Beyond the Borough Market

I’m back in Philadelphia after spending a little more than a week in London and Leeds.  One of the highlights of the trip (and likely to be a destination every time I visit London) was the Borough Market in Southwark, a short walk from the south side of London Bridge.  By the way, London Bridge is not the bridge that most Americans think it is.  The bridge with the drawbridge is London Tower Bridge – London Bridge is not all that visually remarkable.

Borough Market has been around a thousand or so years, at one time serving as the principal market for those south of the Thames.  Like most of London (especially on the south bank), it ran into hard times in the post-war era.  A massive revitalization effort over the last 20 years, including the Shard, the tallest building in London, have turned the area into an exciting neighborhood and Borough Market has been transformed from an ordinary market into one of London’s foodie showcases.

There are fabulous produce, seafood, bakery, poultry, and meat stands with artisanal vinegars, preserves, condiments, and dozens of stands providing street food for lunch.  Of all of the stores in the market, though, my favorite is Spice Mountain. It’s not just a spice store, although you can find dried versions of the usual herbs and spices.  What sets Spice Mountain apart is their stunning collection of spice blends.  Where else can you pick up Khmeli Suneli, a blend of spices from Georgia (in the Caucasus, not the state north of Florida) that defines Georgian cooking?  They have an entire floor to ceiling section of curries, matched by another floor to ceiling section of chili blends.  Amazing.

I chose to bring home seven different blends and spices, along with a bottle of rosewater at about a third of the price I’ve seen it here in the U.S.  Naturally, all these spices have dominated my cooking since I returned home.  For example, consider the dinner below.

Starting from the top, there’s a parsley/mint salad.  A generous (and more or less equal) amount of parsley and mint are finely chopped, and tomatoes, red onions, and seedless cucumbers are added.  When I usually make this, I then add a healthy dollop of lemon juice, some olive oil, and a little salt and pepper.  This time, I held back some of the lemon juice and added a teaspoon of Turkish sumac.  It added a different, more complex note to a salad I’ve made dozens of times.

Next we have a boneless pork chop that was marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, and chermoula.  As with the sumac, the chermoula added a little complexity to the pork.  I’ve made fresh chermoula several times and I’m not entirely sure how the parsley, cilantro, and garlic of fresh chermoula maps to a brown powder, but that’s OK.  The flavor notes of the garlic and cumin are very present and very welcome.

Finally, there’s the cabbage stuffed with quinoa.  I made a cup-sized batch of quinoa and while it was cooking, added some olive oil and the Khmeli Suneli.  The spice blend has a warmth to it that really provided a completely different dimension for the quinoa – I’m really going to like working with this blend.  Later, I steamed a couple of cabbage leaves to soften them up, wrapped the leaves around the quinoa and then painted a blend of olive oil and the chermoula I used on the pork chops.  Popped them in the often for 15 minutes and thoroughly enjoyed the results.

This isn’t a traditional meal from any cuisine.  The salad may be the exception, as I’ve seen varieties of a parsley/herb salad in Turkish, Middle Eastern, Persian, and North African contexts.  It’s actually a basic tabbouleh without the wheat. The marinade for the pork is pretty standard in North Africa but pork itself is rarely used in that part of the world.  The flavors of the cabbage dish are from the Caucasus and North Africa, but quinoa is a South American grain and stuffed cabbage usually suggests Eastern Europe or Southeast Asia.  So I confess to culinary cultural inconsistency but I still had a great meal.

Recipe – Parsley/mint salad

Ingredients

1 bunch parsley finely chopped

1 bunch mint finely chopped

1 medium tomato finely chopped

seedless cucumber (about the same size as the tomato) finely chopped

red onion (the same amount as the tomato and cucumber) finely chopped

1 tbl extra virgin olive oil

1 tbl lemon juice (or 2 tsp lemon juice and 1 tsp sumac)

salt

pepper

Directions

Add all the chopped ingredients to a bowl.  Add the olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and pepper and taste.  Adjust as needed.  If possible, chill before serving.

Recipe – marinated boneless pork chop

Ingredients

6 oz boneless porkchop

1 tbl vegetable oil

2 tbl olive oil

2 tbl lemon juice

1-2 tbl spice mixture or other seasoning (in this case, I used chermoula powder but there are many other spice blends that would work here as well, including something as simple as salt, pepper, and paprika)

Directions.

Mix olive oil, lemon juice, and spice mixture in a shallow bowl.  Pierce pork 3-4 times with a fork and lay in the marinade.  The pork should marinate for at least 30 minutes and be turned 3-4 times.

Preheat the oven to 425° and preheat a cast iron skillet to high – medium/high.  When the oven and the skillet are ready, add first the vegetable oil and then the pork to the skillet.  Cook for three minutes, or until there’s a good sear on one side.  Flip the pork and then put the skillet in the oven for three minutes. Test for temperature and if it’s done, set aside to rest a couple of minutes before serving.

Recipe – Cabbage stuffed with quinoa

Ingredients

1 cup of quinoa

1 tbl extra virgin olive oil

1 tbl khmeli suneli (or other spice blend)

8 green olives, minced

4 large cabbage leaves

2 tbl extra virgin olive oilk

1 tbl chermoula (or other spice blend)

Directions

For the quinoa, add a cup of quinoa to 2 cups of water and turn the heat on high.  Add 1 tbl olive oil and the khmeli suneli.  Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.  Fluff, let rest, and then add the olives.

Put the cabbage leaves in a steamer and steam for 6-8 minutes.  Rinse with cold water.  Add a few spoonful of the quinoa mixture to each leaf and then wrap the leaves up and turn over so the folds are on the bottom.

Preheat oven to 425°.

Mix the remaining olive oil and the chermoula together, then spread the mixture of the top of the cabbage leaves.  Put the stuffed cabbage in the oven for 15 minutes and serve.