My Masterchef

Like mother, like son, Bert taking photos of a dish he had in French Restaurant Pastis.

They say that parents directly or indirectly influence their children's food preferences and that from the time solid foods are introduced, children's food preferences are developed. 

Bert and I recently discussed this over a delicious lunch which he had prepared for us both. Maybe it was the fact that for the first eight years of Bert's life, when I was a single mum, I didn't cook separate meals for he and I, consequently Bert ate what I ate. Being on a budget meant we subsisted on lots of pasta dishes with homemade sauces made with fresh vegetables, garlic and herbs, I wouldn't have conceived of buying anything ready made as it wouldn't have been cost effective. Turkey dinosaurs, oven chips, McDonald's and even shop bought pizza were never part of Bert's diet, unless he went to a friends house for tea.

I also involved Bert from a young age in helping in the kitchen, simple tasks like stirring and pouring and baking cakes meant he became connected to the food he was eating. Consequently, he was one of only two boys in his class who chose food technology as a subject at senior school, at which he thrived.

When Bert was very young I hosted foreign students as a means of income and very often received kind letters from the children's parents remarking on how well their children had been fed, apparently quite often not the case amongst other students. I prided myself on cooking homemade nutrious meals on a budget. 

When Bert was a teenager he dabbled with junk food, he went through a fast food phase, but I think it's true to say, when you have been brought up on quality food, not food doused in artificial flavour enhancers but real 'flavours', you crave quality in the same way junk food eaters crave junk.

I think food also defines friendships, like myself, Bert is drawn to people who see food as a means of socialising, we are not of the eat to live brigade, we live to eat. Bert has no interest in sitting in a crowded fast food restaurant and necking a burger in quick speed time, any more than I do, we don't see food as a pit stop, the more leisurely and sociable the meal, the better. 

On his recent travels Bert and his like minded friends sampled some delicious dishes

                                                      Foie gras, not to everyone's taste!

                                                                    Carparccio beef

                                                               Duck confit

                                                                    Rack of lamb

Bert quite often buys ingredients and rustles up delicious meals for us, and for me, more important than his culinary skills, is the fact that he takes the time and care to cook us a meal. For centuries mothers have prepared food for their families as an act of love, we can all relate to simple dishes like boiled egg and soldiers or chicken soup being lovingly served to us by our mums when we have been unwell and the comfort these gave us, cooking is an act of love. Bert surprised me with this delicious lunch of beech and oak Scottish smoked salmon on toasted bagels topped with poached eggs and homemade Bearnaise sauce, the flavours were sublime.

Smoked salmon bagels

Recipe

100g responsibly sourced smoked salmon

4 free range eggs

2 bagels

Bearnaise sauce

1tbsp white wine vinegar 

1 tbsp water

3 black peppercorns

1tbsp chopped tarragon, fresh tarragon is preferably but you can use dried

1 large egg yolk

75g butter, melted

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Place the vinegar, water, peppercorns and tarragon into a small saucepan over a medium heat and simmer until you have half a tablespoon of liquid remaining

Remove peppercorns and set aside

Place egg yolk and vinegar reduction into a food processor and blend until light and frothy

With the food processor still running on its slowest speed, add the melted butter, 1 spoonful at a time, until the sauce is thick and smooth

season to taste

Place thin slices of smoked salmon on toasted bagels

         Bert drizzled balsamic vinegar on the plates which was a delicious accompaniment

Add poached eggs and Bearnaise sauce

And enjoy! 

                          

                                        Bert (behind) with some of his foodie friends

'Food is for eating and good food is to be enjoyed.......I think food is, actually, very beautiful in itself.'

- Delia Smith. 

Love Donna xxxxxxxx

Cockney Eel, Pie And Mash.

                                                 My article for Shorelines newspaper

I became very excited about visiting The Pie & Vinyl, a restaurant I had chosen to review for Shorelines newspaper, because as the name suggests, it is a pie shop.

As a Londoner I have a strong connection with pie and mash shops, before we were awash with fast food restaurants and takeaways, pie and mash shops were where the working class went to eat out. Eel pie became a popular poor mans food in the Victorian era. During that time eels were one of the few fish that could survive in the heavily polluted Thames, thus they were in plentiful supply. Eel pie, eventually teamed with mashed potatoes, became a London cockney favourite and pie and mash shops were prevalent all across London.

By the time I was a child and regularly being taken for pie and mash on a Saturday by my uncle Bert, the eel pie filling had been replaced by minced beef and onion, however, eel liquor was still very much a component of the dish and a crucial part of the meal, water used for stewing eels was flavoured with parsley, hence the green flecked sauce.

