Learning to pickle with Sarsons and Kilner Jars

I love condiments and pickles accompanying my meals and they are even nicer when they are home made. Recently Sarsons UK's number one vinegar brand invited me to a pickling workshop in collaboration with Kilner Jars. I jumped at the chance as nothing beats having home made pickles and also with an abundance of fresh produce available what better way than to preserve it to use in the winter. With autumn on our door step  already, it won't be long before its Christmas and this year, I plan to make jars of pickles as edible gifts. That's half my Christmas presents sorted!!! If you want to have ago a pickling you can check out the recipes at the Sarsons recipe page.
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Sarsons new speciality pickling vinegars are perfect as they do not require any extra addition of sugars or any other seasoning and they already have everything that's required in them.

To make your own pickles all that remains is to chop the vegetables, load them into jars and pour over the speciality blend vinegar's and hey presto you have home made pickles at a click of a fingers.I think the hardest part is waiting for the pickles to be ready for eating!!

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At  the Sarsons pickling event we were able to taste 4 different types of pickles; pickled cucumbers, pickled garlic, pickled peppers and Vietnamese carrot pickle. My favourite amongst them all was the cucumber pickle, After the sampling we were able to make our own jars of pickles to take home.

Denise Tollyfield our chef  tutor for the night explained that for pickling its imperative to use the freshest ingredients to get the best results. For Optimum results don't be tempted to use old produce save that for chutneys instead!!! We had the freshest ingredients and lovely produce to create our pickles with.

We also learnt that it is equally important to wash and sterilise the jars and the rubber rings either by boiling them in a water bath or washing them in the dishwasher to. This ensures that the pickles stay fresh for longer.The Kilner jars are by far the best for this purpose and they come in various different sizes too.

We  had 4 stations each creating one of the above pickles. I chose to make the cucumber pickle with my friend Heidi whilst another friend Manjiri made the pepper pickle. I did not dare try the garlic pickle as those who were brave enough to taste it said it was rather pungent and would definitely ward off any vampires!!!

Our pickling session was really enjoyable and we all achieved some great results and I think each group was really successful in recreating the pickles we had sampled earlier.

I am really excited to see that my cucumber pickle not only looked great, it tasted delicious especially as I added some red chillies to it to give it a bit of a spicy Kick!!!!

Its always enjoyable to learn new culinary skills and its even more fun when you do it with your best buddies!!! Here is Heidi, Manjiri and my self "The Three Musketeers" proudly showing off our creations!!!

I was invited by Sarsons to the pickling workshop, all photos and opinions shared in this post are my own.

Master class with Antonio Carluccio and Celebrating 160 years of Cirio

One of my favorite cuisines is Italian food. I love pasta and pizza and I absolutely adore tomato based sauces with oregano, garlic and herbs such as basil. This sort of food is my firm favorite. I also use lots of tomatoes in all my Indian cooking, one particular brand I adore is Cirio. I buy it in bulk from the cash and carry. There is a whole range of tomatoes available in the Cirio brand, passata, plum tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, Pomodorini cherry baby tomatoes, pizza sauce and Filetti tomatoes too.

Master Class with Paul Hollywood

I am sure that all my readers have at some point watched Great British Bake off. I really enjoy the show and each season I make a point of watching every episode. In fact my whole family including my sports mad hubby enjoys the show.

I love watching the contestants creating their challenges and watching their progression from one show to the other. I love the gentle Mary Berry, who is so tactful and inspiring and the contrast of Paul Hollywood who appears really strict and rather stern. They both give the perfect balance to the show.

I was recently invited to attend a master class with Paul Hollywood. The class was held to launch a new set of Artisan mixes that are being launched by Paul Hollywood. I was really excited to meet the man in person so I took a day off work and attended the class the violin factory in London, a lovely and stunning venue.

After a short introduction by Paul of why and how he started baking, he demonstrated making some amazing chocolate brownies with one of the mixes. The brownies were delicious.

