Organic Banquet

Laverstoke Farm burrata, which unfortunately I didn't get to taste, they made it specially for me, but I hope my guests liked it. Pic by Bellaphon

Toynbee Hall. Pic by Bellaphon.

On May Day I was asked to create an organic banquet to be held after a debate about organic food at Toynbee Hall in East London. Named after Arnold Toynbee (the political writer Polly Toynbee is a descendant), an economic historian who coined the term 'industrial revolution', Toynbee Hall was originally a place where scholars who were interested in improving the lives of the working classes could reside. Samuel and Henrietta Barnett (she also started her eponymous school in North London and Hampstead Garden suburb) founded it in the poor East End of London, as a place to attract educated people, to encourage the different social classes to mix. Social inclusion continues to be promoted. The Citizens Advice Bureau and one of my favourite organisations, Child Poverty Action* were started at Toynbee Hall.

Therefore Toynbee Hall was an interesting and relevant pick of location to host this debate because organic food is often viewed as something poncy for posh families to waste their money on. Unless you grow your own, organically grown or reared food appears to be almost the opposite of socially inclusive. The recession has hit 'luxuries' and organic food has been pushed out of the family budget: sales of organic food have fallen over the last three years.
I couldn't attend the debate, hosted by John Craven, given that I was cooking. The 'againsts' were performed by Oliver Thring and James Ramsden, (although how can anybody be against organics?) while the 'fors' were represented by Speech Debelle and Craig Sams of Green and Blacks organic chocolate amongst others.

I try to use organic food whenever I can. For home use, I get a weekly box from Riverford Organics which makes it more economic. How can we afford to eat organically? Actually the question is how can we afford not to? If you spend a large percentage of your income on what you eat, this might be one of the choices you make. The British spend less of their income on food than the Europeans (France spends double what we do). But our children are going blind, getting fat, losing their teeth, getting ADHD and leukaemia from pesticides, because they are eating and drinking crap. We need to get out of the house, get off the damn computer, the magic box of light and tricks, and do some exercise, get some daylight. Ultimately, though, the most important thing is to make sure we eat the boring old '5 a day', organic or not.
http://www.organicukfood.com

Here is my menu:

Salmagundi: a 17th century salad dish, featuring vegetables, herbs, flowers and dips.

Hand made Burrata from Laverstoke farm with tarragon salad and pomegranate seeds.

Asparagus mimosa with pansies

Dover Sole en papillote with kumquats from my garden and samphire.

Tricolour tofu (smoked, basil and beetroot marinated) en papillote (v)

Ginger and mint new potatoes

British cheese selection with biscuits, organic walnuts and almonds, chutneys.

British iced 'fancies':

Chocolate and beetroot cake topped with candied beetroot

Courgette and poppy seed cake topped with candied courgette

Carrot cake topped with candied carrot.

All the organic wines, beers and soft drinks were provided by Vintage Roots. The wines were mostly British.
Most ingredients were provided by Abel and Cole organics.

The vegan salmagundi. Pic by Bellaphon

Salmagundi pic by Bellaphon

The freshest Dover Sole with lemon grass, samphire and kumquats from my garden. I encased the fish in parchment and baked it.

Tricolor tofu: beetroot marinated, basil, and smoked. Again baked in parchment.

Hard to take great pix when you are getting the food out! The dover sole parcels with beautifully fresh and not too salty samphire. Have you tried samphire? It's a sea vegetable, a succulent, that grows near marshes and the coast. It can be used pickled, in salads or lightly steamed with butter. Every fishmonger in France sells it and you should be able to obtain it from a reputable fishmonger in the UK.

British iced fancies. These were a bugger to ice and cocked up my whole prepping schedule.

*Child Poverty Action write the manuals on the rules for welfare and tax credits claimants, what you are entitled to or not, which can be ordered here, only £10 for people on benefits. 

Travel: West Sweden: murder,crayfish and oysters

Fjallbacka

'Fika' of chocolate cake with blueberry whipped cream

The Kings Cleft

Breakfast at Fjallbacka

Like Midsomer in England, the problem with Fjallbacka, a dozy fishing village in West Sweden, is the sky-high murder rate. Camilla Lackberg, who lives there with her hunky detective husband, chronicles this in her series of crime novels. On this visit to Sweden, in which I venture outside the city and discover the seaside, I was given a Fjallbacka tour by one of ABBA's relatives, Inga. The trouble was she kept revealing the plots of Camilla's books. "And here is where the two bodies were discovered by the cliffs" "Over there is the graveyard of all the sailors in the third book" she'd point and finally"and there is where Erika and Patrik get married".

"What??" I spluttered "They are married? I'm on the first novel and they haven't even kissed yet". Inga looked abashed.
Fjallbacka was also where film star Ingrid Bergman had her summer home; there is a square named after her. Reading Lackberg's books, I'm on the third, you get the impression it's quite a large town. Untrue, it's tiny, although jumbled with pastel wooden huts, classic red summer houses and almost every inhabitant owns a boat.

I took two boat trips; one on a local fishing boat, learning to catch crayfish, the other, on a  vintage sailing boat, all lovingly varnished oak and pine,where I was taught to open an oyster.

Female and male crayfish

One of the judges, checking for grit, drips, shell, blood, lack of severing, a cut or sliced oyster.

I witnessed the Nordic oyster opening championships where, despite the rock star posturings of the long-haired Swedish chef, oyster knives in his holster, and a scarlet-lipped blonde girlfriend cheering him on, a Finn wearing a crimson pixie hat won. These things are serious.

Weather Islands with sprig of scurvy curing flower


I asked for the recipe but they wouldn't give it.

