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These fruits are made for travel. They ripen without sunlight in the dark, in our cold shops and quickly on our radiators. The gentle fingers that pack them in boxes in the Caribbean and Africa do so knowing how easily bananas bruise. I once asked a banana trader in London’s Nine Elms wholesale market why Caribbean bananas are small and curled and South American bananas long and straight. It was a conversation that has always stayed with me. ‘Ah, that is because there is less investment in the banana plantations of the Caribbean,’ he said, ‘and the bananas are picked before they grow to their full size.’ It was 1999 and we were talking about the World Trade Organisation’s decision to apply levies on certain European ‘luxury’ goods to the US, in retaliation for European loyalty to the Caribbean banana market over the largely American-owned plantations in South America/Costa Rica. ‘The Caribbean bananas,’ the trader continued, ‘are picked early because the farmers cannot afford to leave them on the trees even for another week. To me,’ he added, ‘they always look like small, hungry hands.’
This is an analogy of a worldwide problem for food producers. Lack of investment is the enemy of small food production. Along with coffee, tea, chocolate and dried fruits, Fairtrade bananas are now in most supermarkets. They are still small and curled but I am watching with hope.
fresh mango chutney
This chutney can be made in half an hour or less. Eat with sausages or hot ham.
150ml/1/4 pint white wine vinegar
3 cardamom pods
120g/4oz golden granulated sugar
1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
3 mangoes, peeled, stoned and cut into 1cm/1/2 inch cubes
1 tablespoon black onion seeds (nigella)
Put the vinegar and cardamoms in a small saucepan and add the sugar. Heat slowly, allowing the sugar to dissolve before the mixture boils. Simmer until the mixture has reduced in volume by about one-third and then remove from the heat. Add the chilli and stir. Pour the mixture over the mangoes and throw the onion seeds on top. You can eat it immediately or store it in the fridge for up to a week.
plantains
If you have never visited an Afro-Caribbean market, you are in for an experience. At Brixton Market in London, you will see some of the most demanding shoppers in action. African and West Indian women, and men, shout at market traders to push prices down and go for bulk deals. They pick up everything, squeeze it and smell it; they are terrific buyers of fresh vegetables and understand their true value.
Plantains are large, banana-like fruits that are eaten cooked. On my trip to Tobago, I ate them sautéed in butter or ghee for breakfast and they were wonderful. Their skins must be completely black before you cook them or they will have no flavour. Eat them with baked chicken legs and Corn Fritters (see here).
fried plantain
Serves 2
1 plantain, peeled and cut slightly on the diagonal into slices
1cm/1/2 inch thick
ghee or butter mixed with vegetable oil
1 lime
Shallow-fry the plantain slices in the fat until golden on both sides and tender when prodded with a fork. Squeeze a little lime juice over them and serve.
pomegranates
Pomegranates are in Middle Eastern shops all year round, although they are particularly plump and fresh in late summer to autumn. They do keep a long time, though – I bought some for Christmas once and they were still there in April, albeit a little shrivelled, but the pips inside were red and juicy. Pomegranates appear frequently in Iranian cooking. I tend to buy them because I like the look of them, and then use only a few in a pilaff or a salad with oranges and spinach. What to do with the rest? What the Iranians do, of course. Make a pomegranate syrup to eat with roast poultry or game.
pomegranate syrup
I am ever grateful to the exhaustive research of Claudia Roden for this recipe. This is an adaptation of her version.
4 pomegranates
juice of 2 lemons
1 tablespoon golden caster sugar
150ml/1/4 pint water
a pinch each of salt and pepper
Cut the pomegranates in half and dig out the seeds. Put them in a food processor and blend for a few seconds – enough to break the skin that surrounds the seeds. Transfer the pulp to a sieve placed over a bowl and squeeze out the remaining juice by rubbing it through with a wooden spoon. Four pomegranates should yield about 300ml/1/2 pint.
Put the pomegranate juice in a pan with the lemon juice, sugar, water, salt and pepper. Heat slowly and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook until the mixture has reduced by about a third. Add more lemon juice if it is too sweet. Pour into a jar and store in the fridge.
kitchen notes
dried fruit
Dried fruit has gone though a renaissance and you can now buy wonderful, freshly dried soft pineapple, plums, figs, cherries and cranberries. I cook them with ordinary dried figs, adding them sliced to stock when braising partridge or pheasant. I make trifle with them too, having discovered by accident when short of fresh berries that they make a much more interesting pudding that is nice for Christmas meals.
winter trifle
Serves 8
480g/1lb dried fruit, such as figs, cherries, pineapples, plums and peaches, roughly chopped
2 glasses of marsala
2 glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice
6 sponge fingers, spread with any jam or Quince Cheese (see here)
1 quantity of Lemon Syllabub (see here)
dried rose petals and unsalted slivers of pistachio (optional – both
available from Middle Eastern shops) or flaked almonds
double cream, to serve
Soak the fruit in the marsala and orange juice for about 1 hour. Put the sponge fingers in the nicest glass bowl you own and pour over the fruit and liquid. Spread the syllabub on top and chill for at least 1 hour. Scatter the petals and nuts on top, then put the trifle on the table with a small jug of cream.
dried fruit meringues
Based on an Australian recipe, this is basically a meringue with chopped fruit and nuts folded in. You can make it into a pavlova-style cake with a layer of cream and fresh figs, which go well with the dried fruit inside, or make small, macaroon-style cakes to put on the table with cheese and coffee after a big dinner.
Serves 6–8
4 egg whites
270g/9oz golden icing sugar, sifted
90g/3oz dried apricots
90g/3oz dates
90g/3oz pecan nuts or green pistachios
Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas Mark 2 and line 2 baking sheets with baking parchment.
Put the egg whites and icing sugar in a large bowl and beat with an electric whisk until stiff peaks of white foam are formed. This will take about 9 minutes, so a tabletop food mixer is best, although you can use a handheld mixer.
Chop the dried fruit and nuts finely in a food processor, but do not allow them to become a paste. Fold them into the meringue. Drop dessert-spoonfuls of the mixture on to the baking parchment, 5cm/2 inches apart. You should fit approximately 9 on each sheet. Bake for 30 minutes, until very pale brown and slightly cracked. Allow the meringues to cool on the trays, then lift them off the baking parchment.
lemon and orange zest
Lemons and oranges should be washed or scrubbed before you use the zest, as they are sprayed with a protective covering, unless they are labelled unwaxed. In honesty, I do not always do this, and hope not to suffer as a result of my laziness.
A strip of orange zest in a beef stew, or a few parings of lemon in the cavity of a chicken, is all that is needed to brighten the flavour. You can also dry citrus peel by hanging strips of it on a mini ‘washing line’ in a warm cupboard – 48 hours should do it. It can be stored indefinitely and added to stews and sauces.
pasta with lemon
Keep the Parmesan away from this. It is delightful alone, clean flavoured and comforting, too. You could serve it as a side dish with grilled sardines.
Serves 4
zest and juice of 2 lemons
175ml/6fl oz best quality, extra virgin olive oil
400g/14oz dried egg linguine
15g/1/2oz butter
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