Bloggy Break

Hey Folks. No big blog today as I'm at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge where my Nephew has been admitted after getting knocked off his bike on the way to school.

Just keeping out the way a the moment, don't want to get his room too crowded incase they need to get to him quickly so time for a brief check in with social network HQ.

Also want to highlight how important it is for people to wear a helmet when on their pushbikes. My nephew wasn't and although he's got some head injuries and few broken ribs that'll take time to heal this situation could easily have been a tragedy and not just a horrible accident.

When he comes round he'll be chuffed to bits that he got to ride in a Helicopter......not so chuffed of course that he won't have remembered a thing!!

Hark at me.....

Blimey I almost forgot to Blog today. Shame on me !!

So anyway yesterday I got myself fully pumpkin'd up, got four of them to experiment with. They are on the small side but that is fine for the time being.

I've decided on three things that I'm going to make for the cookery demonstration.

The first will be a Soup, the second some mini pasties and the third will be a cheesecake.

For the soup I'm going to first roast the Pumpkin to intensify the flavour and I'll do that with some whole Garlic Cloves and some Rosemary plucked straight from the garden. I'll then Purée all this down with some Vegetable stock, add a swirl of Créme Fraiche and top with a few Almond flakes. I really think the marriage of these flavours will work brilliantly.

For the Pasties I'm going to mix the Pumpkin with minced Pork and give it a nice curried flavour using Cinnamon, Ginger, Chilli and of course Curry Powder.

I may also add some Peas into this to add some freshness and texture then I'll wrap this mixture into some light puff pastry. I actually think these will work better as big pasties rather than bite size ones but seeing as it's a demonstration and people will want to try them then small ones are the way ahead.

The Cheesecake will be normal kind of cheesecake affair with the biscuit base but I'm going to mix in Lime Zest with the base because this sharpness of the Lime should go really well with the sweetness of the Pumpkin. I think this could be a revelation if I can get the cheesecake filling to be super light.

All in all I think these are very nice dishes to do and should be very easy for people to recreate at home once they've seen the demo.

Having never used Pumpkin before I think it'll take some practice and I'll probably be sick of the sight of them by the 30th September when the demo takes place.

Midweek ramble

Can it be Wednesday already? Time flies when you're having fun I guess.

This morning, under my new healthy eating regime, I decided that I would pop to the supermarket and get myself some Granola.

I first fell for Granola when I was over the pond in L.A. I was out there with work and staying at the rather splendid Sheraton Universal in the Hollywood suburb of Universal City.

The buffet breakfast included just plain Granola which I had with just plain Yoghurt and it was a revelation, I made a point of urging myself to locate this in the UK when I got back and have it every morning.

However...............Can I find just plain Granola anywhere ?!?! NO

It's either boxed up with Banana Flakes, Macadamia Nuts, Almonds or various dried fruits such a Strawberries, Raisins, Mango, Papaya etc etc all of course which vastly boost the sugar content. I'm guessing the have to do this because I should imagine that Granola on it's own is pretty bloomin worthless so by adding these "Exotic" ingredients they can get away with selling an Eggcup full for about £70.00 !!

Well anyway I found a compromise. I'm really not a fan at all of dried fruit so I thought that just Granola with mixed nuts would be fine.

So I pick up the environmentally friendly plastic pouch and look at the brightly coloured, fairtrade and organic labelling that's already making me feel like some kind of new age hippy that goes jogging in public places then I turn it over to read the label of it's nutritional content and what do I see..............?

28g of Fat per 100g !!! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat !!

Also on the back of the label it tells you that not only does it contains these nuts it's also packed fully of nice sugary syrup, this snippet of info the decided to leave off the front packaging.

Absolutely disgraceful. So I went for good old reliable Weetabix with it's not so scale tipping 2g of Fat per 100g

Post 2

So I've been asked to do a cookery demonstration for a local community project that involves people growing their own produce and sharing it around. Such a wonderful thing really and gets children involved too which can only be a good thing at a time when everything comes pre-packed and in a uniform shape.

Please if you can take time just to have a look at the wonderful things they do - Food4families

The next thing I have to do is think of what to cook !!

They would like me to do something with Pumpkins seeing as they are in season and their general use involves them being scraped out, given scary faces and filled with candles for a Jack'o'Lantern.

Well there is quite obviously so much more to them and given that I have an hour of demonstration time I think I might do a few dishes, maybe a Starter, Main Course and Dessert.....you can certainly do that with a Pumpkin because they are such wonderful and versatile things.

The only details I have on the event so far is that it'll be held on Thursday the 30th September in a marquee in a big field in Reading, Berkshire where lots of people will be having a picnic :-)

I'm thinking perhaps these dishes -

Roasted Garlic and Pumpkin Soup
Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Butter
Pumpkin Curry
Pumpkin Pie
Spicy Pumpkin Mini Pasties

Oooooh anybody else got some ideas?

Changes....

I've awoken this morning with a strange feeling!!

I'm concerned buy the lack of movement on the pub front and also by my ever expanding waistline.

For the second concern I'm going to make an effort to eat a bit more healthier to start with and then I might start considering some form of exercise but of course nothing too vigorous because as my right knee showed me just a few weeks ago I'm not really of an age to start considering half marathons.

For the Pub I'll send a message over today asking if any progress has been made and if I don't hear anything back by the beginning of next week then I will consider that the end of the road for this project and I'll start looking at new ones. Infact I may even shelve it altogether unless there are opportunities abroad.

Definitely packing in the DJ'ing in early 2011. Until then I'm just going to do the regular work I get from it to fund my trip to Australia in March then I'll be focussing fully on all things Foody. Glad I made that decision.

