Chinese New Year, Burns Night and what is a budget recipe?

January 23 2003

June planting at Sissinghurst

Travel

There is an article, hidden corners of Britain in the Telegraph, places their travel experts are going to visit this year which made me laugh. with their predilection to compare British seaside places to places in America. We’ve had the comparison of Chichester Harbour to the Hamptons, now it’s comparing driving along Rame Head in Cornwall to Big Sur. I’ve been to Rame Head; it’s a beautiful Cornish headland but surely it can survive on its own merits? The same thing happens in an article on the High Weald in Kent in the Telegraph where they compare it to the Cotswolds, It’s got Sissinghurst and Scotney Castle, and it’s an area of outstanding national beauty. It’s fine, on its own merits.

This summary of 10 chic town and city hotels in the UK in the Guardian is really useful and includes properties in York, Edinburgh, Manchester and Brighton. There’s Devon at a Landmark Trust property in the Times.

In Europe we have Brussels and Montpellier in the Daily Mail , Malmö in the Independent, Turin in the Sunday Times and Berlin in the Standard and the Bulgarian Riviera in the Telegraph

Restaurants

The best Chinese restaurants in London were in the Standard.

In the FT, it was Tim Hayward’s turn to go to Bouchon Racine in London as well as mine and thought ‘what’s best about Bouchon Racine is that something so accomplished and professional has such a relaxed and humane spirit. It shows the profoundest understanding of hospitality to create this kind of experience, as it always has.’

In the Guardian,  Grace Dent went to Restaurant St Barts, London EC1, with its 15-course, £120 tasting menu and deemed it, a place to take the food obsessive in your life. Website here.

In the Independent, Lucy Thackray went to Shiro, a Japanese restaurant in London and thought it was special 

Also In the Independent, Hannah Evans went to Moor Hall in Aughton, Lancashire, deemed the best restaurant in the UK, and thought you should take your posh shoes and go hungry.

In the Observer, Jay Rayner liked Climat in Manchester, website here and said ‘people seem delighted by the arrival of a terrific restaurant serving food you really want to eat.’

In the Standard, Jimi Famurewa gave Jam Delish, website here, a Caribbean vegan restaurant in London N1, website here four stars after Grace Dent’s five last week.

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell visited Mount St Restaurant in London W1, website here, and said ‘with folk ordering lobster pie and grappling with a wine list with an average price of £150 a bottle, is evidence that somehow the top end (of the restaurant market is booming.

In the Times, Giles Coren went to Straker’s in London W10 with a very loud friend called Max and liked the food, website here. 

Recipes

It was a bumper week for recipes this week with the Observer Food Monthly and a lot of content in other papers as well I said, to myself, thank goodness, , recipes that I can actually imagine myself making. In the Observer, with five delicious budget recipes. Joe Woodhouse’s cheese soufflé, Joe Trivelli’s lentil and chicory torta salata, Poppy O’Toole’s boulangere one pan with roast chicken thighs, Melissa Thompson’s chorizo, pea and lemon rice and Fuchsia Dunlop’s Shanghainese stir-fried udon noodles with pork.

There was also Nigel Slater’s recipes for cream of onion soup, and Jerusalem artichokes with lemon and mograbia as well as more vegetarian and vegan recipes from him including baked squassh, haricot beans and winter tomatoes, and cauliflower chckpeas and tahini. There was also a great looking butternut squash and feta lasagne by Melissa Thompson in the Guardian as well as Felicity Cloake’s perfect lemon saucing pudding.

Still on the frugality theme, Tony Turnbull interviews Suzanne Mulholland, author of The Batch Lady Cooking on a Budget and there are recipes for smoky sweet potato and salmon cakes, beetroot and feta filo pie and chicken and mushroom ramen.and beef empanadas. I have issues. If you are cooking on a budget, why buy short crust pastry and I’ve never had an issue with frozen mashed potato on top of a cottage pie or fish pie. Sometimes it can all get too complex. Make more of what you’;re cookimg for supper and bung the extra in the freezer. There are also freezer recipes from chefs including slow cooked Moroccan vegetable stew from Nigella Lawson, and Jamie Oliver’s harissa meatball wraps.

Ching-He Huang had recipes for a Chinese New Year in the Telegraph including a pork and bamboo shoot dumplings with sweet chilli sauce recipe and a soy roast chicken with a ginger dipping sauce recipe.

Diana Henry's three Scottish dishes for a Burns Night feast in the Telegraph Balmoral haggis and chicken pie with neeps and tatties, Scots rabbit (Scottish cheese on toast) and Caledonian cream which is cream whipped with marmalade and whisky, topped with fresh raspberries, finished with candied orange zest.

In the Times, the Scottish themes continues with an interview with a Scottish chef , Gregg Boyd who operates out of the Exale Taproom, a brewery inWalthamstow and a recipe for haggis bon bons with whisky mustard mayo.

Skye McAlpine’sbest quick and easy pudding recipes in the Sunday Times, baked ricotta al limone, orange treacle tart which does not have any golden syrup in it, in either the list of ingredients or the method, (what’s that about?) and pistachio and fig queen of puddings.

Finally, three fish recipes from Rowley Leigh in the FT, a mixed fish grill with pimentón, chickpeas and salsa verde, red mullets in paper with skordalia and a Greek salad, and baked hake with mustard, breadcrumbs and tomatoes whcih I am going to make this week but it will be dark and my photo will be terrible. I’m going with one of Sissinghurst, which never fails to lift my mood whenever I go there even if it’s not in the Cotswolds.