CONTORTED PASTA

After a warm start, we have been having a relatively cool summer here in the UK, so my usual summer habit of living on salads hasn't really taken off yet. Only eating a salad a few times a week, I know I would never get through salad greens before they started getting yucky (it's a challenge for one person even during proper salad season) and not having greens on hand further inhibited the salad eating, until I realised: I don't actually need leafy greens for a salad. A salad can be anything. And it turns out, when you leave out the leafy greens, you're left with stuff that actually fills you up and you can make it more than 20 minutes without feeling hungry again.

So, if you would like to eat more salads, but are facing the same or different challenges in doing so, here is a non-leafy virtual salad bar which you can pick and mix to your satisfaction:

• grated carrots
• grated beets
• tinned chickpeas
• tinned black beans
• tinned butter beans
• roasted sweet potato cubes
• roasted squash cubes
• peas
• raw zucchini (or in my case marrow) cut into thin pieces
• fresh red pepper
• fresh green beans
• tomatoes
• green onions
• cauliflower (fresh or cooked)
• broccoli (same)
• shredded fresh brussels sprouts
• apple
• grapefruit
• peanuts
• sesame seeds

I can't remember the last salad I made to a recipe. Usually I improvise to a basic formula: a base of fresh veg, a fruit, and a cheese and/or protein. The fruit gives it a lift and a pleasing sweet/salt dynamic, the cheese brings umami, and the protein fills you up. Beans and their ilk are really good for this last one, and the types I've listed above have a particular hearty savouriness that give some heft to the salad both in flavour and staying power. If you have a very flavourful salad then pick a light cheese; if your salad needs interest then crumble something more intense into it. You figure out the balances with a little experimentation.

I gave up on finding some live yeast, so I decided to start some sourdough starter from scratch. I had never done this before, but these instructions made it look achievable. The only problem was, I needed some yoghurt. I didn't know what my chances were at Sainsbury's, but there's a Little Waitrose not far away and they don't mark up their dairy products too much. That part was fine, but I happened to end up in the checkout queue (at a safe distance!) behind a lady buying two carrier bags' worth of groceries on two different bills – I assume she was buying for people on lockdown.

The other benefit of going to Waitrose was I could circle back around via The Free Press, on the off chance there were any eggs to be had. There were! And they were so pleased I had brought my own carton as they had run out of their own. I asked further about how to order things and what was available: Most basic stuff, was the answer; if you ordered before 9 they would be there the next day, and they offered delivery service. I paid for the eggs, then remembered I also wanted to stock up on my favourite beer, so asked for three bottles. From the dark recesses of the pub a voice proclaimed 'They're 4 for 2!' which was impossible to refuse. I thanked them profusely for offering their service and wished them well before I clinked home. Besides egg baskets, they had run out of takeaway bags, so it sounds like business is doing OK. I hope they are allowed to continue.

Now I have everything I need to make perogies – they have gone from Eastern European peasant food to Canadian student food; one of the things I miss outside Canada is being able to find big bags of cheap frozen perogies at any supermarket. They are stodgy as anything and cheap as chips, so they should keep me going a long while. I will make them English by using Stilton (of which I have lots) instead of Cheddar (of which I have none) but that shouldn't damage them in any way. We are ready for winter.

The Prime Minister is addressing the public at 8:30 GMT, and is widely expected to be announcing stricter lockdown measures after a weekend of crowded parks and holiday destinations. Winter could be very long indeed.

UPDATE: Yup, we're on lockdown. Allowed out once a day for exercise, alone or with one's housemates, and for acquiring the bare necessities of food and medicine, but otherwise everyone is to stay indoors. Wellp! Here we go.

Basically, borscht with a bunch of hipster stuff in it. Vegan, of course, and gluten-free if you use a gluten-free yeast extract product.

