the foodies handbook

09 March

Avocado: Taken From The Spanish Word Aguacate Meaning ‘Testicle’
Regarded by many as an icon of 1970s food, the name avocado (pear) is derived from the Spanish word aguacate meaning ‘testicle’, because of the fruits shape. It is an edible tropical fruit with a dark green sometimes black, leathery skin, large stony seed and pale green creamy textured flesh. High in potassium and vitamins C and E, they work well baked, grilled or raw in salads. An avocado should be slightly soft to the touch when ripe. The three most common varieties are ‘eltinger‘, ‘hass’ and ‘fuerte’. Latin name persea americana. For a quick snack cut an avocado into chunks and serve with stir-fried strips of chicken fillet, sour cream, a tomato salsa, grated cheddar cheese and rocket leaves wrapped in a warm flour tortilla. Alternatively add sliced avocado to warm smoked trout, sliced green olives, orange segments, lambs lettuce and a horseradish dressing for a delicious salad. Or try avocado pesto by blending together with pine nuts, green chillies, garlic, parsley, basil, olive oil and grated Parmigiano Reggiano.




13:48 GMT  |  Read comments(0)

Is It Fasolia, Fasoulda Or Ethiopian Beans On Toast
This is an extremely popular vegetarian bean dish originating from Cyprus. Traditionally served as a thick stew and accompanied with warm crusty bread and fresh olives. In some parts of Greece fasolia is produce as a soup and referred to ‘fasoulda’, and is usually eaten with feta cheese and crusty bread. This dish is also found in North African cuisine, often served as a breakfast dish over crusty bread and topped with melted cheese. To produce take 300g of haricot beans, soaked overnight, 125ml of extra virgin olive oil, a large onion, 3 of fresh cloves of garlic, a large carrot, 2 celery stalks, including the leaves, 2 ripe tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of tomato puree, a litre of water, 4 tablespoons of chopped parsley, sea salt and cracked black pepper. Fine dice the onions, garlic, celery, carrot and tomatoes. Preheat a large saucepan and add a splash of olive oil. Sauté the onion, garlic, carrot, and celery until soft and translucent. Add the tomato puree and the water. Bring to a boil. Drain the beans and add them to the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for about 1 hour, or until beans are tender. Remove from the heat. Add the parsley. Serve as required.



06:37 GMT  |  Read comments(0)

01 March

Marie Antoine Carême: The King Of Chefs & The Chef To Kings
Born in Paris in June 1784  Marie Antoine Carême is considered the farther of ‘haute cuisine’, the high end of French culinary art. His new style of cooking was much favoured by European royalty as well as the newly rich aristocrats of  18th century Paris. Indeed, Carême is often considered to be the first internationally renowned celebrity chef. Abandoned by his parents in 1792 at the height of the French Revolution, he was fortunate to be employed as a kitchen boy in a Parisian chophouse in exchange for room and board. In 1798, he was formally apprenticed to Sylvain Bailly, a renowned pâtissier with a premises near the Palais-Royal. Bailly recognized the talent and ambition of the young and enthusiastic Carême, and it was not long before he opened his own shop, the ‘Pâtisserie de la rue de la Paix’, which he ran until 1813. Carême gained fame in Paris for his pièces montées, elaborate constructions used as centrepieces which Bailly displayed in the pâtisserie window. He made these confections, which were sometimes several feet high, entirely out of foodstuffs such as sugar, marzipan, and pastry. He modelled them on temples, pyramids, and ancient ruins, taking ideas from architectural history books that he studied at the nearby Bibliothéque National, thanks to the enlightened attitude of his employer. He worked for many members of Parisian high society, including Napoleon. It was while working on his confections in the private kitchens of Parisian society that he extended his culinary skills to main courses. Napoleon was famously indifferent to food, but he understood the importance of social relations in the world of diplomacy. In 1804, he gave money to Talleyrand to purchase Château de Valençay, a large estate outside of Paris. The château was intended to act diplomatic gathering place. When Talleyrand moved there, he took Carême with him. Carême was set a test by Talleyrand, to create a whole year’s worth of menus, without repetition, and using only seasonal products. Carême passed the test and completed his training in Talleyrand’s kitchens. Talleyrand’s table became famous during the negotiations that followed the fall of Napoléon, at the Congress of Vienna. Carême went to London for a time and served as chef de cuisine to the Prince Regent, later George IV. Returning to the continent he followed the invitation of Tsar Alexander I to come to St. Petersburg, where he tarried so briefly he never prepared a meal for the Tsar before returning to Paris, where he was chef to banker James Mayer Rothschild. He died in Germany at the age of 48. He is remembered as the founder of the haute cuisine concept and is interred in the Cimetière de Montmartre in Montmartre. Carême’s impact on culinary matters ranged from trivial to theoretical. He is credited with the inventions of ‘gros nougats and grosses meringues, croquantes’, made of almonds and honey, and solilemmes (Sally Lunn’s cake).He also created the standard chef’s hat, the ‘toque’. He designed new sauces and dishes, he published a classification of all sauces into groups, based on four mother sauces. He is also frequently credited with replacing the practice of ‘service à la française’ (serving all dishes at once) with ‘service à la russe’ (serving each dish in the order printed on the menu) after he returned from service in the Russian court, but sources differ on this point. Carême wrote five works on cookery, above all the encyclopaedic ‘L’Art de la Cuisine Française’ (5 vols, 1833–34, of which he had completed three before his death), which included, aside from hundreds of recipes, plans for menus and opulent table settings, a history of French cookery, and instructions for organizing kitchens. January 1833).




