William Sitwell’s Book A History of Food in 100 Recipes - Interview

I predict that within six months no self respecting foodies bookshelf will be without William Sitwell’s Book A History of Food in 100 Recipes sitting in a prominent position on their book shelf  .. having been well thumbed ..  Why?  Because it is fabulous, witty, informative, unique and incredibly readable as well as being a really beautiful object in it’s own right.

Descended  from a long line of writers William is acknowledged as one of the UK’s best food writers and as the editor of Waitrose Kitchen, there is not much he doesn’t know about the British food scene. 

He is A list. 

He is also local and in Northamptonshire he is known as a genuinely approachable chap. I’ve heard first hand about the invlauable support and advice William gave to village entrepreneurs as they set up a local food market and that William helped the school recently to get their recipe book project off the ground. I’ve been out and about on numerous occasions as William has been there supporting his local food scene and a neighbour I was chatting with just last week enthused that “William is  just so passionate about local food  he is always going out of his way to help wherever possible .. he is very much  be part of our community” she said adding “we are so proud of him!”

I think it is fair to say that he is one of our local food hero’s. So I was really truly delighted when I was sent a review copy of the book by the publishers, Harper Collins and William asked if I would like to catch up with him at home for the BBC Kitchen Garden Show.

Isobel deciding she was peckish halfway through our interview!

From the moment I got my copy of The History of Food in 100 Recipes I couldn’t put it down.  I sat up in bed reading until my eyeballs could take no more, making notes in the margin.  From bread making in ancient Egypt, cheesecakes in ancient Greece all the way to to the invention of the Kenwood chef and Nigella’s cupcakes each chapter is a story in it’s own right.  I had so many questions and I was very much looking forward to catching up with William to ask about how it all came together.

Of course things never go according to plan and my childcare arrangements fell through at the last minute.  I was so disappointed  ..  I reluctantly  spoke to William expecting to have to rearrange.. but he laughed and said bring the children  along .. really it was ok .. even the dog.

I wondered if he had any idea of the utter chaos he was inviting in?  On the way over I pulled over and give my three children and the poor dog a really stern talking to.  They had better be on the VERY best behaviour I said. Or else.

As it was the children fitted straight in.  William's gorgeous children are the same age as mine and before we knew it the girls were tacking up the pony and off they all went to play. 

It turned out to be one of the most interesting interviews I have ever done  ….  if you listen to the Interviews below you will smile  (- it is unedited on Audio boo). Between chickens, phone calls, the dogs, my daughter ringing the church bell, ponies, burning tomatoes in the aga, and the house being decorated we did actually get in a really great conversation about this brilliant book, and the radio show is on this Sunday at 10am on BBC radio Northampton.

Certainly the challenges of interviewing William alongside five children under the age of 10 and two rowdy dogs means that I can confirm that William is really everything a food hero should be. Taking life in his stride William is a genuine champion of local, British and seasonal food, is passionate about his community: he is also hard working dad who was genuinely devastated to burn his tomatoes he forgot about and took the time to feed my hungry five year old halfway through the interview and has written a brilliantly different recipe book. 

This History of Food in 100 Recipes is a seriously lovely looking book, meticulously researched, full of the most interesting stories about passionate foodies . Whilst I'll admit that I have always found history to be a somewhat dry and dusty subject William brings it all to life.  It is colorful, delicious, funny in places, easy to read and yet there is serious depth to it .. I love it .. so I’ll say just one last thing.  It really is absolutely the best book I’ve read in years  so if you only buy one recipe book this year make it this one and keep it at the front of your bookcase.

listen to ‘William Sitwell interrupted !’ on Audioboo

The original Books William bought at the auction at Sothebys

listen to ‘William Sitwell ’ on Audioboo

The first copy!

The Good Table by Valentine Warner Giveaway

I lost another 2lbs this week on my quest for a slimmer me. That makes 15lbs so far this year, and I am starting to feel the benefits already. It was sooo cold last week but I picked the pretties bunch of snowdrops from the garden that kept me company on my dest as I worked.  Sadly it's the end of the game season and so just before the snow came down I made Valentine Warner’s Venison stew from his new book The Good Table. .  It was utterly delicious. (as recommended too by London Unattached )  … and such a struggle to keep to just one serving !

