Spring and Paris and bluebells

Today in our garden, the acer is in leaf, the apple and quince tree have blossomed, the tulips are out and new pots have been planted

Introduction

It’s Spring now and I’ve had a break, feedback from family and friends and a rethink. I’m writing this for me as it makes me cook new recipes, go to different places and practise a more creative writing voice than the professional one I had at work. It had become a bit of a chore so I’m going fortnightly for the review of what’s in the papers. As I’ve missed so much, I am going to do an Easter lamb, rhubarb and chocolate special later in the week.

I’m going to be more selective and hope that you all like the same things as me. In the other weeks, I’ll write about a specific subject, coming up: Florence and the Vasari corridor and a review of the book Kapusta by Alissa Timoshkina.

I’m dropping the restaurants, and would advise you read Professional Lunch - Marshall Manson covers more and does it so much better.

Kate’s Parisometer

This is how I decide how to spend money on something: would it be more or less than the cost of a trip to Paris? Of course, when the Eurostar flash sale happened a week or so ago, I succumbed straightaway to buy tickets for £70 return and have booked tickets for the Hockney exhibition (review here) at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. On investigating going to Notre Dame, I found that the ‘booked’ queue and the non-booked queue are the same length and it’s easier not to book and to go between 8-10am. As the hotel we chose is close, we are going to nip out before breakfast. I want to walk on the the Petite Ceinture, a rewilded disused railway line, as described in the Guardian. The Telegraph has just updated its Paris travel guide and also recommends Belleville and not Montmartre. I like them both.

Heckfield Home Farm and West Green House

On Saturday we went to Heckfield Home Farm in Hampshire near Hook off the M3 to buy plants on one of their open mornings. I couldn’t resist a bottle of their milk and one of rhubarb and magnolia cordial as well as tulips, Icelandic poppies, tomato plants, a rose scented pelargonium, a geum and lettuce plants. And then a cup of tea, a rhubarb yoyo and a lemon curd cookie. I would recommend a visit.

Then onto West Green House which is a privately run garden but National Trust members only pay £4 for parking. It’s beautiful in every season and in the formal gardens, the tulips were out.

The special May issue of Gardeners’ World is out now with the 2 for 1 garden visit card which is well worth having. This year, it has its own special app as well.

Recipes

Nigel Slater’s recipes for baked feta with blood oranges, (pictured above) and aubergine and haricot beans in the Observer. with the last of the blood oranges made a quick Sunday lunch

Diana Henry’s recipes for Friday night supper all look excellent with sweet-savoury sausage and aubergine ragu with cheesy polenta ( or mash for those who aren’t keen on polenta), gochujang prawns and noodles and Orvieto chicken. I made the ragu with Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Italian fennel sausages but you can only get them in large stores. I will now buy some more to make Nigel Slater’s recipe for sausages and black-eyed beans, and his and mint frozen yoghurt in the Observer.

I want to make Jacob Kenedy’s fior di latte icecream from the Times with some of my Heckfield Farm milk. He owns Bocca di Lupo restaurant and Gelupo gelateria in London, where fior di latte is on the menu. He says “It’s got the pure flavour of good milk ... Of the wide range of classic flavours, fior di latte is queen.” I’ve bought the requisite tin of skimmed milk powder from Sainsbury’s and the ice cream had better be good or I’m not going to know what to do with the rest of the tin.

From Substack, I cooked maple roasted carrots, chickpeas and lettuce from Hetty McKinnon’s ‘To Vegetables with Love’, as I’d never grilled lettuce or put chopped herbs into whipped chickpeas. I loved the chickpeas, not so sure about the lettuce. I also like the look of this week’s biryani-inspired spring vegetable rice with paneer.

I also made Anna Jones chewy rhubarb and stem ginger cookies from her Substack, but don’t leave them too long in the tin as we did by mistake with the last two as the rhubarb dries out.

Books

Indian Kitchens : Treasured family recipes from across the land by Roopa Gulati

in the Telegraph with recipes for roast lamb shoulder with ginger and fresh turmeric, grilled paneer marinated in saffron and almond yoghurt, Goan chorizo rolls, pistachio and cardamom cookies and phirni with honey, orange and saffron syrup. There are also some of the recipes in the Daily Mail.

Lugma: Abundant Dishes and Stories from My Middle East by Noor Murad

in the Times with brunch recipes for eggs and tomatoes; halloumi with spicy olives and walnuts; and pan-fried tomatoes with pine nuts, za’atar and halloumi

and in the Guardian with two rice dishes from the Gulf, bottom-of-the-pot chicken and rice, AKA fega’ata, and a side or main of tomato, potato and saffron rice

and in the Independent with an interview, the halloumi with olives and the upside down chicken rice.

Travel

UK

It’s almost the time for bluebells; they are already out on Putney Common and the Standard gives five scenic walks within easy reach of London including Ashridge Forest. I want to go to the Arlington Bluebell Walk and Garden near Polegate in Sussex and their website gives an update on when they are out. The Independent also had an article on where best to see bluebells.

Dungeness in Kent in the Guardian and one of my favourite fish huts, the Dungeness Snack Shack, where they sell their own fresh fish caught off the beach.

The best gardens in Cornwall in the Telegraph including one that I had never heard of, Penjerrick, which was owned by a Quaker family and has giant redwoods.

In the Telegraph, the South West Coast 300 in Scotland is a quieter alternative to the North Coast 500 going through Galloway and Ayrshire ‘takes in some of Scotland’s most sublime mountains, forests, sandy beaches, castles and quiet Georgian towns.’ Its website is here.

Europe

I’ve never been to Ravenna in Italy and now I want to go as described in the Telegraph and, as an avid Francophile, I also liked the idea of a train trip from Toulouse down to the Med.

Favourite spots in Portugal in the Guardian and an adventure holiday in Madeira in the Independent.

Please do like and 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.