Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Product Reviews

{Win} A Sage by Heston No-Mess Waffle Maker (RRP £99.95)

Hello, I hope you’ve all had a good summer?

As I ease myself back into the swing of things, I’m giving away a Sage by Heston Blumenthal the No Mess Waffle maker (RRP £99.95) – perfect for making classic waffles at home. I’m going to road-testing this little baby next week and we’ve already got a whole host of toppings planned – from breakfast waffles topped with halloumi and maple syrup (trust me!) to sweet banana and toffee waffles with ice cream.

No Mess Waffle

The main features of the Sage by Heston the No Mess Waffle product are:

  • A wide, wrap around moat to catch any mess or excess batter overflow – super easy to clean up, too
  • Browning controls to customise your waffles from light brown to crispy golden brown
  • Made by Sage by Heston Blumenthal (high-quality gadgets that are used and endorsed by Heston)

You can see my review of Heston’s Kitchen Wizz Pro here – I was super impressed with the quality and performance of this.

To be in with a chance of winning this waffle maker, simply fill out the Rafflecopter form below.

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UK Entrants only. Closes on 26th September 2015. Winner will be chosen by random and has 4 weeks to respond with address.

Enter Here:

Good Luck!

Review: The Samsung Food Showcase Fridge Freezer – Our favourite features

Samsung Food Showcase

So, after taking off the doors to fit it into the house and then re-fitting them, I’m pleased to say that our Samsung Food Showcase Fridge Freezer has settled in well and is behaving itself very nicely. My intended ‘first impressions’ post ended up being a lengthy look at all the various features that the Food Showcase offers. In this post, I just wanted to highlight a couple of our favourite features from a family perspective. Of course, for me, a decent-sized fridge freezer has proven to be a real asset. I’m getting into the habit of freezing more and seem to be keeping everything well organised so that there’s now minimal waste. The ‘ShowCase’ element of this latest Samsung fridge freezer model is the dual door to the fridge side, which allows a thinner front door section to be opened to reveal the items you’re most likely to grab, with the inner door allowing access into the main body, or InnerCase, of the fridge. This clever feature has meant that we’ve had some very happy snackers….who are able to access their own snack drawers, accessible directly from the Show Case front section.

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Giveaway: Hotel Chocolat – The Christmas Wreath (RRP £40)

All I want for Christmas (literally) is this giant box of Christmas chocolates by Hotel Chocolat – called The Christmas Wreath. Hotel Chocolat tell me that this is,

A show-stopping festive centrepiece to gather round and share this Christmas. Filled with 40 delicious Christmas truffles, a chunky cookie wreath and two large chocolate snowflakes, one cast in gorgeous salted caramel and the other in luscious Peru Pichanaki 75% Milk.

The Christmas Wreath
Image : Hotel Chocolat

The truffles include simple milk truffles, blackcurrant bombes, white champagne truffles, gin truffles, Christmas pudding truffles, a salted caramel snowflake, Christmas gianduja and more. I would actually be in chocolate heaven.

If you’d like to win this selection box, simply follow the instructions in the entry box below and then keep everything crossed!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This prize will be posted out to one lucky reader in the UK in time for Christmas by the lovely folks at Hotel Chocolat.

For more chocolate-inspired gifts, take a look at the full range here.

With many thanks to Hotel Chocolat for providing the prize in this giveaway.

Giveaway: MrSite Pro Website in a Box RRP £119.99

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, but the New Year could be even better because it could see you launching a brand new exciting blog, business or professional website! I’m giving away a really great prize to one lucky winner just in time for you to get your ideas up and running over the Christmas holidays – a MrSite Pro Website in a Box.

MrSite Pro includes everything you need to get a professional looking, mobile-ready website for your business online. Simple to use, Pro comes with essential optimisation tools to help you get higher up Google, a sales-winning online shop and your own dot com. And should you need it, there’s support from the MrSite Team, too. 

Mr Site Pro

To create your own professional website, simply select your template from a selection of modern website designs, drop in text, images and videos and customise with unique features. 

In case you’re interested in adding this to your Christmas list, the standard and pro versions are available to buy at MrSite.com, Dixons, PC World and other good retailers.

ENTER THE GIVEAWAY HERE 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Please note – I have not built a website using this package, yet, so all queries must be directed to MrSite if you win this prize. 

You are the registered legal owner of your domain name. MrSite simply hosts your domain name on its servers.

 

With many thanks to MrSite for facilitating this giveaway. Open to UK readers. 

 

Review: Samsung Food ShowCase Fridge Freezer

It comes to something when you have to knock down cupboards and take off doors in order to review a kitchen appliance – but the latest addition to our kitchen, the Samsung Food ShowCase Fridge Freezer was a very welcome, new arrival!

Samsung 2

Choosing a new fridge freezer can be a daunting task; there are so many models on the market, promising different features, at varying cost. There’s no doubt, that in our house at least, the fridge freezer is the most used appliance in the kitchen. Earlier this year, our existing fridge freezer (of just over three years) stopped working, and unfortunately, it was just out of warranty. Aside from the fact that this was a hassle, with multiple engineers coming out to try and repair it to no avail, this has made me very wary of investing in large appliances that offer a limited or short warranty. Enter the hero of the story – the Samsung Food ShowCase Fridge Freezer – imagine my relief when this new baby arrived at the same time as our actual new baby!

Samsung Food Showcase
Image from JohnLewis.com

ShowCase and InnerCase

The Samsung Food ShowCase has tons of new and improved features on existing Samsung American-style fridge freezer models. The main feature, and the explanation behind the ‘showcase’ name, is a dual-door system on the fridge side. The inside of the fridge, is called the ‘innercase’ and this part, too, is designed to make food organisation more convenient whilst maintaining optimum freshness inside. Basically, what you have is a ‘fridge within a fridge.’

Digital Inverter Technology + Warranty

This model also uses Samsung’s Digital Inverter Technology, which means that the compressor automatically adjusts to temperature changes (for example, when the door is opened to fill the fridge with a weekly shop or to open the fridge for a pint of milk) to offer optimum cooling and an A+ energy efficiency rating. The really excellent thing is that the Digital Inverter Technology comes with a 10-year warranty and a 5 year manufacturer’s warranty.

Samsung Food ShowCase

Food Freshness

I’m particularly impressed by the way that Samsung have addressed the issue of food freshness and food waste by improving the technology within their latest model the Food Showcase. Firstly, the fridge freezer has a metal cooling feature – stainless steel panelling inside helps to maintain a more consistent temperature within. It also locks in the cold and seals in freshness. The high-efficiency LED lights emit less heat than conventional lighting, whilst keeping the inside of the fridge freezer nice and bright once the door is opened. The separate vegetable drawers keep your food fresh, too and it’s great to be able to organise all your food into categories for ease of access.

Samsung Food Showcase-8

All-Round Cooling

The Food ShowCase model also offers ‘All Round Cooling’ – Samsung say:

Samsung’s All Round Cooling evenly cools every inch of the fridge as well as the freezer. Cold air is blown out through multiple outlets at every level. As a result, the refrigerator area keeps fruit and vegetables fresher for longer and the freezer reduces freezer burn, and as a result better maintains the quality of frozen food.

Samsung Food ShowCase

Dual-door system

The really clever feature of this fridge freezer is the dual-door system on the fridge size, to the right. The door itself is made of two parts. A thinner part at the front opens to give quick and speedy access to the most-used items in your fridge. This is described as the ‘exterior showcase’ in which you can store items such as milk, drinks, condiments and snacks that you’ll want to grab quickly. Then there is a second part to the door, which, when opened, let’s you access the innercase, which stores all your main items of food, such as fruit and vegetables in the drawers, meat, and other general food items.

We particularly like the showcase as two of the shelves (the blue ones) in the showcase part slide out – so I put all the kids’ snacks in these trays, so that they have easy and instant access to the things they like, rather than them having to go rummaging within the main fridge itself.

Samsung3

Fridge Freezer Features  & Capacity

The left hand side – housing the freezer part, is a little bit smaller than the fridge side, but it offers an automatic in-door ice maker to maximise the freezer space, leaving more room for frozen foods. When I say smaller, I mean that the Samsung Food ShowCase offers a 70/30 fridge freezer split, with net storage in the freezer section of 174L and net storage on the fridge side of 396L. Needless to say, there is ample storage for the needs of a large family.

You can access the ice either from the inside, or via the front panel, where you can also get filtered, cooled water. The LED display can be switched on or off, and the dispenser itself offers a tall opening, so that even large glasses can be filled up with ice cubes, crushed ice or water.

Samsung Food Showcase

Overall impressions

The ShowCase door initially took a little getting used to, but not that we have it, we wouldn’t be without it. I love that the inner door has 6 separate compartments – it’s very flexible in the way that it allows you to store and easily access your most-used cold food items. It’s great to be able to grab condiments, which are visible either from through the showcase door or from the innercase.

Inside, the ‘innercase’ also offers great flexibility – deep drawers and shelves that fold away, depending on what you need to store.

The wine rack is useful and yet compact, it doesn’t take over the fridge, but it allows you to store wine and other bottles neatly. The all-around cooling system seems to really keep all the items within the fridge at precisely the right temperature – we’ve definitely noticed that food is staying fresher and that therefore, we are throwing less away.

The freezer offers a fast-freeze option, a removable ice draw – handy if you want to serve ice away from the main freezer itself.

Despite its size (H177.4 x W91.2 x D72.1cm) the sleek finished and the brushed stainless steel exterior is elegant and unimposing.

We’re upgrading our very old kitchen next year and so I can’t wait for my Samsung Food Showcase to take pride of place in our redesigned kitchen.

Samsung Food ShowCase
Time to party!

You can read other reviews online here –

Gizzi Eskerne reviews the Samsung Food ShowCase in her test kitchen for The Times

Janie at The Hedgcombers also welcomes a Samsung Food ShowCase into her kitchen.

With many thanks to Samsung for sending me the Samsung American Style Food Showcase Fridge Freezer for review. All opinions are my own.

