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Cracking the Christmas cocktail

Sarah Cabral — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 10:30:52 +0000

The festive period is already in full swing and as the drinks begin to flow during the ultimate party season, how can you be sure that your Christmas party shines brighter than the rest? Throwing the perfect party and making sure your guests have a good time is always stressful but worry not because help is at hand to make sure your Christmas do is that little bit different.

Mixologist and cocktail expert Ben Reed is giving top advice on preparing the perfect tipple, in this live webchat. Wondering which liqueurs go well with a mince pie or what cocktails are best to serve during winter? Well this is your chance to have your questions answered live by the master.

Forget Grandma’s old sherry, spice up your winter warmer with a cocktail list to make even Tom Cruise jealous. Log on and find out how to make your guests’ taste bud tingle make your yuletide bash a night to remember!

Mixologist Ben Reed will be live online, on Thursday 4th December for tips on making the perfect cocktails for the Christmas period.

Click here to submit questions before the chat

For more information visit www.firstdrinks.co.uk

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Tell them what you really think!

Alison Clarkson — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 10:30:16 +0000

I’m so happy to introduce our latest guest writer for Eating Britain, Alison Clarkson, a food stylist, home economist and food writer. Alison grew up in a small village in South Wales surrounded by generations of great home cooking and from an early age it was clear that she had a passion and flair for excellent food. A Marketing degree enabled her to become a food and drinks Marketeer spending the early part of her career working on new product development and food and flavour trends. Find out more about Alison and see her portfolio in Alison’s Kitchen.

As a fully fledged foodie I spend a lot of time eating out, but whether it’s at a Deli, the local greasy spoon or a smart restaurant I suffer from a very British affliction. You’ll recognise the scenario, the meal isn’t up to scratch and you spend 5 minutes complaining to your dinner companion and the waiter comes over to enquire ‘Is everything OK?’ and your response is ‘Fine thanks, lovely’ and then you kick yourself and spend the rest of the meal moaning but will probably leave a tip – it’s impolite not to!

How often do we put up with poorly cooked meals and substandard ingredients but are far too polite to complain? In other countries it doesn’t happen, the French would be up in arms, Americans would rather complain than not, Italians just wouldn’t put up with it. But us Brits don’t like to make a fuss, claiming we’ll vote with our feet instead but essentially we cop out. This is the case for a lot of transactions but especially when we’re eating out, we put up, make do and bow out.

On Saturday my husband and I were served an overpriced, poorly prepared lunch at a nearby Hotel, we did complain and, in fairness, they were very apologetic and did all they could to remedy our complaints. The situation did, however, spark off the conversation that maybe our reluctance to complain means Chefs will just carry on regardless, without our feedback they may think that everything is fine. And, if we don’t make our feelings known we aren’t giving them the opportunity to make amends. Given our foodie status we’re actually very well placed to give constructive feedback but whilst we eat out a couple of times a week rarely do we give an honest and specific response. If the foods good we’ll often throw in a cursory ‘lovely’ or ‘very nice’ but not much more.

So we’ve made a pact, for the next 3 months, when asked, we’ll give detailed and candid feedback both positive and negative, and I throw down the gauntlet to you too. There are two critical elements to remember though. Firstly to be really specific and constructive stating what you liked and why you liked it and the same for what you didn’t like. Secondly, if you’ve had more than 3 glasses of wine, let it lie! So join us in taking the waiter by the horns and seeing if we can make a difference. If we don’t change the face of British eateries, we’ll at least make ourselves feel a bit better!

Are you honest when it comes to telling the waiter what you really think? Do you keep schtum and just think, well, I won’t be coming here again? We’d love to hear about your experiences and any feedback you’ve received.

