Back to the Indian Sub Continent

I cannot believe it. It feels extremely surreal, but I am so delighted to report that I am back in India! It all came about a couple of weeks ago when a friend of mine asked if I would come out and help her with a suitably foodie project for a couple of weeks. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, and keen to revist some old haunts - particularly the spice market and the fabulous Fab India, I was on the plane like a shot. 


So here I am. Basking in the wintery sunlight, and greedily devouring all the Indian food my friend presents me with. In the next three weeks, I will be back with more tales of spice markets, marvellous ingredients and the colourful Delhi life that still make me grin from ear to ear.

One way that I will be sharing this is through pictures. Not that you can easily communicate the way of life here.. but I shall try. All I can say is for those who have never been, get on over here. And for those who have been... what did you think? 

Best of 2009 Blog Challenge - Best challenge

Best of 2009 was started by GwenBell, and today the subject is best challenge of the year. No which one to pick...


Well, it all began with my first Indian cookery class where I met Cait, a passionate not-for-profit worker, who invited me to see the project she was working on in the state of Madhya Pradesh. Now, if the state were classed as its own country, the malnutrition levels there would be rated worse than Ethiopia. Of all malnourished children in India, 60% live in this state and Cait was running a project for RMF to address the situation. I had to see it.



When I received the invite out west, I had been in the country for just a couple of months. Jack had already been having his own adventures through working in deprived schools and for the charity, and I was craving my own opportunity to explore outside the city walls. But, I have to admit I was unsure. Very,very unsure about going. I had only met Cait a couple of times, and knew nothing of the charity she worked for. I had not yet travelled on the trains, or used the sleeper system and had only a smattering of pigeon Hindi that would not get me by out in the land of over 300 languages. But I had no excuse. Even when I phoned Jack and asked if it would be ok for me to go (I was clutching at straws for excuses by then), he said “go for it!”...when I had been hoping for “why no dear you may not go, the countryside is far too dangerous for my precious Kim”. I knew that if I turned down this opportunity, however scary it may be, I would regret it for the rest of my life.

Looked like I was getting the adventure I wanted!
The whole 3 days was a thrilling ride, pulling me out of my safety box and into the heart of India, full of things I had never done before:

• Travelling on those legendary Indian trains (alone) where everyone was really friendly, one family offered me their chapattis to share. I never did work out how to say “sorry I cannot take your offer of bread as I have coeliac disease”. 
• Travelling from the station on the back of a motorbike, bag precariously wedge between me and the driver, over bumpy, dusty dirt roads through crowds of waving kids. 
• Eating Indian hospital food – of the most delicious meals ever- and eating rice and dal with my fingers. 
• Meeting mothers with their children on the brink of starvation, not knowing what on earth to say or do. 
• Making up my own job title - Nutrition expert - for field workers and being sat awkwardly next to the speakers at the front of the meeting.
• Eating communal meals where I had no idea what they were made of.
• Sweating and sticking to the plastic seats of the jeep that we shared with 8 men from the Nutrition Centre, in 50degree heat and no air conditioning for 12 hours of the day.
• Devouring afternoon street food snacks without a care for the roaring spice levels or hygiene having not eaten all day (my hotel breakfast of omelette came sandwiched between 2 slices of toast.. the strangest thing I was presented with on my whole trip!).
• Being guest of honour on the last day of a week-long tribal wedding where dancing with the villagers was obligatory for hours and hours. 

How three days were so full of their own challenges, I will never know... but I know it was the making of me. Looking back to that time now from my sofa on a grey London day, I know I was firmly out of my comfort zone. But when I really think about it, I have no idea how I got through it all. I was so very happy, bombing around the Indian countryside, desperately trying to take it all in, all the while knowing that the experience would change me forever... 

What challenged you this year...?

You may also enjoy reading:

Best of O9 - Moment of Peace

Best Trip, Restaurant, and Book


Trip to Malnutrition Project

What am I eating

Best of 2009 Blog Challenge - moment of peace

I have had a change of plan for my contribution to the Best of 2009 Blog Challenge. I am enjoying myself far too much to restrict it to just once a week. Remembering all the awesome things that I have done, discovered, learnt this year, I am finding that I have too much to say and share to restrict it to one blog post. So, I am going to write when the inspiration takes me, enjoy the memories and the time to reminisce over a steaming cup of coffee.

