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FoodRevolution

Food Revolution Day – Food education back on the menu

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Sign the petition www.change.org/jamieoliver

Today is Food Revolution Day, the day on which we come together from all over the world to pull on the same end of the rope. A better future for our children is what is aimed at here, and better food education will bring that.
At a time when 42 million children under the age of five alone are overweight, we need to take action against this enormous epidemic.

In the olden days when the girls were supposed to marry to spend their lives cooking and cleaning for their husbands, girls were taught their skills in school and from their mothers. Today luckily us ladies aren’t chained to the stove and washing basket anymore, but with our emancipation, slowly domestic housekeeping lessons disappeared from the schools.

So many people don’t know how to cook from scratch because they weren’t taught the basic skills to make a meal. It is of vital importance that cooking skills, and even growing food is put back on the schools learning plans. With a growing world population, we need to reduce food waste, and to do this, we need to cook more and learn how to deal with leftovers. It might seem so straight forward to you, whipping up an easy dinner after work, but for so many people out there it is a daily struggle. Those trying to survive on a tight budget have it even worse when they don’t know how to cook.

I can always make a meal, it might be a strange dish sometimes, but it is always tasty. You tend to take that skill for granted. I know I did, it is only when you talk to someone who really can’t cook that you understand that cooking is often a talent you’re born with but others need to learn it. I learned from Jamie’s Naked Chef Series because my mum wasn’t really the type to teach you how to cook, she had a tendency to overcook things, or downright burn them to their second death.
My husband can’t cook either. When we were ‘courting’ he made me a pasta dish with grated carrots which he had heated up in yoghurt. Not the luscious thick strained Greek style yoghurt, natural sour pungent yoghurt. It was one of the most vile things I’ve ever had to swallow. He thought so too and luckily I didn’t have to finish the plate to be polite but how the hell could he have cooked that? Well, he followed a recipe. He doesn’t use it intuitive nature because he doesn’t know what he is doing. If he would have cooked from his heart, he would have made an entirely different dish. Like his eggs, he can cook a mean egg.

But it isn’t simple, not for everyone.
So teaching children to cook, teaching them about how food production – farming – works and maybe even re-introducing school gardens, might just save out future generations.
The fact that so many children don’t know their onions from their tomatoes is downright shameful and unnatural. We are not surprised that children don’t want to eat the pink slime they call meat in processed food when they see it in their raw state, but as soon as it is turned into chicken dips by Jamie in his School dinners show, the kids all go crazy for it, even knowing that minutes before it was just pink slime…

Education, education, education. It is the answer to everything.
So if you have a minute sign the petition to put food education back ‘on the menu’ in schools, and do it here www.change.org/jamieoliver

“By educating children about food in a practical, fun and engaging way, we can provide them with the knowledge and skills they so urgently need to lead healthier, happier lives. We need to make practical food education a compulsory part of every school curriculum across the world, and that’s why I’ve launched a petition calling on all G20 countries to action this. With enough support from millions of people around the world, I truly believe that we can create a movement that’s powerful enough to make governments take action.” Jamie Oliver

Sadly I didn’t host my Food Revolution Event this year, life just was a little too hectic at the moment and I am seriously gutted about it but I can’t make myself ill while trying. I’m in the final stages of photographing my book and testing recipes again, and I’m a one lady team here so I’m up to my ears in work. It’s great, I’m super happy, but to organise an event this year, I couldn’t do it alone, I would have needed a couple of people to help while I remain indoors like a hermit only going out when I need eggs and cream. 🙂
Next year will be double cool I promise, and if you like to volunteer to give a hand, always welcome, just drop me a line or a tweet or shout at me in the street! 🙂

Take care for now, and think about your food consumption today, learn someone something about food, think of where your meat comes from, your fish, your poultry, your eggs, … Think about it, share your thoughts, get conversations going.

x

Regula

Enjoy some pictures of my past Food Revolution Events!

