Beetroot and foodie week

I've had a busy food related week. Sunday I was a judge for one of the Reading, Steady, Cook competition rounds. This was great fun but very hard to choose between duck and sweet potato curry and steamed halibut with caramelised goat cheese. (The curry won.) Look out for the semi-finals and final of the competition at the Eat Reading Live festival 4th and 5th June.

Watching the contestants do their stuff.

On Monday I went on a trip with the Reading Food Growing Group to Lower Shaw farm in Swindon.  They have a productive organic garden and keep chickens, pigs and sheep. They run residential and day courses and it is a real oasis on the edge of Swindon. I'm thinking of booking into their cookery weekend in November - a whole weekend cooking and talking about food, bliss!

On Tuesday Ben Zagorski, a finalist in last year's Reading, Steady, Cook competition and a judge in this year's was the guest on my Local Lunch show. I treated him to the first beetroot of the season from the veg bag. I boiled the beetroot for about 20 minutes, sliced them and made a dressing of olive oil, red wine vinegar and honey. I only used about 1/2 teaspoon of honey and added it a bit at a time and kept tasting to make sure it wasn't too sweet. I then added some  Pecorino di Fossa, an Italian sheep milk that is matured in sealed caves. I bought it from The Delistation, one of the stalls at Ms Marmitelove'rs underground market. They suggested you eat the cheese dipped in honey so I thought it should work with the honey dressing.