Suki Orange, Wansteadium’s food blogger, writes:
Last month we started the first of a regular recipe for Wanstead, using seasonal produce which can be bought on Wanstead High Street, all thanks to nutritionist Karen Poole. People really seemed to enjoy it, and so I’m pleased to be able to bring you her idea for February evenings.

Love is Purple
Despite the cold snap, with the lighter evenings, we can almost kid ourselves winter is slowly coming to an end. Yet this time of year is particularly lean for fresh seasonal vegetables – but fortunately, one of the best is available – purple sprouting broccoli. This recipe is based on a Southern Italian one – Oricchiette alla cime di rapa e peperoncino. Translated – Ear-shaped pasta with turnip tops and chilli. If you can’t get hold of Oricchiette, any smallish pasta will work, such as Conchiglie or Farfalle.

To increase the healthy aspect of the dish I’ve used wholewheat pasta – now becoming more popular; the slightly nutty taste goes particularly well with the strong flavours in this recipe.

By all means increase or decrease the quantities of chilli, anchovy and garlic to taste. And vegetarians can also omit the non-authentic chorizo. But I think the taste is a great match with the broccoli and makes this a more substantial main course.

Appropriately, with this being the month of St Valentine, broccoli is particularly good for the heart. Purple Sprouting or tenderstem broccoli is in season and available at Harvey’s Greengrocers; though, should the snow prove a problem for this loving vegetable, regular broccoli will work just as well. Best to eat it as you buy it, but it will keep in a cool place for a few days.

Check out the choice of pastas in The Larder on Wanstead High Street and note this dish works best with the smaller shapes.

Broccoli and Chorizo Pasta
Serves 3-4

400g wholewheat pasta
170g purple sprouting broccoli
1 tbsp pine nuts (toasted)
1 tbsp olive oil
60g chorizo finely sliced
2 anchovy fillets
2 garlic cloves
1 large red chilli (de-seeded and finely diced)
2 x tbsp parsley (finely chopped)
Black pepper & salt

Method

• Place the pasta in boiling water and cook for 8 minutes, or until it is just cooked through.
• Trim and blanch the broccoli in boiling water for 4 minutes then remove from the heat and drain, reserving a little of the cooking water.
• Toast the pine nuts in a dry pan for 2 minutes.
• Gently sauté the chorizo, garlic, anchovy and chilli in the olive oil (keep a little chilli back to dress the dish).
• Add the cooked pasta and broccoli to the frying pan and mix well. Add a little of the reserved pasta water to keep it moist.
• Season with black pepper and a little sea salt and top with the pine nuts, parsley, remaining chilli and a drizzle of olive oil to serve.

Healthy Aspect

Broccoli really is a superfood packed with heart loving vitamins and minerals:

Indole 3 carbinol is released when you bite into it, protecting the integrity of red blood cells and aiding the production of glutathione the body’s most prolific antioxidant.

Selenium reduces the risk of high blood pressure and can limit cell damage from ageing.

Manganese enhances smooth muscle relaxation, protects the blood vessels and helps keep the cardio-vascular system healthy.

Calcium regulates the heartbeat and maintains the blood ph balance.

Beta carotene helps to reduce bad cholesterol and increase good cholesterol while supporting the immune system.

Vitamin C aids blood cell formation and reduces the risk of atherosclerosis.

Alternative ideas

You can substitute clams for the chorizo and, if you do, I suggest you add in three medium peeled and diced tomatoes. Add lemon zest to serve.

Broccoli works really well with strong flavours, so sauté it with chilli, garlic and oyster/black bean sauce to accompany a Chinese meal or quickly blanch then chargrill it to add to a salad with beetroot, orange segments, crushed walnuts, topped with a strong cheese like feta or Roquefort with lemon and olive oil as a dressing.

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

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

So farewell then, Wanstead’s Green Fish restaurant.  Even though the blackboard outside still proudly advertises a £16.95 Sunday lunch special, there’s a “closed” sign on the window, and the decor is being removed. It’s a little over a year since the restaurant opened.

Soon to fill the Cambridge Park spot once occupied by Applebees is – wait for it – an Indian restaurant to be called Zainab (the name feeling perhaps a bit more E20 than E11?).

Fans of Indian restaurants in Wanstead are becoming slightly spoiled for choice. Nearby there’s Purbani, Cinnamon, 52Spice, Bipasha and The Lane, with the Tiffin Tin delivery mopeds never far from sight. Some might event think a bit more diversity in menu choices would be a good thing; the market however seems to be able to support the current number of players even though some rarely appear to overflow with diners.