“The future for me starts with food education”
Jamie Oliver

Making pizza in a woodfired oven

 

Squeezing the whey out of the cheese
creative with toppings

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Mussels and fries for Food Revolution Day >

Food Revolution Day 2014 – keeping cooking skills alive

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A Day of cheese making, dough kneading, and pizza baking!
Yesterday was Food Revolution Day and like last year (you can see it here) I got my thinking cap on to see how I could make a difference on this day. Why? Because doing nothing won’t change a thing.
Like I said last year and will say again, every day should be a Food Revolution Day, this day is just the moment when we celebrate it, and get other people involved, to spread the word. Knowing so many ‘foodies’ in my line of work, I is my opinion you can’t be a foodie without being a food activist. You can’t love food and not want to be a part of a world wide battle for change in food choices. As a foodie you want the best produce, and the best meat is raised stress free and with respect, the best veggies are local and the best grains are those that are GMO and chemical free. You don’t want additives, colorings and other types of crap that shouldn’t be in food. But is saddens me to see that there are in fact ‘foodies’ who don’t care about where the food came from and how the meat was reared. Or they do care, but don’t care to take a stand and try to educate others about the dangers that linger on our supermarket shelves. Anyway, we can’t all be pro-active.

Food Revolution Day is the brainchild of Jamie Oliver, who finds it important to use the fact that he is famous for a good cause by getting people involved in this day dedicated to food education. He has been campaigning for better food education in schools in the UK and USA and a change in school dinners. He has also set up Ministry of Food centers where people can come and have cooking lessons for free, just so that they would be able to cook from scratch for themselves and their children. He also has his Food Foundation charity to raise funds for projects in food education.
Why having a day to raise awareness and having a jolly good cook off is important is stated on the Food Revolution Day website here > 

“It’s time to take action!
We need every child to understand where food comes from, how to
cook it, and how it affects their body. This is about setting kids up
with the knowledge they need to make better food choices for life.” Jamie Oliver

This year the focus is on children, they are our future after all and for the future’s sake, something has to change in our eating habits. So the plan was, get some kids together!

Nine in the morning and it feels like the silence before the storm. Twenty five 11 year old children are coming to my friends Loes and Krikke’s restaurant to learn how to make cheese and bake their own pizza’s in an old Flemish wood fired bread oven. To make it all more exciting for the children Bruno has designed another smashing set of goodies, a box containing a diploma, a recipe booklet and a wooden spoon for them to take home as a prize of the day.
They arrive, with a storm, as anticipated. They are eager to learn and we start off with a little talk on what Food Revolution Day is all about. I explain to them that although cooking is so much fun, so many people never cook because they don’t know how to. They totally agree that packed meals and processed foods are bad for you and see no sense in why you would buy it – fantastic, these kids understand! All but a few know who Jamie is and think he’s cool for getting us all cooking and breaking a world record by hosting the worlds largest cooking lesson. Cheering and jumping up and down follows when I tell them that the record has been broken. I love these kids.

 

We start with cheese making, we are working with raw milk that came straight from the farm that morning and I explain that this is raw milk because it hasn’t been pasteurised. Once the milk has been heated to blood temperature, one of the kids adds the buttermilk, salt and vegetarian rennet and we wait and see what happens. ‘Oohs’ and ‘aahs’ when the milk starts to thicken and true amazement when I show them the pot of milk I made an hour before. The fresh pot goes to rest and we transfer the curdled milk to a bowl with cheesecloth to drain. They take turns wiggling the cheesecloth and then comes the coolest part of squeezing the curds. Twenty five little hands squeeze and squeeze and I stop them before there is no cheese left to squeeze, the kids just love to get hands-on and feel every process.

 

The cheese is now ready to drain further and the children go to my friend Loes who explains them the process of making your own bread and pizza dough. She explains why we are using spelt and the difference between yeast and sourdough. To show them a live organism she passes around her sourdough starter which is bubbling away. The children are eager to smell and look at it as the curious little creatures they are.
The kneading is fun and they love to put their weight in and they are amazed by the rising little balls of dough. Veggie cutting for toppings happens with dedication and they can’t wait to start creating their own pizza’s. Pizza time shows us how hungry 11 year olds can be and we soon fear we won’t have enough to fill their bellies as they keep on coming back to decorate more pizza’s and devour them in seconds.