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Bake up a feast of family fun

Sarah Cabral — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 08:30:34 +0000

There’s a real concern among today’s mums and dads that the essential life skills they were taught as children aren’t being passed on to their own kids. It’s especially justified when it comes to cooking. With home economics no longer a compulsory part of the school curriculum, it’s up to parents to teach their kids to cook and bake. With this in mind, kid’s food expert Annabel Karmel is hosting an exclusive webchat, packed with simple recipe ideas and tasty tips designed to encourage parents to get creative with their kids in the kitchen and have loads of fun while they’re at it.

Teaching children to cook both encourages them to eat well and equips them with one of the key skills they’ll need when they grow up. Seeing the fruits of their labours emerging from the oven gives kids a real sense of achievement, and it hardly needs saying that that the messier the ingredients that go into their culinary masterpieces are, the more they like it. Baking is especially good fun, and that’s why Annabel’s chosen to share scrumptious baking recipes with you that are a piece of cake for kids to make. She’ll also be telling you about The Kellogg’s Big Bake, a new campaign that aims to get children cooking up a storm all over the country with the ultimate prize of appearing in a Kellogg’s TV advert in May. Log on to the chat and get ready to join in the yumminess with your young ‘uns.

Annabel Karmel joins will be live online, on Wednesday 3rd December from 3pm to 3.30pm to discuss how to get your kids baking.

Click here to submit questions before the chat

For more information visit www.thebigbake.co.uk

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Market forces

Sarah Cabral — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 10:00:46 +0000

Ever felt lost in the supermarket? Does the prospect of a hot and bothered check-out girl leave you cold?

Increasingly people are turning away from faceless corporate chains and returning to their local markets – where good value and a human touch can be found in the heart of the community.

Vibrant and colourful, a local market cuts out the middleman, resulting in variety, choice and good value that can be passed on to the consumer.

A recent basket comparison survey showed that markets proved to be cheaper [£28.67] than like-for-like supermarket products [£30.36]. Fruit and vegetables have been shown as the commodity where you can capture the biggest bargain. In the price comparison a shopping basket including apples, potatoes, carrots, plums and cauliflower bought at your local market trader on average totaled £4.69 where as the same products purchased in a supermarket would cost you on average £6.79!

Locally-sourced produce means your food can make it from field to the plate in a matter of hours – resulting not only in guaranteed freshness but fewer food miles and less pollution.

Joe Harrison, CEO of the National Market Traders Federation will be available online to take your questions on the virtue of market forces on November 12th at 14.45 pm.

Click here to submit questions before the chat.

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Bonfire night bonanza

Sarah Cabral — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 08:30:45 +0000

Bonfire Night famously originated from Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605, but is now remembered by the huge bonfires that light up the country on November 5th.

To impress your guests, Canned Food UK has designed a series of healthy and affordable recipes that taste great. What’s more, the ingredients are already on your shelves at home – meaning that if more friends turn up last minute, you can easily whip up some more food in minutes!

Try some filled baked potatoes, which can be served with three alternative nutritious fillings. Otherwise take a look at some other winter warmers that are perfect for warming up cold fingers and filling empty tummies – sausage and mushroom cassoulet or spicy beanburgers are perfect for children and adults alike.

Filled Baked Potatoes
Serves 8-10

Ingredients
5 potatoes (medium size)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt

For fiery bean filling:
6 cocktail sausages
1 tsp sweet chilli sauce
1 x 415g can baked beans
1 x 290g can chilli beans (either red kidney or baked)
1 red chilli, finely sliced
1 tbsp sour cream

For the meatball filling:
1 x 410 can meatballs in tomato sauce
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tbsp plum sauce
1 tbsp chopped coriander

For the spaghetti filling:
1 red pepper, finely chopped
2 x 400g cans spaghetti in tomato sauce
4 spring onions, shredded
1 small leek, sliced
1 tsp oil

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C, 400°F, Gas Mark 6. Prick the potatoes and brush with oil. Sprinkle half with paprika and some with salt. Bake in the preheated oven for approximately 1 hour or until tender. Split the potatoes diagonally and fill with the filling of your choice.

