Ah just throw it in the bin

Foodwaste! God how it bugs us all but yet we keep throwing out food.
We don´t mean to waste money. We don´t mean to ignore food in the fridge. We don´t mean to be wasteful, We don´t mean to overshop but we do.



To varying extents, all of us waste food. I am a complete scrooge but at some stage during the week I will still throw something into the bin that should not be there. Most of the time I think I´m great on the food waste issue but actually I´m not. I´m pretty medium rate. I make the "it goes to the dogs" excuse. We have two dogs which are very good at eating anything that falls on the floor, let alone scraps from plates. Unfortunately remembering to cut the Labrador´s food after half a bowl of scraps doesn´t always occur. So we´ve one fat dog and one anorexic terrier which is pretty much the way terriers are.

Some vegetables can go to my two rescue horses but as they are in work and as one is pretty fussy carrots are about the height of it. One thing I am very good at is shopping strategically and planning meals. I just make too much each time. Yes I freeze and make large batches to have later but often serve portions which are too large, particularly to my two children. Watching them say they are full when their plates are still laden with food, it´s tempting to make them suffer it out and eat the lot. But as we now know, this method employed by our parents is a dietary no no. (oh how I suffered at the table with gerbil cheeks full of spinach) so it´s back to the dog´s bowl it goes or into the bin.


Sometimes I get it really wrong - an untouched iceberg lettuce weeping in its wrapping at the back of the fridge and even today - some pork belly I bought which I was really looking forward to roasting tonight with Roosters and beets is somehow three days past the date. How did that happen? Why didn´t I put it in the freezer?



So we know it´s a problem but why do we keep doing it? Perhaps we don´t know Exactly how much it costs. Well now em, we do.

For the past six months by other half, journalist and co-author of the original  Basketcase Philip Boucher-Hayes has been filming a documentary for RTE on food waste in Ireland and examining strategies to curb it. When you tot up the figures it seems that in this country that of every three bags of groceries we bring into the house, one goes in the bin. Yep, throw it in, just like that. The other shocking figure is that according to the EPA - half a billion euros, yes, half a billion, could be saved if we got control of the problem.



As it´s such a large issue spanning everything from hospital food to high end restaurants one of the challenges in making the series was how to reach into our - the viewer´s own shopping and eating behaviour. So the series picked one town - Killorglin in County Kerry to focus on and take case studies of families in terms of what is coming into their house and what is going into the bin.

Here´s the promo for the documentary. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT00WR5hk9k

It´s interesting frankly to see your own behaviour reflected back at you. Everyone has issues with food waste and it goes on in every kitchen. In a country where one in ten people suffer from food poverty its an uncomfortable situation. Philip´s documentary - Waste Watchers is on RTE 1 television is on this 

Sunday at 6.30. 

Irish food´s Riverdance moment

After a Summer and Autumn of hard work and a lot of travel I´ve been so busy with my journalism that I´ve realised I need to post some new stuff here and let those outside Irish media to see what´s going on in Irish food and farming. Happily the big story of this year - our horsemeat scandal ended up being something postive for our food sector. The Food Safety Authority of Ireland who was first to spot the problem earned a lot of credit for lifting the lid on the murky world of "meat agents" and a European trade involving many countries and players and in some cases criminal activity in the food chain.



The truth is that aside from a very small number of rogue players, Irish beef is a fantastic food, extensively farmed, grass fed and fully traceable. In fact since the story broke Ireland has gained new markets for our beef exports and just this week we´ve seen Japan lift a ban on imports of Irish beef since the BSE scandal. Confidence is high in the food we are producing here. In many ways I´m busier than ever in a work sense because the message of our book from 2009 - that food is important, that the economic boom in Ireland ignored the farming and food sector, that the farming sector is one of this country´s selling points is now hugely recognised.

Ireland has more food festivals than ever. More food entrepreneurs than ever. But today I again visited a small food producer - a free range poultry grower whose livelihood is threatened by regulations which he feels are designed for big multinational food businesses and not the small scale individual. This is something I hear a lot on my travels around the country. But despite challenges to small or artisan producers, overall the local food culture here is growing apace. In 2009 when we penned the book there was no such pride in Irish food, and farming was a dirty word. Now there is truly a food to fork culture where many consumers, not just foodies are engaged with trying to buy local food and good quality food. Yes there are still difficulties in the sector and in these times us consumers also have less money to spend. But with less money there is also awareness of Irish food´s huge value to the local economy.


