Paleo Schmaleo

So as befits someone who calls herself 'GluttonGirl', I've tried one or two slimming regimes in my time. And while I haven't been what an objective observer would call slim for about 20 years, they have been with limited success. What I do know though, is that when I want to drop a pound or 50, dropping the refined carbs seems to be the best way to do it (for me). I'm sure a proper expert would tell me why etc etc and I do think that once I start on the bread I JUST CAN'T STOP so I find it easier to keep away from anything refined/sugary.

Which brings me neatly to paleo. GluttonBoy has talked about this for a while and we've occasionally tried to do it, in a half-hearted fashion. The trouble with it, in my view, is that if you're out and about, and don't have anything with you to eat, and are starving, or at a client lunch or something like that, it's bread all the way. But, if you implement it in a sort of 80/20 fashion, then it does become do-able, with a bit of planning.

No refined carbs, no potatoes, no starch, no grains or pulses, no dairy. I ignore the dairy otherwise I won't have any breakfast - a greek yoghurt seems to do the trick. At the weekend we are enjoying eggs and smoked salmon, or bacon and mushrooms and things like that. I would KILL for a loaf of Sourdough slathered in butter, but that's because I'm fundamentally greedy and sourdough slathered in butter is nice.

What are you eating I hear you ask? Good question. Protein, nice salads, sweet potatoes, almonds. A lot of eggs. It's not so bad. Almonds are a filling mid-afternoon snack. Fruit and veg. Avocados. Paleo purists are no doubt in a swoon but for the first week it seems to be ok - despite 3 dinners out and carby and hardly any exercise on my part I've lost 5lbs and GluttonBoy 7. So he wants it to be 'for life'. We'll see. So 5lbs down, 80 to go. I'm 1/16 of the way. Practically home and dry.
*sigh*

GG

January is going to be looooong.....

So I'm always amazed when you start a new health regime and you're not immediately 5 stone lighter the next day. Rage. Still, 1.5 days in and going ok, if you ignore the 1 naan bread I ate last night along with the lamb chops at the excellent Tayyabs. And, we went to bed feeling un-bloated and, best of all, I woke up having slept all through the night! For the first time in months!

So tonight I'm also out (bizarrely) but we've opted for Turkish, so going to give the breads a swerve and stick to grills and salads where possible. I'm quite liking this January lark, but let's see how we go in a week...

Lots of love

GG

In which the Gluttons go Paleo

Christmas is clearly the highlight of the Glutton year and, as I'm so fond of telling GluttonBoy, it's very much a marathon, not a sprint. Some people take the view that you should eat light all December to balance out the end of year onslaught. I take the opposing view, that you should start early to get into Gluttony Training. You don't want to be turning down the pigs in blankets on the 25th because you've had too many morning mince pies. There is a lot of good food to get through and you need to prepare. Last year, having got up from the table in actual pain, I spent the next 20 minutes dipping leftover yorkie puds and roasties into gravy while doing the washing up.

So the upshot of this gluttony is that ones dresses are a bit snug. Of course, if you're not a glutton year-round, this isn't really the end of the world and is easily rectified. If however, like GB and my good self, you are a) a glutton b) prone to put on weight by simply looking at cake (not that I ever stop at looking) this can become an issue. And while I don't subscribe to the slim=beautiful mantra (and luckily neither does GB), I can't help but be concerned about my long term health. My father, who was very fit, ate healthily and was normal weight etc died of a sudden heart attack in his 60s and my mother has recently succumbed to type-2 diabetes in her 60s. And I come from a long line of women built for comfort rather than speed. And, lastly, as I look down the barrel of 40, I am not quite ready to give up and commit myself wholeheartedly to the caftan and the comfy slippers.

What does this mean then. That GG is going to give up gluttony? What would be the point? I'll never be a food-is-fuel person and I derive too much pleasure from reading about food, shopping for food, cooking food and eating food. I just think I maybe need to do the following:

1) change what I eat 80% of the time (the remaining 20% I can do what I like)
2) be more active

So - GB is a big fan of the paleo way of eating - avoiding refined, grain-based foods. Before The Happiest Day of My Life (when I became Mrs GG) I avoided wheat, refined carbs and dairy and I have to say I lost a ton of weight, felt better, got fit, did loads of exercise etc. Then went to Vegas on honeymoon and that was that. I do think though that sugar and refined carbs are pretty much the devil's work so we'll be avoiding that as much as possible. Lean protein, more vegetarian meals and more fruit and veg are also key. Now before someone who is paleo-expert tells me that fruit and veg are high carb and not part of a paleo diet  - I am not interested in following it to the letter and I think getting some balance is more important. We're also trying to do more exercise, although GB is already pretty active. The challenge will be eating better while eating well, if you see what I mean. I'll log weight lost and recipes used but any suggestions gratefully recieved!

GG

Make mine a pint

I'm not a beer drinker. Never have been. Even as a teen drinker I wouldn't touch it. The one exception is on a hot day or watching football, at which time I love a cold long-neck, drunk out of the bottle.
Mr Glutton has a long-standing theory that all the best food is fermented- beer, bread and cheese, and has long harboured a wish to make beer in our garage, so last Christmas i bought him a wheat beer kit. Which stayed in it's box until September when he got made redundant. Silver linings.

