Spring Roundup of New Recipes

As I continue to keep track of recipes I'm cooking for the first time, it's clear that my list is a ringing endorsement for Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian, a cookbook that has completely changed the way I cook vegetables. Although I am one of those fortunate eaters who likes just about anything, I don't always find an all-vegetable meal satisfying. Most of the time, I have default method for particular veggies--I saute greens with olive oil and garlic, roast root vegetables, and put lettuce in salads, but doing the same thing all the time can get very boring. The fruit and vegetable boxes I'm getting from Eden Farms are full of summery vegetables, so it's great to have new ideas for ways to prepare them. Each of the chapters focus on a particular type of food (vegetables, grains, salads, and so on). Within each chapter, the recipes are organised by individual main ingredient, which makes it very easy to use. If you're in a position to buy a cookbook for a new or reluctant cook, I would recommend you buy this one.

Standout recipes from this season of meals include Dunkler Kirschkuchen (Spiced-Cherry Chocolate Cake) from Classic German Baking; Spice Cookies from Jerusalem (I've been making one batch a month since April); Mushroom and Kale Lasagna with Blue Cheese from Cooking with Shelburne Farms (the first time I've ever made lasagna--so good!); and Ayam Lada Hitam & Gajus from Malaysia, delicious and quick chicken and cashew stir-fry. To thank you for reading this long post, I've included the recipe below. Enjoy!

Jerusalem spice cookies. So good.

April 2021

•  Spice Cookies from Jerusalem
• Vietnamese Caramelized Ginger Chicken from A Bird in the Hand 
• Dunkler Kirschkuchen (Spiced-Cherry Chocolate Cake) from Classic German Baking
• Chicken with Dill and Leeks from A Bird in the Hand
• Smoked Chicken, Lentil, and Sauteed Jerusalem Artichoke Salad from A Bird in the Hand
• Shiu-Min Block's Broccoli stir-fried with ginger and garlic (chow chia lan) from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian  
• Stir-fried carrots with ginger and mustard seed (Gajar no sambharo) from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian  
• Punjabi-style cauliflower and potatoes with ginger from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian  
• Red lentils with courgette (vegetarian dalcha) from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian  
• Cheryl Rathkopf's Sri Lankan cashew curry (cadju curry) from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian   
• Mushroom and Kale Lasagna with Blue Cheese from Cooking with Shelburne Farms 

A spring rainbow

May 2021

• Androche Markidis's Lentils with Rice (Moudjendra) from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian 
• Cabbage Salad with Oregano (Curtido) from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian 
• Spicy hash brown potatoes from  Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian 
• Mushroom and potato stew from  Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian   
• Allegra Antinori's Tuscan courgette pie from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian   
• Ayam Lada Hitam & Gajus (stir-fried black pepper chicken with cashews) from Malaysia by Ping Coombes

Poppies

 June 2021

• Carrot and Feta Potato Cakes from The Hungry Student Vegetarian
• Couscous Fritters with Beetroot from The Hungry Student Vegetarian
• Sauteed Potatoes and Zucchini from Heartland
• Nigerian Red Bean Stew with a Peanut Sauce from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian 
• Marios Mourtezi's black-eyed beans with Swiss Chard from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian  
• Mak Ki Dal from Masala 

Stork at Langworth Wildlife Park

Ayam Lada Hitam & Gajus  

from Malaysia: recipies from a family kitchen by Ping Coombes

• 2 skinless, boneless chicken thights cut into 1cm strips
• 2 tsp oyster sauce, divided (plus more to taste)
  
•  60g raw or roasted cashews
• 1 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1-1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns, coarsely ground in a mortal and pestle
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped (plus more to taste)
• 1/2 tsp caster sugar
• large pinch of salt
• 2 tbsp water

Put the chicken, which you have cut into small pieces, in a bowl and coat with the oyster sauce. Set aside to marinate for at least twenty minutes. Overnight is fine too.

