Changing Food… One Meal At A Time!
Summer
Jan Fullwood Food Consultant
(aka JamJarJan)
NOTES FROM A CHAOTIC KITCHEN
Welcome to day to day life in a chaotic well used kitchen…..
A constantly evolving kitchen: always busy, full of cooking and creating (dinner, treats, mess) for work and for play, for family and friends.
Let me introduce myself and my family:
- A Food and Recipe Consultant who is ‘never knowingly under-catered’, I’ll whip up a five-minute muffin mix at a moment’s notice. I’m constantly creating, evaluating and eating, always cooking and learning something new.
- Long-suffering Hub who just wants a clutter-free kitchen (and longs for a bit of peace and quiet). Happiest in the garden.
- Eldest cheffie son and his patisserie chef girlfriend who cook catering quantities of delicious food at every opportunity for us to sample (hard job, but someone’s got to do it)
- Protein & carb obsessed younger son set for uni (cooking not his forte - self survival skills urgently required)
We all eat to live. Let me help you live to eat.
What's in Jan's Pan?
June 2025
If I am to follow on from May with another month-inspired musical theme, then June is definitely busting out all over. And if my garden is anything to go by, then it's fair to say that particular song from “Carousel” is one hundred percent accurate. The wonderful weather we've been enjoying recently has brought out the best of the garden. There’s a certain point in the year when it seems that every flower got the memo, and each and every one dons its glad rags, ready for some global celestial event, their blooms wide open and perfect, looking towards the sky and glowing in the sunlight. And that event is the celebration of June itself, with its long days and sunny disposition, there to be enjoyed by all.
Even the great garden guru, Monty Don, claims that there are more insects than ever returning to our gardens to join the party, and the wildflower borders he suggests cultivating are perfect to welcome them in. We are ahead of the game on that front, and our gardening style ('kempt unkempt' as Hub likes to call it) encourages insects and bees in droves. The good weather has meant we have been able to savour the longest days of the year more so than usual. How often does the summer solstice pass us by when the weather is not so inviting? But for once there have been plenty of opportunities for weekday meals and weekend entertaining al fresco.
Student son is home again too, making the house feel like a home again. He’s already grazing at the ‘snack station’ on homemade breads and endless supply of nutty butter. He hadn’t appreciated the limitless nature of these staples until he went away, with no ‘cooking fairy’ (aka Mother) to replenish with the wave of a magic wand.
But he survived his first year at uni, and realised just how much knowledge he had absorbed from being part of such a food-focussed family. He did himself proud, cooking mainly from scratch and making the most of budget buys and student deals. But he’d forgotten just how much feasting is an integral part of home life here, and we welcomed him back with a big Sunday roast of belly pork and all the trimmings. He pigged out (of course) and claimed it was more than he’d eaten all term in just one sitting.
I recently read that writing is an excuse to go out and have experiences. I've never been shy to seize any opportunities that come my way (Ok, so FOMO Fullwood is my middle name), but if I'm to hone my writing skills then I need to put my money where my mouth is (essential when writing about food of course - my excuse and I’m sticking to it).
This month has been no exception. Highlights have been an incredible Malaysian supperclub hosted by Norman Musa at Divertimenti Cook Shop in the Brompton Road (details below), and the Guild of Food Writers Awards ceremony. This, for me, as committee member responsible for overseeing the judging process, is the culmination of nearly a year's worth of planning and organising. I help to ensure that the judging and presentation of 15 categories for awards for cookery books, food and restaurant writers goes smoothly without a hitch. Then follows a huge presentation ceremony at the Royal Institution in London.
This event is rather like the flowers in the garden - a room full of eager blooms in their most colourful garb that come together for one big momentous occasion, to look towards the light of the talent and food writing royalty as prestigious as Delia, Dames Mary and Prue, Ken Hom and Jamie O, to name-drop but a few. But it’s not all big names, there are many rising stars of the future and our Newcomer Award is one I particularly hold dear, as it gives writers who have never had anything published the opportunity to rub shoulders with their icons and learn from the wealth of experience in the room.
We always heave a huge sigh of relief once the whole event has been successfully delivered (and copious amounts of drinks and canapés have been consumed), then hide in a darkened room for a while to recover before we start the process all over again for next year. But it's wonderful to be part of such a well-oiled and inclusive team, and as you may have gathered, there are plenty of perks for our (voluntary) labour of love along the way.
Check out the benefits of Guild of Food Writers membership Here.
Read on for details of the month’s summer seasonally early fruit picking and preserving, al fresco meals and some tips to make the most of your pizza oven heat once the pizzas are long consumed.
Now excuse me - I must turn my head to that light with the flowers and make the most of my glorious garden and the joys of June.
