Farmers

The asparagus season will be coming to a close soonish. I know because I asked the man who I buy it from every Sunday how much was left and how much longer I could expect it. I'm starting to get tired of it (it's only in season a few weeks! You have to eat as much of it as you can!) but I don't want to miss the last bunch of this year because I'm getting bored and decide not to get any one week. Farmer man said that there isn't much left - another week or two - but he's keeping a few bunches aside for me in case I get to the market late.

He also grows cut flowers. Two weeks ago, while C was away, he had the first Sweet Williams. I must have looked sad or something because he gave me a bunch with my asparagus and strawberries. They are still on the table, beautifully scented and holding their colour - he said they sometimes last three weeks. There should be astors soon.

He's just one of a handful of farmers that I have got to know at the markets in the past couple of years. (See I know I'm Lucky) I like that my shopping habits supports them and allows them to continue to bring me excellent products. Virtuous circle.

But you can't get everything from the farmer's market. For some items there is no season in England. So while I don't ever buy asparagus from Peru, I do buy mango, rice, garlic, etc etc from the corner store and the local Tesco. And so I think about the farmers I support by purchasing mangoes. Or frozen peas. If everyone stops buying mangoes what will the mango farmers eat?  (Besides mangoes.) How does buying my ingredients from farmer A in England affect farmer B in Pakistan (where my basmati rice comes from)?

No answers, just the pieces of a conversation I am having in my head and that I would welcome people's thoughts on.

Sustainable Fish

How sustainable was your last meal of fish? If you don't know or didn't catch it yourself, chances are it wasn't. If you had salmon, tuna or shrimp recently (and who hasn't?) then you're probably guilty of plundering the seas for your own selfish appetite. I hope it was worthwhile and delicious. Please say you didn't overcook the salmon. That'd be disgraceful.

Here's a list of at-risk fish. This list tells you what to eat instead. Check it out and think about it next time you choose fish.

You know which fish isn't on the list? Grey mullet. We had that for dinner on Saturday night. Caught in the most sustainable way possible. A friend of our fishmonger's caught it. He went free diving and speared it. She showed us the spot on the fish's cheek. Yes, my Saturday night dinner was speared.

I love it. How caveman.

Anyways! It was delicious. I'm loving trying new fish that are guilt free.

I did the fish really simply, just pan fried with a bit of flour and paprika to dust it. I stole the accompanying salad from The Compass.

Fried Fish on Chorizo, Green Bean and Olive Salad

A big handful of green beans, tailed, blanched and refreshed
Two chorizos, sliced and fried to develop a lovely crust
Handful of left over roasted potatoes, warmed up with the chorizo
Small handful of pitted black olives

Toss together in the pan so all the ingredients are warmed through with chorizo oil and serve with your friend fish.

June Happiness

is the very last of the farmer's asparagus with homemade mayonnaise/aioli for Sunday lunch with a bottle of rosé. With a hint of sun shining in. No nice photos. Just love.

Perfect Saturday in London- the whole list!

A few weeks ago, Krista from Londonelicious put the call out to London bloggers: What's your idea of a perfect Saturday in London? The American girl who likes food and London but not cooking wined and dined her way around town and wrote about it here in the post that kicked it all off.

Others quickly followed, posting their idea of a perfect Saturday in London. So whether you've always lived in London, or whether you're just visiting for the weekend and want to experience London as a local, here's some inspiration for you and all of your Saturdays. Now get yourself out there and explore!

ML at SPAstic, Tales from a London Spa takes you around South Kensington and Notting Hill for a culture-filled day that ends in Holland Park.

Su-Lin at Tamarind & Thyme gets some culture AND shopping in as she trolls central London, with the riches she imagines.

Two entries from Mini-et-moi, a great site for modern mums in London. Sarah takes in Marylebone and The London Transport Museum while Michelle explores the South Bank, tots in tow.

Gourmet Chick hits all the foodie haunts--Ottolenghi, high tea at The Ritz, and Borough Market.

Danielle at Bloody Brilliant starts with a full English and then heads east to explore Brick Lane and Spitalfields.

Over at Gourmet Larder, Gregory begins his day in Borough and then works his way south through Clapham and Vauxhall.

