For the Love of British Food

All the major British supermarket chains now have their own ‘house magazines’, which broadly speaking, combine news about the store chain, offer coupons and competitions, with recipes, restaurant reviews and travel

In this post, I am going to review my favourite which is called Waitrose Food Illustrated. Waitrose is part of the John Lewis group, who also run great department stores, have an excellent website and now customer servicces such as insurance and can even bring you broadband internet.

The magazine is free for those who have a store credit card with John Lewis, but that isn’t me, I pay up my £2.50 willingly and this month I can get 85p of it back if I take up the coupons I can use in-store. Sainsburys, whose magazine also buy is more generous with store offers. The rest of the coupons this month (January) are for money off hotel stays (very expensive hotels to start with) and 50% entry to a holiday exhibition. I might have gone to that if it was nearer and I was actually in the market for a holiday, but whatever money I make blogging is going straight into the basic business of staying alive and eating.

Let’s start with eating - eating in, that is. The cover shows an exotic cousin of the good old sausage sandwich. The interesting variation features sausages wrapped in parma ham and seasoned with sage leaves, tucked into crunchy ciabatta rolls. My sage bush was a casualty of the cold wet summer last year. I didn’t notice that the pot was swamped and not draining and it rotted. Never mind, it will be spring soon and I can have another go.

A regular feature I like is a double page spread of what is seasonal in fruit and veg with some suggestions on cooking them. I find a lovely and cheap-to-make Basque soup called purrusalda featuring leeks, and ideas for using rhubarb. I feel a crumble pud coming on or I might try the cake recipe on page 78 unusually made with spelt flour.

The name of the soup’s a bit weird, sounds like I should be feeding it to my ‘personal assistant’ and enthusuastic food taster - see pic, but he’d rather have some tasty tuna and maybe a bit of cheese. It’s probably very bad for cats, but I only have to get the Parmesan grater out of the fridge and he’s at my feet yelling and I have to find him a few tiny scraps. It isn’t every day.

I have seen some unusual potato varieties in the shop recently, and wondered what they were like inside. We see a selection. laid out like an artist’s palette, deep purple Arran victory, purple and yellow veined shetland black, almost indigo salad blue and one with a curious blood red centre, called Highland burgundy. Not sure if I am brave enough to try. I have my suspicions about what chemicals in them might be responsible for the strange interiors.

On the same page is something that makes my mouth water. A soft butter-golden brioche with a jam centre. Will be looking for that one next visit. Tucked away in the corner of the page is a competition to win a cookery course, I check the t & c and they don’t pay for travel or overnight accommodation. The venue is 2-3 hours drive away. Will I enter? Well maybe. I’m well into networking and if I won, I might find people who are interested in my chocolate and greeting card MLM businesses. See links in sidebar.

There’s another competition for a Kenya safari holiday. There are always two or three comps, and almost always one for true luxury travel and I do try to remember to enter them!

A glance across the page - well I never knew that, you can get porridge ready made in individual pots from a company called Grasshopper. Well, maybe for those in caravans or boats or wanting to breakfast at work, but I’d rather soak my oats in milk and water overnight and cook to a delectable smoothness in the morning. Takes no time at all - honestly.

There are plenty more recipes in every issue, regional, foreign and traditional. The recipe presentation is good and very often you’ll see a step-by-step explanation with plenty of pictures, like this month’s spiced pear pastry.

Eating out - where can we go? Choose from 5 pages covering a Berkshire pub, The Olde Bell, a selection of Japanese restaurants, 4 newly-opened with mini-reviews and signature dish info, and a bunch of places you can take your own drink. I am absolutely delighted to see Tayyabs in here. It’s a no-frills Pakistani-Punjabi restaurant in Fieldgate Street, in London’s Whitechapel area. I used to go there when I worked nearby and can recommend it - crazily cheap and amazingly good.

The restaurants featured are never all in London or the South-east. There is always a good geographical spread.

This month’s travel articles feature New Zealand, and Mauritius. They are well written, include good info about local people,food and restaurants as well as places to stay and to visit. The photography is excellent too. To return for a moment to the competitions, it is kind of disappointing that one of the featured travel destinations is not also the competition prize destination. I’m sure it used to be that way.

Celebrity TV chef Ken Hom is featured, talking about his life and career, but it’s about the man rather than his cooking - he apparently hates to watch himself on th TV programme’s he’s made. Great article from a regular contributor called James Steen.

Of course, you could’t have a food mag without a live-in wine expert. Amelia Pinsent recommends 6 wines to try for the month, including some on special offer. Even with a cellar full of wine bought on Channel runs, I am tempted by the 2007 La Baume French merlot, at just £4.49 this month from a normal £5.99- that’s really good value.

It also does for the idea that Waitrose is all expensive. Walking round the store on Saturday, there were plenty of offers available. Bailey got his tuna at half-price for a 4-tin packso I bought two hoping he might let me steal some for a sandwich. I regularly buy top quality dry-cure bacon from the fresh meat counter. I ask for a whole pack then split it up at home and freeze. Bought that way it is much cheaper than a similar product bought vacuum packed.

I digress. Andrew Jefford, another regular wine contributor talks grape varieties. This series of articles are extracts from his book ‘Andrew Jefford’s Wine Course’, which is one I would very much like to own. On the next page, Alison Tyler speculates on China being the emerging wine producer of the decade.

Is that all there is? No not by any means. If I was going on a train journey, any issue of Waitrose Food Illustrated would be a great read and would easily sustain me through the 1 hour 10 min journey into London from my South Coast home. I would have to pack my own food for the journey though. The contrast of abominable and expensive railway catering (which I have had the misfortune to mystery shop recently) and the delectable delights I was reading about would be unbearable otherwise.

Subscriptions are available worldwide, which may be good news for expats., and those who have bought the magazine while on holiday here - info at http://www.waitrose.com, otherwise treat yourself to a copy at the checkout. As a final footnote, Waitrose also have a monthly A5 format mini-mag which is free and features new products plus a selection of free recipe cards matching what is seasonally available in-store.

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