Organic Food Festival 2009 needs you!

We met last night to discuss the  Soil Association Organic Food Festival 12-13 September 2009.

First, my starter (see above) which prompted this reflection: my favourite dishes are mush-tastic. I use a lot of grains and pulses, and, let’s face it, they blob.

Please don’t reject my love because of the apparent lack of finesse.

Grains and pulses are nourishing, healthy and economical, lending themselves to spice-taste.

I ate the above starter (£6.50) last night at the Lido (saved and restored to its Victorian-swimming-baths-original thanks to a community campaign).

It was couscous with yogurt, fresh broad beans and coriander and was delicious, soothing.

Look, even when eating out, I am drawn to mushy grains.

But why be ashamed? Eating for substance is the organic way.

“We are about inner quality, not outer appearance – that is our hallmark.”

So said Patrick Holden, Soil Association director, recently quoted in the Independent apropos the abolition of those wonky EU-rules on wonky veg.

Which brings us back to the Organic Food Festival.

Last night’s dinner was the inauguration of two things:

1) I was in my new role as food editor of The Source.

2) The Source is helping produce the programme for the Soil Association Organic Food Festival. And that’s what we doing, round a table at the Lido.

Every September, Bristol Harbourside transforms into Europe’s largest organic market place. It used to be free but became so popular it got rammed so, for the last two years, there has been a charge. This year £1 of the £5 entry fee goes to the Soil Association.

My message?

Join us!

The Organic Food Festival in Bristol Harbourside on 12 – 13 September 2009

TASTE THE FUTURE

Organic is more than a product

- it is our sustainable future

Come as a punter to catch a community cooking demo, learn how to grow organic veg or go on a taste-fest in sample-heaven.

Come ye local street food traders! This year will feature a Street Food Bazaar.

Although the stallholders are licensed-organic, the street food traders can follow Food for Life targets which are: 30% organic, 50% local and 70% unprocessed.

And let’s not forget the entertainment.

Come all ye street musicians, food artists, acrobats and jugglers, dancers and poets.

And come forth those tribes who care for the planet: Permaculture, and Slow Food Bristol, and Transition Bristol, and Grofun and Avon Organic, and those without a label but you know who you are.

Express your interest with a comment (your email address is NOT published).

We look forward to hearing from you.

Slow food and fast dancing

I love these guys. A nine-piece band, fresh from Havana and en route for the Barbican, London, brought to Bristol last night thanks to Bristol Slow Food.

The venue was Jesters on the Cheltenham Road. Tickets were £10 and the Cuban-style dishes, devised and prepared by Chris Wicks of Bell’s Diner were about £8.50.

Mike and I had the shrimps and avocado.

There was no mention of organic even though Cuba is the great organic inspiration. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and no more cheap pesticides and chemical fertilisers, Cuba went organic. Many public spaces in Havana are now given over to growing organic veg. ie State-supported agriculture without fossil fuels. Don’t you love it? Just shows it can be done.

The shrimps were plump, grilled and well-tasty and the fresh pea shoots (part of the salad dressed with lemon juice) looked enchanting and tasted earthy. I have never eaten pea tendrils before – and why not? They are delicious.

The dish was the size of a generous starter but actually perfect because I needed to be light on my feet to dance.

I forgot to take a picture of my plate but I got several pictures of the band.

It was so groovy because these guys in the band were middle-aged (i.e. about my age) and older.

And they rocked.

If I wanted to nitpick about the evening, I’d say Jesters could have sold twice as many drinks with more bar staff. My sister said you needed to apply in triplicate for a Cuban cocktail – but when it came, she said: It was worth it.

They could have sold twice the food too.

But I don’t think Bristol Slow Food knew how rammed the event would get. Apparently they only confirmed Son Tropical two weeks ago. And then bookings went ballistic.

Which shows that great music and dancing may be the missing ingredient to Slow Food.

Guild of Food Writers Awards 2009

Last night I was at the Guild of Food Writers Awards 2009 party at the Old Hall, London.

My blog was shortlisted for the New Media award, and I took my mum (see pic, above) along to give me support.

OK, my blog did not win. Tim Haward of the Guardian/ Observer Word of Mouth blog pipped both me and the lovely Helen Yuet Ling Pang of the World Foodie Guide to the post.

However, the judges said nice things about this blog such as: “Quirky”, “informative” and “Winkler’s writing rules should be required reading for aspiring writers online or in print.”

One of the judges, Rupert Parker, gave me some good advice, saying I should update more often. Like daily. Will give it a go. Viz.

Emma Sturgess and Diane Hendry were also winners and that meant a lot to me because I had voted for them when I was on two previous judging panels.

Being a participant – rather than an observer – took the event to another level. I was high.

And snapped away.

