Restore

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 Page numbers taken from the following print edition: ISBN 9780008375690

My darling Rose

I can’t take full credit for this book, or anything I do if we’re entirely honest. You have been standing by my side in everything I do and in the last five years your investment and talent have become invaluable. I joke that we’ve become like the Elton and Bernie of food, and I guess I want the rest of the world to know that behind all good cookery writers there’s often a team of writers and food assistants, but with you and me it’s just us, but our us’ is so synchronised, strong, and such a slick operation, that we’ve not needed anyone else. This book is called Restore, and I thank you for taking on a bigger role and doing more than anyone’s ever done for me and restoring me. I’m ever-concerned about sling-shotting you into all of the life-consuming projects we do, and I’m eternally grateful to you for taking each of them on as your own; working the same hours, with the same dedication, while I get all the glory! Everything is better in my life with you in it, and even in real life you are my best friend. I fear that I am Samson, and without you I would lose my powers. Fuck it! At this stage I’m kind of ready for our Grey Gardens premonition. Love you in a way that’s inexplicable.

Gizzi x

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Note to Readers

Introduction

Ferments and Pickles

Quick Ferments

Accelerated Gochujang

Cheats’ Activated Kimchi

Fauzu Kosho

Fermented Fruit Vinegar

Tepache

Sauerkraut

Slow Ferments

White Miso

Vegan XO Sauce

Fish Sauce

Brines and Pickles

Lemon and Lime Pickle

Wonderful watermelons

Mexican-spiced Pickled Watermelon Rind

Watermelon Juice Vinegar

Lacto-fermented Watermelon Rind

Fridge-raid ‘not quite Branston’s’ Pickle

Punchy Piccalilli

Chilli Sauces

West Indian Hot Sauce

Sriracha

Vegetables: Spring to Summer

English Garden Antipasto

Ratatouille

Green Tomato Salsa

Green Shakshuka

Pumpkin Seed and Cocoa Mole Sauce for pumpkins, poultry and beans

Globe Artichokes with Real Salad Cream

Summer Salad Soup

Greenhouse Romesco Sauce with Chargrilled Spring Onions

Peas, Broad Beans and Lettuce Gratin

Patlican Salata

Egg and Bacon Potato Salad

Braised Courgettes

Stuffed Marrows and Tomatoes with Mushrooms and Orzo

Braised Flat Beans in Slow Cooked Tomato Sauce

Linguine alla Courgette Aglio e Olio

Broad Bean, Mint and Feta Salad

Elote

Nam Prik Ong with Allotment Vegetables

Vegetables: Autumn to Winter

Szechuan Onion Flower

Roasted Cauliflower, Preserved Lemon and Chilli Pasta

Root Vegetable Bulgar Wheat, ‘Cous cous’ style, with Merguez Sausages

Roast Carrots with Queso Fresco, Coriander and Jalapeño Oil, and Pumpkin Seeds

Allotment ‘Ital-style’ Stew

Sri Lankan Beetroot and Coconut Curry

Salt-baked Celeriac

Celeriac Holstein

Celeriac Cordon Bleu

Celeriac Bread Sauce

Celeriac Remoulade

Rainbow Slaw

Chrain

Jerusalem Artichoke and Bacon Gratin

Parsnip, Miso, Oat and Shallot Boulangère

Fruit

A Pistachio Tart for Soft Fruit

Fruit Pie and Crumble – Fillings

Fruit Pie and Crumble – Toppings

Leftover Juicing Cake

A Glut of Jams

Summer Fruit Cordial

Pulses, Beans and Grains

Roasted Beetroot, Beluga Lentil and Watercress Salad with Goat’s Cheese Croute

Black Lentil and Beetroot Larb

Puy Lentils, a Big Red and Roasted Toulouse Sausage

Ethiopian Lentil Stew

Carlin Pea and Pumpkin Massaman

Tarka Dhal

Egyptian Fava Bean Falafels and Sauces

Cheese Semolina Grits

Three Ways with Mexican Braised Pinto Beans

Marmite, Onion and Roast Root Vegetable Stew with Cheesy Scones

Mushy Peas

Barley and Mushroom Risotto with Pan-roasted King Oyster

Bibimbap

Sugar, Flour, Fat, Eggs and Milk

Sourdough Doughnuts with White Chocolate Custard and Sour Cherry Jam

Garbage Pail Cookies – a homage to Momofuku Milk Bar

Burnt Basque Country Cheesecake with Gooseberries in Green Wine

Banana Cream Pie

Vanilla School Cake and Custard

Queso Fresco

Gözleme

Flatbreads

Sourdough Flatbreads

Rye Tortillas

Cheese Ends Soufflé Omelette

Poultry and Game

Chicken in Weeds 2020

Guinea Fowl alla ‘Diavolo’

