St Ives Food & Drink Festival took place on Porthminster Beach on the weekend of September 17th, 18th and 19th. Whilst it rained on the Friday, by Sunday when I was hosting the Asado Pit Chef’s Stage, out on the sand with St Ives Bay and Godrevy Lighthouse as our backdrop, the sun had come out and we had a glorious day on the sand.
I spent most of the day up front with a microphone in my hand, alongside some amazing chefs like Jeffrey Robinson, the owner and executive chef of the New Yard Restaurant, The Idle Rocks’ head chef Dorian Janmatt, and Simon Hulstone of The Elephant in Torquay. I had a lovely catch up with Porthminster Beach Café’s chef de patron Mick Smith and we spoke about collaborating on some future projects (watch this space) and I even managed to squeeze in a demo of my own!
If you didn’t get a chance to get down to St Ives for this year’s event then I’ll share the recipe for my demo dish below, which I can best describe as “posh kebabs”, and be sure to mark your diary for next year’s event. There really is no other food festival quite like this one!
Flatbreads with venison, beetroot relish, tahini yoghurt, smoked mushroom and burnt leeks.
As I was cooking on the Asado Pit Chef’s Stage, I was cooking over fire. Therefore, these instructions are for cooking on your barbecue, but you can adapt to cook it inside on your hob. I cooked venison loin from Westcountry Premium Venison – I’ll repeat it later, but that’s because it’s important: DON’T OVERCOOK YOUR VENISON! It’s really lean so you want it no more than medium-rare. Ok, here’s the recipe:
First up, to make the flatbreads get a mixing bowl and use a spoon to mix together 350 g self-raising flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 350 g natural yoghurt, then use clean hands to pat and bring everything together.
Dust a clean work surface with flour, then tip out the dough.
Knead for a minute or so to bring it all together (this isn’t a traditional bread recipe, so you don’t need to knead it for long – just enough time to bring everything together). Put the dough into a floured-dusted bowl and cover with a plate, then leave aside for a while.
Dust a clean work surface and rolling pin with flour, then divide the dough in half, then divide each half into 6 equal-sized pieces (roughly the size of a golf ball). With your hands, pat and flatten the dough, then use a rolling pin to roll each piece into 12cm rounds, roughly 2mm to 3mm thick.
Cook each flatbread on the grill for 1 to 2 minutes on each side, or until bar-marked and puffed up, turning with tongs. Brush the flatbreads all over with herby garlic butter or oil as they come off the griddle.
To make the beetroot relish, grate or finely shred beetroot and mix with red wine vinegar, sugar and mixed spice, then set aside until later.
I smoked the mushrooms by placing them on the grill and covering them with a metal bowl (or you could use a lid) to retain the smoke and moisture.
Cook the leek “dirty” directly on the coals, and once softened you can strip back as much or as little of the charred outer leaves as your like.
Take your venison and cook that dirty too, putting it straight onto the coals. Venison only needs a couple of minutes – cooking it any more than medium rare will make it tough and leathery as it’s such a lean meat. Don’t overcook it! Take the meat off the coals and rest it in a warm place until you assemble your kebab.
If cooking inside on your hob, simply cook your leeks and venison in a very hot pan.
To make the tahini yoghurt mix one part tahini with four parts yoghurt, a crushed clove of garlic and a pinch of salt.
Gently cook off the beetroot relish in a hot pan for a few minutes.
Bring it all together by slicing your venison, then pile a bit of everything into a flatbread and tuck in!
