Pillage and Porridge

We’ve had a busy April at Rude Health, with all sorts of exciting things under-way, and I’ve even been lucky enough to get away for not just one, but two holidays.

Over the long Easter weekend I escaped up to Northumberland, to spend time with rest of the Poples and to fill our lungs with the fresh country air. We spent the weekend trekking along Hadrian’s Wall and catching up over well-earned feasts. Up on the Wall (cue Game Of Thrones reference) the views were incredible, with nothing around us but wildlife and unusually for April - snow! It didn’t feel like spring was anywhere in sight. Unsurprisingly, we later found out that it was the coldest Easter on record.

We also paid a visit to the archaeological site of an ancient Roman military post, called Vindolanda.  At this ancient Roman town, so much has been uncovered that you can walk through the streets, into the old pubs and even set foot into a Pre-Hadrianic bathhouse. There was also a spectacular museum displaying their findings of perfectly preserved leather shoes, jewellery, armour and cutlery. The fork hadn’t been invented but the spoon had so they could fuel up on a hearty bowl of porridge before battle – thank goodness!

After just a few days back in the office, I was off again, this time to Bergerac, France. I was hoping to relax in the warmer weather with my family and indulge in cheese and wine aplenty. But things didn’t quite turn out as hoped - best-laid plans and all that. Instead, we were graced with all sorts of unexpected extras, which certainly made this holiday a memorable one!

On our first day, just after packing up the car with our week’s food, we suddenly realised that the keys to the car had been packed up, along with our food. Great start. There was talk of breaking a window to get to them, but fortunately, with sheer determination and a stroke of ingenuity, the situation was resolved without even a scratch on the car. How? Well, a magician never reveals her secrets.

After calming down from the afternoons excitements, we took the dog for an evening walk and had a hearty supper of Green Lentil and Merguez Sausage Casserole – delish. Unfortunately however, the key incident wasn’t the only ‘extra’ we had in store. The next day my mum, brother and I all woke up with flu. To follow that, the dog cut his foot open. My mum twisted her ankle. And the trailer broke. We weren’t having much luck!

As we weren’t feeling up to our usual French feasts, I thought I would bring us a little comfort in the form of Congee. Congee is a type of rice-porridge that is popular in many Asian countries and eaten especially when feeling ill. I gave it a Rude Health twist and switched the rice to The Oatmeal. There are all sorts of different variations of Congee but I kept it simple using chicken stock, fresh ginger, mushrooms and spinach. Savoury porridge may sound a little unusual but this ‘Oatmeal Congee’ was really comforting and delicious. Here is the recipe I used (I use very rough measurements so adjust to your taste):

Aside from our holiday not being quite what we expected, our spirits were not dampened. We had a fantastic time together and there was at least, some warmer weather! 

Until next time...

The Organic Journey

Last month I visited Biofach, the world's biggest organic food and wellness fair, in Nuremburg. It's my favourite trade show as I get to meet many old friends and suppliers and find new sources of inspiration from people who more often than not understand the value of growing and producing sustainable good energy food.

Every year I go and every year I evolve my understanding of how to source, make and sell the right food, food that sustains us and sustains the planet. And I use this information to inform and guide decisions we make at Rude Health.

My first train of thought is all about the value of organic and the meaning of organic: when we started the business it was relatively easy to create an organic food business in the UK, because consumers would pay a premium for what was seen as a worthwhile kite mark. Now, in the UK, they will not. In fact there's been a backlash against organic, and many retailers will actively select foods that are not organic, particularly if they already have an organic equivalent in their selection - whether it's good food or not. The press, big food, even the government have had a high old time quashing any health and nutritional claims for organic foods…and, to make matters worse, the Soil Association and the more recently established Organic Trade Board, rather than focusing on nutritional research,  send out an endless chain of fluffy and confusing messages about the meaning of organic. There's a strong chance that when you ask a Swiss citizen what organic food provides, they're likely to reply: 'sustainable farming'. Ask many a British yummy mummy and they they're more inclined to think a while before coming up with a confusing and conflicting raft of health, taste, welfare and personal claims. 