 

Luckily we have strawberries straight from the farm with the cheese we made before, to fill those last gaps in their tummies. They go through the lot in minutes and keep on asking questions, these kids are eager to know more and gives me hope for the future. They really get the importance of this and seeing their happy, excited and amazed faces throughout this day fills my heart with joy.
I think I’m going to do more of these workshops with children, I know my partner in crime Loes will be up for it too. The future is bright when you want it to be.

Special thanks to:
Bruno, my rock, for always supporting me in things like this and for the artwork he created for the workshop • Loes and Krikke, my friends who were a part of this last year and again this year. Loes especially for teaching the children the pizza making on one of her most busiest weekends of the year • To the children of this class, you guys were brilliant • To the parents for trusting us to teach their children good things. 
And last but not least, a huge thanks Jamie, for being there to motivate us to take action and get cooking. You rock, big time.

Regula x

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Food Revolution Day 2013: Last night’s leftovers lunch
Food Revolution Day 2012: My local food

Food Revolution Day 2013 – The ‘Last Night’s Leftovers’ lunch

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There was a time when everyone knew how to cook, cooking skills used to be passed down from generation to generation but somewhere in the last decades it all went terribly wrong.

There are now millions of people who struggle to cook up a basic meal. If we don’t take action now, soon there will be a generation without cooking skills and no knowledge to pass on to their children. It is of vital importance to our health and those of our children to eat well as obesity is spreading like a plague. But it’s not only for our health but for community and family spirit, to sit down to enjoy a meal together and talk, to exchange recipes and to keep our food traditions which are historically and important alive.

 

Jamie Oliver says: “Food Revolution Day is all about people power.
I was amazed and massively inspired by our first global day of action last year.

For me, this is one day for us all to get together and shout about the importance of food education and the need to share and pass on food knowledge and cooking skills. This is an opportunity to build better relationships with great food, whether that’s through hosting a big event like a farmers’ market or a small dinner for your mates and cooking everything from scratch. It’s about giving people
the knowledge and confidence to  cook using fresh ingredients and to make better choices about what they feed themselves and their families.”For last years Food Revolution a bunch of my food blogger friends and I joined forces for an online ‘local food’ potluck dinner. We all brought a dish to the virtual table that was local and sustainable. I brought mussels and Belgian fries – remember not to call them French 😉

This year I’m focusing on the workspace as we spend most of our time there. I myself tend to take my lunch box to work containing mostly the leftovers from dinner the night before or a quick spelt or couscous salad. Next to breakfast lunch is the most import meal of the day. It is to provide us with fuel for the work day.

Inspired by my own lunchbox I came up with the idea of cooking everyone a ‘Last Night’s Leftovers’ lunch pack.
As I’m not at the office on friday the 17th, I decided to do an early Food Revolution event on tuesday. My 13 colleagues all ordered one, some even two lunch packs. The catering company and pop-up restaurant that is also housed in the old printing factory where my office is kindly donated me the use of their kitchen and ordered for the entire family. Bruno’s colleagues, also graphic designers like the guys at my office and me also put in their order. I am thankful for the positive response and I hope people will bring in their leftovers more often now. I so enjoy a decent meal at lunch time, although I adore bread and cheese, it is not my idea for a working lunch.

Chilli con carne is one of mine and Bruno’s favourite leftovers as it just gets better by the day. Naturally this was also the first thing I thought of when I put down some ideas for leftover dishes. I cooked up a veggie version and a meaty one and had plenty of salad on offer for on the side. I made lunch bags containing an apple, bread and a few little bunt cakes for dessert.
It was the first time in my life I cooked and served 30 people and although I was completely knackered, I was very happy.
The thing that made my day were the words of a five year old little girl named Pilar.
She is the daughter of Loes and Krikke from the catering company who had my
‘Last Night’s Leftovers’ lunch pack for dinner. When her dad -the chef- put her to bed her final words were “Daddy we had such a delicious meal tonight, really yummy”.

 

Thank you to all who supported Food Revolution by ordering my ‘Last Night’s Leftovers’ lunch pack. Your fivers will all be going to ‘The Better Food foundation‘
You can still donate on the website of Food Revolution day.

