Making Beer Bread

I don't post on here as often as I used to. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram seem easier ways of passing on short bursts of information. But for things which require more than a couple of photographs, I do still return to the blog.

Today's post really doesn't require more than a couple of photographs, it's an incredibly simple bread making kit and dedicating an illustrated recipe to it is most definitely over the top. You'll see! This new Beer Bread kit from La Befana is the quickest method of making a loaf I've come across. Quicker even than a bread maker on fast bake.

Step 1.
Open box and remove mix (see, I said it was easy).
The mix contains British grown wheat, processed through local mills, and comes in a choice of flavours. I used the smoked onion flavour.

Step 2.
Pour mix into bowl and use fork to knock out any lumps (there weren't any in mine, so I could have skipped this).

Step 3.
Add 330ml of beer, cider or soda water and mix together.


Step 4.
Pour mixture into loaf tin.

Step 5.
(Optional)
Melt butter and pour on top (this browns the crust).


Step 6.
Bake at 170 degrees C.
That's right.  Just put it straight in. No proving. No kneading. No knocking back etc etc.

Step 7.
Wait for 50 minutes, periodically inhaling the aroma of freshly baked bread.

Step 8.
Remove bread from oven.

Step 9.
Slice and enjoy.  The bread has quite a close texture, and with the strong smoky onion flavour goes very nicely with cheeses and cold meats. Or even simply spread with butter

Much as I tried, I couldn't even stretch this to 10 steps, and the whole process from opening the pack to eating took less than an hour.

Buying canned pumpkin in the UK

I know it is far too early (and far too sunny) to mention Thanks Giving. But, I also know there are some customers getting a little concerned about their pumpkin pies already. Poor growing conditions in Illinois last year saw the pumpkin yield fall by 50%. Panic set in, with fears that there would be no Libby's Pumpkin for Thanks Giving. Fortunately everything turned out to be OK. There was enough pumpkin to go around.

However, as was inevitable, supply did subsequently run out in the new year. We have customers (mainly American's living in the UK) who visit every summer, and stock up on their Libby's Pumpkin ahead of time. Realising I've not had any for a few months, they are starting to worry. They aren't alone. It'll be September next week and there is still no news from Libby's regarding this year's harvest. How much will there be? Will there be a price increase? When will it be available? No-one seems to know.

So, to reduce the panic, I've taken a different brand of canned pumpkin, the less well-known Mississippi Belle pumpkin. It arrived this week and I'm pretty pleased with it. Mississippi Belle pure pumpkin is produced in the same factory, on the same line as Libby's and appears to be identical, with the exception of the label. It is still 100% pure pumpkin (no added salt, sugar, colours or preservatives) from Morton, Illinois. Same taste and texture. So far no-one has been able to tell the difference between them. Although it is marginally cheaper.

Hopefully that will put some minds at rest - there will be pumpkin pie for Thanks Giving. It just might not be Libby's.

Five things I've learned whilst attempting to source canned pumpkin

1. Libby's produce 80% of the canned pumpkin in the US. 
2. Morton, Illinois where Libby's (and Mississippi Belle) pumpkins are grown is know as the "pumpkin capital of the world". 
3. California is the second biggest pumpkin grower in the US, but produces about 1/3 of that of Illinois. 
4. 80% of the pumpkins grown in Illinois go into cans. 
5. How to spell Mississippi.

Still Here

I'm not really blogging very much at the moment. I've noticed other blogs I read are updated less frequently than they used to be as well. It's not just me! And it's not that I have no news. Just that other media have my focus. At the end of last year I added Instagram to the social media tools I use. I now post there regularly, and to twitter, Facebook, flickr and tumblr. I quite like the instantaneousness of a snap and couple of sentences. I don't really have much more to add and just blog when when I have something lengthy to say, or pin things to pinterest which I think might be interesting. I hope that's OK. So by way of an apology to anyone who checks in here regularly, here is what is going on on Instagram, you can find me there most days!

By the way this little summary updates every day, so whenever you look at this post you will see new news!

Balinese Preserves

Last week I met with Heather from Awani, a hand made preserve producer based in Indonesia. We've been selling Awani's delicious products for a while, but Heather had some new lines for me to try, and some cute freebies for me to give away.

Since 2007 Awani have been creating delicious, artisan jams and marmalade from tropical fruit on the island of Bali. Their preserves showcase the abundance and lushness of the tropical climate: fresh mangoes, pineapples, passion fruit, white and pink guavas, tamarillos, tangerines, limes and many others, sourced from Bali, and other islands on the Indonesian archipelago. In the heart of the tropics the delicious tropical fruit grows profusely, encouraged by the nourishment of volcanic soil and the wonderful warmth of the environment.

Awani bottle the warm lushness of the tropics with delicate, intoxicating, highly fragrant jams and marmalade which are enjoyed at top hotels in Bali and Jakarta. Last year they began to sell retail jars of exotic delights. This is where we came in: selling the fantastic tropical flavours to our customers in Eton (and of course throughout the UK on our web shop).

On her visit last week, Heather brought her photograph album with her, to show me photos of the people who make the preserves. There are 12 full-time staff from the local village in the kitchen, selecting the best, ripest fruits, preparing them entirely by hand to maintain quality and turning them into jam following Yip Lee's very precise, heavily researched, recipes.