15:55 GMT  |  Read comments(0)

28 February

Rose Gray: Pioneering Chef & Cookery Writer Dies
Tributes have been paid chef Clemency (Rose) Gray, co-founder of the River Cafe restaurant, who has died aged of 71. Celebrity cooks Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall both worked for Rose at the restaurant. The River Café, in Hammersmith, west London, was established in 1987 together with Lady Ruth Rogers, bringing the two women's version of Italian cooking to British diners with a focus on freshness and seasonal ingredients. Jamie Oliver said: "I'm so saddened by the death of Rose. She really was one of life's very, very special, natural, genius chefs - a true pioneer of delicious simple cooking. It was my honour to have worked with her - a really great boss, a wonderful person who gave me some of my fondest cooking memories and great funny times. "The quality of food and chefs that have left the River Cafe over the last 20 years speaks for itself and is all credit to the partnership, love and values of Rose Gray and Ruthie Rogers. Without question the world has lost one of the most important chefs of our times, she will be sorely missed." Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall said that when Rose took him on, untrained, in 1989 at the River Cafe which was "the most talked-about restaurant in London".  She was awarded an MBE for services to the hospitality industry. Rose Gray leaves four children and listed her hobbies in Who's Who as gardening, wine, travelling and eating.




23:46 GMT  |  Read comments(0)

27 February

Best In Season: March
March This is a month of celebrations. Saint David’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, mothering Sunday, the first day of spring and the beginning of Easter. Potentially a cold and wet month and a good time to be using the last of the winter preserves. Vegetables in season are: avocadoes, beetroot, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots, celeriac, chicory, cucumber, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes, kale, morels, spring onions, swede, sweet potatoes and turnip. Fruits in season are: Cape gooseberries, dates, kumquats, pears, pineapple, rhubarb. Fish in season is: brill, cod, conger eel, flounder, halibut, John Dorey, lemon sole, mackerel, oysters, scallops, sea trout, shrimp, sprats, whitebait and wild salmon. Meat in season this month is hare.





08:00 GMT  |  Read comments(0)

22 February

Hot Cross Bun: A Quick Guide
This a sweet flavoured spiced bun containing currants or raisins and leavened with yeast. They are marked with a cross marked on the top which is usually done with white icing, but sometimes with rice paper, a plain dough mix or simple intersecting cuts. The cross is a symbol of the crucifixion and traditionally eaten on Good Friday. Although commonly used over the Christian festival of Easter the hot cross bun is believed to pre-date Christianity, although the first recorded use of the term "hot cross bun" is not until 1733. It is believed that sweet buns, marked with a cross, were eaten by Saxons in honour of the goddess Eostre with the cross symbolising the four phases of the moon. Many ancient civilizations are known to have baked buns in honour of gods, including the Greeks. In England hot cross buns were regarded as a product of the Catholic church, this was because they were produced from the same dough used to ma;e communion wafers. Queen Elizabeth I attempted to ban the sale of the buns, but this proved unpopular so a law was passed permitting bakers to sell them only at Easter and Christmas. Many superstitions exist regarding hot cross buns. It is said that a bun baked on Good Friday will stay fresh and never become stale until the following Easter. Another suggests keeping a bun for medicinal purposes, and that a small piece will cure any illness when consumed during the year. Sharing a bun with another will ensure eternal friendship. If taken on a sea voyage, a hot cross bun will prevent shipwreck. If hung in the kitchen, they will protect against firs and insure that all breads will turn out perfectly. In North America these buns usually contain candied peel. In Australia and New Zealand chocolate and spices are used instead of the dried fruit.





