Episode 1 Trish Deseine's Doorstep Food

I'm Trish Deseine, international food writer and cook.

I was born and bred in County Antrim

and, for the last 20 years, I've been living in France, tasting,

cooking and writing about the great French passion for food.

SPEAKS FRENCH

I'm now one of France's best known cookbook authors

and was the first non-French food columnist for Elle magazine.

Now I'm returning home to a very different Northern Ireland,

a country finally waking up to the fact that it produces

some of the best food in the world.

There's a food revolution going on and I want to be part of it.

In this series, I'll be showcasing some fabulous local produce,

but just how easy is it to spot local, shop local and eat local?

To find the answer, I'll be scrutinising supermarkets.

Local food is very, very important.

For farmers and food producers,

finding a market for their goods is crucial.

Dealing with supermarkets can be challenging.

Basically, it's perseverance.

I'll also be challenging a family to live for a week just using

food from their doorstep.

We're probably still at the beginning of a long journey.

Meet the Barnsley family.

Mum Holly, Dad Ellis and their two boys, Cohen and Dylan.

Mum and Dad both work and have busy lifestyles.

However, with two growing lads,

they're certainly enthusiastic about eating healthily.

How will they fare with eating only local produce for a week?

We would normally shop about once a week.

We would do a big shop and I would shop online, usually.

When we're shopping for food, my priority is normally price

and taste and whether it looks good.

We might have Mexican food one night and curry the next night

and maybe a roast dinner. So, some nights I would cook,

and other nights, I would just throw things in

that are in the freezer, you know.

I think we like to eat a lot of processed foods.

My wife is from Texas so we like a lot of the sugary foods

that come from all over the world, really.

I am probably not very aware at all of where my food is coming from.

I really wouldn't be that interested, to be honest.

Today I'm meeting Holly at the supermarket to see

just how much local produce she can put in her trolley.

So, Holly, let's get going on this shopping list.

Here's the lettuce section. What would you usually buy?

-Either the pre-packaged ones or the normal ones.

-Yeah?

I don't think any of this is from Northern Ireland, do you?

Let's have a little look. No, it's not.

But these are. That's from County Armagh.

-Now, fruit-wise?

-Banana.

-Not many banana trees in Northern Ireland. Apples.

-Yes.

Here's the apple section. These are from France...

Italy, Portugal.

Well, you know, I think we go the Bramley route,

-because these are from Armagh.

-Sounds good.

And then perhaps do a little bit more cooking with them.

Now, you have parmesan on your list but, as far as I know,

there's no Northern Irish Parmesan, for the moment,

-so what could we use instead? I think probably a good hard cheddar.

-Yeah.

There's Asda's own brand. Northern Irish.

That's Dale Farm so that's Northern Irish. Up to you.

-I would generally go for the cheaper one, I have to admit.

-OK.

Holly, what sort of cereals do your kids have in the mornings?

Normally, yeah, they'd have Weetabix or Cheerios, usually.

We're going to go one step further. There's a great brand of oats

in Northern Ireland, which is Whites Oats.

Quite a good range here, actually.

-Go for the cheaper one.

-You're going to go for the cheaper one? OK.

-I'd like you to buy a whole chicken.

-OK.

-Milk, milk, milk, milk, milk.

Now, the yoghurts, mince...

-Is this from Northern Ireland?

-It is, yes.

They have a butcher in store, so I thought we'd go and have a look

-at his.

-OK.

-Just check the price on this. £9. Right, butchers. Hello.

We looked at the lean mince...and a kilo, the usual price for a kilo?

-A kilo is 6.99.

-This is 6.99,

-so it's already cheaper than the £9 on the other.

-It is.

Double bargain.

Holly, we've got our shop here, and I've added lots of extra bits and pieces.

Some quite luxurious things that we might have left behind,

including this bacon from Fermanagh.

There are also two packets of sausages in there.

-I don't know if you get through those in a week.

