+++SCOFF! - The free email newsletter on good food and drink. - ISSUE FOURTEEN, JUNE 2006. For a printable colour version of this newsletter (in a ‘pdf’ file), see: http://www.gastronomail.com/archive.htm . Please forward to all your friends and colleagues so they can register to receive their own copy by visiting our web site: http://www.gastronomail.com . We never pass on email addresses. Further information at the end of this issue. ++Issue Fourteen Contents: 01: An A-Z of Scoff: the alphabet of food wisdom - ‘N’ is for ‘Nutritional supplements’: Do we need them? 02: Reader offer - Free wines for June: Email us your address for a chance to win a fabulous case of wines from Michel Chapoutier. 03: Review: Back to basics with the year-round barbie - Food from Fire, by Charles Campion - Reviewed by Hattie Ellis. 04: Recipe: Penne Giardinniera - by Antonio Carluccio. 05: The drink spot: Focus on the Rhone, Part One Scoff! wine editor Jonathan Ray profiles Michel Chapoutier – winemaker extraordinaire, music-lover and egalitarian. 06: The drink spot: Focus on the Rhone, Part Two Mary Dowey describes her new life organising wine tastings around the star estates of the one of France’s most celebrated wine-growing regions. 07: The food spot: Not over until the fat man wears leather? The popular image of an opera singer is of giant girths and heaving bosoms, and there are indeed many gastronomic temptations for the top singers at the world’s richest venues. Award-winning baritone Christopher Maltman explains how he must sing for his supper. 08: How to: Create superb soufflés - Essential, mystique-busting tips from Hattie Ellis. [Contents ends]. +01: An A-Z of Scoff: the alphabet of food wisdom - ‘N’ is for ‘Nutritional supplements’. Does anyone actually need to take nutritional supplements? A UK survey in 2001 found that 41% of women and 30% of men were taking dietary supplements, although the independent British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) says most people are able to meet their requirements for vitamins – one of the key supplement areas – simply by eating a varied diet (see http://www.nutrition.org.uk/upload/Vitamins%20pdf.pdf ). And for example if you look at omega-3 fish oils, you find 100g of fresh mackerel contains 2-3g of omega-3, compared with the content of a typical fish oil ‘cap’ on sale in the high street with just 400 milligrams. On the other hand the BNF says people who are unwell, those taking certain drugs and pregnant women, need to ensure they eat foods rich in particular vitamins and sometimes supplements are advised. Infants and young children are also recommended vitamins A and D for at least two years. The foundation and other sources also say extra care needs to be taken if young children are following a vegetarian or vegan diet (vitamin B12, for example, does not occur naturally in plant-based foods). The Consumers Association (CA) in the UK points out that “It is often assumed that as vitamins and minerals are good for us, then more must be better. However, they are chemicals and in certain cases too much may be harmful.” A good healthy diet contains a wide mix of micronutrients, and although we do not know exactly how these combine for our benefit, wholefoods are likely to be better than pills. The CA concludes: “You should be able to get all of the nutrients you need from a balanced, varied diet as well as other benefits that we may not yet fully understand and which may not be present when the vitamin or mineral is taken in supplement form.” +02: Reader Offer: Free wines for June. To mark our focus on the wines of the Rhône in this issue (see feature articles, page two), we are offering one lucky Scoff! reader the chance to discover the delights of Michel Chapoutier’s Rhône wines for free: and it could be you. The celebrated wine merchant Averys (www.averys.com) has provided one mixed Chapoutier case plus two engraved Reidel glasses worth £95 for our prize draw. Simply email your name and address to: chapoutieroffer@gastronomail.com and the first name out of the hat at the end of June wins. That’s all there is to it! The winner will be announced in the next issue, when we will also follow up with a fantastic reader discount offer for buying other Averys wines. Last month’s Scoff! competition winners were Mark Smith of Brighton and Mary Stratton of Eastbourne, who between them received a case of