Green shoots are coming!

Finally, it feels like the longest winter in history may be over, and the big yellow thing has returned to the sky. I misheard Best Foodie Friend last week when she said she had started chitting potatoes. Thought it sounded unusual.

Which means it’s time to start looking at the raised beds again, plotting to grow so many things, and then at least ending up with a glut of parsley and mint. Plus the glut from BFF’s allotment and new garden. But if you’re worried about food miles and provenance, not to mention taste, then no matter how amateur you are, you can always grow a few things yourself, and they’ll taste so much better. In fact, smug virtuousness ought to named taste number 6!

Need some inspiration? Here’s some of my favourites:

* Jamie Oliver not only has some cool and cute looking stuff to use in the garden, but also offers the laziest way I know to get a veg garden going. A Rocket Garden voucher makes a great gift, for someone else, or even for yourself if you’re either a new gardener or a very lazy one. I have very little success with seeds, so someone delivering little plants already underway would be a huge bonus.

* If you’re going down the organic route, then check out The Organic Gardening Catalogue. If you’re good, you can choose from all kinds of seeds, or there are plenty of choices in plug plants too. Also try more unusual things, like growing your own horseradish, ready to accompany a great rib of beef later in the year.

* Want bragging rights and something unusual to show at the local horticultural show? Then try growing heritage varieties, things that haven’t been seen down the garden centre in a long time. The Heritage Seed Libraryis preserving species at risk, and if you become a member you get to grow up to 6 varieties a year. This would be a great gift for a foodie with serious green fingers, as they get to delve into the delights of Glory of Devon peas, Rent Payer broad beans and Bunyard’s Matchless Lettuce. If you just want unusual potatoes, then try Carroll’s Heritage Potatoes, dispatching now but act quickly, stocks are limited.

* Sarah Raven feels like the Daylesford Farm Shop of seed and plant catalogues, in that it almost suggests to me no mucky hands are involved, and she clearly understands her target market. Conforming to type, I will therefore be ordering the Foodies Tomato Collection, seedlings of 3 tasty species along with some basil. It’s like a tomato and basil salad waiting to happen. In a similar vein, just not quite so pretty, try Crocus and their plug plant collections, like Luscious Legumes and Credit Crunchy Veg.

So go pull on your wellies, get your trug out and at least have a look at where you might plant stuff. It could be on small step on the road to self-sufficiency. Or at least a tasty tomato crop.

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The Good Food Producers Guide

This week’s five are inspired by the publication of The Good Food Producers Guide 2010, as guides to great food shops around the world. Just as a break from the cooking and baking, it allows me to indulge in my other great passion, shopping.

1. The Good Food Producers Guide 2010- I only got this yesterday, but already thrilled/slightly ashamed that have found some places around here that I’ve not already shopped at. Great guide to farm shops and food markets, as well as great producers of everything from meat through to artisanal bread and honey. It also gives a great guide to food festivals around the UK, as well as a seasonal food calendar. An interesting read, I’ll even get over my prejudice against this kind of book, as it’s always out of date the minute it’s published. As it’s the first edition, then give it a go.

2. Gourmet Shops of Paris: An Epicurean Tour – could this be any more appealing? It’s Paris and it’s food. I love it! It covers everything from pastries and cakes, through to more unusual stuff like oils, tea and soup. Even if you’re not planning a trip, the photographs are beautiful and you could just enjoy this without ever crossing the Channel. But it would be so much better to go!

3. Eat: Los Angeles: The Food Lover’s Guide to Los Angeles – going a bit further afield, but this gives you a guide to not just eating out around LA, but places to shop for great food and drink. One for if you’re planning a trip out there, because LA has such a diverse food scene you might want some pointers. Why go and do all the Hollywood stuff? Go and eat!

4. Eat Smart in Morocco: How to Decipher the Menu, Know the Market Foods and Embark on a Tasting Adventure - well, that’s a title and a half, but sounds like a great pre-read if you’re heading off to Morocco, which is on my wishlist! Whilst it doesn’t really give you food shop guides, it would help you prepare for tackling any of the markets you come across. And, let’s face it, there won’t be a shortage of those!

5. Eat London: All About Food- both beautiful book to read, and full of useful and great places to shop, and eat. And it’s not just central London, but far and wide across the city. Written by Terence Conran and Peter Prescott, it’s beautifully put together, great writing and great photography. It’s on my list!

So, take a break, get out there and shop and support great producers and retailers, no matter where you are. Happy shopping!

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Not how I want to do my bargain hunting!

Just a quick one to highlight some offers from good online retailers for foodie gifts, for someone else or yourself! There’s quite a lot of chocolate offers around, particularly useful to get organised ready for Easter. Here you go:

* Get 10% off at Chocolate Trading Co on Easter goodies with code Easter10, which is valid through till 30 April. Check out the skateboarding chocolate bunny and the chocolate filled hens eggs.

