So...

Well...

Here I am again in substack land with not much to say. No, I retract that, I have tons to say, well tons of words that form into something resembling sentences, most of the time. I just don’t have a theme. Or a hook. A hook is really useful, especially to people like me who can ramble on a bit; it can help bring you back to the point. Only you have to have one, a hook, or a point.

Anyway, I haven’t got either, so either read on out of mild curiosity or hang up here.

Today it’s a blowing a hoolie outside. The second hoolie of the last four days, the weekend’s hoolie bringing down large sections of the trees on the bank at the end of our garden. The rooks are outraged and demanding explanations and checking their home insurance documents very noisily.

I was doing my morning shift at the Oxfam in Cardigan Town and customers came in looking like startled cats who been thrown in the bath. Luckily they were mostly just happy to get out of the rain and wind so didn’t scratch or anything. I sold a sheepskin coat that Arthur Daley would have been proud to own, plus a pocket watch made in the USSR, among other slightly more mundane things. That’s my last Tuesday at Oxfam for a while because I am going to be working with Ein Cegin on Tuesdays from next week, cooking and packing up hot meals for local families who need a bit of a boost.

Finding Ein Cegin feels a bit like coming home, a natural follow on from my last days working in Bristol for the Children’s Kitchen. Despite increasingly decrepit body I am managing ok and loving it. I’d like more recipe development work for kid’s TV too, then my cup would truly runneth over (anyone out there listening??). It’s all about food. Maybe that’s my hook. Maybe that’s my book?

My scribbling drawing for January seems to have slowed down and I have missed about four days. I talk about it as though I have no control over it, which is absurd, but anyway I feel that’s ok, and do plan to catch up. I have my pad and pen out on the kitchen table most of the time so can I can dip in as time, energy and imagination allows. Yoga too has slid into the ‘not today’ arena, but again, I am doing just enough to not make myself think I am a total failure. So, there’s that.

While I futz around building my oeuvre (fancy word for body of work I believe, what ever it turns out to be, jeez, you’d think I might have done that by now), diddling and doodling I find that in order to ground myself I have to cook.

People have to eat, and I am in the insanely privileged position of not only having enough to eat and access to some of the best local produce available but also I know how to cook. So I cook for myself, my family, my friends and now for complete strangers whose need is greater than most and with whom I can share stories and recipes, teach and learn from.

Everyone should know how to cook. It’s so fundamental to human survival it cannot be overstated.

So having got that out I feel a bit calmer and can now share tonight’s dinner.

Betty Marmalade and the Kalettes

(plus roast veg and lentils, and a chicken if you fancy that with it although it doesn’t have much of a ring to it)

1 bag of kalettes, washed (don’t dry them, let them sit in the colander), some preserved lemon, chopped finely, if you have some and if you don’t then make some for next time - I will tell you how if you ask me, couldn't be easier. Any good seasonal greens will do here if you can’t get kalettes.

1 sizeable piece of celeriac, 1 enormous carrot, 1 parsnip, 1 red onion, 3 large cloves of garlic, all washed, peeled and chopped into cube type shapes approx 2x2cm, except the garlic which just needs peeling.

Balsamic vinegar & Olive oil (rapeseed oil is also fine)

2 handfuls of puy or brown lentils

Herbs such as thyme, bay and rosemary and some salt and pepper

Gorgeous filthy vegetables straight from the ground to create this most simple of suppers.

How to…

Pre heat the oven to 180 (160 fan)

Throw all the vegetables including garlic into a large baking tray with a bit of oil, the herbs and seasoning.

Roast for approx 30-40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and the edges are catching the heat and turning brown.

While the vegetables are roasting cook the lentils with a couple of bay leaves as per packet instructions. Lots of water basically.

When the vegetables and the lentils are all cooked, mix them together in the roasting pan (you could put it all in a smaller one now if you like) and splash about 2-3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar on everything, mix and return the tray to the oven for a further 5-10 minutes.

While the flavours of the vegetables and lentils are being drawn out and sweetened by the balsamic vinegar heat a little oil in a wok or big frying pan on quite high and throw in the kalettes. They will give a very satisfying sizzle (you may want to step back a mite) - stir fry until the stems are tender but not too soft. Add the chopped lemon if you have it (fresh lemon would also be lovely here).

This our dinner tonight, eaten with some roast chicken as treat. It will be lunch and dinner in varied forms for the next two to three nights as well. Each ingredient stretched to its delicious limit, wasting as little as humanly possible.

The recipe above is a lazy recipe, written lazily is what I mean, because I am not focussed completely and have a head full of spaghetti. So please feel free to harangue me for details if you wish.

I had website for a while with lots of my recipes on it (including the phenomenally easy pickled lemons), but the renewal fee was about £180 so I have let it go. Should I post them on here? Would anyone like to see them?