Here is the lovely Jane Baxter and Guy Watson happy with their award (and not knowing they are about to receive another). I love their Riverford Farm Cook Book – and I have mentioned it a few times here at this blog.

Jane said there was no danger of this going to her head. “As I was coming up the steps of the Old Hall, I got a call from my six-year-old: ‘Mum, where is my bicycle pump?”

Here is Mark Hix who is not only a winner but thouroughly helpful. When I told him my niece was a fan, he said: “Can she cook?” and said she could contact him (yippee).

Here is Jay Rayner who was warm and funny. And below is Heston Blumenthal.

As my mum said: “You were up there with the big boys.”

In fact Heston was dead impressed by my mum. She was talking about her parents (circa 1930s) who used to analyse every dish at every meal – an enduring family trait. He admired her energy and told her:

“I want what you’ve got.”

O, it was fun. And being shortlisted is a goddamn-fine accolade. Nichola Fletcher told me her publishers put it on her book cover.

So in the words of the song: “They can’t take that away from me.”

Oh no – they can’t take that away from meeeeeeee.

Brain food

There is nothing like being cooked for, especially when it is your favourite food. Every lunchtime this last week I have feasted on creative vegetarian dishes thanks to Sarah Roy’s inventive nutritional know-how, handsomely assisted by Ali.

These wonderful health-feasts are part of the Symphonic Mind treatment offered by Sarah and her husband, James Roy. As I am helping them with their marketing, they insisted I experience the whole package including daily Yogic massage and brain training.

I have never thought much about my brain or its waves. But according to the emerging sciences of the mind, emotional and physical trauma as well as a range of health conditions can cause imbalance.

For instance, someone might have too many theta waves in the front lobes, or conscious part, of their brain. Theta-induced dreaminess is good for creativity but not for paying bills on time. So after an assessment, Brain State Technology comes up with a precise customised programme to restore balance.

In my case, I have a huge amount of brain waves associated with self-critical judgements in the unconscious part of my brain.

Sarah says this is common. I can believe it. We come from centuries of repression and mind control. It is hard to feel good-enough just to be.

In the brain sessions, I sat back in a comfortable state-of-the-art chair. Sensory electrodes picking up information from my brain were placed on different sections of my head, depending on which part we were working on. I was asked to do a variety of mind-stilling exercises such as focusing on a lit candle while I listened to sounds of my brain waves played back to me.

This is a very pleasant way to spend the day and could not have come in a better time as I transition from employee to entrepreneur, and need to call on all my resources unhampered and to maximum effect.

Brain State Technology translates brainwaves into sounds, colours and shapes. One exercise which appealed to my competitive self was using my mind to move a coloured bar on a screen. If you focus hard-enough the bar goes up or down. How fascinating to see in real-time the value of setting an intention!

The massage treatments sandwiched between the brain work was a way of grounding these changes  in my physical being. James Roy used to train with the masseur of the Dalai Lama and the masseur of the Thai abbots. (Am happy to hear monks get massaged).

For two hours a day I was Breathed and Yoga-ed. I lay on a large mat as James guided my limbs and lungs to do their yogic thing. It is something else to have someone else help you get into postures and breathe deeply. The beauty is I can touch my toes again, something I have been unable to do since a slipped disc injury three years ago.

As for my brains, I overcame a deeply troubling situation leading to the calm of acceptance; and (reporting a few days later), my focus and meditation seems to have improved.

Now for the food. As well as being a neurotherapist and body worker like James, Sarah is a nutritionist. The above dish was brown rice salad with peas (defrosted but raw – works a treat), fresh broad beans and roasted cashew nuts; with toasted nori flakes, pickled ginger, olive paté with cream cheese, green salad leaves from a Riverford Organic veg box, and wasabi added to mayonnaise. Wasabi is that green Japanese horseradish you get with a sushi. Thanks to Sarah, I can now add it to my repertoire.

Another one to note is the tahini sauce (below) which Sarah made with lemon juice, tabasco for spice, a little water and – the magic ingredient and a new one for the store cupboard – the saltiness and digestive-enhancement of umboshi paste.

I felt so lucky, I was envying myself.

Six salad party food

Party food chez Winkler. I was too excited to eat, so took small portions. This one went down a treat despite hostess-nerves: the wild rice salad with oven-roasted morsels of beetroot, pumpkin and carrots, and crunchy oven-roasted pumpkin and sunflower seeds. My off-the-cuff invention, it’s made the grade for next time.

The six vegetarian salads (see unposed picture above) were easy-on-the-purse and high-on-health:

1. Wild rice salad with pumpkin, beetroot and carrot – followed clockwise in the picture by…

2. Ingrid Rose’s hummus (using her 5 x amounts hummus recipe) – her birthday present to me!

3. Butter bean, mushroom and coriander salad with lemon juice

- a perennial winner thanks to Rose Elliot’s The Bean Book

4. Red split lentils with chilli. Simple dhal – light with bite.

5. Organic wholemilk yogurt with diced cucumber, black pepper and mint

6. Classic potato salad – boil halved-and-quartered (if possible NEW) potatoes until soft enough to fall from a a sharp knife when speared.

