Free food no.2

Dandilion leaves. I have nothing to report about this, as on our recent walk to the meadow I was forbidden from collecting them by my husband worrying overly that dogs had weed on them.

Of course they would have been weed on. If you were worried about that you wouldn't eat anything!

I was planning to put them in a salad... Maybe he'd feel better if I boiled/sauteed the hell out of them before eating.

Anyway, where we were, the flowers were just coming, and apparently you're best picking them before flowers appear. All is not lost however, you can also harvest in late autumn and even use the flowers (see here).

Free food no.1

Don't these look lovely? Perhaps not, but stinging nettles are a powerful source of vitamin A, iron, calcium, flavinoids, the list goes on... They are of course also free. What's to lose?

Cover up well when picking them, and choose the top, young leaves (they're a more vibrant green than the old ones). Now is a great time to pick them before they get too old. I got my nettles from an obliging field in Wytham.

Here I am with my nettles in a bowl of water. I'm looking for intruders, discarding tough stems, black bits and curled up leaves.

Don't throw away the bits you have discarded. I'm told that nettles left in a bucket of water until they stink is nature's own plant food. And that's free too, although I think my neighbours might have something to say about that little project...

Here are my nettles, rinsed in clean water, ready to use.

I looked up a couple of very different recipes, and so in the end decided to make a veggie soup as I would normally make it, but without too many additions as I was interested what the flavour would be.

Onions and garlic...

Add a large chopped carrot and a few sticks of celery...

Don't forget some potato to thicken...

Add your nettles, stock and simmer for about 20 mins. It's this bit that kills the sting. At this point I had to change pans because of the non-wilting surprise (see below).

Whiz it up and season with salt, pepper and lemon juice...

Voila!

The first thing to say is that it doesn't wilt like spinach; nettles are quite a lot more robust. So actually making soup like this I had too many nettles, or too little stock base depending on how you look at it. Next time I'll definitely start with a little grilled bacon for flavour. Having said all that, it is surprisingly nice and the flavour is definitely unexpected. I'll serve this up to my guests tomorrow with a swirl of cream in the bowl.

I think I'll go nettle-picking again next weekend. I want to make nettle tea and nettle omelette (you boil them for a few minutes before adding them to the egg to avoid nasty surprises).

No more rice porridge - hooray!

Follow my instructions for perfect basmati rice every time.

For best results use a non-stick pan. Failing that, heat a little oil in your pan prior to putting the rice in and spread it all over the bottom.

Now rince your basmati rice in a sieve.

Add it to the pan with 1 1/2 times (that's right - not twice!) the amount of water. Keep a lid on it for the rest of the cooking process.

Keep the heat on high, and the moment it starts to boil (not just simmer, but boil properly) turn it right down to low. Now you can just leave it without any attention until all (all, mind) the water has been absorbed. Best to leave it too long rather than too little, and as your heat is on low you don't need to worry about it burning.

Fuss free, perfect rice.

White aubergines and the like

Jane had me looking up aubergines after her comment, and I've learned some very interesting coffee-break sort of facts.

Firstly, aubergines are a fruit. (I think I should have known that - but it would make a good odd-one out-exercise).

Secondly they can be all sorts of pretty colours. Here you can buy seeds to grow lovely pale green ones in your own garden.

Apparantly early varieties of aubergine were smaller and white, a bit like eggs, hence 'eggplant'. I bet you didn't know that. I learned that here.

Anway Jane my advice is 1) be adventurous and 2)make some friends. We used to live by a huge african market and lots of shops here. They sold some wierd and wonderful things. Stand and look lost (and European) for long enough - about 5 seconds in my experience - and plenty of fellow shoppers would be only too glad to tell you what things are, give you cooking advice and recipes, tell you how much to buy, how long it will last etc etc. To be honest, it used to restore my faith in humanity apart from anything else.

Just remember to take a pencil and paper, and be prepared for linguistic misunderstandings. It took my red raw hands three days to feel even remotely normal after cooking with seemingly innocuous african peppers, and I'm sure someone did try to warn me...

Very easy project for beginners

Here's a project for everyone:

Find your local chinese supermarket.

Now you just have to be prepared to look fairly silly as you spend ages trawling past shelves for something you recognise.

I only had the guts to go in mine fairly recently and I'm hooked - things that I would buy in Tescos (creamed coconut, soy sauce, ginger, sesame oil... the list is endless) are so much cheaper, but on top of that I've only just begun to discover delicious new things. My latest favourite is Thai Green Curry paste, which will feed about 12 hungry people per jar without being stingy, and is fabulous when you want dinner on the table in 20 mins (I use frozen fish for minimal fuss and its mouthwateringly good).

I still wander around in hopeless disorientation, but I do plan to get a book and start being adventurous (green curry doesn't count, I know).

Apparantly the one in North London sells things half to the third of the price of the one here. I can smell several bargains...!