The seasonal shopping basket: March

Fruit

It's extremely slim pickings for British fruit this month. Last year's stored Bramleys and indoor rhubarb are both coming to an end and there's not a thing in to relace them. Not yet. If we were wild beasties living outside and only on what's available, we'd be looking at our very poorest. Lacklustre, rangey and mangey. Our stored resources from last summer would have been burned up long ago, in the coldest months of winter. Now, we'd be waiting, waiting, waiting for the new buds, grass, insects or other natural edibles to arrive. In fact, with our winter coat digested way back Nov-Jan time we'd be at our annual weakest and stupidest right now; once fat stores have been exhausted the body metabolises muscle and brain tissue to make up for any ongoing deficits in energy intake. Grim but true.

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The seasonal shopping basket: February

I'm really excited to share this post with you, the very first in a brand new monthly series. I'm passionate about eating seasonal for lots and lots of reasons. Some of them BIG: the ecological, ethical and economic. Some smaller, at least in terms of controversy, taste and nutritional say.

On a personal level, as someone who lives in the city, I find that seasonal eating helps to connect me to nature. It makes eating different throughout the year, and on a slightly philosophical, somewhat morbid level, it reminds me that nothing is here forever. Not the year's crop of asparagus. Not one of us. Things are to be enjoyed while they last. Life, like the British asparagus season, is short!

If you live in the UK, here's what to buy in February to enjoy food at its freshest, tastiest and healthiest. And without lots of nasty air miles. The produce you buy outwith the supermarkets (and I hope that you will make a foray to some of your local indy retailers) will also help to support your local food producers, so doing your little bit towards preserving diversity on the high street and in the food chain.

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Coming soon: the seasonal shopping basket

A new series of monthly posts

Want to eat in rhythm with the seasons, feel connected to the passage of time in nature and to your local place? Want to enjoy food at its very freshest and tastiest, to support your local producers, so helping to preserve diversity on the high street and in the food chain? Don't want loads of air miles and unnecessary packaging on your purchases? 

Then this new series of posts is for you. From February, I'll be posting a short monthly article on what's in season that month. Posted at the beginning of each month, each post will cover not just fruit and vegetables, but also seasonal fish, meat and game and wonderful, smelly artisanal cheeses.

Please come join me in the joys of eating seasonal!

Chorizo stovies

Stovies are an old Scottish dish traditionally made with the fatty leftovers from a roast of beef. Or beef dripping if you couldn't afford a joint. Cheap and abundantly cheerful, I associate them with Hogmanay as my Gran always had a vatful on the stove for serving after the bells. Great for staving off drunkenness and fuelling first-footers into the wee small hours. But equally great for a simple dinner any night of the year, winter or otherwise. Eating them at Hogmanay simply reminded me how good they are, and a friend asked for the recipe. So Laura, here it is for you.

I first made this chorizo version over ten years ago, to bring in 1999 or 2000. Tired of the sheer hard work involved in hosting a typical New Year's Day dinner (jaded and green-complexioned from the previous night's partying), I was looking for a lazy yet special option. Stovies scored three plus points: supremely simple, plate-lickingly tasty and festive. But they lacked glamour; unless already initiated into the joy of stovies, I doubted my guests would be impressed at the prospect of a plateful of fatty tatties.

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Polenta and orange shortbread

Check this out for a pâtisserie-loving opener of anorak proportions: the 'short' in shortbread refers to the length of the protein molecules from the flour. Just as for pastry, biscuits and cakes, you want those protein molecules to be short, thereby providing a tender, yet crumbly and crunchy crumb. This is in contrast to bread, where you want the two flour proteins, gliadin and glutenin, to join together and form gluten, a long protein molecule that lends structure, moisture and chewiness. Great characteristics in bread but not at all what you want in shortbread.

The type of flour, or flours, and method used to make shortbread are all about trying to facilitate shortness. Basically, keeping gliadin and glutenin from getting together and forming pesky glutens. Do that and you're most of the way there to a finished biscuit with a crisp, dry snap that melts into wonderfully rich, buttery-flavoured sandy crumbles.

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