Rick Stein's English Seafood Cookery

I wouldn’t be the chef I am today if this book didn’t exist.

I saw a copy for the first time in 1998, in the staff room at the Seafood Restaurant in Padstow. I’d started working with Rick in March that year and picked it up from the staff room table one quiet lunchtime and never put it back. I borrowed it for life. Sorry, Rick!

What makes me pick this book up even now is the way the recipes are written. I can hear Rick’s voice in his writing, and you can tell that he’d been cooking these dishes with passion for years. They make me want to cook everything, apart perhaps for the anchovy ice cream (what was that all about?). Many were on the menu when I cooked there; some still appear to this day.

Every single recipe, piece of advice and snippet of knowledge comes from a chef who had been in at the deep end running an extremely busy kitchen and restaurant. It’s genuine, something that can’t be said for many cookery books, especially these days.

When he wrote English Seafood Cookery there was very little of the technology we take for granted, no cut and paste, no Google. It’s written from experience, and Rick’s originality and take on favourite recipes he’d collected from his travels are all in here. My favourite recipes are the fish soup and the classic and original sauces. The advice on species mentions foraging for coastal wild foods way before its time. The book is full of superb Illustrations by Katinka Kew with no photography – rare nowadays.

You find yourself using your imagination a lot more when you cook from this book, a much-needed skill in an age when the “right way” to do everything is put in front of us.

Fillet of bass with mussels in a saffron sauce

Serves 4
mussels 20
white wine a splash
Noilly Prat 2 fl oz (60ml)
fish stock 4 fl oz (120ml)
saffron a large pinch
bass 4 fillets, 3 oz (85g) each
unsalted butter 2 oz (60g)
salt and white pepper

For the fish stock
onion 1 large
carrot 1 large
celery 1 stick, including the top
fish bones (including heads) 3 lb (1.4kg)
water 3 pints (1.7 litres)

Clean and peel the stock vegetables, then chop them into pieces roughly a ¼-inch (6mm) cube. The stock takes only 15 minutes to cook, so the vegetables must be cut small to extract the maximum flavour in so short a cooking time.

Place the vegetables in a large saucepan (at least 6 pints or 3 litres) and put the fish trimmings on top. Pour on the water and bring slowly to the boil. As soon as the stock comes to the boil, turn the heat right down and leave at a slow simmer for 15 minutes. Take the pan off the heat and leave the stock to go cold before straining. Making stock this way keeps the liquor clear and clean-tasting.

Open the mussels by putting them in a saucepan with the wine and cooking them over a high heat with the lid on. Remove from the heat as soon as they are open; strain them, reserving the liquor, and remove the shells and beards. Place the mussel cooking liquor in a sauteuse with the Noilly Prat, the fish stock and the saffron. Reduce the liquid by two-thirds by rapid boiling. Turn on the grill, brush the fillets of bass with melted butter, seasonwith salt and white pepper, and cook them. Finish off the sauce by whisking the butter, cut into 3 or 4 pieces, into the reduced liquid.

Put the mussels in the sauce to warm through and serve each fillet with 5 mussels and a quarter of the sauce.

Herrings in oatmeal
I was once advised by a fisherman in Padstow on the cooking of salmon. “Take a piece of fat, put it in the pan, heat it up and chuck in the salmon,” he said. He suggested the same method for the cooking of young rabbit and, indeed, almost any other piece of fish, meat or fowl he hooked, netted, shot or trapped.

The cooking of salmon in lard seemed a bit barbaric, considering the price. But to many fishermen in Padstow, salmon is no more a luxury than the odd crawfish or lobster they take home for tea. If one can ignore the price, salmon cooked in lard is pretty similar to herrings cooked in bacon fat – which is the most satisfactory way of dealing with herrings, and I should think an eminently satisfactory way of serving up salmon, too.

Serves 4
herrings four, 8 oz (240g) each
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
oatmeal 8 oz (240g)
lard 3 oz (90g)
streaky bacon 4 rashers
lemon wedges
Advertisement

Flatten out and bone the herrings. Season and press them with oatmeal until well covered.

