Masterchef - some random thoughts ....

As I have been away on business quite a lot recently I have been recording the Masterchef Australia 2010 series on tv to watch at a later date.  I watched the 2009 series some time ago and whilst there were a lot of programmes and it did seem to last a long time, I personally felt that the tests that our friends down under have to go through to win the coveted title are hugely more onerous than our UK competitors.  Here I am talking about the standard Masterchef UK programme and not any of the derivations such as Professionals or Junior etc.

Lakeland - retail therapy for foodies!

Yesterday I set off to visit Lakeland - the home of creative kitchenware™ as I was in need of an oven thermometer.  I did have one before moving to this house but somewhere in the move it got mislaid.  My husband ‘decided’ (was coerced if I was being honest!) to cook a roast chicken during the week and complained that the oven wasn’t hot enough and that the chicken and roast potatoes were not browning in the expected timescale. I decided I would get a new oven thermometer as it is always a good idea to have one in any case as many ovens do not run at the temperature you think you have set using the oven dials.

I love any excuse to go to the Lakeland shop for a browse around even if I am not looking for anything in particular.  It is my equivalent to my husband enjoying a wander around a Maplin store looking at unidentifiable (to me) bits of electronics and tools. The Lakeland catalogues are fine and even looking at their online store is a nice way to spend some time if feeling bored, but nothing beats actually being able to see and touch the real life items.  I was not disappointed and spent best part of an hour browsing through the shop looking at all the new kitchenware and gadgets.  Lakeland seem to have thought of everything, with some help from creative ideas from their customers, and sell “must-have” kitchen goods that you didn’t know you needed till you see them!

Authenticity - how important is it to you?

Random thought which crosses the vast, arid plains of my mind from time to time ;-) how important is authenticity in a recipe to you when you cook?

I confess to indulging surviving a Chinese takeaway meal last Friday evening, having just returned home at 6pm from a week away on business. I really just did not fancy the idea of trolley rage down at the local supermarket on a Friday evening. I also had not been organised enough to do an online shop (during a lunch break at work obviously and not in company time - God forbid!! ;-)

So my husband helpfully suggested that he would "cook." In "Pete" language this translates to "what sort of takeaway would you like?" We opted for Chinese and duly arrived back home with Sweet and Sour Pork "Hong-Kong style" (whatever that really means and yes I know that was a totally uninspired choice on my part but hey, I was dead tired and brain was functioning even less than usual!) and "Chicken Chinese-style."

Cookery Books and Food Photography – a minor gripe!

Now I don’t know about you but I rarely buy a cookery book unless a high proportion of the recipes are accompanied by colour photographs.  For me a large part of the inspiration to cook a recipe I have seen comes from the way the finished dish looks in the photograph or from an overall description or introduction from the author or a reviewer.

Part of the
cook book collection

I have recently bought three more cook books to add to my completely over-the-top collection (currently stands at over 500 and increasing at a rate that any self-respecting rabbit would be proud of!)  My defence is that I have very few other vices these days – I don’t smoke, I don’t drink (well not that much), I don’t subscribe to Tiffany’s, I am not addicted to handbags, kitchen is already gadgeted up to the hilt and I no longer keep horses (which my ex husband used to say it would be cheaper to dig a big hole and pour £10 notes into it as to have horses!) so cookery books and shoes are my main vices (oh, I guess my car isn’t overly sensible and does guzzle petrol but hey …. ).  Anyway, back to the subject of the latest additions to my cook book empire, I have noticed with these three new books that I have a bit of a minor gripe about the photography.

Royal County of Berkshire Show visit

Yesterday I went to day one of the Royal County of Berkshire show held at Newbury showground.  This is an annual event and this year marks the 25th anniversary of the show being held at this venue and 101st anniversary of the show itself.

Whilst an agricultural event in the main, there was much to be enjoyed by all the family whether or not anyone is particularly interested in the countryside events or prize winning farm livestock and various equestrian classes.  Apparently over 600 stall holders were present offering everything from tools (boys' toys) to jewellery and one-off fashion items (girls' toys!) and plenty for the younger members of the family as well.

