Karen excited to be taking part in cooking event with Yorkshire chef Stephanie Moon at Selby Abbey

I have found myself working up and down the country in some incredible places. I was asked if I would be interested in doing a cooking demonstration in Selby Abbey. I jumped at the chance, what an incredible venue.

The event takes place on Friday March 31 and is free and open to everyone. The event is called Eat Your Heart Out and starts at 10am and finishes at 4pm. My slot is at 2.30pm but there are masses of things happening in the Abbey all day, including sampling food and drink from right in the heart of Yorkshire.

I am extremely excited for this event; it is another fantastic opportunity for me. I will be working alongside Steph Moon, a favourite local chef who has worked nationally and internationally and has been on television, so why not come over to Selby for the day and enjoy a unique day out.

I will be cooking recipes that are one 125 years old. These recipes were written in 1903 by a local woman Mary Eleanor Blakey, she was a farmer's wife and she also wrote guides and gave evening classes to factory girls, domestic servants and labourers’ daughters.

Some of her recipes did not appeal to me, for example sheep's head broth and stuffed sheep's heart, so I chose a couple of things that I think will be of interest to the audience. Both recipes include rhubarb as Mary lived for some time in the rhubarb triangle. I am making a curry and a steamed pudding. I’ll be making custard for the pudding, naturally.

I have, of course, tried the recipes in advance. The pudding is peculiar in that it does not contain any sugar, which surprised me given that rhubarb is a tad sour but my husband said it was good and tasty so that ticked a box.

The curry was very delicious, I really did enjoy it. The ingredients are quite simple including scraps of cold meat, onion, butter, grated coconut, stock, rice flour, curry powder and curry paste, a sour apple or rhubarb, a little tomato and salt.

I used desiccated coconut rather than grated fresh but other than that it was as originally written. I used leftover lamb for the meat and I made my own stock from vegetables.