Cube mk2 and WIR

[Cinnamon]

You may have heard that Delia has a new book & show out soon about how to cheat at cooking.

I remeber her doing a shore run on cheat recipes about 5 years ago in the Mails weekend supplement,& a lot of them were brilliant. I still cook her 'Prawns Creole' now & use Heinz Tomato Frito which she recommended all the time.

 

Anyhow,last weekend they ran a few 'new' recipes (one of which was the OLD Prawns Creole one I cook,but with a different brand sauce ),including a Shepherds Pie made with tinned meat & Aunt Bessies frozen mash discs.

Thought I would give that one a go,but I made my own good minced Lamb base for it.

 

Anyhow, the frozen mash topping was just fantastic. You really & truly wouldn't know.

 

Its not often I admit to taking a shortcut in my cooking,& even less that I would recommend it to others, but this was really great

[redbug]

the AB mash is BOGOF at morrisons at the moment.

[Ain't Nobody Here]

frozen mash discs.

 

I didn't even know such a thing existed .

[redbug]

niether did I, until i saw in morrisons yesterday (coinsidence) good idea for a quick shepherds pie though. May buy some now!

Pam

[Egluntyne]

Useful to have in for when you need something quick.

 

Divine comfort food....a plate of mash with gravy.

[Guest]

there are some recipes in the Telegraph today.

 

I am afraid though that I have seriously gone off this woman! Her comments this week are exceedingly ignorant and damaging. She has said that it is important to maintain the cheap chicken industry so that the poor can still have nutritious food. Apart from the animal welfare, how can any serious cook think that cheap chicken is nutritious?

 

She has also said that she buys fruit and veg which looks nice. Organic doesn't matter to her. Hasn't she heard of all the chemicals used to grown non-organic food which damage us and the environment?

 

I think her comments are at the best ignorant and rather cynically I am wondering if it is part of a publicity campaign. She will be supported in her comments by all those who don't subscribe to Jamie and Hugh's campaign. I wonder what Hayley will make of her remarks?

[Egluntyne]

Hayley?

[Guest]

Sorry, I thought she was infamous! Hayley was the lady on Hugh's Chicken Out programmes. "I'm a single mother and can't afford free-range chicken. It might suit your budget but it doesn't suit mine!" Hugh was really upset to see her buying '2 for £5' chicken in the supermarket. She was very strident and militant and didn't once say she'd like to support his campaign. Your archetypal ( is that right? It doesn't look it!) council estate common, loud-mouthed woman who seems to think that all her difficulties are someone else's fault.

[Egluntyne]

Aaah of course!....I was thinking of Hayley from Coronation Street and couldn't fathom out the connection!!

[Guest]

She's in Africa!

[Clur]

I can't understand Delia - on one hand she say it's important to be able to buy cheap chicken and sod it if it's free-range or not, but on the other hand she encourages people to buy frozen mash (or other cheats) when it's far cheaper to buy a potato and mash your own.

 

[Egluntyne]

She's in Africa!

So she is!

[Guest]

Delia can do one!

[BeckyBoo]

I think it's terrible and irresponsible for Delia to make those comments. Presumably she agrees with GM tomatoes, cloned sheep and cows that are likely to be turning up in our supermarket meat counters, she also must agree with shooting male calves at birth born to milk cows to keep milk production cheap, to chickens who can't support their own weight for their 39 day lives, for bacon and meat so stuffed full of chemicals and water that if you try to fry it you end up boiling it in its own "juice" and to sausages that are just 35% meat - what the bloomin heck is the other 65%? But it's all cheap, it's got a "reputable" supermarket name on and it looks nice. Well that's alright then. I only own one of her books, it was given to me as a present and I'm off to chuck it in the bin.

She has absolutely made my blood boil, I cannot believe that anyone as "popular" as her, who must be aware of the impact she has on food and product sales, can say that she's not interested in food politics and will carry on teaching the public to cook. I would no more want to cook an artifically coloured beetroot or a cloned lump of lamb or anything else. I'm gobsmacked and, as you can tell, absolutely incensed. The woman is back in the dark ages.

I'm off before I give myself a headache.

(mutters, dreadful woman, dreadful woman)

 

Mrs Bertie

 

AND JUST BECAUSE I CAN'T GET OVER WHAT SHE SAYS I HOPE SHE COMES BACK IN ANOTHER LIFE AS AN INTENSIVELY FARMED CHICKEN AND THEN SHE CAN AT LEAST FEEL THAT SHE'S DOING A POOR PERSON A FAVOUR - FOR 39 DAYS AT LEAST!!!!!

[Guest]

Mrs Bertie, I am so glad you feel like that too. I am absolutely incensed, really really angry.

 

I've got quite a few of her books and I always refer to her online if I need a basic recipe (and there isn't one on the forum!) At the moment I couldn't even handle them, but maybe I should bin them too. I only use her complete Cookery Course anyway, the others don't really seem basic or for the general public (she always uses cream instead of milk for example).

 

Stupid, stupid woman. I really hope she hasn't done as much damage as I suspect she might have done. We should write to the papers. In fact, you have put it so eloquently we could use that!