What's in Jan's Preserving Pan
The fruit is ripening early in the summer sunshine, I’m sure I usually start to pick it in July. Our fruit and veg patch has redcurrants. blackcurrants, gooseberries which fruit evey year, and now Alpine strawberries have taken hold and spread over the ground as well.
There’s nothing better than going down early morning or late evening to pick the fruit. It’s very therapeutic, away from the call of social media, lost in your own thoughts with the sound of nature around you. It’s a gentle way to ease into the day and feel at one with the world. Long trousers and gardening gloves are required to avoid the brambles and nettles which catch you unawares as you reach over, focussing on a particularly ripe and juicy blackcurrant. These ripen at different stages even on the same cluster of currants, so it’s never all done in one go.
Redcurrants drip like jewels and the sprigs are easier to pick. De-strigging them can be time consuming (I use a fork to pull them off) so I tend to freeze them with the sprigs on because the currants just simply detach once they’re frozen. This keeps them at their best so I take out what I need throughout the year.
Fruit picking can be a labour of love - picking, sorting, washing and preserving, but it's become part of my annual routine and I benefit from the bounty all year round.
I do love to make jam, blackcurrant is my all time favourite, but as it is so sugar-laden I also like to make a simpler low-sugar conserve to keep in the fridge for more immediate use.
Jam requires 60% sugar to preserve it fully and store for a year or more. Here I cooked up the blackcurrants with a squeeze of lime (my favourite flavour combination) and 30% sugar which is just enough to sweeten the fruit but retains that shudder of sharpness.
It's easy enough to work out how much to add with this simple calculation:
For standard jam with 60% sugar divide the weight of the fruit or cooked pulp by 0.6 and multiply by 0.4% to give the weight of sugar to add.
This can then be adjusted accordingly depending on the percentage you want to incorporate.
For 30% sugar divide the weight of fruit by 0.7 and multiply by 0.3% to give the weight of sugar to add, and so on.
It may not spread like a traditional jam, but it reduces the sugar highs and brings out the true fruit character. It will need to be kept in the fridge as the shelf life will be considerably shorter. It's perfect for quick desserts though - layer up with yoghurt or custard and crumbled biscuits or sponge for an easy mid-week trifle-style dessert.
What's in Jan's veg box
I served this salad whilst partying on the patio during a particularly good spell of weather. Perfect to enjoy amongst the alstroemeria.
Roast Bunched Carrots with freekeh, carrot tops and feta
Serves 4
I love the bunched carrots that arrive in my veg box, and this recipe makes the most of the edible tops as well. They look like firmer less delicate versions of dill or fennel tops with a grassy, earthy flavour and a subtle hint of the carrots. Full of iron it’s a shame to waste them. There are plenty of recipes for pesto too, it’s good to bulk out other more fragrant herbs. So simple, but effective.
Freekeh is a delicious smoky-flavoured cracked grain from the Middle-East. It's available in supermarkets, but the most authentic I have found is available from Buy Wholefoods Direct . Bulgur wheat, pearl barley, wheatberries or couscous are good alternatives, but do try the freekeh if you haven't before it’s much more flavoursome.
Cut the tops off the carrots to store them. Pop the fronds in a jug of water to keep them fresh. Rinse and chop a good handful.
Heat your oven to 220C/200C Fan/ Gas 7. Scrub the carrots and cut in half. Lay them on a baking tray and toss generously with olive oil. Roast the carrots for 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally, until they soften and char.
Now crumble a block of feta into large chunks and scatter over the carrots. Allow to soften and char for up to 10 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
Meanwhile cook 200g freekeh in 450ml well flavoured vegetable stock*
Nestle the soft warm carrots and feta on top. Drizzle with a little honey and sprinkle with some extra carrot fronds.
Serve warm or cold.
*Ruth Nieman’s recommendation for cooking freekeh in her book “Freekeh: Wild Wheat & Ancient Grains” gives results:
Rinse the freekeh for 2-3mins under cold water to remove any chaff or grit.
Place in a pan with the water, simmer in a medium heat for 20-35mins until the water has absorbed. The freekeh should be tender but with a slight bite.
Cover the pan and remove from the heat and allow to steam for 10 mins.
What's on Jan's plate
Norman Musa's Malaysian supperclub at Divertimenti in the Brompton Road
We were welcomed with hibiscus fizz, Malaysia's national flower symbolizing the country's cultural heritage, unity, and resilience. Its five petals represent the five principles of Rukun Negara, reflecting core national values such as loyalty and morality. This was my treat for missing out on the Kuala Lumpur part of my Borneo trip in March (check the archives for details). Norman was kind enough to recommend many places to visit to experinece the markets and the best food, so this was compensation for the consequences of Heathrow's power outage and delayed flights.
We were served a canapé of aubergine on a fried tempeh slice, such an innovative use of tempeh, made of fermented soybeans.
