08.07.10 Taste of London
Last month Howel Food Consultancy were fortunate to represent the Welsh Assembly Government at the Taste of London event held in Regents Park . With over 10,000 food lovers visiting the event, the show was a huge success and a must for all gastronomes! With food tourism as the focus the winning combination of True Taste producers, hoteliers, restauranteurs, food festivals and an interactive quiz – True Taste Trivia proved irresistible to the thousands of visitors to the show! Prizes were given to top scorers including ‘food Wales eating out guide’. One lucky winner won a two day break at a top Welsh hotel of their choice, courtesy of Welsh Rarebits and a second prize was lunch for 2 followed by a tour of award winning Ancre Hill Vineyard in MOnmoutshire Exhibiting at the event were; Calon Wen, Ancre Hill, Toffoc, Caws Cenarth, Gower Cottage Brownies, Elwy Valley Lamb, The Pudding Compartment, Blaenavon Cheese, The Village Dairy, the Cider and Perry Association, Welsh Rarebits, Cardigan River and Food, Cardigan sea food festival, Cowbridge festival and Conwy Feast festival.
07.05.10 Nerys features in Canadian magazine!
This feature has been taken out of the Canadian magazine, ‘Fresh From the Kitchen,’ by Sarah Phinney.
One of many highlights was meeting Nerys Howell, a culinary expert and chef who hosts a nationally televised cooking show. Nerys gave us a cooking class inside a huge glass dome at the Welsh Botanic Gardens.
Until recently, there has been little written about Welsh cooking. It seems that the Welsh way of cooking has been denied on the grounds that it lacks sufficient distinction from the rest of Britain and Ireland. “There are also other reasons such as the effect of self-denying Puritanical religion and past hardship which understandably colour our attitudes to our native cookery,” Nerys says. As well, many of the traditional dishes were passed orally from mother to daughter and did not need to be written.
The good news is that Nerys has published a book, “Wales on a Plate: Traditional and New Recipes for Welsh Produce” She gave each member of our tour a copy. It’s a gem of a book.
However, to keep the traditional recipes alive, Nerys points out that its essential to adapt to modern day palettes, cooking methods and ingredients. Some of her cooking tips include; reduce the amount of fat, oil, sugar and salt in the recipe; replace some of the ingredients with modern day such as dried cranberries, or blueberries instead of currants and sultanas, and grill, stir fry or steam, rather than fry, roast or boil.
Now its time to try a taste of Wales. Won’t you raise a glass and join me? “Iechyd da!”
14.04.10 British Tourism Week
As a prelude to the 2010 Ryder Cup the launch of British Tourism Week took place for the first time outside London at the Celtic Manor Resort, Newport, host of the 2010 Ryder Cup. The launch was attended by leading tourism industry figures along with MPs and AMs. On behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government, Howel Food Consultancy were commissioned to co-ordinate a Showcase of True Taste award winning produce including a number of exhibiting producers. Producers in attendance included Ty Nant, Brains Beer, Rachel’s Organic, Welsh Rarebits, Natty’s, Blaenafon Cheese Company, Black Mountains Smokery and Made in Monmouthshire by Adventa
22.03.10 Castell Howell Trade Day
The annual Castell Howell trade day this year attracted the biggest recorded attendance in it's history - 520 customers attended the event on 11 & 12 March at the Crosshands Depot.
Howel Food Consultancy, on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government, were at the event to promote the True Taste Food and Drink Awards to Castell Howell's customers and to encourage businesses to use more True Taste Award winning produce on their menus.
11.03.10 Inspiring Canadian Journalists
Howel Food Consultancy were invited to host Food Tourism based events for visiting journalists from Canada – here for their annual TMAC conference.Visit Wales were instrumental in securing 200 Canadian journalists to Wales for an annual conference. TMAC, is the leading travel media association in Canada which brings together travel media and tourism industry members to foster excellence, uphold ethical standards, and promote professional development. This was the first time the conference was held outside Canada. The first event was held at the Botanic Gardens at Llanarthne where Nerys presented an overview of traditional and contemporary Welsh recipes from her book ‘Cymru ar Blât/Wales on a Plate.’ The demonstration took part in the unusual but stunning location of the impressive glasshouse surrounded by exotic plants and herbs in the presence of the resident tuneful bird population!! Later that week a lunch was held at the Ballroom of the Angel Hotel, Abergavenny, where, in it’s heyday Lady Llanover hosted many balls and dinner parties. Nerys developed a bespoke menu with the Angel based on locally produced food and drink. Following an impromptu welcome by Kim Water, Chief Executive of the Abergavenny Food Festival Nerys presented the history of some of the dishes served during lunch including Lady Llanover’s most recognised recipe, Salt Duck.