I met Valentine Warner a few weeks ago at Mark Hix’s restaurant on a lunch to promote British game.  Certainly the meal was delicious and I found Val a much more charming person than on TV.  He was fun, knowledgeable and far wittier than I had expected. 

listen to ‘GAME  Valantine Warner’ on Audioboo

To be honest I haven’t always been that keen on Valentine’s TV shows or the accompanying books.  He’s been one of those writers I could take or leave. Not that they weren’t good books but  I think that in the beginning I thought he was almost too young for his own style,  his humour seemed to be almost too large for life. It rankled me.  Even now as I write this I am flicking through his What to Eat Now and What to Eat Now More Please books they still don’t do it for me.

That said,  I have been taken totally by surprise with his latest book The Good Table that Val kindly gave to me after lunch.  I was expecting to flick through, smile politely and assign it to the keep this for reference shelf; however, to my surprise it is one of the best recipe books I’ve come across in a long time. Perhaps it is because it not accompanying a TV show or maybe he has grown into himself  .. whichever  .. it really is a great read.  The Good Table is honest, with real humour and personality, written in a more informal, delicious and more relaxed style that made me what to take the book to bed…  and then get up to cook.  The photos are sharp.  You can see what you are making.  The layout is easy on the eye, its been designed to cook from, and thankfully there is space to breath as the designers haven’t felt the need to cram every inch.

Recipes include as Toad in the Hole or Paella, classic dishes such as Beef Suet Pudding or a Brandy Snap with Berries, or recipes from far-flung shores such as Lapland Fish Soup and a Spanish dish of Chorizo in Cider. Inspired I popped off to my local game merchant Anthony Garret in Flore and then made the Venison curry from page 79.  So if you have previously loved Valentines work  .. this is his best book yet by far.. and if you are not so keen .. take another look ..  he’s more of vintage wine kind of a chap  .. and he’s really on top form in this fabulous book that has made it onto the kitchen bookshelf .. to join the books I cook from every day.

Extract from The Good Table and Venison Curry Recipe

Serves 4


a large handful of shaved dried coconut or 3 tablespoons unsweetened desiccated coconut


40g ghee or butter


2 small red onions, finely chopped


1 cinnamon stick (about 4cm long)


6 black peppercorns


2 garlic cloves, finely chopped


1 large thumb-sized piece of root ginger, peeled and finely chopped


1 teaspoon flaked sea salt


4 cloves 
1 teaspoon fennel seeds 


2½ teaspoons hot chile powder


1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
¼ star anise 
½ teaspoon cumin seeds


1 teaspoon garam masala


3 tablespoons tomato purée


500g venison fillet (be it red, fallow, sika, roe or muntjac), cut into medium cubes


300ml coconut water or water
juice of

½ lime 


shredded coriander leaves, to garnish
rice,

paratha or naan bread, to serve



On a trip to Sri Lanka, I stopped for lunch at a lean-to with a couple of grubby plastic chairs and tables set before it. Behind a small gas stove were a scrawny man and his wife. I asked what I could have and the vendor immediately did a bizarre impression of some creature, which I took time to realise was a deer. 
I gave him a nod and a thumbs up. A little dish arrived with small pieces of the tenderest meat bathed in a sharp, rich red gravy covered with toasted shavings of coconut. It was delicious and unbelievably hot, by which I mean it tore off the lid of my head.

As I chased the last smear across the plate with a kind of sour pancake, the police arrived on the scene and immediately started poking around the couple's field kitchen. One of the officers came up to me and, in English, asked: 'What it is are you having?' 'Lunch', I replied. 'No' he said pointing at the plate, and so I told him, as I had been, that it was 'of the forest', very good too, and he was welcome to join me for lunch.
It turned out that cheffy was also a poacher and I had just unwittingly enjoyed a very small and unfortunately endangered miniature deer. Cook and wife were taken away with a coolbox full of, no doubt, evidence and the policeman demanded I settle the bill with him. I felt a certain sympathy for the cook, as obviously hand-to-mouth applied to not just his job but his whole life, yet as a poacher, surely, it was a bit silly to reveal the true nature of his incriminating ingredients. 

