Have we reached an all time sugar high?
Our founder Rosalind and Bee Wilson, food writer, author and campaigner for food education (pictured above) can certainly put the food world to rights when they sit down. This time the conversation was about sugar in fruit as Bee was writing a piece for the Wall Street Journal.
Bee spoke about the changes in the sweetness of fruit over the last 20+ years. The sweetness has noticeably increased during this time and recipes have been tweaked to reflect this. Ros was unaware of this but some years ago, in wanting to move away from sugar use from strudels to baked fruit dishes, to crumbles (our rhubarb crumble being the only exception) she deserted cooking apples and decided to use only dessert apples. Proving successful, she experimented with pears, peaches and other fruit and found that provided they had a little sweetness in them, this was enhanced when cooking in water with the latter being reduced once fruit was removed to provide a sweet syrup.
In 2019 Ros blogged about the subject of sugar. With so many sweet desserts and sugary treats available we thought everyone needed to know just how many delicious dishes can be made with some simple cooking techniques and without a spoonful of sugar. The advice and tips in this post are invaluable and can help you cook fabulous puddings all year round.
Why not try our sugar free baked peaches, poached pears or a classic apple crumble.
Congratulations to our new graduates!
Our Cook’s Certificate in Food and Wine students have now graduated after their six weeks of learning in the kitchen. They have learnt by technique to master recipes and skills that they can replicate and build on in professional kitchens.
The last two weeks of the course saw students study for their WSET Level 2 in wine with wine expert Nick Adams. A font of knowledge, he is one of the few Masters of Wine in the world. His course provides a fantastic understanding of the subject and he always gets great results.
Students completed a task in cooking to a budget where they received £10 to cook a 3 course meal for 4 people in 3 hours. We find that the most successful meals are always those based on vegetarian ingredients and this time the stand out meal was an Indian thali.
They then took a delicious tour of the food shops of Soho, including a visit to La Fromagerie for a brilliant talk on cheese before sitting down to share a British cheese board and a European one, all washed down with beautifully paired wines.
The course finale was a group lunch for everyone at Cookery School, a team exercise where students work together to create a truly memorable meal. This time, we had the first Middle Eastern meal since the Cook’s Certificate launch in 2012! The menu included lamb kofta (using halal lamb from organic farm Rhug Estate). The minced lamb was mixed with middle eastern herbs and spices the day before being cooked and left overnight so the flavours could develop. Grilled on a very hot pan with a little char on them, the koftas had a truly genuine middle eastern flavour. Served in a homemade sourdough flatbread with a salad of purslane (often known as middle eastern watercress), lettuce, tomatoes and cucumbers and dressed with pomegranate molasses dressing, it tasted fantastic. 10 out of 10 from everyone at the table!
Inspired? Why not try our pomegranate molasses dressing at home.
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