+++SCOFF! - The free email newsletter on good food and drink. - ISSUE TWENTY, SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2007. For a printable colour version of this newsletter, 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: http://www.gastronomail.com . ++Issue Twenty Contents: 01: Editorial: - A slow revolution? 02: An A-Z of Scoff: the alphabet of food wisdom - ‘T’ is for ‘Tuna’: Is it still OK to eat? 03: Special News Report: Shameful tale of the chicken and the egg - Hattie Ellis’ exposé of the poultry industry is a generic cautionary tale of food production. 04: The food spot: Playing with flavours - Children are supposed to eat more healthily, but how to make it fun and attractive to them? Fiona Bird has some tips and a recipe for young cooks. 05: Recipe: Strawberry and Poppy seed muffins by Fiona Bird. 06: The drink spot: The good, the bad and the plant-pot wines Wine is confusing enough without complicated scoring systems. Simon Woods has the answer: a set of categories to sort the plant-pot wines from the ‘yeah-but-no-but’ bottles. 04: Titbits and Crumbs: UKTV Food: In Season – winning ingredients; The UK Tea Council – counting the cuppas; British Cheese Awards – 2007 winners. 08: Friends of Scoff! - A Select Directory of Our Friends and Helpers. 09: Autumn Offer: Land on Planet Chicken - Book giveaway in association with Villa Maria wines. [Contents ends]. +01: Editorial: A slow revolution? A few days ago Scoff! teamed up with Slow Food to man a stand at the second annual Glynde Food Festival in the pretty village of Glynde, which is near to Lewes in East Sussex. It was a lovely weekend — we were lucky with the weather — which gave us a chance to reflect on the progress that we have made in the UK with engendering more of a Slow Food culture — one where people take the time to think about what really matters in food production, preparation, and consumption. We need more local food events, and slowly but surely, we are getting them, all across the UK. They act as focus points for people to find out more about the range of food and drink that is produced locally, and more importantly, to taste it for themselves. We gained a good few new readers as well — so welcome, everyone, to our new issue. - Dan Jellinek and Jonathan Ray, Co-Editors. +02: An A-Z of Scoff: the alphabet of food wisdom - ‘T’ is for Tuna Tuna is a staple of everybody’s store-cupboard. But is it still OK to eat it, in these days of overfishing? Tuna are large oceanic fish with a strong basic resilience to fishing, but humans have managed to overdo it nevertheless. According to Greenpeace, “stocks are largely fully exploited and many are over- fished.” Furthermore, “the main two methods used to catch tuna, purse seine nets and longlines, have a very high rate of by-catch of small fish, sharks, marlin, swordfish and turtles.” Some species are under particularly severe threat. Southern and northern bluefin tuna are listed by the IUCN, the World Conservation Union, as ‘critically endangered’, and bigeye as ‘vulnerable’. The most robust stocks are of skipjack, and Greenpeace recommends line-caught skipjack as the best, “if you have to eat tuna.” The Marine Conservation Society, a UK charity, has valuable information about stocks and sustainability on its website (http://www.fishonline.org). It warns that world catches have doubled in the last decade, but suggests that “Albacore from the south Atlantic and south Pacific, skipjack and yellowfin from the Pacific and Atlantic and skipjack from the Indian oceans, are currently being fished at sustainable levels. [Choose] line (pole and line or handline) or troll- caught (where available) ‘dolphin-friendly’ fish.” The MCS has a further warning, about the relatively new practice of ‘farming’ or ‘ranching’ tuna in the oceans — confining them in quasi- wild conditions. “Tuna farming or ranching . . . relies on capture of juveniles from the wild. Avoid eating.” +03: Special News Report - Shameful tale of the chicken and the egg - by Hattie Ellis. Most Scoff! readers will be familiar with some of the gory facts of intensive chicken production. But what I discovered while writing my book, Planet Chicken, was worse than I’d expected. More than a quarter of meat birds have difficulties walking towards the end of their life because they are bred and fed to grow too large too quickly. The transportation, slaughter and breeding methods leave much to be desired. And there are huge environmental problems. So what’s the answer for those of us who want to eat less-but-better meat? It is not clear-cut. Free-range produce has been subject to fraud on a massive scale. Even birds that are legally called free-range can be kept in flocks of 14,000, with little incentive to go outside. I now go for organic eggs, which