Jamie, Nigella, Delia...you're making us fat!

 

Or so says Dr Ricardo Costa, senior lecturer in nannying fussbucketry at the University of Coventry (do these places spring up overnight - until today I didn't know Coventry had a University).

The study, published in the Food and Public Health journal, found that many celebrity chef recipes in cookbooks contained “undesirable levels” of saturated fatty acids (SFA), sugars and salt which are linked to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Note the detail here and the words - "undesirable", "linked to" aren't really any justification for the headline: TV Chefs are "adding to obesity" and are typical New Puritan weasel words. After all I don't need any evidence at all to "link" something to something else and this is precisely what Dr Costa has done. The research simply runs a load of recipes from celebrity chefs through a computer model and publishes the results:

Food preparation recipes (n=904), covering a wide range of meal types, from 26 dominant British based Celebrity Chefs were randomly sampled from literature and web sources. Recipes were blindly analysed through dietary analysis software by three trained dietetic researchers (CV 6.9%). The nutritional value of each recipe was compared against national healthy eating benchmark guidelines using a healthy eating index (HEI).

Nothing in the research suggests that Jamie, Nigella and Delia are making us all obese with their glorious culinary temptations. The authors however make a huge leap from these temptations to suggest that these wicked TV chefs are affecting our food preparation habits (again without any evidence) and that they are, as a result:

...a likely hidden contributing factor to Britain’s obesity epidemic and its associated public health issues. 

Again we see the loaded words of public health - using epidemic to describe rising rates of obesity is bad in a newspaper article but, in a scientific paper such misuse is inexcusable. Even if obesity rates are rising (and they aren't) it will never be an epidemic because getting fat isn't contagious - I won't catch obesity off you, not even a little bit. And "hidden contributing factor", which I assume means "we haven't got any evidence to support this statement so we'll say it's hidden".

The profile of obesity suggests that Dr Costa and his colleagues are talking nonsense. Obesity is disproportionately an issue for women from lower social classes and middle-aged men. At a guess these aren't the front of the house when Jamie scooters round Italy or the Hairy Bikers talk about vegetables. I may be wrong, of course, but my contention has precisely the same amount of scientific value as Dr Costa's - essentially none.

All this is a reminder that much of 'dietetics' is simply fancy calorie counting based on a set of willfully misrepresented half-truths about salt, sugar and fat. Obesity is a consequence of eating too much and exercising too little and has precisely nothing at all to do with the recipes presented by Lorraine or Antonio on our tellies.

....

Thoughts on comfort food and the making of meatloaf!

While we get excited about the miraculous creations and combinations of the great chefs, when it comes down to reminiscing about food our thoughts don’t turn to great restaurant meals but to those cheap supper dishes mum used to make. I could tell you about a recipe for “hostess supper” that came off the side of a macaroni packet or of ‘spaghetti muck’ a dish of cheese and tomato pasta. These dishes speak of more than taste – although they do taste great. The remind us of family, home, comfort and safety, of those lost days when we were young, happy and pretty carefree.

And it’s not just me who feels this way – I’ve joked often and found agreement that nursery food and food you eat with your hands is the best. We don’t turn to fancy dishes when we’re down but to pizza, to stews, to casseroles and to curry. Frankly we’d rather an egg sarnie or tomatoes on toast. Here’s Antonio Carluccio talking about his mum’s meatloaf:

“I distinctly remember the tremendous satisfaction with which this dish used to appease our appetites when my brothers and I were young. It had two advantages: the sauce in which it was cooked provided an excellent dressing for the pasta which was served up as a first course. Then the meatloaf – cut into slices – appeared as a tasty main course accompanies by peas with ham.”

Your mouth’s watering isn’t it? And you’re thinking of that special dish – whatever it may be! I’ve been making Carluccio’s meatloaf for so long now it has become something of a family special. And how flexible can you get – not just that great tomato sauce but a loaf you can serve hot on a cold winter’s evening or cold with salad in the sunshine of a Summer garden party!

For the meatloaf:

2lb Minced beef
6oz Bread crumbs made from stale bread
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh parsley
2 oz freshly grated parmesan
Salt and black pepper
4 eggs (maybe fewer)
Oil for frying

For the sauce:

1 medium onion, finely chopped
Olive oil
1 Clove garlic
2 cans tomatoes
10 fresh basil leaves
Salt & black pepper

In a large bowl mix the beef, breadcrumbs, parsley and parmesan thoroughly. Add seasoning. Beat the eggs lightly and add to the mixture which should stick together so you can form it into a large oval loaf – a bit like a bread bloomer. In my experience you seldom need all four eggs – the amount depends on how damp the mince is and how dry the breadcrumbs are. I add one egg at a time until the mixture is sticky enough to form a loaf. It’s always an idea to have some extra breadcrumbs to hand in case the mixture gets too sloppy!