One Wansteadium reader tweeted his reaction:

Another Indian restaurant due to open in Wanstead (Cambridge Park). Beginning to make Brick lane look like a fuss about nothing. #wanstead

December 26, 2011 10:33 pm via Twitter for AndroidReplyRetweetFavorite

@pvmullen

Paul Mullen

Ironically, the Southend Echo seems to be hinting at a similar but slightly different situation there, as Robins Pie and Mash announces another branch there. Once councillor told the paper: “It is another pie and mash establishment. We already have one or two in the town.”

Suki Orange, Wansteadium’s food blogger, adds:

It’s always sad to see something you admire fail, so I’m sorry to see the Green go. But of course I wish Zainab well. I can’t help thinking, though, that from a customer’s point of view, we just don’t need any more choices for Indian restaurants in Wanstead. I know I’ve said it before, but what we could really do with is something a degree or two more mainstream – though with two restaurants closing in the past 18 months this does not appear to be the ideal spot.  There’s clearly a demand for weekend lunches – just look at the Cuckfield on a Sunday after Desert Island Discs. Wanstead is brimming over with young families and not many places for them to eat comfortably together. At the risk of looking spurned, I’ll repeat my invitation to Strada. It’s a chain, yes, but it might be just want our menu needs.

Wansteadium’s food blogger Suki Orange writes:

It’s great for someone like to have a new restaurant in town. So I’m delighted the new Zaki Turkish restaurant has opened at the former Russell’s on Wanstead High Street. Naturally, being a busy woman with a well-planned social life, I can’t and indeed won’t go to a new restaurant at short notice. The menu, produced below in hi-resolution (if you click it), gives an indication of what’s on offer, but I should be grateful of any initial reports from my fellow Wanstead diners. If you have been please add your reviews through the comments form.

When Mr Orange was a child, an aunt would visit from New York bringing all sorts of American delicacies… Kool-Aid, Pez sweets, Fluff. This last product was, disturbingly, pots of actual marshmallow to spread on sandwiches, mostly with peanut butter in a concoction termed a fluffernutter. It’s frankly shocking he turned out so well adjusted and handsome. The treats weren’t all gross, though. Innocently enough, those he most favoured were sesame seed breadsticks.

Nowadays of course nothing is unobtainable – you can even buy Fluff if you look hard enough – but the whole sesame breadstick joy returned to my beloved when visiting the Italian market on Wanstead High Street on Saturday. For him a pretty authentic recreation of childhood joys.

Breadsticks (rather than neat marshmallow) are a way of life for the Orange children. So no surprise that they more interested in mini croissants – chocolate and lemon – which were just some of the treats on offer (pictured). They were remarkable little things: the pastry was extremely crunchy but the filling moist and oozing out. Biting into one made me feel like I’d bitten the head off a giant delicious cicada.

The Market is there again on Sunday and if you’re about is worth a visit. Dolcelatte, fresh Parmesan and other cheeses, pesto and olives. All that was lacking was a serving of the most delicious soup I’ve ever tasted – ribollita, bought once from a deli in Lucca. Anyone with recipes (or even better, a sample) would be a friend forever.

PS. Wise words from new pal of Wansteadium, @oliviaads

Lovely time in Wanstead-forgot how village-y it feels! Great food at the market. Bagged some good charity shop bargains too! @Wansteadium

October 8, 2011 8:38 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@oliviaads

Liv Adshead

Wansteadium’s food blogger Suki Orange writes:

A few years ago, at a restaurant in Rye, for pudding we were tempted by something on the menu called Whim Wham. It put us in mind of Boris Johnson’s favoured name for table tennis (“whiff-whaff”) – something quirky yet charming from time gone by. And that’s in fact what it was – a mix of cream, alcohol, some fruit – much favoured, I seem to recall, by the Elizabethans.

And yet it wasn’t really up to much. It was clear to us all that this proto-trifle would have been much more enjoyable if it had been just a bit more like actual trifle.

I was reminded of this at last month’s farmer’s market in Wanstead High Street. The thing which caught Mr Orange’s eye was on a stall run by a Buckinghamshire pie company, Raven’s Den. It had the quirky, charming name of Fidget Pie. We’d not come across it before, so I indulged his curiosity. The lady at the stall enthused about it, telling me the firm’s pies were hand-made using local ingredients – nothing reformed used in any pies – and I felt a bit reassured. Seemed a simple enough filling – ham, cheddar cheese, apple, onion.