* One of my favourite (and there are a few) chocolate companies, Montezuma’s are offering free postage when you spend over £30 between now and midnight on Friday 19th March, with code CHEEKY688. It has to be Monster Bunnies and a Radical Stack, please!

* Definitely a case of one for them and one for you with Thorntons, as there is a free gift of a 400g box of Continental chocolates when you spend £15 or more. Build up your £15 spend, add the box of chocs (product code 3054) and then add code EST1 at checkout. Offer ends March 21st. Go on, make all the kids, big and small, happy and order them in their own personalised eggs. There’s everything from dark to white chocolate, so every taste should be covered.

* A quick one to act on, but there is free delivery from Urban Outfitters at the moment, until midnight Thursday, with orders over £50. Great for funky kitchens and unusual gifts, like the Soldier Egg Cup & Toast Cutter or the Wonder Woman apron. Come on, lets not take our food too seriously, all the time!

So, catch up quick on some bargains. Or at least some serious chocolate stockholding!

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Celebrate with good food & good friends

It seems that wherever you go in the world, everyone is happy to celebrate St Patrick’s Day, whilst the other national saints barely get a look in even in their home countries! But lets not get all partisan about it, lets just get on with some eating and drinking!

1. Ok, you can’t really start St Patrick’s Day without a glass of Guinness. Possibly two or three. There again, loyalties are divided in Ireland, and so perhaps you should order in some Murphys. Or some of each, and decide for yourself.

2. A drop of the hard stuff? Well, there’s plenty of Irish whiskey companies willing to help you out with that! Bushmills and Jameson are probably the best known, but you could work your way through some smaller producers, and try something like Connemara, from the Cooley distillery. This is Ireland’s only independent distillery, and its newest, and the whiskey has been winning awards. Worth a try.

3. Taken the pledge? Ah, will  you have a cup of tea then? Go on, go on, go on. Swap your regular brew for something like Bewley’s Dublin Morning tea. Then there’s Barry’s Tea, which has everything from a classic blend to a gold blend, and a long history of good brews.

4. What appears in our supermarkets as Irish sausage is a poor excuse for a sausage. If you want the real thing then try Jane Russell’s Original Irish Handmade Sausages. These are high meat content sausages as they should be made, with only prime cuts and, as they say, no short cuts. Not only are there traditional pork sausages, but you could also try the beef and Guinness ones.

5. Should you be making a trip (and you may have to, as struggling to find a retail stockist) then it sounds like it is well worth checking out the Drumgooland Smokehouse in Co. Down. The hot smoked salmon has won awards, and they also have some interesting combinations such as gin marinated wild mackerel and smoked salmon fishcakes with lemongrass and coriander.

6. If you want to try a hamper full of Irish goodies, then check out the Irish Gourmet. For those with a sweet tooth, try the Battle of the Biscuits, which will give you not all biscuits but also cakes, honey and tea. For more all round tastes, then try A Taste of the Organic, which has smoked salmon, air dried ham, oatcakes and cheese.

7. Talking of oatcakes, I really like the Smoked Oatcakes from Dittys Home Bakery, for an added dimension to cheese and biscuits. You’ll find these in many places across the UK: I know I bought them first at Waitrose and you can find them everywhere from Forman & Field to Fortnum & Mason.

So, I’m sure there is a whole heap more you could explore, so probably best to get a flight and make a start. Dublin is an obvious choice, but my favourite is Galway. No need to wait until the Oyster Festival in September, there’s good eating and drinking all year round. If you want the rock star approach, you could stay at the G or for more pampering then try the Radisson Blu with the Spirit One Spa. Or I hear great things about the resurgence of Belfast, and especially about The Merchant Hotel, both for its restaurant and its bar. In fact, the bar has been voted Best Hotel Bar in the World, not to mention Best Cocktail Menu. If that’s not a good reason to go, then I’m not sure what other reason you need.

Sláinte!

Photo courtesy of biskuit over on Flickr.

Because even a 7 year old can bake!

Just a quick reminder that Cakes for Haiti Day is fast approaching, and that you can still register a sale. Some of you may remember I got rather carried away with mine, and held it a whole month early, but it’s the thought, and the cash that counts!

Haiti may have gone off our news bulletins but the misery goes on there day after day. So, brighten up someone’s day here with a great homemade cake, and make someone’s day there by sending some cash. Even the simplest homemade cake so often taste better than the most ornate mass produced thing.

I went for Hummingbird Muffins, which were like a more tropical carrot cake, and Blondies, all of which seemed to go down very well. Please support this cause, with your baking, or your cash!

