Schwartz Grill Mates Deep South Brown Sugar Marinade Mix

As it happens, the Brits are as enthusiastic about the grilled food as those BBQ aficionados across the pond. The BBQed and grilled food has become a trend which stays put. If you are happy to lick your fingers eating sticky food from the BBQ, you'll be glad to know that this summer Schwartz has launched a new range of Grill Mates™. This range is "featuring exciting US flavour combinations that will bring to life any barbecue dish. Simply add one of the four delicious marinades to transform your meat or fish before cooking on the grill."
The specially-formulated Schwartz Grill Mates™ Marinade Mixes are available in a sachet; they serve 4-6 people and are available in four tasty flavours: Mojito Lime, Deep South Brown Sugar, Cajun and Smokey Texan.

Schwartz is proud to inform us that "it sources only the highest quality herbs and spices from all over the world and is committed to making great flavour simpler for everyone. The Grill Mates™ range reflects the trend of infusing foods with cocktail-inspired flavours, which appeared in the 2008 Flavour Forecast, produced by parent company McCormick. The new Schwartz Grill Mates™ range will be available nationwide from all leading supermarkets (RRP £1.00)".

As it happened, we had guests coming for dinner yesterday and having perused the selection of Grill Mates, I've decided to prepare the pork tenderloin with Schwartz Grill Mates Deep South Brown Sugar Marinade Mix.

To prepare this sweet and spicy marinade mix with a hint of whisky, you will need
1 sachet of Schwartz Grill Mates South Brown Sugar Marinade Mix
50ml oil
2tbsp orange juice
2tbsp white wine vinegar
Mix all the ingredients together in a small bowl.

I have also added juice from half a lime to the marinade.

Set aside a couple of tbsp for basting, pour and rub the rest over the meat of your choice. Cover and leave to marinade for 15 minutes minimum (or even leave it overnight). I left it for a couple of hours.
The marinade is aromatic and very colourful.

This Grill Mates mix is made with the brown sugar, salt, tomato powder, chilli powder, honey powder, red bell peppers, sunflower oil etc
It doesn't contain any artificial colours, added MSG, preservatives or hydrogenated fat.
Pork tenderloin is a lean cut, but delicious. If you baste it regularly, it won't dry and be juicy and tasty.

As you can see, I didn't cook the pork on the BBQ. Our vintage BBQ is too rusty (maybe I will win it one day? wishful thinking, as I keep entering all competitions to win a BBQ).
Once the pork was left to marinade for a couple of hours, the ceramic tray went in the oven preheated to 180C.

I have also sliced two pears and added them to the tray with 100ml rose wine and juice of half a lime and half an orange. The rose wine was one of those indescribable varieties that typically appear in the dinner for £10 offers in Sainsbury's or Waitrose, not entirely bad but not exciting either. The pears were added after the pork was cooked for at least half an hour at 180C (then I lowered the temperature and cooked for another 45 minutes).
Serve with the roasted baby sweet peppers and roast potatoes.

My friends are used now to being guinea pigs for my new recipes and jokingly ask "Is that for your blog?" when I serve something new to them. This dish has been unanimously voted as a success.


If you liked this recipe suggestion, keep an eye on my future posts, as I have been sent a selection of new Schwartz products for testing and reviewing.

For more information about the range and further mealtime inspiration, visit Schwartz. Join the conversation on Facebook at SchwartzCookingClub and Twitter at @SchwartzCooking

Classic fun: towers of pebbles

I could never lie still on the beach, getting slowly roasted and tanned, that's not my idea of fun. My guys are an active lot, and enjoy doing things, be it playing football, running, splashing in the sea, exploring the rock pools, building sandcastles or doodling on the sand.
You don't need many toys on the beach: a simple bucket and spade are useful for digging and building.

You see some families building the elaborate fancy sandcastles with lots of turrets, digging the long channels going down to the sea, or burying each other under the sand.
We are lucky that the beach in Perranuthnoe we love so much is a combination of the sand, pebbles and rocks. Tired of digging? Swap for another building activity and build a tower from the pebbles.

Make a simple turret by putting the flat pebbles on top of each other, or do a moat, or a mini-Stonehenge with the bigger pebbles.

We also picked a lot of smooth, wave-caressed pebbles to take as souvenirs with us home. Maybe one day I'll have enough of them to do a proper rockery in the garden as the homage to our holidays in Cornwall.

