Compendium 4: January 2025

Hello and welcome to the first Compendium of the year.

This is the monthly place I share a few things I hope you’ll like, that I hope will feed your senses.

Thank you for the comments, emails and Notes relating to earlier ones: I’m delighted it’s being so well received.

1: Abundance, the book - get your name in it

You know that ‘book’ - Abundance - that I’m writing here live? Well, later this year, it becomes a book you can hold in your hand.

A month into it, four publishers came knocking which shows you that the publishing world really does pay attention to the communities of Substack. I didn’t intend it to become a book as such, but that just shows you what can happen here if you throw yourself at it. I really appreciate you all being here and making it possible, thank you.

I’m on the final tweaks, reshoots and all that at the moment and it’s really taking shape.

If you are a paid subscriber, your name (or someone you’d like to include instead) will be in the book as a huge thank you to recognise your role in helping make it happen. I’ll be emailing later, in case you’d rather not have your name in there.

If you’d like your name in it, signup as a paid subscriber quick (there are loads of other benefits) as the cut off is Friday.

If you’ve been here a while and would like your name in it but life leaves you a little short to upgrade, email me.

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2: Eat

This vegetarian curry¹ might be long on ingredients but it’s short on fuss, and as much a template for what’s in season as something to follow too strictly: I might be tempted to shift in tenderstem or sprouting broccoli for the beans and asparagus, for example. By ‘serves 4’ I mean ‘serves 4 with enough leftover to squish into toast for the best breakfast the day after’.

Vegetable Korma

It’s perfectly easy to make a good vegetable curry; making a special one is another matter. The secret here is in cooking the vegetables in two groups and in the subtleness of the spicing: taking the flavour of the garam masala (see page xxx) off to the left with extra green cardamom pods, there’s the soft bitter backdrop of the saffron, and the warmth of the cassia.

Serves 4

300g new potato, cut into bite size spices
200g cauliflower florets, cut into bite size spices
300g butternut squash or sweet potato, cut into bite size spices
150g baby carrots, peeled
1 tbsp oil
200g green beans, trimmed and cut in half
200g mangetout, trimmed
100g asparagus, trimmed and cut into 4cm pieces
150g peas
100g natural yogurt
½ lemon
1 tbsp garam masala
30g butter or ghee
1 cassia stick, or equal quantities of shards
8 green cardamon pods
2 bay leaf
1 blade mace
1 dried Kashmiri chilli (optional)
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp sugar
40g cashews, ground to a coarse powder (or use ground almonds)
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1 big pinch of saffron, soaked in 2 tbsp warm water
Small bunch coriander, finely chopped
1 pomegranate, seeds removed

Heat the oven to 200°C fan.

In a large bowl, toss the carrots, potato, cauliflower and squash with 1 tbsp oil, 1 tsp garam masala and a big pinch of salt. Roast for 15-20 minutes until tender. Put to one side.

Being a big pan of salted water to the boil and cook the green vegetables for 4-5 minutes until tender, then drain and plunge into cold water to stop the cooking. Put to one side.

Cook the onion in half the butter for 10-15 minutes until soft and beginning to turn golden. Remove to a blender or food processor and blend to a smooth paste with the ground nuts, 1 tsp garam masala, lemon juice, yogurt and the sugar.

In the same pan fry the whole spices in the remaining butter for 1 minute until fragrant, then add the garlic and ginger and fry for a few seconds. Add the onion paste along with the saffron and its soaking water to the pan and stir for 5 minutes to thicken.

Add 300ml water and a bit more salt to taste if needed, then cover and gently simmer for about 5 minutes, or until the sauce is rich and thick.

Add the vegetables and warm through, adding a splash of water if you want. Check the seasoning, adding salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice if needed.

Serve sprinkled with the pomegranate seeds, the rest of the garam masala and the coriander. Serve with rice or naan breads.

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3: Ears

Thank you for so many comments, emails and messages about the Christmas playlist - you are very welcome. This month, my fascination with cover versions has led to two playlists, one livelier than the other. It’s a tricky business having a go at a familiar song - you either have to be incredible or do it very differently. I’ve left off some of the better known - Jimi’s All Along The Watchtower, for instance - as there are plenty you might no know, one or two you might not know are covers (eg Blondie’s cover of the Nerves’ Hanging On The Telephone, or The Isley’s version of Seals and Crofts’ Summer Breeze), a few so brilliantly different to the original (Manfred Mann’s Blinded By The Light almost unrecognisable from Springsteen’s original), some so close in style yet still magical (eg Lianne La Havas’ Weird Fishes), and if you can direct me to a greater performance than Aretha’s singing Marvin’s Wholly Holy I’ll buy you a Curly Wurly².

Livelier

Less lively

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4: Food Writing Weekend - SOLD OUT

The first residential course Diana Henry and I have run in 5 years sold out before Christmas - people are coming from as far as New Zealand, California, Spain and Switzerland, and as near as a mile away. I’m not sure when we might run another but we keep a waiting list in case anyone wants to drop out: email me if you would like to be added to it.

