And this week ... I bought

The foot and mouth effect reached Borough this week - the Ginger Pig had no pork. A difficult concept to comprehend. As each customer looked at the counter full of beef and lamb and chickens and asked for one cut or another of pork, the butcher serving would say we have no pork this week. And the customer would invariably reply - what, none at all? (I am guilty of exactly this conversation) And the butcher serving would, with rapidly diminishing patience, say because of foot and mouth there was no slaughter this week. I was there about ten - can't imagine how much they were hating this same conversation by closing. I bought a chicken - meant for Sunday but stuffed and roasted Monday night for dinner and then cold in lunchboxes for the week - and some smoked bacon - for a not entirely successful stirfry with tofu Tuesday night - £14.40

Then it was rush rush rush as I was running late and shopping alone - not my favourite combination but the man had gone to Paddington to collect his sister and her kids and there was no other way

From Mrs Elizabeth King I bought a pork pie - half for lunch on Saturday with our guests the rest for lunch with salad on Monday - £4.90

From Wild Beef I bought eggs - in fried rice Wednesday night and an omelette Friday - £1.25

From Isle of Wight I was pleased to buy baby plum tomatoes - really missed them last week - every day in my lunch - and two big heads of garlic - practically everything I cook - as they have returned as well - £6.90

Chocolates from Maison du Chocolat - for the man's mother - £2

Gianni at Gastronomica was his usual charming self as I tried a couple of hard cheeses and opted for a pecorino - still in the fridge - then added a rocchetta - Saturday lunch - and he gave me a slice of a toma - with a glass of wine Sunday night - I hadn't tried so a good selection for £10

At the meat counter for Gastronomica I bought mortadella studded with truffles which I adore and the man can't stand, some ham roasted with herbs and, as an afterthought a sheet of mixed salamis -all meant for lunch Saturday, our visitors adored the salamis particularly, but there was ham and mortadella leftover so we had it with potato salad for supper Sunday - £9.20

No strawberries this week but had to have another tub of cooked berries for breakfast - £2.90

Coffee beans from Monmouth - every day - £8.50

Booths for veg - broccoli - unused and possibly unusable now, potatoes - salad Sunday, roasted Monday, carrots boiled with dinner Monday, rocket, oak leaf - Saturday lunch salad, beans - cooked with sesame and garlic to go with omelette Friday, sugarsnaps - lunches, peppers - stir fried with black beans as part of dinner Tuesday, cucumber - lunches, celery - fried rice on Wednesday which was then added to lunch boxes Thursday - £6

Then I remembered I had forgotten to buy smoked tofu - for stir fry with smoked bacon Tuesday which wasn't great but not the fault of the tofu - from the tofu stall in the green market so rushed back there through the swelling crowds swinging shopping bags like the udders on an unmilked cow and bought a block - £2.50

Then I rushed back the other way to Neals Yard for yoghurt - breakfasts, bread - Saturday lunch then stuffing for chicken Monday night - and milk - £6.90

Bought two brownies and a slice of banana cake to feed the littlies at lunch - Saturday- £4.50

Lastly - and near as I would get to the straw that broke the camels back - a melon from Elsey & Bent - because the one last week was special - and this one was just as lovely for breakfasts - £1

Then I staggered off to the bus stop with my haul for the week having spent £80.95

Slow Haricots

This one is easy peasy and lovely in lunchboxes. Slow cooking the beans with herbs and chilli imbues them with a delicate flavour all the way through. I don't mind using tinned beans so long as they are good quality and not sugared or brined. They wash off quite well and are great for a quick standby salad but they will never be as good as cooking from scratch. For the moment it takes to add water to dried beans to soak them overnight you definitely get rewarded with a much more interesting texture once they've been cooked.

