Digging & Dreaming

Cooked - A Natural History Of Transformation

Over recent months I have been reading Cooked by Michael Pollan - a book that I picked up because I had enjoyed The Ominovore's Dilemma by the same author so much.

As a book Cooked is beautifully formed in four distinctive sections, on the premise that the fundamentals of how we cook can be directly connected to the four natural elements of fire, water, air and earth. It  explores how the power of the elements can be used to transfrom the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink.

Pollan is a superb storyteller and in this book he weaves a rich narrative around the ways that we prepare food. From the traditions of barbecue to the magic of cheese making, his stories are powerful advocacy for the argument that the further away we drift from food and its transformation, the less rich our lives become. Alongside this he makes strong arguments why eating mass produced food is making us ill.

The book is superbly accessible, and the division into sections makes it brilliant to dip in and out of. It is an essential read for anyone who loves food and who values the quality of what they eat and how they eat it.

“Well, in a world where so few of us are obliged to cook at all anymore, to choose to do so is to lodge a protest against specialization—against the total rationalization of life. Against the infiltration of commercial interests into every last cranny of our lives. To cook for the pleasure of it, to devote a portion of our leisure to it, is to declare our independence from the corporations seeking to organize our every waking moment into yet another occasion for consumption. (Come to think of it, our nonwaking moments as well: Ambien, anyone?) It is to reject the debilitating notion that, at least while we’re at home, production is work best done by someone else, and the only legitimate form of leisure is consumption. This dependence marketers call “freedom.”

Michael Pollan - Cooked

Having a Souper Time

For me, as the weather becomes cooler and moves into autumn, my appetite makes a parallel shift towards warm, comforting food like soup. As soon as the evenings begin to draw in the soup pan comes out and all manner of soupy delights are concocted in our kitchen.

The first soup recipe I really fell for was a delightfully simple Minestrone by Antonio Carluccio. It is the kind of straightforward, one-pot dish that people have cooked for generations. It is easy peasy to make and reaches levels of sublime deliciousness which are absolutely disproportionate to the effort involved in its preparation. It is this recipe that still forms the basis of most forays into soup creation that occur in my house.

There are two suggestions I would offer to anyone going to have a go at soup making themselves...

Firstly, many recipes suggest the addition of pasta or beans to the pot but I would generally choose barley in preference to either of these, especially if I am going to be heating up the leftovers the next day. Barley is ridiculously cheap and gloriously filling and wholesome. It also holds together brilliantly if you are planning to eat your soup over a couple of meals.

Secondly, I would invest in some good quality bay leaves. Their addition will be the making of any soup. The ones I am currently using were picked for me by my friends Java and Jon from the banks of a river in the South of France. Unsurprisingly they smell and taste divine!

Winter Baking - Focaccia

On days when we aren't out on the plot we're quite keen on a bit of baking in our house. Today was one of those days and the weather felt suitably cold outside to inspire a bit of bread making - the perfect activity for a winter morning when you're pottering around the house. Today I decided to have a go at making focaccia which is relatively simple to make and deliciously tasy to eat.

One of the joys of focaccia is that it doesn't require too many complicated ingredients to get started. In fact, if you've got a basically stocked store cupboard you will probably already have most of the things you need in the house. To make two large loaves you will need:

• 500 g strong white bread flour
• 10 g sea salt flakes, crushed
• 2 x 7g sachets of fast action dried yeast OR 18g fresh yeast
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
• fine sea salt, for sprinkling

And here's what you need to do to make your bread:

1. Place the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir in your dried yeast. Make a well in the centre of the bowl and add the olive oil along with 300ml of cool water. If you are using fresh yeast you will need to crumble this into the water before adding it.
2. Use your hands to gradually mix the flour and liquid to create a dough. Massage the dough for 5 minutes then very slowly add about a further 100ml more water.
3. Work the dough in the bowl for around 5 minutes. Stretch it using your hands then fold the stretched dough into the centre. Turn the bowl 80 degrees then repeat the stretching and folding process.
4. When the 5 minutes is up, tip the dough out onto a well-oiled work surface. Knead well for a further 5 minutes.
5. Oil your mixing bowl and return the dough to it. Cover it clingfilm and leave to rise at room temperature for about an hour and a half or until the dough has increased to about 4 times its original size.
6. Gently tip your dough out onto a floured work surface (you need to try and keep as much air in the dough as you can). Divide the dough in two and put each half in a baking tray. Gently press out the dough, pushing it into the corners of the tray.
7. Leave the dough to rise again at room temperature for an hour or until it has doubled in size.
8. When it is ready place the trays into a pre-heated oven to 220*C / 425*F / gas mark 8. Just before doing this drizzle with a little more oil and sprinkle with fine sea salt, then bake for 20 to 25 minutes.
9. The focaccia is ready when it can be tipped out of the tray and the bottom is brown. Sprinkle with a little more olive oil and serve hot, or allow to cool and serve the next day. Once cooled wrap in clingfilm and keep for 24 hours - just before serving, sprinkle with olive oil and reheat in a 220*C / 425*F / gas mark 7 oven for 5 minutes.

Chard - A Great Allrounder

I love chard. It's easy to grow, looks beautiful on your plot or in your garden and really starts to come into its own at this time of year as other summer crops are starting to come to the end of their season.

It's mainly sown in the spring for picking over the summer, although by protecting the crop with a cloche, leaves can be harvested during autumn and winter. It's also a pretty unfussy crop - so long as it is planted in a relatively rich, moisture retentive soil in a sunny or slightly shaded spot it'll do just fine. It's also a great cut and come again crop so if you just take the leaves that you want to use it'll continue being productive right the way through the season.

My love for chard was reinforced further when I tried this delicious recipe for Chard and New Potato Curry which is from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingtall's latest book- Veg Every Day. Hugh's version of this curry is great but here's my own, slightly modified version which I think works even better!

Ingredients

• About 500g Swiss chard
• 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
• 1 onion, halved and finely sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 3cm piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• ½ teaspoon mustard seeds
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
• 3 cardamom pods, bashed
• 350g new potatoes, quartered
• 200ml smooth passata
• A small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
• Sea salt and freshly ground
• black pepper

Separate the chard leaves from the stalks. Cut the stalks into 2–3cm pieces and roughly chop the leaves.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat, add the onion and fry until just golden. Meanwhile, pound the garlic, chilli and ginger together with a pinch of salt to a paste. Add to the onion and cook, stirring, for a couple of minutes. Tip in the rest of the spices and stir for a minute or two.

Add the potatoes and chopped chard stalks and fry, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, so that they are well coated with the spice mixture. Pour in about 200ml water and 200ml of passata – enough to just cover the veg. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook for 10–12 minutes until the potatoes are just tender. Add the chard leaves, stir and cook until just wilted.

Remove the curry from the heat and stir in most of the coriander.

Taste and add salt and pepper if needed. Scatter remaining coriander, then serve with rice and naan or chapattis.

For The Love of Pesto

Few things reflect the generous abundance of summer as well as homemade pesto. A matter of weeks ago fresh basil was a rarity on our plot - something to be used in moderation, that needed cosseting to keep it going and growing. Now the sun's shining, the basil plants are putting on inches by the day and it's possible to sacrifice a whole plant, even two, to make a delicious bowl of pesto. Here's to plenty more sunny days and many more mounds of deliciously basily pasta before the summer's out.

Wild About Salad

A couple of weeks ago I was over in Lancaster for my Permaculture course. As part of the lunch that we share a fellow student bought in an amazing foraged salad made up entirely of leaves and flowers that she had found growing wild on the estate where she lives. The salad was delicious and inspired me to think about being a little more creative when I'm making salads at home. The one in the picture above is the first example of this newfound creativity.

