Rachel Allen and her evil food of doom

mloc

Was watching the TV the other day, which is rare enough for me to do in itself, when I came across this Rachel Allen character and her cookery. It seemed to be a traditional irish wholesome food kind of thing.

MY DEAR GOD! The amount of fat and sugar in all her stuff... from the most ridiculous amounts of cheese and cream in the cooking of otherwise healthy fish to the plain scary sauce she made for some apples, consisting of sugar, cream and butter... I realise that a lot of people go in for that kind of thing, but surely the program should come with a health warning?!

g'em

mloc wrote:

plain scary sauce she made for some apples, consisting of sugar, cream and butter...

I eat all of these things in my diet- I just don't eat a lot of them. There's nothing inherently wrong with those things, it's just that they're abused by most people in their diets. There's no hard and fast rule to say that to be healthy you have to eat unseasoned chicken breasts and steamed broccoli day in, day out. There's room for a little bit of everything in even the healthiest of diets.

I agree with you that it's not the most ideal ingredient list, but you can't blame Rachel Allen for the general public's inability to moderate the amount of food they eat. A small bit of butter once in a while on hot thick slices of wholemeal toast? Yum + healthy. Butter at every meal drowning the veg (if any), potatoes and used for the base of creamy sauces lashed onto pasta? Not big, not clever, call the paramedics now and save someone else the hassle.

mloc

g'em wrote:

I eat all of these things in my diet- I just don't eat a lot of them. There's nothing inherently wrong with those things, it's just that they're abused by most people in their diets. There's no hard and fast rule to say that to be healthy you have to eat unseasoned chicken breasts and steamed broccoli day in, day out. There's room for a little bit of everything in even the healthiest of diets.

I agree with you that it's not the most ideal ingredient list, but you can't blame Rachel Allen for the general public's inability to moderate the amount of food they eat. A small bit of butter once in a while on hot thick slices of wholemeal toast? Yum + healthy. Butter at every meal drowning the veg (if any), potatoes and used for the base of creamy sauces lashed onto pasta? Not big, not clever, call the paramedics now and save someone else the hassle.

Aye, I agree about moderation and the fact that without sparing amounts of these things we'd all probably go mad.

But the amounts she was using... scary. Even the enormous amount of salt she put on everything, it's just not a good message to be putting out there. A litle salt is fine, sure, but the huge amount she was liberally sprinkling on almost everything, bad. I'm sure there were some viewers thinking "ah sure thats grand, I'm sure it was organic!"

brianthebard

Let them take themselves out of the genepool then. She's doing us all a favour!

justsomebloke

Hey I for one am all up for the rest of the population getting fatter, if nothing else it will make me look skinner without having to do anything, so happy days.
but as per usual moderation is the key to success

frobisher

Good old Rachel! I'd eat sugar and cream off her no problem.

DublinWriter

Maybe it's all just a cunning ploy for the forthcoming Ballymaloe range of Heart Defibrilators.

But her stuff is 'organic', roysh, so she can loike so get away with using quantities of salt, sugar and saturated fat that would make a white-coated food technician in McDonalds HQ say to his boss "Are you really sure you wanna do this?".

poobum

brianthebard wrote:

Let them take themselves out of the genepool then. She's doing us all a favour!

fan of the darwin awards are we?

brianthebard

You know it.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

BaZmO*

You wouldn't want to see what goes into some dishes in restaurants if you think she uses too much sugar and butter.

As for Mrs. Allen, although quite the yummy mummy, I always get the impression that she's a bored housewife desparately searching for some meaning in her life while filling up the day creating meaningless recipes and baking cakes while the kids are at school and the hubby is away on yet another business trip.

She also looks like she's just on the verge of a nervous breakdown, alá Judy Finnegan, the way she keeps inanely smiling at the camera as she makes yet another chocolate laden recipe.

She'd still get it though!

MicraBoy

You leave Rachael alone....alright. :mad:

padi89

Mmmm saw a programme there this evening called "Corrigan knows food".I was very suspicious if he really knew anything about food considering the size of the cnut and his buttery spud dish

BaZmO*

padi89 wrote:

Mmmm saw a programme there this evening called "Corrigan knows food".I was very suspicious if he really knew anything about food considering the size of the cnut and his buttery spud dish

Well he has a Michelin Star so I'd say he knows about his food alright. He's actually quite a well known chef.

brianthebard

padi89 wrote:

Mmmm saw a programme there this evening called "Corrigan knows food".I was very suspicious if he really knew anything about food considering the size of the cnut and his buttery spud dish

Don't you know you should never trust a thin chef??:D
I'm quite a fan of Corrigan's ideology of local produce, organic food, simple dishes with the best produce. Whether he puts a teaspoon of butter or a kilo into a sauce isn't really a judge of what he knows about food. It just tells you that the sauce is going to be really really buttery!

padi89

BaZmO* wrote:

Well he has a Michelin Star so I'd say he knows about his food alright. He's actually quite a well known chef.

I know that, i was only taking the piss, along witht the rest of the thread.Im very into local fresh produce myself.Still though i do have to question if he actually knows what goes on with his suggested dishes once they pass your gob.His buttery sole with buttery spuds in a butter sauce would give any McDs monster meal a run for its money.The guy looks like he is about to have a heart attack at times.

Transform

All this thread is completely misguided.

All the chefs recommend simple produce and even if it has butter, sugar etc thats never really the big issue its the amount pigs eat that cause them to be overweight!!!