Easy Stove Top Chicken Casserole

As we ease ourselves into autumn, there is plenty to encourage us into the kitchen. Perhaps we might be inspired to preserve some of those late summer gluts, or try a recipe from an ‘up and coming’ cuisine, or to simply dig out those slow-cookers and cast-iron pans to get a nice, warming stew or casserole on the go. There are lots of recipes that have caught my attention already in the various food magazines that I subscribe to popping through the door, in particular, the classic, stove top chicken casserole I’ve shared below. I’ve also noticed a number of new cookery related supplements and magazines recently, which is a good thing, as it means larger brands and retailers are continuing to see an upwards trend in home cooking. Pinterest is another wonderful place to gather some autumnal cooking ideas together, too. This week I’ve bookmarked a lasagne soup to try as it pretty much ticks every box on my comfort food hit-list.

Cook Edition
Images taken from JohnLewis.com with permission

One of the latest, free, foodie publications that you might spot is ‘Cook Edition’ at John Lewis. I had a good flick through – very much admiring the food photography within it. I was very tempted by Trine Hahnemann’s sticky, sweet and perfectly spiced cinnamon rolls (featured on page 2 of the Autumn supplement) but in the end, I decided on a family favourite instead; a classic chicken casserole (featured on page 10, alongside some one-pot tips). If you have an ipad, you can also find Cook Edition for free via iTunes. 

Aside from my slow cooker making a reappearance, autumn cooking is also brilliantly suited to more robust pans and stew-pots. I was recently sent a 24cm lidded casserole pan in a new shade of cotton, which although takes up a bit of kitchen cupboard space, means that you can comfortably cook a casserole, or a stew for a family of four with minimum fuss. I’ve also used the pan this week to make a generous risotto. It’s also ideal for soup and can also go into the oven (with its lid) when making a roast chicken, for example, or an oven-baked casserole or pasta bake.

Le Creuset

Le Creuset is a brand that has become very well known in the UK for classic, durable and long-lasting cookware; it is made in France, each piece is hand crafted and it is guaranteed for the lifetime of the original owner, whether a self purchase or a gift. Note, the guarantee doesn’t cover wear and tear or misuse, so you do have to show your pans a little bit of love. I do put mine into the dishwasher, but in fact, they are very, very easy to clean with liquid soap and water, too. I’ve never had any issues with my Le Creuset pans or cookware – I also own a square griddle pan and two 18cm round casseroles. The diametre of the pan is etched into the lid – in case you ever want to know! I always remember my sister using Le Creuset and in fact, when she read this post, she confirmed she had owned her 24cm casserole for 24 years and that it is most often used for making a ragu al bolognese.

Classic Chicken Casserole

Print

Easy Stove Top Chicken Casserole

Prep

Cook

Total

A classic stove top chicken casserole made with sweet onions, pancetta, mushrooms and baby potatoes.

Ingredients

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 8 pieces of high welfare chicken, e.g thighs, legs
  • 250g cubed pancetta
  • 1 large, sweet white onion
  • 200g baby chestnut button mushrooms
  • 1 litre hot chicken stock
  • 500g baby potatoes
  • 2 tbsp cornflour mixed with 3-4 tbsp cold water
  • Fresh herbs, such as parsley, to flavour

Instructions

  1. Heat one tablespoon of olive oil in a stove top safe casserole pan. Add the cubed pancetta and cook on a medium heat until the pancetta starts to become crispy and any fat renders. Add the chopped onions and cook for ten minutes on a very low heat, until translucent. Add the button mushrooms and cook for a further few minutes. Remove the pancetta, onions and mushrooms from the pan and set aside.
  2. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper. Add the remaining olive oil to the pan and place the chicken pieces, skin side down, into the pan. Sear them until golden brown, then carefully flip the pieces over and cook for a further few minutes.
  3. Pour in the chicken stock and add in the baby potatoes - the potatoes and chicken should be covered. Cover the pan with a lid and simmer on a gentle heat for twenty minutes.
  4. Add the pancetta, onions and mushrooms back in and cook with the lid off for a further ten minutes. The sauce should reduce slightly. Stir in the cornflour mixed with water and bring the casserole back up to the boil. The sauce should thicken.Take the casserole off the heat and leave it to sit on the stove for ten minutes before serving. Add any fresh herbs just before serving.

Notes

You can use a whole chicken and chop it into eight pieces instead if your prefer. Be careful when using poultry shears or a sharp knife to chop the chicken.

So, this week I’ve made a lasagne, risotto, a chicken casserole and a Victoria plum fruit bowl cake – what should be next on our comfort food cook list?

Here are some other recipes I have bookmarked –

Slow Cooked Beef Brisket with Celeriac Mash and Wild Mushrooms – own recipe

Veggie Packed Lasagne by Katie at Feeding Boys and a Firefighter

Healthier S’mores Smoothie – by Helen at Fuss Free Flavours

Cinnamon Apple Meringue Tartlets by Nazima at Franglais Kitchen

Disclosure: I was sent a copy of Cook Edition to review and cook from, as well as a 24cm Le Creuset Casserole and some vouchers to pay for the ingredients I used. 

Breville Blend-Active – Review & Giveaway

Our kitchen at home has seen a variety of full-sized blenders over the years, and as the number of blender attachments and features increases, so does the counter space required. I was keen to buy a smaller blender, ideally one that would be perfect for the children’s increased consumption of blended fruit smoothies over the school holidays!

After hearing good things from friends about the Breville Blend-Active blender (also known as the Breville Blend-Active Personal Blender) we purchased one at 10% off the £29.99 RRP (update: at the time of posting this review, they are available at 25% off here). It came with a one-year guarantee, and the bottles are certified BPA-free.

Breville Blend-Active Blender

Included by Breville in the Blend-Active box were the 300W blender motor base, the removable blade unit, and two 600ml bottles with sports-style lockable lids. Extra 600ml bottles for the Blend-Active are available from Breville direct and cost £10 each. As advised in the manual – and you would anyway! – I used soapy water to wash the parts of the Blend-Active where food would make contact, and I wiped down the base with a damp cloth to clean. Useful to know was that the Blend-Active bottles are made of a odour-, taste- and stain-resistant material and are suitable for the dishwasher.

The Blend-Active has a single push button to blend and is incredibly straightforward to use.

1) Add the ingredients to be blended into the bottle in one go – remember not to go above the 600ml mark (or the 300ml mark if you are using the smaller bottles).
2) Screw the blade unit tightly to the top of the bottle.
3) Turn the bottle upside down so that the blade unit is at the bottom, line up the marks on the bottle and the blender, and push the bottle down and clockwise to lock in place.
4) You can either push and hold the blend button for as long as required or use short pulses to blend with better control.
5) Twist the bottle anti-clockwise to unlock and lift, then turn the bottle so the blade unit is at the top before removing the blade unit and fitting the resealable lid.

Importantly, Breville included a safety feature to prevent the Blend-Active’s blade from spinning unless the bottle is locked safely into place.

In the UK, there are twelve drinks recipes included by Breville in the manual for the Blend-Active.

– Protein Rich Shake
– Berry Blitz Protein Shake
– Good Morning Protein Shake
– Chocolate and Banana Protein Shake
– Super Thick Berry Smoothie
– Raspberry Crush Smoothie
– Tropical Fruit Smoothie
– Kiwi and Berry Bliss Smoothie
– Berry Blitz Dairy-Free Smoothie
– Soya Dairy-Free Smoothie
– Vanilla Milkshake
– Carrot, Orange and Ginger Juice

We’ve been using the Blend-Active regularly with fruits (including frozen berries), ice, nuts and vegetables, and I can pass on these tips:

1) Remember you have to add all the ingredients in one go, before blending starts.
2) If you are using the Blend-Active to blend ice or hard vegetables, ensure that you include liquid in the bottle as well to help protect the blades and motor.
3) The cap of the resealable lid that Breville provides is a good size, and copes with thicker drinks very well. But beware – a loose cap will mean a large leakage!
4) The dimensions of the Blend-Active bottles mean they fit well in the bottle-holders on most bikes.
5) This is not a full-size, jet-powered kitchen blender.  Friends who attempted to use the Blend-Active as such learnt this the hard way.

For our family, the Breville Blend-Active was an excellent alternative to using – and cleaning! – a full-size blender to make drinks that were going to be taken out in the garden, on a picnic or out with us on the bike. The blender is well made and has done everything we’ve asked of it – the two bottles supplied were perfect for two young children, and additional (or replacement) bottles are easy enough to get hold of from Breville, if required. The Blend-Active is light enough and has been easy enough to take with us on self-catering weekends away in the UK.

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

For your chance to win a brand new Breville Blend-Active blender (£29.99 RRP) complete with a one-year Breville guarantee, please enter telling me whether you will most use your blender for vegetable or fruit smoothies with bonus entries via the Rafflecopter widget above.

Disclosure: Own purchase, I was not asked to write a review, nor offered any incentive. Giveaway sponsored by Ren Behan. Affiliate links included. Giveaway featured on sites including loquax.co.uk and ThePrizeFinder.com

Review: Pink Lining Children’s Lunch Box

So, in my dream life, whilst on maternity leave, I’d be running a gorgeous and useful website, offering pretty baby changing bags with matching bottle holders, children’s satchels and lunch boxes and handy holdall bags for chic weekends away. As I said, in my dream life…instead, I’m lusting over such websites, whilst trying to keep up with the demands of organising a busy household and a newborn baby! Happily, Pink Lining (one such website with a range of goodies designed by Charlotte Pearl for PL Child) have sent me a distinctive children’s lunch box to review. When I have a few extra minutes spare, I’m looking forward to browsing the rest of their website (and pretending) that I need yet another changing bag.

Pink Lining Lunch Box

The packed lunch debate is currently highly active in our house. My junior school-aged son has decided he no longer likes school dinners and instead wants to take in a packed lunch. My daughter, who currently takes a packed lunch into nursery, starts big-school in September and will benefit from the Government’s new free school meals scheme. If truth be told, I was quite looking forward to not having to get up and make any packed lunches at all and I’m still trying to convince my seven-year old that school dinners are the way forward. In the meantime, there is still a week or so of school to get through, with a couple of school trips to cater for. So, in comes this lovely Robbie the Robot lunch box. He’ll also come in handy for our summer holiday to Wales too, as we like to take easily transportable lunch boxes, rather that clumpy picnic baskets, with us on the beach.Pink Lining Lunch Box

At £15, the Robbie the Robot lunch box isn’t cheap, but it is well made and very sturdy. It is thermo-insulated, with a zip open front. Inside there is a blue mesh pocket to keep cutlery or food separate, such as packets of dried fruit, and an elastic loop to store a water bottle or drink. It’s a good size, so you can pack in quite a big container. Inside, it’s wipe clean and outside it is made of a laminated cotton canvas. There’s also a handle and a clip on top – handy to attach to a buggy whilst walking to school.