Roast Pheasant

A Delicious Port and Blackberry Sauce for Game

Sage and Onion Stuffing

Korma Wings

Rabbit à la Moutarde

Meat and Offal

Braised Beef Shin with Barbecue Sauce

Wild Garlic Stuffed Mutton

A Really Great Lamb Neck Stew with lots of flavour but no identity

Goat Herder’s Pie

Jamaican Goat Curry Patties

Miso and Apple Pork Rib-eye Steaks

Chashu Pork Belly

Tonkotsu Ramen

24-hour Beef Tail and Rib Pho

Mutton Nihari

Pork and Sage Cannelloni

Roasted Lamb Belly and Ribs for a multitude of things like Asian-style crispy lamb, tacos and kebabs

Devilled Kidneys

Faggots

Goat Ragu, with its Offal

Fish

Vongole

Sumiso Cod Collar

Cuttlefish and Courgette Frito

Chilli con Pesce

Wet & Wild Monkfish Kievs

Moules à la Crème

Sour Orange Fish Curry

Black Pepper Crab

Essentials

Fresh Hand-rolled Pasta

Elevated Hollandaise Sauce, for asparagus, artichokes, fish and eggs

Stocks

Gizzi’s Slow Cooked Tomato Sauce

Mayonnaise

Red Wine and Beef Sauce

Rice and Peas

Vinaigrette

Confit Garlic

Sourdough Starter

Cook’s Notes

List of searchable terms

Acknowledgements

Copyright

About the Publisher

INTRODUCTION

A MODERN GUIDE TO SUSTAINABLE EATING

As I’m writing this, the COVID-19 pandemic is in full swing. The world has ground to a halt, we have lost loved ones and businesses, and the global economy is experiencing its biggest crash in history. It’s a catastrophic moment.

When I started writing this book, over a year ago, the world felt like a very different place. Brexit was an undone deal. Boris Johnson was not our Prime Minister (who could have predicted that?), and the potential of leaving Europe only to trade more heavily with America seemed much more distant than it does today. I was already in something of a tizz about the state of the world, both agriculturally and environmentally, and was finding the mixed messaging – and the fact that no one was taking responsibility for the real cause of all this damage done to the planet – maddening. I was horrified at the implications of Brexit in terms of trade deals and the future of farming in the UK. The possibility of closed borders and a distancing in our relationship with the EU, hand in hand with the climate crisis, were bringing us ever closer to the kind of dystopian future so far brought to life only on screen and in books. And this made me realise I had to re-evaluate how I approach my use of imported ingredients – ingredients I truly cannot live without. I needed to teach myself how to adapt. And now I want to share everything I’ve learnt.

Our food story starts at home but it feeds into a bigger narrative – one of consumption and destruction on a massive scale.

We are in a global crisis. Scientists and environmentalists are suggesting that we are at the early stages of the sixth mass extinction event. So what exactly does this mean? And how can changing the way we eat alter this trajectory? I’m first going to give you the briefest, but most shocking of breakdowns.

Since the first industrial revolution, we have been taking fossil fuels from the Earth. Through every modern human activity that requires energy (which, let’s face it, is most things these days, as fossil fuels are not just used for energy, but also in our building materials, foods, packaging, pharmaceuticals, clothes and beauty products… essentially the entire infrastructure that we’ve created on this planet) these fossil fuels then convert this energy into CO2, methane and nitrous oxide. These gases have slowly created a barrier in the atmosphere which means the Earth is heating up at an exponential rate. Every 1°C rise in temperature equates to 7 per cent more precipitation, which is leading to the continually increasing violent weather events we’re witnessing.

Most alarming are the fresh water melts in the Arctic and Antarctic, which are happening at a far more rapid rate than scientists previously predicted, leading to extreme changes in the global currents, which in turn affects the global weather systems even further. It is predicted that within the next seven decades we will see an extinction of over half of the species of life on Earth.

The reason we’re experiencing a pandemic is a direct result of the extensive deforestation of the world’s rainforests in order to create more land for agriculture, which is putting people and livestock in closer and closer contact with wildlife and their otherwise harmless and dormant viruses: consumption of bush meat such as pangolins and bats has been confirmed as the likely source of human transmission. Some people, when they engage with the reality of our planet’s condition, decide to stop eating meat and dairy products. I fully accept that the meat and dairy industry is problematic, but I don’t accept that this black and white approach is necessarily the right way forward. It’s more complex than we think, and prominent films such as What The Health and Gamechangers, which suggest that veganism is the only answer to saving the planet, are extremely misleading and one-sided.