So funnily enough, next time I went into the garage there seemed to be 3 brewing buckets and loads of glass bottles that I hadn't seen before. To date he's made wheat beer, White house honey ale, an abbey beer and a single hops. These seem to take a variety of maturation times so he needs a few on the go to make sure there is always something ready to drink in the rotation.

But like a good husband he didn't forget his wife. I do like a fruit beer so he's very kindly brewed me a cherry beer- 30 bottles in fact. Today we bottled and capped it, and put it away until this time next year when it will be ready to drink. Thanks Mr Glutton!

Family secrets

Now the Glutton family, on both sides, is no stranger to crazy. Seriously, that's a whole blog in itself, but every family is mad in it's own special way. And while your particular variety of family crazy is, to you, normal, other people's family crazy is just, well, crazy. For example, in my family we always have yorkshire pudding with Christmas dinner. GluttonBoy's family however would consider that just plain odd. But they have BEEF for Christmas dinner, which I think is bonkers.

In the same vein, and linked to the earlier post about use-it-up recipes, every family also has a recipe that is a delicious, much loved and much anticipated favourite. That gladdens the heart when it appears but that, should it be served up to someone who has never seen it before, would elicit shudders of disgust. In GB's family, that was sausage special, a delightful blend of sausages, tomato and, bien sur, Branston Pickle. I know. Totes shudder of disgust, right? That said, I started making it after GB's mother died and it is actually not bad at all.

When I was a child and going on school trips, as you could only have fish or veggie sandwiches (I went to a Jewish primary school), sarnies were often fish paste (sardine and tomato, specifically) or mashed up pilchards (the sort in tomato sauce). In fact, I seem to remember fish paste being a standard sarnie filling in my teens as well, but GB assures me that most people wouldn't ever have eaten it. If it enters the house, he claims to be nauseated. So, bearing in mind this reliance on tomato-fishy goodness, it wouldn't surprise you to know that our family secret dish is pilchard fishcakes. My mum makes them every single time I visit (as long as GB isn't with me) as they are easy, cheap, good for you (she's diabetic) and we both love love love them. And they literally couldn't be easier.

Take one large tin of pilchards in tomato sauce (I think my mum buys the Glenryk ones which are only one step up from cat food) and shove in processor. Throw in an onion and a handful of matzo meal. Mix. If a bit sticky, add more mazto meal meal. S & P. Shape into patties, fry. If you really want to push the boat out, add a slice of cheese. Serve with a baked potato.

A good reminder that life can't always be rib-eye beef and heritage vegetables. Sometimes only the flavours of our childhood will do. And for me, that's tinned fish and tomatoes.

Love

GG

What's at the bottom of the fridge...

I have a theory that every family has a sort of recipe that is brought into play to use up odds and ends in the fridge. When I was younger, my mum would make a quiche with half a courgette, some wrinkled old peppers and whatever else was on the turn but not plentiful enough to be the star turn of a meal. GluttonBoy tells me his mother used to make soup for the same reason.
In our house, our 'thing' is frittata- a brilliant Sunday night solution to use up whatever is lurking in the bottom of the vegetable drawer. I have two golden rules though, which help make it a bit less leftover-y- one, to roast as many of the veg as possible in advance (that bit of charring adds so much flavour) and if there is chorizo on the fridge, then there's chorizo in the frittata.
Yesterday's effort involved me roasting some butternut squash that had definitely seen better days, a red pepper, new potatoes and carrots. That done, I fried plenty of chorizo and some courgette and mushrooms, then added all the roasted veg. Six eggs, a generous sprinkle of Parmesan, 25 mins in a medium oven until golden and 10 minutes resting- done.
Eat with a fork, on the sofa, watching Downton.

Happy Sunday

GG

Christmas

Now I know it is, for today at least, only September, but as the evenings get darker and mornings chillier, a glutton's thoughts inevitably turn to the festive season which is, for the truly greedy amongst us, is the highlight of the year.

And it's not only the main meal itself which is so good, although I do look forward to it enormously, but the cheese/cold meats hurrah of boxing day, the endless pastry grazing, the using up of bits and pieces, the chocolate, the boozing and, from the 2nd January, the lurch to miso soup and steamed greens in order to prevent what our continental neighbours would call a crise de foie.

So an integral part of Christmas for me are condiments, and, as befits someone who likes to feel all smug, I enjoy making a load of chutneys and pickles to give as gifts, take to people along with wine and, of course, open with the cheese. And chutneys needing time to mature, early October is a serious making time.

The main list this year includes:

Rhubarb and apple chutney for the neighbours
Boxing-day chutney for colleagues
Fig Mostarda, wholegrain beer mustard and ale chutney for the girls
Clementine and cointreau marmalade for general use

And that doesn't include the ad-hocs such as quince jelly or cranberry jelly.

Using the last of the apples from our courtyard, I've already made the rhubarb/apple chutney, which is awaiting decorating with festive labels etc. I've got a day off work in OCtober to crack through the rest of it and actually it gives me enormous satisfaction (what's that feeling called, is it smugness?) to know it's all done. As the weather turns cold, 'putting up', even if its not going to be eaten by us, feels like a defense against the colder months (as I think I've said before).

The Clem/Coint marmalade is also nearly made - I'll blog the recipe once it's done. I've only got one jar left of last year's batch and it's been my favourite of the year.

My other early Christmas preparation - two tins of quality st bought and put away to be resisted until the 24th December!