Paul then went on to show us how to create a lovely tear and share bread.

I was lucky to be chosen to assist Paul in creating the bread. It was very interesting to learn from Paul the perfect  technique to roll the bread rolls so that they were smooth with no cracks. You can see in the video below Paul showing me how to roll the bread rolls.

The Paul Hollywood range of mixes are a perfect way to create your own home baked goodies using very little effort.

After the  demonstration we enjoyed tasty lunch of the freshly prepared breads and cold meats, cheeses etc. I was invited as a guest to attend the launch of The Paul Hollywood baking range. All the views and opinions in this post are of my own experience of the day.

I attended the master class with my friend Heidi  Roberts from Heidi Roberts Kitchen Talks.Sho was quick with my camera and captured the video and photos for me. Thanks Heidi for capturing these lovely memories for me.You can read all about Heidi's experience here.

South Indian Cookery class at Food at 52

India is a very large country with many different cultures and regions each supporting their own dialect, traditions and food. Cuisines in India can range from pure vegetarians to sea food in coastal areas to  non veg mughlai cuisines. The flavours and tastes vary as do the cooking methods, utensils and the ingredients used in the cooking.

Whilst travelling in India, I was lucky to taste a varied and delicious cuisines. One of my favorite regional cuisines was South Indian food. South India is made up  of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala as well as the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry. Some common ingredients in South Indian cuisine are rice, dhals, ginger, chillies, tamarind, coconut, plantains and fresh regional vegetables and pulses.

I love the flavours of the curry leaves, the sweetness of the coconut cream and the spiciness and tang from the chillies and tamarind used in the cuisine. I have tried to replicate some of the dishes at home but I was most excited when John and Natasha from Food at 52 a cookery school in London invited me to attend a South Indian cookery class.

There were 12 of us at the cookery class. The evening started with a short introduction to South Indian cuisine  by John our tutor for the course, after which we split into three groups to create some dishes for our meal to enjoy later.
We learnt that South Indian cuisine predominantly uses a lot of coconut, curry leaves and  tamarind in their cuisine. The curries vary from dry salad type called Thorans to more saucy curries cooked in coconut milk and tempered with curry leaves and spices.
The group cooked a wonderful menu consisting of various different ingredients. The dishes we cooked were:

Group 1

Tindori Thoran - A dry curry made with Ivy Gourd  tempered with fresh coconut and curry leaves.

Moru Kachiathu with mango and ripe plantain-  A delicious and cooling yoghurt soup made with beaten yoghurt, ripe mangoes puree  garnished with ripe mango slices and ripe plantain slices and tempered with curry leaves and onions.

Mango Chutney- Hot and tangy mango chutney slow cooked with an array of aromatic spices.

Group 2

Lemon Rice- Hot steamed rice flavoured with lemon and tempered with curry leaves and spice.

Beet Pachadi- Grated Beetroot tempered with curry leaves and coconut.

Chicken Nadam Kozi Curry- Chicken pieces cooked in a spicy coconut curry sauce.

Group 3

Lemon Rice- Hot steamed rice flavoured with lemon and tempered with curry leaves and spices.

Aubergine Rasavangy- A delicious pidgeon pea dhal cooked with spices and tamarind and garnished with slow roasted baby aubergines.

Snake Bean Thoran- Green beans steamed and tempered with beet stalks and coconut and curry leaves.

The cookery lesson was so much fun as it was all hands on and John our tutor was very informative,  helping us along each dish  to create this mouthwatering feast .

John also showed us how to made vadai, which are a deep fried savory donut appetizer that were simply mouth watering. These are often served for breakfast also with coconut chutney.

We finally sat down to enjoy out South Indian Banquet that we prepared. Each and every dish was amazingly delicious and ironically was really simple to make.

This was one of the most enjoyable class I have attended to at Food at 52 and I would highly recommend it. The class duration was from 6.30-10.00 and it costs £115.00 per person.

