But a few weeks ago saw us put together a couple of menus for a private party (as part of our new catering side project Holy Trinity Events) that had the sense of theatre that we try and create with SFS and the straight up,simply good soulful food of SFP.

When telling the kitchen brigade at the beginning of the week what was needed from the markets, their faces lit up as the menu unraveled…….Homemade bagels, Salmon gravlax, pastrami, several different types of hummus, all washed down with an earl gray gin punch and lavender cocktails “served on the lawn don’t you know”

The idea for the bagels came from my recent trip to new York, seeing the Jewish area of lower east side Manhattan and visiting the famous Katz’s Deli…..Armed with menus, recipes and a head full of inspiring ideas, the bagel bar concept came into fruition.

On top of the bagel bar, one of the main dishes we were buzzing about cooking was the Salmon Gravlax…. A traditional Swedish dish where salmon is cured with salt, lemon, fresh dill & covered to cure.

Traditionally this would be buried under ground, (hence the name), but now a ‘days you don’t need to worry about that, we have fridges and weights/water bottles/bricks wrapped cling film

Here’s my version….

Produces 30 bagels / salads

1 side of salmon

6tbl of rock salt

2 zest of lemons

1 tbp sugar

6bulbs of fresh peeled beetroot

Loads Fresh dill

5 black pepper corns

From you fishmongers get them to fillet and pin bone your salmon (but leave the skin on). Place in a large flat tray skin side down.

In a blender place all other ingredients and give a quick blitz. Place it on to the salmon and rub it in to salmon lightly, covering all the pink bits.

Place cling film on the salmon and place your chosen weights (or if you chooses to bury, then wrap well ) leave in a fridge/underground for a good 48hours. Remove from the fridge, and wipe all of the marinade off the Salmon, remove skin and slice nice and thinly.

Eat!!!!

For the party we went classic and served with fresh dill, cream cheese on a freshly cooked Bagel and a squeeze of lemon.

For bookings for all your weird and wonderful events email matt@holytrinityevents.com

This 4 day family orientated camping festival will take place in the beautiful setting of Umberslade Estate in Tanworth In Arden

Set in the spiritual home of Nick Drake, the intimate weekend of acoustic music will not only serve as a fitting tribute to England’s favourite Singer songwriter but also provide a fantastic weekend of entertainment in the build up the Queens Jubilee!

The four day event will kick off on Friday 1^st June with an evening of music curated by Birmingham’s very own legendary label Static Caravan which will be exclusively available to weekend ticket holders! Static Caravan have been credited with discovering some of the finest UK talent in recent years such as Beth Jeans Houghton, Erland & The Carnival, Tunng, & The Besnard Lakes. Static Caravan now release the work of Hannah Peel, Laura J Martin, Goodnight Lenin and Dan Haywood. All of which will appear over the course of the weekend!

The following three days (Saturday to Monday) will host three full days of music starting around midday until midnight!

 Saturday – 2^nd June 2012 – will be headlined by Scott Matthews who will be joined by Michael Chapman, Hannah Peel, Goodnight Lenin, Boat To Row, Joseph Topping, Andy Oliveri, The Terrapins, Richard Marsh & Ben Calvert with more to be announced.

Sunday – 3^rd June 2012 – will be headlined by Fionn Regan who will be joined by Ashley Hutchings & Blair Dunlop, Jim Moray, Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell, Telling The Bees, James Summerfield, Luke Hirst & Sarah Smout, The Young Runaways, Rapunzel & Sedayne, Duotone, Friends of the Stars, Richard Burke, The Hall Brothers & Simon Fox with more to be announced

Monday – 4^th June 2012 – will be headlined by Benjamin Francis Leftwich, The Old Dance School, Rachel Sermanni, Two Wings & Bonfire Radicals with more to be announced.

There will be two stages at The Lunar Festival. The Northern Sky stage will act as the main stage whilst there will also be a smaller stage in the River Man Bar which will host the last and most liveliest act of the day to bring the festival crowd into the night.

Once the music has ended there will be film screenings and a mini rave on site to keep the party going into the early hours. There will also be a fire pit where musicians and campers can gather round to see the night out.

