Lecker

Welcome back to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be cooking from the book and writing about that on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well!

On this edition of the Lecker Book Club: Fliss Freeborn's Do Yourself A Flavour. Did you go to university? If you did, there’s a chance someone bought you - or you bought yourself - one of the many student cookbooks available. But did you actually find it useful? I definitely owned a couple of these myself, and I can’t say that I distinctly remember cooking anything from them - certainly nothing memorable, and definitely nothing that I continued cooking once I left student life. Fliss Freeborn feels very strongly that these books are more often than not a waste of your time and money and with Do Yourself A Flavour she’s written a different kind of cookbook - for students, yes, but also for anyone who wants to get themselves out of a pesto pasta rut, as she puts it, and more importantly have a good time doing it.

Fliss started university with a few years of cooking already under her belt, and so she wsas in the ideal position to start cooking for her friends, and eventually she wasn’t just providing delicious home cooked meals for them, but also recipes too. She started a food blog while studying, mostly so she’d have an easy way to send instructions to friends, and  this - a few years in - led to an unusual lucky break for her.


Do Yourself A Flavour is out now, published by Ebury Press. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.

Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

Welcome to the Lecker Book Club. Every month I’ll pick a newly released food related book and talk to the author about the process of writing it. I’ll also be cooking from the book and writing about that on Substack and Patreon. Join me there as well!

On the first edition of the Lecker Book Club: Maria Bradford’s Sweet Salone. Maria grew up in Sierra Leone and moved to Kent, UK in her late teens. Sweet Salone is the first English-language book of Sierra Leonean recipes published internationally, and in it Maria wanted to share the unique nature of the food of her home country, but also celebrate the country’s people, including her own family. But it wasn’t necessarily a smooth process writing the book, as you’ll hear her talk about.

We spoke about the culture shock she experienced on arriving in the UK; what it was like encountering strawberries and apples for the first time. But it was Maria’s deep-rooted curiosity about all kinds of food that eventually led her on a path to training at Leiths and setting up her fine-dining catering business, Shwen Shwen - a Krio phrase meaning ‘fancy’. It’s this outlook and experience that closely informs the recipes in the book: from traditional dishes learned from her mother and grandmother, to her very own brand of Afrofusion.

Sweet Salone is out now, published by Quadrille. Find all of the Lecker Book Club reads on my Bookshop.org list.

Support Lecker by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

Music is by Blue Dot Sessions.

An audio exploration of the most enigmatic meal of the day.

Thanks so much to the guests on this episode:
Bre Graham
Bettina Makalintal
Gurdeep Loyal
Dan Hancox and Dr Kasia Tee
Thea Everett
Lara Lee

You can listen to the full versions of all the Breakfast Season conversations by becoming a paid subscriber on Patreon, Apple Podcasts and now on Substack.

Music is by Kevin McLeod at Incompetech

This is a preview of an episode of the excellent Cursed Objects podcast, featuring me, Lucy, talking to Dan Hancox and Dr Kasia Tee about the great British institution of Meal Deals.

Listen to the full version on Cursed Objects.

I’m delighted to bring you a very short sweet taste of a conversation I had recently with the food writer Gurdeep Loyal. I’ve followed Gurdeep’s work for a few years now, and have always been in great admiration of what he does; not only in his own writing, and not even just in his platforming of other people’s work on his site and instgram page Mother Tongue, but also just in his general enthusiasm, charm and fostering of connections and community within food. 

His debut cookbook, also called Mother Tongue, is published this week and celebrates his heritage as -as Gurdeep himself puts it: "a descendant of Punjabi farmers and Leicester market traders.”

This is part of a much longer interview over breakfast of crab crumpets - recipe in Mother tongue - which you can hear over on the Lecker Patreon or via Apple Podcasts subscription.

Reminder that merch is available via the Lecker Teemill site or BigCartel

Music is by Kevin McCleod at Incompetech.

Ginger and apple bircher, toast toppings, Australian pancakes; writer Bre Graham talks about being a breakfast person. Her debut cookbook, Table for Two, is out now!

This is the first episode in a new interview series all about BREAKFAST! Future episodes will be available exclusively on the Lecker Patreon. For £3 a month you can get access to all episodes. Subscribe here.

Merch is available via the Lecker website. Or you can go directly to Teemill for T-shirts and tote bags, and to bigcartel for zines and patches.

Follow Lecker on Twitter and Instagram.

Music:
"In Your Arms" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

"Pleasant Porridge" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

A mythical-looking beast to be found on the hills of the Isle of Man; the loaghtan is a fascinating heritage breed sheep whose story is intertwined with Manx culture and history.

