeing the cider cellar with equipment dating back over 100 years, one of the bee sites and a short talk on beekeeping. Refreshments will be available on the tour, which costs £2 for an adult, 50p for a child.

For exotic dishes made with local ingredients, Pheeraya Hill, known to her friends as Nid, will be teaching Thai cooking at Marsh Barn on Burton Road, Bridport on Saturday, November 1, from 11am to 2pm. “We will be cooking favourites such as a Thai curry, using as many local ingredients as possible,” said Nid, who, when she first moved to the UK 17 years ago, struggled to find any Thai ingredients outside London.

“This led me to start growing things like coriander and lemon grass, which I couldn’t buy, and we now grow many Thai vegetables in our greenhouse and small polytunnel,” she said.

“I use Michael Michaud’s chillies,” she added. “Some things are hard to grow or find in the shops, so I have developed recipes, which use local vegetables as a substitute.”

At Nid’s hands-on workshop participants will take part in all aspects of the preparation and cooking of the food; receive advice on sourcing ingredients and growing Thai herbs; and, once they’ve cooked, all eat together.

“They are going to learn how to cook four dishes,” said Nid, “a starter, two main courses and a dessert. The starter will be fish cakes or something like that; the main courses will be a green, red or yellow curry and a stir-fry with vegetables. For dessert we will be doing something like boiling banana in coconut milk, something quite simple, not too complicated. Thai meals with rice are very filling, Thai people normally have fresh fruit for dessert.”

Nid will provide all ingredients and soft drinks for the workshop. The cost is £35 per person.

If you prefer being cooked for to cooking, the Three Horseshoes Inn in Powerstock is having a fur and feather night on Thursday, October 30 with a la carte game dishes including venison, hare, rabbit, pigeon, duck, pheasant and partridge. “We’re a game-orientated pub,” said owner Andy Preece, who has done a game night for the last three years for Dorset Food Week, “but now it’s the start of the shooting season and there’s a lot of game around hence the reason we do it.”

Special dishes on the menu included potted rabbit served with apricot and star anise chutney and toast, hare casserole with grain mustard mash and red cabbage, and pan-fried loin of venison with a black cherry jus.

Chocoholics among you, meanwhile, will salivate at the offer of (free) daily chocolate tastings between 11am and 3pm at House of Dorchester on Victor Jackson Avenue, Poundbury.

On Saturday, November 1, House of Dorchester will also be in town at the producers’ pavilion for Dorchester’s ‘hotspot day’.

“We have recently launched some newly revised chocolate boxes as part of our main range, a luxury assortment and dark assortment,” said Katherine Ebbs.

“The plan is that we will do tastings with these ranges and some of our other main ranges.

“In the dark range, there’s a pistachio marzipan, strawberry cheesecake, and a plain caramel heart, which is filled with thick, gloopy caramel, and they are all created with 70 per cent dark chocolate,” said Katherine.

“The luxury assortment has a mixture of milk, dark and white chocolates including a Champagne truffle, pistachio mousse, violet crème and raspberry caramel.”

Other ranges can be sampled throughout the week including the mint, dessert and coffee selections and there will be some surprises coming out of the kitchen too.

“It’s a good way of doing market research,” said Katherine.

To book a place on the honey and cider walk at Crabbs Bluntshay Farm, call 01297 489064 or email sylviabluntshay @btopenworld.com To reserve a table at the fur and feather night at the Three Horseshoes Inn, call 01308 485 229.

To participate in Nid’s Thai cooking workshop, call 01460 76391 or email nid@thaicooking4you.co.uk For more information on the chocolate tastings at House of Dorchester, call 01305 264257.

For more information on Dorset Food Week, visit the website www.dorsetfoodweek.co.uk