Pink Lining Lunch Box

There are a few designs to chose from –  Little Lady (with a ladybird design), Robbie the Robot (shown in my photos), Dinosaur Walk, Damsels and Unicorns, and Knights and Dragons. The designs and character repeat throughout the range so you can buy matching mini and large rucksacks, picture satchels which are classic yet unique, as well as larger sports bags and duffle bags. I really love the fact that this range is a little bit different, and a little quirky – not everyone likes Disney Characters or Spiderman! These unique lunch bags would be very easy for a small child or toddler to spot in an amongst other lunch boxes in the pile.

Pink Lining are a British-based company, who have been featured in Vogue and Tatler. Their PL Child children’s bags and lunch boxes are also stocked at Mamas and Papas. Pink Lining changing bags are stocked in John Lewis, as well as online at PinkLining.com in the USA.

With many thanks to Pink Lining/PL Child for sending me the Robbie the Robot lunch box for review. All opinions my own, links editorially given, the review is unpaid.  

Do school dinners or packed lunches rule in your house?

Kitchen Wizz Pro (Sage by Heston Blumenthal) – Review

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been road-testing and reviewing a food processor called the Sage by Heston Blumenthal Kitchen Wizz Pro. Space, as I have mentioned lots of times within my posts, is in short supply in my kitchen. Gadgets either have to be used daily; e.g. the toaster, the kettle etc. or be multi-functional in order to stay on show and take up room on my counter. The only food processing device (aside from blenders) I’ve previously used is a very small mini chopper, which comes apart and can be stored in a drawer, although the most I can generally do with that is to chop one onion at a time, make a small quantity of pesto or biscuit crumbs in batches for a cheesecake base. So, the Kitchen Wizz Pro was quite a big step up for me and there were lots of elements for me to try out. What I really wanted to know was whether the Kitchen Wizz Pro would be a useful, time-saving device – sufficient to justify both the £399 (RRP) price tag and the space it would take up on my counter.

Kitchen Wizz Pro
Kitchen Wizz Pro Food Processor with accompanying Accessory Storage Box

So, where do we start with food processors? Most consumers will have heard of, or know someone, who has a Magimix, Cuisinart or a Kenwood food processor and these sorts of brands have passed through enough kitchens for you to be able to make an informed choice and/or read enough reviews and recommendations when it comes to choosing which one to buy. The Sage by Heston Blumenthal range is comparatively new when it comes to choosing or identifying a kitchen or home appliance (though Sage are part of the BRG Appliances – Breville group) and there are also increasing numbers of celebrity chefs endorsing kitchen products. On the one hand, it makes sense – chefs spend the majority of their time in the kitchen and so should be well-placed to recommend products that they believe home cooks may benefit from investing in. On the other hand, does a celebrity endorsement guarantee a quality product?

In the case of the Kitchen Wizz Pro, there are lots of features that have been incredibly well thought-out. It is described as offering “super fine, variable slicing,” but, as I’ve discovered for myself, its functionality goes way beyond that to include dough kneading, whisking, emulsifying, milkshake/smoothie making and pureeing.

Kitchen Wizz Pro

What do you get for your £400?

The Kitchen Wizz Pro comes with both a large capacity bowl (2.5 litres – 15 cups dry ingredients, 10 cups for liquid ingredients) and a smaller capacity bowl (the mini processing bowl neatly stored within the larger bowl), a timer mode, illuminated push button control (on/off/pulse), overload protection (a warning should the motor become overheated) and a 2000 watt heavy duty “direct drive” induction motor. A very specific unique feature is the wide feed chute (14cm)  at the top of the food processor – again – with both a large and small feed chute, to allow you to process a wide range of ingredients. The machine also has rubber feet to stop it from wriggling around when in use.

Kitchen WIzz Pro
Larger and Smaller (mini) food processing bowls

The Kitchen Wizz Pro also comes with an “Accessory Storage Box” which I’ve re-named my “blade box” to neatly and safely house five multi-function discs –

  • An adjustable slicing disc – a variable slicing disc which cleverly moves up and down so that you can manually adjust the thickness setting from 0.5mm to 8.0mm slices
  • A julienne disc – long thin strips
  • A chip cutting disc – for homemade, long, chunky chips
  • A reversible shredding disc – fine and coarse shredding
  • A whisking disc – for egg whites, cream and light batters

There are also three separate processing blades –

  • A four blade processor – my favourite – four blades for maximum speed and power
  • A mini blade – for the mini processing bowl
  • A dough blade – for kneading/combining ingredients into a smooth dough or batter

Extras include a cleaning brush and a plastic spatula.

You can put all of the accessories in the dishwasher. Sage recommend not doing so too often with the main bowls. So far, I’ve found all the elements easy to clean.

Kitchen Wizz Pro 4 blade slicer
Kitchen Wizz Pro 4 blade processor

Safety

I really like the fact that the accessories can be stored neatly away in the accessory box, perhaps in a cupboard or a drawer, and that the four blade processor (above) has an additional protective case within the box.

Another big tick in the box is the fact that the machine won’t operate until the bowl and lid are correctly in place (you’ll hear a click) – this is called the Feed Chute Safety System.

Kitchen Wizz Pro
Feed Chute Safety System

You’ll also get a warning should the motor start to overheat – called the Overload Protection System.

The blades are incredibly sharp – I’d recommend watching the full video guide (shown at the bottom of the post) before using the machine and reading the accompanying guide thoroughly. Also, watch your fingers when you change the discs/blades, take them out of the processing bowl, or wash them.

Guarantee

The Kitchen Wizz Pro comes with a 2 year repair or replacement warranty, plus a very generous 25 year motor warranty – with product registration.

 Kitchen Wizz Pro

What have I made in my Kitchen Wizz Pro?

I used the adjustable slicing disc to shred my white cabbage, followed by the reversible shredding disc to shred carrots (coarsely and thinly) for a quick coleslaw, as well as wizzing up some onions for my mince.

Kitchen Wizz Pro Shredded Cabbage

You can also make breadcrumbs or cheesecake biscuit crumbs, or whizz up onions, raw vegetables, fruit and cooked meats (e.g. leftover roasts). The smaller bowl is ideal for basil pesto, chillies, and for finely chopping nuts.

Another positive for me, with a third baby coming along soon, is the ability to be able to make purees and creamed vegetable soups by adding stock, cream or liquid in through the chute. The plastic components are made of BPA free material and are free of Bisphenol A, but I’d always leave any hot liquids to cool slightly before adding them in.

Cake-making gets a hand too, as you can use the Kitchen Wizz Pro to make all-in-one cake batters. You can also use the whisking disk (also called the emulsifying disc) to make milkshakes, smoothies and whisk egg whites. I’ve also used the emulsifying disc to make a quick homemade mayonnaise – you could use it for lots of sauces.

If you are a keen bread-maker or dough-maker, you can use the dough blade to knead dough – doughnuts here we come!

Kitchen Wizz Pro

I also used the adjustable slicer to make thinly slices potatoes (as well as mincing my own meat and onions) in this Potato and Lamb Moussaka recipe.

As mentioned my favourite accessory is the 4 blade processor. I’ve been able to buy better quality cuts of meat to make my own mince for burgers, sauces and meals, such as lasagne and moussaka. I know exactly what I’m feeding my family and there is less gristle. I’d rather buy and eat less meat, but of a better quality and the speed at which the four blades cut through chunks of meat is very impressive.

Kitchen Wizz Pro

Additional notes

The body measures 45x29x23 and it weighs in at almost 9kg so if possible, I’d recommend that you need enough space to keep the main body of the food processor out on your counter top, rather than storing it away between uses to get maximum use out of it.

The Kitchen Wizz Pro was also awarded the ‘Best Buy’ mark in the Food Processor category in 2013. Which? says:

“This food processor is a strong all-rounder, superbly chopping and blending at a rapid pace and earning itself Best Buy status.”

It scored 77%, putting it on a par with the Bosch MCM4100GB food processor with liquidiser. The only food processors to score more highly were the Kenwood’s CH250 mini chopper and the Magimix Le Micro mini choppers (12245, 18104, and 18103). The Kitchen Wizz Pro beat the Kenwood CH180A mini chopper, the Magimix Cuisine Systeme 4200 food processor, the Morphy Richards Accents 48911 and the Kenwood’s Multipro FP734. Granted, there are discrepancies in price amongst all of the products tested – but clearly, the Kitchen Pro Wizz has earned it place in the Best Buy charts through Which? testing.

My Overall thoughts

Once you get into the habit of using a food processor regularly, it quickly becomes second nature and there are plenty of multiple uses for the Kitchen Wizz Pro to justify the cost of the machine and the space it takes on the counter. The Kitchen Wizz Pro looks smart and professional and I like the fact that there are two bowls within the one unit – the larger bowl as well as the mini processing bowl. I really like the ‘Accessories Storage Box’ as it’s neat and can easily be stored in a cupboard or drawer, along with the instruction manual, so you don’t have to keep looking for bits or finding a place to store them all. It clips together securely so you can store it upright or horizontally. Some food processors have an additional jug blender, but I don’t really see the need to have an extra item to store, when the large bowl can quickly and efficiently process soups, milkshakes and smoothies. I have quickly got used to the different blades within the box and their uses and the machine as a whole, cleans up easily and well. The buttons, which light up, are easy to use and it really does take seconds to chop and slice once the correct blade is in place and you’ve locked the bowl and lid into place.

Look out for good deals – at the time of writing – Lakeland have an offer on – when you buy the Kitchen Wizz Pro you also get the Sage Multi Cooker for free – worth £89.99 – as well as free delivery.

You can also buy the Kitchen Wizz Pro on Amazon.co.uk for £360.00

For another perspective, read Gary’s review over on Big Spud here.