Yip is from Malaysia and grew up with fragrant, exotic fruit in his garden. He has a BA in Engineering from Cambridge University and worked in large corporations before deciding to set up Awani in 2008. He pays a lot of attention to detail and his recipes have been finely tuned to perfect the balance of sweetness, acidity and even the texture of the fruit.

I thought, like me, you might want to see some of the photos! The faces behind the jams. First, the whole team, including the kitchen and sales staff at the Awani kitchen in Tabanan, in middle of Bali a few weeks ago.

The kitchen is a traditional, 8 pillared wood/red brick structure, converted to house a spacious, modern, clean, kitchen complying with international standards of food hygiene.

It is situated on a self-sustaining mixed farm with many different types of fruit trees as well as cacao trees and coffee bushes. The view from the window is of lush papaya plants. A slightly different view to that from a British kitchen window!

Every single jar of Awani jam is handmade, from the preparation of the fruit, to cooking, to bottling and labelling. Being so close to the tropical fruit farms means fruit can be left to ripen on the trees, picked late and quickly transported to maintain its flavour and freshness.

When you open a jar, be sure to inhale the aroma first. It really is enticing! So much so, that since meeting with Heather, I've added some more flavours to our range. Pink guava which I overlooked the first time around, thinking it would be insipid, is in fact, far from it. The aroma and taste is intense. Unique. And the pieces of fruit give a delicious texture. In fact, the four groups of people I let try my sample jar, all bought a jar of their own to take home.  I've also added Lime & Ginger, which is a fabulous blend of bittersweet lime with the heat, fragrance and spice of the fresh young ginger. Aside from being used as a preserve (great on some crunchy wholemeal toast, I can assure you), it can also be served with goat's cheese, or used to marinade meat! This recipe from James Sellick, a British Bali-based food designer who is fascinated by flavour sounds like one I need to try soon...

Baked Apple with Raisins and Awani Lime Marmalade with Ginger
Cooking apples, raisins, unsalted butter, Awani Lime Marmalade with Ginger.
Core apples and arrange in a baking dish.
Fill the bottom half of the hollow of each apple with raisins, followed by a lump of butter to fill the hollowed core.
Bake at 180-200ºC for 10 minutes. The butter will have melted.
Refill the hollow with Awani Lime Marmalade with Ginger.
Continue baking until apples are brown.

As does another of James': Pan Fried Pork Loin with Awani Tamarillo Jam and Herb Stuffing
800g pork loin, ½ jar Awani Tamarillo Jam, 100g breadcrumbs, 100g shallots, ¼ handful thyme, ½ handful sage, ¼ handful rosemary, 1 tablespoon butter, salt and pepper.

Fry shallots in butter until golden and soft, mix in other stuffing ingredients and roll into pork loin.
Pan-fry until meat is brown and just cooked.
Leave meat to sit for 5 to 10 minutes in a covered frying pan.
Deglaze the frying pan with 2 more tablespoons of tamarillo jam and serve with meat.

The Tamarillo Jam is also great with Stilton and an interesting alternative to cranberry sauce with turkey.

Vietnamese Curry

This week I've been experimenting with another of our new curry pastes. This time its Vietnamese.

I made a Chicken & Potato Curry using Red Chili Kitchen Vietnamese Curry Paste and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thao's recipe:

(Serves 4)
1kg chicken thighs
4 tbsp Red Chilli Kitchen Curry Paste
3 large sweet potatoes (peeled and cut into 2.5cm cubes).
3 large carrots (peeled and cut into 4cm pieces).
2 shallots (cut in to small wedges).
200ml coconut milk.
500ml of water.
4 tbsp oil.
Salt.

1. Put chicken thighs and curry paste in a bowl. Ensure paste is rubbed well in to the chicken. Cover the bowl and marinate for 2 hours in fridge. For best results marinate overnight. Take chicken out of the fridge ½ hour before cooking.
2. Heat 4 tbsp oil in a large wok. Add the potatoes and fry until golden. Use a slotted spoon to transfer potatoes on to a sheet of kitchen paper. Remove some excess oil from the wok.
3. Remove excess curry paste from the chicken and keep aside to add later. Add chicken into the wok and brown both sides at a medium heat until lightly golden brown.
4. Add the shallots and carrots into the wok and fry for a few minutes.
5. Add remaining curry paste, coconut milk and water into the wok and bring to boil. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover the wok and let it simmer for 30 minutes.
6. Add the potatoes and let it simmer for another 10 minutes or until the chicken and potatoes are tender. Season with salt.

I served it with rice and a sort of Vietnamese inspired coleslaw which I made by shredding half a cabbage, 3 carrots, 1 red pepper, half a pack of mange tout and half a cucumber, then pouring on Red Chili Kitchen Miracle Dressing and sprinkling on some toasted sesame seeds.

Easy Thai

Coconut Kitchen, the fabulous Thai restaurant/sauce producer, have added some new lines to their range. Last week, I sampled the new Easy Thai Red Curry paste. It was delicious. Smelt so amazing that I'd eaten it before I even thought about taking a photograph. So all I could put on twitter was:

Just tested a new Thai curry paste from @coconut1kitchen. If these clean bowls are anything to go by, it's going to be a hit! Appearing on our shelves at @tastesdeli soon! #easy #Thai #curry #happytummy #yum #foodie #deli #eton #coconutkitchen #redthaicurry
 

But that was enough to generate our first online sale, just 48 hours later. Before I'd even got the product onto our online shop!

I've now enjoyed a second bowl of delicious Thai Red Curry and paused long enough to photograph it. So simple to prepare, and fabulously tasty. This is my Chicken and Cashew Red Curry.

