Sandwich heaven

Toasted rye bread (I like Authentic Bread Co)
sliced cherry tomatoes (although sun-dried tomato paste is also good)
avocado
Mexican chili relish (salsa verde)
cheese
black pepper

pile up. grill til the cheese has melted.
add a few fresh coriander leaves on top.

Almost like being in Mexico again.

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For Richard, who is hungry but can't have my sandwich.

Curry of cabbage, coconut and cashew nuts

I've got a major weakness for south Indian food. I first had tastes of it I was growing up round, but it was living in London in my 20s which really got me addicted. For a year or so I had the pleasure of living around the corner from a marvellous south Indian restaurant, where I ate as often as I could afford. And had takeaways when I couldn't. It helped that the restaurant is pink!
Just eating in the restaurant wasn't enough, so in 2004 I went to south Indian myself. I'd always wanted to go to India, since I was in primary school and my friends would go there to visit family in the summer holidays. I made a decision to opt for south India for two reasons

1. the food
2. the lack of fabric.

The lack of fabric is relative - there was plenty to enjoy, but I knew that had I gone to areas of India very much associated with fabric production, I would have gone mad and felt the need to buy a million metres of fabric. Kerala and the surrounding states in the southern tip of India aren't so renowned for fabric, so I knew I was safe(r). I still managed to buy plenty, most of it in a fever-induced frenzy on Christmas day in Chennai (Madras). I was not well, quite possibly delirious and bought all sorts of rubbish!

Anyway, the point was the food. I have taken many liberties with this dish, with my guide being this book. It still has the essence of my sensory memories of India.

Chop 2 medium-sized onions and fry in a generous helping of olive oil. You could use ghee, I don't. To this add an inch or so of freshly-grated ginger, about 4 crushed cloves of garlic and two fine, hot chillies, chopped up small. Fry this all on a medium heat, making sure the garlic doesn't burn. When that looks about done, take out a couple of spoonfuls to use in dhal or rice. Add some mustard seeds - about 2tsps, and the same of ground cumin and ground coriander seed. I also added a bit of garam masala. Cook gently, stirring all the time so the spices don't burn or stick. Add a bit more oil if needed.

Then add lots of shredded cabbage. White cabbage works well, but I used spring greens today - they just stay crisper. Keep stir-frying and add a big handful of broken cashew nuts and a similar amount of grated fresh coconut*.

Add a cup or so of water and cover, letting it simmer for 10 minutes or so, depending on the toughness of your cabbage. Take off the lid and turn up the heat to dry it out.

This evening I had this with tomato rice. Usually I'd have dhal, but I've run out of orange lentils! If you leave out the cashew nuts, this is also nice with boiled eggs.

* I get fresh coconut in my organic box in the winter and spend a happy hour or two disassembling it and chucking the white flesh in the food processor. Chop til its fine, like dessicated then store in a plastic box in the freezer all year round. You can just crumble off what you need from the box.

Rhubarb

I'm inspired (even more than usual) to eat seasonally at the moment, as a result of reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. This book is amazing. That's all there is to say.
I had a depressing time looking for English fruit at the local wholefood co-op this week. It's fair enough, there just isn't anything much in season, apart from rhubarb, and they didn't have any of that. Shops don't stock stored apples and although there are still plenty in our freezer, I wanted something different. I will admit I succumbed to some European fruit (Spanish plums and satsumas) but I don't feel happy about it. I know its not been air-freighted, and is sold by a thoroughly ethical local co-op, but still, it's come a long way. Though not as far as Argentinian pears!



I'm enormously lucky to live in a house with people who grown lots of fruit and veg. There is salad coming up already, but not in large enough proportions for me to scoff it all, and the promise of new potatoes before long, and then a great abundance of raspberries. I gorged myself on them last summer. It looks like there are also broad beans, runner beans, onions, leeks and squash on the go, plus a greenhouse full of tomatoes. Then come the apples, and hopefully if the weather is drier this year than last, plums. There is a huge pear tree that is so tall we can't pick them. Most frustrating!

Christmas food

Time to catch up on some recipies that I have enjoyed cooking over the holidays. Christmas in my tiny family is very low-key and simple. We like to go walking and we like to eat. Sometimes we watch a film. That's about it for three days.
We had our main meal and presents on Christmas eve so we could have a good day out on Christmas day. I was pretty tired and uninspired so I went for a simple dinner - family favourite of polenta and roast veg. I use quick-cook polenta, cooked up with lots of butter and dried herbs. I sometimes put in a teaspoon or two of sundried tomato paste. To this I add a good panfull of shredded cabbage which has been gently fried in oil and a couple of cloves of garlic. Stir in lots of grated cheese - I'm a cheddar fan, but purists might prefer parmesan, but my mum hates it so that's never an option. Put the polenta into a shallow oven dish and pop in the oven while the veggies roast.
My choice of vegetables varies - this time I think we had red peppers, red onion and courgette, with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. In the past I have made a nice chunky sauce of mushrooms with a little cream.
Pudding - now, this was a new experiment. I have been enjoying tiny slivers of a wonderful middle eastern cake that my friend makes. It's based on a Claudia Roden date cake, from the Book of Jewish Food, but Claire's version has figs, apricots, pears and all sorts of other dried fruit in it. Basics are:
250g dried fruit
200g ground almonds
200g sugar
2 eggs

My version was:

250g dried figs, finely chopped and soaked overnight in water. Drain and mix with the almonds. Instead of sugar I added a tablespoon or so of maple syrup and the eggs. Stir it all up and put in a loose bottom cake tin (line base with greaseproof paper) and bake in a medium-hot oven (gas 6) until it looks done and is no longer gooey in the middle.
Claire's sugary version is fudgey and sticky. My version was more solid and cakey, and a lot less sweet, but still delicious.

