Foraging triggers new launches by food trend setters My Secret Kitchen

Wild Garlic Secret Spice

The UK's first food tasting company are very proud to announce the start of a new range of Secret Spices starting with Wild Garlic.

One of their founding principles is a commitment to creating versatile products with a multitude of uses. The first in a new range is a perfect example. It comprises wild garlic and garden herbs together with a secret dash of wasabi.

Wild garlic is very common throughout the UK and you can often smell it before you see it whilst taking a walk through the woodlands. Unlike your standard garlic, it’s the leaves of the wild garlic plant that are used in this blend. As well as using Wild Garlic seasoning to make a gorgeous garlic butter, a brilliant garlic bread, a delightful dip or a tasty cheese ball just 1/4 tsp of this store-cupboard wonder can replace 1 clove of fresh garlic in other recipes too.

My Secret Kitchen are predicting the rise of North African food in the market place in 2012. Their new Saffron Tagine Paste is an intense concentration of saffron and exotic spices. A heady combination of classic flavours you'd find in a traditional tagine or stew – coriander, cinnamon, black pepper, clove and mint – with a generous helping of the most indulgent of spices, saffron.

The result is a fragrant and aromatic paste that can be used in a tagine or slow-cooked stew (where it is especially good with cheaper cuts of meat) or in marinades and dressings. As is now normal practice at My Secret Kitchen this is an especially intense paste so a very little will go a very long way.

Finally My Secret Kitchen are very proud to announce the long awaited return of Miso dressing with ginger. It is an intensely flavoured salad dressing featuring wheat free soy sauce, white miso paste (a Japanese paste made from fermented beans more commonly used to make miso soup) and fresh ginger. Perfect as an Asian marinade or to add to a quick stir fry, and as it's oil free and has no added salt, it's the perfect thing to splash onto salads for a burst of guilt free flavour.

My Secret Kitchen is the UK’s first nationwide food and drink tasting company, and was started by husband-and wife-team, Clare and Phil Moran. They’ve taken the traditional Tupperware style business concept of home demonstration parties and turned it into a wonderful food tasting evening, where the host and his/her friends have an enjoyable time experiencing unusual and different foods, sharing recipe ideas in a warm relaxed non-pressure environment.

The business concept has proven to be a great success in the economic downturn for food lovers who are looking for an extra income and have joined My Secret Kitchen as a consultant, earning money from showing all the great foods.

If you're interested in spreading the word about some weird and wonderful foods, or would like more info about the idea of helping people earn an extra income by indulging their love of food or simply looking for a feel good story about a family who are leading the way in innovative food concepts.... or maybe would just like some samples to try then contact Phil Moran at:- philmoran@mysecretkitchen.co.uk
0845 094 5319
www.mysecretkitchen.co.uk

Top ten food predictions for 2012, from the experts at My Secret Kitchen!

As we predicted last year, money will be a key factor in the food trends for 2012:-

1 Price Increases on food – At the back end of last year the manufacturers supplying the retailers realised that they needed to force the raw material increases through the chain if they were going to survive and understandably so. Anything grown in the ground has increased, especially the basics so expect people to think even more carefully about what they put in their shopping basket.

2 Granny’s cooking – Retro was big in 2011 and the desire for security and safety in an uncertain environment will steer cooking towards old family recipes. People still have egos and pride and what better way to show off than by resurrecting that old recipe that was handed down through the generations? – Could there be a rise in dumplings, suet puddings and the like?

3 More of the Grain – Home baking and cooking is a hot trend and people want to know more about what they are eating but without spending a huge amount. Whole grains are great value for money and the likes of Quinoa, oats and cornmeal could see a surge in 2012.

4 Forage, forage, forage – we predicted hedgerow flavours for 2011 and this will continue but expand into the general wild. Expect to see a rise in types of mushrooms, herbs and berries in people’s diets. Wild garlic anyone?

5 Whatever Twitter says – As social networking becomes viral, people want to share the good and bad things in food. In the past it was all about what Delia said, going forward it will be a lot more about that latest blog report, that Twitter comments and that facebook photo. And we can’t predict what ‘that’ will be.

6 The rise of the minor celebrity chef – following on from the previous comments, there will be a big rise in passionate cooks moving into doing video blogs on recipes, and these will become so much more accessible through the social media movement. So it won’t be Delia’s goose fat as the big thing next year, it will be a Youtube special chef. My Secret Kitchen will be jumping on this trend with a new video blog starting soon.

7 Moroccan – Full of Spices and flavours, a healthy diet with grain and greens and a little different with not too many expensive ingredients, Moroccan has been hovering around for a while. Expect 2012 to see a full blown launch of all things North African.

8 South American – We were wrong last year. We stuck our neck out with predictions that this continent would be big in 2011. It grew but not how we thought. Peru is widely predicted to be the big flavour country in the ‘States for 2012 so we expect this to jump over to the UK along with Brazil for 2012. And if the food goes superbly with Caipirinhas we won’t be complaining.

9 French Macaroons – 2011 was the year of the Whoopie Pie, an attractive and fun filled cake. One of the key reasons for it’s popularity was it looked cute. We think French macaroons will be big for 2012 for a similar reason, so expect to see gaudy shop windows full of ‘em. Whoopie pies will also get a makeover and remain popular but with alternative flavours and styles becoming big.

10 Back to the Dinner Table – As family values become ever more important, there will be a push to get more social interaction into the family dinner table which has declined over recent years. More family get togethers and more group meals will mean recipes involving more members of the family. What better way of bring a family closer together than cooking.. unless it goes pear shaped…

My Secret Kitchen is the UK’s first food and drink tasting company. The team has spent many years travelling the world and presenting food trends to major food manufactures. They now spend their time launching unusual and trend setting foods through home tasting events throughout the UK. Think the Tupperware party concept… but with food.

That's Food and Drink would like to thank Phil Moran for this feature.

My Secret Kitchen, the UK's first food tasting company, launch their Autumn/Winter range of inspirational foods with a twist

The new range of foods with a twist from My Secret Kitchen have now been launched and they are as intriguing as the rest of them.

White wine and Porcini finishing sauce. - was developed in response to requests for something special for chicken, pork and white fish. A finishing sauce is designed to be added at the end of cooking to bring a finishing touch to your dishes. They combined white wine with porcini mushrooms to create an elegantly flavoured sauce. Add a touch to fish pie or use with chicken stock for a risotto. It's also great for turkey leftovers, finishing pasta dishes and making mashed potato extra tasty. They employed  a vegetable-based bouillon so the sauce is vegetarian, too.

Chocolate Peppermint Sauce. - They combined dark chocolate with a beautifully fresh peppermint oil and vanilla extract to create a cool and creamy peppermint sauce. Add to ice cream and desserts; use to make peppermint profiteroles; stir a heaped teaspoon into hot milk for a soothing drink; pour over Ultimate Chocolate Brownies; or just open and enjoy!

Mochaccino Cookie Mix.- A brilliant cookie mix, bringing coffee together with chunks of white and dark Belgian chocolate.

FACTFILE:
My Secret Kitchen is the UK’s first nationwide food and drink tasting company, and was started by husband-and wife-team, Clare and Phil Moran They’ve taken the traditional Tupperware style business concept of home demonstration parties and turned it into a wonderful food tasting evening, where the host and his/her friends have an enjoyable time experiencing unusual and different foods, sharing recipe ideas in a warm relaxed non-pressure environment.

The business concept has proven to be a great success in the recession for food lovers who are looking for an extra income and have joined My Secret Kitchen as a consultant, earning money from showing all the great foods.