Twenty food questions with Joanne Harris....

Photo credit: Takazumi Uemura

Joanne Harris is a magnificent fiction writer. Half British, half French, she is perhaps most famous for 1999 bestseller Chocolat. All of Ms. Harris' novels are engrossing, evocative, and stay with you long after you've finished the last page. 

I was especially interested to hear how Ms. Harris would respond to my questions as her novels are often very focused around food and the senses.  
Her answers are, just as in her books; atmospheric and detailed,  leaving  you wanting to eat everything she's described.

Patchwork Tablecloth: What are your favourite foods?

Joanne Harris: It depends on the season. Right now I’m craving: spicy chickpea curry; chilli macaroni and cheese; hot Thai noodles; green papaya salad; olive bread. Then there are the things I rarely ever say no to: spicy pasta; fresh seafood; moules marinières; fresh bread and olives; French black pudding and apple; roast lamb with garlic and rosemary; grilled goat’s cheese salad.

PT: What sort of food do you like to cook?

JH: Food that doesn’t take a long time to prepare. Spicy salads; pasta with roast vegetables and garlic; soups and stews; rosemary garlic bread; grilled vegetable couscous; chilli nachos with cheese. My husband and daughter are both vegetarians, so I generally cook vegetarian food, although sometimes when I eat out, I go back to the dishes of my childhood.

PT: What are your favourite holidays or celebrations? What foods do you associate with them?

JH: My daughter associates Christmas with Mexican food, so I often cook fajitas, nachos and vegetarian chilli for her. We have cheese poppas to start with (shaped like Christmas crackers), and sometimes we make a rich, chilli-bean soup. I’m not a fan of the traditional Christmas dinner, except for the pudding, which I like (especially with chilli and dark chocolate grated over the top).

PT: What are your favourite fruits and vegetables?

JH: Sweet potatoes; spinach; chickpeas; avocadoes; purple-sprouting broccoli; pineapple; plums; mango; strawberries; Jerusalem artichokes; flageolet beans; tomatoes; chestnuts;haricot beans; sweetcorn; mushrooms.

PT: What did you eat as a child?

JH: I was a fussy eater. I wouldn’t eat anything that wasn’t immediately recognizable; so mostly I ate bread; uncooked fruits; fish without sauce; meat with no gravy; puddings with no cream or custard. I hated school dinners – I hardly ever ate anything at school. I remember the dinner ladies trying to persuade me to eat at least the puddings, but they were all drowned in custard, which I hated. 

PT: Imagine your refrigerator. What do you see inside?

JH: Milk; spring greens; tomatoes; goat’s cheese; grated Cheddar; low-fat mozzarella;hummous; jars of red pickled chillies; Indian hot lime pickle; Greek olives; sunblush tomatoes; free-range eggs; avocadoes; couscous salad.

PT: Are there any foods you dislike? What are they?

JH: I’m still not a fan of gravy, custard, cream, butter or mayonnaise. 

PT: Where do you consider yourself to be "from"? Please tell me a bit about the food in the place where you grew up, the place you live now, and, ifyou'd like, anywhere else that is important to you.

JH: I was born in Yorkshire of a French mother, and so I have two very different culinary traditions. From my English grandmother I learnt about traditional baking; pies; tarts; cakes and puddings (although I never learnt to like custard or English-style gravy). From my French family I learnt about fresh seafood; rare steaks; terrines; sauces; fresh vegetables in season (and cooked only for the barest minimum of time); herbs; dressings; spices. When I was a child, English food was often very bland; the vegetables cooked to a slush; the meat overcooked and drowned in gravy. I remember how difficult it was to find fish that hadn’t been frozen, battered or breadcrumbed to within an inch of its life. Even such everyday things as pasta were quite difficult to find in Yorkshire. I remember a lot of boil-in-the bag fish (which I hated); mashed potatoes and carrots. Salad was mostly green lettuce leaves and sliced ham. Now things are very different; Britain has undergone a kind of culinary renaissance, and there are many different food traditions to explore and enjoy. 

PT: What is your typical breakfast?

JH: Something substantial, generally. Porridge, with honey and dried fruit; or scrambled eggs with chilli and sourdough bread; or fresh pineapple and cinnamon muffins; or spiced hot chocolate and hot cross buns; or kedgeree with mango pickle. I like breakfast better than lunch, which I often skip when I’m working.

PT: What are your favourite beverages?

