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Traditional
steak and kidney pudding has been beaten as a favourite English dish,
by - pork vindalho.
The choice of
an Indian recipe from Exmoor caterer Mignon Johnson was unanimous by
all five judges of a cook-off broadcast on UKTV Food prime time television.
The pork
vindalho was cooked by celebrity chef Antony Worrall-Thompson for the
show, The People's Cook Book, which is a nationwide hunt for
favourite family recipes best reflecting British contemporary food culture.
Mignon, who
runs The Saffron Kitchen from her home on the edge of Exmoor, near
Taunton, was up against a steak and kidney pudding cooked by another
TV chef, Paul Rankin.
Said Mignon:
"Everybody thought the steak and kidney would be a natural
winner, and even Antony Worrall-Thompson said we would never get the
vote of the Women's Institute judge.
"But the
judges all loved it, even the WI lady, and they commented on the
delicious range of flavours and how they were surprised that it was
not too hot.
"It was
great to meet Antony Worrall-Thompson, he is a really nice person
with a great sense of humour and is so knowledgeable about food, but
I think we surprised even him."
Mignon's pork
vindalho recipe can be downloaded from the UKTV Food website and it
is also planned to be included in a book of the series, which
celebrates home cooking.
Publicity
surrounding the show has already produced an upsurge in orders for
The Saffron Kitchen's range of traditional home-cooked Indian food,
which is available to suit any budget for weddings, dinners,
banquets, parties, and corporate entertainment.
Mignon, who is
an Indian national, said: "We have added pork vindalho to our
regular dishes to meet demand at the farmers' markets we attend in
Taunton, Glastonbury, Exeter, Minehead, Wellington, Crewkerne, and
Cotford St Luke, and we have also put it on our standard dinner menu.
We are also finding more and more retailers want to stock our products."
The pork
vindalho recipe was handed down by Mignon's mother, who cooked it at
home in India whenever a celebration was held.
Mignon said:
"I chose pork vindalho for the television programme because I
know people think Indian food is blisteringly hot and I wanted to
show that it can be can be quite mild enough to be eaten by all the
family and what really matters is how you blend the flavours.
"Every
dish we prepare at The Saffron Kitchen is real authentic Indian food
with each of our sauces individually prepared with a combination of
spices blended to recipes handed down through generations of my
family so that they taste just as they would in India.
"We cater
for all tastes, from the very mild right through to blisteringly hot
if that is what people want, and we use as much locally-sourced
produce as we can."
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