Pie and mash shops in London today are still mostly housed in Victorian buildings and have been passed down through families such as: the Cookes, Manzes, Goddards and Kellys. Whenever I'm in London I try to go to Goddards traditional pie and mash shop in Greenwich south east London to get my 'fix'. Goddards have been serving pie and mash in London for over 125 years and still stick to traditional recipes passed down from their great grandparents.

                                            Goddards pie and mash shop Greenwich

The Pie & Vinyl in Southsea is primarily a record store owned by two guys who felt there was a gap in the market with independent record stores all but disappearing. The link with pie and mash came from attending music festivals, where companies such as Pieminister are proving very popular among those in attendance. I enjoyed my pie mash and liquor and the general ambience of the restaurant, it was great to see so many young people tucking into this old fashioned dish.

                                   My steak and Guinness pie, mash, mushy peas and liquor

Now, as most of my readers know, I am the queen of hotchpotch dinners, I waste nothing, therefore (often to my families exasperation) I can produce some interesting combinations. We are very lucky in that we have a superb local Indian restaurant which we use quite regularly, more often than not ending up with leftovers. One evening I decided to put some leftover chicken dhansak and sag chana in some leftover pastry, it made a delicious pie. I now quite often deliberately order an extra dish from our Indian, be it chicken or vegetables and make a pie. I still love to make traditional steak and mince and onion pies, but as a cheat, for quickness and ease, this is a great alternative.

Cheats pie

Recipe
2 x 500g pack puff pastry
Pre-cooked chicken or vegetable curry
I egg, beaten

Preheat oven 220c/ gas 7
On a floured surface, roll 1 pack of pastry to the thickness of two £1 coins

Place filling in the middle

Roll out second sheet of pastry to the same thickness and place on top

Press ends together with a fork
Brush with egg to glaze
Place on an oiled baking tray
Bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is risen and dark golden brown

Serve immediately.

'It could be argued that there is an element of entertainment in every pie, as every pie is inherently a surprise by virtue of its crust.'
- Janet Clarkson

The above quote is certainly true of my pies!
Love Donna xxxxxxxx

English, A Foreign Language In London?

                              A stunning flamenco dancer performing at La Herradura Spain.

As many readers will already know, many years ago I worked in Fortnum and Mason and defied all protocol regarding celebrity customers by continuously ingratiating myself upon those I was particularly starstruck by.

I was only a snip of a girl and most of the celebrities were really kind and accommodating. I often snuck into the soda fountain where Adam Faith famously did all his business from the corner table, I was on first name terms with Adam and met many stars at his 'desk' including the gorgeous Terence Stamp, who gave me a lovely leaving card in which he wrote 'See you in Harrods' a sweet thing to do.

Now I see that Stamp has caused a bit of a furore by lamenting what he seems to think is a lack of integration among some immigrants. In a provocative outburst Stamp has said: 'It is very sad how few English people there are in London now, you can barely get by speaking our own language. It's changed so much in such a short space of time, that God knows what London will be like in another decade or so. I do think a multicultural society can be a good thing, but when it's at the cost of your own culture and history, then it's gone too far and it would be very sad if London stopped being predominantly English.'

No doubt Stamp's comments will incur the wrath of the politically correct, heaven forfend anyone who makes claims regarding our history or culture, patriotism is so passe darling! But having lived and worked in London 30 odd years ago, I too lament the drastic changes to our capital city.

Fiercely protective of their heritage, I have come to admire the Spanish people I now share periods of my life with. There was a mass exodus of Brits to Spain during the mid-nineties, but did they drop their traditions, religions, heritage and culture like a sack of hot potatoes just to accommodate us? You bet your life they didn't. Most Brits, as with many immigrants, tended to flock together in British enclaves, urbanisations were built for foreigners and were cut off from real local life.

When buying in Spain, my partner and I wanted to integrate with our local Spanish community, we have always observed and respected their culture, we didn't hanker after karaoke nights or John Smiths on tap, we didn't expect to eat Fish and Chips or McDonald's, in fact, as readers will know, I ceased being a vegetarian because it was impossible to go to a Spanish restaurant or a neighbours home to eat without offending someone with my dietary requirements, as they say: 'when in Rome.'