07:53 GMT  |  Read comments(0)

10 February

The Quick Pocket Guide To Italian Cuisine
Italian cuisine is distinctly regional. This is due mainly to the fact that the country was only united politically in 1861. Up until this time Italy was comprised entirely of disparate cities, regions and states. Often warring and always differing greatly from their neighbours in customs, traditions, styles, ingredients and cooking methods. With 1500 miles of coastline seafood plays a major role in Italian cuisine, with those regions bordering the Adriatic and Mediterranean being especially associated with fish and dishes relating to the sea. Inland Italy is composed almost entirely of mountains, with the Apennine range forming the backbone of the country and stretching from Piedmont in the north to Calabria in the south. The sheer length of Italy means that its styles of cuisine differ greatly across the country. In the north food tends to be Germanic in origin and cold weather orientated, butter, rich stews and red wine feature heavily. In the warmer south the foods are more influenced by Greek and North African cuisine utilising olive oils, couscous and salads. French culinary tradition has a heavy influence over many aspects of Italian food. Nice, Genoa and Sardinia were under French control during much of the 19th century. Pesto is an example of a quintessentially Italian classic with deeply French roots, being closely related to the French pistou. Capers, pine nuts and dried fruits are frequently found in Sicilian dishes, this is due to the Spanish Muslims who occupied the island from early in the 9th century.







09:22 GMT  |  Read comments(0)

09 February

Antonio Carluccio: Mr Mushroom

In September 2008, Antonio Carluccio, the much loved and respected Italian cookery writer, celebrated 50 years of championing, cooking and eating genuine, regional Italian food and wine. In 1958 at the age of 21 he began to cook simple pasta suppers for himself and his flat-mate on a two-ring stove in Vienna. Now, known for his gentle manner, gruff voice and his wild crop of white hair, Antonio is regarded as the Godfather of Italian gastronomy. Being born on the Amalfi Coast in the South and raised in the wooded North-West has given Antonio a rare and privileged breadth of culinary knowledge. It was here, in Piedmont, at the age of seven that Antonio started his life-long past-time of hunting and collecting mushrooms and funghi with his father. After time spent living in Germany, in 1975 Antonio moved to London and while learning English, traded as a wine merchant of Italian wines. His hobby of studying and collecting wild mushrooms continued to flourish as he found many varieties growing in the English countryside close to London, almost completely undiscovered. Antonio took over the Neal Street Restaurant in Covent Garden in 1981, which traded for 26 years. In 1991 Antonio opened a deli next to the restaurant and in 1998 started the first Carluccio's Caffè in Market Place, London. After ten years developing the Carluccio's caffè business Antonio is no longer a director but continues to work with the Carluccio's team on menu development and chef training whilst also concentrating on new projects. In 1983 Antonio made his first appearance on BBC 2 talking about Mediterranean food and at the same time was asked to write his first book, An Invitation to Italian Cooking. Subsequently he has written thirteen books, published worldwide and made numerous television programmes including the hugely popular Antonio Carluccio's Northern Italian Feast and Southern Italian Feast. In 1998, Antonio was awarded the Commendatore OMRI by the President of Italy for services to Italian gastronomy, the equivalent of a British knighthood. In 2007 he was awarded an honorary OBE. Antonio acknowledges there will always be more to learn about the food he is passionate about. Above all he believes it is important to remain loyal to the ingredients and cooking traditions of his country.

www.antonio-carluccio.com

www.thefoodieshandbook.co.uk

14:54 GMT  |  Read comments(0)

02 February

Roy Ackerman: The Coolcucumber
Roy Ackerman is far more that just the 'coolcucumber'. He is an internationally recognised member of the hospitality industry. He has represented Britain as Chairman of the ‘World Master of Culinary Arts’, and has been associated with the annual awards of the ‘Café Crème Guide’ as well as the ‘Martell Guide to Europe’ for many years. He is a past Chairman of the ‘Restaurant Association of Great Britain’, and was awarded an OBE in 1990 for his outstanding contributions to tourism and hospitality training. Roy Ackerman has headed the ‘Hotel and Catering Training Board’, and remains Chairman of the Honorary Members of the Academy of Culinary Arts. He assists the ‘Academy of Food and Wine Service’ with conferences and training initiatives. He has helped many professional chefs, including Giorgio Locatelli, Antony Worrall Thompson and Theo Randall. He is in partnership with Maitre d’ Elena Salvoni, running a restaurant under her name. He was awarded a CBE in 2000 for services to Gastronomy and In 2003, as a tribute to founding the Henley Festival of Music and the Arts, he was made Honorary President to celebrate its 21st year.






15:26 GMT  |  Read comments(0)

Come Dine With Me Uses Fake & Rented Homes
The ever popular foodie series, Come Dine With Me, Broadcast on channel 4 is the latest television programme to face accusations of 'faking it'. It was revealed some of the homes featured don't belong to the contestants, a major premise of the series. Contestants including celebrities Christopher Biggins and Sherrie Hewson appeared in properties which were leased especially for use by the show, viewers however were led to believe that they were their own homes. Alternative locations were used for filming to either fit in with filming schedules or because some of the contestants didn't want their real houses featured on television. In an episode featuring Christopher Biggins he was seen showing his guests a framed photograph of Joan Collins. which he kept in his living room. However, the house featured did not belong to him. A spokesman for channel 4 stated that: “…for logistic and security reasons, some of the dinner parties are filmed at a rented locations rather than at participants own homes.”



09:34 GMT  |  Read comments(0)