JH: In the morning; breakfast tea. With meals, red wine (or sometimes, champagne). Fresh juices, occasionally: I particularly like red berry juices like cherry, grape and blackcurrant. 
Guilty pleasures; diet Coke, chai latte and passionfruit bubble tea. I once went to a meal at Windsor Castle where they served a ’74 Margaux: it was undoubtedly the best thing I’ve ever drunk (and I doubt I’ll ever get to taste one again). When I was a child we always drank Sauternes at family celebrations. I still love it. My mother used to say that if we ever got super-rich, we’d drink Château d’Yquem instead. Last year, I bought her a bottle. We both tasted it for the first time. It was very expensive, but totally worth it...

PT: Which sweets and desserts do you like best?

JH: I’m not as sweet-toothed as people expect me to be. I often don’t bother with desserts, although it’s rare for me to turn down a cheeseboard. I don’t really like chocolate desserts, either, although I’m fond of a nice crème caramel, a tarte Tatin or a lemon tart. I tend to eat sweets between meals if I have them at all; my local café does a mean Eccles cake, fresh-baked and hot, served with a wedge of Cheddar.

PT: What is your favourite combination of flavours?

JH: I like chillies in most things, including in sweets – chilli hot chocolate is a favourite – and I love the combination of cardamom and hot milk in chai latte, tea or rice puddings.

PT: What is something interesting that you've eaten during your travels?

JH: When I was in the Congo with Médecins Sans Frontières, I ate a lot of chilli-fried bananas, which I love; and lots of chickens that had been living wild in the jungle. They were tough and rangy, but they were the best chickens I’d ever tasted. In years of eating farmed fowl, I’d forgotten what chicken was really supposed to taste like. I also ate wild crocodile – interesting and semi-familiar, a little like fishy pork – which was great, except for nearly breaking a tooth on the machine-gun bullet that had killed it...

PT: What is the best thing you can remember eating?

JH: Reef fish in Mauritius, caught twenty minutes beforehand, grilled and served whole, with green coconut and palm-heart salad, flaked salt and fresh limes.

PT: Do you have any food-related family traditions? What are they?

JH: Pancakes, rather than birthday cakes, at most family celebrations. The recipe belongs to my great-grandmother, who prided herself on making them her own special way (and who 
never allowed anyone ever to touch her pancake-pan, not even to wash it)...

PT: Are there certain foods you like to cook or eat during certain seasons? What are they?

JH: I like to eat food as it comes naturally into season. I’m not a fan of flying out strawberries from Israel, or tomatoes from Africa in December. Right now I’m enjoying the first rhubarb, which grows in my garden. Later there will be other fruit; strawberries, raspberries, cherries, gooseberries and currants, with which I will make pies and jam. I love it when the new potatoes, or the first asparagus, or the purple sprouting broccoli come into season; they’re good enough to eat on their own, just with butter and salt. In winter I find myself making a lot of dishes based on root vegetables - carrots; yams; parsnips; potatoes - which keep nicely in my cellar.

PT: What is your favourite food related smell?

JH: Baking bread.

PT: What do you like best on pizza?

JH: Anchovies, green chillies and olives. 

PT: You're throwing a party. What are you serving?

JH: Individual spicy soufflés; cardamom rice with hot chickpea dhal; chilli paneer with toasted almonds; seeded nan bread; green papaya salad; flame-grilled fresh pineapple; sticky caramel sauce. 

PT: Please tell me about a memory- any memory- that somehow relates to food.

JH: So many of my memories relate in some way to food. Meeting Ray Bradbury for the first time, and having him show me how to make a rootbeer float. Cooking cherry pie with Juliette Binoche at my house (my 5-year-old daughter thought her name was Juliette Brioche). 

Aged seven, eating moules marinières for the first time. I’d never eaten mussels before, and I wasn’t particularly eager to try them. They looked evil, not like food at all. My parents and I were at a restaurant in France, and they’d both ordered the moules for themselves, and chicken and chips (the default position) for me. Somehow my mother managed to get me to try what she was eating. I liked it so much that I finished her portion, then started on my Dad’s plate...

Bissli Schnitzel, Hummus, and Tahina

I have three recipes for you today, all of which were mentioned in my chat with Boaz. Israeli staples; tahina sauce and hummus are both quick to make and require many of the same ingredients, so they are easy to make side by side.

Schnitzel is not usually breaded with Bissli, but I bought some BBQ twirls while buying tahini. If you do see it, pick up a bag and try this out.

This really is one of world's best meals. I truly believe that. 