When my grandfather moved to England from his small village in Italy, he was like a lost sheep, but he soon found an area in london's Waterloo that he referred to as 'little Italy' he bought his restaurant there and as a child I remember the strong Italian community surrounding my grandparents. Within a couple of miles radius of St Patrick's Catholic Church, my grandfather, aunt Mary and uncle Chic all had Italian restaurants.

                                 The Italian side of the family to the right of my mother.

It was a case of never the twain shall meet between my culturally different English (on my fathers side) and Italian relatives. Although everyone rubbed along there was still an element of people sticking to their own.

Terence Stamp laments: 'I see these mums wandering around with their prams and four out of five of them have these scarves wrapped around their heads, I feel it's not like London anymore.'

For a Christian country that boasts feminism and gay rights, the hijab is an alien concept for many people. There are now calls from the government that Muslims in Britain must feel and act more British, most of the 2.7 million Muslims living here are British citizens and it has been recognised that we all need to promote a much stronger sense of a British identity so as to undermine hardline Islamism, which has no place in a Christian country, and prevent segregation and social division.

We only need to look at how, of the 760,000 Britons who moved to Spain, mostly segregating themselves in their plastic paradises, 90,000 expats returned to Britain in the past year alone. Multiculturalism doesn't work without an understanding and acceptance of peoples backgrounds and cultures and a willingness to embrace the country you choose to call home.

Personally, being half Italian and living in Spain for several weeks of the year, I am in favour of multiculturalism, however, I agree with Stamp that we should hold dear our culture and history and retain our identity in our own country, and like the Spaniards, be proud of our nationality and never succumb to intimidation.

One of my favourite restaurants In Spain is La Herradura, a beautiful building swamped in history, dating back to the early 1880's it is representative of traditional Spanish architecture. The flamenco dancing, singing and guitar is a fusion of contemporary and traditional and is truly captivating, it makes me feel the true Andulusian flamenco running through my veins. The food is traditional and I recently had roasted quail which is a lovely fine, soft meat which soaks up seasonings for a delicious aromatic roast.

Roasted quail

Recipe
4 whole quails
1 small lemon, cut into quarters
4 cloves of garlic, bruised
1 sprig of fresh thyme, leaves picked
1 sprig of fresh rosemary, leaves picked
A splash of white wine
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven 200c/gas mark 6
Spread butter over quails

Divide herbs, lemon and garlic among the cavities of the quails
Season, add wine and place in the oven, roast for 35 minutes
Remove from oven and rest for 10 minutes

Serve quails with juices, fresh vegetables and roasted potatoes.

'The deal with multiculturalism is that the only culture you're allowed to disapprove of is your own.'
- Martin Amis.

Love Donna xxxxxxxxxxx

Going Potty?

                                                               Pot noodle


Regular readers will know that I enjoy watching programmes such as Big Brother and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. Many years ago I flirted with human psychology and people studying has always fascinated me.

In both programmes, the participation of tasks are food related and it becomes apparent, very quickly, how affected people are psychologically by their diet. In the recent Big Brother house, contestants have become irascible when deprived of a luxury diet, not so much because they are going hungry, the ration diet is substantial enough, but because they are craving the sugar and fat content that they have become overly dependant on.

When the contestants are rewarded with McDonald's and Kentucky Fried Chicken, they stuff their faces as if they were ravenous. This is because fast food can be as addictive as heroin according to scientific research, and the contestants are getting their much needed 'fix'.

I have noticed that whenever the contestants have a luxury shopping budget, pot noodles appear on the store room shelves. This brand of instant noodle snack food, consisting of a dehydrated mixture of dried vegetables, noodles and ingredients such as potassium chloride, disodium inosinate and sodium carbonate to name but a few, was launched in 1977 (we were niave and impressionable back then with all the new food fads) but unbelievably it is still going strong with 175 million pots being produced each year.

 As with all over processed food, pot noodle has no nutritional value, it will cause your blood sugar to peak and then plunge, creating a desire for another snack, hence why people who don't necessarily eat vast quantities of food, yet eat the wrong types of food, continuously battle with their weight. These nutrition free foods are full of empty calories and given that it takes 122 minutes of walking to burn off around 400 calories (a McDonald's sausage and egg McMuffin contains 440 calories) it's easy to see why we have a obesity epidemic.

Experiments have found that rats fed on a diet containing 25 per cent of sugar are thrown into a state of anxiety when the sugar is removed, in some experiments rats chose sugar over cocaine even when they were addicted to cocaine.