Place the lard in a frying pan and fry the streaky bacon until crisp. Remove and keep warm. Fry the herrings in the fat, flesh side first, then skin side until golden brown. Serve with the bacon and lemon wedges.

Millions to travel for Memorial Day weekend

If you’re flying this summer, be prepared for crowded planes and airports and the possibility of long security lines.

A record number of passengers are expected to take to the skies this summer, according to an airline industry group.

Airlines for America forecasts that a record 257.4 million passengers will fly on U.S. airlines from June through August. That’s an average of 2.8 million passengers a day.

The forecast is for a total that’s 3.4 percent higher than the record of 248.8 million passengers last year, according to the airline association. Summertime airline passenger counts have been increasing for 10 years in a row.

Atlanta airport and airline officials recommend passengers be inside the airport two hours before their scheduled departure time for domestic flights and three hours before international flights.

The airline industry group says flying has become more affordable. Many passengers must pay extra for checked bags and other items or services. But when average 2018 base air fares are adjusted for inflation, they were the lowest on record since 1995, according to the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which samples 10 percent of tickets sold.

For Memorial Day weekend alone, nearly 105,000 in Georgia are expected to fly, up 5.3 percent over last year, according to AAA. Top travel destinations in the U.S. for the long weekend are Orlando, New York and Las Vegas, based on AAA travel bookings.

Airlines for America noted that the federal government is diverting U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers from airports to the southern border, as The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has reported.

“If this is permitted to continue, it will lead to excessive lines and wait times for passengers and cargo entering the country from overseas,” Airlines for America said in a press release. “That would discourage leisure and business travel to the U.S. and jeopardize the economic benefits that come with it.”

Some Transportation Security Administration staff are also being asked to volunteer to deploy to the southern border.

The airline industry group and other aviation and travel industry associations wrote a letter to Senate leaders pushing for more funding for U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer staffing and overtime, including at airports.

How Savvy Businesswomen Dress For Success

The question "How should I dress at work?" comes up at every women's conference I address.

Sharon Stone is a fashion stylist and personal shopper based in Dallas, Texas. She has a flair for style that's made her a top pick of celebs like Sarah Jessica Parker and Ellen DeGeneres. I asked her advice.

Carol Kinsey Goman: There are many different types of work places ranging from open creative offices to more traditional corporate environments. Do you have some general guidelines about appropriate dressing for a professional woman?

Sharon Stone: While we all know how to dress in our time off and for special occasions, often times appropriate dressing in the workplace can often be a bit of a "grey area." The basic guidelines to follow are simple: proper fit, classic style and neatness.

* In general, a proper fit goes a long way towards a professional look. This may mean updating your wardrobe if you've changed sizes, as we all do, or if you haven't replaced your wardrobe in a while. Dated and faded attire bely your professionalism.
* Keep it simple. Trends are great and lots of fun to follow, but the workplace is an environment where the understated is more appropriate. In such an environment it is better to have your great performance command the attention, not your wardrobe.
* Cleanliness and neatness are always in style, and never more so than in a professional environment.
* Do some research on Pinterest, Instagram and online for business dressing for inspiration. Or if you have the ability to work with a personal shopper, take advantage of that objective opinion.

Goman: I've presented my "Body Language for Women Who Lead" program at several of the most successful firms in Silicon Valley - and I am amazed at the array of low-cut necklines I see on women in the audience. What are your thoughts about this?

Stone: The workplace should be a cleavage-free zone. While there is absolutely a time and a place to embrace a plunging neckline, the workplace is definitely neither of those. It is a distraction and unprofessional.

Goman: I'm all for women dressing in a fashion that makes them feel attractive and confident, but I also advise women to take themselves (and their professional reputation) seriously. When I talk about "dress for success" for women in a leadership role, I mean dressing in ways that build, not diminish, their credibility. Women in managerial positions who dress in sexy attire (low cut tops and too-short skirts) are viewed as less intelligent. Even other women take them less seriously.

