Category Archives: restaurant

Guild of Food Writers Awards 2009

Posted on June 26, 2009 | 19 comments

Last night I was at the Guild of Food Writers Awards 2009 party at the Old Hall, London.

My blog was shortlisted for the New Media award, and I took my mum (see pic, above) along to give me support.

OK, my blog did not win. Tim Haward of the Guardian/ Observer Word of Mouth blog pipped both me and the lovely Helen Yuet Ling Pang of the World Foodie Guide to the (blog) post.

However, the judges said nice things about Real Food Lover such as: “Quirky”, “informative” and “Winkler’s writing rules should be required reading for aspiring writers online or in print”, and ditto in The Guardian.

One of the judges, Rupert Parker, gave me some good advice, saying I should update more often. Like daily. Will give it a go. Viz.

Emma Sturgess and Diane Hendry were also winners and that meant a lot to me because I had voted for them when I was on two previous judging panels.

Being a participant – rather than an observer – took the event to another level. I was high.

And snapped away.

Here is the lovely Jane Baxter and Guy Watson happy with their award (and not knowing they are about to receive another). I love their Riverford Farm Cook Book – and I have mentioned it a few times here at this blog.

Jane said there was no danger of this going to her head. “As I was coming up the steps of the Old Hall, I got a call from my six-year-old: ‘Mum, where is my bicycle pump?”

Here is Mark Hix who is not only a winner but thouroughly helpful. When I told him my niece was a fan, he said: “Can she cook?” and said she could contact him (yippee).

Here is Jay Rayner who was warm and funny. And below is Heston Blumenthal.

As my mum said: “You were up there with the big boys.”

In fact Heston was dead impressed by my mum. She was talking about her parents (circa 1930s) who used to analyse every dish at every meal – an enduring family trait. Heston admired my mum’s energy and told her:

“I want what you’ve got.”

O it was fun. And being shortlisted is a goddamn-fine accolade. Nichola Fletcher told me her publishers put it on her book cover.

So in the words of the song: “They can’t take that away from me.”

Oh no – they can’t take that away from meeeeeeee.

19 Comments

Posted in celebrity chefs, food, health, producers, rant, restaurant

Tagged Diane Hendry, Emma Sturgess, guild of food writers, Heston Blumenthal, Jay Rayner, Lincoln Inn Fields, Mark Hix, Nichola Fletcher, Old Hall, Rupert Palmer

Tofu with coconut

Posted on May 25, 2009 | 17 comments

Tofu Rendang

Quite often strange and wonderful foods are packaged with no explanations on how to eat them.

Take aduki beans. Gillian McKeith recommended them on British TV. The nation listened and duly bought them.

But what to do with those aduki beans? I bet you money some are still sitting in the back of people’s cupboards…

The more unusual the food, the more the food makers assume you know what to do with them.

This explains why I was so happy to receive a booklet (in this case free with this Sunday’s the Observer) on interesting ways to cook tofu.

I love the bland, digestible high-protein bean curd. But apart from stir-frying, I never quite know how to eat it.

The booklet from award-winning organic tofu makers, Cauldron, takes its inspiration from Asia where tofu is traditionally used and you are not seen as a weirdo for eating it.

Here’s my Winklerified version of its Rendang paste:

Toast 3 tablespoons of dessicated coconut in a dry, hot frying pan.

Make a paste: Blend (or whizz or pound) the toasted coconut with one cut raw onion, 1 mild fresh chilli, a chunk of raw ginger peeled and chopped, and a teaspoon of turmeric. No liquid needed.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a heavy frying pan and gently fry the paste, stirring until the aroma is released.

Add 250 mls (a bit more than half a can) of coconut milk with 125 mls of water.

Blend a teaspoon of tamarind paste with a tablespoon of water, and add that along with 1 stick of cinnamon (see it floating on left of picture) and 4 star anise (I have had star anise in my cupboard for ages not knowing what to do with it…).

Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the drained tofu pieces and cook gently for another 10 minutes. Stir in greens chopped in strips, such as fresh coriander or spinach or pak choi.

Serve as I did with brown rice and cubes of roasted sweet potato.

I am not known for my presentation skills when it comes to food. By the time I have cooked, I am in no mood for artistry. Hence the joy of eating out.

One of my fave local eating places is a gastropub on Bristol’s Gloucester Road Robin Hood’s Retreat.

The food is locally sourced and heavenly flavoured. I believe the chef is a master.

