Gemma Littleton pdf

!" F#o$i"May 2010 I%u" 1 £1.45

Sp&'ig() *+:The histroric city

of Chester

Pr,l": ‘The

Teenage Chef’

Sam Stern

R-.p/: Sizzling

easy-to-cook summer

meals

H.0ts 1n2 T.3s: Getting the most

out of your food

Welcome to the latest install-ment of The

Foodie, the food and cookery magazine for all of those non-chefs out there, those who enjoy the simplicity of cooking yet are un-expe-rienced in the kitchen. This issue is celebrat-ing the re-appearance of the sun in our lives and the impending long, hot nights that make these summer months so special. As always, this issue is

The Foodie May 2010 3

E$.t*rs Letterpacked with sizzling recipes, which are all perfect for the rising temperatures. This month, the Spotlight on section is dedi-cated to the diverse and enigmatic city of Chester. Steeped in history and thriving with local produce, this city is a must-see for the foodie who likes a touch of his-tory with their main course. Also includ-ed in this summer edition of The Food-ie, is an introduction

to the chef Sam Stern, the 19-year-old student who is fast becoming a hit having released five cookbooks all bursting with flavour and inspi-ration. As always, we at The Foodie believe that cooking should be excit-ing and an experience to learn from, not a hard, tiresome chore full of complicated recipes that are difficult to follow. So take our lead, follow our recipes, eat well and have fun! Gemma Littleton The Foodie EditorContents

Pag"4-5678-910-1112-1314-15161718-19

Summer recipes

Summer recipes

Spotlight on ChesterEat on the Cheap

Eat on the Cheap

Profile: Simply Sam

Summer recipes

Hints and Tips

The Foodie Speaks

Summer Recipes

S45m6r

The Foodie May 20104

Easy homemade burgers with tomato and onion relish

Serves 4300g lean beef mince 2 cloves of garlic1 large white onion, finely choppedMixed dried herbsCrushed chilies (optional)1 tbsp olive oil (will need more if you choose to fry the burgers.) Salt and black pepper1 egg (beaten)

For the relish:2 large tomatoes 1 red onionOlive oilBalsamic vinegar Salt and black pepper.

1. Mix the mince, sea-sonings and herbs in a bowl, add the chili flakes if you want your burgers to have a bit more of a bite.2. Gently fry the garlic and onion until soft. Try not to colour them as this means that they have been cooked too

much. 3. Mix the onions and garlic into the mince, then add the egg to act as a bind-ing for the mixture. Be careful not to add too much as this will make the burgers too sloppy. 4. Shape the burgers

and set aside to chill for about an hour to al-low the mixture to fully bind together. Use this time to make the tomato and onion relish. 5. Preheat the grill, or pan depending on the cooking method you choose. Cook the burg-ers for about 4 minutes

on either side, depend-ing on how well done you would like them.

For the relish:1. Chop the tomato and onion, mix them togeth-er in a bowl.2. Add a generous pour-ing of olive oil. Pour in the balsamic vinegar

Recipes

The Foodie May 2010 The Foodie May 2010 5

according to your taste; be aware that a little goes along way.3. Season with salt and pepper.

HintYou can substitue a third of the mince meat for bread-crumbs as a cheap-er option.

Easy homemade burgers with tomato and onion relish

Serves 4300g lean beef mince 2 cloves of garlic1 large white onion, finely choppedMixed dried herbsCrushed chilies (optional)1 tbsp olive oil (will need more if you choose to fry the burgers.) Salt and black pepper1 egg (beaten)

For the relish:2 large tomatoes 1 red onionOlive oilBalsamic vinegar Salt and black pepper.

Above: Homemade burrger


Chili chips with garlic and lemon dip

Serves: 23 or 4 Large potatoes Salt and black pepperOlive oilDried chili flakes

For the dip:4 tbsp mayonnaise2 cloves of garlic (very finely chopped)

Above: Chili Chips

Juice of 1 lemon

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Wash the potatoes, you may peel the skins if you wish but it is not neces-sary for this recipe. Cut them into chip sizes, whether that is chunky or French fry style, they taste just as good either way.2. Lay the potatoes on a baking tray,

season with the salt and pepper and driz-zle with the oil.3. Sprinkle the chili flakes and toss the potatoes until all are covered in the chili oil.4. Cook in the oven for about? Until the chips are golden and crispy.

