The Great Taste of Pepper

Another great evening hosted by The Guild of Food Writers - Christine McFadden has recently published a book covering every aspect of pepper you could wish to know and last night she gave us just a hint of what an exciting and diverse ingredient pepper is.
I had never realised how different the various variety of peppers could taste and smell - Christine had us sniffing and tasting white, red, green and black pepper, all of which come from the same plant, and each are so very distinctive.
After the tasting of pepper by itself we were treated to nibbles that included pepper, and these were not restricted to savoury dishes alone, infact I found myself preferring the sweet peppery dishes, much to my amazement!
Home-made soft cheese with the different coloured peppers was followed by Parmesan pepper crisps, then wonderful semi-dried figs that had been halved and dipped in pepper, and creamy peppery shortbread.  The final dish Christine cooked in front of us - pineapple that had been studded with long pepper, left over night to marinate, then sauteed in butter and served with it's own gorgeous syrup - heavenly.
Other things I learnt were that most of our pepper is grown in Kerela, India and that those lovely pink peppercorns that look so pretty on dishes, are not pepper at all and should be avoided at all costs!  And the reason why you should grind your own pepper and not buy it already ground is that the whole point of grinding it fresh is to ensure you get the aromatics from the oil in the husk of the peppercorn - the heat actually comes from the middle.
There is also the health aspect of using pepper - black pepper has demonstrated antibacterial effects as well as stimulating the taste buds to help improve digestion.  The other reason for grinding your own, is that most commercial ground pepper is roasted and is therefore an irritant rather than a stimulant.
Christine is so intent on having good pepper that she even has a mobile pepper mill that fits in her handbag, and travels everywhere with her!
For great pepper and other spices, go to Seasoned Pioneers.

Country v City

Last weekend I travelled back to my home county, Norfolk, to race in the head of the river Yare with my great mixed doubles' partner Anthony.  Anthony and I tried to break the record for the Boston Marathon two years ago and, after 3 hours and 57 minutes we missed it by around one and a half minutes - very painful and very frustrating!  But since then if there is a chance to race together we do, as we seem to work well as a partnership.  The other great thing about racing on the Yare is the gorgeous flat water - last weekend a few of the boys were complaining that it was a bit windy - take a look on the left - that was it!!!  Compared to the Tideway where I train, this was nothing.
The following day I spent with friends, mountain biking through Thetford Forest - another wonderful place that is totally unspoilt and not known to a huge number of people, so doesn't tend to get too crowded - but you do need to know your way around, as it is huge.  Travelling back to London is always hard after such a great weekend away playing outside - I think I am a country girl at heart!

But then back to work on Monday I experienced Exmouth Market and its' wonderful food stalls - if you need a healthy, delicious lunch this is certainly the place to go, and if you don't want healthy they have got that too - salt beef sandwiches, traditional vegetarian Indian thalis and samosas, a seed salad bar, risotto stall, gourmet burritos, and Moorish food from Moro - the choice is amazing.  So suddenly the country didn't seem quite so exciting after all!

Turkish delight!

I needed a week of relaxation, so have travelled back to my house in Foca, near Izmir in Turkey.  It is a simple little fishing town, with a seafront full of little restaurants and lots of tiny backstreets with unexpected treasures tucked away.  One of the main reasons I love Foca is that it is not so easy to get to, so only the Turkish people use it as their summer retreat, and not often will you hear another English voice - perfect!
Little did I know when I booked my flights that I would be arriving in the midst of Foca Festival - a celebration of the town and its' people.  This included the biggest barbecue I have ever seen, cooking fresh fish which was then put into huge chunks of bread and given to everybody free of charge.  This was followed by the fishermen racing their boats in the harbour and then a net mending competition - it was amazing to watch, the concentration on their faces showed what skill they really have.