I had asparagus from the Wye Valley with a Scotch egg with the egg still warm and runny; pea puree and sea trout on a bed of lentils. Dinner for two with 1 glass of wine and two courses, came to about £50.

And all, as you can see, beautifully presented.

Robin Hood Retreat - asparagus from Wye Valley, scotch egg Robin Hood Retreat - pea puree, lentils (not pot) and sea trout

17 Comments

Posted in food, health, organic, recipe, recipe idea, restaurant

Tagged Cauldron foods, Coconut milk, rendang paste, Robin Hood's Retreat, tofu

Fast fish dish

Posted on April 5, 2009 | 6 comments

ling-and-sprouting-broccoli

This fish dish had to be fast as it was 11pm at night and we were all tired.

I sliced several shallots thinly and fried them gently in olive oil, with the heat turned right down and the lid on. Using a lid is my new habit; it retains heat so ups a dish’s eco-credits, as well as moisture and flavour. Win/win/win…

Still in my macrobiotic-mood, I slivered an inch of peeled raw healthy ginger in with the onions. Then I placed the fresh fish fillets on its bed of onions and back went the lid.

I figure the fish cooks by a combination of steam and heat from the aromatic stewing onions. If you can add some scientific know-how, please do!

I had bought the fillets of ling that morning from David Felce, one of two fab fishmongers at Bristol Farmers’ market. Although from the endangered cod family, the ling is line-caught, a method that does not net a ton of other fish at the same time, (then discarded wastefully).

Ling is not considered glamorous but please ignore this illusionary hierarchy of fish. Seasonal and fresh, its flesh is firm, white and flavoursome.

Meanwhile I steamed my beloved purple sprouting broccoli from Radford Mill organic farm shop, having sliced its woody stems into smaller tubes so they would be soft enough to eat.

Purple sprouting broccoli is in season from January to May when other UK-grown greens are sparse, according to my much-recommended Riverford Farm Cook Book.

I had some miso paste left over (a tablespoon of miso blended with water) and added it to the pan with about 50mls of water, for extra flavour.

We served it with organic spelt bread bought at the Common Loaf stall – who make their bread with love and the best raw ingredients-ever – also from the farmers’ market.

And voila, after 20 minutes, the dish was ready. Fast-enough for you?

P.S. The next day I had the pleasure of meeting and having lunch with a fellow blogger, Helen, from Haddock in the Kitchen. Helen was over from France visiting her lovely daughter Holly.

We ate freshly-cooked food at Zazu’s Kitchen – heartily recommended.

We chose frittatta (omelette and potatoes and herbs) and salads (including my adored lentils). I pictured my lunch with Helen’s kind gift, a pot of honey, or miel, comme on dit en français.

The honey was made by a friend of Helen’s in France. Oooooh I absolutely love real honey.

zazzus-2409

6 Comments

Posted in food, health, organic, producers, recipe idea, restaurant, sustainable

Tagged eco-cooking, line-caught ling, ling, miso, purple sprouting broccoli, Radford Mill Farm, Riverford Farm Cook Book, Steaming, Zazu's Kitchen

Vegan noodle pie

Posted on November 7, 2008 | 16 comments

vegan-noodle-pie

I dedicate this post to fellow blogger, Meg Wolff, who recovered from cancer thanks to a macrobiotic diet and Donna, a woman who befriended me at a Devon train station, who – it turns out – also cured her cancer after following a macrobiotic diet for ten months.

When Donna first approached me at the brightly-lit station on a dark wintry rainy evening last week, saying: “Hi, I am Donna,” I thought she had mistaken me for someone she knew.

Or maybe we had met…in another dimension?! (I love these stories so bear with me, you rationalists).

Donna asked me: “Are you interested in shamanism?”. “Always” I answered because I love real-life mystery.

To which she replied: “You have good medicine around you.” And I was thrilled.

Donna gave me her card and we are now in email contact – that’s how I know about Donna’s macrobiotic diet, and Axminster’s Awareness Centre, and her parents, the original ‘organic kids’, now 89 and 91. So listen up, you young things, eat your organic greens to get some healthy longevity inside you!

This is all the encouragement I need to eat more organic grains and vegetables, keeping animal-food to a minimum…

Donna and my other dedicatee, Meg Wolff, share many beliefs including the magic of writing things down.

Go visit Meg Wolff’s inspiring blog and I won’t even mind if you don’t come back.