Haricot beans have a lot going for them - they are cheap, nutritious - rich in iron, magnesium and zinc - and absorb the flavours that surround them as they cook. They start out as pencil-thin, green pods, hand-picked when just the right size. When dried, haricots become small, white, oval-shaped and can be found in traditional dishes from the Middle East to Italy, France, Greece, and North America, particulary as the main ingredient in Boston Baked Beans. In french, all beans are haricots. In english it's just the little dried white ones.

Slow Haricots

250g/9oz dried haricot beans

3-4 garlic cloves, unpeeled and crushed

Sprig of fresh sage and fresh rosemary

1 bay leaf

2 dried red chilli

Olive oil

Soak the beans overnight then drain and rinse. Put them into an ovenproof dish with all the other ingredients except the oil tucked around then add water to cover by about 1cm/1/2". Bring to the boil on top of the stove, skim any froth from the top then glug some olive oil over the dish. Put the dish into a very low oven - gas 1 - for about two hours till the beans are tender. Add salt towards the end - salt added earlier will toughen the beans irredemiably.

When the beans are done, drain and discard the aromatics. Put into a fresh bowl. Dress with 2 tablespoons of fresh olive oil and some fresh ripped basil while still hot, then serve at room temperature.

Eat lots and be full of beans!

Anise Chicken

I came across a sampling of Mrs Chiang's Szechwan Cookbook on the web and was immediately smitten. It is a series of stories told by Mrs Chiang about growing up in Szechwan province and the food her mother prepared - though even in the introduction there is no explanation of who Mrs Chiang is - she is simply a given. There was a book of her recipes published in 1976 (which now sells secondhand on Amazon for £34.67) but I can find no other trace.

To begin there is a detailed look at Chinese food generally and Szechwan cuisine specifically, giving context and explanations for much more than ingredients in an attempt to create a vocabulary with which to understand this food because even now it is foreign, in part because the western view of food is so different, based largely on taste and then perhaps aroma and the visual presentation. The intro explains A Chinese gourmet is far more sensual. Each dish is considered not only in terms of its taste and fragrance, but equally in terms of its texture, appearance, and nutrition. Each aspect is analyzed with astonishing sensitivity and great clarity. You need to understand that I think before it is possible to cook this food well.

The rewards are enormous. Since I started cooking with Fuchsia Dunlop's book I feel that I have commenced on a new path, I have begun to understand and create inherently different food, amazing things that are like being transported to a parallel kitchen that eats away at my ignorance. For no reason I thought almost all Chinese food was cooked fast and served hot, nothing worse than eating it cold. Anise chicken is proof of how wrong I was. Chicken is slow cooked in an anise spiced broth then served, at the very least lukewarm but preferably room temperature and best of all after a day or two for the flavours to develop.

I cooked it early Sunday - the hottest day of the year! - and we ate it in the evening with sesame noodles and crisp raw greens and it was fabulous. Next day for lunch it was better.

Anise Chicken

10 dried black mushrooms - from Chinese grocery
2 cups boiling water
1/4 cup dried tree ears - from Chinese grocery
1 cup boiling water
4 spring onions

1 1/2 lbs/700g chicken pieces, preferably breasts

1 tablespoon Chinese rice wine or cooking sherry

1 piece of ginger about 1"/2.5cms

1/4 cup peanut oil
5 dried red chili peppers
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
4 whole star anise, or the equivalent in pieces

2 tablespoons Chinese rice wine or cooking sherry
6 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste, if necessary

PREPARATION

Rinse the mushrooms thoroughly, then put them in a bowl and pour over the boiling water. Leave them to soak the mushrooms for about 20 minutes, or until they are soft, then cut off the hard stems and cut the larger mushrooms in half. Do not discard the water in which they soaked; you will use it later for cooking. Put the tree ears in a small bowl. Pour the boiling water over them and let soak for at least 10 minutes.

Cut 2 of the spring onions, both green part and white, into 2"/5cm lengths. Tie the remaining spring onions, whole, into a bunch.