Leah from Curiosity and The Cupcake arrives at Broadway Market bright and early and then enjoys a leisurely stroll through Victoria Park and east London.

Christine over at If Music Be The Food of Love has a musical slant to her day as she explores Hampstead and hits the town with her idol.

Blogger Priyanka begins at Cafe au Lait in Brixton and ends her day at Meson De Felipe and The Beehive in Borough.

Another blogger choosing to start around Borough Market. Helen at Food Stories kicks off her Saturday with a visit to Tower Bridge, wanders over to Borough and then ends her day with a visit to Shunt and by checking out Dinner in The Sky.

Lizzie of Hollow Legs is very busy geographically and takes us through Blackheath, North Greenwich, Trafalgar Square, Belgravia, Shoreditch, Whitechapel, and then back to Shoreditch.

Charles of London guide Tipped.co.uk and his own blog, Grumblemouse, spends his perfect day in Islington, The City, Borough Market, Greenwich, and Shoreditch.

And finally, new-to-the-scene Liz (of Liz Does London, not to be confused with Lizzie above) hits Chelsea, Hyde Park, Notting Hill, and Parson's Green.

I think that's everyone. Thanks to all the great bloggers who contributed their perfect Saturday. Please feel free to republish this post on your own blog and add your own perfect Saturday...in London, or elsewhere.

Perfect Saturday

Londonelicious doesn't cook and consequently eats out a lot. I admit I'm a little envious at times. Recently she posted her Perfect Saturday in London and invited the citizens of the blogosphere to share their best days. Here's my contribution.

This account takes for granted a few details: the weather is lovely, we walk a lot and we never get too full. It also makes me realise that I am very excited to read other people's Perfect Days for inspiration...

My Perfect Saturday in London

Time Unknown. I open one eye to see what the light in the bedroom looks like. I judge it must be at least 9:00 and I slip out of bed and stumble quietly into the living room to find a clock. It's still misty outside, London still unseen behind the blanket of fog. I check the clock. I realise I have no inner sense of time and stumble back into bed for a few more winks. (C asked me recently if you could catch a few winks or if it had to be 40 - I think you catch a few and leave it at that.)

Actually 9:00. I crawl out of bed and get ready to go. This being the Perfect Saturday both C&I are showered, dressed and awake (in that order) by 9:30 and we walk up the street to Broadway Market.

At the market we hum and haw about what to eat for breakfast but settle on sharing a galette from the cute French girls and a samosa from the lovely lady of Gujarati Rasoi.

We buy some groceries (bread, cheese from Brian and the girl from Ontario, a sausage from the man with the chorizo - I want to follow the Perfect Saturday with a Perfect Sunday) and go get coffee from Jason. It being a Perfect Day he has something new and exciting - bright and fruity, perhaps? - for us to try. It is Perfect.

Wandering home with our bags full of grocery love I stop and get a mini salted caramel cupcake from Violet. It's a two bite cupcake and I share it with C but he lets me have the bigger bite.

We drop our groceries off and wander along the canal to Victoria Park. Peckish again we have chickpea burgers and Curious Colas at the Pavilion and laugh at the puppies and the babies and the ducks. The heron who lives across the pond catches a fish right in front of us. We wander through the streets of East London, along the way I pick up some ridiculously cute vintage dress and we admire the art galleries and imagine the home we would build to house our art collection. I bring up random facts that are perfectly relevant to the topics at hand.

After wandering through Borough Market (where we buy more delights in preparation for our Perfect Sunday) we find a spot, oh, say the Oxo Tower?, which is quiet and devoid of any mobbing crowds. We sit and admire the gorgeous view of London while sipping champagne cocktails. After too many champagne cocktails, I am slightly tipsy and very goofy so we hop in a cab and trundle home so I can change into something fabulous before heading out to dinner somewhere decadent, expensive and delicious that I've been dying to try - maybe Les Trois Garcons?

Pea & Broad Bean Smash

I love peas. They are my favorite vegetable. One of the things I miss most about Canada is frozen Green Giant sweet summer peas.