Ah, you are back. OK, so Meg sent a newsletter which included a recipe for vegan lasagna. As a mama, I made lasagna but never considered how to veganise it – until this moment!

So I played around with Meg’s original recipe and here is mine – all ingredients from my local organic shop, the Better Food Company.

I peeled and chopped a big slice of pumpkin, putting the chopped-up pieces gently oiled, in a roasting pan to sizzle away in a medium-hot oven for 40 minutes.

For oil, I used Clearspring organic sunflower seed oil (first cold pressing for a naturally-nutty taste), a new discovery thanks to speaking coach, John Dawson.

While the pumpkin pieces were doing their thing in the oven, I made a vegan white sauce with organic soya milk, sunflower margarine and Dove’s rye flour, adding sliced fennel and mushroom, and tamari sauce, for interest and taste.

Then I drained and mashed 450g of tofu with gently-fried slices of onions and some sprinkling of smoked paprika.

I dunked 50g of gluten-free buckwheat noodles in a pan of boiling water until they softened – about five minutes.

Then I assembled my layers into an oiled-casserole dish, starting with the drained noodles covered with half the fennel and mushroom sauce, followed by the mashed-up tofu and the roasted pumpkin pieces, followed by the rest of the sauce – and baked it for 20 minutes.

I served it with fresh mustard leaves which grow on my balcony in salad pots from Cleeve nursery bought at the Organic Food Festival in Bristol last September – an easy way to have fresh leaves (see pic below)!

It was comfort food-supreme with the baked noodles reminiscent of lokshen pudding from the alter heim.

Happy Obama week!

How To Make Tofu From Scratch

16 Comments

Posted in eating well on a budget, food, health, organic, recipe, recipe idea, restaurant, vegan

Tagged Better Food supermarket, Environment, food, Macrobiotic diet, organic, organic food, Soy milk, Soy sauce, Sunflower oil

Italy, land of real food

Posted on August 8, 2008 | 2 comments

I nearly sobbed when we stepped inside this treasure trove of a delicatessen in Cupra Marittima, a small seaside town on the Adriatic coast. Italy is the land of real food so it is hard not to feel deprived when back in Blighty. This delicatessen was no self-conscious foodie experience for the cognoscenti, but the real thing.

Britain’s dismal food situation is linked with its early adoption of the industrial revolution. As poor people flocked to cities two centuries ago for work, they left behind the land, and home-grown food, signing up instead for a diet of mass-produced cheap fillers, such as adulterated white bread and jam.

Industrialisation came later to the Continent whose food is all the better for it.

Listen, this delicatessen served nothing but fish. Ready-cooked dishes such as spicy fish stews with calamari, potatoes and chick peas; the regional speciality of olive ascolana (fish balls cradled in an olive and fried); fish carpaccio, paper-thin slivers of marinated raw swordfish and tuna with parings of orange peel; and minced fish balls (like gefilte fish) but served in a delicate tomato sauce.

Talking of tomatoes, the local food store stocked many varieties, all different shapes, sweet and tasty (not watery and sad). And talking of gefilte fish, a Jewish speciality from eastern Europe, Italians, like Jews, like talking about food: they want to know what you ate, what you are eating and what you will eat.

Last Monday, we went to Anita’s, where the locals dine. We had hot and cold antipasti, razor clams in tomato sauce, cockles in garlic, mussels in wine, followed by tagliatelle and seafood, and a main dish of fried sole. Can you believe it?

Oh, beam me up to the land of real food!

2 Comments

Posted in food, recipe idea, restaurant

Tagged Cupra Marittima, fish, Italy, seafood

Beetroot tops

Posted on July 11, 2008 | 4 comments

Beetroot tops

I confess there was a time when I did not know that you could eat the leafy tops of raw beetroots. Now I have that knowledge, the next trick is to eat them when they are still dark green and fresh-looking.

I shredded the leaves and cut up the purple bits into a frying pan where I had heated olive oil and garlic. Cooking them in melted butter works well too. I fried spices but that is optional. Cook the leaves slowly enough until soft. No need for water. I also chucked in chunks of mushroom and served this nutritious dish with brown rice.

(It is pictured on my copy of the Guild of Food Writers‘ new-look magazine, Savour, where I learnt that Japan was a Buddhist vegetarian country until the 19th century.)

Whether you eat the leaves or not, do cut them off otherwise they draw out moisture from the beetroots. I learnt that fact from reading The Riverford Farm Cook Book – what a fab book, that is.