I would like to thank John and Natasha for inviting me to attend the South Indian Cookery Class at Food at 52 , all views and opinions in this post are my own and of my experience of the class.

Peruvian Cookery at Cactus Kitchens with Encona

I love food and I am always looking for new types of cuisines to discover. A while back I hosted a series of events called "Flavours of" where I cooked my way around the world experimenting with new and unusual ingredients and cooking techniques. Digging deep in to different cultures and cuisines for vegetarian recipes was challenging but fun. The virtual culinary journey was really educational and I had lots of fun in the process trying and sampling dishes which were unknown to me.

One country I missed out on  was Peru, so when I was recently invited to go and cook some Peruvian cuisine with Julio Brujis from Panka Peruvian Food and Encona sauces at Cactus Kitchens.I jumped at the chance. Encona sauces are my firm favorite. I love the spicy sauces, as my palate always craves a hint of spice in all my dishes.This is primarily due to my Indian roots and heritage where chillies and spices are given paramount importance in the kitchen. 

The new launch of Peruvian Amarillo chilli sauce really excited me. Amarillo chilli peppers are  part of the capsicum family. They range from 6-7 inches when fully grown and change from green into a deep orange when ripe. They have a very unique fruity flavour with a slight spicy kick. The chillies are delicious when added to salsas, sauces and added to vegetables and salads. They also work extremely well when roasted or dried and preserved.

The evening at Cactus kitchens  with our chef Julio was very enjoyable. My fellow blogger friends cooked  non vegetarian recipes where as I had my recipes were adapted to suit my vegetarian diet.

The non vegetarians made Cebiche "Aji Amarillo" a salad with fish, Peruvian choclo corn, onions, garlic, ginger, limes, fresh coriander and the Encona Amarilli chilli sauce. 

The vegetarian version was the Cebiche of Baby mushrooms and Artichoke Hearts. This had lovely flavours of roasted peppers, cooked artichokes, Peruvian chocolo corn, garlic, ginger, limes, coriander,onions, and the Amarillo chilli sauce. The salad was packed with a spicy, citrussy flavours that were simply delectable.

The second recipe that we created was Seafood Quinotto for the non vegetarians and I created a a delicious and mouthwatering Vegetable Quinotto, this is a risotto but made with Quinoa instead of risotto rice.The Quinotto of courgettes, asparagus, tomatoes and peppers flavoured with garlic, onions, parsley and Amarillo chilli sauce was absolutely divine and full of flavour.

I attended the event cookery class with my friend Heidi who blogs at Kitchen Talks. You can see us both here proudly posing with our masterpieces.
I was invited by Encona to participate in the Peruvian masterclass, all views and opinions expressed in this post are of my personal experience and unbiased.

Friends of glass Event~Edible gifts in glass.

A few weeks back I went to an event by friends of glass and really had a lovely time. Friends of glass are an organisation who are committed to promoting the use of glass in homes. I am so inspired by recipes in glass that I have started collecting a selection of glass bottles and jars to store my food in. Just when my jar obsession was calming down, lo and behold I got another invitation by friends of glass to attend their Christmas event at Cactus Studios -Michel Roux Jr's cookery school, where Saturday Kitchen is filmed. I am not complaining I was rather pleased that I would get to learn some more ideas for Christmas using jars.

On arrival I had a lovely surprise as I met a fellow blogger friends Choclette who blogs at chocolate log blog. As we entered we  were greeted  with the most wonderful  and welcoming Christmas setting of candle light, Christmas tree, innovative decorations in glass bottles, carols playing and glasses of warm mulled cider. Whilst getting to know all the other guests we mingled over shot glasses of red pepper soup with pesto. Followed by warm brie with cranberries all served in pretty glass jars and breadsticks for scooping up the creamy brie.

