Sunny beaches, Lewes and sardine pie

6 May 2024

Ottolenghi’s Italian-style sardine pie

Introduction

Lewes

We had a trip to Lewes on Friday, one of my favourite places, and started off at a new wine bar, no 34 in Lewes in East Sussex for lunch. They greeted us by saying your table is at the back, (by the loo) when there were only two tables occupied in the whole place, one with someone on a laptop. We were irritated; (I had written ‘we were pissed off’ but my husband edited me) so they kindly moved us to the other window table in the front. I would have thought they would have wanted to put customers there to show it was busy. Food was not special enough, atmosphere non existent; the owner or manager had spread herself out on a table at the back to work too, so I wouldn’t go back.

We wish we’d gone to the café at Flint Owl Bakery instead where we went afterwards for take away consoling cake, raspberry Bakewell, and a white chocolate biscoff brownie, sickly sweet but an injection of sugar was just what I needed. There are a few tables inside and more in the garden.

Cake, bread and tortilla at Flint Owl Bakery

Walking back to the car, parked at Tesco’s where you can get three hours free, Bills was rammed. It was the original Bill’s as the founder, Bill Collison was born there and it still has some of the original lustre before he sold out. 

The restaurant, café, bar at Lewes independent cinema, the Depot is good and I would think Caccia and Tails is too, although I’ve only eaten at their café at Charleston. 

Then, good moods were restored by the garden at Monk's House at Rodmell nearby, Leonard and Virginia Woolf's 17th-century country retreat, now owned by the National Trust. You have to book online beforehand and it’s only open on Fridays and Saturdays.

A quick trip to Charleston for tea and to look at the garden there,which is free to enter, rounded off the day nicely.

Marcus Wareing: Simply Provence is on BBC2 at 6.30pm from tonight, 6 May and which lasts a year  and Rob and Rylan’s Grand Tour, from 12 May. I watch programmes like these later on in the evening on I-player after or instead of the news, for something cheery before bedtime.

Recipes

I made Ottolenghi’s Italian-style sardine pie (also conchiglie with smoked oyster sauce) in the Guardian. This tart, drizzled with crème fraîche and chermoula, was one of the best things, I’ve made for ages. I’ll make it again, definitely.

In his inaugural column in the Sunday Times, Mark Diacono gives a recipe for the Egyptian spice blend, dukkah and uses it in asparagus and boiled eggs; celeriac and leek soup and dukkah fudge.

Chocolate rugelach, an alternative croissant recipe that’s much easier to to bake, say Honey and Co, and grilled cheese and apple salad in the FT and they say ‘apples dressed with apples that will see you to the end of the Hunger Gap.’ They are also using an air fryer in the Guardian to make lamb koftas with peppers, cabbage and tahini sauce.

James Carn’s restaurant, Lark in Bury St Edmunds has been a big hit and in the Times he shares recipes including hispi cabbage, muhammara and pomegranate and chicken thighs with Café de Paris butter. He says, ‘We just cook things we love to eat, and luckily they turn out to be things our customers love to eat too.’

In Waitrose Weekly, new recipes from Diana Henry for an April meal with deep-fried squid with green tahini, lamb with apricots and ginger, and rose-scented yoghurt creams with rhubarb and a welcome retrospective from in the Telegraph with herby desserts with combinations that work with recipes for rhubarb, marmalade and rosemary cake, poached pears with bay and lemon and pink grapefruit and basil ice cream. I’ve made the ice cream before and had a flavour guessing game with my family. It took a while to get it…

Recipes for green vegetable stew, basil pesto toasts which uses broad beans, leeks, courgettes as well as the simnplicity of asparagus and melted cheese by Nigel Slater in the Observer.

Charles Hibbert the chef at Thyme in the Cotswolds, does speedy spring supper recipes in the Sunday Times for pork saltimbocca and marsala sauce with asparagus, spatchcock chicken with anchovy and sage butter and rigatoni with chickpeas.

Joe Trivelli is joint head chef of London’s River Café and has recipes for new potato gnocchi with asparagus, sorrel soup, hake, cream and radishes and baked apricots with almonds and sesame in the Observer.

Mark Hix’s four fancy homemade dips in the Telegraph, black chickpea hummus, smoked trout dip with crispy fish skin, oyster mayonnaise with deep-fried seaweed, whipped beetroot dip with radishes. They are indeed fancy but would you make them?  Where do I buy black chickpeas? Do they taste any different from beige ones? 

As it happens, I often make dips to start with when people come round, the tried and tested tricolor of Thane Prince’s pea and coriander, Honey and Co muhammara and hummus with pitta crisps.

