Grow, eat, nourish, thrive
When is crispy fried seaweed not crispy fried seaweed?
Go to any Chinese restaurant in the UK and you will find crispy fried seaweed on the menu but in my travels around China where we ate many weird and wonderful things, including hot pots, Beijing duck, tofu shaped to look like tripe, apples grown in the shape of Buddha, shrimp paste fermenting in vats and dumplings that looked like goldfish but not once did we see crispy seaweed.
Late winter to early spring can be a funny time for weather in the UK. In February we enjoyed record temperatures in the UK and for one day were hotter than the Caribbean. The same time last year we were under blankets of snow and had a howling storm nicknamed “The Beast from the East”….
What do you think of when you think of Italy? For me it is holiday memories, fields and fields of sunflowers, sitting on the edge of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Pompeii and Herculaneum and the most memorable part of the whole day (I’m almost embarrassed to say) was eating lunch in what I think was little more than a small garage with a wood fired pizza oven in the back which served the most amazing pizza Napolitano
Falafel can easily be bought from the supermarket and you seem to be able to buy them in an increasing array of flavours from sweet potato to beetroot. Interesting as they may be, nothing beat the taste of freshly cooked hand-made falafel.
Kung Hei Fat Choi everybody! Today is Chinese New Year. This year is the year of the pig so it is an ideal time to do a BBQ pork recipe.
Traveling around China and Vietnam we’ve eaten many pork related dishes. One of my favourites in Char Sui Bao which are a sweet steamed bun filled with char Sui pork. In Suzhou outside the “Humble Administrators” Garden we found some piggy shaped buns (helpful when you don’t speak the language) alongside some apples grown in the shape of Buddha.
Fans of this squash of a poetic nature will wax lyrical about its origins. After all who doesn’t find the idea of growing an heirloom variety, dating from the 1600’s from a small italian coastal fishing village on the Venice lagoon somewhat romantic?
You may have heard of “Stoptober” and “Movember” but the buzz word this month is “Veganuary” where many people are become vegan for a month as a New Years resolution. I’m not a vegan or a vegetarian but I am trying to eat a mainly plant-based diet for most of the week, partly because I…
I love growing heritage seeds, especially those which have a great history behind them and Cherokee Trail of Tears sure has a history behind it, although not one that you could call “great”. In the 1830’s, the US government forecebly marched over 40,000 Native Americans from their traditional homelands in the south west of the…
Unless you have a large family if you are cooking a large pumpkin like Crown prince you will have a lot of left overs. A wonderful way to use them up is in baking and if you’ve cooked the squash for dinner the night before this soda bread recipe is quick enough to be served fresh with some butter the next morning for breakfast.
The weather is definitely on the turn. We had our first hard frost a few days ago and I’m typing this up in front of a roaring fire. On nights like this there is nothing as warming to body and soul as soup and crusty bread with lashings of butter.
Now is the season for British squashes and the allotment supplies plenty which are slowly ripening in the cool shed to be used over the next few months so Autumn and winter is an ideal time to use this seasonal vegatble.
