Coronation Chicken

What with it being the Jubilee Weekend, (and I had the most beautiful banquet of British goodies imaginable yesterday to celebrate at a family buffet yesterday) what better time to celebrate that renowned national dish that is Coronation chicken.

Coronation chicken was created by Constance Spry, a florist, and Rosemary Hume, a chef, as a celebratory dish for the coronation of the Queen. It was supposedly inspired by Jubilee chicken, a dish prepared for the silver Jubilee of George V, mixing chicken with mayonnaise and curry. Modern day versions are very different - some include raisins (essential in my opinion), some flaked almonds and some creme fraiche. Recipes vary so much - and this is what makes coronation chicken so amazing - but also so disliked by some.

For a supposed 'national' dish, I know very few people who like coronation chicken. And this is the result of varying recipes and version. To take supermarket versions, for example, there is marked differences in quality in the various ones available. The Sainsbury's one I've tried is a horrendous mess. If this is people'e experience of Coronation Chicken, no wonder people turn their noses up at it. A claggy, gunky orangey mess that is far too sweet and is sickly with its mess of a mayonnaise.

The M&S one is by far by absolute favourite. Spread into a soft brown roll, sprinkled with a crunchy seed topping, it is hard to imagine a nicer lunch. It is a gloriously golden yellow, speckled with dots of spice that perfectly counterbalance the sweeter elements. The tender, generous sized pieces of chicken are lovingly coated in the smooth, silky sauce that has enough spice to provide a bit of bite but is never overpowering.

In time for the Jubilee, they've released a coronation chicken sandwich in their food to go range. I had this for lunch last Friday and it so satisfying. Sandwiched between onion bread with a generous helping of this beautiful deli filler, it more than justified its £2.50 price tag. They've also released coronation chicken hand cooked crisps. Wonderfully crunchy, with bite, texture and lovely spicy flavouring, these made an appearance at our Jubilee party yesterday and, of course, I had far too many.

I think people think they dislike coronation chicken because of the afore mentioned bad supermarket versions but also because of frumpy versions given to them at school or being force fed badly made versions by elderly relatives. At our Jubilee party, amongst many other delicious offerings, my aunt made a gorgeous coronation chicken. Though it was missing he raisins that I feel are essential to the dish's identity, it was still an absolute pleasure to eat. It wasn't swamped in mayonnaise, which is the cause of a many a bad coronation chicken, but rather, sparingly coated in a beautifully creamy, not claggy sweet and spicy sauce.

Piled high on slabs of a gorgeous bread from the local deli, this was food heaven. Soft, doughy bread with a mountain of fragrant, herbed flecked chicken heaped on top - it was no wonder I went home with tight jeans.

Coronation chicken is a national treasure for a reason. When it's done right, like this, I can think of no better reason for my love of being British.

Peanut Butter & Forgotton Favourites

Of all of today's moments of food heaven, it was something as simple as plain old peanut butter that stood head and shoulders above the crowd. Considering I've also made a lovely sweet and sour stiry fry with brown noodles, had copious free flavoured hot chocolate samples at Whittards and bought a beautifully sweet cinammon pretzel coated in a blanket of sugar at Westfields, this is no easy feat.

But what was it amount this tub of gungy goo that lines the shelves of even the most understocked coner shop, that made it stand out so?

Obviously, taste was probably the critical factor. This wasn't just any old peanut, this was an M&S Thick and Crunchy Peanut Butter. So attractively packaged in the new Simply M&S design (and quite good value at only £1.38), this peanut butter had the most gloriously thick and gungey texture. As I spread it across a perfectly crisp piece of toasted French Pain de Campagne, there was friction and it stuck to the knife. This is eaxctly what I want from peanut butter - it was fabulously sticky.

Better yet was the way this smooth, thick goo stuck to the roof of my mouth, blanketing my tongue and tastebuds in a rich, creamy, peanutty goodness. Speckled throughout were great big shards of peanut. These weren't the pathetic little tokens cheaper peanut butters offer you but, rather, were crunchy, providing heft and bulk.

But I think the reason I enjoyed this so much was because I so rarely eat or buy peanut butter. I don't know why this is, I love peanut butter, but somehow it never makes its way into my shopping factor. It is an overlooked and forgotten favourite of mine. We all have them, whether it be foods from our childhood or things that are hard to fine.

So think about something you love but you just never seem to get round to buying and go and get some! The pleasure of devouring a personal pleasure that you rarely eat just makes the eating experience that bit more special.

Why Does Easter Egg Chocolate Taste Better Than Regular Chocolate?