Festive wishes,

GG

You can't beat nurture

I often think how funny it is that things you hated as a child turn out to be things you cherish as an adult. Like going to tea shops that serve cream horns. For me, one particularly hated activity that rolled around every year was picking blackberries on Hackney marshes.
My parents were obsessed with it. Every bloody Autumn off we'd go, walking across disused railway lines (which of course I was terrified weren't actually disused), to scratch ourselves senseless picking fruit I didn't even like. Mum would spend ages turning it into a sort of compote in the freezer, which then I'd have to tolerate ruining perfectly good ice cream.
Now, however, I'd walk a long way for a bountiful patch of brambles and like nothing more than having pink-stained figures as a badge of honour. What I like most though is the satisfaction of urban foraging and producing something delicious which was essentially free.
This time of year is elderflower season, and Peckham Rye seems to be full of huge swathes of creamy flowers, itching to be made into something good. The floral sweetness of elderflower is absolutely one of my favourite tastes - it is absolutely a gentle English summer. After the Great Cordial Disaster of 2011, I've been afeared of bottling it, but, having also had a batch of my mum's rhubarb needing to be eaten, thought I'd transform it into a rhubarb and elderflower jam.
The method was a bit odd - wrap the elderflowers in a muslin and place in a bowl, chop up the rhubarb and layer on top, add the sugar. Now I had twice as many elderflowers as the recipe said, because I like it and couldn't believe the flavour would infuse otherwise. I also didn't have any muslin so used a clean popsock (which is what I always use for marmalade too). I ignored the instructions to give it a toss every 12 hours for 2 days and just left it, covered for about a week. Tbh, I was expecting some kind of mouldy fruit hell when I took the foil off but the sugar had transformed into an elderflower infused syrup in which the rhubarb chunks seemed to be bobbing away fairly happily.
So, I tipped the whole lot into a pan, simmered until the fruit was soft (not including the elderflower), then ramped up the heat to a roiling boil until it set (a soft set, it has to be said).
Generally, I'm not one to boast, but it is pretty much the nicest jam I've ever tasted - an undercurrent of sharp rhubarb but a bright, floral flavour that makes your mouth feel fairly happy. I plan to swirl some through a vanilla sponge before baking, and I can't help but think it would be pretty awesome on a scone, topped with a big dollop of clotted cream.
So, my pantry (well, shelf in my garage) is all the richer and I won't be sharing it with anyone, because I love it so much.

Hurrah for elderflowers I say.

With love
GG

Let them eat cake

As befits a bit of an old-school leftie, I'm not a huge fan of the monarchy, apart from Harry, who I would make an exception for, if he ever found himself at a loose end in Peckham. And knowing he likes a smoke (or used to at least), that might well come to pass.

That said, what I do love is a bit of old-school Britishness, which for some reason, in the past, we have been a bit shy of doing, as if waving a flag and being a bit pleased with ourselves is something that funny old Johnny Foreigner would do but is a bit swank, and we don't do it. Now that is patently nonsense of course and the last few years has seen a bit of a resurgence in Brit-chic, albeit viewed through Cath Kidston-tinted spectacles. I bow to no-one in my love of a vision of Britain which includes the following: going to the seaside in the winter/rain, the National Trust, ice cream, bunting, Fortnum & Mason, egg and spoon races, afternoon tea, a curry, hot concrete around an inner-city lido.

The last day of work before the Jubilee weekend was obviously one of high spirits. We also had a birthday to celebrate, which happened to be the colleague who buys the cakes for everyone else and who is a sugarcraft whizz, so I volunteered to knock up a cake. Generally, for all that I love a fancy-schmancy choco-peanut-mallow confection that is simply diabtes waiting to happen, a sunny (ha!) bank holiday Jubilee weekend meant there really was only one option -a lovely Vicky Sponge, or as I shall refer to it from now on, a Lizzy Sponge. As it happens, I am a bit of a master of the Lizzy Sponge and fancied showing off a bit so that was a bit of luck.

I used the classic proportions - 4 eggs, 200g of everything else. My method was less classic - shove it all in the Kitchenaid before even taking coat off after work, beat like fury until it looks right, shove in oven. Done.

I did the assembling at work to avoid any slippage - strawberry jam and whipped cream in the middle, dusted with vanilla icing sugar and decorated with fresh strawberries and a little flag. My colleague Mazz made a white chocolate and macadamia cake, which was was light, creamy and a good partner to the Lizzy sponge. My husband is a bit annoyed that he didn't get to try it but I've made him an elderflower drizzle cake by way of compensation (more on that another time) and, anyway, he shouldnt be eating cake before his Norway bike ride, so I was actually doing him a favour.

So, in conclusion, any British celebration would be made better by a Lizzy sponge. And anyone who disagrees is just doolally.

In Britishness,

GG

Ten minutes, two people

There are times when sourcing ingredients for dinner is half the fun. When browsing shops and recipes is a leisure pursuit, when you want your home to slowly fill with the scent of something slowly roasting or simmering gently in the oven.
And there are times when you just want to get dinner on the fricking table. Days when your train is delayed and there are also delays on the district line. When even the Asda is shut and you have nothing but glace cherries, peanut butter and gravy granules in the cupboard. And you are, bien sur, also starving.
Now while I am all for shopping at local indepdents and having a chat about provenance, there are times when only Tesco Express will do. I hate TE for many reasons, not least that they are expensive, only stock the most expensive of everything and a huge array of processed food, I have one 20 seconds from my flat so find myself there more often than not. So when I found this recipe for a super-quick dinner with TE-type ingredients, I was actually pretty grateful and it is something I whip up often on a Monday night when I get home at nearly 9 from Zumba. I start it before I've even got my coat off and dinner can be on the table in 15 minutes from getting in through the door.