There seems to be a correlation between this relatively new phenomena of child behavioural problems and our diet. Foods high in sugar are claimed to exacerbate hyperactivity and increase anxiety and aggressive behaviour. We have come to expect as the norm, children having meltdowns, tantrums and sleeping disorders, something that was a rarity thirty years ago. Porridge for breakfast has been replaced with sugary cereals and I have seen children's packed lunches containing 2 yoghurts, dried fruit snacks, crisps and soft drinks, the sugar in these foodstuffs is quickly digested into glucose, which can then make the neurons in the brain go haywire and cause children to manifest disruptive behaviour.

And so, I come back to the dreaded pot noodle. Seriously, it's not that hard to put a few vegetables and a pack of noodles in a wok, you can make a large vat of them and keep them for 3-4 days in an airtight container in the fridge and eat them at your leisure.

Simple pot noodle

Recipe
2 sachets microwavable frozen vegetables
1 packet ready cooked noodles
A splash of soy sauce

Simply microwave vegetable sachets according to packet instructions
Add oil to a wok and heat, add noodles and vegetables with a splash of soy sauce, stir well and cook for 2 minutes

For a more adventurous dish, fry leeks or shallots, beansprouts and spring onions, add noodles and soy sauce, add chilli for spice or chopped herbs such as coriander. I like to sprinkle crushed peanuts on top and sometimes add cooked prawns or chicken, the possibilities are endless

'While it is true that many people simply can't afford to pay more for food, either in money or time or both, many of us can. After all, just in the last decade or two we've somehow found the time to spend several hours a day on the Internet and the money in the budget to pay for broadband service. For the majority of us, spending more for better food is less a matter of ability than priority.'
- Michael Pollan.

Love Donna xxxxxxxxx

That Sugar Film

I don't like to get all preachy when writing my posts but it does amaze me that we have become so insouciant regarding our diets.

Actor and director Damian Gameau took part in an experiment which has been made into a film called: That Sugar Film, and I would urge you to visit the website thatsugarfilm.com to see what happened to his body, and effectively, what's happening to ours.

Gameau, a healthy thirty something became a human lab rat and spent 60 days eating sugar-laden foods, but here's the rub, he wasn't allowed to consume any soft drinks, chocolate, ice cream or any confections. However, he existed on a diet of foods marketed as 'healthy foods' such as low fat yoghurt, muesli bars, fresh juices, cereals and low fat ready meals, all of which are actually laden with hidden sugars.

The toll on his health was swift and severe, within 3 weeks, he developed fatty liver disease and as the experiment progressed, early type 2 diabetes, heart disease risk and 11 centimetres of extra girth around his midriff, not to mention violent mood swings and an unwavering craving for more and more sugar!

The film is a cautionary tale about our ignorance regarding the sugar content in everyday food products and the health problems that high sugar content creates. The food industry makes deliberate efforts to obfuscate the sugar content in various products because it's big business and successive governments have bowed to the food industry because financial gain is more important than the general publics well being. Consequently we have all become alarmingly addicted to highly processed foods.

Where once we cooked from scratch, we now rely on prepared and ready made. Some of the worst offenders on the supermarket shelves are rather innocuous sounding products such as low fat salad dressings, ready-made pasta sauces and soups, 'healthy' breakfast cereals and bars, low fat yoghurts and smoothies.

A pasta sauce should contain simple ingredients such as freshly chopped tomatoes, olive oil, garlic, fresh basil and seasoning, however, many bottled pasta sauces have between 6 and 12 grams of sugar per serving!

If we stop to think about the hidden sugars contained in our everyday so-called healthy foods and combine those with the 'treats' we allow ourselves, a couple of biscuits here, a slice of cake there, it's safe to say we're all playing fast and loose with our health.

Whenever I spend time in Spain, as I have recently, I feel energised by the simple diet of fresh salad dressed only in olive oil, grilled fish, homemade soups, grilled vegetables and meat. Spaniards don't smother their food in sugar laden ketchup or mayonnaise (low fat mayonnaise can contain a full teaspoon of sugar per tablespoon of mayonnaise!)

We now have an obesity epidemic in Britain and frighteningly (for a supposedly advanced country) more than 135 people undergo an amputation every week due to diabetes. This number has increased by 17 per cent in the last five years alone. Every time we open a bottle, tin or packet, rather than using raw ingredients, we are adding more sugar to our bodies. Interestingly, most Mediterraneans eat more than the average Brit yet remain slimmer and healthier. We can no longer afford to ignore the dangers of our diet, this is not 'another person's problem' the reality is, it could be you or I, or worse still, one of our children, who suffers the devastating effects of a poor diet.

