DRINK Celebrating local food & drink

WHEN YOU NEED A SPOONFUL OF SUGAR…

By Khrishma Preston, The Alternative Indian

Sometimes life just keeps throwing you curve balls. Huge blocks and obstacles seem to be chucked our way and the current worries about increasing energy and living costs are hitting everyone hard. However, in life you sometimes need that sugar hit to keep you going, to keep you focusing on the positives and remembering you aren’t the only one feeling like this. Over the next few months please remember people are just trying to survive, support local, and most importantly be kind. Somerset and Dorset are home to some of Britain’s most established food producers and to some of the most innovative artisan food makers working in Britain today. The Somerset Food Trail Festival on 15-24 July is an open farm and farmto-fork showcase that puts the spotlight on Somerset's smaller-scale, nature-friendly farmers and artisan producers in all their fascinating diversity. The Alternative Indian is taking part and details for our popups are: Ecofair Yeovil 2022 on Saturday 16 July from 10am to 4pm at Holy Trinity Church – we will be running the cafe and will have spice mixes and our tiffins for sale.

Wytch Wood Eco Campsite, Blackmore Farm, Crewkerne: Tiffins in the Woods – open to the public every Friday night on a booking basis via our events page on www. thealternativeindian.com. As part of the Somerset Food Trail, we will also run an additional special offer for 20 and 21 July. Please keep an eye out on our social media pages for more information.

Our other venues include Vineyards of Sherborne. Dates always sell out within days. We also host regular pop-ups at Bridge House Hotel, Bridport (www.bridgehousebridport. co.uk), who also support several other local businesses.

This month’s recipe dates back to the early tenth century when it was known as ‘zulbiya’ in an ancient Persian cookbook and is ‘jilapi’ in Bengal. Jalebi is very much a humble sweet treat, enjoyed hot or cold, and is something that spans the Indian subcontinent, Western Asia, Africa, Mauritius, and Comoros. There is no single recipe for jalebi. It is made with a variety of ingredients like semolina, wheat flour, skinned black gram (urad dal), moong dal, and even cottage cheese. It has numerous versions and most of them have their own unique taste! The recipe I am providing you here is a classic Gujrati version. Prep time 5 mins Cooking time 25 mins Makes 10

INGREDIENTS

Oil for frying Pipping bag/ziplock bag/ empty squeezy bottle

Batter

• 135g plain flour • 45g rice flour • ¼ tsp baking powder • 1 tsp melted butter or yogurt • Approx. half a cup of water

Sugar syrup

• 240ml water • 450g sugar • 1 tsp lemon juice • 2-3 strands of saffron • 1 pod of cardamom, crushed, or ½ tsp of cardamon powder • 1 drop of orange food colouring

METHOD

Make the batter by thoroughly mixing all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the melted butter or yogurt and mix well so there are no clumps. Washed fingers are best, making sure the flour is well coated. Slowly add a little bit of water at a time, making a medium consistency pourable batter. Whisk in one direction until completely smooth. Cover the bowl and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.

In the meantime, make the sugar syrup. Start by heating water and sugar in a tall pan on medium heat, stirring until it comes to a boil. Stir in the lemon juice, this helps to prevent the sugar from crystallizing. Boil for another minute, then add the saffron and cardamon. Lower the heat and cook for another couple of minutes, stirring regularly. Take it off the heat, stir in the food colouring and let the syrup cool on the side. To check the syrup is ready for dunking, cool a teaspoon’s worth in a bowl, and put a drop between your fingers. It should feel sticky and you should be able to draw a small sugar string between the fingers as you pull them apart. If it’s not sticky enough, reheat for a few more minutes and check again. It’s really important to achieve this consistency.

Once the syrup is ready, start to heat your oil on medium heat in a wide bottom pan. Fill a piping bag with your jalebi batter. If you don’t have a piping bag, you can improvise with a ziplock bag that has had a small corner cut off once filled or an empty washed squeezy condiment bottle. Once the oil feels like it's coming up to temperature for frying, test it by dropping a dollop of batter into the oil. The batter should fluff up and start to float instantly. If this doesn’t happen let the oil heat a little more. Cook 2-4 jalebis at a time by keeping the piping bag upright and quickly piping swirls. These do not need to be perfect! Do not overcrowd the pan. If they start to brown, lower the heat. Let each batch cook for 15-20 seconds without touching them. Using a fork or tongs, carefully turn them over in the oil, and cook for another 15-20 seconds until golden brown. Remove them from the oil and immediately soak them in the warm sugar syrup. Do not let the syrup cool completely throughout the process. Stop and heat it if needed. Soak the jalebis in the syrup for about 90 seconds, flipping them in the syrup only once. Take them out and plate them. Continue to make small batches until you are out of batter. They can be enjoyed warm or stored in an airtight container in the fridge for three days.

LYME BAY CRAB AND ISLE OF WIGHT TOMATO SALAD

By Mark Hix

Serves 4

From a young age being brought up on the Dorset coast, I’ve kind of got used to eating freshly boiled crab that would get dropped off on the doorstep by friends of my dad and grandfather.

I didn’t really even give it a thought that it was a tad luxurious as all sorts of things from rabbits and hares to scallops would be dropped off in exchange for a bit of my grandfather’s gardening knowledge or a pound or two of his tomatoes or a stem or three of his prize chrysanthemums. The crabs would get simply boiled and usually turned into sandwiches with a fragrant greenhouse tomato salad doused with Sarsons malt vinegar. The shells wouldn’t even get a look in for a tasty second meal of a broth or a bisque but just get tossed in the bin. If only I had known back then what I know today, those humble trade-off offerings could have been turned into something quite special but I was always glad to smell freshly boiled crabs when I got dropped off from primary school and enjoyed the mucking in and cracking of the shells with one of my grandfather’s old hammers.

