Autumnal woods, harvests and chermoula beans

October 7 2024

Oct 07, 2024

We are in the middle of our own private harvest festival with Coxes apples and quinces from trees we planted in our small London garden and beetroot, potatoes and patty pan squashes from the allotment so my attention this weekend was going to be on those. Then I saw a recipe from Rosie Sykes for chermoula baked beans in the Guardian. (link to be added later) It was serendipitous as there was half a jar of roasted peppers languishing in the fridge, looking at me every time I opened the door, and a tin of cherry tomatoes and tins of butter beans in the cupboard. It was so delicious, even though I didn’t use an expensive jar of beans. It was a special beany issue of Guardian Feast and Meera Sodha’s vegan recipe for caramelised garlic, courgette and butter beans and Rachel Roddy’s recipe for bean stew with lots of herbs are also now on my list to make.

Garden on the 15 September this year and the table where it all happens

Books

I saw an extract on Substack saying ‘stop buying shitty cookbooks’ which repeat the same old recipes. I’ve included all four I saw this week for completeness , but as this is an edit, I think I would miss the latter three of these out if I was writing this next week. (Sorry, Prue.)

Dinner Tonight: Simple meals, exciting flavours by Meliz Berg

in the Telegraph with recipes for easy weeknight dinners including a a one pot spiced mince linguine, a köfte and spinach stew, a vermicelli soup with fried hellim, a sticky salmon and noodle tray bake and Lahana dolmas which are rice-stuffed cabbage leaves.

John and Lisa’s Kitchen

by John Torode and Lisa Faulkner in the Independent with Brick roast chicken and braised chipotle cabbage, burnt Basque cheesecake and a chorizo and broken yolk smash with tomato salsa recipe

Life’s Too Short to Stuff a Mushroom by Prue Leith

in the Times with recipes including grilled Caribbean spiced fish with pineapple salsa, spiced cauliflower and crispy pork belly.

Cook Like a Real Italian by Angelo Coassin

in the Times with recipes including penne al vodka and amatricianaHe is apparently ‘Instagram’s favourite Italian cook’ with 1.5 million followers. I’ve never heard of him.

Restaurants

In the FT, Tim Hayward was in Copenhagen at Kadeau‘which feels nothing like ‘fine dining’, … ‘but is a true gift.’

In the Guardian, Grace Dent was at Albatross Death Cult in Birmingham, and wrote ‘this is a special restaurant run by people who are at the top of their game, and it’s exciting, challenging and the cooking is fantastic. ‘

In the Observer, Jay Rayner went to Hot Dogs by Three Darlings by Jason Atherton at Harrods and thought it was terrible.

In the Standard, David Ellis was at the Marquee in Stoke Newington, London N16 and said ‘it has all the hallmarks of a top tier new opening: the good looks, that short, concise and inventive menu’ … but in a nutshell, poor service.

In the Sunday Times, Charlotte Ivers was at Goodbye Horses in London N1 where she had to sit at the bar, spent almost £134 in 86 mins for two and then was told they had to leave.

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell went to Marceline in Canary Wharf, London E14, gave it four stars and said it had a tight Parisian menu and a good sommelier.

In the Times, Giles Coren was at the new Cafe François in Borough Market, London which has a bakery and a sandwich bar and where everyone on Instagram seems to be. He thought, ‘the best thing of all was the food and the wine and the wonderful service, but also very excellent — I know, I’m obsessed — was the total absence of phones.’

Quince harvest with some already given away

Travel

UK

A double helping in the Standard of cosiness with best country pubs with rooms and 20 cosy winter seaside breaks.

Best autumn gardens to visit in Gardens Illustrated and maybe a reminder just to get out into a park.

Readers’ days out for autumn walks in the woods in the Guardian where the ccomments are actually helpful. One said, ‘a favourite day out for me was to go to Westonbirt and "forest bathe" for a few hours and then drive to Much Marcle and sit and relax in the ancient Yew next to the parish church. To sit on the wooden bench inside the hollow tree is the most relaxing experience I ever had.’ I was intrigued by this and had to look it up and now I want to go and do the same.

The Telegraph says that Britain’s answer to New England in autumn is Pitlochry in Scotland.

The 10 prettiest villages in Hampshire in the Telegraph including Wickham. East Meon and Chawton.

They’ve also done the best in Sussex, Kent, Essex and Surrey

The 10 prettiest villages in Sussex

The 10 prettiest villages in Kent

The 10 prettiest villages in Essex

The 10 prettiest villages in Surrey