+++SCOFF! - The free email newsletter on good food and drink. - ISSUE 22, APRIL/MAY 2008. 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 22 Contents: 01: Editorial: - Well worth the wait: your latest eclectic offering. 02: An A-Z of Scoff: the alphabet of food wisdom - ‘V’ is for Veganism – what are the health issues? 03: Special News Report: - Baby steps make five a day child’s play - Dan Jellinek reports on a scheme for healthy toddlers. 04: The Drink Spot: Potent spirit of Italian gastronomy - Grappa’s rightful place is at the head of the Italian table, says Marcin Miller. 05: Recipe: The Greatest Steak and Ale Pudding by Paul Bloxham. 06: The food spot: The Food spot: Time to cheat, or time to change? Delia Smith’s new book and TV series have raised a storm of controversy over their inclusion of processed and supermarket ingredients. Ed Harris investigates. 07: Titbits and Crumbs: Share Case - wine-buying co-operative; The Kitchen Sisters - award-winning radio duo. 08: How to: Cook with chocolate - by Holly Caulfield. 09: Friends of Scoff! - A Select Directory of Our Friends and Helpers. [Contents ends]. +01: Editorial: Well worth the wait. It’s been a little while since Scoff! has appeared in your email inboxes, as some of our loyal readers have noted — but we hope this short delay has been worthwhile as we have cooked up one of our best issues ever. In our usual eclectic mix of news, features and opinion, we plunge into the Delia ‘How to cheat’ controversy; offer the ultimate recipe for that great British classic, steak and ale pie; examine one of the lesser- known but resurgent heros of Italian gastronomy, grappa; and offer tips on how to cook with chocolate. Look out for a fabulous offer coming your way soon, as well, also with a chocolate flavour — we know what you like. We shall email this out separately in the coming weeks. So as usual, happy reading, and bon appetit! - Dan Jellinek and Jonathan Ray, Co-Editors. +02: An A-Z of Scoff: the alphabet of food wisdom - ‘V’ is for Veganism. People who follow a vegan diet do not eat any foods which originate from an animal, including not just meat and fish but dairy products, eggs and honey. The Food Standards Agency says vegans, in common with vegetarians, need to make sure they are getting enough protein and iron. It recommends pulses, nuts and seeds for protein; pulses and some green vegetables such as watercress and broccoli for iron; and the avoidance of tea or coffee with meals because these make it harder for the body to absorb iron. It can also be difficult to get enough vitamin B12, the agency says: good vegan sources of B12 include yeast extract, fortified bread and fortified breakfast cereals. Some scientists have expressed health concerns with veganism, particularly for pregnant and breast-feeding women and young children. In 2005 Lindsay Allen, of the US Agricultural Research Service told the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) that putting children on strict vegan diets is "unethical" and could harm their development. She accepted that adults could avoid animal foods if they took the right supplements, but said adding animal source food into the diet was a more effective and sustainable way to tackle malnutrition worldwide than supplements. The Vegan Society hit back, saying plant-based diets can be a safer and cheaper source of nutrients, and are low in saturated fat (www.vegansociety.com). However, it acknowledges that “Many vegans do not get enough B12 to minimise potential risk of heart disease or pregnancy complications,” and that “the only reliable vegan sources of B12 are foods fortified with B12 and B12 supplements.” The NHS advises people considering veganism to speak to their doctor, to address potential health issues. +03: Special News Report - Baby steps make five a day child’s play by Dan Jellinek. A campaign to interpret the ‘five a day’ doctrine for infants has been launched by the Tumble Tots children’s playschemes group with organic baby food supplier Organix. The ‘Eat Fit Keep Fit’ campaign includes a free downloadable leaflet which maps out what constitutes a portion towards the ‘five a day’ for children aged 1-2 years; children aged 3-5 years; and children aged 6 and upwards. For example, for those groups respectively a quarter of a red pepper; a third of a pepper; and a half a pepper constitute a portion. A young children’s fruit and vegetable recipe competition has also been run (for full details see http://www.tumbletots.com). To help people start thinking of good