The Calm Christmas Podcast with Beth Kempton

S2 Ep3: NOURISH (body + mind)

• Beth Kempton • Season 2 • Episode 3

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Today’s episode is inspired by festive food, but not in an obvious way. We explore what fermentation can teach us about Christmas, learn how to make hoshigaki (dried persimmons) and spelt digestives, and explore the tradition of Stir Up Sunday. This episode is packed with tips for nourishing yourself with food and herbal remedies this winter, along with some gorgeous wintery words from some of our finest writers. With inspiration from Yoshihiro Imai, Nigel Slater, Lucy Brazier, Good Housekeeping Magazine, Danna Faulds, Rebecca Sullivan, Lisa Nieschlag, Lars Wentrup, Gizzi Erskine, Diana Henry, Ella Mills, Rukmini Iyer, and Elizabeth David.

Ingredients list for featured recipe (makes 16 biscuits):

  • 120 grams of cold unsalted butter, cubed
  • 120 grams of wholemeal spelt flour with a bit extra to dust
  • 120 grams of medium oatmeal or 60 grams of puffed quinoa
  •  60 grams of soft brown sugar or 40 grams if you want a less sweet biscuit
  • 6g salt
  • one teaspoon of baking powder
  • a few drops of milk 

Featured in this episode:

"When thinking about cooking, I always picture contrasting images of light and shadow. Like walking down a sun-dappled street, the images overlap in my mind, and continue infinitely down the path as time progresses. Out of the darkness of night, a beam of morning light appears with the return of the day. That this repeats day after day often feels to me like a miracle. The day thats full of light passes into sunset, then back into the darkness of night. The eternity of that repetition, the astonishing, never-ending miracle of the continuity of time. And theres the dark, faint light of winter. The soft light of spring. The sharp bright light of summer with its dark contrasting shadows. The golden light of autumn. And back again into winter. The passing of a year feels like walking through that sun-dappled street, between light and shadow, light and shadow, stretching back all the way to the beginning of time Cooking is an intertwining of light and shadow, an irreconcilable paradox that coexists in parallel conditions. The beauty, mystery and miracle of that truth is that we as people are a part of the natural circle between light and shadow, and that our lives are the scenery we look upon as we move between those states." Those words are from the exquisite book 'Monk: Light and shadow on the philosopher's path by Yoshihiro Imai" and this is The Calm Christmas Podcast with me, Beth Kempton. Welcome to

Episode Three, Nourish:

Body + mind. This is the 'less stress, more goodness' episode, which is all about food and nourishment. All kinds of nourishment. Now I have a confession to make. I love food. I mean, I love food so much that in nearly every photo of me as a child, I am eating something. And of all the food there is Christmas food is up there with the best of it. But it can be heavy, stodgy, sugary. I know. By the time my eldest daughter turned up two weeks late to be born on Christmas Day, she was pretty much made of mince pies. But over the years I've come to realise that what we eat in November and December makes a big difference to how we feel in January. So I've been trying to find a balanced approach which celebrates all the richness and treats of the season, whilst also nourishing the body and mind in winter. As the winter deepens, I find myself wanting warming and satisfying food. Nothing too heavy, but not too light either. My mom's chilli, Diana Henry's chicken and mango curry, Mr. K's sausage and mash. I stand in the pantry and the pasta winks at me. I switch the plates around in the cupboard so the soup bowls are near the front, and my mind wanders to the man pushing his cart down my street in Kyoto, calling 'yakimo' on cold winter nights, selling roasted sweet potatoes to eat straight from the foil as the night closes in. As Nigel Slater says in the Autumn/Winter edition of his wonderful Green Feast cookbook, The oven gets more use at this time of year, the grill and griddle probably less. More food will come to the table in deep casseroles and pie dishes. I dig out my capacious ladle for a creamed celeriac soup as soft as velvet. The temperature of the plates and bowls will change. We want to hold things that warm our hands, a sign of the happiness to come." He says,"There will be carbs. They protect and energise us. They bring balm to our jagged nerves.(Winter is natures way of making us eat carbohydrates). Crusts of pastry, breadcrumbs and crumble add substance; potatoes fill and satisfy and there is once again a huge sourdough loaf on the table. Rice and noodles are no longer a side dish, and now become the heart and soul of dinner. He goes on to point out This is also the season for something on toast. By toast I mean not only bread cut thick and rough-edged, but toasted bagels and crumpets, muffins and naan. Any soft dough that will crisp under the grill and will support a cargo of vegetables or is happy to be slathered with a thick wave of crme fraiche or hummus, roast vegetables or perhaps cheese to melt and bubble. Yum. I mean I could eat anything that Nigel Slater writes about but I could quite easily eat cheese on toast for a week and be happy in winter. There's just something so comforting about it. And that's the thing about food. It's not just about how it tastes or looks, it's about how it makes us feel. And when we cook for others, it's not just about how it tastes or looks for them, but also about how our food makes them feel in the way we make it and offer it with love. And that's really why I chose that reading for the beginning of today's episode from Yoshihiro Imai's book Monk, because his restaurant holds only 14 people. And his philosophy is small is beautiful. His service, he believes, should represent what is in his heart, pure and undiluted. I thought that was a gorgeous inspiration for how we approach Christmas gatherings and entertaining in a non-stressful way. And particularly the preparation of christmas food to make small details beautiful, and offer something that represents what is in our hearts. Pure and undiluted. Monk, by the way, is my idea of a perfect book. Visually it's absolutely beautiful. And it's full of delicious recipes along with a delicate insight into life in Kyoto, my favourite city in the world, along the Philosopher's Path where I've been many, many times. Monk is situated between Ginkakuji and Honen-in in one of my favourite walking paths in the whole of the city, a path I've probably walked more than 100 times. So every page is a connection to a place I love. This is one of the reasons why books make such wonderful Christmas gifts by the way. In the book Yoshihiro Imai shares some lovely insight into fermentation, an important way of ensuring there is food through the year. This reading is from a passage that was pretty long, so it's a few snippets from it, rather than reading the entire passage. In it he says,"Having grown up in Japan, fermented and preserved foods have always been an ubiquitous part of life. As was normal for people of her generation, my grandmother always had homemade umeboshi (pickled plums) going, and a variety of other pickled things The nuka pickles that I use at monk are house-made. Nuka is a four-hundred-year-old method of pickling vegetables in a bed of fermented rice bran; for my batch , I used some mother nuka given to me by a friend who runs the Italian restaurant cenci in Kyoto. A personal favourite is nuka pickle vinaigrette Though not a fermented food, another item I often used is salt-preserved yuzu. Its fragrance, acidity, and savoury note add a whole extra dimension to dishes, and a little bit goes a long way. At the end of autumn, when yuzu starts appearing in the markets, I make a bulk batch of the preserved yuzu and get stocked up Everyone in the food world is suddenly keyed into fermentation these days, so much so that it can feel like everyones casually throwing around the term while going around imitating each other. Perhaps it is just another food trend that people will move on from in the next five to ten years. My feeling is that this type of hype can result in too many chefs layering up too many umami notes, which exhausts the palate and cancels out the chance to enjoy any lingering, subtle flavours." This is me talking now. But that feels to me like an interesting observation of what sometimes happens at Christmas too. Anyway, let's continue."Of course, I find fermentation magical and enticing. Theres a feeling of entrusting the process to something larger, of cooking in collaboration with unseen microorganisms and natural forces, including the pizza ought itself, which is a living thing that Ive been caring for every day for a decade. But because both storage and hands at Monk are in short supply, I can only make a limited variety of fermented foods at any given time. This is why I am really enjoying rediscovering the traditional foods of Japan, and learning how to best adapt them for my recipes. Born out of necessity over generations as a way to survive extreme weather and environments, they carry the raw life force of those who made and ate them, and are entirely different from trendy, mechanically made fermented foods. They resonate on a deeper level because they embody the learned wisdom and lifestyles of the local cultures and climates, perfected over centuries. I have a high reverence for those who pass on these vibrant traditions and flavours, and hope to play a part in sustaining them for future generations to enjoy and carry forward." I really love that and I think so much of it is relevant for Christmas. creating our own seasonal traditions can be a wonderful way to honour the rhythms of nature, and notice the passage of time in our own lives. One of my favourite memories of my own time spent living in rural Japan was the time my elderly neighbour Sakamoto Banchan, a delightful lady in her late 80s called me into helping her make hoshigaki(dried persimmons). She taught me that after peeling the firm fruits, you have to tie the stalks together with a long piece of string and hang them over bamboo pole, then you leave them to dry. For the first week you don't touch them, but then you give them regular gentle massages over the next three weeks or so. This draws the fructose to the surface, so they end up looking like they've been dipped in sugar. They are delicious with green tea, and make wonderful gifts. Ever since she was a little girl every year for eight decades Sakamoto Banchan had carried out this ritual of food preparation. It makes me wonder what I'd like to turn into a tradition for my children that they might want to carry forward into their own kitchens at this time of year. Talking of traditions this week sees the arrival of Stir Up Sunday, which takes place on the last Sunday before Advent. It does have its roots in religion, but it's one of those traditions that has been taken on by many families as a way to get everyone in the kitchen, stirring the pudding together. Since Victorian times families have gathered around the Christmas pudding and given it a lucky stir. Traditionally, a charm or gold coin was added to the pudding, thought to bring luck to whoever found it. According to Good Housekeeping magazine, certain charms meant certain things. A silver coin for wealth wishbone for luck, a symbol for thrift, a ring for marriage, an anchor for safe harbour. Hopefully none of them lead to a trip to the dentist. Personally, I don't eat much Christmas pudding. I prefer mince pies and Christmas cake, but I love making puddings with lashings of brandy to give as gifts to my family. I wonder, have you thought about giving food as gifts this year? If you fancy it, there are some wonderful cookbooks out there with Christmas inspiration. Some of my favourites include- The Christmas Chronicles by Nigel Slater, not just the recipes but the writing is absolutely beautiful.

