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5 articles
The cheapest thing in a London butcher's shop is usually the thing nobody asks for. A practical guide to requesting frames, bones and vegetable trimmings without awkwardness, what to say no to, and how to turn a carrier bag of odds and ends into stock, soup and risotto for the working week — even when your freezer is one drawer.
Every November the growers stop waiting for the ripening and start selling green tomatoes by the bowl. Here's the master chutney formula I use, a Saturday-to-Sunday market route for finding the glut, and how to sterilise jars when your kitchen is really a corridor with a hob.
All over London, home cooks are trading jars, gluts and herbs through group chats, allotment sheds and shelves by the front door. No money changes hands — but there are rules, and a few safety points worth knowing before you join in.
Can you really shop Borough Market for £15 and come away with a full weekend of proper cooking? We went in with a tenner-fifty and a five-pound coin to find out — and came back with a shopping list, a meal plan and some firm opinions about which stalls are worth your money.
Knobbly, hard and easy to ignore, quince is one of the best things on a London farmers’ market stall in November. Here is how to choose it, prep it and turn it into membrillo, spiced poached fruit and a properly grown-up crumble.