A market stall, a new challenge

Posted by petra08 on March 22, 2017 · 18 Comments 

I know I am on a bit of a pasta mission at the moment but there is a reason. I have taken a stand at the local Saturday market and the debut was last Saturday. I am selling fresh, home made pasta, hence all the practicing, tomato sauce and hot sauces. I felt I needed a challenge and thought why not.

I love spicy food but I don’t like when all I can feel is painful burning. I have tried a variety of hot sauces and in the end I decided to make my own. I have worked on the sauce for years with tweaks and changes until I was happy. Today I have two kinds, a hot hot sauce and a very hot hot sauce.

Both sauces are created to add heat and compliment other flavors rather than simply overpower them.

 

Bottling hot sauce

 

 

Each batch of hot sauce is hand made in small batches following a strict recipe for consistency.

To test it out several friends have tried the hot sauces and given me feedback. I also booked a stall at the local Christmas market and did an amazing sell out.

 

 

I wanted to offer more than just hot sauces and after much thinking, decided to add hand made pasta and tomato sauce. The idea is to provide a quick, easy and tasty dinner. It is easy to add any protein, shrimps, chicken, beef, more vegetables for a quick dinner and this can be done in 15-20 minutes.

 

I made pasta in five flavors

 

1. Moringa leaf
2. Turmeric and pink peppercorn
3. Classic (no flavor added, just pasta)
4. Beetroot
5. Tomato

They sold out in the listed order, I was sure the beetroot pasta would have sold first with the vibrant color but it wasn’t the case.

 

Last Saturday morning one of my dogs woke me up at 3.20 am. I got up and let him out only to hear pouring rain and winds sweeping in from the sea. I thought it would be a terrible day at the market. This trail of thoughts led to all kinds of disaster scenarios, all ending with customers not liking the pasta and I couldn’t go back to sleep. Once it was time to wake up I realized I hadn’t ironed the table cloth, I still had chilli oil residue on my finger from making hot sauce the evening before and I almost blinded myself getting the contact lens in. My jacket had fallen in to the dogs water bowl and was soaking wet and by then I was convinced that I wasn’t meant to go at all! I think it was the fear of having to eat all that pasta myself that in the end drove me to actually leaving the house!

My market stall, needless to say it was the smallest around but who cares? Once it was all set up and ready I was sure it would be ok! Even the rain had stopped. Do you like the fancy chair?!

 

 

In the end it was a brilliant day. One of the most amazing things about living here is all the support from everyone. M helped with everything, K helped with all the things I actually had no idea how to do, making it look so easy! Almost all my friends came around to check up on me, helping me sell, buying my pasta and in general being so lovely and supportive, it is amazing!

The first try was almost a sell out, this is a picture from an hour before closing!

 

 

In the end I just had enough pasta for dinner. I timed it and it took 10 minutes to slice some chicken breast and a few mushrooms, pan fry them, boil the pasta and heat the tomato sauce. Dinner can’t get any faster than that and it was just about all the cooking I could muster.

 

I will replace the beetroot and the tomato pasta for this week and now I can’t stop thinking about new flavors to try! if you have any ideas please let me know. I will keep the three best selling pastas and bring at least one new flavored pasta so I suspect I might need some help and inspiration!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Advertisement

Filed under Home made produce, Hot Sauce, Market stall, Pasta · Tagged with fresh pasta, hand made pasta, Saturday market