Valentine Warner Eats Scandinavia

"Valentine Warner Eats Scandinavia" is a super new series on Good Food Channel - some terrific recipes and a lovely look at Scandinavia - food and landscape.  Here's one of his recipes - most are pretty simple and look just delicious.

Salmon Scotch Egg
500g fillet of salmon - very finely chopped  (food processor)
1 medium egg yolk
1 medium egg
4 tbls. plain flour seasoned with 1 tsp of salt
1 egg beaten for egg wash
4 tbls. toasted breadcrumbs
sunflower oil for deep frying - parsley to garnish

1. Flatten the salmon with a knife until it's completely minced (or use a food processor)

2. Place the salmon in a bowl and add the egg yolk - mix thoroughly and season with salt and black pepper.

3. Boil the egg in a pan of hot water for a couple of minutes until it's parboiled, peel and dry it thoroughly and sprinkle with salt.

4. Pack the salmon mixture very gently around the egg.

5. Roll the egg carefully in the flour, then in the egg wash - coating it thoroughly, then in the breadcrumbs.

6. Fill a saucepan 2/3 full with funflower oil and set over a med. heat.  When the oil is hot, and has reach 170 deg.C - use a slotted spoon to lower the egg into the pan, and deep fry for 7 minutes until golden brown.

7. When done, remove the egg from the pan and place it on a piece of kitchen paper to absorb the excess oil.

8. Sprinkle with sea salt and serve.

!delicious!

Masterchef 2011

The Winner! - Tim Anderson
This was such an excellently deserved win - although the competition was very tough. In fact, at one stage, I thought there were going to be 3 Masterchef Winners! The food from all of the final contestants was wonderful, but Tim's was exquisite.

Galvin La Chapelle - Spital Square

We visited this restaurant the other week, and the building alone is beautiful - both inside and out. The building dates back to 1890 and I was very interested to find out more about it, as we were told by a member of the staff that it used to be a Girls Boarding School. Here is a link to the history of Spital Square - - you can scroll down to no.34/35.

...... Anyhoo! - the restaurant itself was superb - service excellent - food delicious - I couldn't fault anything at all. Not cheap, but certainly worth a visit for a 'treat'.

Masterchef 2011

This most recent Masterchef has had me bored and interested through this series. I love the combination of Greg and John together but some of the contestants have been a bit tedious to watch.

This series has had a revamp too, which I'm still not sure about as it seems to concentrate on the contestants rather than their actual dishes. However, I am enjoying it again and will carry on watching :).

Raymond Blanc - Kitchen Secrets

I can sit and listen to Raymond talking for an age, which makes his programmes very watchable for me. I love his recipes but apart from his book Simple French Cookery - I really dont use many of them. This book is well worth owning and I think he's used some of the recipes in this series.

I'm fascinated by Raymond's skill, where he makes everything look so simple, with the help of Adam of course! ...... I have been lucky enough to stay at Le Manoir au Quatre Saisons and have to say it's a complete treat ...... expensive, but wonderful.

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall - June 2009 TV Series

Celebrating Summer in Hugh's new series of River Cottage, which started yesterday on Channel 4 is as delightful as his past series. He has a lovely presentational style, and we get a super view of the countryside to boot! He also shows us about his 'landshare scheme' and other country matters (which us Townies know very little about). ( I might mention that he may go slightly over the top with his puns - - - - but we dont mind at all!)

His Wholemeal Honey & Carrot Cake is a recipe I shall definitely be trying out.

This ice cream recipe sounds lovely too (from The Guardian) ................... Mint and mascarpone ice-cream

Try some more recipes from Hugh's River Cottage website.

The Sausage Experience!

Well, I had a go and think life may be too short to spend time making sausages!

I bought a manual mincer, which means it needs two people to complete the operation. One at one end, pushing the meat through, and someone taking care of things at the other end!

The sausage casing, although actually quite strong, has an unpleasant feel about it, and is fiddly to initially open it up. If you're a knitter you'll probably enjoy this - it's a bit like unravelling yarn - but slightly tackier!