- I love New York Christmas:

Recipes and Stories by Lisa Nieschlag and Lars Wentrup - it has the most amazing photographs of a snowy New York.- Nigella Christmas by Nigella Lawson is one of my favourites of the celebrity Christmas books out there.- Gizzi's Season's Eatings by Gizzi Erskine is not just about Christmas but has some wonderful winter recipes in there.- And I also love Elizabeth David's Christmas for her food writing. And besides Christmas, for winter recipes Diana Henry's From The Oven to the Table is full of great ideas for nourishing winter meals, as is the vegan Quick and Easy by Ella Mills, brilliant for batch cooking, and the vegetarian The Green Roasting Tin by Rukmini Iyer. You'll also find some wonderful tonics for winter ills in Rebecca Sullivan's The Art of Herbs for Health. You can find links to all these books in the show notes at Beth kempton.com forward slash Christmas. And now it's time for this week's Christmas recipe, which is spelt digestifs. Speaking of cookbooks I love my friend Lucy brazier has written the gorgeous New River Cottage Christmas, which brings me on to this week's Christmas recipe. River Cottage Christmas features a whole host of delicious recipes to take you right through the holiday season and into the New Year. I used to host the wellness retreats at River Cottage and I know it's a very special place in the Devon countryside not too far from where I live. And before we moved here, I used to visit River Cottage to learn how to make bread and pasta and all sorts of good things. When I was getting ready to write my own book, Calm Christmas, I actually joined a Christmas hamper workshop there which was led by Lucy. We made all sorts of treats like spiced roasted nuts and chocolate salami. I had never eaten so much in one day as I ate that day! Someone on the farm whipped up wooden hampers for us to put all our baked goods in to take home, and the Head Gardener included a tiny envelope of seeds which I gave to my dad for Christmas, and he returned a few months later at a plate of plump beans straight from the garden. And that's what I love about this book. It embraces the full cycle of the season and offers ideas for making every gathering special, whether you're going low key or super fancy this year, so you can make of it whatever you want. So today's recipe comes from Lucy Brazier's River Cottage Christmas, and it's a simple delicious one that can serve you many times in many guises over the weeks ahead. Here's what she

says about spelt digestives:

"In the early days of River Cottage HQ, when there were just a few of us and the office cat, the kitchen chefs made these biscuits every day. They were given to the team after rigorous orchard planting, served to guests as they arrived to take part in a course, and piled up on the cheeseboard at the end of a feast. They are the most versatile biscuit of all - savoury or sweet depending on the amount of sugar you choose to add - and they are the very essence of River Cottage. To me, they taste of 15 years of memories." And this recipe makes about 16 of these lovely biscuits. You will need 120 grams of cold unsalted butter, cubed, 120 grams of wholemeal spelt flour with a bit extra to dust, 120 grams of medium oatmeal or 60 grams of puffed quinoa, your choice, and then 60 grams of soft brown sugar or 40 grams if you want a less sweet biscuit. Then you're going to need six grams of salt, one teaspoon of baking powder, and possibly a few drops of milk. Here's how you make it. So you rub the butter into the flour, either the old fashioned way with fingers or in a food processor until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Then you add either the oatmeal or puffed quinoa depending on what you're using, the sugar, the salt and the baking powder and you mix it all together until it's evenly combined. You might need to add a drop or two of milk at this stage to bind everything together and form a slightly sticky dough. Then you want to turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, dust it with flour and press it into a round. Wrap it in greaseproof paper and leave it to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes. It will actually keep well in the fridge for a few days but it will firm up considerably so you want to take it out at least 20 minutes before you roll it out to soften it up. Then when you're ready to bake, you want to preheat the oven to 180 degrees C which is fan 160 degrees C or Gas Mark 4, flour the dough well and lay it between two sheets of greaseproof paper. Roll it out to three to four millimetre thickness and then remove the top sheet of paper. Using a seven centimetre pastry cutter, cut out about 16 rounds and lay them on a non-stick baking sheet. Reroll any trimmings to cut more. Bake in the oven for seven to 10 minutes checking regularly after five minutes. The biscuit should be brown around the edges and lightly coloured on top. Leave the biscuits on the baking sheet for a few minutes and then transfer to a wire rack to cool. They will keep for several days in an airtight container. But chances are you're not going to have any left! I'm going to make a whole bunch of these this weekend. If you want to win a copy of Lucy's book, be sure to go to my Instagram @BethKempton this week and enter our Christmas book giveaway. Right, we are on to our wellbeing Tip of the Week. This week, I thought we could take some time to think about the cycle of life, where we are in it, what is emerging and what is falling away in our own lives. And crucially, what this means for how we want to spend Christmas this year. To inspire us. Here's a beautiful poem called Up in Smoke by Danna Faulds, which can be found in her book One Soul. I encourage you to use this as your journaling prompt for this week, letting the word settle over you and if necessary, pausing the podcast at the end of the poem to spill into your journal. And of course if you love this poem, and you want to get the book One Soul, you'll find the link in the show notes at Bethkempton.com/podcast. So, Up in Smoke by Donna Faulds. The wind reaches cold fingers down the stone chimney, slips past the flue, and whistles in the woodstove. Oak logs catch quickly, cast their blazing shadows in the dark, burn down to glowing coals that ignite new wood. Everything goes up in smoke, is snatched by gusts and scattered to the stars. It all burns, ash to ash and dust to dust. So little time for flames to dance, so little time. And when you've thought about that, you might want to answer

this question:

What would it mean to radically nourish yourself in mind, body and spirit this winter? Feel free to come and share your thoughts with me over on Instagram @BethKempton, where I'm going to be asking the same question this week. I also wanted to share a lovely recipe from Rebecca Sullivan's brilliant book The Art of Herbs for Health, which is perfect for wintery ailments. I found this when I was looking for an alternative to Vick's. This is for a natural decongestant rub for colds and flu and for headac es. This is Rebecca's recipe It makes 150 grams and she says you'll need 150 grams of coc nut oil, four sprigs each of oregano, sage, thyme and basil r pped into pieces, and th n 15 drops each of the essenti l oils of thyme, eucalyptus and lavender, and 10 drops of lemon ssential oil. It's very very simple. Gently heat the coconut oil and all the herbs in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water, making sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water underneath. So basically like melting chocolate, until the oil begins to go slightly green. Then remove from heat and leave to cool, strain it into a clean bowl or jug and stir in the essential oils. Transfer that to a small sterilised jar, seal it and label it. Store it in the bathroom for up to six months and use it liberally when needed. Rebecca says, "For headaches, put a little bit on your temples, or if there's some on your forehead that's aching, you can pop it straight on there." Such a wonderful recipe for this time of year. And last but not least this week, it's time for our get ahead tips, because preparation can make all the difference. Just a few tips for you this week but ones I hope will really help to minimise the stress by helping you to prepare. So now is a really good time to try and finalise your plans for gathering over Christmas as far as you can, and then if you are going to gather with other people, you might want to send invites to make it extra special, or make your travel plans, or start to think about what you're going to do to make this gathering a little bit more special than normal. It is Christmas after all. And if you decide not to travel, you might want to think about how you can make it special at home. I found that one major way of reducing stress is to focus on one thing, one thing that you want to make extra extra special, then do it brilliantly and just let go of the rest. If the everchanging nature of plans this year stresses you out, aim for simple and close to home. If you want to be super organised for December, you might want to make a week-by-week plan counting back from Christmas itself, and allocate the things you know you're going to need to do to certain weeks or even particular days. And if you're going to do this, why not try to aim to get most of your prep done by December 18th to give you a whole week to enjoy the atmosphere and wind down for Christmas instead of winding up for it. That might seem completely unrealistic, but if you plan ahead with that aim, you'll be amazed - you might spill over the next two or three days after December 18th, but you might end up with some precious space just as the festivities arrive so you can really soak it up and enjoy it rather than be running around. In River Cottage Christmas, the book I talked about earlier and the book I'm giving away this week on my Instagram@BethKempton, Lucy calls December 23rd Little Christmas Eve - I love that! Having a busy December 23rd so Christmas Eve can be a calm and gentle delight. This is also your last chance to sign up for my free writing course the Winter Writing Sanctuary which starts on Monday 22nd November, I absolutely cannot wait for this. You can book your place at dowhatyouloveforlife.com. Make sure you bring your friends as well, anyone who might enjoy - it is completely free and it's going to be two weeks of daily inspiration and wintery words. And lastly, if you've been reflecting on the year and thinking that you'd like to get more creative next year, nurture a writing practice, change careers perhaps, start or grow your business, create and launch an online course as a new income stream or write a book, then don't miss our big sale over at dowhatyouloveforlife.com which includes huge savings on all of our online courses. Our courses are frequently described as life changing, and once a year we put them on huge sale up to 50% off. So if you think now is the time to make a change, make sure you check out the courses at dowhatyouloveforlife.com. We've also got big sales on the art and design schools I co-founded makeartthatsells.com and makeitindesign.com so if you are a budding artist or even a professional artist looking to expand your career, then don't miss the big sale over on those sites to win, you can learn all sorts of amazing things to help you boost your career and your portfolio. This is our biggest sale of the year. It's amazing opportunity to invest in yourself your creativity and your future, or to give a friend a gift that they will never forget, a gift that tells them that you believe in them, you see them and you want them to fulfil their dreams. With up to 50% off, don't miss it. Remember, dowhatyouloveforlife.com which is the same place you can sign up for the free writing course. And that's it for me this week. I hope you have a lovely gentle few days and I will be back next week with a special episode with the 'theme less spending more thought'. It's all about gift giving and sustainable wrapping. It's one of my favourite topics and I hope you will join me then. You've been listening to the Calm Christmas podcast with me Beth Kempton, remember to subscribe so you don't miss any upcoming episodes and tell your friends if you think they'd enjoy it too. For more inspiration and access to a very special free Christmas Care Package, cosy up with a copy of my book, Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year: A Little Book of Festive Joy, which is available now from all good book shops. For a peek into my own perfectly imperfect Christmas preparations. come and find me on Instagram @Beth Kempton, I would love to hear from you there. Wishing you a lovely week as you look ahead to a calm Christmas and Happy New Year.