Turkey or chicken schnitzel is street food in Israel. It's nestled into fluffy pita alongside pickles, cabbage, and grand dollops of hummus and tahini. It's pretty ubiquitous around the country; it was a frequent (and popular!) lunch on kibbutz, and sold frozen in every grocery store.  Here, with a bit of challah, hummus, tahina and lemon, it becomes a Friday night shabbat meal.

I love shabbat, especially on Friday evenings. It was so special on kibbutz.   The long dining hall tables were draped in tablecloths and adorned with little bowls of stewed olives, eggplant salads, bottles of red wine and challah. A special dinner; often roast chicken or beef, alongside salads, tahina, hummus, and a soup. It was my favourite part of the week; somehow even better than the relaxing day off that followed. 

Happy Friday! Enjoy these three recipes! And a big thank you to Annalise for styling and photographing the food! 

 Stay tuned for Sunday, when I'll be posting an interview with Chocolat author Joanne Harris!

Hummus

Want creamy, Israeli-style hummus? Three words: peel the beans. It is a bit more time-consuming, but the texture is worth it.

You can of course used tinned chickpeas, but if you cook them yourself, be sure to use the cooking water in the hummus!

2 cups cooked chickpeas, with skins slipped off

3 tbsp raw tahini

1 large clove garlic

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup water

Olive oil, paprika and sesame seeds, to serve

Combine ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth. If it is too thick, add a bit more water. Season to taste. 

Serve with a good drizzle of olive oil and spices.

Tahina

This creamy, nutty condiment is served at just about every meal in Israel. I have it thick here, to serve as a dip, but if you add more water you can use it as a sauce or dressing.

1/2 raw tahini

1 tbsp chopped parsley

1 large clove garlic, chopped as finely as possible

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 cup cold water

1 tbsp olive oil, optional

Combine tahini, parsley, garlic and some salt. Add lemon juice and stir- the mixture will tighten up and become grainy. Add water to desired consistency. Stir through olive oil, if using. Season to taste and serve. 

Bissli Schnitzel

If you don't want to include Bissli, just add omit and add a bit more breadcrumbs and a bit of smoked paprika. For a kosher meal, use water in the eggwash. Otherwise, use milk.

1 lb turkey cutlets, sliced or pounded thin

1 cup plain breadcrumbs (I used panko)

1/2 cup crushed BBQ  Bissli

4 tsp sesame seeds

2 tsp black sesame seeds

1/2 tsp cumin

1 egg

1/4 cup water or milk

Oil

Lemon, to serve.

1. Combine breadcrumbs, Bissli, sesame seeds, cumin, and some salt and pepper. Place on a wide plate or shallow bowl.

2. Combine egg and liquid in another bowl.

3. Dip a piece of turkey in the eggwash and coat in breadcrumb mixture. Repeat with all cutlets.

4. Heat a good amount of oil in a large, heavy bottomed pan.  Line a plate with a towel or paper.

5. In batches, fry the breaded cutlets until golden brown on each side. Transfer to lined plate.

6. Serve with lemon, and anything else you want.

Enjoy!

"Shawarma is number one."

Boaz

Israel

I spoke to Boaz in his small kibbutz bedroom a few years ago in the south of Israel. Originally from Beer'sheva, Boaz has traveled the world since finishing his army service. It has been years since I've seen him, but always remember his big smile, easygoing attitude, and love for both Israeli foods and cooking over fire.

Patchwork Tablecloth: What's your favourite food?

Boaz: Chicken wings over fire. Matfuna; tinfoil with entire chicken, spices, beer, honey and chiles. Wrap it up foil and put on charcoals for an hour and 20 minutes.

PT: What do you like to cook? 

B: Poike. Cook on fire in a cast-iron pot. Vegetables, anything in a pot and cook for 2 hours.

PT: What is your favourite holiday? How do you celebrate?

B: Purim. Drink wine and feast!

PT: What are your favourite fruits and vegetables?

B: Onion, avocado, tomatoes. Pittaya (cactus pear), dates, apples. Truthfully, when you eat an apple, it’s the best feeling.

PT: What did you eat as a little boy?

B: Chocolate. I was not picky.

Elite chocolate is one of the more popular Israeli brands. They have lots of interesting flavours, including my favourite; pop rocks!

PT: Do you dislike any food?

B: Seafood; calamari, etc. But I love sushi.

PT: What are some popular foods in Israel?

B: Shnitzel, couscous, falafel, Bamba, Bissli. Shawarma is number one.

Clockwise, from left: challah, tahina sauce, Bamba, Bissli, hummus, and Bissli coated schnitzel.

PT: What do you keep in your fridge?