After the nibbles we watch a cookery demo by chef Bridget Colvin and BBC TV presenter Cherry Healey . They made spiced parsnip soup with pesto and parsnip crisps which we sipped whilst the second demo of pies in the jars was demonstrated. For the vegetarians there was Butternut squash jar pie and for the non-vegetarians Bridget showed a honey & mustard ham rock jar pie.

Whilst the pies were cooking in the oven ready for our dinner we were shown how to create Cointreau  clementines in jars. We enjoyed the lovely hot pies with delicious wine and then it was hands on deck as we each created our own jars of the boozy clementines. We had to pay extra attention to the caramel as it can burn in a jiffy. I was really pleased that my caramel did turn out perfect and there was enough to share with a friend whose caramel  turned just  little too brown.

The evening ended with a lovely arts and crafts demonstration by Amanda who showed us how to let our creative juices flow by filling a jar with hot chocolate powder, chocolate buttons, and marsh mallows and all beautifully decorated with ribbons and bows. Of course we all attached a miniature bottle of booze to the jars to make the hot chocolate in the jar just that little bit more special.

The evening was awesome and really fun and interactive. We all left with all our lovely gifts and an additional surprise of a jar chutney by Rubies in the Rubble, who create all their chutneys from unsold fruit that otherwise would go to waste.

I would like to thank friends of glass for a wonderful evening. It was most enjoyable.

Master class with World Foods at School of Wok and giveaway

I was recently invited to a master class by world foods at the School of Wok to create some dishes using their sauces.

The WORLDFOODS' Cooking Solutions range are a concentrate of flavours and are extremely versatile in any Asian inspired cooking. They are 100% natural and are created using authentic herbs and spices. All the sauces are free from artificial preservatives, colouring, flavouring, gluten or genetically modified ingredients and are totally suitable for vegetarians, vegans and coeliacs.

The product range is vast and includes:

• Thai Green Curry Paste
• Thai Red Curry Paste
• Thai Yellow Curry Paste
• Thai Basil Curry Paste
• Thai Masaman Curry Paste
• Thai Panang Curry Paste
• Thai Tom Yum Paste
• Indonesian Fried Rice Paste
• Indonesian Sambal Oelek
• Malaysian Rendang Curry Paste
• Singaporean Nyonya Laksa Paste
• North African Harissa Paste
• Thai Chilli Paste
• Thai Tamarind Paste
• Northern Thai Spicy Curry Paste(Hung Le curry)
• Lemon Grass Paste
• Ginger Paste
• Garlic Paste
• Galangal Paste

The sauces are very convenient to use, the flavours are well balanced and all that’s required to create tasty and delicious meals is to add some vegetables, meat or rice.

At the master class we were given a demonstration in how to chop vegetables using a proper Chinese cleaver by Jeremy the chef. We all chopped our vegetables to perfection (or almost) and then headed to the kitchen to prepare our vegetarian feast of  Rendang tacos,  Thai Basil  stir fry, Masaman  baked squash with coconut. The non-vegetarians cooked Panang curry duck breast, Thai basil stir fry, Masaman roast poussin . Jeremy demonstrated the perfect cooking techniques after which we created our dishes ready for dinner.

Dinner was washed down with lovely wine for the drinkers and soft drinks for the teetotallers.

 Finally when we thought we could eat no more we were tempted to sample the amazing Lemon grass drizzle cake which was amazing.The whole experience at school of wok was fun, interactive and the meal was superb. I was really surprised how bottled sauces could taste so authentic and homemade. I would like to thank world foods for inviting me to the cookery master class with the amazing Jeremy and sending me home with a wonderful goody bag of sauces so that I could recreate the meal in my own home.

As always I like my readers to be able to sample all the products that I try out, I am pleased to say that World foods have been really kind and have agreed to send two lucky simplyfood readers a world foods hamper each which will consist of:

• Panang Curry Paste
• Rendang Curry Paste
• Masaman Curry Paste
• Lemongrass Paste
• World foods apron
• Recipe notebook USB (with all the recipes we cooked at School of Wok) as well as printed versions.