Here’s a You Tube video showing you how the Kitchen Wizz Pro works –

You can also follow @SageAppliances on Twitter and Like their page on Facebook/SageAppliances

Disclosure: I was sent the Sage by Heston Blumenthal Kitchen Wizz Pro for the purposes of a review. I was not required to write a positive review, nor paid any money to do so and all opinions are my own. Amazon affiliate links included. Other links editorially given. 

Have you tried any of the appliances in the Sage by Heston Blumenthal range? Do you use a food processor in your domestic kitchen? Leave a comment to let me know!

Salter Electronic Kitchen Scale – Review & Giveaway

There’s very little room left for anything in the kitchen at home, so when I was looking last summer for a new kitchen scale, I knew that bulky, heavy mechanical scales – however iconic – were never going to make the shortlist.

I needed a kitchen scale that I could store with ease, but that was reliable enough to survive being taken out and used pretty much every day. The Salter Slim Design Electronic Kitchen Scale (sometimes sold as the Salter Disc Electronic Kitchen Scale) was cheaper than I had budgeted (update: it was £19.99 last year, but at the time of writing this review is now available for £10 here). It looked smart in the online pictures in black and in white (I chose white), had the features I was looking for in a set of everyday scales, and was advertised with a Salter manufacturer’s fifteen-year guarantee.

Salter Slim Design Electronic Platform Kitchen Scale - Black

When I took the Salter Slim Design Electronic Kitchen Scale out of its box, I was immediately pleased that at 16cm x 18cm x 2cm it was small enough to be stored in a kitchen cubby hole, but not so fragile and wafer-thin that you worry that it will get damaged by a clumsy hand within the week.

The top of the scale is dominated by a large, wipe-clean stainless steel disc platform for measuring ingredients directly. In front of the disc are two usefully large buttons, located either side of a central, easy-to-read LCD display.

You press the left button to turn the electronic scale on and, when held down, off again.

The right button is used to cycle metric and imperial measurements:

– grams (per gram up to 5Kg)
– pounds and ounces (11lb in 0.1oz steps)
– millilitres (per ml up to 5l)
– fluid ounces (175fl.oz in 0.1fl.oz steps)

The left button can be pressed at any time when the scale is on and the reading will promptly zero. This is a huge time saver. Rather than having to weigh an empty bowl and mentally note the weight you’ll need to take off the combined ingredients and bowl, Salter simply lets you put the bowl on the scale and press to zero, before adding the ingredient until the required amount is showing on the LCD screen. If you need to add a further ingredient to the same bowl, zero the weight again before adding away. As often as you need. No maths required.

Having used the scale hundreds of times now, I have two tips to pass on that will help you:

– to keep the scale thin, Salter located the LCD screen on the top side. This means that very wide bowls have the potential to cover the LCD. Most of the time you are fine, but it’s something to be aware about.
– the LCD screen displays the current weight in large, easy-to-read digits but the unit measurement is in small text. You’ll sense quickly which is which but until then, don’t forget your glasses if you require them.

I’ve found my Salter scale to be incredibly straightforward to use. It is accurate and the weight displayed always settles quickly. If you are moving away from mechanical scales for the first time you will be amazed at how much time and hassle you save. Highly recommended.

Giveaway

For your chance to win one of two brand new Salter Slim Design Electronic Kitchen Scales (£19.99 RRP) complete with a fifteen-year Salter guarantee, please enter telling me which colour scale you would like, black or white.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: Own purchase, I was not asked to write a review, nor offered any incentive. Giveaway sponsored by Ren Behan. Affiliate link included. Giveaway featured on sites including loquax.co.uk and ThePrizeFinder.com

 

Review: A Change of Appetite by Diana Henry

I can hardly believe it’s been two years since the publication of Salt Sugar Smoke, a Diana Henry book that taught me so much about the art of preserving and which fast became one of the most-thumbed books on my shelf. Fast-forward to 2014 and Diana’s latest book, A Change of Appetite, shares her journey towards a healthier lifestyle where food remains delicious and enjoyable. This book was inspired by Diana’s experiences with friends turning to her for healthy recipes, and her Doctor’s advice to improve her own health. Throughout the book, the emphasis is firmly focussed on eating “really well and happily,” with more fish, vegetables and alternative grains, and fewer refined carbs, meats and ‘heavy’ foods. Diana doesn’t declare anything off-limits, and offers readers recipes which aim to improve our diets without sacrifice or need to turn ourselves into health food fanatics.

I’m much more into living life to the full than I am into thinking of my body as a temple – Diana Henry

A Change of Appetite
Photos by Laura Edwards provided by Mitchell Beazley

 

Of A Change of Appetite, Yotam Ottolenghi says “[Diana] knows her colours, she knows her flavours and she knows how to marry them perfectly.” I find this summarises Diana’s recipes well – always filled with exciting, unusual and often intriguing ingredients, yet somehow effortlessly and perfectly brought together. Fresh ingredients are at the forefront, combined with delicate herbs, edible flowers and exotic spices to create her trademark ‘otherworldly’ cookery style. There are also plenty of eye-catching food photographs by Laura Edwards to gaze at, too.

Within Diana’s recipes there are always layers of flavours and interesting textures. You’ll find salad dressings inspired by the Asian ‘hot, sour, salty, sweet’ mantra, for example combining together lime juice, fish sauce, a sprinkle of sugar and groundnut oil. On other dishes, Diana adds an extra bite though the clever use of toppings like sesame seeds, a sprinkling of poppy seeds, and a basil gremolata with almonds and lemon. A walnut sauce based on a Georgian recipe for satsivi livens up her roast chicken, over which are scattered marigold flowers.

A Change of Appetite will help adjust any tendency to over-sugar, with a delicious recipe for raspberries with basil and buttermilk sherbet delivering a “mouth-puckeringly refreshing” hit, and Diana’s Greek yogurt and apricot ice cream, using apple juice and runny honey, quickly combining into a peachy-coloured Spring dessert.

There is an emphasis on seasonality, with recipes and chapters arranged into the four seasons, with accompanying menu ideas to help you frame the perfect dinner party. For example, in Spring, Diana suggests serving a menu of shaved vegetables with lemon and olive oil, salmon with baby leeks, and blueberry and gin jellies. Whilst in Winter, you would do well to serve hot bagna cauda, Georgian chicken with walnut sauce, followed by orange and pomegranate cake – recipe here.

Diana is an elegant writer, drawing her reader in and capturing their imagination with recipes inspired from a very wide selection of cuisines from around the world. I have found many new favourite recipes within A Change of Appetite, but at the top of the list are Diana’s salad of goat’s curd, blueberries and watercress, her beetroot and poppy seed loaf cake, and a very simple recipe for spiced pork chops with ginger and mango relish. For lunch today, I thoroughly enjoyed Diana’s nectarine, tomato and basil with torn mozzarella.

Goat's_Curd_Salad
Goat’s curd, blueberries and watercress. Photo by Laura Edwards provided by Mitchell Beazley

A Change of Appetite is a recipe book that you can both learn from and cook from.  I especially liked Diana’s ‘final thoughts’, in which she shares useful mantras and notes, and her well-considered ‘essential reading’, ‘wider reading’ bibliography and supplier lists.

Having now read the book from cover to cover, I feel assured that, once again, Diana has proven that she remains able to predict the needs of her audience.  In A Change of Appetite, she recognises that her readers are developing an interest to move towards foods that support a healthy lifestyle and a healthy attitude, without going overboard or giving up everything you love to eat. That you can make some very basic changes to your diet in order to feel healthier, and that a little treat every now and again isn’t off limits. Best of all, Diana’s attitude isn’t patronising or prescriptive, she simply states:

“I have undergone a change of appetite. I’m eating better, I feel better, I have more energy. My way forward has been to reduce refined carbs and significantly increase the range of veg I eat. You might use the knowledge in this book and settle on a slightly different path. Even if you’re not bothered about health you’ll eat deliciously…It’s food that makes you feel revitalized and energetic. Deprivation is not on the menu.”

A Change of Appetite
Nectarine, Tomato and Basil Salad with torn mozzarella, Orange and Pomegranate cake (with redcurrants in place of pomegranate seeds)

A Change of Appetite – where healthy meets delicious – is published by Mitchell Beazley, RRP £25.00 – available on Amazon for £16.75 at time of writing.

With many thanks to Diana for the signed copy and to the publisher for two additional copies to give away – you can enter our competition here.

Diana Henry is one of Britain’s very best food writers, twice-named ‘Cookery Journalist of the Year’ by the Guild of Food Writers, The Sunday Telegraph’s Food Writer  and the author of eight acclaimed books, including ‘Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons’ and ‘Food from Plenty’. You can follow her on Twitter @DianaHenryFood and visit her website here.

Related articles –

Words of Wisdom – Meeting Diana Henry

Tea with Diana Henry to celebrate Salt Sugar Smoke 

Giveaway: A Change of Appetite by Diana Henry

Last week I shared a guest recipe for Diana Henry’s orange and pomegranate cake, which I was pleased to see was a really big hit with lots of you over the weekend. As mentioned, I’ve really been enjoying cooking from Diana’s latest book A Change of Appetite, which is packed full of lighter, vegetable, fish and grain-based dishes, with influences from Cambodia, North Africa, Peru, India and the Middle East.

If this book sounds like something you’d enjoy, I also have two additional copies of the book to giveaway. So, here’s your chance to enter and win a copy of your own.

A Change of Appetitie

Here’s how to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A Change of Appetite by Diana Henry is published by Mitchell Beazley/Octopus Publishing Group RRP £25. I have two additional copies in hand and will be responsible for posting them out to the winners. Cover image courtesy of the publisher.

You may also enjoy reading my interview with Diana Henry here.

New Lurpak Cook’s Range – Halibut with Herby Hollandaise

What kind of cook are you? Would you say you are fearless and experimental, or do you stick with familiar recipes and repeat things you know will work out well? I think I’m a mixture of both; I enjoy trying new things and cooking with unfamiliar ingredients, and yet my repertoire extends at a steady pace and more often than not, I tend to stick with what I know best. Julia Child once said; “This is my invariable advice to people: Learn how to cook – try new recipes, learn from your mistakes, be fearless, and above all have fun!” This is pretty sound advice, but since time is something many of us strive to save as far as possible, being experimental in the kitchen is often a luxury. This week’s challenge for me was to road-test a brand new product by Lurpak, from their new Lurpak Cook’s Range of ingredients. Luckily, my recipe turned out well and I conquered my fear of tricky, French sauces with my Herby Hollandaise!