 

If you are using raw cashews: when ready to eat, preheat oven to 180C (160C in a fan oven, or 350F) and roast the nuts for 10-15 minutes. To ensure even roasting, give roasting tray a shake 1-2 times during this period. [Cashews, like most nuts, go from 'roasting nuts smell nice' to 'burnt trash' in a few short minutes, so be extra vigilant from the time you start to smell them. Another thing that helps is to avoid using the highest shelf in your oven.]

 

When cashews are done or almost ready, start cooking the chicken. Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan, and when it is shimmery, add in the ground peppercorns. Fry for about 30 seconds or until you can smell them (which ever comes first) and then tip in your marinated chicken and garlic.

Stir-fry the chicken, garlic, and peppercorns over high heat for a few minutes, until the chicken starts to look cooked on the outside. Add another dollop of oyster sauce if you like it (the original recipe has you marinated the chicken in 1tsp of oyster sauce and cook it with the other; I love it so I used a lot more, but you might want to stick to the recommended amount). Also add in the sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir to mix well and tip in your cashews.

Stir-fry until chicken is fully cooked (you can take a piece out and cut in half to check) and then add in your 2tbsp of water to deglaze the pan. Let most of the water boil away, making sure to keep turning the contents of the pan so they don't stick. 

Serve on a bed of lettuce or rice; Ping Coombes also suggest you could wrap this in iceberg lettuce leaves.

Makes 2 medium-sized servings

New Recipes of Late Winter

Hey-yo, reader, I hope you're well. I am on my final days of Spring break. Despite my lofty intentions to do a ton of academic writing and editing, none of that has happened. Instead, I've slept in, read too many Twitter feeds as I continue to vacillate about creating one of my own, and done a lot of rambling along the River Witham.

 

the Viking Way

 

My cooking feels like it's in the same slump as my writing and editing, so it's fun to look back and see evidence to the contrary. While I am not trying new recipes at the rate I did during the first lockdown, I'm still managing to get to about one new thing a week, and sometimes two. Some of these have been recipes I've wanted to try for a few years, like the Sicilian Vegetable Pizza Roll from The Bread Bible, or the Spice Cookies from Jerusalem, which are extraordinary wonderful.

 

I was given my copy of Luisa Weiss's Classic German Baking the Christmas after my PhD viva, and it is one of my favourite cookbooks because of the memories that surround it. After I submitted the corrections requested by my examiners I went on a MASSIVE grocery store trip to get fancy high-fat butter and other baking ingredients, and dove headlong into German baking. If you like cooking as a process and a project, you will probably enjoy this cookbook. None of the recipes are especially quick but in my experience all are worth the investment of time and groceries.

 

It was around February 2017, when I finished my PhD for good, that I started really wanting to bake a Dunkler Kirschkuchen (Spiced-Cherry Chocolate Cake), except I couldn't find sour cherries in any grocery store in Lincoln, and still couldn't even after I started going to the Super Lincs, the largest local international supermarket, in 2019. However, just before Christmas 2020, my luck turned, and I discovered where the store shelved the canned sour cherries, and then when I went back six weeks later, they were still available AND still in the same place (a thing which does not often happen with this particular grocery store), so I was able to get a jar to make a Dunkler Kirschkuchen.

 

And lo, it was worth the four year wait. I've so glad I still have a few pieces left in the freezer.

 

Here's the rest of the list of what I've been cooking of late! 

January 2021

• Pork Roast with Orange Glaze from Cooking from Quilt Country
  
• Chicken with Leeks and Apples from A Bird in the Hand
  
• Sicilian Vegetable Pizza Roll from the Bread Bible
• German Cabbage Rolls from Cooking from Quilt Country 

Sicilian Vegetable Pizza Roll...much tastier than this photo makes it look

February 2021

• Chicken with Anchovies, Lemon, and Rosemary from A Bird in the Hand 
  
• Cornmeal Pancakes from Cooking from Quilt Country
• Quick Pickled Carrots and Rutabaga from Cooking with Shelburne Farms 
• Celery Root Soup with Blue Cheese from Cooking With Shelburne Farms 
• Pureed Beetroot Salad from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian
• Mushroom and Root Vegetable Pot Pie from Cooking with Shelburne Farms 
• Reuben's Legendary Apple Pancake from Classic Home Deserts