Soul Food Project will be hosting the food tent where we’ll be cooking up Jambalaya, Pulled Pork, Burgers, salads, stuffed ciabattas and some cheeky cocktail creations (think Bloody Mary’s // Tom Collins // Hot Toddy’s and beyond!).

This unmissable festival marks the start of a great season of events for the Moseley Folk group and we’re stoked to be a part of it!

Tickets are now on sale via www.moseleyfolk.co.uk and are priced at £65 for a weekend ticket and £25 for a day ticket. There are also some U16 options available.

Further information on all activities / directions can be found at www.lunarfestival.co.uk
 

Who doesn’t love the MAC ? On the beautiful grounds of Cannon Hill park, this Birmingham cultural institution has always been close to Soul Food’s heart. The MAC primarily focuses on the arts, music, film, performance and workshops which take in the likes of pottery, language, tai chi and beyond, but food based events have never been a prime focus (having said this there have been some fantastic events hosted by the likes of Blanch and Shock, not to mention the development of the outside courtyard for BBQ’s).

Given the community ethos of the MAC and the stunning location in the heart of one of Birmingham’s best loved parks, it’s fitting that food should play a part in bringing people together and also to offer a showcase as to the multiple uses of this great space.

It’s this reason that we were really exited to be approached by the good folk at the MAC to help curate a one day food festival at the site and to also arrange a one off SFP takeover of the cafe within the building.

So on Sunday May 27th, SFP will be taking our kitchen on the move once more for a one off take over of the MAC kitchen and loads of our foodie pals will be joining us with food stalls across the site…. So What can you expect from your local Cajun kitchen? Well expect classics like Jambalaya, Gumbo & our famous burgers, but you can also look forward to the likes of peanut butter and oreo pie, sliders and some one off specials designed just for this special day.

The outdoor food fair will open at 11am and run through till 5pm and we’ll be cooking from around that time till the doors close!

On top of all this goodness, we’ll be roping in Soul Food’s resident DJ Andrew Dubber to come and help set the mood with his amazing collection of jazz, bossa nova, South American grooves and beyond…Check out Dubbers latest Soul Food mix right here

Hope to see you all there!

PS………Who knows…If there weather’s good we might just take it outside

Soul Food served up huge pots of Jambalaya, our signature burgers and a selection of salads with our unique SFP twist, on top of this we set up a wood fired pizza oven in the VIP area serving homemade ‘hot creations’ to the crew and DJ’s….

Here’s some snaps of Soul Food in action…

Photos by Jack Spicer Adams

Our sixth installment finds Andrew Dubber at the controls with some cool cool jazz, as he explains…

“This is just a collection of some of my favourite after dinner tunes – kicking back with a few friends after a good meal – a glass of Malbec, perhaps an espresso… and some of my favourite vinyl on the turntable. Sorted.”

Tracklisting 

Later, Even - Bobby Hutcherson
Groove Drops - Jimmy Smith
‘Round Midnight - The Wes Montgomery Trio
Adela - The Aquarians
Empty Room - Luiz Bonfá
Come And Carry Me Home - Brother Jack McDuff
Paraiba do Sul - Antonio Adolfo
Wichita Lineman - Freddie Hubbard
Love Is Forever - Dwight Trible
Somewhere in the Night - Cal Tjader
I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You - Yusef Lateef
Trilby - Ahmad Jamal
Children Of The Night - Hysear Don Walker
Be Quiet - Fer Isella

56:12

The New Mastersounds represent one of the UK’s, if not the worlds finest rhythm bands, headed up by the legendary Eddie Roberts. Taking in the sounds of the deepest funk, rare groove, straight up soul, at times spiritual grooves and at other times down right funky, they are without a doubt on our our favourite bands of all time and we can’t wait for them to return to tear down the roof of the Yardbird again!

As a band or individuals, they’ve jammed and played with some of the best, including: Lou Donaldson (Blue Note), Corinne Bailey Rae (EMI), Quantic (Tru Thoughts), Carleen Anderson (Young Disciples / Brand New Heavies), Keb Darge & Kenny Dope (Kay Dee Records), John Arnold (Ubiquity), Mr Scruff (Ninja Tune), Snowboy (Ubiquity), Fred Everything (2020vision), Andy Smith (Portishead), James Taylor (JTQ), LSK (Faithless), Lack of Afro (Freestyle), Page McConnell (Phish), Karl Denson (Lenny Kravitz / Greyboy AllStars), Melvin Sparks (Blue Note Records), George Porter Jr (The Meters), Fred Wesley, Maceo Parker (JB’s), and Art Neville (Neville Brothers, The Meters)

Simply, this is not a show to be missed.

