A Passion to Inspire

A Passion to Inspire Winners 2012

Tom Roberts, Direct Meats Sales Manager recently attended “A Passsion to Inspire” competition held at Colchester Institute. The competition saw 10 college chef and front-of-house  teams battle it out with Bethany Jemison and Dylan Massey Ryan of Colchester Institute take the title.

It was based on teams of two working together to produce a two course menu for two covers – comprising of a main course and dessert accompanied with a choice of wine for each course – all in one and a half hours!

The winning menu comprised of: Confit de Canard (blushing duckbreast, confit potatoes, orange spice infused with gel, duck jus and duck crackling), served with a 2009 Chusclan Cote du Rohne, and salted caramel and chocolate ganache slice (chocolate tuile, salted caramel jelly, chocolate soil and yogurt sorbet), accompanied by Muscat de Beaumes de Venise.

Judges included: Shara Ross of Hotel Felix, Nick Mills of Brasted’s, Paul Boorman of Wivenhoe House, Phil Thomspon of Brocket Hall, Paul Foster of Tuddenham Mill and Mark Poynton of restuarant Alimentum.

During the judging, Tom Roberts did a butchery display using a side of Dingley Dell pork. A fabulous night was had by all and our congratulations go to the worthy winners!

Dingley Dell – Flying Visit to The Victoria

The idea behind the Dingley Dell Flying Visits is to showcase cuts of pork for chefs to cook and their guests to enjoy. John Kent and Tom Roberts of Direct Meats did a butchery demonstration highlighting how the cuts are produced with skill and superb butchery knowedge. The recent menu at The Victoria and hosted by Paul Merrett on 27th April featured the following menu:

Canapes

Black Pudding,  Sausage rolls, Crispy Manzanilla Olives in pork meat with oregano & parmesan, and smoked ham hock croquettes with green peas.

The mains were provided by the following top chefs:

By Paul Foster is Pigs trotter Carpaccio, charred broccoli, smoked garlic, peanut and burnt onion.

By Ross Pike and Madalene Bonvini-Hamel, Crispy pigs head, ham hock scotch egg, salsify & cauliflower & shallot piccalilli and nasturtium leaves.

The main course by our host Paul Merret was Asian Dingley Dell pork: 12 hour belly vindaloo with coconut sambal, jungle style cheeks with soured mango noodles, and Dim sum with blood orange & fennel.

A fantastic evening was had by all and was finished off beautifully by William Curley, with  an Amedei dark chocolate entremet centred with a smoked bacon caramel & served with apricot compote & lemon thyme ice cream!

Pasta, Feta cheese with Dingley Dell Sausages – The winning Combo

Tom Roberts our Sales Manager recently won a competition run by Dingley Dell to produce a meal for

four people using Dingley Dell sausages. We are very pleased that our Tom won the non professional

chef section  and his delicious receipe is listed below:

Pasta, Feta cheese with Dingley Dell Sausages

6 x Dingley Dell Pork Sausages
1 x Tin Chopped Tomatoes
200g Feta Cheese
1 teaspoon Tomato Puree
1 x bunch of fresh Baby Spinach
1 x Onion finely Chopped
1x Red Pepper
2x Garlic Cloves crushed and chopped
Salt & Pepper to taste
400 g of Penne Pasta

Soften the onion and garlic in large frying pan with olive oil.
Remove the sausages from the skins and brake each sausage into 3, add them to the onions to brown slightly.
Add the tin of tomatoes, Red Pepper and Tomato Puree to the pan and stir together.
Take 2/3 of the Feta and crumble it into the mixture, cover and cook for 25 minutes.
Towards the end of cooking add the spinach to the pan and stir in.

To serve cook the Penne, drain then add to the pan, stir in and serve, crumble the remaining Feta on top of the dish, served with Crusty bread.