Katie and Lucy meet farmer Jenny Shepherd from Ballacosnahan, who have one of the biggest loaghtan flocks on the island, make loaghtan croish cuirns with artist Rosie Wood and find out how to work with loaghtan’s unique flavour with chef and spice importer Kumar Menon of Leela’s Kitchen. Plus Annie Kissack is on hand with some folktales about the sheep.


Blasstal is a podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin.

Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie Callin
Podcast theme music by Mera Royle
Podcast artwork by Vicky Webb
With thanks to all contributors and others who made the series possible!

Music credits:

Manx Folk Dance Music - Car ny Ferrishyn
Manx Folk Dance Music - Fathaby Jig
Caarjyn Cooidjagh - Ballakilpheric - 07 Irree Shiu
Caarjyn Cooidjagh - Ballakilpheric - 11 Berree Dhone
Manx Folk Dance Music - 08 Thobm y Thallear (Tom the Tailor)
Caarjyn Cooidjagh - Ballakilpheric - 02 Ny Kirree fo Niaghtey
Manx Folk Dance Music - 15 Car Juan Nan

With thanks to Annie Kissack

Enjoying Blasstal? You might like Lecker’s brand new merch selection, including a very Manx bonnag T-shirt!

Follow Lecker on Twitter and Instagram. Read more about Blasstal and see some behind the scenes photos at leckerpodcast.com

Katie and Lucy take a deep dive to the heart of the Manx fishing industry to meet a true Isle of Man legend: the herring (skeddan in Manx).

Blasstal is a podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin.

Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie Callin
Podcast theme music by Mera Royle
Podcast artwork by Vicky Webb
With thanks to all contributors and others who made the series possible!

Music credits:

Manx Folk Dance Music - Yn Guilley Hesheree (The Ploughboy)
Manx Folk Dance Music - Reeaghyn dy Vannin (Dirk Dance)
Manx Folk Dance Music - Peter O'Tavy
Manx Folk Dance Music - Eunyssagh Vona
Manx Folk Dance Music - Car Juan Nan

https://culturevannin.bandcamp.com/album/daunseyn-theayagh-vannin-manx-folk-dance-music
‘Daunseyn Theayagh Vannin: Manx Folk Dance Music’
Manx trad.
Manx Folk Dance Society, 1976.

Caarjyn Cooidjagh - Arrane Y Skeddan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob9eSB5KkFA&ab_channel=CultureVannin
‘The King of the Sea’
Lyrics: J.F. Gill, Traditional melody: Yn Colbagh Breck er Sthrap, from ‘Manx National Songs’, ed. W.H. Gill (1896)
Performed by Lowenna
At the Manx Folk Awards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuKvytxDIc8&ab_channel=CultureVannin 
‘King of the Sea’
Lyrics: J.F. Gill, Traditional melody: Yn Colbagh Breck er Sthrap, from ‘Manx National Songs’, ed. W.H. Gill (1896)
Performed by Ballacottier School
At the Manx Folk Awards
Conducted by Katie Lawrence


With thanks to Annie Kissack

Follow Lecker on Twitter and Instagram. Read more about Blasstal and see some behind the scenes photos at leckerpodcast.com

In episode 1 of Blasstal, Katie introduces Lucy to the vegetable at the heart of Hop-tu-Naa traditions of the Isle of Man.

They explore the island's folklore with poet and folklore expert Annie Kissack, attend a Hop-tu-Naa celebration at Cregneash, carve their own moots, and finally head out Hop-tu-Naa-ing around Peel.

Blasstal is a podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin.

Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie Callin
Podcast theme music by Mera Royle
Podcast artwork by Vicky Webb
With thanks to all contributors and others who made the series possible!

Music credits:

Manx Folk Dance Music - Guilley Hesheree (The Ploughboy)
Manx Folk Dance Music - Eunyssagh Vona
Manx Folk Dance Music - Hop-tu-Naa

https://culturevannin.bandcamp.com/album/daunseyn-theayagh-vannin-manx-folk-dance-music 
‘Daunseyn Theayagh Vannin: Manx Folk Dance Music’
Manx trad.
Manx Folk Dance Society, 1976.

Caarjyn Cooidjagh - Manannan Beg Ballad
Caarjyn Cooidjagh - Mannin veg veen

With thanks to Annie Kissack

Follow Lecker on Twitter and Instagram. Read more about Blasstal and see some behind the scenes photos at leckerpodcast.com

Welcome to Blasstal! A podcast series by Lecker about food and folklore on the Isle of Man, supported by Culture Vannin.

Launching 31st October.

Hosted and produced by Lucy Dearlove and Katie Callin
Podcast theme music by Mera Royle
Podcast artwork by Vicky Webb