What is Good to Eat in January
What’s hot and what’s not…
In recent years January to me usually meant hot curries and spicy salads in South East Asia, it was the perfect month for a vaccation, straight after the hell that is December and an escape from the cold of an English winter.
Not so this year, plans have changed and I’m staying in England. I’ve got plenty to do and the restructuring of the kitchen garden is high on the agenda. Beds and polytunnels have to be cleared and dug over ready for the Spring so this is the month when I use up the last of my winter veg.
It’s easy to dismiss food in winter as uninspiring, I think this has something to do with the fact that we don’t like winter in general and want to fast forward to summer eating. Here’s one from the garden, winter cabbage is superb when cooked properly and this one got the Italian bacon, caramelised onion, caraway seed and cream treatment tonight.
Salad leaves are still in good supply, crisp winter cos and the economical cut and come again have provided me with great green salads for dinner every week since the late summer.
In the restaurant I am making the most of the winter vegetables for purees to accompany game and seafood; salsify with woodcock or sea bass, butternut with partridge, carrot with rabbit, celeriac with beef etc. Curly kale is another great vegetable which we serve very simply, nothing much more than some butter and lemon or perhaps some toasted cumin seeds and rock salt, nothing more.
Having a polytunnel means I can bring Spring forward by five or six weeks, salads and vegetables can be sown much earlier with a June harvest in May and a July crop in June. So peas, beans, chillies and tomatoes will all get an early start and, as is the case with chillies will be much the better for it.
My only regret about the end of January is saying goodbye to much of the local game, now is the time to make the most of the few remaining weeks before the season finishes and you are left with pigeons and venison.
Cockles, crab and rock oysters are all good but bad weather and Christmas holidays shove the price of seafood to all time highs, this is the time to take a serious look at alternative fish if only for economic reasons let alone ecological ones.
The wild larder continues its hibernation until the early Spring so patience is a virtue, and something I don’t have!
Miles,
I love savoy cabbages, always have done. They taste good in various ways, finishing off with bubble and squeak. Cheap, filling food and excellent for your health. Childhood memories are flooding back
Elsie
January 7, 2008 @ 3:44 pm
Elsie and Miles,
I too love bubble & squeak, just lately with my personal favourite Linghams chilli dipping sauce…. mmmmmm.
My latest craze has to be a juicer, borrowed mind you, not sure there’s enough room left in my kitchen for more gadgets! For the time being however it is supplying me with fresh fruit and veg in a glass …. and looking at the state of me since the festive cake binge, it’s long over due
Are you feeling fully fit yet Miles?
Cid
January 7, 2008 @ 6:34 pm
Elsie,
Bubble and squeak, no we’re talking! I should do a post on that for my American readers, I don’t think they have that in the States-am I wrong?
Miles
January 7, 2008 @ 7:01 pm
Cid,
First day back in the gym today and could only manage 98kg on chest press so I’m still not 100%. Give it a week and I should be my old self again, thanks.
Miles
January 7, 2008 @ 7:03 pm
Hi from California. What the hell is bubble and squeak? We have hellfire and brimstone, but I bet they aren’t related. We also have Hillary and Barack, but, again, I don’t think they are related. But they might profit from being called Bubble and Squeak.
January 7, 2008 @ 11:29 pm
Hi Annie,
Good question! Also known as bubble, it is one of England’s finest ‘food thrift’ creations. I shall post a recipe/method shortly.
Good luck with the marathon election campaign, I’ve just seen Hillary doing her emotional bit. What a pity the comedy writers are on strike, they would have had a field day with that one!
Miles
January 8, 2008 @ 8:38 am
Miles, Annie
I like this connotation to bubble and squeak. We used to have Tony and Gordon
Cid, a juicer, hey? Do you think if you put your cake in it, it might be reduced and therefore less fattening?
January 8, 2008 @ 1:31 pm
Elsie,
There’s nothing better than a healthy juice followed by a nice piece of cake. Just this morning I was eyeing up a tasty breakfast muffin (packed with goodies that didn’t get consumed over Christmas, like cherries, dates and pecans etc) that I’d made and then weighing up which one to go for first… oh well perhaps I’ll have a juice for supper
Since this post I can think of little else except bubble & squeak, a great dish for a cold winter’s night.
Cid
January 8, 2008 @ 1:58 pm
Cid,
.
Don’t mention pecans to me. You have a lot to answer for. There is still a pack in the cupboard ready for use in yet another one of your excellent Apple, Cinnamon and Peacan Cakes. Meantime, I am still nashing my way through seasonal fare, all part of comfort eating, you understand.
Current thought process is along the lines of the quicker I eat the stuff, the quicker I can start thinking slim again
Hope you are well again.
Elsie
January 8, 2008 @ 4:13 pm
Elsie,
I see we share the same thought process! Trouble is there’s still a packet of marzipan in the cupboard and Easter is a long way off. Did I mention the half eaten panettone? I’m no mathematician but that alone would make the mother of all bread & butter puddings with a side serving of trifle… oh dear and I promised myself a nice celery and beetroot juice
Cid
January 8, 2008 @ 5:51 pm