If we are to read the stars, it looks like life as we know it is about to come to an abrupt end.
Several governments including Ireland have recently issued booklets to their citizens to highlight the importance of household resilience, urging us to be prepared for, among other things, possible upcoming food security issues.
Due to a combination of geopolitical events, wars in Ukraine, Gaza and the Middle East leading to global disruption and supply shortages. Escalating weather incidents precipitated by extreme climate change, wildfires, floods. It’s all gathering momentum into a perfect storm partly linked to El Nino.
Unless something extraordinary occurs to reverse this trend, we need to accept the reality and be Emergency Ready as the booklet says. No need to panic, just be prepared…
So, time to upskill, build resilience and do a What If Exercise!
Many of us, me included can just about do basic DIY, change a fuse but how to fix a plug? Most of our grandparents were almost self-sufficient but in recent years, life has intervened and many in our busy lives simply don’t have the time or inclination to be self-sufficient.
We’re so spoiled, nowadays, everything we need is easily accessible. Consequently, we have inadvertently allowed ourselves to become increasingly deskilled and have become completely reliant on others for our basic needs, most particularly the food that nourishes and keeps us alive.
If you are inclined, lettuce and salad leaves can be grown on your windowsill, still time to plant garlic too.
This is a food column so we will concentrate on that area.
Apparently, food prices are to rise by at least 4% before Christmas. After the last power outage, I hope everyone has invested in a gas ring for emergencies.
So, let’s ask ourselves, what if there’s no bread? Can you whip up a loaf of soda bread?
How about stocking
your pantry with some shelf-stable foods – peas, beans, pulses, canned foods,
flour, rice, oatmeal, honey, coffee, sugar, dry cured meat – charcuterie,
salami …nutrient dense food.
Buy one or two items a week and of course label and date and use in rotation. Maybe
store some root vegetables too, they keep really well in a clay pit.
Brush up on your foraging skills, freeze and preserve any surplus, still time to pick blackberries, they freeze excellently.
Windfall crab apples make delicious jellies, which can be flavoured with a myriad of foraged foods as well as blackberries, mountain ash, sloes, haws, sea buckthorn, elderberries. One can change the name to Forager’s Jelly.
Get yourself a copy of Self Sufficiency by John Seymour. Suddenly, maybe the folks who have made a decision to live ‘off grid’ don’t seem so crazy after all!
Get to know your local farmers and food producers and the folks at your nearest Farmers’ Market.
When shopping, make a determined effort to choose Irish. Local food systems will become ever more important.
Here are three recipes to get you started.
Basic Brown Soda Bread
Couldn’t be simpler, just mix and pour into a well-greased tin. This bread keeps very well for several days and is also great toasted and of course freezes perfectly.
Makes 1 loaf or 3 small loaves
Ingredients
400g stone ground wholemeal flour
75g white flour, preferably unbleached
1 tsp salt
1 level tsp bread soda, sieved (bicarbonate of soda/baking soda)
1 egg, preferably free range
1 tbsp olive oil, unscented
1 tsp honey or treacle
425ml buttermilk or sour milk approx.
sunflower or sesame seeds (optional)
loaf tin 23 x 12.5 x 5cm OR 3 small loaf tins 14.6cm x 7.62cm
Preheat oven to 200°C/Gas Mark 6.
Method
Put all the dry ingredients including the sieved bread soda into a large bowl, mix well. Whisk the egg, add the oil, honey and buttermilk. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in all the liquid, mix well and add more buttermilk if necessary. The mixture should be soft and slightly sloppy, pour into an oiled tin or tins – using a butter knife, draw a slit down the middle. Sprinkle some sunflower or sesame seeds on the top. Bake for 60 minutes approximately (45-50 minutes for small loaf tins), or until the bread is nice and crusty and sounds hollow when tapped. Cool on a wire rack.
Super Seed Bread
Add 1 tbsp of sunflower seeds, 1 tbsp of sesame seeds, 1 tbsp of pumpkin seeds, 1 tbsp of kibbled wheat to the dry ingredients. Keep a mixture to scatter over the top.
Note
The quantity of buttermilk can vary depending on thickness. Add 1-2 tbsp of cream to low-fat buttermilk (optional).