For the dip:

1. Mix about half of

the chopped garlic in with the mayonnaise in a bowl.2. Add half of the lemon juice to the mixture and stir so that it mixes well with the mayonnaise and garlic.3. Taste the dip, and add more garlic or lem-on juice according to your preference. Make it to your own flavour.

S45m6r Recipes


Above: Chili Chips

the chopped garlic in with the mayonnaise in a bowl.2. Add half of the lemon juice to the mixture and stir so that it mixes well with the mayonnaise and garlic.3. Taste the dip, and add more garlic or lem-on juice according to your preference. Make it to your own flavour.

Sp&Lig() *+: Chester

By Gemma Littleton

Following the suc-cess of last year,

Chester tourism board are yet again running the unique ‘A Taste of Chester’ walking tours. The tour allows visitors to the city to indulge in a sensory journey of Chester, combining the cities thriving 2,000-year history with the food that it has produced through the genera-tions of time. The guided walk will take visi-tors throughout the city, starting from the Town Hall and work-ing its way around the many eateries and delis that are a promi-

Experience a taste of what Chester has to offer

nent feature of the cities appeal. A spokes-person for Ches-ter tourism board said: “After the success of last year’s walking tours, it was ob-vious that it was popular enough to bring it back for a second year. The tour is special because you get to experience the history of the city from a different angle to what al-ternative tours of-fer and of course you get to fill your belly along the way.” Food that will be sampled will vary from

cheeses, to breads and cakes, local meats and plenty of other enticing nib-bles to tempt your taste buds. The tour will return to the streets of Chester from Saturday 1st May, and will run every Saturday and Thurs-day thereafter until October 31st, leav-ing at 2pmand lasting approxi-mately an hour and a half. The price of the guided tour is £5 for adults, with concessions at a discount rate. For tickets contact the Chester tourism board on 0845 647 7868.

S45m6r Recipes

The hotel itself is an odd mismatch of furniture and dé-cor, much like the crowd that it attracts, a combination of stu-dents and the older generations, sprinkled with a few families on the weekend. However it was not an unpleasant dining experience, the atmosphere was what you would expect from any pub on a Wednesday night, a low murmur of customers at the bars and ta-bles. The staff were pleasant and approachable, however we were a little unsure as to whether it was table service or if we were expect-ed to order at the bar and after several minutes of waiting to be told, we decided for ourselves that it was the latter.

Eat

8 The Foodie May 2010

*+ t(" George and DragonBy Gemma Littleton

The George and Dragon Hotel’s two for £7 meal deal is no doubt success-

ful for a hotel which is situat-ed so close in proximity to the University of Chester boasting hundreds of students who are looking for a cheaper option to dining out. I was curious to experience the quality of these meals, when they can be sold for as little as £3.50 each.

C(/t6r Sp-i17

The menu choice obviously was not as extensive had we chosen from the main menu, however it was not too dis-appointing. There would have been at least one meal that should be to a cus-tomers taste. The only meal that was not on the deal, which I would of expected to be so was some sort of burger, as I would of imagined this to be a popular option. Although next to the deal menu there

was the list of burgers meal which were all priced around the £4.50 mark, so it would not be too much of a variant off £7 if you both chose to have a burger meal. I chose the chicken ceasar salad, and my companion went for the hunter’s chicken which was described as a chicken breast topped with cheese , bacon Above: Front view of the hotel

Eat


*+ t(" Cheap

Above: Chicken ceasar salad

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and a bbq sauce. The food was served in less than 15 minutes, which for what we ordered, was in good time. The dishes were presented well, as the accompanying pictures demonstrate, the ceasar salad in particular looking very appetising, although as this was my dish I am slightly biased. The ceasar salad ticked the majority of the boxes of what it should be, plenty of croutons and chicken, ample parme-san shavings served on crunchy lettuce leaves.