After all the digging and castle-building, you have to have a treat. And what could be more perfect than an ice cream cone. The Cornish ice cream is a national treasure. You can buy the tubs of the Cornish ice cream and recreate the experience at home, but it is never the same as when you have it by the sea, with the marvellous views in front of you, the curious seagulls watching you and the eternal music of the waves rolling on the beach.

Rachel's Organic Low Fat Mango Yogurt

We are fans of Rachel's Organic smooth creamy yogurts: they are organic, low fat, bio live and have a great selection of flavours. Brilliant to eat on their own as a snack or pour over the cereals/muesli at breakfast time.

Rachel's Organic have just launched a brand new low fat mango yogurt:

"Rachel's new low fat mango brings a taste of the exotic to your palate with a blissful combination of the world's finest and juiciest organic mangoes".

When I opened my grocery shopping bags, Eddie snatched the big pot of mango yogurt and insisted on trying it at once.
What did we think of the new flavour?
It is very moreish. Smooth, creamy, with nice chunks of mango for the extra texture (there is also a mango puree added to the yogurt for the sweet fruity flavour).
It is also very delicate.

If eating yogurt neat is not your thing, how about blitzing some smoothie or milkshake with it? I typically whizz a chopped banana, a few tablespoons of yogurt, some fresh berries (whichever I have: strawberries, blueberries or raspberries) and a couple of tablespoons of ice cream for the most delicious drink that my guys love so much.

Or make a batch of cupcakes!
Mango yogurt and honey cupcakes
Ingredients:
150ml Rachel's Organic mango yogurt
175g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
150g self-raising flour
70g ground almonds
2tbsp honey (any runny honey would do, I used Clarks)
1tsp vanilla essence
1tsp baking powder
160g butter, melted
lemon juice (about 4tsp) and icing sugar (5 heaped tsp)

Beat the eggs with the caster sugar, and add all the other ingredients, mixing well. Pour in the cupcake cases and bake in the oven preheated to 180C for about 15-20 minutes. Check that the wooden skewer comes clean. Decorate with the simple lemon juice/icing sugar mix and a bit of freeze-dried strawberries.

These cupcakes are very delicate and soft in texture, really light. My older son gulped three of them almost in one go.

Rachel's Organic Low Fat Mango yogurt is a lovely addition to the great range of yogurts, a versatile product that would make you ask for more.

If you want to know what the other bloggers thought of this new yogurt, please visit their blogs
Madhouse Family Reviews
and
Splodz Blogz

If you love baking with yogurt, here are a few more recipes
Incy Wincy Halloweency Yogurt Cake
Chocolate Polenta Cake
Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Yogurt Frosting

To find out more about Rachel's Organic range and enter their competitions, check out the Rachel's Organic Facebook page.

Disclosure: I received several vouchers to buy the yogurt. All opinions are mine (and family's).

Doodles on the sand

Mum has started her epic journey back to Russia: at 2pm she is leaving London by coach. Tomorrow she should be in Berlin, from there on by coach to Moscow (a couple of days) and then the last leg of the trip is 22-hours-long train journey back home. I always worry about her, and as she is not getting younger, I couldn't but ask myself if we are ever going to see each other again.
To stop myself from crying, I turn to my blog and the numerous photos I took in Cornwall. This was the 3rd time we took my Mum with us to Cornwall, and she loved it as much as we did.
One of the things that we do every year on the beach is having a daily doodling session.

Mum is hard to beat, as she is a true artist, and is very imaginative. Eddie enjoys watching us and then stamping on our doodles with glee.

Horses

She doesn't mind when people stop and watch her, ask questions, comment and even applaud (which I find a bit odd).

My boys

For the time being Eddie is more of a Terminator, he runs over the doodles and giggles when I scold him. And when we come the next day, the high tide leaves the beach in its pristine condition yet again, a new canvas for our doodles.

A boy on a dolphin

Mermaids

More mermaids

Eddie asked me to draw Peppa Pig and George, and I obliged. Of course, my simplistic drawing cannot compete with my Mum's, but you know what, Eddie appreciated it more.

Peppa Pig and George

We love Cornwall, and hope to come back again next year.