Lurpak Cooking Liquid

The Lurpak ‘Food Adventures’ campaign marks the launch of the new Lurpak Cook’s Range of ingredients, designed to inspire home cooks to try something new.  The Lurpak product range has been extended to include a Cooking Liquid, a Cooking Mist, Clarified Butter and a Lurpak Baking – a product that can be used straight from the fridge. At home, we’re on a mission to eat more fish and to incorporate even more veggies into our diet and the #FoodAdventures challenge seemed like the perfect opportunity to try out a new recipe, incorporating plenty of fresh ingredients.

Lurpak Cooking Liquid

Within my #FoodAdventures hamper I found a bottle of Cook’s Range Cooking Liquid, some fresh herbs, including bay leaf and dill, and fresh garlic. Lurpak’s Cooking Liquid is a “liquid blend of Lurpak butter and vegetable oil” and it is recommended for pan-frying meat, fish and vegetables, as well as for roasting, greasing tins and baking. I added to my hamper by buying some some fresh halibut and prawns at the fishmonger’s and plenty of vegetables. I challenged myself to try making a Hollandaise sauce for the very first time – using the Cooking Liquid in place of butter to see what would happen.

Lurpak Cook's Range

The Cooking Liquid itself seems to be pretty versatile and I found that a little in the pan went a long way. When cooking, I generally tend to use a splash of oil together with a small amount of butter, which helps to stop the butter from burning. The Cooking Liquid is really just an ‘easy-to-grab’ blend of butter and Rapeseed oil. As soon as it goes into a hot pan, it melts down into a clear liquid and you can cook with it immediately.

Lurpak Cooking Liquid

Lurpak Cooking Liquid

First of all, I started on my Herby Hollandaise sauce. To make this, you need a ‘bain marie’ or a heatproof bowl over a pan of very gently simmering water. All you need to do is simply whisk two egg yolks with a splash of white wine vinegar, over a gentle heat, with a pinch of salt and pepper. The gentle heat should start to cook and thicken the yolks without scrambling them! Ordinarily, for two egg yolks, you’d need to whisk in around 125g of butter. I managed to use only 60 ml of the Cooking Liquid and a splash of ice cold water to achieve a silky, smooth, lump-free Hollandaise sauce. I added in some fresh herbs in just before serving the sauce, to keep the fresh herbs looking vibrant.

Lurpak Cooking Liquid

On the bottle of Lurpak Cooking Liquid it states that for 100g butter/margarine you should use 100ml Lurpak Cooking Liquid. I found I didn’t need quite as much as 125ml in place of 125g butter in my sauce to achieve a good flavour and consistency.

Halibut with Herby Hollandaise

I also added a teaspoon of the Lurpak Cooking Liquid to my vegetables and used it to cook and coat the fish in the pan – adding a little crushed garlic toward the end.

Halibut with Herby Hollandaise
Pan-fried halibut with prawns and a Herby Hollandaise sauce – made with Lurpak Cooking Liquid

The dish couldn’t have been much easier to make – I was particularly pleased with the Herby Hollandaise and the Cooking Liquid seems to have given the dish an overall good flavour, without the sense of having used too much greasy butter.

Lurpak Cook's Range

On Sunday, I also splashed a little bit of the Cooking Liquid over some par-boiled potatoes, before roasting them in a nice hot oven for 40 minutes – they turned out to be perfectly fluffy on the inside and crisp and golden on the outside – so again, a big thumb’s up!

Lurpak Cooking Liquid Roast Potatoes
Roast Potatoes cooked with Lurpak Cooking Liquid

I’m now looking forward to trying the rest of the new Lurpak Cook’s Range – particularly the Clarified Butter for homemade curries and Lurpak Baking straight from the fridge for cakes as I seem to always forget to bring my baking ingredients to room temperature!

Lurpak are launching and promoting their new Cook’s Range throughout April in the UK, so you’re bound to come across the new range very soon. If you’re on any social media channels, you can follow the campaign and find more ideas by using the hashtag #FoodAdventures

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Halibut with Herby Hollandaise

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A light supper or dinner-party recipe with pan-fried Halibut, prawns and a Herby Hollandaise cooked using Lurpak Cooking Liquid

Ingredients

  • For the Herby Hollandaise -
  • 2 fresh egg yolks
  • A splash of white wine vinegar
  • A pinch of salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1-2 tablespoons iced water
  • 60ml Lurpak Cook's Range Cooking Liquid (in place of 125g butter)
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
  • 3 teaspoons fresh herbs, chopped, e.g dill, chives, parsley
  • For the fish/vegetables -
  • 2 halibut steaks (or use cod or haddock)
  • 4 large king prawns (skewered)
  • 1 garlic clove, crushed
  • 2 tablespoons Lurpak Cook's Range Cooking Liquid
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Mixed vegetables to serve, e.g carrots, broccoli, green beans
  • 1 teaspoon Lurpak Cook's Range Cooking Liquid

Instructions

  1. To make the herby Hollandaise sauce, place a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water to make a bain marie. Put the egg yolks, vinegar, salt and pepper into the bowl and whisk the yolks over a gentle heat until the mixture thickens. Add 1-2 tablespoons iced water to loosen, the butter/Lurpak Cooking Liquid and the lemon juice.Take off the heat and whisk together to form a sauce. Set to one side.
  2. Half-fill a medium-sized pan with water and bring to the boil, adding one teaspoon of butter/Lurpak Cooking Liquid. Add the fresh vegetables making sure they are just covered with water, then simmer, uncovered for ten minutes, making sure the vegetables do not dry out.
  3. Whilst the vegetables are cooking, heat a large frying pan until hot and then add two tablespoons butter Lurpak Cooking Liquid. Place the halibut in the pan, skin-side down and cook for two minutes. Add the prawns to the pan and cook for a further two minutes. Season with sea salt and pepper. Carefully flip the halibut and the prawns over and continue cooking on the other side for a further few minutes, adding the bay leaf to the pan for extra flavour. Take the pan off the heat and brush the halibut and prawns with a teaspoon of butter/Cooking Liquid mixed with the crush garlic. Check and drain the vegetables.
  4. Just before serving the fish, gently re-heat the Hollandaise sauce, adding the chopped fresh herbs. Serve the fish alongside the cooked vegetables and sauce.

Halibut with Herby Hollandaise

With many thanks to Lurpak for inviting me to test the Cooking Liquid and come up with a recipe post. I received a product sample of Lurpak Cook’s Range Cooking Liquid, a few ingredients and was paid to develop this recipe. All opinions expressed are my own.

Review: Two-Bird Roast from The Wild Meat Company

Since attending the pheasant masterclass at Jamie Oliver HQ a few weeks ago, I’ve been making more of an effort to look out for and try British game – wild, organic and in season at the moment. Game can be a little bit daunting if you are new to it. Ordinarily, if you eat any meat at all, you are most likely to perhaps eat chicken, lamb, beef or pork. Since the horsemeat scandal earlier on this year, some of you may even be eating less meat altogether, or perhaps you are being a little more cautious about the meat that you buy or taking extra steps to find out where it comes from. Searching around for game since the masterclass, I have been surprised to learn that game can be cheaper than buying organic chicken, for example. You can pick up a whole pheasant for around £5.00, or a stuffed, two-bird roast at around £13.95, which easily fed two of us with plenty of leftovers for a pheasant lasagne tonight. I really enjoyed learning about how to cook game during the evening of the pheasant masterclass and had some very special tutors, too!

Cooking pheasant with Gennaro Contaldo

Whilst tweeting during the evening of the pheasant masterclass, lots of game eaters and game suppliers took the time to join in, reply or say hello. The Wild Meat Company were keen to join in with the conversation and very kindly offered to send me a Pigeon & Pheasant Ballotine / Two Bird Roast – for me to try at home. As a game novice, this was a perfect introduction to cooking game at home. The meat was de-boned and ready to roast and within an hour we were tucking into two very tasty birds, with minimum effort.

Two Bird Roast

Aside from the pheasant masterclass, I am reminded that my last taste of game was during a foraging walk and banquet, led by a local company called Woodland Ways with The Foragers at The Verulam Arms in St Albans. During the post-walk banquet I was introduced to some ‘Southern-fried’ squirrel and game sausage rolls – which just goes to show that I am perhaps braver than I think when it comes to trying something new!

If you don’t have a reliable, local game supplier, or would like to simply ensure that you get the best quality, I can recommend taking a look at some of the offerings by The Wild Meat Company, all sourced from neighboring farms and estate in East Anglia.  They have party and family-sized two or three bird roasts, squirrel, venison, wild boar or wild rabbit among lots of other interesting things. You can also buy organic and free-range poultry in time for Christmas if you’re very quick and get your order in by 8th December 2013.

Two Bird Roast

For some ideas on how to cook game, you may also like to have a look at the game section of the Jamie Oliver.com website.

If you would like to take part in a wild game butchery masterclass, you could also take a look at some of the courses run by Food Safari in conjunction with Robert Gooch and Ray Kent of the Wild Meat Company, usually held at the British Larder in Suffolk.

Two Bird Roast

With many thanks to The Wild Meat Company for sending me the two bird roast to sample. 

If you have any questions, you can tweet The Wild Meat Company on Twitter – @WildMeatCompany

Are you a big fan of wild meat or game? Perhaps you’ve got some tips or recipe ideas you can share in the comments box below?

Review: Forman & Field Hamper for Two

I’m delighted to be highlighting a London-based British gourmet food supplier once again, called Forman & Field, founded by Harris Forman & Sons in 1905. The family first began producing London-cured smoked salmon, based on the same methods as those brought over by Eastern European immigrants when salmon was imported from the Baltic in barrels of brine.  The salmon smokers of the time soon switched to smoking Scottish salmon, found fresh at Billingsgate market. Since 1905, H Forman & Sons have used only the highest quality raw salmon, lightly salting it and lightly smoking it in oak smoke. Sticking to the very same method across four generations, H Forman & Sons’ smoked salmon can now be found gracing the tables at Claridges and at The Savoy. So, if you are looking for exceptional quality – away from mass produced smoked salmon or the heavier flavours of smoked Scottish salmon, I can highly recommend buying your smoked salmon from Forman & Field online.