Recently the Dublin Web Summit took place in Ballsbridge Dublin - it´s a giant tech festival if you like, bringing together 10,000 tech start ups, venture capitalists, international brands and 400 international media. For the first time at the web summit not only Irish tech but Irish food was put centre stage. Good Food Ireland - an organisation of food producers and restaurants simply took over the catering. Instead of the usual mass-produced conference food, the delegates dined on venison sausage, Birgitta Curtin´s smoked salmon, relishes and Irish cheeses in a menu designed by Ballymaloe cookery school´s Rory O´Connell.

Watching the delegates taste the food in the beautiful tented setting in Herbert Park Dublin (photographed above) made me realise this really was a special event, a special moment. Finally Irish food was getting the attention it deserved. It was Irish food´s Riverdance moment - an instance where something essential to us and taken for granted is pulled into the limelight and lauded. There is no going back.



Here´s my report from the day on RTE radio´s Drivetime programme
http://podcast.rasset.ie/podcasts/audio/2013/1030/20131030_rteradio1-drivetime-thefoodsum_c20464354_20464356_232_.mp3

Looking for gorgeous artisan Irish food this month?

Decent Irish grub alert: 

my This Edible Life column for April from The Gloss magazine, Irish Times. 

enjoy!

As nose-to-tail eating and local sourcing is where it’s at, I’m very pleased to have already chosen my Spring Lamb for slaughter from the farm next door. Once I get past the “heart-meltingly cute” phase, I coolly assess hind ends from my kitchen window, noting which lovely has the meatiest loins for my Easter table.

In London the trend, driven by Fergus Henderson of the nose-to-tail eatery St John, knows no bounds, with two hotels, several restaurant and a bakery now under the St John name. If you’re really on the food pulse, Gram Bangla on Brick Lane is the place to be. Serious nose-to-tailers flock there for liver, kidney and brain which on the menu almost every day. 

St Johns in London

Named after the old Hatch dairy in the centre of Dublin, Hatch and Sons offers local sourcing in a gorgeous new dining spot in the basement kitchen of the St. Stephens Green home of Trevor White’s Little Museum of Dublin. With serious foodie firepower with the involvement of Domini and Peaches Kemp and food writer Hugo Arnold, it’s an inviting room with big wooden tables, enamel jugs straight from my nana’s farmhouse and a relevant, well sourced menu featuring Tom Durcan’s spiced beef on Waterford’s famous blaa bread .

Wine Note: The Hatch and Sons April supper club on the 18th features a talk by Gerard Maguire of 64 Wine in Glasthule on the exploding world of biodynamic wines, with a menu of Daube of beef, parsley and mustard mash, and St Gall cheese from Fermoy

Bluebells Falls Goats Cheese

You’ll also find local sourcing and blaas on the menu at Farm on nearby Leeson Street, (also a branch on Dawson St) which has lovely tables on the pavement for people watching. I loved their gorgeous tart made with Paul Keane’s Bluebell Falls organic Irish goats cheese and butternut squash with red onion marmalade. Or try their Chicks in Town - marinated breast of Irish chicken on a Blaa with beef tomatoes, crisp leaves and homemade garlic mayonnaise.

Firehouse Bakery, Heir Island

Close to my neck of the woods, Emma Stone tells me the new Romany Stone cafe, restaurant and food store at the Delgany Inn will open early this month. I’m very fond of the original Romany Stone restaurant in Kilbride Wicklow, which morphed from an interiors shop into a swanky but comfy stop-off for anyone heading South on the N11. I frequently made excuses to drive there for their Brie and Hazelnut sandwich alone. The new venture also features a patisserie from The Firehouse gang who run the gorgeous bakery and bread school using wood-fired clay ovens on Heir Island in West Cork and will sell fresh foods from The Grocer Foodstore.

At the end of the month I’ll be holding forth at the Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine with a gathering of some of the world’s best food writers and chefs - Joanna Blythman, Thomasina Miers, Stevie Parle, Darina Allen and Alice Waters, owner of the home of modern America food - Chez Panisse in California. Can’t wait for the gossip over dinner and lunch. I just may not come home.

Basketcase on trial - what I really feed my family

This piece appeared in The Irish Independent last week. The editor and I felt it was important in the wake of the horsemeat crisis to talk about the ins and outs of buying meat products and a quick guide from the horses mouth so to speak (bahahaha) on what's healthy and risky in terms of processed food is what consumers want right now. 

I feel that telling people only to buy organic or local food is not where its at, or something that most peoples income allows for. My grocery shop for my family of four is a mixture of the two - buying both local and supermarket products, and cooking really simple dishes that don't break the bank. All of us have been rattled by the horsemeat story and are shopping more carefully. A Which? survey in the UK shows substantial loss of confidence in the safety of processed meats. While 9 out of 10 customers felt supermarket food was very safe to eat before the crisis, the number has now dropped to 7 out of 10.Have a look and let me know if your food strategy has changed in the wake of the horsemeat crisis.    

