Primrose Curd Ice Cream

Primrose Curd Ice Cream with Poached Rhubarb & Rhubarb Tuile

What is it about the mere suggestion of primroses in a dessert that sends us into a Spring time frenzy?  The delicate yellow petals are one of the first signs of spring's arrival. A bright and sunny springtime smile amongst the decaying brown of winter's dead foliage.

Last week end, I was lucky enough to be working with Liz Knight of Forage Fine Foods from Herefordshire at Bristol's largest food celebration the Love Food Festival.  Liz is both modest and dismissive of her formidable creative talent, which flow out of her as she creates seasonal treats using locally foraged wild foods, selling to the lucky people of Ludlow Farmers Market and some by mail order.  Inspiration comes from the hedgerows and from old English recipes, which she collects in old books and more interestingly by talking to local old folk, salvaging their recipes, often being told by word of mouth.  Liz demonstrated a primrose curd based on an old English recipe called Russet, named after the English apple. She poetically links the last of Autumns's fruit harvest with the first of the Spring's new tidings. I do like a bit of romance in my food.

This ice cream is two stages, firstly to make the Russet (Primrose Curd) I have used Liz's recipe and secondly added it to a simple ice cream base (creme anglais) and churned in my ice cream maker.

The curd is as magical as you might imagine, a rich appley custard with a delicate floral note.  Use this as an original cake toping, in a pastry case with some caramalised apple slices or alongside just about anything sweet.

For the pictured dessert (above) I poached some rhubarb in sugar syrup, made a rhubarb tuile (recipe below). Garnished the plate with rhubarb coulis and primrose curd (recipes below). For the perfect finish a garnish of yellow and mauve primrose petals.

Russet (Primrose Curd) Allow 2 days

• A generous handful of unsprayed washed primrose petals
• 450g sugar
• 450g Bramley apples
• 125 unsalted butter
• 4 Large eggs
• Zest and juice of 2 lemons

Method

1. DAY 1 Finely chop the primrose petals, place them with the sugar in a container and stir through the primrose flowers.  Cover and leave for at least 24 hours (this will allow the flavours from the petals to release into the sugar).
2. DAY 2 Peel and chop 450g of apples, place into a pan with 100ml of water and the lemon zests.
3. Gently cook the apple until it is soft and mash into a puree. 
4. Fill a larger saucepan with one third of water and place a pyrex or stainless steel bowl over the top (bain marie). Add the apple, butter and juice of lemon, primrose/sugar mixture to the bowl.
5. Heat the pan and stir the mixture until the butter is completely melted.
6. At this stage turn off the heat as you are about to add the eggs and if the apple mixture is too hot the eggs will curdle (split).
7. Add the eggs to the mixture through a sieve and beat the eggs with a balloon whisk until the eggs are full mixed in.
8. Put the pan on a gentle heat and stir the mixture until it becomes thick (and curd like) this usually takes about 10 minutes.
9. Pour the curd into sterilised jars and seal immediately and store in the fridge. You can keep it here for up to 4 weeks. 

Ice Cream

• 300ml double cream
• 300ml whole milk
• 6 eggs separated
• 1 vanilla pod
• 150ml caster sugar

1. Place the milk and cream in a thick based saucepan with the vanilla pod sliced in half, scraping out the seeds inside.
2. Gently heat until just before it comes to the boil take off the heat and cover with a lid allow to infuse for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile separate the eggs and beat the yolks with the sugar until pale and runny.
4. When the cream has infused remove the vanilla pods and pass the vanilla cream through a sieve.
5. Mix a little into the yolk/sugar mixture and then incorporate all the vanilla cream.
6. Place in a clean saucepan and return to the heat.
7. On a gentle heat stirring all the time heat to but not boil until it thickens to coat the back of a spoon. Usually about 10 minutes. 
8. Take off heat and allow to cool. Cover the top with cling film to stop a skin forming.
9. Chill overnight;
10. Add the primrose curd (I used about 500ml) and mix well. Add to your ice cream maker.

