Inner City Eira
I could listen to Eira talk for hours. I would be constantly nodding in agreement to all that she says. And in relief too, knowing that there are people walking this earth who totally get what food is about. It’s about making it at home from scratch, using local products, foraged harvests, or surplus produce that people leave at her doorstep. It’s so easy to fall in love with Eira’s philosophy and her way of doing things. It’s just so right, so empowering and so independent.
Eira once created a special menu plan for her son to help him survive on a budget while eating nourishing food. The answer was home-made tomato sauce that could be used for various meals, dishes that overlap with certain ingredients and save you money. These little things, that aren’t so little. All for the sake of having a nourishing home-made meal. Thank you!
The recipe that I got from Eira, is the perfect foodification* of Eira’s wisdom. It’s called ‘potch’ and it’s a simple, comforting mash of some seasonal and local root vegetables. It’s a proof that simple seasonal and local ingredients with a bit of spice is all you need to make a delicious dish.
*as in personification but with food
‘POTCH’
Ingredients (serves 2)
3-4 potatoes
2-3 carrots
½ turnip – swede
1 leek
50 g butter
a pinch of salt
a pinch of white pepper
a pinch of grated/ ground nutmeg
2-3 tbsp of cream (I used yoghurt)
Method
1. Clean the root veg and cut them roughly the same size. Put all in a pan together and cover with water and add salt. Boil the vegetables until tender, drain, mash them, put lid on pan.
2. While the root veg are cooking, clean and chop leeks. Put butter in a pan, heat up and add leeks. Cook till tender, normally 5 -10 mins. Add the cream, nutmeg and white pepper to the leeks, cook for 2-3 mins.
3. Add the leek mixture to the root vegetables, and mix through.
Eira makes it in big batches, and leaves it in the fridge for her family to eat it in all possible ways- as a side, as a spread, in a sandwich, etc…
For Eira’s preserves, have a look at her website innercitypickle.co.uk or come to Roath market on Saturdays, where she sells her produce.