Frozen

You know interestingly quite often the debate about cooking from scratch, especially regarding using free range and organic products is a financial question. However, research has shown that it's actually a time question, as in people are willing to spend money on ready meals and takeaways because they don't have the time for preparing and cooking real food.

There is a certain amount of snobbery in the foodie world surrounding frozen food and whilst I advocate using as many organic products as possible, I have realised that eating sustainably is often deemed unaffordable by many.

Not everyone can afford, nor has the time, to shop at a farmer's market or farmer's shop, however, there is the option of frozen vegetables. Frozen vegetables are great value, nutritious and available all year. Fresh vegetables can lose up to 45 per cent of important nutrients by the time they've reached your plate, time spent in storage, transportation and sitting on supermarket shelves means it can be more than two weeks from vegetables being picked to eaten. By contrast, produce frozen close to the point of harvest maintain a higher level of many vitamins and nutrients.

Forget big fancy recipes, (we value watching cooking programmes more than we value cooking) with frozen vegetables and some basic store cupboard ingredients anyone can cook from scratch!

The art of cooking everyday meals is to 'simplify', food writer Michael Pollan says: 'I always have frozen spinach and a tin of wild salmon and pasta in my cupboard. Cook the pasta, saute the spinach, combine the three, season and there you have a delicious homemade meal in 20 minutes.'

Frozen mixed vegetables with a simple cheese sauce makes a delicious dinner from oven to table in 40 minutes

One of my favourite frozen ingredients is mashed potatoes, if you have leftover meat, combine with frozen mixed vegetables and top with frozen mash and hey presto you have a delicious homemade Shepherds pie within 30 minutes.

Simply stir fry a mixed bag of frozen vegetables with peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar and olive oil and within minutes you'll have a nutritious Chinese stir fry.

With the cold nights drawing in there's little more comforting than a hearty minestrone, put frozen sliced onions, frozen carrots, frozen broad beans, frozen spinach and frozen peas in a large pan with a tin of borlotti beans, all the spare packet ends of pasta lying around in your cupboard, a couple of stock cubes, seasoning and water, simmer for 30 minutes and you have a cheap, nutritious homemade meal.

When you cook a roast chicken don't forget to make a stock by simmering the carcass, you can freeze the stock in batches and add it to frozen vegetables to make delicious soups.

And here are some freezer tips to make your food go further:
Cook bacon that needs using up, cut it up and freeze, these crispy bacon bits can be added to soups.
Odd bits of cheese languishing in the fridge? Grate and bag it up in portions and freeze, ideal for using in a cheese sauce.
Freeze soon to expire yogurts for a healthy alternative to ice cream.
Over ripe bananas sliced, spread on a tray and frozen make a great banana ice cream when blitzed with some honey or sugar
Chop tomatoes that are past their best, put them in a bag and freeze to use in soups, stews or pasta sauces.

'My mother was making $135 a week, but she had resilience and imagination. She might take frozen vegetables, cook them with garlic and onion and spam, and it would taste like a four-star dinner.'
- Andre Dubus

Love Donna xxxxxxxxx

Be Careful What You Wish For

                                           Martin Shelley, editor of Shorelines, and myself

As you already know if you have read my post: A great new publication, I have embarked upon a journey writing for a new paper alongside editor Martin Shelley. Whilst I shall predominantly be writing food related articles, (my second assignment saw me dining in a premiere restaurant,) I have varied interests that I feel sure will be of interest to readers regarding local news.

Fate is a funny old thing, I thought I'd found my destiny when I started working in special needs education, I loved the children and miss them everyday. However, writing has always been my first love, and to be able to do it as more than a hobby is like winning the lottery.

When I see young people on reality TV shows such as the X Factor claiming (at 16-25 years of age) that they've wanted this all their lives, they're destined for this, that they can't go back to ordinary lives.....I cringe somewhat. We all have dreams and I am a great believer in pursuing them, however, as Maya Angelou once quoted: 'You may encounter defeats, in fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are.'

We are living in a have it all society but as they say: 'There's nothing worse than having everything just to realise you have nothing.' Whilst I believe you are never given a dream without also being given the power to make it come true, I do believe you may have to work for it.