In the meantime, why don't you try to win a lovely prize from Red Spotted Hanky. They host a giveaway for a family weekend adventure in Cornwall! To enter all you have to do is visit the Red Spotted Hanky Facebook page and choose from three family activities: surf lessons in Newquay, biking along the Camel Estuary with Bike Smart or a trip to the Eden Project. Travel & accommodation is also included and Red Spotted Hanky will even try and send the sun haha.

P.S. I am not paid to mention this giveaway (in money or in kind), but because it sounds like a lovely family prize, and I wish you good luck!

Summer Play Linky

Win a personalised book "My holiday" with Love2Read (c/d 29 August 2013)

Summer is the season when many families choose to go on holidays. Some prefer to leave the unpredictable British weather and opt for the foreign climes, some choose to have a stay-cation.
We have just had our annual holiday in Cornwall and loved every minute of it. As always, I have taken one zillion of photos. One of the best ways of preserving the memories is to organise the photos in a photo book.
And what could be better if you can create a book for your children and help them with their reading skills at the same time.

Love2read has offered one of my lucky winners to create a holiday-themed personalised photo book for children. I have recently reviewed Love2Read (read my post Precious memories with Love2Read).
If you are anything like me, the only worry you'll have is which of the hundreds of photos to choose for the photo book.

If you would like to win this prize, please fill in the Rafflecopter form.
T&Cs:
Only the first step is mandatory: all you need is answer the question by leaving a comment.

All the other steps are optional, you don't have to do them all, pick just one or do all, it's up to you. All it takes to win is just one entry.
Only one entry per person is allowed (however, you can tweet daily to increase your chances).
The giveaway is open to the UK residents only.
Once the Rafflcopter picks the winner, I will check if the winner has done what was requested (I always do, as sadly there are too many cheats who click on all options without bothering to do them). I will contact the winner, if they do not reply within a week, the prize will be allocated to another person.
The giveaway will close on 29 August 2013 at midnight (that is the night from the 28th going on the 29th).

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mama's borscht

Every time my Mum stays with us (it happens once a year, when Mum makes her long journey from Russia by coach, she cannot fly for the health reasons and travels by train to Moscow which takes 22 hours and then several days by coach from Moscow), I ask her to cook a big pot of borscht for me.

This is not the first time I write about this Russian soup (scroll down for the vegetarian versions).
However, I thought I might bring to your attention an authentic version of borscht (I was terrified to see in the last but one issue of MFR a recipe for the so called Russian borscht, where the soup has been blended in the food processor and it was also cooked with the Cajun seasoning. I screamed in horror: This is just a beetroot soup, not a borscht! Call it anything else but... How would you Brits feel if someone abroad blitzed, let's say, fish and chips, and called it a British dish?! And Cajun? why, tell me why?)

Borscht
Ingredients:
3 chicken thighs
3-4 medium potatoes
3-4 medium carrots
2 beets
5 tomatoes
1 sweet pepper
beet leaves from 4 beets
1/2 onion
1tsp cider vinegar
1/2tsp sugar
1tbsp tomato paste
1 garlic clove
fresh flat parsley (to serve with)
salt, pepper

My good old Mum cooking borscht

Make the chicken stock with the chicken thighs and plenty of water.
Chop all the vegetables. First add the chopped beets to the frying pan with 1tbsp of sunflower oil (you can use the olive oil as well, or the rapeseed oil, but the sunflower oil brings the air of authenticity to the dish). Cook, stirring, on low for about 10-15 minutes, kind of sweating the veg, which brings the sweetness out, and the beets acquire a deeper flavour. If you are short of time, skip the frying bit and chuck all the sliced/chopped veg together, but you won't get the same depth of flavour. Remove the cooked beets and add them to the chicken stock.

Repeat the process with the chopped carrots. Slightly fry them with the finely sliced onion and garlic. Add the tomatoes to the pan with the tomato paste and a spoonful of vinegar (it helps to keep the beautiful deep colour). You might also add a bit of sugar to fight the acidity of the tomatoes and vinegar.
All the veg in the pan should be immersed in water. If there's not enough chicken stock, add more hot water. Cook for half an hour.
Add the chopped potatoes and chopped beet leaves, cook for another 10-15 minutes.

Serve hot with the soured cream or Greek style yogurt. Sprinkle some flat leaf parsley.
From my childhood memories: when we visited my grandma and aunt who lived in the South of Russia (Rostov-Don area), they used to serve the borscht with the chunks of bread that have been smeared with the salty galic (they would dip the garlic in rough salt and rub the bread with it, so that the bread would have a garlicky sticky surface). Yum, and triple yum.

