Last autumn the Cambridge Food & Drink Festival had two really instructive and interesting cookery demonstrations with Chef David Chambers. We watched every move and technique, sniffed the truffles, pricked up our ears at all the insights and tips, licked out the bowls and pans, and then tasted all the finished products. It was memorable. And we took home full copies of all the recipes.
 
David will be giving a Christmas cookery demonstration on Sunday 6th December at Cook’s Barn (the official home of the Food & Drink Festival). The focus will be on producing a stunning meal, with alternatives given for starters and main course. All to be achieve with less than 3 hours work. and with less stress and effort.  I hope you will be interested in this event as it promises to be a whole lot of fun.  Just clisk on the link for full information and the ticket selling website.
 
www.cooksbarnchristmasdinner09.eventbrite.com

If you would like a peak at last year’s Christmas Master Class Demonstration then click here.

Merry Christmas and bon appetit!

Chris Cambridge Food and Drink Festival, Cookery School, Cooks Barn

Sadly my hero Keith Floyd passed away this week and will be greatly missed by the millions of viewers like me who have been inspired and encouraged by, in my opinion, the greatest TV chef of all time.

I remember as a young child watching Fanny Craddock cooking her fancy European dishes using ingredients that were inaccessible to the average family living in the post war austerity of  fifties and early sixties Britain but she didn’t make me feel like cooking.  I remember as a teenager watching “The Galloping Gourmet” Graham Kerr and enjoyed seeing the expressions of extacy on his face as he tasted his own cooking.  This made me want to eat good food but his slight campness (which would go unnoticed these days) didn’t exactly inspire me to take up the spatula.

Then in the seventies, when I was a young adult, Keith Floyd burst onto the scene and I was hooked and to this day, like so many others, a glass of wine is as essential a cooking aid as is a sharp knife (except for breakfast of course).  Keith made cooking a fun and joyous occasion without the rigidness of traditional recipe books – “a dollop of cream, a splash of cider vinegar, a handful of chives and a good slosh of red wine”.  This made cooking intuitive and helped me develop a sensitive and discriminating palate.  This was jazz to Fanny’s chamber music!

If there can be a silver lining to this tragic loss then it is that we are likely to see more of Keith on the TV in the near future.  For those of you who are new to cooking I urge you to get onto Youtube and check out Keith in full flight.  You may recognise the influence he has had on that other great TV chef Jamie Oliver with his “bish-bosh” attitude towards measuring ingredients and the simplicity and accessibility of his recipes (but you need to slurp a bit more of the old vino my son!).

Here is a video of what is possibly the last interview with Keith and in typical style there are no holds barred, political correctness goes out the window and he takes no prisoners so if you are of an overly polite or sensitive disposition then cover your ears!!!!

Goodbye old friend – without you Crispy Chris would have been just plain old Chris.

CHEERS!!!!!

Chris Thought for Food Add new tag, cheers, keith floyd, keith floyd dead, Keith Floyd dies, keith floyd obit, tv chef dies

Like the vast majority of the population of the first world I have long believed that cholesterol is the major cause of heart disease in the world.  Why? Because the doctors, the media, the advertisers, the drugs companies and the people around me say so.  So, in an effort to live longer I have moved to semi-skimmed milk, tried to leave the fat on lamb chops and rump steak (to my mind the best part taste-wise) on the side of my plate, have avoided eating more than two eggs in a day and use mostly olive oil in my cooking etc,.

This has made my life not quite as joyful as it could have been so you can imagine my elation when I found out that the whole cholesterol thing is a complete myth and we (including the majority of health professionals) have all been conned for years and years. Why?  Because the pharmaseutical industry makes billions of pounds a year selling statins designed to reduce cholesterol levels in the blood, to the NHS and global equivalents.

Thanks to the work of Dr. Malcolm Kendrick the whole con has been exposed and the true cause of heart disease has been revealed in his book entitled “The Great Cholesterol Con” available from Amazon and the usual outlets.  To me, a confirmed foodie, it is the best news I have heard in a long time. I now eat whatever fatty foods I like without worrying about my heart or feeling guilty and I haven’t even put on any weight. 