Forman & Field

Since my family are of Polish descent, we begin our celebrations on Christmas Eve with a twelve course supper, involving plenty of smoked salmon, other smoked fish, seafood and of course, herrings.  So, essentially, I know a good bit of salmon when I taste it. I sampled the H Forman & Son Grade One Gravadlax Selection, which included Original (dill) Gravadlax, Beetroot Gravadlax and a Wasabi Gravadlax. Having once cured my own salmon with beetroot, I know that it takes quite a bit of time and effort to prepare, so I was grateful to have such high-quality Beetroot Gravadlax delivered to my door!

Forman & Field

Aside from the Gravadlax selection, the Hamper for Two I received was bursting with goodies of equally high quality. Although it is said to be for two, you could make these hamper items stretch much further, creating a very fine spread by simply adding some freshly baked bread and since it’s Christmas, a glass of British sparkling wine. Serve the Gravadlax selection with the other items in the hamper, including the Sweet Mustard and Dill Dressing, sliced Marmalade Glazed Alderton Ham, Chicken Liver and Brandy Parfait, and Marinated Goats Cheese Balls with the Traditional Cheese Biscuits. You also get a jar of Spiced Apricot Compote, which is delicious both with the parfait or with the marinated cheese. And if you have room, or a sweet tooth, you can then feast on the Forman & Field Individual Christmas Puddings, Brandy Butter and Artisan du Chocolat Truffles, endorsed by Gordon Ramsay. If the Queen herself were to pop in for Christmas, I don’t think she could honestly expect any better!

Forman & Field

The ‘romantic’ Hamper for Two is priced at £89.95. Given that it would in fact feed more than two people, or at least keep two people going for much more than one sitting, I think it represents good value for money based on the hamper being packed with British produce of the very highest quality.

The last order date for Forman & Field is 15th December 2013 – so get your requests in promptly! You can also order plenty of other festive food, including Seldom Seen turkeys, a stunning Yuletide Porchetta, and of course, plenty of sweet Christmas goodies, including British made mince pies, cakes and sauces.

Forman & Field

With many thanks to Forman & Field for sending me this very special hamper for review.

Pop back on Friday when I’ll be hosting an exclusive competition to win a romantic meal for two at the Formans London Restaurant, also established in 1905 – a real treat for the New Year.

Hotel Chocolat Advent and Christmas Goodies

Hotel Chocolate Christmas

I’m a couple of days late in wishing you a Happy Advent, but I hope you are all taking some time to enjoy the preparations and lead-up to Christmas rather than being too stressed about it all. I must have done something good this year, as I have been sent my very own milk chocolate advent calender to open and enjoy every day by Hotel Chocolat. The very best thing about the countdown to Christmas is that the children seem to leap out of bed every morning, which means the school run is a lot smoother. Having my own calendar means that we can all share a morning ritual together and I get to start my day off with some chocolate, which is never a bad thing.

Hotel Chocolate Christmas

Other goodies in the Hotel Chocolat Christmas range that I’ve tried include –

Hotel Chocolate Christmas

For Christmas, I’d love The Festive Christmas Collection, since it contains lots of milk chocolate treats (which is my favourite in the whole Hotel Chocolate range) including the Milk Sparkling Stars and a gorgeous box of Little Caramel Angels.

There are also plenty of very cute bits and pieces that can be added to a Christmas stockings, such as The Gingerbread Crew or the Cool Penguin Minislab.

The Hotel Chocolate Christmas range varies in price from £1.95 (chocolate lollipops etc) to £300 for The Ultimate Christmas Hamper.

What would you love from Hotel Chocolat for Christmas?

Hotel Chocolate Christmas

With many thanks to Hotel Chocolat for sending me some of the Christmas range for review. This is an unpaid post and all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Review: John Lewis Christmas Sparkle Hamper

It’s Christmastime, which means it’s hamper time. I remember receiving my first John Lewis Christmas hamper from my in-laws, the first Christmas that my husband and I had moved into our new house. It was filled with Christmas cake and tea and biscuits and it meant that even when we had unexpected guests, there was always something to pull out of the cupboard. The hamper has remained a Christmas tradition in our household and I’ve also discovered that the right hamper can make a great family gift or even the perfect gift for a school or nursery class with lots of teachers. It saves buying individual gifts and means they can all have a good rummage and take home something they really fancy. So this year, my hamper acquisition has begun with a John Lewis Christmas Sparkle Hamper, which ticked lots of boxes in terms of good-quality (rather than overly generic) snacks to enjoy that will help Christmas along very nicely.

John Lewis Sparkle Hamper

John Lewis Christmas Sparkle Hamper Contents: 

  • Prosecco DOC Spumante Brut, 75cl
  • Los Rosales Chapel Vineyard Merlot, 75cl
  • Los Rosales Chapel Vineyard Chardonnay, 75cl
  • John Lewis Star Snowflake Crackers, Set of 6
  • Mrs Bridges Strawberry Preserve with Champagne, 250g
  • Maxwell & Franks Christmas Pudding with Cider, 454g
  • Buiteman Parmigiano Reggiano Biscuits, 75g
  • The Original Cake Company 4″ Round Luxury Chocolate Cake
  • Twinings English Breakfast, 50 tea bags
  • Mrs Bridges Christmas Marmalade, 250g
  • Copperpot Milk Chocolate Coated Honeycomb, 125g
  • Highland Croft Scottish Traditional Handbaked Chocolate Chip Gingers, 200g
  • Cambrook Brilliantly Caramelised Cashews, 80g
  • Convivial Yorkshire Cheddar & Caramelised Onion Chutney Crisps, 100g
  • Butlers Assortment of Chocolate Truffles and Pralines, 180g
  • The Dormen Salted Pretzels, 25g

My favourite items were the Prosecco, Merlot and Chardonnay – of course – a few bottles of (good quality) fizz or wine are always a welcome addition to a hamper. We also enjoyed The Original Cake Company Luxury Chocolate cake – which was rich and moist and topped with chocolate Maltersers. The Butlers Assortment of Chocolate Truffles and Pralines were also of very good quality and the Traditional Handbaked Chocolate Chip Gingers paired very nicely with the Twinings English Breakfast Tea.

The preserves will be enjoyed on Christmas Day for breakfast and the remaining snacks and nibbles, such as the Dormen Salted Pretzels,Yorkshire Cheddar & Caramelised Onion Chutney Crisps, and Buiteman Parmigiano Reggiano Biscuits will welcome some of my Christmas visitors.

Priced at £100, the John Lewis Christmas Sparkle Hamper does represent good value for money and the wicker basket is a tasteful mahogany shade, which will be useful to store all my food magazines in!

John Lewis Sparkle Hamper

Other hampers in the John Lewis range that have caught my eye this year include the John Lewis Christmas Tray, priced at £30 this is a great gift for a family member or a good friend who might appreciate a nice bottle of red wine and some nibbles – Christmas cake, chocolate buttons, shortbread and salted peanuts. Or the John Lewis Fresh Cheese Tray, priced at £40, and filled with a selection of cheese, chutney, biscuits and a bottle of port.

You can view a whole 2013 selection of hampers by John Lewis here – categorised as Luxury, Traditional, Family, Confectionery, Fresh and Branded.

John Lewis Sparkle Hamper

With many thanks to John Lewis for sending me the John Lewis Christmas Sparkle Hamper for review.

This is an unpaid post, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

‘Fruitdrop’ Pear & Plum Banana Bread

This week I’ve had a much-needed health kick whilst getting through a huge box of fruit delivered to me by a company called Fruitdrop. The children got very excited about seeing all the fruit and have been eating much more of it too, usually in the way of fruit salads and a quick morning smoothie. We do eat a lot of fruit in general, but I think seeing a big box bursting with a huge variety of fruit sparked additional interest. The box contained red and white grapes, clementines, apples, pears, melon, kiwi fruit, mango, bananas, plums and a lemon – around fifty pieces of fruit in total. My Fruidrop box arrived in pristine condition and even though we are getting through it (with the help of a couple of batches of this fruity Pear and Plum Banana Bread) it has lasted us well over a week.

FruitDdop

The kids really love banana bread as an after school snack and so I very often whip up a batch for them. With all the extra fruit to hand, I decided to layer up some of the pears and plums within the loaf itself, also serving it with some extra fruit.

Plum and Pear Banana Bread

Fruitdrop is mainly aimed at office initiatives, with a suggestion of ordering enough fruit for 2-4 pieces per person per week, with a fruit box starting at £20. You can also order milk to go along with your fruit delivery and deliveries take place all over the UK on an ad hoc or more regular basis. The fruit is handpicked by Fruitdrop and sourced from wholesale markets from within the UK (although not all of the fruit was British grown). Fruitdrop also guarantee to replace any fruit if you find any damaged or over-ripe.

Fruitdrop-7

Print

Pear & Plum Banana Bread

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 6 -8

A quick and easy extra fruit banana bread recipe for the family (or your co-workers!) to enjoy. You can also use apples, or blueberries as one of the layers.

Ingredients

  • 150g unsalted butter (plus a bit extra for greasing)
  • 100g soft brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 200g self raising flour
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon (plus extra for dusting)
  • 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 bananas, mashed
  • 120g sour cream
  • 1 pear, ripe, sliced
  • 2 plums, ripe, stone removed, sliced

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C/160 fan/gas 5. Grease the inside of a loaf tin with a little butter and line with a sheet of baking paper.
  2. Using an electric whisk, beat the butter with the sugar, eggs and vanilla.
  3. Sift in the dry ingredients and stir with a metal spoon. Stir in the mashed bananas and sour cream.
  4. Add one third of the mixture to the loaf tin and spread out using the back of a spoon. Next, add a layer of pear. Then a further third of the mixture followed by a layer of plum. Add the rest of the mixture and flatten the top. Dust with a little extra cinnamon.
  5. Bake the loaf for 1 hour. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for ten minutes before carefully taking it out to cool on a wire rack. Serve when warm or cold with extra fruit on the side. .

Other fruity recipe you might like to try with a fruit box –

You could adapt this Late Summer Fruit Salad with Pomegranate and Pistachio

Or, perhaps try these Toffee Apple Tarts, adding in some pears, too.

