Food has a story

It was only when I started to think about a post on Instagram that all the little bits of context came together. I wanted to put a single image up there with a few words about a soufflé but realised that I couldn't. The story of getting the ingredients, the background that makes me able to 'throw together' a dessert with a reputation for difficulty, the location that the main ingredient comes from, the person I associate with it..... These all needed to be documented.

So, I had to write this before the Instagram post went up. They had to go out there together.

This isn't a piece on nutrition. It's a dessert. It's a little indulgent. Calories, on this occasion, don't matter. When you have a story, when you give your food a context, the nutrition can take a back seat. You just have to be aware of how often you can do this before the things you consume get in the way of your goals.

I live just outside of the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland, on a street that is close enough to the awesome Arthur's Seat to make it a regular escape for walking, running and appreciation of nature (and time - its an extinct volcano with a 450million+ year history). But my street is very 'urban', not that new and the only greenery pushing through is where it manages to force its way to street level, up the side of a footbridge, from an old railway line.

And that's where I noticed, a few years ago, that there were elderberries around about this time every year. Two years ago, I picked - well 'foraged', I guess - some and turned them into a cordial and then used that to make a sorbet.

I always loved the idea of foraging for my own food, especially leaves and berries, but when I was spending 80% of my waking life in the kitchen and the other 20% in bars, it never happened.

It still doesn't happen very often. But one day, one day....

Anyway, since that first batch of sorbet two years ago, something happened.

I have been boxing as a hobby for the last 4+ years. I don't participate in sparring because of the head injury I received a few months prior to starting, but I love the training. It's hard, technical, provides me with a focus as well as some top people to count amongst friends.

The owner of the boxing gym and so, I guess, my coach, was Brad Welsh. I say 'I guess' only because it is such a hobby for me and I tend to only think of people who take their activities 'more seriously' as having coaches.

Sadly, Brad was killed by a gunshot to the head in April 2019.

He had a lot of history in Edinburgh, no doubt a lot of it earned him some enemies. I won't go into it, because I don't know that much about it and it was all long before I knew him personally, but what I will say is: the person I knew was a very skilled coach, a sharp wit, funny, driven and had a huge sense of community.

Around the 80s, Brad was involved with the football hooliganism of Hibernian, one of the two Edinburgh teams. On match days, the away supporters accessed (and still access, COVID notwithstanding) the stadium via my street and over the bridge where the elderberries grow. Back in 'the day', it was called 'the Bridge of Doom', with Brad and his crew waiting to see off any rivals in what was considered the appropriate fashion.

Today, the bridge has numerous stencil images of Brad and more than a few messages of tribute from black marker-wielding friends and acquaintances. I see them every time I head to the shops.

Back to the elderberries.

I collected my bowlful of them and took them back home - a mere ten minutes of an outing. I stripped them from the branches using a fork and boiled them for 15 minutes with a little sugar. This got blended and then strained through a piece of muslin cloth. I then made a separate sorbet base. This is a mixture of sugar, water and glucose. The glucose is required to keep the sorbet soft, at freezer temperatures. I mixed the right amount of base with the right amount of elderberry liquid. It's about half and half, which might be useful. At least it would be if you had the measurements for everything else....

I knew that this could be used for a few things: added directly to cold water, like any other fruit cordial, to make a drink; frozen immediately as a sorbet or used as the base for a soufflé.

Remember I said that this wasn't about nutrition? I sort of drew a line when it came to the cordial. To get it to taste right (i.e. sweet enough and with enough elder flavour) the drink ended up with about 55g of sugar for every 250ml. I don't really want to drink my calories like this.

On that topic, there's a point that I can make in general: drinks that do little for satiety (i.e. don't make you feel full) but are loaded with sugar, are one way to keep you from maintaining a calorie balance or deficit, crucial if your goals revolve around weight maintenance or fat loss. Since they most likely don't lead to a subsequent reduction in food consumption, you may well be over on what we will call your calorie 'budget'.

As a result, I decided to pursue, instead, one item that has a smaller serve (the sorbet) and one that gets mixed with other things to create an 'occasion' dessert (the soufflé).

While the sorbet mix went on its journey to become actual sorbet, I put together the soufflé.

I thickened the 'sorbet base', prepared a ramekin (the serving dish) by carefully coating with butter and sugar, got my bowls and whisk ready and preheated the oven.

I almost started again when the mix fell a little short of filling the dish. But I went with it, thinking that it would 'do'. This is still a bit of an alien concept for me. My own harshest critic and all that....

Into the oven it went, with the timings as best as I could remember them, extrapolate from more reliable-seeming recipes and use my judgement for.

I'm going to leave you with a few thoughts.

I've seen people write about the idea of calories being 'worth it'. This is something I can get on board with.

Stopping in at the 24-hour garage to grab a rubbish sandwich (with a filling that only inhabits a 6cm circle in the middle of the bread) that you force down your throat without any real thought. Idly grazing on crisps because they are right in front of you. Being bored and filling the time by eating whatever is there, just because it is.

Worth it? Joy at every bite? Fond memories made?

Now think of strolling along the beach with your best friend, grabbing a half lobster with Bearnaise sauce or an ice cream and watching the sun set. Or taking your mum out for a 3-tier, 5-cake afternoon tea for her birthday. Or date night with your partner with a chocolate fondue for two because you've spent the week on different schedules and barely seen each other.

Worth it now?

With a little bit of mindfulness, an appreciation of our actual hunger levels or maybe a recollection how we felt the last time we did a tube of Pringles in 7 minutes (we've all been there, right?) we can maybe make decisions that keep our nutrition on track.

When food has a story, triggers memories or has a strong association, it takes on a whole new meaning. For me, this was about my desire to forage, to revisit skills to see if I still have them, to imagine the scenes on that bridge back before I was anywhere near the area and to think of an individual who had an impact on my life in terms of what I activities I use to increase my fitness and how I approach it.

I also found out that - those skills I mentioned? - I've still got them. And where I was worried if it would 'do' to have the soufflé mix short of the rim, well, take a look. I wouldn't send this back in any restaurant. Unless it tasted rubbish.

It didn't.

'Could have cleaned the ramekin a bit better, chef'

Also, the sorbet:

And that's why elderberry soufflé makes me think of Brad Welsh.