On Saturday food blogger extraordinaire Helen Graves and I teamed up to do a mezze stall at the Warwick Wingding in Peckham. We’d been talking about what to do for a couple of months, with an original plan to make cold jerk chicken sandwiches being replaced by an idea to create tempting Ottolenghi-style salads and mezze for the vegetarian contingent. Well, we didn’t see much point in trying to compete with the Meat Wagon!
The prep
I’d spent the previous week practising my jewelled cous cous – trying to get just the right ratio of pistachio nuts, pomegranite seeds and orange zest and testing it out on my budding housemates, and Helen had managed to get her incredible baba ganoush recipe (and I can’t stress enough how good this is) utterly perfect. So on Friday we got together in Peckham, (a little later than planned because my bike decided to break) and set about the gargantuan task of shopping. The tricky thing was that we basically had to estimate quantities as we didn’t know how many people to cater for, but we were guided by how much we could afford and carry.
We got most of our fresh ingredients from the wonderful Khan’s Bargain Ltd and then had to spend a relatively painful £50 on cheese – feta for the fennel and pomegranite salad, and halloumi for our harissa-marinated, grilled halloumi (credit to Helen’s boyfriend Chris for that idea). We waddled back to Helen’s flat, and, after a delicious jerk pork lunch we got started with our hefty cooking session.
Much tea was consumed. And as aubergines blackened on the gas hobs, I spent hours bashing pomegranite seeds into a bowl and de-shelling pistachios, over and over again – making the cous cous in batches to maintain quality – all the while having to restrain myself from sticking my entire face into Helen’s unctuous bowl of baba ganoush.
The day
We got up early, took our huge vats of the dishes we’d made (baba ganoush; muhammara; fennel, pomegranate and feta salad; lentils with caramelised onions; jewelled cous cous and tabbouleh) to the site and got set up, with a few extension cable and gazebo-related glitches along the way. The wind wasn’t our friend, but luckily the rain stayed away and while it was pretty cold, there was a good turn-out.
Our offer was that people could choose five items, along with grilled halloumi and toasted pitta for a fiver – quite a bargain we reckoned! We were really pleased with the number of people who came to the stall, and those that gave us feedback seemed really happy with what they’d eaten – which was gratifying. It was my first time doing a stall like this and I enjoyed every minute of it (except perhaps trying to figure out how to put a gazebo with no instructions up in the wind) – especially seeing people get excited about the dishes we’d laid on.
The rest of the Wingding was also a success – there was music, face painting, tie-dye, lots of beer and general community high jinx. Massive thanks to Helen – your recipes are something else! And thanks to everyone that came (including supportive food bloggers Chris Pople; Lizzie and EuWen), to Lindsay and Terry, Jim, Loey, Chris and Nathan for all your help and to all our friends who came down and got mezze. We’re hoping to return next year, and in the meantime, if anyone hears about stalls going begging, or markets we can get involved in, please get in touch.
The Warwick Wingding
Sat 25th September 2010 (the festival is held annually – it started in 2009)
12-7.30pm (then after-party at The Ivy House)
Warwick Gardens
Lyndhurst Way
SE15