RECIPE:

1 nappa cabbage (chinese cabbage) chopped into quaters lenthways and then once again lengthways

carrot, sliced thinly by hand or with mandolin

1/2 daikon or10 red radishes, sliced thinly by hand or with a mandolin

1/2 broccoli, cut into florets

bunch of spring onions, sliced longways

4ltr water

100 gr salt

paste:

1 head of garlic, crushed

thumb of ginger, grated

60 ml fish sauce

100gr korean chili powder or substitute plain chili powder or some chili paste

1 tsp honey

4tbsp roasted sesame seeds

dissolve the salt in the water in a large container and put all the veg in with a plate ontop to make sure it stays submerged – leave this to stand for 2 hours.The salt will draw the moisture out of the vegetables. Mix up all the paste ingredients and massage this into the drained vegetables (wear some rubber gloves) and pack all this tightly into a big glass jar. cover tightly with cling film or lid. This needs to stand somewhere at room temperature for 2 or 3 days. Once it begins to bubble it has started to ferment and you can then keep it in the fridge where it will continue to slowly ferment. Make sure you always use a clean fork to get it out of the jar – you probably want to eat this within a month.

dont throw away fish heads, prawn shells, bones – its where all the best flavour is at. Collect it all in a bag in the freezer and when you have enough boil it up with an onion, leek, carrot, garlic and celery to make stock. A hundred times better than stock cubes, I tell no lies.

2.5 kg pumpkin, chopped finely

800 gr green tomatoes, quatered

3 onions, minced or grated

3 big bramley apples, chopped finely

2-3tsp ground cinnamon, 6tsp mustard seed, 3tsp ginger powder

juice and rind of 1 lemon

1 kg demerara sugar

600 ml vinegar

2 tbsp chillie flakes or little dried chillies

handfull of dried dates roughly chopped

Put everything into a big casserole pan or jam pan, bring to the boil and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Then turn the heat down really low and simmer for 2-3 hours until the sauce is thick. Watch out it doesnt catch on the bottom, the taste of burned sugar will flood the rest of the chutney.

Nailsea, England. 10 October 2009

China Town San Francisco – these amazing potstickers were being fashioned at an incredible speed in the  kitchens at ‘Xong Dim Sum House’ by a small wrinkled lady who looked like she hadnt seen the light of day for about a hundred years. I wish i could have eaten them as fast as she was making them; DIM DUM FOREVER. Considering getting this tatoed onto my forehead.

2 cups masa de harina

1/2 grated coconut

zest 1 lime

salt

1tbsp brown sugar/panela/jaggery

enough water to form soft dough

Mix all the ingredients together until you have a soft plyable mass. Form these with your hands by patting a ball of masa against your palms until flat and round. You can either cook these in a dry frying pan or directly over a fire on a griddle, they take about 10 minutes each side. I ate these every day for almost a month and became highly addicted – you can also make arepas with egg inside, they are even more dangerous.

August 15 2009, Santa Marta, Colombia

ingredients:

1/2 small red onion, sliced finely

2 tomatoes, chopped up

1 big green mango (green as in unripe, this is how they are eaten all over latin america as a snack with salt,pepper and vinegar) chopped up

handfull of coriander leaves, torn up

1/2 grated coconut

juice of 1 lime, salt and pepper

mix it up, sit it for 10 minutes to allow flavours to meld… eat.

This is how my mum taught me to eat avocados – straight up with a spoon. As there is no balsamic vinegar or olive oil here I used lime juice and some chili oil and sesame seeds.

June 6, El Valle, Panama.