Today, it’s all about the best moment of peace. Before this year, I know I would have struggled to write about a moment of peace. But the challenge this year was to find me some, and strangely living in an overpopulated, chaotic, noisy developing country, I found it...by the sack load, in yoga with ohms, chanting... the whole caboodle!

It began with a daily dawn walk to early morning classes for three solid weeks. It ended in head stand and a truly peaceful mind for the first time in my life. I haven’t quite managed to bring this discipline through with me to my London life, despite having the time, but I have kept with me an understanding of how to breathe, how to be flexible, strong and focused and most importantly peaceful.

Ohm to that!

You may also enjoy reading:

Best of 2009

A healthy start to the day

We have a new approach to life in our house since after the influence of Indian living. Learning to cope with life in the searing heat we began to slow down. You had to otherwise you ended up in a pool of perspiration before you even left the flat. My inability to work due to visa restrictions (oh what a shame) meant that life took on a very different pace compared to the busy, busy, busy and intense London life we left behind.

In an attempt to bring as much of our insanely happy time back with us to England, we compiled a list to help us understand what made us so content, with a view to implementing the principles on our return. One of those things was time, particularly in the mornings. Previously, our week days began with us both dashing off to catch a train before 7am, eating on the hoof or a “desk-fast” at the office. Not a great start to the day for the ol’ metabolism or indeed for the soul.

Fast forward a couple of months to dawns of 35degrees, street sellers hawking their wares from 6am and our daily early morning yoga class. Following this was a feast of fresh sliced mango, papaya and other seasonal fruits, a banana lassi and plunger smooth south Indian coffee - you see why we wanted to bring as much of that back as possible. So, whilst the imported mangos and lychees will never be anything like the local Indian ones, what we did bring home was the principle - time together before starting the day, plus a healthy meal.

Translating this to London without the mangos, I have embraced the best of Britain’s seasonal fruits on offer, roasting Agen plums, stewing Bramley apples with Indian cinnamon and raisins and serving them with thick sour Greek yoghurt, toasted almonds and a drizzle of Greek honey (Greek honey with its essence of pine works perfectly with the yoghurt). Jack meanwhile has his regular toast and peanut butter, just as he did in India... but we have it together every morning slurping our divine Indian tea – a little bit of our Indian life in London.

You may also enjoy reading:

Indian Coffee Fix

London Farmers Market

How many mango varieties are there?

The hunt for the perfect capuccino

Image with thanks to teamaster.wordpress.com

Films for thought

Have you seen the film Julie and Julia?

Being both a foodie and massive Meryl Streep fan, I was there like a shot. I loved it. Belly laughing out loud is so much fun, as was saying “BONJOUR!!!!” a la Julia all the way home.

But it did unexpectedly make me think about the future of my own blog, which I have been unable to write on. Julie, a central character who blogs about her year cooking every recipe in the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child came across as self referencing and wallowing. She seriously made me cringe. Is that how the world sees bloggers, self indulgent, self referencing, forever aspiring writers? It put me right off going online, and made me really try to answer the question I have been considering for a while now; do I want to keep my blog going.

So whilst I refrained from posting and mulling the decision over I then watched the film State of Play, where another lame-o girly opinion posting blogger worked for a newspaper. She too was this waif of a writer, who just posted gossip and opinion... the case was going firmly for shutting Figs and Lavender down.

But then I started experimenting with gluten free flat bread, meanwhile thinking about all the pointers to make on a blogpost about it. Following this, I read a piece by my friend Jo over at Capers in the Kitchen about the importance of blogs, especially for women which swayed my decision further... Blogs do have a place... which brought me back to the reason I began writing here nearly two years ago... to share with the world my gluten free discoveries. Be they recipes, restaurant experiences or honest accounts of the challenges faced living naturally gluten free I want people to benefit from my experience and experiments.

So you are stuck with me for another couple of years at least. Although only until I get the book deal and subsequent film made, of course!

Happy Anniversary

A year ago today my life turned around. I received the confirmed diagnosis of coeliac disease.

