Somerset, set lunches and kitchen mishaps

23 September 2024

Introduction

I’ve been cooking from Ottolenghi and Co ‘Comfort’ this week, and liked the puttanesca style salmon bake although next time I don’t think I’ll bother with the salsa as the tomato anchovy oil was enough and it didn’t need any more gilding of the lily. Spot the interloper in the photograph which luckily ended up on my husband’s plate and not a guest’s.

Then I melted a plastic sieve when I was straining the rosemary brown butter for Jess Elliot Dennison’s rosemary and apple cake and had to start all over again. This is such an excellent recipe. It’s from her new book, Midweek Recipes, and there’s a reel on her Instagram and it’s also here. I used ginger rosemary as recommended to grow by Mark Diacono which gives an extra dimension to the flavour.

Books

A Thousand Feasts: Small Moments of Joy… A Memoir of Sorts by Nigel Slater

A sane and joyous interview with him in the Times which illustrates why he is so revered. He says, ‘I really do want to make anyone I can feel a tiny bit happier when they cook something I’ve created.’

and ‘as well as expressing gratitude, we should practise mindfulness. ‘I do think it’s about appreciating the moment. I don’t think I ever try to do two things at once or multitask.’ I’m glad about that as I can’t multitask either

The Food For Life Cookbook by Tim Spector

with an interview and some of his recipes for a healthy gut which also note the fibre and the plant score, including courgette and butter beans with tomato salsa, roasted aubergine traybake and three fermented salad dressings

Country Comfort by Hari Beavis

She is a ‘self-taught cook 'who has 260,000 Instagram followers and double that number on TikTok. who appeals to Generation Z. ’ I’ve never heard of her as I am well past Z but her book is no 55 on Amazon in cookbooks. There’s an interview and recipes in the Times including salmon curry and a chicken lasagne which has kidney beans in it. At least, Tim Spector might like it.

Restaurants

In the FT, Tim Hayward went to Sweetings, the City of London’s last canteen  and thought that London’s ‘room where it happens’ looks like a Victorian waiting room crossed with an officers’ mess

In the Guardian, Grace Dent thought Köd in London W1 ‘was comfort food with little finesse, but that’s not really the kitchen’s fault, because they’re clearly doing the best they can with lacklustre, cheap, ready-made supplies.’

In the Observer, Jay Rayner went to Goldies in London W1, a new live-fire restaurant from the Normandy-born team behind the French bistro Blanchette. He said, ‘so that’s grills, chips, dips and something messy made with chocolate, (a giant profiterole) all at a reasonable price. As propositions go it’s not a bad one, is it?.’

In the Sunday Times, Charlotte Ivers went to the Seahorse in Dartmouth and said, ‘the Seahorse is the sort of seaside restaurant amenable to snobbish city dwellers: mildly quaint and rustic, but with only small doses of each.’

I don’t think I’m snobbish but I love it there and it also has a really good set lunch. Then Giles Coren had an entertaining argument with someone in the comments about the price of the John Dory and said 90 per cent of the clients are local.

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell went to Kolamba East in London E1 which is the second one after the first in Soho. He thought ‘the Sri Lankan gem stands out among London’s numerous Asian restaurants with a menu of brilliant originality and colour’ and recommended that ‘for exceptional curry, sweet service and an excellent wine list, Kolamba East merits more high fives from me than I have hands.’

In the Times, Giles Coren went to Taste of Chongqing in London WC1 and wrote ‘it was brilliant.’

The FT has an extensive guide to business lunches including secrets of the set lunch and the best business lunches in London. Apologies as I did make notes but now I’ve lost them and can’t back into the articles. So do have a look yourself. It’s a good job that this newsletter is free.

Travel

UK

There’s a guide to London and as a Londoner, its recommendations made me question those for any other city that I don’t know. It calls the Tower of London ‘a gentile mini-village. ‘ Do they not have editors?

All the places in Somerset to go for good food in the Independent including Westcombe Dairy, Montgomery Cheddar, Somerset Cider Brandy, Margot Henderson’s The Three Horseshoes pub in Batcombe and Holm restaurant with rooms in the village of South Petherton.

Belfast and the Titanic Museum in the Times as a perfect weekend away for ship geeks

Europe

Travelling by train in the Sunday Times with tips on how to plan a journey.

A local’s guide to Normandy from Nicky Hilyer in the Sawdays newsletter as well as an itinerary there which mentions ‘flourishing wetlands, cliff-top crêperies, lonely lighthouse walks and sips of Calvados in coastal breweries. ‘ and Carolyn Boyd’s guide to food in Northern France from her book Amuse-Bouche.

Waterford, the reinvention of Ireland’s oldest city in the Guardian where Mount Congreve Gardens is nearby and hosts one of the world’s biggest plant collections.

Dawn O’Porter back in her childhood home of Guernsey in the Observer. We have the same decorator although I don’t expect she knows all about me.

How to have a perfect autumn weekend in Rome in the Telegraph

Huelva, in the Telegraph, a little more than an hour’s drive south-west of Seville is where the Spaniards go for their holidays for the quiet beaches and sand dunes.

You have to love the Telegraph commenters.. ‘You forgot to mention that the road from Huelva to the restaurant passes through what may be the biggest refinery and oil and gas storage facility in Europe’ as well as ‘mosquitos carrying Nile virus may act as a deterrent’. I don’t think I’ll be going there now.