Organics, food miles, and other tricky questions

From Jan

Saturday morning, sipping coffee in the garden. I love it when it's early and quiet, the weekend stretches ahead, and my thoughts turn to - well - food. Look at all this stuff I grow and tend: hydrangeas spilling over the grass; roses still blazing; a vine already turning with tinges of autumn; tall white japanese anemones nodding on their stems. But why can't I eat any of it? Only the pots of herbs contribute to the kitchen.
Aisling is quite different - she has an allotment that runs the Garden of Eden a close second, with all sorts of wonderful veg and fruit. It's hard work, but a supply of perfectly fresh produce picked just hours earlier is the best thing for any cook.
Especially for any cook concerned about health, allergies, organics and the planet, as well as taste. The rest of us dither in front of the organic vegetables counter in the supermarket and wonder whether it's really worth paying double for those carrots; or worse (as happened to me the other day) we find in a local health food shop a tray full of miserably shrivelled beetroot, coated in soil as if to prove its bona fides, which promised to be unimpeachably organic - but had originated in Chile.
What on earth - pun definitely intended - is the point of sending root vegetables (and their dried mud) right across the globe and selling them with an air of self-righteousness just because they contain no chemicals? It's totally mad. These things grow right here. Apart from the fact that their nutritional value will be so much reduced by the amount of time they've been sitting in some cold store, the question of food miles is a really serious one for the environment.

So - organic or not? Local produce versus food that has clocked up frequent flyer points? Cooking involves all these moral choices, as well as concerns of health, quality and taste. Life is complicated . . .
What we've decided to do in the Choosy Food recipes is to leave the choice to you. Call that a cop-out if you like, but our own view is that freshness, using local produce wherever possible, and a concern for the way things are grown or reared matter to us more than a few chemicals. So if you want to use entirely organic produce for our recipes, that's great, but we won't tell you to. We will, though, urge you to find out about the origins of your food, especially meat. Animals that have had a good, free life and a humane end. Eggs that were laid by a bird free to move around. Fish that isn't as endangered as the leopard.
It quickly becomes clear that these big questions about food are the big questions about the world itself, and we can't solve them all. But we can ask about the meat we buy, go to farmer's markets and buy from local growers whenever we can, plan our meals round food that's in season. Best of all, I suppose, would be to plant a row of beans in among those roses. I'll have another cup of coffee and ponder those good intentions.

Mango and Salmon with red peppers

Ripe mango with fresh organic salmon is a marriage made in heaven. I've noticed the fragrant Thai spicing gets even more subtle if this dish is prepared in advance, covered and refrigerated for up to 24 hours. I remove it from the fridge about half an hour before the meal and serve it with brown basmatti rice cooked with a couple of cardamon pods and a tin of coconut milk added to the water.



2 large mangoes, peeled and cut into thick slices
A pinch of sea salt
Juice of 1 lime & 1 lemon

6 skinned organic salmon fillets, cut lengthways in thick slices
2 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
2 fennel bulbs, quartered and thinly sliced
2 peppers, red and yellow, sliced
2 shallots, peeled & sliced
2 garlic cloves,peeled & sliced
2 dried kaffir lime leaves, finely crumbled
2 lengths of lemon grass, finely chopped
1 large red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
5 cm fresh ginger, peeled & chopped
2 tbsps nam pla fish sauce or light soy sauce
3 tbsps white wine vinegar
5 tbsp hot water

To serve: some fresh mint, chopped
1 bag of small mixed leaves

Pour the citrus juices over the sliced mangoes, add a pinch of salt and set aside.

Heat the oil in a wide, thick bottomed frying pan (preferably with a lid which you'll need for the last 5 minutes of this recipe) and fry all the aromatic ingredients for about 2 minutes. Add the sliced fennel and peppers and cook for 10 minutes.

Add the vinegar, fish sauce and water and simmer for another minute or two.

Add the fish , tucking it under the vegetables to sit flat on the floor of the pan. Cook for a scant 2 minutes. Remove from the heat, cover the pan and let the fish go on cooking for about 5 minutes. Uncover and leave to cool.

To serve, divide the leaves and mango slices between six plates, top with equal shares of salmon, vegetables and the cooking juices. Offer a steaming bowl of coconut flavoured rice on the side.

Choosy Note: This is brilliant looking party dish to lay out on a big meat dish in all its colourful glory.

Carrot, Citrus and Pomegranate Salad

A colourful crunch of fresh fruit and vegetables jewelled with pomegranate and tossed with a zing of south east Asian dressing.

6oog carrots
6 spring onions
6 clemantines or 7 satsumas or 3 navel oranges
6 radishes
1 pomegranate
1 bag of crispy leaves
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp freshly chopped mint leaves

2cm fresh ginger
1 lime
2 tbsp olive or avocado oil
1 tbsp groundnut or sunflower oil
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp rice or sherry vinegar

To make the dressing: peel and finely grate the ginger into a small bowl. Stir in the soy sauce & oils. Add the juice from the lime and 1 clementine or satsuma. Whisk in the vinegar, sugar and a little seasoning to taste.

