The tree of life for the indecisive

It seems a cruel irony that, as a notoriously indecisive person, I decided to set up a business which requires me to make hundreds of decisions: furniture, building materials, crockery, music, amount of space between tables, number of power sockets, amount of storage, width of passages? No wonder I can’t sleep.

My problem is, I’m terrified of making a wrong decision. To avoid that, I do so much research that I end up more confused and overloaded with choices than when I started. Take packaging for example. I want to do environmentally friendly packaging for takeaway items at the cafe. Decision made. Ha! It's like the time I decided to paint my room white and then discovered the paint shop had booklets devoted to different shades of white.

A lot of companies claim to offer environmentally friendly packaging but if you want to know what that really means, you have to delve a little deeper. I had one supplier tell me that they had a range of packaging that was made to look environmentally friendly. Is it? Well no, but customers think it is.

You can go the biodegradable plastic route (eg. poly lactic acid), but PLA will only break down in an industrial composting facility, few of which exist in the UK. Also, the sugar cane or cornstarch used to make plant based PLA is from GM crops. So the environmental credentials of PLA start to look a bit iffy. This article by John Vidal in The Guardian sheds more light on the environmental pros and cons of bio-plastics.

Another option is packaging made from material that can be recycled in mainstream recycling facilities, eg. paper. Again, you need to investigate whether the paper is sourced from sustainably grown forests and/or made from recycled paper.

All of this effort to provide recyclable and biodegradable packaging is largely futile if customers just throw their used package into the general rubbish. But, at least with paper, even if customers don’t put their packaging in a recycling bin, it will break down in landfill.

And that’s just the start of the decision making process. I then need to decide on the sizes, colours and shapes of the packaging. Of course none of the packaging made from the materials I want come in the size and shape I want.


Drowning in a sea of packaging samples.

A couple of months ago I went to a seminar on sustainable packaging hosted by London Remade. While I soon realised that no one was going to provide me with a quick solution to my packaging dilemma, I did come away with a very useful tool: the Packaging Decision Tree designed by Jack Shepherd of London Remade. If only we could plant forests of decision trees to help the indecisive.

Chill(i)ing

Last week I escaped to my aunt’s house in Cornwall for a few days to try and clear my head. The stresses of council applications, sewerage pipes and packaging decisions seemed a million miles away as my aunt and I went for long walks along the coast, swam in freezing water and cooked some fantastic seafood with help of a Cornish neighbour:  Rick Stein’s cookbook "Seafood".


While I was there I became a little addicted to rouille, a garlicky mayonnaise served with the French fish stew bouillabaisse, but also fantastic on crab sandwiches, any type of seafood or even just spread on toast for breakfast. The magic ingredient in rouille is harissa, a north african spice paste made from red chilli peppers which gives the mayonnaise a fiery kick.

Now back in London, I'm relying on harissa to give me a warm holiday glow and fire in my belly.

Roast fennel with chickpeas, feta and harissa dressing (for 2)


1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 bulb of fennel cut into wedges (keep the fennel fonds for garnish)
1 red onion cut into wedges
half a punnet of cherry tomatoes cut in half

Harissa Dressing
1 generous teaspoon of harissa
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 teaspoon of honey
zest of 1 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Mix the dressing ingredients in a large bowl and add the chickpeas. Stir to combine and let it sit awhile.

Put the fennel, onion and tomatoes in a baking tray. Toss in a little olive oil, salt and pepper and roast in the oven for about 30-40 minute or until fennel is cooked.

Add to the chickpeas together with the crumbled feta and garnish with chopped leaves from the fennel top.

More sightings of LaMouth

Coffee supercouple "LaMouth" (aka La Marzocco and Monmouth) have been spotted again in London.

Tucked down a side street behind Whole Foods in Kensington, Kensington Square Kitchen boasts the best coffee in London.

It's a big claim that they don’t quite deliver on as the quality of the coffee varies depending on who is driving La Marzocco.


But it is a very nice spot to sit, read the paper and have brunch.

Until recently, LaMouth was also seen hanging out at Milkbar: the latest venture by the flat white lads, located just around the corner in Bateman St.


It is less frenetic, a little more roomy and better ventilated than flat white with the same laid back feel and consistently brilliant coffee.


Best of all, it is a ten minute walk from the site so its where I now go to get my daily caffeine fix.

Yet just when the LaMouth twosome was looking cosy at Flatwhite and Milkbar, I hear that Monmouth has been dumped for a young, relatively unknown new comer on the coffee scene; Square Mile.

Is this the first sign of overexposure? Could LaMouth be headed for splitsville like Bennifer?