have higher welfare standards and non-GM feed. With meat birds, there is a big (and positive) difference between Soil Association organic chickens and standard free-range. But organic is not the be-all and end-all. I also saw non-organic birds that are kept in small groups in barns with a high level of stockmanship. One of the biggest lessons I learned was that, while labels and standards can raise standards, it is best of all to find individuals you can trust. In a farmers’ market, especially the ones certified by FARMA, you can check out the producer for yourself. There are also good suppliers like the Real Meat Company, Sheepdrove Organic Farm and Pipers’ Farm. And a proper butcher, with known suppliers and a good reputation to uphold, is another way to get better birds. The story of the chicken and the egg shows that independent farmers and shops provide the best alternative to the corner-cutting of the mainstream food industry and it is they who can sustain and supply the highest-quality food. NOTE: Planet Chicken: The Shameful Story of the Bird on Your Plate by Hattie Ellis is out now from Hodder & Stoughton. Buy on Amazon for under £10 hardback (RRP £14.99). +04: The Food spot: Playing with flavours by Fiona Bird. Taking children out to eat is scary, even in today’s less formal restaurant surroundings. As a mother of a large family, I have to admit that we do not often eat out en famille. Expense, over processed children’s menus and the odds stacked against the troop behaving while on parade, keep us at home. However if more parents demanded a child sized portion of ‘real food’ as available on the adult menu, we could start the revolution. The next hurdle is to encourage a child friendly atmosphere in the restaurant. Children, (toddlers aside who I have to confess always win at the incomprehensible strop stakes), must be given the opportunity to not just sample ‘real food’ but perhaps even contribute to convivial hospitality. Last year I had the privilege of eating lunch in a school in France. It was quite delicious. I had a choice of four starters. There was fresh watermelon, Duo de Charcuterie, salad or coleslaw. The main course was a simple choice of savoury crepes or griddled tuna served with saffron rice and haricots verts. I went along quite healthily until I saw ile flotante and drooled over the vanilla custard. Of course I could have chosen a healthier option but I wasn’t going to by pass some good old fashioned French cooking. Didier the chef cooks for 250 out of the total 300 children with the help of just two local ladies. The high uptake reflects the standard of the food. However even the packed lunchers were entitled to a glass and cutlery to eat their food with. In Britain the school lunch is increasingly seen as a route towards ensuring that our children, make healthy food choices by the policy makers. How such policy can be successfully implemented, when new build schools lack a kitchen is another question. Real, raw food needs to be cooked on the school premises. The Food Standards Agency has already flagged up the high proportion (and poor nutritional content) of the school lunch box and yet even before we worry about nutritional content we lag behind the French. In the French school visited, every child was entitled to cutlery, water and a glass. This is the beginning of the lesson in the art of hospitality. In the summer many British children who take a packed lunch, consume it on the hoof. Sitting around the table should be a part of the whole eating process. Experience from children’s cookery workshops has convinced me that if children are involved in the food preparation that there is a greater chance that they will taste the food. Parents who cook with simple, raw ingredients and allow their children to make the occasional mess in the kitchen are already on the starting block. Here are some lunchbox tips. For my younger children, think mini. Mini anything is fun, manageable, speedy and easy to eat. Very little people are often conservative in their taste; they sometimes prefer to keep each food separate. The kebab stick is a brilliant way of introducing an occasional new food while allowing the child to enjoy individual flavours. Ring the changes. Begin with those sandwiches. - Try wholemeal matched with seeded white, or focaccia, pita pockets, rice cakes, tortilla wraps fixed with blunted cocktail sticks and oatcakes. - Cutters, shape sandwich and add interest for younger children. Fight against sandwich boredom. - Pasta, couscous and cracked wheat are good for salads. Maximise seasonal change with food that requires minimal fuss and packaging. - Create trails of toasted sesame and pumpkinseeds seeds, mixed with dried fruits with variety of texture and taste. - Try out homemade drinks but always