-I like sausages.

How much do you reckon this cost?

I know you usually spend between 50 and £60.

If I really had to guess, I would probably say about 50.

-It's actually less than £48.

-Really?

-So, we're right down.

-That's really good.

My challenge to you is to use this produce and only this produce.

You can top up on milk if you run out of milk during the week,

but just this produce for seven days.

And, then, at the end of the seven days, you're going to invite me

over for a meal and cook for me. So, what do you think? Are you up for it?

-I am definitely up for it.

-We can have a go.

There's easily enough food in that basket to feed the Barnsleys

for a week, and I'm hoping they'll all get into the kitchen and cook.

And, also, I really hope that she manages to get the kids off cereals and onto oatmeal.

Here in Northern Ireland,

we're served by many of the supermarket giants,

who offer a possible market for food producers and farmers.

Many supermarkets here claim a commitment to local produce

and producers, but are they just paying lip service?

How important is local for supermarkets?

We're here surrounded by local produce.

How much of the produce in the store is from Northern Ireland?

We've around 1,500 local products

here in Tesco Northern Ireland.

At Lidl, we're very committed to having local produce on our shelves.

Last year, we spent over £85 million on local produce

and that was from over 40 local suppliers.

We currently work with over 100 suppliers, supplying us

with over 1,000 products into our Northern Irish stores.

Many of the multiple retailers here claim to encourage local produce,

but what do we, the Northern Irish customers, really want?

Do we trust the supermarkets to supply local? Do we care?

The most recent research we've done is interesting

because it would suggest that around about two thirds of our customers

think that local food is very, very important.

One of their top priorities.

And if you then include customers who feel it's still important,

perhaps not right up there for them, but still important,

that actually goes up to about three quarters of all customers.

Customers are very brand loyal within Northern Ireland,

and they want to be able to come into Asda and buy the brands that they love.

They want local produce. They believe that in Northern Ireland,

that we are able to supply the best possible produce,

of whatever that might be. Therefore, it's only sensible

that we react to their request and stock it.

We want to support our own producers,

but value for money is also important.

And how does the price of local produce compare to imports?

A lot of local suppliers will be of different sizes and scales,

and our biggest local suppliers would be competitive with any one in the market.

Smaller and medium suppliers have to offer a bit more.

They're not always able to offer the very cheapest price.

There's been a lot of negative publicity about how

supermarkets work with farmers, growers and food producers.

I wanted to know more.

How would you answer criticism

about how Tesco treats its farmers and its suppliers?

The lovely thing about Northern Ireland's suppliers is they tend

to be family farms, family businesses,

and we're now dealing with the next generation in those businesses.

That's how sustained the business has been here.

Well, as an example, our milk comes from Strathroy Dairy in Omagh,

and that relationship that we've had with Strathroy

has been for 15 years now and we wouldn't have those length of,

of duration of relationships if they weren't built on trust.

We're all after convenience,

and that's central for one Northern Ireland food producer.

Mash Direct, situated on the shores of Strangford Lough,

began life as a farm, growing and selling vegetables.

It's now a family business making a huge range of products,

which can be found on many of the supermarkets' shelves.

I'm meeting mother and son, Tracy and Lance Hamilton.

How did Mash Direct start?

We had been growing vegetables for the wholesale market,

and the returns were getting less and less,

and we were really thinking how we could survive as a farm,

and Martin had noticed the consumer buying habits

of looking for convenience, so we thought,

"What can we do to make our vegetables convenient?"

So, at a friend and neighbour's party,

after a couple of glasses of whisky,

Martin decided what we would do is start to make mashed potato.

There was an awful lot of research of how to cook.

We wanted to steam cook everything, which was interesting in itself

because we wanted all the nutrients to be maintained,

so we designed and made our own equipment to make the mash.