After this was Turkish folk dancing, not only by the experts, but the crowd were also expected to join in, and did so with great enthusiasm!
Later at night they held a concert in the town square, with music and singing by well-known musicians.  The grand finale was a firework display over the bay - amazing.  Unfortunately I missed the concert, although I had every intention of attending.  Instead my Turkish neighbours invited me to a celebration dinner - their son had just returned home after 5 months conscription to the Turkish army (every day of which he hated he later told me).  But we were not without our own concert as the son Murat plays classical guitar and his friend who had arrived with him was an opera singer.  I felt I had landed in a completely different world  - it was amazing.  I am not sure how I will be able to host a dinner party as impressive in return!

Since then my days have been filled with swimming in the beautiful sea, eating out late at night, and wandering around the backstreets of the town with my camera - my days are pretty busy, as you can see!

I had been told to look for one certain shop whilst on my wanderings, and this has turned out to be such a great find - Meltem craft shop is run by a lovely Turkish lady and her English husband.  The shop is full of local crafts and Meltem's wonderful home-made jams and chutneys, with such unusual flavours as crunchy pumpkin and molasses, crunchy apple, or even carrot jam.  Next year they are intending to open a coffee house and private dining, which I will certainly be visiting.
Each time I come here I learn new things about the people and their culture, and each time it makes me want to come back and learn and experience more.
Last night I was invited to another dinner party, this one just as delicious as the last.  Each meal starts with a mezza, which goes on for quite a long time and has to be accompanied by Raki!  Lots of little dishes of amazing flavours - fava, houmous, bean salad, green salad, stuffed peppers, cheese pastries, anchovies....the list goes on.  And then, just when you think you are full, the main dish arrives!  Sometimes it will be meat, either kebabs or meatballs, but last night for me they cooked local fish, it was so tasty.  And the great thing about Foca is the cats - when you want to clear your plate of fish-heads you just throw them over your shoulder!

An extremely quick recovery!

Well, if some of you are wondering why I haven't been on my travels, or up-dated my blog recently, it's because I had a few days away in sunny.............Hammersmith Hospital!  A little lump that I had known about for a few years, suddenly started to grow a little bigger than I liked, so it had to go.  Unfortunately it was in my neck, so I am now sporting a rather dashing 8cm scar across my throat - very attractive.
But what was so interesting is how quickly I have recovered - everybody is amazed (me included) and obviously I put it all down to a healthy diet and lifestyle.  Don't get me wrong, I am not a saint living on broth and water, never leaving the safety of my home.....far from it (ask anybody that knows me!).  BUT, I do believe in feeding my body everything it needs to support the lifestyle that I do want to live and, as I am constantly telling the athletes that I advise - you can't expect your body to perform if you don't give it what it needs!
So, now it's summer at last and I am feeding myself with lots of healthy herbs - the garden is full of them (if you don't have a garden they will grow perfectly well in a window box!).  Not only do herbs add great flavours to dishes, they also have health giving qualities, so incorporating them into your daily diet is a great idea.
The recipe I have cooked up today includes parsley (diuretic), oregano (anti-microbial), mint (soothing for the digestion), garlic (anti-microbial) and lemon balm (calming) - all of that in one dish!

Quinoa and Feta Salad
Serves 4-6


450g sweet potato, peeled and chopped into bite-size pieces
seasoning
2 tbsp olive oil
120g brown basmati rice
150g quinoa
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1 tsp cumin seeds
juice of 1 lime
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp chopped mint
1 tbsp chopped oregano
1/2 tbsp chopped lemon balm
175g feta cheese, crumbled
2 tbsp flaked almonds


1.  Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/ Gas mark 6.
2.  Place the sweet potato into a roasting tin and season well before sprinkling with 1 tbsp of the olive oil.  Roast for 15-18 minutes, until tender.
3.  Cook the Basmati rice and quinoa according to the pack instructions then drain and place in a large bowl.
4.  Heat the remaining olive oil and over a gently heat cook the garlic and cumin seeds, just enough to give a good aroma.  Take off the heat and squeeze in the lime juice and stir in the herbs.
5.  Spoon the herb mixture into the bowl with the rice and quinoa, then add the sweet potato with any oil from the roasting pan.
6.  Finally, add the crumbled feta and flaked almonds and gently stir to mix well together.
7.  This salad is great served warm or cold.