Pull the skin off the chicken, but leave the bones in. Chop the chicken, bones and all, into 2"/5cm cubes, roughly the size of a walnut. ( Mrs. Chiang is always careful to make sure that all the pieces are about the same size. ) Put the chicken in a shallow dish and add the cut-up spring onions and the wine. Set aside to marinate for 15 minutes.

Peel the ginger and cut it into 4 slices.

When the tree ears are soft and slightly gelatinous, rinse them thoroughly and pick them over carefully to remove any impurities, such as tiny pieces of wood, that may still be embedded in them.

COOKING

Heat your wok or pan for about 15 seconds over a moderate flame, then pour in the oil. The oil will be hot enough to cook with when the first tiny bubbles form and a few small wisps of smoke appear.

When the oil is ready, quickly throw in the ginger,dried chilli peppers, sugar, whole spring onions, and chicken mixture, making sure you stir the ingredients well while you add them. Continue to stir-fry for about 30 seconds, using your cooking shovel or spoon to scoop the ingredients from the sides of the pan and then stir them around in the middle, so every piece of chicken is exposed to the hot oil.

Add the star anise, then reduce the heat slightly, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for about 5 more minutes, until the chicken stiffens and turns white.

Add the wine and the soy sauce, bring to a boil, and continue to cook, over a moderate flame, for 3 minutes more. Now add the mushrooms and the water in which they were soaked, and pour in enough additional water to barely cover the chicken; you will probably need about a cupful. Wait until the liquid boils, then lower the heat, half cover the pan, and let the chicken simmer slowly for l hour.

After this period, the chicken should be very soft and the sauce should be reduced to almost half its original amount, At this point add the soaked tree ears and let them cook with the chicken for about 5 minutes more. Finally, add the sesame oil and stir thoroughly.

Because the soy sauce has become so concentrated during the cooking process, the chicken may not require any additional salt. Make sure that you taste the sauce before you add any.

Note : this dish can be prepared way ahead of time and then brought to room temperature, when it is actually at its best, just before serving. It can also be kept for several days in the refrigerator without harm.

Sesame Noodles as told to me by Vicki

I am a fan of most things sesame from the tiny tear shape flecks on the crust of a bun, through anything made with tahini to the sweet toasted version set in honey. I just love them. Reading a little about them I discover many things, most basically perhaps that they are the seeds from the sesame plant - not surprising I guess but when I started to think about writing this post I realised I had no idea where they came from.

More than any other ingredient in my kitchen they have been around since forever - they are probably the oldest known condiment. According to Assyrian legend the gods drank wine made from sesame seeds when they met to create the world - might explain the occasional flaw in the sytstem! Native to sub-saharan Africa, sesame were probably first domesticated in India and they are now popular the world over.

One reason perhaps for their ubiquity is that they have a fat content of about 50% to create a great sensation of pleasure whenever you eat them. This high fat content makes them a good source of oil which is exceptionally resistant to turning rancid. They are a very good source of manganese and copper, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorous, vitamin B1, zinc and dietary fiber.

In addition to these important nutrients, sesame seeds contain two unique substances: sesamin and sesamolin. Both of these substances belong to a group of special beneficial fibers called lignans, and have been shown to have a cholesterol-lowering effect in humans, and to prevent high blood pressure and increase vitamin E supplies in animals. Sesamin has also been found to protect the liver from oxidative damage. Good, no?

I shall continue to scoff them in all their forms, though not as a slimming aid!

The following recipe uses both whole toasted seeds and tahini in a melange that also encompasses chilli heat and the sweetness of honey and orange juice. It comes from my friend Vicki, who has been making these noodles for many years. A woman of great discernment and that is recommendation enough for me to try them. She suggests they are best with something robust - char grilled steaks perhaps. Because we had a weekend with hot sun just like a proper summer I made them to go with a cold dish of chicken with star anise - utterly fabulous.