We blast chill, so the minute the product is cooked,

it's brought down in temperature very, very quickly,

because, you know, at home if you were to leave mashed potato

out to chill naturally, we'd never get that sort of shelf life,

so we would get about 14 days because of our blast chilling process.

How do you deal with the growth in food intolerances and allergies?

We are now a completely gluten-free company.

There's not one product that we'll produce that is not gluten-free,

and nobody would ever expect to see a croquette that is gluten-free,

or potato cakes, because they see a crumb and they presume it's,

you know, a wheat-based crumb, but it's actually a lot of rice flour.

Lance, today, your products are distributed through

most of the major supermarket chains and you now export as well.

Yep, we export into Dubai,

and we also are looking into the American market as well.

How much produce leaves the factory every day?

In and around about 100 tonnes, I would say.

It's certainly substantial compared to the early days

where my brother and I were on the peeling lines.

It's a heck of a lot larger than it was then.

I'm heading inland from the shores of Strangford Lough to meet

another food producer.

In 2011, Armagh Bramley became part of a premium food club,

when it was awarded protected geographical indication,

or PGI, status.

It's a special award for food that is unique to its location.

There are only two other products in Northern Ireland with this

special status - Comber potatoes and Loch Neagh eels.

I'm meeting Helen Troughton at her Armagh orchard.

So, Helen, we're here in Armagh, the beautiful orchard county,

amongst your apple trees.

Could you tell me a little bit about the history of the area

and the apples here?

Well, Armagh is known for growing apples, mainly because, way back

in plantation times, all large houses had to have an orchard,

probably for self-sufficiency, or something,

and that's where it all started.

And what about varieties? How many varieties are grown here?

Oh! We would have over 30 different varieties, but our main variety

is way and above the Armagh Bramley Apple, which got PGI status.

Tell me a little bit about that.

The Armagh Bramley got PGI status in 2011, which makes it a unique apple.

And only the apples, the Bramleys grown in Armagh,

-are allowed to be called an Armagh Bramley PGI.

-Mm.

It gives it a special status,

puts us on equivalent level to, like, the Parma ham, or champagne.

So, it is special and we need to celebrate that fact.

The company now produces a range of ciders,

non-alcoholic apple juice and a cider vinegar.

They sell their products at a number of small stockists,

but they can also be found on some of the supermarket shelves.

Helen, how did you get started

in selling the cider and the apple juice?

Well, once you make it, you've then got to sell it.

So, what we did was we went out to a lot of consumer shows and let people

actually try it, and then we started and went round off-licences

and asked them if they'd stock it, and bars and that sort of thing.

Then, as well as that, went onto Facebook.

My son set up a page and he asked people,

"Where would you like to see our product?"

And then he would say to me, "Mum, go to such and such an off-licence",

and I would get in my little Smart car and off I went.

Then we were drawn to the attention of a distributor.

They came to us and we went with them, and now we're in the supermarkets as well.

And what about getting into supermarkets?

Was that a special process?

Oh, yes. It just needs perseverance.

Roughly, I would say a year to year and a half from we started

to speak to them, it actually appeared on the shelves.

What I have found is, once you're into one supermarket,

it's easier to get into the rest of them afterwards.

-Do you think we could taste some of them now?

-This is the Carsons.

In one sense, it will be quite tart because there's so much Bramley.

-But you'll also get a little sweetness.

-Mm.

And, also, the cider apple will give you the aftertaste.

-Mm, it's really, really lovely. It's quite tangy.

-Yes, exactly.

That's the Bramley for you.

And we'll try the Maddens, which is our medium cider.

Our mellow, as I like to call it.

We have more eating apple in this one, and cut back a little on the Bramley,

but also maintained the cider apple in it.

Mm. Yes, lovely, mellow and sweet.

Yes, it is sweeter than the dry cider.

-And would you recommend cider as a drink with dinner?

-Very much so.

-I would now drink cider more so than wine.

-Mm-hmm.

It is only 4.5 %.

And cider, actually, is very akin to wine.

