News and Reviews

By celebrity Chef Rozanne Stephen’s visit www. rozannestevens.com for her excellent cookery school.

Stews and casseroles are the perfect comfort food on a cold evening. The only difference between the two is that a stew is simmered on the stove stop and a casserole is traditionally cooked in the oven, but no need to be pedantic, the taste is more important than the title.

Stews and casseroles exist in almost every cuisine as they are a great way of coaxing the best out of cheaper, tougher cuts of meat. The secret to a good stew is ‘low and slow’. This helps tenderise the meat fibres and break down gristle and tough bits. I cook mine in the oven at 150°C for 2 ½ to 3 hours for the most tender, melt in the mouth results. In this instance ’slow food is fast food’ as you can cook large quantities and freeze portions very successfully for speedy reheating on a cold night..

In the cold weather it is very easy to comfort eat and overeat, so it is important to watch the content of our favourite winter warmers. Fortunately, with a few simple steps its possible to cut saturated fat and trim calories without compromising flavour and enjoyment. You might even prefer the lighter version as it will be easier to digest.

Reduce The Saturated Fat

While stews and casseroles are hearty and wholesome it is very easy to rack up the saturated fat content when you brown off the meat in oil. Even if you have a good non stick pan, you still tend to use a fairly large quantity of oil. So I have experimented with not browning the meat at all and just adding the raw, unbrowned meat to the pot. And surprisingly, it works very well as a good recipe and the gentle cooking process will still create unctous complex flavours. So skip this step to save time and calories. Another tip for reducing saturated fat is removing any chicken skin. You really aren’t missing out on anything as the skin goes rubbery during the long stewing. And lastly, instead of using gallons of cream, use mostly stock, tomatoes and wine as your liquid. Add a little half fat crème fraiche just before serving for a creamy finish without all the fat.

Up The Veggies

Casseroles can be very meat heavy without many vegetables. Bulk up on veggies for the added health benefits but also for imparting extra depths and layers of flavour. I start off most casseroles with finely chopped onion, carrots and celery sauteed in a little olive oil. For the last hour of cooking I add a variety of chopped vegetables: courgettes, mushrooms, baby onions, butternut squash, celeriac, parsnips, sweet potato, aubergines and green beans.

Bulk Out With Beans

You can either make a whole stew using beans,lentils, chickpeas or barley with lovely sauces, spices, herbs and vegetables. Or you can add beans and chickpeas to almost any casserole. The French cassoulet is a great example of paring beans and meat. And Moroccan tagines work very well with chickpeas. Lamb and barley stews are a traditional, hearty dish that deserve a revival. I find tinned beans, especially cannelini beans and haricot beans, very versatile and convenient for most recipes. Just rinse well and add for the last 20 minutes of cooking.

Savvy Side Dishes

There is no point in making over your casserole if your side dishes are laden with butter and cream, such as the classic mashed potato. Why not try some alternative starchy side dishes that offer a variety of nutrients and new flavours. Instead of an all potato mash, use half celeriac, an ugly but delectable root vegetable with plenty of fibre which is particularly good with pork. I favour sweet potato mash mashed with ginger and a little honey with almost any casserole. For a really wholesome side dish try brown rice, pot barley cooked in stock or toasted buckwheat. Serve couscous, especially with tagines or alternate with quinoa. Cook 1 cup of quinoa in 2 cups of stock, add some garlic, lemon and black pepper for great texture and a fresh flavour.

Balancing The Plate

When you dish up, a quarter of the plate should be the meat, a quarter carbohydrate and half the plate should be devoted to vibrant veggies. It’s very easy to serve just carbs and meat, especially with stews. If you have frozen convenient portions of casserole for reheating, all you have to do is steam some greens or any vegetables of your choice. The lovely sauce from the casserole will help hide the veggies from vegetable resistant family members.

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We think these five books will change the way you think about your food choices for ever.  Our team of foodies has read extensively on this subject and here are our favourites:

1. ‘In Defence of Food’ – Michael Pollan
2. ‘Shopped’ – Joanna Blythman
3. ‘Not on the Label’ – Fleicity Lawrence
4. ‘Fast Food Nation’ Eric Schlosser
5. ‘The Omnivores Dilemma’ –Michael Pollan

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By celebrity Chef Rozanne Stephen’s visit www. rozannestevens.com for her excellent cookery school.

Organic Orange Coq Au Vin -  Serves 6

What you need

1tbls Biona olive oil, 1tbls Organic butter, 2tbls Organic flour, 1kg skinless organic chicken thighs (available in The Organic Supermarket). 4 rashers lean bacon, diced, 1 organic onion, diced. 1 organic carrot, finely dice, 2 sticks organic celery, finely chopped. 2tbls brandy, 2tbls organic tomato paste (Biona or Suma), 2-3 cloves organic garlic, crushed, 1tsp organic dried thyme, 175ml organic red wine (recommend this wine), 125ml freshly squeezed organic orange juice, Zest of 1 organic orange, 250ml Kallo chicken stock, 1tsp organic honey, 2  organic bay leaves, 12 baby organic onions, peeled, 200g organic button mushrooms, wiped clean and halved, 1 tin haricot beans, rinsed and drained (Biona), 2tbls flat leaf parsley, chopped

Method:

- Heat the butter and oil in a pan and cook the diced bacon until crispy.
- Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook until softened.
- Stir in the garlic and cook for 2 minutes more
- Stir in the tomato paste and cook out for a minute.
- Whisk in the flour to form a paste and pour in the brandy, stir well to get rid off any lumps. Gradually add the wine, orange juice and stock, stirring all the time.
- Add in the orange zest, bay leaves, honey, chicken thighs and onions.
- Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
- Add in the mushrooms and beans for the last half an hour.
- Garnish with chopped parsley. Serve with blanched green beans and sweet potato mash.