Toast some cashews in a large pan and set aside.
Into the warm pan add a splash of coconut oil, heat and seal two thinly sliced chicken breasts.
Add a jar of Coconut Kitchen Red Thai Curry Paste.
Half fill the jar with water and add that as well.
Stir in a tin of coconut milk and bring to a simmer.
Simmer until the chicken is cooked and the sauce thickened.
Stir in the reserved cashews.
Serve with rice.
Photograph, then eat!

Lentils

The job of mine comes with a pretty good "benefits package". One is that I get to taste new products. Which, after nine years, I still love. Even when the new product is a lentil. Really. Let me explain ...

Last week, Katy, from Brindisa, came to see me. She supplies me with lots of lovely Spanish foods and noticed that I've been sticking to the tried and tested favourites for some time;  Ortiz tuna (so good it deserves a post of its own), chorizo, serrano ham, El Navarrico Pulses and Peppers and Santo Domingo Smoked Paprika amongst other things. All fantastic. But Katy knew of some other products we don't sell as Tastes, so popped in with samples. First out of her goody bag were some lentils from El Navarrico.

El Navarrico is a family run business that has been preserving vegetables and pulses since the 1950s.  Today, new generations of El Navarrico continue the traditional processes and define themselves as “craftsmen of the farm”. El Navarrico always guarantee a unique product, treated with the wisdom of time as well as with the best quality systems. Their chickpeas are especially popular with our customers; plump, soft and flavoursome. The alubia blanca make fabulous baked beans, and it isn't until you taste the judion de la granda that you realise why their English name is Butter Beans.

As with everything I sample, I don't just open a packet, taste and make a decision. I take things home, I use them as I expect my customers to use them. And so it was that the jar of lentils came home with me. The first thing I made was an accompaniment to some sea bass fillets. A very simple, quick meal in which the texture and flavour of the lentils really shone. Delicious and so very easy.

For two generous portions:
Fry one chopped onion and one sliced bulb of fennel until starting to brown.
Season and start to pan fry some sea bass fillets (we shared three fillets between two).
Add the zest and juice of a lemon to the onion/fennel pan (I probably should have saved some lemon zest to go on the fish).
Add half a jar of lentils to the onion/fennel (they are well packed in the jar, you'll need to dig in with a spoon to free them!).
Serve lentil mix with fish on top.

Thoroughly enjoyed.

I also wanted to see how the lentils worked in a cold salad. Limited by what was in my fridge on a wet Monday lunch time I made this:

Make up 75g of cous cous with 150ml boiling water.
Fluff it up and let it cool while you chop three cherry tomatoes into quarters and wash and chop a small bunch of watercress. You can add more tomatoes, but I only had three. Rocket would also work well here, but I had a bunch of watercress a customer ordered and didn't collect.
Make a dressing by mixing a tablespoon of basil pesto with teaspoon of red wine vinegar.
Mix cous cous with 200g lentils, tomatoes and rocket.
Drizzle the dressing over the salad, mix in and season.

Really delicious. The bite of the lentil goes perfectly with the smaller grain of the cous cous and the crunch of the vegetables.The shape and colour contrast beautifully and these lentils taste nice. Not bland bulking fillers, but tasty little beads.

There were still lentils left in the jar after making two salads and two mains. They seem never-ending, but in a very good way. Coming to Tastes Deli soon!

Introducing Birch Syrup

Last week I met Ross, a tree tapper, amongst other things. He owns a forest in the Voru region of Estonia, and uses traditional methods to extract the sap from his birch trees to create a delicious birch syrup. At the moment he is the only person in Europe to do this commercially. It is hugely labour intensive, but Ross clearly loves it and the resulting product is worth all the effort involved.

Birch syrup is made in much the same way as maple syrup; rising sap is extracted from the trees in the spring and converted into a syrup using a process of evaporation and reverse osmosis to remove the water. Ross powers his equipment by burning the wood from naturally fallen trees.  He believes the other carbon emissions from his production (transport, bottles etc) is less than that which his forest absorbs, making this a carbon neutral or possibly even carbon negative product.

 

The finished product is unique and delicious.  Depending on when the birch sap is extracted from the trees, the resulting syrup tastes quite different. The early syrup is ideal on pancakes, porridge, or anywhere you might use honey or maple syrup. It is delicate and sweet, with an intriguing woody, caramel, liquorice like flavour.  The syrup extracted later in the season (and by later I only mean a matter of weeks) is used more like a savoury condiment. It has an even greater depth of flavour, is more robust, though still sweet, minerally rather than woody and more savoury than a maple syrup.  Late birch syrup can be used in sauces, dressings and gravies, to flavour home made beer, mixed into gin for a dirty martini or as a substitute for good balsamic. Late birch syrup is almost entirely fructose, giving it a very low glycaemic index. It also contains lots of minerals including calcium, thiamine and magnesium.

It takes around 120 litres of birch sap to create each litre of birch syrup (far far more than with maple syrup which requires only 30-40 litres) and the sap can only be collected for a few weeks each spring, when the birch trees are using sugar to produce new leaves. You can see why this, one of the oldest sources of sugar known to man, is rarely harvested nowadays! Ross only taps his trees every three years and only extracts around 10% of the trees sap each time. This way his forest continues to thrive.  It is coming up to harvest time right now, and Ross is readying himself for a frantic period of tapping. But before he heads back to Estonia, he delivered some birch syrup to Tastes, where it is now on sale. 