Rhubarb Tuile

This recipe is taken from  John Campbell's Formulas for Flavour 

Make a rhubarb compote, then add about half the weight of rhubarb compote in sugar  and boil till reduced. Reserve and chill. (now it's a coulis)

60gm icing sugar

15gm plain flour

3 Tbsp rhubarb coulis

20gm butter melted

Sift the icing sugar and flour together into a bowl. Add the rhubarb coulis and butter. Mix to a smooth paste. Chill the batter for 1 hour. Heat oven to 180C. Line a baking tin with parchment. Spread the mixture into approximate oblongs. Bake for abou 6-8 minutes. Allow to slightly cool and cut to your required shape. Allow to cool. 

www.lovefoodfestival.com

Stichelton, Fig & Walnut Savoury Cake

Savoury cake

This post was inspired by a random email from someone who bought a savoury cake from a range I produced for a Christmas Slow Food market at Southbank Centre 4 years ago. Having found my contact details, this ardent fan wanted to order a couple for the festive break. So much in love was she with the memory of that cake that I couldn't help but agree to such a small order. Quite simply because my memory of the said cake was the polar opposite and inextricably entangled with utter misery. For during that four day Christmas market, I froze in sub-zero temperatures and endured rejection and dejection; I could not give the cakes away, although the homeless of Waterloo appreciated such finery. Now that I have that off my chest and have been suitably seduced with talk of the 'cake of dreams' I baked this cake this morning with a rehabilitated view.

For this is sumptuous mix of Christmas; Stichelton (a blue veined cheese), figs and walnuts. When you are eating this cake it eases you into an old leather chair in front of a roaring fire, with curtains drawn and a glass of full bodied red.

Stichelton is a re-make of Stilton, but uses raw milk. The reason for this reinvention followed the decision by makers of Stilton to cease to use raw milk as a reaction to health scares of a possible link to outbreaks of food poisoning with consumption of the cheese's unpasteurised milk. The cheese cognescenti mourned it's loss. And so in an attempt to recreate the more complex flavours of raw milk Stilton, Randolph Hodgson and American cheesemaker Joe Schneider went about recreating the venerable cheese on the Welbeck estate in Nottinghamshire. In late 2006 Stichelton was born.

I usually make this cake as mini muffins for canapes as, quite honestly I have had a slight aversion to ever seeing this combination as a loaf cake again. But as of today, I have so got over myself and will be indulging in the salty, sweet, creamy complex cake as I curl up in my shabby leather fire side chair. Well, if not exactly the sentiment is very much there.

Savoury mini muffins

Stichelton, fig & walnut savoury cake

• 100ml olive oil
• 100ml white wine (I used a Pinot Grigio)
• 4 eggs
• 275 Stichelton crumbled (& yes of course you can use Stilton, if you must)
• 50gm sliced dried figs
• 50gm walnuts broken
• 180gm SR white flour
• pinch salt (careful, as Stichelton is salty)

1. Combine the olive oil, white wine and eggs and whisk well
2. Add crumbled Stichelton, nuts and figs
3. Add flour & salt and combine
4. Pile into a lined cake tin of your choice
5. Bake in preheated oven of 180C about 35-40 mins, testing to see the centre is cooked.
6. Allow to cool

Panforte

Panforte & Other Christmas Food Gifts

Panforte, the Sienese classic fruit cake

Spiced Nuts

I have for too many years crammed Christmas shopping into the last week, remonstrating with myself that next Christmas things will have to change. At last the annual berating has sunk in and this festive season I'm sparing myself the misery of shopping and everyone is getting food gifts.

All day I have baked panforte, Christmas biscotti, spiced nuts, chocolate dipped orange peel. And a vast improvement it was from the shopping streets of central London, I've had a delightful day imbuing the gifts with the good vibrations of happy cooking. No stress, lovely day. What took me so long......

The Panforte (strong bread) is a packed with all that is Christmas; fruit, nuts, sugar and spice. It pairs very well with cheese. For the last few years I have been making my spin on this Sienese classic. This year I am sharing the recipe, which up to now has been a secret. So here it is. Try serving this with cheese, a Parmesan works particularly well.

Try serving with a hard salty cheese

Panforte

• 100 gms hazelnuts roasted and roughly chopped
• 150 gms ground almonds
• 25 gms green pistachio roughly chopped
• 150 gms orange & lemon candied peel (so much nicer when you do homemade) chopped tiny
• 50 gms figs chopped small
• 100 gms glace cherries (leave whole but toss in the flour so they separate)
• zest of 1 unwaxed lemon
• 70 gms rice flour
• 150 gms soft brown sugar
• 30 gms butter
• 60 gms best quality honey (I used raw Norfolk honey)
• 1 tsp aniseed
• half tsp cinnamon
• quarter tsp ground cloves
• good pinch of fresh grated nutmeg
• a sheet of rice paper cut to the size of your cake tin.