Thanks to
Bruno, my husband for his support and help every time I get a grand idea.
My office, Volta, for donating the ingredients for the lunch • Loes & Krikke, for the donation of the use of their kitchen and their orders • the grandparents of Krikke for their lovely words of support while I was cooking in their sons kitchen • my colleagues at Volta for ordering their lunch packs and eating them with joy • the people from IWWU for ordering their lunch packs • to the lady from Washington DC who wanted to order a lunch

I promise I’ll add the recipe for my chilli con carne once I get home xxx

 

 

 

A farmers life for me.

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I have a dream… I live in a limestone cottage in rural England that catches the golden color of the sun in its walls and I have a small rare breed pig farm. In my dream I would be getting up early in the morning, jump into my morning clothes, run down the stairs to turn on the fire and slip into my boots to head outside to bring the pigs their breakfast. On my return I will jump in the shower and then do some work on my blog and photography, just after lunch I would check on the pigs again and spend some time with them. Of course pens need to be cleaned and housework needs to be done, but I’m not getting hung up on the less enjoyable things. In the evening I will know that I have yet another day taken care of beautiful creatures, help them give birth, rub their bellies and keep them happy before delivering the best meat to feed a small number of people who respect the work that went into producing this meat. I would have shortened the food chain, I will have made a difference. That is what I want, I keep asking myself  ‘what am I doing to make things better’ Sitting behind my desk designing and creating layouts isn’t going to make a difference in the bigger picture of it all. I have the need to do more.

Mahatma Gandhi put my feeling into words perfectly “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

So a few weeks ago I went on a rare/native breed pig keeping course in West-Sussex, because you have to start somewhere …

Middle Whites, one of the rarest British breeds.

It was a freezing day, my cloths as it appears aren’t nearly warm enough to be running around on a farm all day. My pretty red wellies are too small for thick woolen socks or even a triple pair to keep my feet from turning into ice cubes.
Luckily I had a lot of excitement keeping me warm, the cold didn’t bother me at all.

The day started by waking up the pigs and giving them their first feed, we walked up the field where the paddocks were divided by gender, breed and age. The pigs were eager to tuck in and it became instantly clear they have a pecking order, if you aren’t careful to keep an eye out when you feed them, one pig would be very a very happy bunny and the others would go hungry. Every pig reacted to his or her name when called out, a lovely sight to behold and it shows how clever these animals are.

Gloucester Old Spots

The severe rainfall and cold climate this year has made for muddy conditions at the farm, fortunately pigs are happiest rolling and playing in piles of mud. They will eat the mud as it is their primary source of iron. Piglets who aren’t able to go out in these wet conditions in fear of drowning are given a nice fresh pile of mud in their pen to roll in and eat every day so they don’t become anemic. When they are a week or two older, they are let out to have a play under the watchful eye of Neil and his son Oliver who is going to train to be a vet.

Michaela told us that they know when a sow is going to give birth as she will start to create an elaborate nest with straw, twigs and sometimes even flowers. At times the nest will have some things in it that she will remove, like larger branches that could possibly hurt the sow or one of the piglets but when she does the sow will show her disapproval by loud sighs on which the pig will take the branch back and place it in the nest again.

 

Sally the Middle White, and her babies.

After we had a nice cuppa and a delicious moist piece of lemon drizzle cake we sat down to defrost our hands and feet and to talk about the legal things involved in starting your smallholding, which breed of pigs to keep, and how to keep your animals healthy. I’m not going to go into detail about this, you will have to go on a course if you want to know all the rules and regulations but I can say it is all very doable.

When we went outside again we were going to learn about measuring your animals to see when they are right for their final stop, the slaughterhouse. It is the less enjoyable part of being a farmer or smallholder when you care for your animals deeply, but a necessary step to preserve rare/native breed lines and keep livestocks healthy. Of course their pedigree breeding pigs don’t go to slaughter for a very long time, they have names, witty ways and are loved almost like pets.