B: Hummus, pita, tahina, tomatoes, onions, salad, a big chunk of meat, soy beans, leftovers, beer, good cakes, and sauces.

PT: What do you normally eat for breakfast?

B: Good cheese, eggs, good salad with toasts.

PT: What do you eat for lunch? 

B: Schnitzel, rice.

Schnitzel in baguette (with a side of falafel!) in Tel Aviv

PT: Dinner?

B: Tahina.

PT: What do you like to drink?

B: Orange juice; fresh squeezed myself! Coca Cola, water, hot drinks; coffee and herbal tea.

A pomegranate juice vendor in Tzfat.

PT: It's 2 am. You're drunk. What are you eating?

B: Toast with cheese.

PT: If you were cooking dinner for just yourself, what would you make?

B: A hamburger. Tahina.

PT: What is something "unusual" that you like to eat?

B: Hummus with yellow cheese. Chocolate with tahina. 

PT: What are your favourite ingredients?

B: Cumin, rice, chicken breasts, tahina, good salad with lots of onion and garlic, olive oil, tomato sauce

PT: What is something interesting you've tried while traveling?

B: Waffles in Amsterdam.

PT: What is the best thing you can remember eating? 

B: On kibbutz, with my friend Nitzan. We had a big chunk of steak, cooked it over fire and ate it in little cuts.

Kibbutz.

PT: You're throwing a party! What are you serving?

B: Bamba, Bissli, Coke, Arak, tahina…snacks.

*

Xoirino prasoselino

This is the first dish that Athina mentioned to my in our interview. It has northern Greek origins, and is often eaten for Christmas.  It's simple and hearty; pork (I used shoulder) braised with celery, leeks, and white wine, and finished with a hearty avgolemono, the creamy egg-lemon mixture found throughout Greece in the winter. 
I included red, green, and yellow bell peppers because we had a bit of a surplus on hand.  It is not traditional. It was nice, though. 

For the pork stew:

2 lbs pork shoulder, cut into chunks
1 cup white wine
4 cups broth
The peel of one lemon
6 celery stalks, cut on the bias
2 leeks, cut on the bias
1 each red and yellow pepper, cut into chunks
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon cinnamon

For avgolemono:

2 eggs
The juice of two lemons
1 cup cooking liquid

1. In a large pot, heat a bit of oil and brown pork batches. 
2. Deglaze the pan with the white wine, and then return pork to the pot. Add broth and a bit of the lemon peel. Bring to the boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook, covered, for about 45 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in another pot, sweat the vegetables with the remaining lemon peel. Remove from heat and set aside until pork is ready.
4. After 45 minutes have passed, add your veg to the pork. Add oregano and cinnamon, as well as salt and pepper.
5. Simmer, uncovered, for another 45 minutes, adding more broth or water if it gets a bit dry. 
6. In a medium bowl, thoroughly beat two eggs. Whisk in lemon juice. 
7. Whisking constantly, stream about a cup of the pork's cooking liquid into the egg-lemon mixture. 
8. Remove stew from heat. Add egg-lemon mixture to the pot, shaking to incorporate.

"You can taste the flavour of a tomato when you eat a tomato."

So, this blog has a new format.

Every week, I am going to post a full interview with a new person, entirely about food. These interviews will be with people of all kinds, from all around the world!

Over the week that follows, I will be posting new recipes inspired by the interview.

If you want to be interviewed, or know somebody who might be, don't hesitate to email me at patchworktablecloth@gmail.com. I'm hoping to post interviews with some interesting musicians, artists and chefs as well as anybody who loves eating, cooking, or just talking about food. 

Anyway, let's get started with a little trip to Greece...

Athina

 Greece

I interviewed Athina over a big glass of wine on a summer evening in her living room in Rhodes, Greece. From a small village in mainland Greece, she was in her mid-thirties and ran the bar at an artsy restaurant in Rhodes' gorgeous Old Town. She was kind, bold, and just like her goddess namesake, very wise. 

Patchwork Tablecloth: What is your all time favourite food?

Athina: Xoirino prasoselino. (Χοιρινό πρασοσέλινο) It's pork with celery and leek.

PT: Do you like cooking? What sort of things do you make?

A: My favourite foods.  Dolmades. With other leaves too... cabbage.

Dolmades are leaves; (most often grapevine) stuffed with rice, tomato and onion. 

Pictured above, dolmades with egg-lemon sauce. Taken at a restaurant in Kos, one of Rhodes' neighbouring islands. 

PT: What's your favourite holiday? What do you eat then?

A: Easter. Lots of meat. Lamb on a spit over fire.

