Store Cupboard Essentials That Should Become Your Christmas and New Year's Resolution

Many of us want to eat more healthily following the excesses of Christmas, and maintaining a balanced and varied diet is a great way to build immunity against winter colds and flus.

According to the NHS a healthy balanced diet should include at least two portions of fish a week, with one of those being an oily fish, like anchovies, salmon, mackerel or sardines. 

Oily fish aren't only high in omega-3 fatty acids, but they also provide a good source of Vitamin D (actually, the only supplement that GPs recommend we take). Shellfish like mussels, oysters and clams are low in fat and a source of essential minerals like selenium, zinc, iodine.

In fact, preparing some delicious dishes made using fish over the Christmas season sounds like a fun and nutritious idea. 

Tinned seafood from Spain is sustainable, delicious, convenient and nutritious. The expertly preserved contents are highly sought after by international chefs and high-end delis. Fish and shellfish preserving techniques were employed along Spain's Iberian Peninsula over 2,000 years ago to meet inland demand.

The convenience of tinned seafood means you can stack them up in a store cupboard and have year-round inspiration for nutritious, great value meals. Such is the quality of Spanish tinned seafood that the ingredients often taste equally good preserved as they do fresh. Valued for their versatility, many home cooks will never be without a tin of anchovies, known as the bacon of the sea, for the umami hit that they bring to every dish.

As with any product of designated origin you can be assured of the quality of these treasures of the sea from Mejillon de Galicia DOC (Mussels), Caballa de Andalucia IGP (mackerel) to the tuna family: Melva de Andalucia IGP, Mojama de Barbate IGP and Mojama de Isla Cristina IGP.

Other prized ingredients that will be the perfect addition to your store cupboard include Pulpo de Galicia - (octopus), Boquerones de Galicia (whitebait), Almejas de Galicia (clams), Cantabrian Anchovies and Bonito del Norte tuna - all widely available in Spanish delis and specialist online stores.

Such is the heritage of this fantastic produce that there are hundreds of recipes where tinned seafood is used to elevate and add substance to each dish - from stews to salads to simple sardines on toast. Many dishes are passed down through the generations whilst others have been created more recently, such as these delicious Ventresca Pinxtos by Owen Morgan of the Bar 44 Tapas Group,  which make an eye-catching canapé or healthy snack.

To learn more and to get some recipe inspiration please visit https://www.foodswinesfromspain.com.

New from Asda before Christmas

Asda has announced plans to open its first two standalone convenience stores before Christmas, under a new ‘Asda Express’ brand, which aims to bring Asda value and great products to more local communities across the UK.

The Asda Express stores will open at Sutton Coldfield, near Birmingham, on 8th November and Tottenham Hale, London, on 6th December, creating 37 new jobs in the local communities they will be serving.

Asda plans to launch a further 30 of these sites, creating an expected 500 new positions throughout next year, as part of a ‘test & learn’ approach to developing its convenience store model. Which is a key element of Asda’s strategic vision to become the UK’s second largest supermarket.

With sales in convenience stores forecast to grow by 13% to over £50bn by 2027¹, Asda has a significant opportunity to grow sales and market share in a sector where it currently has a limited presence.

Both Asda Express stores are purpose built and situated in residential areas giving customers the opportunity to shop in convenient neighbourhood locations. Each store will stock around 3,000 products, including a comprehensive range of fresh, ambient and chilled groceries, as well as products from Asda’s premium Extra Special range and a broad selection of beers, wines and spirits.

Customers will also be able to enjoy a range of hot and cold ‘food for now’ options from Asda and partner brands including Leon, plus ‘food for later’ choices such as ready meals and a selection of £10 meal deals for two people. Both stores will also offer ‘toyou’ parcel collection and return services and shortly after opening will offer a rapid delivery service through Uber Eats.

Mohsin Issa, Asda’s co-owner, said: “The launch of our first two Asda Express convenience stores is a landmark moment for our great business and a key step on our journey to bring Asda to more customers in more communities right across the UK.

“The stores have been designed to cater for a broad range of customer needs – whether that’s popping in for a pint of milk, grabbing a spot of lunch on the go, or buying the fresh ingredients to cook dinner from scratch. We’re confident customers will find everything they need in these stores and enjoy the convenience of having a new type of Asda store on their doorstep.  

“I’m delighted to welcome the new colleagues at Sutton Coldfield and Tottenham Hale to the Asda family – leading us on our first steps into this market and am grateful to all the colleagues who have worked with such pace and enthusiasm to bring this vision to life for Asda.”   

The new Asda Express stores are wholly owned and operated by Asda. They are separate from the Asda On the Move convenience sites, which are located on garage forecourts owned and operated by EG Group.