In all honesty, in the lead up to my appointment with my gastro man I never thought that I would get a positive diagnosis for anything let alone coeliac disease. Since I can remember I have hounded my various GPs determined to get to the bottom of my joint pains. This is where it all began – clicky knees. As a girl of 17 doctors oh so wisely informed me it was ‘growing pains’ (?) but dissatisfied with my supposed diagnosis I continued to pursue investigation through my time at university and beyond, when I then developed clicky ankles.

With a strong family history of arthritis I was anxious to eliminate this as the cause of my complaint. Memories of my dear Nan, who suffered both rheumatoid and osteoarthritis and how incapacitated she became, fuelled my drive to get to the bottom of the issue – particularly as it seemed to be branching out to other limbs.

Embarking on my new life in London after university, I began to find that I was waking in the night to release my ankles from feeling stuck. Off to the GP again, and this time I actually made some progress and was referred for arthritis tests at the hospital.

Negative. No arthritis - great news!

But what is it that’s causing my joints to crack and actually get rather painful? I kept asking myself.

During this long investigative period I was also studying a food degree where among other things, we were exposed to cutting edge nutrition research, and quickly learned to appreciate the connection between what you eat and what happens to your body. This was a subject I remained massively interested in, and when working in the food industry attending a conference on food trends I attended a talk by Patrick Holford. He spoke about his theory of optimum nutrition and the impact of specific nutrients and foods on health so, in my normal knowledge seeking self quickly bought his Optimum Nutrition bible to learn more.

Scouring the index for information on arthritis – knowing I didn’t have the condition, but still suffering the symptoms – I started to discover the impact of wheat and dairy on the joints, how glucosamine and fatty acids can improve joint function and reduce pain and plenty more enlightening facts…

Reading this and around the subject further, I decided to reduce my intake of wheat. This was a big undertaking as I have always had a sweet tooth. I have many sweet memories of happily devouring freshly toasted crumpets or English muffins dripping with butter, home made maltloaf on return from school, pasta carbonara in the local Italian as a student and dense chewy Italian bread toasted to a crisp topped with fresh local ricotta and olive oil as my Italian breakfast in the morning sun.

Mmmm heaven…

But I decided to give it a go, largely based on wisdom from my unofficial sister in-law based on a lifetime of allergies. She is seriously allergic to eggs but has stangely found herself craving eggy foods before. Delving into this further, I learnt that you often and rather unfortunately crave the things that are bad for you. For me its croissants, muffins, toast and anything remotely wheaty… I figured I could be onto something.

So, giving up wheat, replacing my morning toast with porridge and my evening pasta with puy lentils I began to feel much better. I missed my croissant fix but was happy to be feeling better.

Untill my boozy weekend in Dublin. Somehow I managed to eat bread at every meal. Not delicious homemade soda bread, but supermarket bread to mop up the yolk of my fried egg and hangover. And boy was I ill. I will spare you the details –here but for those with stronger stomachs the symptoms look here.

So, when I returned to my GP to pick up where I had left off on the joint issue, I mentioned in passing my unpleasant bread experience and bingo… I was despatched to the gastro man and one year later here I am. Living gluten free and loving it.

I have to finish this piece by saying that getting diagnosed has been one of the best things to happen to me. I have totally reconnected with my passion for food, I am thrilled to be back in the kitchen, cooking loads and experimenting with natural gluten free foods. I am really healthy these days and I even lost 5kilos!

Happy Gluten Free Anniversary to me – and yes I will be going for dinner to celebrate!

Gone fishing....

I love markets – particularly food markets, although I do love to rummage through a good flea market when the opportunity arises. There is something unique about the energy and atmosphere generated by a collection of people selling their wares that makes the whole experience more colourful and fun. Maybe I am just an old romantic with images of quaint French men selling “fromage” on the streets of Paris… Personally though, the lure of interaction with people whose knowledge and experience can turn for example a randomly purchased pork knuckle, into one of the best meals I have had, is just simply irresistible.

Since writing my article for Time Out London on local fish I have come to understand the raft of value for money suppers that can be made from local, seasonal fish. Standing on pelagic trawler (fishing boat to you and me) in the choppy Thames Estuary I very quickly understood how little I knew about the subject, so I booked myself onto a course at Billingsgate Fish Market.

