Arty weekends, pistachio meringue and blood orange sgroppino

27 March 2023

Paris in the Spring

Last week I was in Paris, and in the interests of continuity, this is a double bumper edition of what has been in the weekend papers for the last fortnight. I’m going to do a special newsletter on Paris later in the week.

Travel

UK

After being swamped by people in the Musée d’Orsay, I was pleased to see readers’ favourite art galleries in the UK in the Guardian as in future, I decided I was just going to look at a few pieces of art at a time, somewhere smaller or even outside. Even better, there’s a new series on arty weekends by Rachel Dixon in the Guardian, including Petworth in Sussex, where there are Turners, in Petworth House and the Horseguards Inn at Tillington which I love nearby; ( see photo below)

Southend on Sea in Essex, where I fancy a walk along the pier there along with the free Beecroft Art Gallery; 

Bishop Auckland where there’s the Spanish Gallery with a collection of 16th- and 17th-century Spanish art by Velázquez, El Greco, Murillo;

North Norfolk, especially the sculpture park at Houghton Hall;

Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway with Broughton House and Garden and Drumlanrig Castle where’s there’s a Rembrandt;

and finally St Davids in Pembrokeshire in Wales where there are Graham Sutherland exhibitions. Portmeirion and going up the Snowdon Mountain Railway in Wales are in the Independent.

According to the Telegraph, Folkestone is ‘hoping to be the new alternative to Margate’ with its regenerated Harbour Arm and the Creative Quarter 

Fermanagh and all its culinary goodness is in the Times.

Europe

There’s a profusion of information about French cities with city guides to Paris and Marseille in the Independent , Nîmes for a city break in the Telegraph, and a local’s guide to Toulouse in the Guardian.

Bratislava in Slovakia and Torremelinos, which is called ‘a faded city making a surprisingly glamorous comeback are in the Times, how to spend a weekend in Rome in the Telegraph and a city guide to Girona in the Sunday Times. 

You can walk on trails from Paola in Calabria in Italy in the Guardian or go on a wine trail around Thessaloniki in the Times, probably with more drinking than walking.

Restaurants 

This article on high end affordable London restaurants in the Standard with recommendations from five of their food writers is the one you have to bookmark or send to your friends when deciding somewhere to go and eat in London.

Tim Hayward in the FT, William Sitwell in the Telegraph and Giles Coren in the Times all went to Maresco in Soho and to summarise, none of them liked it very much.

In the FT, Tim Hayward wrote about the history of Italian restaurants in the UK.

In the Guardian, Grace Dent went to Hawthorn in Kew which she liked and to Musu in Manchester which serves ‘highest-quality contemporary Japanese food’ and said ‘over the sheer cost, the din and the small portions, …..I must stress that the food is outstanding.’

In the Observer, Jay Rayner visited Socca, the latest restaurant from chef Claude Bosi and thought there should be ….‘fabulousness to mitigate the price. But it was strange and uneven rather than the perfect it should be.’ There’s a hilarious description of the Swiss chard tart dessert which you should read in full but he says, ‘I ordered it because it’s my job to do so and, as ever, so you wouldn’t have to. It was like eating a sweet solidified cabbage soup.’

He also went to 111 by Modou in Glasgow which has both an amazing story behind it and great food.

In the Standard, Jimi Famurewa went to Joia in Battersea, and Crisp Pizza in Hammersmith which he thought ‘may not reinvent the pizza wheel but it succeeds, somehow, in turning the food world’s most boring, over-exposed ubiquity into something fresh, distinctive and utterly undeniable.’

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell was in Devon at the Lost Kitchen near Tiverton in and decreed  ‘ while the ingredients are local, of course, the inspiration is from rather further afield: North Africa, Lebanon, Turkey… it’s a grab from around the world of whatever dishes feel cosy, shareable, rustic and informal.’

In the Times, Giles Coren travelled to Manifest in Liverpool and asked,  ‘Why are chefs so terrified of vegetables?’

Recipes

More baking this week with Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for banana and passion fruit loaf and John Whaite’s recipes in the Guardian, with rhubarb, orange and coconut bostocks, malted tea très leches, no-bake lemon and ginger tart  and pistachio, orange and brown butter friands. Diana Henry had recipes for  little lemon curd cakes, seed cake and an apple cake with cider brandy cream in the Telegraph.

