Looking Out To Sea

I’m not really the cook in this household, though that doesn’t mean I don’t try. I’m just rather less sure of myself when it comes to ingredients, timekeeping, technique. I can follow a recipe but not in the same instinctive way that other people have.

One thing we’ve both been very sure of since moving in is making sure our food is good. In every sense of the word. We’re both still starting out in the world of work and we could easily be a bit slack in the evening and resort to pre-cooked pies and packets of supermarket sausage.

Instead we’ve been putting in the effort, and it’s been paying off too.

Good quality food sourced locally

The big step has been going to the farmers’ market on a pretty regular basis. We made the decision that it was better to buy one piece of good meat per week than buy factory-farmed rubbish on a regular basis. It costs more, of course, but we’re happy to reduce the amount of meat we buy in favour of the quality.

And buying more expensive meat means we actually have to make an effort with it, too. Like using leftovers to make stock (though we have a habit of forgetting about it until it boils dry). I’m trying to do more baking too. I’ve resolved to start making rolls more than once every six months, for example.

I think we’ll also try to limit ourselves to more seasonal produce in future. Some things (like tomatoes) we’ll buy all year because we can’t not have them. But if we can avoid buying stuff from New Zealand or somewhere in South America then we’ll do that.

Creative and interesting cooking

Having good recipes always helps (especially me, because I don’t have much in the way of kitchen-creativity). We have Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Meat Book, which I can highly recommend. I fall in that awkward spot in the middle, between vegetarian and care-free meat-eater. I love meat but I worry about the treatment of the animals that most people eat. I’ve been eating more vegetarian food when I go out lately because it’s not easy to tell where the meat comes from. This meat book is aimed at me.

Also, Nigella Lawson’s Feast is great too. How can anyone object to a whole chapter devoted to chocolate cakes?