Yemi Adelekan is a food writer and blogger who was a semi-finalist in the 2022 series of BBC TV’s Masterchef competition.

Yemi writes for the Stray Ferret about her love of the area’s food and shares cooking tips.

The 167th Great Yorkshire Show kicked off in style on Tuesday as people came in droves to be a part of what is always an amazing event. For me, this brilliant show means the food hall with amazing produces, products and producers, the main cookery and the Game theatres.

Each year, I look forward to meeting the local chefs during their cooking demonstrations; it’s the perfect opportunity to see new techniques and learn about new ingredients. 

On day one of the show, I was honoured to have three demos starting with a 10am slot on the main cookery theatre stage with Sue Nelson of Yorkshire Food Finder. 

My dish was based on the Squeaky Cheese Company’s Labneh which is a super creamy strained yoghurt topped with a preserved lemon sauce vierge that formed a perfect base for my saffron spiced potatoes and salmon cooked in Aleppo chili and seaweed butter. 

Labneh is a popular middle Eastern ingredient that works well in both sweet and savoury dishes. Labneh mixed with mascarpone and whipped cream creates the perfect base for desserts; all you need is some brown butter crumb or toasted oats with fresh fruits to make a layered dessert that can be finished with roasted and chopped nuts or grated chocolate. See the final result above. 

My next demo at the Game theatre hosted by celebrated chef, Stephanie Moon, was inspired by Nigerian honey beans, a naturally sweet beans that gets its name from the sweetness. I paired this with suya spiced pheasant breast, fried plantain and a red pepper sauce. Students from St Aidan’s school tasted the food and a young boy said, ‘I will eat that’ which according to the teacher is a great endorsement! 

My final demo was with the Trout Fisherman, and I had to create a trout dish to make him fall in love with trout, so I made coconut rice, sweetcorn relish and trout cooked in brown butter with harissa spice. This was a deeply complex dish with the richness of coconut milk and excellent quality coconut oil with a golden hue lent to it by the saffron strands.

Here is the recipe for my first dish.

Ingredients: for the Spiced Potatoes

250g of baby potatoes

Few saffron strands, 1 tsp of turmeric powder and some salt

For the spiced dressing

Light drizzle of Yorkshire rapeseed oil

Finely diced shallots and spring onions

1/4 tsp of white and black mustard seeds, pinch of nigella seeds

¼ tsp dried chilli flakes

For the preserved lemon sauce vierge:

2 Tbs of Yorkshire Rapeseed oil

1 medium tomato peeled

1 finely chopped small shallot

1 finely chopped small chilli

1 finely chopped garlic clove

1 tsp finely chopped preserved lemon peel

For the Salmon:

1 salmon fillet

Rapeseed oil and a knob of butter

Aleppo chilli flakes

Pinch of seaweed

Smoked Yorkshire sea salt

Method: Spiced Potatoes

1. Boil the potatoes with saffron, salt and turmeric, drain and air dry

2. Make the spice dressing; heat the oil and fry the mustard seeds until they start to pop. Add the chopped shallots and fry for 1 minute before adding the spring onion, chilli flakes and pinch of salt. Fry for another minute

3. Toss the potatoes in the dressing and heat for another 30 seconds

Method: Preserved lemon sauce vierge

1. Finely dice the shallot, tomatoes, garlic and chilli

2. Cook the ingredients in the oil over low heat

3. Season with salt and allow to gently simmer until cooked through

4. Add the preserved lemon peel

Method: Seaweed and Aleppo Salmon

1. Season the salmon with a pinch of salt

2. Pan fry the salmon in a 50:50 ration of oil and butter

3. Season with seaweed and chilli flakes

To serve, spread the labneh on a flat plate and drizzle the sauce vierge all over. Pile the potatoes over the dressed labneh and flake the salmon over the potatoes.

Finish with chopped fresh herbs.