Pitta
Breads with Red and White Quinoa and Tuna Recipe
Merchant
Gourmet and Chef Alex Mackay
Merchant
Gourmet recently launched a brand new web site www.merchant-gourmet.com.
As well as an online store to enable you to easily order
Merchant Gourmet products a recipes section has been
created, into which video guides have being incorporated
from top chef Alex Mackay.
Merchant Gourmet was started by Mark Leatham in 1985.
He spent his time looking for the cream of the crop,
and talking about it to la crème de la crème.
Today, Merchant Gourmet now has over forty products
that you will find on the shelves of major supermarkets.
Mark is still looking for more, newer good stuff, and
working with their suppliers. The rest of the team spend
a lot of time cooking and tasting.
The range includes everything from Chestnuts to Porcini
Mushrooms, Sun Dried Tomatoes, and Balsamic Syrup. Merchant
Gourmet wants people to use them all the time, rather
than lose them in the back of the cupboard. The big
idea is that a bit of something special can elevate
your lunch or dinner. One ingredient makes all the difference,
if you will.
For written version of recipe please
scroll down page
Alex
Mackay . . . the Cook, the Teacher, the Writer and the
Father
Cooking
is everlasting, ever changing, magical fun. I cook all
the time, very often three times a day. I cook for work,
I cook to relax, I grow things that I want to cook and
I read about how best to cook them. And I really love
to talk and write about it.
Nearly
fifteen years ago Raymond Blanc called me in Bermuda
to ask me to come back to Le Manoir aux Quat Saisons
and run his Cookery School. That was the day I started
to become less of a chef and more of a cook.
These
days I'm learning to be a father as I write, appear
on television, run Delia Smith's Cookery Workshops at
Norwich City Football Club and spend as much time as
I can with the wonderful Kids Cookery School. And as
you can see I have also become the Merchant Gourmet
Cook.
I
write a monthly recipe feature for Sainsbury's Magazine.
I won The Guild of Food Writers Cookery Journalist of
the Year 2006 and was runner up in 2007 and 2008. My
book "Cooking in Provence" won the Gourmand
World Cookbook award for "Best Book on French Cuisine
in English" and was in a short list of three for
"Best First Book" at the Guild of Food Writers
Awards.
I
am a regular on Ready Steady Cook on BBC 2 and I have
featured on This Morning and Too Many Cooks on ITV.
I was a regular for five years on UKTV's Great Food
Live and made three thirteen part series for Carlton
Food Network.
My
cookery workshops at Norwich City Football Club with
Delia Smith are now going into their seventh year.
I
started working in restaurants completely by chance
after being asked to leave school in New Zealand at
fifteen. I washed dishes for a year before starting
an apprenticeship and then as soon as I finished I bought
a one-way ticket to France. I spent nearly three years
working in the kitchens of two starred Michelin restaurants
in Burgundy, Tours and Courchevel. After this I went
to work for my great friend and mentor Raymond Blanc.
I was promoted to Sous Chef after six months. I left
a year later to get a little rest in Bermuda where at
the age of twenty-three, I was runner up in Bermuda's
Chef of the Year Awards. It was then that RB called
to ask me to the come back to Le Manoir as Director
of L'École de Cuisine and Head of development
for Blanc Restaurants Ltd in charge of all its publishing
and consultancy activities.
This
time I spent three years at Le Manoir working on Projects
as varied as Raymond Blanc's books and food for Virgin
airlines. I then opened my own school, Le Baou d'Infer,
in Provence. It was soon placed in the world top ten
by the Sunday Times and Conde Nast Traveler as well
as being voted one of the Worlds Finest by House and
Garden Travel. The cookery school is now finished after
fulfilling its five-year plan and, apart from the first
year, always being fully booked.
My
projects these days are ever more varied, but food,
and people that want to learn about it are always at
the centre.
I
live in Oxford with my wife Jess and sons Jake and James.
Delia
Smith from her foreword to Alex Mackay's book Cooking
in Provence:
"Alex
Mackay is, first and foremost, a brilliant chef. Yet
at the same time he is much more than that. He has
a rare and special gift, which goes beyond simply
creating beautiful dishes. That gift is the ability
to teach, inspire and enthuse others who want to learn
how to cook."
Raymond Blanc from the booklet for Alex Mackay's
former Cookery School Le Baou d'Infer:
"I have watched Alex grow with great pride from
a fine chef into a fine teacher and listened with
pleasure to the many guests who have enjoyed his free
style of teaching and learnt so much in their time
with us. The sadness I feel as he leaves is overwhelmed
by the joy of seeing a pupil become a master."
PITTA
BREADS WITH RED AND WHITE QUINOA AND TUNA RECIPE
This tasty and quick supper sings out that spring has
sprung. The quinoa is rich, delicious and satisfying
amongst the crisp and colourful vegetables. You can
vary the vegetables according to whatever is freshest
and best. Or, if you haven’t had time to shop,
you can make a lovely variation from your fridge and
freezer using larger quantities of the SunBlush? and
frozen peas.
Ingredients
250g pack of ready to eat Red & White Quinoa
185g tin of tuna in spring water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
12 black olives (only if you like them)
2 very ripe tomatoes
Half a cucumber
20 leaves of basil, mint or parsley
4 pitta bread
Method
Heat
the Quinoa in the microwave, following the timings
on pack.
Open
the pack then tip it into a large bowl.
Stir
in the lemon juice and olive oil, season lightly with
salt and pepper then leave to sit while you prepare
the other ingredients.
Remove
the little black cores from the tomatoes and then
chop them into 1 cm chunks.
Cut
the cucumber in half lengthways then scoop out and
discard the seeds, chop into chunks.
Roughly
chop the olives then slice the basil.
Stir
the tuna and its juice into the quinoa followed by
the rest of the ingredients. Season to taste.
Warm
the pitta bread and serve alongside. You could also
serve this without the pitta as a lovely salad or
wrap it up in tortillas to take to work.
Kids
Corner:
Both of my kids love this salad. You can use the quinoa
as a base for all sorts of salads for kids; it is
a good starting point for getting them used to new
flavours; try grated carrot, raisins, lemon and mint,
a favourite from my wife’s student days is tuna
and sweetcorn. For kids with just a few teeth leave
out or peel the cucumber. Also leave out the cucumber
if you want to puree this for the tiny and toothless.
When children are trying something new, it is often
the texture rather than taste they trouble with, so
start them with very small pieces, this is how I discovered
that my eldest liked spinach, the leaves were too
much whole but very thinly sliced he ate them all
up.
We used the cooked Quinoa on it’s own to mix
with purees when we were getting both boys onto more
textured solids. A good idea is to freeze a packet
of Quinoa in ice cube trays, and then you have pre-portioned
amounts to add to each meal with no waste.
Cooking
is everlasting, ever changing, magical fun. I cook all
the time, very often three times a day. I cook for work,
I cook to relax, I grow things that I want to cook and
I read about how best to cook them. And I really love
to talk and write about it. 
