Going up

Pirate drinks
An Indian summer of quaffing mojitos has made rum a runaway favourite in top-shelf tipples. According to Tesco spirits category manager, Mark Suddaby, golden rum is flying off the shelves. Diageo’s Morgan’s spiced run saw a 25% leap in sales, and that’s before hot toddy season.

Plunder the liquor cabinet for these classy cocktails

Very retro fruit
Get out your runcible spoons – quince is sexy again. The 17th century favourite is back on the menu in cocktail form at Harvey Nichols Fourth Floor bar and London’s Bond’s bar and as a fruity ganache in Metropolitan, Thornton’s chic comeback range, aimed at stylish young chocoholics.

A very ’now’ roast pork with quince

 
Sea greens
The continuing financial gloom means manufacturers are looking for affordable superfoods for health conscious consumers and seaweed is their wunderkind. The protein rich plant has already made it into designer smoothies by the Naked Juice Company and Porter Foods are launching seaweed caviar, ready for Christmas. 2010 promises the launch of seaweed cheese.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s seaweed stirfry

Going Down

Beer in pubs
More bad news for the British boozer. The amount of ale drunk in pubs is down 4.9 per cent this quarter, according to the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA). Supermarket and off-licence sales have gone up 4.4 per cent. On average, 52 pubs close every week in Britain.

Top 10 things that make a great pub

 
Fatty ice cream
Say goodbye to lardy bums! The folk at Häagen-Dazs have come up with a very clever scoop; healthy ice cream – well, almost healthy. The new Five range, just launched in the US, boasts only five ingredients (see?) and is lower fat than the classic range, with all the creamy loveliness HD fans know and love. Expect skinny sundaes in the UK soon.

Watch the 4Food video guide to making your own, lower fat ice cream

 
Caffeine fixes
Sales of coffee have dropped as consumers are more conscious about how they spend a penny, according to a report in the Grocer. Figures released by market research company Deloitte, show 59 per cent of shoppers have cut back on coffee and snacks, though 78 per cent of people are spending the same amount of money on groceries as they did before the economy went kaput.

Buying Fairtrade coffee? What you’re really paying for

Imagine a Benetton advert where everyone is wearing a chef’s hat – this is the scene I walk into on set of the F Word trailer. There are Chinese chefs and Indian chefs, French chefs, Rasta chefs and chefs with Mexican ‘taches. None of them are Gordon.

Apparently, Gordon has a reputation for being a bit late, but once he’s on set, he’s brilliant. “I worked with Gordon on a day when there was an awful story about him in the press,” says Phil, director of the trailer. “Off set he was on the phone, fuming, then he’d come on-set, say ‘What do you need me to do?’ and just nail it.”

In this series of the F Word, Gordon is on the hunt for the UK’s best independent restaurant. The trailer will show him being fed forkfuls of food by contesting chefs – which explains the cluster of ethnically diverse cooks. Amazingly, the entire range of world cuisine is being cooked up by three home economists working in a cramped corner of the set on what looks like a couple of Bunsen burners but is actually a competent, if compact, kitchen.

Chief home ec-type lady, Beth, is busy lining up spoons, forks and skewers ready to shove into Gordon’s mouth.

“Are you worried someone will stab him in the face with a fork full of curry?” I ask her

“We’ve sanded down the sticks on the kebabs so we don’t poke him,” she assures me.

By the time Gordon arrives and is taken through the script, the once-hot food has been sitting for a while. Congealed risotto? Rather him than me.

“How are those slipping down?” I ask him after the first cut.

“It’s all cold – f**king disgusting,” he moans, “cold quiche, cold goujon and ice cold raw f**king chips.”

True to form, Gordon is a real sport, swallowing 10 mouthfuls of unidentifiable food, before resorting to the spit bucket. I count at least 30 servings after that, there could have been more; what is certain is the grimace on Gordon’s face is the real deal.

“What the f**k was that?” he cries as a spoonful of frogspawn-like pitahaya is popped into his mouth by one of the chef extras.