The only downfall of this pleasant meal was that, in my opinion, the taste of the ceasar sauce was over powered by the parmesan cheese, therefore it could of done with having a little more of the sauce drizzled over the chicken. The hunter’s chick-en, which was served with chunky chips and salad, was a fairly large chicken breast which was covered in lashings of the bbq, therefore disguising any dryness of the chicken it-self. Having had a similar meal at a different restau

rant, although it was sold under a completely different name, I know that the combination of chicken, bacon, cheese and bbq flavours, all work exceptionally well together. It seemed my part-ner agreed with this opinion, although again , as with the ceasar salad, one taste did seem to dominate the meal, that of the bbq sauce. The

chips were chunky and crisp, and there was just the right amount to compliment the size of the chicken breast, therefore leaving the customer pleasantly full. Overall, the meals that we experienced for £3.50 each were a lot more than what our expectations were set at. The portion sizes were just right, and the crucial flavours were there in both of the dishes. I would definitely dine at The George and Dragon hotel again, purely for the reason that it is excellent value for money. The George and Dragon Hotel: 01244 380 714.

10 The Foodie May 2010

Chez Jules

By Gemma Littleton

When you think of a cheap student meal, a French restaurant

boasting gourmet type dishes is not what usually comes to mind. However, Chez Jules is the perfect combination of both. The Monday student offer, which is also avail-able on Tuesdays for non-students, consists of two courses from the menu which changes daily and a bottle of house wine for the very reasonable price of £15. The choice on the menu was excellent and it was encouraging to see that we were given the same menu

as fellow diners who were not tak-ing part in the £15 deal. My part-ner, who is a vegetarian, was also impressed by the menu choice which offered a non-meat option and plenty of fish dishes. Wanting to have a truely French dining experience, I chose the frogs legs for a starter, which were served in a creamy garlic sauce on a bed of sautéed cabbage. The were absolutely delightful. The sauce compli-mented the slightly fish taste of the legs, which the cabbage gave a sharp contrast in flavours in comparison to the creamy sauce. My partner decided on the mus-sels, which was served in typical moules marinière sauce. They smelt beautiful and her empty bowl indicated that they tasted how they smelt. The main course was slightly trickier to decide on con-sidering that there was at least five dishes that I would have been more than happy to pay full price for. Eventually I went for the rib eye steak, which was served with

a red wine and stilton sauce. The steak was cooked to perfection, which to my liking is slightly pink in the centre, and it truly did melt in the mouth. The accompanying sauce was very rich and there was a lot of it which was a positive thing as it went su-perbly with the steak. My partner chose the vegetarian option as opposed to another fish dish, which was a mushroom and courgette ratatouille served with a slightly seasoned stack of couscous rice. She commented that the ratatouille was excel-lent with a combina-tion of vegetables in it other than just mush-rooms and courgette. Also she said that there was just enough

of the rice to soak up the to-mato base of the sauce and that the slight season-ing of the cous-cous was subtle yet combined perfectly with the more domi-nate flavours of the ratatouille. Both dishes were served with an accompanying vegetable platter which consisted of beautiful po-tato dauphinoise, new potatoes, carrots, cour-Above: Chez Jules

11The Foodie May 2010 The Foodie May 2010

gettes and broccoli. The only criticism of the main course was that the vegetable side was served in a rather small dish for the amount of vegeta-bles there meaning that every-thing was just piled on top of each other and the sauce from the dauphinoise potatoes over powered the other individual flavours. The wine that was included in the offer was a 12 per cent French white and for a extra £2 there was the option to upgrade to a more reserve wine, however we felt that the house wine which we sampled could not be faulted and was more than adequate in complimenting the food. The restaurant itself succeeds in creating a Europe-an ambiance. The menus were all handwritten which added to the shabby chic charm of the restaurant. If you are after a fine dining experience yet are re-stricted by the purse strings, I would recommend the reces-

sion busting Chez Jules time and time again. The food is exquisite, the staff were friendly and welcoming and the whole