You could also use the pears to make these delicious Pear and Chocolate Brownies

 

With thanks to Fruitdrop for the delivery of fruit for me to review.

Pear & Plum Banana Bread Recipe commission in collaboration with Fruitdrop.

Learning about Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese

This year has been an amazing year for travelling, with visits to Italy and America to see two of my sisters who have made these two very contrasting countries their homes. Of course, aside from family, one of the best things about travelling is the food and both occasions presented me with a chance to indulge and explore in some very memorable traditional and modern dishes. One of the simplest meals that we enjoyed in Italy in a local ‘Osteria’ involved a bottle of red wine, bread, some locally produced salami, chunks of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese and honey, which I’ve enjoyed re-creating many times myself at home.

Cantina DivaWe also ate plenty of home cooked meals, including pasta with prawns and courgette or zucchini (and plenty of garlic) as well as dining out in modest ‘trattorias’ where we devoured even more home cooked pasta and ‘risotti’ – always graced with perfectly matured Parmigiano-Reggiano. We traveled over 100km to find a renowned pasta shop in the capital of Emilia-Romagna, Bologna called Paolo Atti & Figli and I found myself in paradise taking in all the food markets around the very charismatic cobbled streets. How I wish I had the room in my suitcase to carry home some of the produce that we found – and didn’t eat!

Bologna

You might also remember that I wrote about attending a Discover the Origin event back in March. There was so much to soak up during the event, including plenty of Tawny Port (!) and I really relished the opportunity of speaking to some of the hugely passionate ambassadors behind the products which form the Discover the Origin campaign, including Bourgogne Wines, Duoro Wines, Port, Parma Ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano – also known by its French name of Parmesan. I’m very exited to have been invited to attend a press trip early next year, hopefully to the Duoro wine region in Portugal and the next time I visit my sister in Italy, I’m going to make sure I save some time for a tour of the area that includes Parma, Reggiano Emilia, Modena and Bologna  – on the western bank of Reno River – which is where Parmigiano-Reggiano is exclusively produced.

In the meantime, I also have a short video to share with you that has been produced by Discover the Origin campaign, all about the provenance of Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, which is about to form part of a much wider campaign highlighting the unique and varying characteristics of the cheese, including the diversity in ages and tastes.

Buon Appetitio!

With thanks to Discover the Origin for asking me to share this video. This post will be incorporated into an advertising campaign due to run for the next two weeks.

Mini Pasta Bakes (Proware Kitchen)

I mentioned cooking with Proware Kitchen’s Tri-Ply copper pans on my blog shortly before Christmas, when I tested a set sent to me by Proware Kitchen. They’ve stood up extremely well in my kitchen and so I was pleased to see some new pans added to the range, including a 24cm saute pan, a 24cm stockpot, a 12cm mini frying pan and a 12cm mini casserole. I’ve now tried out the newbies, too and have been equally happy with them – the 24cm saute pan being my most used and loved pan in the range. Lakeland stock the pans exclusively and since the beginning of the summer Lakeland have had them on special offer – 3 for 2, with the lowest price item being free.

Proware 24cm Saute Pan

 A tasty filling for an Easy Chicken Pie – {find my recipe here}

Caring for my Copper Tri-Ply Pans

My Proware Kitchen Copper Tri-Ply pans have been through the dishwasher lots of times, though their website states that where possible, they should just be washed in warm soapy water. Copper does tarnish over time, which gives them a lovely, rustic, well-used look, although I’ve found that either Brasso (an inexpensive metal polish) or better still, half a lemon dipped in salt and gently rubbed onto the copper, brings them back to their shiny state easily enough.  

The photo on the left is before cleaning the pans. On the right, the pan on the top left was cleaned with half a lemon dipped in salt and the pan on the bottom right was cleaned and polished with Brasso.

ProWare Copper Pans

The new mini pans are also incredibly cute. They remind me of a posh meal, with perhaps a roasted chicken breast and some bright green petit pois served in a little pan alongside, or even a tasty sauce. I use mine to make mini pasta bakes in, which can then be served as individual portions. You have to be very careful though, as straight out of the oven the copper is very hot! The mini frying pans are great for single fried eggs, or mini omelettes, too.

Copper pans are excellent conductors of heat. The benefit of using Tri-Ply copper pans is that they are lighter than traditional copper pans, less expensive and have a three layer structure – a copper exterior, an aluminium core second layer and then they are finished with a thin layer of stainless steel inside the pans. So basically, the pans stand up to professional or domestic use, they look pretty and food cooks evenly and without sticking or burning as you can generally use a lower heat.

Here’s a very simple Pea and Bacon Pasta Bake recipe that I often make at home. Below the recipe, you’ll also find a giveaway for a mini frying pan – good luck!

Mini Pasta Bakes

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ProWare Kitchen Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

With thanks to ProWare Kitchen for sending me the latest pans in the range to review and for providing a giveaway prize. I was not required to write a positive review and this is an unpaid post.

More Pasta Recipes

Easy Macaroni Cheese with Baby Leeks

Quick Tuna Fish Pasta

 

The Foodie Bugle in Print – Reveille 2

The very first publication that I wrote for away from my own blog was The Foodie Bugle, an online magazine founded by Silvana de Soissons. From its inception, it was encouraging to find a place where artisans were exclusively championed, where simple stories were told and seasonal, local food celebrated. Some two years on, there are now hundreds of articles to explore from a selection of categories, including Cookbooks, Cookery Schools, Travel, Food Photography, the Kitchen Garden and the Sideboard. I have always been greatly honoured to have any of my articles featured on the site and I continue to be greatly inspired by The Foodie Bugle’s food morals and ‘real food’ ethos, echoed by those of its readers and contributors.

The Foodie Bugle

The Foodie Bugle has always been a collaborative site, meaning that anybody with an interest in real food can submit articles and ‘thoughtful, well-researched features.’ It is a celebrity-free zone, with no advertising or commercial angle. The site rapidly grew from strength to strength; a particular highlight being the receipt of an award by The Guild of Food Writers in the category of ‘New Media’ in 2012.

Over this time, Editor Silvana, an Italian-born cook and food writer, has herself become a figure that many of us greatly admire. Retaining a razor-sharp focus on the remit of The Foodie Bugle with a meticulous eye for detail, she also happens to be one of the most intelligent food writers that Britain has to offer. She also inspired me to start The St Albans Cookbook Club – based on the model of her own Bath Cook Book Club, as well as always courteously and kindly responding to my emails and requests for advice and support in my own writing adventures.

The Foodie Bugle

Silvana has now also steered The Foodie Bugle into print, currently in its second edition, or Reveille 2, guided by exactly the same principles on in the online edition; highlighting artisans, farmers and small producers. A really lovely angle, too, is the focus on craftsmen, such as artists, writers, photographers, illustrators, who share a passion for making, selling or simply supporting real food.

As the Editor’s Welcome reads –

“What unite the many disparate talents that we showcase in this edition are a love, respect and attention to quality, provenance and best practice. Whether it is growing asparagus, making cider, painting a mural or creating a blog, we seek out the most inspirational people to bugle about.”

Silvana de Soissons, Reveille 2

The Foodie Bugle

In the ensuing chaos that will be the school summer holidays I have vowed to set aside some quiet time, hopefully in the garden with a glass of English cider in hand, to peacefully read through Reveille 2. I’m already looking forward to reading about the Peaches and Stone Fruits of Summer by Katherine Preston, to an interview with the very talented blogger (and friend) Regula of Miss Foodwise and to finding a window of time to try the recipe for a delightful  Meringue Roulade with Raspberries and Mascarpone – a recipe I know the children will love.

In other news, The Foodie Bugle is also very soon to launch an online shop – co-founded by Silvana and her husband John-Paul de Soissons, which will offer a carefully chosen selection of British food and drink, alongside stationery, homewares, gardenwares, toiletries and linens.

Silvana and John-Paul can be assured that they will at least have one very loyal customer in me!

The Foodie Bugle Shop

To submit an article to The Foodie Bugle, start by carefully reading through the submissions guidelines which can be found here on the online site.

You can find my articles for The Foodie Bugle here, too.

The Foodie Bugle Print Edition is available to buy through the website, priced at £10 for 128 full-colour pages. It is also available to be purchased in bulk, as well as being stocked in some independent shops, particularly around Wiltshire.

With many thanks to The Foodie Bugle for sending me through a review copy. 

You can follow The Foodie Bugle on Twitter @TheFoodieBugle as well as the Editor Silvana de Soissons @SilvanadeS

Review: Little Waitrose at John Lewis Watford plus £50 voucher giveaway

It’s not very often that I hear of neighbouring town Watford scoring a ‘first,’ but this week I visited the new Little Waitrose at John Lewis Watford – which is the first ‘little Waitrose’ to be situated within a John Lewis store. So, if you happen to be in Watford doing your shopping at the local shopping centre – Intu – formally called The Harlequin, you can now stop into little Waitrose as well for a quick grocery shop. You can see (and access) the new little Waitrose on the top floor of the store in Watford, just next door to A Place to Eat, the John Lewis café/restaurant. It’s much bigger than I had imagined and very roomy, using up office and warehouse space and costing just over £2 million pounds to complete.

Some of the little Waitrose in-store features include –

  • A bakery with fresh bread, pastries, cakes and patisserie
  • Fresh flowers
  • A fresh fish and meat counter
  • A large selection of wines and spirits
  • A lottery station, take away coffee machine, newspapers and magazines
  • A store and collect service

You can pick up everything from a pint of milk, to fresh fruit and vegetables, sandwiches, ready-meals and snacks, dried goods and non-food health and beauty items. There are a number of pay-desks, as well as the never-quite-so-quick self-service tills!

We popped into A Place to Eat where the children enjoyed a kiddies breakfast, before tootling around the store to browse and buy a few new food photography props! We then stopped at little Waitrose where the kids chose some treats from the bakery counter to bring home for a tea party.

Little Waitrose John Lewis

All in all, we had a seamless, stress-free shopping experience (apart from a fall-out with a self-service till – own fault!) and I think little Waitrose makes a great addition to the Intu shopping centre in Watford.

Back at home we enjoyed our food purchases from Little Waitrose and our tea party pieces from John Lewis Watford.

