food to share: quick crostini

There is nothing as challenging as having a few fussy friends around to feed. Each one of them have their own food preference but also each one not with  something they are not eating.

 I find that having many different things that they can pick save you and them from the embarassment of leaving a whole untouched starter.

I am also in the mood for some colorful food, craving the spring I suppose!

I made my sourdough bread (my favourite recipe being again here) but I have got a good tip for the londoners, end especially the north London one (am I narrowing down my niche too much here?). You can buy your bread at euphorium bakery after 8PM buy one get one free (normally the price is quite high), mhh what a very English idea... However this means you can get bread in the evening and prepare a Sunday Lunch (I refuse to say brunch here), without having to bake, they do sourdough too.

You need to slice your bread in slices of about 1.5 cm then brush them with extra virgin olive oil, and put them in he oven at 200C° for 15 minutes or till golden.

My toppings:

• Marinated courgettes (sliced finely with a potato peeler), my marinate: 4 tbsp of eldelflower vinegar, 2 tbsp of olive oil, salt to taste, fresh marjoram
• Roasted and peeled peppers (bake till the skin gets dark, then place in a paper bag for few minutes and then peel of the skin once that they cool down), slice and mix  with green olives, capers and mint (and again a bit of olive oil)
• tofu cream, which is just a packet of silken tofu blend with a small bunch of dill and a finely chopped leek plus 2 tbs of good shoyu or Tamari soy sauce (I prepare this the night before and keep in the fridge)
• olive pate' which consist in blend kalamata olives and basil

Isn't just easy to please everyone?

Euphorium Bakery

202 Upper Street Islington

N1 IRQ

The protest -part two

I would like to thank the Hare Khrisna people that fed us at the protest to end the siege on Gaza,  we were many in Trafalgar Square and they offered food for free. If you feel like giving back you could visit their London restaurant a classic vegetarian address (they are not vegan but you can find some dishes without dairy).

Govindas 

10 Soho street London W1D 3DL,

tel 02074374928

the Bombay mix they gave us at the march was glorious...

Apple strudel

I don't know what's wrong with me but the more busy I am socially and at work the more prolific I become in the kitchen.

I guess it is just a way to prove myself that I can have a busy schedule and still be an Eco-domestic-goddess? Being submerged with things to do at work and having to find a flatmate (this is a mild form of advertisement if you are interest please leave a comment) I still manage to make all my lunchboxes, and cook almost all my meals. Tonight I went to a restaurant on Essex road called Zigni House, it was delicious! BUT I did not want to skip cooking and made a strudel to have after the dinner... 

So, give me a  lazy Sunday with no commitment and I will probably feed myself with bread and tahini  but pack in so many things in the week, and I will have dozens of pots on the stoves and a funny blob in the oven, I guess cooking makes me so happy that it balances out all the mad stress?

Busy Busy Apple strudel

1 cup whole flour

1/4 cup rice flour

1/4 cup sunflower seeds oil

1/4 cup water

a pinch of salt

filling

3 peeled and diced small apples (I used cox)

1/2 cup raisin

1/2 cup water 

1 teaspoon kuzu

pinch of salt

3/4 cup cashew nuts

1/8 tbs Cinnamon

In a bowl mix together the flour and salt. Rub in the water and oil and make a soft dough, it does not need kneading.Make a ball and leave it to rest while you prepare the filling.

In a small saucepan put all the ingredients for the filling but not the nuts. put on a medium flame and wait till the kuzu is all dissolved and the fruit is covered in the jelly mixture. Let it cool.

Now you can roll the dough between waxed paper ( I have to admit I used tin foil but it's evil so don't do it!)

My dough was really thin (careful not to break it) and the size was like 25cmX10cm. 

You can remove the top sheet and you end up with this almost rectangular thing.

I put the mixture of fruit in the middle and cut slits on the sides and braided them (if you look at the picture you'd understand) :)

You can also spread the mixture all over the surface and simply roll it.

Bake it in a preheat oven 200C° for 30 minutes, when still hot I brush it with 1 teaspoon of rice malt mixed dissolved into 2 of water.

Adapted from Macrobiotic community cookbook by Andrea Bliss-Lerman

Bad habits?

