Green Man Festival 2013

This year was one of the best-ever Green Man Festivals. Held in a beautiful location every August near Crickhowell in the Brecon Beacons, it’s about far more than just the music (though the music is great), with the good food being one of the attractions.

This year, four new stalls joined the regulars. One of the newcomers was London-based Anna Mae’s Southern Street Food. Founded in 2011, they offered their signature mac n cheese.

 

A new discovery for us was French and Grace, who are based in Brixton Village Market. I really enjoyed my F&G chargrilled halloumi Lebanese flatbread wrap, which included fresh mint leaves, a pickled chilli, ‘slaw and tahini dressing. The company is run by Rosie French and Ellie Grace, and their first cookbook ‘Kitchen and Co’ was published last year. I had a flip-through at the stall and it looked good.

We were camped near another newcomer, The Hurley Burley. This campsite Theatre Café proved very useful for morning teas and coffees. Alongside a range of breakfasts and appealing vegetarian food options they had live music, with the staff taking time out to do a few song-and-dance and circus routines. It’s one to watch out for in future years. Other breakfast (and late night hot drinks) needs were met by Cwmdu Community Stall, as they are every year.

The first essential artist at Green Man 2013 was Patti Smith on Thursday night. She ate at the Rotisserie Chicken (Walled Garden) before her set and pronounced it very good from the stage. What higher recommendation could this Green Man regular want?

During their set, before singing their song ‘Kingfisher Pies’, the singer of Midlake said he was making for the Pieminister van afterwards. I don’t have the info on what was ordered. However, this year, my festival Pieminister pie was the Matador (beef, chorizo, olives).

I enjoyed a coconut chicken curry from Roots Caribbean catering, while listening to some soul in Chai Wallahs (the stage with global, jazz and urban music). The curry was very good (dark rum, spring onions etc). Other options included jerk chicken, braised mutton and Shropshire beef, served with sides of rice, plantain, dumplings or coleslaw.

A vegetarian falafel hit the spot one lunchtime - falafels deep-fried in filo pastry served with lemon, hummus and salad - from the Café Moor, who specialize in North African and Arabic Souk Food. We didn't get around to the Goan Fish Curry outlet this year, so that will be high on the list next time!

On the last night, having set up the youngest (a vegetarian) with a vegetable chow mein from the Oriental food stall, I found room for a vension burger (with onions) from the Welsh Venison Centre. I also helped the kids finish a fine vegetarian pizza from Green Pepper Red Tomato in the Mountain’s Foot area; some tasty Mexican food from Bristol-based Poco Loco; and some tomato and basil pasta from the Pizza and Pasta outlet in Chai Wallahs.

The family vote for best chips at the festival went to The Hippy Chippy in the Walled Garden ('Frozen Chips? No Thanks').

The ice cream of choice was Shepherds, who are based in Hay-on-Wye (est. 1978). The youngest always goes for Chocolate, but I decided to explore the more adventurous end of the menu with a Mango Chilli ice cream. This was an enjoyable, albeit one-off, experience: creamy mango with a delayed chilli kick. The two Coffee and Cake stalls (Walled Garden and Courtyard) kept us in coffee and doughnuts.

I mainly drank the excellent Growler, the Wye Valley Brewery ale brewed especially for the Green Man Festival. There were 100 artisan ciders and beers, largely from Welsh breweries in the festivals beer festival tent. The queues at this bar were the largest, with so many barrels for the staff to negotiate and people asking for samples before buying the unusual perrys; so although I would have liked to work through the list, I tended to seek out the Growler in the quieter bars.

The best meal I had at Green Man 2013 was [drumroll] a Seafood Paella from Jamon Jamon. This Green Man regular on the hill looking down on the Mountain Stage consistently delivers.

Not surprisingly, I managed to put on weight during Green Man 2013!

My favourite music acts included Stornoway, Patti Smith, Lau, Midlake, Band of Horses, Rozi Plain, Johnny Flynn, Kings of Convenience, Jon Hopkins and British Sea Power.

Previously:

Green Man 2012
http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/festival-food-green-man-2012.html

Green Man 2011

http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/green-man-good-food.html

 

Pieminister: Butter ‘nut nut’ pie

One strand on this blog has me cooking recipes from the book Pieminister: a pie for all seasons (Tristan Hogg and Jon Simon, 2011). Although this variation on American pumpkin pie is in the autumn section of the book (page 154), we still have British-grown squashes from vegetable boxes in the veg rack (and the thicker skinned squashes do keep well).