It's summer and everyone is talking about broad beans. I've eaten them in restaurants but have never made them myself, so I asked the green grocer how to prepare them. He said he didn't really know- he hated them when he was a kid and hasn't tried them since. Hmm. Amusing but not terribly helpful.


So instead I start poking around in the recipe books piled on the couch. I have Jamie At Home out from the library. It's a rather cruel book for someone who lives in a tiny flat in the east end of London- all about the joys of growing your own vegetables (I killed my herbs earlier this year) and eating them. I ignore Jamie's somewhat self-righteous tone and look up broad beans. He has a recipe for pea and broad beans smash that I take as inspiration and (after taking some liberty with ingredients, ratios and instructions) we eat this for dinner.

Smash the following together. A mortar and pestle would be ideal. I got C to do it with the bottom of a glass. And then the rolling pin.

Half a package of fresh peas (leftover from the risotto the other night)
A big handful of broad beans (time consuming and disappointingly few after you've shelled them all!)
Half a bunch of mint
35 g of parmesan (we weighed it)

Add enough olive oil to make a paste. Add lemon juice (I used half), salt & pepper to taste. Gently toast some delicious bread, rub ever so lightly with a cut clove of garlic. Layer thinly sliced pieces of young goats cheese, then top with the pea mixture. Serve on the lovely olive board your mom bought you.

Essence of pea.

Sardine Sunday

I decided I wanted bream for dinner, after its overwhelming success when my parents were here. We waited in line while the fish lady finished with the people in front of us and glanced over the various fish in front of us- didn't look like she had any bream (we were later than usual- managed to sleep in hurray!). I didn't want mackerel as we'd had that last week (simply grilled with a quinoa tabouli). So I pointed to one fish, asked "What's This?". Dover Sole, she replies, lovely like this and like that. Chris and I look at each other, shrug say, "sounds good" and then she pauses.

"It's also our most expensive fish."

Oh. How expensive?

"Twenty pounds a kilo."

(Mackerel is maybe half that.)

I think the look on our faces said that we were not going to be purchasing Dover Sole. So she suggested sardines. Three per person. Cheaper than mackerel. Oily omega threes.


Sardines are not anchovies. But they seem the same to me. I realize they're not - but still... So we buy six little sardines for £2.40. The fishlady chops their heads off for me.

Next day for lunch!

Jamie Oliver says that if you push the sides down around the back bone you can pull it out. I try it. You can! The little rib cages and bones are strangely beautiful and I keep bringing them to show C. I am extremely proud of myself. Not only am I making sardines, I am pulling their backbones out. I rock.


Jamie has a lovely recipe for sardines that requires a bunch of ingredients that I don't have and am too lazy to go down the stairs and to the corner to get. So I improvise.

I fry up the leftover onion and shallots from Friday's risotto and add some garlic and crushed fennel. Peel and seed four cherry tomatoes. One regular tomato would be faster and more efficient, but this is what I've got. A big handful of parsley, chopped. A sprinkling of cayenne. Three heaping tablespoons of pre-made breadcrumbs (I feel like a bad person admitting that I had prepared breadcrumbs in the house. I swear the eggs are free range!). Mixed together with some basil olive oil. A bit thrown on the bottom with some parsley stalks. A teaspoon inside each sardine, then rolled up. The rest thrown on top. Into a hot hot hot oven for ten minutes then taken out and eaten with warmed up pita.

Paired with a glass of lovely Italian white wine - a new one. So good. Such a good lunch. I made sardines - hurray!

A Simple Lunch

The simplest of lunches – spoils from the market, served up minutes after arriving home. Fresh, crusty bread sliced thickly and served with tomatoes, fresh goat cheese and wild boar sausage.






And to finish: fresh blueberries.

Market Vegetables

Saturdays are by far my favourite day here in London. Not only is it a day to spend traipsing about London, but it means a trip to Broadway Market (Leah's written about the market before). Once we've had a bite to eat, picked up bread, and had some brilliant coffee, we then decide what produce to buy. This is usually a random, higgledy-piggledy affair and involves us trying to figure out what we'll eat over the coming week. Needless to say, it's always interesting.

