A few pics to make you hungry, and a little bit of TV chat

Hi Guys,

I thought I would share a few pictures with you, hopefully they'll make you hungry!

Speaking of hungry, I am loving the new series of Two Greedy Italians on Thursdays on BBC2. The first couple of episodes are available on the iplayer, and I can highly recommend that you check them out. In my opinion, Gennarro Contaldo is such brilliant entertainment and should be on our screens far more than he is, and Antonio Carluccio is a great partner for him. It's a great fun hour of TV, with fantastic food and a couple of guys  having a brilliant time with each other, and it's in Italy . . . . . . what more do you need?

Something that has really surprised me recently is how much I like the Little Paris Kitchen, also on BBC2 and available on the iplayer. French food isn't really my thing, but Rachel Khoo has made it really accessible and fun. I like the way she presents things too. I might even buy the book . . . . . but don't tell Jamie!

Thanks for reading. 

Paul's favourite things - Extra virgin olive oil

Hi Guys,

I have decided to write a few posts about some of my favourite food related things, starting with something that really gets my tastebuds excited.

Olive Oil is a beautiful thing and I love it. It is used in pretty much everything I cook. A good olive oil is not only essential for a wonderful salad dressing, I've even used it in cakes and muffins instead of butter. Extra virgin olive oil on it's own, or with some aged balsamic vinegar, as a simple dip for home-baked bread is without doubt one of life's great pleasures. and I urge you all to go and get yourself a bottle right now and start dipping . . . . . . thinking about it, maybe wait till the end of the post as I've got a few tips for finding a great one.

Some people are a bit funny about oil, I've been noticing this more and more through the cooking classes at the Ministry of Food. The reality is that, yes it is fat, and yes too much fat is bad for you, but Olive oil is a good fat. What do I mean by good fat? Well without becoming too "sciencey", what I mean is that unlike things like butter, cheese and chocolate which are all bad fats, or saturated and trans fats,  Olive Oil is a monounsaturated fat and is actually good for your heart. 

What monounsaturated fats do is to help reduce the bad cholesterol in your body. We need fat in our diet, to help give us energy, so sticking to healthier fats as much as possible is without doubt the right way to go.

Cooking with Olive oil instead of butter or vegetable oil is an easy way to start, and including nuts and avocado's, which are other examples of good fats, into your food is another easy way of helping your heart out. Those of you who followed my London to Cornwall cycle ride last summer will know that we raised money for the British Heart Foundation, and raising awareness about keeping your heart healthy is something I am very passionate about. 

Getting back to helping you choose a great bottle of extra virgin olive oil leads me to tell you a little about how it is produced, and what you should be looking out for.

Olive oil comes from the process of grinding and pressing olives grown from olive trees. These trees are native to the Mediterranean, with Spain, Italy and Greece responsible for the majority of all oil produced worldwide. 

The process of extracting the oil can differ, depending on the equipment and technique used and this is what defines the grade of the oil. I won't go into this too much, as I want to stay on the good side of the "geek" line, but here is a basic breakdown of what you need to know based on what you'll find in the supermarket.

• Extra virgin olive oil is the top grade oil, it has a superior taste and is the one you want to look for for dipping your bread into, and using in dressings. It breaks down too easily when you add heat to it, so you don't want to use it for cooking. It is produced without the aid of chemicals, which is where the "virgin" part comes from.
• Olive oil is a blend of the processes used to make virgin olive oil and refined production olive oil, which means that chemicals are used to extract some of the oil, and then blended with the pure oil produced without the chemicals. This oil reacts far better to heat and is ideal for cooking, it has a milder flavour than extra virgin olive oil. This is what I use instead of butter and vegetable oil, making my cooking healthier and better for my heart.

So what should you be looking for in a good oil for dipping? For a start it has to be extra virgin, not only for the grade, but the flavour too. You would be surprised at how much flavour and also diversity of flavour can be packed into a bottle. I tend to like oils with a really strong grassy or peppery flavour. I find that Italian olive oils, for this reason are where it's at for me, but I am still always on the look out for different oils to try and disprove this for me, who knows what i'll find!