beer, a bottle of cava and a recipe book. Congratulations to them both. +03: Back to basics with the year-round barbie - Food from Fire, by Charles Campion - Reviewed by Hattie Ellis. This excellent new book mercifully resists the American trend towards over-complicating barbeque food. Reclaiming the barbie from machismo and carelessness as well as pretension, this is a book for people who like cooking indoors as well as out. The flavours are interesting and from a wide range of cuisines, such as Guinness in hamburgers or the Indian sour mango powder amchoor in a marinade for chicken thighs. The techniques are simple but useful, such as the Australian trick of pre-boiling sausages for five minutes before putting them over the charcoal, solving the problem of a raw inside and a charred outside. There are more sophisticated recipes too, such as the show-stopping planked mussels and stuffed pork tenderloin. There are (just) enough vegetable and fish dishes to offer an alternative to meat. I liked the look of the globe artichokes with Parmesan, garlic and parsley stuffed between the leaves and placed in the glowing coals. This last recipe comes from the photographer, Jason Lowe, whose pictures add magic, atmosphere and drool-factor. There are notes on different kinds of barbeque, including Turkish, Indian and Japanese: even a wheelbarrow can be used. This is going to be one of my books of the year, rain or shine. It can extend beyond the garden and that brief window of opportunity called ‘summer’ as all the recipes helpfully include advice about how to cook the dish indoors as well. It will encourage you to expand your range beyond the charred chop. NOTE: Food from fire: the real barbeque book is published by Mitchell Beazley, £16.99. Scoff! has a copy to give away: for a chance to win email the word ‘fire’ to dan@gastronomail.com +04: Recipe: Penne Giardinniera by Antonio Carluccio. This is one of the most popular dishes at our Carluccio’s Caffes. If you cannot obtain Grana Padano cheese then Parmesan can be used. Serves six. For the spinach balls: 100g dry breadcrumbs; 2 eggs; 1/2 clove garlic; A handful grated Grana Padano cheese; Ground black pepper; Salt; small pinch nutmeg; 300g cooked spinach; vegetable oil. For the pasta: 120g butter; 30g red chillies; 3 courgettes; 30g garlic 360g Grana Padano; 750g Penne Regine. First make 42 mini spinach balls. Steam spinach for three minutes, then drain and refresh in cold water. Squeeze out all the water, then tear into long strips – never cut it with a knife. Place the spinach, garlic, eggs and nutmeg in a bowl and mix well, add the Grana then half the breadcrumbs and season with salt and pepper. Roll and fry one ball in a deep-fryer or frying pan until golden (a few minutes). Check consistency, add a little more breadcrumbs if needed and fry the remaining balls until golden. Grate the courgette and finely dice chillies and garlic. Cook the pasta to al dente. Meanwhile heat the butter in a pan, add the garlic, chillies and grated courgettes and fry for about a minute. Add the cooked pasta and toss with the grated cheese. Season and serve with spinach balls sprinkled over the top. NOTE: Enjoy this dish at our Carluccio’s Caffes including the newest one in Jubilee Street, Brighton: http://www.carluccios.com +05: The Drink Spot: Focus on the Rhône, Part One Equal sipping rights - by Jonathan Ray. Michel Chapoutier, one of the greatest winemakers of the Rhône, is a man of whizz-bang energy fuelled by an obsessive commitment to quality. His firm – M. Chapoutier – was founded in Tain l’Hermitage in 1808 and has passed from father to son ever since, with Michel representing the seventh generation. As well as his passion for wine, Michel is a great music lover and something of an egalitarian. “I love music,” he says, “because it is available to all and not dependent on wealth. I want to do the same for wine. To make a good £200 bottle of wine is easy. To make a good £7 bottle is the test.” This left-leaning outlook informs his business life as much as his personal one. “We sell our basic wines for zero profit. You could say that they are our samples! There's too much snobbery in wine. I want people to enjoy wine and to prove that one doesn't have to be a money lover to be a wine lover.” Michel’s company owns some 400 acres of vineyards and produces between 90 and 100 different wines each year, including