Argan oil
“Have you heard about argan oil and the goats?” Katherine turned to me. “No. What goats?” We were standing in Borough Market on our foodie day out. “Well,” her tone was surreptitious, “there is this tree in Morocco called the argan tree. The goats love the fruit and they scramble madly to eat it. The stones of the fruit are so hard that they pass right through the goat and out the other end, undigested.” “Then the goats tread the kernels?” “No. The stones are collected by Berber...
read moreWatercress update
I’ve been coddling a 24 cell tray of watercress seedlings for weeks and suddenly they have put on a growth spurt and moved rapidly from dolls house sized plantlets to doll sized plants in the space of days. This week they can finally be settled in large 12″ pots and delivered to their new homes. We have a list of happy recipients that is lengthening daily. A large pot of these (3-5 cells to a pot) should provide enough watercress all summer for 2 watercress lovers. They need to be fairly well established, flopping over the sides of...
read moreCreate drama in your gaden with fallen petals
About twelve years ago I visited Christopher Lloyds’ garden at Great Dixter. An amazing, inspirational place. It was around this time of year when everything is buzzing in the garden. I turned a corner and saw that the ground was strewn with large cerise petals. The scene was stunning. These had fallen from a large Camellia planted in a border set within York stone. The petals looked wonderful against the grey stone. Far better than the waxy flowers on the shrub. I enjoyed these pink petals when I saw them on the road this week. I was...
read moreExtend the life of your vegetables
“Ohh,” said Danny peering at a box of purple sprouting broccoli, “Will ours be ready soon?” We were waiting at our butchers, Fred Fitzpatrick’s. As I went through our list, Danny picked up a tired cauliflower. “You can have that, Danny. It’s too floppy to sell now.” Danny put it gently back. He didn’t want a floppy cauliflower. “Put it in some cold water and it will firm up,” Fred smiled. I’d heard about this trick for runner beans but never tested out the theory. So we...
read moreNduja (Italian spreadable salami from Spilinga) is available at Borough Market
I had never heard of spreadable salami until I visited Borough Market in London last weekend. This is an Italian speciality originating from Spilinga, a village in the Calabria region in the toe of Italy. Nduja is a bit of a firecracker. I was given the teeniest sample on the end of a hefty kitchen knife. It was tasty and after a few seconds there was a small explosion of fiery chilli heat. My mind raced, this could be used in sandwiches, pasta sauces, on pizzas and under toasted cheese. I love salami and I love chilli. I was in heaven. We...
read moreBorough Market. Foodie day out in London
Danny turned over in bed this morning and pronounced, “Borough Market was a revelation.” Then he drifted off to sleep again. Living such a quiet backwater life, London is always a shock. The crowds of people, the range of nationalities, the noise and smell of the place. There’s a buzz and a rush that doesn’t exist out in the sticks. Not having visited London for over a year, Borough Market seemed like another planet. Here was Dutch Gouda cheese that had the crumbliness of cheddar, duck and truffle pate that melted with...
read moreSt Patrick’s day brunch at Borough Market
A few weeks ago a generous client gave me a large tip. Not the ˜Fiona, why don’t you work a bit harder’ variety. Rather, she added a day’s wages to the final cheque and suggested that I could take Danny out for a meal. So when our friends Katherine and Paul suggested a foodie day out in London, we jumped at the chance. This would be the perfect way of investing our windfall. The day started with locating our friends at Liverpool Street station (how did we cope without mobile phones?), grabbing a coffee and jumping on a bus...
read moreThe lazy man’s secret that adds extra pazazz to any dish
When we go away on holiday we search for two types of shops, hardware shops and food emporiums. The latter can be supermarkets, outdoor markets, greengrocers or delicatessen. If the country is sunnier than England, we are looking for locally produced herbs and spices. Perhaps it is something to do with the sunshine or the processing but these herbs are so much more pungent and last a lot longer than most of the dried herbs available in the UK. Fifteen years ago I went to Crete for a month and found some wonderful blends of local herbs in a...
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