On this occasion I wasn’t there to learn how to prepare and cook the fish, although they do have a wonderful collection of fish cookery courses based at the market that I will be following up on - I was there to satisfy my love of markets with a tour.

Billingsgate is the largest inland fish market in the country and caters to both the general public and restaurant trade – so you too can grab yourself some amazingly priced fish, although with the market only open from 5-8am, you have to be early to get the good stuff. Housed in a purpose built building since the 1980’s, the fish market sits in the shadows of Canary Wharf on the waters of the dock, a no less grand, but definitely more modern location than its previous setting near London Bridge since 1850.

The tour began rather early at 6.15am, when the market was already in full swing, and our intimate group of five were shown round by Barry from the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers. As I remember, he was responsible for quality at the market, so certainly knew a bad fish when he saw one.

First off we were shown the crucial points to look for when buying fresh fish. Barry pulled a huge farmed salmon onto the table to demonstrate the qualities we should be looking for using a nose to tail approach. Some great tips that I picked up were:

• Eyes should be bright and clear, like glass – not cloudy
• Look into the gills to check their colour. They should be bright red in most fish.
• Look inside the belly if it has been gutted and make sure it is cleaned out
• Fish are naturally slimy – not wet. Fish have a natural slime over their whole body that protects them from parasites and also makes them impossible to pick up.

In pelagic species (fish that swim near the surface of the sea – I just learnt that!) this will be thin slime. For fish that live nearer the seabed such as Dover sole as in the picture above, it will be like snot. Honest! Imagine Slimmer from the Ghostbusters films – just like that! Slime is a good thing though as this is a naturally occurring layer over the fish which prevents the caught fish’s flesh from deteriorating….so look for slimy fish!

(Apparently the supermarkets and some fishmongers wash off the slime since customers don’t like it, so that’s why they have to spray them with water to keep them looking fresh).

The group was then guided round some of the stalls where Roy talked through a raft of fish species such as Hake, Dover and lemon sole, halibut, brill, tuna, cod, pollack, sea bass, mackrel, sprats and herrings. We were bombarded with information about the species, their quality (pointing out ones that were past their best – providing great examples of what not to buy!), cooking tips and how they were caught.

In addition to this, we covered shellfish, looking at the various prawns for sale, learning the difference between native and Canadian lobsters, rope grown and wild mussels, and about hand dived, dredged, soaked and dry scallops. (There is not enough space here to mention everything I learnt, but scallops was the particularly interesting subject. Short story – don’t buy “soaked” supermarket scallops!)

After shellfish we moved onto smoked fish, where we enjoyed a sneaky taste of kiln smoked salmon whilst being talked through hot and cold smoking processes used for the sprats, kippers and haddock on view.

Phew…

Then last, but by no means least we came to this huge chest of metal drawers…..

any ideas what's inside...

...Live eels!

So, with numb feet and a memory full of fish, we headed back for a cup of coffee to thaw out. Dashing off after big thanks for Barry, I dived into the car and headed off to work high on all the knowledge I had acquired in just 2 hours and so early in the morning! Amazing!

Learning to write

Back in September 2007, I began a course that I had umm’ed and ahh’ed about for a while, not sure if it was another faddy interest of mine. I have always been a bit of a nerd, and remember spending a whole Easter holiday as a teenager hiding away in my mums’ bedroom (away from the distractions of my own) with piles of folders, text books and notes studying for my exams. Secretly I absolutely loved it, and a few years on I openly admit to loving books, researching and learning. I get a real thrill from absorbing information from the “experts” and eagerly search the internet and events listings for something interesting – and let’s admit usually related to food.

So the course I started last year was an evening course in Food and Drink Journalism at City University. Given my then, recent diagnosis with coeliac disease and having just left work in the corporate food world, it seemed a timely moment to peruse other career opportunities, doing something I enjoyed.

The course is currently run by Lulu Grimes from Olive Magazine and Guy Dimond the food and drink editor at Time Out, and it has to be said that it was one of the best course I have taken. The content was varied, covering restaurant reviews, recipe writing, blogging, drinks writing, cookery book publishing, radio journalism, all dotted with visits from guest speakers, including Richard Erlich who writes for Good Housekeeping and Time Out and the producer of the fabulous Radio 4 Food Programme.