The whole thing is terrifying and when you start to read more into it, it only gets more overwhelming, as it only opens up an even bigger and more complex can of worms. While we are slowly catching on, we are still very much living the capitalist dream of consume, consume, consume. I have a lot of opinions about this, many of them social and economic, and with this book I’m attempting to debunk some of these highly complex issues to help provide a down-to-earth guide to shopping, eating and cooking for now.

Corporations are slowly accepting the terrifying realisation that we are at a critical juncture in history where drastic changes need to be made to preserve our planet and made quickly; it seems that real change has to come from the individual at home, as it’s us who drive the market and have the potential to start this revolution with our own actions.

To me, the word ‘restore’ has several meanings. First of all, I want to help you understand what it takes in modern farming practices to restore the pH balance and equilibrium of the soil, how we can restore the balance of human impact on the world, and how we can restore our own bodies with the food we consume in the process. To ‘restore’ ourselves is not how we live any more. Imbalance is rife. Most people’s modern mode of living involves excessive calorie consumption, wildly beyond what’s essential for our survival. Accepting that change starts at home can be overwhelming, devastating and depressing for anyone with any joie de vivre, but it doesn’t mean that we have to live this incredibly staunch, colourless or bland life. If anything, it’s the opposite: when we look into food production and the reality of what it means to eat sustainably we are in fact offered a pretty bountiful plate. There are some incredible food producers in this country, and our seasons deliver an abundance of wonderful ingredients. Yes, eating in a ‘restorative’ way takes consideration, forming new habits, and stepping away from conveniences, but it can also be creative, fun and delicious.

I want this to be a cook’s companion full of practical steps and advice that can help push you towards living and eating more sustainably. I’ve investigated the real carbon footprint of food and looked at the reality of what we need to do to support our environment, our agricultural industry and the health of our bodies and I want to use this information to inform accessible and attainable recipes – a handbook on how to shop, eat and cook, full of recipes that are a celebration of life.

FERMENTING AND PRESERVING

Assuming that you’ve read my introduction, you will know that the motivation for me writing this book was the enormous impact food production, and how we trade and transport produce, has on the health of our planet. It made me ask myself, what would I do if I couldn’t get my hands on some of the most critical international ingredients I use for cooking every day? Asian food is one of my favourites, but many of the ingredients I use in these dishes – particularly the fermented condiments – are imported. For me, life without soy sauce, fish sauce, miso and gochujang isn’t a life I want to be a part of. So what can we do?

If you’re into cooking, there is nothing more satisfying than the process of creating a meal, from buying your ingredients, to preparing them, then the metamorphosis of the cookery process and finally placing the dish in front of someone you love and watching it be devoured. You know the amount of love you’ve put into it. Realising there are people out there who specialise in making some of the ingredients you’ve used, who have the same passion and consideration as you’ve put into making that meal, makes me want to scoop up all the good producers in the world and hold them to my breast in gratitude! I wanted to learn how to make some of these products.

How fermenting works

The Asian condiments I love all look and taste different, but they share the same foundation – one of the most uncontrollable ingredients in cookery: bacterial cultures. These cultures require regulated temperature (as opposed to heat) and time. Fermenting is about enabling these bacteria to impart life into food. Bacteria are what change milk into yoghurt and cheese, turn pieces of meat into charcuterie, a cabbage into kraut or kimchi, and a bean into miso or soy sauce.

Fermenting is a complex process and fermented foods vary widely based on the key ingredients, how much salt is added, what temperature the ferment is left at and for how long. Flavour notes can range from tangy to savoury umami and salty, a spectrum of taste that brings a depth and roundness that is almost impossible to define but is addictively satisfying. Soy and fish sauces require years of fermenting to turn into the rich, salty full-bodied sauces that are packed full of umami. To get that flavour requires understanding, time, energy and real commitment. Then there’s fizzy, light and tangy kimchi, vinegar or yoghurt, quicker ferments that are ready within a week or two but that – even though they are speedier to make – still contain the umami backbone.

The most magical thing for me is that fermentation stems from the basic need, before the world of refrigeration, to preserve food and make it safe to eat. The fact that fermented foods were stored in the ground near biodiverse soil and that the initial process of fermenting owed itself to this very same biodiversity is one of the most beautiful examples of how nature interacts with humanity.

