Fork to Farm

Myself and Raman plating up.

I have had a busy weekend from fork to farm so to speak. Friday 6th of July was the final of the Newstalk curry cook-off in the Kal Showrooms in City West.  The event was sponsored by Uncle Bens.  It was a fantastic experience and the other two contestants, Eithne Jarret and Raman Patel were amazing and talented cooks.  Eithne was the winner for her really excellent meatball curry.  It was a real explosion of flavour in the mouth and contained a spice I had never even heard of.

The judges were Arun Kapil of www.greensaffron.com & Sunil Ghai, the well-known chef from anandarestaurant.ie

We had great fun with The Beatles playing and a comedian and a very supportive, appreciative audience. Uncle Ben's supplied goody bags filled with all sorts of rice and sauces.  The Kal showrooms are superb and a must see for anyone thinking of upgrading or installing a new kitchen. 
My lamb curry recipe can be found here http://www.foodbornandbred.com/2012/06/rainy-recession-rib-ticklers-for-wummer.html#.T_mtvJHhfP4


The following day it was a very early start and off down to Redwood, Co Tipperary to Oldefarm.  Margaret and Alfie produce free range pigs in the most idyllic setting here.  They run courses for people interested in getting their own pigs and have a wealth of experience and knowledge as well as a real passion for food.  Their pigs are happy pigs, leading a healthy outdoor life rooting and foraging the way nature intended.  Their pork and bacon has to be tasted to be believed and they make their own sausages.  Alfie also makes a damn good burger.  I tried my best to get the ingredients but think there is a magic ingredient in there somewhere he was not telling me about!

They can be found at www.oldfarm.ie. Do yourself a favour and treat yourself to real food produced from happy, healthy and gmo free pigs.  Margaret also writes a really great blog www.ayearinredwood.com filled with terrific recipes and stories about life rearing pigs and lots of other animals. 

At the course yesterday they had a woman who had flown over from northern Portugal to participate. So the Oldefarm brand has become truly international. 

Jemima's babies

I have my own pigs for over a month now. I had intended on doing the course the last time they ran it but was unable due to family commitments.  They are two 12 week old Middle Whites and are called Rasher and Sausage.  They have their own Twitter account and you can follow their exploits @rasherandsausag. I have explained here at http://www.foodbornandbred.com/2012/06/i-have-become-pig-farmer.html#.T_mhfpHhfP4 my reasons for deciding to rear my own pork and bacon.

Safe Food?

Food that comes from a large processing plant with all the required safeguards in place such as HACCP, BRC, Efesis, ISO etc. is safe to eat.  Safe in the sense that you probably won't get food poisoning from it. 

I have been for two interviews in the last two weeks in two huge multinational food processing plants where they proudly informed me they had all the above food safety systems in place and supplied Irish and international food service and massive supermarket chains.

When I walked out of both plants the overwhelming feeling I had was, did I really want to work in plants like this anymore when their philosophy is so contrary to my own.  I need a job; but do I want to sell my soul?

I have decided I do not.

Both plants had such security in place that even gaining entry to the car park required filling out a form and several phone calls.  They carry out all the pre-requisite checks, all the boxes are ticked and the paperwork is up to date before any of their product leaves the site and ends up on supermarket shelves in Belfast, Bangkok or Bournemouth.

I am sure most consumers would be very happy knowing all this so why am I not?

We have become so obsessed with hygiene in our little world that everything we eat is now boiled, sterilised, processed, aseptically packed, metal detected and has mountains of paperwork in a trail behind it.

Yet we have more auto-immune diseases now than ever.  We also have more incidences of food poisoning as our sterile systems are not able to cope with any rogue bacteria or viruses.  We are now attacking our own bodies.

These huge multi-nationals do not have our best interests at heart. They are adhering to all these regulations for one reason alone and that is profit.  Every chance they get to cut corners in quality of ingredients or additives they take it.  They pump their products full of genetically modified soya and maize without any care for the consequences further down the line.  Sugar has been replaced with high fructose corn syrup as it is a cheap alternative.  Natural fats are replaced with hydrogenated.

Every bag of animal feed you buy now comes with a label stating the ingredients and if it contains genetically modified ingredients.  How many of our processed "safe" food products do? 

As long as the consumer demands "cheap" food they will continue to supply it. As long as the customer does not care about the ingredients but demands hygiene as a higher priority then they will oblige. But cheap food ultimately has a cost.  It may be produced hygienically but is it really safe to eat?

Skimping on Size

Is it just me or has anyone else noticed it?

"It" being the skimpy portion sizes now on offer in so many Dublin restaurants.  I say Dublin as it is where I have experienced it lately.  Prices have tumbled - there is no disputing that.  It is now possible to get very good food for €20 or less for two courses at lunchtime, €25 for dinner.

But what is the point if you leave the restaurant starving or worse having to fill up on bread.  Actually this would be practically impossible as how many restaurants even offer a small basket of the stuff?

In France, Spain, Italy - practically everywhere, the first thing that is brought to the table is bread, water and maybe even a small bowl of olives.  The bread is not whipped away after starters are finished.  Very often it is topped up.

I have had two meals recently; both incidentally at lunchtime, that were memorable for all the wrong reasons.  The food in both places was great.  The prices could not have been beaten.  But I left both places hungry and unsatisfied.

Perhaps the idea is to "encourage" customers to order dessert/cheese and make up the money here?

Whatever the thinking is - would I go back? No.  Would I recommend anyone to go?  No.