Irish Independent 9th March 2013

Food Writer Suzanne Campbell - "What I really feed my family"

“Are chicken goujons safe to give the kids?” These are the sort of questions mothers ask me, especially since the horsemeat crisis began in January. As a food writer the story didn’t take me by surprise. I live in the countryside and keep horses; one which was destined for a meat plant before I gave it a home.

Over the past weeks I’ve done countless interviews for Irish and European media on the issue and in a bizarre twist, conducted a live radio piece on horse burgers while exercising my own horse. For me, horsemeat was the perfect storm; the under-regulated horse trade exploding into a Pandora’s Box of horrors for consumers. In 2009 I had spelled out these fears in the book “Basketcase: what’s happening to Irish food?” co-authored with my husband – journalist Philip Boucher-Hayes. Then as now, our warnings about the real cost of cheap food fell on deaf ears.

I’m a journalist and the mother of two young children so I also put a family meal on the table every day. Living in the Wicklow hills may be the foodie dream and I go to a lot of swanky food events but our home menu is far from Masterchef. I don’t spend a lot of money on food, I just keep things simple. When people ask me is something safe to eat, I’m honest. There are some foods I just wouldn’t eat and some surprises that I would. 

Spuds, lamb, summer salad, wild garlic pesto. Fairly uncomplicated

You will never see a ready meal in my kitchen. One spaghetti bolognese I examined recently contains just 16% meat. Food “extenders” and “fillers” often make up the rest, adding volume and taste to sausages, burgers, ready meals and any amount of things in our trolleys. The reason? They reduce food manufacturing costs by 10-30%.

I understand why many consumers buy ready meals. As a working mum I often finish my day with cooking the last thing on my mind. I get round this by always having meals in the freezer. When I cook a chilli beef, ratatouille, curry, Irish stew etc I make twice the amount and freeze a complete meal. This is the key to avoiding take-away on the way home from work or dropping into the supermarket in a flap and coming out with a huge bill and still nothing for dinner.

Goujons - do they have a texture like jelly?

The aforementioned chicken goujons I simply don’t buy or eat. I peeled open a chicken goujon last week that looked like MRM (Mechanically Recovered Meat). MRM has a texture like sponge. It is not allowed at present in European food manufacturing but businesses get around the law by using the “Bader process” to make virtually the same thing – meat recovered from sinews and scraps from carcasses.

The safety issue for me is what’s used to congeal these bits of meat back into a palatable foodstuff. I don’t eat anything “re-constituted” that doesn’t have muscle texture, including turkeys or chickens at carvery counters that look like footballs.

After our RTE documentary “What’s Ireland Eating” aired many people approached myself and Philip with fears about ham. We showed a process where ham joints were boosted to a huge size by hundreds of needles pushing water and nitrates into the flesh. Processed meats, including hams and salamis have been linked to colonic cancer. Imported rashers and ham has higher nitrite levels (up to 20%) than are allowed in Ireland so I always buy ham with Bord Bia quality assured label.

Billy Roll - I don't go near it

Look for ham (even packed slices of ham) cut from the bone where you can see muscle grain. Likewise, jelly-textured cubed chicken found in sandwich bars, and deli counters. Even if it’s covered in a heavy “Cajun” or “Tikka” dressing; most of this chicken comes already processed from Thailand or Brazil and rarely made from fresh Irish chicken.

Ireland imports 2.5 million chicken breasts a week. Many of these have been found by the FSAI to be gas-flushed with CO2 to preserve them, on sale with incorrect use-by dates and could be up to ten days old from as far away as the Ukraine. Butchers are my first choice for buying beef but I don’t buy chicken in some butchers as many imported chicken fillets are sold loose on their counters. At the very least this chicken is stale. I only buy chicken fillets if they are Bord Bia certified (in supermarkets), free-range or if I’m flush, organic. 

This carrot and parsley soup takes about 20 mins to make

In our house meat is not a central part in every meal. I make a soup (curried carrot and parsnip, leek and potato) about twice a week, and yes, I add cream. This could be a dinner in my house. As is also scrambled eggs with tomato and basil, simple spaghetti with Irish mushrooms and pesto, cous cous or quinoa salad with mixed leaves, chopped peppers, cumin, olives and salami.