As part of the course there was a fair amount of homework – something I always secretly thrive on – and one such piece was to pitch and write a feature, which would then make up that terms class magazine. This process of pitching and writing was supported by some incredibly detailed and valuable feedback, and I have to admit to loving every second of the writing. Anyway, to cut what could be a very long story short, after the final submission of my feature, at the bottom of the page, Guy asked if I would be interested in working on the piece a bit more, to get it published.

Did he need to ask? Did he think I would say “nah, you’re alright thanks”?

I couldn’t believe what I was reading!

Guy thought this was good enough for publication? You can imagine my yelps of woohoos!


So, here it is. Six full months after beginning a course that I thought would just keep me occupied on some cold Monday nights, it actually led me to being a published! It was the most incredible experience, full of the highs and lows that come with learning something new, and I learnt more than I ever could have imagined. To read the article, click on the link below:


Time out - Fishing in the Thames

In the spirit of life long learning, I always welcome (constructive) feedback, so feel free to drop me a line to let me know what you think.

I hope you learn something too.

Why figs and lavender?

I chose the name for this blog, based purely on two of my favourite things. That and I thought it sounded rather lovely.

Both used widely in cooking, these natural ingredients are versatile, scented, seasonal and pure, words that show a hint of what inspires me, and signify principles that are important in my food world.

Lavender, from the mint family is commonly used as an herb in Provencal cooking. The instantly recognisable fragrance transports me back to being just 4 years old at the end of one of those glorious English summers we used to have, collecting the dried lavender with my mother from the garden to put into bags to scent our knicker drawers.

More recently Lavender is something that I associate with my first foray into gardening, digging deep into my gene pool to find those green fingers my mother has. It was the first plant that I managed not to kill – believe me; I managed to kill spider plants at university!

Figs, obviously not being indigenous to the British Isles have more exotic associations for me. Visiting my partners’ infamous grandmother in the remote idyll of Umbria in Italy I had a true food moment. Not normally one for such sickly romantic and evocative tales, this experience quickly, albeit surprisingly became one of these times for me. I will share it with you...

In the late afternoon sun, after a long journey from London, we wandered round the gardens that surround the house called Labriana breathing in the clean air and feeling the sun on our smiling faces. Guiding us round the hilly grounds pointing out the heavily pruned olive trees that were expertly hacked by her neighbour, our host stopped at one of the fig trees picking a soft, perfectly ripe fruit and tearing it open saying “eat as many of these as you want – or the birds will have them”.

And boy did I eat fresh figs. We even had a tree outside the patio doors of our bedroom, and happily sneaked a few off the tree before breakfast.

Luckily for me, I had never eaten fresh figs before, and what a wonderful introduction. Unfortunately, nothing ever lives up to those first, juicy pink bites, warm from the morning’s sun. So, I have discovered many other fig incarnations such as dried whole figs, ready to eat figs, fig jam, partly because they are a good source of calcium – something I need having coeliac disease. Thankfully, their intense taste when dried also takes me straight back to the late summer pre-breakfast treat.

So this is Figs and Lavender. This is a little piece of me and my food world. Over the next few posts, I plan to share with the world my plan for things I want to write about here, and hopefully there will be something for you to read, learn and inspire you. Just like my figs and lavender do.

Feels like home

It has taken me nearly 10 years to discover the thing I enjoy most. I always thought that I fell into food (it has felt that messy) only applying for a degree in Food and Consumer Studies based on the wisdom of my schools’ career advisor.

She asked “what do you want to be?”

I answered “a dancer”

Her reply - “well there’s no money in that – what subjects are you good at?”

I had always found Home Ec as it was called, then to be a real breeze, something I understood without trying, and two years later I found myself beginning my degree specialising in food.

Don’t get me wrong, this was in no way a bad decision. If I had the time and money I would happily do the course all over again. I loved it. The variety of subjects I covered, and the academic environment, researching and reading books, I was in my element. Thinking back, it was there that I groomed myself into the food nerd that I have become. The most interesting and exciting module I took didn’t come till the final year though; The Contemporary Consumer and Sustainable Consumption. Remember this was the late nineties. I didn’t even know what the title meant. But it gripped me from the first lecture, and initiated me into the world of organic food, veg box schemes and the environment.

