Rediscovered a program called Out of Town with Jack Hargreaves and decided to schedule it onto weekend TV in Saphire World.
He is a really interesting chap who knows his stuff.
This week is art week and we have been able to purchase gourmet food again at the supermarket.
This blog is a general round of food articles in August for future reference when food comes back properly and another chit chat.
When we were little my dad decided my mum was to stay at home and look after us.
I can’t fault them for that as we had a fantastic childhood that some children don’t get anymore due to women going back to work, so they can pay mortgages etc. or because they are single mothers and so forth.
The downside was we didn’t have much money.
We often left food as it was disgusting.
My mum could cook as she made a gorgeous cod in parsley sauce, and on the weekend we would get decent bacon and a good quality joint of meat or chicken.
Midweek she would budget with cheaper cuts of meat which sometimes weren’t edible. Her stews were gorgeous even though they stunk while it was being cooked. Used to make it myself, not sure if I kept the recipe.
Noticed from Thames TV, Mary Berry suggests a different cut to stop the unpleasant aroma experience.
Anyway, because of this I know the difference between good quality and cheap cuts of meat.
Quite interesting that I now know why quality control has gone out of the supermarkets and the meat has been sometimes worse than when we were little. Hopefully, British farming is coming back now. The cheap meat from abroad isn’t good at all. I’ve been getting as much as I need down to stave off low serotonin but I live mainly off tuna now, as you can get iron from it.
Got this info from a radio station online, so just quoting it.
‘Times Radio’
Jack Hargreaves and sea bass
Ironically, it wasn’t till I started slimming that I discovered gourmet food.
What is considered gourmet food?
Food of the highest quality and flavor, prepared with precision and presented in an artful manner. A restaurant and its chefs where food is prepared and served with the highest quality standards. A store that stocks and sells high-quality, unique, or hard-to-find ingredients needed to prepare gourmet dishes.17 Sept 2020
Discovered I liked gourmet food from an American film, where the mother splashes out on overpriced ingredients and causes a violent catfight with her daughter.
One of the things she intended to make was salad nicoise, one of my slimming favourites.
Love this film.
For art week I have recommended salad nicoise and diet chips, ideally you would have diet french fries, but you struggle to find anything at the moment.
Found a Jane Fonda diet french fries recipe once actually.
It took a bit of making, but ordered a french fry cutter from another film. Have to say they were delicious.
Then on the day off will get a deep fat fryer.
You can air fry them too.
Ordered one so this blog will come in when I get it.
Salad Niscoise recipe ~ first gourmet ingredients for ages
Have to say they are quite expensive, so I used to just buy what I could and make it up myself.
Looking forward to trying it all now, if I’m honest.
This is a good purchase as it goes with the cauldron sausage also.
I’m not a chef, but I like following recipes ~ guessing you could make loads of gourmet recipes with dijon mustard ~ let us hope the decent meat comes back next.
Thinking back Dijon mustard was one of the products I opted for when slimming on a budget.
Never tried this ~ unless I had them at a restaurant.
I also added white wine vinegar for the dressing as remembered it from somewhere.
Just mix with the olive oil, lemon juice and dijon mustard to taste.
I’ll also add sea salt and pepper instead of honey as I haven’t a sweet tooth.
6 ounces oil-packed tinned fish like smoked trout, tuna, or salmon, drained
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh basil leaves
Lemon Dressing
5 tablespoons lemon juice (from 2-3 lemons)
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
½ teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons fresh chives
Method
Fill a large bowl with ice water.
Fill a medium pot with 4 quarts of water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Add the green beans and cook until bright green, 2 to 3 minutes. Using tongs, transfer the green beans to the ice water to stop cooking.
Heat potato kit according to package instructions.
Make the dressing. In a small bowl, stir together the lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, honey, salt, and chives, until well combined.
Arrange the mixed greens on a serving platter. Top with green beans, potatoes, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, eggs, and fish. Drizzle with dressing and top with fresh basil.
Nutrition Info
Per Serving
Amount
Calories476
Protein9 g
Carbohydrates30 g
Total Fat30 g
Dietary Fiber6 g
Cholesterol153 mg
sodium783 mg
Total Sugars6 g
Back to Jack
This week Jack shows us a fennel faggot and introduces us to sea bass fishing.
Have to say one of my to do list holidays is to go campervanning and eat freshly caught fish on a bonfire under the stars.
Sadly most campsites of today have gone like nuts in May and banned bonfires ~ isn’t this part of the reason you go camping?
Apparently you can go more into the wilderness if you want a bonfire ~ so hopefully I will get my dream yet.
The fennel faggot sounds better still as it will flavour the fish with a fennel aroma.
Ironically again one of the last gourmet food dinners I made was salmon encroute and fresh trout stuffed with herbs and wrapped in foil.
I honestly have to say the trout was one of the best dinners I have ever tasted.
Unfortunately our kitchen isn’t big enough to prepare such a delicacy, but I managed in the end ~ with sink full of trays and so forth.
Guess in a camper van there is less space, but you would possibly prepare it around the fire.
Not sure you could cook sea bass as it seems a bit hard to catch.
You could possibly get it from your supermarket though from the fish counter?
Found two chef recipes for sea bass by Gordon Ramsey and Rick Stein.
Really would like to try sea bass.
Conclusion
Jack Hargreaves is fascinating; he triggers all kinds of ideas and does things I’d never of thought of.
As we can’t cook here due to our extractor fan breaking ~ can only use the oven and grill. Compiled this for anyone who can get fresh fish, ingredients and has proper cooking equipment.
Hopefully at some point I will be able to cook again, or go camping so wanted to save these ideas for future reference.
SAPHIRE LIFESTYLE BLOG 