They are also separate from the 132 convenience stores that Asda is acquiring from the Co-op Group. This transaction is expected to complete at the end of this month and will then go through the CMA’s competition review process.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's New River Cottage Kitchen & Store Launches

The new River Cottage Kitchen & Store has officially launched.

A stone's throw from the River Cottage Farmhouse (aka River Cottage HQ) on the Devon/Dorset border, the casual eatery gives people the chance to taste the amazing food River Cottage has to offer, even if they're not taking part in a course or attending an event.

The River Cottage Kitchen & Store menu champions organic, local and seasonal food with a farm to fork ethos.

Depending on the season and availability of produce, expect delicious dishes such as:

Hot smoked onions, roast mushroom, organic mozzarella, River Cottage spicy kraut and beetchup on seeded sourdough  £9

Organic English lentil, squash and cauliflower patties with citrusy hummus, salsa verde and dukka  £15

Organic chorizo meatballs, spicy tomato and bean sauce, herby bashed celeriac and spuds  £16

“OffShore” rope grown mussels lightly curried with leeks, River Cottage Cider, apples and cream with seeded sourdough  £17

(As seen on the latest TV series; River Cottage Reunited)

Chelsea bun and organic sun-dried apricot bread and butter pudding with organic vanilla ice cream  £7.90

Pear, apple and ginger fumble  £7.90

Organic chocolate, beetroot and Somerset cider brandy torte, roast plum compote, sunflower seed cream  £7.90

The new menu has been developed by Gelf Alderson, Culinary Director of River Cottage for more than 10 years. 

The River Cottage Kitchen & Store is located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty within East Devon's rolling hills. It is only a few miles away from the Jurassic Coast, which remains the first and only natural World Heritage Site in England. The Kitchen & Store has a large outdoor terrace where diners can enjoy stunning views across the valley, and there's plenty of parking available.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall said: “I'm very excited about our brand new Kitchen & Store at River Cottage HQ which is now open. It's a casual space for breakfast, lunch, drinks and cakes as well as a store where you can buy our River Cottage products and books. We're not currently taking bookings so you – and your dogs! – can simply drop in to check it out and see the beautiful views across the valley.

“It's a beautiful space in a beautiful location – at the top of the hill from the farm, but not on the farm itself - and I hope to see some of you here soon.”

Formerly based in Axminster's town centre, the new Kitchen & Store brings the River Cottage experience together into one helpful foodie hub. 

In keeping with River Cottage's environmentally conscious ethos, materials, fixtures and fittings from the Axminster site were upcycled or recycled. Where new materials proved to be necessary, they were selected for their very high environmental standards.

Visitors can also purchase a wide range of products from the store, including some of the many fantastic cookbooks written by Hugh and the team, local food and drink, and homeware. Also on offer will be the River Cottage Organic range of products which now includes; ketchup, kombucha, vegetable stock, cider, beer, sparkling wine, award-winning yoghurt, kefir as well as soaps and balms - made in conjunction with local producers. 

Open 9am-5pm, seven days a week, with breakfast served 9am-11.30am and lunch served 12pm-3pm, the casual, dog-friendly space is the perfect spot to drop by for a bite to eat and enjoy incredible views. The Kitchen & Store is found at the top of the hill by the spacious car park.

If you want to extend your stay past lunch, there is stunning bed and breakfast accommodation available at The Farmhouse, with a twin room starting at £95 a night, and a double room starting at £125 a night. Or discover other nearby accommodation.

For a little taste of Gelf's wonderful cooking in your own home ahead of visiting, try this recipe.

Recipe: Fennel, celery and apple salad with creamy almond dressing, by Gelf Alderson

Hold on to the last hints of summer sunshine with this fabulous fennel, celery and apple salad with creamy almond dressing, found in Gelf Alderson's new cookbook, River Cottage Great Salads (£20, published by Bloomsbury). Crispy and creamy all in one, it's a serving of summer on a plate.

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a side

Ingredients

50g almonds (skin on), roughly chopped

2 crisp eating apples, such as Gala or Cox

2 fennel bulbs

5 celery sticks

A handful of pea shoots (about 40g)

For the almond dressing:

100g almonds (skin on)

150ml almond milk or water

1 orange

60ml extra virgin olive oil

30ml cider vinegar

1 small garlic clove, peeled

Sea salt and black pepper

Obviously this will make a very useful source for your Christmas gifting for those in your life who love good, organic food and drink. And also for your Christmas dining experiences!

http://www.rivercottage.net.

New Christmas launch from Cottage Delight

Cottage Delight has launched the perfect Christmas range for cooking, gifting, and celebrating this festive season.

Speciality food experts Cottage Delight have launched their Christmas 2022 range of hand-crafted jams, chutneys, pickles and more besides. All are 100% perfect for making all kinds of delicious festive food and giving as presents in special gift boxes and hampers.