I read a very sad article recently regarding one of my favourite journalists Jaci Stephen. Jaci had the career I wanted, working since 1984 as a journalist and broadcaster and as a film and TV critic. I loved Jaci's style, waspishly witty she was living a high profile, well paid lifestyle which was very enviable. Like me, Jaci came from a normal working class background, we are only five years apart in age and share the same sense of humour. But from humble beginnings Jaci clawed her way up the Fleet Street ladder and fought her way on to TV.

At the age of 29 Jaci owned a property in Belsize Park, london, her career took her all over the world from private yachts to eating regularly at the private members' club, The Groucho, where her spending began to take on a life of its own and invariably she'd pick up the tab for all of her friends.

Interestingly Jaci spoke of the highs she got from spending money, she said: 'If I went out to buy a £60 keyboard I'd come home with a £3,000 Clavinova piano. I rented a box at Cardiff Arms Park rugby stadium, and in addition to the £13,000 it cost a year, I paid for all my guests food and drink and every week met with a bill of around £400. I rented apartments in Paris and Spain, I showered people with gifts, holidays and cash, I frittered away more than £1 million with nothing to show for it.'

Jaci studied hard and worked hard, but fame came to her at a young age and catapulted her into a life which spiralled out of control. Jaci says: 'loneliness is something I have never chosen.' Yet having lived the high profile lifestyle, loneliness is something she has never been able to escape from, 'My lifestyle and spending became a means of treating my loneliness.'

It's a cautionary tale for the younger celebrity craving generation who want to clone themselves to fame, Jim Carrey once quoted: 'I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see it's not the answer.'

Looking back on my younger self, when I aspired to be a writer, I realise I wasn't ready and had many life lessons to learn, they say that God's gifts put man's best dreams to shame and I think it's true, sometimes we can't see the woods for the trees in terms of how lucky we are. Wealth is like sea water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; and the same is true of fame.

My heart goes out to Jaci who has lost her last bastion of security, her home in Cardiff. Being without security and money, with no loving partner or children seems a very high price to have paid, Jaci still has her fantastic writing ability and the support, comfort and reassurance from her family and I wish her well.

On that note, I'm off to my conservatory to write an article for Shorelines, for which I shall never be rich or famous..........thankfully!

'I've always been famous, it's just no one knew it yet.'
- Lady Gaga

Love Donna xxxxxxxxx

Pumpkin Pie And Pyrotechnics

                                                                     Sparkling Alfie

Well, with Halloween done and dusted and possibly firework night? Who can tell, firework night seems to start the weekend prior to November 5th, which this year was on a Wednesday, and carries on randomly............just when you think, well it's Tuesday the 11th of November, absolutely nothing to do with Guy Fawkes and not even a weekend, someone will go into their garden and start letting off rockets?

I mean to say, it's all about Christmas now! The adverts have premiered, the supermarkets are churning out piped Christmas carols, the uninspired gift boxes and novelty socks are fighting for precedence on the supermarket shelves, fireworks are so yesterday!

Up until recent years firework night was an annual commemoration observed on the 5 November. Weeks before the event schoolchildren made Guys and would congregate on street corners, accompanied by their effigy of Guy Fawkes, calling 'penny for the Guy.' The money they collected went towards fireworks, a much anticipated, one off night of excitement. The modern celebration which sees rockets go higher and burn with more colour, has less and less to do with the memories of the fifth of November.

I went to my friend Jenny's on Saturday (8th November, forgivable I feel) for her family bonfire party. Jenny's youngest, Alfie aged seven, was very excited, he'd made a guy for the bonfire, his dad had a shed full of fireworks and his mum had cooked up all sorts of goodies for us all to eat.

We all huddled around the bonfire, keeping a safe distance from Dave, head of the pyrotechnic department, adults with large steaming glasses of Gluhwein and children with hot chocolate.

                       Jenny warms her Gluhwein in a slow cooker with star anise and oranges.

Mid fireworks we all went inside to eat, Jenny had two more slow cookers on the go, one with a delicious chicken curry, the other with meltingly soft pulled pork.