Also glad that I bought some rather delicious looking Cod loins yesterday that I have salted and set aside in the fridge ready for cooking tonight. Was going to do it with Chorizo and Butter Beans as seen on TV by Glynn Purnell but given my new found zest for healthiness I might have to adjust that to make it a little leaner.

Bit disappointed that I couldn't find any cheaper, more sustainable but equally as tasty fish in Waitrose such as Pouting or Pollock but the label at the counter did say it was line caught which does suggest that some level of sustainability is enforced.

Everybody should look for this when buying Fish because low Fish stocks not only drive up the price of the produce but it also means that species are not allowed to thrive which has devastating effects on all sea life.

Next time you buy Fish look at the label of ask the Fishmonger about the catching methods and sustainability of their produce and be prepared to pay a little extra for the good stuff. Those extra pennies will reward you with better flavour which is what it's all about.

Have a great day folks :-)

Catch up....

Well what a complete non event that weekend was !!

Friday was desperately disappointing for me in some ways but extraordinarily good in others. Was great to see some old friends out as well as some new and it was good that there was a fantastic party atmosphere down at the club to compliment all the effort JP & Martin made to put it on.

Disappointing in other ways, firstly not being able to concentrate fully or even get to my tunes due to......how can I put this nicely?....Overcrowding in the booth !! Blatantly asking people to get out the way and leave even with hand gestures and just being ignored and bumped all the time is not conducive to good floorfilling I'm afraid.

Perhaps I should have just risen above it or perhaps I should just chuck it in and get away from all these wannabe superstars.

Secondly, Brandon Block not turning up. OK you kind of expect it at times, especially when it's his last port of call for the night. He was probably about £2k up by the time he even thought about getting up to Reading and to be honest by the time he was supposed to be there it was thinning out anyway.

Thirdly and perhaps most disappointing was being asked by some girl if I was indeed Brandon Block !!! As much as I love the fella and as much as I know I'm never going to able to enter any Brad Pitt look a like competitions I'd like to think that there is absolutely no comparison in looks between myself and Mr Block. If there is then I'm saving for a surgeon :-)

The rest of the weekend was just pure rest and relaxation. Yes I had a bad hangover but I'm also still suffering a bit with the cough which seems to be relenting, oh and by the way I'm sorry if I gave anybody germs on Friday, I was trying to suppress any coughing but a certain Richard Sloman kept making me laugh which just made it worse.

So anyway I do feel a rather chipper this morning and already thinking about what to have for dinner....must be back on form.

I'm thinking something fishy.

Did my usual cookery program catch up over the weekend and there seemed to be plenty of fishy things being cooked up. Both Kenny Atkinson and Glynn Purnell (Whom incidental is one of my absolute favourite of the new breed of Chefs, he's such s breath of fresh air and his food is just like him, quirky, fun and even humorous) both made fish dishes on Saturday kitchen. Rick Stein also made a wonderful looking Salmon curry and Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall was making all kinds of things with a plethora of fish on his River Cottage gone Fishing program.

I think I'm going to follow Glynn Purnell though and try to use some salted fish. I'm thinking that just a simple pan fry with some seasonal veg and a nice buttery sauce with capers would be nice.

Mind you thinking about it it does take 24hrs for the salting process to work.........Bangers and Mash it is tonight then :-)

Workin.....

Dagnammit I think these antibiotics are taking effect !! Certainly not as coughy as I have been the last few weeks and an pretty good nights sleep. Having said that I'm probably going to completely ruin it tonight by smoking about 5000 cigarettes and drinking copious amounts of beer for tonight is Brandon Block night :-)

I'm a bit sceptical about tonight actually. I really hope it goes well for the promoters but with so many people nipping over to the Isle of Wight for Bestival I'm doubtful as to whether it'll get a great turnout. Not that it'd matter one jot on the night because we're definitely going to have a good time :-)

So if you're at a lose end and fancy a boogie then please do pop down to The Venue in Reading and join us (My DJ slot is at 1am)

On the subject of festivals I'm not really sure why I'm not so keen to go to them myself anymore. I remember years gone by when the highlight of the summer was the Oxford Mayday Ball. When that came around it was the start of summer...Festival season had begun !!

Great little festival that was too, there were about 4 tents, all linked by tunnels and all completely decked out and carpeted. Even the toilets were pretty good. Of course it was full of students which is a downer but the plus side of that was cheap beer.

I think the next festival I would go to after the Mayday Ball would be Homelands down in Winchester. Absolutely huge event held in the Mattersley Bowl which was like a natural amphitheatre, this big crator in a field where everything was set up. At the start I loved this festival but then it got a bit too big, a bit too commercial and when I stopped going it turned all a bit chavvy.....Needless to say that was the final year and it is now defunct.

After Homelands I think it would be the Gatecrasher Summer Sound System. The first year they did it was on the same day as England were playing Germany at football (soccer) in either some big competition or it was a qualifier for a big competition and they had these massive screens showing the game. It was a terrific day, really sunny and of course England won which just made the atmosphere electric.

Throughout the night in one of the main arenas they had the England goals on loop continuously behind the stage on more huge screens. Alas though I think this festival too is now defunct :-(

So after that would have been Godskitchen which is held in the exact same location as Gatecrasher, some airfield in Stratford-upon-Avon if I remember correctly. Pretty much of a muchness however it always seems to rain when I go to this one and in fact I think it was the last of the "biggies" that I went too.

The actual last one was not such a biggie but it was certainly more for me these days and Cocoon in the Park is now the only festival that is firmly listed as a yearly must do and the others I think I could take or leave.

Then in between these there were trips to the biggest festival of them all......Ibiza.

Hmmm of course where the festivals are concerned they've not changed at all have they? I've just got older.......