There was an Italian food and drink special in the FT with a Honey and Co Jewish-Italian feast that can all be made a day or two before the Shabbat when cooking is forbidden , caponata, a roasted aubergine and vegetable bake, Schiacciata Livornese — a focaccia made with potatoes and Sarde in Saor — sardines in vinegar, onions and pine nuts. There were also six antipasti recipes by Ravinder Bhogal including gnocco fritto with Parma ham and marinated fennel, white bean crostini with crisp sage and pepperoni and charted melon and prosciutto with Marsala caramel

In the Times, chef George Barson who is the chef at the Beckford Canteen in Bath shared some of his recipes including pea soup with bacon and ricotta croutons, sole with harissa butter, and clotted cream mousse with stewed rhubarb

Nigel Slater’s recipes for lentil and bulgur wheat cakes, and for pea soup with ham hock in the Observer and a rhubarb, elderflower and brioche toast, similar to John Whaite above, which led a friend to email me, saying, Kate, ‘why do you put rhubarb on toast?’ The next week he did recipes for smoked trout, fennel and sweet-sour onion and spring greens, beanshoots and lime. Ottolenghi gave treat recipes in the Guardian, for scones with rhubarb and ginger compote and Kibbeh scotch eggs and a blood orange sgroppino which I am going to make on Easter Sunday. It’s a blood orange and vermouth sorbet to mix with prosecco. He also cooked with semolina with recipes for mustardy  chicken schnitzel with braised peas and pea salsa, semolina idli with coconut chutney and spiced oil and lemony semolina and almond cookies

Barberry chicken with rice and almonds from Ravinder Bhogal in the FT, with the Persian tradition of mixing meat with fruit, nuts and spice and a really useful five suppers to beat inflation in the Telegraph including Moroccan spiced bean and lentil soup, spicy rice and tuna, and a great meatball recipe

Mark Hix let us into the secrets of the Groucho Club with his recipes for soups and sandwiches in the Telegraph, London Particular soup, which is ham hock and split peas and seems a tad unseasonal today as well ‘a club sandwich straight out of Soho’ (it has the yolk of a fried egg sticking out a hole in the toast and a leek and cheese toastie

Nathan Outlaw’s fish recipes in the Sunday Times for baked scallops in a bag with hazelnut and cumin bread sauce, plaice and bass braised in red wine and anchovy, tomato and saffron flatbreads. When I read these, I ask myself if anyone will make them as I know I won’t. Answers on a postcard or in reality, in the comments please

In the Observer, 20 best Sunday lunch and dinner recipes including Olia Hercules roast chicken and punched potatoes, Georgina Hayden's pork shoulder with greens & butter beans, Joe Woodhouse's flatbread with potatoes and onion sauce, Helen Graham's saffron orzo with squash and leeks.  

And finally, to end on a high, a celebration menu from Sally Clarke in the Observer, which have her trademark virtues of being eminently practical, pretty and seasonal, sound delicious and will be perfect for the next two weeks.

-spring green soup, with anchovy and olive wafers

-braised chicken thighs with rosé wine, mushrooms and shallots,

-purple artichokes and purple sprouting broccoli with warm herbed creme fraîche,

-baked fennel heart with herb and garlic crumbs, soft parmesan polenta

-and pistachio pavlova with spring rhubarb and blood oranges.

Books 

Cucina di Amalfi by Ursula Ferrigno

Classic Italian recipes from the Amalfi coast including mozzarella in carrozza, steamed fruits of the sea and pepper and mozzarella skewers

Modern South Asian Kitchen by Sabrina Gidda 

Recipes that blend British and south Asian cuisine including lamb chops with green chutney potato salad, spicy sausage scrambled eggs with tarka beans and masala eggs, yoghurt and feta

Love is a pink cake; irresistible bakes for morning, noon and night by Claire Ptak.

Some people might think I have enough baking books but I’m looking forward to this book as I’ve made so many successful things from her book, ‘The Violet Bakery Cookbook’. The extract from the Guardian includes chocolate hazelnut cake, raspberries baked in muscat sabayon, brown sugar victoria sponge, vegan chocolate chip cookies and treacle tart with whipped cream

The art of Friday night dinner by Eleanor Steafel 

Recipes for the Friday night dinner including frozen jalapeño margarita, roast chicken with chicken juice rice and orange and onion salad and sausage and lemon pasta. I’ve made quite a few of Eleanor’s recipes from her weekly column in the Telegraph and they are all doable when you’re a bit tired, and both practical and delicious 

Dreaming of sitting in the garden at the Horseguards Inn at Tillington this summer .