And for dessert........well naturally, pumpkin pie! We Brits have never really got pumpkin pie, the idea of something so vegetal for dessert freaks us out! Yet this Thanksgiving classic, not too dissimilar to egg custard tart, is delicious and incredibly easy to make. I have made the tart using butternut squash and I imagine sweet potato would work just as well? I use double cream in my recipe but some recipes suggest condensed milk, I forgot to ask Jenny which recipe she followed, all I know is, it was utterly scrumptious!

Pumpkin pie

Recipe
1 packet ready made sweet shortcrust pastry
450g pumpkin flesh, cut into 1in chunks
2 large free range eggs plus 1 yolk
75g soft dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of each of the following: ground all spice, ground cloves, ground ginger
275ml double cream

Preheat oven 200c/gas 6
Roll out pastry, 1 1/2 in deep and line a a pie dish with pastry
Bake pastry case blind for 20 minutes
Roast pumpkin chunks on a baking tray covered with foil for 20-30 minutes until tender
When cool, blend in a food processor or mash by hand to a puree
Lightly whisk eggs and yolk in a large bowl
Place sugar, spices and cream in a pan, bring to simmering point
Stir to mix everything thoroughly, remove from heat and pour over eggs and whisk
Add pumpkin puree, still whisking
Reduce oven 180c/gas 4
Pour filling into pastry case and bake for 35-40 minutes

Serve warm with cream or ice cream, alternatively this is delicious when chilled.

'Don't you remember,
The fifth of November,
Twas gunpowder treason day,
I let off my gun,
And made'em all run,
And stole all their bonfire away.'
(1742)

Love Donna xxxxxxxxx

Fresh Fish Friday

I know that for many people the above photo will be repugnant! A good proportion of the population don't eat fish (unless it's disguised in batter) the biggest turnoff, according to surveys, is eating fish with their heads on and eyes still intact.

We are apparently nervous about buying and cooking fish and seafood, a third of us has never eaten oysters and one in ten of us won't eat fish whatsoever!

Fish, especially oily fish, is rich in omega 3 oils which are important for good heart health and other conditions ranging from cancer to arthritis. In European countries such as France and Spain fish and seafood are part of a regular diet, heads and eyes don't deter diners, however, Mediterranean's seem to be better connected to the source of their fish and meat and eat less industrialised, processed food which may be easier on the eye but detrimental to the health.

Ironically I was once a vegetarian who couldn't bear the thought of eating meat or fish! However, now that I do, I want to eat free range, organic produce, I want to see raw ingredients not processed food doused in chemicals!

Recently a friend went on a fishing holiday and contacted me to say he would be delivering a wild caught trout to my door! Wild caught trout is superior to farmed trout, however, a licence is required and it is illegal to sell or market wild caught trout, which are classified as game fish. Nevertheless, I was rather apprehensive as normally my fishmonger deals with the gory intricacies and I wasn't sure that I would cope with a headed, starring eyed, full bodied fishy!

Luckily the trout had been gutted......sigh of relief, and trout, once cleaned, can be cooked without scaling, skinning or filleting. If cooked with the skin on the meat tends to hold together better.

Trout has tender flesh and a mild flavour, although wild fish has a stronger meatier flavour. Quite simply this fish is delicious stuffed with herbs and butter and baked. Coincidentally, last nights episode of masterchef featured trout, chef John Torode filleted a whole trout and served it with a beurre blanc-a butter sauce with a white wine reduction-and pork crackling, (think scallops and bacon) another delicious take on this beautiful fish.

