Getting Smokey

Whether you know it as mutabbal, moutabal, caviar d’aubergines or baba ganoush, the smoke-scented aubergine puree is a classic.

Baba ganoush is a Lebanese dish of aubergine, mashed and mixed with virgin olive oil and various seasonings. I suppose you could say it’s the lesser known cousin of hummus, only instead of chickpeas you have aubergine.

Good baba ganoush is reliant on the smokey, charred flavour of the aubergines, although I like to help it along with a little smoked salt too. Too many versions of this recipe fail to recognize the importance of scorching the aubergines over a grill or hot flame. This is essential to give the smoky quality that lends such a distinctive note to the dish.

Feel free to drizzle with some pomegranate molasses or pomegranate seeds – this works particularly well with lamb – if you feel like it, but, please don’t go too mad with the flavourings; this is an opportunity for the aubergines earthiness to shine.

Baba Ganoush

• 3 medium-sized aubergines
• 130g tahini
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked salt (or sea salt)
• 3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• A good handful of fresh parsley or coriander leaves plus extra parsley or coriander leaves to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 190C or the equivalent.
2. Prick each aubergine a few times, then char the outside of the auberginess by placing them directly on the flame of a gas burner and as the skin chars, turn them until the auberginess are uniformly-charred on the outside.
3. Place the aubergine on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 20 to 30 minutes, until they’re completely soft; you should be able to easily poke a paring knife into them and meet no resistance.
4. Remove from oven and let cool.
5. Split the aubergine and scrape out the pulp.
6. Puree the pulp in a blender or food processor with the other ingredients until smooth.
7. Taste, and season with additional salt and lemon juice, if necessary.
8. Chill for a few hours before scattering with the herbs and drizzling with olive oil.
9. Serve with flatbread, pitta or crackers.

Share this:

There’s more to barbecues than paper plates, tepid rosé, brown lettuce, burnt burgers and dodgy chicken. A lot more. I am an avid fan of the BBQ – there’s something rather magical about cooking over charcoal, maybe it’s the cave person in me?

Thanks to Tesco Real Food I am now the owner of a fabulous hot pink BBQ, cheers guys! And it was put to good use the other day. Yes I spotted the sun and got out there to make the most of it; lets face it summer in the UK has been rather poor in the weather stakes this year.

I went for the Indian Summer vibe and cooked tandoori chicken with some parathas and lots & lots of lovely fresh from the garden salad.  Cooling cucumber raita is of course essential.

For a BBQ pudding I took inspiration from Nigella Lawson and barbecued some slices of pineapple to serve with some pistachio kulfi, although I confess I didn’t make it.

Tesco are challenging customers to upload their best BBQ recipes to the Real Food website for the chance to be crowned the BBQ King or Queen.

Why don’t you head on over the the BBQ Challenge and get some more recipe inspiration and of course help prove that the girls are better than guys at BBQ cooking. I mean, come on, that’s right isn’t it?

Share this:

Your Questions on Eating Local Answered

Eating local helps the local economy and the environment by making soil richer, protecting water quality, and minimizing energy consumption. If you haven’t already, you should integrate local items into your meal planning. If you’re feeling a little hazy on how exactly you can start eating local, here are some FAQ answered.

Q: What’s the difference between organic and local food?

A: The organic seal basically assures that your food has been produced without using harmful pesticides, fertilizers made with synthetic ingredients or sewage sludge, bioengineering or ionizing radiation. Unlike the term “organic,” “local” contains a broad, even nebulous definition. There is no certification with precise specifications for local food. “Local food” simply implies that the food has not been shipped thousands of miles to get to your kitchen.

Q: What if local food does not have an organic seal?

A: You may have noticed that some local food lacks an organic seal. This doesn’t necessarily mean that the food does not meet your countries standards of organic. Some local farmers cannot afford to acquire the time-consuming and costly organic certification. However, you can make sure that your local food meets organic standards by inquiring with famers (most accessible at a farmers’ market) about their farming practices. You can eat organic and local simultaneously.

If you are irked by the thought of eating food without an organic seal, you can simply buy local foods that are grown using lower levels of pesticides. Usually, these foods have a thicker peak, which naturally protects them better from pests. These include avocado, broccoli, corn, mango, watermelon, and pineapple. For a complete list, visit HelpGuide.org.

Q: Isn’t eating local extremely time-consuming and difficult?

