Food Blog
Big Green Jewish would like to introduce Rachel Davies, a Jewish chef from North West London. Rachel trained at Le Cordon Bleu and runs Rachel's Kitchen, offering catering for dinner parties and events, and teaching cookery in your home or in her kitchen. For more information please contact her at info@rachels-kitchen.com or the Rachel's Kitchen website, www.rachels-kitchen.com.
A bit about me - as this is a food blog, I should say that until about 2 years ago I was the kind of cook who burnt Super Noodles, and could just about manage 3 minute filled egg pasta with pesto from a jar as a ‘good’ meal.
Then a year volunteering with VSO in Zambia changed all that. I was alone in a village in Southern Africa where the market sold dried fish, tomatoes and sweet potato leaves, and egg noodles were a 3 hour drive away. Something had to change, and that something was my ability to cook. So using whatever ingredients I could find, I started baking my own bread, and attempting all the dishes possible with the limited fresh ingredients. And I loved it!
Please sign up to this blog where I’ll share recipes and tips, and will have a look at what fruit and vegetables are in season and what great dishes you can make with them.
August
You can travel around the world, and drink the same Starbucks frappuccino in London or Seoul, see the McDonalds golden arches in Ecuador and India, and smell the pumped-out bready smell as you walk past Subway in Australia or Zambia. And yet one of the things that I most enjoy about travelling is discovering new tastes, exciting flavours, and seeing how food differs, as well as what we all share.
I’ve spent the last few weeks in France, and whilst the Normandy sun is no stronger than in London, and summer rain falls with the same disappointing frequency, I have loved looking around the shops, patisseries and supermarkets, and enjoying the hundreds of cheeses, vast selection of wines, the fresh, crisp baguettes, delicious butter croissants, and the obvious pleasure that the French get from producing and eating really great food.
I spent a few hours in Paris, and my absolute mission, which I’d been looking forward to for months, was a kind of patisserie crawl, visiting as many shops as I could in the few hours I had. And so off I went, armed with a camera and enough Euros to sample something delicious from everywhere I visited.
I do accept that not everyone would find this adventure as exciting as me, but the number of books on Parisian patisseries does show that there is a small group of people who, similarly, could gaze at those beautiful, fresh treats for longer than the shop assistants
would like. And the patisserie didn’t disappoint, with brightly coloured macaroons and sweet, sticky fillings, lemon tarts with shiny glazes and delicate striped decorations, raspberry tarts dusted with icing sugar, chocolate tartlets embellished with gold leaf, fresh choux pastry filled with Chantilly, crème patissiere, coffee or chocolate, in every shape and size. And the Opera cakes, Fraisier, millefeuilles, financiers, madeleines, petit fours, chouquettes - hours and hours of tasty beauty.
Nothing beats fresh patisserie. Which is why, if you want to have these treats outside of France, the best way is to make it yourself. Some are more complicated than others, but the effort is absolutely worth it.
If you would like to have a go at some Parisian delicacies, showcasing some of the summer fruit still around, then I’d suggest you try millefeuille (pictured below), which means a thousand leaves, referring to the puff pastry layers. It’s an impressive dessert for any dinner party, and, of course, it tastes delicious!
To make your own fresh and lovely millefeuille you will need:
Plain flour for dusting
3 tbsp caster sugar, plus extra for serving
350g good quality puff pastry
300ml double cream
1 vanilla pod, or 1 tsp vanilla extract
600g strawberries and other summer berries
Zest ½ lemon (optional)
50g good-quality white chocolate
Method:
Heat the oven to 200?C.
On a lightly floured surface scattered with a little sugar, roll out the pastry to a rectangle slightly larger than 28 x 30cm. Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment and scatter with more sugar. Use the rolling pin to lift the pastry onto the baking parchment, and lay it out flat.
Scatter more caster sugar over the pastry and cover with another sheet of baking parchment. Lay another heavy baking sheet (or a baking sheet weighed down with an empty oven dish if yours aren't heavy) on top and bake for 20-30 mins until the pastry is golden and crisp, checking to make sure it doesn’t overcook. Then set aside to cool.
To make the filling, tip the cream into a bowl with 3 tbsp of sugar, and the vanilla seeds or extract. Lightly whisk until the cream just holds its shape and set aside.
Hull and quarter the strawberries and set a few aside for the salad, then cut the rest into 3 or 4 chunks.
Fold the chopped strawberries and lemon zest through the cream, then chill until needed.
When the pastry has cooled completely, trim the edges to form a neat 28 x 30cm rectangle. Cut into 3 equal rectangles - to get them precisely the same size, cut one, then lay it on the rest of the pastry and use it as a guide to the next rectangle, then repeat.
To assemble the millefeuille, lay down one rectangle of pastry, add half of the cream and strawberry mix and flatten with the back of a spoon. Place the second pastry layer on top and gently press down. Top with the remaining cream mix.
Place the final layer of pastry on and press down gently so that the filling just starts to bulge over the edges.
Use a palette knife to smooth the filling along the sides so that it is level with the edges of pastry and fills any gaps.
Grate the chocolate on top.
Mix the reserved strawberries and summer berries to make a salad.
To serve, carefully slice the millefeuille into 6 equal pieces. As you slice, hold the millefeuille together by placing a finger at either side of the blade.
Place a piece of millefeuille to the side of each plate. Spoon a small pile of the berry salad on the opposite side of the plate, grate a bit more chocolate over it all and serve.