Little Waitrose John Lewis

You can find Little Waitrose at John Lewis at –

John Lewis (top floor)
Intu Watford (formerly The Harlequin Centre)
High Street
Watford
Hertfordshire
WD17 2TW
 
You can visit the John Lewis Watford Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/JohnLewisWatford
And follow @Waitrose on Twitter
 

Enter the Giveaway Here –

Enter the giveaway below via the Rafflecopter form to be in with a chance of winning at £50 John Lewis/Waitrose voucher to treat yourself too.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

With thanks to Waitrose and John Lewis for the invitation to visit the new store.

Disclosure- I received some gift vouchers to cover the cost of our shopping trip.

The Jewelled Kitchen Virtual Cookbook Launch

It’s time to introduce you to a brand new and beautiful cookery book by Bethany Kehdy called The Jewelled Kitchen – A stunning collection of Lebanese, Moroccan and Persian recipes. I was very honoured to be asked by Bethany to take part in her virtual cookbook launch. I dove straight into Bethany’s Whipped Hummus with Lamb, although there was an abundance of tempting recipes to choose from, including dishes from Egypt, Palestine, Syria, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan.

The Jewelled Kitchen

I confess to having a weakness for Lebanese food; during my studies in London my best friend used to take me to a Lebanese restaurant pretty much weekly – it was my biggest splurge of the week, but they were student pennies very well spent. There might have also been a glass of the anise-scented ‘Arak’ or two shared…Even now; Middle Eastern cuisine is always at the top of my ‘eat-out’ food list and I was also very eager to get stuck into trying some dishes for myself at home.

If you are a food blogger, you may already be familiar with the very talented author of this book, Bethany, in her alter-ego as the driving force behind Food Blogger Connect. The fifth internally renowned conference took place this weekend gone at the Battersea Arts Centre in London – much more about the weekend to come. I remember speaking to Bethany at length last year about the process of writing her book, along with friend and photographer Šárka Babická. I knew back then that this collaboration of two highly talented and self-driven individuals would be incredibly inspiring – and it is. Bethany is also a blogger at Dirty Kitchen Secrets, a chef, a freelance food and travel writer and somehow, in between all of this, leads culinary tours across Lebanon.

Aubergine_Veal-3043
Aubergine, veal and yogurt crumble from The Jewelled Kitchen by Bethany Kehdy © Duncan Baird Publishers 2013, commissioned photography by Šárka Babická

The Jewelled Kitchen, published by Duncan Baird Publishers, opens with Bethany’s very personal culinary reflections. Bethany begins by sharing her earliest memories of food in Beirut during the early eighties, stopping at the sweet-shop with her grandfather (jeddo) or shadowing her grandmother (teta) whilst grocery shopping.

Bethany was born in Houston, Texas, but returned to Lebanon with her father when her parents separated when she was just four years old. Bethany’s Lebanese father was a lawyer, meaning that Bethany spent most of her time with her grandparents. However, he later set up a dairy farm, where Bethany recalls hiding in the pine forest, exploring caves, making cheese or shelling pine nuts and chickpeas. After returning to America for a few years, Bethany was again lured back to Lebanon where she discovered cooking and feeding people as a “cheap and rewarding form of therapy.” In her twenties, she moved back to America again, spending time in Houston, Miami and Hawaii before ending up in London with her British husband.

Although Bethany has taken in her fair share of cultures and cuisines, it is her love for Middle Eastern food that has always had the strongest pull. Her book explores the very best of Middle Eastern home-cooking, celebrating humble vegetables and grains, brought alive by an array of spices and kitchen staples, such as garlic, lemon and fresh herbs as well as pomegranate molasses, bread, citrus and yogurt. Bethany explores mezze, poultry, meat, seafood and vegetarian dishes. On every page, there is a good dose of her trademark charm and a warm invitation to try some of her most cherished recipes.

This is a cookery book that I could easily spend the year cooking from in ‘Julie and Julia’ style. I would happily use it as a manual from which to learn the secrets of Middle Eastern cuisine, taking in recipes such as Silky Chickpea and Lamb Soup, Swimming Chickpeas, the enchantingly-named Slumbering Chamomile Chicken or the Duck Shawarma with Fig Jam that I’ve been dreaming of ever since receiving the book.

Swimming Chickpeas
Swimming Chickpeas – from The Jewelled Kitchen by Bethany Kehdy © Duncan Baird Publishers 2013, commissioned photography by Šárka Babická

Bethany’s introductions are interesting and informative – in many cases, giving Arabic translations of dishes, explanations about ingredients or suggestions of alternative options, such as making the ‘fattet makdous’ (stuffed aubergine with crumbs) with lamb or beef, or even lentils for a vegetarian twist.

There is also a chapter filled with unusual and highly enticing fish dishes, such as, Almond Crusted Scallops, Slow-Braised Spiced Squid, or one of my favourite dishes of them all; Sea Bass with Spiced Caramelized Onion Rice. Added to which, there are also plenty of vegetarian dishes to explore, such as Courgettes Stuffed with Herb Rice, a Slow-Cooked Broad Bean and Tomato Stew, or a punchy Shaved Beetroot, Radish and Grapefruit salad.

At the back of the book, a sweet ending of Date Fudge, Semolina Pancakes, rolled and filled with ricotta or clotted cream, almond butter and honeycomb or these fun and colourful Fruit Cocktails with Lebanese clotted cream and nuts.

Fruit Cocktail
Fruit Cocktail from The Jewelled Kitchen by Bethany Kehdy © Duncan Baird Publishers 2013, commissioned photography by Šárka Babická

Through The Jewelled Kitchen, Bethany has succeeded in weaving together a collection of authentic, captivating recipes, whilst sensitively introducing her readers to Middle Eastern cooking in a modern, appealing and incredibly alluring way.

Pop back tomorrow morning when I’ll be sharing Bethany’s recipe for Whipped Hummus with Lamb. 

Whipped_Hummus

With many thanks to Bethany Kehdy and Duncan Baird Publishers for my review copy of The Jewelled Kitchen. RRP £20.00.

You can follow the other posts in this virtual cookbook launch here.

The Green Kitchen Cookbook Review

I’m always excited to receive cookbooks inspired by great blogs and this week alone, I’ve added two fantastic ‘blog to book’ hardbacks to my culinary collection. In the first instance, The Green Kitchen (Vegetarian Everyday in the US), written by the couple David Frenkiel and Luise Vindahl, who also write the inspiring vegetarian blog Green Kitchen Stories from their home in Stockholm. It helps, of course, that David is, by day, a magazine art director (although about to dive into new opportunities since publishing the book) and that Luise is studying to become a nutritional therapist. Both in the book and on the blog, the recipes are enticing, with modern, beautifully styled and shot photography. It’s not hard to see why the Green Kitchen Stories blog won the Saveur 4th Annual Best Food Blog Awards in the Special Diets Category. I’m confident that book accolades will swiftly follow.

The Green Kitchen

Fans of Green Kitchen Stories look forward to every installment, ever keen to follow David and Luise’s adventures as they seek out healthy, vegetarian ways to feed themselves and their daughter, Elsa. The ethos is ‘clean living’ and David and Luise’s recipes are always eye-catching – this month alone I’ve been drooling over the Strawberry & Rhubarb Ripple FroYo and Fat Almond Pancake up on the blog. Now I have a stunning cookbook to flick through, too, to help me ponder upon whether I’ll ever be brave enough to fully ditch the dairy and meat in our family’s diet. David, Luise and Elsa’s lifestyle is certainly compelling, which is precisely why they appeal as writers and recipe developers. Everyone wants to be more like them – healthy, laid-back and creative in the kitchen.

The Green Kitchen cookbook is a great place to start if you are interested in sensible, seasonally-led healthy eating as well as the odd nutritionally-infused sweet treat.  Many recipes are vegan, but they do include eggs and cheese occasionally. Most importantly, chocolate is present in the form of cacao or high quality dark chocolate.  Some of the recipes use buckwheat, others suggest spelt flour.

David and Luise strive to create healthy vegetarian recipes and they live by their morals day by day without making a big deal about it. The really nice thing about their book is that it is a beautifully bound extension of their very popular blog. They’ve managed to stay true to their style with photographs in the book by David’s sister, Johanna, who also contributes some photos for the blog. They don’t offer a prescriptive approach; it’s more of a ‘here’s how we eat’ style of cooking and writing.

Recipes that I immediately wanted to try were the Date Syrup (and in fact, we now use this as our main sweetener) the Flour-Free Banana and Coconut Pancakes (a huge hit this weekend, especially with the kids) the Chocolate and Blackberry Milkshake and this absolutely stunning Frozen Strawberry Cheesecake on a Sunflower Crust.

Photo credit Johanna Frenkel

Other equally enticing recipes I’ve bookmarked for summer gluts include Roasted Tomato and Chickpea Soup, the Sicilian Parmigiana Di Zucchine (they don’t go as far as using a vegetarian alternative to Parmesan but of course you could easily substitute) and their Decadent Beetroot and Chocolate Cake.

I’ve also enjoyed taking inspiration from a section entitled ‘Inside our pantry’ – with suggestions for healthier butters, vinegars and oils, nuts and seeds, lentils and peas, plant-based milk and cream, as well as advice on natural sweeteners, pasta and noodle alternatives, ‘super-foods’ and the plethora of alternative flours and grains now available.

As a mum of two, always keen to steer my kids to ‘think’ and ‘chose’ healthily, I particularly admire the couple’s attitude to feeding their little girl. Basing their ethos on wanting to give Elsa as healthy a start as possible in life, they lead by example, gently encouraging her to eat as they do, which means that Elsa generally eats whatever is put in front of her. There are also tips on experimenting with shapes and textures, keeping calm and encouraging a laid-back (Scandinavian) approach to eating, whether your child eats with a fork, a pair of chopsticks, a straw, or with their hands!

All in all, I’d happily recommend this book to anyone looking to eat more veg, wanting to try a new approach to life in the kitchen or to perhaps experiment with less-obvious and more health-conscious ingredients.

You can find a version of the Frozen Strawberry Cheesecake on the Green Kitchen Stories blog here

The Green Kitchen (Everyday Vegetarian – US version) is published by Hardie Grant RRP £25.00

With many thanks for my review copy.