ideas, the leaflet contains four recipes from Organix founder Lizzie Vann’s ‘Organic Baby and Toddler Cookbook’, including a mild vegetable korma and freshly made milkshakes with real fruit. The campaign comes just as new research from the NHS Information Centre has shown that one in three 10 and 11-year-olds — children in year six of primary school — are overweight or obese. The study also found that almost one in four children measured in reception year were overweight or obese; that boys were significantly more likely to be obese than girls in both reception and year six age groups; and that obesity levels were highest in urban and deprived areas. In a statement released with the research, NHS Information Centre chief executive Tim Straughan said: “It is even more worrying since the figures presented in our report are, if anything, likely to be an underestimate. This is because participation in the programme is voluntary and overweight or obese children may be more likely not to take part.” +04: The Drink Spot: Potent spirit of Italian gastronomy by Marcin Miller Two alcoholic drinks have been central to the tradition of Italian life since time immemorial; wine and grappa. They are related: you can’t make grappa without grape pomace or vinaccia, a by-product of wine- making derived from the skins, seeds and pulp of grapes. Grappa started a rough drink made with what was available, potent enough to get the farmers through the cold winter months. In the early days, it was considered rather coarse and found popularity among people of low social status, many seeking even the briefest of respites from a tough reality. The nobility did not drink it. However, this changed when Italian culture took centre stage in the mid-20th century and it became a potent symbol of a stylish, escapist, romantic vision in a post-war world of optimism. Grappa became part of La Dolce Vita. No-one knows for sure when the first grappa was made, although it is mentioned in documents dating from the mid-14th century. Nevertheless, by the end of the 15th century, grappa was not only being exported from Italy, but production was licensed, with taxes levied on distillates from wine and pomaces. Today, grappa is protected and regulated by national and EU laws. In fact, only grappa distilled in Italy, made from Italian grape pomace can legitimately be called grappa. While every region of Italy will claim superiority for its wines, it is generally agreed that the best grappa comes from the north of Italy and, more precisely, from Trentino-Alto Adige, Veneto, Friuli and Piedmont. While this is partly due to the concentration of leading distillers in the area, the cooler weather and the altitude combine to ensure that the acid in the grapes degenerates more slowly, which helps to produce higher quality pomaces for distillation purposes. The best examples of the genre are comparatively high in alcohol and rarely less than 43% abv (86% proof). While grappa has to be aged for a minimum of six months in order to satisfy the regulations that govern its appellation, that ageing need not take place in wood barrels, but in stainless steel tanks or glass jars. The moment a grappa is aged in a wooden cask it begins, like any spirit, to absorb the characteristics of the wood, usually oak. In the modern era, boutique grappa distillers have experimented with a wide range of wood types including apple and cherry. The most obvious change effected by wood ageing is appearance which can vary from a light straw colour to an even darker hue, depending on the wood used and the length of maturation time. Wood also changes the taste of the spirit, making it softer and sweeter on the palate. Aged grappas can be labelled invecchiata (aged), stravecchia (old) or simply riserva. As a rule, rather like rum, grappa benefits from gentle ageing, with three to five years in oak casks the norm. Flavoured grappas have been popular in Italy for centuries, pre-dating the rather more precious approach to grappa encouraged by boutique distillers during the 1970s. These are also subject to strict regulation so all flavours must be totally natural and make use of herbs, nuts and fruits indigenous to Italy. One of the most traditional varieties is Ruta, where sprigs of a herb called rue are cut to be infused as the principal flavouring ingredient. Natural nut flavours – sourced from Italian almond or hazelnut trees – have also become increasingly popular, partly because of their excellence in partnership with espresso, but also because of their versatility in