I must have stared at the ingredients list for @ecotrain's amazing medicinal challenge about twenty minutes tonight, wondering how I was going to put something together. My heart has not been in cooking of late, which is unusual for me. Perhaps it's because it's winter, and I'm seasonally affected, or that I'm just trying to stay afloat whilst going through a few things. But tonight, this list of ingredients piqued my interest and as I shuffled them around in my head in various orders, and considered what I had to hand, I started to feel that delight of creativity creep in.

Here's the list of liver lovely foods provided by @eco-alex:

Blueberries and other blue fruits such as Black Raspberries and Blackberries, Blackcurrants, Juniper, Most Beans and Legumes, Lemon/Lime, Grapes, Plum, Date, Pomegranate, Jasmine, Aloe Vera, Marjoram, Clove, Liquorice, Nettle, Parsley, Caraway, Rosemary, Walnut, Chestnut, Coconut water, Cashew nuts, Celery, Watercress, Potato, Asparagus, Aubergine, Beetroot, Agar, Seaweed, Kelp, Quinoa, Oats, Pumpkin Seed, Wild Rice, Millet, Shoyu, Soya Sauce, Black Olives, and Soybean.

@eco-alex writes:

"The Water element which is associated with the Kidneys and Bladder and resonates with the energy of the winter, wisdom and contemplation and the vastness of the ocean. The Water element is associated with the colour blue and black, a salty flavour, and the feelings of fear. When the kidneys are out of balance they can be helped by eating foods that embody these traits, and help you to restore balance to the body. These days many people are dehydrated and have stressed kidneys due to excessive sugary, caffeine, and alcoholic drinks. Most people also don’t drink enough water during the day"

Well, I don't need to worry about that - I drink lots of water. Jamie's more of a problem, though, and I'm constantly putting a glass of water in his hand and making him drink it. He protests that he drinks tea, and that's enough. That's the Englishman in him. It's worse, because it's winter here, and he just doesn't think to do it. Thankgod he's got me to get some decent nutrition in him, or he'd survive off that other English cuisine, baked beans.

I envy the northern hemisphere's glut of blue berry fruits, and rue not making pomegranate syrup, like I'd planned (a beautiful middle eastern touch which would have been lovely with dates and walnuts in a kind of pilaf). But what I did have was preserved olives and lacto fermented lemons. I was listening to @mountainjewel's permaculture podcast today and was loving what they were saying about storing energy, and these were two things I managed to store at least when we had a glut. Most legumes are out for us due to Jamie's intolerance, and I had no heart to make a sweet (I was thinking a raw sweet with cashew nuts and berries and pomegranate would be gorgeous, with a date and quinoa base).

It's freezing here, but walking through the garden on dark has it's rewards. The funny thing is that when you're steeming, and it's nearly dark, you gotta take photos fast, so I grabbed what I could and set to it. Thank god it's parsley season - I love parsley, and it reminds me of my German Nana, who put tons of it in everything. I'm also bleeding at the moment, so the added iron can't hurt. Thinking of Nana, I also thought of caraway seeds, which she always put with her potatoes. Potatoes it was then! And a red cabbage, the first of the season. How beautiful they are, cut in half! An extraordinary gorgeous vegetable, in my book.

So I chopped the potatoes and the last eggplant I had in the fridge from the huge pile of them I had there, and put them on a tray with olive oil in the bottom of the glass jar which had had goat's cheese marinating in it. I love using oil marinade dregs for baking, as it adds a certain rich dimension to it. Half the tray of cubed potatoes was sprinkled with caraway seeds, half with rosemary, and all with the salt we'd picked up in Amed. In they went for baking whilst I prepared the salad. Oh, and googled about caraway seeds, which I'd never considered before in terms of their health benefits: they contain copper, potassium, iron, calcium, selenium, magnesium, manganese and zinc. Awesome. So apparently they are good for digestion, heart health, and menstrual cramps. Which made me open up the oven and sprinkle more of them on the potatoes. Go caraway. You rock.

The salad. too, was easy, and I went into a nicely meditative state as I considered the earthy loveliness of vegetables - their colour, variety and feel.

• steam the green beans and cool them
• dry fry a big handful of pepitas and cool
• thin slice red cabbage
• add two handfuls of parsley blended with lemon juice and olive oil and layer on top
• sprinkle over thin slices of preserved lemon

The eggplant sauce or dip was totally inspired, even if I do say so myself. It's based on a version of baba ghanoush, another middle Eastern delicacy, but I added some different things to make it smoky and creamy and totally delicious with the potatoes. Once baked, I whizzed it with:

• a splash of shoyu
• a dash of maple syrup
• ten shakes of tabasco sauce
• a tsp of smokey paprika

and it was totally perfect!

So, I had salad, and a sauce, and then - what to do with the olives! Chuck them in with the potatoes, of course! Salty warm goodness. And there you have it - if the ingredients are all good for the liver, then this dish must fairly alright for us to devour before J. goes to the town meeting. He took one look at the meal and said: 'so I can't put mayoinnaise on this then?'. No you bloody well can't, I said. Men.

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