A: Yes, eating local can be a challenge that some people don’t have the time to fully take on. However, there are some ways that you can eat local, even if you don’t rely solely on local food for your full diet (very few people do!):

Shop “in season” to minimize your food’s travel time. For example, if you are living in Texas, only buy peaches in the summer months. You can start shopping by season by making family rituals that work around these seasonal fruits and veggies. This way, you associate summer fruits, like peaches, with summery dishes, like peach cobbler, whereas in the winter you might make a pecan pie. There are many of sites, such as Smart Living, that lay out lists of foods that are in season in your area.

 Buy from a local food producer or artisan, like a butcher or baker.

Go local from home. Plant some herbs like basil and rosemary to use in pasta sauce or on a sandwich. If you have a green thumb, you could try your hand at planting some berries or vegetables too.

 Q: What if I need an exotic ingredient or one that is out of season?

A: If you can’t go local, think regionally, try to get as close to home as you can. Aim to avoid air freighted items where possible.

When looking for ingredients grown outside your home country, keep your eyes peeled for the Fair Trade or Rainforest Alliance certifications. “Fair trade” is a seal that guarantees that farmers receive a “fair” price for their products, work directly with buyers, and prioritize sustainable farming methods without harmful pesticides or child labor. The “Rainforest Alliance” assures that the food is grown with environmentally responsible management practices including integrated pest and disease management, soil and water conservation and that workers are fairly compensated.

While eating local can sometimes get complicated or even confusing, hopefully all your questions have been adequately answered. Now go out there and get eatin’!

Share this:

Quite a long while back I was sent a jar of Romesco sauce to be creative with. Well I wasn’t all that creative, but what I made was a real spring treat.

Romesco sauce is a Catalan sauce that is typically made from almonds, pine nuts, and/or hazelnuts, roasted garlic, olive oil and nyora peppers, a smaller, sweet, dried variety of red bell pepper. Other common ingredients include roasted tomatoes, red wine vinegar and onion. Leaves of fennel or mint may be added, particularly if served with fish or escargot. It is perhaps most often served with seafood, but can also be served with a wide variety of other foods including poultry and vegetables – especially calcots.

I had intended to do something adventurous. Something that would require hours of looking through food history and recipe books and then a day or two pottering around the kitchen. Something that would have me conjuring up memories of distant trips to the Catalan region of Spain, but alas that wasn’t meant to be.

As some of you may already know I started a new job recently and between that and family commitments my time for cooking & writing is somewhat limited right now. I’m in need of speedy recipes, food that can be ‘thrown together’ at the last minute and requires minimal effort. I am of course sure that I will soon find my feet again and get in to a better routine and work/life balance again. I must say though that I am loving my new job and all the extra studying involved.

After a little deliberation I followed a Jill Duplex recipe idea for Asparagus with Romesco Sauce & Almonds. Although obviously all I had to do was cook my asparagus.

Frequent readers of this site will know I love asparagus, no better make that adore asparagus, not only does it taste fantastic but it is a super-food too, by that I mean it has numerous health benefits. It is a nutrient-dense food which in high in folic acid and is a good source of potassium, fibre, vitamin B6, vitamins A and C, and thiamine. Here’s an interesting fact for you, asparagus belongs to the lily family.

The asparagus season is very short though (usually from early May to late June), and cultivation requires intense work. Organic asparagus is the ultimate challenge. A weedy annual crop that can take eight to ten years to come to fruition. During that time it will need almost constant labour to control weeds because the feathery foliage, even when established, is never dense enough to suppress competition from weeds.

Asparagus should always be kept in the fridge and, like so many things, is best fresh. Standing it up right in a little water will help to preserve its life. The flavour is normally most intense in the tip, becoming sweeter lower down and tough at the base. Smaller spears tend to be produced at the beginning and towards the end of the season and can be a little tougher than their fatter mid season cousins. It is normally necessary to trim off the bottom inch or so of the stalks; the point at which the stalk snaps cleanly is a good guide to where to trim; don’t discard the trimmings though, that would be sacrilege indeed, instead use them in stocks and soups.

Well, after all the excitement of starting a new job and the ‘travel’ by way of cooking I’m in the mood for a bit of real traveling, so I might just head over and look at Cox & Kings tailor-made holidays.

Posting here, may well continue to be rather sporadic. I apologise and please do forgive.

Share this:

Live Below the Line

This May, UK development agency Christian Aid will challenge the general public to Live Below the Line for five days.

Just like 1.4 billion people living in poor communities around the globe, those taking part will have to purchase all of their food and drink by spending just £1 per day. This is the average amount a Sub-Saharan African has to spend per head, and according to the World Food Programme, some spend up to 80% of their income on food. Shocking figure isn’t it?