The time has come to weigh piglets of different ages and learn how to pick them up and handle them with care so you don’t disturb the small creatures.
Upside down seems to be the way  – though not for a long time of course – before slowly turning them to hold them in the much favourited ‘baby position’. I can’t tell you how much I was looking forward to holding a piglet, suddenly I’m 8 again and happy as a child. The Saddleback didn’t seem to enjoy it very much so we got him back with his mum but the Middle white baby, a few weeks older than the Saddleback didn’t seem to mind very much. They had to ask me to give him back or I would have remained standing there until the little one would start screaming for his big mum. Reluctantly I handed over the piglet.

Michaela had prepared a gammon and slow cooked pork for our lunch, I felt very humble to share this with them, the meat from their precious Saddleback pigs. Such a treat, I never tasted pork full of flavour and succulent like this in my whole life. I paired the meat with apple sauce and British watercress she had prepared – oh heaven. Michaela however trying to convince me she isn’t a cook just served me one of the best meals I ever had. I do adore uncomplicated simple food with big natural flavours.
One of the most moving things I encountered was the way Michaela and Neil were proud to share their food with us, proud of the hard work they put in -next to their jobs- to care for animals.

After the much enjoyed lunch we went back to the pigs for some serious exercise with ‘stick and board training’.
I ran after a giant Saddleback pig for almost half an hour, I
wasn’t giving up. Using a curly walking stick and a board, I was learning
how to guide a pig to a direction I want rather than the direction the
pig wants to run to. I admit, most of the time the sow was walking me
and I was convincing myself I was guiding her resulting in me running
after her trying to catch up …
But in the end I think it started to
work, I got her to her pen, back out again and back in again. I felt a
feeling of pride – I had done it – but was still not sure I had actually
pulled it off. I asked Neil if there was any hope for
me and he told me that a first day is always tough but that I had
perseverance … you got that right, I don’t give up.
I ended my stick
and board training with a session of hugging Molly the sow, petting her
and rubbing her back and belly while telling her what a good girl she
was. I really got into it – in a big way. These animals welcome a nice
rubbing, they love it when you make a fuss. They are such playful
creatures, running after each other and into each other -some breeds
like Saddlebacks and Old spots don’t see very well with their ears
covering most of their eyes –

Me and Molly, the friendly Saddleback.

My
wrists, back and shoulders were sore… I had healthy rosy cheeks from
the exercise and my heart was glowing with happiness. A farmers life is a hard one, but they will always tell you it’s worth it. If you spend time with the animals you see why. Pigs really are the most amazing creatures. If only …

The watchful eye of Neil.
Going to feed the pigs.

Are you interested in taking a pig keeping course? I did mine at Tedfold Farm in West Sussex, a farm where all animals are are slowly reared at their own pace and with lots and lots of love. Thank you to all at Tedfold Farm for a wonderful day.

I entered this course at my own expense. 

‘Osso Bucco’ and why we should eat Rosé veal

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We should all eat veal
If we don’t, a lot of bull calves in the intensive dairy industry will be shot at birth.

Veal is a byproduct of the dairy industry, so if you eat a lot of cheese and dairy… eat veal. Even to the vegetarians out there who do eat dairy, please eat veal.

Bull
calves are of no use to the dairy industry if there is no demand for
veal and therefore the little animals need to go. Numbers reached 260
000 male dairy calves in 2007.To feed our milk and cheese habit, dairy cows are kept constantly pregnant but while female cows can grow up to become dairy cows like their mothers, there is no room for their brothers. Male dairy calves are not always suitable for producing beef therefore (Rose) veal can offer a good alternative.

TV farmer Jimmy Doherty, is trying to persuade people to try veal.
“Dairy calves are being shot at 24 to 48 hours old and if we drink milk
we all have to share in this instead of leaving the burden of it to the
farmers. Eating rose veal is utilising those calves and solving a
problem,” said Jimmy Doherty, who is raising veal calves on his own farm.

 

When
you buy veal, try and find ‘rosé veal‘ this high-welfare veal comes
from calves that are not fed the restricted diet mainly consisting of
‘milk replacer’ that is needed to produce the ‘white veal’ meat, it keeps the meat light colored.

