Relief Chefs North West

[Photography: Channel Nine MSN]

Please put down the Cheetos. Try one of these tasty and healthy alternatives.

Cheesy Oven Baked Green Bean Fries

Makes 4 to 6 servings     -     Start to Finish: 45 minutes

Ingredients
1 pound fresh green beans, washed and trimmed
3 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
½ teaspoon paprika

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, toss the green beans with the olive oil. Add the Parmesan, salt, pepper and paprika and toss well to coat.
3. Pour the green beans onto the baking sheet and bake until crisp, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool slightly before serving.

Cocoa Dusted Almonds

Ingredients
2 cups whole raw almonds
2 tablespoons agave syrup
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl combine almonds, agave syrup and sea salt. Use a rubber spatula to mix together, fully coating the almonds.
3. Spread almonds in a single layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
4. Bake for 10 minutes, stirring twice during baking to prevent almonds from burning.
5. Remove baking sheet from the oven.
6. Immediately return almonds to the bowl, add cocoa powder and toss to coat.
7. Fully cool and store in an air tight container.

Roasted Edamame

Buffalo Chicken Meatballs

Spicy Roasted Chickpeas

Makes 4 servings

Ingredients
1 15.5 ounce can chickpeas (aka garbanzo beans)
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions
1. Heat oven to 450 degrees F and line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. Drain and rinse chickpeas and put them in a bowl.
3. Add oil, salt, and pepper to chickpeas and mix well. Spread them on baking sheet in one layer.
4. Place in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes.
5. Remove pan, shake around to ensure that the chickpeas brown evenly, and return to oven for another 15 minutes until brown and crunchy.
6. Enjoy warm or at room temperature!

Summer Rolls

Roasted Herbed Veggie Chips

Fancy Deviled Eggs

Energy Bites

Makes about 25 bites

Ingredients
4 cups rolled oats (we used gluten-free!)
1.5 cups raw sunflower seeds
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 cup banana chips, crumbled
½ cup dried blueberries
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup sunflower seed butter (can also use peanut or almond butter!)
½ cup agave nectar

Directions
1. Combine oats, sunflower seeds, banana chips, blueberries, cinnamon, and chocolate chips in a bowl. Add sunflower seed butter and agave and stir until well combined.
2. Refrigerate mixture until relatively firm (about 20 minutes). (If you’re extra impatient like we are, feel free to throw the mixture in the freezer for half that time!)
3. Using a teaspoon to measure, roll mixture into balls. Feeling fancy? Try rolling the finished bites in cocoa powder, cinnamon, or toasted coconut. Or just start eating them as-is. Store in the fridge (or freezer) in an airtight container!

Crispy Mushrooms

Falafel Patties

Dried Tomato Slices

This article was first published on PureWow on 15th June 2015, under the title “12 Healthy Snacks for Guilt-Free Grazing"

[Photography: pub garden in Oxford]

The sun’s out. Or at least it was. And it will be again in a minute. With balmy temperatures expected and summer on the doorstep, thoughts naturally turn to where you can get a drink outside in the UK.

Fortunately, the country has an abundance of spots for al fresco drinking, from inner city rooftops to boats, hidden coves and stunning beer gardens. Here are a few places to get your drink on under the sun.

[Photography: Flickr, Garry Knight]

Tattershall Castle, Central London

London comes into its own in the summer. While the tourist count shoots up and the tubes turn into mobile ovens, the pub gardens and parks fill with drinkers. One of the best places for a drink, though, is on a boat on the Thames. Tattershall Castle can get busy and the drinks are pretty standard, but the views at sunset are something else.

[Photography: King’s Head]

The King’s Head, Wadenhoe, Northamptonshire

This one ticks all the boxes: a thatched inn, dating back to the 17th century and nestled alongside the River Nene, with a network of local hikes to walk off the beers. Find a spot under a willow tree and watch the narrow boats navigating the locks and waterways.

[Photography: Richard Bryant/Corbis]

Frank’s Cafe, Peckham, South London

The summer pop-up takes over the top floor of a car park in south London for several months, offering a range of interesting drinks, a small but decent food menu, and stunning panoramic views of the city.
Frank’s does the hipster menu thing of listing ingredients (radish, buttermilk, nigella or burnt onion, goat curd, pomegranate) that add up to more than the sum of their parts.

