When we were asked by Bibendum, our wine supplier, if we wanted to take part in a tasting to choose a new wine for the list at Wahaca it didn’t take long to find volunteers. But this wasn’t an ordinary wine tasting – this was The Dragon’s Cellar. A tasting where 3 specially selected wine producers would pitch their finest vinos to a panel of the drinks industries most esteemed judges, to be in with the chance to win a listing on our menu. A format not a million miles from that made popular by a certain BBC show, just with wine and without Evan Davis.

The judging was done by Gabriel Savage, Deputy Editor of The Drinks Business, Tara Devon O’Leary founder of Winepassionista.com, Finkus Bripp from wineontherocks.com and our very own Mark Selby and Oli Ingham. With the 3 wine producers quacking with apprehension, the slurping began. Step aside Theo Paphitis, this was going to be serious…

As well as the delicious flavour of Stone Barn’s merlot, we were also well impressed by the work they were doing to keep their wine production environmentally friendly and sustainable. They even had a programme of building owl boxes around their vineyard – what a hoot (Sorry).

Since the making of this film, Stone Barn has indeed made it onto our list, and you are more than welcome to come and try it for yourself, and see what you think of our choice. ¡Salud!

So, you’ve planted your seeds, waited with baited breath and crossed your fingers, and all of your dreams have come true – Your chilli seeds have sprouted! But before you get ahead of yourself, just hold on a second, you’ve got to make sure you look after them well if you’re going to be rewarded with precious fruit. In the second of our installment of Chilli Expert videos, our guru grower talks you through repotting your plants to ensure you get an even growth. Over to you Craig…

When your chilli seedling has developed its second set of leaves, it is time to pot it on to another pot.

A mistake that some people make at this stage is to repot it straight into a huge pot, thinking that this ok. If you do this, all that will happen is that the chilli plant will grow to fill the pot, but concentrate on producing foliage, but no flowers. If the plant does not produce flowers, then you will not get any chillies!

As a general rule of thumb, your chilli plant should be potted on to a larger pot when the roots start to appear out of the bottom of the current pot. Personally, I pot on plants from a 3 inch to a 5 inch and eventually to a 7 inch pot.

Keep an eye on your plant and water it if the compost looks as if it is drying out. Again, the idea is to keep the compost moist and not drenched. In the colder months, you will find you only have to water every two or three days, but as the weather heats up, you will probably need to water every day.

When flowers start to appear on the plant, you can give it a helping hand by adding liquid tomato feed to the water. It should be diluted at half of the recommended ratio for tomato plants.

Alternatively, you could use one of the feeds that are specifically designed to be used with chillies.

In the next video, I’ll be giving you tips about how to make sure that all the flowers on your chilli plants turn into lovely chillies. See you then!

Matt from Market Kitchen and Joanna Plumb outside Edible Ornamentals shop

Big Congratulations to one of our chilli suppliers, Shawn and Joanna Plumb at Edible Ornamentals who are the East Anglia winners of the Local Food Hero Award.

We think its great that a chilli grower won this and hope more and more people will grow chillies or buy chillies and then use them at home in their Mexican recipes.

The criteria for Local Food Heroes are businesses that provide the very best in food quality and service, have commitment and passion together with a strong connection to the local area. Food lovers across the nation were asked to nominate their favourite business which help put food onto our plates, that meet these criteria whether they be growers, farm shops or restaurants.  Viewer’s voted on the Good Food website, and the most popular 10 businesses in each region were assessed by a panel of experts, with the best three selected to appear in the new TV series on the Good Food channel’s Market Kitchen.

Go Shawn and Joanna and thank you for growing such great chillies for Wahaca.

Click here to find out more about Edible Ornamentals and their great produce.

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We went to Bibendum Wine to enjoy one of the many perks of our job – wine training! Dan from Bibendum has written a post about the day, including a video where our very own Pedro and Robin describe a fantastic addition to our list:

It’s probably not your average common or garden wine. “Oh yeah, I’ll have your Cabernet/Zin/Barbera/Petite Sirah blend from Baja California please” is not a phrase you’re likely to hear down the local pub. But that is the point of it – this wine is so unique! Estapor Venir is a voluptuous, sinful and downright sexy wine that burst all over your tastebuds like spicy, fruity depth charge. But it’s not something that many diners will have heard about before they sit down so education is key.

Last week Bibendum was very excited to welcome Wahaca staff into our office for a day of wine training. Amanda and Liz took the guys through all the wines on the list, with one eye on the menu and possible food matches. The Estapor Venir has just gone onto the Wahaca wine list and is rich and packed with red and black fruit and hints of chocolate. I think it would work well with a hearty, meaty dish like Pork Pibil or Mole. It has good fruit sweetness which means that it can stand up to chilli and spicier dishes. But don’t listen to me! Why don’t you listen to what the Wahaca guys thought?

Not only is it a great wine that celebrates Mexican produce, but it also has a great story. Produced using sustainable viticulture in the Guadalupe Valley in Baja California, Winemaker Hugo d’Acosta favours Zinfandel and Grenache which are particularly well adapted to the climate and need little intervention. With minimum use of chemicals and only natural fertilisers the vines are encouraged to form long roots and in some vineyards no irrigation is needed at all.

At the “Escuelita” winery, where Estapor is produced, Hugo has set up a non-profit winemaking school. His aim is to promote small-scale winemaking in the area by educating local people about winemaking traditions and teaching them winemaking skills, thereby providing a means of supporting themselves. Built on the site of a former olive oil production plant Hugo and Alejandro have tried to set an example by their own recycling. They have made extensive use of old bed and boxsprings, barrels, wine bottles, vineyard poles, irrigation hoses and plastic bottles by turning these into an art form. Old PET bottles are heated and pressed into layers to use as insulation in the walls and ceilings of new buildings. In time there are plans to make use of solar energy.

