Archive for November, 2009
Win a copy of “Leon: Ingredients and Recipes”
Posted: 21 November '09 by Kelly
Those nice people at Octopus Publishing have given us 5 copies of the “Leon: Ingredients and Recipes” book to give away to our members.
You can read our review of “Leon: Ingredients and Recipes” here.
Competition Terms:
- The five site members that recruit the most new members on the Chilli and Chocolate website will win a copy of the “Leon” book
- The closing date for the competition is Saturday 5th of December, 2009
- Entrants claiming to have recruited new members must inform us by email of the names of their recruits. These details should be sent to info@chilliandchocolate.com by 5pm on Saturday the 5th of December
- Competition entrants are restricted to the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland
Good luck!
Categories: Competitions
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Leon: Ingredients and Recipes by Allegra McEvedy
Posted: 21 November '09 by Kelly
Leon - Ingredients and Recipes
“Leon” was founded by Allegra McEvedy,Henry Dimbleby, and John Vincent, and voted the “Best New Restaurant” by judges Rick Stein, Gordon Ramsay, Nigel Slater, Heston Blumenthal and Jay Rayner in the 2005 Observer food awards.
The restaurant, now part of a 9-strong chain of London-based eateries, was created to provide customers with fast-food that looked good, tasted good, and made you feel good.
The Leon: Ingredients and Recipes book attempts to bring this philosophy into your home, to make it part of your day-to-day lifestyle.
This book has two separate elements: the first half of the book looks at selecting the right ingredients; and the second half lists the recipes that make use of your carefully chosen ingredients.
The Ingredients Book:
“The Ingredients Book” is great, being detailed enough to give you everything you need to choose the best possible ingredients without being boring or preachy. The sections include:
- Fruit
- Herbs
- Vegetables
- Dairy
- Fish and Shellfish
- Meat and Poultry
- Stores (which includes things like flour, oils, pasta, rice, salt, and spices)
It’s a great reference: in the “spuds” section, for example, you get pictures of some of the different potato types, information about the distinct flavours, and how best to cook the various types; with other vegetables, you’re told which vitamins occur in which veg; the “beef” section shows you the different cuts and the relative merits of these cuts – from the fillet to brisket to oxtail.
What I particularly like is that everything is approached from this “good for you, good for everyone” perspective – so “organic”, “free-range” and “sustainable” are all terms that you will see. There is a great “open-out” section on page 90 that tells you everything you need to know about chickens, for instance – what all the different parts of the bird could be used for, the difference between intensive-, free-range-, and organic-farming, and which type of chicken to choose for your recipe.
There is also a pull-out guide, a wheel of ingredients in their seasons, and tips for buying the best ingredients in the appendix.
The Recipe Book:
“The Recipe Book” has over 140 recipes, and helps you put those ingredients to use.
Many of the recipes are from the menus of the Leon restaurants, while others have been contributed by friends and family, and they all sound delicious:
- Chicken, asparagus and lemon cassoulet
- Ham hock, savoy cabbage, and rosemary soup
- Moroccan meatballs
- Butterbean and chorizo tapa
- Leon Better Brownie
- Gooseberry and elderflower fool
- Leon Better Brownies
The recipes have been selected so that there’s nothing that’s too high on the glycaemic index – leaving you feeling satisfied for hours after you’ve eaten, rather than needing a sleep.
This isn’t a health-food book – if it was, I don’t think it would have made it through our front door! – but it does have your health at heart. The Leon philosophy is one based on balance – cook and eat with the best ingredients available and have a little bit of what you like for a healthy, fully-rounded life, or “the right to treat yourself without guilt” as the book says.
Details
- Title: Leon: Ingredients and Recipes (hardback)
- Author: Allegra McEvedy
- Pages: 295
- Publisher: Conran-Octopus
- ISBN: 978-1-84091-502-0
- Cost: £20
- Where to get it: From www.amazon.co.uk
Our Verdict:
This book has everything I like in a cookery book – there’s plenty of personality and quirkiness, without taking anything away from the food.
There’s a lot going on, but it’s really well organised – some nutritional facts about your ingredients, lots of interesting and varied recipes, and plenty of miscellany held in pull-outs, open-outs, and so on to keep you interested.
The fact that there is also a strong “healthy” undercurrent is hardly noticeable – but it’s also reassuring that it’s there. If you’re cooking for your family, it’s an important aspect, and one that isn’t part of many other cookbooks.
This is a fantastic book to have – not for the bookshelf – it should be on your kitchen table.
Categories: Books for Cooks
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Chef-spotting – Antonio Carluccio visits Dublin
Posted: 12 November '09 by Niall
Antonio Carluccio
It’s very late notice, but we’ve just heard that Antonio Carluccio, the genial grandfather of Italian cooking, is visiting his Dublin restaurant today for a book signing and cooking demonstration.
Signore Carluccio’s new book, “Simple Cooking”, is all about that very Italian obsession of feeding one’s friends and family, and feeding them well. includes recipes that are all very easy to cook with step-by-step instructions, tips and advice on how to embellish these simple dishes, and how to make the most of your left-overs.
If any of our lucky readers are in Dublin and they can get down to the book signing, we’d love you to tell us how it went. We’re so jealous..
More information:
When you’re in Dublin you can find “Carluccio’s Caffe” at:
Carluccio’s
52 Dawson Street,
Dublin,
Dublin 2
T: +353 (0) 1 6333 957
Fax: +353 (0) 1 6708 612
You can also see Carluccio’s on Google Maps.
Categories: News
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Belfast Christmas Continental Market 2009
Posted: 12 November '09 by Niall
Belfast Christmas Continental Market 2009
If you’ve walked past Belfast City Hall in the last week you can’t have helped noticing that it’s time for the Belfast Christmas Continental Market again!