[Photography: The Inn at Whitewell]

The Inn at Whitewell, Lancashire

The Inn, which played host to Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan in “The Trip,” is set in a spectacular part of Lancashire. The Forest of Bowland and the River Hodder are both worth discovering, but you might find it hard to tear yourself away from the beer garden.

[Photography: Flickr, Graeme MacLean]

West Brewery, Glasgow

Contrary to popular belief, the sun does make an appearance in Glasgow, and many city dwellers head to this microbrewery for craft beer and German food on the grass when he gets his hat on.

[Photography: Brian Minkoff/Corbis]

Kensington Roof Gardens, West London

A huge rooftop plot in west London, the gardens aren’t a cheap place to spend an evening but the decor and views make it worth a trip.

[Photography: Roy Rainford/Corbis]

The Ship Inn, Noss Mayo, Devon

One of the most charming little nooks on the south Devon coast, Noss Mayo is a sleepy creek bothered only by the occasional bird or aimlessly putting boat, and the Ship is a prime spot to keep an eye on things with a pint.

[Photography: Flickr, Robert Pittman]

The Pandora Inn, Falmouth, Cornwall

A 13th century treat of a pub on the water in Cornwall. Grab a seat on the floating pontoon and order in a pint or two of Cornish Rattler cider and some fresh crab and watch the dinghies come and go - you’ll soon adjust to the pace of life.

[Photography: Flickr, SheepRUs]

Tarr Farm, Exmoor

The 16th century Tarr Farm boasts 40 acres of achingly beautiful grounds, and has Exmoor National Park on its doorstep as a bonus. Grab a pint of something local and head down to the nearby Tarr Steps when you’re finished.

[Photography: Adam Burton/Corbis]

Tarr Steps apparently dates back a thousand years. The bridge is set in a nature reserve full of huge oak, beech and sycamore trees.

[Photography: Flickr, Julian Walker]

Dalston Roof Park, East London

One of a number of east London rooftop spots, Dalston Roof Park soars over Hackney’s Victorian buildings. While it’s a great spot for a sundowner, they also host everything from DJs to poetry nights, film screenings and clothes swaps.

[Photography: Michel Setboun/Corbi]

Sushisamba, Central London

Vertiginous bars in London aren’t hard to find, but none scale these heights. 39 floors above the City of London, the restaurant specialises in Japanese, Brazilian and Peruvian cuisine and cocktails priced as high as the terrace. The 360 degree views make it worth a trip, though.

[Photography: Flickr, James Hetherington]

The Worm’s Head Hotel, Gower Peninsula, Wales

Overlooking a wild sandy beach on the tip of Wales’ beautiful Gower Peninsula, the hotel’s unassuming outdoor terrace offers some of the best views in the country, particularly during one of the regular sunsets.

[Photography: Goat’s Toe/Facebook]

The Goat’s Toe, Bangor

When the weather heats up, much of Bangor heads to the Goat’s Toe, a local institution with ample covered area should the weather take a turn for the worse.

[Photography: Flickr, Aleksey Maksimov]

The Trout, Oxford

A 17th century pub set on a tranquil stretch of the Thames and offering a range of drinks from local IPAs to elderflower bellinis.

This article was first published in Mashable by Tim Chester, under the title “14 places in the UK you need to go for a drink in the sun”

[Photography: It’s tea time. Reuters / Carlos Barria]

A myth ties the origins of tea to an errant gust of wind that blew tea leaves into a Chinese emperor’s hot water more than 4,700 years ago.

Since that lucky first brewing, tea has become the second most popular beverage in the world (behind water, of course). The industry has grown into a $20 billion behemoth that sells everything from pedestrian PG Tips to luxurious Yunnan golden tips.

Yet that industry and the farmers that rely on it for their livelihoods could be in hot water as the climate changes. Coffee’s struggles with changing climate are well-documented, but the impacts on tea are just coming into focus. Early research indicates that tea growing regions could decline in some parts of the world by up to 40-55% in the coming decades and the qualities, particularly for high-end teas, could also change.

Coffee’s struggles with changing climate are well-documented, but the impacts on tea are just coming into focus. “Crystal-ball gazing, there certainly is the case that some countries growing tea might not be growing tea in the future or certainly growing less,” Ann Marie Brouder, a sustainability advisor at Forum for the Future, said.

Planting a tea bush is a decades-long investment—one not easily moved or replaced. That means, to prepare for future changes, farmers and companies need to act—if not now, then soon—if the tea in your mug is going to be there in the future.

