Tower and Town, June 2022 (view the full edition)Beets or Beetroot?‘It is a universal fact that whatever people leave behind when they migrate, they always take with them their cooking’
Peanut butter without added sugar and emulsifiers, Molasses to make gingerbread cookies, gingerbread cake and pioneer hotcakes, Cornmeal until I discovered polenta was virtually the same product, Large oats as opposed to the finely ground stuff that when cooked turns to something more similar to wallpaper paste, Butternut squash not costing the earth, Beets which turned out to be a translation issue and not a scarcity. Ferreting through the produce department at Waitrose, I asked the shop assistant where I could find beets. He replied ‘Beets?’. ‘Yes, beets.’ No, he hadn’t heard of such a thing. A woman overhearing my request informed me I was asking the wrong question and should be searching for Beetroot and ‘ta-da’, there they were on the top shelf complete with stems, roots and a smattering of earth, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups which are now everywhere and I’m sorry I ever wished for them because they are a treat and not a food and the expanding waistline of the British public can blame the Americans for importing such things, Toll House chocolate chips for making chocolate chip cookies. Although not essential, they are superior in flavour and size to chocolate drops or nibs for making true, soft and delicious chocolate chip cookies. Peanut butter and molasses (see above) were also useful for making cookies. On the flip side, I’ve adopted the following: An electronic weighing scale for measuring everything that isn’t described as being portioned out in American cups and ½ cups. Roasted cobnuts and kalettes (a kale sprout hybrid) when in season. Thick oatcakes and black pudding year round. There’s a lot I would miss if I didn’t live here, but thankfully, I don’t intend to leave any time soon to find out what I’d miss most. April Nobes |