In a nutshell, the cholesterol from the food we eat that finds its way into our bloodstream has no bearing on heart disease whatsoever – none – zero- zilch!  In fact women over 50yrs old shouldn’t be without it and should not take statins full stop according to the good doctor’s research. So what is heart disease and what causes it?  If you thought it was “the furring up of your arteries” then you would  be wrong.  I don’t wish to do Dr. Kendrick out of book sales.  This man has stuck his head over the parapet (while the majority of the medical profession keep their heads down and get on with earning a living without rocking the boat – as if they had time anyway) and he deserves his dues.

So, I highly recommend you get yourself a copy of “the Great Cholesterol Con” and find out the truth for yourself.  I would be very grateful if you would share your thoughts on this or any other subject with me and the other readers by posting a comment on this site.  If you really can’t get a copy of the book then email me and I will tell you what causes heart disease or check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPPYaVcXo1I 

Of course there is a whole army of people and organisations with a vested interest in keeping us in the dark and you can see they are running scared when you read their scathing attacks on Dr. Kendrick - just check them out on the web for yourself.  All I can say is life for me is sweeter thanks to Dr. Kendrick.  I hope yours will be.

I wish you a long life and very good health.

Chris Eadon.

P.S.  The book has good news for people who like a drink too!

Chris Thought for Food Add new tag, cholesterol, con, heart disease, kendrick, saturated fats, statins

The Cambridge Food and Drink Festival (CFDF) is looking for new committee members, helpers and friends to ensure that it continues to bring better and bigger events to the people of the Cambridge and surrounding areas.  If you or someone you know are into food and drink and would like to join our team of happy enthusiasts then please contact me, Chris Eadon on chris@stonetime.co.uk  or go to www.camfoodfest.co.uk and send us details about yourself and your interest in food and drink.

There will be a meeting of all prospective new committee members held at Cook’s Barn in Bottisham www.cooksbarn.com at 6.30pm on 12th October 2009.  Free food and drink will be on the agenda of course!  If you would like to attend then please register by making contact with us first.

Please sign up to this blog now so you will automatically receive updates on the search for a committee.  Many thanks.

 

Chris Eadon.

Chris Cambridge Food and Drink Festival

I can’t believe I am able to say this given the current economic situation but Stonetime (my “day job”) is so busy that I am no longer able to afford the luxury of indulging my passion for all things foodie.  Unfortunately this means that I can not devote the time necessary to prepare, cook, photograph and write up the recipes for John Levine’s Happy and Healthy Hour on Cambridge’s 209Radio on 105fm.

The up-side of course is that Stonetime is thriving against the odds and our employees are enjoying a level of security not shared by many others in our country.  It is my hope that once I have been able to re0rganise our systems to better cope with our increased work load I will be able to return to the Happy and Healthy Hour with more exciting and unusual recipes fo you to try out.

In the mean time ff you have any unusual recipes that we are unlikely to find in the cook books and would like to share them  then please email them to me and I may be able to broadcast some of them when I come back to radio or at least share them with the rest of the world through this site.

Happy munching!

Chris.

Chris 209 Radio

Weekly curry ‘may fight dementia’

The key ingredient appears to be turmeric Eating a curry once or twice a week could help prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, a US researcher suggests. The key ingredient is curcumin, a component of the spice turmeric. Curcumin appears to prevent the spread of amyloid protein plaques – thought to cause dementia – in the brain. But the theory, presented at the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ annual meeting, has been given a lukewarm reception by UK experts.   If you have a good diet and take plenty of exercise, eating curry regularly could help prevent dementia Professor Murali Doraiswamy Duke University Amyloid plaques, along with tangles of nerve fibres, are thought to contribute to the degradation of the wiring in brain cells, eventually leading to symptoms of dementia. Professor Murali Doraiswamy, of Duke University in North Carolina, said there was evidence that people who eat a curry meal two or three times a week have a lower risk of dementia. He said researchers were testing the impact of higher doses – the equivalent of going on a curry spree for a week – to see if they could maximise the effect. Animal studies Professor Doraiswamy told the meeting: “There is very solid evidence that curcumin binds to plaques, and basic research on animals engineered to produce human amyloid plaques has shown benefits.” “You can modify a mouse so that at about 12 months its brain is riddled with plaques. “If you feed this rat a curcumin-rich diet it dissolves these plaques. The same diet prevented younger mice from forming new plaques. “The next step is to test curcumin on human amyloid plaque formation using newer brain scans and there are plans for that.” Professor Doraiswamy said a clinical trial was now underway at the University of California, Los Angeles, to test curcumin’s effects in Alzheimer’s patients. He said research had also examined turmeric’s therapeutic potential for treating conditions such as cancer and arthritis. Good diet He stressed that eating a curry could not counter-balance the increased risk of dementia associated with a poor diet.   Indian communities that regularly eat curcumin have a surprisingly low incidence of Alzheimer’s disease but we don’t yet know why Dr Susanne Sorensen Alzheimer’s Society However, he said: “If you have a good diet and take plenty of exercise, eating curry regularly could help prevent dementia.” Professor Doraiswamy predicted it might be possible to develop a curry pill which had the same therapeutic effect. However, Rebecca Wood, of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust, stressed that people would need to eat a lot of curry – over 100g of turmeric curry powder – to get a clinical dose of curcumin. She said: “Professor Doraiswamy’s unpublished research applies only to animal models; his hypothesis has not been confirmed in human clinical trials. “We look forward to the results of the human curcumin trial at UCLA.” Dr Susanne Sorensen, of the Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Indian communities that regularly eat curcumin have a surprisingly low incidence of Alzheimer’s disease but we don’t yet know why. “Alzheimer’s Society is keen to explore the potential benefits of curcumin in protecting the brain and we are conducting our own research into this area. “A cheap, accessible and safe treatment could transform the quality of life of thousands of people with the condition.”