Coming Soon! Bacon.

I've been testing out a potential new product for the shop. Bacon. Sounds simple, but in fact, I've been on a Goldilocks style quest for some time. But I think I have found THE ONE. In fact it's an organic smoked Spanish pancetta, very thinly sliced.

Here it is in a salad with broccoli (a Jamie Oliver recipe)

I'm really impressed with it. Lovely flavour, crisps up beautifully, from organically reared happy pigs and not packed with any weird preservatives. Its flavour is so good, that a little bit goes a very long way. I only used two slices in the broccoli salad, which yielded two huge portions and the bacon flavour really came through.

You'll find it for sale in Tastes, soon, but sadly only in Eton. It needs to be kept refrigerated so we won't be selling it in our online shop.

Thai Cooking with Coconut Kitchen

I've been testing out our new range from the wonderful Coconut Kitchen. A selection of sauces based on those used in the Coconut Kitchen restaurant in Abersoch, North Wales.

I started with the Wok fried Pad Thai Noodles recipe from the Pad Thai Sauce bottle. I didn't have any chicken or prawns so used a lot of vegetables (carrots, mushrooms, peppers, sugar snap peas, and sprouted chick peas instead of bean sprouts). I'm pretty sure the flavours would be better if I'd used something to absorb more of the sauce, rather than the al dente vegetables. I did toast the peanuts in the pan before frying the onions, so they were ready to garnish. That is my only tip here! This is the coconut kitchen recipe:

Ingredients, Serves 2:
Rice stick noodles (partly cooked in hot water), vegetable oil, 2 garlic cloves (crushed), 1 chicken breast or 16 king prawns, ½ onion (sliced), 50g  beansprouts, any other vegetables of choice (carrots,
mushrooms, sugar snap peas, broccoli or peppers are good), spring onion, coriander, lime wedges and crushed peanuts to garnish.

To cook:
Fry the garlic and onion in the oil and add the chicken or prawns and vegetables, cook for 2 minutes, add the partly cooked rice noodles. Then add 1 bottle of Coconut Kitchen Pad Thai Sauce, stir fry the noodles in the sauce until fully cooked. Add the beansprouts, serve and garnish with the spring onion, coriander, peanuts and lime.

I made some simple sweetcorn fritters as a starter, mainly because I wanted to try out the dipping sauce!

To make the fritters boil 2 sweetcorn cobs and slice off the kernels. Put half of the kernels along with 1 egg, 1 spring onion, 1 de-seeded red chilli (or more if you like the heat), 30g plain flour (white or wholemeal), and half a teaspoon of baking powder into a blender and puree until fairly smooth. Small lumps are fine. Stir in the rest of the sweetcorn. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large pan and spoon in the batter. I use about 1 tablespoon per fritter. Fry until browned (about 1 minute), flip over and brown the other side. I served them with Coconut Kitchen Sweet Chilli & Garlic Sauce  and chopped avocado and was really pleased with them.

With the abundance of vegetables I used, we had a lot of Pad Thai left over, certainly enough for another two meals. I used the left overs as an accompaniment to baked salmon. The rice noodles didn't really survive the reheat, but the flavour from the Pad Thai was still delicious, possibly better than it had been the night before. Of course, I marinated the salmon in Coconut Kitchen Chilli & Garlic Sauce. And that was wonderful! The chilli sauce is divine. Just the same as you find in good Thai restaurants with the right level of sweetness, and other flavours complimenting the chilli - not just hot and sweet like some can be.

I've been sneaking it into a lot of things. Like the avocado salsa I made to go with some sweetcorn muffins (using up both the half avocado I had left from the weekend's starter and more of the glut of fresh sweetcorn).

Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms

Last week I received a batch of brand new recipe booklets from Olive Branch. The little books contains nine inventive ways to use Olive Branch products (plus a few more ideas on the back cover). Things like Poached Chicken with Lentils and Dill using their olive oil and red wine vinegar. Or Baked Cod with Sundried Tomatoes using sundried tomato mix. There is even a recipe for Sweet Olive and Ice Cream!

On Thursday, just before heading home, and in need of a quick supper for one, I flicked through the booklet and found something perfect:  Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms.
All I needed was:

• Olive Branch's Green & Black Olives with Sundried Tomato, Feta & Greek Basil.
• Some Cheddar cheese (I used Keen's).
• A large flat mushroom.

I had all of that in stock, so collect them up and headed for home.
Within half an hour, I had a delicious light supper ready. I even tweeted about it!
In fact, I liked it so much, that on Monday, in between working on paperwork at home, I made the same dish again for lunch. Still delicious!

Next time you're in Tastes pick up a free booklet from the display on the wall but the steps. You won't be disappointed.

A Hug from a Cup of Tea

After a long day in the shop, an evening building a cheese wedding cake for a really lovely couple, followed by a three hour drive to my weekend, I was certainly ready for bed. In my overnight bag I'd packed a selection of tea bags I fancied trying. And first up was certainly appropriate. Tea Huggers' Good Night Tea. Not only did the soft purple-blue packaging match the colours in my hosts' kitchen, but the tea's on box write-up sounded like just what I needed:

Pop the kettle on – and your slippers. This is a gorgeous, sweet blend of soothing lavender and fruity blueberry flavour on a base of caffeine-free rooibos. Blended with lemon balm and lots of fruity flavours from orange peel, apple and hibiscus petals, it’s the perfect brew to relax your mind and body at the end of a long day.

