Slow food and food for snow

On a very chilly Saturday morning, I headed down to the South Bank for the Slow Food Festival: yes it was cold, but it was one of those crystal clear winter days that meant a stroll over the footbridge from Embankment was a must.

I arrived about noon, but the stalls were battling the cold and many were still setting up. I had a wander round before settling down to shopping. These cheery guys were at the Buta Kitchen stall, selling preserves and jam from Azerbaijan. Just south of Georgia, it's a region with a proud culinary heritage, and the Buta Kitchen is part of the Buta Festival that's on from now until March. I bought a jar of white cherry preserve - tiny whole cherries glistening in a sugary suspension. I hope the guys have great success.

Neal's Yard Dairy were there, and I couldn't resist getting a hunk of Stickeleon cheese - it tastes how Stilton used to.

I was pleased to see the very nice lady from Casa de l'Oli was there: last year I bought a bottle of lime infused olive oil from here. This year I loved the orange scented oil. It's a tiny family company, run from Catalonia, where the olives grow, and Suffolk.

There was a very unhappy soul behind the Shell Seekers stall - her gas hadn't turned up so she couldn't cook, and she was worried that her ice hadn't arrived either. Surely you don't need that today, I said - oh yes, she said, she had to have it to comply with health and safety regs. Oh dear. I bagged a jar of potted shrimp - cooked last night, said the unhappy soul. I was sorry not to see Oliver's perry at the festival - I hope he'll be back for the next one.

By now, I was getting very cold, so I headed up to Covent Garden, and fell into Waterstone's. Dan over at Essex Eating has been full of praise for the Eagle Cookbook, and there it was. After reading the recipe for smoked haddock with horseradish mash, I felt like eating the book. I bought it instead, and home again, put some black beans on to soak for the Eagle's Black Bean Soup. Just as well really, as I was greeted by a snow storm when I emerged from Tottenham Hale station this evening.

Here's my lemon verbena plant, just outside the kitchen door.

And here's Mouse, demanding to know what all the white cold stuff is.

So now the soup is on the simmer, and I'm set for warming supper.

Black Bean Soup (adapted from the Eagle Cookbook)

250g black beans, soaked overnight

1l veggie stock (I used Marigold)

4 small red onions

2 colves garlic

2 sticks of celery

1 tsp chilli flakes (or a whole red chilli)

2 heaped tsp cumin seeds

400g tin of chopped tomatoes

a bunch of coriander

a gloop of creme freche or sour cream

Drain the black beans from its soaking liquid, cover with fresh water, bring to the boil. Then drain the beans again and add stock. Return the beans to a gentle simmer.

While the beans are doing their thing, sweat the onions, garlic, chilli and celery. When the veg are transparent, add the cumin seeds and cook gently for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes and the coriander and cook gently for about 20 mins. Then tip the veg mixture into the beans and the stock and let it bubble gently for at least half an hour. Check the seasoning: I added salt and a pinch of sugar.

What you do now depends on how you like your soup's texture: I blitzed a quarter of the soup in the blender then added it back to the unblended liquor. Simmer gently to make sure all the beans are soft.

Serve with a dollop of creme freche or sour cream and a slice of the loaf of your choice.

A black beauty. Thank you Dan for a great recommendation.

A winter warmer

There must be something in the air...as the snow fell on Wednesday, I felt an overwhelming urge to make macaroni cheese. And today Fiona, over at The Cheeselover, (she's author of the very delicious book The Cheese Course) has been blogging and twittering about this fantastic comfort blanket of a supper. Fiona's running a competition and this doesn't quite count as an entry, so I'll have to return to it before mid-Jan.

My recipe, which was based on my mum's (which undoubtedly came from Good Housekeeping), underwent a spring clean last year after I'd leafed through Angela Nilsen's excellent Ultimate Recipe Book.

Angela's excellent version has influenced mine in a few ways - make the bechemal sauce a bit slack so that once the macaroni goes in, the whole thing doesn't seize up; use a cheese mix of half chedder and half gruyere to ensure maximum cheesiness;and cheesy crumbs! Angela likes a tomato topping and so do I: not to everyone's taste, especially those to whom tomatoes are the devil's work.

I discovered I had no chedder, so my cheese was a third Lancashire and two thirds Gruyere. The final dish goes into an oven for around 20 mins, then under the grill to brown off the crumbs. Last night I was starving so didn't wait for the full toasting of the crumbs.

But it went down the hatch pretty damn quick. Yum. A perfect antidote to chilly nights and snowy blizzards.

Bathroom blues

Apologies for the much-longer than anticipated break in transmission which was caused by (a) BT mucking up my land line and losing broadband for a while (b) being away from London for work and most eventfully (c) the return of Brian and his merry gang of Vassily and Min Yang for the installation of my new bathroom. I've been here in Tottenham for over nine years and the one room I've done nothing to is my bathroom. It was a monument to mank. A horrible yellowish bathroom suite, including a much-loathed corner bath as there was no room for what I like to think of as a proper bath. No shower. Peeling paintwork. A tongue and groove panelling which made tiling an impossibility. But when Brian took a look, he had a solution: knock down a wall and build a new one. After several gulps and examining the bank balance, I decided to go for it.

Here's Brian in the remains of the room - after we'd discovered that the old wall was the Victorian brick. A heavy layer of dust descended on the house and the study where the pc is was off limits for nearly a fortnight.

But it was such a relief to see the old bath languishing outside, waiting for its graveyard.

Bake for builders is my motto, and during their time here, I treated the team to a pecan and date loaf and banana blondies, which went down a storm. A reveal shot is now in order, so here's the old bathroom...
Yuk yuk...and here's my new one:

Slate tiles on the walls and floor (Brian insisted on a tiled floor), and a couple of orchids to complete the look. Brian, Vassily and Min Yang did a fantastic job - thank you. And while they were at it, I decided to get a radiator for the landing, which Mouse has claimed as her own. More cooking, reviewing and general food chat is now back on the agenda - I hope you'll stick around.