Sunday, 18 December 2011

A Must have foodie stocking filler! Some real hot sauces!

Stuck for ideas for male stocking fillers this year? – Well, here’s a ‘must have’ for every woman to give to a man, and every food loving male to add to his Xmas wish list.
So, add a bit of a kick to Xmas with a unique connoisseur chilli sauce specially chosen by Hot-Headz!, stockists of the largest selection of all things chilli in the UK (www.hot-headz.com). It’s quirky, original, has fantastic novelty value and is something that will be used! In fact we believe a bottle of chilli sauce is THE perfect stocking filler for any discerning male foodie of the species, guaranteed to bring Yuletide cheer and warmth! A perfect ‘secret santa’ gift for the office Xmas party too!

We all know there is a love hate relationship between men and chillies. They can’t resist the temptation of tingling taste buds and yet when they indulge they end up asking themselves ‘why on earth did I do that?’ whilst swilling down gallons of water to kill the heat (big mistake by the way; see the FACTFILE for details!)- and then they go and do it again! It’s all down to the endorphins that chillies make us produce by creating a sense of euphoria, along with a pinch of male bravado no doubt!

And with a bottle of superb provenance chilli sauce from Hot-Headz! typically costing from £3.99 to £6.99, it won’t make a dent in the old wallet. So why not buy a bottle or even a few.

Here are our top five ‘connoisseurs’ recommendations to choose from, gradually moving up the heat scale from ‘beginners mild’ to ‘it’ll blow your head off’ (In addition to the heat, the range of flavours, colours and textures are genuinely quite remarkable and varied, just like with wines, so why not try a few and do a tasting):

1. Tapatio Hot Sauce - This year marks the 40th Anniversary of this Mexican inspired sauce that's found on every table top in bars and restaurants across the USA. A robust cayenne pepper sauce with great flavour and a sweet citrusy tang that's good for all round use. A perfect ‘easy on the heat’ sauce for the chilli novice! Hot-Headz heat rating: 3/10. £3.99 (EDITOR Makes the perfect genuine Mexican/American foods)

2. Brother Bru-Bru's Mild African Pepper Sauce - a mouth watering blend of chilli peppers, garlic and Brother Bru Bru’s rare African spices. Brother Bru Bru is in fact no other than session musician Bruce Langhorne who used to play with Bob Dylan. It's a fact that Dylan wrote Mr.Tambourine Man about Bruce. Yes that's him on the label! Splash it on or in everything! Hot-Headz heat rating: 5/10. £3.99

3. Pyromania! Wanna play with Fire? Made with habanero peppers and chipotle "Chee-Poht-Lay" (smoked jalapeno) peppers for a wonderful rich and smoky hot sauce that's great on everything from eggs and vegetables to fish, meat, rice, pasta and tofu. Getting warmer. Hot-Headz heat rating: 7/10. £3.99

4. Hot-Headz own ‘Who Dares Burns! Crushed Naga Hot Sauce’ - Now we're getting serious! A whopping 65% chilli pepper content gives this all natural sauce a killer heat with fresh, fresh flavour! The Naga Bhut Jolokia is the Guinness Book of World Records holder of the Hottest Chilli in the World. We've skilfully blended these deadly hot chilli peppers with select ingredients to make the tastiest Naga sauce on the market. In skiing parlance, this is definitely black run. Hot-Headz heat rating: 9/10. £3.99

5. Mad Dog 357 - Claiming to be the ‘World's Hottest Sauce’ this is about as hot as you can go without being classed as a food additive. This ‘not for the faint of heart’ sauce has a blend of 160,000 scoville super hot cayenne peppers, fiery hot red habanero peppers and finally a whopping 2,000,000 scoville pepper extract. Totally off-piste! A tongue scorching 357,000 Scoville unit sauce. Hot-Headz heat rating: 11/10.
£7.49 (EDITOR: Ouch, ouch, OUCH!!! This really did burn my tongue and I am not a chilli novice!)

(Collectors Edition with bullet key chain containing tiny tasting spoon! 600,000 Scoville units - £9.95)

To purchase: Go to www.hot-headz.com to order on-line OR Call: 01453 731052. P&P (UK Mainland): £2.00 - £6.75 depending on no of items ordered. Free delivery on orders over £100. Some products in the selection may need to be altered due to availability.

FACTFILE: Best to avoid water or beer if you can, to calm your poor tongue and mouth. Milk is the best method to cool them down.)

Channelling a safer Christmas meal

The Food Standards Agency has teamed up with Channel 4 to sponsor its Christmas recipe web pages over the holiday season. This allows the Agency to highlight its Christmas food hygiene and safety messages to a wider audience as they plan their Christmas menus.