Heat 1 tsp of rapeseed oil in a large frying pan
Add three spring onion, finely sliced, and also a red chili if you want
Add two salmon fillets, chopped into large chunks
When they are a bit cooked, add a pack of prawns
When nearly cooked, throw in 1/2 tablespoon of soy, the same of fish sauce and a tsp of mirin.
Stir, don't worry if the salmon flakes
Add in udon noodles, enough for two.
Stir.

I generally now sit down for 5 minutes to let the whole mess catch slightly on the bottom of the pan.

Stir and serve. It is suggested that some chopped coriander might be nice to finish it off but I would rather starve than choose to eat the herb-that-can't-be-named.

And, if you have something nice for dinner on a Monday, it makes Monday a bit less bad. Although, I've often been of the opinion that it is actually Tuesday which is the worst day of the week, but that's for another day.

GG x

Ribs!

There are times you want delicate flavours, and there are times you want big flavours. And Saturday night, to my mind, is a big flavour night. There is a fashion right now for beef short ribs, and it's been something I wanted to try. I once had a slightly unfortunate night in Bodean's when I ordered beef ribs and they turned out to be like something from the Flintstones and not very easy to eat.

Beef short ribs though are a different story - and they are much more satisfying to eat than pork ribs, which seem like a lot of work for not much pay-off. Beef ribs need long, slow cooking and there is something about barbeque flavours which seem to be perfect. The US tradition of long, gentle barbeque that is, not the English tradition of hot searing which leaves the outside burnt and the inside raw.

Jamie Oliver's America book provided the solution although his recipe called for beef ribs in a piece but it worked beautifully with cut ones. I hadn't seen beef ribs before (I've had a sheltered life) so wasn't sure what to expect, but they were magnificent, with huge hunks of beef attached.

Cooking them took 7 hours, although the actual involvement I had to have took about 15 minutes, which is the kind of cooking I can get on board with.

Start by brushing the ribs all over with American mustard - I used French's.

Then, make a rub: for 1.2kg of ribs I used 1.5 tbsp sweet smoked Paprika, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, a generous grind of black better and 1.5 tbsp of corn oil. You could also add some chilli powder but I don't really like hot hot so left it out and can't believe it was any the worse for it. The mix was rubbed all over the meat, including the bone side. Put them bone side down into a roasting tin. And that, is it. Into an oven at 130 for 5 hours.

Stage 2 - just before the 5 hours are up, mix 1.5 tbsp demerara with 1.5 tbsp honey, a knob of butter, a splash of water and 1/2 a beef stock cube. (Annoyingly, Mr Glutton had made some beautiful beef stock in the week and I couldn't find it otherwise I would have used that instead). Heat until all is mixed. Take the ribs out of the oven and set aside.

Roll out some heavy duty foil and pour on (carefully!) the marinade. Lay on the ribs meat side down and wrap the foil over them to make a little parcel. Wrap in an additional piece of foil, then put back into the oven for 1.hr 15 mins.

When that time is up, drain of any fat/liquid in the pan, unwrap the ribs and put them back in the pan unwrapped, meat side up. Turn the heat up to to 140 and cook for another 50 mins.

Take out of the oven and rest on a board for about 15 mins.

I made some coleslaw with white cabbage, red onion, granny smith apple and carrot - dressed with mayonnaise and wholegrain mustard.

So, it's not everyday that I boast (no, honestly) but I have to say, these rocked. Dark, thick crust of sweet, chewy meat, soft and pink underneath. Perfect with the cool, crispy, fresh slaw. We're already planning when we can make them again but it does take some planning as it isn't everyday that I'm in house for 7 hours tbh. I think it would be better in a piece, but sure the butcher won't mind and, next time I also think I'll make a double quantity so I can shred the meat and make po'boy sandwiches the next day, with loads of pickles and a good slather of mustard. Right, must make some brekkie as I am now starving.

Lots of love, GG.

Eat to live, live to eat

It's all been a bit quiet on the GluttonGirl front of late, I know you've missed me. I started a new job in January which seems to combine long hours with a long commute, a combination which brings me much joy, so cooking and eating has been about speed, ease and what I can get at Asda, as opposed to sourcing ingredients lovingly.

The last few months have been about, for the first time in many years, eating for fuel, eating to live, getting something on the table which is quite nice and tasty and not the same thing as we ate last week. And when you shop in small inner city supermarkets, rather than nice ones with lots of choice, or independents, or the market, you become reliant on chicken thighs, sausages and pork chops. All of which I love but after a few months aren't really setting the culinary world on fire. So I've kept quiet of late, but times, they are a changing.

I've missed cooking for sheer pleasure, I've missed browing cookbooks (and lord knows I've no shortage of them), I've missed hunting out things I haven't eaten before, I've missed going to the butcher, the greengrocer, the Spanish deli, the Mexican supplier. I'm luckier than most people - GluttonBoy manages a super-nice deli in Clapham (Macfarlanes in Abbeville Road, if you happen to be passing) so I've got easy access to some good meat, cheese and deli. I particularly recommend the chorizo.

