A slow and smelly (in a good way) Saturday

One of the reasons I love cooking is the process – of course I love tucking into a nice meal at the end of it but it is as much about the actual cooking as it is about the product... Methodical, (mostly) relaxing and intensely therapeutic, it’s pretty much the most calming thing I know how to do.

And there are few things more therapeutic than cooking up a batch of chutneys and pickles on a Saturday afternoon, which is why Natalie and I have decided to put together a batch once a month.

This month’s batch included the ever-popular chilli jam I blogged about in December, a red onion marmalade and something a bit different in the form of an Indian lime pickle. I have to confess I am slightly obsessed with lime pickle and have been known to eat it straight out of the jar with my fingers (the horror), the idea of being able to make several jars of the good stuff rather excited me....

So, Saturday afternoon was once more spent trudging around Croydon gathering the necessary ingredients for the cook off. I’m not going to lie, running around in the bitter cold and both of us nursing a hangover it wasn’t the most enjoyable experience but by the time we settled down with some red wine and got down to the fun stuff later on it might just have been worth it.

First up was the red onion marmalade which involved chopping a prodigious amount of the buggers until both of us were in tears. Tears of laughter aided by my rather rude interpretations of the last doofus I went on a date with – his hot and cold approach could have given Katy Perry a run for her money. So much for a new year and new start, looks like I’ll be regaling you fine folk with my disastrous date tales for a while longer and that’s just fine by me...




Onions chopped and tears duly wiped, we sweated the onions with garlic, thyme leaves, chilli flakes and seasoning for an hour until limp, lifeless and gorgeously sweet before dumping in a bottle of red wine and some golden caster sugar and letting it bubble away for a while.

In the meantime – we were eyeing up the challenge of the lime pickle which started with frying the limes whole before chopping them into slices and trying to dart away from the random spurts of hot lime juice erupting from them in the process.



Making the pickle wasn’t too difficult, the recipe below is a ‘quick’ lime pickle recipe so will only take an hour. I’ve just tucked into some with a few slices of gammon a week later and can tell you it’s only getting better as each day goes by.

Just a hint though, maybe don’t make the same mistake I did and go out dancing after knocking up the pickle. Four hours of sweaty jumping around left me, rather upsettingly, in a fug of fenugreek fumes. It’s not sexy nor is it even particularly pleasant :P

The finished picture


Red Onion Marmalade
Adapted from Good Food Recipe for the same
Ingredients
2kg red onions or regular onions
4 garlic cloves
120g butter
4 tbsp olive oil
140g golden caster sugar
1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
pinch of chilli flakes
85cl bottle red wine
350ml red wine vinegar
50ml balsamic vinegar

Halve and thinly slice the onions, and garlic. Melt the butter with the oil over a high heat. Tip in the onions and garlic and ensure they are covered with butter. Sprinkle over the sugar, thyme leaves, chilli flakes and some salt and pepper. Give everything another really good stir and reduce the heat slightly. Cook uncovered for an hour, stirring occasionally.
Pour in the wine and vinegars and simmer everything, still uncovered, over a high heat for 25-30 minutes, stirring every so often until the liquid has reduced by about two-thirds. Leave the onions to cool in the pan, then scoop into sterilised jars and seal. Can be eaten straight away, but keeps in the fridge for up to 3 months.

Quick lime pickle recipe
Adapted from limepickle.com

500 grams of green chillies (we like ours super hot but if you don’t, use half red and half green chillies)
200 grams chopped fresh ginger
15 chopped garlic cloves
6 chopped fresh curry leaves
4 cups distilled white vinegar
1 tsp turmeric
1 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp mustard seed
2 Tbsp fenugreek seeds
3 cups vegetable oil (If you have mustard oil, use 2 cups vegetable oil and 1 cup mustard oil)
5 Tbsp vegetable oil
Preparation for this lime pickle recipe
Make sure you have sterilised jars and lids prepared for bottling. They must be thoroughly dried!
The method for the quick lime pickle recipe
Heat 3 Tbsp of oil in a large frying pan until hot.
Sauté the limes turning them over until their skins are a golden brown.
Dry the limes and cut them into about 6 thick slices and then half the slices.
Put 2 Tbsp of oil into a blender, add the chillis, chopped curry leaves, chopped garlic, chopped ginger and curry leaves. Blend to a paste
Heat the rest of the oil in a pan until hot. Add mustard and fenugreek. Heat the seeds until they pop open.
Add the paste, stir and simmer for 15 minutes. Turn off heat.
Add the turmeric, pieces of lime and vinegar and stir until thoroughly mixed.
Using a slotted ladle or spoon, put the limes into jars, and pour the remaining fluid over the limes ensuring they are just covered.
Stir to remove any air bubbles and seal jars.

Lunchtime pastime: Anchor & Hope

Yesterday, with good intentions of new weekly blog post in hand, a friend and I went to the Anchor & Hope in Waterloo for a sneaky long lunch before she jets off on an envy-inducing 6 month travel stint. Boasting a heritage from restaurants such as St John and London’s original gastropub The Eagle, this had to be a failsafe location for a nice spot of lunch in comfortable surroundings. Or so you would think.

The pub was pleasantly empty in comparison to its evening shift, when it’s packed to the rafters. Assuming we could take our pick of the tables I started heading to a pleasant spot by the window before being hustled into a corner by the rather pushy waiter. There are few things I like less than being sat back to back with a stranger close enough for our chair legs to strike up an ongoing flirtation, especially when most of the tables around us are empty.

Despite this, our stomachs were rumbling as we perused the daily-changing menu. Dishes such as warm snail and bacon salad, braised ox cheek and chips vied with traditional favourites such as minestrone, mussels ‘mariniere’ and potted shrimps for our attention.

In the end, the mussels won out but when I asked if I could have them as a main instead of a starter our waiter’s answer was short and to the point. ‘No’. No explanation, no apology, just no and a suggestion that I have it with another starter for a more filling lunch. So I plumped for potted shrimps, while Rachel went for the snail and bacon salad.

The first dishes arrived quickly – the snail and bacon salad was surprisingly large and apparently very tasty.


The potted shrimp was nothing to write home about. The portion of shrimp was quite large but let down by the fact that it was under-seasoned and served with a paltry half slice of toast that wasn’t up to the job of holding all the shrimp at all.

Before we’d eaten ½ the dishes in front of us, our bowls of mussels materialised and had to be pushed to the side until we finished. By the time we got round to eating them, they’d cooled down a bit but, to give credit were perfect; the plump molluscs swimming in their delicious sauce.

The plates from our first dishes still hadn’t been cleared by the time we finished our second, and we waited for a good ten minutes before one of the waiters saw fit to clear the array of empty crockery sitting in front of us. Predictably, it was another ten before we were given the bill, five before we paid and so on.

The food at the Anchor & Hope was promising overall, and if it wasn’t for the abysmal service I’d definitely visit again in the evening and try one of the game dishes for which they are famed. However, if a gastropub eschews letting punters choose their own tables and ordering at the till, they have to make sure that they have the rudimentary elements of service in place.

To me, one such rudimentary is more than three waiters for what became quite a busy dining space by the end of our lunch or ensuring said waiters were up to scratch. They weren’t and it let the Anchor & Hope down.

PS Apologies about photos, I forgot to bring the camera so trusty phone had to make do...


Waiting rating: One word. Rubbish
Scoffing potential: Overall, high – quality ingredients and exciting dishes
Wallet buddy: OK
The crowd: Foodies, laid-back lunchers.
36 The Cut
Waterloo, London
SE1 8LP
Tel: 020 7928 9898