Desert Island Dinners: Lizzie’s choices

Posted by louisa on Friday 11 February 2011 in desert island dinners | 0 comments

Lizzie from Lizzie’s Home World is the next victim castaway for Desert Island Dinners.

A frugal/simple living version of “Desert Island Discs”, every week I pry into the culinary secrets of someone from frugal/simple living-osphere.

Here’s the full premise if you’ve missed it:

You’re about to become a castaway on a desert island. The desert island will provide you with misc edible vegetation/wildlife and items that can be fashioned into basic pots/pans/utensils — but just before you’re whisked away, you have enough time to grab a herb or spice from your store cupboard; a special kitchen gadget/tool/utensil or piece of equipment; a cookbook; and a packet of seeds to grow on your any-climate island paradise. What would you pick to take with you? And which of your simple/frugal living skills do you think would be the most valuable while you’re there, and why?

And here are Lizzie‘s answers:

Herb/Spice At home top spices are cumin and coriander for a taste of the East, oregano and basil for when we are heading to the Med. Plus of course we love garlic and ginger. I would like to take all of these but if its down to one then it has to be crushed, dried chillies. We eat a lot of hot food and crushed chillies just add an extra bit of depth whenever it is used. I am assuming we would find plenty of vegetable options on our island and maybe eggs and meat, crushed chillies could just bring those tastes up a notch or two.

Gadget Although I do have a few gadgets like my rice cooker and garlic press I can manage most things with pans and a knife. For crushing coriander and other spices then I would need my pestle & mortar but if I am without my spices then it doesn’t have a use. Living in Greece for few years, in one room as we were really just travellers, i learnt to go without most equipment. I can drain pans without sieve or colander, i can crush garlic with a knife or if it needs to be really creamy then using the bottle of a wine bottle and a saucer. If I have a knife already I am opting for sharpener. All food is going to be cooked from scratch, of the first catch your rabbit variety, so my knife needs to be real sharp.

Cookbook Most ingredients wont be available to me so anything too indulgent would be a waste. I think it would have to be something from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (aka, Hugh Fearlessly Eat it all) as he would know how to deal with anything. I am going with Hugh’s River Cottage Meat Book.

Seeds Opting for oregano here as its job will be to potentially bring flavour to a lot of unfamiliar ingredients. I went through all sorts of options but everything I wanted was too complex like raspberry canes, onion set, seed potatoes. I have decided to stay simple and make it manageable.

Skill My main skill would be ability to deal with adversity without being unhappy. I have knife skills and mostly cook from scratch anyway. I have sewing skills (of the patch a clothes rip variety not couture level). I can make do and mend but I am betting the most useful skill is my ability to be happy and still smiling when things get bad.

Very enjoyable half an hour immersed in life on my desert island. Thank you .

No, no, thank you Lizzie! Some great answers as always – I’m a big fan of crushed dried chillis too (they pop up in most of my spicy recipes) because they’re not as prone to going off as fresh chillis and don’t go stale as quickly as chilli powder. I’ve never read anything by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (or seen him on TV) but I hear lots of positive things about the various River Cottage books so I guess I should look out for them! I love Lizzie’s skill choice too – dealing with adversity without getting down is a wonderful skill indeed.

Thanks again for answering the questions, Lizzie. Anyone else want to be castaway?

Su’s Desert Island Dinners

Posted by louisa on Thursday 3 February 2011 in desert island dinners | 0 comments

Last week, I started a fun new thing – Desert Island Dinners. It’s basically Desert Island Discs but with a frugal/simple living theme instead of music.

After Kate from Living the Frugal Life last week, I asked frequent commenter Su to be next up for deportation…!