I don’t think there are many places Riverford don’t deliver to now, and now they’ve reduced the minimum meat order to £25, definitely worth doing.

Off to lie down with the papers now, full.

Mexican Food Made Simple

I’m a couple of weeks behind the launch date, but I wanted to feature Thomasina Miers’ Mexican Food. I have had two of the best evenings at Wahaca, which takes Mexican food, and tequila, to another level for me. The difference between Wahaca and somewhere like Chiquitos is like the difference between Burger King and Hawksmoor. So, if you think you don’t like Mexican, buy this and experiment.

And if you love Mexican, buy it and enjoy cooking from it!

I’ve added a few others that will give you a different spin on Mexican, to show it’s not all tacos and cheese.

1. Mexican Food Made Simple – What else can I write about this? I love the way Tommi writes, I love the food her kitchens turn out, and I am buying this for myself if it doesn’t arrive on Mother’s Day. And think Mexican doesn’t cover sweet stuff? Check out the pancakes with vanilla ice cream, caramelised pecans and salted caramel sauce.

2. Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico – another great book for getting into the heart and soul of Mexican cooking. I like that reviews of this say the flavours of this are not Americanised, which is a positive in my view.

3. Essential Cuisines of Mexico – Diana Kennedy has been writing about Mexican cooking for over 40 years, and this is a fairly new updated and revised version of one of her earlier books. This will take you through the whole spectrum of Mexican cooking, from tamales to tortillas through to breads and desserts. It is said the Diana is to Mexican food what Julia Child is to French, so that’s not too bad a recommendation!

4. The Well-Filled Tortilla Cookbook – a little more amusing, and single minded in pursuit of the perfect filled tortilla. You can make it crispy or soft, bake it or fry it, and fill it with all sorts of stuff, savoury and sweet. I would think this was a great book if you have kids, as this is the sort of food I always find kids will try, as it has that level of interactivity to it. Not to mention it’s wonderfully messy to eat!

5. Tequila: A Guide to Cocktail, Types, Flights and Bites- well, couldn’t finish this without bringing out the tequila. Wahaca takes tequila as far from the Tequila Shots Girl as it’s possible to get, and this book is in that spirit (no pun intended). This will tell you all you need to know,what you should be tasting and what goes really well with it.

It may have felt like the endless winter, so spicing it up in the kitchen just may help it feel like the sunshine is back! A bit of spice can go a long way to cheering up cold, grey days! Enjoy!

Where would foodies register?

Being of the nosey/curious type, I love looking at the search terms people have put in to get to the blog. There’ve been all kinds of weird and wonderful ones, not to mention some very err, creative, spellings. But this one seemed an entirely appropriate question, and the sort of thing I would want to know the answer to! So, here’s a few thoughts from me:

1. How about seeing if your favourite local deli or wine shop will run a list for you? In fact, I am surprised not more local specialist stores have got into this lucrative business. Sadly, not even Ocado seem to have a listing facility.

2. Thankfully some of the wine retailers seem to have caught onto this, so if you’re foodies who love wine, then this might be a good route for you. As one would expect, Berry Bros & Rudd will run a list for you, to which you can add wine, spirits, accessories, wine tastings and even wine courses at their school. For something with more national coverage, then Majestic also offer a wine list service. They have everything from fine wine through to champagne, beers and spirits, so you could really lay down a very interesting, and quaffable cellar.

3. Natoora offers a really wide selection of goodies from Europe, from fresh stuff through to tinned, cheese through to meat and all kinds of veg. They don’t offer a wedding list service but your guests could buy gift certificates that you could have an awful lot of fun spending after the wedding! As an alternative, check out Forman & Field who also do gift vouchers, and there’s a great choice of stuff that you could spend it on.

4. A wedding would seem the perfect opportunity to upgrade your kitchen equipment. I would be really happy to have a list at Divertimenti and would not only load it up with great stuff for the kitchen, but also with classes at the cookery school. If you wanted things for all the house but still really good, not to mention good looking, kitchen stuff, then Heal’s would be another good choice, or you can register a wishlist at Habitat. And, of course, there’s always John Lewis!

I'd put it on my list!

5. Not on the High Street is one of my favourite sites, and you can register a list with them. There would be fabulous things for the kitchen and dining room, like beautiful cake stands, stylish coffee machines and funky personalised mugs. There are also some interesting food options as well, with everything from an Over Indulgence Hamper (how lovely to come back from honeymoon to this) to organic chocolate, great oils and interesting mustard. They also stock one of my favourite gifts for a wedding or any other occasion: Adopt an Olive Tree with Nudoand they get the harvest once or twice a year. That’s a real foodie gift for me.

