Start The Day Well

Start The Day Well

Why not start the day as you mean to go on, with devilled kidneys?

Ingredients

This will serve two:

• 8 fresh lambs' kidneys, halved (some prefer to remove the cores as well)



• 1 small onion or shallot, finely chopped



• 1 teaspoon of English mustard powder



• 2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce



• 1 tablespoon of tabasco sauce



• 2 tablespoons of tomato puree



• 1 teaspoon of cayenne pepper



• 4 cloves of fresh garlic chopped



• Coarse ground black pepper to taste



• Olive oil

Method

• Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan, and gently saute the onion and garlic



• When soft, add all the other ingredients (except for the kidneys)



• Mix thoroughly, then add the kidneys and saute for a few minutes on a medium heat until cooked

Serve on hot buttered toast.

Alternatively this makes an ideal lunch or dinner with saute potatoes or rice.

Enjoy!

My Compliments To Sir Terence

My Compliments To Sir Terence

Lady Conran, the wife of Sir Terence Conran (design guru, restauranteur and gourmet), has given an interview in the November edition of Waitrose Food Illustrated.

In the interview she notes that her husband does not like food that has been "dicked around with"; his preference is for simple things such as, boiled bacon, gammon and stews.

Quite right, I have been pushing the "simple food" message on this site for several years now, I couldn't agree more!

Partridge Off The Menu

Partridge Off The Menu

Those of you with a penchant for partridge may be a little disappointed this season. Partridge will be off the menu in many of London's top restaurants, because of an outbreak of fowl disease at Fenton Barns farm in East Lothian Scotland.

A government spokeswoman said that the farm was being monitored after the outbreak of Newcastle disease last week. Around 14,000 grey partridges being reared for the table have been culled.

Keith Chalmers Watson, owner of the Fenton Barns farm, said that demand was usually around 18,000 birds for this time of year.

Quote:

"There will be some disappointment for diners looking for partridge in restaurants between now and Christmas."

Scary Salads

Scary Salads

Seemingly you can take a fast food addict to salad, but you cannot make him eat it.

That at least is the conclusion of McDonald's, which have lost its core UK customers by putting a new range of healthy salads on its menu

The McDonald's UK chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, said that the chain intends to go back to basics by concentrating on burgers.

Mr Easterbrook said:

"In the past we have seemed somewhat apologetic about who and what we are, but you have to believe in the brand.

Our menu has evolved, and we now have a much broader range of salads and sandwiches. But we were alienating customers by pushing our salads."

People find salads boring, that's the trouble.

Truffles

Truffles

Those of you who have a fondness for truffles may have been able to pick up a "bargain" the other day at a charity auction.

Five Italian white winter truffles, which weighed in total 1kg and included one which weighed 350g, were bought for a mere £11500. The original price estimate had been much in excess of that.

The money raised will go to the Seven Springs Foundation, a charity that supports children with special needs and their families.

Burger Off!

Burger Off!

Proving yet again that the Olympics is about money and sponsorship, not about sport, the British Olympic Organising Committee have landed themselves in an embarrassing situation with regard to one of the sponsors (McDonald's) for the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The Green Party is demanding to know how McDonald's, the burger chain, fits in with promises to promote locally grown food. It should also be noted that the British government is currently conducting a very assertive healthy eating/anti obesity campaign in the UK, as such some people could argue that to associate itself with a promoter of fast food is a tad hypocritical.

The London organising committee, needless to say, are insisting that McDonald's would not have any exclusive control over catering and would be just one of a range of outlets supplying food.

Rather laughably McDonald's is the "official restaurant" (how on earth can anyone describe McDonald's as a restaurant?) of the Games, as a result of a long-term deal with the International Olympic Committee.

Money first, health and sport second!

The Roast Beef of Olde England

The Roast Beef of Olde England

I dined at Simpson's in The Strand last Friday, and was moved to publish the following article in Nanny Knows Best.

Read it here The Roast Beef of Olde England.

London Wins By Landslide

London Wins By Landslide

The Which? Good Food Guide 2007 ranks London as the out and out winner of the UK dining scene.

London restaurants account for over 25% of the entries in the guide.

London has 333 entries compared to the next best, Manchester, which trails in with just 26 entries.

The Good Food Guide names Gordon Ramsay in London, The Fat Duck in Berkshire and Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Oxfordshire as the three venues with the best standards of cooking in the UK.

Its editor Andrew Turvil said:

"London has run away with the title, unsurprisingly, given the size of the population and the number of tourists it attracts. No other UK city can compete, just as Chelsea have dominated the Premiership these last few years."

The Which? Good Food Guide 2007 is based on recommendations from thousands of diners. Anonymous, independent inspectors then visited more than 1,200 venues which feature in the book.

The top places for dining out in the UK are as follows, as judged by the number of entries in the Which? Good Food Guide 2007.

London - 333

Manchester - 26

Edinburgh - 22

Leeds - 14

Glasgow - 13

Birmingham - 11

Brighton - 11

Oxford - 11

Bath - 9

Belfast - 9

Bristol - 9.