In a heavy casserole heat the oil and fry the loaf until it is golden-brown on the outside – take care turning it to avoid it breaking! Set this aside to make the tomato sauce.

In a separate pan, fry the onion and garlic and then add the tomatoes. Cook for 5-10 minutes breaking up the tomatoes and then season and add the basil. Pour this sauce over the meatloaf in the casserole and bring back to the boil. Turn the heat right down and simmer for an hour – it’s best to turn the loaf occasionally during this process to ensure it’s evenly cooked and doesn’t stick. It the sauce is a bit thin, take the lid off the pan for the last 15 minutes to thicken it. Alternatively, the casserole can be cooked in a moderately hot oven for about an hour. There’s no need to turn the meatloaf if it’s cooked this way but you may have to reduce the sauce a little after removing the loaf!

Serve the tomato sauce with good short pasta as a first course Italian-style followed by the loaf – either with peas and ham or any other vegetable! Or refrigerate the loaf and have cold for a great lunch with pickles and salad!

Enjoy!

...

Friday Fungus: Snow Mushrooms

Seemed appropriate given the current weather to talk about enoki - Japanese Snow Mushrooms (Flammulina velutipes). If you've an interest in Chinese or Japanese cookery you will have encountered these delicate mushrooms but I bet you didn't know they grow wild in the UK where we call them velvet shank. In the wild they do not look like the picture above but are yellowish brown and rather larger - the cultivated version is produced in huge quantities in the far east (over 100,000 tonnes annually).

The snow or winter mushroom description comes about because these fungi fruit very late and can survive a temperatures close to freezing. Golden Gourmet Mushrooms * describe them as follows:

"...enoki are found in the mountains often right at the snow-line growing in clusters on deciduous logs. Under outdoor conditions, wild specimens of this mushroom are short-stemmed with caps as wide as the stems are long. The lower portions of the stem have a darkened, velvety fuzz, hence the common name "The Velvet Stem" or "The Velvet Foot". Under artificial cultivation conditions first developed by Japanese growers, cultivated varieties of this mushrooms look entirely different. Manipulation of light, carbon dioxide and temperature conditions creates a beautiful bouquet of delicate, white, long-stemmed (4-5 inches), small-capped (1/3-1/2 inch) mushrooms."

*There's a recipe for smoked oysters, fried spinach and enoki on the Golden Gourmet web-site that looks good although I haven't tried it so can't vouch for it!

....

Friday Fungus: Tagliatelle con funghi e panchetta

Most of the pasta sauces you get involve mince or some sort plus tomatoes. Now don’t get me wrong I like a nice ragu but you will agree that a change is necessary. So I give you bacon and wild mushroom pasta sauce:

You’ll need:

A load of wild mushrooms (or ordinary ones if you can’t get ‘em wild, we’re not really that fussy)
Cubed pancetta (or bacon lardons which are – whatever the Italians might say – essentially the same thing)
One small red onion (or a couple of those nice red shallots)
Herbs (dried sage is best)
Two glasses of Marsala (one for the sauce and one to drink)
Olive oil
Salt & black pepper

Chop the onion and fry with the pancetta in a heavy bottomed frying pan (with a lid) until the onion is softened and the bacon is just starting to curl. Add the roughly chopped mushrooms (how many times have I told you not to chop them too small), the herbs, salt and pepper. Fry a minute or two and then cover – turn the heat right down and cook for about 5 minutes (while you waiting drink the spare glass of Marsala). Add the other glass of Marsala, turn the heat up and mix thoroughly as the alcohol boils off. Remove from the heat and cover again to keep warm.

You will of course have forgotten to boil some salted water for the pasta, so do this now (and have another glass while you’re waiting or maybe a beer). Cook the pasta – I don’t need to tell you have to do that do I? Mix the sauce into the pasta. If you really, really must add some grated Parmesan or mature pecorino.

Note: On making your own pasta

You’ll need:

Bag of 00 Flour
2 eggs
Olive oil
Salt
A large clean surface (some use marble but I use a large wooden board)
A fork
A sieve

Tip the bag of flour onto the centre of the board and make a dent in the top of the pile (like a volcano).

Break the eggs into the dent and add a little oil, salt & pepper. Swirl the fork round and round in the eggs and flour starting from the middle. Soon you will have gooey lump. Remove this from the pile of flour and set to one side. Sieve the flour back into the bag (adding any stray lumps of goo to the main lump).

Imagine the gooey lump is your worst enemy and treat accordingly (i.e. knead it vigorously). You may want to add a little more flour if it gets too sticky. After about 15-20 mins you should have a smooth dough.

Clean the board & then dust it with flour. Get your long rolling pin and roll out the dough pretty thin (OK if you must you can use that pasta machine at the back of the cupboard). Then roll this gently into a long tube. Slice cross wise at ¼ inch intervals.

Unrolled this is your tagliatelle! Takes about 3 or 4 mins in salted boiling water. Enjoy!