I have ended up with some nice looking sausages - which actually look like real sausages - but the whole operation was quite fiddly - - - - - shall probably give it another go anyway!

Caldesi Cookery Courses

- Monday I went to a pasta-making day course at Caldesi's (Marylebone Lane, London W1) - I wasn't particularly looking forward to it as I thought - life's too short to make your own pasta - ............. however, I am now a convert! Our teacher was - Ursula Ferrigno - who has written at least 17 books. The class was delightful - and I'm now on the lookout for a pasta maker (maybe secondhand, as it could well end up in a cupboard in a few weeks time!) We ate all the pastas we had made in class, for lunch, with several different sauces - which we had also made, some good wine and very nice company of the other students - and super coffee.

It's so useful actually seeing pasta being made and being given lots of useful tips too. I'd really recommend doing something like this - if not the pasta making day try another class - it's all beautifully set up and very enjoyable. Try some of their recipes .....

James Martin's Brittany; Britain's Best Dish and Masterchef ..... TV Cookery Programmes

There are (as usual) tons of cookery programmes on tv and two of the nicest, I've found currently are - 'James Martin's Brittany' on UKTVFood and 'Britain's Best Dish' on itv.

'James Martin's Brittany' is a bit of a boy's romp through Brittany with some of his friends. It's very watchable with some super cooking and scenic views and showing us just wonderful local French markets -- (drool!)

'Britain's Best Dish' is also great to watch. It has an excellent panel of judges (not at all 'pseudy'), is well presented, and seems to have taken on board all the annoying points of cookery competitions and done away with them. The actual judging doesn't dwell for an endless amount of dramatic time on the poor contestants waiting to find out whether they've got through or not. I like that, and there's not any unecessary prattle by the presenter. The standard of good home-cooked food from the winning contestants, is also good to watch, and I shall certainly be trying a few of the recipes.

The 'well seasoned' "Masterchef" on BBC has become very boring - - the chefs and the recipes. I like Michel Roux very much, and feel he could probably do this programme on his own, but I think the format with John Torode and Gregg Wallace worked very well - despite the over-dramatic bits!

"Stinking Bishop" !

I think things may have hit a fine low! Last night I actually watched - with interest - "The Great British Cheese Awards 2007" ! (This was on "Horse & Country" Channel, which I had not seen before..........can't think why)!

Artisan cheesemaking is definitely an art, and produces wonderful cheeses such as "Stinking Bishop" - which incidentally is named after the variety of pear/perry the cheese rind is washed in - - - - - - you might either run a mile from this cheese or just love it.

Makers Details: Charles Martell & Son

Start complaining - - - !

I think there are too many eating places masquerading as restaurants .... they look good, which may be why customers are drawn in - initially - - but there may be no menus available to browse before deciding whether you want any of their food, service is not good, and generally the food is not good, frequently having been microwaved after being prepared well in advance, and - the prices are high. Another possible clue is the amount of customers they dont have sitting down! (and - clean loos are very important!)

Yesterday a friend and I went to the Notting Hill Gate/Portobello Road area - we passed a very busy Church cafe (slightly hidden away), which had lots of fresh salads and appetising looking food, yet just around the corner, a rather nicer looking eating place - with only one other couple inside - (we should have taken this as a BIG clue!) We had to ask for a menu as there were none on display anywhere and having had a mental blip we, stupidly, decided to eat there!

When the dishes arrived, they were either tasteless or too salty and pretty small portions. The waitress wasn't that interested, as we had only ordered 'snacks' of humous and tappenade, and roasted (?) vegetables, and a jug of water. It was certainly not good value for the amount on the plate - apart from which they were not tasty at all.

Even if customers dont complain at the time, people tend to vote with their feet, and if restaurants/cafes dont try too hard - they'll get the same response from the public. You may go once, but wont return. I think we definitely need to complain more!

These are tomatoes!

These absolutely delicious objects are Tomatoes! Not those horrible little, uniformly round, tasteless Dutch things we get in our supermarkets! The Gorgeous Ones taste delicious, are French - and bought in Biarritz. ................ we want some over here!