And if you’d like to hear what one of the wine trade’s most respected tasters had to say about it, here’s a quick interview with Steven Spurrier (of Decanter Magazine) at our Winestock Festival last year.

Thanks Dan, we’re looking forward to the next training already and look out for Estapor Venir on the menu.

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Next week, as of 5th October, we will be introducing our winter menu with some exciting new additions to it. One of these new additions that we are really excited about is Spelt.

Spelt is an ancient grain which can be traced back 7000 years. A relative of wheat, it is higher in protein and was one of the first grains used to bake bread. Not unlike barley in texture, it is reputed to be helpful for those with wheat intolerances and IBS.

Wahaca is going to be using this organic british grown spelt from Sharpham Park which is grown and milled in small batches in the west country and is certified by the soil association. With it’s firm texture and nutty flavour, it makes a great addition to our salads.

We’ll be steaming ours with a little  bit of vegetable stock and seasoning, and serving it up in our salads. 

Please let us know what you think!

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There is always a frisson of excitement when we get up early to head to the Chili Fiesta at West Dean Gardens.  In years past we’ve dragged numerous friends along with us for this very special fiery foodie day out in the countryside but this year it was just my hubby and I, for a change. We were flush with cash and ready to stock up our supply cupboard.

We got up bracingly early and got to West Dean just after half nine.  A small crowd had already gathered and by ten the “doors” were opened and we paid our entrance fee.

The weather played along beautifully and everyone commented on the glorious day it was turning out to be as we ambled along the paths, stopping to chat to various vendors.

Chilipepperpete was there, with a new sauce called Dragon’s Blood.  Holy smokes – I tried the mild one and had to turn away otherwise I would have lost my street cred.  Tears were streaming down my face and it felt like I had taken a mouthful of fire.  It was lovely though, once the face-falling-off receded, I appreciated the beautiful flavours in the sauce. We stocked up on a variety of dried chili and made sure not to touch any of the open sauces with our bare fingers.  Spicy saucy finger accidentally in your eye, is not a good way to start the day

The Chiliqueen’s table is always a treat to stop at and sample the new condiments and flavours she’s rustled up.  A particular favourite is the Coriander and Shallot mixed in with her standard chili jelly base.  Lovely with new potatoes and veggies or as a glaze for pork or poultry.  A few jellies were bought and stuffed into the backpack.

A favourite stall, probably for almost everyone who goes to the Chili Fiesta, is the organic chocolatier’s Montezuma’s. You have to get your elbows out to get near their stall.  Wonderful boxed displays vie for attention with platters of broken up chocolate pieces to try.  All I can say is that I am truly grateful to them for opening up a shop in the City (London) which is where my husband works.  Chocolate cravings = satisfied!  On the forefront of mixing flavours and coming up with great ideas for chocolate, they are a chocolate lovers’ paradise.

A new stall to Mark and I was Stratta – a competently run booth by Mary and John Stratton whose hobby of making delicious oils, vinegars and preserves went stratospheric as they keep winning gold in the Great Taste Awards!  We spent a few minutes chatting to them about their beautifully flavoured vinegar (we bought blackcurrant vinegar) and oils.  Mary’s enthusiasm was palpable and I knew I would have been able to sit there and talk to her the whole day given half a chance.  But we moved on to see what else we could find at the foodie fest.

If you’ve never been to West Dean Gardens before it would be worth the trip just to walk around the glasshouses and wild looking arbors.  We took time away from the stalls to do just that and discovered some of their wild flowers growing at in the walled garden.  The glasshouses are tranquil havens and I spent a lot of time running around taking photos of various plants and fruits – like a real townie.

We discovered The Cool Chile Company in the glasshouse and came away with some genuine home-made mole and Mexican Hot Chocolate.  I could have spent a lot of money right here as the products are all the real thing – they even have a proper tortilla press.  How totally hardcore is that?

We ambled through some more stalls but noticed that things were getting pretty busy and packed out with fellow foodies.  We grabbed some lunch (herb foccacia with some greek salad and hibiscus water) in the shade of a tree, some distance away from the crowds, and sat around, relaxing and enjoying the day.  At an estimate, I would say that there must have been well in excess of a thousand people there, with more people arriving by the minute.

Just after one pm we bid West Dean Garden and the lovely people running the Chili Fiesta a farewell, till next year.  We had a glorious time, made all the more perfect by the vendors’ generosity and creativity in coming up with “I want that” products.  Every item that can have a chili influence, and some you would never have thought about, was for sale.  There are many more shops and vendors I could name in this blog but to be honest, put a reminder in your diary now, for next year, to go and check out the Chili Fiesta.  You won’t be sorry.  Two cautions though:  get there early and remember to wash your hands!

Thank you so much Liz(UK) (who we met on Twitter) for writing this brilliant report for us. It’s very inspiring and has got us looking forward to next year’s fiesta already.  Hopefully this is the first of many Wahaca fan guest posts.

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They’ve arrived! We have just received our first batch of British grown Serrano Chillies which can be tried at Wahaca in our Tomatillo Salsa and Salsa Fresca as of today. Wahaca commissioned Joanna from Cherwood Nursery in Bedfordshire to grow Serrano Chillies especially for us – so that we could source local ingredients whenever possible.

Serrano’s have a very fresh grassy flavour and are used specifically to make the Tomatillo Salsa/ Salsa Verde in Mexico. They originated from the Mountainous regions in Mexican states of Puebla and Hidalgo so it is a massive achievement to have them grown so close to home.

To buy your own British grown chillies check out the website http://www.edibleornamentals.co.uk/index.html.

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