Many workplaces have embraced a "casual Friday" look all week long. Does this make it easier to dress for success?

Stone: While it is important to be comfortable at work you also want to make sure that your look is a polished one. Unless you happen to work in the fitness or sporting goods industry there is absolutely no reason that "athleisure" should be present in a professional workplace. Slacks, pants, skirt or dress are the basic wardrobe from which to choose. When in doubt, a wardrobe consisting of a variety of simple black slacks paired with various blouses, sweaters, jackets, etc. and some simple well-placed jewelry, is the perfect go-to formula.

Goman: Thank you, Sharon, for these great tips.

Let me add that, as with every other piece of nonverbal communication, you need to consider first what "success" means in a particular context. Appropriate dress is a way of expressing respect for the situation and the people in it. Therefore, your look may change depending on the business circumstances.

For example: Teresa is a management consultant – and a master at dressing for the role. She loves to wear hot pink, turquoise and fire-engine red silk dresses with stiletto heels and lots of bling to work in her New York City office. But the moment she has to meet with a conservative client, or one who is going through difficult times, Teresa transforms herself into a prim professional whose outfit matches the way she wants to be perceived. (In her words, "The success I dress for is that of my client.") One member of her staff recalls meeting Teresa at the headquarters of a nonprofit religious organization where they were to conduct focus groups. The staff member barely recognized her stylish boss. By dressing more like the client, Teresa fit right in. She looked like one of the nuns.

I know it's superficial, but in a job interview, and indeed any business meeting, you are being evaluated, at least to some degree, by your appearance, clothing and grooming. If you want to be judged as a consummate professional, you need to dress the part.

Clothing has an effect on both the wearer and the observer. It has been proven that people are more likely to give money (charitable donations, tips) or information to someone if that person is well dressed. And if you ever watch actors go through their first dress rehearsal of a play, you'll see firsthand the amazing transformation that happens when the actors are in costume.

Experiment with your appearance. Notice how you feel and how people react to you when you wear certain colors or styles. Then, based on those reactions and your career goals, you can make an informed decision about what dress for success means for you.

New York's Flower District Is Dying

It's almost 6 a.m. on West 28th Street, and as the July sun rises over New York, the senses awaken to unexpected smells. Instead of warming asphalt and truck exhaust, there's the whiff of wisteria, sweet pea, and hyacinth. Hiding gum-stained sidewalks and storefront gates are carnations and roses stacked along the curb.

Though busily transforming into a playground for the ultra-wealthy, Manhattan still retains a hint of its working-class past. While the fish market, meatpacking district, and even the diamond and garment districts are all gone, going, or reduced to tiny versions of their former selves, the flower district remains. In fact, this one-block stretch of Chelsea is the centerpiece of a multibillion-dollar U.S. floral industry, shuttling flowers to the homes and offices of some of the richest, most powerful people in the world.

Among the ever-present construction sites sits a labyrinth of wholesale shops, where peonies and calla lilies spill from buckets, awaiting the discerning eyes of floral artists and decorators. From fashion to finance, the district provides scented backdrops for Fashion Week runway shows, Hamptons clambakes, and billionaire fundraisers at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Even so, the historic district, like the island of Manhattan, is being overrun by a much more powerful New York industry: real estate.

West 28th Street once boasted more than 65 wholesalers. Now it's a handful of second- and third-generation shops. As nearby hotels and condos shoot up, skyrocketing rents have forced out wholesalers and florists who can't keep up, a pattern seen all over the city as bank branches and drugstore chains appear where family-owned stores once served neighborhoods. The flower district has experienced an average 15 percent increase in rent over the last 10 years, according to data compiled by brokerage Citi Habitats. The median monthly rent is currently about $4,000, among the highest in the city, according to an analysis from Bloomberg News. (However, New York did see prices decline in second quarter 2018.)

The real estate frenzy has also erased nearby parking lots, which floral customers depended on to transfer loads of flowers out of midtown's congested streets. Increasing traffic has deterred longtime buyers from even trekking into the city. Even without the fallout from construction and gentrification, the marketplace for expensive flowers has been flooding with new competitors—from Costco to e-commerce sites and even local delis—further squeezing the high-end florists of 28th Street.