Or can they withstand the pressures of fame and prove the cynics wrong - a la Bradgelina...

We’ll have to wait and see whether they make an appearance at 13 Charlotte Place.

Can he fix it?

Demolition has begun....

Putting some truly horrendous decorative features out of their misery. R.I.P.

Enter Bob the builder (well Rob really).

All smiles as the building contract's signed at the architect's office (Rob's the more robust chap on the left).

Estimated opening date - 6 weeks from today.

First orders

I recently put a sign in the window of the cafe: to convince myself, as much as trying to attract the interest of passers by.


I’m at the site nearly every day for one reason or another - getting quotes, delivering equipment and packing up old equipment. Since putting up the sign, I’ve attracted a couple of curious pedestrians who want to know what will be on the menu. Yesterday I met Veronica, a forty year resident of Charlotte Place, who gave me her tip for success. Fried eggs. She tells me there isn’t anywhere in the local area where you can get a simple serving of fried eggs on toast.

People have very strong opinions on what makes a good breakfast and are often giving me suggestions. My friend Suzi emailed me the other day to tell me about the fantastic french toast she'd had at a new cafe in Northcote, Melbourne: “slices of white sourdough lightly fried in the egg and served with little bowls of yoghurt, maple syrup and fresh strawberries on the side, all with cinnamon shaken over the top (key ingredient)!” Another friend, Anna, who is living in Ecuador, sent me the recipes for a couple of local breakfast staples including “chocolate Bogotano” - a hot chocolate drink made with cinnamon and mozzarella cheese, and "chicha" a traditional inca drink made with oats and naranjillas.

I have more of a savoury tooth but can’t do eggs first thing so my dining out breakfast standard is mushrooms sauteed in lots of butter, garlic and herbs, served on toast.

While I’m not promising it will appear on the menu, I’d be interested to know, what gets you out of bed in the morning?

A taste of freedom

I’ve always loved an excursion – a chance to escape the monotonous work routine with a sanctioned day away from the classroom or office.

Earlier this week I went on a farm visit organised by London Food Link and Greener Food. The aim of the trip was to introduce restaurateurs, chefs, caterers and students to some local producers. It seems incredible, but there are currently no wholesale suppliers that specialise in selling and delivering local produce to London. Instead, you have to deal directly with the producers – which can seem a daunting task if you have no idea how or where to find them. London Food Link provides a database on their website which helps. But if you want to be assured of the quality of the product you are buying, nothing beats actually meeting the farmers, and the product, face to face.


First stop was a cattle farm in Kent

where they also grow acres of beautiful lavender

then a sheep farm in Sussex


ending with a visit to the Lighthouse bakery which has relocated from Northcote Rd in London to Sussex.



Perhaps it was the perfect weather conditions that made everyone so positive and good natured but all of the producers we met were incredibly passionate about their work, and the farmers seemed to genuinely care about the welfare of their animals. As one farmer explained: “I want a stress free life and I want them to have a stress free life”.



As is often the case when you start looking for answers, you find more questions. Is crossbreeding unethical if the sole purpose is to create animals that are better for human consumption? Is the use of pesticides in farming more damaging to the environment than using fuel to transport produce from organic farms that are further away? Do animals go to heaven when they die?

Ultimately for me, the most important question is ‘does it taste good’?

Farmer James sacrificed one of his lambs so we could answer this question.


It was without a doubt the best lamb I have ever tasted -melt in your mouth, juicy succulent lamb sandwiched between some Lighthouse bakery bread with home made mint sauce and salad.


If that lamb is now looking down from heaven: thank you.

We all have our intolerances

Is it just me or does everyone have friends who don’t eat certain things because of allergies, intolerances, principles or just squeamishness (my sister in law will eat meat but can’t face a bone on her plate).

It means that every time I have people over for dinner I seem to be faced with a long list of ingredients I can’t use which, on the one hand, can be a good test of my culinary skills (the inverse of MasterChef’s mystery box challenge), but on the other hand can be highly annoying because it often means I can’t cook dishes I want to try and food I like to eat.

I’ve learned that its easiest to avoid certain guest combinations eg- I don’t invite the lactose intolerant friend with the friend who is allergic to nuts as it makes desert a bit tricky and I don’t ask vegetarian friends at the same time as my celiac friend as a few non-meat staples have wheat in them.

On Friday night I invited some friends for dinner and only had to contend with no wheat and no fish: a walk in the park. I wanted to try a recipe for a slow cooked Spanish lamb stew and I could do a flourless cake for desert and grilled haloumi for starters.

