Market Kitchen Set

It turns out there are two Market Kitchen filming sessions in a day. We decided to go for the afternoon session which turned out to actually be one and a half shows being recorded. That means that we are in the audience for two episodes. The first of which aired yesterday and the second of which is being broadcast tonight. It seems that when they have a chef in they cook a few of their recipes in a day and then spread it over a few shows.

When we arrived at the Market Kitchen recording, we had a short waiting period downstairs in the lobby. It was at this point that we learned that one of the guests on the show that day were The Wurzels. They were there for a cider tasting segement and turned out to be really nice men who asked us how we enjoyed the light and sweet “lady cider” we had been sipping during the tasting. Too funny!

Their arrival was entertaining because the receptionist clearly had no idea who they were and thought they were part of the studio audience. Once, they had cleared that up they went up to the Market Kitchen studio and the rest of us followed shortly after.

Market Kitchen set decorations

My first impressions of the Market Kitchen studio was a feeling of having a slightly surreal moment. We were in an office building in a leafy area of Camden (no where near Borough Market despite them clearly suggesting the show is related to the market) that resembled more of a dusty warehouse then a studio. Yet, when we made our way up the stair case we were suddenly in the brick walled set that looked exactly as it does on television.

All of the food you see in the background in the show is there and looking great but largely it isn’t real or has been rendered inedible so that it will survive under the hot studio lights. What is real though, is the coffee bar at the back of the studio. All throughout the filming there is a real staff back there serving coffee, tea and hot chocolate to Market Kitchen studio audience.

Market Kitchen coffee bar props

Market Kitchen studio

Our hosts for the day at Market Kitchen were Matthew Fort and Tom Parker Bowles. The chef’s were Richard Corrigan and Luke Dale Roberts.

Matthew Fort at Market Kitchen

Tom Parker Bowles at Market Kitchen

It has to be said that the menu for the day wasn’t very vegetarian friendly. Richard Corrigan cooked us two dishes that were spread across the two shows. One was roasted apples and sage with calvados with black pudding. If the black pudding was removed, that would be a really nice vegetarian dish. It isn’t the healthiest in the world as it uses both butter and cream but still yummy. The other dish was mackerel with a beetroot salad.

Luke Dale Roberts cooked a springbok dish which we weren’t allowed to taste. I suspect that was based on cost as the information pack they gave us at the show lists the cost of springbok at £7.99 per 160 grams.

With all that meat being cooked, the dish of the day for me was actually a vegetarian dish. I was somewhat shocked it was by Matthew Fort since I am rarely overwhelmed by his recipes on Market Kitchen. However, when you do something right, then you do it right and he did with his mango fool recipe.

Matthew Fort's Mango Fool Recipe

It was such a lovely and very simple recipe that I went home and made it the next day. I followed his recipe apart from in two aspects. Firstly, in his version of the mango fool, Matthew Fort used Alphonso mangos. I have never seen that variety on sale at any of my local stores. So, I used the same weight of normal mango flesh and added a bit of the suggested caster sugar to sweeten it up slightly. Then, at the last moment I decide to add some lime zest to the top of the mango fool recipe. I think that worked very well to lift the whole flavour of the delicate tasting dish.

All and all we had a wonderful day out at Market Kitchen and I would love to do it again. If they ever do a more vegetarian friendly show I would love nothing more than to be in the studio audience one more.

When I came up with this vegetarian breakfast recipe, I was at the start of my love affair with Greek yoghurt. I have been lactose intolerant since I was an infant and so I tend to try to avoid most dairy. So, when I discovered that, for some reason, Greek yoghurt doesn’t cause my guts to churn like most dairy I went through a period of obsession with it. Which is not a bad thing at all because even the fat free variety of Greek yoghurt I tend to use is really thick and creamy. When you add that it is also really healthy than there is no reason not to make it a regular feature of your diet.

I have found that it works especially well when I want to do a fruit based breakfast and that is exactly what happened with this tropical fruit breakfast that I came up with one morning. I had a part of a mango left but not enough to do a big recipe. So, I chopped it up, threw in some banana and topped it with the Greek yoghurt. It was still missing something. So, I reached for a passion fruit and scraped the pulp out and put it on top of the yoghurt. The passion fruit worked beautifully to sweeten the Greek yoghurt without the need for additional sweetener.

So, here you have it:

Tropical Fruit Breakfast For One

tropical fruit breakfast recipe

Ingredients:
2 ounces mangoes, cut onto small chunks
2 ounces bananas, cut in half lengthwise and then chopped
1 passion fruit, pulp of
3 teaspoons low-fat Greek yogurt or low-fat plain yoghurt

Directions:
1. Put the mango and banana into a bowl.
2. Scoop the pulp out of the passion fruit and gently mix in with the mango and banana.
3. Transfer to your serving dish and top with yoghurt.

Serves 1