Unless you take care, food poisoning can be an unwelcome Christmas guest. The Agency has a range of information to help, including tips for preparing and cooking your turkey. But keeping Christmas dinner safe is not just about taking care with turkey. Recent Agency research found that consumers are aware of the risk of harmful germs from raw meat, but are less aware of the risks from raw vegetables.

Bob Martin, food safety expert at the Food Standards Agency, said: "Preparing Christmas dinner can be a challenge, as most of us aren’t used to cooking for so many people. It can be easy to make mistakes in the kitchen that increase the risk of food poisoning.

"One of the main rules to remember is to avoid cross-contamination from raw meat or poultry on to other foods. Keep all raw food, whether it’s your turkey or vegetables, separate from ready-to-eat foods. Always wash your hands before and after handling food but don't wash your turkey, as that will only spread germs. Instead, make sure that it gets cooked properly, and that means right the way through.

"There are around a million cases of food poisoning over the year, but following some simple steps in the kitchen can help protect you and your family."

For advice and information on preparing a safe Christmas dinner, go to the link below.
www.food.gov.uk/safereating/hyg/turkey

(EDITOR: And when you are eating out, always ensure you visit an establishment that is fully compliant with food hygiene standards. You can check out eating places, takeaway and delivery services, food shops, etc., at www.scoresonthedoors.org.uk. If your local council does not yet participate in the Scores on the Doors scheme, ask them why they are not.)

Saturday, 17 December 2011

Try something different for your Christmas Party

With the Christmas season and party time upon us, it’s the time to fill our plates at the buffet. But why should our plate be restricted to the usual sausage rolls and crisps?

‘Tis the season to be experimental, and party snacking at the office Christmas party offers the perfect opportunity to try new things.

The UK’s leading Oriental grocer, Wing Yip, dedicates an aisle in its stores to a vast array of sweet and savory snacks. With the credit crunch taking its toll on the Christmas party budget, many offices are bringing the buffet table to the board room.

Throw a soiree to remember with an Oriental spin on tradition that’s sure to get your guests and colleagues (and their tastebuds) excited. From spring rolls to chilli rice crackers there are plenty of tasty options to brighten up the buffet table.

Mr Wing Yip, founder and chairman of the Oriental grocery empire, said: “Party food doesn’t have to be boring. We offer a host of unique party treats and authentic ingredients to make sure the office party goes off with a bang!”

Wing Yip is the UK’s leading Chinese grocer, with stores in Birmingham, Manchester, Cricklewood and Croydon.

Each store is situated close to the city centre with easy access to the motorway and plenty of free car parking for customers.

A visit to one of the stores is like taking a trip around the world with over 3,000 products from the Far East.
www.wingyipstore.com

Mixology Expert Presents a Cocktail Course for Cost-Conscious, High-Style Entertaining

Everyone loves a holiday cocktail party, but in this economy, a full bar may not fit the budget. That's not a problem, says Certified Specialist of Spirits Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan. Throw a one-bottle party with diverse cocktails based on that one spirit, and that becomes part of the fun. Here are some short cocktail courses for the holidays from this acclaimed mixology expert.

Simonetti-Bryan is course lecturer for The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditions, a DVD and downloadable guide to cocktails video course. She says, "If you’ve only got one bottle, embrace it. Theme your party to that spirit. There are a wide variety of creations you can make with just one spirit ... it’s knowing what the key ones are and how to make them well."

Vodka Cocktails

Vodka is so versatile, it goes with almost anything. Classic vodka cocktails include the Bloody Mary (which can also be made with gin) and the Moscow Mule (named for its gingery kick). Vodka goes well with a variety of mixers, and it can be infused or flavored at home. Just add ingredients such as citrus, apple, spices, ginger, or nuts, and let the bottle sit a day or more as the flavors infuse.

Vodka Bloody Mary recipe:

2 oz. vodka, 4 oz. tomato juice, ½ oz. lemon juice or juice of half a lemon, 4 dashes Tabasco(R), 2 dashes Worcestershire, 2 pinches of salt, and 3 pinches of pepper. Celery stalks to garnish.

Says Simonetti-Bryan: "People might know the ingredients for this cocktail but vary the amounts, which can change the flavor significantly. This recipe allows the full flavor of this cocktail to come out. It's best served in a tall glass."

Rum Cocktails

Rum is another versatile spirit, central to such classic cocktails as the Mojito, Daiquiri, Pina Colada, and Caipirinha. Here's a classic rum cocktail with the Simonetti-Bryan touch.

Mojito recipe:

2 oz. white rum, 1 oz. simple syrup (mix and heat 1 part water to 1 part sugar), ¾ oz. fresh lime juice, and 2 oz. club soda. Two sprigs of fresh mint to garnish.

A good selection of garnishes, mixers, fruit juice, and fresh fruit can make a cocktail sparkle. If you use the right ice (cubed, shaved, crushed, or cracked) and some well-matched glassware, no one will even think of what your party cost.