I'd definitely had a long day, and had driven round the M25, so soothing was certainly in order. I've no idea whether I slept better for having had the tea (it could have been exhaustion), but I certainly enjoyed drinking it. The first thing I noticed was the aroma, lots of delicate flavours and not overpoweringly of lavender which I had thought might be the case. The colour was vibrant. The taste was as good as the smell; intense, not disappointingly wishy washy. It was sweet, yet clean and fresh. If a cup of tea could give a bedtime hug this is how I imagine it would feel!

Next morning, I, appropriately, tried Good Morning. While goodnight is cosy and comforting, good morning is its opposite. Its stronger, earthy and smokey. A really unique blend with a lot going on. It is still well balanced and mellow with no single flavour dominating. It certainly awoke my taste buds.

Four of the tea huggers range of teas are now available at Tastes Delicatessen.

Baking with BakedIn

I baked something new last weekend: cinnamon swirls. As an experiment, I assure you, not because I quite fancied the idea of eating hot cinnamon swirls straight from the oven. And last night (as my twitter followers know) I baked a sticky toffee & date pudding/cake. To share with my customers of course.

It all started with a new range of home baking kits from BakedIn. We started stocking the kits at Tastes a few weeks ago. What appealed to me about the BakedIn products is their suitability to irregular bakers or those you don't bake the same thing repeatedly, but who want to bake from scratch.  These are not cake mixes, they are boxes of pre-measured ingredients. Which I've come to realise is a great idea. Here's why...

To make cinnamon swirls without the BakedIn kit you need strong white flour (approximately £2 for 1.5kg), icing sugar (£1.28 for 500g), dark muscovado sugar (£1.40 for 500g), caster sugar (99p for 500g), cinnamon (£1.99 for 33g), yeast (£1.15 for 125g) and salt along with the egg, butter and milk you need if you do have the kit.  I expect most people will have salt in their kitchen, and maybe one type of sugar. But unless you bake regularly you probably don't have the other ingredients, especially the strong flour and yeast which are mainly used to make bread.  So you'd spend about £7.80 on new ingredients assuming you had caster sugar and salt. Which is more than the kit costs. You would of course have enough ingredients to make multiple batches, so will save money when you make a second batch. But do you want to keep making the same thing, or would you prefer a sticky toffee pudding instead, or some chocolate brownies, or a lemon drizzle cake? In which case you'd need to buy a collection of other ingredients (self raising flour, dates, soft light brown sugar, bicarbonate of soda and vanilla beans for the sticky toffee alone). Then you'd be faced with where to store all the left over ingredients. Not to mention the baking tins.  I bake quite a lot, have a cupboard full of tins, but rarely the right one for the job! And it seems every new recipe requires an ingredient not already in the full-to bursting baking cupboard.

The BakedIn kits contain exactly the right amount of each ingredient. The things you add to the kits are the things most kitchens will have in them anyway for non-baking uses; eggs, butter, milk etc. So not only does it mean you don't need to weigh everything (in fact you don't need scales at all as the kits come with a handy butter measure so even the ingredients you add don't need to be weighed), it also means no spare ingredients to store or waste. They also come with the correct sized baking tins. I've made many sticky toffee puddings in the past, but was surprised by how much quicker it was to make with the BakedIn kit. That time saving came from not having to hunt through over stuffed cupboards to find the ingredients and tin! All I had to do was open one of the small packets right in front of me.

No left over ingredients. No collection of baking tins. No scales. All the ingredients to hand. Pretty much perfect for the erratic baker in a small kitchen.

The added beauty of the kits are they are not a packet mix cake. They don't contain dehydrated dairy products or any weird-sounding ingredients. They require more than adding liquid and mixing. So you are still baking. You can see exactly what ingredients are going into your bake. You carry out all the vital steps such as creaming butter and sugar. You can adapt the recipe to suit your taste, substitute ingredients if you want to (for example using dairy free "butter" and milk to make a dairy free version). They are also perfect for beginners and children.

And the results taste great! These are tried and tested recipes. No risk that you are buying a bunch of ingredients to make a recipe which fails to impress. Most people who have bought these kits in the three weeks since we started stocking them have returned to buy more. The proof really is in the pudding - here's mine:

Black Truffle Potato Crisps / Patatas Fritas Torres (Trufa Negra)

Last week Daniel* came to deliver a new batch of fabulous Puremiel organic honey from Spain. He also had a box of new things to show me, which included Torres Selecta Premium Potato Chips from Barcelona. I tried to say that we didn't need any more crisps. I tried to say we were very happy with Piper's Crisps. I tried to say that I'd find it difficult to justify the price of premium premium crisps.

Daniel simply opened a packet and made me try them. Long story, short, I bought a case! These are no ordinary crisp. Yes, they are thin slices of potato fried in oil. In fact these are exceptionally thin, translucent slices of potato, fried to a bright golden colour. But they are also flavoured with black truffle. In a wonderful way. The flavour is strong, but not unpleasantly so, fills your mouth and dissipates, leaving you wanting another. On their web site they are described as unique and I have to say, I have never tasted a crisp like these. Definitely one for adults. A perfect nibble with drinks, and surely a talking point.

Torres have been making potato crisps since 1969. They have worked with the same potato growers for more than 35 years and seem to have found exactly the right ingredients and technique to make an amazing product.  They even have a recipe on their web site for Fried eggs with Torres Selecta Black Truffle potato chips!