I'm not quite as confident as Robin who created the salad I ate in Lancsater but taking inspiration from hers I decided to add common lettuce we are growing with more unusual leaves. On that basis this tasty little bowl contained mixed Italian Lettuce leaves, Radicchio, Sorrel, Nasturtium leaves and flowers and Calendula petals. Needless to say, the salad was absolutely delicious and went down a storm in my house! In fact, I'm already planning what I'd like to add to my next one. I particularly love the taste and look that flowers and petals add so any suggestions on other edible flowers would be much appreciated.

Local Food Part Two - Formby Asparagus

Few culinary events are as hotly anticipated in our house as the beginning of the asparagus season in Formby, Merseyside. Formby is world renowned for the quailty of its asparagus and as soon as April ends and May starts we eagerly wait for our trips to buy veg Bury Market in the hope that Brian, our veg man and all round veg growing extraordinaire, will announce that the first asparagus of the year is there. Brian is based out at Hesketh Bank near Southport and is lucky enough to have access to one of the remaining asparagus farmers in Formby, meaning that this beautiful delicacy makes it from the Merseyside Coast to the market in less than twenty four hours. You certainly wouldn't get that kind of service from a supermarket!

The coastal area around Formby was, until the mid-nineteenth century, regarded as a "sandy waste", useful mainly as rabbit warren. Following the construction of the Liverpool, Crosby and 'Southport Railway in 1848, considerable supplies of fertiliser in the form of 'night-soil' from Liverpool became available as a sewer system had not yet been completed in the city. This enabled local farmers to "improve" and bring into cultivation the previously uncultivated sand dune area, particularly suitable for their chosen crop - asparagus. This went on to develop into over 200 acres of asparagus beds, with asparagus becoming a very important local product, the quality of which made Formby well known nationally. Cultivation decreased after WW2 and is now continued on only two farms in Formby, with the support of the National Trust who own much of the land around this part of the coast.

The season for asparagus is tantalisingly short, around 6 weeks in most years, but to me Formby asparagus is a great example of what local food can be. It represents local, seasonal food at its best; something so tasty and fresh that once you have eaten it pale, out of season imitations just won't do anymore. It also represents the role that local food can play in cultural identity, with Formby asparagus being key to the heritage and identity of its local area. And, on top of all this, it shows what heroes people like Brian are, and the farmers who work hard to maintain and promote these culinary and horticultural traditions, playing a huge part, almost wholly unsung, in making collective cultural heritage and identity stronger and securer for us all through the sensitive preservation of local food traditions.

Oh... and did I mention?... It tastes realy dang good too!

The Problem with Rhubarb

We grow alot of rhubarb on our plot. A large, healthy bed of it was left by the last plot holder and we never had the heart to do anything dramatic with it as it's right next to the pond and the frogs and newts love the cover of the large, shady leaves during the summer months. The bed contains seven very healthy crowns that produce a hearty crop each year.

"So what's the problem with this?" I hear you ask. Well, the major problem is that nobody in our house actually likes eating the stuff! My Dad will take a little off us, as will be best pal who lives round the corner from the plot and some colleagues at work but, apart from that, the majority of our yearly haul normally goes to waste.

Over the last couple of weeks this year's crop has started to come into its own and I got thinking about my dislike of rhubarb...

"Do I actually not like it?" I asked myself. "Or do I think I don't like it after some horrible experience as a child eating soggy, overcooked rhubarb?"

On reflection I realised that my dislike was probably based upon the latter, and that's the reason why 2011 is the year of the rhubarb in our house. I'm trying as many different recipes as I can to see what this versatile crop has to offer and to see if I've actually not been being a little bit unkind in my prejudice against it.

Last night I started with Stewed Rhubarb with a Vanilla and Yoghurt courtesy of Jamie Oliver. I'm not normally a fan of Mr O and his recipes but this stuff is really good and was a great treat after a long day (though I have to admit I served it with custard rather than yoghurt!) So a rhubarb recipe I actually like? Who'd have thought it? Next I'm planning to have a go of making Rhubarb Chutney using a recipe from Monty Don's book, "Fork to Fork", which is, incidentally, a wonderful book for anyone who's interested in home grown, season food.