Despite my love of all food, I do have a slightly take-it-or-leave it approach to chocolate. However, at this time of year, I do get cravings for that sweet, milky shards of an Easter egg. It doesn't even have to be fine 70% solids chocolate. Nope, plain old Cadbury's cheap confectionary is the only cure for my sweet tooth desire.

Because there is something extra nice about Easter egg chocolate. Essentially, a shell of Cadbury's Easter egg is nothing more than a bar of Dairy Milk. But for some reason when the chocolate is in egg form, it transcends being a run of the mill chocolate bar and is elevated to a heavenly chocolatey symbol of fertility.

In all serious, like advent calendar chocolate, it genuinely tastes so much better. I always put my Easter eggs in the fridge and taking out a shard of broken brown bliss and slowly letting it melt over my tongue is pure pleasure. I think the reason it tastes so much better is due to thickness. Lovely thin, sheets of chocolate that snap satisfyingly when you break a fragment off; it's so much nicer than a breeze block of chocolate that you get everyday.

And I think the other reason is that it comes down to seasonality. Like mince pies, Easter eggs are that rare food we just don't get nowadays - something only available for a limited period of the year. With modern production we get strawberries in winter and even hot cross buns are available all year round.

The Easter egg is therefore a treat to be snatched at when the opportunity arises because, come May, you have a whole other year to wait before you can get your hands on that sweet treasure enrobed in its aluminium dressing. So whether or not I'm crazy for thinking it's nicer than regular chocolate, I'm going to crack to devour my chocolate joy with gusto whilst I can.

The Dangers of Cheap Confectionary - Why only Cadbury Mini Eggs will do

It was my own fault really. Usually, I never buy food based on how cheap it is or if it’s on promotion. I’ve always been a strong advocate that it is worth paying that bit more for something you will actually enjoy. And I don’t mean that in a food snob sort of way because I sadly don’t have the money to be able to be one. People may think I’m a foodie, in reality I’m just greedy.

In an ideal world I would buy literally all my food from Waitrose and M&S but this isn’t an ideal world so I have to mix my Waitrose Pumpkin Falafels and M&S Cherry & Almond Frangipanes with stuff from Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s and Asda (but never Tesco. I could go into the reasons why but frankly that would take at least a whole post to itself).

As part of my leisurely weekend bakeathon, I decided to make some Easter Chocolate Fudge Cupcakes (and I will be posting about these later in the week). Of course, no Easter cake would be complete without being adorned with the speckled beauties that are mini eggs.

Now usually I would buy Cadbury Mini Eggs. If I’m honest, I’m not really a fan of Cadbury chocolate. There’s nothing wrong with it, but, at the same time it never delivers that smooth, silky bliss that only really good chocolate can deliver. However, I do like their mini eggs - bright, colourful sugary shells protecting a dark, sweet core of chocolate joy.

Like I said I would usually have bought these and at 100g for £1, buying the 200g I needed for the recipe would hardly have broke the bank but for some reason I ended be drawn against my will into buying some ‘Sweet Heaven’ chocolate eggs at £1 for 200g.

So for the sake of a pound (though the price of the Cadbury ones was 200% of the Sweet Heaven ones) I went for the bargain basement eggs. What could go wrong I thought? Chocolate = good. Sugar shells = good. It’s a pretty simple formula.

How wrong I was. These were the definition of cheap, nasty, potent confectionary. The shells were brittle and shredded my mouth and the chocolate didn’t even taste of chocolate, just a cocoa-ey sugary chemical formula. I didn’t want these sugar bullets ruining my Easter cupcakes so I didn’t even end up using them (though admittedly, despite hating them, I did shovel a fair few in my mouth - they had that addictive quality that E number riddled candy has).

It just goes to show, it’s just not worth scrimping on food. Food is to be savoured and enjoyed and to do that you need to be prepared to splash out. Scrimping and being miserly only ends in mini eggs that are more like chocolate bricks than chocolate bliss so be warned!

Mother's Day

Good eating very often boils down to who you're eating with and, having had Sunday lunch with the extended family today, the simple roast beef dinner I had was veritable feast.

Beef, Roast Potatoes, Celeriac and Swede Mash, Carrots, Peas, Yorkshire Puddings, Gravy, Broccoli and Sprouts. Written like that does the meal I've had no justice. This was simple, high quality family feasting. Beautifully tender beef from the butcher with a rich, juicy gravy swaddling fresh, vibrant vegetables. In my mind, there really is no better meal than a roast dinner.