For fiery baked bean filling:

Cook the cocktail sausages under a preheated grill for 7-9 minutes or until thoroughly cooked and golden brown. Brush with a little of the sweet chilli sauce and place under the grill again just to get sticky.

Pour the beans into a pan and heat gently for 3-4 minutes or until simmering. Add the chilli and simmer for a minute until the chilli has softened.

Cut the sausages in half and add to the beans. When ready to serve, spoon into the potatoes and top with a dollop of sour cream.

For the meatball filling:

Empty the meatballs into a pan and add the soy sauce and plum sauce. Cook for 7-9 minutes or until the meatballs are heated through.

When ready to serve spoon into the potatoes and top with chopped coriander.

For the spaghetti filling:

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the red pepper and leek and cook until soft but not coloured. Add the spaghetti and cook for 4-5 minutes or until heated through.

When ready to serve, spoon into the jacket. Top with a pile of shredded spring onions.

Sausage and Mushroom Cassoulet

This tasty warming dish can also be cooked in the oven for 1 hour at the same temperature.

Ingredients
350g/12oz sausages
110g/4oz chorizo
30g/1oz dried mushrooms
1 tbsp roughly chopped fresh rosemary
1 tbsp roughly chopped fresh thyme
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
450g/1lb mixed mushrooms, sliced
400g/14oz tin white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
400g/14oz tin kidney beans, drained and rinsed
400g/14oz tin flageolet beans, drained and rinsed
400g/14oz can chopped tomatoes
2 tbsp tomato purée
2 bay leaves
55g/2oz fresh white breadcrumbs
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Place the sausages into a roasting tin and cook for 30 minutes or until the sausage is cooked and brown. Turn the sausages occasionally. When the sausages are cool enough to handle cut on the angle into 2.5cm/1in pieces. Save any fat in the pan. Cut the chorizo to similar pieces and fry gently.

Place the dried mushrooms into a food processor with the rosemary and thyme. Process as finely as you can. Using a large pan mix this powder with 570ml/1 pint of boiling water. Stir and set aside.

Meanwhile, add the oil to the pan with a lid and gently fry the onion and garlic for about 15 minutes until the onion has softened, but not coloured. Add the fresh mushrooms and cook over a high heat for about 3-4 minutes until they have started to colour.

Add the tinned tomatoes and tomato purée to the mushroom stock, mix and then add the beans and the mushrooms and onions.

Mix well and bring to the boil. Season with salt and black pepper. Add the sausages and any saved fat from the roasting pan. Add the bay leaves and simmer gently on the top of the stove for 30 minutes, stirring to prevent it catching.

Cook until the liquid is reduced and clinging to the beans.

Sprinkle over the breadcrumbs and place under the grill or in the oven until golden. It can also be cooked in the oven for 1 hour at the same temp.

Spicy Bean Burgers
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 small Red onion (finely chopped)
1 garlic clove (crushed)
1 red chilli (deseeded)
400g can chopped spinach (drained)
420g can low salt baked beans
410g can borlotti beans (drained)
198g can sweetcorn (drained)
50g breadcrumbs
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp freshly chopped coriander
6 slices French bread

Method

Cook the onions, garlic and chilli in a frying pan for 3 minutes until softened but not coloured.

Meanwhile, squeeze all of the moisture out of the spinach and combine in a large bowl with the baked beans, sweetcorn, borlotti beans, breadcrumbs, cumin and coriander.

Mash together and add the onion, garlic and chilli mixture. Season and shape the mixture into patties, then lightly grill for 3 minutes for each side.

Serve on a French bread slice with salad and relish.

For further information about Canned Food UK, please visit www.cannedfood.co.uk.

