Cuisine & Culture the Chinese Family Way
Bella Italia is now open at Waterfront North Leisure, Walsall. They are surrounded by other restaurants, sports shops, big clothing brands, cinema and many other retailers and there is further development to come. There is plenty of pay and display car parking available and the fee is very reasonable. We paid 2 hours for £1.40, if you required 3 hours, it is only £2!
Did you know this September is Organic September? This year, they have replaced the National Organic Fortnight with Organic September. The whole month is dedicated to celebrating all things organic. They would like you to make a small change to your everyday shopping and help them make a big difference by swapping to organic food. Soil Association will be sharing a whole host of special offers and exclusive discounts from some of the biggest organic brands and they have also teamed up with some of the UK’s best chefs to inspire you with ideas of what you can make using your fresh, seasonal organic produce.
I have received a range of organic products to kick-start this project. I’ll be honest, up until now, I have not really used organic products unless I had no choice. But after reading that it will help animal welfare and the environment, it did change my viewpoint.
Last week, Dennis The Menace’s fun factory opened its doors to the public at the Redhill Brewers Fayre. This was our first time visiting Dennis The Menace’s fun factory. We were very impressed with all the Dennis The Menace decorations and high standard of soft play facilities. Both our children enjoying sliding down the long curvy slide, climbing over the obstacles and through tunnels.
I always love to add spicy spices into my cooking to make the food more interesting and better tasting too. Unfortunately, both of my children do not have such developed taste buds to appreciate such foods. So whenever we have spicy spices they are having something different.
Loyd Grossman has recently introduced a limited edition new flavour – Mint Masala sauce into their great selection of sauces. This sauce is inspired by vibrant Indian mint ‘pudina’. It has a fresh and light fragrance.
I love spicy food, especially Thai and Korean food and I’m always partial to a curry. When I was asked to try out Chancham Caribbean products, I didn’t hesitate and agreed immediately! I had tried to cook mild Caribbean food before and my children enjoyed it, so I was looking forward to trying Chancham out.
I received two jars of Chancham marinades (Hot Jerk and Zingy Chilli) and a bottle pepper sauce. So I decided to use my Pyrex slow cooker to stew the meats for the Hot Jerk sauce and separately for the Zingy Chilli sauce.
Chancham marinades are made in Britain using 100% natural ingredients and there are four varieties to choose from Hot Jerk, Zingy Chilli, Spiced Tamarind and Mild Smokey. Hot Jerk is 4 (out of 5) chilli hot and Zingy Chilli is 3.5 chilli hot. So I didn’t offer them to my children on this occasion as they would have found it too spicy. These marinades are simple to use straight from the jar onto the meats and best served with rice. Each jar is enough to make a dish to serve 5 people. Once opened, keep it in the fridge for up to two weeks.
Hot Jerk is made with its blend of scotch bonnet chillies, black pepper and thyme. They are really spicy but at the same time, it has a hint of sweetness. I really love this flavour. I used 8 chicken thighs with a jar of Hot Jerk and added a jar of water. I stew it in my slow cooker for an hour. The meats are very tender and tasty! My house did smell of very strong spices afterwards so good ventilation required!
Saturday is always a lie in for Mr C and I but after being woken up by the children today, I decided to cook breakfast.
There are already several types of cooking sprays in the market and now Lurpak® has launched a new Cook’s Range. There are four in this range: clarified butter, cooking liquid, cooking mist and baking.
I have the Lurpak® Cooking Mist and used it to cook paratha (Indian flatbread) by spraying the Cooking Mist onto my Pyrex pancake pan.
Crackerbread is baked with wheat in a uniquely light and crispy texture. They come in four ranges: Original, Wholegrain, Pepper and Cheese. They are great as the base to all different kinds of sweet or savoury toppings. There are only 19 calories per Crackerbread.
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