You can buy the range online and in specialist independent retailers such as farm shops, garden centres, delicatessens and speciality stores all over the UK. 

These fabulously eye-catching products are bursting with delicious new festive flavours and presented in show-stopping packaging that perfectly encompass the warmth and comfort of Christmas. And all with the added touch of luxury.

Are you looking for inspirations for your Christmas recipes? Seeking the finishing touches to Christmas dishes? Or maybe you are looking for the perfect Christmas gifts for loved ones, this new range from Cottage Delight has got you (and them!) covered and will make your Christmas celebration really sparkle.

You can check out Cottage Delight and place your orders here https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk.

Try this season's must have new limited-edition launches

From the Perfect Party Pickle to Magical Mulled Wine Jam here are eight of the latest new flavour-trend launches which are set to become best sellers this Christmas.

1.     Perfect Party Pickle 105g (RRP £2.39) / 320g (RRP £3.99) https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk/product/perfect-party-pickle

2.     Magical Mulled Wine Jam 113g (RRP £2.39) / 340g (RRP £3.99) https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk/product/magical-mulled-wine-jam-2

3.     Luxury Tipsy Mincemeat 340g (£3.99) https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk/product/luxury-tipsy-mincemeat-2

4.     Bucks Fizz Thin Cut Marmalade 113g (RRP £2.39) / 340g (£3.99) https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk/product/bucks-fizz-thin-cut-marmalade

5.     Mulled Orange All Butter Curd 105g (RRP £2.39) / 305g (£4.29) https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk/product/mulled-orange-all-butter-curd-2

6.     Winter Warming Thin Cut Marmalade 113g (RRP £2.30) / 340g (£3.99) https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk/product/winter-warming-thin-cut-marmalade

7.     Festive Fig & Port Chutney 325g (£3.99) https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk/product/festive-fig-port-chutney

8.     Classic Cranberry Sauce 105g (£2.39) / 225g (£2.99) https://www.cottagedelight.co.uk/product/classic-cranberry-sauce-3

Sarah Williams, who has the very enviable position as Marketing Director at Cottage Delight. “We’ve taken traditional nostalgic festive flavours and given them a sparkling makeover for Christmas 2022. 

"Our brand-new collection is wrapped in gold and dressed with rich, jewel coloured ‘mop tops’. Each limited-edition flavour includes a QR code which links shoppers to a whole host of festive recipes to create a showstopper for their Christmas table, including Mulled Orange Curd Cheesecake and Perfect Party Pickle Boxing Day Pie. Plus, we have some incredible gift sets, with something for everyone, so we really have got Christmas covered this year.”

Cottage Delight has been creating great tasting food in the Staffordshire Moorlands for over four delectable and delicious decades. Celebrating flavour and bringing inspiration to your table is their passion, because great taste means great times.  

Their carefully and lovingly developed range brings people together through exciting flavour adventures, including tempting treats for those following vegetarian, vegan and gluten free diets. 

They have been dedicated to traditional methods and quality ingredients for nearly 50 years and are justifiably proud owners of 210 Great Taste Awards. 

It’s not just their ingredients that they select and source with care and attention. Their glass jars and bottles are made from 100% recycled glass and we have worked with Peak Waste for over 25 years, achieving 0% to landfill, minimising our impact on the environment.  

Healthier Comfort Food, An ideal Christmas gift

Healthier Comfort Food, is an ideal Christmas gift for the person in your life who loves good food and who might be thinking about lower calory versions of their traditional feel-good recipes.

It's published by those wonderful folks over at the Dairy Diary.

There are 175 pages of recipes and important information such as how to have a well-balanced diet, how to add colour to your home cooking, how to judge portion sizes, how to fill your kitchen with suitable goodies, some quicky and easy meal ideas, some nifty snack ideas,.

It's filled with a wide range of meals including hearty lunches, some comforting main courses, how to prepare and cook your own tasty take-away meals, and some very indulgent (but healthier!) sweet treats and desserts.

The book proves that it is quite possible to have healthy meals that are not dull and uninspiring, are not bland and low in both taste as well as being low in calories, but actually taste brilliant!

The book is written by Emily Davenport and Katy Hackforth. Amazon has it listed at £10.50, it should also be available at other book retailers.

Check out Dairy Diary at https://www.dairydiary.co.uk 

Online shopping this Christmas? Take care say the experts

People are worrying about the financial risks of online scams as the cost of living crisis grows, according to a new social media poll run by Menlo Security, a leader in cloud security. 

When asked what their biggest fear is about online scammers, over half of respondents (55%) are concerned about their money being stolen, compared to less than a quarter who are concerned about their identity being stolen.