1 red onion
2 small carrots
3 leaves kale
2 beets
generous handful of new potatoes
2 Tbsp miso paste
1 tsp Vegemite
½ tsp turmeric powder
2½ cups water or thereabouts
1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp sesame oil
2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

Cut up the onion, carrots, and beets, to whatever size you like in soup.
Heat the oils in the bottom of a medium-large pot.
Sauté onion, carrots, and beets in the oils.
While this is cooking, cut the leafy parts from the stalks of the kale. Cut up the stalks into small pieces and add to the pot. Cut leafy bits into narrow strips and reserve for now.
Once onion is translucent, add turmeric.
Put Vegemite (or other yeast extract product) in a small bowl or mug and add some of the water to start it dissolving, then put the rest of the water in the pot.
Stir the Vegemite mix until it's all dissolved in the water and add to the pot.
Add miso paste and vinegar.
Cut up potatoes while this comes to a boil, then add them.
Add kale strips.
Cover and let simmer for a while. Salt and pepper to taste. (Definitely taste it first, both miso and Vegemite are very salty and you may not need extra.) Szechuan chili oil optional for a bit of kick.

Should come out looking more or less like a Pride flag.

As I'm sure I have stated with enthusiasm here before, one of the highlights of my teaching in Denmark is this particular type of bread they have at the local supermarket bakery. I found it by accident the first time, and ever since, the first thing I do when I get into town is go buy some bread and butter and stuff myself on it, and the last thing I do is get a loaf or two and freeze them so they'd survive the trip in my luggage, and I can have that wonderful pampasbrød for a couple weeks back in England.

The last time I went, they'd stopped making the loaf – it was available in baguette and bun form, but the texture of those is quite different and neither really captured the joy of the original. Luckily, I'd saved the ingredients list – one of the reasons I started learning how to make bread was to recreate this at home – and while it doesn't list proportions, I hope at some point my experience in baking (such as it is) and memory of the Real Thing might combine to get me at least most of the way there.

The little ingredients tag has been floating around my room for long enough, so in my lifelong fight with little bits of paper, I'm copying out the ingredients list here for future reference. If you like baking and want to give it a go, by all means feel free to do so! If pampasbrød could spread around the world, that might be one small counter to all the awfulness these days.

( PAMPASBRØD INGREDIENSER: )

Posting this mainly for my own reference later, but in case anyone else is interested, it's a great way to use up courgettes/zucchini.

To be made while cooking your pasta:

Grate courgette (1 normal-sized one per person, or the equivalent of an overgrown one)
Sauté with garlic and olive oil, just enough to sweat, not brown
Add a dash of chili/chili oil
Sprinkle with powdered veg stock or salt & pepper
Cook down 10 min
Add 1-2 tbsp water from the pasta
A generous squeeze of lemon
Chop a handful of mint and parsley fine, sprinkle in
Simmer for around 12 minutes, until all a mellow green
Toss with pasta
Lots of parmesan

Hey presto scrumptious.

I've been much too lax on posting lately – most of this year so far I've either been working on non-drawing stuff, or on stuff I can't post yet. But I had other things to do today, so of course I spent most of it illustrating a recipe. It's a recipe I love sharing with people because while it's time-consuming it's really easy, and both delicious and healthy.



( The rest ... )

And if you have an appropriate pie crust recipe and substitute cheese, you can make it vegan, too!

Every so often at the Disney commissary they offer this crazy fusion nacho thing which is kind of expensive and too large a serving for one person but is OMG DELICIOUS. I tried replicating it and have made a fairly close cut-price knock off:

3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp seasoned rice vinegar
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 large tomato, seeded and diced
1 avocado, diced
OPTIONAL:
sesame seeds
sprouts (daikon, bean, or alfalfa)
seaweed salad
Japanese mayo
small cubes of raw or seared tuna (the commissary version has this, and all of the above)
ponzu sauce or lemon juice
miso
wasabi


Best served with wonton chips, though any rice-based chip is good, and unsalted tortilla chips will do in a pinch. If you use large sprouts you may want to cut them shorter to ease in dipping. Some of the optional ingredients should only be mixed in if you're planning to consume all the dip in one day – the sprouts will go soggy, the seaweed will overpower the flavour, and the raw fish ... well, it's raw fish.