But what makes a roast dinner that extra bit special is that ultimately it is a family eating ritual. You don't really eat or make a roast for one. And being surrounded by all the family and, most importantly, my mum, makes that ordinary list of meal components into something very special.

The roast dinner as a celebration of the family is mostly a celebration of my mum. Thinking of all the Sundays that my mum has toiled away, peeling potatoes and cutting up carrots, makes you realise how lucky you are to have had a childhood where you were always well fed.

I think most of us would argue that our mum is the one who makes the best roast dinner. Maybe it is partly sentamentality behind this, but the foods we are bought up on are inevitably going to shape our tastes and attitudes as we grow older so the Sunday dinner we were given is always going to be how we define it as an adult.

My love of food would possibly be non existant (or at least severely tempered) had I not been so lucky to have a mum that always experimented and tried new things. So many of her recipes are my all time favourites. Her roast dinners, her rice pudding, her moroccan tagine, her homemade burgers and her chilli con carne would all make it into my top meals and I still look forward to every time I am fortunate enough to get to eat one of them again.

My mum always encouraged me to try new things (I remember first trying Indian food at the age of 7 as I pathetically took the scraps from my parents' takeway) and the fact I really cannot think of any foods I dislike is testiment to having been raised in a house where the kitchen really was the heart of the home. So to all the mums out there who have kept us fed and watered so well for so long, cheers!

Why I Love to Eat

Eating is a hobby.

It is also in my opinion one of the best hobbies and passions you can have. Take kayaking for example, yes, I'm sure its enthusiasts say it's one of the greatest joys you can expererience but you are limited in how often you can do it. You need time out of your hectic schedule to be able to indulge in it, you need the budget for it and if you don't want to drown you really are reliant on other people being able to do it with you.

Food as a hobby is something every one of us can wallow in and enjoy every single day. In fact, it's not even once a day but several times a day. I look forward to every meal and snack I consume. Every eating occasion is special and I take full advantage of all these opportunities each day brings to sample new foods, try new things and let myself savour the appearance, smells and most importantly tastes that food delivers.

There is not a single food I will not eat or do not like. This may seem implausible but I have something good to say about all types of food. I am just as happy eating  celery dipped in a heavenly houmous as I am devouring an oozingly drippy chocolate fudge cake bursting with sweet comfort.

Because of this I have decided to start a daily blog. If I'm honest I could write several entries a day because food is something that underscores everything we do. We all need to eat. But eating is not just fuel for me and I immerse myself in all its brilliant forms. I love to cook and will test out recipes, I watch cookery shows, I buy celebrity cookbooks and food magazines. I'm fortunate to be able to work in a job where I get to hear of all the latest developments in the food industry and I always get the urge to try out any new product that graces our supermarket shelves.

But I could never limit myself to just the ordinary. I like to shop in little delis, visit market stalls and discover those little foodie gems off the beaten track that you will only ever find by accident or recommendation. And as well as covering the above, I aim to recommend these troves of food perfection whenever I find them.

Eating out is also incredibly important to me and is, in my opinion, one of the nicest ways to socialise. Food, ultimately is communal; it is about giving and sharing with those you care about. Going to restaurants, for me, is the ultimate indulgent way to spend time with my nearest and dearest. When you have great conversation, great guests and a goregeous gift on a plate in front of you, it really is hard to want to be anywhere else. However, I am just as happy eating properly cooked fish and chips as I am in a tres sophisticated French brasserie. So long as the food has been prepared with care and love, I am happy.

Anything and everything food related will be covered in this blog as long as it offers joy. And that ulimately, is what eating needs to be about. I learn about food history because I find the cultural tapestry behind dishes interesting and because it often makes them even more appealing, not because I want to be  a 'know it all'. I love to cook, not because I'm looking for compliments or because I'm trying to impress my guests but because I'm just naturally greedy and want something good for myself to eat.

For me, any kind of food snobbery or cooking competition is like a food vampire that sucks all the joy and beauty out of food. Eating is a postive thing, it can comfort us, cheer us up, tantalise our tastebuds and provicd a rock in an unsteady world. Why would you ruin it by putting pressure on yourself trying to win admiration for a beautiful looking tarte tatin? I'd rather have a shabby looking crumble with friends so long as it tastes good.

And ultimately, things tasting good is why we eat. Ok, some might eat just to give them energy for the day but I think most of us cook and consume because we want to, because we want that certain taste to satisify our cravings.

And satisify my cravings is what I'm off to do now, by having a gloriously golden bagel smeared thickly with cool, creamy Philadelphia...