Festive Food…

We heard on the news this morning about a club of grumpy old scrooges in Essex who wear bah humbug hats and have banned talk of Christmas until 25th December. Whilst the commercialisation of Christmas isn’t our thing (I’m not sitting here in my reindeer antlers headband… I’m not), we’re not going to be joining those grumps because there is one thing that we do like to talk about in the run up to Christmas – and that’s Christmas lunch!

Roast potatoes are number one on our list. GOOD Roasties are delicious, and you don’t need to take our word for it, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall agrees, saying, “GOOD OIL is the most interesting culinary oil to come my way for a long time… and – perhaps the ultimate test – it makes terrific roast potatoes.” How can you argue with that?!

Give them a go and let us know what you think, we always like getting your feedback!

And now to dessert. Ben (the son of Glynis, one of the owners of GOOD Oil) made us some shortbread the other day. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS. So… as a Christmas gift to you all, here is the recipe:

GOOD Shortbread

12 Tablespoons GOOD Oil
110g/4oz golden caster sugar
50g/1.75oz hazelnuts
175g/8oz plain flour
150g/5oz cornflour

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.

The easiest way to make this by far is with a  food processor. First, put the hazelnuts in and process until finely ground (obviously, you can just use ready chopped hazelnuts instead). Add the rest of the dry ingredients and pulse until well mixed.

With the motor running, slowly pour in the oil until the mixture amalgamates. Tip into an oiled Swiss-roll tin (23×33cm/9×13″) and press down so it is level.

Prick all over with a fork then pop into the oven for 50-60 minutes. What you are looking for is a uniform pale golden all over, it wont be golden brown. It should also be a bit squidgy when it comes out the oven, it will harden as it cools.

After it comes out the oven, cut into squares then, after five mins or so, place onto a wire rack to cool.

Try serving with ice cream and a drizzle of GOOD oil. Yum!

Speak to you soon, happy cooking.

GOOD times!

The last few weeks have been a busy time for us at GOOD. We’ve held a lovely GOOD home-cooked dinner with our Blogger friends, met hundreds of health professionals at the Health & Nutrition Show, and are currently introducing thousands of Gordon Ramsay fans to GOOD Oil at Taste of Christmas!
6 Bloggers came along and enjoyed a lovely evening of GOOD food cooked by Ben Murray.  The highlight was vanilla ice cream drizzled with GOOD Oil – it really works! The photos from the dinner will make your mouth water – go to our website for recipes and ideas. Click on the links below to see what the Dinner Party guests had to say…

londonist
epicurienne
eatlikeagirl
fakeplasticnoodles
helengraves
Lizzieeatslondon

The Health and Nutrition Show was also a great success. The health benefits of  GOOD Oil impressed the health professionals at the show, and our resident Nutritionist  Wendy spread the word and certainly recruited many more to the GOOD cause.

And to Taste of Christmas! We’ve got our unforgettable Tuk Tuk right by the entrance, and just two days in and already we’ve given thousands of festive foodies samples of GOOD oil. Not surprisingly, everybody loves it, and with thoughts of Christmas dinner on everyone’s mind, the idea of cooking your roast potatoes with GOOD oil is going down a treat. Healthy as well as well as super tasty!

Omega 6, it’s all about balance

Recent research using mice has shown an association between levels of arachidonic acid (a very long-chain fatty acid of the omega-6 class) in the brain and a tendency to develop symptoms similar to Alzheimer’s disease. While this may provide clues for future drug development strategies, it does not provide a direct link between dietary omega-6 fatty acids and risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or other degenerative brain conditions which some media have reported. As a product rich in Omega 3, 6 & 9 GOOD wanted to ensure that we gave you the facts in this area.

It’s not new news that changes in western diets over the last hundred years (with dramatically higher levels of omega-6 and reduced levels of omega-3 fatty acids) may contribute to many of the illnesses seen in modern society, but this report has brought some of this concern to the fore. Nutritional advice in the light of current knowledge would be that as part of a healthy diet plan, consumption of oils and fats should ideally include a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 of about 3:1, and saturated and trans fats should be limited. Now for the GOOD news, the proportions of Omega’s 3, 6 & 9 in GOOD OIL would contribute to this balance, and with low saturated fat and no transfat, GOOD OIL is a healthy choice.

We plan to publish a more detailed report on this subject in articles, watch this space, it should be up this week.

GOOD day out

Last week we welcomed Abi Silvestre Editor of Hippy Shopper and Sagar Shah The Hempreneur to visit Collabear Farm, meet the team and take the farm tour. After a relaxed lunch with Henry, Nancy and Kellie the guests were taken up to see bayles of hemp fibre on our fields and Henry talked them through some of the history of hemp. From mighty beginnings as one of the key fibres for the country, hemp still has a crucial role to play in creating strong, environmentally sound material for everything from building blocks to BMW car doors.

