Join the CAUnival

Last night I was invited to the launch of CAUnival, a month long celebration of friends and food all for a good cause. The small chain of restaurants specialising in steaks and burgers with an Argentinian twist is calling on diners to enjoy special menu items this August, and in return they will donate to Action Against Hunger. (CAU is the sister restaurant of Gaucho restaurants). 

CAUnival is all about friends, kindness and sharing, and the people at CAU hope we will enter into the spirit of Summer eating and fun. The idea for the festival was inspired by the Dia del Amigo (day of friends) celebrated in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. Their cute little CAUnival beer mats have great reminders about the value of good friends and good times. 

The items to watch out for this month are the CAU-lypso cocktail, CAUnival burger and Cornflake Sunday. Order these items and a donation will be made on your behalf to Action Against Hunger. 

I arrived at the St Katherine’s Dock branch of CAU just as the rush hour was in full swing. Obviously, this meant I was in need of a drink. With swiftness and efficiency a big tall glass of yellow fruitiness was brought my way. Snigdha, meet the CAUnival cocktail; the CAU-lypso!

The CAU-lypso was everything a Summer cocktail should be; refreshing, long, fruity but not too sweet, boozy without being too strong. On a hot Summer evening you don’t want something cloying, thick or too short. Made with a blend of rums, Amaretto, passion fruit juice and pineapple juice, it was sunshine in a glass. At £6.50, it was a great value cocktail. 

I spoke to Chris Parker from Action Against Hunger about their work and why this event is being repeated again this year after making its debut last Summer. 

Action Against Hunger is a charity operating in over 40 countries, mainly in the developing world, to combat world hunger, starvation and malnutrition. Whilst they do direct fundraising work, they have found that celebrating food can also result in donations and awareness for their cause. Their 17 year long partnership with big players in the food and hospitality industry has led to big companies and popular restaurants assisting their work. Chris told me that currently there is a crisis in Nigeria, leading to severe malnutrition. Tragically, people displaced as a result of the activities of Boko Haram and the authorities seeking to defeat them, are living in makeshift camps with little or no access to food. Chris told me that by celebrating food and drink it was possible to make a real difference. 

Next up were the canapes. Belly of pork tempura, coconut monk fish, Pollo de Coxinha chicken croquettes. Small morsels of joy. I didn’t even get to try the beef one, because they all disappeared before I could get my hands on them. I’m a food lover, not a food fighter!

The highlight of the CAUnival menu is undoubtedly the CAUnival burger. This burger has been developed by CAU’s chef James Garland and DJ BBQ. For every one bought, CAU will give £1 to Action Against Hunger. 

DJ BBQ (AKA Christian Stevens) is a music DJ and Barbeque nut whose channel on YouTube has 145000+ subscribers. His cookbook, The BBQ Book is one published under Jamie Oliver’s umbrella and the two have collaborated on Jamie’s FoodTube YouTube channel. Cooking last night over searingly hot charcoals, Christian made it look easy, as he checked, double checked and flipped the burgers to cook them to an optimum medium rare. 

The Iowa born champion of meat, grilling, barbequing and reviving authentic family recipes is a lively character, full of fun. It was great to meet him. 

But what about the burger? The burger patty is made up of 50% chuck, 20% flank, 20% brisket, 10% aged beef fat (you don’t want a dry patty, do you?) with a dash of bone marrow for extra depth of flavour. Once approaching cooked, a slice of Monterey Jack cheese is placed on top and the burger goes back on the grill, ensuring the cheese melts all over the meat. CAU’s homemade chimichurri of herbs, red pepper, ají molido (a special Argentinian dried chilli powder), oil and vinegar goes on top to give some extra flavour. All encased in a brioche bun. 

I had been too shy to get my hands on all of the canapes, but was not going to miss out here, I made sure I’d staked my place out in the queue to ensure the CAUburger was not going to escape me. My patience paid off, and to the victor the spoils. It was indecently good. Pink on the inside, caramelised on the outside, with oozy cheese and spicy sauce, it is a fantastic posh burger, and one I would recommend. 

Sorry there is not picture of my actual burger, but I wasn’t going to let it go or risk dropping it whilst trying to one-handedly take a photo. I realise we bloggers are meant to photograph everything, but you’ll have to forgive me on this occasion. 

CAU will also be running an interactive social media competition giving away weekly prizes including meals for four at CAU, premium Spotify memberships, cases of CAU own-brand wine and pairs of Converse trainers. The big prize to aim for is a Quilmes beer sponsored trip of a lifetime for two people to visit Buenos Aires where you can experience the Argentinian influences which have shaped CAU. 

The CAUnival will be ongoing throughout August at all of its branches.

Snigdha attended the CAUnival launch party as a guest of CAU, St Katherine’s Dock. Snigdha’s words here represent her own experience and she has not received any incentive, financial or otherwise for writing this post. This post represents Snigdha’s genuine opinions and impressions.

Heston Blumenthal's BBQ Chicken Wings with Waitrose

This Summer in the UK has been a doozy so far, hasn't it? Lots of warmth, sunshine and hot days. It's just the kind of season you want to eat al fresco, or perhaps cook outdoors. 

Trouble is, I think that sometimes barbeques get a little predictable. Sure, burgers are classics, but can't we have something a little more original? Sausages make a great staple, but sometimes you want to be more adventurous. 

With adventure and flavour in mind, Waitrose have asked the legendary Heston Blumenthal to devise some barbeque recipes for the home cook. Better known for creations like his Snail Porridge (as served at The Fat Duck) or Meat Fruit (as served at Dinner), Heston is known for technically difficult and highly scientific recipes. How well would these recipes work for someone having a small scale barbeque with friends? I decided to investigate.