Here’s the premise again:

You’re about to become a castaway on a desert island. The desert island will provide you with misc edible vegetation/wildlife and items that can be fashioned into basic pots/pans/utensils — but just before you’re whisked away, you have enough time to grab a herb or spice from your store cupboard; a special kitchen gadget/tool/utensil or piece of equipment; a cookbook; and a packet of seeds to grow on your any-climate island paradise. What would you pick to take with you? And which of your simple/frugal living skills do you think would be the most valuable while you’re there, and why?

Su replied:

Herb/spice – since I’m not overly fond of most herbs, I really wouldn’t miss them. Most of what I cook can’t contain garlic as daughter has a reaction to it, so I know that I can cope without that and just one spice, wouldn’t be enough for me. But, black pepper goes into and onto virtually everything I cook, so I really would miss that. I could crush it between two stones so peppercorns would be best.

Gadget/tool/utensil – this was for me the hardest to choose. A knife without a sharpener is useless, but that’s two objects. I did consider something in which to carry/ store fresh drinking water, but thought that I may be able to find something suitable on the beach (you’d think I was actually there, the way I am carrying on!). I also considered my haybox cooker, but that needs the appropriate pan to go into it, so again that’s two items. In the end, in a flash of inspiration, I decided on some method of lighting a fire, probably a lighter as they a a little less temperamental than matches. I don’t think my survival skills will stretch to striking stones together or rubbing sticks, but of course, you can’t cook anything without a flame.

Seeds – I think this would have to be tomato, so versatile, and in the hot climate of my desert island should grow well. I’m not going anywhere if it’s cold !

Cookbook – Very boringly this would have to be my rather dog eared copy of Delia’s complete cookery course. It’s the book I use most, generally for checking things, I don’t tend to follow complete recipes but checking of basic facts ( how long, what temperature etc, etc).

Skill – This would have to be my general ‘Blue Peterishness’ (not that that’s a word), I think I’m pretty good at cobbling stuff together and I’m sure it would be very useful!

All this thinking though, made me realise that actually, I wouldn’t be very good on a desert island. I could cope with the isolation and not having much in the way of luxury and general everyday trials and tribulations, but I’d never manage without my bed and tea!

Big thanks to Su for answering – especially as I know she has limited access to email. She also said “Well, I have thought about little else since [you asked], I’m not sure all this mental exercise is good for me!” — I hope it doesn’t clog up your brain for too long, Su!

With Su’s suggestions of black pepper, flame, tomatoes & a good reference book – and Kate’s garlic, a good knife, versatile kale & baking books – I’m really hoping that one of them gets to pack for me if I do end up being castaway!

If anyone else wants to play – please get in touch :)

Kate from Living the Frugal Life’s Desert Island Dinners

Posted by louisa on Thursday 27 January 2011 in desert island dinners | 2 comments

I mentioned earlier that I had a bit of a wacky idea a few days ago – “Desert Island Dinners”. Basically Desert Island Discs but with a frugal/simple living theme instead of music.

I picked Kate from Living the Frugal Life to be one of the first castaways – since she’s got such a great, inspiring blog and I wanted to get my hands on some of her simple living secrets!

First up, the premise:

You’re about to become a castaway on a desert island. The desert island will provide you with misc edible vegetation/wildlife and items that can be fashioned into basic pots/pans/utensils — but just before you’re whisked away, you have enough time to grab a herb or spice from your store cupboard; a special kitchen gadget/tool/utensil or piece of equipment; a cookbook; and a packet of seeds to grow on your any-climate island paradise. What would you pick to take with you? And which of your simple/frugal living skills do you think would be the most valuable while you’re there, and why?

And here are Kate‘s replies:

Herb or spice: Unequivocally this would have to be fresh garlic. I use it constantly and am galled when the stores of our homegrown start to get sprouty (round about this time of year), which leaves me with the dilemma of either buying store-bought, or making do only with our dehydrated garlic.

When it comes to kitchen gadgets my answer is pretty boring. I’d take a good knife. A good knife in combination with good knife skills will answer so many needs in a kitchen. I’m not much for gadgets, and a good knife would be very hard to improvise. For preference I’d take the Japanese made santoku my husband gave me as a gift a few years back. It pretty much instantly became my most heavily used knife. I’d been skeptical of santokus up to that time.