To make this into a Christmas treat par excellence, I made a real egg custard to go with it. I haven't made custard in years - I used to make Tiramisu when I was in my late teens, and the custard recipe I use is from Italian Vegetarian Cookery by Sara Heathcote Laing. This is the only cookery book that I have kept over the years. I bought it in about 1992 and it's nice and sticky.
Her recipe is:
1/2 pint milk (I used skimmed)
1oz cornflour
1 egg yolk
vanilla flavouring (I used a vanilla pod with some seeds scraped out and added in)
Just under 3 oz sugar.

I used maple syrup in place of sugar, adding it to taste. It gave it a lovely rich flavour and it went down a treat. yum!

It didn't occur to me to take any photos of any of this. Another time, foody friends.

Courgette 'risotto'

This is not a risotto for Italian food purists, but one for us that don't eat arborio or any other sort of white rice. This is made with brown basmati - make extra the day before and use it up on this recipe.

Gently fry plenty of grated or finely chopped courgettes in a mixture of olive oil and butter, with a clove or two of garlic. Cook slowly until soft and moist. Stir this into your warm rice and add whatever cheese you like - I tend to use organic mature cheddar, but use whatever you like to cook with. It's nice with a soft goat's cheese too. Add lots of pepper and that's it.
I often like to serve this with tomato sauce - onions, lots of garlic - fried to transparent, then add tinned toms and a dash of red wine, plenty of pepper and cook for at least 20 mins. Thin with more wine if it's too gloopy. Fabulous!

Spiced fennel (and other things)

I'm starting my new year's resolutions early and planning to devote more time to this neglected blog and my cooking in general.
Today's recipe:
2 onions
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
small head of fennel
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
Bit of cabbage

Cook all of these a while in olive oil. add a couple of teaspoons of garam masala and 3 chopped tomatoes. Cook until the tomato starts to break down. Add half a tin of baked beans* and a little water or stock to moisten, depending on your beans. Cover and cook gently for about 20 mins until the veg is cooked but not mushy. Season with black pepper.
I had this with quinoa with a little liquid aminos on it. Very tasty it was too.

* I only eat Whole Earth organic beans. They don't have refined sugar and are much more flavoursome than ordinary baked beans. I eat loads of them!

Followed up with some stewed damsons which had been in the freezer. I just cooked them with a little water and a dollop of concentrated apple juice spread stuff, and then spat out all the stones as I went along!

Fruit & veg

I've been really enjoying late summer seasonal fruit and vegetables recently. I went a bit wild in the local organic shop a week or two ago and came back with local plums, cucumbers, 4 different types of English apple, fennel, more peppers and sweetcorn, as well as lots of salad leaves. I love being able to buy things that say LOCAL on them. I haven't had time to do much cooking recently, as I have been a little busy, but I did make one of my favourites the other day.

Carrot and Coriander soup
Chop up a pile of carrots and chuck in a pan with plenty of stock and a mug full of red lentils. Boil until both are cooked, then whizz through the blender. Season with lots of black pepper then add a whole bunch of chopped coriander. Always put the coriander in last, not before the blending, or you get khaki-coloured soup, which isn't terribly appealing!

Other that this, I've been eating a lot of salad, using a fine mixture of ingredients. I tried some (local) white radishes, which were really nice, not as fiery as their pink relatives. Another thing I often use is pickled walnuts which are just wonderful in salads, especially when there is something sweet to counterbalance them, like a few raisins. I like pickles a lot and often use sliced gherkins in salads.
One of the tips I have picked up from Nadine Abensur is preserved lemons. These are more like concentrated lemon than pickles, and I have been trying them out in all sorts of things. I put some finely sliced ones in a salad dressing, which was fabulous. I also made this last night

Cabbage and lemon
Steam a quarter or so of cabbage. Put in a pan when cooked and stir in a big dollop of pesto, and half a chopped preserved lemon.
Delicious! I had this with another onion omlette, which this time had some peas in it and was delicous cold for lunch today.
All this food thinking is making me hungry, so I am off to worship at the temple of food that is Waitrose. I very rarely shop in any supermarket, but when I do, it is only ever Waitrose, which is a partnership and therefore a lot more ethical than the multi-national giants. Plus the food is fantastic and they sell organic wine.

Peppers

I've been enjoying local organic produce the last few weeks. I love these real-looking peppers - nothing like the uniform bland ones you get in supermarkets.
I had these roasted and skinned with new potatoes yesterday.

The redcurrants came in my organic produce box and I cooked them with a little maple syrup and a good scrape of vanilla seeds and served them with natural yoghurt.
I have a load of cooked apples and some rhubarb (both from friends' gardens) in the freezer, again all cooked with vanilla - current obsession!

My own produce-growing is rather limited - I have the world's tiniest garden, a window box! I've only had it a few months, and stocked it up with two tiny tomato plants I bought for a few pence in a car boot sale in May. They have flourished and are spreading all down the front of the house (I'm on the top floor!) and I have to lean out a long way to pick them!
This picture is of them a few weeks ago. They are now climbing in the windows. But wow! they are delicious and sweet.