My recent posts regarding processed food have caused some debate, all of which is very interesting and encouraging for me as a food writer.
I became friends with Mel some months back as a result of her contributing comments regarding this blog via my Facebook page. Her views are well informed and intelligent and as with any interaction, very much appreciated.
Regarding convenience foods Mel wrote: 'Convenience foods should be banned! Britain should leave the EU and stop being dictated to. Farmers should be allowed to farm without restrictions about produce being too short, too sparse, too yellow and our livestock too woolly, too tall, too fat, too feathery. I believe in supporting British produce, fresh produce and local farming, all of which have been hit hard since joining the EU and which has consequently seen the rise in convenience food simply because it's cheaper than fresh food.
Tony, another friend and ardent follower of this blog argues that family values such as sitting together and eating home cooked food has all but disappeared in Britain. Now living in Spain he writes: 'Here in Spain families stick to a diet of fresh produce, any decent Spaniard would turn their nose up at the processed ready meals British people eat (I can attest to that) and it isn't uncommon to see mothers walking along the street with a pot of stew to take to the family of their son or daughter for them all to eat together. He goes further to say: 'British people are too lily livered to stand up for themselves in the face of huge food corporations, lack of food education and cookery skills and being in the thrall of huge supermarket chains are what determine Britons relationship with food.'
There can be no doubt that Britain is influenced by America, the first Kentucky Fried Chicken opened here in 1965 followed by McDonald's in 1974 and of course the rise in supermarkets meant that during the sixties, Sainsbury's alone saw it's number of products increase from 2,000 to 4,000. Shockingly today there are over 30,000 food products in its aisles.
In the 1950s chicken was still a luxury because fattening a bird for meat was a time consuming, expensive process. Supermarkets encouraged intensive battery farming methods and by 1967 Britons were eating 200 million chickens a year. Today we buy 800 million chickens a year and discard 86 million!
At the end of the 1970s Marks and Spencer brought out the first chilled ready-meal, chicken kiev. Convenience soon became king and now, rather than shopping at our local butchers, grocers or bakers for perishables such as fresh meat, fish, vegetables and dairy products, we turn to ready-meals. Today Marks and Spencer churns out more than ten tonnes of chicken tikka masala every week.
Tony has a point regarding how other Europeans eat, we Brits re-heat our way through three times as many ready-meals as our European counterparts and by 1990 supermarkets accounted for eighty percent of all food sales in Britain. Shopping in the high street or at markets for fresh ingredients has vanished into the distant past.
As I commented in a recent post, according to research by the national farmers' union the UK will import half of its food by 2040 as agricultural output fails to keep up with our demands, not least our expectations for all-year-round availability of previously seasonal produce.
Convenience, cheapness and ignorance are mutually reinforcing, in the 1950s the average family spent a third of their income on food compared with 12 percent today, but whilst food is cheaper there are many frightful back stories of processing and intervention in our food chain that many people remain blissfully unaware of.
Not so, Mel, like myself Mel buys locally sourced produce predominantly from her local butchers and grocers, she wrote to me recently having just blanched a huge batch of vegetables and frozen them ready for use in the coming weeks. She also makes her own marinades, stocks and proper beef dripping. One of Mel's signature dishes is cottage pie (or Shepherds pie) but she had the ingenious idea of creaming potatoes, carrots and parsnips for the topping, a throwback to when she wanted her children to eat a variety of vegetables. As she said, any root vegetable will do, likewise, any combination of vegetables within the pie is a good way to help kids eat their 'five a day'. Cottage pie is simple, comforting and nutritious and all the more delicious with Mel's topping.
Mel's cottage pie
Recipe
500g grass fed minced beef
I large onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
2 celery sticks, finely sliced
2 leeks, trimmed and finely sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
400ml beef stock
2 tablespoons tomato puree mixed with 300ml boiled water
Salt and pepper
For the topping
1 kg potatoes, peeled and diced
2 parsnips, peeled and diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
75g butter
4 tablespoons milk
Heat olive oil in a large frying pan
Fry onion, garlic, celery and leeks over a medium heat until soft and translucent
Add mince and fry until golden
Add stock and tomato puree, season and simmer for 30 minutes
Meanwhile, boil potatoes, parsnips and carrots until soft
Heat oven to 190c/gas mark 5
Spoon mince mixture into a casserole dish
Drain potatoes, parsnips and carrots, mash with butter and milk, season
Top mince mixture with mash and bake for 30 minutes
Pulses and lentils are another tasty alternative to fill your pie along with your meat and vegetables, they will make your ingredients stretch further making it even more economical!
'A farmer friend of mine told me recently about a busload of school children who came to his farm for a tour. The first two boys off the bus asked: 'Where do you grow salsa?' They thought they could go and gather salsa like gathering apples or peaches. Oh my, what do they put on SAT tests to measure this? Does anybody care? How little can a person know about food and still make educated decisions about it? Is this going to change before they enter the voting booth?'
- Joel Salatin: 'Folks, this aint normal: A farmer's advice for happier hens, healthier people and a better world.
Love Donna xxxxxxxx
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