Zelda'sZecrets

10:10:21 o'clock BST
Zelda's Zecrets has been taking a short break but will be back soon!

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11:53:16 o'clock BST

DAFT is a fundraising group which supports a whole range of animal charities. This week I cooked a meal for some of the members to raise money for the Redwings Horse Sanctuary. Here is the menu.

Starters

Fresh Orange Juice

Curried Parsnip Soup

Spinach, Soft Cheese and Red Pepper Filo Parcels

 

Main Courses

Quorn and Leek Pie

Vegetarian Sausage and Mash

Potato, Cheese and Spring Onion Tart

All served with a selection of fresh vegetables

 

Desserts

Crème Brulee

Apple Crumble

Cheese and Biscuits

These recipes and more are available at The Secret Vegetarian and Vegetarian Delirium

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16:56:55 o'clock BST

Safety in the kitchen is very important. It is important for adults and for children. When you think about it, you have blades, high temperatures, boiling water, heated surfaces, sharp points, naked flames, etc. etc. That means that everyone should take reasonable precautions in order to ensure that major accidents are avoided and minor accidents are kept to a minimum. But this all has to be put into perspective. I have cut my fingers with a knife and I have burnt my hands on the oven shelves but I have not been scarred for life and if I was overly concerned about my previous mishaps then I would not be able to cook at all now. When I was six and I fell off the roundabout in the park I was encouraged to get on and try again, not to abandon it for good.

I have taught in schools and I understand the importance of risk assessment but we must all be prepared to take a few risks in order to develop and improve and enjoy ourselves.

Children should not be left alone in the kitchen. But with support and supervision there is no reason why they cannot help to make any recipe. I believe it is better for them to witness and assist in the preparation of normal everyday meals rather than to make an endless stream of chocolate crispie cakes.

One of my earliest and proudest memories is of helping my Mum to make pasties. She chopped the onions while I had a fine attempt at mixing the fat and flour for the pastry. I positioned the fillings and she crimped the edges. When the pasties were served to all at dinnertime I was proud of them. I had cooked. I saw people tuck in and enjoy. My Mum will insist that she was not a great cook. What she means by this is that she did not create new dishes each day from exotic ingredients purchased fresh from the market. What she did do, and did brilliantly, was to feed a family a set of tasty and nutritious meals and it is exactly this skill which we need to encourage in our children. If we are ever to avoid being a nation of obese, fast-food-ready-meal junkies we need to trust children, under our instruction and our watchful eyes, to use knives and grills and kettles.

See Junior Jamies my new feature on The Secret Vegetarian

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11:38:07 o'clock BST

I have lost count of the number of occasions that the first time someone new finds out that I am a vegetarian, they say “So was Hitler”. What am I supposed to say in return? “Oh, I didn’t realise that – you’d better order me a steak, then”?

Hitler was a vegetarian. But it was not the absence of meat in his diet that made him an evil dictator and there has not, as yet, been proven to be any direct correlation between beansprouts and a maniacal quest for world domination.

It is interesting to consider though, that thirty years ago vegetarians were all aligned with left-wing hippies and now we are increasingly associated with the world’s most notorious fascist.

As far as I can see, it all goes to prove one undeniable fact: There are vegetarians in all walks of life and vegetarianism is the result of an individual choice which can be totally separate from and not necessarily influenced by politics, ethics, philosophy, theology, background or culture.

Hitler, like myself (and an ever-growing number of others), made a personal decision not to eat meat. In that respect we are alike. But by excluding animal protein from my diet I am not associating myself with him in any other way. We have something in common but to imply that one such similarity places me standing shoulder to shoulder with him is about as reasonable as suggesting that everyone who sports a moustache is anti-semitic.

It is always interesting to know the names of other members of any club to which you belong. My own website, The Secret Vegetarian has a section on Famous Vegetarians. But we rarely resign our membership because seven decades ago an associate member behaved in a way we all despise.

Vegetarianism is not reserved for the great and the good. You do not have to pass a test in human compassion in order to be allowed to join. There are no specific intellectual criteria for membership. Some people give up meat for their health, some refrain for religious or cultural reasons. Some see that little lamb skipping across the field, full of the joys of spring, and cannot afterwards contemplate enjoying the taste of its dead flesh. But I would hesitate to say that there are many people who have decided not to eat meat out of respect for a megalomaniac who terrorised the world over sixty years ago.

So by all means question whether vegetarianism is a choice you wish to make and by all means question my motives and ask me about it and why I devise recipes which use quorn mince instead of lamb. But don’t dismiss my choice because of one man. Just think about how ridiculous that would be.

