The fam have always called me the Prepper. So it’s a relief that I get to have this conversation these days. But the truth is I have just made extensive lists on many different scraps of paper, such as:
THINGS TO GET OFF POWER (underlined twice)
1. Information
2. The car (oh, the irony)
3. The kettle
4. The stove top
5. Everything to do with cooking
6. Hot water
7. All water?
and
THINGS TO GET OR STOCKPILE
1. Solar panel
2. Water trough
3. Butter churn
4. Oestrogen
5. Chickens
6. Chickpeas
7. Cow
Most lists end with chickpeas or a cow.
We have a cellar. It is cold and a bit damp and every year I see one tiny toad on the step (alive) and I wonder where the heck it has come from and where its parents are. Anyway. It is where I imagine us to sit things out, under space blankets (NB add to list), probably with the cow, eating chickpeas.
And then I think about other things, good things. The quiet of lockdown, sunrays drifting through the woods. Neighbours pulling together. Less movement. Blossom and foraging and daffs. Seedlings and growth. We were very lucky through it, I know that others weren’t. The sun shone and we lived in the garden and life was simple. All together, tucked up like peas in a pod.
Looking back on the early childrearing years, it seemed at the time that the main job was keeping the children safe. What I realise now, was that in that most conservative phase of self, they were keeping you safe, too. Buggy to the park, swing on the swings, back home for fish fingers and a nap. Loved the naps (still do).
In the meantime, wrestling with the new shape of things (the world’s, my own, literal and metaphorical), I still find much comfort in the soft, fat chickpeas in jars that were the kids’ first finger foods. They are the most complete single foodstuff I can think of. I used to find the Spanish ones for 99p a jar in the huge pan-world supermarket at the end of the street when we lived in London, rather than the fancy ones you can see in my middle class stash here.
In the absence of any sensible advice, here is my go-to recipe for chickpeas (also works with white beans).
Anytime Chickpeas
Eat them on toast or with roast squash, eat them with lamb, or with sausages. Or just eat them with a spoon.
For 2 (or more as part of a meal)
1 x 700g jar of chickpeas (or 2 tins)
50ml extra virgin olive oil
1 fat garlic clove (or 1 tsp garlic puree)
1 lemon
Small bunch of thyme or rosemary
Splash white wine or good stock (if you have it)
Salt and black pepper
Strip the herbs off their stalks and finely chop. Crush or finely chop the garlic and add both to a sauce pan with half the olive oil. Sizzle over a medium heat for a couple of minutes then tip in the chickpeas including their stock. Add a splash of wine, stock or water, bring to a simmer and cook till you have a soothing, loose but still thick bowl of goodness, more like a stew than a soup. (If you are using tinned rather than glass jarred, cook for 10-15 minutes longer). Taste and season. To serve, zest over about a tablespoon of lemon peel, then cut lemon in half and squeeze over a little juice. Finish with a swirl of olive oil and a scramble of black pepper.