 

Mushroom and Root Vegetable Pie

March 2021 

• Costa Rican Black Bean Soup from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian 
• Potato Leek Pizza from Good and Cheap 
• Red Lentils Cooked in the Bengali Way (Masoor Dal) from Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian
• Fuscia Dunlop's Sichuanese Celery with Beef from the Wednesday Chef  
• Chili and garlic cucumber from Mamushka 
• Tagine of Chicken, Carmelized Onions, and Pears from A Bird in the Hand 

chicken and pear tagine

And so far this month...

•  Spice Cookies from Jerusalem
• Vietnamese Caramelized Ginger Chicken from A Bird in the Hand 
• Dunkler Kirschkuchen (Spiced-Cherry Chocolate Cake) from Classic German Baking  
  

Stuffed Pumpkin for Thanksgiving

For my first Thanksgiving in England, I took over a friend's kitchen in Cambridge and cooked a meal for eleven. A few of the guests were vegetarian, so I made two main dishes: a stuffed pumpkin and a turkey. I've made this several times for gatherings over the years--something about a pumpkin stuffed with bacon and bread and cheese seems to please everyone who eats it. Thanksgiving 2020 marks the first time in nearly a decade where I haven't held a Thanksgiving dinner party, so posting one of my favourite dishes to make for others feels like a good way to celebrate.

Looking forward to serving this to friends again when it's safe to do so.

 

Pumpkin Stuffed With Everything Good

From Dorie Greenspan's Around my French Table, published in the Providence Journal on October 20, 2010

• 1 pumpkin, between 2.5 and 3 pounds (about 1 kilo). I have used larger and smaller pumpkins depending on what was available in the market, just adjust the amount of filling to the size of the squash.
  
• salt and black pepper
• 1/4 pound (about 114 g) stale bread, cut into 1/2 inch cubes.  If your bread isn't stale, toast the slices in the toaster before cubing them. Any kind of bread you would use for toast will do. I like using a whole wheat (wholemeal) or seeded bread for its taste and texture
  
• 1/4 pound (about 114g) cheese--something strong and firm, like Gruyere, Emmenthal, Cheddar, or a combination, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 2-4 gloves of garlic, coarsely chopped. If your garlic is old or you are sensitive to the taste, you may want to bash the cloves with the flat of a knife and remove the 'germ', which is the green or white bit at the centre of the clove (i.e. the green tip that starts growing when your old garlic starts sprouting). This makes the flavour less harsh.
  
• 4 slices of bacon (preferably streaky bacon or another kind with a decent amount of fat), cooked until crisp and then chopped. If you are feeding vegetarians, the recipe is still delicious without it,
  
• about 1/4 cup (about 33g) snipped fresh chives or sliced scallions (spring onions). When I don't have either of these around, I use half a small onion, sauteed until translucent in the fat from frying the bacon.
  
• 1 tsp dried thyme, or about 1 tbsp fresh thyme
• about 1/3 cup (79ml) heavy cream (double or single cream, it doesn't matter. I once tried to substitute whole milk and it was fine, but cream is much better)
  
• a pinch of fresh-grated nutmeg. f you don't have a nutmeg grater, you will want a very scant 1/4 tsp of pre-grated nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (about 176 degrees Celsius). If you have a pot or pie pan that's a bit wider than your pumpkin, grab that, otherwise use a baking tray.

Carefully cut the top off the pumpkin using a sharp knife, just as you would when carving a Halloween jack-o'-lantern.  You want a hole that's big enough for you to scrape out the seeds and stringy bits from inside the pumpkin, and off of the top. If you like toasted pumpkin seeds, set the seeds and pulp aside to deal with while the pumpkin is baking.

Make sure to salt and pepper the inside of the pumpkin generously--if you're using a salt of pepper mill, most of the seasoning will fall to the bottom, so you want to get your hands in there and spread the seasoning up on the sides of the pumpkin too. I once skipped this step and regretted it, so make sure you do it--pumpkins, like potatoes, taste good with lots of salt and pepper. 