Chris Thought for Food

 

 

First broadcast live on John Levine’s 209Radio’s Happy and Healthy Hour on 105fm in Cambridge on 5/5/09. To listen to a recording of the show or live on-line go to www.209radio.co.uk (and click archive for earlier shows).

 

 

 

This is a simple but delicious starter or party snack which will have your guests fighting over the last one!  Curry puffs look a bit like Samosas in that they are triangular parcels with a spicy filling (I’m loath to use the word “curry” as no samosa I have ever had tasted remotely like curry). But unlike the ubiquitous deep-fried greasy samosa, the Crispy Curry Puff is a real curry encased in Crispy, light puff pastry.

 

Today I’m doing minced beef and potato but you can use any minced meat like lamb, chicken or pork and the vegetarian version is just as delicious using Quorn mince or mixed vegetables.

 

 

Ingredients;

 

For the puffs;

 

Ready-rolled sheets of puff pastry – 4 sheets

Egg-wash or milk for the pastry glaze

Lean minced beef – 400gm

Waxy potatoes (reds or new) finely diced to about ¼ inch cubes – 150gm

Onions – 1 medium

Garlic – 2 cloves crushed

Curry powder – 2 teaspoons (try Bolsts)

Cinnamon Bark (optional) 3 or 4 small pieces

Finely-chopped coriander – 1 table spoon

Light olive or ground nut oil – 4 table spoons

Sea Salt – to taste

 

For the Salad;

 

Ripe tomatoes – 500 gms

Ordinary cooking onions – 1 medium

Fresh Coriander – 2 tablespoons roughly chopped

Juice of 1 whole lemon

Saltl – 2 good pinches or o taste

Sugar- 1 pinch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Method;

 

First cook the curry by sweating the finely-chopped onions in the hot oil with a large pinch of sea salt. After about 5 minutes, add the crushed garlic and fry gently without letting it burn.  Meanwhile, season the mince with a good sprinkling of ground sea salt, mix well and add to the pan. Stir fry over a higher heat until the meat is brown then add the curry powder and cinnamon bark and continue to stir over a moderate heat, adding small amounts of water to stop the mixture sticking to the pan and burning.

After about 10 minutes of stir frying in this fashion add the finely diced potatoes and enough water so the mixture doesn’t burn (remember, this is going to be a very dry curry when it’s finished so don’t over-do the water). Cover the pan and simmer gently until the potatoes are cooked checking and adding water and stirring as necessary.  Check and adjust the seasoning by adding more salt if needed. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely and remove the cinnamon bark. (You can simmer the meat longer if you wish before adding the potatoes).

When the curry is cold, un-roll the puff pastry and cut it into squares at least 4” x 4”.  You’re going to fold the square once diagonally to form a triangle so scoop a heaped table spoon of curry onto one corner of the square, brush water around the edges of the pastry then fold the empty half over the curry and seal off by crimping the edges with a fork.  Place the puffs on a baking tray that has been smeared with butter to stop them sticking, brush the egg-wash or milk over the pastry and put in the fridge for about 4 hours or in the freezer for about half an hour. Puff pastry works better when it’s cold.

