Finally Some Good Food 3.3: The Year of Ruby

Hello everyone! As usual, it has been longer than I planned. But it’s been a busy January and to be honest, first half of February. I’m currently at the phase I regularly enter in my creative career, which is ‘apply for as many things as possible and see what pays off’.

So far, this strategy is not going too bad. As my partner keeps telling me, it is ‘The Year of Ruby’, aka it surely has to be better than last year (we hope).

My first piece of good news for the year was that I was a runner up in Northern Broadside and Arvon’s Winter Short Story competition, which I’m really pleased with. It is a romcom in the form of a food blog, which may not be a surprise, but is an idea I have been trying to write for at least four years and then came out all of a sudden when I saw this prompt. (Literally, I think it was about two days of writing).

You can read it here!

I have also launched my first workshop of the year:

A special workshop at Withington Public Hall on the 19th of March, just in time to celebrate the Spring equinox! We will using lots of cool and interested prompts from the world of witchcraft, folklore and magic to create new work! However, it is actually already sold out, but you can join the waitlist here, or if there is enough of you who want to go without tickets, I can try and run it a second time somewhere, so do let me know!

join the waitlist here

Also, of course, the most important update. I dyed my hair red.

I’ve been debating this for a while, after being inspired by my friend Will who got his ear pierced without telling anyone (very cool move and as a chronic oversharer, something I am almost completely unable to do). Ear piercing is also something I’ve been contemplating, (especially having felt bad for having received earrings in the past by well-meaning friends and relatives) but I’m currently still undecided. It was one of the things Mum had strong opinions about, always telling me that “the pain would be too much” for me (the biggest reads come from the people closest to you). In fact, she only felt strongly against two things in my life: piercing my ears and red hair.

Don’t get me wrong, she was a lovely, kind and accepting woman in any circumstance with anyone of all backgrounds. Except gingers. It was the only thing she would make remarks about, saying the word ‘ginger’ with disdain, despite the fact I watched her dye her hair red MULTIPLE TIMES. But she would warn me it was the one colour you couldn’t get rid of, and so I was reluctant to touch it.

But I’m getting older. No matter what I do, my body will change in a way that isn’t reversible, no matter what products or plastic surgeons may tell you. I’ve spent the last nine months staring at my grey hairs and under eye bags, seeing a hollowed out, haunted version of myself. I want to feel young and fun again, but also acknowledge that I’m not the same person I was.

So, on Sunday February 1st, St Brigid’s day, armed with an impulse and some Garnier Tumeric Copper that was on Nectar card offer, I took to my hair. Having used a copper dye previously to absolutely no results whatsoever, you can imagine my surprise when the dye managed to turn my dark brown hair into a brilliant red, with my roots turning almost golden orange.

In short, I love it. In long, my reflection now feels like a Rossetti model, something ancient and romantic and arcane. I could have dyed my hair the same colour as it was, but that would feel like a facade, trying to pretend that I am normal, when I am not. While most people and conversations have moved on, I’m still grieving! I’m still heart-broken! But, I am expressing myself deliberately and having fun with it! Like the phoenix, I am remaking myself into something new. The greys are still lighter than the rest of my hair, but in a certain light, they look golden now, the heart of a flame. And the funniest thing is that when I look in the mirror and I love it, I know Mum would love it too. (After she’d made a ginger joke).

In my research on Rossetti’s obsession with red haired women, I found this excellent quote from Elizabeth Gaskell about the man:

“I think we got to know Rossetti pretty well … I had a good deal of talk with him, always excepting the times when ladies with beautiful hair came in … It did not signify what we were talking about or how agreeable I was; if a particular kind of reddish brown, crepe wavy hair came in, he was away in a moment struggling for an introduction to the owner of said head of hair. He is not as mad as a March hare, but hair-mad.”

I’m not quite at that level, but I do find myself looking at my reflection more and taking more outfit pics of myself, so maybe I might become a little hair-mad as of yet.

Also, the man at the library cafe asked me if I was a student, so it’s nice to know I now look less haggard than I feel!

Now, onto the bit you know and love: food.

soup of the day with cheesy garlic toast, Egg Cafe

I was in Liverpool right at the beginning of the year not far off Bold Street, so went for lunch at Egg Cafe. The soup of the day was a red pepper and lentil, which I thought was perhaps one of the best soups I ever had, until I had it without the cheesy garlic toast and it was good, but not the best. However, as a combo, wow! Turns out thick gooey cheese and garlic go well with a lot.

Bar Posie

Didn’t take as much advantage of January dining deals as I could have, but we did go to Bar Posie on a double date with our friends Alice and Joe as they had a deal on oysters and aperitivos. All the seating there is immoveable and not designed for more than two people, which is odd, but the food is very nice. I particularly enjoyed the sorrel granita and mezcal margarita oysters, the sticky honey brioche with baron bigod and the mussels tigres (mussels breaded and fried in a mix of creamy and tomato sauce).

bean chilli

In my pursuit of easy and healthy recipes that can stretch, I made my first ever chilli - we weren’t a chilli household growing up, so I based mine off newsletter regular Cherelle’s (are you happy now), which in turn is based off Rachel Ama’s vegan recipe, but with the addition of dark chocolate and also taking out sweetcorn, which, in my opinion, is a pointless vegetable in most contexts. It’s a lot of liquid so it took a lot of simmering and additions like MSG, Worcestershire sauce, etc, and the second time I made it, I used dried chipotle chillis which I made into a paste. However, I do feel more confident now with cooking chilli as a concept and I enjoy how it can be used differently (with rice, tortilla chips, in a wrap, etc.)