The whole process, the fermentation process is just like wine.

Northern Ireland, we grow apples,

we don't grow grapes, so this is our wine.

Back at the Barnsley's house in Ballycastle, I'm determined

to get the boys into the kitchen.

OK, guys, you are my assistants.

In fact, you're my slaves. You have to do everything I tell you.

All right? So, we're going to make a very famous,

-traditional Irish bread called wheaten bread.

-I've heard of it.

-You've heard of it?

-But not eaten it.

You haven't eaten it? No? This one really is simple.

It's only got four ingredients.

-Cohen, what's this?

-Flour.

That's wholemeal flour and this is baking soda,

-and then we're going to have buttermilk.

-Milk.

-And this, what's this?

-Sugar.

-Uh-uh.

-Soft!

-Yeah! I want you to pour this in here.

Perhaps Dylan can look at the scales and tell us when we get to 250.

-You're starting to pass 200.

-Yeah?

You're really close to the biggest line.

OK, that's brilliant. We're going to stop, then. Fantastic.

OK, so, now you're going to put this in here. OK, in it goes.

Could you put a teaspoon of baking soda in there? A teaspoon of salt.

Yeah, that's good. Go on, then.

It looks like snow.

OK, so, now could you just mix that round very gently.

OK, brilliantly mixed. And now we're going to put in the milk.

Do a little swirl. Put it all in. That's all right.

I want you to pretend that you're golden eagles and you've got claws,

and you're going to go in there and you're going to mix it around.

My, my, my, my, my fingers are really messy.

They are, aren't they?

Keep going.

With your clean hand, Dylan, could you get a tiny little bit

of flour out of there and just sprinkle it on to the baking sheet?

So, it's going to go on the baking sheet and then, Dylan,

could you cut a cross on it?

So, you do one line like that and one line like this,

and that's to help it rise.

Very good. Now it's going in the oven.

The oven is hot.

And here it is, at last.

Hot out of the oven. Don't touch, very hot. Set that over here.

-Eat! Eat!

-We have to wait for it to cool down.

-Eat!

OK, guys, you have been very patient. The moment has come to cut the bread.

Is there any seeds in there?

-No, it's just that rubbly flour that you had.

-OK.

That makes it all crunchy. There's one for you.

So, Cohen, what do you think?

-Good.

-Triple excellent.

-Triple excellent!

Thank you so much. Do you think you'll be able to make this again?

-Mm-hmm.

-Maybe with Mummy looking on.

Northern Ireland's food scene is certainly growing.

I'm meeting Michele Shirlow, head of Food NI,

to chat about what's been happening.

Michele, this seems to be a food revolution

going on in Northern Ireland, and you head up Food NI.

-What does that job entail?

-What it entails is, really,

helping the industry to push out the great message about our food.

I suppose, building confidence and pride in what we have locally,

because it's just fantastic.

We started with seven enthusiastic members and we now have 330.

About half of our members are producers

and the other half are chefs and restaurateurs.

How do you think people's attitudes have changed to food and,

in particular, to local food, in Northern Ireland?

People's attitudes have changed enormously,

and it's not just people in Northern Ireland

whose attitudes have changed.

Over the last six or seven years, food from Northern Ireland

has started to win awards, nationally and internationally.

Last year, we had so many awards that we're being cited

as a stronger food region than the south-east of England.

What would you say is Northern Ireland's greatest hidden secret about its food?

The big secret here is our climate.

The fact that we have four seasons every day.

We really are world-class at growing grass,

and that leads to unique beef,

unique dairy, fantastic ingredients,

the best in the world,

that we then can take and make into great products.

-Does local come at a price?

-Not necessarily.

If people want good food, there's lots of great ways to source it.

Check out local markets, go to farm shops and come along to the events

and talk to the producers.

How encouraging are supermarkets for local producers?

