Listening to the radio earlier today and they were taking about food security and the threat that this brings to the UK. The truth is so simple that it is almost embarrassing that they wheeled out a professor to explain it. So here goes my explanation.
There is a growing middle class. I don't mean a few more people buying a second car in the UK, I am talking about billions of new consumers in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). These new middle class consumers want a "Western" style diet, high in meat and very expensive, both environmentally and financially. This creates the problem. Meat is very expensive to produce in terms of agricultural effort so there is a limited amount of meat available globally. This meat, as with all global commodities, will flow towards the money. For the first time in its history, China is importing pork.
So what does this mean? Here's the simple bit, we should eat less meat, demand higher quality meat and eat local - hold on a second isn't this what the slow food movement, the organic movement, the free range movement and any person with any common sense has been saying for ages?
Monday, 12 December 2011
Sunday, 11 December 2011
Get stuffed!
Please tell me you've bought your chestnuts. You'll need them to make your stuffing which you are going to make this week and then freeze. You'll also need to keep some back to go with your sprouts on the big day.
First and foremost, a quick word about stuffing a bird to roast and the word is "DON'T." When you roast your festive bird just pop a half lemon, a half orange and an onion in the cavity with a handful of sage and roast the stuffing separately. So here's how to make your stuffing.
I am not going to give you my usual list of ingredients and method, it is far to personal a thing to be put down in exact details.
Take some sausage meat (I tend to dismantle my favourite sausage, discarding the skin), the meat should make up about half of the stuffing. mix in some breadcrumbs (about half as much by volume as the meat), an egg, the chestnuts (all blitzed up onto crumbs), the grated zest of an orange, lemon or lime, herbs - finely chopped (sage is a favourite, but anything with some punch), salt and pepper. Mix all this up with your hands (yes I mean it). Now, take a tiny piece, about the size of a £2 coin and fry it off in a pan. Taste this and adjust the seasoning as you like. Pop it into a shallow, oven proof dish, ridge the top with a fork and pop it in the freezer. Bring this out on the eve of the big day and allow to defrost in the fridge overnight. This will need cooking for 45-60 minutes in the oven. Serve slices with the meat.
Part of the joy of Christmas is the Boxing Day feast of cold cuts (I may actually enjoy this more than the meal itself), cold stuffing, if made well, is a thing of great beauty so making too much is no sin.
The beautiful wife and I have just got back from visiting my mother. She had purchased a superb piece of topside of beef which I roasted on Saturday night and served with Yorkshire puddings and veg. However, my mother, whose vocabulary is a little bit old fashioned burst into the kitchen and announced that she hadn't had a joint for ages! Having calmed ourselves after laughing ourselves silly, the Beautiful Wife and I explained that in today's world she needed to clarify that she meant a joint of meat.
First and foremost, a quick word about stuffing a bird to roast and the word is "DON'T." When you roast your festive bird just pop a half lemon, a half orange and an onion in the cavity with a handful of sage and roast the stuffing separately. So here's how to make your stuffing.
I am not going to give you my usual list of ingredients and method, it is far to personal a thing to be put down in exact details.
Take some sausage meat (I tend to dismantle my favourite sausage, discarding the skin), the meat should make up about half of the stuffing. mix in some breadcrumbs (about half as much by volume as the meat), an egg, the chestnuts (all blitzed up onto crumbs), the grated zest of an orange, lemon or lime, herbs - finely chopped (sage is a favourite, but anything with some punch), salt and pepper. Mix all this up with your hands (yes I mean it). Now, take a tiny piece, about the size of a £2 coin and fry it off in a pan. Taste this and adjust the seasoning as you like. Pop it into a shallow, oven proof dish, ridge the top with a fork and pop it in the freezer. Bring this out on the eve of the big day and allow to defrost in the fridge overnight. This will need cooking for 45-60 minutes in the oven. Serve slices with the meat.
Part of the joy of Christmas is the Boxing Day feast of cold cuts (I may actually enjoy this more than the meal itself), cold stuffing, if made well, is a thing of great beauty so making too much is no sin.