You will need a 20cm loose bottomed cake tin.

Method

1. Line the cake tin with the rice paper.
2. Pre heat the oven to 160C.
3. Assemble all the nuts (chopped) and dried fruit which you have cut tiny. The cherries are best tossed in some of the rice flour so they don't clump together.
4. Combine the rice flour with the 4 spices and add to the nuts and fruit.
5. In a pan heat the butter, sugar and honey until it melts and just comes to the boil.
6. Quickly add the butter/sugar/honey mix with the fruit, nuts and spices and mix until thoroughly combined. It's hard work. You want to make sure its evenly mixed.
7. Press the mixture into the tin and work it down so the mixture is even. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes. You are looking just to set it, so don't wait for it to turn dark, you want a light golden colour. As it cools, it will further set.

Spiced Nuts

2 recipes here for spicing mixed nuts, which makes a great gift. Almost impossible not to eat half of them as you cook.

Rosemary & Fennel

• 500gms of mixed nuts (I used macadamia, pecans, whole almond & cashews)
• 2 Tbsp fresh Rosemary leaves chopped
• 2 tsp fennel seeds
• 2 tsp sea salt flakes (Maldon or Cornish)
• 2 tsp golden caster sugar
• half tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 Tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 180C
2. Mix the spices & herbs with the oil and coat the nuts thoroughly
3. Put on a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes, keeping a keen eye on it as the edges catch and burn quickly. Keep turning the nuts over until evenly golden.

Spiced Nuts

• 1 Tbsp sunflower or veg oil
• 1 Tbsp white sugar
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp whole coriander seeds
• half tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp sea salt flakes

Method as above.

A day in the forest cooking with acorns

Mighty oaks from little acorns grow

Acorn processing kit

The oak is a mystical, wise and majestic soul. The mighty acorn is the subject of fables, myths and sayings of wisdom. "An acorn holds the promise of a thousand forests". But when it comes to harvesting and eating the fruits of the oak tree there is taboo and a belief that they're toxic and only good for squirrels and swine.

Far from the case, for our stone age ancestors, acorns were the main staple starch food, supplementing hunted meat and foraged berries. Oaks grew abundantly from China, through the far East, Russia, Europe and North America down to Mexico.

This week end I had the chance to rekindle my inner acorn knowledge and reconnect with what my ancient hunter gatherer fore-bearers spent a good deal of their time engaged in the business of processing, cooking and eating acorns. A day in an enchanted forest in Sussex our guide Anna Richardson of Native Hands showed us how to process and cook the fruits of the oak tree.

The rock hard kernels need to be broken & ground down to flour.

The first task in processing acorns is to turn the acorns into flour. Once the acorn is opened, you must break the kernel down. This is best done with a stone grinder (stone age mortar and pestle, family please note Christmas present ideas). Then to grind broken kernels down into flour. We used a maize grinder, though a coffee mill will suffice.

Once ground, it must be leached of bitter tannins.

Next step is to leach out the bitter tannins. Tannin is water soluble so simply many changes of water over 3 or 4 days, until the water is less dark brown will suffice. Then your acorn meal is ready to cook with or to dry out and store.

Acorns have a wonderful buttery & earthy flavour. Anyone who has eaten the Iberico ham from acorn fed pigs will know the wonderful oily flavour of the celebrated charcuterie. This, until recently was my way of indirectly imbibing upon acorns, through the beasts who had consumed them.

Acorn Bread

The day's highlight was the acorn bread baked in a dutch oven. It was a gastronomic top 5 moment, when as the glowing embers were brushed off the cast iron pot, out emerged a triumphant steaming crusty, dark loaf of ancient wheat & acorness. The best tasting loaf I have ever eaten.

The acorn bread was a blend of kamut flour & acorn flour (3parts kamut/1part acorn) kneaded with yeast, salt and water in the usual way and given a day long proving, knocked back twice then baked in a dutch oven.

Dutch oven

Magic moment.

The lovely Anna Richardson beaming with pride at her bread.