So, with Spring and all the good eating it brings now here, I can't wait to get started. I've ordered a couple of new cookbooks - Scandilicious and Claudia Roden's new Spanish book - to get through.

And I'm starting tonight - pork belly roasted on a bed of potatoes. Imagine how sticky and porky those potatoes will be from being roasted underneath some fatty pork. And if there are any leftovers, they're going in a crusty roll for my lunch tomorrow, smeared with some meaty pan juices. That's some good eating.

Counting your life in cake spoons

GluttonBoy are currently enraptured with a programme on the Food Network, called Ace of Cakes. For those with better things to do than scroll up and down the outer reaches of the EPG, Ace of Cakes follows the fortunes of an 'edgy' bakery in Baltimore, called Charm City Cakes. Their USP, if you like, is creating cakes that are big, look like something amazing or are wacky. They achieve this with a lot of fondant and, often, making cakes that have no edible cake in them whatsoever. It's not what I'd spend £1,ooo on, personally, but what strikes me as interesting is that in the US people seem to mark more occasions than birthdays with a cake. All kinds of parties, gatherings and celebrations call for a baked creation and that is something that, as a greedy person, I applaud.

Like many work places at the moment, we're keen on baking and so keen to find any excuses for a cake (and to stop work for a moment to shove it down our faces to be honest). This week saw the departure of a my dearest work colleague, who is emigrating to Australia. She has been my work bezzie for many years, despite taking time off to shove out two strapping infants, so while this was clearly an occasion for her to celebrate, it was making the rest of us feel very sad face.

Clearly though, cake is a good thing, so I decided to whip up a pavlova (Australian, see?) and complement it with some scones bought from the local Tesco. Naturally, as I was doing it quickly after work, I didn't have enough sugar so made it half and half caster and dark brown muscovado, then lavishly covered the fractures (and there were many, I dropped it) with softly whipped cream and some dark, sweet strawberries. I had thought about using passion fruit to carry through the tropical theme but surprisingly Tesco Metro had run out.

While the pav didnt make me feel less sad face, it was delicious. The muscovado added a little whisper of burnt sugariness which worked well with the sweetness of the cream and the fruit. A friend suggested using banana rather than strawbs (in which case I'd add them underneath the cream) and drizzling the cream with caramel, which I think is inspired. Caramel out of a tin (Carnation) for example, or dulce de leche if you want to be fancy, would be fine, but a slightly burnt-tasting butterscotch, made with salted butter, would be good too. Anyway, if you want to make the pav, here's the recipe:

Preheat oven to 170C

Put a sheet of greaseproof paper onto a baking sheet

Whip four egg whites until stiff

Whisk in 250g caster sugar or a combination of caster and dark muscovado until stiff peaks

Fold in 1tsp wine vinegar and 2tsp cornflour

Shape into approx 20cm round and put in oven, turn it down asap to 140C.

Turn oven off after 1hr, 15 mins and leave in oven to get cool

Enjoy - will help mend a broken heart if much loved colleagues are leaving the country...

Lots of love

GG

Christmas in October

As I've mentioned before, I work in PR and years ago worked in the fashion/lifestyle sector. Due to the vagaries of publication lead-times, Christmas articles (gift guides, fashion) are put together in July/August in magazines. Consequently, I start thinking about Christmas some time in June.

Now, as befits someone whose husband suggests should have an epitaph of 'she bit off more than she could chew', I like to do things myself. I have never hosted Christmas at my house, due to family being spread far and wide, but that is probably no bad thing as I suspect I would be run ragged making a wide variety of breakfasts, nibbles, drinks, sides, main course choices, desserts, afternoon tea nibbles and accompaniments. Both gluttonboy and I think that, while we love Christmas day food, the best day of all is Boxing Day buffet. And by buffet, I mean not only the formal meal that is placed on the table at a set time, but also the general fridge grazing that occurs - every time you walk past the fridge (and for some reason that is OFTEN) you hack of a slab of meat, garnish it with some kind of pickle and shove it in your craw, chased with a slab of yule log and a handful of preztels and washed down with a Snowball, whatever the time of day.

Of course I always make a pudding and a cake. The latter has to be made with peak-style royal icing and my late mother in law's decorations, which have, to be frank seen better days. I will leave the cake saga for another day but suffice it to say, things aren't always what they seem.

I also love making pickles and chutneys and make a variety to eat/take to family/give as gifts. This means that from October onwards the flat has the taint of boiled vinegar. This year I have also made a plumbrillo for the first time, which I'm itching to try with some tangy British cheeses on the best day of the year.

Currently, the pineapple chutney is simmering away and I'm loving the thought of this with some thickly cut ham on a crusty roll (and the Christmas holidays, with the shops mostly shut, is a time when part-baked breads stashed in the freezer really come into their own).

I've also got the Christmas cake fruit soaking in cream sherry. The recipe calls for Pedro Ximenez but tbh, an Pedro Ximenez that doesn't end up in my glass is a waste, so cream sherry it is. I plan to also use the sherry in my mincemeat and christmas pudding, thereby creating a little bit of a theme this year.

On the pressie make is is whisky and caramel sauce, a meat rub and possibly some Turkish Delight vodka. Now I love making alcohols but again that is story for another day. It is at this time of year that I am most grateful for having: a garage, a spare fridge (in the garage) and a freezer (in the garage). And also grateful for being greedy, and having greedy friends and family - how boring would Christmas be if it was just about pressies and not about stuffing yourself silly wiht the ones you love.