Over the month of May I am hoping to place a top tip about cheap and nutritious ingredients that will considerably reduce shopping bills, how to make the most of left overs or an exciting (cheap) recipe or two on my Facebook Page.

And that dear readers is where you come in, I’d love you to comment and leave me your top tips too!

Share this:

On the Gravy Train …

A short while back British Onions sent me a “Gravy in a Box” kit containing, well, everything you’d need for excellent gravy – onions and some other interesting ingredients such as mushroom ketchup, Marmite, mustard and Worcestershire sauce. They’re trying to work out exactly what makes the perfect onion gravy; you can find my recipe at the end of this post.

Image from BBC Good Food Website.

Despite gravy’s strong ties with British cuisine gravy is actually thought to have originated in Egypt around 3000 B.C. Hieroglyphs in the tomb of Djer, an early first dynasty pharaoh, at Umm el-Qa’ab are said to resemble Classical Greek clay vessels, from which the modern French sauce boat (or gravy boat) was ultimately developed. Paintings on the walls of the tomb depicting feasting show the diners (presumably members of the royal court) drinking a liquid, however the context does not lend itself to wine or beer.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the English word “gravy” is obscure in origin. It is most likely derived from the Old French word “grane.” The earliest printed evidence of this word in our language from the Forme of Curry, an English cookbook circa 1390.

The original medieval meaning of “grane” was precise: the gravé consisted of the natural cooking juices that flowed from roasting meat. By implication, this meat was spit-roasted, and therefore two important implements were required to make and collect the gravy: a flesh fork for piercing the meat in order to increase the flow of drippings, and a dripping pan beneath the roast, designed to collect the gravy for use at table. Normally the gravy was skimmed of fat, salted, and then sent up as a sauce – the term in this sense has been replaced today by jus, and would not meet most modern criteria for a ‘gravy’.

The medieval roasted meat with gravé was generally served rare and not likely to have a counterpart in contemporary Byzantine cookery, since the Eastern Church forbade the consumption of blood or bloody food. Among Byzantine Christians, the gravy of pork, mutton, goat, and the mouflon of Cyprus (a species of wild goat) was often reduced over high heat and mixed with garum (a type fish sauce) or wine, as reported by several medieval travelers. The preparation was then served as a relatively thick dipping sauce.

“Gravy. In the British Isles and areas culturally influenced by them, is…well, gravy, a term fully comprehensible to those who use it, but something of a mystery in the rest of the world. Ideally, gravy as made in the British kitchen is composed of residues left in the tin after roasting meat, deglazed with good stock, and seasoned carefully. (Many cooks incorporate a spoonful of flour before adding the liquid but this practice is frowned on by purists.) Gravy varies in colour from pale gold-brown to burnt umber, and in thickness from something with little more body than water to a substantial sauce of coating consistency. In French meat cookery, jus is roughly equivalent to honestly made thin gravy in the British tradition…Kitchen tricks involving burnt onions, caramelized sugar, gravy browning’, and stock cubes are modern descendants of this practice. Indeed, numerous gravy mixes’ or granules’ are to be had, for use with the meat residue, or in its stead. Yet in many homes in Britain a true gravy is still made; and this remains the most delicious accompaniment for the meat form which it comes and an essential feature of the meat dish.”

—Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p. 351)

In Britain, gravy is more than just a condiment; it’s liquid comfort. Think of the warm, meaty embrace of every-mother Lynda Bellingham in the Oxo adverts of yesteryear, or that self-satisfied “ahh, Bisto” slogan which perfectly encapsulated a nation’s feelings about a piping jug of gravy – even if we now know that making your own is much more delicious and just as quick & easy.

It brings together a Sunday roast lending a soothing, savoury homeliness on everything it touches – hardly any wonder that commercials for roast dinner staples such as Yorkshire Puddings end with the host pouring gravy over is it?

Like mot other traditional favourites, every cook (or even family) has their own method. As Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall wisely points out in his River Cottage Meat Book, “there is no recipe for gravy, nor should there be”. There are, however, various ways to make sure you do your patriotic duty by varying the method and optional extras, such as adding wine or port, herbs or mustard – ah sure, you get my drift.

There are two main schools of gravy making – those who add flour to the roasting tin to make a roux – a thickening agent made of flour and fat – with the dripping and juices produced by the joint, and those who deglaze the tin with alcohol or a little stock before adding more liquid. I flit in a rather unorthodox way between the two, for chicken and turkey I simply deglaze, for beef I tend to make a roux.

