Spain, Suffolk and Christmas

16 December 2024

Introduction

I have to admit a certain ambivalence with Christmas. There are parts I’ve never liked; the pressure that everything has to be perfect, the pressure to spend lots of money, and the pressure that everyone else is having a simply wonderful time when you or your family or friends might be ill or grieving or just lonely and fed up. Notwithstanding my privilege to be able to mind about these things.with the conflicts presently taking place in the world. However, I’ve learned to lean into the bits I do like, the carols, the tree, the table, making a wreath, my dinner, our Christmas quiz, and most of all, the chance to celebrate with people I love.

We get the Christmas tree early and cut some of the back off as it goes against a wall. I invite a friend round and we make each make a wreath with a few bits from our gardens or that we’ve foraged. This year’s teasels from the side of the road near Woodstock. A few years ago, we went on a course at Osterley Park National Trust which is a bargain price of £25 and kept the chicken wire frame they gave us to use again each year.

I’ve been searching for a different festive pudding for a family lunch next week and I’ve decided to make Georgina Hayden’s recipe for chocolate and clementine cassata semifreddo as it can all be done in advance. I’ll put my picture up next week.

The idea of this newsletter is that I make something new each week but I was stuck this week until I saw Nigel Slater’s recipe for chocolate almond cookies in the Observer which I made last night. I did as instructed and weighed out the mixture in true Bake Off style to made them 35g each. I think they turned out a bit big as they are quite rich and they spread a lot while baking. My younger daughter gave me a bar of Fatso chocolate, which she had got as a freebie and I wondered if she trying to tell me something. What a terrible brand name but apparently it’s very expensive.and I used some of it to dip the biscuits. I also liked his roast pork with black pudding and apple sauce in the same article.

As a bonus, here’s a nose roundNigel Slater’s house from the Modern House and for a laugh, Nicky Haslam in the Telegraph with things that are common, not for his snobbish thoughts but purely for one of the readers’ comments on his clothes in the accompanying photo, ‘Here's my guide. Never wear a cack coloured corduroy suit. Especially with a fishermans jumper.

I also made Marks and Spencer clementine and burrata salad with candied walnuts. I know I’ve made iterations of this before and I don’t think it was necessary to candy the walnuts but sometimes it’s good just to see something and think I’ll make it when inspiration flags.

A reminder to myself, Josceline Dimbleby’s orange mince pies for next week and there are other iterations if you google it.

Books

The Get-Ahead Christmas Cook by Jane Lovett

in the Sunday Times where it concentrates on her recipes for get-ahead Christmas desserts, poires belle Hélène, blueberry tart with amaretti crumb and lemon cream pots

Comfort by Ottolenghi,

in the Times which they cite as their cookbook of the year with recipes for puttanesca-style salmon, potato, fennel and smoked salmon bake, butter beans with roasted cherry tomatoes and chicken with Steph’s spice. I’ve cooked a lot from ‘Comfort’ and really like it but I don’t know if I’d bother drying out cherry tomato skins again for the butter beans with roasted cherry tomatoes.

Ottolenghi butter beans with roasted cherry tomatoes

Restaurants

In the FT, Tim Hayward went to Dongnae in Bristol, which was ‘so good I considered giving up cleaning my teeth’

In the Observer, Jay Rayner went to Claro in London SW1. Ran Shmueli is an Israeli chef ‘and the menu is eastern Mediterranean with Middle Eastern influences.’ He said, ‘Claro is a serious restaurant’ … and left us ‘wondering if, now and again, less might very possibly be more.’

In the Standard, David Ellis gave a list of his best restaurants of the year in London and went to Lita. ‘Lita is a kind of Mediterranean-British hybrid, a bit Spanish, a bit not. Which was pricey but he liked it.’

In the Sunday Times, Charlotte Ivers went to Herb, which she called, ‘the second best Keralan in Leamington Spa.’

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell went to Sael, one of a plethora of new restaurants by Jason Atherton

In the Times, Giles Core went to Fonda in London W1 where ‘the execution was incredible, the skill levels insane, the space awesome.’

He also looked at his readership metrics and found that his restaurant reviews out of London were not popular which has made me think about how I approach this newsletter in the New Year.

Travel

UK

‘27 of the cosiest places to stay in the UK this winter’ in the Times including the Talbot Inn at Mells where I stayed last January and very nice it was too, the Sherborne at Northleach, and the Felin Fach Griffin in Powys.

Suffolk in the Time which they say is the cosiest place to be at Christmas as Richard Curtis has made the film, That Christmas to Netflix where the setting is Wellington-on-Sea, a mash-up of Curtis’s home village of Walberswick on the Suffolk coast, its neighbour Southwold and the nearby market town of Halesworth and I went to ‘the happiest place in the UK’ to discover what’s so jolly about this small town in Suffolk. Woodbridge in Suffolk in the Independent .

A winter holiday in Skye, in the Guardian ‘the snow, wind and rain made our trip to Scotland a euphoric experience.’

Europe

West Cork in the Guardian which they recommend for a winter break

In the Independent, the best winter sun spots in Spain and Cadiz in the Telegraph

Lake Como in the Times and they say, the Italian lake is at its loveliest — and quietest — around Christmas, with traditional Nativity scenes, fairylit festive markets and glittering lakeside stays

The Times also says Switzerland is the best country in the world for rail travel, with ‘the joys of riding the lines on an immersive, visually stunning – and more importantly, smooth — holiday.’

Hotelier Carmen Atiyah de Baets’s guide to Amsterdam in the FT who says Kef for cheese, Tel for fish and Louf is a great bakery

This newsletter will always be free. Please do like or share.

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.