have plenty of water too. - A frozen juice carton will keep the lunchbox cool. Children and grown-ups will enjoy oranges quartered and frozen. And freezing need not stop there. Sandwiches and cakes will defrost within a few hours. - Put fun stickers on to fruit or wrapped food. Homemade food can be made just as glitzy as processed shop foods. NOTE: Fiona Bird is a mother of six and past BBC Masterchef finalist. She and her husband Stephen are the founders of Stirrin'Stuff (www.stirrinstuff.org), which works in schools and at food events offering cookery demonstrations and workshops which are free to the children who attend. +05: Recipe: Strawberry and Poppy seed muffins. by Fiona Bird. A great recipe for (supervised!) kids. Note for adventurous cooks: try blackcurrants instead of strawberries. Makes 12. - 150g strawberries - Half an orange - 300g self raising flour - 100g caster sugar - One tablespoon poppy seeds - 1 Egg - 175ml milk - 125ml vegetable oil. Preheat the oven to 190?C, and place 12 paper muffin cases into a muffin tray. Chop the strawberries into bite sized pieces using a table knife on a chopping board. Carefully grate half of the rind from a well scrubbed orange. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the caster sugar and poppy seeds. Break the egg into a small bowl. Measure the oil and milk and stir them together with little stirs, in a large measuring jug (the liquids). Add the egg to the milk and the oil and mix well with a small whisk or fork. Add the strawberries to the dry ingredients. Quickly add the liquid ingredients and stir until the mixture is ‘just’ mixed. Then use a desert spoon, to spoon the mixture into the cases and use a bowl scraper to get the last of the mixture out of the bowl. Put the tray into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Transfer the hot muffins from the tray to a cooling rack – they will go soggy if you leave them in the tray to cool. +06: The Drink Spot: The good, the bad and the plant-pot wines by Simon Woods I’ve always had problems scoring – wines, that is. I remember going to a tasting years ago of Setúbal, the Portuguese fortified Muscat, when I was experimenting with the 100-point quality scale used by many wine writers. It was when I gave a wine 120 points that I realised it wasn’t for me. Nowadays, I don’t score wines, I give them medals. So S means ‘silver’, S+ means ‘buy me a beer and you might talk me up to gold’, while S- means probably a bronze, but I’m feeling benevolent, and so on. I have a trophy category above gold medals, for when my socks have been well and truly blown off. But as a rating of B, S+, G(-) and so on next to a wine looks a bit pathetic, so here are my alternative wine categorisations: Plant Pot Wines: As in find the nearest, and tip it in. NBM – Nil By Mouth – is an equivalent. My friend Charles Metcalfe has AE – auto- eject. In other words, totally dreadful wines. You won’t find too many of these around today. A good thing? I’m not so sure. There’s a part of me that says I’d rather come across a totally crap wine than some of the wines in the next tier up. Which is . . . Waiting Room Wines – or Accountant Wines, or Argos Wines, or Nail Bar Wines: Wines that make the word ‘bland’ seem dynamic. Wines that you are not aware of having swallowed. Wines that, thinking of the previous category, would make your plant pot sprout second-hand plastic flowers. Drinkable, but instantly forgettable. Let’s move on, although not necessarily to something better . . . Robo Wines: If anything, these are worse than Waiting Room Wines. You can forget a Waiting Room Wine, but there’s no escaping these wines, manufactured by Robo-winemaker to a recipe rather than being allowed to develop in a more natural state. Over-oaked, over-ripe and with incongruous sweetness and alcohol, such wines come at all price levels. Ban them from your table, and go instead for . . . Breakfast Wines: Not that I’m advocating drinking wine while John Humphries is still heckling politicians. The idea here is that, just as a good breakfast should be honest and wholesome, but without supplying the culinary heights of the day, so a breakfast wine should be a good drink – wet, alcoholic, tasty and drinkable, but not central to the proceedings. If you want something more assertive, head for . . . Proper Wines: Let’s take ‘wet, alcoholic, tasty and drinkable’ and ratchet it up to the next level. Here, personality comes into play. Stuff ripeness, stuff oak, stuff alcohol, these are wines that rise above winemaking styles and really express a sense of place and, at times, a sense of wildness. Can wine get any better? Well yes, it can… Wedding Wines – My wedding day remains the best day of my life. Someone told me that they never saw me without a smile on my face, and that’s