City breaks and oven breaks and bakes.

16 October 2023

Diana Henry’s roast figs and plums in vodka with blackberries

Introduction

People tell me this newsletter is cheering and I have always thought that cooking, whether for oneself, or eating together with family and friends is important; an act of love. And, at the moment, thinking about travel may well not be uppermost in our minds, but having a curiosity about the world, and dreaming and praying for better times to come, has its own value.

This week, friends were due for dinner, and the night before, I was just about to put Diana Henry’s roast figs and plums in vodka with blackberries from Roast Figs, Sugar Snow in the oven when it broke, (long story). In the end, I did them in the microwave, and changed the rest of the menu to salmon and beetroot, apple and spelt salad with hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds and Honey and Co grape and bean salad.

I was just about to serve up the figs when I couldn’t find the bowl of stem ginger biscuits from M and S, I’d bought to go with them. I’ve hoisted by my own petard. I’d left them in the garden where I’d taken a quick snap for this newsletter as the light was fading. It had since rained and they’d all gone soggy. . 

I went to Vanderlyle in Cambridge on Saturday for a late birthday treat. I had wanted to go for a long time. It was stunning and I would highly recommend. I get their newsletter and was on the website, to reserve a table on the dot of noon when they are released as they sell out quickly. It was the same competitive feeling I have about booking theatre seats, setting an alarm on my phone so I can be there in the countdown queue

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Recipes

It’s all doubles for the food writers this week.

Diana Henry has pork and bacon recipes in the Guardian from Roast Figs, Sugar Snow with Romanian bean, smoked bacon and soured cream soup, hot lightning (new potatoes with apples, pears and bacon) and Danish roast pork with pickled prunes and sweet cucumber. There’s also her regular column in the Telegraph where she explores cooking solo for a dinner party with a three-course menu ‘which lets the oven do the work.’ Not one I’ll be doing in the near future. She makes chicken with smoky chipotle and peppers, baked sweet potatoes with spring onion yoghurt, avocado and chilli and no-churn espresso and hazelnut ice cream

Ravinder Bhogal is in the FT with tuna and olive empanadas and does pumpkin and squash recipes for autumn in the Guardian,pumpkin, kale and spelt broth with fried sage, comté, sage and pumpkin scones and pumpkin pilaf with labneh, pumpkin seeds and brown butter

Nigel Slater is in the Observer with recipes for baked figs with fig jam and marsala, (Bonne Maman do a good fig jam) and roast cauliflower couscous in his normal place in the Observer and then in Observer Food Monthly with mainly fruit and nut bakes including pistachio and lemon cake, pears and oat crumble, and green olive, thyme and pine-nut buns but do have a look at them all.

Sally Clarke also writes about comforting autumn food in Observer Food Monthly including an autumn minestrone soup with garlic and parsley bread and pumpkin baked with cream, garlic, gruyere and ciabatta croutes, with a salad of bitter leaves, pecans and orange amongst others.

Other good soundig recipes this week include Ottolenghi oven baked recipes, herby cabbage pudding with feta, a chipotle, celeriac and tomato traybake and creamy leeks and butter beans with za’atar breadcrumbs, Ravneet Gill’s recipe for pear and champagne jellies with hazelnut shortbread,and Meera Sodha’s recipe for vegan chocolate cake with sprinkles, apparently the banana gives the cake a lovely, moist consistency, all in the Guardian

Clodagh McKenna in the Sunday Times with comfort food,a one-pan chicken with mushrooms and caramelised onions, which looks a useful recipe to make quickly for dinner, baked eggs with Gruyère and mushrooms and butternut mac ’n’ cheese.

Blistered ricotta stuffed peppers with garlic crumbs and basil by Eleanor Steafel in the Telegraph.

Cambridge on Saturday

Books

Kitchen Person by Rachel Clarke

an interesting extract in Observer Food Monthly with which I identify . She says ‘my family was northern and complicated – but food was our way of expressing love.’

Flavour by Sabrina Ghayour

with aubergine recipes in the Times including spiced tahini and honey-roasted aubergines, traybaked spicy chickpeas and aubergines, a layered vegetable and feta bake and finally mama ghanoush. She thinks of ‘mama ghanoush as baba’s spicy other half, with all the joys of a classic baba ghanoush and a few additions including pul biber, yoghurt and fresh herbs to give it a little lift.’

Nadiya’s Simple Spices by Nadiya Hussein 

an interview and recipes in the Independent for crab bhuna, saag aloo chicken jalfrezi, and milk fudge flapjack

Restaurants

In the FT, Tim Hayward thought Mountain in London W1 was ‘truly fascinating.’ 

In the Guardian, Grace Dent was back in Cumbria at the George and Dragon at Clifton.

She liked it so much she is already planning her second trip. I went there the first day restaurants were open after the second lockdown in May 2021 when there was a one way system for the waiting staff round the pillar by our table so didn’t have such a good experience but friends whose opinions I trust, like it very much as well and also the Queen’s Head and Askhma Hall.

In the Observer, Jay Rayner went to Campaner in London SW1 and said ‘some of the food here is really very good. Granted, some of it isn’t. ‘

In the Sunday Times, Charlotte Ivers was in Levenshulme Manchester at Isca Wines and ate ‘vegetables: fresh, vibrant and with a side order of moral righteousness.

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell went to in Birmingham to Plates by Purnells which were ‘Smart tapas in need of some Spanish oomph’

In the Times, Giles Coren was at Kung Fu Noodle in Shaftesbury Avenue , London W1 and ‘had a bowl of noodle soup a vast, nourishing, freshly made, fearsomely authentic, multifaceted and rewarding meal in itself for £13.80.’

Travel

UK

Jersey in the shoulder season of autumn in the Independent with apparently quiet beaches, warm seas and woodland walks.

Ripon in West Yorkshire in the Telegraph which they call Yorkshire’s foregotten city and it’s near Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal Water Garden where I am sure there will be woodland walks.

Europe

It’s all about European city breaks this week and the papers have written near identical articles.

A city guide to The Hague in the Times which they call an underrrated Dutch city with brilliant beaches and lots of art museums. There’s the art deco Kunstmuseum, as well as Escher in the Palace and the Mauritshuis which has Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring and several Rembrandts. These would keep me happy for a long weekend and be a lot less crowded than Amsterdam, the subject of a comprehensive travel guide in the Independent.

Sunniest short haul cities for a winter break in the Telegraph including Palermo, Valletta, Marseille, Seville and Madeira.

25 city breaks that are even better and cheaper in autumn in the Times including the Black Forest and Freiburg, and Berlin for woodland walks, seafood in Montreuil, (France) and fashion and cocktails in Antwerp.

Only six options in the Guardian for ‘unsung city breaks’ including Freiburg again for woodland walks, Ghent and Naples.

A walking holiday starting at Ronda in Andalusia in the Times.

Ronda .