Rose veal is high in protein and has a pink color, hence the name ‘rose veal’.
The calves are raised alongside their mothers in open fields, and have access to their mother’s milk. After a few weeks they will get a diet of cerial and grass. This is why Rose veal has more flavour than the ‘white veal’.
The UK is the best country if you want to buy veal, the RSPCA’s Freedom Food programme label is very strict. Sadly the veal being produced in the rest of Europe is not of the high welfare standard like the British and Irish.
I have been wanting to buy veal for months, I can’t get it at the butcher or at the farm where I buy my beef and pork. So I don’t eat it. I refuse to buy white veal.
Last saturday I found a butcher who is selling free range ‘rose veal’ in Brussels. Happy days. I came out of the shop holding my veal shanks as if it were a bunch of flowers.
If you are a vegetarian/vegan and you are still reading, thank you.
I hope you see my point.
Especially if you are a vegetarian and still consume dairy.
this little one couldn’t get enough of mommies milk…
If there is one type of meat we should be eating, it’s veal. Meat is more costly to produce in terms of energy and resources then vegetables. In times where we have to mind our ecological footprint and eat less meat, veal is the most responsible choice.
To help the Rosé veal and dairy beef farming industry I wanted to feature a few farms or shops that sell Rosé veal. Thank you for your tweets and emails with details, answering my question on Twitter.
Update: 

Rosewood farm raises their dairy bulls for beef, they deliver England, Wales and Scotland
Calf at foot dairy produces raw milk and grass fed ruby veal from her gorgeous Jersey cows

*I’m not claiming the calves shown in my picture are rosé veal calves, I took this pictures before I thought about doing this post but I think it shows well that we should not reduce animals to waste.
Where to buy Rosé veal:
London
Allens of Mayfair (Heaves farm veal)
Barbecoa Butchery (Heaves farm veal)
O Shea’s of Knightsbridge (selling Irish rosé veal)
Union Market (Heaves farm veal)
Provenance butcher (Midshires Rose Veal)
bashford and co – Croyden

Cumbria
Heaves farm veal (selling their own veal, watch the video on the website)
Steadmans Butchers (Heaves farm veal) 

Cotswolds
Scotland
Overton farm shop (Clyde valley veal)
West Midlands
Midshires Farm shop (selling their own veal)
Alternative meats (Heaves farm veal)
Devon
Somerset
Kent
Cuckoos Pit Farm. Susans Hill Woodchurch TN26 3TF
Sussex
Cowdray farm shop Cowdray Park, Easebourne, West Sussex
Yorkshire
J Brindon Addy (Heaves farm veal)
Rosewood Farm
 
Wales

Marcross Farm

 
Online UK
Alternative meats (Heaves farm veal)
USA
Chapel hill farm Virginia (selling their own veal)
Belgium
O Shea’s Brussels (selling Irish Rosé veal)
Please do contact me if you like to be included in this list.
Finally, I have my favourite veal recipe for you. It’s a classic: Osso Bucco, braised veal shanks. The meat is wonderfully soft and full of flavour.
Serve this dish with mashed potatoes, pappardelle or another wide pasta. Also delicious with a slice of humble home baked bread!
What do you need
2 veal shanks
1 carrot
2 stalks of celery
1 medium onion
1 clove of garlic
30 ml of dry white wine
2 bay leaf
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
a tin of skinned tomatoes
30 ml of beef or vegetable stock
salt and pepper to season
flour to dust
olive oil
knob of butter
*optional: some bread for the marrow…
Method
– preheat your oven to 180° C
– get your butcher cord out and bind the shanks so they stay in one piece
– season the veal shanks with salt and pepper anddust them with flour.
– chop you vegetables finely.
– heat 1 teaspoon of butter and 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a heavy based or cast iron casserole.
– add the vegetables and glaze them
– put them to one side and add the veal shanks
– brown them slightly on each side
– add the white wine and let it simmer for a while
– add the stock and finally the tomatoes
– let it simmer for a while and finally lay some of the tomatoes on top of the veal and press down so they stay there.
– add the herbs
– press some baking paper down in the casserole until it almost touches the food
– Put the casserole into the oven and let it simmer for 2 hours or until the meat is nice and tender
– When the meat is cooked, transfer it from the casserole to a serving dish and cover with tin foil.
– Transfer the juices into a saucepan and boil for about 10 minutes or until reduced
– add the veal to the juices again and start covering it with the sauce until completely glazed.
Enjoy!
Leftovers?
Why not pull the meat into strings and add to a nice tomato sauce for a pasta dish!
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Please leave a comment, I love reading them!