Gluttongirl's Pineapple Chutney:

2 pineapples, peeled, cored and cut into chunks

2 large tart eating apples, peeled, cored, finely chopped

2 red onions, peeled and chopped

300g sugar (I used a mix of ordinary granulated and dark muscovado as that was all I had in the cupboard, but in retrospect, I like the idea of a tropical treacliness of the muscovado with the pineapple)

2 tsps turmeric

2 tsp mustard seeds

2/3 star anise

2 cinnamon stick (1 tsp ground cinnamon if that's all you have)

2ooml cider vinegar

Shove everything in a large pan, bring to the boil and simmer vigorously (not boil so much) until a thick, gloopy, gorgeous mess. Turn off the heat for a moment, and you should be able to draw a spoon across the pan without it immediately filling with vinegar.

Jar quantity is a bit variable, but makes about 1kg - might be less. I tend to prefer using smaller jars as I think no-one uses a massive jar that quickly and it'll spoil. Also, I love finding a jar of a favourite vintage at the back of the cupboard. It's a pretty yellow colour so makes a nice gift and ask you can imagine, it goes well with ham.

Enjoy!

GGxx

Food and family

So some people see food and fuel. And I feel sorry for them. In our (Jewish, of course) family, we ate to celebrate, we ate to commiserate. We provided food because it's hospitable. If there's one thing all the women in my family have in common, it's that we feel we've let people down if they leave our house without wanting their stomach pumped.

So I recently got back in touch with an estranged branch of my family- a half-sister, three nieces, a nephew and a great-nephew. It's all been a bit weird but really positive and has made me very happy. So one on my new nieces held a bbq and invited us - my sister and her partner would be there, my niece (obvs) who I've met before and her partner (who I haven't), his parents and various other friends, as well as a niece I hadn't met before. It's fair to say I was pretty nervous about it really so I did what I always do - bake something to take (peanut butter brownies). And off we trooped to deepest Essex.

And you know what, it was great. And I have genuinely never seen so much food at a barbeque. Delicious sausages from a local butcher in Suffolk, ribs, burgers and really tasty jerk chicken. I am not a huge fan of hot food but niece's partner had taken his mum's advice and made them both subtle and plentiful There were platters upon platters. His mum had also made Jamaican dumplings, which I can only describe as a slightly sweet dough, fried. I ate about 20 of them and eventually gluttonboy had to stage an intervention to stop me eating the whole tray.

So what's the point of this? It's that people share values and it is one of life's pleasures to share time with people whose values you share, even if you don't have much in common apart form that. And the pleasure of sharing good food with nice people you enjoy being with and getting to know is surely one of the nicest pleasures of all.

GG

Hunkering in a Bunker

Unless you're on the sort of holiday where you don't even read four-day-old copies of the Daily Mail, you will have noticed that many places in London were, last week, under seige from 12 year olds equipped with a PAYG blackberry and their older sister's scarf wrapped around their head, intent on robbing a pair of Nikes from Footlocker.

I live in Peckham, which is very much the South-East London badlands at the best of times and last week we were even more front line than usual, which resulted in the Tesco Express next door being boarded up for a week, plus the one a 5 minute walk away. My local big supermarket was also closed for a time, and the main street through Peckham was also closed to both traffic and people on foot. Which, all in all, has caused a fair bit of inconvenience, shopping wise.

What has this got to do with food? Well more than you'd think. As we have the little Tescos so close by and only a small fridge, we only shop as and when we need it. We don't have a freezer and aren't eating pasta/rice so have fewer store cupboard options. So when the shops locally are shut and the only ones open are the corner shop, what do you eat?

Post-riot, I had long-life madeleines for breakfast. GluttonBoy had a Mars muffin. For lunch I had a pot noodle and a packet of crisps. How quickly the norms of civilisation break down, right?

Which brings me to the main point. If there's one part of cooking that gives me endless amounts of satisfaction, it's preserving. A row of jars, neatly labelled and ready to be distributed while wearing a floral pinny and a self-satisfied smile, fills me with warmth and, have to be honest, some smugness.

This is a peak time of year for the jammy jammer. I particularly love preserving fruits you can't find in the shops. Damsons are a particular favourite and find themselves in jam, chutney and also some kind of white spirit, usually voddy or gin. Tbh, after the last chutney batch which took me HOURS to take the fricking stones out, I now usually sling them in a kilner with some sugar and gin and hope for the best.

I also love greengages with a passion and my nice local greengrocer in Herne Hill is overrun with them. Six jars of slightly runny jam are now ready for eating. Of course strawberry is the classic, but unless you have access to a PYO it can be a bit expensive. But the pleasure of serving homemade jam with homemade scones is pretty priceless. We bought a flat last year, largely for two reasons - it had a garage and there's an apple tree in the communal garden. Apples have ripened early this year and each neighbour recieved a jar of spiced apple chutney as a little treat. The look on their faces was worth the lingering smell of boiling vinegar.

Now I'm not saying that a shelf-ful of chutneys will keep us in rations if we need to pull up the drawbridge, but preserving appeals to a deep sense of self-preservation which, in these times of instant gratification, can help us all feel a bit more grounded and rooted.

