Saturday 4th July: Independence day, right?

Well this year something else also happened.  We held the official launch party of our new production kitchen for the Edinburgh Catering Company and Russell Up.

 

Many of you joined us for the night, but for anyone who is not up to speed, I’ll fill you in:

Nearly three years ago, I returned to Edinburgh having worked in France and Portugal.  I set up this very website, Russell Up, working as a private chef in Edinburgh and all over Scotland. Much fun was had, and I built up a reputation and took on more and more exciting jobs.  However, the more I took on, the harder it became to juggle everything out of a very small production space.

Fast forward to October 2014.  I viewed unit 12, New Broompark.  A lot of back and forth, solicitors, and waiting, I finally got the keys on 20th February 2015.  Around the same time I launched our Kickstarter campaign.  I needed to raise some extra money to help fit out the kitchen.  Kickstarter had helped other Edinburgh businesses, and was becoming more widely known.  It was tough, but we surpassed our target, raising nearly £14500.

The next four months was spent ripping out the old office, floor, and fittings, and building a new production kitchen.  We managed to do a lot of the building work ourselves, and have ended up with something I am very proud of.  I still run Russell Up, and love cooking privately for people.  This new space allows me to do even more interesting an exciting things in these situations.  However I decided to launch a new brand at the same time.  Welcome The Edinburgh Catering Company.  The ethos is exactly the same; bespoke menus of fantastic produce cooked from scratch by skilled chefs.  The only difference is that this new brand will be able to cope with large events; weddings, hog roasts, business events, and corporate functions.

So to toast this occasion, we invited about 80 people who have helped us along the way.  Some people supported the kickstarter, others helped with promotion or offered invaluable advice.  We also had some current wedding couples along.  I’m happy to say that everyone who attended contributed something to the development of the business.

So to give back to them, we had a (huge) hog roast, and magician, and frankly a ton of alcohol.  We dressed our humble kitchen up, and partied until the wee hours.  I’m going to be eating leftover pulled pork and cheese for a while, but I can live with that!

 

I’ll upload some more photos as I collect them from everyone, but I like to think the evening was a huge success.  I would like to thank everyone who attended as well as everyone who helped set the party up; I certainly couldn’t have done it without you.

The kitchen has returned to normal, and we are pressing on with the business development.  We are also busy working on the outstanding Kickstarter rewards.  The new website will be live in the next week, and we are very excited for the year ahead.

Please get in touch if you have any questions, or indeed any ideas for an event.

 

Russell

2015 is already shaping up to be a fantastic year, and after only two months.

I hope you’ll all forgive my silence this past week, I’ve been recovering from a rather frantic February, by topping up my goggle tan in the Arlberg mountains and having someone else do the cooking for a change (more on our fantastic experience with Scott Dunn in a later blog).

First things first – thank you. A massive thank you to everyone who supported our Kickstarter campaign. We had our target of £12,500 in the bag 62 hours before the deadline which is incredible, and although we didn’t quite hit our ‘stretch goal’, the final sum raised amounted to £14,487 which is again, incredible.

Hitting our target early meant all 80 backers bagged themselves an invitation to our ‘Pig Day Out’ – a day of great food, drink and company, hopefully in the sunshine but more than likely under umbrellas. We’ve had some extra post deadline support so can now ‘go the whole hog’ (too much?) and get our hog roaster ordered asap.

Didn’t manage to pledge in time? Fear not, we shall be making tickets available to purchase online, once we have a date set which suits our backers.

In the meantime, a quick catch up on where we are with ‘The Unit’ aka Russell Up/TECC HQ:

We managed to get our hands on the keys a little earlier than planned so along with some easily persuaded muscle, we have been pulling up floors, breaking down walls and filling up skips with all the garbage from No. 12. After that, the priority was: kettle, mug, coffee.

The current challenge is removing dried on carpet adhesive from the concrete floor.  This is even less fun than it sounds.  Once the new floor is down, we can paint, clad the walls, plumb in the sinks, and finally get the extractor canopy fitted.

The fact that I can condense this process into one sentence does not mean this is simple.  There are a lot of little steps, and hidden obstacles for us to overcome in the next few months; we can’t wait!

Thank you once again to everyone.  We are looking forward to seeing all of you at one of the events.

 

Russell

 

 

 

This is a simple but impressive starter. Buy pomegranates from now until about March. When I worked in Portugal we had a pomegranate tree in the garden, so I was spoilt for choice, but try to buy one which feels heavy for it’s size. Try to find hand dived scallops, preferably in the shell. You can buy wild rice in shops like Real foods, otherwise from lots of places online.

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Seared Scallops with Spiced Cauliflower, Pomegranate and Wild Rice

(serves four as a starter)

8 hand dived scallops, coral removed
1 small cauliflower
1/3 tsp turmeric
1/3 tsp mild curry powder
1/3 tsp ground cumin
25g butter
25ml cream
a handful of wild rice
1 pomegranate
1 apple
50ml rapeseed oil

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Cauliflower Puree

• Cut the cauliflower into small florets. Heat the butter in a heavy based pan over a medium heat.
• Sweat the cauliflower for 10 minutes with a pinch of salt. After about 5 minutes the cauliflower should start to colour. If it doesn’t, turn up the heat.
• Once the cauliflower is lightly coloured, add the spices. Continue cooking, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes.
• Add 100ml water, and cover the pan. Cook for 15 minutes until tender.
• Tip everything into a jug blender with the cream, and blend on full power for 2-3 minutes, or until velvety and smooth, check the seasoning.

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Wild Rice

• In a deep, heavy pan heat 200ml of vegetable oil. If you have a digital thermometer, heat the oil to 200*C. If not, heat until the oil is almost smoking. TAKE GREAT CARE WITH OIL THIS HOT.
• Sprinkle a few grains of rice into the pan. If the oil is hot enough, it will puff up immediately.
• Fry the rice for about 15-20 seconds until puffed and golden. Remove and drain on kitchen paper. When cool, season lightly with salt.

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Pomegranate and apple

• Half the pomegranate. Remove the seeds. The best way is to hold the cut side facing down (over a bowl) and hit the outside with a wooden spoon.
• Peel and dice the apple.
• Mix the apple and pomegranate seeds with a pinch of sugar and salt, a squeeze of lemon, and the rapeseed oil.

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To assemble:

• Heat a heavy frying pan over high heat.
• Season the scallops with salt just before cooking. Fry in 1 tablespoon of oil for about 60-90 seconds until golden. Place the presentation side of the scallop in the pan first.
• Turn the scallops, and add a knob of butter and a squeeze of lemon. Baste the scallops in the foaming butter for another 60-90 seconds depending on size.
• The scallops should firm up, but should still feel slightly soft in the middle. Rest for 2 minutes.

Serve in the shell, or on a warmed plate.
Reheat the cauliflower puree, and spoon two tablespoons in the centre.
Place the scallops onto the puree. Spoon over the pomegranate and apple dressing.
Sprinkle over the wild rice.