Above: The vegetarian option

Pizza express - 2 for £12 - Visit www.pizzaex-press.co.uk

La Tasca - 50% off - Visit www.latasca.co.uk

Slug and Lettuce - 25% off - Visit www.slugan-dlettuce.co.uk

Cafe Rouge - 2 for 1 - Visit www.caferouge.co.uk

Zizzie - Buy 1 main course, get the second for £1 - Visit www.zizzi.co.uk

Pizza Hut - 2 for 1 - Visit www.pizzahut.co.uk

The Sushi Bar Chester - 25% for students - Valid student I.D. is necessary

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experience was an enjoy-able one. For £15, this deal is one not to

be missed. Chez Jules: 01244 400 014

Eat on the Cheap also recommends:


S.58ly S19: With Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey rally-ing behind him, it is no wonder that Sam Stern is fast becoming a student sensation in the food industry. Gemma Littleton takes a closer look at the chef who is on a mis-sion to get the young-er generation in the kitchen.

Sam Stern could be

described as any

other teenager.

Favouring programmes

such as The Mighty

Boosh and Family guy,

listening to The Kooks

or Kings of Leon, fairly

normal teenager char-

acteristics you may say.

Yet Sam is not just any

normal teenager, he is

the Teenage Chef.

Having achieved

the impressive task of

publishing his first cook-

book at the young age of

14, Sam has since grown

and developed into a ma-

ture chef who brings

a simplicity to the art

of cooking, going onto

releasing a further

four books. The latest

book ‘Eat Vegetarian’,

is packed full of easy,

delicious vegetarian

dishes although Sam

insists that even the

most dedicated meat

eaters out there will be

swayed by some of his

recipes.

“The first book

was really for kids like

me, who enjoy food

and are eager to learn

more about cooking

simple dishes. I was

lucky, as from a young

age I watched my

mother in the kitchen

and picked up most of

my skills from her. I

wanted to teach young

people that cooking is

fun and can actually be

quite cool.”

Raised in North

Yorkshire with a large

family of three sisters

and one brother, Sam

had what he would call

a “normal, busy, bus-

tling childhood”. So

did the young Sam al-

ways dream of becom-

ing a culinary whiz kid

when her grew up?

“I was always

torn between wanting

to become a vet or a

fireman when I was

young, been a chef

didn’t even come into

my head. I just knew

that I was passionate

about food and cook-

ing came naturally to

me.”

There is some-

thing very refreshing

and innocent about

Sam’s take on food.

He believes that it is

for us to enjoy and ex-

periment with. There

are no fancy pomp-

ous attitudes when it

comes to his recipes,

preferring to create

simple, honest dishes

such as ‘Banging sau-

sage casserole’ and

‘Chicken strippers’.

And as if be-

coming a chef extraor-


S.58ly S19: The Teenage

Chefdinaire was not time-

consuming enough,

Sam is current study-

ing politics and sociol-

ogy at the University

of Edinburgh.

“I love univer-

sity, it is such a dif-

ferent experience to

live away from home.

Although the cleanli-

ness of the kitchen

in my student flat is

somewhat to be de-

sired, I have often felt

the need to wash my

hands after merely

using the oven gloves.

But that is student life

I suppose.”

Chef, student,

teenager. Sam Stern

is all of these things,

yet in his own mod-

est opinion he is “just

simply Sam” and there

is no doubt that we

will be seeing, hearing

and watching a great

deal more of this chef

in the future.

Sam Stern’s Eat Veg-

etarian is out now.

“I wanted to teach young people that cooking is fun and cool.”