My second series of thoughts are all about good nutrition and good provenance: since when should an organic pop tart be allowed to be sold as organic? Why can milk be sold as organic when it has being processed to oblivion and its good fats pulverised? How is it that a Chorleywood process loaf of sliced brown bread be labelled organic just because it contains highly refined flour of an organic origin, probably from Canada or even worse, from far way Australia? Who can justify selling organic snap peas in December from East Africa grown using wholly unsustainable ancient ground water? What regulatory organisation would condone issuing derogations in an instant to allow the use of conventional seed grain for organic arable farming? Did you know that despite all the cost and effort and paperwork  around being organic certified came to nothing when there was an oat contamination scandal a few years ago - when, would you believe it - the regulators could not trace the producer...

It's no surprise therefore, that I've now come to approach the sourcing of food with a more realistic understanding of who to trust and what's important. 

I look for foods that come from a sustainable, local (at worst regional) sources, from farmers or primary processors I can meet in person and get to know their practices, that grow and produce food that's not been chemically treated, contains no preservatives, is not fortified, is not refined or over-processed, is not extruded and is not sweetened with some sneaky sugars such as fruit juice, barley malt or fruit infusions. If the best tasting foods I find meet these criteria and are affordable and are also organic certified, then I'll choose them. If they're not organic certified but meet the above criteria, then I'll consider them too. I do not compromise on these values.

This is why we switched SuperFruity Muesli, No Flamin' Raisins Muesli, Morning Glory Porridge and Fruity Date Porridge from organic to conventional recently.  We've not raised our prices for these foods for years. Why not? We can't! If we do, we'll lose sales catastrophically. If we cheapen the ingredients we'll lose our faith and our values and our customers. So, we took the decision to maintain and indeed at times to reduce our prices by sourcing some of the ingredients without organic certification. All the ingredients come from the same suppliers and growers and many of the ingredients remain organic. All meet the criteria above. Many of the ingredients are now of better quality as we can choose our ingredients more widely from the same supplier/region.

You will also see that in our range of breakfast foods, a high percentage remain and will always be organic certified (and award winning too). This includes 2 granolas, 2 mueslis and 3 porridge - that's more than any other well distributed producer. This year we will be launching more new organic foods and drinks than conventional. 

                   So there we go, my rambling rant is over, and if you'd like to contribute   
                   to the debate, please come and rant with us at the Abergavenny food festival
                   this year!

                  For some further reading I highly recommend:

                  This NYT article inspired by pioneering farmers and growers:

                  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/magazine/californias-central-valley-land-of-a-   
                  billion-vegetables.html?WT.mc_id=NYT-I-P-FOOD-MAG-101412-L1&_r=0

                  Or the evangelical logic of Joel Salatin:

                  http://www.amazon.co.uk/Folks-This-Aint-Normal 
                  Healthier/dp/0892968192/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1339393890&sr=8-1

Oats and Porridge. The Real Deal.

Strength, endurance, energy, beauty and perceptiveness. All are qualities attributed to the oat. The last two might be pushing it ever so slightly, the first three are bang on.

What has the oat got that other grains have not? Why are we, in the UK, eating porridge on a scale not seen since the introduction of Corn Flakes and sliced bread?

Take a handful of oats...

Let's start with the smell
Inviting, sweet and friendly, like an old pal.
Then there's the taste
Porridge is warming, comforting and familiar. Reason enough to love it.


Moving on to strength, energy and endurance.
Oats are rich in B vitamins, calcium, iron and magnesium. They provide slow release energy which means you'll feel fuller for longer and you won't be climbing the walls by 11am on a sugar crash. They are high in fibre, so keep you regular. You know what we are saying.

Finally Apparently oats can also boost your sex life.   

soak overnight in water...

Getting the most from your oats
To maximise your chance of getting at least 3 of the 5 qualities, you need to prepare your oats correctly. You should soak the oats in warm water overnight before cooking. 'Why?!' I hear you cry, as you dash between applying mascara/shaving and shoving lunch in your bag. Soaking breaks down the enzymes and in turn the phytic acid. And it's the phytic acid within the oat that reacts with the other nutrients and can block absorption within the gut - not great for digestion. Soaking the oats starts the process of breaking down the phytic acid, leaving less work and more nutrients for your stomach.  Cooking the oats by making them into porridge continues the process.

For those wanting an A* in nutrition, add a spoonful of live yoghurt when you soak the oats.  This energises the fermentation process, which further breaks down the difficult-to-absorb proteins. Read on.

stir gently and...

