Cosy UK stays, root veg and Christmas feasts
20 November 2023
Introduction
Ottolenghi writes in the Guardian, ‘this year, it takes a bit of deep digging to give thanks in a straightforward way. That said, Thanksgiving still provides a reason to get together with loved ones around the table and connect. I don’t know if it’s a coincidence… but I’m suddenly struck by the fact that all the sides I’ve planned for this year’s Thanksgiving meal have roots at their heart. It’s only root vegetables, I know, but there is something about roots – our shared roots, our shared humanity – that I want to put centre stage at my table right now.’
Recipes
Some of the recipes are not online yet so I thought I would still send this out as usual at lunchtime and add the links later.
I made Benjamina Ebuehi pear and walnut Eve’s pudding from the Guardian in the airfryer as the kitchen fitter for the new oven has gone awol. It was absolutely delicious and I am looking forward to making it again in an oven in a nice dish. The photo isn’t brilliant but I tell myself I’m keeping it real. Also, first world problems, I am well aware.
There are early Christmas feasts in both in the Telegraph by Diana Henry and in the Observer by Margot Henderson.
Diana Henry suggests roast fillet of beef with horseradish and mustard cream, smoked trout and sea bass crudo with pickled radishes and salmon roe, smoked trout which she gets from Chalk Stream Foods, beetroot, red onion and black lentils with dill-sour cream dressing, pears in Marsala and rosemary with dark chocolate shortbread and spiced citrus and pomegranate compote. ( link to be added when it comes online)
Margot Henderson goes for leek, brown shrimp and chilli butter, turkey with wild rice, chestnut and apple stuffing sides of interesting veg and caradamom and orange pannacotta. ( link to be added when it comes online)
I’m taking Debora Robertson’s witty and sane advice in the Observer on a novice’s guide to Christmas dinner with your spirit intact by keeping it simple, not cooking too much and buying some of it. I’m buying a Christmas pudding and M and S pork and chestnut stuffing and have ordered a boeuf en croute and red wine sauce for Boxing Day from our local butcher.
Mark Hix with party canapés including smoked haddock croquettes, caviar baked potatoes, popcorn chicken and sprouting broccoli with a cheesy dip as well as some cocktails in the Telegraph. (link to be added when it comes online)
Three speedy midweek curry recipes by Clodagh McKenna in the Sunday Times, red curry lentils with sweet potatoes and spinach, a vegan squash and mushroom curry and butter chicken where you can use leftover chicken.
Ravinder Bhogal’s recipes for British winter vegetables in the Guardian with cauliflower cheese toad in the hole, soy-braised pork belly with turnips and Sichuan pepper and celeriac pakora röstis with lime pickle fried eggs.
Ottolenghi’s recipes for Thanksgiving, kohlrabi slaw with horseradish and candied sunflower seeds, parsnip and pecorino stuffing and rosemary cassava gratin in the Guardian.
Meera Sodha’s vegan pumpkin pie with caramelised maple pecans and Rachel Roddy’s apple, almond and walnut tart in the Guardian ‘which is a crostata crossed with strudel crossed with a mince pie, which she liked so much she made it again, and again’.
Nigel Slater’s recipes for grilled lamb and mashed aubergine, and for cauliflower, lemon and capers in the Observer.
A friend came for a late lunch and I made Diana Henry’s Austrian pumpkin soup from the Telegraph a couple of weeks ago.
Books
Weekend by Matt Tebbutt
Matt Tebbutt in the Independent, an interview here and recipes for Parmesan fritters with Roquefort spinach, fish soup and coconut bread and raspberry cream
Ginger Pig Christmas Cook Book by Tim Wilson and Rebecca Seal
with recipes in the Times for roast guinea fowl with fennel, shallot and white wine sauce, slow-cooked pork shoulder stuffed with orange and prunes, roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon, chestnuts and cream, and Camembert with herbs and garlic
Restaurants
The UK’s 19 cosiest winter restaurants, according to FT writers
In the Guardian, Grace Dent was at Daroco in Soho, an Italian restaurant created by French people which sells ‘mainly just pizza and pasta, but does so in a wildly ostentatious and unforgettable manner that I’m going to call acid art deco with a renaissance edge’
In the Observer, Jay Rayner continued his tour of the North of England with a visit to Colmans Seafood Temple, in South Shields and wrote, ‘They’ve devised a menu that is part bargain-priced Bentley’s or Scott’s, part kiss-me-quick-and-kiss-me-again. You can come here for something light and dainty. Or you can come here for something that will harden your arteries at 20 paces.’
In the Standard, Jimi Famurewa went to the Devonshire in London, raved about it and said it packed ‘rigour, mischief and joyfulness into every bite.’ and In the Times, Giles Coren exclaimed, ‘What a place. What. A. Place. The food, the drink, the cooking — it’s just insane what Oisin Rogers and his team are doing.’
Travel
UK
Britain’s 30 best cosy getaways in the Telegraph
Cycling holidays by the canals in the Cotswolds in the Independent and Esther Walker’s insider’s guide to Gloucestershire inspired by Jilly Cooper novels.
Europe
Lille for a city break in the Telegraph, how to do Champagne on a prosecco budget in the Guardian. They say ‘the champagne houses of Épernay and Rheims produce some of the finest fizz in the world, but if you know where to look, there are bargains to be had.’
Saint Malo, where some of the Netflix series, ‘All the Light We Cannot See’ based on the novel by Anthony Doerr is set in the Telegraph
Piedmont in the Independent
Kaunas, Lithuania’s second city is an art deco town with a lively café culture and no tourists. The Times say it has ‘cutting-edge art, chicken doughnuts and a lagoon for weekend escapes.’
Reading the papers
People ask me how I read all the papers. I believe in paying for quality journalism and my husband and I have digital subscriptions to the Times and to the Telegraph. Sometimes my husband buys a Times on Saturdays or I buy a Guardian and I buy the Observer when it’s Observer Food Monthly. Otherwise I rely on what’s online, and on Twitter and Instagram. And occasionally, I ask a friend to save an article for me.
The Times gives you two free articles a week as a registered user and the Telegraph gives you access to one free article each week if you register an account. The FT gives a certain number of free articles
Local public libraries often have Pressreader which gives access to over 7,000 newspapers world wide for free or you can subscribe to it.
Sometimes, I use the recipes for inspiration. If they are from a cookbook, they may be in other publications as well for publicity and you may find them or a similar version through Google.