Reading the labels is a good place to start, it seems really obvious to say, but I bet most people buying oil take the same approach to the way they buy wine and go purely on price.

I tend to look for an italian oil with DOP written on the label. That means that it has a protected place of origin, and therefore meets the high standards of the area. Think of it in the same way as listed building status, you can't go messing about with it, so it retains it's status and character. Not saying that other oils aren't as good, just that it's something that I look for.

Other countries have their own special labeling marks which all relate to the same sorts of things, Greece for example uses PDO or PGI.

You also want to find an oil with low acidity, this will give you the fresh flavours that I love so much.

Try to find a bottle that tells you the date the oil was produced, like a wine, different seasons and years can affect the quality and definition of the flavour.

The other thing to consider is that Extra virgin olive oil isn't the cheapest thing in the world, but if you are savvy and look at the label, you can get a decent bottle for around £5. 

Sainsburys "taste the difference" Italian oils are a good place to start, and the one in the picture above is a good one to go for, as is the one from Tuscany. They might not be amazing, but without spending 3 times the price for a world class olive oil, like the other ones in the picture, they are a decent compromise, and a great way to ease yourself in.

I don't think I have quite found the "definitive" extra virgin olive oil yet, and am being introduced to new ones all the time. We use a great Greek one at the Ministry of Food made by a company called Olive Branch, so I recommend you check them out too. My next port of call is to explore Greek ones a little more, as I tend to get stuck in Italy too much but this is a lifetime's journey and one that I hope you will join me on. Any recommendations will be greatly welcome.

Thanks for reading!

When Jamie's Ministry of Food Stratford rocked Westfield . . . . twice!

Hi Guys,

In my last post, I was telling you all about the volunteering work I have been doing for Jamie's Ministry of Food Stratford. This is just a quick follow up, with a cool little film for you to watch.

Over the last couple of weekends we have done some big demo's in both Westfield shopping centres in London, Stratford and Shepherds Bush, cooking up a storm with a couple of delicious recipes in front of the shoppers. The aim was to spread the message of how easy and fun it is to cook simple, tasty recipes at home, and to let people know of the work the Ministry does in Newham. The smells coming out of our kitchen were amazing, and drawing in quite a crowd, who all got to have a taste of the food too! 

Each demo was filmed and shown on big screens around our stage so everyone could see what was happening. The film below is what was put together from that footage. I was able to take some pictures and thought I would share a few of them with you too. Rosanna from the Ministry of Food, who is doing all the cooking in the film was amazing, as was Kate, the presenter for both events. 

   

                                 

                                     

Both events were a massive success and so much fun to be involved in. I am loving being a part of such a fantastic enterprise and a brilliant team of people. 

For more info on Jamie's Ministry of Food Stratford you can check out and "like" the facebook page  and also follow @MOFStratford on twitter. 

Anyone can learn to cook - trust me!

Hi Guys!

I know it's been a few weeks since the last blog post, but there is a good reason for that . . . . . . I promise!

Since the start of the year I have been volunteering at Jamie's Ministry of Food Stratford, helping in the cooking classes. This has been even more of a rewarding experience than I could ever have imagined, and I am loving every single second of it.

Jamie's Ministry of Food is based on a Second World War initiative, when the government set up a national network of food advisors and cooking teachers to educate the public about food and nutrition so they would be able to feed themselves properly with the rations available. In 2008 Jamie Oliver set up the first of the centres (of which there are now 5 in the UK) in Rotherham, the location of the infamous take-away food being passed through the school railings incident in the aftermath of the school dinners campaign.

The centres teach a 10 week course based around specially designed Jamie recipes, which help to pass on the basics of cooking, knife skills, nutrition, having a balanced diet and most importantly fun and enjoyment with both your family and the new friends you will meet on the course. Knowing how to cook from scratch also means that you'll be able to turn all sorts of fresh ingredients into meals when they are in season, at their best and at their cheapest. Sadly skills that no longer seem to be passed down through generations like they used to.