Acorn, Hawthorn Berry & Sloe Pudding (authentic stone age special)

Poached apple & sloes - roughly mashed acorn - hawthorn berries Poach the haws & strain through a sieve Mix all three together. Plop into a sycamore leaf and use stalk to thread closed Leave in the embers of the fire for about 20 minutes. Open the leaf and enjoy dessert

Fred Flintstone Burgers

Fry some onions, add to acron flour, grated carrot, courgette & anything else you fancy

Form into burger shapes and shallow fry in oil A memorable day in the woods. I can't wait till next autumn when acorn will be on my menu. Acorn canapes with roasted squirrel and haw jelly? As a corny, but irresistible foot note I bought these shoes this week. Do they look like an acorn eaters shoes?

Crab, Corn & Chili

Dorset Spider Crab

Crab and Corn Chili Fritters

Hello Folks!

It's been an absurdly long time, where I almost got into the returning late library book syndrome. Also a lack of camera, then a new camera but couldn't transfer the images to my computer, and a whole host other excuses. So without further ado, I will share here my afternoon's endeavours with the fruits of my forraging from the farmers market.

Having just got to the end of a marathon summer of cooking and catering, I have as most people do on their first day off, gone down with a filthy cold with fever. The food we crave at such times is usually strong, umami and robust. Something to cut through the deadened senses and create some sensory stimulation. Of course chili, garlic, shellfish and onions are all good choices. The bright and cheery colour of corn is uplifting and soothing.

I took this beautiful spider crab and extracted his meat and then made a crab stock. This is where the real treasure is buried. A crab stock is a culinary gem, a crab bisque the ultimate soup in my opinion. And boy do I intend to make a crab and sweetcorn soup tomorrow from it.

In the meantime staying with the crab, chili & corn combination I made some fritters. A fast and easy meal. Once you have extracted the crab meat of course, from start to finish 15 minutes flat. To beat an egg, whisk in some flour, chop some spring onions, chili, zest a lemon and flake the crab meat in, fry the fritters and boil some beans. Now how hard can that be? This would work just as well (though I doubt as delicious) with tinned crab meat and corn.

Crab & Corn Fritters

For 4

• The meat from one decent sized crab (approx 1 kilo - yields approx 200-250gm)
• Corn kernels scraped from 2 cobs (boiled for about 7/8 minutes)
• 2 eggs beaten
• 100 grammes plain white flour
• 6 Spring onions sliced finely
• A handful of mint
• Zest of a lemon
• 2 jallapeno chilis
• Sunflower oil for shallow frying
• Salt and pepper

Method

1. Mix the egg and flour to form the basis of the batter.
2. Add the corn kernels, mint, spring onions, chili and mix well.
3. Fold in the crab meat and mix carefully and season.
4. Heat oil in frying pan and when very hot, fry spoonfuls of the mixture until crispy on both sides.
5. Drain of kitchen paper and serve with chili jam or mayonnaise and a palate cleansing salad.

Crab, Corn & Chili Soup

Now for those beautiful shells.....

After extracting the meat and saving the shells, smash them up with a rolling pin being careful not to get in the way of flying shards of shell. Then follow the usual procedure for stock making, although with fish and shellfish stocks, only a short simmer is needed.

Crab Stock

• Crab shells
• 1 onion cut up small
• 1 leek cleaned and cut up small
• 1 small carrot cut up small
• 2 sticks of celery
• 4 or 5 tomatoes cut up
• 2 bay leaves
• 10 peppercorns
• 1 tsp fennel seeds
• Some parsley stalks
• Sprig of thyme
• 2 Tbsp olive oil

1. Heat the oil in a stock pot and saute the onion, celery, carrot and crab shells until they begin to colour and aromas are released. About 10 minutes.
2. Add all the other ingredients, and add water to cover.
3. Bring to the boil and continually skim off the scum that may arise.
4. Turn down the heat to simmer for 20 minutes.
5. Strain through a fine seive and reserve.

This stock freezes very well. Keeps in the fridge for about 3 days.

Crab Stock

Crab, Corn & Chili Soup

Method for Soup

• 2 Shallots diced
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 leek cleaned and chopped finely
• 4 cobs of corn - scrapped of kernels
• 1 litre of crab stock (heated)
• A good pinch of saffron infused with a little of the crab stock
• 250ml double cream
• Fresh chili chopped finely
• Juice of 1 lemon (or lime)
• Optional crab meat
• Knob of butter and glug of olive oil

1. Firstly heat the butter and oil and saute the shallots and leeks until soft and tender but not golden (about 3-5 minutes)
2. Add the garlic and chili followed by the corn kernels, fry for about 3 minutes
3. Add the hot crab stock and bring to a simmer and leave for about 20 minutes until the corn is cooked.
4. Take off the heat and add the lemon juice and cream.
5. Add the crab meat if using.