Mix your garlic, bacon, bread, cheese, thyme, and nutmeg in a big bowl. Add pepper to taste. The bacon and cheese may give you enough salt, but taste the filling to see if it's to your liking. Mix in the cream--you don't want the filling completely soggy, since the pumpkin exudes liquid as it cooks, but you don't want it too dry either. It's a bit like stuffing a turkey--a clump of filling should stick together when you pick it up and lightly squeeze it in your hand. Stuff the filling inside the pumpkin.

The precise amounts of bread and cheese and cream you need will depend on the size of your pumpkin. You want to be able to get the lid back on but the pumpkin should be quite full. If you need more filling, just toast and chop some more bread (or just chop it if it's stale), cube a bit more cheese, and add it, with some dribbles of cream, until your pumpkin is filled.

Put the cap on and bake the pumpkin for somewhere between 90 minutes and two hours, or until the filling is bubbling and it's easy to poke a dinner knife into the side of the pumpkin. I usually check the pumpkin and rotate it (my oven has a hot spot) after about the first 45 minutes to an hour of cooking.

After 45 minutes to an hour (for a smaller pumpkin) or an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes (for a larger pumpkin), take the top off so the pumpkin juices can bake away and the top of the filling gets a bit browned. If you forgot to set a timer, this is around when you can poke a knife into the pumpkin but there is still some resistance. The skin of the pumpkin may be golden and blistered in a few spots. Bake the pumpkin with the top off for approximately 20-30 minutes, or until done.

The pumpkin is ready when you can easily stick a dinner knife in its side. Carefully carry the pot to the table or transfer it to a serving plate. If you've got it on a baking tray, take care when carrying it--the pumpkin is very hot and may be a bit wobbly. Cut into 2-4 pieces (small pumpkin) or 4-8 pieces (large pumpkin), and enjoy.

Number of servings depends on the size of pumpkin and diners' hunger levels. Dorie Greenspan says it serves 2-4. I've found that a large pumpkin can serve at least eight, especially if there are other dishes on the table.

Toasted Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin seeds are edible and tasty. I like to separate them from the pulp under running water--don't worry about getting them 100% clean, but it helps to remove some of the pumpkin goop.

Put your pumpkin seeds in a pot and cover with several inches of water. Add LOTS of salt (seriously, if you have a good number of seeds from a large pumpkin, you can use a whole tablespoon) and bring to a boil. Or boil the water in your kettle and pour it over the seeds and salt.

Boil the seeds for about 20 minutes or so. I have done as few as 15 minutes and sometimes over thirty, the timing doesn't have to be exact. Pour off all of the water and spread the seeds out on a baking sheet.

You can blot the seeds with a paper towel so they're mostly dry but I don't always bother. Pour over a few teaspoons of oil (you want the seeds to be coated but not swimming) and season to taste. I typically use a little salt (you don't need much after boiling them in salt water), pepper, and about 1/2 tsp paprika or chili powder.

Bake the seeds in the oven with the pumpkin. Check them, and give them a little stir, every 10-15 minutes. It can take them about half an hour to bake--they are done when they look dry and are golden.

Enjoy a nice snack while you're waiting for your pumpkin to finish baking.

Finding a Pumpkin in the UK

Unlike in the United States, there doesn't seem to be much of a distinction between jack-o'-lantern pumpkins (said to be stringy and tasteless) and varieties of pumpkin grown for eating. I have made this recipe with carving pumpkins from a grocery store or vegetable stand and found them to be excellent eating. 

Finding pumpkins in the UK can be challenging--they typically start appearing a few weeks before Halloween and then vanish from stores on 1 November.  I get around this by buying my first pumpkin as soon as I see them in stores, and then buying a second (or third) one right before Halloween. Provided the pumpkin skin is free from nicks or soft spots, I've been able to keep them in the kitchen for cooking for at least a week or two--and sometimes as long as a month.

I have found that this recipe also works well with a crown prince squash (which is shaped like a pumpkin and has a light green skin). Actually, I've had good results with any pumpkin shaped squash--just make sure to choose one you can safely carve a lid in.