Written by iconoclastic farmer, Guy Watson, and the chef of Riverford Farm’s restaurant, Jane Baxter (who trained at the Carved Angel and the River Cafe), it’s a useful, informative and entertaining read.

Guy started farming organically in 1985 on the family farm in South Devon. Thanks to his brilliant idea of forming a cooperative with other local farmers, Riverford is now one of the UK’s largest organic growers with a veg box scheme that delivers all over the country.

I think cooperatives are the way to go, and especially for small family farmers – there’s strength in numbers especially when you are competing against agribusiness.

Guy says what he thinks, which is very refreshing. Quite rightly, he says the term “organic movement” sounds like everyone agrees with each other when in truth there is (healthy) debate.

The book is way-not pretentious. Clearly, Guy and Jane think the media-darling aspect of organics sucks.

Instead their voices are…well, down-to-earth. They give you a real grasp of how and when organic vegetables are grown, and basic yet tempting ways to cook them.

You know where you are with this book. I recommend it. Big time.

4 Comments

Posted in eating well on a budget, food, health, producers, recipe idea, restaurant

Tagged beetroot, beetroot tops, Guy Watson, Jane Baxter, organic, organic veg, organic veg box, Riverford farm cookbook, Riverford veg scheme, veg box scheme

St Werburgh’s City Farm Café, Bristol

Posted on June 29, 2008 | 5 comments

$Paul Burton, chef, at St Werburgh\'s city farm cafe$

Lucky me. To get to this Observer ethical award-winning café from my home, all I have do is walk ten minutes through the allotments.

Here is chef, Paul Burton, holding my lunch – the aioli is homemade, with fennel from the next-door city farm and smoked mackerel from Cornwall. Paul used to work at Café Maitreya (another Bristol award-winning eaterie) and now he is a business partner in St Werburgh’s city farm café.

Note its hippy-trippy Hobbit-like décor, courtesy of artisan builders, Bristol Gnomes.

I wish I had a photo of the café’s owner, Leona Williamson, because she too has an ethereal quality – but like all fairies, she has power too.

When cooking in the Local Food Hero competition, she came up with a new concoction, with one hour to spare.

She made goat and beetroot sausage with a three-root mash (celeriac, potato and Jerusalem artichoke), and wowed the judges, Jay Rayner, Xanthe Clay and Gary Rhodes. The goat came from the city farm.

So impressed was Jay that he put her forward for the Observer‘s ethical awards.

It was Leona’s idea to use the animals on the city farm for food.

I totally approve.

Far better to be a conscious meat-eater that respects the animals than not give a thought to how they fared when alive.

These darling creatures currently living on the city farm may well end up in one of Leona’s famous goat stews. Reader, is this OK with you?

$Bristol\'s St Werburgh\'s city farm goats$

5 Comments

Posted in celebrity chefs, food, producers, restaurant

Tagged Leona Williamson, local food, meat, Observer ethical awards, Paul Burton, St Werburgh's city farm café

Birthday lunch at Bordeaux Quay

Posted on March 29, 2008 | 2 comments

Bowl of fish soup, elegant and simple

My mother’s birthday so we booked a table at Bordeaux Quay. Downstairs is the buzzy brasserie for everyday (good honest dishes), but on this special occasion, we swept upstairs in a lordly way to the restaurant, overlooking Bristol’s waterfront.

We ate so well, and relaxed too. I started with Salade Paysanne, a tumble of leaves with tempting pieces of chicken and duck livers and crispy bacon (perhaps I do eat pork, after all). I ceased eating chicken livers in the 1980s when I realised most were polluted by toxins. Today was different because I could trust the meat came from happy and naturally-fed poultry.

Bordeaux Quay is not merely nodding at sustainable sourcing – its chef proprietor Barny Haughton is the real thing. He has been cooking with organic ingredients (first at Rocinantes, which then morphed into Quartier Vert) for over twenty years – and not even telling his diners because organic was considered too hippy at the time…

You can hear my interview with Barny here where I got to quiz him about his provenance. Barny’s family are organic dudes too, what with his brother, Phil (Better Food) and Liz (The Folk House). Yes, we are well served in Bristol thanks to the Haughtons – god bless their parents for producing such sustainably-minded offspring.

Like Barny, I received my food education at my mother’s knee for which I am eternally grateful.

Next I had cotriade (see pic), a fish stew from Brittany. The (organic) salmon and (line-caught) cod were steamed separately, and added to this dream of a cream crab sauce with sliced earthy carrots and aromatic tarragon and fennel.