cocktail recipes. Overall, it is clear that Grappa’s rightful place is as the quality spirit of choice for those who appreciate the tradition, provenance and heritage of Italian gastronomic culture. NOTE: Marcin Miller is a spirits writer, publisher and PR specialist. This article is adapted from his Grappa Handbook, which features cocktail creations from Dale DeGroff and other leading bartenders and recipes from leading Italian and UK chefs including Gennaro Contaldo, Valentina Harris and Jamie Oliver. The book is sponsored by Nardini, the distillery behind Italy’s best-selling premium grappa. Scoff! readers can apply for a free copy to be posted to them – simply visit: http://www.nardinigrappa.com then from here, click on ‘Handbook’ and register using the offer code: 789. +05: Recipe: The Greatest Steak and Ale Pudding by Paul Bloxham A richly flavourful classic British dish. Serves 4. Ingredients: 2 tbsp vegetable oil 1kg chuck steak, cut into large chunks 200g assorted wild mushrooms, chopped 1 small onion, finely chopped 1 carrot, peeled and finely diced 1 celery stick, finely diced 2 garlic cloves, crushed 1 tbsp tomato purée 2 tbsp plain flour 300ml ale 1 tsp thyme leaves, 1 bay leaf, salt, pepper For the pastry: 400g self-raising flour 200g suet 300ml cold water 1 tbsp horseradish; salt and pepper 2 tbsp chopped parsley 1 tbsp chopped walnuts roasted root vegetables, to serve Heat the vegetable oil in a large, heavy-based frying pan. Add the steak and mushrooms and cook briskly, stirring, until the meat is browned. Next add the onion, carrot, celery, garlic and thyme, mixing well. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Fry, stirring, for 3 minutes. Mix in the tomato purée and flour, followed by most of the ale (reserving a little) and the bay leaf. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer gently for 30 mins. Set aside to cool. Meanwhile, make the suet pastry. Sift the flour and the salt into a large bowl. Add in the suet and season with freshly ground pepper. Lightly mix and add the water a little at a time, also adding in the walnuts, horseradish and parsley. Using your hands mix into a soft dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface into a disc approx 1cm thick. Set aside a quarter of the dough to use for the lid. Use the remainder to line a well-buttered 1.7 litre pudding basin, leaving at least 1cm hanging over the edge. Spoon the cooled beef and mushroom mixture into the lined pudding basin. Add the reserved ale. Roll out the remaining dough into a disc large enough to form a lid. Place the disc over the filling, fold the overhanging border over the disc, pressing firmly to seal. Cover the pudding with a double piece of buttered kitchen foil, pleated in the middle. Tie in place with string. Steam on an upturned plate in a steamer or large saucepan of hot water for 3 hours, topping up with water as needed to prevent boiling dry. To serve, turn out onto a large platter. Cut a wedge of the pudding and place on a serving plate with some mashed potatoes and glazed carrots. NOTE: Paul Bloxham is Chef Patron at the award-winning The Tilbury in Datchworth, Herts (www.thetilbury.co.uk), and a regular TV presenter and broadcaster. +06: The Food spot: Time to cheat, or time to change? by Ed Harris. Delia Smith, the woman who taught Britain to cook, has polarised opinion with her latest book and TV series, How To Cheat At Cooking. These represent a radical departure from the Delia who taught us how to boil an egg, and for many, do not sit comfortably with the current need for more sustainable ways of sourcing and cooking our food. The difference in approach is clear. How To Cheat At Cooking uses packaged and processed foods to speed up the preparation of meals including powdered mashed potato, ready-grated cheese and tinned mince. Following initial, largely critical reviews the Guardian newspaper gathered a team of professional chefs and food critics to test Delia’s new ‘cheating’ recipes. Their verdicts were not reassuring. Samantha Greer, a school cook from Islington, concluded: “She’s not saving time, and she’s not saving the environment…if someone really, really doesn’t want to cook, they’d be better off with a ready meal.” Chef and food writer Sybil Kapoor said many of the dishes are “unhealthy, processed, environmentally unfriendly, high in fat, high in salt... [and] worse, the recipes involve cooking skills without delivering a good product at the end.” So why is Delia taking this new approach? As a leading chef, she has always