Both of these pumpkins were used to make stuffed pumpkin.

A Use for Fennel and Other Successful Kitchen Experiments

This blog is called the barbarians are hungry for a reason: I love to eat! Here are some new recipes I have tried over the past few months.

August

1. Aloo Gobi from Masala
2. Fennel and Pork Stir Fry from Chicken and Rice
3. Gavurdagi Salatasi from Persiana
4. No-Churn Rhubarb Condensed Milk Ice Cream from Chicken and Rice
5. Banana Pancakes from Good and Cheap

To keep things interesting: in August, I took a lot of walks, and on one of these I met Bert. Must check what Bert is up to for Hallowe'en...

September

1. Extra-Fancy Egyptian Ful Medames from Home is a Kitchen

In September I saw the North Sea for the very first time.

October

1. Life-Changing Cinnamon Tahini Cookies from Sweet Potato Soul
2. Jingha Sukha Pulao from Masala
3. Cornmeal Molasses Pancakes from Heartland
4. Lamb Raan from Dishoom
5. Caucasian BBQ Flatbreads from Mamushka
6. Apple Oatmeal Cookies from The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days
   
7. Apple and Currant Oatmeal Bars from The Hummingbird Bakery Cake Days
   
8. Potato and Leek Pizza from Good and Cheap 

Discovered a statue for our times in a park in my neighbourhood. Eeek indeed!

 

I've made the fennel and pork stir-fry at least twice since the first time I tried it, and recommend it highly. Don't go out of your way for fennel? Me either! I find it a tricky vegetable to use up when it appears in my biweekly vegetable box--I like it raw in salads, but haven't enjoyed it cooked, so I was delighted to discover it is delicious in the following southeast Asian-style stir fry.

 

Fennel & Minced Pork (Pad Ka Prao)

Minimally adapted from Chicken and Rice by Shu Han Lee. 

Serves 2-3 people.

You will need:

• 1 small fennel bulb (I use both the bulb and the fronds, if they're attached)
• 2 tbsp oil
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 200g minced pork (aka ground pork, 200g is roughly a cup and a half)
  
• 1/4 tsp chili flakes, or a 1-inch square block of chopped frozen chilies from the freezer (I've never made this with fresh chilies, but suggest you go by your own spice tolerance in deciding how much to add)
  
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 generous tsp oyster sauce
• a generous pinch of brown sugar (it's fine without it)
• a big bunch of basil leaves (this is supposed to be Thai basil, but I use the only kind I can find in our grocery stores, regular old Italian basil, and it tastes good. You could also try fresh coriander/cilantro.)
  
• an egg per person (optional)
  

To make:

1. Put rice on to cook--I typically boil my rice, using a 3-to-1 ratio of water to rice grains. For a meal and leftovers, I typically use a cup of rice and 3 cups of water.
   
2. Wash your fennel and chop it into bite-sized pieces. I usually chop off the fronds, set them aside, chop the bulb, and then add the chopped fronds after the bigger and thicker pieces have cooked a bit.
3. Heat your oil in a frying pan and add the chopped fennel bulb. Add chopped garlic, and fennel fronds if you have them.  Stir-fry until it all smells nice, just a few minutes. If using frozen chopped chili, add it here.
   
4. Add in the ground pork, using a spoon or spatula to break it into much smaller pieces. 
5. When the meat is just abut cooked, add in chili flakes (if using); then add fish sauce, oyster sauce, and sugar. Add about 1/8 to 1/4 cup of water, which helps make a nice sauce.
6. Remove frying pan from heat and add in basil leaves. Mix them in until the residual heat from cooking causes them to wilt.
7. If you are using ordinary white rice, and started cooking it before chopping your fennel, it should now be finished cooking. Dollop some on a plate and top with stir fry. Fry egg(s) in the pan, and top each plate with a fried egg.
   