We are currently 4 weeks into the course and I am so impressed with the improvement of our students already. Not just their cookery skills either. There is a fantastic vibe in each class and a confidence in each student which is starting to come out more and more. They are also more willing to try new foods and ingredients, many for the first time.
After each class they take their meals home with them and share them with their families. The pride you get to see in the students as they leave with something that they never imagined they could ever cook is so heart warming and just fantastic to be a part of.

This Saturday (11th Feb) we are setting up a stand opposite Waitrose in the Westfield shopping centre in Stratford (East London) where we will be doing a few demo's and things, so if you are around, please pop down and see us. I guarantee you will be inspired . . . . . . just follow the beautiful smells and they'll lead you to where we are!

The centres are set up with funding from local NHS, councils and corporate business partners, with students only paying for the ingredients used in each recipe. The Stratford centre is currently the only Ministry of Food in the South of England and the courses are only open to local people. I believe that every town and city across the UK would benefit greatly from a centre like this. I was lucky enough to be invited to a graduation party for one of the classes which finished just before Christmas last year and the atmosphere was amazing. The endorsement for the classes from each of the students - who were a variety of ages, from teenagers to grandparents, was incredible.

These classes do help to change lives, and if we all make some noise and lobby our local council's enough, then hopefully more centres will be set up and more classes available to even more people.

I will keep you informed with how the classes progress, and hopefully upload a few of the pictures I have been taking, and I will try to get back to more regular posts too!

Roasted Veg Cous Cous with Feta Cheese and Houmous

Hi Guys!

I thought I would share this recipe with you. This is something I have been making for a long time, and the brilliant thing about it - apart from the fact that it's delicious, is that you can mix it up and change it by using different veg or herbs and have it all year round. It's also great to make a big batch of this and have the leftovers for lunch the following day. 

This is my basic recipe, so tweak and add things to suit you.

Serves 4-6

2 red onions

2 courgettes

1 red pepper

1 yellow pepper

6 cloves of garlic, left in their skins

250g cherry tomatoes

500g cous cous

extra virgin olive oil

2 lemons

sea salt and black pepper

handful of mint

200g feta cheese

200g houmous

smoked paprika

Preheat the oven to 200℃/gas mark 6.

Chop each onion into 8 wedges and put into a roasting tray. 

Slice the courgettes into 1cm thick rounds, deseed the peppers and slice into 1cm thick strips. Add them along with the whole garlic cloves to the tray with the onions.

Drizzle everything with a good glug of olive oil and season well. Give the tray a good toss to coat and mix everything and place in the oven for 30 minutes.

Put your cous cous into a large bowl and pour over some boiling water, just enough so that everything is covered. Squeeze in the juice of 1 lemon, add a glug of extra virgin olive oil and some salt and pepper.

Cover the bowl with a large plate, or some clingfilm and leave it for about 10 minutes.

Once the veg has had half an hour in the oven, take out the tray, add your cherry tomatoes, give it another shake and return it to the oven for another 25 minutes.

Once the cous cous has soaked up all the water and the lovely flavour of the lemon and oil, fluff it up with a fork and have a little taste. It should be nice and soft. If there is still a bit of bite to it, then add a little more water and leave covered up for a few more minutes.

Finely slice up your mint and stir it into your cous cous.   

Empty the houmous into a nice serving bowl and add a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, the juice of half your remaining lemon, some seasoning and a pinch of smoked paprika. Give it a little stir to mix and have a taste, add more lemon if you need to, but you should have a fantastic houmous with a nice bit of a kick to it.

When the veg is done, add it all to the bowl of cous cous and give it a good mix.

Serve it on a nice big platter as I have in the picture, and crumble over your feta cheese. When you come to eating the garlic, (which is the best part!) just squeeze it out of it's skin. It'll be sticky and delicious.

Don't worry if you have any leftovers as they are brilliant the next day, and remember to mix it up with different vegetables and herbs. Things like aubergines, squash and even sweet potato are amazing, and any soft herb like parsley or coriander will work a treat. Just keep all the veg a similar size in the roasting tray, then everything should cook and be ready together.

Enjoy!

