NEW SERIES. EPISODE 5. Poet Lemn Sissay cooks Butter Chicken
Lemn Sissay is a lifeforce. A poet, three times Sunday Times bestselling author, memoirist playwright curator and broadcaster. Lemn also has some of his poems embedded as landmarks in the physical architecture of Manchester, London and the British Council Offices in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Brought up in care homes Makerfield, at 17 he lived alone and worked as a gutter cleaner, personalising his gutter cleaning leaflets with his poetry. Sometime later, his ladder stolen, Lemn moved to Manchester and worked for a publishing house as an Asian & Afro-Caribbean writers development worker. The 1990s saw the city of Manchester, and Lemn Sissay, gain a global celebrity, with both the Manchester scene and Lemn’s poetry reaping widespread acclaim.
Claire has wanted to cook with Lemn since the very first series of 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast after reading his book My Name is Why. The Guardian newspaper writes; “Lemn Sissay has success written on his forehead” and Claire could not agree more, Lemn radiates with a positivity that is infectious. Unusually for this recording, Claire and Lemn cook together in a friend of Claire’s flat in Hackney. Claire arrives at the recording with ingredients that Lemn has requested and together the pair cook butter chicken, a Pakistani version, taught to Lemn by a close friend.
This episode, the penultimate in the series, is a joy to listen to. Claire and Lemn discuss a childhood in care and its profound impact, there is also a moment when Lemn drops curry sauce all over his brand-new trainers, expletives are used. The butter chicken is delicious, one of the best Claire has ever cooked and eaten and, quite honestly, the fact that Lemn is also a phenomenal cook, as well as an astonishing poet and writer, makes Lemn such impressive human being to spend time with. Is there anything this man can’t do? And do extraordinarily well?
NEW SERIES. EPISODE 4; Gardener Gerald Stratford cooks a potato salad
Gerald Stratford is a gardener and a gentleman. Claire drove to the Cotswolds for this episode of 5 O Clock Apron Podcast. Knocking on Gerald’s front door, Claire is quickly whisked through the house, past Elizabeth, Gerald’s wife, and their dog, Bilbobaggins both sitting in the living room, on through the kitchen and out into Gerald’s garden. And what a garden it is! Gerald’s garden is immaculate and stuffed full to bursting with untold fruit and vegetables, the garden is a maze of walkways and paths, shooting off in all different directions to various raised beds, and to what Gerald’s refers to as his giant growing cages, all shapes and sizes, because there are so many of these homemade structures. Marigolds dot the flowerbeds and pathways, “to keep the pests at bay, we are at one with nature you see Claire, we are part of it, we can’t fight it, but the pests hate the smell of the marigolds, so it does help a bit!”
Gerald spends a lot of his time in his garden and has a gazebo set up, with a small induction hob on a table with a chopping board close by; “I thought we could cook in the garden, Claire?” Claire is very happy about this, and the pair dig potatoes and get cracking, cooking in the garden, the potatoes only just dug from the ground less that 10 minutes ago. “Can’t get fresher than that, can you?” Claire says.
Gerald wants to make a potato salad that he’s been eating for over 40 years; he was first shown how to make it by his German friend Rolph’s mother for a fishing trip. Rolph is no longer with us, and Gerald dedicates this episode to his great friend, Rolph. It is a touching moment.
Gerald is a giant in the gardening world. Fashion designer Alexander McQueen even designed a limited-edition fleece jacket emblazoned with his favourite red cabbage for Gerald. Gerald is an icon and has graced the cover of US Vogue magazine. Whilst his speciality might be growing enormous vegetables, there is a tenderness in the way that Gerald gardens and his viewpoint on growing, that makes this giant a bit of a teddy bear, and a very special one at that.
NEW SERIES. EPISODE 3; Lawyer & Politican Miriam Gonzalez Durantez COOKS Marmitako
Marmitako, a Basque Tuna Stew, with Lawyer Miriam González Durántez
Miriam González Durántez is a force, and Claire loved cooking with her for this episode of 5 O’ Clock Apron Podcast. Worth noting here that Claire is keen to get the elephant in the room over with as soon as Claire and Miriam start cooking in Miriam’s immaculate London kitchen with Claire quizzing Miriam on her title of Lady Clegg.
Miriam is quick to dismiss the title, with characteristic grace, as one she doesn’t necessarily identify with, saying it was given to her, because she is the wife of Nick Clegg. Clegg being the one-time deputy prime minister for the U.K. Miriam is a busy woman with a distinguished career to showcase, splitting her week between London and Madrid. An international lawyer, founder of the charity Inspiring Girls and, just as pressing, now shouldering a new responsibility of politician. When Claire and Miriam meet to cook and record this episode, Miriam is in the midst of setting up a new political party in Spain (she can’t say the name of the party at the time of the recording), aiming, she tells Claire; “to stop the country from going further right” and as Miriam says; “I’ve been involved in politics all my life, now is the time for me to stand up”.
For the episode, Miriam cooks a Basque tuna stew called Marmitako, clearly an intuitive and skilled cook, she is also quick to hold Claire to account during much of the cooking process; “no Claire, your peppers need to be thinner” and “no, Claire, this is how you prepare the potato, you need to do it like this and you need to listen for the crack as you cut the potato”. Claire is enthralled throughout, because this, in a nutshell, is what this podcast is all about. Food and cookery knowledge shared through the prism of good conversation, two people cooking side by side, chopping and chatting about why a recipe means so much to them, and how it fits into their lives.
Miriam’s stew is undoubtedly delicious, as the cooking is wrapped up, husband Nick walks into the kitchen introducing himself, meanwhile Miriam’s son waits patiently to eat the dish his mum has just cooked; “he’s always so hungry, he eats all the time, teenage boys” she says with a chuckle. Conscious of the clock, Claire makes tracks to leave, after all Miriam, has got a lot to do, a plane to catch, a country to run and so on and so on….