When the supermarkets first came to Northern Ireland,

they actually brought over an English footprint,

put it onto our stores,

discovered that our palates were completely different.

And within a few days of arriving here, realised they had to bring in

all those things like soda bread, wheaten bread,

apple tarts, traybakes,

strong teas, all those things that are unique to Northern Ireland.

So, supermarkets have been interesting because they've been

able to take our local products outside of Northern Ireland,

and they've been able to take them into the rest of the UK.

However, I think anybody setting up in business, an artisan producer,

there's many other ways to retail your product, or to sell your product.

Why not think of a farmer's market, or go to a chef

and get them to try it with customers?

I challenged the Barnsley family in Ballycastle to shop,

cook and eat local for a week.

They're at the halfway mark

and I'm curious to find out how they're getting on.

It's been a bit of a challenge to find recipes

with the food that is available because, before,

I would have had a recipe and gone to the store and expected all

those ingredients to be there,

whereas now, instead, I'm looking at what is available

and then choosing what I'm going to make out of that.

-I think it feels a bit old-fashioned.

-It does.

In a good way, but also a bit more kind of responsible.

We've struggled to find fruits. That's been really difficult.

Also, onions. I've not been able to find any onions

that were Northern Irish.

Apparently, there's no bananas grown in Northern Ireland.

No. It's a shame.

Do you like ice cream?

It has made me a lot more aware of how far away some of the food comes from.

I've looked at some of the fruits and things

and they'll say Belize, or somewhere in South America, or Africa

and I just think, "Gosh, that would have taken quite a long time

"to get here and how fresh is it, really?"

It's just made me think about things that maybe

I haven't thought about before.

Today, my ingredients are from the supermarket and from the hedgerow.

I'm making elderflower fritters with strawberries and mint sugar.

It's doorstep cooking at its finest.

Our summery dessert has all the fragrance of my childhood,

Northern Irish summers, with these beautiful elderflower blooms

that I'm going to make into fritters

and then just to lighten the whole thing up,

some beautiful, fresh strawberries

that I'm going to garnish with some mint sugar.

Elderflower fritters are the essence of summer.

This is a really simple batter.

It's just two eggs, plain flower and a little bit of icy carbonated water.

All I need is the elderflower. As fresh as possible.

These have just been picked

and I'm leaving the stalks on cos it's easier to cook them that way.

Just dip the flowers into the batter

and then just into the oil.

And push down the stalks slightly

so that the flowers spread out into the batter.

And then push them again

so that the oil covers the backside of the flowers.

When I see that they're beginning to get nice and golden,

and they're making that very satisfying frying batter sound

that we love so much here...

This one's nice and golden. Just drip some of the oil off

and set it on some kitchen paper to drain.

To go with the elderflower fritters, I'm making some lovely mint sugar

which is going over these strawberries

and, again, nothing could be simpler.

Granulated sugar.

And if you don't have a pestle and mortar, you can use a mini-blitzer.

It's much more satisfying this way.

So fresh mint goes in here, on top of the sugar.

Then just grind.

Ah, smells gorgeous already.

And, you know, if you haven't got mint or you want to mix it up a bit,

you can put basil in here, or coriander, or mix all three.

Just keep grinding this until it becomes green the whole way through.

Of course, the essential oils of the mint

melt through into the sugar and it makes it quite damp.

There we are, that's ready.

Now, I'm going to sprinkle it over the strawberries

and this is a fantastic dessert,

because you can eat it just like this,

then you get the crunch of the sugar,

or if you leave it for a while,

the whole thing kind of melts together and you end up with

the most delicious strawberry mint syrup underneath the strawberries.

Just to finish it off,

I'll put a little bit of icing sugar over the fritters.

This has to be the perfect summer dessert.

Elderflower fritters with strawberries and mint sugar.

Genesis Crafty in Magherafelt produces a range of breads and cakes.

It's a family business run by six brothers whose products can be found

on the shelves of many of the big supermarkets.

