Gastroanthropology

Victoria Sponge

I've been absent for a while...my nine month baking project is finally out of the oven! Kyle Wilder Mitchell arrived in London, on his due date, at 8lbs 10oz.

With the birth of our baby in London, the gorgeous spring weather and the upcoming Royal nuptials I thought I might make something very English for my first baking project post-baby...Victoria Sponge. Named after Queen Victoria, it is basically jam and whipped cream sandwiched between two layers of vanilla cake. It's not frosted or decorated in any way so it's super simple to make. Since we now have a little one, everything is baby sized, as are my Victoria Sponges. Of course you can make this in the traditional cake version or into regular sized cupcakes if you like.

VICTORIA SPONGE (Vanilla cake recipe adapted from Hummingbird Bakery)

• 120 g all-purpose flour
• 140 g sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 40 g unsalted butter, room temp
• 120 ml whole milk, divided in two
• 1 egg
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD

Using a paddle attachment or hand mixer, beat flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter until the mixture looks like sand. Add half the milk and continue to beat until just combined. Add the remaining milk, egg and vanilla extract and beat till mixture is smooth, taking care not to overbeat.

Divide batter into lined cupcake tin. I used a mini-muffin tin and this recipe makes 24 of them (would make a dozen cupcakes). Bake at 325ºF/ 160ºC for 20 - 22 min (15 - 18 min for mini) or until cake tester comes out clean.

Cool completely, then slice the tops off and spread with strawberry jam (or raspberry) and freshly whipped cream. I used about 1 cup cream and 1/3 cup of jam for this recipe. 

Kyle was in a sling slumbering away without a peep during this entire baking project!

England Preserves + A Give Away!

This contest is now closed. The randomly chosen winner is #4 - Tangled Noodle.

My favorite jams are chunky, fruity, and never sickly sweet. Jam should taste like the sun-ripened fruit, not sugar with fruit. One of my first weekends in London last summer was spent exploring Borough Market. It was there that I discovered England Preserves at Neal's Yard Dairy. I bought a jar of Blackcurrant Blighty (sounded so English!), Strawberry Days, and London Marmalade. At any given time I've got 8 or 9 jams in the fridge. These three were in and out of the rotation so quick I knew I had found something so special. 

Fast forward a few months to January of this year. In one of my food policy classes this semester there was a woman who humbly introduced herself as Sky - a small food producer. A few weeks later I noticed through an exchange of class emails that she was co-owner, and co-founder, of England Preserves. Small food producer, my foot!   

Sky and her husband, Kai, began the business over eight years ago in their home kitchen. Both came from families that made jams and chutneys at home. What Sky says started as an experiment has now turned into a successful family business. Sky finds that her jams seem to resonate with her customers as people seem to have an emotional connection to jam - especially here in England. 

Besides the marmalade (if you've ever tasted a Seville orange you'll know why), England Preserves only uses only 40% sugar. Most commercial jams use upwards of 60% sugar. While Sky can't reveal all her secrets, her fruit never goes over 90 degrees Celsius. This means the fruit is not boiled so the sugar content does not rise throughout the cooking process. More importantly, the integrity of the fruit is not lost.

Brioche and Kentish Bramble for Breakfast

All of Sky's produce comes from England, with two exceptions. The first is the Seville oranges for the marmalade. You can't really run a successful English jam company without making marmalade, and it happens to be one of Sky's best-sellers. The second exception is apricots, as they don't grow in England. All of her soft fruits come from Essex where the fruit is flash frozen at the peak of ripeness and made into jam at two week intervals at Sky's jam operation in South London. The pears and apples are from Chegworth Valley, and the vegetables for chutneys from Lincolnshire.    

Sky and Kai supply hotels all over London - a city where jams and marmalade are serious business, especially for tea time. These larger jars are for them.

The smaller jars are available all over London. You can find them at Whole Foods in Kensington, Unpackaged in Islington, Borough Market, and at various farmers markets in London. 

A little over a year ago, Sky gave birth to the youngest jam-maker in England. This is Sky's daughter - Bloom!

If your interested in trying Sky's jams, post a comment and make sure to leave a valid email address in the email field. One winner will be chosen at random in a few weeks and will receive two of Sky's jams. I couldn't really decide which to send, because each new flavor I try becomes my favorite. Last week was Redcurrant+Rhubarb+Vanilla and there was real pieces of vanilla bean in the jam - since when did a jam have that? This week my favorite is Kentish Bramble. For the give away I've picked two classics and the first that I tried. Blackcurrant Blighty and Strawberry Days. 

Real Food Market in Covent Garden

April 23rd is important for two reasons. First, its St. George's Day - England's patron saint (think George and the Dragon). For whatever reason he is a lot less popular, and not as celebrated as Ireland's patron saint - St. Patrick. So, please excuse me for not realizing it was St. George's Day. I should have known though - St. George's Day is also the official start of English asparagus season. 

I will get to how I used my asparagus in a bit, but first I should share with you some great news. The weatherman reports that Britain is going to face a sunnier, warmer summer than usual. Best news I've heard all week! The approach of summer also means that the Real Food Market at Covent Garden is back. The market opens at noon every Thursday from now till the end of August. Covent Garden is about a ten minute walk from my apartment so I plan to go as often as possible. Think of the market as a mini-Borough Market.

Unlike many farmers markets in London that require the product sold to be sourced within a certain radius of the city, the Real Food Market, like Borough Market, aims to find the best of the best, where ever it may come from. Some of the best comes from Italy, like these baby artichokes...

and these fresh figs...

You can find the delicious breads of The Flour Station bakery at the market. They have a number of different types of focaccia...

We all know that Mr. Thomas brought his English Muffin recipe to America in the 1800s and we love to eat them as the butter melts into all the nooks and crannies. I'm just wondering if something happened to the recipe during the journey across the ocean. These English Muffins seem to be at least three times the height!

The problem with moving to a different country is you almost feel like you are on an extended vacation. This means vacation rules apply with regards to food. You don't count calories and you eat whatever you like. Great for my foodie brain, but not so much my foodie body. In an effort to get back to reality I decided to have a green lunch with all produce bought from the market. The pesto is from an Italian pasta stall at the market.

This is so simple, feeds one, and only dirties one pot. In a pot of boiling, salted water, boil enough pasta for one person. Chop 5 asparagus stalks and 4 sprouting broccoli stalks. A minute before the pasta is done, add the asparagus, broccoli, and 1/4 cup of fresh, shelled peas to the water. Drain everything. Return to the pot and off the heat, and stir in a giant, heaping spoon of pesto. Taste. Add more pesto if necessary. Eat. Preferably curled up on the couch with your favorite TV show on. 

Mudchute, A City Farm in London

Just 10 minutes from Canary Wharf (London's second financial district and home of the UK's three tallest buildings) on the Isle of Dogs, is a wonderful city farm - Mudchute Farm. On 32 acres of fertile land (nutrient-rich as it is just next to the Thames) lives 200 animals, mostly rare breeds. Mudchute Farm is also home to 70 community allotments, a farm kitchen and restaurant, horse stables, and smokehouse. Wood from the farm is used in the smokehouse where butter, geese, and cheese are often smoked.

The two most interesting animals I saw were of the avian kind. This is a beautiful, male Golden Pheasant. Originally from central China this guy was pretty happy in a large pen with multiple light brown, less-striking, female Golden Pheasants. 

As their name suggests, these are Transylvanian Naked Necks. They hail from Hungary and were introduced to the British as Churkeys because, like Turkeys, their exposed skin turns red when exposed to sunlight. Despite their appearance these birds are calm and love warm weather. They are quite popular in warmer Eastern European countries as they can withstand higher temperatures. What are they doing in London?!

Since it is a city farm these goats have to fight for their dinner with the local pigeons who have gotten tired of begging for sandwich scraps from the business-types in their blue shirts and black suits. 

This male (can you tell?) Tamworth was finishing the last of some lettuce scraps. The Tamworth is recognized as the purest British pig breed as it is a direct descendant of the European Wild Boar. 

The farm's kitchen uses as much product as possible that is produced on the farm. For meat, Mudchute practices nose to tail cooking, using the entire carcass. It's hard to ignore the importance of animal welfare when you see the animal and its habitat before you are about to eat it.

 

Mudchute Farm and Kitchen hosted an important event yesterday afternoon - London Food Link's bi-annual networking meeting. London Food Link is a group I have been working with since last October and is a group that aims to make London's food system more sustainable. The networking event is a chance for members to share and coordinate their projects. 

One of their newest projects is Capital Growth. Funded by the London Development Agency, Capital Growth aims to create 2,012 new community food growing spaces in London by 2012. Capital Growth provides grant money and food growing advice to people in the community who start new growing spaces.

Another project is Good Food Training, which I have been directly involved with. This project aims to encourage sustainable procurement and training for the public sector (schools, hospitals, prisons). The project hosts events all over London that show public sector chefs how to use less popular cuts of meat and sustainable fish sources. The project also trains service providers about sustainability, customer service, and nutrition. One of the latest projects includes teaching prisoners how to garden and cook - skills that they can use when reintroduced to society.

Another project that I have been involved with is the Good Food for Camden strategy. This strategy aims to help lower income and disadvantaged people living in Camden (a London borough). Specifically, the Camden strategy includes consultations and toolkits so the people of Camden can learn sustainable ways to buy, eat, and dispose of food that improves their health, well-being and the environment.

There are so many other great projects that are involved in London Food Link that I haven't mentioned. These include everything city beekeeping to reclaiming food. 

If you are in London I would recommend a visit to Mudchute and to have a meal at the farm kitchen. Last night I had a bit of lemon-gingerade, crudite, and hearty bread with nettle spread. Nearly all of the ingredients were grown on the farm or on one of the community allotments. The nettles were foraged from the farm. 

This sheep's wool will be used as insulation in some of the farm buildings...

The Educated Once-A-Week Carnivore + The Ginger Pig

I'm always amazed at how much trust we put in the food system. We'll pick something off a grocery store shelf, put it into our mouths, chew and swallow. We generally assume that everyone along the food chain has done their due diligence and what we buy is safe. Sometimes the system goes wrong - E. coli on spinach, salmonella in tomato and peanut butter, melamine in milk, dioxin in pig feed, etc... But, for the most part the food we eat is safe, right?

Traceability is much easier with a short chain, less middlemen to make a mistake, overlook a problem, and place the blame on someone else. Traceability is especially important when choosing meat. Everything the cow, pig, or lamb ate, the way it was treated and slaughtered - it's all in your body when you take a bite. I try to limit my consumption to one portion each of meat and poultry a week for two reasons: a little bit is good, but too much does harm, and meat production is the most input and carbon intensive thing you can eat. So for me its eat less meat, but eat better meat.

If you live or are passing through London check out The Ginger Pig. They are farmers and butchers that control everything from the breeding, feeding, and slaughter of their livestock. The Ginger Pig uses a number farms in the North Yorkshire Moors to rear their lamb, cattle, and namesake - The Ginger Pig. 

The Ginger Pig is actually the copper-colored Tamworth. They don't yield as many piglets as most conventional pig farmers want, and The Ginger Pigs get to live a little longer on feed made of barley, oats, and wheat grown on the farm. Longhorn cattle and Dorset sheep are raised and allowed to meander through pasture, spending their days under the sun (well, it is the UK so I'm not sure how many UV rays they are catching, but they are outside!), grazing at their own leisure. When it comes close to their final days they eat on-site grown barley.

At The Ginger Pig butcher shop you see certain whole carcasses hung as part of the natural tenderizing process. They show you how to break down the meat, or do it for you. They tell you how they treated the meat and suggest how you might use it. The butcher's can't shut up about this, that, and the other thing about their pigs and other meat - and that is a very good sign. If you ask your butcher about how and who reared the meat you are about to buy and he is more than happy to talk and share - great. If he hasn't got a clue, it's time to find a new source for meat. 

In Lincolnshire, poultry is raised for The Ginger Pig. They produce these lovely fresh eggs.

Yes, its more expensive to eat meat and poultry where animal health and welfare is important. But, that's a perfect excuse to buy it less often. Less meat is better for you and the environment. Choosing meats that are traceable from farm to fork means you are more educated about what you are putting into your body. Meanwhile, you are more than likely to be contributing to a sustainable farm system. At The Ginger Pig, the butchers, who are a wealth of knowledge, are also happy to be working there. Remember, holistic farming and ranching should also consider the social sustainability of those who work the land, rear the animals, and sell the goods.

The Ginger Pig - Click here for multiple London locations.