Spice it up...Wild Style

"Vegetarianism - boring! Anyone who thinks so would have their world severely rocked by this little number...enclosed within the covers are poems, recipes and a little touch of folklore...served up with humour and a dash of sexiness...enjoy a little Bacchanalia for St Valentine’s Day and all the days that follow. Wonderful!"
(The Vegetarian Magazine)

Cooking, eating and sharing in the sensual pleasure of food and feasting has always been important to those in Wild Women. Right from the first meeting, it was apparent that the lunch hour would have to be extended! Behind this desire to bring our foods to the cookfire lay an ancient tradition, where women would gather to prepare the foods, sharing stories and songs. This, in my mind, is where we find the birth of the poem.

(Kim and Sal taking part in the collective bread baking workshop - kneading our wishes into the dough...)

I have long believed that our emotions flavour our foods - I am careful to not cook angry - a guarantee for heartburn! When I am cooking, it feels as though I am creating something magical, summoning spells and stirring up love. As we tucked into the glorious feasts every meeting, it was obvious that this act held inspiration for us all, and so I suggested that we used it as the starting point of our next anthology and series of workshops. Hearty agreement followed!

Over the next 10 sessions, I used different creative exercises for approaching food, exploring it from the point of the food, the eater, the creator. For example, choose a food or meal and write from that perspective!

Without intending it to be so, the subject soon turned to sensuality and sexuality and I swear that the room actually began to steam up! Ruth and Gill started to supply spells connected to food and passion and we each brought in our favourite Wild Women recipes. As we wrote, shared and enjoyed a creative feast, a book shape started to emerge. I decided at this time to turn the editing over to the group, and Julie Stebbings took on the task - her first ever book! it was decided by majority that the book would be entirely vegetarian - including the poems and Julie set to organising the poems, recipes and spells into a beautiful and rather tasty anthology. Adam Clarke provided us with the delicious cover design and typeset the pages and we found local business sponsorship (from an optician!) to help us reach our printing costs. We decided on the title of

Hot Pot of Passion: A Sensual Celebration of Food

To promote the book, we organised 2 launches in Cumbria, broadcast live on Radio. These events became the stuff of legend, as our guests were treated to a vast feast of homecooked Wild Women food, live music, Egyptian dancing and 13 women reading sensual poetry, dressed in the most beautiful attire! True to our belief that poetry is not dull and stuffy, the evening was gorgeous. Never has a poetry reading been so much fun! My favourite bit was seeing the sign at the foot of the grand stairs at the Penrith George Hotel saying: "Wild Women in the Ballroom"...

As with our previous anthology, Hot Pot sold out faster than...well, hot cakes and soon we had to go to reprint. It was awarded the honour of being the Vegetarian Society's Valentine Gift Recommendation and won over fans across the globe. It is still one of our best selling books. We had succeeded in taking poetry out of the ivory tower once again, and this time placed it right in the heart of the home - with Hot Pot of Passion, you could read a poem, cook a meal and learn a spell all in one go!

and we had a lot of fun doing it as well...what better recipe is there than that?

And if you want a little nibble before eating the whole dish, try this for taste...

Soul Food

No more slavishly following sensible Delia.

No more faddish attempts at TV chef fashions.

No more mealy-mouthed hipper-than-thou wholefood homage.

I need soul food.

Vast, richly spiced cauldrons of firework flavours,

to bring a sparkle to the eye of the most reserved of men.

Buttocks of sweet smelling dough,

warmed and shaped by my own soft palms,

that quiver to be patted by a firm hand.

The very tips of tender asparagus,

anointed in butter and nibbled tenderly between gentle lips.

Mounds of fragrant rice,

that hint at geisha skills with tongue and fingers.

Midnight bitter chocolate;

an intensity beyond sweetness,that only melts

after long, lingering encouragement in the mouth.

Mmm, baby -

I want it spicy, strong, rich, slow, creamy,

fresh, home-grown, hand-cooked and hot!

Hungry?

(Rosemary Doyle, pp.24)

Salsa De Chile Verde

4 ripe tomatoes, skinned in hot water

1 - 2 green chillies, de-seeded

1 medium-sized red onion, chopped finely

1 fat clove garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon fresh coriander, chopped

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon unbleached sugar

1 teaspoon white wine vinegar

juice 2 limes

pepper to taste

Add all ingredients together and blend with hand-mixer or fork. Mix well, chill and serve with tortilla chips topped with melted cheese.

Loving Cup

Mix 4 tablespoons of rosewater and half a cup of elderflower cordial into a pint of dry white wine. Drink with your lover, and things will go well. Serve at a party and love will be in the air all night.

ISBN 0 9536989 2 0

£4.00