Wansteadium’s food blogger, Suki Orange, writes:

Food food food. It’s everywhere. You’d think the TV and media executives of this country had taken leave of their senses and were binge eating at the moment. Personally I find those Baker Boy chaps to be the straw which breaks the camel’s back – it’s just all so much style over substance. Cooking is not meant to be a pick-up tactic is it? I mean it’s hardly arugula science.

So I am absolutely delighted to introduce to you a new substance-rich feature to our little website. Wanstead nutritionist Karen Poole has given up one career in the media to dedicate herself full-time to nutritionising. And as part of her mission, she’s going to be contributing a fortnightly recipe to Wansteadium, using seasonal produce available in Wanstead. (Though personally I do find South Woodford’s International Supermarket very alluring.) So at this point I shall hand over to Karen, my new best friend.

Keeping winter blues at bay

Nothing warms the soul on a cold winter day quite like a bowl of home-made soup; easy to prepare and economical on the pocket in lean January times.

Jerusalem Artichokes will never win any vegetable beauty contests, looking like a long, knobbly potato. But don’t let this put you off; they are a real hidden gem, in season between November and February.

The smoky taste is similar to a globe artichoke, hence the name – but they are unrelated and actually a member of the sunflower family. ‘Jerusalem’ is actually derived from ‘girasole’, the French word for sunflower. To enjoy them at their best you should really cook them as soon as possible but they will keep in the bottom of the fridge for a week or so.

Jerusalem Artichokes are available in season at Harvey’s Greengrocers in Wanstead High Street.

Jerusalem Artichoke soup.
Serves 4

400g Jerusalem artichoke
350g carrots
One stick of celery
One small onion
A little oil
1 litre of stock
Parsley
Black pepper & salt
Cream or yoghurt

Method

∙ Peel and chop the artichokes and then immerse them in a bowl of water straight away to prevent them discolouring.
∙ Peel and dice the carrots, onions and celery.
∙ Gently sweat all the vegetables in a little oil for about 10 minutes.
∙ Add the stock (either chicken or vegetable is best) and simmer until the vegetables are soft. Usually about 20 minutes
∙ Adjust the seasoning
∙ Blend, mash or pass the soup through a sieve to achieve a smooth texture.
∙ Season to taste. Easy on the salt
∙ Stir in a spoon of cream or yoghurt and garnish with chopped parsley.

Healthy aspect

The Jersualem artichoke is a little powerhouse of supportive nutrients. It offers:
∙ Magnesium: an important mineral useful for energy production and natural relaxant that can help with pain relief and enhance positive mood and feeling.
∙ Vitamin C: a prolific antioxidant and antihistamine that can help the immune system, support connective tissue and healthy teeth.
∙ Potassium: this mineral can help to regulate your blood pressure, aid heart and nerve function and can help to maintain water balance.
∙ Iron: can be helpful to fight fatigue and aid restful sleep.
∙ Phosphorus: can promote bone growth and health and can aid energy production.
∙ Inulin: a fermentable fibre that can aid good bacteria growth in the gut and help digestion.

If the soup doesn’t hit the spot, you can cook this versatile vegetable like a potato – either baked, mashed or roasted. It works well roasted in a salad of beetroot, spinach or rocket , chicory and spring onions topped with a little goat’s or blue cheese. For a dressing use olive oil and balsamic vinegar glaze.
Experiment and try out other combinations and I think you will be surprised.

Nutritionist Karen Poole BA Dip Nutrition CNM MBANT can be contacted at k.e.poole@hotmail.com

It’s been a hard few months on Wanstead High Street, with several closures and not a lot seeming to be going on. But suddenly there are three shoots which hopefully mean better times to come.

The first is the visible sign of a new restaurant in the former Cooks/Seasons spot. As the photo attests, it is to be called Provender Cafe Bistro, and if its website is anything to go by (they usually are an indication of a discerning nature, of course), it could be pretty swish. Lunch options have been feeling a bit limited in Wanstead of late, and so with 80 seats to be available here, it’s surely a good thing. The only downside is that the Snaresbrook end of the High Street seems ill-fated, but if Provender can become a destination that will surely help.

