Chilli Vanilli

Here at the seasonal beets, we realise that there are some lovely fruit and vegetables that will never be grown locally and thus are never in season.

What to do? For things like leaves, root vegetables and fruits there is almost always a local and seasonal substitution (spinach and leeks for salads, apples instead of bananas, plums for pineapples and so on). Alas, for other ingredients - in the words of Margaret Thatcher - there is simply no alternative.

Enter the Chilli Pepper!

I'm a big advocate of spicy food, especially right now in the cold winter months when we could all do with a little more heat. They are also particularly well suited for sweating out a case of the winter sniffles. A well-placed chilli can spice up all kinds of dishes from curries to seafood to a hearty gulash soup. But shop-bought chillis, alas, do not generally come from anywhere near to Europe. India, China, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Mexico, Vietnam, Peru, Pakistan, Ghana and Bangladesh account for 85% of global chili production.

The absolute best way to lower your chilli-induced footprint while still enjoying plenty of spicy goodness is to grow your own plants. Chillies grow surprisingly well indoors all year round, they're cheap, and you can buy literally hundreds of varieties to experiment with.

A little known fact about chilis is that the heat is not contained within the seeds themselves but rather in a compound called Capsaicin that coats the seeds and the insides of the pepper. Capsaicin is insoluble in water, which means that knocking back a glass of icy-cold water in a 'spicy' moment will do nothing to relieve your burning tongue! Instead, try dairy products like sour cream - an indian 'lassi' for example is a great accompaniment to a hot curry. And failing that, a cold beer usually helps too (even if it's just a placebo!).

One of my favourite recipies is a super-spicy Thai style Green Papaya Salad. In the somewhat-predictable absence of green papayas, you can use cucumber as a substitute. The key to this salad is the balance of the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar and chilli - keep mixing up the quantities until you reach the perfect balance of flavours.

Shred the papaya or cucumber (using a grater or potato peeler, your choice). If you're feeling flush you can quarter a couple of tomatoes and add them to the shredded mixture too. Next, take between one to ten small red chillis (depending on your taste buds and your bravery), a couple of cloves of chopped garlic (again, amount depending on your taste buds), and a handful of chopped green beans and grind together in a pestle and mortar until broken up but not paste-like. Add to this a spoonful of sugar (palm sugar is best), the juice of a lime, one tablespoon of fish sauce and a handful of dried shrimp (optional). Give it a good bash again with the pestle and mortar and then mix with the shredded papaya. Top with roasted and coarsely chopped peanuts and enjoy!

I don't know much butter know I love you

Winter is a difficult time of year to get excited about, not least in the cooking department. After months of cooking root veg, who can blame you if your greatest culinary desire is the quick fix of a salad. Root vegetables (the humble carrot aside) are not really known for their speed of delivery. Its a strange man who enjoys chomping on some raw turnip.

They are also sometimes pretty time consuming to prepare. Whilst The Seasonal Beets thoroughly recommend keeping skins on where possible (for we all know that's where the best nutrition is stored) there are times when that is just not possible. My dog loves turnip skin: I am less enamoured by its woody texture.

On top of that whilst root vegetables are filled with nutrition and can be sweet as sugar, the stereotypical varieties we can easily access do lack a certain variation in flavour (yes bothersome friend turnip I'm referring to you again).

And yet root vegetables are cheap, nutritious and very seasonal so we should definitely be eating them in plentiful supply. How can we fix this tricky conundrum? The answer my friends is butter.

"Is there anything better than butter? Think it over, any time you taste something that's delicious beyond imagining and you say 'what's in this?' the answer is always going to be butter. The day there is a meteorite rushing toward Earth and we have thirty days to live, I am going to spend it eating butter. Here is my final word on the subject, you can never have too much butter." Julie Powell, Julie and Julia.

Whilst butter alone is wonderful, its magical taste enhancing capabilities can be heightened by the addition of a few key ingredients. Flavoured butter should be a staple in any tasty kitchen. It can be added to baked potatoes; mashed vegetables, boiled vegetables, oven roasted vegetables, fry your vegetables in it or just spread on a piece of crusty toast. The possibilities are for flavoured butter are endless and its so easy to make.