We’ve one child who is a great eater, the other one is more tricky. I adopt the French approach with children; mealtime choice is - menu A or menu A. Research show some foods like lettuce have to be offered up to 21 times before they are eaten; I put it in lunchtime sandwiches, it gets picked out. Then one day it isn’t picked out and eaten from then on. So don’t give up.

For my food shop I buy meat and vegetables from shops in my local village, spending about thirty euro a week in each. I buy store cupboard foods in one big shop about every three weeks in either Superquinn or Aldi. I know many Irish farmers who produce own brand product for Aldi. I also buy a lot of their imported foods like kidney beans, tinned tomatoes, chick peas, chillies, herbs and spices. Choose what has the least added ingredients and cooks well.

Remember, the more players involved in a single food product, the more likely it is to go wrong. Yearly I buy half a lamb from my neighbour butchered into joints ready to cook or freeze. At the weekend I buy sourdough bread, Kilbeggan porridge oats, Ed Hick’s rashers and eggs from the local farm shop.

My family food spend is under 150 euro a week, not counting wine or craft beer which I splurge on now and again. If I wasn’t partial to French wines and Irish cheese I would probably be the most healthy person on the planet.

So what can we do to eat safely and not pay out a fortune? Keep your food chain short and keep things simple. It takes work but shouldn’t break the bank. I dislike patronising advice to consumers to only buy organic or local. Find a place on the food and cooking scale you are comfortable with. Ditch Masterchef, take the pressure off yourself and cook with freshness to get taste.

Six foods I wouldn’t eat

Chicken goujons

Billy roll or any ham with a clowns face on it

Huge glossy chicken fillets in independent retailers or butchers often sold at discount

Chicken in a restaurant or sandwich bar – unless stated on the menu it is imported

Breaded fish including salmon, I stay away from farmed salmon and buy wild smoked salmon as an occasional treat

Brightly coloured snacks or crisps. McDonnell’s and Keoghs are pretty additive free.

My unexpected favourites –

Aldi’s Duneen natural yoghurt; I use it with everything; blitz with fruit for summer smoothies

Burgers – cook your own from mince or buy Aldi’s Aberdeen Angus 100% Irish beef; red meat is the best way to get iron into your system

Beans (without sugar) – unglamorous but a nutritious two minute meal heated on crusty bread

Smoked mackerel or herring costs about three euro a pack. Smashed up with crème fraiche and rocket makes a gorgeous topping on toast. Goatsbridge trout is so good eat it on its own.

Sodastream – invest in one. I drink two litres of sparkling water a day. Saved me a huge amount of cash and recycling of water bottles.

My food and drink picks for March - try Brad and Angelina's wine, La Rouge and Mount Juliet for starters

La Rouge in Cabinteely

This week is all about horses for me with the Irish dominating so much of the running over at Cheltenham. 

But in the food world, seasons roll on and new restaurants open. We have seen some great Dublin and Galway restaurants close in recent months but happily other food businesses also open, become firm favourites with the public and new trends begin. Here is my This Edible Life column for March from The Gloss magazine - my monthly pick of food news from producers and restaurants. If I had to recommend one outstanding thing from this month its Sam Neill's Two Paddocks pinto noir - so gorgeous you'll want to take a bath in it.


This Edible Life 

As reviewers in New York wrestle to describe “New American” as opposed to “American” cooking, one of the restaurateurs behind “new Irish cooking” is finding great success with her Cabinteely venture La Rouge. Anne Marie Nohl of the well-loved Expresso Bar on St.Mary’s Road in Ballsbridge (dressed down celebs) joins a gathering of places slowly making the village a foodie nook.

Ed Hick's Bacon Jam

Alongside Urban café, South African influenced Pielow’s restaurant and the Spanish Las Tapas, La Rouge is easy-going but relevant with plenty of Irish dishes. As with Expresso Bar, Sunday brunch is a big attraction featuring Eggs Florentine, seared kidneys and brioche. The “La Rouge Big Breakfast” boasts sausages by Proper Butcher and food obsessive Ed Hick. For more Man Food, try Ed’s Bacon Jam made with honey, coffee and baco  from Hick’s Butchers in Dun Laoghaire and many delis. My husband is obsessed.

Mount Juliet estate

Talking of butchers good and bad, amid covering #horseburger I grabbed a few days at Mount Juliet in Thomastown (doing two radio interviews in the car en route). Binning the phones, the thick Georgian walls give rest and quiet like no other, and the food at The Lady Helen gets better and better. These are stunning plates with great sourcing; I’m sure I saw the pheasant I ate giving me a wink earlier on the avenue.