The meat was tender because it was cooked very briefly rather than the tenderness that results from a long, slow cook. Therefore, it is essential that you do not overcook the meat. Venison has next to no fat and fillet will seize up suddenly and go past the point of no return. Ghee is Indian clarified butter and is widely available from shops and supermarkets. Coconut water is not the same as the coconut milk found in a can but the water that is in the centre of a fresh coconut. 

In a dry frying pan, gently toast the coconut until you notice the first signs of it colouring. Allow to cool.
Melt the ghee or butter in a wok or pan (the lighter and thinner the metal, the better, as it is closer to using Indian cookware such as a balti). Throw in the onions and cook fairly briskly with the cinnamon and peppercorns until softened and deep golden, taking care not to burn them.
Using a pestle and mortar, or blender, crush the garlic, ginger, salt and all the remaining spices into a fine paste and combine with the tomato purée. 
Add the curry paste to the onions and fry for 2-3 minutes, stirring often. Do not let it burn. Add the meat and briskly sauté for a couple of minutes. Add the coconut water or water and lime juice and bring to a rapid simmer for 4 minutes, or until you have a thickish gravy. Remove from the heat and scatter with the coconut and coriander. Serve with rice, paratha or naan bread.

I am delighted to be able to offer one of Valentines Books as a giveaway  All you need to do is tell me who you would cook for. 

RULES

Please see competition Rules before entering. This giveaway is open to all readers over 18 with a UK mainland address.  The winner will be chosen using an online randomiser and announced on this page on 2nd March 2012 You need to have a profile the allow mw to get back in touch however please do not include your email in the actual comment as well.

This competition on behalf of  Octopus Publishing and they will be responsible for organizing the prize with the winner. Their decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.

There is one main way to enter and there are  5 more chances to win .. . and you must leave a separate comment for each bonus entry otherwise they will not be counted. 

For a chance to win please comment below and tell me who you would cook for if you won this book  

For a second chance to win please tweet this post using the button below and you MUST comment with your twitter ID telling me you have done so.

For a third chance to win please follow me @VanessaKimbell on Twitter and comment below to tell me you have done so.

For a fourth chance to win tweet me @VanessaKimbell and tell me if you who you would cook for 

For a 5th Chance to win Follow @ValentineWarner  on Twitter

For a 6th Chance to win follow @Octopus_Books 

Dash and Grab Cookie Manoeuvre

I've a busy few months coming up, and indeed this week is no exception. On Friday I was in both Rushden and Kingsthorpe Waitrose's signing Prepped. Saturday I was in Cambridge at Waterstones doing the same.

I decided that the best way to entice people to me is to bribe them over with food .. so I made the chocolate cookies from page 206 . I must say in the main people where delightful, although there were two people, separately, who literally walked up to my table without as much as hello and in a sort of dash and grab maneuver they helped themselves to a large handful of cookies, and made away in haste without a solitary word!

Well ... I was in such shock I didn't say anything ! Although perhaps excuse me .. but you left one! at the top of my voice was what I should have shouted after them!

.. Still ... I guess you have to be prepared to meet all sorts of people .. but truthfully it's been really fun, especially to meet some of the lovely people ( such as Kelly below in the photo) who have been following me !

After the signing in Waterstones I met up with a fabulous foodie and good friend, Douglas Blyde and ate one of the most delicious meals I've eaten in a long time at Alimentum in Hills Road. Look out for the blog post about this planned for later week!

Cakepops with some famous ladies!

Make the best use of your time - if you are going to make cake, make a spare. They freeze. It makes sense, especially when you can make cake pops with the 2^nd cake, and they are really fast to make. If you are wondering what cakepops are they are a cross between a lollypop and a cake. Vanilla sticks makes some fabulous ones you can buy!