Of course, sausage & mash or toad in the hole demands onion gravy, and, this gravy must be slightly thicker than gravy for roast dinners.  My favourite recipe for onion gravy is simple enough but I have an aversion to lumps in my gravy so I blitz it to a smooth consistency; yeah, I know onions aren’t ‘lumps’ exactly but I still can’t abide them in my gravy – I hold the horrors that were school meals entirely responsible.

Gravy. One of the most, if not the most, divisive of sauces. Some like it thick, some thin. Some like it highly flavoured, some simply meat juice and water. Me? Well, it depends on my mood, but I’m happy enough to stick to meat juices and top notch stock, but the consistency is key – just thick enough to coat the back of a spoon is perfect.

How do you like yours?

Onion Gravy

• 2 onions, finely sliced
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 250ml of stock (I prefer vegetable)
• 50ml port or red wine.
• salt and pepper

1. Fry the onions over medium heat in a frying pan, in a little butter, cooking them slowly until they are caramelised and a good even brown colour. This takes a surprising amount of time, about 30 minutes, but it can’t be rushed as it’s essential to give the gravy both its deep brown colour, and sweet flavour.
2. When you are satisfied with the colour of the onions, sprinkle over the flour and stir round to absorb any cooking fat and juices.
3. Add the port (or wine) and mix well together while the alcohol evaporates.
4. Add the stock, about 250ml but it will depend how thick you like your gravy.
5. Stir well, and simmer the gravy for 10-15 minutes.
6. Transfer to a blender and blitz until smooth (optional).
7. Return to the pan and heat through.
8. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper and salt

Share this:

“Eat Breakfast like a King, lunch like a Prince and dinner like a Pauper”

We all know how important a good breakfast is, so I’m not going to labour the point – I’m simply going to tell you that this week is Farmhouse Breakfast Week and hence, why not spoil yourself with a ‘treat’ of a breakfast?

My breakfast treat? Hmmm, well. I’d either go for a full fry – rashers of crisp bacon, sausages, Clonakilty black & white pudding, fried egg, potato cakes, soda farls – you get the idea, or multigrain toasted bread with softly scrambled eggs and some top notch Irish smoked salmon. Oh and copious amounts of tea, Bewley’s preferably. Scratch that, I’d choose to be eating that treat of a breakfast in Bewley’s (Dublin) given half the chance.

What would you choose for the ultimate breakfast? Do comment, I’d love to know.

There’s a problem with the fry though, and not the calories and saturated fat content – sure why would I worry about that? ‘Tis not as if I’m sitting down to a fry each & every morning. The problem lies with the meat quality and the worry that more and more of it is produced in a rather unethical intensive manner.

I have become more and more bitterly disappointed with supermarket bacon over the years; the wafer thin strips that spew grey, salty water into the pan so they poach rather than fry, withering up into tiny corrugated flaps of anaemic disappointment. You can taste the pig’s depression in the meat.

I was a little dubious then when I was contacted by a PR company asking me to review some Denhay bacon – I wasn’t expecting much, a mediocre porky product at the most.

Denhay’s bacon, however, delivers such good all round quality it virtually left me speechless. Produced by Denhay Farms, the multi award-winners. each rasher is thick and juicy, without being slimy, and is a natural, blushing pink hue. As soon as they hit the pan the smell is intoxicating, the fat rashers are impervious to shrinkage so what you see really is what you get. The elegant ribbons of fat melt into the meat and fry to a salacious crisp without being sullied by watery run off. The end result is a delicious, crisp and rosy rasher, packed full of natural, sweet porcine flavour that delights the taste buds.

Denhay bacon is hand cured in natural sea salt using traditional methods, and is available smoked or unsmoked. The curing leaves the meat plump, and the saltiness is palatable rather than overpowering. The smoked bacon has just the right amount of delicate ashy flavour to compliment rather than overwhelm the tastes or the meat itself.

Denhay pigs are outdoor reared on British farms, spending over half their lives in the great outdoors, free-ranging in mud and grass. The rest of the time they are pampered in straw barns that are kept clean, spacious and warm. This TLC is the reason the pigs have been approved by the RSPCA as having high standards of care and as a result, the bacon produced carries the RSPCA Freedom Food Mark.

Spoilt pig bacon could even give some of the very best butchers a run for their money.

Whether you want to show your support for British Farming and Freedom Food initiatives or simply want to pamper your taste buds, you can’t lose with Denhay bacon.

Share this:

Keeping in Fine Spirits?

Now, I suppose I should confess that when it comes to whisky, I usually drink the Irish variety.  It’s rare indeed that I’ll pick a Scotch.

