Topic: Birmingham chilli festival

[Kashmiri Bob]

Reckon I'll pop along to this.  Cooking demonstration by the Lasan on Friday.

http://www.brindleyplace.com/event/birmingham-chilli-festival-3/

There's also a man vs chilli contest on the Saturday.  The local rag reckons the competitors with be chomping on naga and scotch bonnets. Sounds like fun!

Rob 

[Unclefrank]

Yes i will be going Bob.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Went on Friday with the good lady.  Really enjoyed it.  Highlights for us were the Lasan cooking demo and the cider tent.  The Lasan demo started out with two very pretty girls serving free pani puri, which were delicious. Then, about a 15 mins or so presentation with the chefs making salmon and mackerel patties.  Some good tips. Mixing the fish by hand to retain the textures.  Using oils that can cope with high frying temperatures.  Chilli powder made fresh from whole chillies. Their home-made chaat masala includes asafoetida and, apparently, volcanic ash. Got to try the finished dish and it was absolutely top notch.

 









We also got a free book/booklet with some interesting recipes.  Looking forward to trying the Amritsari fish pakora. Cod, and the recipe includes carom and sprinkled with chaat masala, a bit like my local TA.  Plenty of stalls selling chilli-related stuff, Mexican, Thai and Sri Lanka food.  Two stalls selling chilli plants.  I didn't buy any as hoping mine with get there eventually. I did buy the couple of  trinkets.  A nice thing was you could sample pretty much everything on sale, and these ticked the flavour/heat boxes.








Top day out!

Rob 


Just found a Lasan ebook that can be downloaded. Different to the one we got. Not had a proper look at it yet.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/communications/print/spice_for_life.pdf
 

[Naga]

Sounds like you had a great day out, Rob - I'm a fan of chilli festivals myself, although we don't see much evidence of them north of Hadrian's Wall!

Thanks for the link to the ebook. I had a quick flick through the Lasan website and found Aktar Islam's personal website. There are a few recipes on this page, but there are more - including the Amritsari fish pakora you mention - on this page and this one too.

I hadn't heard of the chef before, but I now see he has appreared on TV several times and has a mini-bio on the BBC Food website, together with 5 of his recipes.

[Unclefrank]

We went on the Saturday Bob i was mainly looking for Naga chillies but only found one stall selling them, which was the same one i got a chilli grinder from last year. http://www.curry-recipes.co.uk/curry/index.php/topic,8345.msg73773.html#msg73773

We spent most of the day by the cider tent, did wander around every now and again and tried some wonderful food.
This place http://www.thechillitree.com/

They are doing a naga pickle/sauce/chutney at the end of the month so will be keeping a close eye on their website. To me their produce was much more tasty than most of the stalls there.

[Kashmiri Bob]

Think I'll try out the fish pakora tonight Naga. Good links.  Mighty fine presentations.  The Lasan and Aktar are well known in these parts, particularly since winning the F word award in 2010.  Not been to the restaurant myself.  Very contemporary and on the pricey side.  I think most of the mains are over 20 quid. Must try it some time though.

Frank. Was the cheese stall there on Saturday?  Some nice cheddars but wasn't sure about the red leicester tikka masala. Quite funny talking to some of the chilli vendors, who invariably replied to questions in terms of scovilles. Like, "be careful with that one mate! 2 million scovilles, innit!"

Only place I've found in Brum that sells fresh naga is the Sonali supermarket on Coventry Road.  Got these yesterday. 10 p each. No idea what variety they are. They are bloomin' hot though.  Seen the chef at my local TA scorch one and pop it on the top of his "specials" as a garnish.  I can just imagine the look on the customer's face if they choose to chew into one!



Rob 

[De_man_n]

I went along on the Saturday with the lady and little-un. Lots of great produce for sale, got to try some lovely stuff. All in all a good day out (minus the EDL march just round the corner).

Managed to pick some of these up amongst other things, very much worth a purchase. They are over 1,000,000 scovilles too

http://www.firefoods.co.uk/product/chilli-pickled-onions/