Milk or water?
So you've soaked the oats overnight and you're feeling smug. What next? That's up to you. If you like it creamy, mix 1 part oats to two parts milk. A purist? Go for 2 parts water and a pinch of flaked sea salt. On the fence? Try a combination of 1 part water to 1 part milk. Each to their own, there's no right or wrong. Then cook. This can take as little as 3 minutes on the hob.

here's one we made earlier...*

Once your porridge is cooked you're half way there. Now if you want to get the full benefit from those steaming oats add a dollop of cream. Yes. Cream. The fat in the cream aids the absorption of minerals, so not only is it darn tasty it's actually doing you some good. Now that's what we call porridge. Don't have cream to hand? Use butter. Stuck for topping ideas?  Raid the fruit bowl, dip into the jam or choose wild or unrefined sugars like maple syrup, honey, bee pollen or rapadura sugar. The possibilities are endless.

That's how we make porridge. What do you do?

*Well we didn't. But friend Lynne Clark did. So thanks Lynne.

Chocolate & Oats - The Love Affair Continues...

You're in rude health when...you kick off the working week with a whisky, chocolate and oat fuelled oatstravaganza. 

We knew it.  Oats and chocolate are a match made in heaven. So how could we resist a chance to prove it? Especially with Valentine’s Day bearing down on us. We couldn't.  Which is why we found ourselves surrounded by chocolate & oat lovers in the Chelsea chocolate boudoir of Marc DeMarquette, renowned chocolatier, ranter and World Porridge Championship Partner-in-crime, on Monday.

We started as we meant to go on, taking oats and chocolate to places they've never been before. Marc handed out steaming oat milk hot chocolates injected (literally) with a dose of Old Pulteney whisky and topped with cream. 

The night then went something like this:

Porridge demo and taste using our Daily Oats. Nick ranting about only using Halen Mon Finer Flake Sea Salt in his porridge. Oatmeal porridge demo and taste. Nick ranting about how he was robbed at the World Porridge Championships. 

Nick making oatmeal and talking, at the same time

Salty caramel demo by Marc.  Same Marc ranting about Nick’s loss at the World Porridge Championships. In case you haven't made salted caramel, it takes a pro to do it while talking about something else and not watching the pan.   

Marc talking and making salted caramel, at the same time

A Demarquette chocolate cup filled with salty caramel porridge for everyone as per our 2011 Golden Spurtle entry. The one that didn't win. Silence whilst everyone dribbles over how good it tastes.

Salted caramel porridge in a melting chocolate cup 

So all in all, a normal Monday evening.

See video here courtesy of implausibleblog.com and pictures here.

Interesting Porridge

I thought that everyone loved porridge again. For goodness sake, Kate Moss eats it and she made wellies the must-have footwear just by wearing them. But this morning someone complained to me (of all people) that porridge was boring. My reply was a perfect demonstration of why I make porridge, not speeches. A few hours and a bowl of porridge later, here is the response I would like to have given.

“Where have you been? Porridge is the new London, if you’re bored with porridge you are bored with life. But don’t panic, just get yourself to Providores, order the porridge, eat it, and then tell me porridge is boring".

This is Providores porridge.

A picture is meant to be worth a thousand words, but in this case it isn’t. You have to eat it yourself.
Part of the fun of this porridge is that it doesn’t taste anything like you expect it to. Especially if you haven’t read the menu properly. It is warming, creamy and tartly fruity, but not oaty, which is no surprise if you did read the menu and noticed that it’s called "Brown rice, apple, maple syrup and miso porridge with tamarillo compote". Bonkers - yes, boring - no. When did you last have tamarillo & miso in the same bow? It's also indescribably delicious, so I won't.

In case you don’t, won't or can't breakfast in Marylebone, Peter Gordon, Chef & owner of Providores has very generously explained how to make it.
"Basically, you almost over-cook organic short-grain brown rice. You make a compote from Granny Smith apples and maple syrup, and another from peeled tamarillos (a fruit from South America) and maple syrup. Once the rice is cooked, you whisk in some shiro miso (white miso) and organic soy milk* and bring it to the boil, then add the apple compote and cook for 5 minutes. Top it with the tamarillo compote and you're done".

I'm off on a tamarillo hunt. If this seems a bit extreme, there are easier ways to enjoy interesting porridge. Hint: Rude Health.


*Whatever you do, don’t show Nick this post, or he’ll go off on a soya rant.