(The millefeuille can be assembled up to 2 hrs ahead and kept somewhere cool. You could also prepare the puff pastry rectangles and cream mix the night before, keeping the pastry well wrapped in cling film.)
Enjoy!
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Food
One of the fundamental ways we understand the world and impact on the environment is through our food. Making decisions about the food you eat is a simple way of helping the environment – and often results in tastier meals!Did you know:
• Food accounts for 20% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
• A plastic bag can take up to 500 years to decay in landfill.
• Meat farming is on course to destroy 40% of the Amazon Rainforest by 2050.
• Half the vegetables and 95% of the food we consume in the UK does not come from our shores.
The food we eat makes a huge contribution towards climate change and unnecessary waste. Making small changes today can lead to a healthier, greener and tastier life.
The Big Green Jewish Campaign: Year of the Bagel, launched in Tu B’Shevat 2011, is a whole year of campaigns, action and education focusing on food. Click here to have a look at the Campaign calendar and get a sense of the events taking place throughout the year.
This page deals with campaigns to make our food more sustainable. There are plenty of other social action campaigns related to food, and in particular the sense of a growing global food crisis.
Visit our Food Crisis page for more information provide by Oxfam.
For glossary of terms click here.
We’ve included information below on the choices you can make to make your food greener - just click on any of the links below.
Eat seasonably - Vegetable boxes
Grow your own - Kashrut - Eat less meat
Eat seasonably
Easting seasonably, locally and unprocessed food can be much better for the environment. Local out of season produce usually requires energy-intensive techniques such as heated greenhouses, or refrigerated storage. For information about what’s in season click here. There are also farmers markets where you can buy fresh produce grown locally. To find a farmers market near you click here.
Vegetable boxes
Make sure you try buy fruit and vegetables that are not in packaging. Organic foods and fresh vegetable boxes can be ordered from a supplier such as Able and Cole or Riverford. It is also important to support your local Green Grocers:
Moishe House London has launched a fruit and veg box scheme in partnership with local traditional Willesden grocers A.J. Reynolds run by brothers Wayne and Barry.
Rachel from Moishe House said: "There's no point in focusing only on buying organic if our local independent high street traders suffer from our use of large organic foodbox suppliers. Companies such as Riverford and Abel & Cole do a great job, but they also affect a more homely and small farm image than their reality. Meanwhile, our local green grocers lose thousands in trade from those who do big shops at supermarkets.
"When enough people order from us we'll be able to start making special purchases of organic items and seasonal specialties. If all these stores close we will lose our local infrastructure and become dependent on supermarkets or long distance van deliveries. Neither a desirable option. Boxes are delivered on Thursday evenings. £10 for small £15 for large in the Brent, Kilburn, Crickewood and West Hampstead area. A small delivery charge will apply for further areas."
To set up a standing order, to try a box or for more information, email Rachel at thelondonhouse@gmail.com
Grow your own
Growing your own food can be cheaper, fresher and fulfilling. It provides healthy and delicious food that is good for the environment. Whether you are interested in growing food in your own home, or starting a community food growing project, there is lots of advice and information to help you get started. Read The Big Green Jewish Website's tips on growing your own.
Alexei Charkham, a Jewish Allotment holder from North London write a blog about growing on his allotment, to read more click here.
For more information click here.
The Jew & the Carrot is the fastest growing on-line resource tackling the relationship between Judaism, food and climate change. Launched in November, 2006, The Jew & The Carrot is the epicenter of Jews, food, and sustainability on the web. It brings together 3,000 years of Jewish thought and food tradition with contemporary issues like sustainability, organic eating, nutrition, food politics, and healthy, delicious cooking. The Jew and the Carrot is a project of Hazon.
To read about organic kosher foods, click here.
Eat less meat
A 2006 United Nations report summarized the devastation caused by the meat industry by calling it "one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global."
Producing meat uses up a lot of energy and water. Limiting your meat intake will help to reduce usage of energy, water and CO2.
For more information about Judaism and Vegetarianism see this article. For more information on Judaism and vegetarianism click here.
Eating meat in moderation is healthy. Industrialised farming has made it possible to produce vast amounts of the stuff and all that cheap meat is having a negative effect on our health.
For more information and to join in the Part Time Carnivore Campaign click here.
Organic
Organic farming offers the best, currently available, practical model for addressing climate-friendly food production. This is because it sequesters higher levels of carbon in the soil, is less dependent on oil-based fertilisers and pesticides and confers resilience in the face of climatic extremes. New research from the Soil Association reveals that if all UK farmland was converted to organic farming, at least 3.2 million tonnes of carbon would be taken up by the soil each year - the equivalent of taking nearly 1 million cars off the road. The research reveals that widespread adoption of organic farming practices in the UK would offset 23% of UK agricultural emissions through soil carbon sequestration alone. (Information from the Soil Association)
Fish
Overfishing is the greatest single threat to marine wildlife and habitats, with many fish critically endangered. When an entire fish population is destroyed it can have huge knock-on effects on the local ecosystem. Help to play your part by making informed choices about the fish you eat, starting with what to avoid and what you can eat instead.
You can help by ensuring that you only buy sustainable fish. For frequently asked questions about sustainable fish click here.
Some species have already been fished to commercial extinction, and many more are on the verge of extinction. To find a list of fish to eat and fish to avoid click here.
Join in The End of the Line campaign - The End of the Line is not against fishing. It is not against eating fish. But it is for a responsible attitude towards the oceans.
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