“Tea bushes are consistently planted for 60 years, so it’s the same bush you’re plucking every year rather than say a crop of wheat. It’s more responsive to the climate rather than the weather,” Ellie Biggs, a geographer at the University of Southampton studying tea in India, said.

[Photography: In Yiwu, tea leaves dry in the sun outside the oldest tea factory in Yunnan. Michael Yammashita]

A spring day in Yunnan

On late spring mornings, you’ll find farmers across China’s Yunnan province following trails worn by years and years of footsteps in the pre-dawn light. Their pink rain ponchos stand out in the misty hillsides covered in vegetation.

Their destination? Small plots of tea bushes tucked away in clearings among the oak-dotted hillsides where the first flush of spring has sent two fresh leaves spreading out to the edge of each branch. The tea harvested in spring and again in fall is a vital source of income for farmers in Yunnan province, one of China’s least developed provinces.

“Crystal-ball gazing, there certainly is the case that some countries growing tea might not be growing tea in the future or certainly growing less.” When the time is right, farmers will process those twin tips into some of the finest tea in the world, fetching more than $100 per pound for the highest quality teas (or $1,000 a gram for even higher grades if you’re a collector with money to spend). And the timing is everything, right down to the hour.

“The flavor can change from morning to afternoon because of (shifts in) the concentration of amino acids and chemistry. It’s a really a micro kind of thing,” said Bob Heiss, an author and co-owner of Tea Trekker.

Yet background climate shifts are starting to play a role in altering tea quality in Yunnan on much more than a micro scale.

“In the last 10 to 15 years, the price of these small scale organically produced teas has skyrocketed in China,” Rick Stepp, an anthropologist at the University of Florida, said. “Right as that is occurring, they’re seeing some of the effects of climate change. Climate is changing the way people produce tea, it’s changing the quality of tea and people are noticing the change in quality.”

Stepp is part of a consortium of researchers whose goal is to explore the hitherto unexplored impacts of climate change on the Yunnan region’s famed teas.

Their early findings suggest that average daily precipitation has declined during the wet season and increased during the dry season, though there are large differences across Yunnan. By mid-century, under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, climate models indicate that trend could reverse with a slight overall decrease in rain during the dry spring tea harvest and a slight increase during the monsoon harvest.

Recent wet monsoon conditions led to a 50% increase in the quantity of tea produced, but a 50% decrease in some of the compounds that give Yunnan teas their distinct flavor. In a preview of what’s to come, recent wet monsoon conditions led to a 50% increase in the quantity of tea produced, but a 50% decrease in some of the compounds that give Yunnan teas their distinct flavor, in essence diluting the tea.

Colin Orians, a biologist at Tufts University who is helping lead the project, is spearheading the chemical research. And Orians, Stepp, and other researchers involved will also be sitting down for the occasional cup of tea (no crumpets, though) to observe how those chemical changes translate to something everyone can understand: the taste of tea.

Tracking year-to-year changes won’t necessarily reveal the chemistry of climate change, but it will create a key baseline to measure future changes against, and provide farmers and tea buyers with another piece of information on what to expect in a given year.

Beyond climate data, Stepp and Orians have also been interviewing farmers about their perceptions of rainfall. The majority of farmers they’ve interviewed so far have noticed that rains have become more unpredictable and temperatures have risen over their lifetimes, with the former having the largest impact on tea quality. Some of that could be tied to deforestation across the border in Burma, but rising greenhouse gas emissions also have a likely role.

[Photography: Teas of different levels of oxidation (L to R): green, yellow, oolong, and black. Wikipedia]

A world of change

More than 600 miles separates Yunnan from the Assam region of India, and the landscapes couldn’t look any more different. Vast tea plantations stretch across the Brahmaputra River floodplain, with shade trees frequently breaking the flat horizon to protect workers and tea plants from the scorching tropical sun.

The lower elevation and tropical latitude ensure that Assam is warm and humid almost year-round, with the Indian Monsoon providing a blast of torrential summer rain. The warm climate means that Assam tea, which accounts for 17% of all global tea production, sits right on the edge of tea’s growing range where rising temperatures are already being felt.

To prepare for future changes, farmers and companies need to act—if not now, then soon—if the tea in your mug is going to be there in the future. “Tea in China is mostly upland so your optimal temperature is between 13-30 °C (55-86 °F),” Biggs said. “Here, because it’s lowland tea, that upper temperature threshold is being crossed more consistently than it ever has in the past.”