Chestnut & Mushroom Pudding - Vegetarian Christmas

Chestnut, mushroom & nut pudding with shallot & madeira sauce

For most folk rolling up their sleeves to take on the often challenging festive catering, the vegetarian at the table can cause the most consternation. Many people are thrown and end up 'just buying a veggie ready meal'. This delicious combination uses all the seasonal standards; chestnuts, mushrooms, walnuts and robust herbs. The suet crust is a wintry and comforting wrapper which soaks up the madeira and shallot sauce.

The quantities given in this recipe will make about 2 portions, enough for 2 small individual bowls. Of course you can double up for a large version. You will have some filling left over which would not be out of place on your own turkey plate. The filling is delicious and will find itself at the very worse as a welcome addition to the left over turkey pie, or post Christmas soup pot.

Chestnut & mushroom filling

• 1 small onion & bayleaf
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 small stick of celery
• 50gms dried chestnuts (soaked over night and boiled for an hour) or 100gms chestnuts either from vacpac or an overpriced jar.
• 100gms chestnut mushrooms chopped quite small but not too fine
• 50gms mixed nuts roughly chopped (keep the shape of some)
• 1 tablespoon of breadcrumbs
• generous knob of butter
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 100ml of vegetable stock (use some of the cooking liquid of the chestnuts if using)
• A generous glug of madeira wine (or use red wine)
• A good handful of mixed sage, parsley, thyme
• Seasoning

1. Firstly fry the chopped onion in the butter with a bayleaf, until soft (5 minutes)
2. Add the chopped garlic, and finely chopped celery and the roughly chopped mushrooms, fry until soft.
3. Add the flour and stir until absorbed and cook on a low heat stirring all the time to 'cook' the flour. Then take off the heat as you add the madeira or wine, stir so that the liquid absorbs evenly, then add the stock,
4. Put back on the heat and cook for about a minute, then add the chopped chestnuts, nuts and stir in the breadcrumbs and herbs. Season to taste and set the mixture aside.

You can reserve the mixture for several days or freeze until you want to use it.

Suet Crust

(enough for 2 small pudding basins)

• 150gms self raising flour
• 75gms vegetarian suet (I use Community as they are sound sourcers of palm oil)
• half teaspoon dried mustard powder
• half a handful of mixed herbs
• Salt
• Some butter for greasing
• A little foil and some greaseproof paper and string

1. Put a pan large enough to contain the pudding bowl, or bowls on to boil.
2. Mix the flour, salt, suet, herbs and mustard powder with enough water to bring it together into a soft and pliable dough. Go slowly with the water!
3. Separate one quarter of the dough which will be for the lid.
4. Lightly butter the pudding bowl.
5. Roll out the pastry into a circle which will line the pudding bowl.
6. Pile in the mixture and then roll out the remaining quarter into a round to cover the bowl. Trim off the excess and dampen the suet disk edges so that it sticks to the top of the pudding bowl.


7. Grease a piece of foil and place on top of the pudding. Then cover with greaseproof paper tying a piece of string to securely fix the paper down. Trim the paper.


8. Lower this into the boiling water (which should be about 3/4 up the side of the pudding bowl.
9. Allow to simmer for about 2 hours.
10. Allow to rest for about 10 minutes and then turn out the glorious pudding, preferably on a bed of red cabbage and serve the sauce around the outside.

Madeira Sauce

1 small shallot finely chopped

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 sprig of thyme

half a wine glass of Madeira wine

100ml veg stock

25gms butter.

1. Fry the chopped shallot in the a knob of the butter with the thyme for about a minute.
2. Add the balsamic vinegar and allow to boil away.
3. Add the Madeira and allow to simmer away to almost nothing.
4. Add the vegetable stock and allow to simmer away by half.
5. Off the heat whisk in the butter which will give a silky shine and lovely buttery flavour.
6. Season to taste.

You can make in advance and reheat gently.

Chicken Noodle Soup, Well Being & Happiness

Steaming, spicy, warming bowl of goodness

London has just plummeted in temperature and now is the time for warming & comfort-giving food.  Food which gives us a glow and enhances well being.  