My mother – who is the empress of Real Food Lovers – said the meal restored her faith in humankind. Look, when it comes to food, it is no mean feat to please my mother. I hope Barny realises this.

“It’s such a relief to know the ingredients are well-sourced,” I said.

“And you can tell,” said my sister, Geraldine. “It’s all so naturally flavoursome – not just a big plate of nothing.”

Geraldine had masterfully chosen the most marvellous wine, the 2004 Riesling, les Princes Abbés, from Domaines Schlumberger, that even had my daughter Maude raving about its “delicate” flavour.

My mother spoke of her grandmother (another foodie) who left her village, Slonim, in Bellarusse (a hop and a skip from Vilnius) in Czarist Russia, for the east end of London.

“You said she was a revolutionary?” I asked hopefully.

“Nonsense,” said my mum (pic below). “She became very observant and spiritual as she got older but, well, as a girl, she was an atheist and went to secret socialist meetings in Russia.”

“Ha,” I said triumphantly. “And you wonder how we all turned out Bolshie.”

2 Comments

Posted in celebrity chefs, food, producers, restaurant

Tagged Barny Haughton, Bordeaux Quay, cotriade, organic, Prince Abbés, sustainable, treyf

Soho hummus

Posted on February 26, 2008 | 6 comments

Down memory lane in London’s Soho. 1978, unmarried, pregnant, I saw a poster in a funky vegetarian cafe’s noticeboard that changed my life.

Fast forward to 2008. I walked past Food for Thought (it’s still there!) and smiled nostalgically. I did not stop as I was on my way to the 24/7 internet cafe, Netstream.

Starving at 2pm on Wardour Street I found my dream eaterie, Hummus Bros. If you love hummus and in London, you have to go.

Hummus Bros serve each dish (see pic) with a free and unexpected egg, a choice of rye bread (from Fresh and Wild) instead of the traditional pita bread, chilli relish, extra lemon juice and if that wasn’t enough love, a complimentary glass of mint tea made with the fresh herb.

One of my top fave foods, hummus is both comforting and nourishing. It packs protein by combining plant foods. Two different plant groups roughly equals one complete protein, and hummus, with pita, offers three: chickpeas (bean), tahini (seed), and the pita bread (grain).

I yearn to tell you how to make hummus at home because it will be a lifelong friend. The cooked (high fibre, low-GI) chickpeas are mixed in a blender to a creamy gunk with olive oil, lemon juice, a bit of garlic and tahini – now that’s a convenience food I approve of. I also prize tinned organic chickpeas as a larder-friend. (So there, Delia.)

Cooking from scratch saves money and takes planning (beans need an overnight soak and one hour of cooking). This recipe explains it really well. I have never used yogurt, as it suggests. Must try.

6 Comments

Posted in food, recipe, restaurant

Tagged hummus, Soho

The Owl Vegan Café

Posted on February 1, 2008 | 17 comments

Vegan Owl painted shopfront

Barnstaple, North Devon’s main town, now has a vegan ‘caff’ down Maiden Street (an alley filled with pirates’ ghosts, I wager).

Opened in December (pic above added in March), the Owl Vegan Café serves dishes that make me happy such as braised tofu with roasted carrots and three greens.

I am not a vegan because I love organic cream, cheese and fried eggs.

But not in excess. Too much dairy and I end up hallucinating cows and butter churns (thank you, Raymond Briggs). My body has a tantrum and gives me a runny nose – a classic sign of dairy sensitivity.

Luckily I love eating plant foods. For some reason, when I am munching on brown rice (with olive oil and fried garlic) or my favourite vegetables, I feel soothed as I eat.

That’s how I felt eating the trio of spring greens, kale and spinach. Grown in nearby Tapeley Park with organic principles, they were served braised.

I confess I do a lot of butter-smothering to my veg – need to know more about this vegan alternative.

I love an eatery with something to read. I read a witty gritty piece by Andrew Murray in the Morning Star. I liked it because it agrees with my (anti-war and dubious about Nick Cohen from the Observer) point of view.

I had to order a vegan trifle to celebrate.

The Bird’s custard was made with soya milk, the vegetarian lemon jelly crystals were from Just Food and the fruit was real and fresh cut-up cherries, kiwi, and juicy pineapple. Kind of healthy kid’s food.

Time to catch my bus to the Atlantic sea coast. I strode off feeling light.