How I 'Quietly' Celebrated Forty; plus recipes for Sexy Steak with Secret Sauce and the BEST Broccoli
Ft. some favourite London eats, our child-free staycation of dreams, plus some thoughts and reflections on turning four decades
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Hello friends, I hope you’re having a wonderful Sunday, and that you enjoyed the recipe on Thursday for Crispy Fried Chicken with Curry Yuzu Noodles - I know some of you had been earmarking it to make this weekend. It’s a slurpy flavour sensation and I’m so glad I jotted it down shared it here with you - just another reason I love Substack - the fact we can mix up the more planned, properly photographed recipes with the moments of sudden inspiration that happen when you’re just pottering in the kitchen.
In today’s newsletter - and it’s a biggie - I’m sharing details from our dreamy, child-free staycation at The Beaumont hotel in London last weekend, rounding up the best things we ate and drank in London, and also how I’ve approached celebrating my 40th birthday heavily pregnant (hint: I prioritised eating amazing things and sleeping in a comfy bed over partying to the wee hours), plus some personal thoughts and reflections on turning 40.
I’d love to hear from you guys in the comments with your stories, food/meal memories and feelings from your big turn-of-the-decade birthdays, and how you feel about birthdays in general. I think it’s interesting how these yearly moments can bring up so much emotion and become more complex year on year, so let’s get some chat flowing in the comments.
Plus, there’s steak. I ate one of the best steaks of my life at The Colony Grill, the New York style grill room at The Beaumont, so I’ve got steak on the brain, and wanted to share one of my favourite steak recipes - pictured below - with you here today. There’s more than a whiff of a grand brasserie about this recipe, with its super special sauce that’s more low maintenance than a Béarnaise. It combines elements of a few of my favourite steak sauces, with green peppercorns for a tingle of heat, tarragon, parsley and vermouth for anise and plenty of butter and creme fraiche for comfort. Divine. And definitely - whisper it - Valentine’s-worthy, if that’s on your radar, too. I’ve shared a handy PDF at the end of the newsletter.
But also, broccoli. It might sound unlikely, but one of the best things I tasted all weekend was the side dish of ‘broccoli with almonds and black garlic crumbs’ that we ordered alongside our steak. The broccoli had been charred all over and then tossed in an emulsion of almonds and miso, coated with black garlic crumbs and flaked, brown buttered almonds. It’s quite possibly the best broccoli I’ve ever tasted, and I managed to nab the recipe from the hotel, which I’m also sharing below for you guys. It would be the perfect thing to eat with the steak and secret sauce. If you’ve never tasted or cooked with black garlic before I hugely recommend seeking some out as it’s absolutely delicious and a very exciting ingredient to play with. Originating in Korea, it’s garlic that’s been slowly aged and preserved through heat and humidity, turning black and developing complex, deep, sweet, umami flavours in the process. I love it and get mine from these guys. You’ll need to get some to make this recipe.
