Silo

When Sinead had first contacted Love Brighton about places to go, people to see and libations to swig, one place kept getting mentioned over and over again.

Silo.  The UK's first zero-waste restaurant.  Now I have eaten at sustainable restaurants, nearly-zero waste restaurants, foraging restaurants and other variants on this theme, but never at somewhere that proclaims to be completely zero waste.  Just pause and try to get your head around that for a moment.  You can't purchase flour - you need to mill it yourself if you want people to eat bread.  Every last scrap of food waste needs to be composted.  Booze needs to be brewed on site. All the building materials need to be recycled.  All produce, every last scrap needs to be locally sourced or come into the UK via sustainable methods.  The sheer scale of this endeavor is, quite frankly, terrifying. 

This is a challenge that founder and head chef, a former BBC young chef of the year, Douglas McMaster has launched himself into with a passion and fervor that is astounding.  You would have to be passionate in order to commit to something as absolute as zero-waste.  Passionate, or absolutely bonkers.  Silo in Brighton is not Douglas' first foray into the world of zero-waste.  A prototype of his vision was launched extremely successfully in Melbourne with the Artist / Designer Joost Bakker. 

Located inside an old industrial Warehouse in the North Laines, Silo's mission is evident from the moment you step through the great doors.  In the waiting area / bakery you can see evidence of the mushrooms being grown onsite ready for cooking and the waiting list by the tills with peoples names being jotted down on the back of old brown envelopes.   The toilets are flushed with used coffee grounds. Really.  Almond milk is made on site for people who can't tolerate lactose.

The waiting system is quite refreshing.  You pop your name, your phone number and the time you arrived on the list and they call you when your table is ready.  Shay and I were happy to wait by the cakes, out of the rain and use the 15 minutes until they could seat us as an opportunity to snap some pictures.

The tables look like they have been recycled from old scaffolding platforms, whilst the chairs and benches are made from compacted recycled plywood.  They don't look particularly comfortable but are in fact surprisingly kind on the backside!

Silo is extremely popular with a constant stream of hungry visitors, so expect to share your table your party can't occupy all the seats at a table.  The main room is open and airy, with the chefs cooking in full view of the diners.

The ingredients that the restaurant uses add another novel dimension to the experience.  Silo believes in a pre-industrial food system, with ingredients having been through an absolutely minimal food processing system.  Food is sourced from local farmers, alcohol is brewed on site in the basement, where the composter is also located. Wild and foraged food features heavily.  The menu is simple, with only 6 dishes to choose from, including a daily Plant, Dairy, Fish, Meat and Wild option to.  This limited choice is deliberate.  In an interview with The Guardian, McMaster said that “Choice is something which is wrong with the food industry. The places with more choice create more waste and have lower standards, that’s an absolute fact."

The menu is presented to you on a tablet or projected onto the wall.  This causes some issues when the projector inexplicably cuts out and a different menu from the day before appears, but for the most part it is a simple, obvious system that reduces paper wastage.

We start with water with herbs in containers made from recycled glass and jam jars.  All drinks are served in jam jars - including the coffee and tea apparently, while the drink stocks are kept in recycled and reusable containers.

Then the bread appears on plates made of recycled plastic- delicious slabs of home milled sour dough using a speciality mix of ancient grains. It is packed full of flavour and has a light, nutty taste to it.

I order a drink made from fresh ginger and lemon; it is hot and cooling at the same time and quenches the thirst I have from my hangover which is starting to gather momentum by now.  Shay orders one of the home brewed ales which she said was nice but with a very unique taste.

Now came the big test. The main dishes.  I must confess, I was worried that the lure of Silo so far had been built on a gimmick and there would not be the substance needed in the food to back up the claims.

I needn't have worried myself.  I ordered the catchbox fish dish, which on this day happened to be some unfortunate cod that had swum into the nets, with greens and a light butter dressing.  It was divine, and I do not say this lightly.  It was served with seaweed mash, steamed leeks and capers.  I actually had to ask what one of the ingredients was as I had never heard of it before.  Turns out it is a cousin to broccoli (which I detest, but in this dish was wolfed down).  The flavour combinations were subtle and delicate, and, (to quote a phrase I am not particular fond of as it is ridiculously hipster, but in this situation it absolutely applies), the entire dish left you feeling clean afterwards.  Every single element on the plate had a purpose and it just came together in a medley of magnificence.

The food here is masterful, and incredibly reasonable priced.  We had a main and a drink each for about £15 each.  No receipt - no paper wastage.

In addition to the restaurant is the bakery where we pick up cakes for the train ride home later that day.

You can also grab a sandwich to go here if you don't have the time to stop and linger over lunch.  When we were here the place was continuously busy with the lunchtime crowd, including families with very young children who (surprisingly to me) loved the food that they were served, considering the amount of flavours on the menu that I thought would not be particularly child friendly.  To be fair, I have no children and was a picky kid, so I could be extremely out of touch!