 

When the puffs are nice and cold, place the baking tray in a pre-heated oven for about 25 mins on gas mark 7 (220C) or until the pastry has risen and is golden brown.  They are best eaten straight from the oven but are still very nice warm or cold.

 

The Salad;

 

Again, this is a very simple salad but is bursting with flavour. Roughly chop the tomatoes into small pieces, and finely chop the onion and roughly chop the coriander. Mix them together with the salt, sugar and lemon juice. Job done!

 

Serve two Crispy Curry Puffs on a plate with the salad as a garnish as a starter or put a huge heap of them on a large plate as a party snack.

 

 

 

 

 

Chris 209 Radio

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First broadcast on 209Radio’s Happy and Healthy Hour on 21/4/09 on 105fm in Cambridge. To hear the show on line go to www.209radio.co.uk and click archive.

 

This recipe was pinched from my good Italian friend and great cook Eugenio Iacono.  I have never seen it in any recipe book and it is truly delicious. Pesce is the Italian for fish and my version uses the good old British favourite, COD.  This is a simple dish which is quick and easy to cook with only a few ingredients which are;

 

Ingredients;

 

2 Cod fillet with the skin on – 8oz each

Fresh Garlic (not puree or preserved) – 4 cloves

Dried Birdseye Chillies (optional) – to taste

Sparkling dry white wine e.g. Cava – 200 mls

Light Olive Oil 4 table spoons

Sea salt

Freshly ground pepper

 

Salad

 

Potatoes (New, King Edwards, Maris Pipers the emphasis being on quality) – 1lb.

Small Vine or Cherry Tomatoes - half pound 

Spring onions finely chopped (or cooking onions will do) – 2 table spoons

 

Method;

 

Heat the oil in a large frying pan (you will need a lid later on). Peel and cut the garlic in half lengthways and bruise it slightly with the handle of a knife or similar blunt object to release some flavour then fry the garlic until golden brown and discard. Do not allow to burn!!! This will leave you with wonderfully fragrant oil.

 

Meanwhile rub Malden sea salt into both sides of the fish and place skin-side up into the hot oil for 1 minute then turn it over so the skin is down. At this point add two or three dried chillies (these are optional if you don’t like spicy hot food or if you love it like I do then add lots).

 

Fry the fish on a high-ish heat until the skin is brown and crispy then add the wine and cover the pan.  Turn down the heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes basting occasionally.  At this point you will all be horrified as I was when Eugenio first cooked it for me because the fish would have been ready to eat before the wine went in! But trust me, it does work.

 

The Salad;

 

Simple.  Just boil potatoes with the skin on then cut into pieces about an inch across. 

Chop up the tomatoes into half inch chunks and finely chop the spring onions and mix into the potatoes with salt and freshly ground pepper.  Don’t worry if the potatoes get a bit mashed and aren’t piping hot when they get to your plate – that is the Mediterranean way.

 

 

 

 

Plating Up;

 

Place the cod fillet in deep plate or wide pasta bowl and pour over the liquid.  Place a pile of potato salad next to it and serve with Ciabatta bread to dip into the thin soupy sauce.

 

Beautiful sticky, garlicky spicy fish and a tangy potato salad.

 

Buon appetito mi amico. As Eugenio would say!

Chris 209 Radio

This is one of the most popular dishes in Burma and there are probably as many recipes as there are families in Burma.  Here is my version of it which was passed down to me by my mother who was born and brought up in Burma before the Second World War.  I had the pleasure of cooking it for John Levine of www.happyandhealthyhour.com fame.  He loved it but why don’t you ask him yourself?

THE INGREDIENTS;

• 500 gm boned chicken breast or thighs diced
• onions;  2 medium finely chopped
• garlic;  1 teaspoon crushed
•  root ginger;   quarter teaspoon grated
• turmeric;  half teaspoon
• paprika;  1 teaspoon
• dried chilli flakes; half teaspoon or to personal taste
• 2 tablespoons of chick pea flour (Besam)
• 1 400ml tin of coconut milk or cream
• 600ml of chicken stock
• salt;  quarter teaspoon preferably sea or rock salt
• Thai fish sauce;  2 tablespoons
• cooking oil;  4 tablespoons preferably ground nut or light olive oil
• Chinese egg noodles for 2 persons.
• water; as necessary (see method)

THE METHOD

For the marinade mix the fish sauce and half the turmeric. Place the chicken in a bowl and mix thoroughly with the marinade and leave to stand for 30 minutes.