We took it home and although she told me we could eat it cold or hot I couldn’t really imagine cutting into a cold pie – too Melton Mowbray for me I’m afraid. So we heated it for the allotted time and ate with a simple green salad.

I’m afraid from the outset for me it was too salty, though the children ate it comfortably – probably because of being starved of salty things in their diets. The pastry was as it should be, ham was sliced (and looked reformed, to be honest), onions plentiful though perhaps too many for a small pie. There was no discernible taste of cheese and the thinly sliced apple added a hint of a cidery flavour.

Summed up in a word – unremarkable. It was simple fare which came from a simple Midlands recipe – apparently popular with harvesters in the 1950s according to The National Trust Recipe Book. So, unremarkable like a lot of those older recipes which have fallen out of use – just like Whim Wham – but for £6 it is not something I will be seeking out again at Sunday’s Farmer’s Market. It won’t stop me going though.

Wansteadium’s food blogger Suki Orange writes:

It’s a great time of year in the garden, especially if there is someone in your house whose duty it is to get the lawn mower going twice a week. But walking outside on a mild evening, inspecting the just-flowered sweet peas, the rich coral flowers on the runner beans and the swelling courgettes. And listening out, as all good readers of Wansteadium must, for the snuffling of hedgehogs.

If only it wasn’t for those poisonous nasty weeds which grow like they’re in timelapse. You know the ones, they’re in lots of people’s gardens in Wanstead – they’re about yay high with blue flowers and prickly stems and leaves which will leave you in an infuriating rash for days if you try to tackle them. Roots like nobody’s business – really deep. Bah. They bring out the worst in me.

Anyhow, turns out they’re the herb of the month in Waitrose. Borage. Of course, borage, just about my favourite herb of the month. I was being too hasty! Now I know all sorts of things about it, like the fact that it’s one of the few naturally blue foods. Here’s a Waitrose recipe which could have you eating half the garden. Any other tips for using borage are welcome.

• You might remember the Big Picnic on Christchurch Green a few weeks ago. I decided to take Mr Orange and the little satsumas on a trawl of the Farmers’ Market and make our picnic from that. The weather wasn’t great, to be honest, but the whole idea of combining the market with a picnic seemed to be to be rather jolly, and something which almost deserves to become a summer months’ ritual.

We couldn’t resist the waft of the bacon and sausages from the Rhyne Park Food stall. We chose some of their homemade sausages – they use rare breed pigs and produce a pure pork sausage. These were wrapped in a hearty tiger roll, topped with some sweet fried onions. They were delicious – a good balance of spices and salt and with a meaty texture.

We also chose some French bread to go with our homemade salads, and a few Stratford-made pastries from the Artisan foods stall to boost our sugar levels – all enjoyed with a paper cup of Kent apple juice. Simple pleasures, and perhaps something to repeat if the pre-Wimbledon Final weather suits this weekend.

Wansteadium’s food blogger Suki Orange writes:

How should Wanstead loyalists react to this dissing dished out on Nice Croissant? I suppose at least it’s delivered with some flourish…

It comes from the London Review of Breakfasts:

The bread was of the ilk that lives sweating in placcy bags on supermarket shelves, so had dessicated unpleasantly after its grilling. The bechamel carried few hints of excitement, but was sufficiently gooey, if unevenly spread. The ham: pellucid. Barely there. The cheese warmed proceedings up. It always does. So – not a total dîner de chien, just slightly disappointing. But to improve matters, my latte arrived in one of those curvaceous mini-vases that seem to have fallen from favour, all moues and frothiness, giving the glad eye to my dining partner’s yeomanly mug of tea.

Wansteadium’s food blogger Suki Orange writes:

Independent food shops bring that much sought after air of distinction to high streets, and Wanstead is lucky to have a real life butcher, a proper greengrocer, and two bakers. No candlestick maker, of course, but time and again foodies rue the absence of a fishmonger.

So Noel McRea, the fella who parks his white van in the Corner House car park every Wednesday lunchtime, is something  of a godsend. A couple of Wansteadium readers have asked for some details of his operation, so Suki is pleased to step up to the halibut.

Noel is a softly spoken diffident man, a Grimsby native, who has been selling fish all his life and has been coming to Wanstead since 1984.  As well as delivering to his regular customers’ doors, and supplying the 62 Spice Indian restaurant, he now parks up in the car park behind the Corner House at the top of Grove Park. He’s there from 10.30 until 2pm every Wednesday, having driven his fish down from the port the previous evening.