As I write I hear on the radio David Cameron talking about how well being could be evaluated.  I say a bowl of chicken noodle soup is a definition of well being and happiness, and we would all be better off if everyone was drinking it.  (Vegetarians would have a meat free option of course).  

This chicken soup is also topical as we are in European Waste Reduction Week . Virtually all the ingredients for this soup were scraps plus a minor contribution from the store cupboard.  The basis of the soup is of course chicken stock, principally made from scraps and leftovers of the chicken carcass. 

This soup is dedicated to using up your leftovers, national well being and happiness.

A raid in the cupboard and fridge to find a few bits

This is an idea for soup, and of course can include anything.

• 1 shallot diced finely
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped
• 1 small thumb of ginger peeled and sliced
• 2 chilis (depending on how hot you wish), supplemented with a few dried
• 1 lime
• 2 star anise
• 2 small carrots
• A quarter of slightly worse for wear pointed cabbage
• A few leaves of mint
• A small bundle of noodles (you could add pasta)
• 750ml of chicken stock (so much the better when it's from a carcass)
• 2 Tablespoons sunflower oil
• Some shredded chicken meat 
• Seasoning

1. Heat oil in pan and add the shallots for 2 minutes, then add the garlic, chili and ginger, fry for a minute.
2. Add the carrots and stir fry for a minute or two.
3. Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil, turn down to simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Add the finely shredded cabbage and when the stock is simmering, add the noodles and cook until soft. Add the shredded chicken to warm through.
5. Serve with chopped mint and squeeze of lime juice.

Smile and be warm and happy.

Love Food Hate Waste 5 Rescue Recipes

No one can deny that food waste is an unpalatable subject, even more so are the statistics. Here are some of the facts....

• We throw away 8.3 million tones of food each year
• 5.3 million tones of this total is food which is fit for consumption
• £12 billion each year is thrown to landfill, which is avoidable!
• This is equivalent to £480 each year for the average household or £680 a year for families with children, equivalent to £50 per month.
• The food sent to landfill generates methane, a greenhouse gas more powerful than carbon dioxide.
• This emission is equivalent to 20 million tones of carbon dioxide.
• If we stopped wasting food it would be equivalent to taking 25% of the cars off our roads.

It is sobering reading. These statistics are published by Love Food Hate Waste, the campaign which was launched 4 years ago to tackle the food waste in the UK by domestic households. This is not the industry sector, for which we have no influence.

This means you and me. We are in wholesale denial about our own part in throwing away food with 84% believing that they throw no food away or hardly any food away.

Hmmm, 8.3 million tonnes got there somehow......

Over the last year I have held cooking demonstrations for the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, showing how using the foods that are often thrown away can be delicious and very easy to prepare.

Love Food Hate Waste run an informative and resource packed website with excellent tips about storing food, using it up and portion control. Much of the avoidable waste is us cooking more than we eat. One of the top tips from LFHW is to have a well thought out store cupboard, giving you plenty of scope for using up the scraps.

So without further reason to feel incapacitated with the overwhelm of hopelessness in the face of mega tonnes of rotting food in the landfill, it is heartening to realise that changing this can start in your own kitchen. Simply deciding that left overs are worth using, eating up, re-hashing and fun. Some of the family's favourite meals are the left over creations.

Here are 5 recipes showing some simple rescue recipes.

Pear Cake

I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to buying fruit that I don't always eat up. About a tenth of all food waste is fruit. This excellent rescue recipe can save a bowl of pears or apples from going into the bin with store cupboard stand-bys.

• 225g softened butter
• 225g caster sugar (reserve a tablespoon)
• About 400-500gms of apples or pears of any variety chopped up into small dice.
• The rind of 1 lemon finely grated and its juice
• 4 eggs
• 225g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tablespoon ground almonds (optional)

1. Blend the butter and sugar until pale.
2. Add the eggs one at a time and beat until blended.
3. Add the lemon and almonds
4. Fold in the flour and baking powder.
5. Gently add and fold in the fruit.
6. Pile into a 22cm springform baking tin 22 cm, sprinkling the top with reserved tablespoon of sugar and bake at 170C for about 45 minutes or until it is golden and cooked in the middle.
7. Release the mould when cool and serve.

Rocket and Walnut Pesto

Will keep for a least 2 weeks in a jar in the fridge

An instant ready meal

Virtually everyone admits to throwing away salad and herbs. Full of good intentions when out buying and no doubt seduced with 'buy one get one free' offers. This rocket and walnut pesto recipe can save that rocket just on the turn with ingredients we very often have in our store cupboard. The same remedy can be applied to any mixture of herbs or watercress.