The second is a new dress shop coming to Wanstead. Dress2Party is advertising for staff for a new branch (it has them in Mill Hill and Cheshire) and bills itself as specialising in dresses for birthdays, proms, weddings and bar mitzvahs. It seems likely that the shop will be opening in the former Knock Down Ginger location.

The third is taking shape at Wansteadium’s spiritual home, in the former Andrews’ Builders’ Merchants. As we first revealed, it is shortly to become a fabric shop. Some impressive work has taken place to renovate the site, including the long-overdue making up of the pavement into Woodbine Place.

Wansteadium’s property blogger George C Parker writes:

Design-conscious Redbridge residents will be delighted to hear that there is a newly-published Householders Planning Guide available at www.redbridge.gov.uk. The document is is intended to uphold aesthetic integrity in future residential developments. On the subject of aesthetics, I understand that there’s a new establishment in Wanstead which says it provides aesthetics, by which it means Botox. Not quite my, or Mrs P’s thing – we’re more interested in the details of best practice for extensions, conversions, dormers, solar panels and the like, so this new guide is more up our street. The publication does make me wonder where the aesthetic integrity of Redbridge’s various municipal works has been hidden in the past 20 years – concreted under some cheap-looking paving slabs would be my guess on past form. Perhaps we may see some coherent strategy in the future – if Walthamstow Village can be beautiful, so – surely? – can Wanstead.

Beauty
The design guide would have nothing but praise for this Overton Drive property (a four bedroom semi for £750k), with beautiful views of the Basin lake, once the approach to Wanstead House. It’s a nine iron to the golf course, the rooms are tall, light and airy – a beautiful family home.

Olympics
Thanks to all those who left comments on my 2011 crop of articles. While Olympic lets and prices in general tended to pique your attention, this remains a property blog concerned with all aspects of life and living in Wanstead. To those who read, but didn’t comment – come now, these things are surely best out in the open. Share.

My 12-point plan
Finally, About this time of year, there are those who are starting to lose grip of their dearly-held resolutions for the new year. To these people I offer one comforting thought: if the resolution was worth making last year, it’s probably good enough for next time around too.

And remember – a potential resolution is still a resolution – you’ve just deferred breaking it for a little while. Let me give you an example or twelve. On 1 January 2011 I awoke to a proud and brave new world in which I would deliver the following Wanstead-enhancing projects and enterprises:

January: Create a family-friendly (especially mum-friendly) gym in Aldersbrook
February: Thoroughly remodel the gardens at Parker Towers, arboriculture included
March: Buy out a local bakery chain, updating the shops and repertoire, bringing wonderful and diverse breads from post 1952 to the High Street
April: Reintroduce boating to Wanstead Park
May: Rebuild the chocolate shop
June: Found a cinema/music festival on George Green (yes I know the 406 might be quite noisy)
July: Co-ordinate the inaugural Wanstead Beach festival (slightly ripped off from Paris Plage) to mark the Olympics
August: Return from Caribbean exile during said Olympics
September: Open sophisticated wine bar on High Sreet and behave in an unsophisticated way therein
October: Set up Wanstead’s first spa hotel in the former church site on Cambridge Park
November: Build new member’s cinema at the “kinema” site
December: Unveil a wonderful toy and book shop to magically complete Christmas for Wansteadians old and new.

Ok so 1 January 2012 I awoke to the same list – but remember, none of these resolutions has been broken – yet…

*Plans to introduce cycle lanes across the middle of Christ Church Green – from the High Street to Woodbine Place -  have been dropped by councillors. Redbridge has been given a £250,000 grant by TfL to promote cycling. Wansteadium readers may well have ideas for how the money could be spent (via the comments form, if you please).