Absolutely beautiful, vibrant (and highly photogenic!), fresh rhubarb. I couldn't resist. Leah made crumble (one of my favourites) and delicate, little tarts. Sadly, rhubarb is quickly being replaced by English asparagus which has just come into season, but I'm hoping we'll find some more this Saturday.

A lovely, purple flowering broccoli which, sadly, was forgotten and rescued from the back of the fridge half-way through the week. Although not much worse for wear, it had lost some of its original crispness and as such, was eaten with a simple, lovely pasta. If anyone has suggestions on how to cook it, please leave a note in the comments.

Gorgeous, crusty cheese which was eaten with crackers, cornichons and bits of spicy salami. We typically end up browsing and grazing at the market's many food stalls, so this was the perfect snack once we'd come back from the market.

And lastly, luscious green beans. These were prepared simply and delicious, letting the flavour of the beans come through. Quickly blanched and then tossed them in a French mustard dressing. Brilliant.

Saturdays = Delicious

When C & I lived in Toronto, Saturdays nearly always began with our weekly trip to the St Lawrence Market. We had our friendly butchers who flirted with me, the lovely lady who sold fruit and the fish guys who filleted our fish. We knew them, they knew us, it was a great sense of belonging and it was the first thing I knew I'd miss when we got to London (besides our wonderful friends- love you!).

Fast forward to April and our new life in East London. We have rediscovered Saturday Morning Markets days with a weekly wander to Broadway Market. The pork guy is beginning to recognize us, as is the two guys who sell gorgeous bread (must be early to get what you want), the coffee people (not the first stand but the one closer to London Fields) are starting to offer suggestions on different beans, remembering what we've tried the week before (Peruvian is my favorite so far). It begins to feel like maybe we might just belong here one day too.

But my favorite market find is Gujarati Rasoi. And the man who runs it definitely recognizes us. He and his mom run this amazing vegetarian Indian food stand- they cook the samosas up right there and they are hands down the best I have EVER eaten. Everything we have tried has been delicious (who knew veggie could be this good?!) but my favorite is the Samosa Chatt- a samosa atop a curry of chickpeas and potatoes with tamarind and yogurt-coriander sauce topped with crunchy puffed rice. Heaven in a little brown box.

Pear Pudding

My Great Aunt Jessie, whom I never met, is something of a legend in my mind. She was a formidable woman. She yelled a lot. I think my mom and the other kids thought she was kind of mean. But the woman could cook. Oh, god could she cook! Many of my mom's standard recipes are from Auntie Jesse.

One of my favorite comfort desserts is her Hasty Apple Pudding. It's not pretty, but it's warm and luscious and homey. My mom used to make it. Then she taught me to make it. I made a version for two tonight using the lovely pears in the photo and flavouring the sauce with some star anise.

Here's the full recipe. The halved one needs some tweaking. But this one would be perfect for a cold night and a family of four. Ice cream isn't absolutely necessary, but certainly wouldn't be amiss.

Hasty Apple/Pear Pudding

4-6 apples or pears

Slice the fruit and place them in a pan with a dusting of cinnamon.

Batter

50 g butter
100 g white sugar (flavored with a vanilla bean if that's what you've got!)
1 egg
250 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt

Cream the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg.

Alternate between the dry ingredients and the milk til blended. Spoon over the pears.

Sauce

250g brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter (that's 15 grams if you're weighing things. I like to weigh things. Spoons, lemons, pinches...)
1 tablespoon flour
1-1/2c water
a star anise for the pears or a tiny splash of vanilla for apples

Mix all the ingredients in a pot and let boil for five minutes. Pour over battered fruit.

Toss in the oven for 30 minutes or until the cake is done.

Market Finds

Our local market on Saturday is Broadway Market and I love it. It's small enough that you can wander through a couple of times before making your picks and is local enough that people are starting to recognize us. These lovely little tomatoes came on the vine and were fantastically tomatoey tasting, especially for this time of year. And I'm starting to learn the different varieties- way beyond plum, beefsteak and on the vine!

Oh cabbage. How I love you. How I cook you up with bacon and make you into soup, salad, pasta... There was a post on Gluten-Free Girl about what to do with a Savoy cabbage and I had to have one so I could try out some of the suggestions. Incidentally, one cabbage can feed two people for a very, very long time...