Popcorn for Hard Times

 It hasn't been a great week here in the barbaricum, and much love and light to you if it has also been a rough few weeks on your side of the limes*. This week's post is about a dinner for rough or busy days. Back when I started associate lecturing in medieval history, in 2014, I made popcorn for dinner a lot. I got the idea from the wonderful New England cookbook Cook and Tell, which mentions a traditional Sunday night supper of popcorn, cheddar cheese, apples, and hot chocolate. I promptly adopted it as a lazy night dinner for solo dining, and I pass it on to you.

Ingredients for Popcorn Dinner 

- 1/4 to 1/2 cup popcorn kernels

- 2 tbsp vegetable oil

- 1-2 grated handfuls sharp cheddar cheese (or cut cheese into wedges)

-  1-2 apples

- a mug full of milk

- 2 tbsp sugar

- 1 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

- sprinkling of cinnamon or chili powder (optional) 

- other herbs or spices for the popcorn, as your fancy dictates

What to do

There is absolutely nothing stopping you from making microwave popcorn if that's what you need to do but I typically buy a 500g bag of popcorn kernels (you can usually find it in the ethnic foods or pulses aisle of a big supermarket) and pop my popcorn on the stovetop. To do this, take a LARGE pan with a tight fitting lid (you want a pot that can hold about a litre / four cups or more of liquid) and pour about 2 tbsp of vegetable oil onto the bottom of it. I usually eyeball this rather than having to deal with cleaning oil off a measuring spoon--you want enough to have a thin layer covering the bottom of the pot when you swirl the pan. Begin heating the pot over high heat, and while you do that pour a mug full of milk into a small saucepan and turn the heat to medium high.

Now that your oil is a bit hot, drop in 3-5 kernels of popcorn and put the lid on the popcorn pot. Turn your attention to the cocoa now: add two soup spoons of sugar and one of cocoa to your warming milk and stir those in. Lower the heat on your cocoa so it doesn't boil over and collect an apple or two from the refrigerator.

By now, your first few popcorn kernels should have popped and you can add the rest in. A half-cup of kernels generally fills my largest bowl with cooked popcorn, and provides ample food for one person, especially with apples and cheese, but you can always start with a quarter cup and make more later. Put the lid on the popcorn pot again and give your cocoa a stir. The cocoa should be gently bubbling by now and it's a good idea to lower the heat on the popcorn pot to medium or medium high--I find this helps me avoid scorching it.

While you wait, you may wish to add a pinch of cinnamon or chili powder to the hot cocoa. Every so often, pick up the popcorn pot and shake it. It's not absolutely essential to do this but it seems to prevent any kernels from burning, and is kind of fun. It will take about 5-10 minutes, depending on how hot your stove gets, for most of the popcorn to pop.

In between shaking your popcorn pot, slice or grate your cheddar cheese and wash your apples. If you want cheesy popcorn, grate the cheese straight into your bowl. I sometimes like to slice my cheese and apples at the point, so I can eat slices of cheese on top of apple wedges, but you do you.

Dinner is ready when the sound of popping has stopped. I usually find that little tasks like grating cheese, chopping apples, and pouring the cocoa into a mug help me avoid taking the pot off the stove before the popcorn is fully ready.

 

Pour the popcorn into the bowl. If it's cheesy popcorn for you tonight, simply mix the popcorn and grated cheese together with your hands. If you've chosen to eat your cheese with an apple or two, you may want to think about popcorn seasonings. Half a teaspoon (or a few shakes) of garlic powder, dill, and salt; make a nice combination. You can also try chili powder and a few sprinkles of lime juice, if there's a bottle in your fridge. I once tried a few shakes of curry powder on a whim, and enjoyed it. If I'm looking for a bit of spice, a few twists of the pepper mill are also good. And of course, you can never go wrong with salt.

Enjoy your popcorn and take care of yourself.

* As you can probably guess, barbaricum is the word scholars use to talk about the lands outside Roman borders where barbarians lived; limes is the Latin word for those borders themselves. Both words were used with roughly these meanings in Late Antiquity--Wikipedia is kept well-edited for matters Late Antique.