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09:38:58 o'clock BST

Spring is here. It’s official. And just to prove it, this weekend the clocks even went forward. So we should now be having lighter evenings and warmer weather alongside the birdsong and daffodils. But this time of year always creates two problems – what to wear and what to eat. Look along any city street and you will probably see that most people choose to solve the former in the same way – jeans and a jumper (with a t-shirt underneath) or jeans and a t-shirt (with a jumper around their waist). But the latter can prove to be more of a dilemma. Is it warm enough for a salad? Do we still fancy stew? If you want something warm and filling yet light and easy to make try these Cheese and Onion Fritters also found at the new Spring Is Sprung section of Vegetarian Delirium.

 

CHEESE AND ONION FRITTERS

 

Makes 6 fritters

 

200g/8oz plain unbleached flour

2tsp baking powder

2tsp salt

1tsp black pepper

2 free range eggs

280ml/½pt milk

2 tbsp melted butter

1 onion

2 handfuls grated cheese

oil for frying

 

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper.

Beat the eggs with themilk and melted butter.

Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients.

Add the grated cheese and stir.

Chop the onion into small pieces and fry until brown and soft.

Add to the mixture.

Fry in oil until browned on both sides and cut to shape if required.

 

 

Tags: recipe, vegetarian, spring

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18:32:39 o'clock GMT

Not just for children, this clever animation is both an exploration and celebration of fine cuisine.

Remy the Rat is a would-be-chef and food lover whose enthusiasm for ingredients, flavours and creativity is the driving force of the narrative and is illustrated beautifully by the graphics. His mentor, the late Auguste Gusteau (clever plays on words abound), famously declared that “Anyone Can Cook”. The film shows that, while this is true, dedication combined with a love and understanding of food is also extremely important. Linguini, the heir apparent, is sadly lacking in these areas and it is only with Remy’s assistance that he can succeed in the restaurant business.

Other characters are well-executed stereotypes. Tyrannical and unprincipled Skinner represents the fast food industry, while the feisty female chef, Collette, is trying to make her mark in a male-dominated world. Anton Ego, the food critic, is cold, thin and evil until he experiences the ratatouille which reminds him of his childhood.

Many themes are explored throughout the film. The relationship between rats and humans is always a tenuous one, founded on mistrust and challenged by Linguini’s dependence upon Remy. There is also conflict within Remy as he is torn between loyalty to members of his family (who want him to allow them access to the storeroom) and his own ambition.

The animation itself is superb. The movement of the rats shows fine observation while the atmosphere of Paris and the ‘life’ of a professional kitchen are captured perfectly. There is a documentary as part of  the DVD package which discusses the similarities between producing a fine film and a fine plate of food (creativity, hard work, visualisation of the effect on the recipient, etc.)

The characters are voiced by a host of famous names such as Brian Dennehy, Ian Holm and Peter O’Toole but they all work well. Janeane Garofolo is superb as Collette and Jamie Oliver is the health inspector.

Of course we know there will be a happy ending but how this happens is interestingly played out and it is only when everyone is honest and open that they achieve real success.

This film is surely an inspiration for children and I can imagine that many will want to try cooking after watching it.

 

Foodie Films at Vegetarian Delirium

 

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10:58:23 o'clock GMT

So you just had to come back after five years to solve our modern culinary dilemmas as only you can. How did we ever manage without you? You conveniently forget, or fail to notice, that the likes of Jamie Oliver are always showing us how to cook fine food in minutes. You have obviously never watched 'Ready Steady Cook'. Instead you believe that, like some dormant super-hero, you have been summoned back to save us from our own lasagnes. Yet I have never seen such a self-indulgent cookery programme. The current fad for the 'at home' format works when the chef has personality but to spend a large section of the air time schmoozing with footballers was both unnecessary and about as interesting as waiting for your cake made with mashed potato (why?) to come out of the oven.

Yet the bandwagon is already rolling. Already products featured in the show are being promoted on the back of their inclusion, with the oft-quoted 'Delia Effect' probably being bandied around hundreds of advertising agencies across the land. You can justifiably accuse me of sour grapes. If the name Zelda Manners could be used to sell copious amounts of tofu I would happily sit back and rake in a commission. And, I suppose, with millions of cookery book sales to your name you can afford to be so confident that the public will hang on your every word. But footballers know when it is time to hang up their boots and even super-heroes eventually retire. Maybe you, too, are now past your sell by date.

Visit my websites The Secret Vegetarian and Vegetarian Delirium.

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18:41:04 o'clock GMT

We are supposed to be undergoing a food revolution in this country. We are now being educated in nutrition each time we shop so that we make the correct choices about the food we consume at home. Our school children have the opportunity, even if not always the inclination, to purchase a healthy midday meal. New initiatives to tackle obesity seem to be announced daily.

