Slow Food London set a challenge: could regular Londoners go slow for an entire year? Would it be easy? Would it be hard? Would there be times when it would (slowly) start to go wrong?
Here, Susan Paul talks us through her nineth week.
28th July – 3rd August
It’s been so hot this week so lots of lovely salad. One in particular was just some dressed English lettuce with spring onion, crisp bacon and our British cheese to try this week - Gabriel, a blue ewe’s milk cheese similar to Roquefort but made in Preston, Lancashire! I added some croutons which I had made from leftover bread, cut into small pieces, brushed with rapeseed oil and baked in the oven until golden and crisp. I have made lots of these as they can be frozen and I just take out a few when I need them - they don’t take long to defrost either.
Some fresh crab from Cromer too, stirred into crème fraiche with pepper, lemon and chives to have with some raw carrots and more croutons.
By the middle of the week I was diverted by some rather pressing matters so my husband took over the cooking. I was very pleased about this, as he does not cook very much. He did it all, shopping and cooking and “slowly”. We had lamb chops with homemade mint sauce, pork chops, roast chicken (AND he made some stock with the chicken carcass) – I was absolutely delighted.
We were in the King’s Cross area of London on Friday and at lunchtime, so we went to Karpo, a restaurant close to the station. We found a gem of a restaurant. It was lovely – we had some good bread with butter and some toasted pumpkin or they may have been sunflower seeds followed by turbot with rice and courgettes. They also had a special of homemade pasta with Summer truffle on the menu at a very good price too.
A special supper on Saturday at Riva in Barnes, crab ravioli with peas, fried courgette flowers and roast rabbit with artichokes – I have been very lucky this week.
Our youngest son is away working in Greece and was telling me that he is trying to do “local and seasonal” too on a pretty tight budget. Lots of olives, tomatoes, feta cheese etc. etc. – it all sounded lovely.
Our middle son on the other hand, always busy and living in Stockwell in London finds it much more difficult to have a “slowfood” regime. I have a lot of sympathy for him in this respect and I will to try to think of some ideas to help him get started.
I have noticed how the words “local “ and “seasonal” are overused by people trying to sell, and how misleading they can be.
On Sunday we had more lamb. This time my husband slow roasted it and we ate it with more mint sauce, cauliflower, carrots, cabbage and courgettes.
Slow roast lamb
Supper was leftover chicken made into a sort of stir-fried salad with spring onions, shredded lettuce, garlic and a mustard and honey dressing – a lovely light and tasty meal for a hot Summer evening.
A more expensive week than usual but lovely and still saving money and no waste.We have so enjoyed what July has had to offer by way of fruits and vegetables especially. We are now looking forward to trying some new things in August including plums, apples and lots and lots of ripe tomatoes.
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