[Olly]

I heard the interview on R4 Today programme, and was so furious I nearly ran straight to the computer to post on here - but I didn't dare be late for work again!

 

I was very, very disappointed. I grew up 'cooking with Delia' and really rate her recipes, and had a lot of respect for her. She managed in the same interview to say 'I know nothing about it, I don't know about politics' and then go on to say that if we all only ate food that's in season the Third World economy would collapse, and various other rash and unsupported statements - including 'I don't do organic' and the other comments mentioned above.

 

Afraid she has gone right off my list! I won't throw the books out, the recipes still hold good, but I think it's time she retired. I wouldn't be buying her new one anyway - I try to cook with real food, frozen veg are a great time saver, but tinned mince ... no, not for me.

[BeckyBoo]

Can I also add, HOW PATRONISING!! As if "poor people" should only have access to substandard food, I expect they should be grateful too! The only reason that free range or organic food seems so expensive is because it's properly priced, reflecting the input from the farmer into raising or producing the goods. On a 2 for a fiver chicken the farmer makes 3p profit. You can't tell me anyone would continue to produce goods for that measly profit out of choice. The only reason supermarkets have been selling such cheap food is to win battles and wars with other supermarket. It's nothing to do with what's good for the consumer, the farmer or the product itself. 3p profit gives the producer no room whatsoever to take into account animal welfare or improvements in standards of care. It must be very disheartening. We get our meat from a farm in Shackleford, it is very expensive and we're not rich but we made a choice and so we use less of it. They started to supply Waitrose for a while until the supermarket said they wanted the farm to start using their slaughterhouse. So instead of a 15 minute trip to the abbatoir - minimum stress - they were suggesting a 6 hour trip. Thankfully the farmer put his animals first, said no and no longer supplies Waitrose.

 

If anyone is interested in what happens to our animals in the food industry, not just chickens, then you should check out Compassion in World Farming. They really opened my eyes to the horrors of the food industry as directed by the supermarkets and government.

 

www.ciwf.org.uk

 

Mrs Bertie

[Milly]

I heard her on Radio 4 too and was really disappointed, as I used to be a fan. She was criticising Hugh and Jamie for being "political". Well, given the big following they have, it's just as well they are political, because I haven't heard many of our politicians speaking up for animal welfare.

 

And they weren't saying you had to buy free range - only that you should if you could and you should be aware of what it means to provide ridiculously cheap meat. Jamie was even suggesting barn raised hens as an alternative, if raised humanely.

 

But I suppose it gets her even more free publicity.

 

Milly

[Milly]

Oh dear, and another thing. The woman behind me in Morrison's today had one pack mashed potato (£1.09) two of mashed potato and swede (£1.49 each) and two pre-cooked baked potatoes (I couldn't see the price). So, at a rough guess at least £5 for enough potato to feed 6 not very hungry people.

 

Is it really that hard to boil a potato? And all that packaging....

 

Milly

[chelsea]

she could have bought 2 bags of spuds for that and have plenty of potatoes for lots of dishes.

[Milly]

I know. I bet she would say "Oh, I couldn't possibly afford free range chicken".

 

I'm turning into Mrs Grumpy

 

Milly

[harveypup]

Bet she buys diced onions too

[BeckyBoo]

I don't know how anyone who calls themselves a chef can advocate frozen ready made mash, tinned minced lamb, or any of those so called "ready foods". It's an insult to anyone in the food industry. I mean I thought it was common knowledge that most instant foods are stuffed full of cereals to bulk them out, salt to add flavour, stabilisers, flavourings, colourings, for goodness sakes, read the labels. Most of them read like a chemistry lesson. If Ms Smith thinks that it's "OK" for the "poor people" to eat those as they can't afford free range then she's got entirely the wrong end of the stick. The whole point is that EVERYONE should have access to good quality, naturally raised, healthy food. Supermarkets need to reflect honest pricing and not lead people to believe that they can only afford rubbish such as Ms Smith seems to feel she should promote.

I'm still furious a day after hearing her comments, someone made the mistake of asking me what I thought in the pub last night, about an hour later I was still going on - note to self, not everyones as interested as me!

 

Mrs Bertie

[Milly]

I do sometimes buy things ready-made, to save time. But I read the labels - if they contain anything I can't buy myself (ie wierd sounding chemicals and hydrogenated vegetable oil and so on), I don't buy them.

 

But then I enjoy cooking, not everyone does (or can).

 

Milly

[Snowy]

I do sometimes buy things ready-made, to save time. But I read the labels - if they contain anything I can't buy myself (ie wierd sounding chemicals and hydrogenated vegetable oil and so on), I don't buy them.

 

But then I enjoy cooking, not everyone does (or can).

 

Milly

And that is where Delia has shone in the past and where she should continue to ply herself - I learnt most of my cookery skills from her books. Rather than colluding with the belief that lack of money = intensively farmed meat and over processed spuds, she should be educating them in how to buy decent quality meat and serve it up with freshly prepared veg. After all the cost of a free range chicken and a 12.5kg bag of farm spuds would probably cost the same as a cheap chicken and 3 bags of frozen mash The only ones profiting from the latter are the supermarkets and their shareholders.