“There is no viable future for the flower market here,” says Gary Page, owner of G. Page Wholesale Flowers and former president of the now-defunct Flower Market Association, which reported back in 2000 that the district raked in as much as $120 million a year. “The heydays are gone.”

U.S. floriculture retail sales—including flowers, plants, seeds, and potted plants—are valued at $35.2 billion, according to 2017 data from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Nationally, imports account for approximately 64 percent of fresh-cut flowers sold by dollar volume in the U.S., the Society of American Florists says. Of the fresh-cut flowers exchanging hands in New York's flower district, the vast majority are imported.

In fact, the bouquet you bought at your local deli was likely grown on a mountainside in Colombia, where 78 percent of all U.S. flower imports originate. This relationship is a product of trade policies implemented in the 1990s to curb Colombian drug production by encouraging a legal, alternative crop. After import taxes were lowered, Colombian flowers flourished. American growers, however, paid the price—sales of U.S. roses have dropped 95 percent since 1991, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Additional imported flowers make their way to America from the Netherlands, home to the largest flower market in the world. At Royal FloraHolland in Aalsmeer, flower traders buy and sell $5.2 billion in horticultural products each year at an auction house the size of 182 soccer fields. But even the Dutch have seen growth slow, as cheaper South American flowers flood the market.

Where the flowers are from is one thing. Getting them to the buyer while still fresh is quite another. From farm to wholesaler to florist, each stem found in New York's flower district has traveled farther and faster than most people ever will. Take, for example, a simple red rose. The one you pull out of the plastic wrap in your kitchen was likely grown in Colombia. After its stem has been snipped, it's put in post-harvest hydration solution and boxed in a refrigerated room. From there, the bundle is transferred to a cooled plane in Bogota and flown to Miami. After passing through customs, the package is received by truck drivers, who shuttle it up the East Coast to New York. From start to finish, the process takes three days.

The New York flower district dates back to the late 19th century, when immigrants from Eastern Europe, particularly Greece, identified an untapped market: providing flowers for department stores, funerals, and even nearby steamships. “The flower market is a shadow of its former self,” says Steven Rosenberg, a third-generation owner of Superior Florist, which was opened by his grandfather in 1930 and then run by his father Sam. “It's still colorful to walk through, but it's nothing compared to what it used to be.”

Rosenberg's grandfather Louie arrived from Poland in the early 1920s. Living in a tenement on the Lower East Side, he eventually got a job in the Chelsea fur district—that is, until he realized he was allergic to fur. Louie crossed the street and sought out a job as a flower runner; he learned Greek to get a leg up in his new profession, supplementing his fluent Yiddish and clunky English.

In 1930, Louie Rosenberg opened his own wholesale shop and began competing with Greek, German, and Irish immigrants to sell fresh-cut flowers to retailers. This was a time when elegantly dressed men haggled with growers from Long Island. Decades before the jet age, New Yorkers had to make due with hydrangeas and gladiolus from Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island.

Many immigrants work in the flower district these days, though now they largely hail from Mexico. Frankie Mendez, a salesperson at Caribbean Cuts, has made a career out of selling to clients from Christian Louboutin and Barney's exotic bamboos or purple dancing ladies for catalog and window displays. Mendez was only 12 when he moved to New York from Mexico City. By the time he was 14, he was unloading boxes of flowers in the predawn gloom. Like the elder Rosenberg, he spoke little English, but worked hard to succeed in a physically strenuous environment.

What can we expect from Victoria Beckham's new skincare range

We officially cannot wait.

Victoria Beckham ruled herself out of the highly-anticipated (and rumoured) Spice Girls tour earlier this month, with the 43-year-old confirming, 'I'm not going on tour. The girls aren't going on tour.'

While rumours were buzzing around as to why a Spice Girls tour wouldn't be happening – at least with all five OG women – most people suspected that VB might be invested in another project – you know, aside from her mega fashion brand, charity work and being the mother of four.