SESAME NOODLES

8 oz/500g fresh egg noodles
2 tbspn toasted sesame seeds

3 tbspn chopped spring onions, white and green

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the noodles and let them return to the boil before draining them in a colander. Rinse briefly to stop them sticking together.

Put the chopped spring onions and toasted seeds into a bowl large enough to hold the noodles.
Dressing3 tbspn Rice vinegar
1 tbspn Sesame Paste
2 tbspn Peanut Butter
1 tbspn Honey

2 tbspn Soy Sauce

Combine the above well in a good sized screw topped jar. Then add

1 tpspn Chilli Oil
1/3 cup sesame oil
1 tbspn olive oil

Shake it all about so they don’t separate then add

Juice of 1/2 to 1 orange depending on how juicy. You want a consistency that will slide over the noodles easily.

Add the noodles to the spring onions and sesame seeds and mix through the dressing while the noodles are still warm so they soak in the liquid.

Refrigerate till about half an hour before you want to eat - best served at room temperature.
We ate them with the chicken and crisp green veg with no additional dressing for one of the nicest meals I've made in a while. Seriously recommended.

And this week ... I bought

Utterly glorious sunshine for the entire weekend. After the last few months it was something approaching miraculous. Borough was busyish but not heaving and everyone, buyers and sellers alike, seemed to be cheerful. Even Karl at Ginger Pig, though still looking forward to having a holiday, felt that he was well on the way up the metaphorical hill to happiness hump. I can only assume it is a kiwi thing. John had a smile a mile wide telling me about being granddad to Ruby. Beautiful by all accounts. Bought a couple of pork chops - Friday supper -and some bacon - the plan was to make fried rice Sunday lunchtime but it didn't happen so it's in freezer - for £8.05

Eggs - poached on a salad Wednesday night - and coarse ground beef - one lot in the freezer and one lot for burgers Thursday night - from Wild Beef - £8.25

A practically liquid slice of perfectly ripe gorgonzola indulgence, a large chunk of semi hard cows milk cheese and a small mozzarella - for a decadent platter on Saturday - that has been injected with a heart of fresh cream - all from Gastronomica and all for £10

Isle of Wight had no baby plum tomatoes - disaster - so got nothing

Went to Chegworth for strawberries - smoothies - and also bought a tub of cooked fruit - strawberries, rasberries and apple that I fancy as breakfasts - sublimely good, so much so I'm hoping they've got more this week - with sheep yoghurt - £5.50

Then parma ham - Saturday platter - from the ham and mozzarella stall - £4.40

Dried haricots - lunches - from Herbs from Heaven - £1.30

Booths for veg - leeks - to go with roast beef from the freezer Monday night, cabbage - steamed and buttered with grilled pork chops Friday night, baby beetroots - awaiting their fate in the fridge, bananas - smoothies and lunches, beans - cooked in sesame oil and garlic to go with burgers, celery - meant for fried rice but ended up being for lunches and salad, red onions, spring onions - anise chicken, zucchinis - still in the fridge and still okay, rocket - platter, sugarsnaps -lunches - £9.90

Scotch egg for me and a pig in a blanket for my man - Saturday brunch - on the way past the cooked food counter at Ginger Pig - £4.50

Oak leaf lettuce, cucumber and 3 peppers- all used Wednesday night for salad except for one of the peppers - from Tony - £3.50

Every week there is a truck that will try to get down Park Street past Neals Yard between the two rows of parked cars and every week it gets stuck and causes mayhem with other drivers getting blocked or reversing out and much chaos invariably ensues. This week it was a cement truck that turned the corner then had no space to continue. Another truck behind him no space to reverse. At which point I went in to the market - this scenario can take half an hour to resolve itself and I have seen it many times. When I returned to go to Neals Yard the trucks had disappeared and the little car parked first round the corner had its bumper ripped off and deep scratches the length of the bodywork. There was also a clutch of notes under the wiper giving phone numbers of witnesses. People can be generous as well as stupid. From the shop I bought pasta - cupboard, bread - Saturday platter, milk and yoghurt - smoothies and breakfasts- £12.60

A brownie for my sweetie - £1.50

And nothing more except a sweet smelling melon - Saturday platter and the other half for breakfasts - from Elsey & Booth for a bargain £1

And then the bus home £70.50 lighter

Zucchini & Cheddar Frittata

With an excess of vegetables relative to the number of meals we were having at home this week I needed to be using some up. I had bought courgettes with the idea of having pasta but changed my mind and decided a frittata style dish would be better with some salads to add colour.