PT: What are your favourite vegetables? 

A: Leek, cabbage, and cauliflower.

PT: What about fruit?

A: Banana and peach.

PT: What did you eat growing up?

A: Everything. Salads, soups, pasta, potatoes, meat, yoghurt, olive oil, onions. Onions are in everything in Greece. This is also true with oregano.

PT: What is normally inside your fridge?

A: It changes with the seasons. Vegetables when I'm not busy. Yoghurt, sweet cheese, onions, garlic, milk.

PT: What foods do you dislike?

A: Olives! But I like olive oil.

PT: Can you tell me a bit about food in Greece?

A: It's very good. Generally healthy;  no butter, only olive oil. Home cooking....lentils. The cuisine is very simple and healthy. We use clear flavours; you can tell the vegetable and spice. It's simple. You can taste the flavour of a tomato when you eat a tomato. The cuisine got more complicated in the 50’s.  Turkish brought yogurt, stuffed things, moussaka, etc. Those foods are all from the 50’s. They became famous from a popular Greek cookbook. It had a very big influence on Greek cooking.

Lentils. Greek home-cooking in Rhodes.

PT: On a typical day, what do you eat for breakfast?

A: I can wake up and eat anything. I could eat a steak.

                           

PT: What about lunch?

A: Usually small; yoghurt, cornflakes. I eat a good meal after work.

PT: Dinner?

A: Anything. Pasta with zuccini, chiles, bacon and fresh tomato and garlic. Italian pasta with peperoncino, garlic, lots of chile pepper.

PT: What are your favourite desserts?

A: Everything. I love sweets.  Ice cream in summer. Chocolate, cakes, creams.

PT: What do you think is the most important thing to have in a kitchen?

A: A cooking pot and fire.

PT: What are your favourite drinks?

A: Everything. Wine, tequila or whiskey, gin and tonic, rum cocktail, good beer. I don't like vodka.

PT: Any hangover cures?

A: Depends on the weather. Soup in the winter, summer not so much. Patsas (Πάτσας);  a soup from lamb’s bellies. It smells bad but it is like medicine. 

Patsas seems to be a pretty well known Greek hangover remedy. It's tripe soup cooked with tomatoes, wine, cinnamon, and garlic.

PT: If you were making dinner for just yourself, what would it be?

A: Maybe I wouldn’t cook. Pasta or something. Depends. Maybe salad. Things that don’t take too much time. If I go through all this trouble, I want to share it with someone.

PT: What is something "weird" that you like to eat?

A: It's very relative. The head of the lamb, but that isn't so strange here. But I’ve seen people shocked by it.

PT: What is your favourite combination of flavours?

A: Ouzo with seafood. It's the only way to drink ouzo.

From left, clockwise: tzatziki (yoghurt with cucumber and mint), skordalia (a garlickly dip), mashed fava beans, octopus, brined caper leaves, and fresh sardines. 

Taken in Nisyros, a small, neighbouring island of Kos. Athina suggested that we travel there. This dish was prepared for us by friends of hers.

PT: What are your favourite ingredients?

A: Different spices for different things. I don’t like too many spices. I like clear tastes. I like cinnamon and meat.

PT: What is something interesting that you tried while traveling? 

A: Czech Republic- boiled bread. Weird. They used lots of cream, heavy food because of the weather.  I'm interested to learn Italian cooking. They use the same materials as in Greece.

PT: What is the best thing you can remember eating?

A:  A local pastry shop serves a cake with walnuts, syrup and cream on top.

Honey soaked, nut filled pastries typical of Greece. Taken in a Kos bakery.

PT: You're throwing a party! What will you serve your guests?

A: Lahano dolmades- it's with cabbage instead of vine leaves.  A salad of cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, olive oil, oregano and feta- this would be in the summer. In the winter, cabbage and carrot salad or potato salad. Lots of different things.

PT: What do you want to learn how to cook?

A: Good phyllo pastry. I have to find the right balance.

PT: Let's talk seasons. What do you eat in the winter?

A: Lots of food. Different sauces. Egg and lemon sauce....it's only good in the winter. Too heavy in the summer.

PT: How about summer?

A: I only eat at night,  really, because it’s so hot. Salads. Dacos (ντάκος). They're easy, from Crete. Use dry bread-rusks, and wet them and eat with tomatoes, olive oil, garlic and feta.

PT: Finally, what's your favourite food smell?

A: Garlic, even raw. Cauliflower boiling.

Stay tuned over the following week! I'll be posting recipes and photographs for dishes mentioned in this interview!