iLoveMyGrub Newsletter (February 2008)

For bacon lovers out there, February is a time to celebrate. Bacon Connoisseurs Week is running from the 16th– 23rd February and to mark it, we’ve got a handful of great recipes from Love Pork that will have your drooling attractively over your plate. If you’re a Marmite fan, you may want to get unreasonably excited at the news of a limited edition Champagne Marmite, available just in time for Valentine’s Day. As ever, we also have a great competition prize up for grabs: the wonderful people at The Ginger Pig butchers are giving away an evening master class to one lucky reader, so you’ll learn how to prepare cuts of meat, sample a cookery demonstration and take your cuts home with you to cook up something lovely. Bacon sandwich anyone?

iLoveMyGrub.com

Features

Bistro cookery classes at The Bertinet Kitchen


The classic bistro cookery course at The Bertinet Kitchen takes you through some dinner party favourites that you can turn out again and again. iLoveMyGrub’s editor rolls up her sleeves and gets to grips with a hot stove, a sharp knife and a pan full of mussels.

Reviews

As ever we bring you the best food, drink, restaurants and recipe books that we’ve come across at iLoveMyGrub this month:

Restaurant of the month: The French Table, Surrey


As pricing goes, The French Table is very reasonable when you consider the kind of food you’ll be receiving. The cooking here is of a seriously high standard, and judging by the bustling custom, dud dishes don’t feature at this upmarket Surbiton eatery. Do not come to The French Table if you’re on one of those diets that prohibit a sweet course, as you’ll leave the restaurant having eaten superbly, but failed completely, to resist the temptation of one hell of a dessert list.

Product of the month: Champagne Marmite


As if there’s not enough of a divide between the lovers and haters of this yeast extract, Marmite have added another dimension to their traditional recipe. Champagne Marmite has hit the shelves just in time for loved-up Marmite fans to nip down to the supermarket, purchase a jar and smear it all over…well, toast or something.

Recipe book of the month: Pork & Sons


Stéphane Reynaud pays homage to the pig in this extensive recipe book. Born into a family of butchers and the owner of restaurant Villa 9 Trois, (specialising in pork, just outside of Paris), Reynaud’s love of sow and boar was instilled at birth. Reynaud talks the reader through the slaughtering process, pig producers and of course recipes, all decorated with stellar photography and well-crafted illustrations (of many a pig).

Recipes

Bacon & goats cheese tarts


This gorgeous recipe from Love Pork is perfect for a special breakfast and great served up as a large starter or light main course.

Bacon, carrot, butterbean & coriander soup


This winter warmer soup from Love Pork is a great way to enjoy your streaky bacon.

Ultimate bacon brunch with pancakes and maple syrup


This fabulously indulgent brunch recipe from Love Pork will have you drooling over that ever-tempting combination of bacon and maple syrup.

Competition

iLoveMyGrub.com is offering readers the chance to win an evening master class at The Ginger Pig butchers in Marylebone, London. Butchers Perry and Borut have 45 years experience between them at The Ginger Pig, which prides itself on raising the best animals, in the happiest of circumstances, on the finest stretch of the Yorkshire Moors. Perry and Borut are well versed in all aspects of cutting meat and the aging process. The evening course will cover basic butcher's skills, the origin and uses of different cuts of meat, buying tips and a cookery demonstration along with drinks to sample. The farmers and butchers at The Ginger Pig know their meat. The farms that rear the meat you see at The Ginger Pig butchers, refuse to use bought in and bagged artificial feeds, and insist upon traceability with all of their stock. For more information on The Ginger Pig, visit: http://www.thegingerpig.co.uk/.

This competition has now closed - winners will be announced in the following newsletter.

Last month’s winners:
Whole Earth baked beans: Robert Daines (Eastbourne)
Runners up: Samantha Slater (Wiltshire), Tara Collins (Surrey), Ben Bennett (Wood Falls), Celine Gordine-Wright (Surrey), Jon Gillies (Surrey), Nicola Laycock (East Molesey), Ruth Turner (Surbiton), Frank Coll (Chessington), Emma Jennings (Ingham), Rozalyn Allen (Southampton).