Ingredients:
•1 bag of Torres Selecta Black Truffle potato chips
•2 eggs
•2 slices of chopped Spanish ham
•olive oil, and salt

Preparation:
Put a base of Torres Selecta Black Truffle potato chips on a plate. Put aside 2 eggs. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Once the olive oil is hot, fry the eggs to your liking. When cooked, place the eggs over the potato chips and add the chopped ham on top. Now we can enjoy a quick, simple, and exquisite dish.

*If you have been diligently following my blog for more than 3 years you might remember Daniel did a very similar thing almost exactly 3 years ago!

The Olive Farmers: A Screen Play

Yesterday morning I had an appointment with Natalie Wheen. She had some olive oil for me to try. We chatted, sampled and I decided to stock her olive oil. Before she left, Natalie spotted some customers browsing our selection of olive oils and suggested they try hers! When she had gone those customers came to me and asked "Is she really an olive farmer? Where does she farm?" So I told them the story, that only moments earlier Natalie had told me. A romantic tale of two women entering the unknown and shaking it up a bit, developing something they are intensely proud of and passionate about. A story that would probably make a great screenplay. So, lucky followers, you can read it here first. The Olive Farmer's Story in Five Acts:

It is 1996. Natalie Wheen is an established writer and broadcaster, covering music and the arts with the BBC. She, along with her friend, the painter Deborah MacMillan, who travels the world helping with the production of her late husband's ballets, decide they need a retreat. A place away from the deadlines, demands and pressures of life.

They fall in love with the beautiful island of Lesvos, Greece. And together they buy a picturesque ruin by the sea, on the south of the island.

As is often the case, it isn't plain sailing. The restoration isn't easy, and they have to buy further land in order to complete it. Costs spiral. But all good plots need a twist.

The land Natalie and Deborah own is packed with olive trees. Lots and lots of mature olive trees. So the plot shifts, and the two women find that instead of quietly writing and painting in their island home, they have become olive farmers. They research. They learn. They are frequently horrified. They study. They make the decision to go organic. They are strict. They ensure their team treat the olives with respect. They shun the approaches which favour quantity over quality. They persevere. They find there is only a three week window between their mountain olives being ripe and the snow making harvest impossible. They stick to their principles. They overcome obstacles. It takes time. But it works.

Natalie and Deborah create two single estate organic extra virgin olive oils. One from olives grown 500-600m above sea level on a rugged, romantic, limestone and marble mountainside, covered in wildflowers and watered by melting winter snow. The other from olives grown on the richer, sheltered soil at sea level. Each is unique. Both are delicious. By 2013 they are winning awards, and their oils are sold at fine food retailers such as Tastes Delicatessen. Surely that would make a fantastic final scene! ;) 

For those wanting to sample the oil do pop into Tastes. The olives are all hand picked in December when they are the perfect mix of green, pink and black. The olives are milled immediately upon picking and the resulting oil is bottled as soon as possible to preserve its unique characteristics. It is unfiltered and unadulterated. The oil has a light consistency and golden colour. Each bottle has the required best before date, but also the more informative harvest date. The oils are top quality "finishing oils" perfect for lightly steamed summer vegetables, salads, chilled soups, fish, dipping bread, pasta etc.

The oil from the mountainside Agatheri Grove is subtle, delicate and smooth with long and complex flavour. It is perfect for use with fine salads, steamed vegetables and baked fish dishes. The oil from the lower Avlaki Grove is more robust, with a grassy and fruity flavour and buttery finish. It is brilliant with Mediterranean foods such as sliced tomatoes, ratatouille, roasted vegetables or pasta and soups.

New Postal Calculator

What a long day. Its been a long time since I have sat still for so long and I'm exhausted!

Today was the day I set aside to add the hundred or so new products we've taken on since I last added to our online shop. For months now our online shoppers have been missing out on some fabulous new lines. And today I planned to remedy that. But first things first, I needed to fix the postage costs. As a consumer I always resented the high postage charges incurred with relatively small online purchases. So when I set up the online deli I weighed every single item for sale so that the web site could estimate how much it really would cost to post something and charge the customers that price. It is not 100% accurate. Once packaged some combinations of products weigh less than expected, some more. The model I use to estimate the weight of the packaging is regularly tweaked and I keep a record of the packed and unpacked weight of every parcel I send so I can use the data to create better models in the future.

The postage calculator was working nicely, until this month, when Royal Mail dramatically changed their pricing structure.  Not only does weight effet the price, but size as well, and the standard parcel service no longer exists. Even the post office staff aren't quite sure how the new system works.  I sent the same item on two different days, one day it was a "Medium Parcel" another it was a "Small Parcel" (as even though it was too tall for the measuring slot it got a special exception!).  I carried on charging my old prices for a while whilst I worked it all out. But it needed to be changed. I was charging £2.20 for second class post for items which now cost me £5.20 to send! And so came about today's little project.

Sadly it wasn't so little. Involving weighing, and measuring, and a few formula. I felt like I was back at school attempting some huge homework project! Our online shop now offers ELEVEN different postage services (if you include "collect from shop").

