SAVOUR & SIP
IN THE FIRST OF A NEW SERIES, CHOW DOWN ON THE SEASONAL GRUB THAT CAMBRIDGE CHEF ROSIE SYKES IS COOKING THIS MONTH November Nosh FOOD FOR THOUGHT
THAT TIME OF YEAR Food provides the ultimate comfort during the long, dark nights of November
In my first job, I met so many fantastic, interesting people who now all have their own businesses: Jack’s Gelato, Steak & Honour. Cambridge is thriving. In November, I’ll be partnering with Cambridge Sustainable Food, who I work with most in the city. We’re very lucky because we get loads of produce straight from farms, including CoFarm. I do a lot of work for school holiday lunches and cooking food for people who need it. THE FOOD PHILOSOPHY I’ve always had a strong sense of how important it is not to be wasteful. But in these harder times, you have to be on top of your game – constantly keeping an eye on what’s in your fridge. You can always turn something into something else. The way that I work has changed quite a bit, the way I write recipes. I’m much more aware of trying not to waste energy. My favourite chefs in London and Cambridge are people who are cooking really fantastic, but simple food. RATED COOKBOOKS Mark Diacono’s Spice or Tomato by Claire Thomson – both are fantastic.
make is a squash and sweetcorn chowder, with a bit of bacon in it. That’s a nice Guy Fawkes supper, maybe with cheese scones. THE TOP KITCHEN TIP One of the things I’m very into is using residual heat. There’s a time, when your oven is heating up to temperature during a specific recipe, where it’s great to toast nuts or dry extra bread to make breadcrumbs. Onion confit is a brilliant base for frittatas, stews, all sorts of things. What I tend to do now is put a whole tray of unpeeled red and white whole onions with some olive oil, salt and pepper in the oven. Even when you turn the oven off, they’ll carry on cooking. Then, after about an hour, you’ll have these lovely soft onions that you just need to peel. You can do that with root vegetables, too. THE STORY A reason I decided to come to Cambridge was that I wanted to be closer to the people who are growing. I was very lucky when starting here that I began working with Cambridge Organic Food Company and Duncan Catchpole, who set up amazing relationships with a lot of local growers.
love November, because you get all the lovely squashes and, nowadays, lots of different varieties that are accessible to everybody. In the past, you could only get a ‘crown prince’ or ‘turban’ if you grew them, but now you can find them in farmers’ markets and all over. It’s starting to cool down; all the roots are out, so we’ve got celeriac, which is fantastic. Celeriac and apple soup is a delicious, autumnal thing with cheesy croutons and thyme. It’s a time for slow cooking, braises and so on. THE RECIPES I really like spelt or pearl barley and make a sort of risotto with that, as well as leeks and wild mushrooms, with lots of parmesan on top. Then all sorts of soups: a rich, curried squash soup or a mulligatawny, which is a lovely, wintry lentil soup with lots of warm spices and coriander – you could add in some extra roots to that. I adore warm puddings like apple and spice cake, caramelised pear and ginger cake or rice pudding cooked slowly in the oven with almond milk. I do a vegetarian toad in the hole with winter greens, spinach and walnuts – it’s really nice. Something else I
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