When feeding time is over, I ask Gordon if any of the independent restaurants he’s visited so far have impressed him. “There’s a Spanish place in South London,” he muses. “And a Chinese place in Edinburgh, where they make these extraordinary dumplings.”

What about the celebrity guests – are they back this year?

“Jordan’s coming in. God help us. Kelly Brook was in looking great – especially when she was getting food out of the back of the oven.”

When the anecdotes turn to Max Beesley and a deer penis, I take my leave.

“It was about 16 inches long!” Gordon calls.

Worth tuning in for.

Watch the trailer and more from the F Word

Hubble bubble, soup’s in trouble
Riding a broomstick can be breezy work, especially at this time of the year, so to ward off the winter chill I decided to conjure up a warming brew. Jamie’s English onion soup seemed a good place to start but it looked far too appetising to serve my creepy coven.

Ditching the conventional crouton, I fashioned a skull shape out of a thickly set crust and topped with a generous helping of grated Gruyere. After a few minutes under the grill my skull was starting to soften, scrumptiously oozing with strings of slimy cheese.

Ready for service and bored by my selection of bowls I turned my attention back to the pumpkin. Sturdy enough to withstand heat and cavernous enough to act as a cauldron, I hollowed out the insides leaving the wall at least an inch thick. A punctured pumpkin would lead to a messy kitchen so any creative carvings were left for the lanterns but the creepy cauldron made a great centrepiece.

A witches’ brew
Now for the drafts: every witch likes a drink especially a spicy one to put hairs on her chest. I grabbed some bottled potions and some sticks of festive spice and brewed up some blood coloured mulled wine. Devilishly delicious but not quite spooky enough, I drizzled my glasses with dark red damson jam and added a sprinkle of sugar to make them sparkle in the night.

Bobbing for body parts
With supper sorted it was time to get my entertainment in gear. No spectre worth his salt would go dunking for fruit so I decided to give apple bobbing a slimy twist. Instead of filling my bowl with water I bubbled up some lime jelly and instead of apples I used fruity eyeballs fashioned from blueberries and grapes. This jellied eyeball recipe looked gruesome and tasted great. OK, so my guests had to nibble their way through rather than dunk into the dessert but we were all left deliciously messy and on a slight sugar high.

Hungry for more fiendish feasting? Check out all 4Food’s Halloween recipes

Treat your tastebuds to some butterbeer

Unlike Midge and Bono, we stopped short of trying to feed the world and instead concentrated our efforts on feeding our office, with the various odds and end left languishing in our cupboards at home. Rather than splash our cash in the local lunchtime eateries we vowed to make the most of leftovers that otherwise would end up in the bin.

The request got a mixed reception initially, with schoolday memories of pilchards and custard needing some heavyweight PR. But after exorcising various Harvest Festival horrors with some gruelling group therapy the office eventually got on board.

Here’s what we got:
1 x tin beef and vegetable soup
2 x tin sweetcorn
1 x tin tuna
1 x tin sardines
1 x tin chickpeas
1 mini tin spicy chilli paste
1 x packet boquerones
1 x box pasta
½ packet couscous
½ packet polenta
½ jar curry paste
½ packet spinach
5 mushrooms
2 chillies
Some anya potatoes
1 x tin of mystery
1 x tin peaches
Garlic paste
Creamed coconut
Some cinnamon sugar
The remnants of a bottle of port
Half a pot of Hellmann’s mayo

Cinnamon sardines
We had 10 hungry mouths to feed and had promised them a lunch of at least two courses. With no concoction utilising all the ingredients immediately springing to mind, we opted for some Spanish-style tapas action served up buffet style with a humble peach pud for dessert.

The menu included a beef chilli pasta utilising the canned soup and port, some spicy chickpeas with shredded spinach, sardine pasta with the blow-your-head-off chilli paste, grilled polenta cakes with a little extra spice, couscous with tuna, sweetcorn and chilli, mushrooms, spinach and garlic boqerones, all finished off with grilled coconut peaches topped with cinnamon sugar.