Yes they will put on weight over xmas not because they have one piece of pudding, its because the roasted potatoes, pudding, box of roses and washed down with 5-6 beers done every day for 7 days.

Rachel teaches simple cooking for people who don't cook very much.

There are more cooking shows than ever before yet there are fewer people cooking- why? Because most do not prepare and make excuses

BaZmO*

padi89 wrote:

Still though i do have to question if he actually knows what goes on with his suggested dishes once they pass your gob

Are you taking the p1ss again?

I'm sure he knows what's going on with his suggested dishes. If I can remember correctly there wasn't actually that much butter that went into that dish. Certainly not much more than you put on 2 slices of buttered toast.

Transform wrote:

There are more cooking shows than ever before yet there are fewer people cooking- why? Because most do not prepare and make excuses

I'm not sure how you can say that the reason for more cookery shows is because "most do not prepare and make excuses"

Certainly it's a reason for more people not cooking but not a reason for more cookery shows.

padi89

BaZmO* wrote:

Are you taking the p1ss again?

I'm sure he knows what's going on with his suggested dishes. If I can remember correctly there wasn't actually that much butter that went into that dish. Certainly not much more than you put on 2 slices of buttered toast.

Nope, not piss taking this time.Not much butter???????:eek: Do you have toast with your butter then????????

BaZmO*

padi89 wrote:

Do you have toast with your butter then????????

Haha. Yeah sometimes! It's all about moderation. But as I've said earlier, you'd be shocked at the amount of butter that chefs use in cooking. There's nothing wrong with eating those types of dishes. The problem only arises if you're having rich dishes like that all the time, and if you're you're a chef preparing them it doesn't make you any less of a chef just because you're not using low fat alternatives, on the contrary in many cases.

magpie

Yes, but doesn't she look well on it though?

BaZmO*

Found the recipe on the RTE website. Considering the dish serves 2 it's not actually that much butter. The butter used for the potatoes is only used to coat them so you wouldn't get the full amount on your plate.

Dover Sole (main-course)

Serves: 2

DOVER SOLE:
1 large Dover sole (to serve 2 people)
50g (2 oz) unsalted butter
1 shallot, finely sliced
leaves picked from 1 sprig each of chervil and dill
100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) white wine
CUCUMBER SAUCE:
1 cucumber, peeled
good pinch caster sugar
2 tablespoons roughly torn dill
juice of 1/2 lemon
25g (1 oz) unsalted butter, cubed
1 tablespoon snipped chives
POTATOES:
200g (7 oz) baby new potatoes, cooked and cooled
50g (2 oz) unsalted butter, cubed
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 190 C (375 F / Gas Mark 5).

Firstly, prepare the sole. To remove the skin, turn the sole up-side-down so the white skin is facing up. Cut an incision just under the head of the fish through the back bone. Turn the fish back over and pull the head down the length of the body to pull the grey skin away. Turn back to the white skin side and use the knife to loosen the skin at the tail end. Take a grip of the skin and pull it towards the other end of the fish to tear the white skin away. Use a scissors to trim the wing bones away from each side of the fish. (Alternatively, your fish monger will prepare this for you).

Use half of the butter to grease a roasting tray and sprinkle a little salt on top. Sit the sole into the tray and season lightly. Place cubes of the remaining butter on the fish and scatter the shallot, chervil and dill over. Pour the wine into the tray with 100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) of water. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the fish is just coming away from the bone.

Meanwhile, cut the cucumber into long thin julienne strips (a mandolin is great for doing this quickly), discarding the seeds in the centre. Place the cucumber strips in a sieve set over a bowl. Add a little salt, the sugar and dill and set aside for a few minutes to drain. Squeeze any excess juices from the cucumber.

Next, peel the cooked new potatoes with a small knife. Place them in a small pan with the butter and 100ml (3 1/2 fl oz) of water and simmer for 6-8 minutes to warm through. Drain and season to taste.

Once the sole is cooked, carefully remove it from the tray and leave in a warm area. To continue with the cucumber sauce, strain the tray juices through a sieve into a small pan and add the lemon juice. Bring slowly to the boil and reduce to simmer for 3-4 minutes. Whisk the butter into the reduced liquid. Stir the prepared cucumber in and very gently warm through for 1-2 minutes without cooking.

Finally, remove the sole from the bone. Run a knife down the back bone and carefully release the flesh on each side to open out like a book. Lift the bone out of the fish and place the opened fillets back on top, leaving a slight gap in the middle. Carefully lift the whole fish onto one large serving platter.

Arrange the cucumber from the sauce down the centre gap of the sole. Stir the chives through the sauce and spoon it all over the fish. Arrange the warm buttered potatoes down either side of the fish and serve.

mloc

125 grams of butter for two people? ah thats grand, sure only 500 calories each from the butter alone... nothing to worry about there:eek:

padi89

mloc wrote:

125 grams of butter for two people? ah thats grand, sure only 500 calories each from the butter alone... nothing to worry about there:eek:

Thats my point,the three parts to the dish all consist of dousing them with plenty of butter.Now for a man that goes on about how he buys the best, why does he then have to go and lob butter on something that is so good already????

hunnymonster

on a food related fitness topic, What do you bring to a fitness enthusiast's house when you're invited over for dinner. When I go to a lazy sod's dinner party, I take a bottle of red & box of butlers (or similar) but next week I'm off to dinner with some friends who are extremely careful about what they eat. In the past I've brought flowers & wine but I'm cycling over there so that's not practical this time.