Fresh, fresh and exciting

Now if you don’t live on a small island with limited local produce and vegetables which look like they’ve travelled the length and breadth of Greece before they’ve arrived at their destination, then you won’t be excited by the above picture. Obviously, living on Skopelos, the above picture fills me with a warm glow and happy thoughts! These and a bunch of runner beans were brought back from Volos by Sean from a greengrocers displaying such a plethora of edible vegetables that he forgot to get the one thing I asked him for – onions. He was thus sent out into the dark corners of the Skopelos purveyors of vegetables in order to get an onion so I could make dinner which was chana masala (with added cauliflower just because I like it!).

I love chick peas and I love curry so it was a win win situation really. Needless to say we scoffed the lot in one sitting!
The tomatoes in Sean’s Volos offering have been eaten just mixed with onion and some olive oil because he loves his tomatoes and doesn’t like them messed with too much. The red cabbage was cooked and then cooled before I mixed it with lots of flavourings, put it in the fridge, took it out the next day, tasted it again, and then put loads more stuff in with it. Trouble with doing that is I have no idea what I put in so I’ll never be able to do it again. Tasted good though and makes rather a pretty picture.

Some of the courgettes were lightly fried in oil with mushrooms and garlic and then tossed in a pan with some spaghetti. Simple, quick and tasty. It was quick to eat as well so no picture. The rest of the courgettes along with some of the beans went into last night’s tea which was supposedly a green vegetable and lentil kedgeree.
After deviating from the recipe, as I always do, it still didn’t taste how I thought it should. Probably because I have fond memories of kedgeree from childhood as my mum used to make it so well. She was a great cook and a great cake maker so all my expectations of food are based around those memories of childhood meals. It’s not just the tastes but the smells that evoke that kitchen I used to stand in as a child helping my mum by peeling onions or chopping up fruit. I’m trying to pass on to my daughter what my mum passed on to me, the naturalness (can’t think of a better word) of getting some good raw ingredients and making them into something wholesome and nutritious. Good honest food is what I suppose you’d call it and it sure means a whole lot more to me than some fancy dressed up plate or poncy little portion. So with the 21st anniversary of my mum’s death this Wednesday I’d just like to say, thanks mum, for passing on your knowledge, skill and enjoyment of food.