George Foreman Evolve Grill - Cactus Kitchens London

I was recently invited to go to the Cactus Kitchens in Clapham which is co-owned by Michel Roux Jr and is the film studio for Saturday Kitchen as part of a small band of Food Bloggers for the launch of the new George Foreman Evolve Grill.

On arrival at the event, we were taken upstairs to the Cookery School which is on the top floor of this converted church and which has an incredible space and light as well as beautiful original feature beams where we were welcomed with glasses of Prosecco and canapés of cream cheese and smoked salmon served on savoury cheese waffles.

We were introduced to the lovely team from George Foreman and the members of the PR company before being shown to our work stations where we each had an Evolve Grill to use to create our dishes that we'd eat that evening.

To start, we created a tasty dish of sesame crusted tuna steak served on an light and fresh Asian salad base.  Using the sear function of the George Foreman ensured a perfectly cooked crust to the tuna steak.

Following on from our starters, we changed the bottom grill plate to the deep baking pan and created a fresh tasting beetroot and broccoli pizza.  The base of the pizza was perfectly cooked and crispy whilst the top of the pizza, under the heat of the top grill plate ensured that the cheese was melted beautifully.

To follow we created light and fresh yellow plums skewered with rosemary sprigs, over which we poured a delicious honey, orange and liqueur syrup.

We were also treated to a taster of an incredibly tasty sirloin steak with a Hollandaise sauce as well as the some American style waffles and fruit.

To top off the evening, we were each given the George Foreman Evolve grill that we'd been using to take home and were invited to have a look around the Saturday Kitchen film studio, where we duly posed for our 'Omelette Challenge' photo.

Spurred on by the versatility of this amazing machine (my first ever George Foreman), I then ordered a set of the waffle plates (£14.99) for collection from my local Argos.  Needless to say, Sunday saw us eating waffles and fresh fruit for breakfast!

Since then, I've grilled chicken, steaks, bacon and toasted sandwiches on the grill plates, made a sweet & sour chicken in the deep baking pan and have had waffles most weekends for breakfast!  I think I'm in love with my George Foreman Evolve and how clean and versatile this piece of kitchen equipment is.  No more cleaning fat splashes from the tiles at the back of the hob when preparing chicken or steaks, or from the top of the grill when making bacon in the oven.

The Evolve is a 5 portion, family sized, grill with removable plates which you can easily place in your dishwasher to clean after use.  It comes with a pair of non stick grilling plates which are angled to allow fats and juices to run off and which are caught in the trough that you place at the front of the machine.  What's different about this grill though is that you can easily, with the twist of a lever, adjust the foot so that the grill is horizontal, making it perfect for toasting sandwiches and for grilling vegetables or fish.  Not only this, but the bottom grill plate is easily and quickly changed for a deep baking pan, in which you can cook omelettes, pizza and tray bakes.  Ordinarily the George Foreman grills heat up to 220℃, but this new Evolve machine has a digitally variable temperature selection which includes a 90 second, 260℃, sear function allowing you to quickly sear your steaks to lock in that all important flavour.  An additional feature is the digital 20 minute timer which you can set and leave until it reminds you when your food is cooked.

An optional extra purchase available for this grill is a pair of non stick waffle plates, allowing you to make an incredible, quick and easy, tasty breakfast in no time at all. These also go into your dishwasher for easy clean up after breakfast.  Of course, waffles aren't just sweet treats, but can be made into a savoury base for canapés or teatime snacks.

I attended the event as a guest of the PR company for George Foreman Grills.  As part of the event we were each given the George Foreman Grill that we had been cooking on that evening, free of charge.  The waffle plates I purchased personally.

Stir up Sunday to make your Christmas Pudding

Stir Up Sunday is the traditional time to make your Christmas Pudding.  It's an Anglican tradition which takes place annually on the last Sunday before advent; a time when families would gather round to make their Christmas Pudding and each take a turn at stirring the mixture whilst making a wish.  This year it's today, 24th November.  Tradition also dictates that a 'silver sixpence' should be put into the mixture for one lucky recipient to find.  Finding the coin would bring them health, wealth & happiness.  In accordance with the Gospel, to represent Christ & the disciples, at least 13 ingredients would be used to make the pudding.