• Take 1 packet of unsalted butter and leave it out of the fridge to soften.
• Then get out the biceps and your spatula and start beating the butter until it becomes soft and pliable (or use a foodmixer...).
• Add your ingredients and whip into a frenzy until all incorporated.
• Leave to stand for 30 minutes and then place it in the fridge to harden.
• Once hard roll into a sausage shape and wrap in baking parchment (like a christmas cracker)
• This can then be stored in the freezer. Just cut away what you need when you need it.

Recipes for flavoured butter

Roasted Garlic Butter (excellent in mash)

1 packet of butter

1 large head of garlic

1/4 tsp salt

Cut the garlic in half and roast the garlic in the oven until soft. Squidge out the garlic, let it cool and add to your butter.

Herby Butter

(the world is your oyster here, I like rosemary and thyme together but tarragon is also very nice, especially on mushrooms! Check out our recipe booklets for other good herb/veg combos)

1 packet of butter

1 handful of freshly chopped herbs

1/2 tsp salt

Chilli Butter

(melt and use to make Kale Chips!)

1 packet of butter

A zest of half a lemon

1 tbsp of dried chilli flakes

1/4 tsp salt

Loads more recipes can be found on the BBC Good Food website and at The Nibble but look out for more flavoured butters on this blog too!

Whatta man.

I want to share with you a little bit of the love I feel for Mr Bill Bryson. Admittedly not a conventional hero Bill is, nevertheless, one of my most favourite writers and he never fails to educate, entertain and enlighten me (he certainly makes it on my list of 'people I'd like to have dinner with " which I concede, from those featured on this blog alone, is stretching to a medieval sized banquet affair...)

His latest offering is not a traditional travel book, and yet it is no less educational than his previous works: 'At Home' takes us on a voyage of factual discovery around Bill's... home. We visit the scullery, the hall, the bedroom, the garden, the stairs... in each of which Bill teaches about that which we have become so blase and accustomed.

'How lovely' I hear you say, 'but what the devil does this have to do with seasonal food?' Ok I will admit it. It's got absolutely nothing to do with seasonal food. Seasoned food, however, does play a major part of the dining room chapter. Ever wondered why salt and pepper play such a pivotal role in our culinary lives? If you are anything like me, the answer is probably not. But once raised, I realised it was certainly a question that I wouldn't object to knowing the answer too.

Unfortunately the answer is not that thrilling: our ancestors worked hard to find and source these little tasty devils and consequently we will blooming well honour their efforts by having them grace every table on every restaurant from here til kingdom come. Whilst I admit I was somewhat disappointed by this revelation, Bill soon perked me up by providing a whole host of exciting seasoning facts. The best of which are:

• You only need about 200mg of salt a day: most people eat 60 times that
• The Aztecs used to get their salt by evaporating their urine. Tasty!
• An ounce of cornflakes contained the same amount of salt as an ounce of salted peanuts (just one example of how processed foods contain ridiculous levels of salt. Best shun those ready meals I say and embrace a seasonal carrot instead)
• Peppercorns are the dried fruits of the plant Piper nigrum
• Christopher Columbus was actually a complete plonker and instead of returning to Europe from his infamous voyage with spices and gold, came back with treebark and iron pyrite.

Anyway what's the point of this post? To remind you to season, season, season!!! Processed food often tastes better (at least initially) than homemade stuff because we are reluctant to add seasoning to the dish. Don't worry, the level of salt which is added to homecooking is inevitably much much less than that added to readymeals. Don't scrimp on the seasoning, trust me your taste buds will thank you for it!

I'm stroganoff to live without you...

but thankfully I don't have to.

Seasonal, tasty and with multiple uses, this mushroom and beef stroganoff recipe ticks all the boxes.

The dish originated in Russia and was probably named after a member of the Strogonov family (how do you know when you've made it? well, having a worldwide culinary sensation bear your name is probably a small sign) Much like that other staple, Spaghetti Bolognese, everyone has their own version of Stroganoff: today I learnt that Sweden also has its very own variation: korvstroganoff.

