In my mind, the month of November has never been particularly exciting from a gastronomic point of view. Hallowe'en (with the joys of pumpkin pie) has gone, Guy Fawkes' Night (with the joys of mulled wine, jacket potatoes, cold feet etc) is over more or less straightaway, and Christmas is still a way to go. Thanksgiving provides a small interruption to a month of foodie emptiness but, not being American, it's not much of a big deal for us. True, November is a good time of year for root vegetables and shellfish such as mussels and oysters, but otherwise there's little to celebrate. That was until I started my usual pilgrimage to the annual BBC Good Food Show, always held in London around mid-November.
This year was my 3rd visit so, I admit, I'm still relatively young in Good food Show counting. We left home in the morning, getting to the show around 11 AM and joining the masses that were already there. We were expecting it to be busy, but it was definitely busier than the last couple of years - crowds of people everywhere and at every stand and stall, with long queues for the more popular areas. Fortunately, however, the place is enormous with countless stands, so although everywhere was crowded, nowhere was too much of a crush.
After a quick coffee and plan of action, we began by working away around the 4 quarters of the lower level. We began in the baking area, but didn't stay long it was very busy, with lots of children taking part in cake decorating - although this looked like fun, we were a little old compared to the rest of the demographic. So, more appropriately, we moved into the spirits and liquors corner - passing, on the way, a very good spice and herb stand, where several purchases were made including dried lime and curry leaves (not easy to buy elsewhere), fresh lemongrass and a selection of dried chilies. I also bought a mini grater, designed for things like nutmeg, garlic and ginger.
A happy half an hour was then spent among the spirits, where we tried several things including some flavoured vodkas (the butterscotch was interesting, albeit way too sweet for me) and a rather interesting rhubarb and ginger gin. This went particularly well with dark chocolate from a nearby stall, and was definitely and rapidly needed by me to remove the taste of truffle that I had tried moments earlier in the vain hope that I might suddenly like it. I didn't. Following this, we wandered around the rest of the lower level, trying everything we came across and buying a couple of things including some flavoured olive oils (individual sun-dried tomato, basil and rosemary), wooden hand-carved serving spoons, smoked garlic, vintage matured cheese and a fancy (but almost certainly unnecessary in my kitchen) cheese grater.
Given that it was by now well past lunchtime (not that this overly mattered after all the tastings), we paused for a quick bite of lunch from one of the sushi stalls. It would have been nice to have gone to the main Good Food Show kitchen, but the queue at this point was 30 deep so we decided against it.
Following this, we went upstairs and queued up for the SuperTheatre, as it was approaching the time for our pre-booked show - this year, Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry. This, as expected, was very amusing - as always, considerably more slapstick (and at times a little risqué) compared to their usual TV personas, but a lot of fun. Mary Berry cooked a fairly quick and simple Swiss cheese, chichen and spinach dish, which I plan to repeat later on this week.
After the show, we wandered around the upstairs section, nominally called The Producers Village and comprising numerous food and drink stalls. Having bought a selection of fudge and other patisserie, we finished off by wondering through the wine area. We hadn't booked any official winetasting, but maybe next year.
Given that it was approaching 5 PM by this stage, and my wallet was crying out for a rest, we decided to call it a day. A very successful, albeit expensive, day.
Once protected, all the supplied ingredients (plus a couple of others, such as eggs and orange zest) were carefully added and incorporated, before pouring the mixture into the tin. This was then covered in yet more parchment paper, before going into a low oven (140°C) for roughly 2 and a half hours.