* Anyone planning ahead for street parties for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee can now apply for permission to close roads via the council site. Organisers of the Big Lunch – a collective picnic – are planning their event to coincide with celebrations on for Sunday 3 June.

*A new display has been installed in Wanstead Library. It’s of Ethiopian coffee pots, and tells the story of the significance of the Ethiopian coffee ceremony. Wansteadium reader Peter Chamberlain is responsible for the display, and writes that the pots can be bought for £12 each, of which £2 is paid to the potter in Ethiopia, £1 for transport, and the remaining £9 to Save the Children. He can be contacted at pjchamberlain@ntlworld.com.

*British Transport Police have issued a CCTV image of a man they want to question in relation to an assault on a 34-year-old woman at Snaresbrook station on Christmas Eve.

*Redbridge has a plan to offer to rehouse pensioners whose own houses are now too big for them, and in return take on the letting of those houses to families. The plan is not yet in action, but has won praise from the government this week.

*Wanstead cafes are expected to see a surge in bewigged fellows lunching this week. Suggestions for what a judge might eat for lunch are welcome.

The Sun is reporting today that  police are investigating whether the food served to judges at Snaresbrook Crown Court could have been spiked with urine. It reports:

It is feared someone with a grudge against the justice system has launched a grubby revenge campaign. Traces of urine are believed to have been found in soups, salads and sandwiches…

Food safety officers and police are investigating, the paper says.

Last year Wansteadium featured some stunning photos of Wanstead taken by photographer Gary Lashmar (aka Marshal Gray). He and his partner Claudia Carter are planning to take a Wanstead-related photo every day for a year , and Wansteadium will be featuring a regular selection. Here is the first.

Gary says: “I took two images of this lady. One was candid in which she was straight faced. But as soon as she saw me she gave me the biggest smile ever. It totally melted my heart.  Not all folk are as willing to be photographed. I’ll treasure this picture forever.”

Gary’s blog is at Marshal Gray Photography.

Wansteadium, for one, did not really expect the police to be tweeting about this sort of thing. But it will answer some people’s questions.

Between 6pm and 7pm we have looked for robbery suspects in Kilburn and searched Wanstead Flats following a traffic collision.

January 16, 2012 8:20 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@MPSinthesky

MPS Helicopter

A bumper crop of news from Wanstead this week.

• Popular Wanstead cricketer Mervyn Westfield has become the first British player to be convicted of spot-fixing, after admitting being bribed to bowl badly deliberately when playing for Essex against Durham in a game in 2009. He will be sentenced next month; reports say he is likely to be banned from playing or coaching cricket at any level. (BBC report)

• Thousands of pounds of cosmetics were stolen from Boots in Wanstead High Street on Tuesday night. More details here.

• New plans for the redevelopment of Wanstead’s old cinema site, kitschy kalled the Kinema, have been submitted. You can see what they would look like here (pdf).

• Redbridge Council is inviting residents once again to make suggestions about how it could make budget savings. Incidentally, the council is proposing a zero rise in council tax for the third year running.

• And final word goes to the Wanstead Guardian story about . . . well, we’ll let them tell you.

A SWAN left to bring up his son alone after his partner was savaged to death by an out-of control dog, found happiness with a new female and her four cygnets.

Send event details to events@wansteadium.com

Readers of Wansteadium, many of whom experience Snaresbrook station as a daily delight, are invited to help poor old Ollie Durham out of his misery. Reply by comment, by tweet (with #wansteadium) or by email – wansteadium@gmail.com. It’s the kind thing to do, friends.

On a other note. If anyone can tell me the point and or use of Snaresbrook station on the Central Line I'll give them the £1 I just found.

January 11, 2012 7:23 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@olliedurham89

Ollie Durham

Wansteadium reader Sally Humphreys writes: Snaresbrook Is a delightful old fashioned station with a nice garden (and loos). I live just off Hermon Hill opposite the old hospital and if Snaresbrook did not exist I would have a long walk every day to catch my tube to work – either to South Woodford or Wanstead.