6. I do love my cheese, but yet to find someone with a listing facility. Paxton & Whitfield offer gift vouchers, so I guess you could run your own list and ask for those. You could then spend them as you needed cheese. Or have a look at the Cheese Club from Teddington Cheese (great cheese shop, unlikely location), where you could ask people to buy you one of each theme, which covers selections suitable for St Patrick’s Day, Halloween and Christmas, as well as one for each month of the year. The Fine Cheese Co in Bath also offer something similar, and people could buy you a whole year’s worth of deliveries.

7. You may have also gathered that I have a reasonably big cookbook addiction. Which would have made listing with Amazon a perfect choice for me. It would enable you to explore the far reaches of your food reading and cooking desires. You can explore old and new, rare and not so rare. I guess Amazon is almost like a huge department store now, so you can also list for lots of equipment too. Just don’t forget the books.

So, that’s a few suggestions for a couple who love their food as much as they love each other! Happy listing!

Interesting wedding cupcakes taken by clevercupcakes on Flickr.

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Channelling Juliette, hoping for Mr Depp

Today is Juliette Binoche’s birthday, who I think is the most amazing actress. I also think she’s incredibly stylish, not to mention the fact she has that French flair of being comfortable in her own skin, and seems to have avoided the lure of the plastic surgeon.

My favourite, favourite film of hers is Chocolat, probably for many obvious reasons. And then of course there’s the chocolate. And Johnny Depp wasn’t bad either.

You could decamp to France, with the film mostly being filmed in Flavigny-sur-Ozerain in Burgundy. As you’d see in the film, it’s a beautiful medieval fortified town, but also turns out to be pretty quiet and still off the tourist trail. Although it is famous for its aniseed balls, which is a little different to chocolate I guess. I can’t find any hotels in the town, but Le Verger sous les Vignes is only a couple of miles away, and the reviews describe it as a hidden gem. If you want to go a bit more upscale, then the Chateau Les Roches sounds great, with some good cooking at a weekend.

There doesn’t seem to be a huge number of restaurants listed in Flavigny itself. Le Relais de Flavignyhas a decent enough menu, with one of my favourites, foie gras with pain d’epices. It is a beautiful part of the world though, and even though there may not be great dining here, a trip to the area would reveal great epicurean delights. I love Alastair Sawday’s books, and would expect that when Go Slow France comes out in April there will be some good recommendations for this area.

There were some fabulous food scenes in the film, with chocolate being used in so many different ways, not just the obvious sweet ones. I’m a big fan of Willie’s cacao, and the savoury recipes in his book are interesting, and always cause a stir when you tell dinner guests what they are getting. So I think I’m going to channel her (I have a new frock from Jigsaw that makes me think of her) and create a chocolate feast. Just as soon as half my friends have stopped giving things up for Lent.

Not that that stopped her character!

Avoid disappointment this Mother's Day

I wrote yesterday about a few ideas on what to get a food loving mum for Mother’s Day. Which kind of got me thinking about the things to avoid. Here’s a few I’d give a wide berth to:

1. Milk Tray – the lady may love Milk Tray, but most food lovers won’t be over-thrilled. Particularly if it’s only a quarter pound box. Honestly, save your money, make cornflake crispie cakes or brownies instead.

2. A Shopping Trolley – you know what, we may look at these and think how practical for touring the farmer’s market and carrying home our purchases. But since when did we want practical presents?

3. Personalised Champagne – or even worse, personalised Prosecco. If you’re going to buy fizz, buy the best you can and go for taste. Make your own label if you must, but put the money into product, not the gimmick.

4. A novelty apron – foodie mums use an apron for practical purposes of keeping food off themselves whilst they’re cooking. Not for a practical joke.

5. Umami paste -this may just be me, but if a dish doesn’t have umami from the ingredients, don’t go messing with it.

6. Cheap truffle oil- a bit like the champagne, if you’re not going to buy the good stuff, then don’t go with the cheap stuff. Truffle oil should be expensive, and that’s why it’s a fabulous gift if you get it right. London Fine Foods do a 250ml bottle of Black Truffle infused oil which is the real deal. A little goes a long, long way. Which at £30 is a good job, but do this or don’t bother.

7. Big bottles of peppercorns or oils with herbs – most of us will want to know what kind of oil it is, possibly where it’s from, and who tended the herbs. We don’t want 50 litres of some unidentified stuff. Thank you.

8. Novelty pepper grinders - there is never a moment for these. Not that much to be said.

9. Ainsley Harriott cookbooks – and possibly no Gary Rhodes either. Cooking has moved on.

So, hope you get your mum something she will really enjoy, rather than what someone wants to sell you under the guise of Mother’s Day. Remember, taste first and foremost, to avoid disappointment. Unlike the pie.

Photo courtesy of raindog on Flickr.

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