YouTube Star Digs Mash in Comber

Celebrity Chef and YouTube star, Food Busker has come to Northern Ireland to create a mash-up of traditional local food in his street food style. John Quilter, aka the Food Busker, has over 130,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, a joint venture with Jamie Oliver, and has been in town this week to cook up a feast with Comber's Mash Direct.

The Food Busker concept is simple - he cooks up fresh ingredients on the streets and then guesses how much passersby would be willing to pay for his street food dishes - quite a challenge in Belfast! This week he has been cooking in the fields at Mash Direct on the shores of Strangford Lough as well as in St. George's Market and Cathedral Quarter to take the humble side dish of mashed potato into the street food craze.

The success of the Northern Irish Year of Food and Drink in 2016 has led to an increase in celebrity chefs making the journey across here to enjoy our local produce. With the Comber Potato Festival falling this week, it was the perfect time for one of the UK's fastest growing YouTube channels to see why spuds are on trend.

Mash Direct's Marketing Director, Jack Hamilton, said "Northern Ireland is on the food map more than ever so it is no surprise that more big broadcasters are making the short hop across to our fields. At Mash Direct we are always looking for innovative new ways to show our customers where their vegetables are coming from every week. As a six generation family farm, we wanted to challenge Food Busker to bring champ into the street food market and we look forward to taking this to the streets of London shortly."

If you would like to try one of John's mash-ups, just check out the recipe below or search for 'Food Busker' on YouTube: https://youtu.be/764xofTyotw

Food Busker - Cheesy Fish Pie Bites

Serves 2

Prep & Cooking time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

· Mash Direct Mashed Potato 400g

· 1 Heaped tsp of Garlic Powder

· 100g Poached Salmon

· 100g Poached Smoked Haddock

· 100g Crab

· 100g Prawns

· 1 Parsley Bunch

· 100ml Double Cream

· Generous pinch of good quality Salt

· Freshly Cracked Pepper

· 200g of Plain Flour

· 3 tbsp of Smoked Paprika

· 4 large Eggs

· 1 packet of white Breadcrumbs

· Enough oil to fill your deep fryer or a large, deep pan

Fondue Ingredients:

· 1 clove Garlic, halved

· 225g Emmental cheese grated

· 225g Gruyère cheese grated

· 1 tsp Cornflour

· 1 tbsp Kirsch

Method:

· In a bowl, stir the garlic powder, all the fish meat, salt and pepper into your leftover mash potato

· Next wet your hands and form the mixture into barrel-shaped patties. Drop them onto some greaseproof paper.

· Grab three shallow trays (or large shallow bowls) and prep your pane kit. In one, combine the flour and paprika. In another, crack in your egg wash. And in the final one add the breadcrumbs.

· Pick up your patties and dip them into the flour, followed by the eggs and then the breadcrumbs. Drop them on the greaseproof paper and then repeat until they're all evenly coated.

· Test that the oil is ready by dropping in a couple of breadcrumbs. If they start to fizz, you're ready to go.

· Carefully lower your tater totes into the oil and leave to cook for 1 minute - 1 minute and a half. Once crispy, remove them from the oil with a basket spatula and pop them on some greaseproof and season to taste.

Method for Fondue:

· Rub the inside of the fondue pot with the halves of garlic.

· Put the chopped or grated cheese into the pot at a low heat, gradually stir until melted, stirring all the time.

· Turn the pot down to a simmer. Slake the cornflour with the Kirsch in a small bowl, and add to the fondue pot along with the garlic clove.

· Season with the pepper and nutmeg, stir well and place the fondue pot over a flame at the table.