Puff Pastry Christmas Calzones - Paul's Christmas Post - part 2

Hi Guys,

One of the things I love about this time of year is that you get to go round and see so many people, and as soon as you walk in the door you are offered some food and a nice drink (if this doesn't happen then you've probably walked into my Nan's house, in which case my only advice is to get on with it and make your own refreshments - only joking Nan!). Finger food, or party food can be brilliant and I love being offered home made sausage rolls or little tasty combo's spiked on forks - things like fresh figs wrapped in a little prosciutto with a sprig of mint and a small drizzle of balsamic vinegar , or some smoked salmon (responsibly sourced) with a little bit of watercress, some creme fraiche  and a squeeze of lemon are heavenly. The downside of party food is that alot of the stuff that is ready made from the supermarket is horrible. Sometimes it gets served to you in the same packet it was bought and cooked in, which makes it even worse!

As I promised at the end of the last post, here is a little Christmas recipe for you to try. Sage, cranberries and stilton are all classic Christmas flavours and I've brought them together in a pastry parcel - it is Christmas, so a little pastry treat is allowed! Use the all butter puff pastry you can get from the supermarket and roll it yourself. I've made my own sticky cranberry jam, but you could buy a jar, just make sure it's chunky. You can also use any cheese you want, but just make sure it's one with lots of flavour which is why I've used stilton, but a lovely mature cheddar works really well too.

Sticky Cranberry Jam

300g fresh cranberries

2 tbsp light brown sugar

Juice of 2 clementines or 1/2 an orange

flat teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp red wine

Add all the ingredients to a frying pan and simmer over a medium heat for about 7 minutes until dark and sticky, but the cranberries still retain their shape. 

Allow to cool.

This makes about 25 calzones:

plain flour for dusting

500g all butter puff pastry

heaped teaspoon dried sage

1/2 my Sticky Cranberry Jam recipe - use the rest alongside your Christmas Turkey!

wedge of stilton (or your favourite strong cheese - or even a mixture!)

1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 220℃ / gas mark 7

Roll your pastry out until it is the same thickness as a pound coin, as you do so dust both sides with the dried sage. This will give you a lovely subtle flavour to your pastry. 

Use the rim of a pint glass (or something similar approx 8-9 cm diameter) to cut the pastry into little circles.

Place a little cluster of cranberry jam in the middle of each of the circles. 4-5 cranberries is the ideal amount. You are going to fold the circles in half, so place the cranberries towards one side, but leave a 1 centimetre gap between the filling and the edge.

Crumble the same amount of cheese over the cranberries and then brush the egg in the 1 centimetre gap you left.

Carefully fold the pastry over the filling and press down to seal.

Now you can be as fancy as you like with this next part, you need to crimp the pastry to keep the filling from coming out. I like to fold and pinch all the way along to create a little calzone shape. What this means is that I start at 1 end, fold over a little triangle of the pastry and pinch it down, I then take the next piece and fold it over into another triangle, and then pinch that down. This follows on until I get to the end where I finish it with a big pinch, making the finished calzone look a little bit like an ear! (the big pinch at the end looks like an earlobe to me!) You could always just press down the edge with a fork, like you would a sausage roll, if you prefer. Try to make it as tight as possible without getting any holes in them. You will probably find that the cheese will still manage to find a way to bubble and ooze out a little as it cooks, but that doesn't matter too much, you want them to look rustic and homemade!

Brush the top with some more egg and place on some greaseproof parer on a baking tray.

Do the same with the rest and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until golden.

You can adapt this recipe any way you like. It's really nice to do a batch using different cheeses, just keep them separated on the tray as you bake them and remember which is which! 

You could also try using some leftover turkey instead of cheese, or using a different herb, like thyme in the pastry. 

I hope you enjoy the recipe, do let me know what you think, as it all helps with future recipes that I'll be posting in the new year.

Have a brilliant Christmas, and thank you so much for reading my blog over the past couple of months.

