Roots – Welcome to the Alkaline Canteen

Perfect carrot and something juice

All told half of carrot juice a quarter of apple and one eighth each of cucumber and orange. Good morning.

The great new root vegetable riddle solved

I found this enormous and mysterious root vegetables in Leila’s iconic grocery shop on Calvert Avenue E2 where there was some confusion as to what it might be and wore an Italian name which now escapes all of us. A new vegetable! My Italian friends thought it might be a topinambour – jersualem artichoke –Continue reading “The great new root vegetable riddle solved”

If you would like to read more recipes then please confirm…

I have suddenly started to receive large numbers of requests to follow this blog – mostly from outlook.com emails…I am happy to carry on if the cooking and recipes appeal, but if you could just prove you are not a robot or spam or Donald Trump, then please just like this post. Thanks 🙂

Roast celeriac

ROASTING celeriac pervades the whole kitchen with this wonderful smell…smart restaurants wrap it in clay or ashes but that is an adornment too far for my liking. Here I just roast about 30 minutes in a medium oven, then hack off the skin…and melt some…and serve it like thiswith a deconstructed remoulade with capers andContinue reading “Roast celeriac”

Winter fruit salads

THE strange luxury at this time of year are the quality of the winter fruit we get in London markets. You can struggle to find ripe peach all the year around but if you want the smoothness of papaya, the sharpness of pomegranate, the juice of the water melon.. There is an ambivalence about fruitContinue reading “Winter fruit salads”

Fair game..broth with lentils, roots, kale and chestnuts

THERE are usually plentiful game birds – pheasant, partridge, pigeon etc – in the farmers market around now and typically they are cheap. I bought four partridge for £10 where four mince patties for burgers were £6. Of course you can roast the birds and use the carcass for the recipes below but you getContinue reading “Fair game..broth with lentils, roots, kale and chestnuts”

Kohlrabi slices with chives

KOHLRABI get their funny name from the German. It is a cabbage (kohl) turnip (rabi). Seemingly no one in England or America could be bothered to give it a better name which is a bit remiss. But it is popular (Wiki says) in German speaking countries, also in India, especially Kashmir, although here its wildContinue reading “Kohlrabi slices with chives”

Herb minestrone

I LOVE minestrone when you are never sure what the weather will do. Somehow it manages to fill the gaps. This is a strictly vegetable version – no pasta, no beans but no worse for it – very busy using up everything that is still around like broad beans, peas, radishes, a fistful of herbsContinue reading “Herb minestrone”

Green gazpacho

THE green sauce of Frankfurt – essentially herbs with some gherkin – is well known, but finding it as a gazpacho was a surprise. Frankfurt is better known for its bratwurst and hunks of pork but also for its apple wine which if you subscribe to the benefits of cider vinegar is interesting. Potent. InContinue reading “Green gazpacho”

Horseradish genius

HORSERADISH has an uncanny affinity to alkaline foods – beetroots, carrots, even sweet potato, certainly with curd or fresh goat’s cheese. The exception is of course what it is always paired with roast beef, but if you carve a rib as thinly as my father used to do, then maybe even that can have aContinue reading “Horseradish genius”