The Good Food Guide announces winners of Readers’ Restaurant of the Year Awards

The Good Food Guide has today announced the ten regional winners in its prestigious The Good Food Guide Readers Restaurant of the Year Awards.

A record 44,500 food-loving members of the publicput forward their favourite restaurants, pubs and cafs from around the UK for the annual awards. The Good Food Guide award judges have sifted through all the nominations to pick the regional winners and celebrate some of the best dining experiences around the country.

The ten regional winners are:

-North East Van Zeller, Harrogate

-North West Grenache, Walkden, Manchester

- East of England Maison Bleue, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

- London Charlottes Place, Ealing

- Midlands The Bluebell, Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire

- Northern Ireland Mourne Seafood Bar, Belfast

- Scotland Ubiquitous Chip, Glasgow

- South East Jeremys Restaurant, Haywards Heath, W Sussex

- South West The Swan, Wedmore, Somerset

- Wales Y Polyn, Carmarthen

Elizabeth Carter, Consultant Editor of The Good Food Guide, said: This years regional winners in The Good Food Guide Readers Restaurant of the Year awards really are a stellar bunch. Each restaurant is testament to the great dining scene around the UK and we heartily congratulate them all. Of course, what makes these awards so special is that they are based on feedback from The Good Food Guide readers – the people who are out there eating and enjoying food every day what higher compliment could there be?

To qualify for these esteemed awards, aimed at championing local neighbourhood eateries, restaurants needed to be independently run and offer regional or local produce where possible. Of the ten regional winners from around the UK, one will go on to be named as the overall The Good Food Guide Readers Restaurant of the Year. The winner of this esteemed award will be announced on 20^th June 2012.

Leyburn Food Festival is here again, the first food festival we ever attended and “myfavourite”. The Festival based in Leyburn, Wensleydale runs from Saturday the 5th May through to Monday the 7th May 2012.

The Dales Festival of Food has a friendly feel, lots of fantastic food producers and great food to eat during your visit. Attractions include the cookery theatre with five demonstrations daily, the Food & Farming display with sheep, calves, clipping demos and sheep dog display, an Army Canteen will be present as well as speakers and live music.

In the beer tent will be local beers from various localbrewery’sincluding Black Sheep, Dent, Daleside, Wensleydale, Old Bear, Ilkley, Roosters and more…

Do try the fantastic Yorkshire Pizzas from The Pizza Farm – PIZZA a La Cart with Yorkshire Chorizo and proper Mangalitza bacon and pancetta. Watch out for the fantastic Pizza Land Rover.

Fulldetailsof all exhibitors and programme of events on http://www.dalesfestivaloffood.org/

Theinauguralmeeting of the Skipton & Yorkshire Dales Clandestine Cake Club and my first attempt at baking a proper cake! Whilst I can cook and even bake a bit of flapjack I have never attempted an actual proper cake! so for the first ever Yorkshire Dales Clandestine Cake Club and inspired by Lynn Hill I thought I should make the effort and give it a go….

I made a classic Victoria Sponge with our own free range eggs,home-maderaspberry jam and baked it in an Aga that justdoesn’twant to get hot these days… The jam ran out a bit & the lid of the tin rubbed a little of the icing sugar off but it tasted OK!

Other fab cakes on display included, Chocolate & Lime, Lemon & Ginger, Chocolate Marsala, Hummingbird and Chocolate Orange all delicious….

Join The Yorkshire Dales & Skipton Clandestine Cake Club here

Ingredients

1. 120g piece Yorkshire Chorizo, roughly chopped
2. 2 small red onions, chopped
3. 900g new potatoes, cut into small cubes & boiled
4. 250g cherry tomatoes, halved
5. 2 large peppered smoked mackerel fillets, skinned
6. handful of fresh parsley leaves, chopped

Method

1. Heat a large, non-stick frying pan over a high heat. Add the chorizo and stir for a couple of minutes, until most of the Chorizo oil has been released. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
2. Reduce the heat, add the onions to the same pan and fry until clear and beginning to brown and well coated with the Chorizo oil, add the boiled potatoes & stir to get that Chorizo oil coating the spuds.
3. Add the tomatoes and Chorizo to the pan and then flake the mackerel fillets in and gently mix, stir in the parsley and serve with a mixed leaf salad.

Along with my love of Havana Club Rum of which I have mused on before hereHavana Club Rum & Havana Cultura I do love a cool, refreshing, rum based cocktail…. so it’s Mojito time! The Classic Mojito and from the guys at The Lucky Pig a Mojito Rosata…

Classic Mojito

2 oz light or blanco rum,1 tsp of sugar,3 lime wedges,5 mint leaves,soda water, you can make directly in the glass or it’s better made in a shaker, muddle the lime, sugar and mint leaves in the shaker until well muddled. Add ice and the rum and shake briefly, then strain into an ice-filled Collins glass. Top with soda and garnish with mint & a short straw or 2. From the excellentTheSpir.it cocktail site.

Mojito Rosata

Equal measurements of Dark Rum & Martini Rosato…Add fresh lime juice, mint leaves, apinch of sugar and churn with ice…. The rosato style mojito is floral and sweet up front with flavors of strawberry and lime while bitter grapefruit and dried herbs emerge on the finish. Available from The Lucky Pig, Fitzrovia, London. (my old stomping ground!)

Hi, my name is Chris and I’m a coffeeholic!

So what to do when you cannot get a decent cup of coffee? my trusty Bialetti stove top makes a great travel companion but as I also love gadgets there are other options for coffee on the go, camping and travelling.

Handpresso Wild Espresso Maker for Coffee Pods

Not one I have even tried but this coffee gadget sounds and looks fantastic! Basically you need some hot water and an ESE coffee pod, the flat style, lots of different manufacturers of these coffee podsavailablefrom the supermarket. You just pop in a pod, pump up the gadget to 16bar, bike pump style and you have 50cl of perfect espresso complete with crema!

GSI Mini Espresso

Basically a tiny stainless steel stove top espresso machine, can be used on a camping stove and very tiny & light to pack or throw in the rucksack. cold water goes in the base, then a filter that you fill with ground coffee of your choice, screw all together and place on a heat source, the water turns to steam and is pushed through the coffee for a quality cup of espresso, (but no crema).

Bialetti Moka Express EspressoMaker

The classic stove top espresso maker and uses the same principle as the GSI above, available in 1, 3, 6 or 12 cup sizes. Alloy so very light.

Kelly Kettle

Notstrictlya coffee maker more of a simple and very fast kettle for boiling water with very little tinder or fuel, you can boil the Kelly or Storm Kettle with a few sheets of newspaper! Great for backpacking, camping,canoeing& bushcraft trips, hot water & a teabag and your sorted!

I never really thought about Pimm’s being basically a cocktail bottled for your convenience but of course that is exactly what it is, so how about making your own?

Here is a recipe supplied by The Lucky Pig cocktail bar in Fitzrovia, in That London…