More thoughts on the horse meat scandal

Nearly a month ago when the horse meat scandal first broke I wrote on this blog about my friend Bill the butcher at Dunston Park Farm and the importance of finding out where your meat comes from (original post here). But the issue shows no signs of abating - in fact quite the opposite - so I think it's worth revisiting. Because if ever you needed a reason to start shopping local, this is it!

This weekend the Environment Secretary warned consumers to prepare for more cases of contaminated meat, as the results of more tests by the Food Standards Agency are due out on Friday. Already they've found horse meat in supermarket burgers and one ready meal brand has taken its frozen beef lasagnes off the shelves after some were found to contain 100% horse meat.

As a consumer I think the biggest question is WHY these companies do not know what meat is going into their products. Surely it is their responsibility to know? And if they don't know that they're flogging horse meat burgers and lasagnes, then what else don't they know about the food that is on our shelves? Just what else are they feeding us?

Some commentators are asking what the difference is between eating a horse and eating a cow. It's a fair point - both are mammals and both are capable of feeling great pain and distress. As a vegetarian I would urge people not to eat either!

My lovely horse. Do you really want him turning up in a lasagne?

But as a horse lover and horse owner, the unregulated appearance of equines in our food is of grave concern because the horse meat trade in Europe is nowhere near as well policed as our own British farming and slaughter practices, and these highly sensitive animals are subject to great levels of suffering. 

The World Horse Welfare charity claims that the majority of horses destined for human consumption are sourced from Eastern Europe, with many travelling "for days on end over thousands of miles with little food, water or rest, enduring terrible conditions, pain, injury, dehydration and disease". An investigation by the charity in 2010-11 found that 85% of horses destined for slaughter had at least one acute injury.

Do you really want to eat these animals? 

Up until now a mixture of clever packaging and advertising has allowed the average shopper to become largely detached from the fact that meat was once part of another living being. Meat can be bought already skinned and boned, wrapped in breadcrumbs or even already part of a cooked dish. All you have to do in some cases is bung it in the microwave. So there's been no need to think about where it's come from and I reckon a lot of consumers have buried their heads in the sand simply because they like the taste of drumsticks or lasagne.

Now the blinkers are off, hopefully our attitude to meat will change.

If you really want to know where your meat comes from, what it contains and what you're putting into your body or feeding to your children, you need to befriend a local butcher. Yes the shop can appear unsavoury, with slabs of flesh on display behind the counter, but that's what meat is. Get over it and start asking questions. You'll enjoy it a lot more when you know your sausages contain 100% pork products made from pigs that have led a good life at a local farm.

And learn to cook. You don't need to run the risk of eating ready meals with all their mystery ingredients. Dishes like lasagne and cottage pie are really very easy to put together and can be portioned up and frozen for those mid-week nights.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if this scandal turned out to be the final straw that made the British public reconnect with their food?

Have I got some chocolatey thoughts for you...

I guess by now it must be pretty obvious that I'm a bit of a foodie, and once I've climbed out of my bath of cheesy mashed potato the next thing to get my heart racing has got to be chocolate. In fact, I can't believe it's taken me six weeks of blogging to get around to writing about it.

I don't discriminate, I love the humble cocoa bean in all its forms and I can enjoy a bar of Cadbury's as much as the next person, but ever since reading about Willy Wonka's chocolate factory as a child I've been aware that there really is so much more to chocolate than just a popular brand of milk.

In my opinion you can't really call yourself a true chocolate connasseur if your idea of heaven is a chunk of Galaxy Caramel. Come on come on - you need to put some effort in! And this is where supermarket-free shopping comes into its own, because the confectionary aisles in Asda, Tesco and chums tend only to be stocked by the mass produced big-name brands. If you really want to experience the best in chocolately wonderfulness, you need to follow the example set by the umpa lumpa's (they may have been irritating with all that "doopity doo" nonsense but they knew how to get their little orange hands on good chocolate) and find yourself a chocolatier.

Chocolate Bar on Ecclesall Road

When I need a hit of something stronger and more refined than Cadbury's Buttons I head to a place called the Chocolate Bar in Sheffield. It may look small and unassuming from the outside,  but stepping inside is like entering a glittering paradise of chocolate and sweets. Every bit of space inside this shop, every wall and shelf, is piled high with chocolate. There are well-known brands, unusual varieties and some combinations you've never heard of before. 

And my goodness me, all this is before you even reach the counter, where behind a glass pane is the most incredible display of beautiful handmade chocolates that  ever was seen. There are tiny milk chocolate figurines, marbled chocolate pyramids, chocolate cups, fondants, soft centres and dark delights, all beautifully finished with little details like sugar hearts. For a few pounds you can have a box made up to order with your choice of chocolates - making a wonderful personalised gift. And then behind the counter jars of traditional boiled sweets are stacked from floor to ceiling in what must be every schoolboy's dream.