New Recipes of Quarantine

I want to start writing about food and knitting again. A lot has changed over the six years since I started writing this blog--I moved to a new city in 2016, graduated with my PhD and got a permanent job in 2017, ran my first marathon in 2018, came to the end of a five-year relationship in 2019, and finished the first draft of the book that my thesis has become in 2020. I don't need to tell you what else happened in 2020, of much greater import than all of that: the coronavirus pandemic.

At the start of the national lockdown in the UK, I began writing down what I was eating every day. I don't even remember why I started to doing it--as someone who can get very anxious, I find activities like counting coins and organising books soothing, so its origins may lie in that impulse to impose order. In those first few weeks, my sister told me about the short story 'So Much Cooking' by Naomi Kritzer, which I read in delight, half-disbelieving that a story told in the form of a food blog could be published speculative fiction, and half-terrified how much it didn't feel like science fiction at all.

After fifteen weeks of recording what I ate for every meal, I stopped. It had started to feel like a chore rather than something that interested me, and chose to record only the new recipes I cooked. Here's the list!

Week 1 (23 March 2020)

1. chocolate granola from Bosh!
   
2. a red cabbage soup from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups
3. masala chai from Masala
   
4. sticky mushrooms from Bosh!
5. dry-tossed broccoli from Chicken and Rice
6. Brownies from Heartland
7. Rutabaga casserole, also from Heartland
8. Beet Hummus (I had made this the week before)

Week 2 (30 March 2020)

1. Spicy parsnip soup from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups
2. Homestyle-Tofu from Food of Sichuan
3. Bean salad with herbs from Mamushka

Week 3 (6 April 2020)

1. Buckwheat Mushroom Broth from Mamushka
2. Piyaz (Turkish Bean Salad) from Persiana
3. Korean Carrots from Mamushka
   
4. Spice-perfumed shoulder of lamb from Persiana
5. Gluten-free sponge cake from Food 52

Week 4 (13 April 2020)

1. Tahini Cookies from Jerusalem
   
2. Lamb and sour cherry meatballs from Persiana
   

Week 5 (20 April 2020)

1. Tadka Dal from Masala

Week 6 (27 April 2020)

1. Lentil-chickpea salad, from Smitten Kitchen
   
2. Chicken roasted over vegetables from Cooking in the Moment

Week 7 (4 May 2020)

1. Open Kibbeh from Jerusalem
2. Vegetable Kurma from Masala

Week 8 (11 May 2020)

1. Custard-filled cornbread from Orangette
   
2. Mapo Tofu from Food of Sichuan
3. Tadka Dal or Vegetable Kurma (my notes are a bit confused)

Week 9 (18 May 2020)

1. Homemade wheat thins from Smitten Kitchen
2. Zucchini tofu koftas from Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant
   
3. Cuban Black Bean Soup from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups
4. Spiced Root Vegetable Cakes with Date and Tamarind Sauce from Persiana

Week 10 (25 May 2020)

1. Beet and Chickpea Salad from Good and Cheap
2. Crumiri Cookies from Classic Home Deserts

Week 11 (1 June 2020)

1. Chickpea and carrot burgers, adapted from Smitten Kitchen
   
2. Stir-fried celery with minced pork from Food of Sichuan

Week 12 (8 June 2020)

1. Baked German Potato Salad from Cooking from Quilt Country
   
2. Oatmeal Cake from Cooking from Quilt Country

Week 13 (15 June 2020)

1. Rhubarb Cake from Chocolate With Grace
2. Red Bean and Rice Soup from Twelve Months of Monastery Soups

Week 14 (22 June 2020)

1. Rajma Galouti Kebab from Masala
   

Week 15 (29 June 2020)

1. Schwenkfelder Cake from Secrets of Saffron
2. Simplest Spaghetti al Limone from Smitten Kitchen
3. Yogurt Drop Scones (Oladky) from Mamushka

Week 16 (6 July 2020)

This was the week where UK lockdown restrictions eased significantly and I stopped recording what I ate every day. I continued to note down the new recipes I tried!