I have always enjoyed a day out at the local agricultural shows from when I was very young and my father used to take me to the Oxted and Edenbridge show. Turning his back on me just for a few seconds the one time, he turned round to discover I had disappeared!  Frantically searching round he couldn't see me anywhere but then his eyes were drawn to the hound pens where the various packs of foxhounds, beagles, bassetts etc were penned until it was their time to do a parade in the arena.  Apparently he could see a lot of wagging sterns clustered around one spot and then glimpsed me sat on the ground thoroughly enjoying being in the midst of all these happy hounds.  I don't even know how I got in with them and my father didn't either - still a mystery to this day!  Over the years I have been to many such shows around the country and my children still love to go even though young adults themselves now.

Eating in a recession

“Even in recession, foodies hold fast” is an article written by Eric Burkett and published on the delish.com website on the 10^th September 2010.  It basically talks about the recent findings in various polls that suggest that for a number of categories, not just “foodies,” people who are passionate about their given interest area do not cut back particularly, nor do they feel guilty about their spending even in these hard financial times.

He goes on to suggest that people however are perhaps more careful as to how they spend their money on their hobby / interest and that other factors might impinge on what they spend.  For example taking on more work due to lay-offs/redundancies and not wanting to say no to any extra work for fear that you might be next in the staff cut-backs, thus having less time to indulge your hobbies/interests.

I can relate to this, my husband and I are certainly eating out less often than previously but our spending on groceries has not decreased.  I am being more careful about not just throwing away leftover food – you know the stuff you carefully pack away after the first meal and think to yourself that you will have that the next day and then don’t? After a few days of bypassing that carefully wrapped package and moving it around the fridge to get to the other items you want you end up just launching it in the bin!  I am making more of an effort to plan to use up the leftovers in my weekly menu planning.  Actually, let me expand on that last sentence a little more as I don’t actually physically write out a menu plan for the week ahead, more that when I buy say a whole chicken, I think to myself that we will have one meal from that as a roast plus another meal with the leftovers and maybe even boil up the carcass for stock or as a soup base. Therefore that one chicken does the two of us at least two meals and maybe even three and I may freeze the leftovers so that we don’t get bored of eating the same thing/same meat two nights running.

Supermarket stroll

Having a half day work only today meant that this afternoon I was able to do the main weekly shop at a leisurely pace, browsing every aisle and taking time to really look at the products.  I also chose to go to a different supermarket, a large Morrisons, from my usual one - a small Sainsbury is the closest to me in the village/small town that I live in.

I would like to think that I am not a supermarket snob but I think I would be fibbing just a little! I'm a Waitrose girl at heart and I also like M&S when I need something almost ready to go without having to add to it too much on busy work evenings from time to time.  Unfortunately neither have stores very close to me now that I have moved out into the countryside.  Mind you my bank manager is probably relieved as previously I used to be able to pop to Waitrose in my lunch break from work and could do M&S "on the way home" (well only a minor detour was needed to make that statement true!)  However the Morrison store I went to today was actually quite a pleasant experience and the variety of fresh produce and the fish counter was really quite impressive.

The Why and Wherefores

Q. So just exactly why have I decided to try my hand at blogging?
A. Why not?!

Q. Why write about food and all things culinary, there are so many blogs out there already on these very topics?
A. Good point - but this is really just for me in the first instance, I think about food, recipes, ingredients, cuisines, foodie events, delis, farm shops, restaurants, eating establishments etc a lot of the time. I would like to put my thoughts, ideas and links to favourite places and items connected to this obsession in one place and watch it grow, develop and branch out.

Family and friends have for years said I should write a cook book or give cookery demos or help them with menu planning for special events and in truth if I knew how to be able to earn a living out of my passion for food, quality ingredients, recipes, menu planning and so forth, I'd do it in a heartbeat and give up the day job! However life doesn't seem to work like that for most people and only the lucky few seem able to make a living out of doing what they love.  So, for now, this will be a labour of love and hopefully a few folk might eventually stumble across it and enjoy my collection of food related ramblings!