Sure enough, Victoria confirmed the news on International Women's Day, announcing in a live conversation with Nicola Mendelsohn (VP EMEA, Facebook) that she would be launching her own skincare range.

'I am currently in the process of creating my own colour, my own line of skincare creams, and a perfume,' VB announced – streamed live from her Dover Street store. 'As a woman, I want to make the things I need in my life, the things that are missing.'

To VB fans this move is far from unexpected, with Victoria collaborating with Estée Lauder to create a 14-piece product collection for the past two years – going on to completely sell out.

We are still dreaming about her iconic (and again sold-out) illuminating cream, Morning Aura.

But what can we expect from VB's new skincare range?

We don't know yet whether her skincare range will be another collab with Estée Lauder, but according to VB, the products are set to be 'very scientific', as she told fans that she's 'learning a lot' in their creation.

If there's anyone we'd trust with our skin, it's VB.

CVS Bans Manipulation of Faces in Beauty Product Shots

CVS, one of the largest drug store chains in the United States, has announced that it will no longer use digitally altered photos of faces in its advertising and other marketing material for its beauty products. The company says all beauty photos will be clearly marked to indicate that they have not been manipulated.

The company introduced the “CVS Beauty Mark,” a watermark that will be used to highlight imagery that has not been materially altered. For this initiative, “materially altered” is defined by CVS as changing or enhancing a person’s shape, size, proportion, skin or eye color, wrinkles or any other individual characteristics. CVS says it will be working together with key brand partners and industry experts to develop specific guidelines in an effort to ensure consistency and transparency.

Manipulating faces has become easier in recent years, with advanced Photoshop features as well as programs such as Portrait Pro, which automates many corrections that can smooth out wrinkles, enlarge eyes, get rid of neck lines, remove zits. The results often look impossibly perfect.

As part of the initiative, CVS plans to help customers differentiate between unaltered and altered imagery. The CVS Beauty Mark will start to appear on material related to CVS-branded products starting in 2018, with all imagery (even for products sold but not made by CVS) going to non-altered by 2020. The company is working with many of the brands it sells to get them on board.

Calling it the CVS Beauty Mark Initiative, Helena Foulkes, President of CVS Pharmacy and Executive Vice President of CVS Health says the new policy is part of the company’s purpose of “helping people on a path to better health.” She goes on to say that “how women feel about themselves on the outside affects how they feel about themselves on the inside” and that the company has been listening to how both the media and their customers focus on body image.

“The connection between the propagation of unrealistic body images and negative health effects, especially in girls and young women, has been established,” Foulkes says in a press release. “As a purpose-led company, we strive to do our best to assure all of the messages we are sending to our customers reflect our purpose of helping people on their path to better health.”

CVS was the first major retailer to ban the sale of cigarettes at their stores, replacing them with displays promoting programs designed to help customers quit smoking, and the new beauty initiative is just another way the company is focusing on bettering their customers.

The 6 Best Foods for Your Skin During the Winter

This week on “Open Tabs”—an assortment of links we have on our open tabs for the week—we’re giving you a peek into our own internet habits and the stories and themes we can’t seem to stop talking about, like what happened after seven days of jade-rolling, the best foods to eat during the winter, a new SoHo café with a cause, and much, much more.

1. I Haven’t Worn a Real Bra in 4 Months—and I’m Never Going Back (via Popsugar Fashion)

It all started with an Instagram photo...

2. Hold everything. Varley just dropped their latest collection.

And it’s unreal!

3. A New Soho Café Serves Grain Bowls with a Cause (via Grub Street)

“At a time when the biggest conversation in the restaurant industry is about pervasive sexual harassment, it’s commendable when an owner advocates for employees, too.”

4. We Tried Jade Rollers to Find Out If They’re a Total Waste of Money (via Huff Post)

“They sure look pretty, but do jade rollers really deserve a place in your beauty cabinet?”

5. The Best Winter Beauty Foods to Add to Your Diet (via The Newsette) 

You can *actually* get that natural summer glow back into your skin, despite the weather!