personal political

sprout convert

All my life I have considered sprouts boring. I never bought them, I never sprouted them and I never asked for them in food (eg sandwiches).

food finds

All my life I've disliked - I could even say detested - celery and green capsicum.

Recently I've begun to like them, quite a bit.

Where there's life there's hope.

tea meme

I took this meme from penguin unearthed.

When it comes to tea, I mentally divide it into two types: green tea (of which I buy loose leaf Japanese organic) and black tea. (And of course there's herbal tea too, so that's three types.) On an average day, I drink all three, but I have a clear preference for which comes when...

• Your first cup, when do you drink it? My first and usually second and third cups are of green tea, made in an infuser. I usually have my first cup at about 9.30 in the morning - either after I've arrived at work or university or arrived home from taking the boy to school. I don't drink tea first thing. I have a fresh juice first thing and some time later, something to eat and some time later again, I feel ready for my green tea.

• How many cups a day do you drink? Between two and six (of green and black - I don't drink herbal tea every single day.) It depends where I am and what I'm doing. On a busy, outdoors kind of day, I might only have one cup of green in the morning and one cup of black in the late afternoon. On a sitting-at-the-computer kind of day, I'd drink three cups of green and 1-2 cups of black at  my desk and possibly another black or herbal in the evening.

slow food

Perhaps in discussing longevity the other day, this kind of thing was at the back of my mind. I like the idea of the convivium (Latin is such a great language - I studied it for one term when I was 13 - I'd like to study it again but have no idea where I could do that.)

vegetable couscous

Helen asked me to post the recipe.

It's from Middle Eastern Vegetarian Cookery by David Scott (my edition is1981!) Serves 6.

Cover the bottom of a heavy saucepan (or couscousier, for the culinary elite among us) with vegetable oil (or melted butter if you prefer).
Add:
3 cloves crushed garlic
2 quartered onions
6 small courgettes (zucchinnis) in large chunks
2 capsicum peppers (I prefer red)
2 large potatoes

Saute on moderate heat for 10 minutes. Add half a litre of water and bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer.

Meanwhile, prepare couscous. Add 575ml cold water to 450g couscous, drain, rake with finger to break up lumps as it sits there for  10 minutes. Then put the couscous into a couscousier or, more likely, a colander and place it on top of the  vegetable saucepan, leaving it to steam for the next 15 mins or so.

Then add to the saucepan
225g chickpeas (I use one tin/can)
450g fresh or tinned tomatoes
100g sultanas, apricots and or raisins
4 carrots in chunks
the recipe says 2 turnips, I never have these, I use eggplant, pumpkin or whatever I have handy
1.5 teaspooons ground coriander
1.5 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 small chillis (or some chilli flakes or even powder)
salt and pepper
half litre water

Bring to the boil, them simmer for another 30 minutes with the couscous on top. (Actually, I shorten these times if I'm in a hurry.)

Drain some of the liquid into a seperate bowl. Serve the vegetables on top of the couscous. Add the liquid and harissa as personally desired. (I buy Hulla harissa, I have also bought a dried harissa powder from the spice section which you add oil and water to...)