Planning on proposing this leap year?

Since we're in a leap year and it's approaching the 29th February, the day when traditionally it's the woman's turn to do the proposing, we thought we'd use the opportunity to give anyone (of any gender) who's planning to propose to their loved one a hand with planning a romantic meal.

With the exception of the soup these recipes all use ingredients which can be found in the shop, and as you can see look ever so appetising served in Margaret Glackin's beautiful ceramics. Plus while you're in the shop you can buy everything else you might need, including the jewellery.

To start: Ireshopeburn Chestnut Soup (serves 6, so if you're cooking for 2 you can enjoy the next day as well!)


Ingredients
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 shallots, chopped
1 small carrot, chopped
7oz celeriac, chopped
1lb fresh chestnuts (see below for preparation)
2 pints vegetable stock
1 stick cinnamon 
1 small potato, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 x 110g pack blue stilton, crumbled
flat leaf parsley to garnish

Chestnuts: choose heavy, hard, shiny brown ones. Preheat oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6. Cut a cross shape in each chestnut, lay them on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, removing when the skins start to curl around the cut. Peel while still warm.

Soup
Heat oil in a large saucepan and cook onion, carrot and celeraic over a medium heat for 5 minutes. 
Add chestnuts, stock, cinnamon and potato. 
Bring to the boil then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 25-30 mins until the vegetables are tender. Remove the cinnamon stick and leave to cool slightly before blending until smooth.
Reheat then serve topped with crumbled stilton and parsley leaves.

Main course: Thai Chicken Skewers

To finish: chocolate mousse (serves 4)

Ingredients
100g / 3 1/2oz Guppy's plain chocolate, broken in to pieces
250ml / 8fl oz soya cream, plus extra to serve
1tbsp brandy, rum, Amaretto or Cointreau
A few toasted flaked almonds to decorate

Place the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of gently simmering water (the bowl should not be in the water) and leave for a few minuted until the chocolate has melted. 
Add the soya cream and alcohol to the chocolate, then whisk until the mixture has cooled and thickened a little.
Pour the mousse in to 4 serving dishes and chill overnight, until it is lightly set. Top each serving with a spoonful of soya cream and a toasted almonds.


If you've not left enough time for a dish that requires an overnight chill, this delicious Jamie Oliver ice-cream dusting can be made in minutes: just put 3 tbsp coffee beans, 80g hazelnuts and an 80g pot of Guppy's cocoa nibs in a blender and blitz, then serve over ice-cream.

 

Happy 3rd Birthday to us!!!

What a difference 3 years makes! Today marks Fabrication's third birthday, the perfect time to look back at how far we've come.

In the beginning it was just a shell of a shop, with marks on the wall left from the previous occupants:

But it took shape, and in October 2012 we were proud to open our doors to the public with 40 sellers:

180 sellers have joined us since then. Our shop in The Light is brimming with beautiful handmade goods from our 83 sellers, some of whom are still with us from that first day:

In celebration of our shop going from strength to strength we have filled our windows with items from each of our sellers, and there is of course birthday cake to share the celebration with our customers today.

We are also launching our brand new store loyalty card, as a thank-you to all our customers for keeping on supporting us. 

Here's to the next three years!

 

Spotlight On The Seller... Cocoa Bliss

Hello and welcome to Cocoa Bliss created by Sonia Cooper. The idea to create chocolate gorgeousness was first born in May 2014 but it wasn't until September 2014 that Cocoa Bliss was launched. From May to Sept there were many trials and errors I was quick to learn that working with chocolate was not as easy as it looked and there was many times when I was certainly ready to give up!

There was a lot of research to do about tempering chocolate and there was a lot of factors to get right – the temperature of the chocolate to begin with, the melting point and the cooling point. My first thought was chocolate is so temperamental, one slight mistake and it all goes wrong! 

Sometimes I temper chocolate by hand which still does sometimes go wrong (which is not good for my waistline!!) And sometimes I temper in the tempering machine which makes sure your chocolate is perfectly tempered the machine was my first purchase which meant I was one step closer to succeeding but with a standard fridge in my kitchen at about 3-5c it just wasn't setting the chocolates correctly a bit more research and I found my perfect fridge which could be set to fluctuate between 8 and 10 c the perfect temperature for chocolate to cool at now cocoa bliss is flourishing and is very proud to be in fabrication Leeds.

Seller in the Spotlight ... Chilli Devil Sauces.

Brighton, April 1979.

A 20 year old Yorkshire Lad wanders out of the railway station into Brighton for the first time. Over the road is a kebab shop, and he's hungry.

The shop owner asks him;

“Do you want chilli sauce on that?”

“What sauce? Yeah go on, I'll try anything once”

“Have you ever had chilli sauce before?”

“No, but don't worry about it, I'll give it a go”

“I tell you what, I'll make up a special chilli sauce for you – not too spicy”

I watched as he mixed tomato puree with chilli powder, garlic and spices. When I tried the “special sauce”, it nearly blew my head off – and I loved it! I also remembered how to make it, and mixed my own chilli sauce whenever I fancied it from then on.

Kingston-upon-Hull, September 2009.

I took stock of what I had left. The burglars had known exactly what they were looking for the first time. They cherry picked all the most expensive of the cookware I sold. About £10,000 worth of it. That alone would have put the business in serious difficulty. The second time they had put it beyond doubt. Never mind that the third time they came that week we caught them red handed, the damage was irrepairable, I had to cease trading.

On the office roof my 15' x 10' greenhouse was full of ripe chilli plants. About the only good thing left in my life (apart from some very good friends, as I would soon find out). This year I wouldn't just make one sweet chilli sauce and one hot chilli sauce, I'd experiment. After all, the only other thing I had plenty of was time...

___________________________________________

I first registered with Hull City Council as a food producer in May 2010. My friends had convinced me that there was a market for my chilli sauces, and I'd been offered a one-day-a-week sub-let on a little food production unit in Arthur Street, Hull. Chilli Devil Sauces is still based there, but it's my unit now, not a sub-let anymore, and I've been working full-time at developing the business for 2 years now. Since then I've made (and sold) about 25,000 bottles of chilli sauce in 25 or 30 flavours, most of which have stood the test of time and are part of the Chilli Devil Sauces range today.

I use only the best ingredients, and absolutely no chilli extract, no artificial flavouring,  colouring or preservatives. Flavour is always the most important thing – any fool can make a hot sauce, making a tasty hot sauce calls for a little more. At one end of the scale, my Apple, Mint and Chilli sauce is so mild it's just like apple sauce with a little attitude. At (almost) the other end of the scale my Naga Challenger sauce is hotter than a raw Scotch Bonnet chilli, but has been described as “one of the best ultra-hot sauces available in the UK” (chillibugs.co.uk).

I've also made chilli sauces for other people – as wedding favours or for parties, for charities, sports teams, musicians and food outlets. The creative process is my favourite part of the job. There is a lot of pressure when you are one to one with a customer, in the kitchen, and you've already told them “just describe to me what flavour you want and I'll make it happen”. There is nowhere to hide, but the thrill of succeeding, and the look on the clients face at the end of the day, make everything worthwhile.