The Picota cherry comes from the Jerté valley, in Extremadura, Spain after being introduced by Arab farmers in the 14th century. Earlier this year I went to visit the valley in a cloud of snowy blossom. Last week I visited the trees while in fruit, drooping with ‘red diamonds’ as they are called locally. The…
Vegan
Paisley vegan
Popped up to Paisley in Scotland for the food and drink festival which now features a vegan section. Paisley is famous for the ‘paisley’ pattern, a decorative woven teardrop, known in Persian as a ‘boteh’. The local museum is closed for refurbishment until 2022, but the brief history is that 19th century soldiers, returning from…
Wasabi farm, Winchester
Last winter, I met farmer David Turton of the Wasabi Company just outside of Winchester. This area has been famous for watercress – which has similar growing requirements to Japanese horseradish, known as wasabi, the small pea-green mound next to the salmon-pink pickled ginger when you order sushi. The Wasabi company has moved from watercress…
Recipe for veggie goulash
Goulash is a cowboy stew for plainsmen in Hungary. Traditionally it is made with meat but I have created a vegan/vegetarian version. I used sweet paprika bought in Budapest and I must say, it’s very red, very fresh and tasty. Parsley roots are a traditional ingredient which I ordered through Natoora at Ocado, but parsnips…
Caribbean Veganuary
I recently went for a tasting menu supper club at The Mango Room, a Caribbean restaurant in Camden, run by restaurateur Derick Blake, that has been around for 20 years. This makes the restaurant virtually an antique in the fast-paced hospitality industry, where restaurants go bust every year. Apart from the fantastic cocktails, the menu also…
Starry starry soup recipe
I’m all about the soups in winter. These are my soup rules: Use leftovers: that stir fry and bit of rice that didn’t quite get eaten up, I whizzed the vegetables with hot water and a spoonful of stock powder then added the leftover rice at the end. It’s the same principle as chicken soup:…
Vegan sausage rolls recipe
Greggs the bakers have been running some brilliant marketing campaigns over the last couple of years, from the sausage roll baby Jesus in the advent calendar, the Valentine’s Day menu, to last year’s transformation into Gregory and Gregory for a posh food festival. This year they topped the January news agenda by bringing out vegan…
Five ways to cook Brussels sprouts
There are many different ways to cook sprouts, my favourite method is braising, that is par-boiling in salty water for five minutes then transferring them into a frying pan to sauté. This recipe is so delicious that I must confess to scoffing the lot, by myself, in one sitting. I do like to combine Brussels…
The Allotment, winner of Best Vegetarian restaurant 2018
Chef Matthew Nutter and his partner Siobhan gave birth to a restaurant and a baby on the same weekend. I reckon if they can handle that, they can handle anything. The restaurant in question, The Allotment, has just been voted Britain’s best vegetarian restaurant. However it would be more accurate to say it is the…
Here’s Jonny’s… vegan cheese!
Two years ago Jonny Moore designed and sold kitchens. Now he’s one of the UK’s top vegan cheese makers. From his tiny kitchen in Northamptonshire, he’s founded a thriving food business, the Naturally Vegan Food Company which manufactures vegan cheeses. Despite sounding like a contradiction in terms, vegan cheese is improving all the time. I even…