This is my version of the famous dish. Its very quick (30 mins tops) and goes with just about anything you've got in the cupboard.

Mushroom and Beef Stroganoff (serves 4)

Ingredients :

1 onion (sliced)

250 g mushrooms (sliced) (I like using chestnut mushrooms but anything thats out at this time of year is fine)

4 frying steaks (cut into thin strips)

oil

marsala

4 tblps dried porcini mushrooms

250ml warm water

150ml creme fraiche

juice of half a lemon

dried thyme

seasoning

Method:

• Soak the porcini in the water.
• Season the beef within an inch of its life.
• In a large frying pan, briefly brown the steak. It should take no more than 4 minutes. Using a slated spoon remove the steak from the pan (Don't worry if it looks a bit pink in the middle, it's going back in later)
• Add the onions to the pan to cook in the beefy juices. (you might need to add some extra cooking oil at this stage). When the onions are translucent, remove them from the pan (it might sound like you are removing a lot of things from the pan but don't worry too much about the washing up, the beef and onions can be plonked in the same bowl at this stage)
• Add the mushrooms to the pan and fry until soft but retaining bite. You might need to add the mushrooms in batches. (Tip for cooking good mushrooms: 'don't crowd the mushrooms"!)
• Drain the porcini (keeping half the liquid) finely chop and add to the now cooked mushrooms. Add a good glug of marsala (this is optional but the alcohol burns off and makes it taste so much better!) and the mushroomy water.
• Return the beef and onions to the pan.
• Bring to the boil and immediately turn down the heat.
• Reduce the liquid by about half and squeeze in 1/2 the lemon juice. Stir!
• Add the creme fraiche and stir until warmed through.
• Sprinkle with thyme (a good teaspoon ought to do it, but don't let me hold you back) and season the whole dish again and add the remaining lemon juice.
• Serve with thick noodley pasta, white fluffy rice, on top of toasted french bread, in a baked potato: the list of accompaniments is quite possibly endless...

Message in A Bottle

I am currently reading a book about the "dangers" of Supermarkets. "Shopped: The Shocking Power of British Supermarkets" which is quite interesting and I may post a review once I'm done. However, what strikes me about it is that it entirely blames the supermarkets for our current food woes.

Now I acknowledge that supermarkets have made poor decisions and (always being up for a bit of corporate bashing myself) I recognise that this might be a consequence of their capitalistic goals. On the other hand, a lot of their misdemeanours are a direct consequence of our consumer wants (boneless fish anyone?). Consequently, we are not without blame and my new project is to remind supermarkets that no-one wants strawberries in January (which, hearteningly, apparently they don't because today the berries in my local store were being sold at half price).

My quest began a couple of days ago when I asked for Fairtrade coffee at a train station kiosk (which may have belonged to a large coffee corporation... guilty cough...). I will confess I never really think to engage the "baristas" beyond ensuring that they leave enough room for milk, however, on hearing my requestion for "Fairtrade" one of the baristas popped over to have a little chat with me about my coffee choice.

"That's one of our best Fairtrade coffees" she said. Whereupon I asked "is all your coffee Fairtrade?"
"Unfortunately not yet" said she "our espressos are all ethically sourced but some of our filter coffees have not been certified".
I asked her why this was and whilst she didn't really know but suggested "if all our customers came in and asked for Fairtrade filter coffee then I think that all our coffee would become Fairtrade pretty quickly. I will let our manager know that you asked for Fairtrade".

I really enjoyed my takeaway coffee. I feel a little bit more optimistic about life in the knowledge that people actively are trying to change the organisations they work for and that we can help them do it. So cue my new mission "Chat at the Checkout".

Today was day 1 and it started with Passata (it would have been better if it started with something a little less processed but meh we take our opportunities when we can). The checkout girl was doing her thing and scanning through my groceries when I caught her attention by clattering my 2 bottles of passata together (not entirely intentionally I must admit).