the sort of wine, we’re talking about here. Wedding Wines should be magnificent, munificent, just wonderful and wonderful. They sound like the ultimate wines. And yet… Yeah But No But Wines – Is Sushi better than Tapas? Is Machu Picchu better than the Taj Mahal? Is Beethoven better than Eminem? There’s no right answer. These are controversial wines, wines that will have some people drooling, while others will put them in the Plant Pot category. Greatness doesn’t necessarily mean universal appreciation. So there you have it. Chances that these categories will gain universal approval are slim, but they’re a darn sight more interesting than 85 points or four and a half stars. So, any suggestions for examples of each type? Or of how you grade wines? NOTE: Article adapted from ‘Drinking outside the box’, a wine blog by Simon Woods (www.drinkingoutsidethebox.blogspot.com). Simon is a columnist on Wine & Spirit magazine and author of the award- winning I Don't Know Much About Wine But I Know What I Like (Mitchell Beazley £4.99). +07: Titbits and crumbs. UKTV Food: In Season What ingredients are at their best this month? Find out with the specialist food TV channel UKTV Food’s handy online guide. Related recipes are listed on the right-hand side: http://uktv.co.uk/food/homepage/sid/5154 The UK Tea Council The online home of the world’s favourite drink. Find out more about the history of tea, tea facts, local tastings, and succumb to the strangely compelling spectacle of a constantly updating counter of the number of cuppas that have been drunk across the UK so far today. When I logged on it was topping 139 million: http://www.tea.co.uk/ British Cheese Awards – 2007 winners Do you know which are the national prize-winning cheeses in your county? Download the winners’ list from the website of the awards, the Cheese Web: http://www.thecheeseweb.com/contentok.php?id=279 Scoff! is giving away books on food and wine to readers who send in their favourite foodie website, if published. Please email your suggestions to: dan@gastronomail.com +08: Friends of Scoff! - A Select Directory of Our Friends and Helpers. - Averys, one of the UK’s most respected wine merchants, is offering our readers a £10 discount on all new orders over £49.95: http://www.averys.com/scoff - All About Wine is a seminal book covering all the basics about enjoying wine from our Drinks Editor Jonathan Ray. Scoff! readers benefit from a special price of £17.99 inc. p&p: call Macmillan Direct on 01256 302 692 and quote GLR D47. - Planet Chicken, the well-received expose on the state of the modern poultry industry from our editorial consultant Hattie Ellis, is out now from Hodder & Stoughton. For discount offers buy online at Amazon.co.uk. - The Handmade Loaf by Dan Lepard, “contemporary European recipes for the home baker,” is published by Mitchell Beazley. Special Scoff! price £16: call 01903 828503 quoting PUB195. - Wendy Brandon Handmade Preserves is a small company making a very wide range of jams, marmalades and chutneys: http://www.wendybrandon.co.uk/ - We are grateful to Oregon Wines for providing us with our October competition prize. For more information on the wines of Oregon visit: http://www.oregonwines.com - Another generous prize came courtesy of New Zealand Winegrowers. To find out about New Zealand tastings in your area email info@winzuk.com And for more on NZ wine see: www.nzwine.com - Try the ‘Curious Brew’ beer brand from award-winning wine producer Chapel Down. Curious Brew Brut, Cobb IPA and Admiral Porter can be ordered with online discounts from: www.chapeldownwines.co.uk NOTE: Inclusion in this directory is free, but you must help to increase our readership! To find out more contact Jo Weatherall on jo@gastronomail.com . +09: Autumn Offer: Land on Planet Chicken. Our reader offer this issue once again comes courtesy of Villa Maria, New Zealand’s largest privately owned wine company, and the country’s most awarded wine producer. Villa Maria sources the finest grapes from the premium vineyards of Marlborough, Hawkes Bay, Gisborne and Auckland. This time, Villa Maria have generously donated 10 copies of ‘Planet chicken: The shameful story of the bird on your plate’, by our very own consultant editor Hattie Ellis (see also news, page one, this issue). All you have to do to enter is to email your name, address and telephone number to dan@gastronomail.com including the email addresses of at least one friend or colleague who has agreed to sign up to receive future issues of Scoff! (NB we will check their agreement!) One email address of a new reader is all you need to enter to win a book – but the more you supply, the better your chances. And for more on Villa Maria wines, visit: www.villamariaestate.co.uk ++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.]