Provence, Parisian patisserie and lemons
20 May 2025
Introduction
I’ve been away to the Lake District and then to Paris (more about Paris next week), so this is a bumper addition. I know, all I do is go on holiday. I am always happy to be back in my own kitchen and in the quick turn around, I made a Sunday lunch of Diana Henry’s melting aubergines, goat’s cheese, chilli honey and preserved lemon which has a bulgur wheat salad underneath with coriander and pomegranate seeds.
It’s still the time for the late spring publication of cookbooks and cooking some of the recipes from the articles in the newspaper are a good way of seeing whether you fancy buying the whole book. After cooking from Letitia Clark’s book, For the Love of Lemons, I really want to buy it. Everything I’ve cooked has been a success.
Books
For the Love of Lemons by Letitia Clark
In the Guardian with recipes for a creamy fennel, lemon and pecorino bake and a spring fregola salad with peas and courgette and lots of herbs, I used mint and parsley and a soft goats cheese instead of ricotta.
and in the Times with six best lemon recipes including a lemon, almond and mint pesto pasta, baked red peppers and tomatoes with lemon, anchovy and basil. Also on Nigella Lawson’s website, a lemony minestra, made with peas, courgettes and cannellini beans, which is practically a store cupboard recipe and quick and easy to make. All the recipes, courtesy of Lidl’s unwaxed lemons.
In for Dinner by Rosie Kellett
in the Independent with an interview and recipes for citrus mackerel spaghetti with pangrattato, salt and vinegar potato soup, halva, dark chocolate and sesame cookies
and in the Telegraph with more on her approach to communal cooking in a warehouse and more recipes including pearl barley and spring vegetable soup with salsa verde, savoury sweetcorn French toast with cherry tomato salsa and brown sugar vanilla blackberry sheet cake which might be nice with other fruit on top at this time of year. I don’t think I am quite the target market, my days of communal cooking happily over.
Home Shores: 100 Simple Fish Recipes to Cook at Home by Emily Scott
in the Guardian with recipes for a delicious looking crab and tarragon tart and a hot smoked trout, watercress and cheddar tart with a cheesy shortcrust pastry, both of which I think would make great canapés in mini- muffin tins and a sardine margherita and also in the Times. with six fast fish recipes.
Boustany by Sami Tamimi
in the Observer with recipes for cucumber and feta yoghurt with dill, almonds and rose – khyar bil laban, two-lentil mejadra, chilled tabbouleh soup – shorbet tabbouleh, fried aubergine m’tabbal with tomato and coriander salsa – m’tabbal bitinjan makli and for dessert, a tahini rice pudding with grape compote – helou al ruz ma’ antebikh. I’d like to have a good look at this to see how different it is from Falastin or Jerusalem.
Recipes
Diana Henry with ‘five easy pieces’ in the Telegraph, recipes for weekday dinners. As well as the melting aubergines, goat’s cheese, chilli honey and preserved lemon but there was also prawns with ’nduja, ricotta and linguine, lemon pasta with basil, chilli lamb chops with skordalia and roast chicken with Mallorcan pamboli, a kind of tomatoes on bread where the tomatoes are grated and are quite wet.
I’m also saving Rachel Roddy’s chicken scaloppine with mushrooms and marsala from the Guardian for a quick dinner
Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for Brazilian-style carrot cake in the Guardian which looks different from the carrot cake we all know as the carrots are blended with oil until smooth. They say ‘it’s bright orange and bouncy, yet cool and moist, with a rich ganache topping.’ and her lemon, pistachio and white chocolate cake
The FT had an article in praise of the Malteser which are one of my favourites and mentioned Prue Leith’s Rocky Road bars and Mary Berry’s malted chocolate cake to Nigella Lawson’s chocolate Malteser cake with its “beautiful if ramshackle crown” of balls.
Nigel Slater had so many interesting recipes in the Observer including citrus fruits with mint syrup which uses oranges, blood oranges and pink grapefruit and he also did a new asparagus recipe with a mustardy tarragon sauce and almond crumbs. And then the changing moods of spring with pappardelle, green olives and basil, cabbage haricot beans and speck, peas, toast, salted ricotta and creamy coconut lentils, spring greens
Finally, he did aubergine toasts and a tart of wild garlic and mozzarella.
Travel
UK
Next year, instead of the Lake District, I’m already planning a trip up the West Coast of Scotland and the Inner Hebrides as everyone tells me you have to book early. I’m not planning a cruise but I liked this article about cruising in the Times. There was a Radio 3 programme from Iona on Easter Saturday and friends last week told me Staffa was a must see. Another in the Telegraph about Mull as well as one about Arran. So many plans to make.
And a journey into outer space in Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland in the Guardian.
A travel guide to Hastings and St Leonards in the Independent and best places to eat beside the sea in the UK in the Times.
The Vale of Glamorgan, for a gourmet mini break in the Times and all the food businesses around Cardigan in the FT including restaurants, bakers, cheese makers, cafes and farm shops which makes it sound as if it would be a great base for a holiday along with the the unspoilt beaches and the countryside
What it is like to run Houghton Hall in Norfolk in the Telegraph where there is ‘Palladian splendour, award-winning gardens and marvellous modern art exhibitions’.
Nine of the best pubs in London chosen by Pete Brown in the Times
Europe
Best things to do in Paris in the Times and a culinary tour of France in the Guardian. I liked the Parisian patisserie recommendations. But you will definitely need Jen Eagle’s Guide to Paris Patisserie, Boulangerie, Chocolate & More. Jen kindly gave me a sneak preview and it was our bible to the city with lots of places that I didn’t know. More next week.
There was so much about Provence in the papers, a lot of which I have bookmarked for my summer holiday. Starting with a self-guided walking holiday near Cassis in the Guardian and then a journey by Times journalist James Marriott through Provence in the footsteps of his favourite artists.
An Avignon city break in the Times, where there’s the Musée Angladon with paintings from Van Gogh, Degas, Seurat and Picasso and the Collection Lambert which is a private collection of contemporary art — ‘one of the best and most comprehensive in France. Works by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Cy Twombly… in a pair of stunning 18th-century mansions.’
Finally, a visit to Isle-sur-la-Sorgue in the Telegraph
A beach holiday in the south of Sicily near Menfe in the Guardian
Please do like and share. This will always be free and I enjoy writing it and cooking new recipes.
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.
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.
Ooh that carrot cake sounds amazing ... I always find something I might have missed. Thanks Kate, these digests are always useful. x
Brilliant as usual, Kate. Will look forward to the Paris info.