I roasted a bunch of beetroots on a bed of coarse salt and whole spices to make a sweet earthy intensely hued salad and made a good green salad with oak leaf and cucumber dressed with spiced vinaigrette.

The zucchinis became the centrepiece, using up the last of a piece of Montgomery cheddar from the fridge, the cheese adding an intense richness and a burnish of gold to the finished dish.

Zucchini and Cheddar Frittata

450g/1lb of small zucchini, washed and sliced into rings

1 medium onion, roughly chopped

3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 tbspn fresh thyme leaves

4 eggs, beaten with a tablespoon of milk

100g/4oz strong flavoured cheddar, grated

Salt and pepper

2 tbspns olive oil

1 tbspn butter

Melt the butter and oil together in a heavy pan then gently cook the onion and garlic for about 15 minutes till sweet and tinged with gold. Add the zucchini and the thyme, season and cover. Cook over a low heat for 15 minutes till all the vegetables are softened with just a little resistance to a knife point.

Preheat the grill at the highest setting. Stir most of the cheese into the beaten egg then raise the heat and pour over the zucchinis. Cook for a few minutes till the egg begins to set. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and put the pan under the hot grill to finish.

Serve big slices with some salad and generous pieces of sourdough bread.

Very good for lunch next day.

Cabbage Salad with Toasted Seaweed

This is a very Japaneasy salad that I made the other night to go with spicy chicken and rice. The idea started with coleslaw but I didn't want that kind of sweet creaminess, I wanted something much further down the salty sour end of the spectrum. I have some nori sheets I bought from a Japanese grocers (though they are readily available in chinese stores and health food shops) and decided that would give an interesting change in flavour to the shredded cabbage.

Nori comes from the genus Porphyra, which contains a variety of species that are commercially grown and harvested. The sea dwelling algae are grown in enclosed nets, which can be easily pulled out of the water for harvesting. Nori is basically seaweed paper. Once harvested it is then flattened by a shredding- and rack-drying process that resembles papermaking. It is high in fiber, protein, vitamins and minerals and, seaweed provides up to ten times more calcium and iron by weight than dairy products.

Nori is the sweetest sea vegetable and when toasted, it turns a bright green and becomes even sweeter. Nori has a front and a back that is easy to see when you take sheets from the pack. The shiny, smooth side is the front. This side should be toasted by dragging the nori quickly over an open flame. What you then have is a thin crisp sheet that is flavoured like the essence of the ocean. Crumbled through this salad it creates an amazing range of flavours in each mouthful. It needs some time to meld with the dressing - in fact next day it was probably better than the first.

Cabbage Salad with Toasted Nori

1/2 Savoy cabbage, very finely shredded

4 spring onions, white parts finely chopped

1 sheet toasted nori

Dressing

1 tbspn ginger, grated

1 small garlic clove, crushed

1 tbspn rice vinegar

1 tspn honey

2 tbspns japanese soy

1 tbspn olive oil

Mix the cabbage and spring onions in a bowl. Hold the nori sheet with tongs and wave it closely over the flame from the gas ring on your cooker. If you cook electric it should work with a cigarettte lighter or candle, but requires a little more dexterity! When the seaweed is crisp crumble it into flakes over the other vegetables.

Put all the ingredients for the dressing into a jar and shake vigorously. Tip over the salad and mix well. Leave for at least an hour before serving, it is also very good next day.