I live by my veg box and organic food today, a whole ten years later and I came to the realisation just the other day that this is what I really love. Local, organic food made by passionate and small producers is what gets me excited. If only I had realised that 10 years ago when looking to begin my career. Maybe I would have delved deeper into that sustainable world rather than the one of supermarkets and fast food that actually gave me my grounding.

However, the way I prefer to look at it like this - the shock of working in the world of burgers, ready meals and MSG has opened my eyes wide to the soulless, tasteless and industrial food I was eating and working with. Thanks to my introduction to the alternatives at university by Tim Cooper, I discovered a whole other food world of opportunity, passion and community to explore, and that today feeds my mind.

So, apologies organic, local food world for my late arrival, it took me some time to get here. However, it sure is good to be home.

New Year Resolutions

Being someone who enjoys enhancing, rather than restricting her life, I haven’t been known to make new years resolutions. Often when prompted by my best friend who every year manages somehow to flex her will power removing something (chocolate once for a whole year!) from her life, I will manage to conjure something up, only to forget the moment I make the commitment. This year however I am inspired.

After returning to work for a short week after the Christmas break, and reaching that point in the afternoon where a little pick me up snack is required (as I had grown used to the all day fetive nibbling) I popped out to the Tesco Metro near my office. Eating gluten free doesn’t make impromptu snacking particularly easy, as the biscuits, cakes etc I tend to favour are a no go. Obviously I can eat plain and some flavoured crisps, but this time I felt in need of some real indulgence, given the grey skies and cold wind whistling through me on the way to the shop.

Ten minutes later I was still wandering the store empty handed, not through lack of inspiration, as I had selected a number of delicious goodies, one being the Gu chocolate pots. The only problem being that everything that shouted “eat me” had traces of gluten – even the Gu chocolate mousse! Argh!

But, I persevered. One of the commitments I did make to myself whilst taking my delicious gluten free breakfast on a sunny terrace in Morocco last month, was not to be beaten by my coeliac disease. Back in London, I refused to be beaten, and after much searching I opted for a small pack of popcorn, sadly made by Snack a Jacks, whose rice cakes I actively avoid after a career in taste testing them (a story for another time) and a rice pudding.

Walking back to the office, I pulled open the popcorn, one of my favourite childhood foods, when toffee popcorn was all you could get at the cinema, to be thoroughly disappointed. It tasted like watered down toffee, maybe due to the “les than 10% fat” claim front of pack and left a nasty aftertaste in my mouth. This was my inspiration. No more rubbish.

So, from this day forward I am going to eat wonderfully tasty, seasonal and local foods, that are gluten free and utterly delicious made by my own fair hands. I love eating and try to enjoy all my meals, but snacking is particularly difficult, so am off to pull together a list of yummy snacks that can bring a smile to my day and my stomach. And the best bit about making my first ever new years resolution? I am enhancing, not restricting my life, whilst shopping for food and researching recipes to devour. Bring on 2008!

All about me...

After studying a degree that covered anything and everything to do with food, I landed in a career in the globalised food industry, not really knowing where else to go. This time and experience provided me with an insight into factory produced "food", whilst my real and growing passion was firmly rooted in the alternatives of local, seasonal, natural, organic, small scale ingredients.

A couple of years ago, a diagnosis of coeliac disease gave me the perfect excuse to ditch earning a crust in industrial food. After some time to discover what I wanted to do, I wholeheartedly jumped back into the food world, revelling in my new found passion for food that was naturally gluten free... In fact it was the challenge of adapting my diet that completely re-ignited my passion for food in general.

Now I celebrate everytime I find something that is gluten free, made from local, seasonal ingredients and free from the nasties I used to work with... There is so much out there to cook, eat and try, so Figs and Lavender is my place to share those foodie finds, along with restaurants I have dined safely in, and my honest account of living naturally gluten free.

As with everything in life, living with Coeliac Disease is a journey, but whether you are a fellow suferer, wheat intolerant, or just interested in clean wholesome food, I hope you enjoy the blog journey with me. Please feel free to comment or ask questions, or tell me how you find things... I would love to hear from you.

This is the real me... Welcome to Figs and Lavender