Beaches, ice cream and tomatoes

July 17 2023

Chicken, shallot, cashew and mango salad by Honey and Co

This week

We were out picking blackberries on the Common this week and a woman walking two black labradors walked past. She said to me, ‘I don’t believe they are ripe yet’ and I gave that inscrutable smile that I have learned since moving to SW London. Then as she passed my husband, she asked, “Are they black all the way through?” and he replied, ‘Yes, like your dogs.’

Friends came for dinner on Saturday and I made chicken, shallot, cashew and mango salad by Honey and Co from the FT with a tomato salad and Nigella Lawson’s pea mint and avocado salad from ‘How to eat.’ A casual starter of Ottolenghi’s roast courgettes with harissa and yoghurt which is now a favourite recipe and then Diana Henry’s strawberries with pomegranate and sumac syrup and yogurt sorbet for dessert.

On Sunday, I went out to an elegant lunch party in a friend’s garden, had Pimms for the first time this year and forgot how easy it is to drink without realising how much alcohol is being imbibed which is why this newsletter is more of a list than normal this morning.

Travel

UK

50 best beaches in the UK in the Sunday Times each area of the country  and dog friendly places in the UK in the Guardian including a lot of beaches. Where to eat ice cream in the UK in the Guardian and in the Sunday Times here.  Also the best fish shops in the UK. in the Sunday Times

Cornwall has a new walking route, which follows the River Tamar from the north to the south coast, the 87 mile long, Tamara Coast to Coast Way.

Wine tourism in Sussex in the Guardian and ten top places to eat and stay in the Cotswolds in the Observer  

Europe

Best places to stay in Brittany in the Times and a France travel guide in the Independent.

The Guardian advises looking beyond the old favourites in European coastal towns, and to places such as Valencia, Tavira in Portugal and Piran in Slovenia .

Cres, an island in Croatia, and the Independent says is still the preserve of locals and affordable, ‘with a mix of honey farms, seafood shacks and empty beaches waiting to be discovered’ as well as an article on why you should swap Lake Como for North Macedonia.

Restaurants 

In the FT, terraces to dine al fresco in London.

In the Guardian, Grace Dent was at Polentina in London E3, which is in the staff canteen of Apparel Tasker,  and the chef is Sophia Massarella. She thought the food was wonderful and ‘Polentina will get bigger, slicker and more famous, for sure, but it’s good to experience a new thing when it’s weird and unsettling, and at the same time already altogether perfect.’

In the Observer, Jay Rayner thought Lark in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk, was ‘ambitious, clever, relaxed, and hugely enjoyable.’

In the Standard, Jimi Famurewa  was at Kachori at Elephant and Castle in London, ‘a brand new Indian restaurant of impeccable pedigree, thrusting ambition and pyrotechnic flavours.’

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell was at Lasdun, the restaurant in the National Theatre in London SE1 and said, ‘there’s a confident charm to Lasdun and I will return.’ 

In the Times, the 49 best places to eat in the summer where they asked chefs and restaurateurs their favourite places. Suggestions were not the usual suspects of Rileys Fish Hut and the Hidden Hut an included Pea Green Boat in Sidmouth, Bar Braf in Dinas Dinlle on Anglesey and Husk at Thorington in Suffolk all worth a perusal.

Recipes

Rahul Mandal’s easiest ever ice cream recipes in the Times including strawberry and basil, dulce de lèche and ginger and pistachio , orange and chocolate chip - some of them made with condensed milk and double cream.

When I do these ice creams, I tend to whip 600ml double cream and a whole tin of condensed milk, split the mixture in half into two bowls and then add different flavourings. What am I going to do with half a tin of condensed milk apart from wanting to eat it with a spoon? This weekend, I made two ice creams: coffee and Baileys and also a vanilla one.

Nigel Slater has recipes for raspberry and apricot shortcake and apricot and harissa chutney in the Observer and high summer recipes for lunch in the sun, spring cabbage, prawns and lime, mozzarella, cucumber, gherkins, cherry, tomatoes, chickpeas and tahini, and a yoghurt cake which could be topped with gooseberries, apricots or blackcurrants, in Observer Food Monthly. Ottolenghi has the same theme with quick summer recipes in the Guardian for harissa pilchards with zingy herb salsa, garlicky chard with five-spice tomatoes and masala omelette with mango pickle and cabbage slaw.

A bonus photo as this was so good.. Nigel Slater’s gooseberry yoghurt cake

Tomato salad with toasted sesame and crispy chilli feta by Eleanor Steafel in the Telegraph which I made on Friday lunchtime and then realised to my horror, that practically all the recipes I had made lately from the papers were tomato ones.

Mark Hix presents his chef's guide to tomatoes and the perfect way to eat them with four recipes in the Telegraph with a green tomato curry, slow baked tomatoes with lovage, golden tomato and basil galette, and crab and oxheart tomato salad. I’m going to make Rachel Roddy’s courgette, tomato and mozzarella, Parmesan layered bake from the Guardian. Chefs’ top summer salads including watermelon, feta and tajin salad from Georgina Hayden, Sichuanese aubergines by Fuchsia Dunlop and Tunisian-inspired tinned tuna salad with potatoes and preserved lemons from Sarit Packer of Honey and Co in Observer Food Monthly as well as French salads in the Times,

A Greek breakfast from Diana Henry in the Telegraph with recipes for cod’s roe with radishes, Greek scrambled eggs with tomatoes and Greek yogurt pancakes with figs in orange and fennel syrup.

Chickpea pancakes with herby ricotta from Melissa Thompson and Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for strawberry and basil shortcakes both in the Guardian

Clodagh McKenna’s 30-minute fish recipes in the Sunday Times for quick chermoula fish parcels, seared tuna steaks with wasabi potato salad and salmon salad with pickled cucumber and oregano croutons.

Books

Africana: Treasured Recipes and Stories from Across the Continent, by Lerato Umah-Shaylor

Two recipes for summer fruit in savoury dishes, in the Guardian, watermelon kachumbari with hibiscus and citrus  and strawberry and scotch bonnet jam with nigella seeds.

Pinch Of Nom: Budget by Kate and Kay Allinson, an interview in the Independent, which I include for the sake of completeness with some recipes that I am not going to link to. I don’t believe low fat cooking is the answer to healthy eating, especially the authors’ use of sweetener, low fat cooking spray and reduced fat spread.

cTomato salad with toasted sesame and crispy chilli feta by Eleanor Steafel