However I was recently sent a trio of whisky’s to try (two Scotch, one American) from Master of Malt an online whisky retailer with a proud heritage of over 25 years. Their website is one of the easiest to navigate, easy on the eye sites I’ve come across in a good while. Their range may not be the largest, but prices are competitive. Apart from their catalogue of regular whisky brands, they also have their own range of independent Master of Malt bottlings. They also sell other spirits such as gin and vodka.

The three whisky samples were:

1. Rosebank 19 Year Old 1990 – Old Malt Cask (Douglas Laing)
2. Johnny Drum Black Label 12 Year Old
3. Master of Malt 30 Year Old Speyside

All three whiskey samples went down well enough, but I’ll be completely truthful – they haven’t managed to wear down by preference for the Irish whiskeys instead.

While the small sample bottles (30ml drams) are a great way of allowing folks to try a whisky before committing to a large bottle of something they may or may not like, and a way of creating a nice gift pack the packaging rather leaves something to be desired.

On opening the box of samples the response from a friend of mine was “they look like urine sample bottles” (maybe our nursing background clouds our judgment a bit, but hey, it’s hardly the most glowing response is it?) and they were a nightmare to open – the bottles are sealed with wax and required quite a lot of dexterity to open.  Not quite as cute, but ‘regular’ miniature bottles may well be much more practical.

Share this:

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas

The 6th January is Nollaig na mBan: Women’s Christmas. Also known as Little Christmas and Celebration of the Epiphany. A litany of names for the last of the 12 days of Christmas and the day on which the Three Wise Men are supposed to appear for the first time in the Crib. They rarely do of course, since January 6th is also traditionally the day the decorations finally come down.

Kevin Danaher’s classic text The Year In Ireland: A Calendar has a short entry on the date. He suggests that the name “Women’s Christmas” is explained by “the assertion that Christmas Day was marked by beef, and whiskey, men’s fare, while on Little Christmas Day the dainties preferred by women – cake, tea, wine, were more in evidence”.

In honour of the tradition I baked one of my favourites – Jessie Tweedle’s Tea Loaf which I’ve blogged about before.

Just a reminder (if you didn’t read about this delight before), if you can resist, leave it for a few days before eating as it is so much the better for it. Enjoy a slice with butter and/or a little jam.

Jessie Tweedle’s Tea Loaf

• 100g butter
• 100g brown sugar
• 200g dried mixed fruit
• 1 Teacup cold tea
• 1 level teaspoon baking soda
• 200g Self Raising Flour
• 1 teaspoon mixed spice
• 1 egg

1. Simmer the butter, sugar, fruit, tea, baking soda for 20 minutes.
2. Allow to cool and add the egg, flour and spice.
3. Pour the mixture into a lined loaf tin.
4. Bake in a loaf tin at 180C or the equivalent until skewer comes out clean (approx 30 minutes).

Share this:

I’ve written about Theobroma Cacao (that’s chocolate to you & I) for the Instant Expert section of Eat Me Magazine.

You can by Eat Me Magazine at various locations including WH Smith, or subscribe via their website.

Has the article whetted your appetite for chocolate? Does your mouth water as you imagine a big slab of your favourite chocolate bar? Would you like to learn more about making chocolate?

Why not attend one of the increasingly popular chocolate courses? I did just that at BitterSweet Chocolate, in Melbourne Derbyshire, run by the incredibly passionate Nigel Holling and his small team.

When Nigel started BitterSweet in 2007, he was massively disappointed with the quality of the mass produced chocolate on the market and his ambition was to make top notch chocolate products using where possible, natural and local ingredients. Since then BitterSweet Chocolates have enjoyed great success and in 2009 their Strawberry and Vanilla Vodka truffle was awarded a Great Taste Gold Award by the Guild of Fine Foods. Nigel said “ we are delighted with this award as it reflects the standards we apply to all our truffles. The cream we use is organic, produced and pasteurised on a local farm [only six miles away]. The strawberries come from Scaddows Farm in Ticknall and the careful blending of flavours reflects our own unique skill.”

BitterSweet use the finest ingredients to produce interesting and creative taste combinations such as Cointreau and Almond, Chilli and Lime or Dark Chocolate with Black Olives but always the flavour combining is done to enhance the taste experience.”

As for the course, drinking wine, devouring a chocolate fountain with fruit & marshmallows and learning about making chocolate slabs and truffles makes for a few hours of informal but informative fun. You get to keep all you make (providing you can resist eating the goods as you go along). Why not gather a few good friends and make a day of it?

To find out more have a look at the website or give Nigel a call 07968163706.

Share this: