Friday 25 May 2007

Seasonal Treats and Unnecessary Decadence


Walking back to the tube on the way back to P's from work yesterday, I had an overwhelming urge to buy some foodie deliciousness for us to share. I was walking past Clarke's on Kensington Church Street and loitered outside the window... but I knew if I went in, I would buy bread and cheese and other treats for P and I would spend too much money and the evening would be one of gluttony and about as far from CRON as one could get, and there would be wine and... No. I wrenched myself away. How virtuous.

But we still would need to eat. P had arranged a couple of organic vegetable deliveries but I'd eaten most of that already in my lunchtime salad (oops), leaving just the potatoes, a less than perfect beet and some runner beans in the box. That was not going to make dinner... I had a bunch of asparagus in my bag, and a pack of spinach - but I was intending to steam that and eat it as soon as I got home. So that wasn't going to make dinner either.

And then I remembered. It's samphire season. I adore samphire; I love the green saline crunchiness of it. I haven't been able to find much nutritional information on it so far, but it's a dark green asparagus-y veggie - what can be bad? Mmmm. So off I went to the fishmongers on Notting Hill Gate and bought half a kilo of it for a king's ransom and three rock oysters for P. When he got home later on in the evening, we ate it raw with lightly steamed asparagus and lemon juice, and drank a chilled Albarino.

And, um, a 1971 Riesling Beerenauslese. But that's another story.

8 comments:

Melissa said...

Hi Sara,
I've been lurking in your blog. I am a 38 yr old living in Florida practicing CRON moderately. My husband is English and we spend ALOT of time over there so sometimes finding optimal nutrition is challenging when you don't know where to shop?? I spend alot of time at M & S and although they have tasty easy food, it's definitely not optimal...Anyway, I wanted to introduce LLBY into my diet and I see that you seem to use it quite often. I've never tried it. I've heard that LLBY is the tastiest brand. Do you use it in savory and sweet dishes? When you use it in a salad do you mix it in or sprinKle it on top? Do you buy the flakes or the powder? Sorry for the long post, but you seemed like the one to ask :) Thanks in advance

Sara said...

Hi Melissa... :-)

M&S is good for grabbing food on the fly but it is expensive.

You'd be better off at a Waitrose (same quality) or Sainsbury's or a good farmer's market - I hope you make it back over here before they get rid of Borough Market, which is a crime. :-(

Anyway, LLBY. I buy the powder online. I use it in yoghurt for my breakfast - 7g - and mix it with cinnamon which I find compliments the taste. I'll also mix it with low-fat cottage cheese for a more savoury version, and if I'm feeling really hardcore will add it neat on top of hot leafy veggies when it seems to dissolve into a sort of sauce with the residual steam. :-) If I add it dry to salad veggies it tends to be a bit gritty, and I don't tend to use more than the 7g or so at a time - Deborah chokes down her full serving neat in one sitting every day. I don't know how she does that! ;-) I started off really not liking it but it is strangely addictive, and it does great things for my CoM reports!

Melissa said...

Thanks Sara for the quick reply! I will try it on my cottage cheese that sits on top of my salad so it soaks in. I love Waitrose!! I stock up on Green&Black's cocoa powder when I'm in the UK as it's so much cheaper there than in the U.S.
Take Care

Deborah said...

Well I do add a bit of milk and a drop of maple syrup to mine..so it's not so bad. I've found that it destroys the flavor of whatever I add it to, so I simply can't do that. I also take my lecithin straight.. that's much easier!
Cheers and welcome Melissa!

:-D

Sara said...

There's a thread ongoing on one of the CR Society lists positing links between consumption of BY and cancer and other maladies. I think MR had refuted it but it's not in layperson's terms. From what I
can work out it's not specifically BY that's the culprit, it's the protein... which takes me right back to the post where I had already wondered whether to cut back on my protein...

I still had LLBY for breakfast this morning but after reading all that lot, it didn't taste as good. :-( '

Honestly, the way the CR lists read sometimes, it's a miracle humankind manages to survive eating at all.

Illiah said...

I did get my sample of LLBY and it's sitting on my desk. Haven't figured out what I want to do with it yet.

There is a part of me that still prefers my brewer's yeast brewed, with hops and barley.

Mizpah Matus said...

That sure sounds like a delicious meal Sara. I have never seen that vegetable before but it looks interesting. I love asparagus too!

Congratulations on avoiding the bread and cheese. I have had those moments many times also and it is a great feeling of achievement when you can think with clarity.

Why no oysters for you?

Nenette Alejandria Mayor said...

Hi Sara,

First of all, thanks for the idea about concentrating on nutrition to get back on track. I'll be doing that!

Okay, here's a type of 'blog game'. April tagged me, so now I am tagging you. Put up eight random facts about you on your blog (like I did!) and then tag eight other people. It's just for fun, of course.

nen