Benjamina Ebuehi’s recipe for double chocolate and mascarpone traybake and Ravneet Gill’s brown butter and honey custard pots in the Guardian. 

Books 

Microwave Meals by Tim Anderson in the Independent 

with recipes for sweetcorn with sour cream, cheese, chilli and lime, pea and smoked mackerel risotto with lemon, and miso walnut brownies

Wild Figs and Fennel: A Year in an Italian Kitchen by Letitia Clark in the Times with recipes from Sardinia including lemon ricotta soufflé pancakes and sausage lasagne with ricotta, pecorino and fennel. But do we need another recipe for Piedmontese peppers or spaghetti puttanesca?

Greekish: Everyday Recipes With Greek Roots by Georgina Hayden

again as the publicity for this is epic. This time in the Independent with an interview here and recipes here for spiced lamb chops with houmous, whole grilled halloumi with apricot, and chocolate party cake. I have bought this and already love it and can see myself cooking all the way through.

Good Eggs by Ed Smith

in the Independent with an interview and recipes for kimchi and gochujang skillet eggs, sausage laab and fried egg bun, and tray-baked coconut omelette with fragrant salad.

Restaurants

Best restaurants in Soho and the best greasy spoons in London in the Standard. This includes my favourite, the Regency Café, which is great after a trip to Tate Britain or if you are around Westminster.

In the FT, Tim Hayward was at Alberta’s at the Windmill, Brighton, and said it was his private obsessions poured onto a menu and The Devonshire, Soho ‘ which he thought was a very good pub.’

In the Guardian, Grace Dent had duds two weeks running with Sekkoya in Canterbury, Poppies in London W11.

In the Observer, Jay Rayner went to Medlock Canteen in Manchester, and thought, ‘what you read on the menu is exactly what you get: a set of appealing, familiar dishes that are the best versions of themselves.’

He also went to Paris for the day on Eurostar to Public House, Paris, the new venture by Calum Franklin and he’s saved us all the bother. ‘With a famed pie maker on board, the new ‘British brasserie’ in Paris ought to be glorious. Instead, it’s a huge disappointment.’

In the Standard, Jimi Famurewa gave Lita in London W1 five stars and thought it ‘pricey as hell but boy it is breathtaking.’ His second visit was to Oma and Agora in Borough Market, London SE1. ‘Agora on a Friday night is almost illegally fun’… but the food ‘felt a little lacking and directionless.

He liked Oma better, ‘yet, in the moments it finds its groove, the combination of ancient Greek simplicity and definably London gastronomic rule-breaking is nothing short of, well, epic.’

In the Telegraph, William Sitwell went to Kent to the Cloudberry. ‘Everything displayed Toby’s ability to knock out steady, reliable dishes, served by the charming Bev.’ and had a terrible one star time at Francatelli in London SW1.

In the Times, Giles Coren was at Juno Omakase which doesn’t fit my brief of being affordable.

Then to Hearth in Hull, East Yorkshire. He said, ‘it is a great place with good people doing grand things to great ingredients. They are not trying too hard to be super-fancy, just keeping it real. Northern hipsters with skilled palates, good attitude and a lot of soul.’

I’ve quoted this in full as I lived there for ten years and I would not say that good restaurants were Hull’s forte and I can’t wait to go. Before my friends there send me offended messages, I’ll quickly add, there are lots of excellent pubs around in East Yorkshire.

Travel

The border at Charleston on Friday, just because it was so beautiful. .

UK

Antiques capital Long Melford, in Suffolk, the perfect English village, where the classic TV series, Lovejoy, was set in the Telegraph

A new website, Rail Walks, aims to offer a wide network of walking routes from British train stations, and there’s a walk to Bath Spa station in the Guardian

Europe

It’s been all about the sea, the coast and beaches in the last fortnight which is nice to fantasise about in the constant rain here in the UK.

Best beaches in Europe in the Guardian, including special articles on Cadaqués in Spain, Arcachon in France, Donoussa in Greece, Péniche in Portugal and Pesaro in Italy.

Why now is the best time to visit Île de Ré, in the Telegraph. ‘This chic island on France’s southwest coast heaves in summer but is heavenly in spring.’

A perfect trip on the Amalfi Coast in the Telegraph and Favignana off the coast of Sicily in the Guardian.

Greek island hopping in the Independent

A three week road trip to Croatia in the Guardian.

17 of the best hotels in Paris may have been chosen because of affiliate links but worth a look as well the best places to stay in the Dordogne in the Times

A weekend in Zurich by someone who lives there, the Fifa Museum director Marco Fazzone’s perfect weekend in Zürich in the FT.