INDEPENDENT BIRMINGHAM AT ASTON HALL

Peel’s goes fast food and Joe Schuppler speeds into his next project.

At the end of July Birmingham flocked en masse to Aston Hall. There, Independent Birmingham held the city’s foodiest, craftiest festival. Peel’s jumped on the bandwagon and went fast food. Head Chef, Rob Palmer, shares his recipe for buttermilk, vanilla, passion fruit.

Passionfruit Caramel 

50g sugar
20g water
100g passionfruit puree/ juice

Method: Put the sugar and water in a clean pan, place on a medium heat and cook to a light caramel colour. Meanwhile, bring the passionfruit puree to the boil and keep warm whilst you wait for the caramel to become golden. Stir quickly and carefully into the caramel and continue cooking until the caramel is dissolved into the puree. Allow to cool to room temperature and place into a squeezy bottle until needed.

Buttermilk 

500g buttermilk
150g double cream
90g sugar
1/2 vanilla pod
3 leaves bronze lard gelatine soaked in ice water
Pinch of salt

Method: Combine the seeds from 1/2 a vanilla pod with the empty pod, cream and sugar. Gently heat until the sugar has dissolved and the cream is hot enough to dissolve the gelatine (about 80oC). Dissolve the gelatine, remove from the heat, pass through a sieve into a bowl to remove the pod and cool for about 30 minutes. When it’s cool, put the buttermilk into a large bowl, whisk in the cream, add the salt and chill. Once it’s chilled it sets like panna cotta, so whisk it up slightly then pour into your canister, place the lid on, add the gas to the canister, shake well and leave to rest in the fridge for at least one hour prior to serving.

Passionfruit 

2 large air freight passionfruit

Method: Cut in half and scoop out the pulp into a bowl being careful not to scrape any of the pith from inside. Whisk gently to break the pulp and the seeds away from the fibres. Discard any large fibre pieces.

To Serve

Place a good spoonful of the passionfruit pulp into your serving bowls, take the canister from the fridge, give it another shake, and squirt the buttermilk into the bowl. Drizzle with the caramel.

Rob Palmer, Head Chef of Peel’s Restaurant. Images by Fjona Hill. 

Joe Schuppler is the man behind the award winning, city-cheerleading, Independent Birmingham. This year he sold tickets in their thousands for IB Festival, made Birmingham Live’s 30 Under 30, opened the specialist cocktail bar 18/81 and hasn’t stopped for air. I grab him for a five minute chat (as he’s en route to his next appointment).

What did you eat over the IB Festival weekend? 

Joe: Not much, too much nervous energy. I had a Meat Shack burger… Peel and Stone pizza… crispy chicken from Buddha Belly… a u-juice orange juice… orange wine from Wine Freedom… Peel’s passionfruit buttermilk… and pork and onion… and a Laghi’s Deli beetroot ravioli. [He laughs] I think that’s it.

What were the highlights? 

J: No highlights. The feedback I’m getting is all about those tremendous traders. Peel and Stone pizza is always a must for me, and washed down with a Wine Freedom orange wine kept me going.

What’s in the pipeline? 

J: Independent Birmingham’s just celebrated its fifth birthday. We’ve got more festivals in the pipeline so watch this space; this one here. Someday, sometime I’d love to open a gastropub outside the city; slowing things down for country life.

J: Right now it’s all about 18/81; Rob Wood and my cocktail bar which is receiving fab feedback. We have a seasonal prix fixe menu of three cocktails which changes every four weeks or so. In October we’re introducing a six course tasting menu. Both of these will run alongside our bar menu. Our bar snacks are well worth checking out; Saucisson Roquefort, Goodal olives and 40 month aged Parmigiano Reggiano with balsamic reduction […we guess they’re worth a try!]. People seem to be loving our branded 18/81 block ice!

Joe’s at his next appointment, prepped to head back to his new Jewellery Quarter base to his room of fans.

Joe Schuppler, below photos by Jack Spicer Adams.