The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditions is an eight-lecture course covering classic spirits, cordials and liqueurs, recipes, and a mixology toolkit. For further information on mixology courses and how to purchase a DVD or a digital video download, visit www.thegreatcourses.com.

For further information on The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails or The Great Courses please contact Kirsty Shaw or Gina Tunley at Punch Communications: +44 (0) 1858 411 600 or email tgc@punchcomms.com

• The Everyday Guide to Spirits and Cocktails: Tastes and Traditions is available from www.thegreatcourses.com/cocktail-courses for $27.95 (digital video download) and $29.95 (DVD). Shipping and handling costs apply.

• Jennifer Simonetti-Bryan is a definitive authority on spirits in the United States and among a small number of people to have received the highest credentials in the spirits and wine industry. She has a Professional Certificate in Spirits from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust and is a Certified Specialist of Spirits from the Society of Wine Educators. Ms. Simonetti-Bryan is also one of only a few hundred people in the world to hold the Master of Wine title (M.W.) from The Institute of Masters of Wine in London, England—the highest and most difficult title to achieve in the industry.

Winner of the Wiesbaden Tasting Trophy from the Institute of Masters of Wine, Ms. Simonetti-Bryan has trained thousands of professionals in the spirits and wine industry, has judged international spirits and wine competitions, and has hosted seminars with Food Network stars including Rachael Ray and Bobby Flay. She is a frequent guest on television programs, including Fox Business and Bloomberg TV, and has been featured in Fortune, Wine & Spirits Magazine, and Wine Enthusiast Magazine.

• The Great Courses is a highly popular series of university-level lectures crafted and delivered by top professors and experts. Designed to meet the demand for lifelong learning and to change the way people think about the world, The Great Courses currently offers more than 350 courses in a range of video and audio formats including DVD, CD, and digital downloads.

Courses span over 5,000 hours of content across ten subject categories: science and mathematics, history, fine arts and music, religion and theology, philosophy and intellectual history, literature and English language, business and economics, better living, professional, and high school. Since 1990, over 10 million courses have been sold around the world.

Tesco Real Food sets SOS helpline to save Christmas dinner nightmares

Tesco Real Food has set up a unique Christmas dinner SOS helpline to rescue Britons from kitchen disasters as they prepare their festive feasts.

The supermarket has pulled together a crack team of expert chefs who will be on hand to offer personalised first rate advice on how to create the perfect Christmas dinner and avoid any potential nightmares.

Anyone running into difficulties on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day will be able to contact the team via the supermarket's Twitter site to get immediate solutions to their culinary problems.

Tesco senior marketing manager Breige Donaghy said: "Imagine the scenario - your guests are due to arrive for the most celebrated meal of the year and to your horror your turkey is undercooked, your bread sauce too thick and your roasties aren’t crispy enough.

"But instead of panicking, cooks will now be able to speak to our team of expert chefs who have cooked thousands of meals between them and who know all the tricks of the trade for putting on a fabulous Christmas feast with as little stress as possible.

"We think the helpline will prove especially useful to those embarking on cooking their first ever Christmas dinner. And our experts will also be around on Christmas Eve in case anyone needs help planning the big meal."

The team will include Cordon Bleu standard chefs as well as others who have been trained by top London cooking school Leiths and other top restaurants plus those who work with Tesco to develop recipes and inspire new dishes. Their combined experience totals nearly 100 years in the food business.

The team will run two help sessions. One will offer planning and preparation tips between 10am and 8pm on Christmas Eve and the other will help solve actual cooking dilemmas on Christmas Day, between 8am and 4pm.

Anyone wanting to contact the team will need to log onto Twitter on those days and then navigate to Tesco's Real Food Online Twitter page (@tescorealfood), and send off their question. They will then be sent a tweet with a solution to their problem

Breige Donaghy added: "This is the first time that any supermarket has ever tried anything like this and if it’s a success then we will look at running similar kitchen helplines for Easter and other big occasions."
 
FACTFILE:

On the Real Food website Tesco has developed a Christmas zone to help customers with everything they will need in the run up to Christmas. The tools on the site include:

- Easy-to-follow cooking videos
- Working out the right cooking times with a turkey timer. The timer can also work out the cooking times for salmon, gammon, chicken and beef.
- How to carve a turkey
- How to steam a Christmas pudding
- Cocktail recipe tool: users type in their preferred spirit or ask for suggestions based on taste and/or glass type.
- Advent calendar on the site for daily helpful tips on getting ready for Christmas.