23.02.10 St Davids Day
Are you planning a St David’s Day event and need some ideas? Or would you like to send your clients and friends a special Welsh gift to celebrate our Patron Saint? It’s not too late to get in touch for some inspiration! Call us on 029 2022 0822 or e-mail enquiries@howelfood.co.uk for some ideas. Alternatively, why not combine St David’s Day with Give a Book Week (27 February - 6 March) and treat your friends or family to ‘Wales on a Plate’ - a culinary exploration of traditional and contemporary dishes from Wales. To order your copy e-mail enquiries@howelfood.co.uk.
23.02.10 British Tourism Week
Howel Food Consultancy was recently invited to join the‘On Your Doorstep…’ workshop organised by Capital Region Tourism (CRT), the lead tourism body for South East Wales, which attracted more than 100 senior figures from the tourism industry. The aim of the day was to encourage local businesses and authorities to work together to ensure success for Wales tourism and employing joined up thinking to offer the best visitor experience possible. Amongst the key note speakers were Peter Bursnall, chair of the Visit Wales sustainable Tourism Forum; Nery Howell of Howel Food Consultancy and John Winton from the Churches Tourism Network. Each speaker called on delegates to devise ways to integrate sustainability, culture and local produce into their business as a way of developing new products and packages for visitors and making their stay a uniquely Welsh experience. “Visitors tell us that it is the uniqueness of Wales that attracts them back time and time again. If we can build a stronger sense of place, then there are vast opportunities to be exploited in the visitor market here, across the UK and overseas,” notes Peter Cole. “The debate and discussion during today’s workshops has led to some exciting ideas. We hope that the local tourism associations will develop this model and hold similar workshops to encourage business to work together more to create unique visitor opportunities based on local heritage, landscape, produce, culture and facilities”
23.02.10 Nerys’ book features in ‘Give a Book’
Give a book day returns to 2010 following it’s success in 2008 in the National year of reading in Wales. Supported by the Welsh Assembly Government, the campaign sets to feature as an annual World Book Day in Wales. As the new face of the Campaign, Lucy Owens chooses to give her husband, Rhodri, Nerys’ book,’Cymru ar Blât/Wales on a Plate.’
Now at a special price of £5.50, ‘Cymru ar Blat/Wales on a Plate,’ is the perfect gift for all generations.
11.02.10 Howel Food Consultancy now on Facebook!
Howel Food Consultancy is now on facebook! Catch up with Nerys and the HFC team on their latest news and gossip. Follow the link to join the Howel Food Consultancy group on Facebook....
07.01.10 Happy New Year!
Happy New Year to you all! Refreshed and rested after the Christmas festivities , we are looking forward to another busy year at Howel Food Consultancy! In addition to all the projects planned and events we organised – 2009 proved to be an exciting year with Nerys launching her book of traditional and contemporary Welsh recipes – Wales on a Plate and the second in the Coginio DVD series featuring regional Welsh recipes. With 2010 under way we are busy working on International events in Barcelona and Singapore and closer to home preparing for St David’s Day on March 1st. Keep up to date with the latest events on our News page.If you haven’t registered yet for our free Recipe of the Month do so now to receive the ‘Recipe of the Month’ directly into your inbox each month – click on the link of the left to register. As an introductory flavour try January’s recipe of the month…
Three Fruit Marmalade with Penderyn Makes approximatly 4.5Kg
Ingredients
1.6Kg made up of a selection of lemons, limes, grapefruits and oranges 1.5L water 2.5Kg preserving sugar 100ml Penderyn whisky Method
Put all the fruit, whole, in a large saucepan and add the water, cover and bring to the boil before reducing the heat and simmering for 1½ to 2 hours. Carefully take the fruit out and place in a colander sitting in a deep dish (to collect any juice) and leave to cool. Once cooled cut the fruit in half and scrape out the pulp into a sieve over the saucepan pressing down with a wooden spoon to get as much of the juice out as possible. This thick juice is full of pectin which will help the marmalade to set. Add any juices from the dish to the saucepan too. Add the sugar to the saucepan and stir over a medium heat until all the sugar has melted. Cut the peel as finely as you want and add to the saucepan. Turn the heat up and fast boil for 15-20 minutes until the marmalade has set. Stir in the whisky before leaving the mixture in the saucepan for 10 minutes to cool. Pot, seal and label.
