What’s cooking News, reviews and trends

What’s cooking

This month’s news, reviews, best buys and trends

BOOKS FOR COOKS • •

BOOKS FOR COOKS

Leiths: How to Cook Bread by

Leiths School of Food and Wine

(£15, Good Food offer price

£13.50, Quadrille)

If you’ve been tempted by the trend for baking your own bread, this new book will help you to develop your skills. Learn how to add different flours and flavours to a loaf, the technique for croissants, even how to make the perfect Chelsea buns. The most useful aspect is the step photos – not on every recipe, but for when you may need extra help.

Spring by Skye Gyngell (£25, Good Food offer

price £22.50, Quadrille)

Written to mark the opening of her new restaurant, Spring, in London’s Somerset House. Skye, who was awarded a Michelin star while at Petersham Nurseries, charts the fascinating story of the design and creation of the restaurant. The book also features 80 recipes from her menu, including Butterflied lamb with roasted beetroots & carrots and Bitter chocolate & espresso cake.

Hog by Richard H Turner (£25, Good Food offer price

£21, Mitchell Beazley)

Richard H Turner, a meat-loving chef, is also one half of a London-based independent butcher’s shop. His recipes, celebrating the pig, are easy to follow: from brining pork chops in cider or honey and milk to an impressive Wild boar Wellington and a pulled pork sandwich to beat all others. There is plenty of information on breeds, however it is the recipes that will keep you coming back.

■ BBC Good Food readers can buy any of this month’s books at a discount, plus you’ll also receive a free bookmark. Simply call 01326 569444, p&p is free. Or buy online at sparkledirect.com/goodfood.

TAKE A COOKERY CLASS

Eyes on Pies, Christine McFadden Cookery School, Dorset (01308 482784,

thedorsetfoodie.co.uk) Nestled in beautiful Dorset countryside, Christine McFadden – aka The Dorset Foodie – takes classic techniques and great local ingredients back to basics on this pastry and pie course.

In the homely kitchen of her 17th-century thatched cottage, Christine welcomes the group of seven with coffee. We each have our GOOD FOOD FAVOURITE

Hand-painted four-tier Madhubani tiffn, £35.99, indian-tiffn.com We were hunting for props for a photo shoot when we came across these tins – and fell in love! As well as a handy way to carry hot food, they’ll make eye-catching serving dishes on the table.

own set of equipment and food arranged around the kitchen.

After a brief introduction to the science and artistry behind good pastry-making, we got stuck in, making a hand-raised game pie. Then we tackled Cheese & chilli pasties, and a Beef, celery & walnut pie – which demonstrate good shortcrust and rough-puff pastry.

We fnished by making citrus puddings using suet pastry, before sitting down to eat our creations. Verdict A very productive day in a relaxed and intimate environment. I left loaded down with various pies, and much more confdence about making different pastries. Cost £135 including lunch with wine, and a folder with our recipes and cooking tips.

Helen Upshall REAL BREAD WINNERS

It’s Real Bread Week this month – 9-15 May – and the charity behind the campaign, Sustain, has created a much-needed directory of all the places nationwide that sell ‘good’ bread.

To meet the campaign’s criteria, the bread must be made using some stoneground four, plus the dough must be fermented for a minimum of four hours. The baking process should be continuous – so the dough should not have been part-baked or frozen.

In addition, the four must be organic and produced within a 30-mile radius of the bakery. Enter your postcode into The Real Bread Finder at sustainweb.org/realbread to discover producers selling top loaves near you. l

DRINK NOTES

Sarah Jane Evans looks ahead to English Wine Week

Kent Vineyard in Sissinghurst is one of several farms opening their doors to visitors during this week, 23-31 May. Spend the morning in the vineyard, followed by a lunch at nearby pub The Milk House (visit kentvineyard.co.uk for full details).

Wiston Estate Sparkling Rosé 2011, West Sussex, 12%, £35.95,

swig.co.uk Wiston’s superb rosé, its frst ever, won a trio of gold awards last year. And the Queen is clearly a fan – in March this year she launched P&O’s Britannia by smashing a Nebuchadnezzar (the equivalent to 20 bottles) of the NV (priced at £24.95 a bottle) across its bows.

Three Choirs Rosé 2013, England, 10.5%,

£8.50, thewine society.com Start summer early with Three Choirs, a Gloucestershire winery that’s well worth a visit. The wine is light, bright and off-dry – it’s lovely chilled.

You can drink it on its own, but it also goes well with shellfsh and spicy dishes.

Judith Beck Zweigelt 2012, Burgenland, Austria, 13%, £10.99, Waitrose

Zweigelt is the fnal grape in the A-Z of varieties. In Austria, it makes light-hearted cherry and spice reds, perfect on Eurovision night with sausages and cheeses – or just by itself. Prefer white? Then Austria’s favourite, Grüner Veltliner (2013, Austria, 12.5%, £7.99, Waitrose), is good value.

Did you know? A 500ml bottle of elderflower cordial contains 3,000 individual flowers from the plant.*

HOLLY’S TROLLEY

Beloved date granola, £3.99,

belovedates.com Containing rolled oats, flaked barley, spelt, seeds, nuts and dates, this granola makes a luxury breakfast – and doesn’t taste as sweet as many others.

Canarejal Cremoso sheep’s milk cheese,

£9.95/250g, brindisa.com An incredibly creamy cheese, made in the Castilla y León region of north-west Spain. Cut off the top and scoop out the middle with breadsticks or crackers.

Fruit Heroes Pure Fruit Bar, 59p, Holland & Barrett

With no added sugar, colourings, preservatives, gluten or dairy, these little fruit bars are a tasty, no-guilt snack. They do contain natural fruit sugars, but nothing processed.

TRENDSPOTTER: RAW FOODS

Jessica Simmons tells us why raw food is all the rage. Jessica writes the popular blog

nourishingjessica.com. Raw food is beginning to shake off its faddy, no-fun image as the rapidly growing health food movement gathers pace.

A strict raw food diet involves the consumption of unprocessed foods, such as fruit, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds that have not been heated above 49C. Raw foodists believe that cooking food above this temperature diminishes (or destroys) valuable vitamins and minerals, as well as important enzymes that aid digestion.

Glowing skin, higher energy levels and weight loss are among the benefts cited by advocates, whose juicers, blenders and dehydrators tend to get more of a kitchen workout than their ovens. I would never attempt a fully raw food diet, as it can be challenging; I fnd that having a couple of raw meals a week is just as benefcial, and makes me feel lighter and clearer. I believe incorporating more raw food into your diet is defnitely a good idea, such as my Raw courgetti or Raspberry ripple banana ‘ice cream’ (above). Both recipes are on my blog.

Look out for brands like Raw Health – its range includes products that would previously have been off-limits to those on a predominantly raw food diet, such as olives, ripened on the tree and preserved in cold-pressed oil, and vinegar, made only from unpasteurised apple juice.

Raw restaurants are popping up too, like Nama Foods, in London’s Notting Hill, and the Wild Food Café, in Covent Garden. Their menus feature falafel wraps and pizza bases created from caulifower and ground nuts – not to mention their famous raw desserts and smoothies.

GADGET GEEK

Cricut Explore Design and Cutting System,

£249.99, hobbycraft.co.uk This high-tech printer is a must-have for anyone crafting their own wedding invitations, or if you’re about to set up a cake business. It cuts intricate lattices into paper (fantastic for cupcake wrappers and cake toppers), makes foldable card designs and can even ‘handwrite’ messages. It cuts many materials, from paper and card to leather, vinyl and fabric.