GG

Village People

Now there is nothing that GluttonBoy and I like more than a bit of fine dining - a starched tablecloth, a highly trained and synchronised front of house crew, the theatre of the presentation of the dishes at table. But regular readers will also know that we also love a bit of rough- Meatwagon burgers at the pub next door, mac n cheese in front of the telly, fish and chips at the beach.

In the UK it sometimes feel like you have to be in one camp or the other. One of the reasons we love reading Saveur magazine from the US is that it celebrates home cooking and dirty (in the nicest way) cooking as well as cheffy cooking and a fancy resto.

So GB and I haven't seen much of each other of late, and with a Sunday in front of us and weather a bit unpredictable, I persuaded him to accompany me to Brixton Village. Despite only being a hop, skip and jump away, we don't often get to Brixton but we'd both been hearing tons about Brixton Village online. We're always late to the party but in case you don't know, BV is what the old Granville Arcade (a rundown, 1930s covered arcade) has become. It is home, possibly most famously, to the Thai restaurant Kaosarn, reviewed glowingly by the Observer's Jay Rayner and, most excitingly to me (as I love ice cream more than almost anything else) a artisan gelateria called Lab G which purports to offer an amazing salt caramel variety (I should also say I love salt caramel more than almost anything else too).

From the entrance we found, it didn't look promising. Happily, we couldn't have been more wrong and spent the next hour with a look on our faces like we'd found the promised land. It's a mix of great food shops and mini cafes/restos... some not much more than a couple of enthusiastic owners and a bench or two. Honest does burgers and triple cooked chips, Cornercopia has a cafe on one side doing really seasonal modern Brit/Euro food from brekkie to early evening, Agile does pizza/calzone and there were a few coffee shops, a cake place, a sweetie shop, a bunch of Colombian grills and probably lots more that I can't remember. And of course Kaosarn.

I'll be honest, I've never been a huge fan of Thai. I don't really like spicy food and if there is one foodstuff I'd ban if I was in charge it would be coriander. But I'm quite bossy normally so let GB decide for once and I'm super-glad I did, because it was delicious. I had a chicken Pad Thai and it was incredibly light and fragrant. GB had lamb mossoman - the lamb was so tender you could cut it with a spoon, the sauce was sweet and light and full of flavour. Neither was especially hot and I am partcularly glad to report that the coriander was large and on top of the food so easy to pick off and discard. It's also family run and the ladies were hugely friendly and we can't wait to go back. I really want to try an Honest burger but really, if I'm going to eat a burger I'll go next door to Meatwagon so I think Kaosarn is the one for me at the Village. Not bad for a coriander hater.

So, ice cream, the point of the visit. They were out of salt caramel, which I don't mind as it means I'll HAVE to go back and so I went for panna cotta - happily one of my top-5 desserts. Creamy but not heavy in the way premium ice cream brands are, fresh, sweet, creamy. I wanted to wolf it down and in fact I did. There, I said it. I wolfed it down and I will be back for more without any question at all.

BV also has some great shops - vintage women's and menswear, interiors, young designers. It's a fantastic initiative which, while it has clearly brightened up a much unloved and rundown area, is so much more than a wishful-thinking initiative. And welcome much more than local hipsters, especially with children. Its not worth supporting just because it's a right on thing to do, to support local traders, but its worth supporting because they offer a unique proposition - good food, good places to eat and drink, nice things to buy, a fun place to do it, a buzz you want to enjoy.

With love

GG

An homage to Norway

As I have mentioned many times, both GluttonBoy and I have an abiding love for Norway and Norwegians. We have a couple of very close Norski friends and try to visit them in a couple of times a year. And there are a couple of reasons we love Norway so much, and a couple of stories illustrate it:

(The details might be a bit sketchy here) In WW2, the German fleet sailed a boat up the Oslofjord. Bearing in mind Norway had given shelter to Jews when other countries had simply handed them over, this was a big deal, so the boat was scuttled, with all souls on board heading for the icy drink. The Norwegians, fearful that sailors would drown, jumped into boats and rescued them. There were no 'Gotcha' headlines here.

A few years ago, we went to stay with our friends in Norway. We talked about immigration and other issues and he mentioned that there had been some incidences of assault in East Oslo, by immigrants. The media had taken the view that, while it was of course important that the perpetrators were punished, wider society had somehow failed them as they didn't feel part of Norwegian society. It was therefore the responsibility of Norway to help them integrate. Imagine the Daily Mail writing something like that. Now stop imagining before your head explodes.

While there are loons anywhere, it seems particularly hard that a trusting, open, truly just and equitable society should have something like this. And because I love Norway so much, and this is ostensibly a food blog, I'm going to list the many things I like about Norway, despite it not really having a foodie culture per se:

They are obsessed with hotdogs (polse). You can (and do) buy them everwhere. Every party or gathering includes polse. With mustard, ketchup and sometimes potato salad. And sometimes in a thin potato pancakey wrap called a lompe.

Their idea of a good night out is to take a cake to someone's house.

They make amazing cakes, buns and bread.

They have a mandated school bun. This is so no-one has a better or worse bun than anywhere else.

They believe in going for a long walk, uphill, in rubbish weather, then stopping off for a bun. Bliss.

There is a log cabin cafe/restaurant outside Oslo, up the mountain, that sells the most delicious apple pie with cream.