Heat the oil in a saucepan and gently sweat the onions with the salt until translucent and soft (about 5 mins) then add the garlic and ginger and sauté for around 3 mins (do not allow the garlic to burn).

Next add the rest of the turmeric, paprika and crushed or flaked chillies.  Stir in quickly and add a few drops of water when the mixture gets dry and starts to stick to the pan.  The secret of a successful sauce is to stir it every 10-20 seconds adding a little water as needed to keep it moving.   Keep this process going for about 10 minutes until the spices are cooked. 

Add the chicken and stir fry until sealed then add the chicken stock and the coconut milk and simmer gently.  Mix the chick pea flour with 200mls of cold water adding the water to the flour a little at a time to stop it lumping.  Pour this mixture through a sieve into the soup stirring all the time until well mixed in and simmer gently for half an hour in total.  Check the seasoning and add more fish sauce if it is lacking saltiness.

Cook the required amount of noodles following the instructions on the packet as there are too many varieties available for me to tell you how to cook them.

 

PLATING UP

In a deep soup bowl place a handful of noodles and pour enough soup and chicken over the top to completely cover the noodles and use a spoon and fork to eat it.

GARNISHES

 The following garnishes should be served separately in little bowls and sprinkled over the dish by each diner to suit their individual taste;

Crispy-fried onions, garlic and noodles all fried in the same oil

Chopped spring onions, coriander and chillies

And not for the feint-hearted, toasted dried birds-eye chillies – SUPERB

If you need help or advice on any of my recipes or would like to comment on them or if you would like to suggest a recipe to read out on the Healthy and Happy Hour then please contact me on chris@stonetime.co.uk . I’m always pleased to hear how the food turns out.

 

Chris 209 Radio

BURMESE FOOD

Have you ever wondered why there are no Burmese restaurants around? I guess not. Until the killing of Buddist Monks during the civil unrest in 2008 put Burma (now Myanmar) into the media spotlight, a lot of younger people wouldn’t have known the country existed.  After all, it’s not a known holiday destination and doesn’t generally hit the headlines.

It is a combination of factors that has prevented Burmese cuisine from being brought to the rest of the world unlike its three neighbours India, China and Thailand (even my little village of Bottisham has an Indian restaurant and a Chinese takeaway that also does Thai dishes!). 

Firstly, Burma is in the grip of a brutal military regime which for many years has closed its borders and taken on pariah status due to its appalling human rights record.  This has meant that the Burmese people have not been able to enjoy international travel and the widespread poverty resulting from the gross mismanagement of the country’s affairs means that international travel would be unaffordable to all but the privelaged few.  So, there is no one to open and run Burmese restaurants.

Secondly, assuming you can find Burmese chefs outside Burma (and there are plenty living as refugees in Bangladesh and Thailand) how would they get over here and how and why would they set up their own restaurant?  It’s a daunting enough challenge to open a restaurant in England even if you’ve lived all your life here so it would be especially difficult with an unfamiliar cuisine.

Thirdly, because buddism plays such a role in Burmese culture, the Burmese people generally do not pursue money the same way we do in western society.  I know this is a sweeping generalisation but I have heard the Burmese people being described as “unambitious due to their Buddist values”.

Having said that, I do know of the only Burmese Restaurant in Europe and that is at 444 Edgeware Road in West London and is called the Mandalay ( www.mandalayway.com ).  On the couple of occasions I have visited there on the off-chance, they were fully booked so I have never eaten there although members of my family have and they say the food is great.  I am pleased to say that a Burmese food shop has recently opened in Wood Green in North London called Mum’s House.  You can check them out at www.mumhouse.com .

So, once a year I put on a Burmese Dining Experience on behalf of the Cambridge Food and Drink Festival ( www.camfoodfest.co.uk ) to give people the chance to taste this wonderful cooking style for the first time.  It is always successful and now that I have Cook’s Barn I plan to turn it into a Burmese Restaurant for one evening a month so if you’re interested in trying it then drop me a line at chris@stonetime.co.uk and I will add you to the growing list of aventurous diners.

Chris Thought for Food