We're still here...

...we know we've been really quiet of late, but we're still here.

Lots of busy weekends have been getting in the way of things but we are planning our next couple of dates and we will be popping up a few times before the summer's over!

Watch this space.

Polly and Paul

Sunday's menu and jars of chilli jam

We still have places left for Sunday's pop-up following a few drop outs. If you would like to come along please send us an email and we will get back to you with details.

We spent Sunday making a batch of our super tasty Walbrook & Avon chilli jam. If you would like to get your hands on a jar please come and see us at F. Cooke on Broadway Market on Sunday from about midday. Prices start at £3 a jar.

Walbrook & Avon, Sunday 13 February 2011

Pomegranate and orange Bellini
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Leek and cheese tart with winter coleslaw
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Pork and celeriac stew with root mash and greens
(V. Swede risotto with roasted vegetables)
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Poached pear and chocolate pot
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Goat's cheese with Walbrook & Avon chilli jam

...We're Back

Walbrook & Avon started 2011 in fine style on Sunday with our first pop-up of the year. It was really nice to see a few familiar faces, along with lots of people new to Walbrook & Avon. It is great to now have a few diners we can call regulars.

Our wintry menu went down so well we will be back doing it all again in a couple of weeks. We return to F. Cooke on Broadway Market, Hackney on Sunday 13 February at 2.00pm. We will be giving people another chance to sample a seasonal menu served in the unique 1930’s surroundings of the pie shop. Tickets priced at £25 per person are now on sale. As usual the £25 includes two alcoholic drinks .

Places are limited and to ensure fairness we operate on a first pay, first served basis.

If you would like to sample the delights of Walbrook & Avon on Sunday 13 February then please drop us an email at walbrookandavon@googlemail.com and we will get back to you with further details and payment info.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Polly & Paul
Cook Food, Serve Love

First Walbrook & Avon of 2011

Photo by wobble-san

With Christmas and New Year already feeling like an age ago it is time to get back into the swing of things with the first Walbrook & Avon of 2011.

We are very pleased to announce that we are back at the one and only F. Cooke on Broadway Market, Hackney on Sunday 30th January at 2.00pm. We are on hand to help beat the post holiday blues and hopefully bring a smile to your face with our fresh and seasonal menu served in the unique 1930’s surroundings of the pie shop. Tickets priced at £25 per person are now on sale. As usual the £25 includes two alcoholic beverages.

Places are limited and to ensure fairness we operate on a first pay, first served basis.

If you would like to sample the delights of Walbrook & Avon on Sunday 30th January then please drop us an email at walbrookandavon@googlemail.com and we will get back to you with further details and payment info.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Polly & Paul
Cook Food, Serve Love

Recipe: A Simple Autumn Stew Recipe

As the temperature starts to fall and winter approaches stews come into their own. They are a versatile way of cooking that make the most of much of what is in season at this time of year.

Stews, in some form, feature prominently in the cuisines of many nations. From highly spiced, fragrant affairs in Malaysia, Vietnam and Japan, to the meat-laden hearty offerings from South America. In Turkey stews are widely available in Esnaf Lokantas, tradesman's canteens, where workers can eat homely meals for next to nothing. In France they have Beef Bourguignon, in Hungary they have Goulash, in Poland there is Bigos and throughout the Arab world there are many versions of tharid.

Here stews have traditionally been used as a frugal way of making the most of cheaper cuts of meat like oxtail and scrag end. They also tend to feature the more robust winter root vegetables that store well and cost very little. Pulses, barley and pasta add heart and substance, thickening potentially watery broths.

Stews have wonderfully restorative properties; they warm and comfort like few other meals can. They can also be left on the stove for hours in a single pot, making them very light on labour.

With a bit of imagination very humble ingredients can be lifted; stews are definitely more than the sum of their parts. Here swede, onion, butternut squash, carrot, yellow lentils and pearl barley are bought to life with Urfa chilli, sumac and thyme.

Urfa chilli comes from the town of Sanliurfa in eastern Turkey where darker, almost black chillis are dried in the sun and then sweated at nigth before being ground into dark sticky flakes. Urfa chilli has a moderate heat and a deep, almost smokey taste, it works very well in stews. It is also great in salads, on roasted meat and in tomato sauces. Sumac is a Turkish spice made from the small red berries of the Sumac shrub. It is a great spice that adds a tangy, warm depth to dishes. In London (especially in Hackney and Haringey) both are widely available in Turkish shops. Sumac can be found in some supermarkets and is well worth finding. The Urfa chilli in this recipe can be replaced with red chilli flakes.

A Simple Autumn Stew

Half of a small butternut squash
Quarter of a large swede
1 large white onion
Half a dozen or so Chantenay carrots (or 2 'normal' carrots)
1 cup of pearl barley
1/2 cup of yellow lentils
About 100g of spaghetti
1 tablespoon of sumac
1 tablespoon of Urfa chilli
1/2 teaspoon of a seasalt
a few large sprigs of thyme
a handful of sage
a handful of parsley
1 large clove of garlic

1. Start by covering the barley in cold water and bringing it to the boil. Once boiling, drain and again cover in cold water and bring to the boil. Repeat this again but allow it to simmer for about 30 minutes.