• 50g rocket
• 1 clove of garlic
• 25g walnuts
• 25g finely grated Parmesan or other hard cheese
• 50ml olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Rocket, olive oil, garlic, Parmesan and walnuts (packet nuts work perfectly)

Simply blend all the ingredients in a food processor, adding finely grated hard cheese at the end.

Adding chili would be a welcome addition

Cornbread

Sometimes we buy special ingredients for a recipe and use what is needed and then leave the said ingredient languishing in the cupboard for months. Thrown out when we have exceeded the use by date. On my last Love Food cooking demo I was asked to feature some ingredients that may normally be left behind once we have made the recipe book dish just once. Polenta or cornmeal (the same thing by the way) is a something that may be such an ingredient. This is a great grain for making muffins or cornbread.

This cornbread can be made start to finish in 25 minutes maximum and is so heart warming and comforting that once you have tried it, will become a regular fixture. It makes a welcome change from bread to serve with soup.

Standard Recipe

150g polenta, or cornmeal

150g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

275ml buttermilk or sour milk or just milk

100ml milk

3 eggs

50g melted butter

Salt and pepper

Add any further ingredients

A baking tray about 30cm x 15cm lightly greased

Firstly select what needs using up. You can add cooked meat, grated cheese, tinned corn, red onion, any herbs, veg grated.

Combine all the ingredients together, adding all the 'use up' items.

Pour into a greased baking tin and bake at 180C for about 20 minutes, until golden and cooked through.

Eat as soon as it comes out of the oven.....

Cauliflower Fritters

The great British cauliflower is an unsung hero. I love cauliflower sauteed in spices until caramelised and served as a salad. Making fritters another great way to use it up along with other store cupboard items. One cauliflower and a few ingredients goes a long way. Serve with a raita or herby yogurt and a bit more cupboard combing and you will have a meal on your hands. I love how my fussy son who doesn't like cauliflower loves these.....

• 1 Cauliflower
• 1 onion
• 1 or 2 chilies
• 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1tsp coriander, salt & pepper
• 3 eggs
• Handful of coriander
• 100gms of plain flour
• Sunflower oil for shallow frying

1. Cut the cauliflower into florets and boil until cooked, mash lightly
2. Add all the other ingredients with beaten eggs and flours (I added some oatmeal)
3. Fry in hot oil until golden and cooked all the way through
4. Drain on kitchen paper

Serving idea, with herby yogurt dip and salad

Savoury Potato Skins

16% of our wasted food is vegetables and salad. Potatoes rank highly within this total.

This is a delicious snack and served with home made soup makes a nutritious and economical meal. The beauty of this potato skin dish is that you can put anything that needs using up in. Ham, bacon, tuna, left over meat, capers, feta, peppers, courgettes, olives, sun dried tomatoes, mushrooms are some of the typical items that knock around my fridge. Often just a spoon of each, but with this rescue idea will end up as a dish in its own right.

The humble potato along with some scraps

Firstly forage in the fridge and comb your cupboards

Bake the potatoes until soft

Scoop out the potato flesh, leaving the skins intact

Lightly mash the potato flesh with a few tablespoons of milk, grating the cheese and chopping up the scraps into small pieces. Mix together and pile into the skins.

Bake in the oven until hot through and golden on top

Serve with a salad

The Spirit of Terra Madre & An estate in South London

In the last week I have been on a food pilgrimage to the biannual Slow Food Festival, Terra Madre in Turin. The Piedmonte capital city becomes the destination of 7000 delegates from 160 countries, representing every corner of the planet. Farmers, food producers, cooks, teachers and young people all connected in a common interest of the food we eat and issues of food security at local and global level. Terra Madre is a festival of food communities, where food culture and diversity are celebrated, like minds and hearts meet, ideas are exchanged.

Workshops, seminars, talks, debates and national meetings take place, translated into 6 languages. Films, music, art, craft and national costumes colour the spectacle. Running alongside this Olympic games of food culture, is the Salone Del Gusto, a food exhibition where 2000 traders from all over the world exhibit their wares in an epic market place, under the roof of the former Fiat car factory. Yes, it’s mad. The overwhelm of olive oil, balsamico, Canadian red wheat, blue corn, cereals, poppy seeds, air dried Romanian mutton, fruit pasta from Azerbaijan, apricots from Afghanistan, rare varieties of Dehradun rice, more cheeses than can be comprehended, all create a gastronomic cacophony.