I made the suggested half-quantity of shortcrust pastry, following the book (page 10; the all-butter Pieminister way). This was barely enough to line the shallow pie dish I was using, but once you taste the pie you realize you don't want to overdo the pastry on this one. The pastry is cooked 15-20 minutes before the filling is added.

The filling is made from boiled cubes of butternut squash blended with cream (200ml), a couple of eggs, soft brown sugar (80g), and some grated nutmeg. I used a butternut squash that was to hand and, not wanting any left, put in more than the amount suggested in the recipe. I kept all the other filling measurements as in the book; it worked fine. The filling gets layered onto the part-cooked pastry base and put back in the oven for about 20 minutes.

I made the topping using flaked almonds (100g), just a few hazelnuts, and walnuts (100g) instead of the suggested pecans. These were pulsed in a blender and mixed with maple syrup (4 tablespoons) and pumpkin seeds (40g). When this has been stirred together it is put over the butternut filling, which should have just set, and the pie returned to the oven for about another 10 minutes to roast the nutty topping.

I am glad I made the effort (i.e., crossed the road to the shop) to obtain the sunflower seeds. Not an ingredient I use much, but they work well on the topping here; the partly-ground nuts with the whole sunflower seeds giving a very satisfying texture. I did not feel I needed to drizzle on the suggested extra maple syrup.

This pie is filling. The book suggests that this recipe serves 6. It will keep our family of four going for at least three days as dessert (with the remaining cream, with yoghurt, with ice cream).

See also:

Pieminister: Homity Pie:

http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2012/02/pieminister-homity-pie.html

Pieminister: Courgette & chickpea filo pie:

http://sfnottingham.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/pieminister-courgette-and-chickpea-filo.html

The Pieminister book:

http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2012/01/pieminister-wheres-lard.html

Pieminister: Courgette and Chickpea Filo Pie

British Pie Week is drawing to a close. This is one of the more successful British food weeks, in part because it has transcended its promotional origins (Jus-Rol Pastry, General Mills) to take on a life of its own. There are pub pie promotions, for example, and various pie-making competitions around the UK.

My contribution to the blogosphere during British Pie Week 2012 is an attempt at a Pieminister Courgette & Chickpea Filo Pie, from the recipe in Pieminister: a pie for all seasons (Tristan Hogg and Jon Simon, 2011; pp. 94-95).

The recipe calls for onion wedges and courgette slices to be cooked up in olive oil in a large frying pan. Garlic, freshly chopped rosemary and thyme, and some chilli flakes are added, followed by a drained tin of chickpeas and halved cherry tomatoes, chopped rosemary and thyme, and some balsamic vinegar. This is all added to an ovenproof dish, with olive oil-brushed filo pastry - “scrunch it up loosely so it looks like a rose” – on top. This is an instruction that invites creative expression.

In my hurry to get started, I cut the red onions up too finely. The recipe calls for wedges of red onion, which effectively match the size of the courgette slices and halved cherry tomatoes. I’ll get it right next time, as I will be doing this surprisingly tasty pie again. During the summer, I will ramp up the fresh herb content with a selection of thymes from the herb garden (only the rosemary out there at the moment). I’ll also get more artistic with the filo.

The recipe suggests that the pie is good with hummus. They’re right. I served the pie warm with some cooled home-made hummus (another tin of chick peas, tahini paste, crushed garlic and the juice squeezed from a big lemon) and a green salad.

I was going to say that most pies made this week will be meaty, so I thought I would do something a little different by cooking this vegan recipe. However, before posting this I noticed that Nicki of yourlastmouthful.com fame (Cardiff foodie website and blog) has also cooked this very pie, and appears to have done a better job of it than me! So, instead, I’ll say this is one of the easiest recipes in the Pieminister cookbook to cook, and it is deservedly popular.

After just a few recipes, I am inclined to think that Pieminister: a pie for all seasons is a good cookbook, in that you quickly start trusting the recipes to deliver for you.

See also:

Pieminister: Homity Pie:

http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2012/02/pieminister-homity-pie.html

The Pieminister book:

http://sfnottingham.blogspot.com/2012/01/pieminister-wheres-lard.html