Holiday dip mix - a spice mix you put in sour cream

Waffles - always served with strawberry jam and sour cream

Kransekake - an almond ring cake served at Christmas

Milk chocolate, especially with Daim bar pieces

Jelly ladies - they have boobs

So, eat Norwegian, be Norwegian, you know it makes sense.

GG.

Doing it standing up

When I was a child, there were a couple of hard and fast eating rules. As my dad always had company cars, we were never ever allowed to eat or drink in them. Not even travel sweets. This has left me with an abiding memory of bolting down a mivvi standing next to the car (boiling hot), hopping up and down on roasting tarmac while dad impatiently revved the engine.
The second rule was that my mum thought eating on the move was 'common'. Even fish and chips at the seaside were eaten not (as I am now obsessed with doing) sitting on a sea wall out of the paper but in a restaurant, with a knife and fork. I used to sneak to the chip shop to get a bag of chips with my friend Jackie and eat them at the bus stop and felt ridiculously sneaky. Even now, eating on the run feels transgressive. I frequently bolt lunch while on the train, en route to meetings or whatever, and it doesn't seem right- like I'm not concentrating enough on what I'm doing.
It's fair to say then, that street food would generally leave me cold, although I love the idea of it - as I said, I love fish and chips at the beach and necking back an oyster while strolling along the harbour in Whitstable. However, I am clearly alone in this as London is in the grip of a street food frenzy, and apologies if I am late to the party.
We've been meaning to visit Meatwagon for ages, and when it moved to New Cross we had lots of plans to go. But both Mr Glutton and I are more lazy than we are greedy and it never really happened but when they moved into the pub next door, we were excited beyond words, particularly as the pub had previously been owned by people who were exceptionally RUDE to us! The Rye celebrated their opening by hosting Eat Street - a street food festival that featured lots of London's best loved vans and as an opener, we had Big Apple Hot Dogs. Now I love hot dogs, and these were beauties. Massive, grilled, covered in ketchup, mustard and sourkrout and wrapped in a soft and tasty roll- miles away from the bland pap rolls normally on offer. I only managed one (although it was ENORMOUS) but Mr G managed two as he is very tall and so has more space for gluttony. BAHD can also be found in Old Street but follow on twitter to find them.
Next up, and hotly anticipated, was Meatwagon. Burgers. Cheese. Buns. Seriously, what's not to like. In a week, we went three times. Excellent burgers, excellent buns. Cheese. I'll say no more except that Meatwagon is using the Rye's kitchen as a development kitchen , a state of affairs of which I heartily approve. Also, fries and their rightly-famous onion rings are also on offer so, again, follow on Twitter for more info.
We've been hearing a Twitter buzz (because we are seriously at the bleeding edge of food trends) about Pitt Cue Co - a food truck underneath Hungerford Bridge offering a frankly unbeatable combination of barbeque and booze. It was raining, it was cold, but barbeque and a brilliant busker crooning Vegas-era Sinatra is enough to lift anyone's moods so I didn't even mind eating standing up, for once. I had pulled pork (tender, porky) with barbeque sauce and red cabbage coleslaw. Unfortunately they committed the unforgivable sin of putting me within 2 feet of coriander by including it in the coleslaw but the pork was incredible so I am tempted to ignore that slip. Mr G had the 'pickle back and skin' - a shot of bourbon, a shot of pickle juice and a small cup of what I assume was deep fried crackling. I selflessly took some of the crackling off his hands but thankfully he didn't need any help with the bourbon and juice. He found it interesting.
Lastly in our street food odyssey has been a bit of Mexico with Buen Provecho. It was a hot day, I love Mexican food and I couldn't be arsed to cook. Tacos (pulled pork, chicken mole) and quesadillas - spicy, packed with flavour, light.

My conclusion? There are times when you want tablecloths and waiters and times when you want pork juice running down your arm in the rain. Just make sure you have plenty of tissues.

Lots of love

GG

Alright cupcake

So, as you may have realised, I am partial to a bit of baking and actually, I'm not half bad at it. But lately, what with me being on reduced rations and GluttonBoy being off-carbs, the old mixing bowls have started to gather dust. Plus, I am also used to being the queen bee baker and have had my nose rather put out of joint lately by the arrival in the office of a quite spectacular baker. Grr.

Anyway. An office birthday always needs a cake, so out came the new Hummingbird Cake Days and off I went. It's not everyday you make a cake with sodastream syrups in - but cola cakes and lemonade cakes demanded it.

And they were delicious! The sponge was light with just a hint of soda, the icing was sweet and light and there wasn't too much of it. I wanted to sprinkle with popping candy just before serving but there seems to be a popping candy drought in south London so that plan was thwarted.

The best thing of all was the chorus of 'mmmmms' all round the office. Baking is nice, but baking for other people is the nicest of all.

The recipe (slightly altered, sorry):

take 240g flour, 80g softened butter, 1/4 tsp salt and mix in a mixer until breadcrumb-like

Mix 2 eggs with 40mls whole milk and 1tbsp sodastream cola mix. With the mixer going like blazes, drizzle the liquid in and beat until light and fluffy.

This makes 16 cupcakes for me - fill cases 3/4 full and bake at 190 for about 20 mins.

Ice when cool:

500g icing sugar

140g butter

2 tbsp syrup

20mls whole milk

Beat like fury again until light. Top with a cola bottle for full effect.

Here's a pic -

With love - GG.