2. Whilst the barley is cooking peel and dice the carrots, butternut squash, onion and swede. Cook in a little olive oil in a large, heavybased saucepan or stockpot.

3. Next add the thyme leaves, chopped sage, Urfa chilli, chopped garlic, salt and sumac. Cook for a few more minutes on a medium heat until the vegetables start to colour.

4. Add the lentils and partially cooked barley and cover in a good amount of cold water. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer for around 45 minutes.

5. When you are ready to eat bring the stew back to the boil, break the spaghetti into smaller strands and add to the stew. Stir and allow to simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Once the spaghetti is cooked, chop the parsley and add it just before serving so it retains it's colour. Adjust the seasoning and serve.

First Pop-Up Of The Winter

Photo by mag3737

After a few month hiatus to allow for holidays and a trip to Bestival dressed as rabbits and unicorns we are back at F. Cooke on Broadway Market from 14.30 on Sunday 14th November.

By then the clocks will have gone back an hour and the chill of winter will be upon us. As ever, we will be taking inspiration from the changing seasons and putting on a feast to lift any gloom bought by the coming of winter. Over the next four weeks will we keep you updated with the recipes we are working on and taking inspiration from.

Tickets priced at £25 per person are now on sale, which includes two alcoholic drinks. Places are limited and to ensure fairness we operate on a first pay, first served basis.

If you would like to sample the delights of Walbrook & Avon on Sunday 14th November then please drop us an email at walbrookandavon@googlemail.com and we will get back to you with further details and payment info.

We look forward to seeing you in November.

Polly & Paul
Cook Food, Serve Love

My Soviet Kitchen by Amy Spurling

I was lucky enough to attend the launch of Amy Spurling's wonderful new book My Soviet Kitchen which provides an account of life in the former USSR using food as the main point of reference.

Chaz Folkes; writer, book reviewer, website wallah, amateur photographer, keen cook and occasional sew and sew... took a great booze-based look at the book on his blog A Good Old Fashioned One Hundred And Twenty Unit Week. Chaz has kindly allowed us to reproduce his take on My Soviet Kitchen here.

“Let’s start from the fact... that beer isn’t alcohol.” An observation that suggests it is in fact a palette cleanser between shots of vodka. But then again, we are in the land of Homo sovieticus, the collection of countries that formerly made up the USSR.

Ivy Stone is a shy Ph.D. student, ostensibly in Russia for a few weeks to research The Colorado Potato Beetle Phenomenon and Reduction Consequences for the Ovcharskii Oblast post-Soviet Collectivization. That’s the plan at least, but pretty soon she runs into old friends and wakes up with a crashing hangover and proposal of marriage to someone she can’t remember. Still, this is the place for it:

But I’m now in the country of maximalism and white spirit suitable for human consumption (‘drinkable’ is written on the label with a sort of black and white Kwik-Save ‘No Frills’ stamp). It’s so strong, practically 100 percent, that you have to dilute it with water... Once drunk, this liquid refreshes parts of your personality that other spirits cannot reach.

Of course, the sensible thing to do when faced with a mystery fiancé is to get involved with someone else, so neglecting her studies, Ivy starts a whirlwind romance with K.K., physicist and shady businessman, who takes her off to Tashkent and Tallinn where she encounters the local firewater:

I took a sip from my shot glass of Vana Original and my mouth immediately felt fiery. The next sip burned and soothed the back of my throat in equal measure... A wonderful warming sensation was emanating from my cheeks to my neck glands. After a few glasses of this stuff I wouldn’t mind betting you’re ready to start a really good family row.

The problem with whirlwind romances though is that they have a habit of going awry and Ivy finds herself alone with a bottle of vodka in her Moscow flat on New Year’s Eve when she’d expected to spend it with a now incommunicado K.K. These are the moments that you need your friends and an impromptu party is convened on the first day of the New Year. It’s quite a hooley. Eighteen seems-like-eighty guests turn up with drink, snacks and a starting pistol:

It appears that during a drunken argument or bet – something drunken anyway – Sportsman fired his pistol... “Give me that,” I say. It is the vodka that grabs a shiny weapon off a pumped-up male. To keep it out of sight I temporarily put it in the fridge.

There’s an acknowledged debt to Bridget Jones, but Fielding’s book doesn’t come with a companion guide of recipes and anecdotes. And neither does she produce little gems like the following:

“In a survey which asked, ‘How much can you drink?’ 40 percent of the nation said, ‘Can’t remember, the evening began early’; 40 percent said, ‘Don’t know, the evening finished late’; 15 percent said, ‘Can’t say, we’re still drinking’. And the rest didn’t understand the question.”

All you ever needed to know, really...

For more from Any Spurling visit http://www.amyspurling.com
To purchase the My Soviet Kitchen and the great companion recipe book visit http://www.roastbooks.org/my-soviet-kitchen