Tuesday 22 October 2013

Yet More Retail Excellence at Mitchells


It has been an excellent year of recognition for us here at Mitchells Dairy in our 85th year- and it just keeps getting better and better!


Judy recently had her 15 minutes of fame in London, and we cannot forget about the rest of the Mitchells team, that’s why we were delighted to be awarded the SGF (Scottish Grocers’ Federation) Healthy Option Retailer of the Year at the first ever Retail Excellence awards!

The SGF promotes responsible community retailing and works with the government and the media to encourage a greater understanding of the contribution convenience retailers make to Scotland’s communities.

Our fantastic team always strive to provide the freshest, tastiest and healthiest products to our local community in Inverurie, so we were over the moon to be rewarded for our efforts.

There were only eight awards available on the day and for us to win the award, with the size of the SGF community, is truly humbling.

Keith, who was presented with the award at the 5-star Prestonfield House in Edinburgh, said: “I am delighted for everyone - all our local suppliers here at Mitchells, and I cannot express how happy we are to be recognised in such a way for our efforts in promoting healthy eating.”

Here is Keith being handed the award by Barry Cuthbertson (Muller Wiseman Dairies) and Robert Sider (SGF President) and Kaye Adams at the ceremony:



Everyone at Mitchells echoes Keith’s sentiments, and we would just like to reiterate how proud we are to be awarded this fantastic honour.

If you want to find out more about how Mitchells contributes to the local community in Inverurie, please feel free to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

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Monday 21 October 2013

Privilege to be in Pies and Puds

As Britons, it is not news to hear that two of our favourite foods as a nation are Pies and Puddings. 

Both of which are perfectly encapsulated in Paul Hollywood’s new book, “Pies and Puds”.

Hollywood said: "Man cannot live by bread alone—not even if the man is me. With this book, I want to rekindle our affection for straightforward, honest food.

Pies and puddings really sum up the strengths of our culinary culture—there's something about a home-baked deep golden pie or simple steamed pud that warms the cockles of your heart like nothing else."

The new book has countless recipes on sweet and savoury pies, as well as many delicious pudding recipes.

You will find “meat and potato pie, pork, apple and cider pie, lamb kidney and rosemary suet pudding, sausage plait and luxury fish pie” amongst the pie roster.

As well as these, the ‘Queen of puddings’, spiced plum pizza (yes, pizza), chocolate volcanoes and apple and Wensleydale pie will all be gracing the pages under the “Puddings” heading.
Turn to p.197 and you will find the Crannachan Cheesecake recipe that our oatcakes are used in!

Whether you're a sweet or a savoury person, a keen novice or an expert baker: it's time to get baking pies and puds.

The book will be released on Thursday 24th October on Bloomsbury publishing.
It will be available in all supermarkets, WHSmith and online.

The “Pies and Puds” tv series will air in November also, so keep an eye out for Mitchells and Judy!

 
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Tuesday 15 October 2013

Mitchells Films in Hollywood

In last week’s blog post, we spoke about Judy and her adventure down to London, to film with none other than the ‘artisan of baking’; Paul Hollywood!

And since word got out of Judy’s London adventure, she’s become quite the celebrity herself, featuring on the front pages of two of Inverurie's local newspapers last week!

Today, we’ll fill you in on some of the information and tasty details of the episode that Judy and Mitchells will be featured in!

“Each of the 45-minute shows will see Paul cook three mouth-watering recipes. He’ll produce a signature pie and a signature pudding, but in between he’ll create something a little bit different, inspired by a guest expert.

Paul and his guest expert will cook the dish together, often showing off their unique technical skills such as sugar spinning or fondant icing.” - Sourced from BBC.

First of all, in August we hosted the Spun Gold tv crew, who travelled up to Inverurie to film our delicious oatcakes being baked on the girdle (“griddle”)

They filmed the handmade process in our bakehouse, that has used the family recipe of Great Grandmother Agnes Mitchell since 1928.
It can sometimes be a slow process but as the old saying goes, “Quality over Quantity”!

In our featured episode, the kitchen saw Paul welcome Sharon and Chris Peacock from Cockerham Goats. Cockerham Goats is a family run business that is one of the UK’s longest established pedigree goat herders.

Their premium Boer goat meat provided the main ingredient for the Goat-herders pie and is featured in Paul’s new book “Pies and Puds”.

Rachel Allen is the guest Chef featured in this episode. Rachel is a celebrity chef from Ireland who has written four best selling cookery books. She is regularly on the BBC’s Saturday Kitchen and she even has her own show on RTE: "Easy Meals".

Paul and Rachel cooked up a tasty baked brie brioche and a coconut raspberry pudding.

Finally, after eagerly awaiting on the sidelines Judy gets her air time! After a dusting of powder from the make up artist, she enters the kitchen to make a crannachan pudding while Paul bake’s the Crannachan cheesecake.

Cheesecake is usually made with crushed sweet biscuits , however Paul’s recipe imaginatively used savoury oatcakes as the base of the dessert. Melted butter, raspberries and Highland Fine Cheeses Crowdie cheese made up the rest of the ingredients in the Cheesecake.

After all the food was prepared and cooked, Judy, Paul and the others all sat around a table and tasted the food. We know that Chris DEFINITELY loved the Crannachan as we have a photo of him. enjoying the leftovers!

Keep an eye on the Mitchells Dairy Blog over the next few weeks to keep up to date with Judy’s Adventure and the Mitchells’ involvement in Paul Hollywood’s TV show & his new book!

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Thursday 10 October 2013

Mitchells goes to Hollywood

Those of you who are friends with Judy on Facebook will know that she recently went on a “secret mission”.

At the time of her mission, we couldn't tell you anything about it, but now we can reveal all. She was away in London to film with Paul Hollywood on his new show “Paul Hollywood’s Pies and Puds”.

It all started at the Taste of Grampian in June. The Taste of Grampian is a one day food and drink festival which allows visitors to “discover and sample the wide range of high quality food and drink products from Grampian in the north east of Scotland.”

It was a very successful event that saw the likes of celebrity Chefs Nick Nairn and the Sunday Brunch’s Simon Rimmer.

We showcased our Hand Baked Oatcakes as well as our Milk and Ice Cream. A food researcher tried our oatcakes and instantly fell in love with them.

She asked if she could use our Oatcakes in a recipe to be featured in a cookery book she was working on with a celebrity chef, but wasn't allowed to tell us whose recipe it was.

It later turned out to be Paul Hollywood’s recipe for a Crannachan Cheesecake and a TV series was being filmed to accompany the book!

Judy was given the honour of being flown to London by the TV production company (Spun Gold) where she would film the television show.

Luckily, Judy has a friend who lives close to where filming was taking place, so decided to take the opportunity to enjoy a day of “market research” in London before returning home.

Whilst she was there she visited Harrods and Fortnum & Mason’s to have a “wee look at the competition”, to see if their hampers were on par with Mitchells hampers.

She said they were good, but still nothing could beat one of our Bespoke Hampers!

Keep an eye on the Mitchells Dairy Blog over the next few weeks to keep up to date with Judy’s Adventure and the Mitchells’ involvement in Paul Hollywood’s TV show & his new book!

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