Happy Eating!  Jx

A Taste of Honey

I wouldn't normally attend work related things at the weekend, but the chance to learn about and taste gorgeous honey was too tempting to resist! So after a quick training session on the river, I scurried down along the Thames in the pouring rain, to Petersham Nurseries.

Now this is a place I would not normally rush too either, despite it being a beautiful location and despite the fact that the food is pretty good. My main problem with it is the outrageous prices, mainly I assume because it is the wonderful

borough of Richmond (who now have a millionaire MP which just says it all!), so they feel justified in charging rather over-flated prices to sit and have lunch in a greenhouse!

Anyway, back to the purpose of my visit, which was to attend a Guild of Food Writers talk, which are always very informative, and this one was certainly no exception.

We started with a brief talk by Skye Gyngell, who is the chef at Petersham, and who is very passionate about combining natural flavours of foods together, which she did brilliantly in serving a plate of cheeses matched with subtle cheeses - Creamy St Tola goats cheese with rhodedendron honey, and toma (Piedmont) cheese with herb honey - the combinations were divine. To finish we were served vanilla ice cream with chestnut honey and turron....despite it being a cold and rainy day I couldn't resist eating the bowl clean!

After that we were given a great talk by Hattie Ellis, who appears to have spend a large amount of her life travelling the world to learn about honey and bees. It certainly was not time wasted as she made everything sound such fun and so interesting. I have always wanted to keep bees and she made it seem such an easy thing to do, especially as she mentioned that local bee keepers may even be happy to 'borrow' your garden for one of their hives - thus giving you the pleasure of sharing them and sampling their honey, but none of the work!! And a great chance to learn more about it before you take the plunge and get your own colony. One great thing I did learn was that bees are banned in New York, in that you are not allowed to keep them there. But....there is an overground underground of bee keepers who keep them on their roof! Only in America!

My stroll back home after all that sweetness was made even sweeter by the discovery of Greedies on the river. Greedies is a cafe in Isleworth that is frequented by myself and a large number of rowers who need a good breakfast or brunch after a heavy morning's training. Over the years we had explored a number of local workman's caffs, where you can get a good fry-up and sit and recover from the mornings exercise in a nice surrounding. We were never quite satisfied until I came upon Greedies. They do one of the best breakfasts in West London - and not only a World Cup fry-up either. If you want something a little more up-market there is eggs benedict or smoked salmon and scrambled eggs, along with lots of other goodies. For a Sunday brunch with the morning papers it takes a lot of beating.

Another week, another country.......

Back to my beloved Foca, to the house where my mother lived and has now become a retreat for my sister and I when we need to escape the real world.

We've only been here two days and already I walk slower, sleep more and eat more healthily than ever...........I think I am finally winding down. It's pretty hard not to.

Foca is a beautiful tiny fishing village on the west coast of Turkey, 70km north of Izmir. Totally unspoilt, there are no English people, no buildings above three storeys allowed to be built and best of all, great food to be had.

Our first night was a treat....we wandered along the seafront to one of the restaurants (although very small, Foca has an abundance of great restaurants to choose from). We ate freshly made houmous with dill (I would never have thought this combination would work, but it did), a salad full of local leaves (nettles, thick, strong rocket and lots of leaves I didn't recognise), plus a shrimp casserole - freshly caught prawns cooked with garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms and olive oil and topped with local cheese. It was delicious. We were both too full for dessert but then were told there was a surprise to come! A terracotta dish of halva.......not the way we would normally eat it though.........it was halva, cooked with milk and olive oil, served hot sprinkled with chopped hazelnuts, and was amazing (you do need to have a sweet tooth for this, as with all Turkish dessert and cakes).

After that there was more free wine and finally to top it all, a nearby table of men presented us with some of their red snapper that had been cooked in salt and then set alight as a birthday celebration dish - what an evening!

Tuesday morning is market day - another chance to eat great food as all the traders insist on you trying everything. And of course, we are a complete novelty, not being locals, so they have great fun making us eat things they suspect we won't like. But we return to the house laden with fresh cheese, local honey, herbs, local olives and olive oil and the best bit, thick creamy local yoghurt - I am in heaven.