Baked stuffed trout

Recipe
1 whole fresh trout
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
Fresh parsley
Thyme, dried, fresh or concentrated
Large knob butter
Olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely sliced

Preheat oven 180c/gas 4
Stuff cavity of fish with garlic, onion and herbs

Cut butter into pieces and dot on fish

Season fish with salt and pepper and wrap in tin foil, place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 30 minutes

When the fish is cooked the bone can be easily removed, the meat will fall away from the skin

I served the trout with potato salad

                                             Fry 2 anchovies in a little olive oil

                          Add some cooked potatoes a knob of butter and fresh parsley

                                       Season and roughly mash the potatoes

   Place trout and potatoes on plate and dress with mayonnaise and cayenne, I added
   Carrot balls

'.......no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing.'
-Julia Child

Love Donna xxxxxxxx

Addicted To Junk

                                                    'If it came from a plant, eat it.
                                                     If it was manufactured in a plant, don't.'
                                                     -Michael Pollan

You'll have got the gist of how I feel about food by now! I know I tend to reiterate the same things, eg my concerns about processed food, food waste, the way we feed our children, our hectic lifestyles and the impact this has on the way we eat, animal welfare and the immorality of the food industry.

Food isn't just fuel, we aren't neanderthals eating purely to survive. Food is at the heart of society, we are universally connected to each other through food and it brings people together on many different levels.

However, food and our relationship with it has changed drastically in recent years. A report published last week stated that almost 30 per cent of British girls and 26 per cent of boys are overweight. Children and young adults who should be at their peak of fitness are obese, and there has been a marked increase in obesity rates over the past eight years.

If we had a national crisis that were anything other than obesity, drastic measures would have been taken long ago. If a third of our children had been struck down with a virus for example, the Government would have declared a national emergency!

But the food industry is a huge money making corporation which has had successive Governments in their pockets. The Government won't take on the people responsible for this catastrophe: the food industry and by not doing so are equally culpable.

We blame children for over eating and being less active yet we willingly feed our children food that is adulterated, modified and stuffed with chemicals that mess up their body chemistry. Intensively farmed animals full of antibiotics, growth hormones and steroids to keep costs down and profits up! Cheap grains and starches, full of sugar and scant on nutrition are pumped into everyday foods, kids really don't stand a chance.

Unfortunately as parents we too are culpable, we have eschewed cooking from scratch for convenience food, half of six to eight year olds polled recently said their parents fed them take away or microwave meals at least three times a week.

Children don't seem to be fed simple, nutritious meals anymore, beans on wholemeal toast, jacket potatoes with tuna and sweetcorn, free range eggs, scrambled or made into a vegetable omelette, grilled tomatoes on toast, simple homemade pasta dishes......these were all staples in my childhood diet with fish fingers as a rare treat.
We ply our children with burgers, pizzas, chicken nuggets, oven chips and other processed food and then wonder about the obesity epidemic and the increase in behavioural problems.

In the 70s vegetable curry was a common meal, my mother made it and it also featured on the school dinner menu, this dish was a basic combination of vegetables with curry powder and stock to which sultanas and apple were added. It wasn't spicy, in fact due to the fruit it was quite sweet. This next dish is a 'curry' but it isn't spicy, it is however, nutritious, healthy and very simple to make.

Lentil and okra dhal with paneer cheese

Recipe
1 onion, peeled and chopped
4 ladies fingers/okra, sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
200g lentils, cooked according to packet instructions-alternatively use tinned lentils
2 tablespoons medium curry powder
Paneer cheese
1 bunch fresh coriander

Heat a little oil in a pan, add onion and sauté for 3 minutes
Add okra, curry powder and garlic, sauté for a further 5 minutes
Transfer to an ovenproof dish, add lentils and 750ml water
Place in a moderate oven for 20 minutes

Remove from oven and scatter fresh, chopped coriander on top
Add diced paneer immediately before serving

'The public health of five million children should not be left to luck or chance.'
-Jamie Oliver

Love Donna xxxxxx

Bonfire Night

Well, it's bonfire night and no doubt you've all got your bangers at the ready, by which I mean sausages. According to Tesco, this week we will get through more sausages than any other time of the year. Sausages have become as celebrated a part of Guy Fawkes night as fireworks, a portable comestible, the sausage is the perfect choice.

The trick to perfect sausages is to always cut the links with a pair of scissors, that way you won't damage the ends. Never pierce your sausages: you will let out all the moisture and flavour. Most importantly, cook long and slow on a moderate heat, that way you will have a evenly cooked sausage.

