Our four chefs are going head to head with their own burger creations to see who will triumph in our Summer Burger Battle. The rules are simple, each chef must create a special burger to be sold throughout the week at The Victoria, for each burger sold the chef who created it wins a point, at the end of the week the points are counted and the chef with the most wins. We are running two heats with a place in the final at stake in each.

First up we have Sam Vs Lizzi

Lizzi has made a burger from a chicken breast marinated in chilli and coconut and topped with sweet chilli sauce and fresh rocket leaves. This girl knows what she’s doing, she will be hard to beat.

Sam has used our own beef burger but stuffed it with a mix of peppers chorizo and cheese so when you bite into it you get a whole new hit of flavour. His burger is topped off with cheese and soul sauce and salad. This is a strong contender.

All pictures by our man Jack Spicer Adams

We are taking over a pub. The Church has been in Birmingham for well over 100 years and now it is going to be the new HQ of The Soul Food Project. This has been a lifelong ambition for SFP founder Carl Finn and now in conjunction with Everard’s Brewery we are happy to be opening the doors of The Church. The Church will be influenced by the New Orleans, French quarter that first inspired us here at Soul Food but firmly rooted in a British pub. We can’t ignore this place’s heritage after all.

We can’t explain how excited we are to write the next chapter in the Soul Food Project story.

Follow The Church on Twitter and Facebook to find out about the grand opening.

We’ll let you in soon don’t worry…

Photo by Jack Spicer Adams

Photo by Annalibera

Our recipe this month comes from our new head chef Niki Astley, you’ll get to know him soon enough but here is a recipe he shared with us.

SALT COD GNOCCHI WITH CUCUMBER LINGUINI AND COCONUT CREME FRAICHE

Serves 4

This is probably best treated as a salad, tapas or starter, although there’s nothing to say it couldn’t be bumped up to main course. The ‘Gnocchi’ here serves mostly as an alternative fish cake. The Salt Cod in this dish can be replaced with fresh or another white fish, such as Pollock or Haddock – Although they might be a bit lost in the mix if under seasoned and are likely to cost a little more.

You’ll need

500 g Salt cod
250 g Plain flour
250 g white potatoes
2 eggs
Garlic
Spring onion, chopped
1 Shallot
Chili
Lime
Olive Oil
Butter
2 cucumbers
Coconut cream (or fresh)
Creme fraiche

If using proper salt cod, soak in cold water for 24 hours, changing the water at least once. This is how the fish will rehydrate and lose its saltiness before cooking. The thicker the fish the longer it will need soaking – a good day and a half is preferable.

Place the cod in a pan of cold water and boil up till soft. It should take around twenty minutes. Strain the fish and allow it to cool. Once it reaches a handleable temperature pick through the mix for bones before adding a little garlic (to taste), spring onions, the shallot chili, lime and olive oil.

Now for the Gnocchi:
Peel and boil the potatoes; strain and mash them but only add a little salt and white pepper. Leave to cool somewhat before adding the eggs and then the flour. If you have a big enough bowl try it in there but otherwise take the mix onto a clean surface and knead it all together just like they do with pizza dough, until everything is one texture and all the egg and flour completely absorbed. Add the salt cod mix, and knead together until the fish is evenly distributed throughout the mix. It will be quite handleable in the final stage and if you go for long enough any gooeyness will have come away from your hands.

Roll it out into a big, fat sausage shape and cut into pieces about as thick as your thumb, and around the same shape as the end of it. Take a pan with butter and heat at a medium to high temperature. place the gnocchi in and cook one side till golden before turning. As the pan become hotter and the butter burns the gnocchi will darken. As long as it is not burned there is nothing wrong with this.

Take the cucumbers and a potato peeler; peel the dark skin away. Now running the length of the cucumber and with confident pressure peel the cucumber flesh so that it looks like big strips of pasta. Do this until you reach the core of the cucumber which won’t turn into strips but is probably best chopped up and mixed in to save wasting.

Finally mix creme fraiche and coconut to taste; I personally like the coconut quite prominent.

Place the cucumber Linguini in a small mound on the base of the plate and the Gnocchi on top of it; place a dollop of coconut creme fraiche to one side. Serve.

Without a customer through The Church’s door’s, interest is starting to bubble for our opening at the end of May..

Soul Food Founder Carl Finn met with the mag’s editor Matt Wright to talk about what a’gwan!!

You can read what they talked about below!!

http://www.greatfoodmag.co.uk/blog-a-building-site-full-of-ghosts/

We are over excited about The Church opening soon. To find out more, and to receive our monthly newsletter put your email in the sign up box top right hand corner of this page!!

Team SFP

xxx