The beautiful wife and I have just got back from visiting my mother. She had purchased a superb piece of topside of beef which I roasted on Saturday night and served with Yorkshire puddings and veg. However, my mother, whose vocabulary is a little bit old fashioned burst into the kitchen and announced that she hadn't had a joint for ages! Having calmed ourselves after laughing ourselves silly, the Beautiful Wife and I explained that in today's world she needed to clarify that she meant a joint of meat.
Sunday, 4 December 2011
...and the goose is getting fat....
Last year I started to write about how to organise the perfect Christmas without all the cheffy rubbish and was planning a gloriously simple Christmas feast for the Beautiful wife and I. Alas my Christmas fell apart and I was unable to finish blogging up to the big day. This year's Christmas will be a very quiet one and hopefully, one without any unpleasant issues.
My Father lost his battle with Leukemia early in November so there will not be wild celebrations this year. He was a truly great man in all the small but very important ways. He was, however, the hardest man on earth to feed. This was a man who "hated" ginger in anything yet his favourite tipple was Whisky and dry ginger! He hated fish, but loved salmon or prawns. He detested garlic but would steal a slice of garlic bread before it left the kitchen. We all miss him very much.
As I sit here on this chilly Sunday evening our little house is filled with the warm winter smell of braising red cabbage. Get this done now as it freezes perfectly well and its another job you don't have to do on the day. The cabbages came in the veg box we get from Abel and Cole - one of them came last week and was the size of a football. Four or five batches of cabbage will soon be in my freezer! (Recipe below)
Now I began to talk about this last year but is stands repeating - On the way home from work tomorrow you need (and I do mean "NEED") to buy your chestnuts - you will not feel at all full of Christmas cheer when on the eve of the big day you are charging round every shop and supermarket trying to find some.
The other thing I must nag about is ordering your meat. It doesn't really matter how many you are feeding on the 25th but it is important to make sure you have the meat you want. On this note why not try something different this year: A rib of beef perhaps, a roast goose might be nice (fine roasties here) or a loin of pork, maybe a leg of lamb, you could even go completely of script and poach a salmon! If you are having turkey please, please make sure it is Free Range and preferably raised to very high welfare and feed standards too. Yes, yes I know times are hard but this is a once a year meal - shouldn't we head towards 2012 with good intentions and actions.
Braised Red Cabbage
1 medium sized red cabbage, shredded
1 large white onion, sliced
1 large apple (Bramley ideal, but any really) peeled, cored and chopped
Glug of Cider vinegar
Wine glass of Dry cider
Butter
Salt and pepper
Melt a large knob of butter in a large casserole on the hob and add the onions and apple. As the apple is softening, add the cabbage and stir to give a fine coat of butter on everything. Pour in the vinegar and the cider and stir some more. Place the lid on and pop the dish into a pre-heated, medium oven for about 45 minutes. Take out the casserole carefully and give the cabbage a really good stir. Add more cider if needed; it doesn't need a swimming pool in the bottom but neither should it be dry. Pop it back in the oven for another 45 minutes. Remove and season to taste. Serve immediately or allow to cool and freeze in bags, portioned according to your family size. This dish happily re-heats in the oven or in the microwave, simply add a little butter to give a gloss before serving. If you want to be a bit or adventurous add some cloves or a stick of cinnamon during cooking.
My Father lost his battle with Leukemia early in November so there will not be wild celebrations this year. He was a truly great man in all the small but very important ways. He was, however, the hardest man on earth to feed. This was a man who "hated" ginger in anything yet his favourite tipple was Whisky and dry ginger! He hated fish, but loved salmon or prawns. He detested garlic but would steal a slice of garlic bread before it left the kitchen. We all miss him very much.
As I sit here on this chilly Sunday evening our little house is filled with the warm winter smell of braising red cabbage. Get this done now as it freezes perfectly well and its another job you don't have to do on the day. The cabbages came in the veg box we get from Abel and Cole - one of them came last week and was the size of a football. Four or five batches of cabbage will soon be in my freezer! (Recipe below)
Now I began to talk about this last year but is stands repeating - On the way home from work tomorrow you need (and I do mean "NEED") to buy your chestnuts - you will not feel at all full of Christmas cheer when on the eve of the big day you are charging round every shop and supermarket trying to find some.
