(Not up for the chitchat? Completely get it. Click the email title to go to a web-based version then jump straight to the recipe or Cultural Fun.
I am well but with very little to report. As my mother sometimes says: “No news is good news.”
Although I did have a pice in The i Paper the other day about ways to improve your gut health. If that was one of your new years resolutions then there are places on my full-day, field-to-ferment course in Oxfordshire next Friday. You, my lovely IGT readers, may claim a huge 50% discount off the £150 cost with the code NEWYEAR50.
It will be healthy, yes, but it will also be delightful. We will hear from Harrison Fannon, the co-founder of Worthy Earth about his no-dig market gardens before picking vegetables from the field. Then we’ll return to the beautiful Home House Farm kitchen and turn those things into krauts, kimchis and pickles.
Alternatively, if you looking for an alternative team bonding or client entertaining activity than I have a variety of hands-on workshops. From a quickie “lunchtime learning” situation to a full afternoon of evening.
I’ve also just finished reading 10% Human by Alanna Collen which isn’t specifically about gut health but was really fascinating on our microbiota in general. It came out in 2016 so isn’t completely up-to-the-minute on research but was a really good introduction to the subject, covering the history of our understanding of microbes and modern diseases.
Recipe: Winter Pinks Salad
I developed this salad for the “delivery supper club” meal kits I was doing during the pandemic times. A combination of radicchio, beetroot and blood orange, it’s a pinky-purple medley of bitter, sweet, sharp and earthy.
I love winter comfort food and have been eating plenty of dumplings, stews and pasta but you need a bit of brightness in there too and this fits the bill nicely. It isn’t lacto-fermented (although you could always use fermented beets) but full of fibre and polyphenols.
Serves 2
Ingredients
2 large or three/four small beetroot (approx 200g), washed
handful blanched hazelnuts (approx 40g)
2 blood oranges
1 tablespoon vermouth or red wine vinegar (see note)
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons olive oil
radicchio leaves (approx 200g), separated, washed and dried (see note)
Method
Roast the beetroot. Get the beetroot wet and, with plenty of water still clinging to it, wrap it in foil. Place the package on a baking tray and roast at 180°C for two hours or until you can easily piece the beetroot with a knife. When cooked, unwrap the foil and allow the beet to cool enough to handle.
Toast the nuts. At some point during the beetroot cooking time, toast the hazelnuts too. Spread them out on a baking sheet and put in the oven for about 10 minutes until golden brown. Watch them like a hawk and don’t forget to set a timer. I have lost many batches of nuts to the assumption I would remember they were in the oven. Allow the nuts to cool then roughly chop.
Supreme the oranges. Cut the peel and pith from the orange and remove each segment. It’s difficult to explain so I made a little video. Cut the segments from their skin over a bowl to collect the juice.
Make the dressing. Fish the orange segments out of the bowl and set them aside. Add the vinegar, mustard and oil to the orange juice along with a pinch of salt and and whisk to combine. Taste and adjust with more salt and vinegar if necessary.
Peel the beetroot. Whilst the beetroot are still warm grab them and slide their skins off (see note). Remove tops and roots and slice each into four, six or eight pieces depending on its size. Add the beetroot slices to the dressing and toss well. Then add the orange slices back in and let sit for an hour or so if possible (be gentle with the orange pieces or they will break up. You can do this up to a couple of days in advance).
Combine and serve. When ready to eat, combine the dressed beets with the radicchio leaves, toss gently and scatter over the hazelnuts.
Notes (If Ifs And Ands Were Pots And Pans…)
The first time I made this I used Belazu’s Vermouth Vinegar which I highly recommend. Red wine vinegar works great too. You could even use pomegranate molasses.
I love this method of roasting beets but you have to remember to peel them before they cool entirely. Get them whilst still warm but not too hot to handle and the skins will slide right off. Forget and let them cool completely and you’ll likely need to use a knife or peeler. They’ll also absorb more flavour from the dressing if you can get them in whilst still a bit warm.
There are many, many types of radicchio. The most widely available is red chicory which you can get in most supermarkets. The ball-shaped radicchio di Chiogga is also pretty common. Treviso is similar but longer-leaved and slightly sweeter in flavour. My favourite combination for this salad is Tardivo for it’s beautiful sculptural quills along with some blushing pink leaves. Fancy veg mongers Natoora have a wide selection, a lot of it available via Ocado. Or see what is at the market.
Radicchios clockwise from top: Chiogga, Treviso, pink, Tardivo
I think this works really well as a starter. Something refreshing to eat before the main event. But it could happily go on the side of a stew or pie. Or bulk it out with some grains and blue cheese into a light main.
Cultural Fun
We had a nice walk on Hampstead Heath at the weekend and visited Kenwood for the first time in ages. I’d forgotten how much great stuff they have there although possibly the most famous - Rembrand’s Self Portrait with Two Circles - is currently on loan to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. There’s an art exchange programme going on as, in its place, the Austrians have sent over the last self portrait by Peter Paul Rubens.
The absent Rembrandt and an imperious Rubens in his place.
It’s an interesting contrast as Rembrandt presents himself quite humbly, in his painting gear. But apparently Rubens never painted himself as an artist, instead emphasising his status and role as a diplomat.
The other thing that caught my eye were some very cutesy Reynoldses, particularly The Infant Academy. Which I absolutely hated. An 18th century version of those greeting cards with babies all dressed up. But interesting to see!
A volunteer pointed out the Skeleton Clock by John Joseph Merlin (and a portrait of the inventor himself by Gainsborough), one of the earliest examples of this kind of “naked” clockwork, designed to fascinate viewers by laying bare the craftsmanship of clockmaking.
So much there. And it’s free too.
I fell down a bit of a John Joseph Merlin Googlehole and found out he also co-created the silver swan automaton which is at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle (you can see it in action here). I first heard about the swan as a fictionalised version of it appears in Peter Carey’s odd but intriguing novel The Chemistry of Tears.
Merlin is credited with inventing roller skates too. Although he doesn’t seem to have fared any better with them than many first-time skaters. According to Thomas Busby’s Concert Room and Orchestra Anecdotes (which sounds like great book!) he demonstrated them whilst simultaneously playing the violin at "one of Mrs Cowleys' masquerades at Carlisle House”. Disaster struck “when not having provided the means of retarding his velocity, or commanding its direction, he impelled himself against a mirror of more than five hundred pounds value, dashed it to atoms, broke his instrument to pieces and wounded himself most severely."
I feel you John Joseph. I have also done regrettable and expensive damage whilst trying to impress at parties.
Bye! See you next week!
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Well done on the piece in The i Paper. I love it!