I usually buy fish from Waitrose, as I think it’s worth spending the bit extra for the quality and provenance. But having chosen a seabass and a whacking great piece of cod, all sustainably sourced, I was steeling myself for an independent trader-style hole in my purse. But the two came to just £10, and I wasn’t too upset.

Noel effortlessly filleted the seabass, giving me a very healthy and fresh looking serving, enough for two. When home, the very delicate whiff of the cod left me in no doubt at all that this fish really could have been swimming about yesterday. There were a few scales left on the seabass and, upon eating, we found about half a dozen tiny bones, but to be honest that just made me feel that this was the authentic thing – somehow if it had been in sunken supermarket polystyrene tray I would have been much more unforgiving. The meaty subtle flavour works well with some light veg – you feel like you’ve eaten without really having indulged.

I’d be interested in knowing how other Wanstead folk have found Noel’s fish. I know he’s not the only person delivering door-to-door, so any comparison would be welcome too. But by Neptune if Wanstead can’t have its own fishmonger in an actual shop, then Noel’s the next best thing.

Before...

And after

Wansteadium’s food blogger Suki Orange writes:

The name ‘farmer’s market’ covers a pretty wide variety of ventures, from the earthy and truly local, through designer and oh-so-trendy, to the travelling street market with not very much to do with farms. Wanstead’s, which is held again this Sunday, thankfully has enough of the authentic about it to make it worth returning to.

For anyone who’s not a regular, I suppose I should say that there are usually about 20 stalls with a mix of fresh produce. You would find something for most sittings – pastries and cakes or bread from Le Moulin; eggs, sausages, game and venison, pies and fish; vegan and vegetarian offerings from The Parsnipship; Kent apple juice and pickles and preserves. It’s the full plough to plate experience.

There’s also a couple of non-food stalls selling jewellery, old photos, a nik-naks (not the scampi-flavoured vile crisps from the 80s). One stall sells bacon butties made to order, though last time I looked interest seemed limited – most passing trade went to the warm indoors of Caesars a few yards away. Perhaps they need to rethink their offer – maybe a roasting pig or large leg of lamb sliced and smothered in some of the pickles from the stall next door all wrapped up in a crusty roll would see more interest.

Near the end of the line is the unusual-looking vehicle known as the Cheesewheeler – odd enough, in fact, to make it possible to imagine it trailing from one charming deserted French village to another, keeping les baguettes of vieux hommes on banquettes stocked with slimey smelly fromages. The side of the van flips up and hey presto more than 100 different kinds of cheese – British regional and overseas varieties – are on offer. In some ways the presence of Cheesewheeler, or a stall like it, is a measure of the authenticity of a farmer’s market. As the BBC’s Mark Easton wrote a few months ago, the past 20 years have seen an amazing resurgence in the art of cheese-making in the UK as farmers respond to changing times.

“[W]hen the price of milk plummeted in the 1990s, the resilience and imagination of Britain’s dairy farmers was tested,” he wrote. “They desperately needed new products to survive. Perhaps they opened the old trunk at the back of the barn and found great-great grand-mother’s recipe. Or maybe they experimented with cheese-cloth and press on the kitchen table.”

Now a country which ate four kilos of cheese per head in the 60s is eating more than 12, and the presence of specialists as well as growing supermarket awareness has all helped.

The cheese on offer at our farmer’s market is not all British, of course, and I hope in future months to explore this a bit more. Any recommendations from fellow Wanstead folk are welcome. I’m interested in this business of cheese, but to be honest it’s not my chosen specialised subject. I’m not a cheese bore, you might say. But I decided to conduct something of a practical challenge, and I chose Brie de Meaux – one of the names common to delis as well as supermarket shelves – as the guinea pig for my taste test. How would the Cheesewheeler brie fare against a seemingly identical sample brought from Wanstead’s favourite, the Larder? I didn’t really expect there to be much difference, but my dinner guests two weeks ago were in no doubt. The Larder’s version was decent enough; it held its form and didn’t offend. But the van’s version was pungent, runny in the middle and almost al dente on the outside; it felt like it was oozing to get on to a biscuit. Visitors to my fridge hadn’t appreciated it, but visitors to the table did.

These guys have obviously got a passion – they must have to drive around in a van which is, frankly, unlikely to be pleasantly smelling. They’re approachable enough. If their web address – Cheesewheeler.com – pointed to something other than a 404, I’d be even happier with them.