More depressing than an Adele's song is a recently published survey which reveals that 55% of Londoners are turning to quick snacks for an evening meal. And here they are:
MOST POPULAR QUICK-FIX DINNERS
1. Toast
2. Cereal
3. Cheese and crackers
4. Ham sandwich
5. Crisps or nachos
6. Crumpets
7. Packet / tinned soup
8. Instant noodles / rice / pasta
9. Porridge
10. Nutella on toast
Turn up the volume on that 21 album, it might cheer me up as reading the rest of the survey* had me in tears. Concomitantly, new research carried out by Love Food Hate Waste and Mumsnet demonstrates that "As modern life becomes busier, and quick solutions become more favourable, we are at risk of losing valuable cooking skills and knowledge to pass on to the next generation."
See infographic**.
What is going on? the food scene is buzzing, there is cookery program of some sort, with a record audience, every hour, on TV, in the meantime Londoners are eating Nutella on toast standing up in front of their fridge!
So where can we find inspiration? my lastest source of, was provided by Jeanne of Cooksister and a canapé served at an event promoting Canadian railways.
Let's backtrack a little. He recently harvested the last of the tomatoes on the two plants which provided a bumper crop this year. Considering the neighbour has a monster 16+ feet tree by the fence which completely over-shadows our garden, we were able to make the grand total of two red tomato salads and the same amount of green tomato chutney.
I would recommend Cooksister chutney recipe which can be adapted to other fruits, alternatively there is a lot of good brands out there, but don't just spread chutney on toast....wait...
Here come part two of the inspiration, at a press event as the canapés were doing the rounds, a tiny little tart with deliciousness on the top attracted my attention. After inconspicuously poking at deliciousness, it was decided that it contained goat cheese topped with chutney.
Genius doesn't come into the assembling of such but served with fresh veggies that is a quick dinner worthy of a mention.
How does it work?
You'll need one tartlet tray or a small pie tray.
1/2 packet of shortcrust pastry roll out thin and cut to the size of the above tray
150g goat cheese, ring removed, mashed with a fork and combined with
150g of ricotta (failing ricotta) use 4tbsp milk to loosen the goat cheese.
Grease the tray with a little oil, place the pastry in, top with cheese mixture.
Bake for 20minutes in pre-heated oven 220C/fan 200C/gas 7
watch that the pastry doesn't turn too golden (mine did)
Remove from the oven, leave it to cool before topping with a generous spoon of green tomato and apple chutney serve with baked bean or fresh vegetables
More Chutney recipes
*survey : Researchers from Pukka Pies polled 2000 workers
**Love food hate waste & Mumsnet research