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Family Fine Dining

Sarah Cabral — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 08:30:52 +0000

It’s long been thought that kids love nothing better for dinner than unhealthy fast food like sausages and chips. Yet it seems that we have misjudged them, and the times have changed – children have now developed a much more sophisticated palate. In a recent survey conducted by Birds Eye, more than 50% of adults questioned said that their children would eat salmon and 37% would eat Feta cheese. Other surprises were aubergines (27%), asparagus (33%) and lentils (36%)

This comes as a welcome surprise. After a long, busy day who wants to spend hours slaving in the kitchen to prepare different meals that satisfies everyone’s tastes? Now family meals can be just that, a meal that is eaten by all the family and one that is both enjoyable and healthy.

Someone who knows a thing or two about feeding children in a nutritious way to keep them healthy and happy is Dr Sarah Schenker. She will be in the studio to talk about how you can become more inventive when it comes to mealtimes, and how incorporating children’s favourite foods into your own old favourites – such as a feta cheese sandwich or a fish finger sandwich with Salmon fish fingers – can make all the difference. Making meal times fun, tasty and with foods that are better both for you and the whole family.

So if you want to know how to create easy dishes that are both nutritious and delicious, log on to our webchat and join in the discussion. Dr Sarah Schenker will be live online on 4th November at 3pm to discuss how to enjoy a healthy meal with your children

Click here to submit questions before the chat.

For more information visit www.birdseye.co.uk

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The Taste of Christmas

Sarah Cabral — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 08:30:55 +0000

Are you one of those people who leaves Christmas until the last minute, running around like a maniac rushing to get everything in time for 25th? Does the thought of cooking for your friends and family in the coming festive season leave you with a foreboding sense of dread? Do you feel like you churn out the same old Christmas meal year after year? If so, you need to log onto to this webchat with top chefs, Jason Atherton and Stuart Gillies.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could go somewhere and “do Christmas” all in one place? That’s buy presents, order locally sourced produce, sample Michelin starred quality food for inspiration and learn gourmet secrets such as how to make your roast turkey moist and flavoursome, or the correct way to flambé your Christmas pudding? Well contrary to popular belief, this place exists. Gordon Ramsay presents Taste of Christmas is an exciting new food festival taking place at London’s Excel from the 4th – 7th December. The live event which celebrates the best in Christmas food, drink and entertaining, will be an opportunity to dine at top London restaurants as well as try your hands at everything from expert wine tasting to hands-on cookery demonstrations.

To get the festivities started, two of Gordon Ramsay’s Executive Chefs are available to answer all your Christmas questions. Jason Atherton from Maze and Stuart Gillies from Boxwood Café will equip you with the gastronomic know-how so that the cooking will be the least of your worries this Christmas.

As this is a live webchat you will be able to submit all your culinary questions in advance so why not log on and get in the Christmas spirit.

Jason Atherton and Stuart Gillies will be live online on Monday 3rd November at 11.30pm to discuss how you can have a delicious Christmas.

Click here to submit questions before the chat.

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Fiendish Pumpkin Cake

Sarah Cabral — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:30:05 +0000

Halloween has been celebrated for more than 2,000 years but today, it gives children the chance to dress up and take part in trick or treating. This cake is a really good way to use up all that pumpkin flesh you scoop out to make your lanterns.

Fiendish Pumpkin Cake
Serves 6-8

Ingredients

1.35kg (3lb) pumpkin or butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and diced
½tsp grated nutmeg
150g (5½oz) light brown sugar
1tsp salt
115g (4oz) desiccated coconut
397g can Carnation Condensed Milk
1tsp vanilla extract
55g (2oz) butter, melted
55g (2oz) raisins

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C, 375°F, Gas Mark 5.

In a large pan add the pumpkin and cook in boiling water for 20 minutes, or place in a large bowl and microwave on high with 3 tablespoons water for 10–15 minutes until soft. Mash and cool slightly.

Grease an 18cm x 25.5cm (7in x10in) rectangular baking dish. (I didn’t line the bottom of my tray with grease-proof paper and I wish I had, because I couldn’t get the cake out at the end!)

