Food for wintering
Small, good things that sustained me through January
I’ve been kept going this month by a host of unexpected joys; some edible (food food, if you will), and some inedible (heart food).
Food food
Tarn bakery
It’s taken me far too long to discover this neighbourhood gem, only a 10-minute walk from where I live. Named for its location atop a steep hill, the bakery offers a rewarding view after the ascent to reach it - much like a mountain tarn.
Their chocolate Guinness cake and seeded sourdough have been staples of my cold-weather survival kit.
Full English breakfasts
I scoffed my fair share of fry-ups in January.
One was cooked in the tiny kitchen of a shepherd’s hut in the Norfolk countryside, which made it all the more comforting. Another was consumed on a rainy Saturday morning at Bar Bruno in Soho. Their white toast, almost neon yellow with butter, is a work of art.
Butternut squash and ginger soup
I made this recipe up a few years ago while clearing out my fridge and hoping for the best, and it’s stuck ever since.
It’s really simple - just drench the squash in good olive oil, cover it in rosemary, and roast until golden and crispy. Fry up the root ginger with some garlic, and then blitz it all together with some crème fraîche, adding a little chicken stock if it gets too thick.
Top with smoky chorizo and let your cockles be warmed.
Heart food
Living energy workshop
On an orange narrowboat moored on Hackney Marshes, I spent an afternoon making electricity out of bio-matter. The event was hosted by the lovely folks at Craft, as part of their skill-sharing series.
We scooped up handfuls of soil - thick, damp, humming with invisible life - and packed it into flower pots, looping them together with copper and zinc rods. Microbes in the earth generate energy, we learned, and with a little patience and the right tools, this energy could be harnessed.
And so, our little pots became a battery.
We also made an algae battery using canal water, which produced one whole volt of power - enough to light up a bulb and get a clock ticking. A reminder that even in the depths of winter, when everything feels dormant, beneath the surface life happens and happens and happens.
Pottery
Every Monday, the brilliant Clay Play Community Project run an affordable pottery session at my beloved New River Studios, Haringey. Everyone is welcome to sculpt something, which is then fired, glazed, and fired again.
My attempt at a decorative oyster and lemon for my desk is in the kiln as we speak…
Matching berry hats
I take my reputation as an eccentric auntie very seriously, so when my friend Veera presented my nephew and I with these matching hats - kindly knitted by her grandma - I decided they wouldn’t leave our heads for the foreseeable future.
Somewhere in between?
Garden planning
Sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of tea, a pile of seed packets and some chocolate digestives, I plotted out my hopes for our garden. Spring didn’t feel so far away at all.
Digital Supper Club is a newsletter written by me, Anna. What’s on the menu? Aside from tacky culinary puns, you can expect essays on the cultural significance of food; the social currency of it, its history, and its joys. I’ll be sharing recipes, restaurant reviews, my musings on food-based art and literature, and maybe even some poetry peppered here and there (I warned you about the puns).
Yep j'adore. Thank you for keeping us in the loop with life xxx
Just joyful xx p.s excited to hear how gardening goes !