Getting Inspired

So how do you get inspired when it comes to cooking? Where do you go to get an idea about that next recipe you want to try?

I've found that inspiration can come from absolutely anywhere. We had booked a holiday in the land of my fathers well over a year ago and I'd been really looking forward to it, what with starting this site, the YouTube channel and just missing the place as I'd been working there off and on for the year before. I'd had this lovely idea that I could blog about all my food adventures and Wales would always be where I wanted to start. There are so many great restaurants there and markets to explore with some of the best local produce you can get.

Then Covid 19 hit, we had to move the holiday once due to the pandemic then it died right down so had to use it or lose it. So we spent our holiday in the mountains barely getting within a mile of anyone for most of our stay.

Feeling like there was no chance of getting any inspiration we did pop to the local pub for dinner one night and I was hoping there would be something there like Cawl that I could get my teeth into and have a go at. As it was everything was very limited due to the availability of ingredients so mostly just the usual pub meals like burgers and fish and chips. No real inspiration there.

What I did notice though was something in the vegetarian options that looked kind of interesting, a vegetable crumble. Now I'm far from vegetarian as you'll probably have seen from the recipes, I struggle not to put bacon or chorizo in pretty much everything. But it just piqued my interest as so often vegetarian meals in pubs just include veggie versions of burgers or sausages. So I braved it and I can't believe I turned down lamb shanks for it but I'm glad I did.

Was it what I was expecting? No not really, it was good but actually came out more like a courgette and brie fondue. Nothing crumbly there but that didn't matter, I'd enjoyed the meal and it not being what I had expected gave me the idea to create what I had expected.

So I've spend the last month or so working on my own veggie crumble. It's certainly crumbly, really rich and owes it's start to a idea about a menu item in a small pub in Wales. I guess regardless of how I had planned to get my inspiration from Wales it gave me some in a completely unexpected way.

Cheers

Gareth