Eating with the Enemy, BBC2

Those of you who may have read a couple of the posts on this blog will remember that I hinted at a TV programme that I'd been involved with.
Well, after several months of waiting it appears that the programme is finally due to be aired - woohoo. The show is called Eating with the Enemy, it was filmed in June/july 2007, and is (according to the production company) a cross between masterchef and dragons den. The programme is presented by James Martin, who had the dubious honour of coming to my house and eating my home made chorley cakes (sorry about the cat hair on one of them James, but you did insist on sitting on the cats chair!). Basically the programme is kindof a masterchef programme but for home cooks (thank god, as I cannot do tidy cookery). It was great fun to make, and I did pick up some excellent hints and tips from James Martin during filming, especially when making beef stock. His hint is to roast the bones and vegetables in the oven on full temperature for a good 45-50 mins until the veg are blackened - don't panic, when you simmer the bones andveg, its the blackened bits that give the lovely dark and caramelised flavour, and you know what - he was right! I still don't believe that you have to simmer beef bones for 24 hours for stock, as who can do that in a domestic kitchen - trust me, a good 5 hours is plenty.


Anyway, the programme involved home cooks producing dishes to be sampled by the food critics, namely Charles Campion, Toby Young, Jay Rayner and Kate Spicer - all 4 of them lovely, lovely people, but a bit scary at times.

Eating with the enemy is to be televised from 31st March (according to Good Food Magazine) on BBC2 - time to be confirmed but I'll let you know - think it will be about 4pm. Watch out for me, I'm the Toad in the Hole and lemon meringue pie girl in the north west heats - recipes to follow on the blog.

Cath
PS - a previous blog includes a recipe for my Dad's chicken soup, and I'd urge you to try it, my Dad's no longer around, and I'd like to see how many people would be lucky enough to benefit from his recipe. cheers Dad.