Thoughts on Food – Inspiration and Ideas
I hope it’s helpful to share some food experiences from the past 8 weeks. The landscape and our lives are looking in some cases unrecognisable, and I’m not sure when I’ll next be able to welcome anyone into our home to cook.
While that’s sad and unknown, the remote classes that I’ve been teaching have been rewarding and fun. I’ve been asked for easy, quick food to feed yourself or a family, and recipes that use cupboard ingredients or easy swaps if you can’t get hold of something.
I’ve also been making my easy, quick repertoire on repeat, including this soup (adapted by throwing in sad-looking courgettes or really anything that needs to be used up), this one-pan pasta, one-tray roast vegetables, tahini, lots of salads including cabbage salads (cabbage keeps in the fridge for ages!), and I make Alison Roman’s roast beans with walnuts, garlic and anchovies on repeat every week (minus the roast lemons, mustard and vinegar – too much!).
Cookbooks I’ve been enjoying when there’s time include Sour by Mark Diacono, Simple by Yotam Ottolenghi, Sweet by Helen Goh and Yotam Ottolenghi, and Alison Roman’s Nothing Fancy.
Baking has been a big part of our lives. I’m making regular sourdough loaves, and whilst there are many great recipes out there, I’m loving the Margot Bakery book ‘Modern Sourdough’ – fiddly but great for bread, challah, and I haven’t moved on to their amazing pastries yet! I think the sourdough babka and cinnamon rolls will be a big danger to my waistline if I ever get there…
I’m also making incredible sourdough pancakes from Sour, sourdough pizzas, and these delicious crackers too.
We’ve been making this Smitten Kitchen banana bread on repeat. I keep bananas that need to be rescued sliced in the freezer, and they defrost directly in the pan in this recipe.
My children are requesting that we bake most days, so we’re also making cookies from the Hummingbird Bakery book (and freezing some in scoops/balls in a bag ready to bake), as well as marmalade flapjacks and energy balls.
It’s been harder to find ingredients such as flour, and our local greengrocer closed for a few weeks (it’s thankfully reopened since) so we needed to find new ways of buying food. Many restaurant suppliers pivoted and now deliver, and the quality of food that you can now have delivered to your home is incredible.
Some great new places that I’ve discovered include:
All these suppliers from New Covent Garden Market
(Some might be London only.)
On that note, this book looks at food systems in Britain, and the author’s point here about us all turning to supermarkets during this time, and how problematic that can be is particularly interesting. I’m trying to stick with small producers, and one day I will hopefully find the time to read this book!
And finally, I have been donating regularly to our local food bank. It can feel wrong to be posting photos of meals when so many people are struggling to eat, and they are doing great work.
There are also charities such as The Felix Project helping to distribute food that would go to waste.
Do let me know if you, your team or company, your family or a group of friends would enjoy a remote cookery class. I’d love to cook with you!!