About Tesco Real Food:

The Tesco Real Food website is packed with hundreds of healthy recipes to suit any occasion including vegetarian recipes and a recipe for strawberry yoghurt jellies. Whether customers are looking for a quick mid-week meal for the family or something for a special event, visitors are sure to find exactly what they're looking for. In addition, a range of step-by-step cooking tips and videos to help improve kitchen skills can be found, as well as healthy eating and cooking with kids sections. To make shopping even easier, every recipe has a ready-made shopping list that can be used to add all the ingredients to the shopping basket in just a few clicks.

www.tesco.com/food

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The Marilyn Factor Boosts Demand For Cakes, Puds And Dessert Course

Lake District cookery school, LucyCooks, is receiving support for its ‘Keep Cumbria Curvy’ campaign from an unexpected source – film viewers who have been to see the movie ‘My Week With Marilyn’.

The sight of the representation of Ms Monroe with real shapely curves and oozing sex appeal, despite being a reported size 14/16, is proving to women nationwide that it is not a sin to have a silhouette. Freed from the guilt that society has placed on food indulgence, women are booking themselves on to cookery courses as decadent as Classic Cakes and Bakes, Thrilling Three Courses and Canapés and Bubbles.

Top-selling courses at the Staveley-based cookery school near Kendal in the last two weeks have been Desserts – Queen of Puddings (April 20), Macaroon and Cupcake afternoon (January28) and the multi-generation desserts-focused Family Fun Day running on February 19.

LucyCooks front of house manager, Anna Morton, says: “Retro is the trend that’s dominating style, dining and fashion and it would seem that we are thankfully getting back to a time in which having a full and fabulous figure is something to celebrate, rather than hide away.

“Our message to male and female cooks is that you can indulge yourself with your favourite dishes, delve into delicious desserts and comfort yourself with cake, if you balance this out with some exercise to burn off the calories. It would seem that this view is definitely getting more backing thanks to the resurgence of the Marilyn factor”.

Food lovers wanting to free themselves from their food taboos can find a huge range of courses at www.lucycooks.co.uk that will give them a fabulous culinary repertoire and reward their bravery in standing up for the curvaceous Cumbrian. More information can also be obtained from 01539 822507.

Laverstoke Park beers for Christmas and the New Year

The first thing one notices about the beers that Laverstoke Park produces is that they actually do taste like beer.

Now, whilst the idea of beers that taste like beers might be somewhat confusing to some people, please let me explain what I mean.

I speak -or rather, write- as someone with considerable experience as a drinker of beers and as a writer on beers. Sad to say, some beers do not taste particularly pleasant.

I remember one brewer of organic ales who worked very, very hard to brew his beers. But somehow or for some reason he had decided to use smoked malt in all of his different types of beer. The result was not good.

However, it has to be said that the folks at Laverstoke Park know what they are doing!

Their Organic Real Ale is 5.0% ABV. It has a pleasingly light flavour, though the malty character of this finely crafted ale does combine nicely with the yeast and the hoppy goodness, though there's a rather nice and welcome surprise, a fruity undertone that means it will go very well with Christmas dinner, Christmas cake, mince pies and will be a great toast for the Queen's Chirstmas Message!

Next we come to the Laverstoke Park Organic Real Lager. At 4.5%
 it is a good, decent strength and is exactly what a lager should taste like. It has the characteristically lager style taste (not all lagers do!) and it is a light and refreshing beer, ideal for those who know their Continental style beers.  Ideal for drinking with all Christmas foods, and for just drinking whilst you think nice thoughts about what Christmas really means. I would suggest getting in a good supply of this Real Lager and watching every film version of the Charles Dickens novel a Christmas Carol that you can!

www.laverstokepark.co.uk

Thursday, 15 December 2011

It must be Aldi for Christmas

If you are worried about what to buy for your Christmas and New Year food this year, do not worry! Just shop at Aldi, instead!

Aldi has an undeserved reputation and I want to show you why this is wrong. I was shopping in Aldi not so long ago and met a retired Lieutenant Colonel I know who had a trolley brimmed with Chirstmas shopping.

He was clearly very happy to be shopping in Aldi and he explained why: "I was a base commander in Germany for a number of years and Aldi is one of the best supermarket chains over there. And when you are stationed over in Germany for any length of time, you get a taste for certain German foods. Especially at Christmas time, because the Germans certainly know how to celebrate Christmas with mulled wine, Stollen, cheeses and so forth. And I know I can get all of these items -genuine, good quality German stuff, too! all at a fraction of the price I would pay in a delicatessen or a high end supermarket!"

And there are genuine British goodies that are available, too! The mince pies -especially when warmed in the oven!- are absolutely delicious (better than those at premium prices elsewhere!) the Stollen pieces are to die for, the four bird roast is a real treat and please do not forget  the goose fat roast potatoes!

There's a stunning range of beers and wines and the selection of Champagnes and sparkling wines is excellent and all at prices that might make you think you have joined Dr Who for a quick trip back to the 1980s!


To find out more and to locate your nearest Aldi store, please visit www.aldi.co.uk


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