1. Greek Breads with Spring Onions from Mamushka
2. Fennel and Carrot Pot Pie from Food 52 Vegan

Week 17 (13 July 2020)

1. Lamb Sharma from Jerusalem 
2. Cabbage Apple Slaw with Sweet Tamarind Dressing from Chicken and Rice
   

Week 18 (20 July 2020)

1. Smoky Black Bean Chili, adapted to feature the vegetables I had on hand, from Food 52 Vegan

Week 19 (27 July 2020)

1. Mr Xie's Dandan Noodles from Food of Sichuan
   
2. Stir-Fried Pickled Mustard Greens with Tofu from Messy Vegan Cook

Why and How

Forty-eight recipies over nineteen weeks, an average of 2.47 new recipes a week, feels like a lot. Particularly during lockdown, when I was cooking just for myself. If I had to pin down the reasons I bothered, they would be:

• I like to eat.
  
• It was something to do.
• It was something nice to do in the middle of a global health crisis.
• In early March 2020, I purchased a meat share from the local university's farm, something my former partner and I had talked about doing but never actually did. I had a half a lamb in my freezer, and the dinner parties I'd hoped to have weren't going to happen. Might as well do something with all that food.
  

Lastly, and most importantly, prior to the start of the UK lockdown, when my workplace had switched to a schedule of alternating work from home with work in the office, I hit up my local library to stock up on reading material.

My local library has a good cookbook section and prior to the shift towards lockdown I had checked out the following food related books:

• Secrets of Saffron by Pat Willard
• Mamushka by Olia Hercules
• Food of Sichuan by Fuschia Dunlop 

And as you can see in the picture, I also picked up Chicken and Rice by Shu Han Lee and Bosh! by Henry Firth and Ian Theasby. Having new cookbooks around helped motivate me to try new things.

Secondly, about a year and a half ago I signed up for a fortnightly delivery of fruit and vegetables from Eden Farms, which has been an absolute godsend during the pandemic--it means that I am able to limit my grocery store trips to about one a month. The vegetable boxes in particular are seasonal and change weekly, so one of the reasons to try new recipes is to figure out how to use up what arrives on my doorstep.

So in sum, I had the privilege of the time, motivation, and opportunity to try new things, and the resources to make that happen. It has helped me cope with the current situation, and if you are in a position to cook new things, I hope it is helping you too.

Shipping Out to Boston, or What to Do With all the Food?

I'm headed to a conference in New England for a week. Soon. Cue my favorite music for my favorite international airport:

As is usual when I have to go away for a bit (a rant on the joys of academic travel is for another time), I try to clean out my refrigerator. I've found that no matter how much you try to tell your housemates, 'I'm going away, please help yourself to the carrots in the bottom of the fridge', you will inevitably get back to the evolution of New Life. Since cleaning the refrigerator ranks only above ironing on my list of most despised household chores, I've been trying to use up all my veg. Here's how I did:

• Four apples went into a cake, along with an egg, and the rest of the butter, which I brought to a knitting group meeting
• Three nectarines and two eggs went into a cake, and ended up at a Halloween party
• A butternut squash, two apples, and an onion went into a soup. I should post the recipe for that, it's good.
• The bananas went in the freezer. I don't really like fresh bananas (except with peanut butter on toast) but I love to freeze them for future baking
• The swede (the vegetable!) got chopped and stuffed in the freezer for future soup
• I picked all the tomatoes from outside and asked a housemate to use them, please
• The potatoes will go in the refrigerator to prevent sprouting
• All the satsumas have been eaten
• I made kale, carrots, more onion, some garlic, the rest of the eggs, and some of the cheddar into a quiche
• The rest of the cheddar was grated and shoved in the freezer
• I handed the leeks to my Vegan Housemate and told her to use them
• I attempted to make kiwi jam, with five kiwis and half a remaining lemon, got distracted by picking tomatoes, and invented Caramelized Kiwi Candy. That mess went in the trash.

I still have enough leftovers from this frenzy of activity to have a nice meal tonight and a good breakfast before shipping out tomorrow. I've also frozen a lot of soup, so I won't have to worry about shopping when I get back, which is good, since I don't sleep on flights; that makes me wander into traffic when I try to go grocery shopping after I get home, which is bad.

How do you prepare for leaving awhile?