A taste of things to come for food lovers

The Malton Food Lovers Festival was launched two years ago to showcase the area’s quality food producers. eateries and retailers.

This year’s festival, May 21-22, features a huge range of food- and drink-related events with the beautiful backdrop of the market place.

There will be two cookery theatres, 100 top producers and a special beer and wine event – plus music and family entertainment throughout the two days.

Patrons for this year’s event include Tom Parker Bowles, Andrew Pern, chef/patron of the Star at Harome, television chef and cookery school “grande dame” Rosemary Shrager, and celebrity Brian Turner.

They will be demonstrating some of their favourites dishes, as will chefs from across Yorkshire – among them, Stephanie Moon, chef consultant at Rudding Park Hotel, and Giorgio Alessio, chef/patron of the Lanterna Ristorante, Scarborough.

On Saturday, Rosemary Shrager will be enteraining festival-goers with recipes fron her new book, Absolutely Foolproof Classic Home Cooking.

On Sunday, Stephanie Moon will let us into some of her foraging secrets and inspiring recipes.

Also on Sunday, Giorgio Alessio will seek to inspire his audience with some classic Italian cooking. He says his cuisine is extremely simple, based only on local ingredients.

To whet you appetite, the top chefs are sharing some of their secrets ahead of the festival, so you can try them at home.

Rosemary Shrager’s Guinea Fowl and Fennel Fricassee

Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil, 85g unsalted butter, 1 guinea fowl, cut into eight pieces, 2 fennel bulbs, finely sliced, 1 onion, sliced, 8 spring onions, finely chopped, 150ml white wine, 800ml chicken stock, 25g flour, sea salt and black pepper, 2 tbsp finely-chopped chives to garnish

Heat the olive oil and 30g of the butter in a large, heavy-based saucepan, add the guinea fowl pieces and brown them on all sides (do this in batches, if necessary). Remove and set aside.

Melt 30g of the remaining butter in the pan, add the fennel and cook gently until softened but not browned. Remove and set aside with the guinea fowl.

Cook the onion in the saucepan until softened then put the fennel and guinea fowl back in and add the spring onions.

Pour in the white wine, bring to a simmer and cook for three minutes.

Pour in enough chicken stock just to cover, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and cook gently for 20 minutes or until the guinea fowl is cooked through.

Strain the stock from the pan into a jug, leaving the guinea fowl and vegetables behind. Season the stock with salt and pepper.

Melt the remaining 25g butter in a medium saucepan and add the flour, thend cook, stirring, over a low heat for one minute to make a roux.

Gradually stir in about 400ml of the strained stock until you have a thick sauce.

Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, then season well.

Pour the sauce over the guinea fowl and fennel and heat thoroughly for five minutes.

To serve, transfer to a gratin dish, if you like, and sprinkle with the chopped chives.

Stephanie Moon’s Strawberry Gooseberry and Elderflower Syllabub

Serves 4

50g fresh gooseberries ,40g strawberries, 50ml gooseberry and, elderflower jam (we use a Yorkshire company called Rosebud Preserves), 1/4 pint double cream, softly whipped, 60ml sweet white wine, 100g caster sugar, zest of 1 lemon, seeds of 1/2 vanilla pod

Place the fruit in a small pan with 80g caster sugar and cook until stewed and soft.

Place most of this in the base of four shot glasses and allow to cool; reserve a little for the rest of the dish.

To make the syllabub: Add 200ml white wine to the remaining 20g caster sugar, split the vanilla pod and add the seeds.

Add the gooseberry and elderflower jam, double cream, lemon zest and the remainder of the fresh gooseberry mix.

Whisk this until stiff and pipe into the glasses.

Set in the fridge for half-an-hour.

Stufato di Pesce di Scarborough – Giorgio Alessio, Chef Patron of Lanterna Ristorante, Scarborough

Serves 4

1 carrot, finely chopped, 1 onion, finely chopped, 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 50ml dry white wine, 25ml brandy, salt & pepper, 1 litre fish stock, 6 cherry tomatoes, chopped, 6 courgette flowers, 8 fresh scampi, fillets from 2 medium Dover soles, fillets from 2 medium red mullet, large bunch of Italian flat-leaf parsley

Fry the carrot and onion in half the oil until tender, then add the white wine, brandy, salt and pepper and all but a ladleful of the fish stock.

Allow to reduce a little, then add the cherry tomatoes and the courgette flowers and cook for another eight to ten minutes.

In another pan, sauté the scampi tails and fillets of Dover sole and red mullet in the rest of the oil until they begin to lose their transparency – a matter of seconds.

Add a ladle of fish stock and cook for a further three to four minutes.

Place the carrots, onions, tomatoes and courgette flowers on a serving dish, top with the fish pieces and garnish with a nice big bunch of Italian flat-leaf parsley.

The Malton Food Lovers Festival takes place on Saturday and Sunday, May 21 and 22, in the historic Yorkshire market town of Malton.For more information on the event, visit www.maltonfoodfestival.co.uk