Country buses, new pubs owned by chefs and a seasonal panna cotta

February 6 2023

Nigel Slater’s pannacotta with blood orange and pomegranate

This morning I have been fiddling around segmenting oranges, my least favourite job in the kitchen, to make Nigel Slater’s panna cotta with blood orange and pomegranate. That’s why the newsletter is a bit later than normal. The blood oranges were from Lidl and are fantastic. I’m going back for more.

Travel

There’s less travel this week as I don’t cover skiing, cruising or sailing, keeping instead to affordable and easily accessible places in the UK and Europe.

UK

The Times has a useful article on the prettiest bus journeys in England as bus fares are now capped at £2 for a single journey. One of them, the Land’s End Coaster, was also the subject of an article in the Guardian for a car-free break in west Cornwall. Other routes include the X53 Axminster to Weymouth, in Dorset and the 599 Bowness to Grasmere, in Cumbria which we used last year while walking in the Lake District when it cost close to £5 for a short journey.

Europe

Sant’Ambrogio, Florence’s secret neighbourhood with a market and cheap restaurants in the Guardian.

10 of Ireland’s most charming villages in including Carlingford, Castle Townshend and Kilmore Quay and the dark mystery of Ireland’s Connemara region in the Guardian.

A lovely detailed article on Rhodes for a summer holiday in the Observer and weekend breaks in Murcia, in the Daily Mail and Sarajevo in the Times

Restaurants 

The FT interviewed Margot Henderson, the chef-patron of Rochelle Canteen on her plans to re-open the pub, the Three Horseshoes at Batcombe in Somerset, website here and similarly in the Telegraph, Gary Usher talked about his new pub, the White Horse near Chester.

The best Sunday roast lunches near London were in the Standard, including my favourite at any time for a meal out or a birthday celebration, The Horse Guards Inn, at Tillington near Petworth in Sussex, which has a lovely garden. It was also mentioned in a guide to West Sussex in the FT.

In the FT, Tim Hayward thought Jugemu, in Soho: had ‘The best Japanese food in London’

In the Guardian, Grace Dent went to Notto pasta bar, in London W1 and said, ‘it was a hopeful and confident debut in a landscape where diners still dearly want to eat out at smaller, serious restaurants, but at the same time have to accept shorter menus and cost-vigilant dishes.’ 

In the Observer, Jay Rayner was out of London at the Sportsman Club, West Bromwich ‘with a list of dishes mostly familiar from the British high-street curry-house tradition’.

In the Standard, Jimi Famurewa Jimi Famurewa reviewed Akub, a Palestinian restaurant in Notting Hill and felt ‘it adds a sense of precision to a food culture too often hazily described as merely Middle Eastern.’

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell went to Fork in Lewes, Sussex and said ‘it was clever, confident cooking, a strong independent voice but with just a little too much icing on the top.’

In the Times, Giles Coren went to Belvedere in Holland Park, London which is expensive so probably not in the remit of the Cook’s Edit but he was humorous on what Michael Winner might have thought of it as his house was nearby. 

Recipes

I can’t find a discernible theme this week so I have picked out Rachel Roddy’s recipe for radicchio and gorgonzola risotto and Thomasina Miers’ recipe for lamb birria, lamb neck slow-cooked in Mexican herbs and spices, shredded and served with tacos, slaw and chilli sauce from the Guardian as tempting recipes. Rukmini Iyer also did two meals for £1 a head including a creamy baked gnocchi with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil and baked green eggs and pasta.

Nigel Slater’s recipes in the Observer for baked sausages with spinach cannellini and panna cotta with blood orange and pomegranate, (pictured top).

Honey and Co give a recipe for pecan, cashew and hazelnut tart with a crumbly oat crust in the FT and say it’s sweet, rich and a bit salty, with an added coffee kick.

Mark Hix gives three courses you can prepare in 30 minutes in the Telegraph and says it doesn’t mean you have to have to compromise on quality with his recipes for leeks vinaigrette, lamb rump steaks with chimichurri and credit-crunch ice cream which is simply vanilla ice cream with a smashed up Crunchie and chocolate sauce 

Diana Henry's winter pasta recipes are in the Telegraph with tagliatelle ai funghi (mushroom pasta), pizzoccheri della Valtellina (pasta with cabbage and potatoes) and pasta alla Norcina, (creamy sausage pasta).

There’s a double dose of Candice Brown in the Sunday Times which I am not sure is a good thing. She says you can have pudding for breakfast with lemon thyme fluffy pancakes, coconut brioche French toast and granola and also gives cookie recipes for S’mores fudge cookies, pecan, Biscoff and banana cookies, chocolate orange and pretzel cookies and Black Forest cookies.