I had a browse through the variety of recipes written by Heston for this Summer Barbeque season. You will find them here; Heston's ultimate BBQ recipes

I selected the chicken wing recipe, which appealed because barbeques are really all about finger food, eaten in the garden, standing around, with family and friends. And because I think the meat on chicken wings is underrated and well worth the effort of nibbling around the bones!

The chicken wing recipe is here; http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/h/heston_s_barbecuechickenwings.html

My backpack barbeque (I can't post this the right way up)

Using a small "backpack" barbeque was going to test how achieveable the recipe was going to be. Not everyone can buy a large gas barbeque, either for cost or space reasons.

The barbeque was easy to assemble. The tray is deep enough for a good amount of charcoal, enough for one large helping of grilled meat at a time. The stand was stable, which is important to ensure the safety of the grillmaster.

Once that job had been done, it was time to start preparations. First up was marinating the chicken wings. 

The marinade itself was very simple indeed, the juice of 4 limes and 4 tbsp of oil. So simple, in fact, that I was sceptical about how much difference it would make to the taste of the cooked wings. But I decided to trust Heston and cook the recipe as written. 

The marinade was mixed thoroughly with the wings and left to stand for 45 minutes.

 
The grill was filled with charcoal (we used Supagrill charcoal).

Of course, as you will know, the coals have to be lit and allowed to burn yellow for a time, and food should only be cooked when the coals are white hot. 

The dipping sauce was easy to make, as it was just soured cream and soft blue cheese beaten together. I used Dolcelatte, as we like the contrast between its softness and tang. Heston recommends that you use a hand blender to do this. I do not own a hand blender, so I did this by hand, and it took a little while, giving me more of a workout than I am used to! I made the sauce a little in advance and put it in the fridge to keep it cool before tackling the next stages.You use the same weight of cheese as volume of cheese; 300g cheese and 300ml of sour cream if you are making the full amount.

Sour Cream and Blue Cheese Dip

The barbeque sauce was more of a challenge. 9 different ingredients, the necessity of making a caramel....  I took a deep breath, rolled my sleeves up and got going....


One criticism I have is that I had to weigh out liquid ingredients. Yes, the stock was bought in a 500g container, but having to weigh it again after reducing it was a bit of a pain. As was weighing out the ketchup and rice wine vinegar. I completely understand that Heston might have developed the recipe by weighing out the ingredients, but the amounts could have been translated into liquid measures by volume. I know that 1g of water is 1ml. But I was wary of assuming that vinegar and ketchup would be the same weight by volume. Still, never mind, I measured everything out in advance and started cooking.

So those sauce ingredients are:
500g pack Heston from Waitrose Chicken Stock
100g white caster sugar
100g rice wine vinegar
200g tomato ketchup
1 tbsp mushroom ketchup
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp Tabasco Pepper Sauce, to taste
2 tsp Cayenne pepper
  First I reduced the stock, as I mentioned above, and I am not featuring a picture as you all know what a pan simmering looks like! Next I had to heat up the caster sugar in a pan. Here it is beginning to soften.

This soon turned into a medium caramel. 

My next task was to pour in the vinegar, gradually, whisking to dissolve the caramel. 

PLEASE be careful when you do this! The caramel does not like the vinegar and bubbles, somewhat like when a dribble of water falls into a frying pan full of hot oil. Liquid caramel is hot, thick and clingy, if it goes on you, it will burn and keep on burning because you won't be able to get it off your skin. So take your time, whisking and adding the vinegar slowly. I didn't take any pictures because I decided I would concentrate whilst doing this to avoid accidents.

I then added all the other ingredients for the sauce; tomato ketchup, mushroom ketchup, sesame oil*, cayenne and tabasco. I mixed them all up and cooked gently until it started to thicken.

The crudite accompaniment was easy, simple and fast to prepare. 

But what about the chicken? After marinating and when the barbeque was ready for cooking with, the wings went on. We were able to fit all but 3 from our 1 kilogram of wings on the grill, which was pretty impressive given how compact the backpack barbeque was.

At the start of the cooking time:

 The first turning of the wings:

Getting near the end of the 20-25 minute overall cooking time (the wings need a couple of turns to cook evenly).

I put the still hot barbeque sauce into a my casserole dish, as it was the only container big enough to fit the sauce and the cooked wings together which would allow for the wings to be moved around in the sauce.

Since many people are unable to eat sesame seeds, owing to allergies (more information about sesame seed allergies here: http://www.allergyuk.org/sesame-and-other-seeds/sesame-and-other-seeds). So here is the finished dish without the toasted sesame seed topping. 

* - If you are allergic to sesame seeds, I think you could use another oil in the sauce, perhaps sunflower or rapeseed.

We are not allergic to sesame seeds and particularly love their flavour and crunch. I therefore toasted the sesame seeds in a dry pan. They are fussy things, cream coloured one minute, when suddenly they change colour. Look away for a moment and they go from tan to burnt! Beware!

Here is our finished dish:

And a close up.....

The taste verdict:

The wings were the right combination of slightly burnt on the extreme outside edges, but soft in the meaty parts. The marinade maintained the moisture during the grilling process. 

The barbeque sauce was the best I have ever tasted. It had a spicy kick and decent afterburn but was not so fiery that it took away from the enjoyment of the dish. Making it at home meant the flavours were much more vibrant and intense than shop bought, which can be too cloying, bland and over-sweet. 

The crudites in the blue cheese dip were a great contrast of texture and flavour to complement the wings, and being so simple, were ideal for this slighly fiddly and time consuming dish.

We were very impressed with the richness yet punch of the sauce, and it was a delight to nibble around the bones of the wings, savouring the succulent meat. 

An impressive barbeque dish for foodies to give a try. 

Snigdha would like to thank Waitrose for sending the barbeque and ingredients for the dish.