veggie sandwich special, Something More Productive -

Perhaps the best sandwich I’ve had in Manchester? It was a zaatar and sumac squash, miso sesame aioli and lemon radicchio on big bouncy brown sourdough bread and it was truly heavenly. It’s the imagination and technique I crave in a vegetarian sandwich and also as a cafe just generally has a lovely vibe and a sweet dog. What’s not to love?

spinach and artichoke dip, Blues Kitchen

The name is misleading, because what this actually is is a cheese dip with some green in it. But better than it had any right to be, considering it is in Blues Kitchen.

homemade meatball marinara

I was gifted an abundance of IKEA plantballs by my friend Joe I, so in an effort to use them up, I have found combining them with fried onions, garlic, passata and Merchant Gourmet Tomatoey French lentils makes a really nice meatball sauce, good for both pasta and homemade ‘meatball’ sandwiches.

I decided I wanted to try some brand new recipes, so flicked through Cook As You Are by Ruby Tandoh and so far, have tried the following.

chilli crisp gnocchi with capers

Very easy to make, but I’m not won over 100% on capers (I find they have a metallic twang for me). However, I would remake again with some added vegetables (maybe broccoli or something?), as it makes an incredibly easy sauce base.

puttanesca couscous

Basically what if you make puttanesca with giant coucous rather than pasta. Still not won over on the capers, but otherwise really tasty. would make again.

mushroom gochujang udon

Ive never cooked with gochujang before, so it was spicier than I anticipated (less spicy on reheating though.) I would probably adjust the amount of gochujang used for my own personal preference, and also not add the sugar; the sauce was too sweet on first taste, and I add to add a lot of seasoning to make it savoury again. I also made this with crunchy peanut butter which added a nice extra texture. It was also nice when freshly made with some pickled ginger and black sesame seeds on top, but that’s just me.

crispy butter beans with tomato sauce and garlic yogurt

good flavour combo and very filling, although struggled to make them crispy enough (but maybe I did not use enough butter or leave them for long enough). In future, I might just add the beans to the tomato sauce in the pan near the end so they were less dry?

in the oven tomato and butterbean coconut stew

I liked how easy this was to make, although the finished product is lacking…something. I love the flavour of the roast garlic though, so I may try making it with stock and blending as an easy homemade tomato soup?

Me and my partner took a trip to Scotland as a last hurrah before he starts working full-time again, so we went to Cambeltown for the whisky (his idea) and Glasgow for the culture (my idea).

If you go to Cambeltown, I will say the main attraction is the whisky distilleries. We visited Kilkerran and Springback quite thoroughly over the two days we were there, and I was very often the only woman who wasn’t working there. I do want to shoutout The Washback Bar at the Springbank distillery, which did a surprisingly good mushroom soup and hot chocolate.

In terms of Glasgow, I have a few more recs:

white chocolate and macadamia cookie/banoffee choux bun, Cottonrake Bakery

Cottonrake comes up as one of Glasgow’s best bakeries and it is a reliable rec - both sweet treats we had here were delighful.

brown butter, chocolate and sea salt cookie/vanilla matcha, Zennor

However, perhaps the nicest shop cookie I’ve ever had was at Zennor, an independent coffee shop in the East End of Glasgow. Also they make the syrups for the drinks themselves, which is nice, especially if you are sensitive to artificial additives. This meant my matcha had a really good and less synthetic vanilla flavour.

squash and aioli brioche, Short Long Black/Burnfield Bakery

Another imaginative vegetarian option - in fact, it’s vegan, which is even more impressive.

tiramisu, sugo pasta

While the pasta here was good, the tiramisu was next level! So light and fluffy and moreish, we will definitely return when we go back. Thanks to Clare for both the Sugo and Short Long Black rec!

Sam’s lasagne and Charlie’s salad

You guys can’t buy it sadly, but special shout out to our lovely hosts Sam and Charlie, who let us binge the Traitors in their home and cooked us a delicious dinner of an incredible lasagne and kale salad, which changed my mind on Kale. In fact Ed made his own version of the salad (which is based off this recipe but with added honey and tahini, and at least an hour of maceration time) with salmon when we got home.

Finally, not a food rec, but one for the art fans: we went to the Kelvingrove Museum and in the exhibit about Glasgow’s art scene, I learned about Margaret and Frances MacDonald, who were two incredibly talented artist sisters - their works are stunning but often sidelined because of their artist husbands (Margaret was married to Charles Rennie Mackintosh, who reportedly said of her: “Margaret has genius, I have only talent."). So if you love art nouveau stuff, you should definitely check them out!

That’s all for this edition, but I will also be launching a new feature on my website soon, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, if you enjoy my writing or use any of my recommendations you can chuck me a quid or two here :

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However I understand things are financially tough for a lot of people at the moment, so one of the most useful things you can do for a writer is share their work! So please feel free to share on social media if you can!

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And finally, as I always say, if you relate to anything in this newsletter, or have any recs I’d love to hear from you. One of the hardest things about grief is how lonely it can be.

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Otherwise, I’ll see you all soon (depending on my many, many deadlines).