In the wine world actress Drew Barrymore tells us she is so in love with Pinot Grigio she’s decided to produce her own, Whether it will beat Brad and Angelina’s Chateaux Miramar Cotes des Provence is yet to be seen. Unlike most Pinot Grigios, I found  Brangelina’s white Cote des Provence had a surprisingly full-bodied spank, and a good story for the dining table.

Drew Barrymore

Their wine is stocked by Garry Gubbins at Red Nose Wine in Clonmel, who supplies the horsey set with finds from hobnobbing around fancy-pants estates. He also sells the actor Sam Neill’s gorgeous Two Paddocks pinot noir. Another independent wine treasure is The Parting Glass in Enniskerry owned by the lovely Dom Price, with sweets and goodies on the counter (he knows my type). Others are Gabriel Cooney’s On the Grapevine in Dalkey, Curious Wines in Cork and Cases in Galway.

If you’d like to know more on food and wine pairings, Mary Gaynor in Thomastown Kilkenny runs a lovely wine course open to trade and the public http://www.wineacademy.ie.  In Dublin, Ely’s Big Tasting is on the 22^nd of this month with wine, Irish beers and ciders, Sheridan’s cheeses and organic beef from the Ely farm (yes there is such a thing). Basically, if you don’t want to drink you can just eat.

Kilruddery House

For a Spring shot of the outdoors, Kilruddery Farm Markets start again on 31^st March and every Saturday thereafter; foods for the larder, fresh coffees and great for letting children let off steam. It was here I first began buying Corleggy Cheese from Cavan. Despite being one of the earliest cheesemakers in the country, Silke Cropp’s cheeses from the edge of Lough Erne were new to me. Crackers, chutney, grapes, Corleggy, Two Paddocks… nothing better

.   

I left my wallet at Cheltenham

On the eve of the Cheltenham Festival here's a podcast broadcast on RTE Countrywide last week of my visit to trainer Tony Martin at his yard in Summerhill County Meath.

Like all good trainers Tony really treats horses as individuals and gives a good appraisal of one of his best chasers Bog Warrior and what qualities have made him into special horse, despite going through difficult times. Tony has seven horses bound for Cheltenham but Bog Warrior will only run if the ground is soft or deep.This is because some horses have action (type of movement of their lower leg) which suits different type of terrain. So the snow this week and very cold temperatures may not suit him.

I also met another of his Cheltenham stars, Beneficient - a bright chestnut gelding who nibbled my hand throughout our chat outside his stable. He was so sweet I wanted to put him in the back of the car and take him home. I also asked Tony about Michael O'Leary, head of Ryanair and one of the biggest owners of National Hunt horses in Ireland. Always surrounded by controversy O'Leary is very much liked in the racing sector. As Tony says, "he's a paying client like anybody else". He has seven horses with Tony, including Bog Warrior. Whatever you may think of him, it's deep pockets like O'Leary's which keep many yards going.

Tony Martin trainer (right)

Cheltenham is a very special festival for Irish horses and many Irish rural people. National hunt horses are often bred by small farmers and breeders whose dream is to for the animal to make it to the Cheltenham festival. The hugs and joy and whooping that take place when an Irish horse comes in is something that everyone who loves horses should experience once in a lifetime. It really is a special place. There's not many like it where it's common to see grown men cry. Both joy and pain are in plentiful supply around horses and especially in racing, When I can afford it I'll be back to Cheltenham like a shot believe me.

Have a listen to the piece below which is followed by Leo Powell - editor of The Irish Field with his top tips for the festival. And if you have any long priced "sure things" please send them my way!

http://www.rte.ie/radio/utils/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A20168216%3A1523%3A09%2D03%2D2013%3A

The Placenta Smoothie. Yes, you read that correctly

I was facinated by this television piece produced by a friend of mine Richard Stearn for TV3. Yes eating placentas is in vogue and US celebs are leading the way on the placenta smoothie trend. But isn't this simply the same as cutting off your own thumb and putting it in a smoothie?

We all know the arguments - placentas are enriched with nutrients valuable to an iron depleted mother who has just given birth. But couldn't a mother just eat a burger instead? The "but animals in the wild eat their placentas" line doesn't hold water either. They do so to avoid the strong smell of blood attracting predators in the crucial period when their young are barely on their feet and able to flee.

But what I love most about this video is the "placenta expert" washing the placenta under the tap then putting bottled water into the food processor. As we know, washing chickens etc is not advised as it spreads germs further around your kitchen which are not then happily cremated in the oven. Does the FSAI have a view on placenta eating?

Personally I never gave my two placentas a second thought. Seared on sourdough toast with creme fraiche? Anyone?