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5: Eyes

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the 72 mini-seasons observed in Japan and discovered this marvel from

Lev Parikian

. What a pleasure of a read it is, and if you buy it direct he’ll sign and even dedicate it for you.

Elisa Rathje’s Appleturnover Substack

I first met Elisa years ago, when she visited River Cottage back in the early days, when I was running a course there. Hers is one of the most distracting, transporting, beautifully paced substacks I subscribe to and if you like the idea of following the progress of someone intent in skilling themselves with the essentials, on a small farm on a small island, in the company of ducks, goats and more besides, you should dive in.

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6: Drink

Seville orange and cardamom gin

This is from my book SOUR³. If you are prone, as I, to buying a skipful of Sevilles for the pleasure of marmalade making, before remembering that you only get through three jars a year, this is the most pleasing of homes for those leftover. A couple of star anise work well in place of the cardamom, but it has a touch too much Christmas for me when I’m all New Yeary when the Sevilles are about.

1 litre gin
5 Seville oranges
8 green cardamom pods

Cut each orange in half, and then cut each into half-moons around 4mm thick. Place them in a 1.5 Kilner jar, and add the cardamom.

Pour the gin into the jar - you may end up with enough of a tot left in the bottle to reward you for your hard slicing labours.

Leave this for a couple of weeks; a couple of months if you can. Enjoy with tonic, or ginger ale, and plenty of ice.

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7: Garden

I’ve spoken to many people over the years who haven’t planted an asparagus bed as they weren’t sure how long they’d be staying where they were - they take a few years of establishing before they produce - but how many of us live half-expecting a change that doesn’t arrive. Plant them: the worst that happens is that some grateful soul following you will have their life uplifted and think of you fondly every spring.

You can source artichoke crowns (young plants, usually bareroot) from many nurseries: my nursery has a few varieties, including some that are to year old potted plants which gets you well ahead and nearer a harvest: click here to see them.

Don’t forget, if you are a paid subscriber in the UK you get 25% off all plants and seeds.⁴

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8: My other writing

Scribehound gardening

We are into the third month of 30 of the best gardening writers - including Joe Swift, Advolly Richmond, Huw Richards and Sarah Raven - writing about what they most want to.

Subscribe, and once a day an email of brilliant gardening writing will arrive in your inbox to read or listen to. My latest about planting a pecan orchard - likely the only one in the country - and what it brought me.

Click here to subscribe for £3 for 3 months.

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Country Life: Microleaves

My column for Country Life this month is about microleaves - seedlings no larger than 7cm or so, that are full of an even more intense flavour than when fully grown. Coriander, radish and rocket are three of my favourites, but there’s a wide range of deliciousness that’s ready in a very short time.

Click here to read about them.

And if you fancy growing them yourself, don’t forget paid subscribers in the UK get 25% off plants and seeds from my nursery⁵.

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Sunday Times Food

Once a month, I come up with three recipes that are tweaks on the familiar - that elevate the usual with a touch of something special. My latest includes a chipotle mac. and cheese (I still find it very hard not to say macaroni cheese, like a grandad). I hope you enjoy them.

It’s behind their paywall here.

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9: Born To Do What They Do

I love Liverpool and owe it a great debt of pleasure. I was made an honorary professor of Liverpool University a couple of years ago which made me extremely happy, and as ridiculous luck would have it I ran into Sir Kenny Dalglish, a man I regard as one of the truly great people of our time. I had a little cry. The Beatles tour of the city is genuinely one of the best days you could ever have. I wrote about all this and more here.

At last, I went to see Paul McCartney live, just before Christmas. It was an extraordinary experience. Not only was it just so incredibly brilliant as a gig, (check this review) but I couldn’t quite get my head around the fact that this man a few yards away was the same man who ran out to Shea Stadium 60 years ago, the same man who wrote Blackbird, who it felt as remarkable to be listening to the songs that since a small kid and playing the old man’s red Best of The Beatles album to death has soundtracked so much of those years. We tend to revere people who are dead more than those who remain, but no musician is bigger, more influential or as crazily talented as the perfectly alive McCartney. If he had only played the bass, we would all know his name for being one of the few who changed how it was played, but of course he did all the rest.

This does my had in: remember when Ed Sheeran’s Shape of You came out a few years ago? Imagine the first Beatles album came out at the same time; if it had, their last album would be released nows. From doing rock and roll covers like Twist and Shout to Across The Universe, via Golden Slumbers and so much more, in 7 short years. A sneeze in time. And in that few years they changed everything.

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about The Beatles is that unlike everyone that followed, they did all that without The Beatles to influence them.

Even when just running through a song like this quickly in the studio, off hand, it won’t lie down and be ordinary. What a melody, what lyrics. I mean, even if you hate his music, you have to accept that most of us wouldn’t be listening to what we love without him.

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More soon…in the meantime, happy end of January

Mark

1. This is from my book SPICE/a cook’s companion: paid subscribers can get this for only £3.50 +p&p (RRP £25)

2. This may not be entirely true

3. Yes, since you ask it was shortlisted for James Beard Award (aka the global food Oscars) but I don’t like talking about it.

4. More info about how to do this here.

5. Click the link in the footnote above