Up at the field, the remains of the plant after harvest

The GOOD team took the guys on a whistle-stop tour of the grain store, where they were privvy to our cleaning and pressing process, and they got to see our new bottling plant (see Abi’s blogpost showing Henry looking stylish in food safe garments) and before home time they got to meet the real stars of the show Ollie, Tom, Vlvin & Nita (our donkey and horses!)

Abi meets the most hard-working team member

Ollie reveals the secrets of hemp farming to our visitors

Why don’t you post us some of your hemp history facts, and don’t forget we always want recipes and new ideas for using our oils and dressings.

GOOD jumpers

Here’s some pics of the show jumping class that Braham & Murray sponsored this year at Bicton in Devon, 2 of our staff from the farm are involved and we wanted to show our support, so we proudly tottered off to see our guys (and girls) in action.

The show ran from 7th – 10th August, the GOOD Oil Senior Novice Championship saw Finn McCool ridden by Nancy (our Operations Manager) come 3rd, and win the Senior Discovery Class on Thursday and Friday.

Through the pouring rain, the horses and riders battled on, Kellie (our Accounts Manager) saw her horse Master Jasper come 2nd in the British Novice class on Friday & Sunday and then 3rd in the 90cm Amateur class.

A GOOD round for the team, pictures below. Thanks to James Pyne Photography for capturing the moments!

Triumphant!

Jumping for joy

GOOD jumper

Harvest

We thought you might like to see some images of this years harvest at Collabear Farm, we took these a few weeks ago. The same process has been going on with all of the farms who grow seed for us so you’ll no longer see the green fields of hemp if you happen to live nearby.

Our fibre will soon leave the farm to become all sorts of useful products and the seed will come to Collabear for cold pressing and bottling, another GOOD harvest.

GOOD OIL harvest 2008

GOOD OIL Harvest 2008

GOOD OIL harvest 2008

tastelondon for £50

Hi GOOD Fans,

If you’re a member of our facebook group you will have noticed that we’ve partnered with tastelondon for the year to reward all of you foodies who know what good eating is all about. Now we’re pleased to be able to give GOOD OIL fans a £20 discount when they join tastelondon. Simply visit www.tastelondon.co.uk and use the promotional code GOODOIL when you purchase, and you’ll receive a year’s membership for £49.95 (you can buy for youself, or use your discount to buy tastelondon as a gastronomical gift).

You can dine out for lunch or dinner, no set menus, no vouchers to collect, you can order absolutely anything from the menu and you don’t have to book online. In short: no catches – just genuine half price dining at quality London restaurants for you to enjoy. Just remember to keep using your GOOD OIL on the nights you don’t eat out and in no time at all you’ll be eating like a King (or Queen.)

Have a GOOD week.

Get cooking British!

Quick update, we have added our British Food Fortnight recipes to our recipes page. If you look on our list, you’ll find Cranberry & Venison Hotpot, which makes a delicious Sunday Lunch and Watercress Soup with GOOD OIL croutons which makes a great lunch for veggies…

Maybe you can make them this weekend, have a GOOD one.

British food fortnight

We hope everyone is enjoying British Food Fortnight, who we’re proud to be affiliated with… we thought we’d share some of our top reasons to buy British, not only this fortnight, but all year round!

1.    Britain produces 700 named cheeses – that’s more than France!

2.    We also have some great culinary oils! GOOD OIL is great to use as an alternative to Mediterranean olive oil.  It contains half the Saturated Fat of olive oil and, as our fans know, is a great cooking and dressing ingredient!

3.    There are more than 2,000 varieties of apple grown in Britain. The Bramley apple is still produced from stock taken from the original tree where a pip was planted in the garden of a Mr Bramley in the early 19th century.

4.    Britain’s seasonal climate produces one of the greatest varieties of vegetables in the world. Each season’s crop gives us all the nutrients, minerals and trace elements that our bodies need at particular times of year. British Food Fortnight marks the busiest period of change in the seasonal food calendar.

5.    Britain’s meat is of such a high quality that breeding livestock and genetics from our native breeds are sought after by farmers around the world.

6.    There are 350 varieties of potato grown in Britain, each with its own unique taste, texture and flavour. And potatoes are the largest single source of vitamin C in the UK diet!

7.    70,000 inspections are carried out every year to ensure that the £7.5bn worth of British food bearing the Red Tractor logo is produced to the highest food safety and animal welfare standards.

We’re about to launch some new British recipes in our recipes section, watch this space!

GOOD radio

We’ve had permission from LBC to include the coverage on The Food Show on our facebook site, if you pop over there you will be able to hit the link, and download the show.

Happy Listening!