This is not the preserve of the privileged, alongside the likes of Lavazza and San Daniele hams, trades the small producer from the humblest background with a delegation of indigenous communities with air dried meats and forest berry preserves. The united nations of the small producer food world gather, trade and exchange ideas. The gastronomic cognescenti mix with culinary novices. For 5 days a few acres of Turin becomes the centre of the food world.

Despite having mixed opinions on the running of Slow Food UK, I remain resolutely committed to message of Slow Food’s core tripartite of Good, Clean and Fair. I spent time with some inspiring and creative members of the UK food community. Amongst them, Highland crofters from Shetland Isles and Skye, a breeder of Welsh sheep, farming on the side of Snowdon, a charcuterie producer (and winner of the Observer Food Magazine Producer of the Year no less) from Monmouthshire, a food scientist and academic from University of Plymouth, a talented and accomplished Indian chef specializing in British cuisine, who runs Slow Food Cornwall, and some of my old muckers from Slow Food London, to name but a few. In a 4 day marathon we tasted, sipped, compared, recounted this or that lecture and debated the food frenzy.

Slow Food founder and leader Carlo Petrini

The Terra Madre is about the spirit of community and for me the salient issue is how this that can be realistically channelled into the work we do and love.

After the Last Terra Madre in 2008, the UK chef delegation pledged to teach young people about food and the wider issues. I committed to teaching young people in deprived areas of London.

After nearly 2 years of this work I have started a teaching programme, which teaches cooking and places equal emphasis on sitting at the table, eating and talking. It has successfully linked urban young people with the bigger picture of their food.

Over the last year, I have run a weekly class with London Local Authority Southwark, in their Targeted Youth Service, teaching young people involved with crime or those at high risk and their families. The experience convinced me of its benefits and the potential for further developing it.

Southwark Youth Inclusion Programme

Mustafa amazed me with his take on my Patty Pan recipe!

At a summer course I ran, I asked the group how the recent Pakistan floods & Russian fires might affect us here. ‘Wheat prices will increase’ they said. I was bursting with pride as my cohort of Bermondsey youngsters had clearly been paying attention at a visit to London craft baker, Flour Power City, who generously indulged us in a bread tasting of their entire range with a talk which commanded their full attention (no small task).

Which leads me straight into the co highlight of the last week. I gave a demonstration on an estate in Camberwell, which was launching a new food growing garden project. My demonstration featured the vegetables planned for harvesting next year. A wide selection of residents ranging from half term holiday school kids, to older pensioners from an eclectic mix of backgrounds and cultures enjoyed a 4 course vegetable based feast.

The most inspiring thing about community cooking is the way a group comes to life as they engage in conviviality and food discussion. It is never long before stories of ‘my nan used to make….’ and 'back home, we would ....’. And the exchange of ideas and wisdom unfolds. A far cry from a packet being opened and thrown in the microwave, eaten in isolation.

One resident made a tea from the leaves of the quince tree. Adnam is originally from Turkey and is a Camberwell forager, although he doesn’t consider it foraging, more like common sense. He explained that quince and lime leaves should be picked when flowering, then dried and used for making herbal teas. He indulged us all with quince leaf or lime leaf tea, sweetened with his own Kennington Park Lodge honey. This will see off sore throats and build up immunity for winter months. I imagined that this has passed down a very long line of Turkish wisdom. Everyone was touched by this example of zero food miles, available and free in their own estate.

Lime leaves picked when flowering and dried.

Simmered for 5 minutes for tea

Quince leaves to ward off the winter blues and see off a sore throat

The menu of hearty vegetable broth, cheddar, leek & onion potatoes skins, spicy cauliflower fritters and quince, apple & pear stewed in syrup which was whipped up in front of them within an hour was well received and critical acclaim was in order.

The residents all enjoyed the demo and said they were amazed at how these standard everyday vegetables had been transformed into a delicious meal so quickly and easily. I had really enjoyed being part of this day, learning myself yet another pearl of wisdom about the blessed quince and witnessing the residents of a South London estate becoming engaged in food growing, cooking and seeing their food horizons, visibly expanded.

This was a real Terra Madre story.