When it comes to cookbooks, I’m more of a skimmer than a follower. Almost invariably I end up departing from written recipes when it comes to cooking. I trained as a chef, which provides the confidence to do so. But when it comes to baking, in which I lack formal training, that’s a very different story. In baking you must follow fairly strict guidelines, prepare your dough, and then relinquish control to the oven. So perhaps I’d take a baking cookbook. Tough call between Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, Dorie Greenspan’s Baking with Julia, and Maggie Glezer’s Artisan Baking. Very tough call. Forced to choose, it would probably come down to the first though, since it’s so comprehensive.

One packet of seeds would be tough to choose. I’d agonize over the choice, but would probably end up picking Tuscan kale. It’s reliable, healthy, tasty, versatile, and has a very long season.

Most valuable skill – I probably couldn’t predict which of my skills would turn out to be most most valuable. Whether well founded or not, I have a pretty high confidence in my ability to do most things at least passably well, so I’m willing to try anything once and unlikely to give up in despair. I think I’ve learned to improvise fairly well, which would surely be a useful skill on a desert island. I consider myself a decent observer of the natural world, which would also be useful. I can garden and cook and am quite content with solitude. Again if forced to choose, the first skill, confidence, would be the one I’d predict to be most valuable. On the other hand, I have absolutely no sense of direction, so my exploration of the island would be very slow and cautious.

Thanks so much to Kate for taking part – I’m really interested in learning about santokus now so I’m really glad I asked! I also can’t believe I forgot garlic when I was having my cumin or chilli conundrum! How could I cook without garlic?!!?

Anyone else want to join in the mirth and merriment? :)

Desert Island Dinners

Posted by louisa on Thursday 27 January 2011 in desert island dinners | 0 comments

Wacky idea time. I thought it might be fun to play a variety of “Desert Island Discs” – but about frugal/simple living instead. I’ve jokingly called it “Desert Island Dinners” ;)

For those who don’t know, Desert Island Discs is a BBC radio show that has been going since 1942. Each week, a celebrity is asked what eight records or pieces of music they’d take if they were going to be marooned on a desert island (they’re also allowed to take a book and a luxury). Basically, it’s a framework to interview these famous people about their lives (“I first heard this song when I was working in a shoe factory in Bangor”) and what gets their toes tapping.

Instead of talking about music though, I’d like to find out more about my favourite bloggers & commenters frugal/simple living tips, skills and obsessions. This is what I’ve come up with:

As with the radio show, I thought it might form a fun way to find out more about everyone – let us share our cooking/growing tips, hints, secrets and obsessions!

As it’s only fair (and to give people an idea about what I mean, if they’re not familiar with the premise or whatever), here are my answers:

A herb or spice: it would be a toss up between dried chilli flakes and cumin seeds. Probably the chilli since it’s more flexible but mmm, cumin.

A kitchen gadget/utensil/tool/piece of equipment: my cast iron casserole dish because it’s good for cooking all sorts of dishes – casseroles, preserve and baking, as well as a heavy bottomed pan for general cooking.

A cookbook: I don’t really use cookbooks – I use the internet and memory more – so would probably say my own cooking notebook with my “recipes” web bookmark folder printed out into it. If I’m being strict with myself and insisting on a printed book, it would probably be Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz as it’s a fascinating topic.

A packet of seeds: Perhaps I should pick chillis so I could have cumin above…! No, I think it would be butternut squash seeds – yummy and versatile.

Most valuable skill: Hmm, tough one. My boyfriend John says my “chicken husbandry” but I’d say gardening skills, even though I’ve still got a lot to learn.

Next up being sent to the island: Kate from Living the Frugal Life – her answers to follow shortly.

Anyone else want to join in the fun? :)