Brian, tell us a little bit about your bakery.

The business was started in 1968 by my mother and father

and traded as McErlain's Bakery up until 1998,

when we rebranded as Genesis.

We probably started with three or four people and as we speak today,

we're employing 220 people.

Initially, to service the local community, it was just a shop,

then after the first year we added a door-to-door van,

but now we're supplying most of the major supermarkets

in Ireland and the UK.

The Henderson Group locally, your biggies - Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury's -

and we're a supplier to Marks & Spencer's and Waitrose in the UK.

Musgrave in the Republic of Ireland is also a very important customer.

Is it tough working with supermarkets?

I think anybody would tell you it's tough working!

But it's challenging and we get on very well with all of them,

we have good relationships and it's a testament to them

that a small business like ours that started with two or three people

has grown to the size that it is now.

Pancakes - Northern Ireland is famous for its wheat and bread

and soda farls and they're still mainstays of our core product range.

How much has production of those products changed since then?

At heart, it's very much the same.

It's a hand-crafted business, we're very artisanal in our ethos.

You can industrialise and bring in machines

and you can be more efficient and produce for less.

That's not what the consumer wants to know.

They want to know that the product they're getting, they're going to enjoy.

You have to do that, in a way, with a bit of TLC

to keep the product right.

A week ago, I challenged the Barnsleys of Ballycastle

to eat and shop local.

Now I'm back to get their verdict.

And I'm looking forward to seeing what they've cooked for me.

Holly, Ellis, what a spread!

I went for a traditional dessert,

so I've made an Irish apple cake for dessert.

But a non-traditional main -

-I've done a Philadelphia cheese steak stew.

-Oh, wow.

So it's sirloin steak, which I bought from the butcher's in town.

The mushrooms are also local and some brie from Fivemiletown.

There's onions in it, there's some flour. I used rapeseed oil.

It's really quite a simple recipe at the end of the day,

so I hope it's good.

That's really good. The beef is really tender.

How did you get on this week?

We've learned a lot. We've met a lot of people in the town

that we may not have met before.

I think whenever I asked them questions,

you could kind of see their face light up a little bit, like,

"Oh, somebody wants to know about my work.

"Someone wants to know about these things

"that I feel passionately about,"

and also learning more about eating with the seasons as well,

sort of looking at what's available at the moment

and making recipes according to that.

What do you think you've changed most about your shopping habits this week?

Just being more conscious of how the food is produced

and who is producing it.

We're probably still at the beginning of a long journey

of thinking about things like this,

but it has been a real starting point for us.

It's like we got excited about local food,

-so I kind of ate like a king!

-I've been doing a lot of cooking.

Do you think you cook differently? More? Less?

It's just been a bit more fun.

We had a meal where we all chipped in and made different parts

of the meal and that was quite fun.

And the boys are more excited about their food as well,

because they know it's local.

Compared to the price of your shop the week before,

how did it compare this week? Did you spend more or less, do you think?

Some things were less and some things were more,

but I was happy to pay more, if that makes sense.

And was there anything you really missed?

Bananas.

-One of our boys loves bananas.

-Fruit in general I think has been hard.

And trying to change the boys' habits with regards to snacks

and breakfasts and things like that has been interesting.

I've been really blown away by the way the Barnsleys

have immersed themselves in this experiment

and especially the way they've really got behind the reasons

for eating and shopping local.

Holly was off this week, so she had lots of time

and she cooks a lot anyway,

but she's really gone to town on researching recipes

and researching the produce and actually going to the shops

instead of sitting behind her computer screen.

But I think the thing I'm most pleased with

is just how much she and the others have connected,

reconnected with their food,

with the way it tastes, with the way they're cooking it

and more than anything else,

that reconnection they have made with local people.

I think they've done brilliantly.

On next week's show, award-winning butter, award-winning beef

and alternative ways to food shop.

And I challenge another family to put local at the top of their menu.