S45m6r Recipes Chili, Lemon and Prawn Pasta

500g Cooked prawns 1 clove of garlic (finely chopped)1 onion (finely chopped)A handful of sesame seedsChili flakes1 lemon1 jar of Sundried tomatoes (keep the oil) Spaghetti

1. Fry the garlic and onion, using the oil from the sundried to-matoes, until soft, do not colour. Boil the water for the pasta, and slowly cook the spaghetti while the other stages are been completed.2. Add the sesame seeds and brown them off.3. Throw in the prawns and cook

them with the onions and gar-lic for about 4 minutes. Most prawns that you buy frozen are al-ready pre-cooked, so you should not need to cook the prawns for any longer than 4 min-utes.4. Sprinkle over the chili flakes, tasting as you do

so that you do not overpower the other flavours.5. Squeeze the juice of 1 lemon and stir into the sauce mixture.6. Roughly chop the sundried toma-toes and toss them into the mixture. The tomatoes do not need to be overcooked, take care not to let them burn.7. Mix in the pasta with the prawn mixture, ensur-ing that the sauce from the oil cover each spaghetti strand.8. Serve with a fur-ther sprinkling of sesame seeds and the other half of the lemon juice.


Recipes

Above: Chili Prawn pasta


H.0ts and T.3sMaking the most out of your food and money

Cook meals in batches and freeze them, this way when the money is abit tighter or you do not have time to cook from scratch, you already have a meal prepared.

Get organised, plan what you are going to cook and write a shopping list. This way you only buy what you need.

To refresh day-old bread, run it under a cold tap and then re-heat it in the oven for 5 minutes.

Add lentils or other dried beans/peas to meat dishes to pad them out when you only have a lit-tle amount to cook with.

Shop at yor local butcher/baker when shopping for just yourself where you can purchase just one of items, instead of buying multiples at the supermarket.


The FoodieSpe1:sLets eat local!

By Gemma Littleton

In an age where every-thing can be obtained at the click of a button, with food shopping completed in a flash, has the true enjoyment of food shopping been lost forever?Here at The Foodie, we believe that you can-not beat the thrill and excitement of trekking down to the farmers market on a Sunday morning, and expe-riencing the smells, sights and sounds. It is a worrying devel-opment that so many customers are willing to purchase food items online, without even the chance to see what they will later be con-suming. As a magazine that are passionate about local food, it

seems ludicrous that so many people are happy to spend their money on overpriced food items at the super-markets, where there is such a plentiful array of fresh food available within local distance. Not only does shopping local have its obvious benefits such as boosting the econo-my of the area in which you live, the food that you are purchasing will only be in-season food. Therefore you are in the knowledge that the produce has not been flown in from some far-flung country-requiring plane and cargo travel therefore an obvious in-crease in carbon emis-sions. The produce that you find at your local farmers market will taste fresh and look vibrant, therefore mak-ing your cooking more appealing and enticing. If you are shopping

and cooking for just one person, then the benefits of buying directly from the butchers or bakers are that you can just buy one item of what you need or want. Whereas if you shop at the super-market, you are often required to buy multiple items in packs, leading to a waste of food and your money. Obviously not every town will have a farm-ers market, but most will have a small, independent butchers, bakers or greengrocers and just by simply shopping at these local amenities will make a differ-ence to your towns economy and ulti-mately your enjoy-ment in cooking.

S45m6r


Potato and onion soup with crispy bacon pieces.

450g white potatoes 1 onion3 or 4 rashers of bacon50g Butter850ml veg stock or waterFew sprigs of fresh parsley3 tablespoons of milkSalt and pepper to season 1 rasher of bacon to finish

1. Dice potatoes into small chunks, chop the onions very fine-ly.

2. Melt butter in a pan. Add the onions and flavour with the salt. Cook for one minute until soft. Add the bacon.

3. Stir in the potatoes.

4. Sweat them, cover with the lid of the saucepan for about 10 min-utes, allowing to gently simmer.

5. Add the stock or water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer again for about 10 min-utes.

6. Add the parsley, and blitz with the hand blender. Stir in the milk and reheat.

7. Season and ad-just to your taste, serve with bits of crispy bacon sprinkled on top.

HintIf you dont have access to a hand blender, you can simply mash the potatoes with a fork or a masher.

Recipes


Documents

Gemma Littleton pdf