I‘m a fan of bread.  I love home made bread. I love sourdough bread, traditional loaves, Pumpernickel, Baguette, speciality breads, bread with cheese, seeds, onions, spices – this blog is small to list them all.  In short, there are enough types of bread around to keep anyone happy any day of the year. In short the word bread doesn’t do the varieties that exist no justice.

Wikipedia claims that there are  “About 600 main types of breads” in Germany alone. Which is (as a German living in the UK) I can’t wrap my head around why a large part of the English bread market is “stuff in bags”. And more importantly, I wanted to know what is in the stuff.  Let’s have a look.

Wholemeal Breads

There are a few things to look out for in food labelling. There are tell-tale so dodgy product around. Food labelling is a minefield, and the laws of food labelling are in my opinion not doing the consumer justice, because often the consumer doesn’t know what an ingredient really means. There’s a website dedicated to sources of MSG here: http://www.truthinlabeling.org/hiddensources.html

Tell-tale sign of bread cheating include caramelised sugars, which act as a colourant to suggest healthy “wholemeal” ingredients. Although I could not find reference for this it may be possible that the use of Molasses Sugar (Allinson) might serve a similar purpose.

Other tell-tale signs found in this list include*, Dextrose and Wheat Protein, which often contain glutamic acid.

Here’s what I compared:

• Kingsmill Tasty Wholemeal Medium 800G  Link
• Tesco Wholemeal Medium Sliced Loaf 800G Link
• Hovis Wholemeal Medium Link
• Warburtons Wholemeal Bread Medium Sliced 800G Link (Warburton’s website does not list ingredients at the time of writing.)
• Allinson Wholemeal  Link
• Sainsbury’s Medium Wholemeal, Basics 800g Link
• Waitrose wholemeal farmhouse batch 800g Link
• Asda Wholemeal fresh-for-a-week medium Link

Notes and thoughts

Across all breads, there is a total of 25 different ingredients listed. It’s quite staggering, if you compare that with traditional and old recipes such as a basic sourdough ingredient list. Wheat/Spelt flour, rye flour, water, salt. Which raises the immediate question what all those things are for. There are three different emulsifiers listed,

• E471, (Wikipedia, Veggieglobal)
• E472e (Wikipedia, Veggieglobal) and
• E481, (Wikipedia, Veggiegobal)

various types of fat and oils, sugars, Soya Flour, preservatives and in one instance a wholegrain ingredient: oak bran.

There are two main reasons behind this. Firstly the old fashioned way to make bread takes time, and requires skilled labour to produce. This results in higher production costs than industrial approaches such as CBP to make a loaf.  Secondly, according to this article the huge amounts of yeast used in the process result in a higher yield of bread per kg of flour than traditional processes.  The downside of course is that this brave new bread does not store very long, and is sometimes treated with preservatives. Dextrose in Warburton’s loaf could be added to aid the yeast, but it may also present a source of glutamic acid.

• The preservative Calcium Propionate (Warburton’s) should probably be declared as E282, which it is. It serves as an anti-fungal additive, and it is intersting to note that according to this article, is can be used as a pesticide!
• Potassium Sorbate is another E number hiding in the list, E202. (Wikipedia)
• Lastly, the loaf from Waitrose lists Plam Oil as an ingredient. Palm Oil is a likely to be sourced from unsustainable sources, there’s plenty to read about it everywhere.

“Often Derived from GM soya bean oil” according to the theecologist.org article.

I was so impressed when I saw Heston Bulmenthal demonstrate sous vide cooking that I knew on the spot that I had to try it myself.

The idea is simple, and I’m not going to re-iterate what it’s all about – more importantly there’s a bit of fiddling involved. Most people will agree that a hand-controlled waterbath is a tough tricky,  so you can’t easily get around investing some cash. Unless you’re good with electronics and have some time to burn, it’s far easier to go and make a few purchases.

Here are the things you need:

1. a water bath
2. a vacuum sealer

The water bath:

You got in principle two options,  a all-in-one device, i.e. a purpose built sous vide bath or split heating and controlling into two. The former option is easier, unpack and plug-in, the second option a bit more customisable. Most people who search on the internet will have found the SousVide Supreme bath, but it’s probably worth while that another company also known in sous vide circles makes a water bath: Lava. Famously known for their vacuum machines.

I opted for the latter option convinced by two arguments. Firstly an independent controller is small and doesn’t limit me to one water bath. I can take it around to friends houses and cook there, plus the thing is tiny and doesn’t take up space. I say that, then again the water batch I chose a Burco commercial rice cooker isn’t exactly a s space saver.  Secondly, When adding it all up it worked out about 1/4 -1/3 cheaper to buy separate components than the all-in one.

Vaccum Sealer:

Here things were a bit easier to decide. A vacuum sealer is more than just a sous-vide appliance, it’s very useful to have around the house.  As soon as it arrived, I started to crunch down all manner of things into small, space saving parcels. (It’s great for storing rarely used cables,  preserving wool clothes during the summer months from moth attacks and filing old documents in tidy, small parcels. Think about all seven years of financial records that you have to keep!)

Rather than buying a cheap machine now in a bid to save money, I decided to do things properly and got myself a LAVA V1.00 Premium. It works a treat.

Now that’s it’s all set up, I’m very excited to get cooking!

I keep you posted!

The barbecue season may be over for this year, but veggie burgers are a treat for vegetarians (if you eat eggs and cheese) and omnivores alike.