• Royal Mail First Class Standard "Small Parcel" (only available for small items costing less than £20) and Royal Mail First Class Confirmed "Small Parcel" (aka Signed For) (only available for small items costing more than £20)
• Royal Mail First Class Standard "Medium Parcel" (only available for items costing less than £20) and Royal Mail First Class Confirmed "Medium Parcel" (aka Signed For) (only available for items costing more than £20)
• Royal Mail Second Class Standard "Small Parcel" (only available for small items costing less than £20) and Royal Mail Second Class Confirmed "Small Parcel" (aka Signed For) (only available for small items costing more than £20)
• Royal Mail Second Class Standard "Medium Parcel" (only available for items costing less than £20) and Royal Mail Second Class Confirmed "Medium Parcel" (aka Signed For) (only available for items costing more than £20)
• Royal Mail Special Delivery next day.

I did add the Special Delivery 9am service as well, but removed that when I saw how many exceptions there were and how long my description would need to be to explain it all. We will still offer the service, but customers will need to contact us first to check their area is covered. I hope that is less off-putting than the list of postcodes where the service isn't available.

The Royal Mail services are now quite a lot more expensive for the sort of parcels we send a lot of. Our most commonly used service was the (less than 2kg) Standard Parcel at £5.30. The closest equivalent service is now £9.10. So I've also added an economical courier service, collect+. I anticipated this might be necessary and have been offering the service to those who ordered by telephone over the past few months. We've not experienced any problems.

Needless to say it has been a lengthy process. I'm already aware of products which won't be in the right shipping category.  Royal Mail will class up to six packs of spring roll wrappers as a "small parcel", but my model will class two or more as a "medium parcel" and some teabags which the model says are a "small parcel" but will actually be a "medium parcel".  I'll take a hit on the tea bags and am working on a discount code built into bulk purchases of spring roll wraps to compensate for the postage cost.

But seeing as I have spent an entire sunny day tapping away at my computer, have not added a single new product to the online deli , I think it might be time to call it a day. If anyone out there wants to buy any of the wonderful new products you've seen on our facebook page, but can't find in the online shop, please just email me!

Old Nick's Got a New Friend

We've been selling St. John & Dolly Smith's "Old Nick" Scotch Bonnet Sauce for nearly two years. It's popular. People come back for it time and time again. It's hot, but with a really good flavour as well. Some time ago Chris (who makes the sauce) gave me a bottle of his new sweet and hot sauce to try. I'm not sure when it was, or what was going on, but I have to admit that I forgot all about it. Sorry Chris! I did however, find the bottle just before Christmas and took it home to try.

We used it a lot. It seemed to work with everything. Made with Birds Eye chillies it is sweet, but with a serious kick. It made a fantastic dipping sauce and marinade. Stirred into Jay's homemade hummus gave an "unusual" flavour, which was surprisingly moorish. We always finished the spicy hummus before the plain. And so now Sweet and Hot has appeared on the shelves here at Tastes Delicatessen.

Irresistible Ildiko

A week ago @IldikosChocolat started following me (@TastesDeli) on twitter.

Ildiko had started her own chocolate company (Ildiko's Chocolate) in Walton-on-Thames just before Christmas and was looking for local outlets. This week, I met Ildiko and her husband Tamas. I saw, and sampled, their chocolates and was well and truly hooked.

Ildiko makes slabs of the finest Belgium Chocolate, beautifully decorated with fruits, nuts and flowers. These really are stunning. No topping has been thrown or dolloped here. Each item is delicately positioned and the result is chocolate art! But not only do they look too pretty to eat, but the tastes are fantastic. Unusual flavour combinations which work really well; milk chocolate with coconut chips and crystallised violet petals; dark chocolate with raspberries, pistachios and pink peppercorns; white chocolate with freeze dried cherries and rose petals....

It's two weeks before Easter, so the shop is not exactly short of chocolate, but these really were impossible to resist. I hope my customers feel the same! These mini bars are in stock now: £1.99 each.

Coffee Break!

Last week I met Edward Grace, from the new Beanberry Coffee Company. He eulogised about coffee; was passionate, knowledgeable and fascinating. So impressed was I with Edward, and his coffee, that this week I have started stocking the coffee Edward sources and roasts.

The Beanberry Coffee Company source organic arabica coffee from around the world. This is roasted in a traditional small batch drum roaster using Edward's skill and scientific knowledge to adjust the roast to suit the beans, resulting in coffee which captures the unique aromas and flavours.

All of the Beanberry coffees are organic, grown naturally in the shade of taller trees which offer protection and homes for migrating birds (who in turn see to the pests). The organic ecosystem works well and makes it economically viable for small growers to produce coffee.

What excites me most about the Beanberry Coffee is the freshness. Edward roasts to order to ensure the coffee I receive is at its very best. So insistent is Edward that the coffee must be fresh, that it won't be kept on the shelves here for more than a few weeks. To further ensure this freshness, the coffee is only available as whole beans. Apparently it takes only 15 minutes from grinding, for the flavour of the coffee to deteriorate. So we are also selling grinders! Edward has recommended a ceramic burr coffee grinder. A small but powerful hand grinder which will allow you to easily and cleanly grind up the beans whilst the kettle is boiling.

And because the coffees are so good, and need to be brewed with the respect they deserve, I'm also selling manual drippers. Have I gotten a little carried away? These ceramic devices fit on top of your coffee cup and allow you to add water to the ground coffee beans, but rather than then pressing the grinds and pouring the coffee like a French press, the coffee drips through the filter into the cup below.

The range of coffee we carry will vary throughout the year, with Edward supplying beans from whichever regions are at their very best at the time. We are starting with these four:

Finca Valentin Coffee Beans – light to medium roast, sweet almonds and figs with a touch of spice and syrupy mouthfeel.

