Food & Drink notes

Go with the grain; Keep a lid on it; The real deal; Tippling with windmills

Get the day off to a cracking start not with a fried egg but award-winning granola. OrgaSnic Breakfast No 1 was rustled up at home by Lucy O'Donnell, determined to replicate an Alpine breakfast. She toasts oats, pecans, Brazils and hazelnuts, hemp, pumpkin and linseeds, and sweetens it all with honey. Currently it's to be found in a few health clubs and restaurants and delis, but it's available direct, at lovedeanlarder.co.uk or on 02392 594988. £5.95 for 450g, plus postage.

Keep a lid on it

This two-lidded pot/casserole/ frying pan was made in cast iron, but now comes in cast aluminium, so it's light enough to lift when supper's inside it. The Panilio is a non-stick pan with a glass lid for use on a hob and a metal cover for use in the oven. Turned over, the metal lid becomes a non-stick skillet. Brown the meat for a stew in it or use it to keep food hot on top of the casserole, with the glass lid covering it. £59.95 from Cucina Direct, 0870 4204300, cucinadirect.co.uk

The real deal

Twenty years ago, the Real Meat Co began producing and selling the highest possible standard of meat and poultry from humanely, responsibly reared animals. Now it has 10 of its own butchers and more than a dozen allied shops, and you can buy some of the range of meat from Girasole in Teddington (020-8977 0300) and Melrose and Morgan in London NW1 (020-7722 0011). The casseroles, curries, pies and so on can also be bought direct from realmeat.co.uk, or by calling 08457 626017.

Tippling with windmills

Spanish gin: something for ex-pat soaks on the Costa Brava? Well, originally, sort of, but Xoriguer is now so prized that it merits an EU protected status as the drink of Mahon (just like Plymouth gin does). It was first distilled on Menorca, the once British-occupied island, 300 years ago for sailors and soldiers, using wine alcohol flavoured with imported juniper. Try it now in some of London's best tapas bars and restaurants and cocktail bars, or buy it at specialist spirits shops, the Spanish specialists Brindisa, or in Waitrose for around £16 a bottle. Drink neat over ice or in cocktails. Don't you love a bottle with a built-in handle? It's for carrying purposes, obviously, not for drinking by the neck.