OK so it was a bit of a spicy carb fest and admittedly the plates came across somewhat beige (as every buffet lunch should) but on the whole it was a success. It’s amazing the difference a little spice makes and forcing ingredients to work harder often makes for crisper, cleaner tastes.

Perhaps our office is an atypical bunch of frivolous, throw-away folk who care less than the average man about hunger and waste. But I doubt it. All of the ingredients were the classic contenders left festering forgotten at the back of the cupboard. With £10 billion of food wasted in Britain every year it’s time to make the most of those pilchards and pickles.

Check out our recipes below and let us know if you think you could have done better.

Browse 4Food’s luscious leftover recipes

Read more about Britain’s food waste

Recipes

Curried chickpeas with spinach
Boil the chickpeas in a pan of water for about 5 minutes or until tender.
Drain then stir in two handfuls of pre-washed spinach and a generous teaspoon of curry paste.

Spicy tuna couscous
Make the couscous as per packet instructions. Finely chop a fresh red chilli, drain 1 can of tuna and two cans of sweetcorn and stir through the couscous. Feel free to perk up the couscous with vinegar and stock should you have any to hand.

Chilli beef pasta with port
Cook the pasta as per packet instructions. Pour over a can of beef and vegetable soup. Add a generous splash of port and heat through, stirring occasionally.

Spinach, mushroom and garlic boquerones
Scatter uncooked spinach across a plate. Heat a tbsp olive oil in a pan, add chopped mushrooms, garlic paste and parsley (if you have some). Remove from pan and scatter over spinach. Place boquerones into pan and return to heat for 2 or 3 minutes. When heated through add to the spinach and mushrooms.

Spicy sardine pasta
Cook pasta as per packet instructions. Stir in tinned sardines, 1 tablespoon spicy chilli paste and a handful of washed spinach.

Curried potato salad
Wash potatoes and cook in boiling water for 20 minutes or until tender. Drain and leave to cool. Stir in 4 tablespoons mayonnaise and 2 tablespoons curry paste.

Grilled coconut peaches with cinnamon sugar
Drain peaches and place in an ovenproof dish. Crumble creamed coconut into a jug and add a splash of milk to make a runny paste. Pour over the peaches, cover with a generous sprinkle of cinnamon sugar and grill until golden brown.

The study, carried out by analysts, Mintel, found Britain was chomping its way through £3.5 millon worth of chocolate every year – a belly busting bill working out at more than £50 each.

Historically, chocolate sales have flouted the market trend during a recession, as people take solace in a little sweet treat.

And it seems cocoa now has even more reasons to make you feel good as Montagne Jeunesse launch a range of chocolate inspired beauty products.

Chocolate hair cream anybody?

Treat yourself the traditional way with 4Food’s chocolate recipes.

The FSA reassured fowl fans that cooking chicken thoroughly was a sure fire way of killing the bug. But should we still be worried?

The agency is holding a campylobacter conference in 2010 to hatch out a plan but how do you feel about food bacteria? Are we all too nervous about our nosh or is this a sign that more care is need in the coop and the kitchen?

Let us know your thoughts below but in the meantime swat up your skills on cooking chicken.

4Food’s top 10 scary foods

Making the most of your freezer

Going up
Jamming in the kitchen
Either the Women’s Institute has discovered Red Bull or preserves have got sexy. Either way you’re making jam by the vat-load; and not just any old jam – plum jam. “Sales of English plums are up by 140% year on year with sales of preserving sugar and jam sugar up by 181% and 70% respectively,” says an insider at Waitrose.

How to make jam

Squid and chips
As the struggle to save our sole gathers momentum and fish sustainability becomes the watchword for discerning foodies, it’s time to find something a little more exciting to partner your portion (of chips). According to Marks and Spencer, the solution is squid. Two British cephalopods (lolingindae forbesii and loliginidae vulgaris) will hit their shelves in October.

How to prepare squid and cuttlefish

Eating your pinks
Breast Cancer Awareness Month marks 30 days of guilt-free face stuffing in the name of a very worthy cause. Food favourites including Cadbury’s Flake and Gü’s hot chocolate soufflés are donning pink packaging for the duration of the campaign, with proceeds from their sale going to Breast Cancer Care. Check your supermarket for more pink products.

