Travel: London haunts of old and new.
I dream of St John’s Eccles Cakes in Spitalfields and Lily Vanilli’s Sunday treats in a tiny olde courtyard off Columbia Road Flower Market. The florets of housemade salumi from the Bull and Last on Highgate Rd make my daughter smile even more than me! The elation on my son’s face when he finds a housemade gluten free cake at Haggerston Espresso on Downham Rd brings joy to a mother’s heart.
I want to enjoy all the traditional British recipes, but made from ingredients that allow us to digest the food easily. I want the food to be as nutritious for my family and I today as it was when the recipe was first conceived be it 500 years ago. Without preservatives. Without pesticides. Unrefined.
To make that happen, I’m going to have to change the ingredients and do some experimenting. I want St John’s Eccles cakes without gluten. Lily Vanilli’s beautificent treats without sugar.
I’ve gone back to the source. From Good Things In England, a collection of household ‘receipts’ from all over Britain – thank you Florence White – I’m going to make, bake, ‘roast’ and toast Dishy Things in England. Sugar Crystals will be ignored. Wholesome life-giving gold will result.
Next week Christmas Puddings – they need to be made early and I have some cracking ideas based on Mrs White’s collected British Recipes.
Also next week… I’ll be travelling with the family to the Scottish Highlands. While we’re there, I’ll bring you;
Oatcakes
Scotch Pancakes (velvety scones, eaten cold, lathered in decadently healthy butter)
and maybe some Wholemeal Scones from Liverpool (Fanny Calder’s School of Cookery, 1904), as I pass through the neighbourhood…