The other thing I must nag about is ordering your meat. It doesn't really matter how many you are feeding on the 25th but it is important to make sure you have the meat you want. On this note why not try something different this year: A rib of beef perhaps, a roast goose might be nice (fine roasties here) or a loin of pork, maybe a leg of lamb, you could even go completely of script and poach a salmon! If you are having turkey please, please make sure it is Free Range and preferably raised to very high welfare and feed standards too. Yes, yes I know times are hard but this is a once a year meal - shouldn't we head towards 2012 with good intentions and actions.
Braised Red Cabbage
1 medium sized red cabbage, shredded
1 large white onion, sliced
1 large apple (Bramley ideal, but any really) peeled, cored and chopped
Glug of Cider vinegar
Wine glass of Dry cider
Butter
Salt and pepper
Melt a large knob of butter in a large casserole on the hob and add the onions and apple. As the apple is softening, add the cabbage and stir to give a fine coat of butter on everything. Pour in the vinegar and the cider and stir some more. Place the lid on and pop the dish into a pre-heated, medium oven for about 45 minutes. Take out the casserole carefully and give the cabbage a really good stir. Add more cider if needed; it doesn't need a swimming pool in the bottom but neither should it be dry. Pop it back in the oven for another 45 minutes. Remove and season to taste. Serve immediately or allow to cool and freeze in bags, portioned according to your family size. This dish happily re-heats in the oven or in the microwave, simply add a little butter to give a gloss before serving. If you want to be a bit or adventurous add some cloves or a stick of cinnamon during cooking.
Saturday, 19 November 2011
Welcome back
It has been a long time since I have written in this blog. This is partly because I returned to work as a chef over the summer and since October my time has been taken up starting at a new school and the sad passing of my father. Rest assured that I will be writting much more in the future now that my life is, hopefully, returning to some kind of normality.
Monday, 25 July 2011
Catch up
My tiny garden is keeping me busy with watering at the moment. We have had Strawberries and then Raspberries over our cereal of a morning for a few weeks. (My late raspberries have yet to flower!). Last week we emptied one of the spud bags and had a couple of day's worth of Pink Fir Apple Potatoes.
Most of my bizarre and varied Tomatoes are either in flower or have set fruit and the Courgette plant I was given will provide a meal later this week. In the hot box the assorted Chillies are flowering and seem to be loving the sweaty heat and the garlic (which I planted in October) is ready to be dug and dried.
The Beautiful Wife and I both like to see birds in the garden, and to this end we have various feeders to encourage them. The strange consequence of these feeders is that we have found ourselves grown some seriously agricultural crops. The ability of a family of sparrows to flick seed all over the garden is quite remarkable. So far we have grown (without planting) oats, barley, wheat, sunflowers and oil seed rape. I can't bear to cut down these impostors as the have such statuesque elegance.
On the subject of grains I am now using the Richard Bertinet methods of making bread and they seem to be working. More of this in a later posting.
And... on the subject of later postings, many years ago I promised an old colleague (the Recovering Vegetarian) that I would write at length about sausages this too will happen soon too.
Most of my bizarre and varied Tomatoes are either in flower or have set fruit and the Courgette plant I was given will provide a meal later this week. In the hot box the assorted Chillies are flowering and seem to be loving the sweaty heat and the garlic (which I planted in October) is ready to be dug and dried.
The Beautiful Wife and I both like to see birds in the garden, and to this end we have various feeders to encourage them. The strange consequence of these feeders is that we have found ourselves grown some seriously agricultural crops. The ability of a family of sparrows to flick seed all over the garden is quite remarkable. So far we have grown (without planting) oats, barley, wheat, sunflowers and oil seed rape. I can't bear to cut down these impostors as the have such statuesque elegance.
On the subject of grains I am now using the Richard Bertinet methods of making bread and they seem to be working. More of this in a later posting.
And... on the subject of later postings, many years ago I promised an old colleague (the Recovering Vegetarian) that I would write at length about sausages this too will happen soon too.