The poll explores the degree of trust consumers have in their digital lives as the number of online scams continues to rise during increasingly challenging economic times. 

Figures from UK Finance show that more than £1.3bn was stolen from victims tricked into authorised push payment fraud (APP) in 2021, with the number of incidents up 27% on the previous year. APP fraud involves criminals impersonating organisations such as the NHS, banks and government departments via calls, texts, emails, fake websites and social media posts to trick people into handing over personal and financial information, which is then used to convince account holders to make a payment.

Spending online, which often involves entering confidential financial details, is of particular concern as many face the prospect of a struggle to make ends meet. Online shopping fraud dominates the list of scams, with 44% of respondents worrying about this the most, ahead of phishing emails (27%), social media scams (17%) and catfishing and online dating (13%).

When asked about the most recent scam message they'd received, 40% of respondents say it appeared to be from a postal or delivery company, whilst over a third (37%) say it appeared to be from a public sector source, like HMRC, the Government or the NHS. These fraudulent sources were more frequent than banks or utility providers (16%), or friends and family (7%).

It is perhaps not surprising that people trust friends and family (51%) more than anyone else for online security advice. More so than work colleagues (21%) and news sources (15%). Official sources like the Government and other authorities are the least trusted, with a mere 13% of votes.

Tom McVey, Solution Architect at Menlo Security, said: “It’s human instinct to warn others about dangers, especially if a friend or family member has been the target of an attack themselves – and many of us have been. 

"Perhaps this is the reason we trust friends and family over any other authority when it comes to security advice. With threat actors trying any tactic that exploits the trust we hold in the services or businesses that they impersonate this caution is understandable. But as individuals, we also need to be taking greater prevention steps to secure ourselves in the first place.”

Reassuringly, the survey found nearly a third of us now use two factor authentication as the main way of protecting themselves online. This may be due to the vast majority of banks and retailers now requiring a second form of authorisation like a passcode and are driving this uptake. 

But the other results were split almost equally, with around a quarter using other forms of protection, including deleting suspicious links, using virus protection and creating strong passwords.

Tom McVey added: “Prevention tactics are an important way of stopping attacks in their tracks before they have an opportunity to reach you. Password security and virus protection can help, but they don’t stop you from being a target. A far more effective method is through isolation technology, which essentially wraps a secure bubble around you whilst using any web browser.

“Cybercrime continues to rise in nearly every guise. Phishing attacks happen regularly, they are only getting more sophisticated, and they are profitable. It’s clear that whilst our trust in the internet and those that serve us online is being tested, we need to arm ourselves with the knowledge and tools to ensure that spending time online is as safe and secure as possible.”

Menlo Security’s Tom McVey also shares the following top tips:

- When being asked for your details, take time to stop and think before sharing your information. Question why they need your information and don’t be afraid to challenge them on this. It’s ok to reject or refuse to give your details away.

- Make sure to have individual passwords for every account, this helps to limit the damage if an attacker does get hold of a password. Inexpensive tools called password managers can help you keep track of many different passwords without the need to remember them all.

- Never share the short multi-factor authentication code with anyone. Fraudsters looking to ‘phish’ details from you will try any means; whether that be email links or over the phone. Be extra vigilant to phone calls from people representing the companies or banks you use.

- Keep your devices and apps up to date. Updating to the latest software will apply any fixes to known bugs or security vulnerabilities; allowing you to surf more safely and protect your data.

- If you have been the unfortunate victim of online fraud, be sure to report it to the necessary authorities. This includes your bank or building society and Action Fraud. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is also a UK government organisation that has the power to investigate and take down scam email addresses and websites.

*Drawing 10,384 responses, the Menlo Security Twitter poll was conducted week of 3 October 2022.

Menlo Security is based out of Mountain View, California. www.menlosecurity.com.

GoGo squeez teams up with Disney for great fun for everyone

GoGo squeeZ has joined forces with Disney Classics to give families the opportunity to win a stay at Disneyland Paris plus other goodies such as lunch boxes, pencil cases and backpacks with every promo pack that's purchased. 

What’s more, there’s absolutely wonderful unlimited digital downloadable gifts for every entrant such as colouring pages, quizzes, games, and puzzles to keep the kids entertained throughout the half term break. So, everyone is a winner!

This stunning offer will give readers a chance to get their hands on freebies from Disney Classics – ideal for the half term break coming up with many parents looking for cost effective ways to keep the kids entertained!

Promo ends 31.10.22.

The GoGo squeeZ fruit pouches are:

Made from 100% fruit

1 of your 5 a day

A source of fibre

No added sugars, no artificial colours and no preservatives

Available in two flavours: Apple Strawberry, Apple Mango

Available in Tesco, Morrisons and on Amazon RRP £2.55.

These will make great gifts for Christmas, too!