» Recipe with Het

cook - eat

BY OUR RESIDENT FOODIE KATIE FRASER

Khatte Baingan is a sweet and sour curry from Kashmir, and it’s delicious. You can replace aubergine with other available, in season and good value vegetables. Mushrooms, squash, cauliflower and potatoes work particularly well.

Khatte Baingan

for two (or 4 as a side)

1 large aubergine Vegetable oil 1 large onion, finely chopped 50g minced garlic ginger paste 2 green finger chilli, chopped 1/2 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp fennel seeds 1/2 tsp ground coriander 1/2 tsp turmeric 400g chopped fresh tomatoes or tin of chopped tomatoes 1 tbsp jaggery/brown sugar 1 tbsp tamarind concentrate 1 tsp salt Coriander to serve - Cut aubergine into 2cm cubes and pan fry in oil until all sides are browned and flesh is soft. Set aside in a bowl.

- In the same pan, fry the onion until translucent, add garlic ginger paste and chilli and cook for a further 5 mins on a low heat, stirring regularly.

- Put all your dried spices in a small bowl then scatter them over your onion mix.

Stir well for 45 seconds before adding your tomatoes and a small glass of water, and leave to simmer gently.

- In a small pan, mix the tamarind and jaggery/sugar with 100ml water and bring to the boil. Once bubbling, reduce heat slightly and simmer for 3 or 4 mins until you have a thick chutney consistency.

- Now add the pan-fried aubergines and tamarind chutney to your tomato base and simmer for 10 mins.

- Finally check seasoning and serve with rice, or naan, and a liberal sprinkle of coriander. A fresh raita goes well too.

Katie runs hēt – a Frome-based takeaway serving up tasty food with heat.

Follow on Instagram @het_frome or email hetfrome@gmail.com to order.

THE RAIN FORESTS OF FROME

BY DAVID HAMILTON

On the Atlantic side of Britain and all across the island of Ireland, the Gulf Stream brings warm waters from the Caribbean which help maintain a steady temperate climate, warming things up in the winter and cooling in the summer. Back in the distant past, when the wildwood covered most of Britain and Ireland, this high humidity and steady temperature gave rise to temperate rainforest stretching from the Highlands of Scotland to the tip of Cornwall and continuing south across France and the Iberian Peninsula.

Similar forests still exist, albeit in semi depleted forms, in the USA from Alaska to California and

New York State to Virginia. In Britain, there are just a few small fragments of these rainforests left, most of which are in western Scotland, Wales, Devon and Cornwall, with the odd exception in Somerset, including a tiny, precious fragment close to Frome at

Vallis Vale.

The definition of a rainforest is a forest whose humidity is such that it can support epiphytes, plants which grow on other plants. The trees at Vallis Vale have thick coatings of dark green moss around the trunk and grey-green, beardlike lichen pendulously dripping from the trees. Here, the main rainforest signifier - featherlike polypody ferns - are everywhere, sprouting from the branches. Beneath them on the forest floor signs of ancient wet woodlands are in abundance with the aptly named pendulous sedge and its long, drooping seed heads. Lianas, or woody vines, rooted in the soil snake along the soil and up the trees like something Tarzan would swing on.

Walk further into the woods and you come to the sprawling ruin of Fussell’s ironworks. Back in the days when this was still accessible, you would see trees sprouting up from the inside of buildings, the remains of fireplaces hanging without a purpose in upstairs rooms with all evidence of a ceiling above or floor below gone. On large oak beams suspended six feet in the air, ferns sprout as if on fallen deadwood. Once you begin to look for these rainforest signifiers, the polypody fern, the lichen, the vines, you’ll begin to notice them everywhere. Heading out of Frome, close to Nunney, you’ll find them covering the older trees in the abandoned Asham Quarry, and closer to town they grow in scattered locations along the river. Parents of children at Trinity School might also spot a lone fern sprouting from the large tree growing in the school playground. I often look at this during school drop-off and wonder what the playground might have looked like back in the days when Frome was once primordial rainforest!

Dave Hamilton is an author with a special knowledge of foraging and self-sufficiency which he shares through his books and courses. For more info go to: www.davehamilton.co.uk