For the salad: peel and top the carrots and either cut into fine matchsticks or grate on the biggest gauge of your hand grater or food processor. Finely slice the spring onions and radishes and add to the carrots. Peel the clementines/satsuma, remove as much membrane as you can and slice into bite sized chunks. Mix with the carrots then tip the dressing over the whole lot. Add the chopped mint and mix well. Halve the pomegranate, break into smaller pieces and poke out the seeds, discarding all white bits. Toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan and reserve.
When ready to serve, divide the salad leaves between separate plates, top with the carrot mixture, sprinkle with pomegranate seeds and toasted sesame.

Jelly without gelatin

from Jan:

Jelly (jello if you're American) is suddenly in style -it's the perfect dessert for anyone who is gluten or lactose intolerant or has an allergy to eggs, it's completely fat-free and salt-free, and it tastes light and fresh at the end of a meal. There are so many possible flavours and things you can add, so it's easy to turn it into a sophisticated enough pud for supper parties. Dress it up with fruit; team it with meringues, honeyed yogurt, a bowl of berries - whatever you like - or let it stand alone. It looks pretty and tastes great, and doesn't make your guests feel guilty; it also has the (essential) advantage that you make it in advance.

But there's one drawback: gelatin, which is made of animal bones, is obviously out for vegetarians, and even for happy carnivores it can seem a bit of a problem. In the days of the panic about BSE, gelatin worried many people (what on earth was in it?) - and then there's that overpoweringly rubbery consistency it has. I just don't like it much, truth be told.

So here's an idea I've worked on for non-gelatin jelly, using agar agar. This is a natural gelling agent derived from seaweed that comes from Japan, and it's pretty easily available these days - not only in health food shops but also in good supermarkets. It looks a bit like old-fashioned soapflakes, and when you start to dissolve it in boiling water it separates into globby bits like tapioca (if you can remember that!) - but persevere. It makes a gentle springy gell, not a strong rubbery one, so you probably won't be turning your jellies out into spectacular moulds shaped like the Albert Hall - but who wants to do that anyway? Better to put it into glass bowls or glasses and serve it like that. Here's a recipe for a jelly that is definitely grown-up, and very summery: Pimms jelly

Serves 6

4 heaped tsps agar agar
150ml water
100g caster sugar
Juice of a lemon
175ml Pimms No 1
500ml sparkling lemonade
handful of mint leaves, torn
400g strawberries, chopped small
strips of cucumber peel

Add the agar agar to 150mls of water and boil gently for 10 minutes, stirring well (it sort of explodes into little translucent grains), then add the sugar and lemon juice and stir to dissolve. Cool this mixture slightly before adding the Pimms and the lemonade. Then allow the jelly to cool further (setting the pan over a bowl of ice will speed things up), stirring occasionally, until it is beginning to set; then stir in the chopped strawberries, torn mint leaves and a few very thin strips of cucumber peel. Don't put these in earlier, or they will float to the surface. Place a couple of small cucumber strips in the bottom of individual glasses or dishes, pour in the mixture and allow to set in the fridge for several hours, or overnight.

Flour and Butter-Free Chocolate Cake

Whether you serve this as a cake or a pudding, the absence of flour and butter will press a lot of avoidance buttons and confirm the rumour that everyone's a chocaholic.

5 eggs
175g caster sugar
175g best black chocolate
2 tbsp boiling water
1 punnet fresh raspberries or mix of berries
150 ml double or whipping cream
A little icing sugar to finish

Heat your oven to gas mark 6/200C/400F

Grease 2 sandwich tins and cut two discs of greaseproof or non-stick paper to fit inside each base.

Prepare a bain marie or sit a heatproof bowl in a small saucepan half full of boiling water.

Separate the egg whites and yokes into two bowls. Beat the egg whites into stiff peaks and set aside. Beat the yokes with the sugar until the mixture becomes thick and pale.

Break up the chocolate and melt in your bain marie, stirring constantly until the chocolate is runny but not so hot it begins to cook. Gradually pour the runny chocolate into the yokes, beating all the time until all the chocolate has been added. Thin the mixture with a tablespoon or two of boiling water. Fold in the beaten whites.

Divide the mixture between the sandwich tins and cook in the center of the oven for 25 minutes. Leave in tins to cool.

Just before serving, knife around the edges of the tins, tip out your sponges and sandwich them on a wide plate with whipped cream and most of the fruit. Place a few more raspberries on top and dredge with a little icing sugar.

Choosy Note: For a lighter filling, try a half-and-half mix of cream beaten with thick Greek yogurt. For a totally low-fat option, spread the two sponges with best raspberry jam before piling on the raspberries.

Prawn and Radish salad with Green Beans

Crunchy vegetables and seeds, juicy shellfish and the spikiness of chilli with lemon juice make this an exciting starter or light lunch dish.

400g French beans, topped and tailed
225g cooked and shelled prawns
12 fresh radishes
2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
1/2 red chilli, finely chopped
2 tbsp walnut or hazlenut oil
1 tbsp sunflower or groundnut oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
Coarse sea salt

Cook beans in boiling salted water until barely tender (about 4 minutes) Drain and cool in cold running water.

Toast the pumpkin seeds in a hot, non stick pan with a little sea salt, stirring constantly for a minute or two. Slice the radishes thinly. Blot the beans as dry as possible and mix all together in a serving bowl with the chilli, pumpkin seeds and oils. Refrigerate until you're ready to eat.

To serve, add the prawns, radishes and lemon juice to the bowl, toss and serve.

Choosy Note: If prawns are a no-go area, substitute their salty sweetness for chunks of smoked fish or ham.