The starters came in hot pursuit:
umai - halibut ceviche with beetroot lemongrass and ginger ( top right)
chicken satay with chunky sauce ( middle right).
spiced honey prawns (bottom right)
and then when we thought we’d eaten our fill, along came the main course of
beef short rib rendang with turmeric rice fried lotus root (top left).
We finished with Norman’s interpretation of tiramisu (bottom left) sprinkled with a layer of green macha.
Many of these recipes are available in Norman's book Amazing Malaysian and I thoroughly recommend following Norman's culinary adventures on his website and Instagram, as he does so many events involving his fabulous food, so check them out here , he really is the most talented and generous of chefs. We were offered a discount on the range of culinary must-haves that Diverimenti stocks, and their kitchen workshop hosts many great food events throughout the year, see Here
Other adventures have involved a return to Souk restaurant, a North African themed haven in Lichfield Street Covent Garden I was introduced to many years ago, a skip and a hop from the showing of the Mousetrap's 72nd year at the Martin's Theatre, where we celebrated a friend’s big birthday. Souk serves bottomless vegetable couscous and oh-so-tender tagines and hubbabubba pipes should the fancy take it. A Fez is essential headwear, provided at the table and the focus of much hilarity for our group photo. Their set menu is incredible value and somewhat cheaper than the original Ivy restaurant on the corner (although that's a place to be experienced too of course), but makes for a very affordable treat out, especially when combined with the cheap seats in the gods there was more money to spend on the obligatory cocktails (essential for big birthday celebrations) and we found that The Alchemist St Martin’s Lane was a mere 3 minutes walk away, close to Leicester Square tube where we hopped on a train back home.
I had made a Hummingbird cake for the birthday girl which we covered in candles and had with mint tea fresh from the garden, the fizz in the fridge left untouched (our limits well and truly reached).
I used Mary Berry’s recipe for Hummingbird cake which is a sunny mix of ripe bananas and tinned pineapple from her Everyday Cooking book. Rather than the usual sugar laden cream cheese topping I used Nicola Lamb’s honey cream cheese frosting in her award winning cookbook “Sift”, with honey to replace the copious quantities of icing sugar plus my own touch of orange zest and juice to complement the cake.
Congratulations to Nicola for getting a hat trick of food awards - Fortnum’, James Beard and finally our very own Guild of Food Writers Award, all very well deserved for her incredible deep dive into the mechanics of baking plus some inspirational well-written recipes, a book that has earnt its place on my bookshelf as a ‘keeper’.
Great pizza toppings at a recent pizza gathering
Camembert and apple from our trip to Le Brevedent in Normandy
Pear, blue cheese, walnuts and honey from our friend's trip to NZ
Top right picture
Overnight rice pudding, cooked in the residual heat of around 100C
Middle left
Dried Borlotti beans cooked overnight with garlic and rosemary in plenty of water
Pizza party leftovers lamb stew
Lamb chump chops cooked with raw leftover aubergine and peppers, leftover tomato sauce from the pizza, cooked in the slow cooker and harissa paste and slow cooked overnight. I didn this in my slow cooker rather than using the pizza oven's residual heat, but plugged it into the solar power socket, so win win all round. I portioned this up and froze it for colder times (certainly not what's required in the 30 degree heat we have currently been experiencing - it's salads all the way at the moment, mainly picked straight from the garden before they wilt in the heat).
This is the book I turn to for inspiration and guidance, Genevieve Taylor does cookery classes in Bristol too if anyone’s out that way and wants a comprehensive guide to wood fired oven cooking.
What's in Jan's Air Fryer
Nettle tea
Roast nuts
Crispy bacon in sourdough focaccia
I’m beginning to view nettles with a different eye. Apparently, they have antihistamine properties (useful for the mass of mossie bites accrued during the heatwave sitting in the garden - the tingle of the nettle sting possibly subsides more quickly than the itch of the bite). Whilst I’ve always thought of them as hindrance I'm beginning to see their benefits as I recently read about their superpower properties in particular for combating arthritis and joint pain. Jam-packed with vitamins and minerals they can be used in the same way as spinach - don’t be put off by the sting, it’s rendered harmless once cooked. Use the tips and use gloves to pick it. I’ve been making good use of the dehydrate setting for drying leaves for teas. They can be used fresh of course, but it’s good to have a stock of dried leaves too, mint, nettle and blackcurrant leaves are my favourites.
We’ve also discovered that the air fryer is great for roasting mixed nuts for healthy snacking. Around 6-8 minutes on 180C, shaking them frequently and making sure they don’t burn. They can be sprinkled with spice and a spritz of oil for a party snack.
Finally, air fried bacon is our new favourite way to create beautifully crisp rashers and it’s easier to clean the air fried pan than a grill. I served it here in my sourdough focaccia, I’ve found that This recipe shared by a friend gives good results.
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