Ocean Commotion, a book for children

Sometime last year, I wrote about food wastage in hotels. It does pain me to see a lot of food served to people who couldn't possibly eat that much, only to be thrown in the bin. Our society seems to want to see abundance all around us in every shape and form, as some sort of marker of our success. Restaurants often want to show diners large quantities on their plates (or, if they're following the 'small plates' trend, they want to give you lots of those plates). Watching cooking programmes on TV, it's not unusual (and indeed we expect) to see over-stuffed larders, and tables packed with a mosaic of colourful dishes and pretty plates. 

In the supermarket, there are so many shelves of fresh, packaged fish, meat and chicken. The shelves seem to want to be full all of the time. But does all of that actually get sold? WRAP, an organisation working to reduce food wastage, estimates that, in supermarkets and convenience stores in the UK alone, 3.6 million tonnes of food product was wasted in 2009. To put that immense figure in perspective, it's roughly equivalent to the weight of 13 double-decker Airbus A380s, without passengers and luggage. (Given that food product is not going to be as dense as the material that goes into making an aircraft, I can't imagine what volume 3.6 million tonnes would take up.)

That seems to me to be such a pity. If people are not buying it, why are shops stocking it? Why is this stuff making it into the supply chain at all, if we're supposed to be operating in free markets? (Yep, loaded question.) I can't help feeling that nature yields such beauteous creations to nourish us with, but that it's a bit of a slap in the face, the way we greedily grab as much as we can of all of that and use it so callously.

This is why I'd like to share a book published by a dear friend of ours. Titled 'Ocean Commotion', the book is a story for children written by Aruna Khanzada and beautifully illustrated with photographs of craft-work fish (all of which was made by children at a recent event at the Chalk Farm Library). I don't want to give away the story, but you can preview it (and buy a copy if you like) here. Aruna is, in my humble opinion, one of those positive-energy-people spinning in the Universe, and I'm so glad that she's channelled some of her energy into this book.

Over-fishing, together with food wastage more generally, is a problem. And as with many problems, I think awareness is the first step.

Love

Truffle

Time to Detox!

Yep, and if you're up to date with the blog you'll know why.  Having spent two weeks in San Francisco giving in to all that was novel and intriguing, Frangelico and I have returned to London with a little more extra luggage than just the round cast-iron casserole - with 'round' being the operative word here.  All that walking on the famously steep San Franciscan gradients could only keep on top of so much, it seems, and in the end the salads, outstanding fruit, and other healthy options that did manage to get into the field were overwhelmed by the barrage of (very tasty) refined carbs, fried food and (in some places) double-sized portions.

Some of the steep inclines in San Francisco

Those large portions are quite a challenge for me.  Like many in my generation, I was brought up in the clean plate school, where the words "don't waste it" were coming out of adults' mouths so often at mealtimes, that they may as well have been cross-stitched and framed above a door.  As a kid, I took my formal and informal education very seriously (more than most and a little too much, I realise with hindsight).  So overcoming that programming requires a huge effort, and you win some, you lose some.

Contrary to the stereotype, it's not just in the US that portion sizes are larger than the average human being can manage - I've noticed many restaurants in London piling on the pasta or noodles too.  Marginal cost to the restaurant of these ingredients: slim.  Visual impact on the customer of a larger plate and perceived value-for-money, which the restaurant can then leverage into a bigger mark-up: priceless.

Another danger that's rampant in the developed world is the proliferation of refined carbs (especially in the form of white sugar, which is added even to simple things like bread).  My experience with refined carbs has been that, in addition to the sugar roller-coaster and the surplus energy getting stored as fat, they actually make your body visibly puff up.  A friend told me that when she traveled (away from the world of refined carbs), her frame would shrink noticeably, without her actually losing any weight.  I don't know the chemistry behind this phenomenon though.

Excess salt is another challenge.  Restaurants are too heavy-handed with salt, either because they're trying to cover up poor quality and tasteless ingredients, or because they're on a slippery slope of adding more salt to satisfy customers who are used to high salt levels across the board.  At one fine restaurant in London, the amount of salt used to season the fish went up bit by bit by bit over a few months, until it eventually became inedible.

