York's food festival will encourage us all to get cooking, reports MAXINE GORDON

WANDERING around the market stalls at York's food festival is enough to stoke up an appetite.

Aromas of fresh breads and pastries, jars of inviting pickles and sauces and baskets of tempting produce are enough to inspire even the humblest of cooks.

The theme of this year's festival, which runs from September 18-27, is "food in word and pictures" and a host of special events are in the programme to reflect this.

Food Storytime will take place at York’s libraries and there will be art exhibitions at York Art Gallery and The Hungry Artist cafe on Church Street. Cookery book signings are planned as well as a special evening with local chefs Andrew Pern, Matt Hunter, Peter Neville and Stu Snell.

As part of the theme, York Food Festival has teamed up with popular foodie magazine, York On A Fork, to create an online cookery book. It features recipes from local restaurants and businesses including The Star Inn the City, Middletons, Ambiente and York Cocoa House, During the festival, chefs will show you how to perfect their recipes in the festival's demonstration tent, which will be in Parliament Street for the ten days of the festival.

The cookbook will be released on Monday and can be found by visiting the York Food Festival website: yorkfoodfestival.com Today, we are sharing two recipes from the cookbook for you to try at home, one from Filmore & Union and another from Ambiente.

Ambiente: Whole salt baked sea bream

Serves: 2

Time: roughly 40 minutes

Ingredients:

Roughly 500g whole black sea bream (ask your fishmonger to remove scales and entrails)

200g coarse sea salt

2g fennel seeds

2g chilli seeds

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 190C/170C fan oven/ GM5 5. Line a baking tray that’s slightly larger than your fish with greaseproof paper.

In a bowl, place the coarse sea salt, the fennel and chilli seeds and add two tablespoons of water. Mix this together to create a sandy texture that is slightly sticky. The mixture should be compact and should hold together when firmly patted down. If you feel you need to add a little more, do so in small quantities and mix until the desired texture is created.

Place about half the sea-salt mix on the paper and spread this out so that it is roughly in the size and shape of the fish. Place the fish on top of the salt mixture and cover with the rest of the salt mix, patting this down so it’s firm and encases the fish completely.

Place in the pre-heated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Once cooked, remove from the oven and slide a sharp knife into the main body of the fish. Carefully touch the knife to your lips and if it’s hot, the fish is done. If you think that it needs a little longer, place it back in the oven for a few minutes and check again.

To serve, transfer the fish to a serving dish and garnish with a few wedges of lemon. The salt on the fish should be hard, so whack it with the back of a spoon to crack the salt shell and gently peel it away from the fish, taking care to brush any excess salt off your fish (as you don’t want to eat this bit). Using a knife, carefully find the bones and lift the fillet up so that the fish opens up. Discard the skin and bones and serve with some salad.

Filmore & Union: Kale and goat’s cheese frittata

Ingredients: 1 tbsp coconut oil

2 red onions, thinly sliced

200g chopped curly kale

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

8 large eggs, lightly beaten with a little seasoning

100g firm goat’s cheese, broken into chunks

2 tsp hemp seeds

Method: Heat oven to 190C/170C fan oven/GM5.

Heat the coconut oil in a 25cm ovenproof frying pan.

Add the onions and cook for 10-15 mins until soft and caramelised.

Add the kale and 1tbsp water and cook for five minutes until the kale has wilted. Pour in the balsamic vinegar and bubble for one minute, then add the eggs.

Give everything a quick stir, then leave undisturbed to cook over a low-medium heat for five mins until the egg is nearly set and the frittata is turning golden brown on the bottom.

Scatter the goat’s cheese over the top of the frittata. Cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the cheese is bubbling and the frittata is set in the centre.

Sprinkle with hemp seeds and enjoy!