I made a soup today, a mixture of onions, garlic, stock, carrots, barley, chickpeas, saffron, ginger, and coriander powder, and a blended-into-a-mush  tin of tomatoes (the token tomato bits in tinned tomatoes occasionally make me feel quite sad; I didn't feel I could deal with them today) and I'm finding the result to be quite pleasant, but also in possession of a rather bizarre aftertaste that I can't quite put my finger on, but which definitely triggers some taste-memory I have.   My first thought was that it reminded me of those pub bacon-strip crisps you can get, but now I'm not so sure at all.

Anyway, it's a happy day for soup in this house.

I agree with Ruth about tomatoes, Napolina are very good but some value brands are better than others.  It very much depends what you are using them for.

I saw the Delia Smith programme last night.  I will  not comment about the spaghetti bolognese.  I also read the Guardian G2 article published on Friday when they got two West End Chefs to do six of the recipes for a panel of food tasters.  Even in central London they had trouble sourcing some of the ingredients as she is so emphatic on what should be used (one product is only stocked by Waitrose) and, of course, they are all the most expensive ingredients.

This book is for affluent city dwellers with easy access to M&S, Waitrose, Sainsbury, Iceland, Morrisons, etc.  It is not for rural dwellers such as in Mid-Wales or Cornwall, or Scotland for example.

It is certainly not for a family of four in a run-down Council estate anywhere in the country who have to watch the pennies.  The Guardian costed out the recipes (making the assumption that there was not already cinammon, allspice, etc., in the cupboard.  This of course does skew the figures because obviously you would use the rest of the frozen aubergines, Green & Blacks Choc, creme fraiche, etc., you had bought in another dish).  However, the results were:-

Chocolate cupcakes £11.85
Chicken & Leek Pie £7.27
Omelette Savoyard £6.82
Moussaka - a staggering £14.61
Wild mushroom Risotto £9.87
Shepherds Pie £7.81

Someone on a budget will pick up a tin of own brand mince (probably only about 60% meat) and a 16p tin of tomatoes.  The Food Standards Agency did point out that all these ready prepared ingredients had added salt and also sugar in a lot of cases.

The risotto looked particularly nasty being based on Asda frozen mushroom risotto.  Also, because it used dried porcini which had to be soaked the total time was 40 mins instead of the usual 25 mins for risotto plus, being twice cooked the rice was the texture of mush.  (Recipe on next week's programme folks!)

When she was with the M&S product managers she predicted the future of supermarkets was to develop the market for tinned meat.  That is the way forward.  Because people can't be bothered and never mind supporting British Farming.

Nigel Slater (bless him) was very kind to her in The Observer and said if it encouraged someone to buy a tin of fried onions and a packet of Jus-Rol and a tin of chicken and put a home cooked meal on the table then it was better than defrosting a ready made pie.  I somehow think he had his tongue in his cheek.

She did do a nice looking steak with a spicy rub but never said what the rub was or where to get it or whether it was home made.  I guess you have to buy the book for that.

Yours,

Disgusted of Llandrindod Wells

Ruth,

She is very particular about which brand (for example ONLY M&S tinned beef or lamb, ONLY Dress Tomato Sauces).  I have a choice of just three supermarkets, any of the others who stock what she recommends would mean a round trip of 34-40 miles to each individual one.  Think of the carbon footprint - think of the extra recycling and packaging 

Also, I don't like the look or sound of the meals.  Heavy on fat, salt and sugar and modified this and than.  Me, I'll just stick to my simple meals and the joy of knowing what went into them is pure and simple and not beef from South America but beef from British farms.

Pah, I say to that. Said medical professor has evidently never walked through the salt flats of Guérande.

Ha! Stick it in a sac rustique and tie a pretty ribbon round it and watch the suckers flock to it! I'm with the Prof. Seriously, isn't 'salt' merely a taste, like 'bitter' and 'sweet'? I can't tell the difference between table/ rock/ sea salt, except in matters of texture of course. There was a woman on that programme being all Jillie Goolden-esque about it and going, 'Ah, the saltiness is delicately delayed in this one, it's shy about revealing its limpid... saltiness; unlike this Guatemalan vanilla-rock salt which lends fish dishes in particular a robust and, er, vanilla-ish, er, saltiness...'

Hah, Martle x Infinity.

I confess.  When Uncle Ron mentioned those black Scottish knobbly tubers he cooked in olive oil and coarse salt I did buy a drum of sea salt.  Mea culpa.  As Sister Jasmine Tapioca would instruct us to say whilst fumbling with our Rosaries.

But, having not experienced salt so many years I have ditched it.  Plain and simple for me.  And the flavour shines through.

Experience that cabbage in it's full glory!  

Well, no, of course not <splutter> I mean why would I bother it's rubbish isn't it just like so-called mineral water what a scam, it's called a 'tap', duh-brain and another thing that modern music is the spawn of the devil degrading the minds of the young and don't even get me started on 'pop music if I had my way...

Well, Ollie, I'm a big-hearted sort of guy and since you put it like THAT...