For an extra bonfire twist: scatter sausages on a foil lined roasting tray
Preheat oven 200c/gas mark 6
Combine 4 parts maple syrup to 1 part olive oil
Drizzle over sausages, add sprigs of rosemary or grated orange zest
Cook for 45 minutes until golden and sticky

While you are tucking into your sausages you might enjoy a nice warm mug of boozy hot chocolate.

Recipe

2 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 tablespoons caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 pints whole milk
1 cinnamon stick
160g milk chocolate, roughly chopped
6 tablespoons amaretto

Mix together the cocoa, sugar, salt and 3 tablespoons milk to form a smooth paste
Put the remaining milk in a saucepan with the cinnamon stick and heat gently
Stir in the paste

Add chocolate and stir until melted

Divide between 6 mugs and stir a tablespoon of amaretto into each

Hope your firework night goes with a bang!

Love Donna xxxxxxxx

Calories. What's Your Daily Intake?

                                              Myself and the girls enjoying afternoon tea

Yesterday morning as per usual I sat down with my first cup of tea of the day to watch BBC breakfast. The team were interviewing the chair of the royal society of public health regarding the calorie content in alcohol.

To run with the interview one of the presenters had surveyed members of the public by placing a large glass of red wine, a doughnut, a pint of lager and a pint of guinness on a table, people were asked to put them in order of highest calories to lowest calories.

What would you say contains the most calories? I didn't actually know but I had an immediate sinking feeling and of course my worst fears were confirmed, a large glass of red wine contains the most calories!

A doughnut contains 180 calories, a large red wine 200 calories. Now, I like doughnuts but rarely buy them and wouldn't consider eating more than one, yet I'll happily drink a couple of large glasses of red wine several times a week.

Having just returned from Spain where I ate healthily, mostly fish and salad and swam daily, I knew before I even hit the scales that I'd gained half a stone. When in Spain I tend to have a glass of red wine with both my lunch and my dinner - more than three doughnuts worth of calories before I've even eaten anything!

It makes you think doesn't it, I mean it's no wonder Gwyneth Paltrow advocates eating little more than a few organic lettuce leaves and Victoria Beckham apparently survives on corn soup.

Anyway, I've come to the conclusion a bit of what you fancy does you good. Take Mary Berry, she bakes no end of delicious scrumptiousnesses yet she's as thin as a reed, her philosophy being to enjoy all things in moderation.

I grew up in a household where we ate big hearty meals, however, snacks, cakes and sweets were treats, consequently none of us were overweight.

Dieting has become a common practice in todays society but often diets teach us nothing about healthy eating or eating in moderation. Around 95% of 'dieters' boomerang back to the very eating patterns which caused the weight gain in the first place.

Overly restrictive and faddy diets take all the pleasure out of eating. I knew a woman on a fad diet which consisted of shakes and pills, who denied herself Christmas dinner. Within months of stopping the diet she regained all of her weight. This put me in mind of the quote: 'Sieze the moment, remember all those women on the titanic who waved off the dessert cart.'

NHS guidelines state the average female needs 2,000 calories a day. To lose a pound of fat, we need a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories each week, that means cutting down 400 to 500 calories a day.

There are no quick fixes, like Mary Berry we can have our cake and eat it, but we need to eat less of it, less frequently.

Easy chocolate cake

Recipe
225g plain flour
350g caster sugar
85g cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
2 free range eggs
250ml milk
125ml vegetable oil
250ml boiling water

For the icing
200g plain chocolate
200ml double cream

Preheat oven 180c/gas mark 4
Line a loaf tin
Place all cake ingredients (except boiling water) into a large bowl and beat until smooth
Add boiling water a little at a time, the mixture will now be very liquid
Pour batter into loaf tin and bake for 25-30 minutes
Remove from oven and allow to cool
For the icing, heat chocolate and cream in a saucepan over a low heat until chocolate melts
Remove from heat and whisk until smooth, thick and glossy
Set aside to cool for 1-2 hours
Spread icing over cake

                                           Glenn will have to put that bottle back on the shelf!

'I'm not going to miss 95% of life to weigh 5% less.'
- Dan Pearce

'I finally figured out the big, elusive secret to weight loss. Don't eat!'
- Richelle E Goodrich

Love Donna xxxxxxxxxx