The party was on Saturday. I aimed to be prepared and avoid last-minute superstress.

Most of the shopping was done midweek.

Thursday I emptied the packet of butter beans (500g) into a large pan and covered the hard ones with water. Overnight they swelled. Some say throw away the rinsing water to reduce farting – what do you think?

Friday I cooked the swelled-up beans in enough water to cover them and boiled them for 1 HOUR, then drained. I defrosted the frozen wild rice I had cooked earlier that week (with chilli). Texture mushy but taste good.

The drained butter beans mingle eventually – with onions fried in olive oil plus 5 teaspoons of cumin sizzling for seconds. Into the spicy mix go sliced mushrooms, lots of them. You may need to add more olive oil to prevent sticking. Once the mushrooms are cooked but not soggy, then you add the drained butter beans.

I  roasted the root vegetables a day-ahead too

- seasonal local beetroots and carrots and (imported) pumpkin roasted for only 20 minutes because they were cut-up so small, and the seeds – they take minutes.

Saturday Boiled potatoes for potato salad and slouched them with olive oil, rock salt and garlic while still warm.

Peeled and diced 3 English cucumbers + mint + 3 large pots of organic yogurt, emptied into a bowl.

Assembled the wild rice salad and cooked roasted root veg and seeds.

Assembled the butter beans + mushrooms + cumin with lemon juice and fresh local organic coriander.

Wow. This was the first time I have been so prepared.

I had even sorted out the serving dishes in advance.

All the more time to party.

Winning summer snack

Lunch today: houmous, kidney beans and fresh alfafa bean sprouts, with olive oil + balsamic dressing.

In March I entered my food blog in the Guild of Food Writers‘ awards for New Media.

I prayed to be shortlisted.

I did not pray to win. I feared I’d get punished for being greedy.

(Talk about negative thought patterns!).

Anyway, last week, in the midst of goodbyes to salaried work – guess what? I hear some incredibly timely news: my blog has been shortlisted. Joy!

The awards take place on June 25 this year. Here is my report from last year’s awards.

I remember gazing at last year’s winners and wishing to be one.

O naked ambition!

There are only three of us shortlisted.

Helen Yuet Ling Pang of World Foodie Guide

Tim Hayward of the Guardian and Observer Food Monthly’s Word of Mouth and myself.

I feel a bit self-conscious – like maybe I should make more effort?  But you know me

- I just want healthy fast food without fuss.

Like today’s lunch.

How much did it cost?  £1.70 for 200g of homemade organic houmous from Better Food Company, about 60p for the tin of non-organic beans and approx £1.40 for a packet of organic alfafa sprouts from Scoopaway – and plenty for several servings.

I must do bean sprouts justice in a future blog because they really are a wonderfood. And cheap and easy to sprout yourself.

I did do posh last Wednesday: a £30 six course taster menu at Casamia for a special birthday treat. I was too busy eating to pronounce but I can say the salmon poached in olive oil with Jerusalem artichoke puree (see pic below) got rated “better than the Fat Duck” by those (not me) who had dined there.

I have just reviewed my few past posts and noticed quite a few BEAN recipes. What can I say? Nothing beats them for health and budget. In fact I feel another one coming on…

Tofu with coconut

Quite often strange and wonderful foods are packaged with no explanations on how to eat them.

Take aduki beans. Gillian McKeith recommended them on British TV. The nation listened and duly bought them.

But what to do with those aduki beans? I bet you money some are still sitting in the back of people’s cupboards…

The more unusual the food, the more the food makers assume you know what to do with them.

This explains why I was so happy to receive a booklet (in this case free with this Sunday’s the Observer) on interesting ways to cook tofu.

I love the bland, digestible high-protein bean curd. But apart from stir-frying, I never quite know how to eat it.

The booklet from award-winning organic tofu makers, Cauldron, takes its inspiration from Asia where tofu is traditionally used and you are not seen as a weirdo for eating it.

Here’s my Winklerified version of its Rendang paste:

Toast 3 tablespoons of dessicated coconut in a dry, hot frying pan.

Make a paste: Blend (or whizz or pound) the toasted coconut with one cut raw onion, 1 mild fresh chilli, a chunk of raw ginger peeled and chopped, and a teaspoon of turmeric. No liquid needed.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a heavy frying pan and gently fry the paste, stirring until the aroma is released.

Add 250 mls (a bit more than half a can) of coconut milk with 125 mls of water.

Blend a teaspoon of tamarind paste with a tablespoon of water, and add that along with 1 stick of cinnamon (see it floating on left of picture) and 4 star anise (I have had star anise in my cupboard for ages not knowing what to do with it…).