those from such celebrated appellations as Hermitage, Crozes-Hermitage, Saint- Joseph, Côte Rôtie, Condrieu, Châteauneuf-du-Pape and Banyuls. The company's total production each year is roughly 225,000 cases, of which about 60% is exported. Michel is well-known for over-printing all his wine labels in Braille, and for adopting biodynamic farming in all his vineyards. “We need to go back to the earth and let the soil dictate, because great wines are made in the vineyards and not in the cellar,” he says. “The wine maker must subordinate himself to the total terroir of his vineyard and let nature make the wine.” l For a fabulous prize draw for a free crate of Chapoutier wine, courtesy of wine merchants Averys, see page one, this issue. +06: The Drink Spot: Focus on the Rhône, Part Two. Swapping tight deadlines for sunny days in the Southern Rhône - by Mary Dowey. Everybody thinks wine writers have the dishiest job. It brings a tidal wave of free samples, I’ll admit, but over time the relentless deadlines and the tedium of huge wine fairs take their toll. That is why I have swapped my post as wine correspondent of the Irish Times for sunny days in the Southern Rhône, running wine courses. When the first course was launched in 2004, I had no idea how much fun it would be. I and co-presenter and friend Vickie Mackenzie were lucky to find the Hostellerie Le Castellas in Collias near the Pont du Gard – a charming family-run hotel with excellent food, a pretty garden and a pool. I was lucky to have good contacts among many of the best producers in the region, and they could not be more welcoming. Our schedule combines morning tasting seminars in the hotel with afternoon visits to some outstanding estates. There is also time for a little gentle tourism – a stroll through Avignon; a visit to the medieval town of Uzès; perhaps a canoe trip – although I will recommend this less heartily than last year when my rave review propelled a dozen people towards over-exertion, including two who capsized before leaving the bank. ‘We have just about dried out by now!’ they reported in a Christmas card. So far, touch wood, the verdicts have been wonderfully positive. Bookings are now coming in for this year’s course, and there is a £100 discount for Scoff! readers. See you there? NOTE: Mary Dowey’s next Southern Rhône wine course runs from 17-22 October. Normal price £1,155 per person including accommodation, tastings, tuition, three lunches and four dinners with wine; flights excluded. See www.winefeast.com or contact Mary on mdowey@iol.ie +07: The food spot: Not over until the fat man wears leather? - by Christopher Maltman. Had I a free meal for every time I’ve heard: “You’re not fat enough to be an opera singer,” I undoubtedly would be. Images of Pavarotti, hankie clutched between pudgy digits, and leviathan Brunnhildes crushing puny mortals to their maternal breasts are so widely imprinted in people’s minds that mere average-sized singers like me don’t quite live up to our billing. But why the stereotype, and what is the reality? There is certainly fine food and wine to be had in opera. Opera houses need benefactors, and benefactors need wining and dining, so the jewels in the crown for fiscally-beleaguered opera house directors are singers who can be wheeled out to dine with potentially valuable donors without slurping soup, farting or being too honest about the effects of plastic surgery. Enter Muggins, stage left. Many of the world’s opera houses are also sited enviably close to sites of oenological and gastronomic significance. Turin among the megalithic hills of Barolo and Alba; San Francisco cocooned by its polished viticultural goldmines; and Munich with its symphonies in flat pork and haikus in hops and barley: all have provided me with irresistible seductions. Spaghetti Bolognese I might resist, but when luminous hosts season rooms with truffles the size of duck eggs, decimating them onto pasta lubricated by butter sourced from the high Alpine pastures visible from your table, I am lost. And once such royal, if intermittent, treatment has been experienced, it is hard not to afford yourself the same luxuries, usually at 11.30pm after a show. So it’s no surprise that pounds are easy for the waistline to accumulate and the wallet to shed. The Damoclean consequence is that once the happily wooed donors have given, the boss has sworn eternal brotherhood