The view inside Chocolate Bar

Chocolate Bar is a family business and for 29 years it has been owned and run by a lady called Christine and her daughter Fiona. 

I popped in yesterday to grab a few gifts for friends and got chatting to Fiona about my challenge to avoid the supermarkets for a year and about why it's so important to support local shops.

Fiona explained that the supermarkets only tend to stock chocolates that they know they can "shift fast" whereas at Chocolate Bar the emphasis is on variety and offering something a little bit unusual and special. 

For example, both the supermarkets and Chocolate Bar sell Swiss brand Lindt. But while the supermarkets tend to only stock the most popular varieties of milk and dark, in Chocolate Bar you can find types of Lindt that I've never seen before, such as cherry and pistachio. 

And as well as importing some unusual varieties from Europe, Christine and Fiona are also very keen to support small British chocolate makers. They've recently introduced a display of Maxwells chocolate bars, which Fiona tells me are made by a man originally from Sheffield (as you've probably guessed by now I love anything from Yorkshire!) who has set up a chocolate factory in Essex. 

Like Willy Wonka before him, this chap specialises in weird and wonderful combinations, including strawberries and cream, toffee apple, and caramel and sea salt. And my god they're GOOD. For the last couple of months I've been unable to visit the Chocolate Bar without coming away with at least one bar of Maxwells and they're packaged so prettily that they make lovely little presents, so I'm getting my family and friends hooked now too.

My mum and I enjoy a girly weekend away once a year and we always take some posh chocolate to enjoy in our hotel room. On our last trip I opened a bar of Maxwells and handed it over to mum, supposing of course that she was going to break off a few squares and hand it back. 

Five minutes later I asked if I could possible have a bit of chocolate. Her head whipped round and she looked at me with a mixture of surprise and guilt.

"Oh. I ate it," she said.
"What, all of it?" I replied.
"Erm. Yes."
"Oh"
"Did you want a bit?"
"Well... yeah..."
"Oh. Sorry. But thanks, it was very nice."

So that's the Maxwells effect! And you certainly can't find it in the confectionary aisles of the supermarket.

Yesterday I came away from Chocolate Bar with three bars of Maxwells (milk with blueberry, dark with raspberry, and apple and cinnamon crumble), a little box with a selection of handmade chocolates for a friend and a Lindt  teddy bear for my grandma.

Now that's dedication to chocolate!

Yesterday's purchases from Chocolate Bar

Campaigning for balls

I’m mounting a campaign to bring more balls into our household, and as you can imagine Neil is resisting this idea strongly.

But before you fall to thinking that I’m considering bigamy (frankly one man is enough trouble thank you very much!), I’d like to point out that the balls I’m hankering after would actually be a lot more useful. I want a set of Ecoballs.

For those not in the know, Ecoballs, made by a company called Ecozone, are an environmentally-friendly alternative to laundry liquid or powder.

They are literally three little balls with a cushioned outer rim (a bit like mini Saturns) that you place into your washing machine along with your clothes.They work by ionising the water and one set, which usually retails for under £20, lasts for 1,000 washes.

Unfortunately my other half Neil is very much a product of our society and years of being brainwashed (pun intended!) by adverts for branded washing powders have led him to believe that you need chemicals to get clean.

I used to have a set of Ecoballs when we first met, but I retired them and eventually threw them out after we moved in together because his dislike was so strong. He remains determined that they don’t clean properly, despite the fact that I was washing with them when he met me and clearly I can’t have been that grubby otherwise I wouldn’t have got a second date!

But I’d like to offer up the following evidence that Ecoballs do the job:

This is my horse Bandit....


"Hello world!"



And Bandit likes to do this.... a lot....

"Mmmmmmmmm mud!"

After Bandit has done this, his rugs and boots have to go into our washing machine. And up until Neil got involved, Ecoballs were responsible for getting them clean.

But with the Ecoballs debate still raging and no sign of Neil giving in, I have had to resort to other measures. We ran out of washing tablets over a week ago and obviously nipping into a supermarket to grab a new box was out of the question.

I have Faith in Nature

Instead I decided to try to find a greener option and once again ended up in Soundbites - Derby’s wholefood shop. I’m such a regular in there now that the staff all know me and I really ought to do a proper blog on all the wonderful things you can find in the shop at some point soon.

But in the meantime, I came away yesterday lunchtime clutching a bottle of Faith in Nature laundry liquid, which was just over £4 for 30 washes. According to the firm’s website, the liquid is derived from plant materials and contains organic aloe vera, which makes it gentle on the skin. It is also free from phosphates, parabens and optical whiteners.

I’m not quite sure what an optical whitener is when it’s at home, but it does sound a bit sinister.