Improve your food karma by eating ethically

Going down
Hangovers
Yep. Eat your greens and morning-after misery could be a thing of the past. Results just published in the Journal of Food Science claim an extract taken from asparagus boosts liver function and the metabolism of alcohol. Asparagus season might be a way off but at least now you can toast it with bucket loads of Champers.

Your hangover remedies put to the test

British food
Traditional British dishes have been abandoned in favour of fancy-pants foreign food, according to a survey by tourism website www.iknow-uk.com. Their research found 50 per cent of Brits have never even tried toad in the hole, Welsh rarebit or bubble and squeak. Instead, the treacherous households admitted to serving pasta or pizza up to three times per week.

Master these classic British recipes

Baobab
Hailed as this year’s hot new superfruit, baobab has failed to conquer the food-world like fellow exotic imports goji berries and quinoa. Market research giants Mintel had backed a boom of the sustainable, anti-oxidant rich fruit but it is thought baobab’s dry powdery pulp is holding up research and development but manufacturers are optimistic it will soon hit European shores in products such as smoothies and cereal bars.

Top 10 superfoods

Don’t worry if you missed out on the ethical action you can make up for it over dinner with these scrumptious sustainable fish recipes from a trio of celebrity chefs:
Tom Aitken’s tuna and orange salad
Raymond Blanc’s salad niçoise
Paul Rankin’s tuna salad

Find out more about sustainable fishing.

Browse all 4Food’s fish recipes

£1,000 up for grabs for keen amateur chefs!

ITV Studios is looking for new keen amateur chefs to take part in the hugely popular Channel 4 daytime show, Come Dine With Me. In each episode, we visit a different town or city in the UK. Over the course of a week each contestant takes it in turn to host a dinner party for the others. At the end of the week the best host wins a £1,000 cash prize.

Where do I sign?
If you live in any of these areas – Sheffield, Cardiff, Dudley, Weston-super-Mare/North Somerset, Cheltenham & Gloucester, Manchester, South East London, and Darlington & Stockton-on-Tees – please contact us on comedinewithme@itv.com or call 0871 200 3939. Callers from a BT landline will be charged a set up fee of 7p per call plus 10p per minute. Mobile and other network rates will be higher.

And if you live in any of these areas – Bury, Barnsley, North East London, Warwick/Leamington Spa, East Sussex or Peterborough – please contact us on cdwm@itv.com or call 0871 244 4142. Callers from a BT landline will be charged a set up fee of 7p per call plus 10p per minute. Mobile and other network rates will be higher.

Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third party sites.

Browse all the Come Dine With Me recipes

Watch all the recent episodes on 4OD Catch-up

24 year old restaurant manager, Stuart Donnely, is the first Manchester host to fire up his oven and a little thing like food miles won’t stop him serving a feast that’s downright fabulous. The Champers is soon flowing at Stuart’s fabulous penthouse pad and the confident host thinks his night is basically unbeatable.

After the first flamboyant evening, Angela Daly is suspicious that Stuart, might cause a stir on her special night. Still, she is putting her heart and soul into her home-made menu  to show her guests how a top-notch hostess lays out a spread. Will that be enough to curb Stuart’s comments?

Eco warrior, Josh Steiner, is next up and while his guests have lost their appetite for their hosts many environmental tips, they can’t get enough of his food. Even Stuart has something nice to say about his rival. It’s not enough to keep everyone happy though and Angela has had as much as she can swallow of her fellow guests Stuart and Rachel.

On the final night it’s claws out, as Rachel Vose struggles to maintain decorum in the face of a very feisty Stuart. He has ignored the dress code but he won’t ignore Rachel’s glamour model past – as much as she’d like him to. As Stuart and Angela clash again, it’s an optimistic Josh who’s left hoping the foursome meet up again.

Watch the action Sunday 27th September on Channel 4

Browse all the Come Dine With Me recipes