For the vegetarian versions of borscht please read
Spring borscht with beet leaves and nettle
and
Vegetarian borscht with mushrooms


P.S. I'm not going to enter into the argument about the origins and semantics of borscht. There are claims in both Russia and the Ukraine as to which country could be called the mother of borscht. The origins of many dishes are very blurred. Both countries have been parts of one big state for many centuries, and only the die-hard nationalists can be stubborn enough to re-write the history and insist that only their version of the events is the true one.

On the beach: frolics and fiddle-dee-dees

It's been over a week since we came back from our holidays in Cornwall, and we already miss "our" cottage and "our" beach in the little sleepy village of Perranuthnoe. We love the leisurely pace of life there: whenever we go to the beach, the local grannies and granpas are sitting on the deckchairs or hiding behind the beach windshields. They are the first ones to appear at the beach and the last ones to leave when the high tide arrives.
The weather was clement, but not too hot, in fact there were hardly any swimmers braving the sea waves. You could occasionally spot the heroic swimmers entering the sea but typically they would just have a dip and go back to the beach in five minutes.

That is apart from our Sasha who seems not to mind the cold water at all. He loves the sea. He feels so much at ease by the sea. In fact I mentioned to my Mum that I haven't seen Sasha so happy for a long time. He seems to be ecstatic when he runs in the waves, as if all the hardship of life falls off his shoulders. These are the moments that I treasure in my memory as the happy ones.

While Sasha is happy to run around the beach, laughing and flapping his arms, occasionally tasting the salty water, his younger brother enjoys building the sandcastles, digging, playing football and watching the world go by.

Eddie was happy to play football with whoever agreed to join in: my husband, his Grandma or me.

Move over, Beckham! Here comes Eddie.

If you run happily around, even the light drizzle pales into the insignificance. A few times we were lucky to have all that luxury almost to ourselves, as there were not that many visitors. During the low tide the beach is enormous, and if you wander further down the beach, you might catch a glimpse of St Michael's Mount.

Perran sands is a combination of sand and rocks, with lots of pebbles and rock pools. So many things to explore and discover!

I wish we had a beach like that somewhere near, but alas. Eddie keeps asking when we are going back to Cornwall. And though we can as happily play football in the garden, it is a completely different environment.
Until we come back, we'll be browsing through our photos, remembering the magic times we had together in Cornwall. All those wonderful games of football on the beach...

And after all that hard work what could be better than having a few snacks, sitting on a rug.

Hula-hoops are my favourite!

Honey and soy sauce glazed salmon

Honey and soy sauce glazed salmon
Ingredients:

2 big fillets of salmon (about 350g each)
1 lime (zest and juice)
3 tbsp soy sauce (I used Amoy Special Selection)
2 tbsp runny honey (for example, Clarks)
3tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 clove of garlic
1tbsp grated ginger (or frozen ginger flakes)
3 baby leeks

To make the glaze mix the following ingredients: the olive oil, honey, soy sauce, fish sauce, zest and juice of 1 lime, 1 finely chopped clove of garlic and some grated ginger (I confess I have a packet of ginger flakes in the freezer from Waitrose, very convenient for when you need just a small amount of ginger.) Don't worry about the amount of honey, 2tbsp might seem a lot for the fish, but as you add the juice and zest of 1 lime, it will counter-balance the flavours. But by all means, experiment yourself, this is not written in the Scriptures.
Slice the baby leeks.
Place the salmon fillets in a deep baking tray (the sauce will be splattering quite a bit, as you can see from the photo below). Scatter the leeks over the fish and leave it to marinade for at least half an hour before roasting/baking in the oven at 180C for about half an hour.
Serve hot with the rice.

The flavours are pretty amazing: the salmon is zingy and spicy, and very-very tasty. I had a medium piece left, and the next day made a potato salad with chopped potatoes, sliced apple and flaked fish (with the olive oil/lime dressing). It was lovely cold as well.

Many thanks to Darlene Schmidt for the inspiration. I have stumbled across her recipe for Salmon in Asian Soy, Honey & Ginger Sauce on About.com. I have adapted the recipe to suit the ingredients I had (I omitted the hoisin sauce and changed the quantities of the other ingredients etc but it was her recipe that inspired me. I have found quite a lot of soy and honey recipes for the salmon online, but this one was the most exciting).