The good news is they are not only a great on the barbie, but make a yummy dish if pan fried, too. I cook them every now and again, as they allow all sorts of add-on to be thrown in!

For the basic “dough”:

• rolled oats (broken), or porridge flakes,
• eggs
• cheese that melts (Gouda, Cheddar, Emmental …)
• olive oil,
• salt, pepper

There are deliberately no measurements here. The rule of thumb is, use about about 4 parts oats, to 2-3 parts cheese, on egg for each 2 portions you make. A couple of tablespoons of oil ought to do. Make sure the paste is sticky and moist.

Ideas for additions (use as many as you please, as long as the dough remains sticky!):

• spinach finely! chopped
• grated courgette
• grated carrot
• finely! chopped  herbs such as parsley or coriander (good with carrots)
• finely! chopped chilly peppers

Will I make them again?

100%  Oh, yes! Definitely!

[Show as slideshow]

Wednesday, after a stressful and unpleasant day (which we shall not mention again) it was time for some hearty comfort food.

Cottage Pie.

For two hungry adults and a bit of packed lunch the next day get from your grocer of trust:

• 3-4 large potatoes
• 2-3 sweet potatoes (as a variation use parsnips)
• 1 1/2 tbsp horseradish (as a variation use garlic)
• 500 gr lean beef mince (for cottage pie use lamb mince)
• 2 medium onions
• 4-5 medium carrots
• 3-4 ripe vine tomatoes
• 125-200ml of milk

Start by peeing the potatoes, and simultaneously get a big pot of water building, slightly salted. Only when the water is nearly ready peel the sweet potatoes (the lighter coloured ones tend to oxidize quickly and get some unsightly dark patches.) Chop everything into even chunks and boil until tender. Probably around 12-15 min, but I never time things anyway. Poking the pieces with a fork should tell you if they are soft=done)

In the meantime, peel and chop the carrots into chunks, dice the onions (small to medium) and spice the beef with some salt, black pepper  ( I wonder if caraway would be nice…) and chop the tomatoes into bite-sized chunks.

I always remove the green bit at the top of the tomato which is green. Tomatoes are member of the nightshade (solanaceae) family of plants which contain solanine in their green parts.Solanine is mildy toxic, causing nausea from a dose of 25mg in adults. As I wouldn’t eat the green bit potatoes I’m not eating the green bit in tomatoes, as they contain the same substance. Start frying the onions in some vegetable oil until browning, then add carrots and after a short while the beef. Keep a good heat, you want the meat to seal and stay soft not loose all its juices. When the meat is browned, add the tomatoes, stir around and put the lid on a reduce the heat to a simmer until you’re  one with the mash.

Preheat the oven to 200 °C

Mash:

Drain the water, and mash the sweet/potatoes/parsnips gently adding some milk. Keep the heat down, this sticks easily. Add the horseradish (or garlic) and spice with some salt.

Pour the beef mint mix (which should simmering in it’s own juices by now) into an ovenproof dish and add the mash on top.  Decorate to your artistic content or get it straight in the oven if your stomach is rumbling. Around 20 -25min should see the mash browning over!

Serve with a cold beer and grate some chees over the plate if you like!

Result:

Hard to beat comfort food that has a surprisingly high veggie content. The horseradish tickles in your nose buds and the sweet potatoes are a very good companion to the tomato/onion/beef mix. Put your favourite tune on, maybe light some candles. Take your shoes off, sip on the beer and welcome the evening!

Do it again?

100%

01/06/2009

I was feeling the need for something healthy today, thought a salad would be a good idea. But just a bit of green leaves doesn’t make a salad in my book, and more importantly, you’re hungry again an hour later and tuck into some crisps.  Salads have to have a bit tasty chunks in them, preferably some animal protein.

This is what I bought:

• Pack of leafy salad, (field salad, generic green leafy stuff and the occasional crispy generic leafy stuff) I don’t think it really matters, I guess some baby spinach leaves would have been lovely too!
• One vine of cherry tomatoes (from the Turkish grocery – I find grocery stores owned and run by immigrant communities generally have fruit and veg that is a)  ripe , b) cheaper, than big chain supermarkets.
• 150 gr. (one bag) of sogging wet Mozzarella,
• black olives (from vacuum sealed pack, they are usually drier and loads tastier than their cousins that where drowned in brine),
• 200gr. smoked salmon,
• 3 red capia peppers (long sweet Turkish peppers)
• bunch of fresh parsley.
• 2 tbsp. olive oil.

Quarter the tomatoes. Drain, quarter and slice the Mozzarella, squish the olives (to squeeze the stones out) and chop roughly, finely chop the capias, wash and rinse the salad, chop or tear into edible sizes, drizzle over some olive oil, and stir around.  Pop it in the fridge while preparing the fish.

I briefly shallow fried the salmon pieces at high temperature, it gives the meat a crispy crust. Cut carefully into bite-sized chunks. Be careful, the meat very flaky and will come apart. Use this to your advantage and cut along the segment lines to get more presentable pieces. Put it in the fridge to cool down.

Wash the parsely, and pluck a good two handful of leaves. Chop over several times to get small flakes, add to the salad and add the fish pieces once they’re cold.

In the mean time, go tidy your room. Or blog, whichever you prefer.

Result:

Quite a tasty mixture, I thought the salmon, rich black olives and mozarella made the taste-backbone of the salad. Easily digestible and with a good mix of light and leafy/healthy stuff, and filling chunks that make sure you don’t leave the table hungry.

Prepare it again?

Probability 80%