So what are our papers greeting us with in the New Year?
Apparently too much salt, saturated fat and added sugar and not enough fruit, vegetables, whole-grains or oily fish lead to a premature death yawn. What a novelty…

But the news I am afraid is a bit more upsetting that this, apparently the borough of London that will suffer the most will be
Tower Hamlets, Southwark and City and Hackney, as they are the “poor” boroughs. Not just they will be victim of their obesity but also of their smoking habits.
I am furious. I have been living in Shoreditch which isn’t exactly “a poor part” of tower hamlet, but still I did not have a supermarket or a market nearby.I tried to buy some breakfast cereal at the corner shop and it was impossible. Food for “poor people” is full of sugar preservatives colourings etc..

I chose macrobiotic like many people to embrace a more natural lifestyle a simpler way of living and as a more suistainable one. Soaking some dried beans (which I always prefer to tofu or tempeh) eating only seasonal and local seems reasonable and healthy. Reading this article it just feel painfully middle class.

I give you my cookie if you give me your pickle

It’s probably my job that is making me so allergic to shopping, as I have to “buy” stuff everyday so a Saturday afternoon on Oxford Street is my idea of hell.
I wish I was consuming less then what I am and have a more clutter free existence, but I am aware that this is not going to happen so easily.

This post would have been perfect on the 24th on November this year, on the Buy Nothing Day, oh well it comes a bit late but just put the date in your diary as it’s happening every year on the last Saturday of November.

Well we have bought very little today as I was at the Good Festive food swap but we ate a lot!
It was so much fun, I brought some mini sourdough bread rolls, some focaccia, macro cookies (recipe below) and gomasio.

I brought back:
Vegan cookies, bread, pickled pumpkin, fresh organic rosemary and bay leaves, vegan lemon cake, a bottle of elderflower vinegar, some lovely dried pear rings and some seeds to make salad on my balcony!


There was so much passion in the preparation that each person put in what they brought, especially the girl that did the pickled pumpkin attached a little bag with the story of the pumpkin variety and the story of how it arrived to the UK!
Everyone was really friendly, some people had an allotment and some just a good recipe, all were willing to share and chat.

Mulled wine kept me warm, it was an awful rainy afternoon, and I can’t imagine a better way to spend it.


Very "swappable" oatmeal currant cookies,
adapted from an Oliver Cowmeadow recipe

2 cups oat ( I used normal porridge one)
1/2 cup wholeweat flour
2 tbs sesame oil
2tbs maple syrup
3 tbs dried currant
1/4 spoon seasalt
1/4 spoon cinammon





Cover the raisin with water (1/2 a cup) bring to the boil and simmer for 5 min.
Mix dry ingredients and add the oil, add the maple syrup and the currants with the cooking liquid, add more water if necesary to have a thick batter. Oil a baking tray and shape the cookies (1/2 cm thick).

Bake for 30 min/180 °C


you can now swap them with the neighboor, post them to your old friend or just eat them while you spend a lazy Sunday reading a book.

Food Swap 8 December Stoke Newington (London that is!)

What a wonderful thing to look forward to! On 8th of December i am going to parteciapate to: the The festive Good Food Swap-in Stoke Newington organized by growing Communities.

It is a idea that enables you to exchange any product that you can prepare yourself (baked, canned, picked from your allotment etc..) with other people from the community, something that I strongly believe in is exchanging skills and stuff and not just passively consuming.

You can drop off your produce either at the Farmers Market during the day on Sat 8th December 10am -2.30pm at William Patten School on Stoke Newington Church Street at St Pauls Church Hall (where the swap will be held) between12pm-4pm.

Once you have registered and labelled your produce and received your producer number all you then have to do is come back at 6pm for the start of the swap!

I was planning to prepare some gomasio with nori seaweed, some mini sourdough bread, focaccia some macrobiotic cookies.... any other idea?

If you are interested because you live locally or if you just would like to copy the idea click here


Photo:Children offer us pine nuts in Ulan Bataar (Mongolia)

The Bento Box

I don’t know what is all about but it seems that all the food blogs are written by people that are working in offices, that dread their canteen or café and that bring their own food to work in their bento box.

I personally prefer the ones that are filled with rice on the bottom and some pickles and veg on the top layer, I don’t like to bring a thermos with the soup, but today my soup in a jar spilled all over my stuff so I better re-consider this…
My Lunch box is from the Japan Center yes it is my favourite place and I try to go as much as I can (if you have read any of my previous post I am sure that you know it)!

