I'm always a bit wary when I go to food festivals. So often I'm left disapointed. Huddersfield is by far the best one I have visited but the people at Sheffield put on a good show. There was a good variety of produce on offer* and there was plenty of space to sit and enjoy any food and drink that you bought. I bought a chicken mole burrito, from The Street Food Chef, for lunch which sadly wasn't as great as I expected. Don't get me wrong the burrito was good but the mole sauce was just too sweet for me.
The afternoon was spent lounging around the Peace Gardens soaking up the sun and the beers from the "craft" beer tent*. My one plan was to seek out inspiration for tonight's meal and that came from Autumn Harvest, who can be found at lots of food fairs and markets in Yorkshire. Sadly it is too early for Wood Blewit season but they did have some Chanterelle mushrooms which I hoovered up.
I'm not going to pretend that chanterelles are cheap, far from it, but they are really nice. The flavour is subtle, less mushroomy and sweeter, more fruity than your average mushroom. To make sure I didn't mask the 'shrooms I made a simple sauce for pasta by frying them in butter and olive oil with a little salt and pepper. The sauce was finished with a splash of white wine, a handful of parsley and a little grated parmesan. I'd normally add cream to a mushroom sauce, sometimes bacon makes an appearance too, but chanterelles are too special. For an end of a foodie day treat, they were worth it.
*still a bit heavy on the cupcakes for my liking.
*I'm no beer geek but I'm sure that the beer on offer was closer to real ale than craft beer.
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