"Oh gosh, I nearly had a passata disaster" I said.
"That passata's lovely, almost as good as making your own sauce" said the girl. "Yes" I replied loudly "certainly at this time of year, when the tomatoes have to be shipped from so far away and so aren't very tasty".
"That's true" agreed the girl "sometimes they can be a bit watery".
"Absolutely" I bellowed "and you know with this passata that the tomatoes were probably picked and canned very quickly, potentially even in Britain this summer. Isn't it amazing how long tomatoes can keep in a can"
The girl then replied "it allows you to get that real tomatoey & basil flavour in the winter" (honestly I promise I wasnt paying her).
"If only I could remember to buy the best local tomatoes during their season and make the sauce myself". At this point the 2 middle-aged women in the queue start nodding their heads vigorously.
The girl says " we should advertise when the tomato season is and remind people to stock up for the winter".
I replied innocently "yes that would be really helpful". "Oh yes" agreed the women behind me.

Day 1 of "Chat at the Checkout" verdict: BLOOMING SUCCESSFUL!! OK I am willing to acknowledge that I had very eager and willing participants (had my fellow shoppers been 15 year old boys, I think the head shaking might have been for some other reason). Nevertheless, the Seasonal Beets project has taught me that people generally really do enjoy talking about food and that presumably includes supermarket workers also!

So this is my plea: next time you are in a supermarket try chatting with checkout people or the fish and bakery staff. Let them know what you are looking for and ask why they don't have it. It'll break up the monotony of their day and the message might get passed on up the line.

Engagement is the name of the game, and we want to play that game with you!

p.s. The passata was for Spaghetti Bolognese which I won't insult you by providing a recipe for, suffice to say that the secret to a good Bolognese is lashings of Worcester sauce.

p.p.s. If you are looking for ethically sourced and very tasty coffee in Skåne, check out Lilla Kafferosteriet in Malmö.

Tutti Rooti

Winter gets a bad rep for vegetables and unnecessarily so. This is the time when we can indulge in that hidden delight of the plant: the root!
Hearty, healthy and full of flavour this next recipe makes the most of winter's best produce.

(this recipe can be found in its original form on the BBC Good Food Website... but trust me its better this way)

Turnip and Bacon Pie

Ingredients
1 turnip (peeled and chopped into 2 cm cubes)
1 onion (chopped)
1 carrot (sliced)
12 rashers of bacon ( devoid of fat and chopped into slithers)
3 potatoes (peeled and chopped into chunks)
1 parsnip (peeled and chopped into chunks)
300ml chicken stock
lots of parsley (chopped)
1 tbls butter
1 tbls milk
salt and pepper

Method

• Boil your potatoes and parsnip until soft and then mash with the butter and milk.
• Fry the bacon in a little olive oil (or you can use some of the discarded fat)
  
• Remove the bacon from the pan and sauté the onions in the same oil (adding more if necessary) until soft
• Then add the turnip and carrot and cook for 2 minutes.
• Pour in the chicken stock and cook until the vegetables are soft but not smooshy.
• At this point you might want to add a little cornflour (about 2 tsp mixed in 2 tbls of water) to thicken the gravy
• Season the mix and stir in the parsley.
• Transfer the filling into a medium sized pie dish and cover with the mashed potato/parsnip.
  
• Fluff up the potato topping with a fork (this gives nice crusty bits later on)
• Grill the pie until the topping starts to turn crispy and light brown.
• Serve piping hot from the oven for a great winter supper.
  

I'm "fishing" for the one I love.

We hope that any readers of this blog are aware that vegetables are not available locally all year round, however, less appreciated is that fish and meat products also have a season. Unfortunately our supermarkets don't seem to realise this and they are constantly stocked with our regular fishy favourites: which in Northern Europe tend to be cod, salmon and tuna.


Now farmed fish is available pretty much all year round (which is partly why supermarkets love it so) but wild fish - like any natural product - has spawning periods when the fish are best avoided, not only for taste purposes but also because eating baby fish is just plain mean (and unsustainable).

This week saw the start of the Fish Fight campaign in the UK: fronted by sustainable foodie (and a Seasonal Beets fave) Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall. The campaign is focused on the EU's Common Fisheries Policy (the Common Agricultural Policy's less famous, but no less uglier, cousin) and the problem of discards (check out the video for more info).