Some of the delicious (and low cal veggie) food, enjoyed with a view of the Golden Gate

Don't get me wrong - I thoroughly enjoyed the food fest in San Francisco!  I've grown to accept that it's impossible to live life on a stable plane (who wants to anyway?), and that there will be periods of indulgence and corresponding periods of rebalancing required.  So, for the next two weeks, I'm putting myself on a self-styled detox - and let's face it, diet - programme.  This will involve eliminating wheat (no bread, pasta or noodles - sob!), refined carbs (no white rice), dairy (no cheese, cream, milk or yoghurt), added sugar (hang on, does this mean no sticky toffee pudding??), and anything else I figure out along the way.  Step forward: brown rice, millet bread, quinoa, and brown rice pasta (a genius invention, which, in London, I've found only in Whole Foods); soy milk and soy yoghurt; plenty of vegetables; white fish, chicken and lean beef; and red peppers, grapefruit juice and tomato sauce (which are said to reduce hunger pangs).

As always, the theory is one thing and the practice another, so let's see how it goes.  Any support from you guys in the form of cheering on or further tips will be most welcome!  And, please, share your experiences too.  What do you do to cut back after holiday indulgences?

Here's what we had for dinner last night, Meal One of the programme.

1. Sprinkle some breadcrumbs, lemon zest, chopped parsley and minced garlic on a plate.  Season with a touch of salt and pepper.  Spray on some olive oil to bind if necessary.
2. Season white fish fillets with salt.
3. Pat breadcrumb mixture onto fish.
4. Place fish on a hot frying pan and spray on a bit of olive oil.  Ideally, I'd have put the fish in a hot oven, but I was too tired to wait for the oven to heat up.
5. Serve with brown rice and steamed broccoli.

After I made this, I realised that wheat had sneaked in via the breadcrumbs.  Oh well, incrementalism is the thing to keep in mind.  I'm not expecting my palate to switch back overnight.

And don't worry, I won't subject you to healthy recipes and photos for the next two weeks.  There is still plenty of reportage to come from San Francisco!

Love

Truffle

Maria's Sopa de Cenoura

One of the perks of travelling relatively often to the Algarve is that we get to sample some excellent Portuguese food. With more than 40% of the mainland's borders consisting of Atlantic coastline, the quality of seafood in Portugal is outstanding. When they say ‘fresh fish’ in the Algarve, they don’t mean that it was in a freezer truck for a week being brought to the city – they mean it was caught earlier that day, maybe even by someone the restaurant owner or chef knows by name, and brought straight to the kitchen. The fish is then grilled with the magical Mediterranean ingredients of olive oil and garlic. In what I’ve seen of Europe so far, Portugal has to be the place where I’ve had the best fish. The only other country in the world that can compete is Japan, but that’s almost 6,000 miles away…

Although I’m particularly fond of the seafood – probably because of my own coastal heritage – there are other much-loved dishes. One of my favourites is Arroz de Pato, a melting duck rice with almost-caramelized slices of chorizo. This is made by cooking the duck in a broth with vegetables, herbs and spices. The cooked duck is shredded, while the broth (with all the essence of the vegetables and the duck fat) is used to cook the rice. The rice and shredded duck are then layered in earthenware and finished in the oven, with slices of chorizo on top. I’m minded to try making this sometime. If I do, I’ll share a recipe.

Until then, though, I thought I’d have a go at something simpler (and far less calorific). Portuguese soups are another delight discovered on travels, and I picked up a recipe on my most recent visit. Most of the soups that I’ve come across feature some key ingredient with a base of potato, to give that cream textured finish: for example, green cabbage or kale for the famous Caldo Verde, and carrot for Sopa de Cenoura. This Sopa de Cenoura recipe is from Maria, a lady who joined my sister’s household last year to help look after the most-recently-arrived cherub. Maria told me the ingredients in Portuguese, so I hope I managed to catch everything!


5 carrots
1 courgette
1 potato
3 onions
3 cloves garlic
Some olive oil

1. Simply prepare and chop all the vegetables roughly, and boil them in water until tender. (Update: after a few tries, I've decided that best results are obtained by boiling in chicken stock, the salted variety or with salt added.)
2. Add a few good glugs of olive oil and boil for another 5 minutes.
3. Blend with a hand blender.
4. Season to taste.


That’s it. I realized, after making this at the weekend, that the quality of vegetables in the Algarve is pretty outstanding too – my supermarket vegetables couldn’t compete with the flavour that was coaxed out of the Portuguese ones. If your source of vegetables is like mine, I’d recommend adding a little bit of a stock cube or some bouillon powder at step 1. (I’d be interested to hear of the results if any of you tries this recipe with quality organic vegetables, sans bouillon.)

Serve with some toasted sourdough bread. For a true Algarvio experience, follow up with grilled fish, then a Bolo de Iogurte (yoghurt cake) with coffee.

To all our Portuguese friends and friends of Portugal out there, I'd love to have some recommendations of your favourite dishes to try on my next trip!

Love

Truffle