and you have patted yourself on the back for avoiding any gaffes about cows humping, you alone have to return to rehearsals and face your director. “Dahling!” they cry. “Dahling, ve’ve been talking and I vantchyoo in leazzer. Yah, leazzer. He’s sexy, you know? Perhaps wizzout shirt, uh?” The beer, butter, pasta and wine all go into a tight huddle at this point to discuss the possibility of revealing their hideout. A recent situation in London demonstrated starkly the body image crisis in opera, when a generously endowed diva was fired because she would not fit the dress the designer had made. We are wedged between the rock of lavish consumption and the hard place of artistic verisimilitude. So, whose future is it? Titan or mortal? For the sake of those of you who attend the opera, I hope it’s the latter. For the sake of my bank balance, I hope it is too! But while there is good food in the world, I hope also that a balance can be struck where we singers will not be forced to eat lettuce while entertaining the Great and the Good. Besides, I’m off to Switzerland next. Mmmm . . . choccy! NOTE: Christopher Maltman won the Lieder Prize at the 1997 Cardiff Singer of the World Competition. He currently sings and records at the world’s leading opera houses and festivals. 08: How to: How to: Create superb soufflés - by Hattie Ellis. Soufflés have gained a mystique of being difficult to make, but if you can make white sauce and whisk egg whites, then you can make these endlessly versatile, magical and economical dishes at any time just from what’s in the fridge. You don’t need to go to the palaver of putting a paper collar on the outside. Just fill the soufflé dish three- quarters up and let it go up, up and away. Don’t open the oven door until the end of cooking, and the fresher the eggs, the more it will rise. 1: To get the lightness and the famous gooey centre (what the French call ‘baveuse’), it is best to whip the egg whites until they are firm but not stiff so they incorporate better into the béchamel. Cook at a high temperature – 220°C – for the first 5 minutes, then turn down to 170°C for the rest of the cooking time. 2: A four-egg soufflé feeds four, but will rise better if you add two or three extra egg-whites. Make sure the béchamel is well-flavoured, as egg white dampens down the taste. 3: The crust of a soufflé can be especially delicious. Smear butter on the dish and pat on finely grated Parmesan. If you want to be sophisticated – and this is special – follow the lead of food writer Annie Bell, who clarifies her butter and puts two layers of melted butter and Parmesan on the dish, then leaves it in the fridge until ready to use. Sprinkle Parmesan on the top of the uncooked mixture for a burnished, delicious finish. 4: An interesting twist for savoury soufflés is to flavour the béchamel with puréed root vegetables. Jerusalem artichoke works well, and Shaun Hill has a recipe for a swede and cheddar one in his book Cooking at the Merchant House. For sweet soufflés using just the egg white, experiment with puréed fruit such as apple or pear. 5: Running a thumb around the edge of the soufflé mixture before baking gives the final dish a better appearance. And remember to serve immediately: a soufflé is for friends sitting around the kitchen table. ++End Notes: +HOW TO RECEIVE YOUR REGULAR ‘SCOFF!’ To subscribe to this free monthly bulletin, Send a blank email to scoff-subscribe@gastronomail.com Please encourage your friends and colleagues to subscribe! To unsubscribe at any time, email: scoff-unsubscribe@gastronomail.com For further information on subscription see: http://www.gastronomail.com . +ACCESSIBILITY NOTE: This newsletter conforms to the accessible Text Email Newsletter (TEN) Standard, which makes email publications easier to access for people with impaired vision using text-to-speech devices. For details see: http://www.headstar.com/ten . +COPYRIGHT 2006 Gastronomail Ltd. If you would like to reproduce stories from this newsletter, we generally allow this as long as a full credit is included, with our web address and a description of our newsletter. For permission please email jo@gastronomail.com . +PERSONNEL: Food Editor - Dan Jellinek dan@gastronomail.com Drinks editor – Johnny Ray johnny@gastronomail.com Consultant Editor – Hattie Ellis hattie@gastronomail.com Marketing Director – Jo Weatherall jo@gastronomail.com [Issue ends.]