Sail with New Freebooters

by Mike K-H

A long time ago, on France for Freebooters , I wrote one or two cooking articles under the pseudonym of ‘Man in Greasy Shirt’. The idea for the name came from cartoonist Larry’s ‘Man in Apron’ series, which showed his character applying male logic to the challenges of cooking.

Recently, I let my anonymous friend Not Delia use a pumpkin soup recipe on her new blog, which triggered the idea of writing some more posts here about food (and drink) and cooking.

Wifie is away at the moment, so I’ve been fending for myself again. I’m far too busy and lazy to do complicated cooking for myself, but I’ve developed a few techniques to keep my eating reasonably healthy without spending too much time or money – and, incidentally, reducing the carbon footprint of my cooking.

Vegetables

My golden rule is not to cook them unless I have to. Most vegetables that can be eaten raw taste better that way as well as retaining more of their nutrient and fibre value. Carrots are an excellent example – wonderful eaten Buggs Bunny stlyle, (julienne strips are fine if you do them fresh and don’t leave them around to dry out). If you must cook them, don’t overdo it. Just a few minutes steamed or stir-fried, so that they still have an aroma and taste crunchy.

I’m not an avid eater of greens (unlike wifie, who eats green beans by the kilo while I’m savouring half-a-dozen one at a time). My favourite source of all those things the dieticians insist you should consume greens for is known as mache in France, and lamb’s lettuce in England, although it’s much harder to find there.

On my own, I get most of my vegetable rations by using a box or jar of soup as a base for my meal. Even fish soup has a lot of vegetables in it.

Souping-up soup

Start with a 1 litre box of good, thick soup – my local supermarket has everything from tomato, onion & basil through cream of pumpkin to local specialties like mushroom & chestnut.

This lasts me three or four meals. I try to fish out most of the added stuff with my portion, then what’s left stays in the pan and I add something different for each meal. Here are a few examples:

• a few frozen peas (reseal the packet and put it back in the freezer)
• a few frozen cockles (I can buy them cheaply by the kilo)
• fried streaky bacon chopped into small pieces
• chopped peanuts or cashews (why not? I’ve put them in omelettes before now)

Garnish with fresh parsley, a dab of crême fraîche, or whatever’s lying around that takes your fancy.

Accompany with slices of pain de campagne (sourdough bread). The French would look at me askance, because I usually put great slabs of butter on my bread, even when I’m using it with soup – some British habits die hard.

And now for dessert

It’s summer, and I have more fresh soft fruit than I can be bothered to freeze for the winter.

• Raspberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and white currants
• Crême fraîche
• Dark soft brown sugar

Put them into a bowl in that order, in slightly decreasing quantities as you work down the list.

Now for coffee

Nescafé Cap Colombie will do fine. Can’t be bothered with using an espresso machine for one cup.

• Take one small coffee cup
• Add two cubes of brown sugar
• Add one very heaped teaspoon of pure arabica freeze-dried coffee
• Heat water until it is just not boiling, or boil it and wait for the kettle to stop bubbling
• Pour in just enough to cover the sugar cubes (just over half a small coffee cup)

Feeling piggy? Have a couple of pieces of candied ginger with your coffee.

Relax.