Paul's Christmas Post - part 1

Hi Guys,

This week there really is no escaping the fact that Christmas is upon us. Hopefully you are all organised in terms of what food you are cooking and serving. I am pretty sorted, although I don't actually have that much that anyone wants me to do! This year we will be staying with Esther's family over Christmas Eve and Christmas Day before visiting my Aunty Lyn on Boxing Day and my Cousin on the 27th. My "Christmas Day" with my Grandparents, Parents and my Sister isn't until the 28th (yes that is 5 solid days of Christmas!) and we are going alternative, so I'll be coking a beautiful lamb rogan josh with fluffy rice and making some fantastic lime pickle and a few other bits and pieces. Apart from a retro pale ale fondue that has been requested for a late evening Boxing Day treat, the only other cooking that I'll be doing will be any desserts that might be requested from me (there usually is!) and of course I will be available as a sous-chef for anyone who needs any help.
I can't wait for Esther and I to be able to host a proper Christmas Day, as I usually end up lugging half of my kitchen around with us and when you live in a second floor flat, it is a nightmare going up and down the stairs so many times! I love it really!
I also want to be able to start some proper Christmas Day traditions, things like a good breakfast and a little homemade alcoholic drink to get you started, that sort of thing. It would also be nice to be able to do a few "get ahead" recipes and keep them in the fridge. Anyone who saw Jamie's Christmas with Bells On on Wednesday will know what I mean by that. There are loads of jobs you can do in advance of Christmas Day to tick off your list and leave you free to enjoy yourself instead of being a slave to the kitchen. This includes a fabulous "get ahead" gravy and brilliant stuffing recipe. You can find these recipes on the channel 4 website if you are interested, and believe me you should check them out as they are genius!

While I am on the subject of Christmas food on TV this week, I have to write a bit about Jimmy's Grow Your Own Christmas Dinner which was also on channel 4. I love Jimmy Doherty and think he is brilliant. This week he decided to try to grow all the components of a traditional Christmas dinner and compare them to ones that most people would buy from a supermarket. This meant that he would be cooking 2 Christmas dinners at the same time . . . . . . Jimmy has always been a bit crazy!
The other thing Jimmy has always been is a really fair person, and he told the stories of both his homegrown and the supermarket produce in a very non-biased way, even when he was in a Bernhard Matthews turkey farm, something he should be commended for.
Along with rearing his own free range turkey, he grew sprouts, carrots and a really traditional variety of potato that sadly we don't see very much anymore. He also made his own Christmas pudding using a very old recipe using suet. This looked incredible and is definitely something I will be doing next year.
I love programmes like this, they get you excited about growing your own stuff (all I need now is a garden and I'll be all over it) but I also now know a lot more about the food I buy in the supermarket.
Jimmy has taught me so much over the years and he really inspires me. In his last series he used heavy duty power tools in his barn to create his own versions of supermarket food, it's pretty easy to understand why I like him so much! I don't think I would be any good at running a farm, but I love visiting the farm shop at his, as he has some amazing meat amongst all the other nice things.
The outcome of the programme really didn't matter that much, as you already know that free range meat tastes better,  allotment grown veg always tastes better and the pudding will be either a "love it" or "hate it"
kind of thing with the suet. What was important was the idea that we should try to preserve some of the traditional varieties of things like potatoes that are being lost. Apples are another example of this and it's astounding to learn how many different varieties of apples there are, but only a few are readily available to the average consumer. I think that is really sad, and something should be done to actively push these things back into our shops.

As the title of this post suggests, there will be another Christmas post coming in the next few days. This hopefully will be a little recipe to try out. I have been experimenting in the kitchen over the last couple of weeks in an attempt to give you something really special to do. Not everything has been as successful as I would have liked and there have been a few disasters, but I'm confident that you'll love what I'll post!

In the meantime get as much of your shopping done as possible. Christmas is the worst time for food shopping and if you can have all the cupboard stuff already so all you need to pick up are the fresh items then you'll be reducing the supermarket stress for yourself big time! Just stay calm and it'll all be fine, I am hoping not to be pushed out of the way by an angry lady looking for parsnips this year - there isn't the need for it to get to that stage!

Happy shopping!