Whilst Hugh and a host of other celebrity chefs are encouraging us to sign the petition to have the issue of discards discussed within the European Parliament, they also maintain that us average cooks can do our bit by diversifying our fish choices(yes of course Jamie Oliver is in on it too).

One of the easiest ways we can diversify what we eat without thinking too hard is to eat seasonally!

Unfortunately it doesn't even matter if you are equipped with the knowledge of seasonal fish, your supermarket will rarely stock much beyond the big 3 (although asking always shows demand!). So rather than equip you with a list of sustainable and seasonal fish, I suggest you hot foot it to your nearest fishmongers and ask the experts.

However, that said there is one fish of which I am aware of the season. Actually it's a shellfish... MUSSELS!

Mussels should only be eaten in a month with an R in it (which handily works in both Swedish and English!) and so as we are currently in JanuaRy we can feel safe in the knowledge that its perfectly alright to chow down on these little guys.

Super cheap, super tasty, super seasonal. Mussels are win win win in my eyes!

Mussels in Cider (serves 4)


Ingredients
1 onion
Mussels (enough for 4 people for a starter, I confess Ihave no idea how much this is but let me refer you back to that handy fishmonger chap, who will definitely have the knowledge and weigh you the correct amount accordingly)
butter
1 bottle cider
Parsley

Method

• Clean the mussels by removing the "beard"
• Give them a good scrub and run under the cold tap (you don't want to be eating sandy mussels)
• At this stage if any of the mussels are still open, give them a sharp tap on the worktop. If they close then they are still alive and can be used. If they fail to close they should be discarded. Somewhat gruesomely mussels should always be cooked alive.
  
• Chop the onion and sauté it with the butter in a large flat bottomed pan with a liduntil nice and soft.
• Add the mussels and the cider, place a lid on the pot and cook for 5 minutes until the shells are open (at this point you want to get rid of those mussels that haven't opened).
  
• Worrying tales of food poisoning mean it is sometimes tempting to overcook fish. Don't, it tastes ghastly: especially mussels which when overcooked taste like small rubber pellets (and is why I think they are disgusting on pizza)
• Remove the mussels from the pot, keeping the liquid.
• Boil the liquid for 1 minute or 2 more (to remove any alcohol and to reduce it slightly)
• Add a handful of freshly chopped parsley to the broth and then pour back over your big bowlful of mussels
• Serve with crusty bread to dip in the broth or make like a Belgian and serve with chunky potato chips (and by that I mean pomme frites)

The Seasonal Bible

Animal, Vegetable, Mineral

Barbara Kingsolver ed (2007)



I didn't think I'd ever find another book about seasonal eating that I would enjoy as much as The Omnivores Dilemma. I was wrong. Barbara Kingsolver is better known for her fiction; the highly acclaimed The Poisonwood Bible being perhaps her most famous novel. In this Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, however, she chooses autobiography as her genre and tells the story of a year in her families food life.

Barbara and her family's adventured in locavarianism (i.e. one who eats local foods) is somewhat different to that of Alisa and James in Plenty; yes they shop at farmers markets and forgo strawberries in January and bananas all year long, but they also endeavour to grow and produce much of their own vegetables and meat in their small(ish) farm in Virginia.

The book is a culinary delight with tales of boundless quantities of courgette (something I can certainly relate to), encouraging turkey mating (something I'm less familiar with) and their trials, tribulations and triumphs in growing, storing and cooking with their own food.

In terms of the writing Barbara takes the helm and it is really her journey and memories of food that we are given insight into. Elder daughter Camille provides short essays on her own teenage approach to seasonal eating and gives a small selection of favourite family recipes at the end of each chapter (which are available online at their website, but which- truth be told - I didn't find particularly inspiring). Husband Steven is not left out and the book is littered with his short, yet informative, knowledge pieces on seasonal eating.

This book was both less sciency and political than the other foodie books I've read recently. I've read some reviews that say it was self-righteous and preachy, however, I completely disagree. I thought it struck the balance between informative discussion and cosy family yarn perfectly.

It was a joy to read and Barbara and her family sound utterly delightful.