 

I visited a sick relative in hospital on a few occasions this week and was shocked to see the quality of food on offer to the patients. My first thought was repulsion. My second, later, was to wonder why there had been no similar ‘Jamie Oliver’ style campaign in this area. So I searched ‘hospital food’ on the internet. And, guess what, there was, back in 2001! This was its mission statement:

The Better Hospital Food initiative recognises that patients have a right to expect good quality, nutritious food, served to them at times which suit them, by staff who understand the important role that food plays in the care patients receive.

 

Loyd Grosmann, no less, was appointed Chair, working with leading chefs including Mark Hix and Michael Caines, to improve the situation. Call me cynical, but it seems to me that the project was doomed from the start when item number one on the agenda was ‘a new design for the printed menu, to make it more easily understandable’, with ‘a new NHS Menu with many exciting new dishes and a fresh look at some old favourites’ following on behind. There was no mention whatsoever of the state the food is in when it reaches the wards.

 

If what I witnessed this week is indicative of improved standards I thank my lucky stars I wasn’t in hospital in 2001. However, let us assume that with these august personages at the helm some improvements did occur. Yet, in The Observer Food Monthly on Sunday September 24 2006, Jay Rayner was still outraged to write about ‘thick, salty soup that looks like wallpaper paste, clearly made from artificially flavoured powder; a chicken-and-ham pie boasting a crust with all the texture of furniture foam and none of the flavour; inside, a meagre serving of misshapen, mechanically recovered 'meat' and a white sauce that is as claggy as the soup; dry mashed potato; over-cooked cabbage; a brick of cake with custard served cold.’

 

Undeterred, it seems, in October 2007, in ‘Managing Your Organisation’, the Department of Health, although not addressing the quality of the food, did decide to consider another reason why many patients were leaving their meals. ‘Protected mealtimes are periods on a hospital ward when all non-urgent clinical activity stops. During these times, patients are able to eat their meals without interruption and staff are readily available to offer help to those who need it. Research shows that patients whose mealtimes are protected eat more and are better nourished, improving their chances of recovery.’ Staff readily available to offer help with eating? From what I can see, staff are hard-pressed to offer help with pain relief.

The same document does recognise that  ‘Patients who receive good nutrition may have shorter hospital stays, fewer post-operative complications and less need for drugs and other interventions’. However, it still seems mistaken in its ideas of how to improve the situations. Again, it returns to the menus – ‘NHS menus traditionally change daily over 1-3 week cycles. This gives patients a choice of dishes over a week, but not so many to choose from each day. Flexi-menu systems offer a fixed menu for both lunch and evening meals, allowing patients to select the food they enjoy more than once. This increased choice may help to reduce food waste’. This is better than nothing but you only have to look at the food on the plate when it arrives in the ward to see that such a plan cannot work until increased choice is accompanied by increased standards of cooking and presentation. And whilst reducing food waste is advantageous it should surely be a secondary benefit rather than a primary aim.

 Even ‘Which?’, supposedly the consumer’s champion, offers this advice to people expecting a spell in hospital: ‘If your hospital stay is planned, make sure you eat a healthy and balanced diet with plenty of fruit and vegetables in the run up to your admission.’ That just about says it all.

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21:04:15 o'clock GMT

It seems we can't turn on the TV or radio or pick up a newspaper these days without being reminded of the latest increases in the price of food. There is a very simple solution to this: Cook your own! No-one doubts the convenience of ready meals but, if you have the time, there is nothing to beat home-made food and now there is an even greater incentive to make it.

As an experiment, using Sainsbury's website (although I could have equally used one of any of the other major supermarket's) I searched the cost of a loaf of bread prepared in-store with one which I could bake at home. The Sainsbury's loaf cost 99p. I could make the same for 60p with many of the ingredients left-over for the future. I tried the same experiment with houmous. The cheapest pre-prepared product cost £1.05. I could make the same (using ingredients from the same supermarket) for 87p, again with many items able to be used again.

Time is an issue here, of course, but with a breadmaker, the only time you need to spend is in preparation, and that is less than it takes to make a cup of coffee! Houmous is quick and easy and so are many other recipes. With the cost of  food set to get even higher, home cooking is definitely the way to go! For more ideas see www.ZeldaManners.com

 

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17:08:16 o'clock GMT

...is a great community!

This is the latest one I've found: http://simpledailyrecipes.com/great-cooks-blogroll/

If recipes include meat, just substitute it. For help on doing this see The Secret Vegetarian

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