Kelly and I love seeing the market come to town – apart from the chance to taste food from around the world, the atmosphere is usually fairly festive. It might sound strange but standing in the freezing cold, browsing through the stalls with a warming glass of “gluhwein” (mulled wine) always puts me in the mood for Christmas.
This year the stalls include:
- Bratwurst sausages and German beers
- Gluhwein stall
- Liqueur coffees
- Gourmet burgers
- Spanish paella
- Toasted baguettes
- Waffles, crêpes and Dutch pancakes
- Continental and Irish cheeses
- Charcuterie with meats from around the world
- Greek dips
- Garlic soup from Switzerland
- Polish bigos (a traditional stew)
- Franzisskaaner German bar
- Hilden Brewery
My one gripe is that it can be expensive – you can literally watch the pounds flowing from your wallet – and the presence of the Laverys beer tent is a bit strange, and seems to monopolise proceedings with massive queues outside the tent and some very un-continental quaffing going on (I know that that’s two complaints, but who’s counting). That said, it’s nothing that should discourage you from heading down and having a look – over 750,000 people visited the Belfast Christmas Continental Market last year, so they’re doing something right – and it’s worth the trip for those French crepes alone!
We’ll report back after our visit with some photos and some advice on the stalls that you should make a point of visiting.
See you there!
Event details:
Date: 17 November – 19 December 2009
Venue: Belfast City Hall grounds
Opening times:
Monday – Wednesday: 9am – 8pm
Thursday – Saturday: 9am – 10pm
Sunday: 1pm – 6pm
Just remember that the market will start at 10am on Tuesday 17 November and close at 8pm on Saturday 19 December.
Other information:
Apart from the Big Wheel and a children’s carousel, Santa’s Grotto and magical forest will be at the market every day between 3pm and 6pm Monday – Friday, 10am – 7pm on Saturdays and 1pm – 6pm on Sundays.
Categories: Things to do
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The Roasting Plank – make the most of your meat
Posted: 09 November '09 by Niall
The Roasting Plank Company
With all of the cooking programmes on TV at the minute, it’s rare to come across something new for the kitchen, particularly something that could revolutionise the way that you cook. The roasting plank is just that though.
Plank-cooking works by charring a pre-soaked piece of wood during cooking and they can be used in conventional ovens as well as on gas/propane grills, and charcoal-based barbeques. The charred wood imparts a unique, smokey flavour of the wood choice, and the meat is invariably more tender, moist, and tasty than with other cooking methods.
As well as the flavour, however, the planks are really visually impressive – as soon as I took our plank from the oven, I thought that it would make a great centre-piece for our next dinner party!
Roasting planks (and BBQ planks) are nothing new – they’re a traditional and a much-loved way of cooking meat in North America, South Africa and Argentina: countries that certainly know a bit about meat!
There are several different types of wood used to make these planks, with different wood complimenting different types of meat: Beech Roasting Planks give a more subtle and sweet flavour, which is great for poultry; Cedar Roasting Planks are the traditional wood used for fish and imparts a sweet, spicy flavour; Cherry Wood Paper has a subtle mild, fruity flavour and is excellent for poultry, fish, vegetables and fruit; or Oak Roasting Planks offer a heavier and smokier flavour and are great for red meat and game.
We were lucky enough to be sent an Oak plank to review, and we roasted some pork chops on the wood – you can read the recipe and see the photos here.
The planks must be soaked for several hours before you use them: a minimum of 2 hours if you plan to use the plank at low temperatures; or 4 to 6 hours for higher temperatures. But the rule is “more is better” – you can’t over-soak a plank, but under-soaking will cause more cracks to appear in the precious wood. While our sink was big enough, I’d recommend a bucket as the planks are pretty big – 36cm by 26cm, and 5cm deep.
After soaking, the plank should be dabbed dry with a tea-towel and their cooking surfaces rubbed down with oil and any spices you like. Sarah from The Roasting Plank Company also mentioned experimenting by marinading the wood in whiskey or Guinness for a beef dish, and vermouth or pastisse for fish. That’s part of the charm of these things – you have an almost unlimited licence to let your creative, culinary juices flow.
We roasted our pork chops for nearly two hours on a very low heat (between 100 and 150 degrees C), and while our plank did “crack” and char slightly, it’s completely normal. The planks are designed to last for several years, with a little care – and, to my mind, the cracks do give your plank a bit of character. As time went by, the kitchen became filled with a lovely aroma – the thyme and pork were certainly present, but so was a smokiness that had my mouth watering.
The best part was the flavour, however. I have always found pork to be a bit bland, and usually rely on piquant or pungent sauces to provide a definite taste. The smoky flavour added a different dimension to the meat, and made the dish much more interesting on the palate. The longer cooking time also worked wonders – the meat just fell apart, but amazingly wasn’t at all dry.
You can see more photos hereImage 1Image 2Image 3Image 4Image 5
Our verdict:
I loved cooking with the plank – it’s extremely easy to use, it looks great, and the difference in the meat produced by the plank is so distinct: how tender and moist the meat is, with a wood-smoked quality that will have you salivating. And, if like me, you think that the meat is the star of whichever dish it appears in, you won’t be able to resist the chance to do something different with the flavour.
A definite Chilli and Chocolate recommendation for The Roasting Plank.
Other information:
The Roasting Plank Company stocks Oak, Cedar, Cherry, and Beech roasting planks, BBQ planks, and wood paper. You can visit the Roasting Plank Company website by going to: www.theroastingplankcompany.co.uk
Chilli and Chocolate members:
The Roasting Plank Company have been kind enough to give our members a discount on the roasting planks. Visit the Members’ Section for more details
Categories: Product Reviews