Support comes from Soul Food Soundsystem who’ll be bringing some cuts of deep funk, memphis soul, jazz funk, latin, rocksteady, ska, tropical and beyond (and perhaps some free Soul Food treats

Most Importantly….THIS SHOW IS FREE ENTRY ALL NIGHT LONG.

Get down early, as it’s undoubtedly going to be a road block!

See you at the front.

SFP // THE YARDBIRD

The weather seems to be quite favourable at the moment and as we’re starting to think about our summer menu….We thought what better way to celebrate the turning of the weather (am I tempting fate?) then to get to work on some sticky BBQ ribs!

Over the past few months I have been researching different BBQ marinades and from the countless blends I have made the one that will be going on the new menu is a little cheeky and not as hot as others, but hey that’s what the hot sauce is for!

Soul Food’s Ribs Marinating

Soul Food’s BBQ Ribs

- 1k of Pork Ribs (this should service up to 4 as a starter or 2 as a main)

In a pestle and morter crush up the following

2 garlic cloves

1tsp rock salt

2cm fresh ginger

Zest of 1 orange

Then add

1tbl  paprika

1tbl smoked paprika

1tsp garlic powder

1/2tsp black pepper

100gm of muscarvado sugar

100mls olive oil

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tbl of balsamic vinegar

Spread all over your ribs and then leave to marinade for 3-4hours.

Cook in a pre heated oven of 200c and cook for 25-30mins till sticky. Serve with homemade slaw, hot sauce, your favourite dip….I’m going for some pokey homemade aioli and of course plenty of napkins (embrace the messiness!)

Enjoy!

Carl

Another very special evening….Hackney Colliery Band tore UP the Yardbird…Thanks to everyone who partied with us…See you all at The New Mastersounds (Friday April 6th // The Yardbird).

Thanks again to Jack Spicer Adams who took these shots and big props to Old Dead Eye (Paul!) for filming the cheeky video at the end….

This Saturday marks the arrival of our second Soul Food party of 2012….After an absolutely insane Mardi Gras party we figured we’d best keep the good vibes coming and have invited the almighty Hackney Colliery Band to come and play live for us.

HCB was formed in 2008 by a group of London horn players in a Hackney kitchen. They were inspired by New Orleans marching bands, Balkan brass and the contemporary hip hop-influenced brass coming out of the US, and decided it was time for a British take. Keen to bring some of the UK’s own brass band heritage to the table, they quickly recruited two killing drummers and strapped marching drums to their chests. The result was LOUD, funky and – importantly – mobile. With some fat sousaphone basslines in the mix too, they were ready to start terrorising the London streets.

The HCB repertoire is made up of arrangements and compositions from several different band members. People brought in whatever tunes they liked to the rehearsals, creating a pad made up of 90s hip hop, re-worked pop classics, cartoon samples borrowed from MF Doom, rock ballads given a brassy makeover, Balkan-tinged original tunes and more. All of this combines to produce the sound you hear today, and it’s constantly evolving; these days at HCB gigs it’s not uncommon to hear a melodica feature back-to-back with a baritone sax/sousaphone battle (the sousa won).

With 200 people packed into The Yardbird on a Saturday night, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that it’s gonna go OFF!

Why The Yardbird you ask? What’s it got to do with Soul Food? Well, The Yardbird is pretty much the all week around home of funk, jazz and soul in the city centre and given it’s holding as one of the hottest venues of it’s kind in the country, we’re buzzing to be hosting a show there.

To top all this off, we’re also bringing along for the ride Sir Dom Servini of Wah Wah 45′s fame (one of the hottest funk labels in the country to those not in the know!)…..Click here to hear a mix from the main man himself.

£6 in on the door (if there’s space..It’s gonna be a rammer!) or a fiver in advance to guarantee your admission…Pick those tickets up right here

We’ll let the music do the talking from here onwards…See you all Saturday…….

SFP X