Thank goodness for the Prince of Wales

I spent today shopping and cooking for the food fair tomorrow. It's an international food fair as part of Anti-Racism Week (I think it might actually be called Rise Against Racism Week), but People and Planet is having two stalls, one of fair trade food, and one of local and organic food. The latter is actually being run by people who are more involved with the Green Party than People and Planet, ie CMCC and the Residences Officer (though she is the treasurer of People and Planet), because this year political parties aren't being allowed stalls. My plan was to cook for both- a couple of salads for the local and organic stall (which is only having savoury produce) and a swiss roll and some meringues with whipped cream and fair trade fruit for the fair trade stall (which is only having sweet things). So far though, I've only cooked the salads, and one of those really hasn't come out well at all- to the point where I'm considering ditching it. It all depends how it tastes tomorrow morning when I come to it fresh. I'm intending to do the roll and the meringues tomorrow- my lecture isn't till two.

I didn't start the cooking till 6 or 7- I didn't get up till 1 (catching up on sleep lost over Climate Change Awareness Week...), then went down to Spitalfields Market where I got plenty of UK grown organic vegetables- though they weren't the kinds I'd have ideally selected. I found potatoes for a potato salad no problem, as I was sure I would after last week, but I wasn't surprised to see there weren't any spring onions or salad onions (they don't seem to grow any nearer than Mexico...) so I got fennel and normal onions instead- that was ok. My plan for the other salad was to see what was availiable and create something round that. I got squash, beetroot, large flat mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, carrot, cauliflower and broccoli, and decided to do them in a tomato sauce; I wasn't that convinced it'd go, and in the end it was a combination of that, the tomato sauce not turning out great, and the vegetables becoming soft and disintegrating a bit that made it not great. Though I cut the cherry tomatoes into quarters and roasted them in the oven and they at least turned out lovely though they may not still be good now they're mixed in with the rest.

The woman who served me asked me how I was, so I asked her how she was, and she told me she'd split up with her boyfriend 5 weeks ago and all about the strange and disturbing (and controlling) way he'd been behaving since. Then she asked me if I had a boyfriend and before I knew it I was telling her that I'd been single for 6 years. Very strange.

After putting the vegetables in my room, I took a bus to Essex Road to go to the Co-op after fair trade ingredients. It was nice to be travelling through unknown suburbs on the top deck again- something I haven't really had the chance to do over the past two years. But it turned out to be a longer quest than I could have imagined. The Essex Road Co-op- which had been recommended to me by the President of People and Planet (she said it was the one nearest her house and that's where she was going to get her ingredients)- only had sugar that was fair trade out of everything I needed, and didn't have organic mayonnaise, mustard or tins of tomatoes (which I also needed). I asked a member of staff where there was a bigger branch; they said the biggest was possibly in Archway, but recommended a nearby one that they gave me directions to- I turned out to have passed it on the bus but not seen it. But it was hardly bigger than the other one and still only had the sugar. So I decided to try Archway- which happened to just be further along on the same bus I'd come on.

Archway was bigger, though it wasn't massive. They still didn't have fair trade cocoa powder, so I decided to make it a coffee swiss roll instead. I got five bags of sugar and four tins of organic tomatoes (from Italy, so not too too far), but the mayonnaise I looked at was not only not organic, but reading the label on the Co-op's own brand I noted that the eggs came from caged hens. I admire their decency in mentioning it- it wouldn't otherwise have occurred to me to wonder whether they did, but can't help feeling it would be better if they could use free range eggs. I didn't want to get the other brands such as Hellman's either as though they didn't say, I was pretty sure they would use caged hens too. I seriously considered making my own mayonnaise- not something I've tried before, but it could work- but they'd sold out of eggs (something else I needed anyway). So in the end I decided to go to Waitrose, which I'd passed in Holloway.

Compared to the Co-op, which for what I'd always thought was Britain's most ethical supermarket was disappointing, Waitrose was delightfully well stocked. I couldn't find organic garlic, or any fair trade fruit other than pineapple, but they had free range British organic eggs, organic mayonnaise also made with free range eggs (two brands)and fair trade cocoa powder (too late for me though as I'd already got the coffee at the Co-op. And after thinking for a few moments that I'd have to choose between UK or organic for the mustard, I spotted a Duchy Originals jar that ticked both boxes (though it did have honey with it which I didn't really want). Say what you like about Prince Charles, if you're after British organic mustard he's the man.

I used some of the spare vegetables to make myself some supper that was a lot more successfull than the tomato-vegetable salad:

1/2 squash (15-20 cm diameter)

approx 1 cup mixed chopped vegetables (I used beetroot, cauliflower stalk, broccoli stalk and onion)

1/2 cup cream (I used whipping but I don't think it would matter much if you used single or double instead)

1/2 to 1 cup grated cheese (I used red leicester- left over from the quiz)

1 - 2 tablespoons oil

Scoop the seeds out of the squash with a spoon and bake it in the oven at 150 degrees C for 15 to 20 minutes- I stood it in a centimetre or so of water but I'm not sure if this had any effect, and if so whether it was a positive or negative one. Stir fry the vegetables in the oil (add the onion towards the end if also frying things like cauliflower that take a long time, so the onion won't over soften). Put the vegetables in the hole in the squash where the seeds were, pour the cream in, sprinkle cheese over the top, and microwave for 2 or 3 minutes on medium or low power (you could probably put it in the oven for another 5 minutes instead).