viewed her mission as one of education, providing people with the skills and knowledge needed to cook well and enjoy cooking. Delia’s early books are a testament to this mission. Frugal Food, first published in 1976, “shows how to combine economy with elegance… this book aims to show how to make the most of your cooking, and that budget buying and cooking can be fun”. This holds a clue to her new approach — she aims to bring cooking to the masses. She has said her new book and TV series intends to help people who feel they are too busy to cook, or too scared to attempt to create healthy, tasty meals. Alongside this aim, as William Sitwell (editor of Waitrose’s Food Illustrated) observed in the Guardian, is an attempt to end food snobbery. So if Delia’s mission — to educate, inform, and make accessible — has remained the same, what has changed? Where Frugal Food emphasised fresh, unprocessed ingredients, we now see Delia reaching for processed and packaged alternatives. Writing in the Independent, Brian Viner questions Delia’s justification for this switch. “If time is so much of the essence, then why even bother to make a shepherd’s pie with tinned mince and frozen mash? Why not simply buy a ready meal and stick it in the microwave?” Delia’s new approach seems to reject all recent attempts to consider the politics of our food consumption more seriously. Indeed, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme recently, she said: “I don’t do organic...because I’m a cook, I can’t get into the politics of food…it’s no good asking me, because I don’t have the knowledge and I don’t have the background.” Yet if Delia Smith cannot pass judgement on the politics of our food systems, who can? Perhaps it is time for a closer look at the role celebrity chefs have to play in moves towards more sustainable food. NOTE: Ed Harris is a postgraduate student at the Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh. His Local Foods Research Project blog is at: http://localfoods.wordpress.com . +07: Titbits and crumbs. - Share Case A wine-buying co-operative which purchases wines at auction or wholesale at bargain prices and then distributes them among its members. Membership cost £30 a year but the site says this cost can pay for itself on your very first order: http://www.sharecase.com - The Kitchen Sisters The sisters are an award-winning radio duo who seek out grassroots food culture in the hidden kitchens of the US and further afield. You can download their programmes off NPR radio and their book, Hidden Kitchens, has such stories as the homeless of Chicago using George Foreman grill on nicked electricity, the Chilli Queens of San Antonio and the olive harvest in Palestine. The Kitchen Sisters are giving a presentation on Thursday 1 May, 7pm, at Goldsmiths College, London. Book by emailing alan.hall@fallingtree.co.uk or visit: http://www.kitchensisters.org/ +08: How to: How to: Cook with chocolate - by Holly Caulfield The word chocolate comes from the Aztec word xocolatl, which means bitter water. The Aztecs made a drink from crushed-up cocoa beans which they drank without added sugar to give them strength and they also used chocolate in many savoury dishes (see next issue for a tasty example!) Whether you are cooking a chilli or a chocolate cake here are five tips for success: 1: Quality, not quantity: buy the best you can afford. The fruity tones and complexity of flavours within chocolate are rather like wine and vary according to the origins and type of bean. For savoury dishes use cocoa or a chocolate with a high cocoa content (over70%). 2: Chocolate keeps for a year if wrapped, in an airtight container and stored in a cool dry place (not in the fridge). 3: Chocolate goes well with strong flavours like turkey, venison and other game . Also try adding a tablespoon of cocoa to a chilli. 4: Melt chocolate in a bain marie over simmering water, the smaller the pieces are, the faster it will melt. If you must you can use a microwave, but you must check and stir it every minute as it’s easily burned. 5: You can add a small amount of vegetable oil to thin down melted chocolate, but do not add water as this will make it clumpy and hard. NOTE: Holly Caulfield is an artist who runs a new organic chocolate company in Hove. For further recipes and to follow the story of a budding chocolatier, see www.chocoholly.com +09: 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 . ++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 2008 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 22 ends.]