With age, bacterial cultures become more powerful and can change the structure of a food, transforming it into something new. You need to create a selective environment for the fermentation process. Take kimchi, for example. Kimchi is cabbage that has been wedged into a jar with salt and aromatics and essentially left to rot, but managing the good bacteria and keeping the bad bacteria at bay results in something delicious. When the right environment has been created to harvest and promote the growth of good bacteria, they grow to be so potent that they become hugely beneficial to the human body, but in order to get there and fully understand this, you have to approach fermentation less like cookery and more like a science lesson.

The most important ingredient in fermentation is salt. Salt draws out liquids by osmosis. A vegetable ferment with a small amount of salt retains the structure of the vegetables by reinforcing the pectin in the vegetable’s cell walls, whereas higher salt levels will slow down the fermentation process, break down the structure of the food and allow it to age for flavour, letting the sugars develop and helping the food keep for longer.

The other key factor is temperature. Heat above 70°C kills bacteria and yeasts. Anything between room temperature (about 20°C) and 50°C is a really fertile space for bacteria. At cooler temperatures, right down to fridge temperature (about 4°C), bacterial growth is slower, and fridge temperature inhibits bacteria growth and helps keep it stable. Freezing fully inhibits the growth of bacteria, keeping it dormant until it warms up again and comes back to life. This is a good way to understand how quickly things ferment. Products like fish sauce are fermented at about 40°C, whereas kimchis can be slow-fermented in fridges. For home cooking, I simplify the temperature factor by fermenting foods at room temperature until required fermentation is desired, then transferring them to the fridge.

Why fermented foods are good for your health

The modern western diet, typically high in fat and sugar, attacks the delicate balance of essential microbiota in our digestive system, which affects everything, particularly obesity levels and mental health. This, combined with depleted nutrients in the soils our food is growing in (and therefore less-nutritious food), means that our guts are seriously deficient in bacterial diversity. Fermented foods restore this diversity.

If you get bitten by the bio-culture bug, there are great books out there such as The Noma Guide to Fermentation by René Redzepi and David Zilber, and The Art of Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz, which delve far deeper, but I want to show you that it is possible to get into the world of fermenting and preserving in a practical and realistic way, with delicious results.

Quick Ferments

Accelerated Gochujang

Gochujang, a Korean red hot pepper paste, is at the foundation of so many Korean dishes. It’s an effort to make (trust me, I’ve been to South Korea’s Sunchang region and made it properly), but I really wanted to include it in the book. It’s usually activated with a special soy bean, however to speed things up here I’ve used miso in its place, which is already fermented; I’m not normally one to cut corners but this recipe is genuinely surprising. The Korean pepper is what makes this special. It’s roughly ground (even the ‘fine’ stuff), it’s very hot and is naturally sweet (having originated from the Spanish peppers) and bright, bright red! You can buy it on the internet or in Asian supermarkets.

MAKES 1.1 litres

Preparation time 5 minutes

Fermenting time 5 weeks

120g rice flour

120g fine sea salt

800ml water

250g fine Korean red pepper flakes

70g sweet white miso

AFTER 2 WEEKS

8 tbsp rice or barley malt syrup

2 tbsp salt

You will need a sterilised 1.5-litre preserving jar.

Mix the rice flour, sea salt and water together well in a bowl, then stir through the Korean red pepper flakes and miso until evenly distributed into a thickish paste. Transfer to a sterilised 1.5-litre preserving jar and seal tightly. (You need the jar to be a bit bigger than the volume of the gochujang as the paste will need room to expand as it ferments.)

Set aside in a cool, dry place (out of direct sunlight) and leave to ferment for 1 week. Once this time has passed, you will start to see some little bubbles forming on the surface. Now it’s time to add a final hit of flavour and balance out the spice of the gochujang, so a hit of sugar from the rice or barley malt syrup and some more salt is just the ticket. The salt will also inhibit the gochujang from fermenting too much, too fast. Mix both thoroughly into the paste, then clean the inner walls of the jar with a cloth dipped in vodka to keep the inside of the jar sterile. Place a cellophane jam seal on the gochujang, seal tightly and put it in the fridge to continue slow fermenting for another month. As ever, it will only deepen in flavour the longer it ferments.

Cheats’ Activated Kimchi

I’ve been making kimchi for years, the recipe for which I’ve already posted online, but when I made the gochujang I was playing around with things to do with it. The fact that the gochujang is full of live bacteria means that it starts the process of fermentation really quickly and you will have decent kimchi within a day or two rather than a few weeks. This kimchi is also vegan.

MAKES enough to fill a 3-litre preserving jar

Preparation time 30 minutes, plus 1 hour minimum brining time

Fermenting time 2 days