The Ultimate Test

Katherine Foster-Smith is not only an award winning marmalade producer, she has managed to scoop the approval of the Greek side of my family with her Beetroot and Orange Relish ... and believe me ... this is probably the highest accolade one can ever attain.

Great Preservations - World Marmalade Competition - Bronze Award

Tonbridge Farmers Market

Last Sunday Yiayia (Grandma) Polycarpou arrived at my home for a traditional English Sunday roast, and rather too many dishes of homemade accompaniments travelled with her .  A roast is not a roast, according to Yiayia, unless there is a considerable choice of Greek food on the table too. So the roast pork and yorkshire puds jostled for pride of place with a dish of moussaka and koupepia (stuffed vine leaves), and the cinnamon fragrance of an english apple crumble mingled with the scent of loukamades soaked in honeyed rosewater.  For those of you who have experienced the hilarious My Big Fat Greek Wedding you will appreciate what it can be like when marrying into a Greek family... especially where food and the matriarch of the kitchen is concerned. One can do well, but never as well as the elders, and nothing is ever as good as the Greek way.  It's something we accept and smile about ... that's Greek tradition.

Beetroot & Orange Relish

I'd made a trip to Tonbridge Farmers Market earlier that day, and stopped by at Great Preservations' stall to congratulate Katherine on her award when she asked me what I was cooking for the family, and recommended the Beetroot and Orange Relish which she assured me would complement the roast pork perfectly.  I left for home with a jar of Katherine's relish that she kindly gave me to try.  It was when I placed the 'non-self made' relish on the lunch table, and met with Yiayia's noticeably raised eyebrows, that I felt I had to justify my actions by explaining the relish was made by hand ... at home ...  and in the kitchen of a Tonbridge lady (just a few streets away) who had won a national award for her preserving skills.  The biography impressed, and that was all that was needed to encourage Yiayia to have just a taste of the aromatic burgundy preserve, and it wasn't long before she was nodding her head with rare approval, and combining the koupepia and the pork crackling with the Beetroot and Orange Relish.

So thank you Katherine for the free gift which really was a delicious accompaniment to the English/Greek meal, and for satisfying grandmother Polycarpou.  You have passed the ultimate test.  I certainly know what to take with me next time I visit the Matriach's own kitchen.