At the last minute I invited a couple I didn’t know very well who were friends of one of the other guests. I was speaking to the mutual friend on Friday afternoon and when I told her what I was cooking she said, ‘Oh I think Nat’s vegetarian’. Ok, no lamb for Nat, but she could eat everything else. My friend then called back to tell me that she’d just checked with Nat and she’s actually a vegan.

Nat’s plate was now looking pretty bare but it was too late to change the menu. Instead, I did some last minute shopping and was a bit vague when she asked about one or two ingredients. That fantastic flavour in the pilaf that you were trying to put your finger on Nat? Well, it was butter. Lots of lovely nutty browned butter. Does that make me a bad person?

Below are pictures are of the leftovers I ate the next night. Although I don’t have a photograph, I promise I made Nat a very tasty baked Portobello mushroom using no meat or dairy products whatsoever.

I did feel slightly less guilty about my butter deception after reading Jay Rayner’s article “Eats leaves and shoots ... himself" in the Observer’s Food Monthly yesterday. He says he doesn’t believe you can be genuinely happy and vegan - “…the two are mutually exclusive”. So really I was just trying to spread some happiness.

Pyrenees Lamb with white wine and paprika sauce (serves 8-10)
from the MoVida Cookbook - one of my favourite restaurants in Melbourne


Ingredients

2.5 kg lamb shoulder - ask the butcher to cut into chunky pieces. (You could also use shank, or forequarter chops)
2 tablespoons thyme leaves
150ml olive oil
6 cloves garlic chopped
3 brown onions finely diced
6 bay leaves
7 red capsicums, seed, membrane removed and finely chopped
8 large tomatoes. peeled, seeded and roughly chopped

To make the sauce, heat ¼ cup olive oil in large heavy based saucepan over medium heat and sauté garlic, bay leaves and onion until soft. Reduce heat to low. Add capsicums, cover and cook stirring occasionally for 30 minute or until well softened. Add tomatoes, cover and cook 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add white wine, and cook 10 minutes. Add 5 and a half cups of hot water and increase heat to high. Once the water is boiling add the paprika, reduce water to low and continue cooking the sauce gently for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Trim lamb of any excess fat and put in a roasting tin. Pour in the sauce to just cover the top of the meat (you will have left over sauce). Cook in the oven for about 2½ hours until meat comes easily off bone. As the lamb cooks, some of the sauce will evaporate, allowing the top of the meat to brown.

Eggplant (Aubergine), tomato and herb salad (serves 10)

Ingredients

4 large eggplants sliced into 1 cm rounds
6 tomatoes chopped into 2cm cubes
1 red onion, halved then finely sliced
small bunch flat leaf parsley roughly chopped
small bunch mint roughly chopped
juice of a I/2 lemon
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sumac

To make the dressing put oil, lemon juice, pinch of sea salt and a couple of grinds of black pepper in a jar and shake.

Preheat oven to 220 degrees. Brush both sides of eggplant with olive oil and season with sat and pepper. Roast for 20-30 minutes until golden brown (even better if you can grill them on a barbeque). Allow to cool to room temperature. Gently mix with other ingredients and arrange on a platter. Pour over the dressing and then sprinkle with the sumac.

Pilaf with asparagus (serves 10)

Ingredients

500g basmati rice soaked in water for an hour or 2 (the longer you soak the less cooking time required)
75g unsalted butter
2 brown onions finely sliced
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground allspice
2 bunches asparagus, cut off tips and cut stems cut into 1cm rounds
700ml hot vegetable stock

Heat butter in a medium saucepan with the cinnamon and allspice until it foams. Add onion and a pinch of salt and cook over medium heat for 20-25 minutes until the onion is soft and caramelised. Drain rice and add to pan. Stir to coat in butter. Add the asparagus and stock. Cover with a circle of grease proof paper and place lid on saucepan. Bring to boil and then reduce heat and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let it rest for 5 minutes.

Orange and pine nut cake (serves 8-10)
from Tamasin Day Lewis’s cookbook All you can eat: 1000 Recipes

Ingredients

190 g castor sugar
6 eggs separated
175 g flaked almonds toasted and roughly ground
275g pine nuts
zest and juice of 2 oranges (keep separate)
2 tablespoons runny honey

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a round springform cake tin.

In a bowl, beat 85g of the sugar with the egg yolks until pale and golden. Fold in the ground almonds, whole pine nuts and orange zest.

In another bowl whisk the remaining sugar with the egg white to a thick, glossy meringue. Fold, a third at a time, into the orange zest and nut mixture, then pour into cake in.

Bake in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour until skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool 15 minutes. Warm the honey until it thins and mix with strained orange juice. Pour this mixture over the cake in the tin.

When cool, remove from tin and serve with cream and berries. The vegan just gets the berries.