There is nothing more visually appealing than a plate of grilled mixed vegetables, especially if you are using a variety of colours, mixed peppers, courgettes, aubergines, mixed tomatoes and onions, and the flavours are fresh and delicious, all that is needed are a few chopped basil and mint leaves scattered on top and a sprinkling of sea salt and freshly ground pepper, you can even scatter some grated parmesan cheese on top for extra flavour.  Whilst in Spain I ate this dish regularly and when I returned home my first lunch was simply some grilled courgettes, onions, garlic and chillies....simple, sugar free and delicious.

Grilled vegetables

Recipe
You can use any vegetables as mentioned above, slice into equal sizes
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A few basil leaves, roughly chopped (optional)
A few mint leaves, roughly chopped (optional)
Chilli flakes (optional)
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Cut vegetables such as courgettes and aubergines lengthways into slices

Peel onions and cut into 4 fairly thick slices
Peppers should be de seeded and sliced, if using large tomatoes, slice, I prefer to use cherry tomatoes and leave them whole
Place vegetables on a lightly oiled tray and put under a hot grill for 5 minutes each side until tender and slightly charred at the edges
Arrange on a plate, drizzle a little olive oil on top, sprinkle with salt and pepper and garnish with your favourite herbs

                                My simple dish of courgettes, onions, garlic and chillies

'About eighty per cent of the food on shelves in supermarkets today didn't exist 100 years ago.'
- Larry McCleary

Love Donna xxxxxxxxxx

A Day Of Rest.

                                        The church of our lady of Bethlehem in Jacarilla Spain

I have just returned from another glorious and restful two weeks in my Spanish home in Jacarilla. At a time when shops in England and Wales could be allowed to open for longer on Sundays, which will see us scurrying ever more frantically from workplace to shopping centre every waking hour, the gap between life in rural Spain and Britain could not be more disparate. 

In most villages across Spain, shops shut on Saturday afternoon and don't reopen until Monday. After siesta, church bells will peal, calling the community to mass and at around 10pm families will gather in restaurants and bars to eat and socialise together. On Sunday morning the church bells chime again for those who didn't attend Saturday evening mass and after church, dressed in their Sunday best, again, families will gather in large groups for a long and leisurely lunch. 

Sunday is a day of rest, a time to be with their families and to practice their faith. A deep quiet descends upon rural villages such as Jacarilla, everything apart from restaurants and bars are closed and the beauty of it is, that everyone is resting from work and routine collectively, a day of rest shared in the company of friends and family is an entirely different thing to 'having a day off' on ones own, a time when people can share a sense of unhurried peace and relaxation. 

We in Britain have lost the sense of gathering as invariably someone in our circle will be working on a Sunday. Gone are the days of my childhood when cities became ghost towns and families stayed at home to eat roast lunches and take afternoon naps before visiting relatives for tea. Consumerism, commercialisation, greed and globalisation have all but wiped out any 'day of rest' and as journalist Peter Hitchens succinctly expressed in a recent article: 'A world without a proper day of rest is like a landscape without hedgerows, trees or landmarks, a howling, featureless wilderness in which we incessantly seek pleasure because we cannot find happiness.'

                       A very good depiction of modern Britain where life is profit and toil.

Spanish eating customs and cuisine are as legendary as other much loved traditions such as religion, fiestas and other social gatherings which are all still held very dear by the people. Yet again on this visit I sampled various delicious meals in village restaurants ranging from peasant food to a more modern twist on dishes. One of my favourite meals was prawn carpaccio which I shall be preparing very soon.

Prawn carpaccio

Recipe

1.2 kg uncooked, fresh large prawns

Juice and thinly peeled rind of 1 lime

Cayenne pepper

Sea salt

Good quality, extra virgin olive oil

Slice prawns very thinly lengthways and arrange on a serving plate

Cut lime rind into julienne, scatter over prawns

Squeeze lime juice over prawns, sprinkle with sea salt and cayenne pepper

Drizzle with a little oil and serve

In many ancient cultures people didn't see their thoughts as belonging to them, for example, the ancient Greeks believed that if they had a thought, it occurred to them as a god or goddess giving an order. Apollo was telling them to be brave, Athena was telling them to fall in love. In our current society, people watch an advert or read the glossy magazines for the latest fads and rush out to buy, but we call this free will.

'I was part of that strange race of people aptly described as spending their lives doing things they detest, to make money to buy things they don't need, to impress people they don't like.'

-Emile Gauvreau.

Love Donna xxxxxxxx