I was invited to take part in Tate & Lyle's "Bake, Eat & be Mary" Christmas campaign to encourage people to make their own Christmas puddings and to spread the word of Stir Up Sunday, as statistics now tell us that over 70% of people now buy them rather than make their own.  I went to London for the photo shoot, which I can only say was pretty surreal; to hear the name Mary called out and 12 women who all have Mary as their name or in their name respond, was, to say the least, quite strange.  New friendships were made over bubbles & nibbles and everyone had such a fantastic time creating our own individual photographs as well as our table of Mischief you can see below.

If you pop over to the Tate & Lyle website you will find the links to 10 of the Mary Christmases' recipes and stories (including mine). Just click on our pictures to open up the recipes.

This recipe I used is from my mother's 1958 Household Encyclopaedia.  It makes 6 decent sized puddings, which, if kept properly, will not only see you through the festive period with a couple to wrap & give away as gifts, but will also provide a tasty pudding for a few months to come.

2lb Currants

2lb Raisins

1lb Sultanas

1lb Soft brown sugar

4oz Candied Peel

2 Lemons, juice & rind

4oz Brandy (dark alcohol, I use rum)

4oz Port

1 Nutmeg, grated

4oz Almonds, chopped

1/2oz Mixed spice

1/4tsp salt

10 Eggs, medium sized

1lb Plain flour

1lb Bread crumbs

2lb Suet

Milk to mix

Butter for greasing the bowls

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine all of your fruit, sugar, peel, lemon juice & rind and alcohol.

2. Cover with cling film and leave to infuse overnight.

3. Next day, add the grated nutmeg, chopped almonds, mixed spice, salt and eggs, along with the flour, bread crumbs and suet.

4. Stir well to combine all the ingredients.  Add some milk if the mixture is too stiff.  It shouldn't be a wet batter but should hold its own shape.

5. Grease the inside of your pudding bowls well with butter & place a disc of parchment paper in the base to ease removal.

6. Pack the pudding mixture into the bowl, leaving about 1/2" (1cm) space.

7. Pleat a circle of parchment paper into a double fold, as pictured, and place on top of the bowl. The pleat will allow the pudding to expand & rise a little during steaming.

8. Pleat a piece of foil and place over the top of the parchment.

9. Tie the parchment and foil in place firmly with string, using the string to make a looped handle to enable you to lift the pudding more easily into and out of the steamer.

10. Bring a pan of water to the boil.

11. Place the pudding basin into your steamer basket and put this on top of your pan of boiling water.

12. Place the lid on top and steam for 9 hours. Keep an eye on the water level and top up the saucepan as necessary with boiling water from the kettle. (Alternatively, to use a slow cooker, place your pudding basin in the crock pot, fill up to 2/3 of the way up the basin with boiling water, place the lid on and cook on HIGH for 10-12 hours or overnight.  Cooking this way has the advantage of having much less evaporation of the cooking water so you can go to bed/get on with your day whilst it cooks itself).

13. When cooked, remove from the steamer and leave until cold.

14. Remove the string, foil and parchment and pour over some more alcohol of your choice and cover with a fresh piece of parchment and then a foil covering.  I tie this on to keep out the air and therefore prevent the puddings drying out.

15. 'Feed' the pudding weekly with alcohol until Christmas Day, each time replacing the parchment with fresh.

16. On Christmas Day, you can steam the puddings as before for 2 hours.  Alternatively, you can fill the  slow cooker to 2/3 of the way up the side of the pudding basin and cook for 3 hours on HIGH.  If you really want a 'quick fix' you could always microwave it in 2 min bursts until heated through, then allow to rest for 1 min before serving.

Thanks to Mischief PR for inviting me to be one of Tate & Lyle's Mary Christmases - I had a fun filled & wonderful day. Thanks to the staff at Mischief PR and also to our fab photographer, Nathan Pask for encouraging us to be silly in front of your camera lens and then showing the 'world' just how daft we were! Laura Sawyer created a beautiful, festive set for us and even found some properly cheesy Christmas jumpers for us to wear, whilst Sandra Bermingham primped and preened our hair and faces.