My favourite location was the 'Weather Islands', notionally a mosaic of barren rocks in the archipelago of Western Sweden, but home to a wooden guesthouse with the best fish chowder - thick, yellow, rich - that I have ever eaten. This is where Sweden's weather station is located along with a lighthouse to guide lost ships through the pebble dash of islets to the mainland. A tiny white flower, sprigs among the boulders, the name I could not discover, saved parched sailors from scurvy. I arrived on a calm sunny day and felt that I'd like to spend a week there, reading, painting, watching seals, taking saunas and dips in the clear depths of the clean green sea. But they say the weather islands are "A heaven in the sea or a hell on earth". During bad weather, they watch the sea rise 'til it must lap the skirting boards. Having no fresh water, there is a desalination plant, but at first "it was too clean, people got sick, we had to introduce some bacteria". 
I love this link: 'Buying your own private island- things to consider', a handy guide for every millionaire.

You know I love a hat!

Supper Club: On a stick!

Sushi on a stick with edamame peas!

My influence for this meal came from American food blogger Matt Armendariz' book 'On a Stick'.  It has pages of inspiring recipes, all of them, naturally, threaded onto the end of something pointy. The first celebrity chef, Antoine Careme, one of 25 children borne to impoverished parents during the French revolution, had a predilection for using ornamental skewers or 'hatelets' often made out of metal with a lyre or a wreath at the end. (I am collecting these myself).
I spent a small fortune on different sticks for this meal, many of them from my new favourite shop 'Hobby Craft' (seriously, I could spend hours in there). Others, rather more chic, came from skewer specialists 'Spikomat'.
There is something of the fairground about eating off a stick, it's a childish pleasure, so I included saffron flavoured candy floss in the menu. Another dish, the corn dog, influenced by State fairs in the United States, I have never even tasted before, nor had most of my guests. Even with vegetarian hot dogs, it was a tasty surprise.
My only bug bear was that many of the recipes in Matt's book simply didn't work. It's a problem when the author is primarily a stylist and photographer, in that he/she thinks visually and not whether it is easy to follow the recipes. I struggled to make the savoury 'dango' tofu balls as Matt did not specify whether the rice flour should be glutinous or not. I was dubious whether to serve these rather heavy tasteless balls, but the umami heavy ponzu sauce transformed them into one of the favourite dishes of the night.
The spaghetti on a stick was impossible. Once I had conquered the problem of vegetarian meatballs made from Quorn refusing to turn into a ball (I used Xanthan gum), the spaghetti/meatball concoction, despite 'chilling' for over 12 hours, would not coagulate into the sliceable squares promised by Matt. We resorted, a brilliant idea by helper @sarahserves, to dipping the spaghetti in tempura batter to make it stick together ...on a stick.

Menu

Frozen Kir Royale with blackcurrants and raspberries...on a stick.

Banderillas (olives, pickled garlic, anchovy wrapped cocktail onions) ... on a stick.

Sushi (avocado and wasabi caviar rolls, you push them up as you eat) ... on a stick.

Tomato, mozzarella and basil salad ... on a stick.

Savoury dango tofu with ponzu and Japanese pepper dipping sauce ... on a stick.

Baby baked aubergines with miso and yuzu ... on a stick.

Pizza ... on a stick.

Corndog (with Heinz ketchup and American mustard) ... on a stick.

Mushrooms deep fried in corn batter ... on a stick.

Corn on the cob (slathered in garlic butter and maple syrup) ... on a stick.

Monkfish in yoghurt and turmeric ... on a stick.

Palate cleanser: frozen grapes ... on a stick.

Chocolate-dipped frozen bananas (with popping candy) ... on a stick.

Salted caramel lollies dipped in homemade sherbet ... on a stick.

Saffron sugar candy floss ... on a stick.

Guests were not given cutlery.

Cocktail on a stick!

Banderillas!

Salad on a stick!

 Corn Dog!

 Turmeric and yoghurt marinated monkfish!

Savoury dango on a stick in Yuzu, Japanese pepper and Ponzu sauce!

Tempura spaghetti on a stick!

Miso baked aubergines on a stick!

Frozen chocolate-dipped bananas!

I taught my guests how to make candy floss.

Travel: Sweden: Butter Viking

In their little red house in the woods, where bobcats and ferrets roam through oak trees, wild flowers and sorrel, Patrik and Zandra make butter for the best restaurants in the world.

Owls hoot and their little boy puzzles the mysteries of mermaids while Patrik churns butter: the 'virgin' kind he sells to Noma, it is airy, acidic with a high percentage of buttermilk (40%).

The cream will be left to ripen for two or three days, allowing aroma and flavour to develop.

Salt is added

The yellower the butter, the less buttermilk. This is the other kind of butter that Patrik makes.

There used to be 6000 small dairies in Sweden before dairy giant Arla bought them all in the 60s.

Sweden was the biggest exporter of butter in the 1800s. Nowadays most butter and cheese is industrially made, whereas before Sweden used to have several types of hard cheese.

"The Swedish taught the French how to make butter." said Patrik as we watched his son squeeze his feet into a mermaid tail that he'd fashioned from bubble wrap. Patrik was inspired by his grandmother who was a cook for a rich family and churned her own butter.

It takes 20 minutes to churn in this butter churn imported from India. Supermarket butter takes 3 seconds and is done in 'canons'. Smor buttery has been going for 4 years. Patrik and Zandra have won awards for their butter.

Potential mermaids.

Vidar and the mermaids.

Patrik has made 'Bog butter' with Ben Reade, a food scientist who works with Noma restaurant: they fashioned containers out of birch and buried it in a grave, a kind of Gravad smor... He will exhume it this summer, then in one year, in five years, in 30 years.