Also if you are not just a foodie and you are interested in design and fashion to buy or just to browse, the JC it is dangerously near Dover Street market… a more expensive side of Japan!

Anyway, here my Bento Box is filled with sauerkraut and blenched Chinese cabbage on top, and parsnip on the bottom layer, a slice of Sauer dough (I am baking again!) and off to work!


Baked yummy parsnip:

Slice the parsnips in thick slices
Place slices in a baking dish add ½ inch of water and 1 tablespoon of shoyu over the slices
Bake 200C° for 35 to 40 mins till soft



The parsnip cooked in this way is so yummy that you’d wish your lunchbox were bigger!
Would you like to get an ide on how to pack your food? Some people are really clever

London for fussy eaters, or how to order vegan food in non vegan places

I wanted to write about the difficulties that you encounter when you try to be fussy in London.
I love to read the posts of othr blogs and how people come to London for holiday and they find it the best place for vegans, wheat intollerant, raw food eaters, or whatever other fussy food habit or requirement.
When you do live in London in fact it can happen that is not your turn to choose where to dine or have breakfast and your are likely to go out with people that are not veg, especially if you don't choose your friends because of what they eat!
In Italy I can always get away with pasta al pomodoro, in the London's pubs it's a bit harder.
So I went to Princess to have breakfast with a couple of friends hoping to find something vegan on the menu.Princess is a gastro pub (I know the sound of this word i horrid) and there is a reastaurant upstairs.
It was a lovely Sunday early afternoon and the idea to go to a pub wasn't coming from me but I accepted as I have heard so much about the place that I thought I give it a try.
Clearly there isn't anything on the blackboard that I can/want to eat, everything was meat or fish or dairy based.
I ask the waiter:
"Hi have you got anything vegan"
he is incredibly hadsome and looks at me in disbelief

"just put something together with any vegetable that you like, please" I say while dreading the thought of the transparent iceberg lettuce, the ultra cold tomatoes slice and the cheap balsamic vinegar.

Well I couldn't be more wrong. When the lovely waiter comes out with the vegetables I am actually rather impress by what was put together. A pleasent combination of different textures with french beans, different leaves rosted sweet potato and vinaigrette with dijon mustard as a dressing.
The bill was also very good as it was only eight Pounds for the salad and a juice!

The Princess
76 Paul Street,
London EC2A 4NE
tel: 020 7729 9270

Princess passed the fussy eater test!

Notting Hill for fussy eaters (and ambitious cooks) – part 1

When you start working in a new area of London it’s always very exciting. As well as the new workplace there is also a new area to discover, and this can be really refreshing.
After working for three years in Battersea and enjoying one of the most beautiful parks in London I now work in the trendy Notting Hill.
The Notting Hill described by the brilliant novel "The Lonely Londoner" by Sam Selvon, (a recollection of the Caribbean that moved to London in the late 1940s) is just a memory, now its population is mainly ultra rich, fashion conscious and the houses are amongst the most expensive in the whole of London.
However the area is beautiful and Portobello Market is still one of my favourite things (both the vintage and the veggie) and for people who like to cook there are two gem addresses:

Books for Cooks 
4 Blenheim Crescent
W11 1NN

Tel 020-7221-1992
Fax 020-7221-1517


It’s the best place to find inspiration (it has also a lovely little café’ at the back), because let’s face it, Amazon is very often a cheaper option but with the cooking books you have to fall in love with.

Just opposite there is another wonderful shop where you can buy all your spices.
I buy Juniper Berries that are hard to find anywhere else and dried organic pears and that are the little treat that I buy in my worryingly short lunch break

The Spice Shop
1 Blenheim Crescent
W11 2EE
Telephone: 020 7221 4448
Fax: 020 7229 1591



And if you are just trying to find a vintage outfit and you find yourself starving on Portobello Road?
A reasonably cheap takeaway (really simple wholesome food) where you can buy vegetarian/vegan food but you have to hope in a sunny day as this place is take away only...

The Grain Shop
269a Portobello Road
W11 1LR
(sugarless cakes, brown rice, veggies, and natural juices)


… more to come!