Biggs is working with researchers at the Tocklai Tea Research Institute (TRI) in Johrat, India to examine what aspects of climate change will have the greatest impact on tea yields. Heat is the most obvious tie for the region, but a shift in the Indian monsoon is also messing with plants.

Recent research shows that the Indian monsoon is being punctuated by more intense wet spells, which can waterlog plants, causing root rot.

Biggs and her colleague in Assam, Niladri Gupta, are also analyzing data on temperature and humidity and comparing it to tea yields in a given season to tease out what climate factor is playing the biggest role in affecting yields now—and what the future might hold.

From there, they can make specific recommendations on how to cope with those climate impacts in the future, particularly for smallholder farmers who produce about a third of Assam’s tea and might not have the resources of large corporations also producing tea in the region.

“In Assam, India, unpredictable rainfall and dealing with that unpredictability is what many tea producers say is the critical factor,” Brouder, the advisor at Forum for the Future, said.

[Photography: Tea shop in Kunming, Yunnan. Wikimedia]

The future of tea

Beyond Assam, Brouder said that climate change turned up as the number one concern for tea growers, based on surveys she’s conducted with growers, buyers, and traders as part of project called Tea 2030. Their worries are based on recent fluctuations in growing conditions as well as early efforts to project future changes to tea-growing regions.

Some of those efforts suggest that tea-producing areas in some places, notably East Africa, could decline by as much as 55% by 2050 as precipitation and temperature changes. Biggs and Gupta are doing similar analysis in Assam, and early signs point to less land and lower yields if warming continues and adaptation measures aren’t taken. “The amount of effort farmers have put in over hundreds and hundreds of years has really created all this variety of teas and production methods. It’s empirical science.”

Despite these threats, there are reasons for hope that tea from Assam and other locations can still be part of our warmer future. Heiss indicates that microclimates in mountainous terrain like Yunnan or Nepal could help insulate tea farmers and buyers in those regions: “There are southeast facing slopes, northwest facing slopes. There are ways that the fog and mist come in that affect it. On balance, if you’re a tea buyer, then you need to be vigilant and pay more attention. It can be more challenging to find good tea in a certain year, but there’s always someone with good tea.”

He’s also seen how farmers adjust to changing conditions already. During the summer of 2013, an extreme heat wave baked eastern China and had the potential to destroy not just that year’s crop of tea, but tea gardens across the region.

“Farmers there took the time to find out from people who had similar drought or heat problems, when you should apply water to the bushes so you don’t make the problem worse,” Heiss said.

By relying on evening irrigation and reducing tilling around stressed plants, Heiss said farmers were able to produce a limited crop and prevent a mass die-off of plants, which would’ve been a huge hit to farmers’ livelihoods.

A study released last year tied the heat wave, in part, to climate change. The efforts to adapt to that heat wave as well as future shifts is exactly the type of lessons farmers will need to learn to keep producing quality teas in a warming world. Luckily, that’s something already happening.

“The amount of effort farmers have put in over hundreds and hundreds of years has really created all this variety of teas and production methods. It’s empirical science, they’re just doing it in the field and seeing what happens,” Stepp said.

This post originally appeared at Climate Central and was most recently published by Brian Kahn in Quartz on 9th June 2015, under the title “Tea lovers beware, climate change is threatening your favorite beverage” 

Google is working on new Artifical Intelligence that will use “sophisticated deep learning algorithms” to analyse a still photograph of food and analyse how many calories are on the plate. The creepy technology is called Im2Calories. It identifies what kind of food it is, gauges the size of the food in relation to the plate as well as any condiments and then calculates the estimated calorie count.

Creator Kevin Murphy has insisted that the aim of this technology isn’t to shame people about how many calories they are eating, but to enable people to keep a “food diary”.

However, this AI can’t be as accurate as looking on packets or looking on websites to see how many calories you’re eating; all it can do is provide a rough estimate. If people actually wanted to count their calories, they could just use traditional methods. Every person in the world Instagrams food – is this AI gonna take all the fun out of it?

Hopefully Im2Calories this won’t increase anxiety about food. Is Instagram is really the best place to analyse food in a scientific and fastidious way anyway? Isn’t it just a place where we post photos of sick burgers? Putting a calorie counter on every ingredient on the plate seems like a total killjoy.

This article was first published in Dazed by Helena Horton on 2nd June 2015, under the title “This Google technology will calorie count Instagram posts“