Bring the mixture to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Add the drained tofu pieces and cook gently for another 10 minutes. Stir in greens chopped in strips, such as fresh coriander or spinach or pak choi.

Serve as I did with brown rice and cubes of roasted sweet potato.

I am not known for my presentation skills when it comes to food. By the time I have cooked, I am in no mood for artistry. Hence the joy of eating out.

One of my fave local eating places is a gastropub on Bristol’s Gloucester Road Robin Hood’s Retreat.

The food is locally sourced and heavenly flavoured. I believe the chef is a master.

I had asparagus from the Wye Valley with a Scotch egg with the egg still warm and runny; pea puree and sea trout on a bed of lentils. Dinner for two with 1 glass of wine and two courses, came to about £50.

And all, as you can see, beautifully presented.

Judging the Great Taste Awards

I was a judge at the recent Great Taste Awards at the Real Food Festival in London last weekend. It was a salutary experience.

That is putting it politely.

Some of the entries had an ersatz look and taste. Lemonliness, for example? Think pungent-smelling disinfectant.

The Great Taste marquee seated about 100 judges at different tables.  The judges at mine included three other food writers and one buyer from a posh department store.  She had all the technical words whereas I was going: “Yak, I can’t eat this.”

Our brief? To taste seven olive oils as well as confectionary, cakes and biscuits. Cruel combination, but we were game. We discussed each item thoroughly, making copious notes including constructive suggestions.

My fellow judges allowed only one item, a fresh and intriguing amaretto chocolate, on to the next stage.

It is good to know judging is discerning so a Great Taste Award is worth its…salt.

But where was the taste? I felt commercial concerns with clout and confidence were the ones putting their products up for judging.

Back on the showfloor, there was real food galore.

For example the Nibchoc stall with its Raw Cocoa Bar with Ginger Nibs was a sumptuous ginger taste-sensation and healthy to boot.

My message is: if there are any artisan or small organic food producers out there, thinking:

“Do I dare put my product in front of the Great Taste judges?”

I would say: Do It.

Get out there, real food makers, and strut your stuff for the 2010 awards!

Bean salad fast food

I have to eat. Now. Quick and dirty.

So I grab a tin of organic haricots beans, a must-have cupboard staple.

I open it with the ring-pull and drain the health-sustaining beans in a sieve.

I put them in a bowl and snip whatever fresh things I can lay my hands on:

• wild garlic flowers from a walk a week ago
• chive flowers from my balcony pot
• winter chard that kindly reappeared this spring when I thought it was a gonner

I added olive oil, balsamic vinegar and crunchy rock salt.

All of which sounds poncy but make all the difference to a dish so get over it.

What is your most cannot-live-without cupboard staple?

PS Inspired by Lynn who comments here and grows organic produce for vegetarian restaurant in Bath, the well-established Demuth’s, I ate lunch there on Friday. My thali with all its different tastes and textures including dhal and chickpeas cost £10.95 . I also liked my dining companion’s beetroot dish.

Amazing asparagus

I had never tasted asparagus so tender and young before. Out of this world.

Asparagus in the UK has a short season from May to mid-June.

Well, it used to.  The season now starts  in April in the UK. When a fellow food blogger bought hers last week, I was surprised – that’s climate change for you.

In supermarket-land, they appear all year long, spears the regulation length, lined up in rows in small plastic boxes. They look pretty – and are pretty tasteless.

The supermarkets now race to get seasonal British-born asparagus on their shelves.

Waitrose failed the test yesterday according to my mum, the queen of real food lovers. Shocked by its offering of Peruvian asparagus, my 80+ mum made a special trip to Marks & Spencers for the British kind. (Reader, thus is my provenance).

It’s not that I am jingo-istic, set against Johnnie-foreigner.

Nooooo, hardly. a) I believe in a world without borders b) I am of foreign-blood myself.

My love of seasonal stems from common sense. Eating food grown as near to where I live tastes fresher. Looking at the bigger picture, my spears’  journey-to-market is less polluting too.

My asparagus came 10 minutes away by foot thanks to the local organic grower setting up stall in the self-build eco-houses at St. Werburgh’s every Thursday afternoon until 6.30pm.

Mike is going to check the name of the grower for us next week. We hope to find out more how it was grown, as growing it organically is supposed to be hard.

He barely steamed the young spears then latticed them over fried brown rice, chilli and mushrooms (above).

We love brown rice but let’s face it, that’s hardly local.

So, Little Englander or bigger picture and more taste? Why do you like local food?

Stop press: Wrington Greens sell their fresh organic veg every Thursday 4.30-6.30pm at the Self-Build homes at Ashley Vale, St. Werburgh’s – please buy if you like to be wowed…