Mussels with Belgian fries for Food Revolution day

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Today we take a stand, for real food, for life and for family.
…
Food revolution is an organisation from Jamie Oliver.

As Jamie says in his article for the Huffington Post, “Food Revolution Day is an opportunity for everyone around the world to
do something. The Food Revolution and Food Revolution Day is about
empowering people through education or, frankly, just inspiring people
to be more street-wise about food, where it comes from and how it
affects their bodies. If you know how to cook you can save yourself
money, feel better and live longer, and the chances are, your kids will
follow suit. After all, we all kind of become our parents in the end.”

People tend to see Jamie as that cheeky guy from Essex, the naked chef. What a lot of folks don’t realize is the fact that he actually uses his ‘celebrity chef’ status to do good, to make a change. In 2005 he declared war to the unhealthy British school dinners, in 2010 he took the fight to Amerika. He has built kitchens all over Britain with his Ministry of Food, to learn people how to cook so they can teach others to do so as well. He is passionate about food and people’s relationship with food.

mosselen-regula-ysewijn-8247

Today on 19 May, Food Revolution Day will happen in kitchens, homes and communities around the world.

In my case Food Revolution Day will start on my blog and the blogs of a few other lovely Ladies from all over the globe.
We are friends who have one big thing in common; our love for food – real food. So we found it very important to get involved. As we live in various places around the world and we couldn’t sadly be together for this day, we
are having a ‘virtual Potluck‘ dinner, this is where every guest brings a dish
she or he made to the table. We are
all preparing local sustainable food, in the hope to inspire others to
cook on this day. The dishes will be easy to cook and no processed food is allowed.We can’t be together today ladies, but we are closer together than some people will ever be. Have a wonderful Food Revolution Day!
Take a look at our delicious menu
…………………………………………………………………….
Nibbles by Karin from ‘Yum&More’ in Germany originally from the USA
Panzanella by Giulia from ‘Jul’s kitchen’ in Italy
Salad with local greens by Valeria from ‘My life love food’ in England originally from Italy
Mussels with real Belgian fries by Regula from ‘Foodwise’ in Belgium
Crespelle Verdi di Pesce by Emiko from ‘Emiko Davies’ in Australia

Vanilla honey rhubarb galette by Zita from ‘Zizi’s adventures’ in Hungary
Rhubarb Panna Cota by Sarka from ‘Cook your dream’, England-originally from Czech Republic

……………………………………………………………………………

I am preparing Moules et frites, Mussels with real Belgian fries.

Did you know mussels are an eco-friendly, sustainable seafood choice?
Like oysters and clams, mussels actually clean the water they’re grown in.
They have no impact on the water because they don’t require treatment against disease.
Mussels are also high in protein, zinc, vitamin C, Iron and omega-3 so they are a healthy food choice.It has been said for hundreds of years that mussels are in season in each month that has an ‘R’ in it, but this is an old tale that originated from a time when there was no cooled transport. The fishermen couldn’t get the mussels live and well to their destination.
Now the season runs from July until april for the ‘Zeeuwse’ mussels, so I was very lucky to get the last of the catch.
I live just a 15 minute drive from Zeeland, where the ‘Zeeuwse’ mussel happily lives and thrives in the protected waters from the River Schelde.We are going to bake the Belgian fries in the traditional way using ‘Beef tallow’ for frying. The real ‘Frit kot’ (chip shops) in Belgium still uses this Beef tallow -rendered beef fat- and swear by it because it is actually healthier than the vegetable oil that is been used in a lot of places these days.
Beef tallow is highly resistant
to rancidity and much more resistant to high temperatures than the
vegetable oil. To be safe to eat you can only use the vegetable oil once
but due to its higher price a lot of places use it twice or more,
leaving the customer often with stomach and intestinal pains. Also in flavour, the vegetable oil can’t compete with the beef tallow and as for sustainability… beef tallow also wins because its a by-product!
So if you want to start eating from nose to tail, beef tallow is the way to go. Just ask your local butcher and I’m sure he’ll be happy to oblige.
Zeeland