Well this is exactly what we decided to do after testing out the Kenwood Vs Kitchen aid live radio the Kitchen Garden show a couple of weeks ago. The extra cakes we made were turned into cakepops. I was joined by the lovely Helen of FussFreeFlavour, superbly talented Sarah of Maison Cupcake and award winning Julie Elliot of Angelina cupcake. What a fabulous combination! - it was always going to be delicious ! To find out what flavours they were listen to us developing the cake pop recipe here.

( Interestingly as I was browsing from one link to another today I came across this post by Working London Mummy. She takes part in Masoncupcake's Forever Nigella monthly and has also written a super cakepops post worth reading here. )

Note - Many of the sprinkles was Julie's own, but I also used the Watirose essentials range for making the cakes and several of the sprinkles.

Rocky Road Pops

These pops are the new cupcakes. They are just beautiful to look at and almost too pretty to eat! These Rocky road pops require no cooking - just assembly and these are destined for the school cake sale for red nose day. I’ve

suggested that you make 25 here, and use a biscuit base, however pre decoration they freeze beautifully and if you keep a few back in the freezer they make super quick gifts in an emergency. The biscuits I used this week are Gingernuts, but any

dry biscuits should be fine and I used Waitrose Essential Cooks Marshmallows.

Serves 25

Prep time 1 hour

Cooking time 0 minutes

Suitable for freezing Pre decorating Yes

125g Unsalted butter

100g icing sugar

380g biscuits ( Ginger snaps or Digestive )

300g milk chocolate

50g tiny marshmallows

25 lollypop sticks

Method

1 In a food mixer beat the butter and icing sugar until light and fluffy.

2 Place the biscuits into a food processor and turn into fine crumbs. A strong plastic bag and a rolling pin will do the same job if you seal well and bash the bag gently.

3 Add the biscuits to the butter icing and mix well for a further 2 minutes until they are evenly

blended.

4 Using your hands scoop a ping pong ball size amount out and in the palm of your hand squeeze the mixture together. It will together but it takes a moment for the mix to cake together in your hand.

5 Once a cake ball has formed gently insert the lollypop stick and place on a tray. When all 25 have been made place them into the freezer. (These can remain frozen for up to 3 months until you are ready to decorate them) However after 15 minutes they are cold enough to decorate.

6 In the mean time, melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water making sure that the water does not touch the base of the bowl.

7 Once the chocolate is melted remove the pops from the freezer and dip in the melted chocolate. Decorate with marshmallows

8 I used an orange cut in half to keep mine upright, but don’t leave them there too long as the paper sticks go soggy. (Oasis is better)

Pops will keep for up to 2 weeks in a cool environment.

Orange and Clove Italian Meringues Made from the Left over syrup of Heston's Christmas Pudding Recipe

Whilst everyone is raving about Heston's pudding - it would seem that we are all going to have to make our own puddings for ourselves this year as waitrose has sold out of the iconic pudding! Here Rose Prince makes a fabulous version of it from The Telegraph. So I had a go at making my own. At the end of candying the oranges I was left with over 750ml of the most glorious orange and cinnamon syrup. As part of this recipe book I decided to combine the principle of this pudding with my grandmothers recipe.. but really .. what to do with leftover sugar.. well here you go ... this one will end up in the book!

Ingredients

300ml of orange Syrup left over from the Christmas Pudding.

6 egg whites

120g caster sugar

Preheat the oven 100°C/gas 1/4

Method

1 Heat the syrup in a pan to just below boiling. In a clean bowl whisk the egg whites until they are fluffy. 3 to 4 minutes should do. Once they are fluffy and white and form soft peaks. Don’t stop the beating here, just slowly add a tablespoon at a time of the sugar syrup until it is all dissolved.

2 Then add the sugar - gently does it because tipping it all in at once knocks the air out of the eggs. Stopping beating the eggs means you knock the air out as you restart beating them. So a flow of continuous beating gets the best results.

3 Dollop the mixture onto greaseproof paper and bake for 2 hours.

Turn the oven off and leave in the oven allowing them to cool.

Keep in an air tight container

Alternatively you could use this for a baked Alaska recipe..

Waste not want not my grandmother would have said!