who said food in england was shite?

on my way to the studio this morning (driven threre by a bout of anxiety that time is a slipping....i mean its a saturday....) and i got distracted a wee bit by the lure of BROADWAY MARKETS. Everyone i've met over the last 10 days insists on it, and so, a freezing but somewhat bright morning seemed perfect to try out what, on approach, made itself abundantly evident that it is THE bourgiest little corner of London (i think - i mean i havent exactly exahusted all the possibilities for this and I'm sure such corners abound)...and we know what this means don't we - the best food on earth.....almost.

like this here fresh pheasant:



and it gets better - wild mushrooms!! and they cook them on site into a "medley of mushroom sandwich"....errr i wish i hadn't eaten that brown rice museli an hour before...

and these quaint wooden barrels full of stuffed olives, tapenade, dolmades, harissa et al...served up by 2 incredibly good looking and somewhat arrogant french ex-patters. That'll be 3 pound 45, please



which i took to the studio and used to spruce up my rather white-looking lunch of lima beans (they call them butter beans here....a garnish of dolmades and extra-oily tapenade that i still seem to be digesting almost 12 hours later....urgh


recepie for lima/butter beans:

1 cup of beans - soaked overnight and simmered slowly until tres tres soft but not falling apart. this can be tricky at times...i often find my beans in a mashy-soupy state and it really is too late once this transformation has occured....i find that the longer you soak the beans (ie. overnight) - the better chance yr gonna have making sure they stay intact during the cooking process. Cook for like, 20 minutes, and be at the pot so as to catch them if they dare threaten to get any softer...

1 leek, chopped
1 onion chopped
lots of garlic
fresh or dried rosemary
sea salt
pepper
olive oil
lemon zest

++ sauted the onion til clear and starting to caramelize (in lots of olive oil....and add water a bit to help soften)...i usally grind in heaps of pepper and add sea salt toward the end of this stage - chilli can be nice too
++ add the leek and rosemary and cook til soft
++ then add the garlic and keep cooking (by the way stirring consistently, adding water to soften etc)
++then add in the cooked beans, more seasoning, more oil, and water and cook away, stiring and stewing until it gets all creamy
++ when done, stir threough lots of lemon zest and some roughly chopped italian parsely

+++ so this is what is above in the image (lunch box)
+++ ontop are some roasted tomoatoes from the night before (which have simply been roast in the oven for about one hour with olive oil and sea salt and pepper)
+++ then a flavor explosion is added from the 2 dolmades and the most delicious tapenade i've eaten in a long time.