It’s time to celebrate celery with a soothing soup, and a nice potato pancake to go with it
Most of the soup I make is in an effort to deal with my over-enthusiasm at the shops, a need to tidy up a vegetable rack overflowing with beetroot or leeks. A case of waste not, want not rather than to spotlight a vegetable in season. The results can be good or less so, depending on just how many turnips and swedes I am also trying to get rid of. This week, I made soup simply to celebrate a particularly fine head of celery.
I carried it home with my shopping, the celery’s plume of leaves poking pertly from my bag. The soup was good, using the entire head, or at least those stalks I hadn’t torn away and munched raw the moment I arrived home. The like-it-or-loathe-it vegetable was mellowed and sweetened by sour cream and potato.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin/The Observer
© Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin/The Observer
First women working as fishing guides on Laxá River, featured in new film, call for action after farmed fish escape
For seven generations, Andrea Ósk Hermóðsdóttir’s family have been fishing on the Laxá River in Aðaldalur. Iceland has a reputation as a world leader on feminism, but until recently women have not been able to work as guides to wild salmon fishing for visiting anglers – a job that has traditionally been the preserve of men.
The 21-year-old engineering student, her sister Alexandra Ósk, 16, and their friends Arndís Inga Árnadóttir, 18, and her sister Áslaug Anna, 15, are now the first generation of female guides on their river in northern Iceland, and among the very first female fishing guides in the country.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Sigga Ella/The Guardian
© Photograph: Sigga Ella/The Guardian
Phosphate, key to food production, is choking waterways, but a new sponge-like material returns it to the soil for crops
It is one of the least appreciated substances on the planet and its misuse is now threatening to unleash environmental mayhem. Phosphorus is a key component of fertilisers that have become vital in providing food for the world. But at the same time, the spread of these phosphorus compounds – known as phosphates – into rivers, lakes and streams is spreading algal blooms that are killing fish stocks and marine life on a huge scale.
It is a striking mismatch that is now being tackled by a project of remarkable simplicity. The company Rookwood Operations, based in Wells, Somerset, has launched a product that enables phosphates to be extracted from problem areas and then reused on farmland.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Handout
© Photograph: Handout
After a troubled start, this family-run Yemeni outpost in York has won a loving following in the local community
Yemen Heaven, 98 Walmgate, York YO1 9TL. Meze £7, large dishes £15-£21.95, desserts £6-£9, wines from £23
Some restaurants are just a nice place to go for dinner. Yemen Heaven in York is obviously that. You will eat well there. The black seeded flatbreads, the breadth of over-sized dinner plates, are soft and crisp. There’s a pleasing creaminess to the spice-dusted, oil-dribbled, tahini-rich hummus that comes topped with a single shiny black olive, the savoury equivalent of a cherry on top. But the restaurant is more than that. Much like Arabic Flavour in Aberystwyth, which I visited last year, it is both the story of exile and an act of memory. It is the product of one woman’s determination to maintain her family’s traditions; to free the country of her birth from a single narrative of war and hardship, however overwhelming that narrative might seem right now.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Richard Saker/The Observer
© Photograph: Richard Saker/The Observer
© Guerchom Ndebo for The New York Times
© Guerchom Ndebo for The New York Times
The chef, 54, talks about her foodie mum, historian dad, troubled teenage years and and being appointed MBE
I was a happy kid, president of the school at 11, then went on to St Paul’s Girls’ School. I was supposed to be a barrister, because I was good at chat and liked debating. Mum was the foodie. We were always making things in the kitchen while my sister was in the garden.
I went to every outpost of the Roman Empire as a kid. My dad [Colin McEvedy] was a psychiatrist, but his love was history; he sold a million copies of his history books. Holidays were going to see a mausoleum, measuring cannonballs in a castle in Istanbul, clambering over rocks. I didn’t have a beach holiday until I was 28.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Circe Hamilton/Allegra McEvedy
© Photograph: Circe Hamilton/Allegra McEvedy
A creamy, savoury gratin that’s so much more than the sum of its parts
A few years ago, my recipe tester Hannah rang me to rave about a celeriac and lentil gratin she’d made from Jenny Chandler’s book Pulse. I made it, then Hugh, my husband, made it, and then the friends we’d cooked it for also made it. Conclusion: people love it. Staring at a gnarly celeriac, some tins of tomatoes and lentils, plus a couple of handfuls of cashews, you’d never imagine they’d create something so moreish. But that’s the strength of great knowhow (Jenny’s) and the transformative power of time and heat on even the most simple of ingredients.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Lola Salome Smadja.
© Photograph: Louise Hagger/The Guardian. Food styling: Emily Kydd. Prop styling: Jennifer Kay. Food styling assistant: Lola Salome Smadja.
As sales of blue-cap cow’s milk boom, we look at whether it really can be healthier than its lower-fat siblings
Sales of full-fat cow’s milk are booming, while the fervour for semi-skimmed has cooled. But is the blue cap healthier than the green? We take a look.
Continue reading...© Photograph: Tony Cordoza/Alamy
© Photograph: Tony Cordoza/Alamy
Agreement between farmers, politicians and environmental groups led to a €170m action fund for plant based food
“Plant-based foods are the future.” That is not a statement you would expect from a right-wing farming minister in a major meat-producing nation. Denmark produces more meat per capita than any other country in the world, with its 6 million people far outnumbered by its 30 million pigs, and it has a big dairy industry too. Yet this is how Jacob Jensen, from the Liberal party, introduced the nation’s world-first action plan for plant-based foods.
“If we want to reduce the climate footprint within the agricultural sector, then we all have to eat more plant-based foods,” he said at the plan’s launch in October 2023, and since then the scheme has gone from strength to strength. Backed by a €170m government fund, it is now supporting plant-based food from farm to fork, from making tempeh from broad beans and a chicken substitute from fungi to on-site tastings at kebab and burger shops and the first vegan chef degree.
Continue reading...© Photograph: ClarkandCompany/Getty Images/iStockphoto
© Photograph: ClarkandCompany/Getty Images/iStockphoto
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