 

What do you need (serves 1 as a main and 6 as a starter)

• 1 kg live mussels
• 1 leek
• 2 stalks of cellery
• 1 small carrot
• 1 medium sized onion
• 25 cl water (or white wine)
• Seasalt and pepperFor the Real Belgian Fries
• 1 kg potatoes, you need a good starchy potato like Bintjes and Berkeley Bowl
• ‘beef tallow’ for frying, very important to get the real ‘frites’ (ask your butcherfor it)

• SeasaltMethod

The mussels
Select mussels that are tightly closed or that close when you tap them.
Discard the ones with cracked shells.
Use you nose, they should smell clean and salty, like the sea.
Rinse them under running water and don’t be too gentle because you want all the sand to come out.
Remove the beards, clean the shells if you need to.
Cut your vegetables in small dices and put aside.

The ‘frites’You have 3 kinds of frites:
the ‘allumettes‘ (0,5cm), the ‘mignonettes‘ (0,7cm) and the ‘pont-neuf‘ (1,5-2cm).
The ‘mignonettes’ is the one you want for this dish and also the most common.We have to bake the fries twice to get the result we want.
If you are using a Frying pan, add the beef tallow to the fryer and set your thermometer to 150°. It’s very important to use the right temperature!Peel you potatoes and rinse them.
Cut you potatoes into +/- 0,7 cm discs, don’t be too fussy about the size but do try to keep them all around the same size so they bake evenly.
Then cut the discs into fries.
Dry the fries with a tea towel.If you fat has reached the right temperature, add the fries and fry slightly golden in small batches. (see image below)
Dry them with kitchen paper and leave them on a tray to cool.
You can leave them until the rest of your food is ready and fry them a second time just before serving.

Now back to the mussels
Add the diced vegetables to a large pot to hold all the mussels, sweat the vegetables and add the water. Leave it to boil a few minutes.

Now back to the fries
Get the temperature of the fat to 190°.
Fry the fries in small batches until a beautiful golden color.

Before you put the last batch of fries in in the fat, add the mussels to the boiling water, add the lid and shake.
Leave for 5 minutes and shake.
The mussels should have opened now.
Put the lid back on. Turn of the fire.

Fry the last batch of fries.

Get some mayonnaise and add 1 teaspoon of mustard and 1 teaspoon of cooking water from the mussels. This is you mussel sauce, traditionally you should also add a bit of vinegar to the sauce.

When the fries are ready, sprinkle them with seasalt and serve with the mussels!

Delicious with a pint of real ale or a nice glass of dry white wine!

*Waste none: the leftover vegetables and cooking water of the mussels makes a delicous tomato soup, just add a tin of skinned tomatoes and a tin of tomato puree and bring to the boil. Puree the soup and bring to the boil again.

Enjoy!

Ah Belgian pride in a cone

 

 

Want to know how can you contribute to Food Revolution? Fabulous!
First of all: start cooking! Home cooked meals are the best!
Find out about you local food by asking your butcher, fish monger and vegetable man what’s local and in season.

Try and find out if you can buy meat and or vegetables straight from a farm so you reduce your carbon footprint but also by creating awareness about where your food comes from. I will probably mean ordering your meat, veggies and dairy in advance sometimes but this will reduce the trips you usually make to the superstore.
More time to cook!
By buying straight from the producer you reduce the amount of food that is thrown in the garbage and you also have a hand in the fact that less animals will be killed in vain.
I strongly feel that no animal should be slaughtered if it’s not going to be eaten nose to tail.
Not just for animal welfare but also for environmental reasons.
The carbon footprint of livestock is huge and if we keep up the current way of life, we will one day need to go vegetarian because the earth is just not producing enough food to feed the whole planet.
Eat less meat, but good quality meat from local farms instead of intensively reared meat.
Happy animals produce better and healthier meat! 

Would you like to donate to Food Revolution Day? DONATE

The complete picture, mussels, fries and beer

 

Please feel free to leave a comment, I love reading them!