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By Dr. Oliver Moore

“I think about conventional large-scale industrial farming with its focus on high yields as masculine and small-scale organic farming with its focus on family, community and connections as feminine. I’ve done a lot of research about gender and farming and it seems like women are well suited to small-scale agriculture. Women do the majority of the grocery shopping and feeding families and communities is a big focus for them”.

That’s according to an organic grower in Canada, Robin Tunnicliffe, quoted in the Montreal Gazette. She part runs a co-operative farm near Vancouver, where she also studies the theory of organic farming.

So, is organic farming more feminine than mainstream or conventional farming?

A few different ways to try to figure this out.

First up, organic farms are more feminine in personnel. These is no academic research I’m aware of into gender and organic farming in Ireland. However globally, it is possible to say that there are more women who head organic farms, proportionately, than women who head conventional farms.

The figures tend to suggest between 20% (e.g. Norway) and 30 % (e.g. Canada) of organic farms are headed by women. About 10% of conventional farms are headed by women, a figure which holds for the Irish situation too, according to the CSO’s most recent figures from 2007.

However, the lack of women heading the farm is more pronounced again for younger conventional farmers, that is, farmers under 45.

A quick scan through the ‘in conversion to organic’ list on the IOFGA website  (as posted there since 18^th October 2010) suggests that just 14% of these farms are headed by women. However, another 12% are mixed, listing both male and female. So in total about ¼ of organic farms in Ireland aren’t headed by males.

It is also the case that organic farmers tend to be a younger, with 92% of them having at least one member under 45 years old, as compared to 75% of conventional farms.

There are also other indicators: many of the key people in the two main organic certification bodies, the Organic Trust and IOFGA (the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association)  are women: examples include development officer, chair, certification manager/national coordinator, magazine editor and board members.

This does differ quite significantly from, for example, the Irish Farmers Association (IFA), or the Irish Farmers Journal. Where women do contribute to the Farmers Journal, it tends to be in the lifestyle or ancillary sections.

Importantly, these sorts of visible personnel in the farming communities send messages to people as to the roles of men and women in farming and food, through their specific positions in their respective organisations, as much as by their words.

Then there is simple economics: some researchers suggest that women are attracted to organic farming and food for more basic economic reasons. Organic smallholdings are just that –  small – and as such offer opportunities for those with less capital resources to enter the world of agri-food businesses.

This also taps into the fact that women have, historically, been the ones in charge of the food, as Tunnicliffe pointed out at the start. That’s shopping for it, cooking with it, and also doing some of the more house-orientated aspects of the family farm. These latter areas include what used to be called, in rural Ireland, the egg money – i.e. selling some eggs locally while the male did the ‘proper farming’. Women also did more of the baking and growing for the family and also sometimes the country market (a farmers’ market type event that has been going for decades, but one less orientated towards full time farmers/growers, and more orientated towards farmers’ wives) .

All of this lends itself well to mixed organic and relatively small farms, where multitasking women can excel.

Organic also offers a new entry point for people who are not carrying on a lineage of farming tradition – in other words, quite well educated urban dwellers who relocate to the country to set up a farm and sometimes also food business.

Talking about the situation in Canada, Dr. Jennifer Sumner, (assistant professor University of Toronto) points out that “the role of women farmers over time has been diminishing as agriculture has become bigger, more industrialized and more concentrated. But, with the rise in organic agriculture, you’ve seen the return of women as more equal partners in agriculture. Over the last 15 to 20 years, as organics gained popularity and there came a critical mass of organic farmers, more and more of them were women.”

Using a complex quantitative analysis of 12 socio-cultural, economic and environmental factors, research from Norway found women farmers “valued nature, animals and rural life, more than their male counterparts” who were more concerned with economic considerations.

However, organic farming itself also emerged as a distinct area as regards farming motivations, irrespective of gender: “there were also significant differences between organic and conventional farmers regarding their interest in the environment with organic farmers more often citing environment as a motivating factor” (in their decision to farm).

This Norwegian research essentially found that, while practicing organic farming was the most important element in categorising attitude to the environment and a more nurturing or feminine approach to farming in general, female organic farmers were at the most distinct end of the spectrum. Male organic and female conventional farmers often shared attitudes, whilst male conventional farmers were at the other end again from the female organic farmers as regards farming attitudes and motivations.

Categorising organic farming as more nurturing and feminine is a complex and fascinating area in itself, but one beyond the scope of this piece. For now, let’s leave the last word to Robin Tunnicliffe:

“Organics is not just a method of production. It’s a whole philosophy of healthy soil, animals, communities, farms, farmers, plants. . . . When you have more women in agriculture it tends to make it less production-oriented, less focused on yield and profit, and it expands the focus to family health and community health — areas that research shows are of particular interest to women.”

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We are delighted to announce that we won ‘Best E-Commerce/Service website 2010’ at the Irish Web Awards on Saturday. The event took place at the Mansion House, Dublin and with over 550 people in attendance it sure was exciting.  Over 500 websites were nominated for the event and the results were selected by over 140 judges, we are very humbled to have won and it is a great honour.

Thank you so much to every person who is part of our little project of bringing good food back to Ireland…to the customers, staff , producers  and our crazy design team that is The Creative District, thank you all!

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