• 300g or so of ripe tomatoes or coloured Heritage tomatoes • A tablespoon of brown crab mixed with the same quantity of mayonnaise (optional) • 150-200g freshly picked white crab meat

The Mitre Inn

Sandford Orcas Nr Sherborne, DT9 4RU 01963 220271

FREEHOUSE

Allen and Cheryl welcome you with a cosy bar and great food.

Wed to Fri - Senior Citizens 2 course lunch £12.95 Sunday Roast - £12.95 Adult, £11.75 OAP and £9.50 children 2 En-suite letting rooms and Shepherds Hut

• A tablespoon of finely chopped chives • A tablespoon of rapeseed or olive oil • Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper Thinly slice the tomatoes and lay them on a serving plate, overlapping and covering it. Season, then sprinkle over some Sarsons malt vinegar. Spoon the brown crab mayonnaise in the centre and the white meat on top and scatter the chives around. Finish by spooning a little oil over the tomatoes.

The Kings Arms Thornford

DT9 6QD The Quintessential Village Pub

Local and West Country Ales, a fine wine and drinks selection, a menu using locally sourced ingredients Family and dog friendly.

Wed and Thur 12noon-2.30pm & 6.00pm-10.00pm Friday 12noon-2.30pm & 6.00pm-11.00pm Saturday 12noon-11.00pm Sunday 12noon-6.00pm

Conduit Discount Code – 'ConduitJuly10'

10% off your complete bill when you dine with us on Wednesday or Thursday throughout July. Offer only available for tables booked in advance and you must quote the discount code at the time of booking, offer not available for casual dining.

www.kingsarmsthornford.com 01935 872294

A VINTNER’S TALE (ACT 2 SCENE VII)

Peter Law, Chairman and MD at Wine Wizzard in Castle Cary, continues with his fascinating tales of life in the wine trade…

With hindsight, I think I may have unknowingly had Covid and maybe at least once – luckily I have had all four vaccinations, but it has left me exceptionally tired and my working day greatly shortened – so apologies for my recent absence.

As you can imagine, the triple whammy of Brexit, the pandemic and now war in Europe with all their consequences has made running an independent wine importer and merchant more difficult than usual. There has been a haulage strike in Spain, shipments from South America are already more than two months overdue and there has been a shortage of bottles, labels, cardboard, etc. However, having already lived through innumerable financial crises during my long working life, I have learned to live with them, curse the effects of successive governments of either hue and raise a glass of good wine to better days ahead.

Back in Malmesbury in the 1970s, an enterprising couple decided to open a restaurant next to the beautiful abbey and called it ‘The Dirty Habit’ (!) which didn’t go down too well locally and they renamed it ‘The Apostle Spoon’. One evening they decided to do a streak around the town, apparently culminating in some overamorous activities, falling down the stairs and each breaking a leg!

During this time, The World Wine Fair happened in Bristol which was a huge success and the late John Arlott, famous cricketing correspondent and wine writer for The Guardian, wrote that The Malmesbury Vintner stole the show. The London-centric wine trade didn’t like that we, mere provincials, were having such success and eventually had it closed down. One day, on delivering about 500 expensive bottles to Whatley Manor Hotel, just outside Malmesbury, in my sturdy Peugeot 504 estate, it slipped its handbrake, demolished a stone wall and ended up on a tennis court. Not even the headlights were broken and neither was a single bottle! Ever since then I have always left my cars in gear.

Another day I was talking to a local farmer who bred and exported prize pigs to France and Italy and as he was already paid for the return journey, he was very happy to transport wine for me, for beer money, having had his truck steam cleaned. He told me that he had had to deliver a giraffe to a zoo, so he cut a hole in the roof. On approaching a low bridge, he had to lead it under the bridge, tether it to a tree whilst he retrieved his lorry! On another occasion he had to deliver two tigers to a zoo in France and on being stopped by the French Customs was asked to open the rear doors, he refused and explained why. The customs officers laughed and promptly opened them. One of them was badly mauled.

Once a week I was leaving for London, fully loaded in a van at about 6am, returning, again fully loaded at midnight, having also made two trips to the East End warehouse. About 3600 bottles for the day!

In order to save myself time and energy, I found a small, local, family owned transport company who could deliver in London the following morning, if I could get to their depot by midnight. My London restaurant customers began complaining that it was too efficient! doctor, Michael Pym (father of Hugh, the BBC’s pandemic correspondent), was selling. It was not to be as my wife at the time wanted to move to Bath for the sake of her children, so I bought a small but lovely John Wood Jr. house behind the Circus with splendid four-storey suspended stone staircase and another Georgian house in Broad Street comprising of two shops and three flats.

I had by this time sold the four cottages (now one house and shop) in Malmesbury, bought the long-established existing wine merchant and sold the business to the now-defunct Threshers. I was about to open a wine merchants in one of my shops in central Bath but spotted a recession on the way and moved to France… End of an era.

Back in the here and now, after a long struggle, a long-awaited shipment of about 5000 bottles has finally arrived from France and we are trying to get it through customs. The chateau owner has generously kept price rises to a minimum. There are four delicious wines – an unoaked Chardonnay, a demi-sec Muscat Petit Grain and an oak-aged red and white from Gaillac – lots of medals, great quality and well priced. Also, recently new in is a rosé from Touraine made from the Gamay grape – classy.

At the time of writing (12 June), it looks, hopefully, that summer might eventually happen and as you can imagine we have lots of lovely wines waiting for you. Linda, as usual, is doing a stalwart job in running the shop and looks forward to seeing you and helping you make your selections for the coming sunny months.