Forager’s Soup with Optional Chorizo Lardons
Throughout the seasons one can gather wild greens on a walk in the countryside – foraging soon becomes addictive. Many greens are edible and some are immensely nutritious. Arm yourself with a good well-illustrated guide and be sure to identify carefully and if in doubt – don’t risk it until you are quite confident. Don’t overdo the very bitter herbs like dandelion. Of course, the chorizo is optional – use vegetable stock for a vegetarian version.
Serves 6
Ingredients
50g butter
150g diced potatoes (7mm)
110g diced onion (7mm)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
600ml light chicken stock
600ml creamy milk
250g chopped greens – alexanders, nettles, wild sorrel, a few young dandelions, wild garlic, borage leaves, wild rocket, ground elder, beech leaves, chickweed, watercress
extra virgin olive oil
75g chorizo or lardons of streaky bacon (optional)
Garnish
fresh parsley, chopped
Method
Melt the butter in a heavy bottomed saucepan. When it foams, add potatoes and onions and turn them until well coated. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper. Cover and sweat on a gentle heat for 10 minutes. When the vegetables are almost soft but not coloured add the hot stock and boiling milk. Bring back to the boil and cook until the potatoes and onions are fully cooked. Add the greens and boil with the lid off for 2-3 minutes approx. until the greens are just cooked. Do not overcook or the soup will lose its fresh green colour. Purée the soup in a liquidiser. Taste and correct seasoning.
Heat a little
oil in a frying pan. Add the diced
chorizo or lardons of streaky bacon, cook over a low to medium heat until the
fat starts to run and the bacon is crisp (careful, it’s easy to burn chorizo!). Drain on kitchen paper. Sprinkle over the soup as you serve. Use the chorizo oil to drizzle over the soup
also and scatter a few little chopped parsley on top and enjoy
Braised Lamb Shanks with Garlic, Rosemary and Haricot Beans
If necessary, cook slowly over an open fire until the lamb shanks are meltingly tender and almost falling off the bone.
Serves 6
Ingredients
6 lamb shanks, 1kg approx.
12 small sprigs of rosemary
12 slivers garlic
6 anchovy fillets, halved (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Braising Ingredients
25g goose fat or duck fat or olive oil
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery stalks, roughly chopped
1 leek, roughly chopped
1 onion, roughly chopped
1 head garlic, halved horizontally
200ml bottle good red wine
500ml chicken or lamb stock
1 sprig of thyme
2 sprigs of rosemary
2 bay leaves
2 strips of dried orange peel
Sauce
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
110g streaky bacon, cut into lardons and blanched
½ carrot, finely diced
½ celery stalk, finely diced
½ onion, finely diced
6 cloves garlic
4 very ripe tomatoes, peeled and diced or ½ x 400g tin of tomatoes + juice, chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
leaves from 2 sprigs of rosemary, chopped
1 x 400g tin haricot beans, drained or 110-200g dried haricot beans, soaked overnight and then boiled rapidly for 20 minutes
chicken or lamb stock to cover
Garnish
sprigs of rosemary and thyme
Preheat the oven to 150°C/Gas Mark 2.
Method
Make 2 deep incisions in each lamb shank, insert a sprig of rosemary and a sliver of garlic wrapped in half an anchovy fillet (if using) into each incision. Season with salt and black pepper.
Heat the goose fat or extra virgin olive oil in a heavy sauté pan or casserole and sauté the meat in it until well browned on all sides. Remove the meat from the pan. Add the carrots, celery, leeks, onion and garlic and cook over a high heat until well browned. Add the red wine to the pan and bring to the boil, stir for a minute or two. Add the chicken stock, herbs and orange peel to the pan, then place the lamb shanks on top. Cover and cook in the oven for 4 hours.
Meanwhile, make the sauce.
Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and brown the bacon in it. Then reduce the heat and add the carrot, celery, onion and garlic and cook for 8 minutes approx. or until the vegetables have softened. Add the chopped tomatoes, herbs, haricots and enough stock to half cover the beans. Cover and simmer for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
When the lamb has finished cooking, strain out the herbs and vegetables and discard. Degrease the cooking juices and add to the beans. Taste and correct the seasoning.
Serve the lamb shanks in a hot deep dish with the bean and vegetable sauce and the braising liquid. Garnish with sprigs of fresh rosemary and thyme