In a large bowl mix together the remaining ingredients and the cooked pumpkin.

Pour into a prepared dish and bake for 55-60 minutes until slightly brown and firm to the touch. Let it cool in the tin for 15-20 minutes (to finish setting) and then turn out.

Happy Halloween!

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Clearing up the food confusion

Sarah Cabral — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:30:38 +0000

Do you feel constantly bombarded with conflicting stories about what is or isn’t good for you? Well you are not alone. Two thirds of us are confused about which food and drinks are considered to be ‘healthy’ according to new research.

Red wine, tea, eggs, dairy products: are they good for you or bad? One week they are said to be good for us, the next they aren’t? Well 84% of us recall reading conflicting stories making claims for and against certain food and drinks.

We all want to know what the key is to a longer, healthier life and reducing the risks of major illnesses such as heart disease, while still enjoying what we eat and drink.

Dr Carrie Ruxton is the author of a comprehensive medical review published in this month’s British Food Journal that for the first time proves one food in particular can reduce cholesterol, one of the main causes of heart disease.

And now, Dr Ruxton is hosting an exclusive webchat in which she’ll be offering information and advice on how this inexpensive and accessible foodstuff can help you help your heart.

Dr Carrie Ruxton will be live online, on Friday 31st October at 3.00 pm to 3.20 pm to discuss the effectiveness of oats on preventing heart disease and will also be answering all your questions about diet and heart health.

Click here to submit questions before the chat

For more information visit www.weetabix.co.uk

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Autumn at River Cottage

Sarah Cabral — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 09:30:59 +0000

Last week saw the beginning of a new TV series from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall – River Cottage Autumn. The Sky+ messed up, so I missed the first episode, however, I did catch it this week and I liked it…I liked very much indeed!

The humble cauliflower, a vegetable I have to admit that I rarely buy, is made a star with a ‘Cheese Cauliflower’ – a wedge of deep fried smoked brie served with a creamy cauliflower sauce. It was so good that Hugh, a seasoned disliker of cauliflower, served it in the River Cottage Canteen on a special vegetarian night to celebrate the Autumn bounty.

Another dish destined for the vegetarian night, a ‘Speltotto‘ – a risotto made from pearled spelt, looked awesome and is one I must try. Having been introduced to spelt bread at the Real Food festival, I’m quite fascinated by this ancient grain, although it does contain gluten.

One of the Bristol smallholders is learning how to butcher a pig, something I would love to learn how to do properly – not only do you learn about all the different cuts of meat and what to do with them but you also learn that fantastic dishes can be made using the cheapest of cuts. The use of the ‘unpopular’ pork belly made me smile as in Portugal it’s a very popular cut of meat, prized for it’s juiciness and flavour and it’s used so much more than in the UK. The crackling on the roast, stuffed pork belly made my mouth water, it looked and sounded so appetising.

I love the way Hugh introduces us to cheaper, perhaps less fashionable foods that taste just as good as their more expensive counterparts. Take sea bass and black bream for example, the bream costs approximately a third of the price of bass, yet it cooks just as well and tastes so similar even the fisherman helping Hugh can’t tell the difference.

For me, the most interesting and exciting part of the programme was the feature on the Abundance project in Sheffield. A team of volunteers has found a way to harvest and make use of the local glut of apples, pears, figs, peaches and plums that are often left to rot where they fall

The Abundance crew gain permission to pick the fruit from people’s gardens, shopping centres, derelict land and other unlikely urban corners. The fruit is then redistributed to poorer areas of the community on a non-profit basis, with some of the apples being pressed into juice.

What a fantastic scheme! Do you have any schemes like this where you live? I have no idea whether there is anything like it in my area but I’m definitely going to find out!

After such an enlightening and mouth-watering episode, I can’t wait for the next one! Right, I’m off to download the first episode to see what I’ve missed!

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