Grower, Valentín Choquehuanca is a three-time Cup of Excellence finalist, who bought his farm in the small village of Loayza in Caranavi province of La Paz department in Bolivia in 1990. The ten hectares of land were already planted out with two hectares of coffee, to which Valentín added a further hectare of Caturra trees. The farm extends over steep, fertile hillside in Caranavi region, north-east of La Paz, and is also planted with lime and mandarin trees.

Valentín works the farm with the help of his wife and, during the school holidays, their two children - Soledad and Kevin. Some 10,000 coffee trees grow in the shade of indigenous ‘Inga’ trees.

Harvest on the farm runs from June until September, when the ripe cherries are picked by hand. The coffee is fully washed at a local processing centre, and machine-dried until it reaches 12% humidity. It is then hand picked once again to remove any defects.

San Antonio Coffee Beans - light to medium roast, buttery with dark chocolate and mild orange citrus notes.

Finca San Antonio lies near Municipality of Villa Canales in the mountains of Central Guatemala. Coffee is planted out over 91.5 hectares - much of which is steep, mountainous terrain, meaning all work is carried out on the farm by hand.

The coffee grows in the shade of a diverse mix of native trees. Finca San Antonio has been organic certified since 1992. The farm produces its own organic fertilisers using vermiculture (worm farms) and left-over coffee pulp, leaves, remnants from pruning, cow dung etc. Finca San Antonio also operates its own organic weed control - based on a combination of shade cover, good plant density, weeding by hand and thick ground coverage with organic mulch.

San Antonio is haven for native flora and fauna, and is an excellent spot for bird watching thanks to its extensive natural forest and non-invasive organic farming practices.

All of the farm's permanent workers are provided with housing - equipped with drinking water, electricity and modern bathrooms. San Antonio also runs a school for its employees' children.

The main harvest on the farm runs from November until February. The coffee is picked by hand when it is fully ripe, pulped on the same day, fermented and fully washed. The wet parchment coffee is then moved to the farm's extensive patios where it dries in the sun until it reaches the optimum humidity level. All of the waste water from the wet mill is treated at the farm's three oxidation lakes, in order to keep its water courses free from pollution.

Sidamo Coffee Beans - medium roast, clean and sweet with subtle roasty notes, a hint of brioche and a bright lemon acidity.

Sidamo covers a large area in south western Ethiopia spreading through the fertile highlands south from Lake Awasa in the Rift Valley. Sidamo region is made of over twenty different administrative areas known as 'woredas' that are scattered over its territory at varying altitudes ranging from 1550 to 2200 metres above sea level. Each woreda has its own unique micro-climate resulting in a variety of grades and cup profiles of grown coffee.

Most of the growers are small farmers, organised in fifty or so cooperatives. For the farmers, coffee is the main source of income, usually covering from half to one and a half hectares. Coffee is usually planted alongside a second cash crop – usually enset plants, a large-leafed tree, which provides shade for coffee plants. Enset tree looks like a banana plant but it is not – instead, its thick stem is used to produce a nutritious flour and a fermented paste that are staple ingredients across southern Ethiopia.

This coffee comes from Kersha Inshe cooperative that is one of the members of Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union. This coffee is Fairtrade Organic certified.

Yirgacheffe Coffee Beans - light to medium roast, tea like body with floral jasmine notes, a touch of apricot jam and milk chocolate in the aftertaste.

Yirgacheffe is one of the most prized Ethiopian coffees. Yirga Cheffe region is a lush, deep soiled area of high rolling hills in south western Ethiopia. Altitudes range from 1770 to 2200 metres above sea level. Coffee, grown in Yirga Cheffe, is famous for its extravagant, almost perfumed aromatics. Tracing the exact origin of Yirgacheffe coffees can be difficult, as it is what Ethiopians refer to as “garden coffee”, grown on small plots by villagers, often organised in tiny co-ops, using centuries old traditional methods. This coffee is sourced from Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union (OCFCU), which represents some 217 cooperatives with over 200,000 members. OCFCU aims to help small holder coffee farmers to take advantage of the Fair Trade market. OCFCU returns 70% of its net profit back to the cooperatives, and cooperatives back to their members. This coffee is Fairtrade Organic certified.

New Stock AND Special Offer

Calista Mediterranean Vegetables are a new range of delicious sun ripened vegetables blended with tasty herbs and spices all sourced in the Mediterranean region. They make fantastic additions to any summer salad, as a pre-dinner snack/starter, or nibble with drinks. Many can also be used as a base for soups and casseroles.

We are now stocking:

Tricolore - A delicious selection of roasted aubergines & peppers full of Mediterranean flavours & colour.

Cheesy Mushrooms - Filled with a soft cheese these mushrooms can be used as an accompaniment to cold meats & barbecues or as a succulent starter.

Aubergine in Adjika - A strong, spicy salsa sauce similar to pesto used as a base for a range of warm dishes. Mix with minced beef or spread on pork or chicken or simply use your imagination.

Mixed Cheesy Assorti - A selection of delicious vegetables stuffed with soft cheese, perfect as an appetiser, with salad or for adding colour & variety to cold or barbecued meat.

Aubergine Medley - Aubergine with sweet peppers & tomato. Use as a base for a range of dishes & casseroles or simply as a vegetable accompaniment for hot or cold meats.

Throughout August (while stocks last) we have a special offer - buy any three for £12 (Usual price £4.95 each). They aren't on the web site yet, but you can order them via the form on our site and still take advantage of the offer.