Sunday, 19 June 2011
Simon’s Favourite Fudge aka Millionaire's Short Bread
This is a family recipe, though I’m not going to suggest it is unique. My great Aunt was a governess and tutor and used to make it for her charges. She passed the recipe on to my grandmother and she used to make if for my brother and I when we visited the north to see her and granddad. This accounts for our family’s name of “Simon’s Favourite Fudge: Simon is older than me but when he was just speaking we would arrive in Stockton and he would apparently ask if any had been made, but he would ask with the limited vocabulary of a 3 year old. Fudge is easier to say than Caramel chocolate shortcake! Later my mother made this in industrial quantities for my brother and me to take back to boarding school with us.
The original recipe uses margarine (it is only for the children, after all) and a “thin coating of chocolate” (it's expensive, you know).
Millionaire’s Shortbread
Base
4oz Butter
2oz Sugar
4oz Self Raising Flour
Mix all in a bowl to form sticky dough; spread this dough out using your fingers into a high sided Swiss roll tin and bake at gas mark 4 until its golden brown. Allow to cool before adding caramel.
Caramel
4oz Butter
1sm tin Condensed Milk
1tblsp Golden syrup
3oz Sugar
Place all the ingredients in a pan and place on a medium heat. Bring all the ingredients together and very gently boil, stirring all the time, until it’s a golden brown. Pour over the base and allow to cool and set.
Chocolate
6-8oz Dark chocolate
2oz White chocolate
Melt both of the chocolates in separate bowls and pour the dark chocolate over the caramel. Take the white chocolate and, using a fork flick it over the top of the dark chocolate and allow to set. Cut up before everything is set hard.
The original recipe uses margarine (it is only for the children, after all) and a “thin coating of chocolate” (it's expensive, you know).
Millionaire’s Shortbread
Base
4oz Butter
2oz Sugar
4oz Self Raising Flour
Mix all in a bowl to form sticky dough; spread this dough out using your fingers into a high sided Swiss roll tin and bake at gas mark 4 until its golden brown. Allow to cool before adding caramel.
Caramel
4oz Butter
1sm tin Condensed Milk
1tblsp Golden syrup
3oz Sugar
Place all the ingredients in a pan and place on a medium heat. Bring all the ingredients together and very gently boil, stirring all the time, until it’s a golden brown. Pour over the base and allow to cool and set.
Chocolate
6-8oz Dark chocolate
2oz White chocolate
Melt both of the chocolates in separate bowls and pour the dark chocolate over the caramel. Take the white chocolate and, using a fork flick it over the top of the dark chocolate and allow to set. Cut up before everything is set hard.
Tuesday, 24 May 2011
Its strange that when, when in life, you think you've just got the measure of doing something well another person comes along and shows you a way to get much better results from your actions. A few weeks ago I raved about the making of bread and how much I enjoyed it. Well, when the village all came together for a garden party to celebrate the wedding of Kate and Wills we all brought a dish for the buffet. On the table was some beautiful bread: Crisp rustic crust, full of flavour and oh so much better than you could buy in a shop.
We enquired as to who the producer of this bread was and as it happens we know the gentleman concerned (henceforth, known as the Bread Machine) very well.
The beautiful wife arranged for us all to get together and bake bread -I learned so much.
My dough is now much wetter, I always make a starter of flour, sugar, water and yeast which I leave for a few hours. I've even started using real yeast (you can actually buy this on Amazon!)
In short My bread making has gone from strength to strength - I even made Croissants the other day and now the beautiful wife won't hear of having any "shop bought" breakfast snacks!
We enquired as to who the producer of this bread was and as it happens we know the gentleman concerned (henceforth, known as the Bread Machine) very well.
The beautiful wife arranged for us all to get together and bake bread -I learned so much.
My dough is now much wetter, I always make a starter of flour, sugar, water and yeast which I leave for a few hours. I've even started using real yeast (you can actually buy this on Amazon!)
In short My bread making has gone from strength to strength - I even made Croissants the other day and now the beautiful wife won't hear of having any "shop bought" breakfast snacks!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