Faith in Nature has apparently won a ‘Golden Bunny’ award from the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection for its cruelty free products and is also approved by ‘Love Your Lakes’ - an organisation that encourages businesses and residents in the Lake District National Park to switch to phosphate-free laundry and dishwashing products in order to help minimise their environmental impact on the water quality.

Neil looked decidedly dubious when I showed him the bottle last night and has vowed not to use it if it “doesn’t clean properly”. However I immediately tested it on a set of Bandit’s muddy white boots and they came up as white as with any of our usual washing powders.

So perhaps Neil will come around to the idea of using fewer chemicals and who knows... one day I may even persuade him to get a set of balls....

RECIPE: Potato dauphinoise

The Irish know what they're talking about when it comes to the humble spud. The potato is god's food and I seriously think that, along with chocolate and cheese, a world without spuds would be a world not worth living in.


Personally I can think of few things better than mash. I'm such a fan of creamy, scrummy mashed potato that I could even bathe in it. Oooooooh just think of filling a bath with lovely soft buttery mash and diving straight in! Jacket spuds come a close second (with a big slice of butter of course), followed by roasties, big chunky pub chips and Neil's special potato hedgehogs (I'll pop that recipe on here another day).





But last night Head Chef Neil cooked up a dish to rival even his best mash - cheesy potato dauphinoise, using the lovely ingredients we bought on Sunday from Highfield House Farm Shop and spuds from Banana Bob's veggie box. Here's the recipe....


INGREDIENTS: (serves four)

600g large white potatoes
500ml whole milk
15g unsalted butter
110ml double cream
50g mature cheddar cheese, grated (or more if you like it really cheesy)
1 garlic clove
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Salt, pepper and Hendos Relish (optional) to taste

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 190C. Peel and thinly slice the potatoes and put them in a pan with the milk, nutmeg, seasoning and half the butter. Bring to the boil, stir and cook for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender but not breaking up. 

Mix together half of the cream with half of the potatoes and stir into the mixture.

Grease a baking dish with the butter and garlic (rub the garlic into the butter in the dish) and pour the potatoes in. Then pour over the rest of the cream and sprinkle the remaining cheese on top. Bake for about an hour, or until the cheese goes crispy on top. 

You can serve this hot from this dish or wait for it to cool and set, and then cut it into portions. These can then be re-heated in a hot oven for five minutes before serving.

Are supermarkets really a recipe for success?

As you know, Head Chef Neil is something of a wizz in the kitchen, so it'll come as no surprise when I tell you that he's also a big fan of cookery programmes. 

From the Hairy Bikers to Masterchef, Heston Blumenthal and Hugh Fearny-Whats-His Face, Neil loves a bit of food porn. But as we sat down to watch The Great British Menu last night (zany Tony for the win, by the way) I fell to wondering whether all these TV chefs might have something to answer for when it comes to the nation's shopping habits.

After all, when you're sat watching Something For The Weekend or The Great British Bake Off and decide you want to have a go at recreating a recipe, how often do you find you've got all the ingredients in your larder? 

It's all too easy to assume that those most reliant on the supermarkets are busy parents or people who work long hours and don't have the time or inclination to cook a meal from scratch or go to their local shops. We are the turkey twizzler generation after all. But I reckon the aisles must also be populated by a large number of would-be-chefs trying to hunt down a list of unusual ingredients to recreate a recipe.

My other half is a big fan of using the "right" ingredients. If, for example, a recipe calls for shallots, he will cheerfully head out to the shops to buy some despite the fact that we usually have several white onions in stock that could be used as a substitute.

So with the growing fashion for unusual and exotic recipes (that of course tend to contain unusual ingredients) are we growing to rely more heavily on the big supermarkets which tend to be the only places you can easily find out-of-season or exotic produce?

We've also recently been watching the Mary Berry Story. For the uninitiated, Mary is one of the judges on The Great British Bake Off and at the grand old age of 77 she has written more than 70 cookbooks and starred in a huge number of TV shows. What has been fascinating about the  current BBC2 programme charting her success is how food fashions have changed over the years. When Mary first began her career it was all about teaching housewives and cooks how to make delicious dinners out of whatever you happened to have in the kitchen, making food stretch further and using up every last bit of whatever ingredients you had.

Oh how times have changed.

If we really want to make the most out of our local greengrocers, butchers and farm shops then we need to become more adapt at making meals from seasonal produce and adapting recipes to fit in with what they have in stock - rather than trotting off to Tesco to find yet another exotic spice that will no doubt only be used once and then sit in the store cupboard gathering dust.

We're certainly starting to get our heads around this idea now. On Monday we used lemon Wensleydale in a recipe that called for feta, with great success. So lets all take a leaf out of Heston's book and get creative in the kitchen... rather than rigidly sticking to recipes and being slaves to the supermarket shelves....