How To Enter:

• Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries
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• This competition is open to UK residents over the age of 18 only .Please read the rules below .
• Leaving a blog comment is mandatory and failure to do so will void any other entries.
• Closing date - 18th  Dec 2014-12.00 am

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·        You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box.Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.

·        Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.

·        Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 

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Friends of Glass ~A cookery session with Cherry Healey and a giveaway

Friends of glass is a movement of people who believe that glass is good for them, for their families and for the environment. There are many good reasons to use glass, it comes in many sizes shapes and styles. Glass, unlike other packaging materials, won’t release unhealthy chemicals and tastes into your food. It is Dishwater safe so you can be sure your storage containers are thoroughly sterilised and don’t harbour smells and harmful bacteria. It is environmentally friendly and glass is recyclable. Glass jars and bottles are perfect for storage, transporting food, for serving drinks at parties or simply using them for decoration. They make perfect pen pots, flower vases, and utensil holders. You can create many gift idea with them too.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by friends of glass to attend a cookery session hosted by Cherry Healey. The cookery class was held at Michel Roux Jr. cactus kitchens cookery school in Battersea. This is the place where Saturday kitchen is filmed.

On arrival we were led to a lovely drawing room for a light breakfast of pastries and coffee and given our aprons. Once breakfast over, we were ushered into the magnificent kitchen for a demonstration of the day’s recipes with Cara the chef and Cherry Healey. The recipes on the menu were Mint Julep, strawberry smoothies, beetroot hummus, Butternut squash, wild mushroon and spinach pie in a jar and Autumn trifle with poached pears . All were recipes were created and served in jars.

During the demonstration we were able to sample the hummus and the smoothies and then we set off to our workstations to get hands on experience of creating the Butternut squash and wild mushroom and spinach pie in a jar and the Autumn trifle with poached pears . Chef Cara and Cherry Healey were very interactive during the cooking session in the cactus kitchen, which made the experience very enjoyable. I had lots of fun especially as all the washing up magically disappeared.

My finished creations : 
Butternut Squash, wild mushroom and spinach pie in a jar and the Autumn Trifle with poached Pears. 

We were able to eat them whilst sipping mint juleps in the drawing room. To our surprise the friends of glass team had judged out trifles and I was really excited to win the 1st prize for my creation a lovely blue glass jar.

I came away from the class with lots of inspiration and ideas about presenting food in glass. You can see a video of our day below

I love glassware and here you can see some recipes that I have created in glass:

Date Milk Shake
Mixed Berry Smoothie

 

Moroccan Salad in a Jar

Peach Frappe

 

I had a lovely time at cactus kitchens and would like to thanks friends of glass for the lovely goody bag they gave me. Not only that but friends of glass have also given me a set of 6 glass jars as a competition prize for one simplyfood reader.

How To Enter

·         Simply complete the Rafflecopter widget below to verify your entries

·         Entries can be via blog comment, Facebook, Twitter etc

·         Please read the rules they form the terms and conditions of this Giveaway

·         Closing date – Sunday 12th October 2014 Open to UK residents only over 18 years old.

How Rafflecopter works:

• You will need to complete the mandatory entry first – usually making a blog comment. You can do this by clicking on leave a comment at the bottom of the post and leaving your reply in the comment box. Please note your comment will not show immediately as it needs to be moderated however rest assured it will appear on the site, so carry on with rest of entries.
• Login to Rafflecopter – click to see what the question is. Make a comment answering the question on the blog.
•  Go back to Rafflecopter and click the green button to tell me you have made a comment, this will unlock all the other options. All entries are checked to see that the mandatory question is answered, if its not all bonus entries will become void. 
• Rafflecopter will tweet, like and follow on your behalf.
• For information on how to find the URL of your tweet click here. 
• For bonus entries you can return to this page and enter the daily bonus entries. 
• If you are still unsure as to how Rafflecopter works please do check out this short video.

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