Overall?  Silo blew us both away.  It is an incredibly brave venture, and one that, they seem to be getting right.  It only opened in October 2014 and they aren't fully there yet - they are still trying to raise funds to improve areas that aren't quite zero waste yet, such as sourcing ingredients that are difficult to get in the UK and improving the coffee system

My verdict?  If you live in or near Brighton and have this on your doorstep, I am jealous of you.  If you live in or near Melbourne and have this on your doorstep, I am jealous of you.  It is worth making a trip to Brighton for this place alone.

If you like (or hate!) what you have read, please do let me know in the comments below or slap me with a cheeky follow, or say Hi to me on my Facebook group or Twitter or Instagram!

Tom Yum Soup

Yum by name and Yum by nature, this Thai hot and sour soup is a quick and warming lunch and one I frequently fall back on if I am working from home or am cooking only for myself and can't be bothered to go to too much effort.

It is hot (both chilli and steam hot) and fragrant, with strong pungent flavours.  As soups go, this one is not particularly shy or retiring.   It is also ridiculously moorish (I have been known to drain the broth after the noodles have been eaten straight from the bowl) and also pretty healthy!

It honestly takes less than 5 minutes from turning on the kettle to sitting at the table.

This is the bog standard, basic staple recipe which you can jazz up with spring onions, prawns, leftover chicken breast, mushrooms, baby corn, strips of fresh ginger, basically anything you happen to have leftover.  Believe me though, this version is beautiful just as it is and also very filling.

So set the timer and let's get started.

Put the kettle on- you want enough boiling water to fill your soup bowl about 3/4 of the way full.

In a small saucepan put 2 tablespoons liquid chicken stock, 1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce, juice of 1 lime, 1 small red chilli, snipped in, a handful of ripped coriander, also snipped in and 1 tablespoon Tom Yum soup paste (if you don't have any you can leave this out and just make it with the rest of the ingredients.  This turns it into a standard hot and sour soup instead of a Tom Yum soup but it is still just as nice).  You can also add a small pinch of brown sugar if you want to tone down the sharpness a little but remember, this soup is supposed to be hot and sour, not sweet.

Pour the boiling water on the top and bring to a rapid boil.

Add your choice of noodle (egg or vermicelli are my favourites) plus anything else you want to throw in.

Boil for about 3 minutes and serve.

Slurping optional.

Salmon Pepita

I'm always looking for ways to jazz up fish a little.  We probably don't eat enough of it in our house, mainly because it can be a bit dull.  I came across this recipe in my wanderings on the internet and thought with a little tweaking to suit our tastes it could be worth a go for an easy weeknight supper.

The flavours are fresh and punchy so I combined the salmon with seared asparagus tips and smoked sea salt and garlic new potatoes.  Perfect for a summers evening out in the garden with a cold glass of Sauvignon Blanc and some jazz playing softly in the background.  Or in front of the TV while the kids argue about bath-time.  Whichever.

Ingredients:
3 fillets of fresh salmon
1 packet new potatoes
1 packet asparagus tips
20g pumpkin seeds
Butter
1 red birdseye chili
1 lime
2 cloves garlic
Oak smoked sea salt

Lightly toast the pumpkin seeds in a hot pan until fragrant.  Tip into a cold bowl and grate the lime over the top.  Add the juice of the lime, the chili (finely chopped) and a slither of butter.  Set aside.

In another pot combine another slither of butter with the crushed garlic and oak smoked sea salt and mash well.  Set aside.

Season the flesh of the salmon with pepper and the skin with salt.

Sear the salmon skin side down in a hot skillet lightly brushed with oil until it turns golden and crisp then turn the heat down, flip the fillets and continue to cook until the dark pink turns light all the way through.

In a separate pan boil the new potatoes and the asparagus tips.  After 2 minutes whip the asparagus tips out and add them to the skillet.

When the salmon is cooked, set it on a plate with the asparagus and tip the pumpkin seed mix into the hot skillet.  Cook for 10 seconds until all the butter has melted, remove and top the salmon with the sauce.  Add the garlic and salt butter to the new potatoes and serve.

PS.  This little number ticks all sorts of health diversity boxes.  It's low in fat, low in calories, diabetes appropriate, gluten free, low in saturated fats, low in carbohydrate and high in omega 3.

Clever fishy.

Remedy for over-indulgence

This last week I have really over-indulged.  My appetite has been through the roof, I've not been to the gym at all and there has been alcohol involved.  

Consequently I'm feeling rather sluggish now.

With the sunshine out in force I am well aware that I need to get my butt in gear if I want to feel at all good this summer.

To kick start, I've turned to an old favourite for lunch today.  You can't even in good conscience call this a recipe as it is simply three ingredients thrown into a bowl.

It is fresh, healthy and seriously tasty.

1 Banana.  1 tablespoon fat free natural yogurt.  1 passion fruit.

Filling and good for breakfast, lunch, a snack or even creamy enough to double up as a guilt free dessert.

I love this.

To finish I borrowed my friends golden retriever who was ready and wagging for a long walk in the fields in the sunshine!