Wednesday Wonders #3
5 things bringing the magic this week, plus a recipe for my potato, green bean and salsa verde salad and deets of an AMAZING RESTAURANT GIVEAWAY
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Hello lovely people, and greetings from the Kent coast, where the wild fennel has gone totally wild and turned into a forest of bright yellow flowers, which smell incredible and make the most intense anise seasoning for fish, tomato salads, and even cherry ice cream. I’m actually going to try rubbing it into salt to rim my weekend margaritas too…
It’s been a good couple of weeks since I’ve written to you properly, and I’ve missed it! But in truth life has been living up to the title of this Substack, and I’ve been struggling a bit with the juggle of work, life and childcare. One thing that’s been keeping me really busy is a really fun, non-SS work project which has been taking up much of my time (more on that below, I think you’ll be interested in the giveaway I’m doing there), and I’ve also been in London more in the past couple of weeks than I have in the whole time since we moved out, with both work and pleasure - people that follow me on Notes will have seen that I was at Wimbledon (fave sporting event of all time), courtesy of PIMM’s for *that* Murray match. And today I’m actually heading up again to be in the judging panel for the finals of the Great Taste Awards, which will involve tasting upwards of fifty really brilliant foods. Don’t worry about me, I’m wearing my elasticated shorts.
The work project I mentioned is a partnership with Mayfair Ldn, which hired me to curate and write a guide to some of the best places to eat and drink in Mayfair over on their Mayfair Menu. As a sworn East Londoner in my former life, having lived in and penned two food guides to the East End during my near decade of living there, it’s been really interesting revisiting Mayfair in this capacity, and I was really pleasantly surprised to find that as well as the expected glitter of glamorous dining, there are some truly innovative and exciting places flying the flag for sustainability and family dining in central. It would feel a bit tone deaf not to acknowledge what a huge privilege it is to be writing about, and experiencing this sort of thing in the midst of a serious cost of living crisis, and the current mortgage mayhem which has taken hold, but I’m also proud to be championing an industry that is such an important employer, and source of joy to so many people.
Two serious highlights for me were definitely Apricity - chef Chantelle Nicholson’s pioneering zero waste restaurant with the most beautiful distressed walls, where I ate my dessert of the year so far: an incredible peach creation with cashew cream, KENTISH peaches, honeycomb and Thai basil (pictured below), and Mercato Mayfair - a food hall with fantastic sustainability and community credentials housed in a spectacular former church, with a very cool little wine bar tucked away at the back and excellent Neapolitan pizza. It’s going to be my new go-to for when I’m up in town with the girl, I think.
I’ll be sharing the link to the guide with everyone in the next couple of days, along with an INCREDIBLE giveaway for paid subscribers, giving one reader the chance to win a £250 voucher to spend at one of the featured restaurants, so watch this space for details on that. In the meantime, here are five things which have been bringing the magic this week, starting with my recipe for potato, green bean and salsa verde salad which we ate at the weekend with friends as a side to a barbecue. It’s such a totally delicious and versatile dish that combines carbs, green veg and fragrant seasonal herbs in one nifty swoop, and I think it’s a good one to have in the bank, particularly for with grilled fish or veg. Equally, it would be excellent for a picnic scenario and is very good served at room temperature. I hope you enjoy it, and I’d really love to hear from you guys with the things that have been making you happy this week - it would be so cool if Wednesday Wonders became a bit of a hub to share recommendations and ideas.
1. Salsa verde potatoes and beans recipe
Bring a large pan of well salted water to the boil and cook about 300g green beans with the lid on, until floppy (this is not the time for crunch), about 6-8 mins. Remove them to a bowl with a spider or slotted spoon - keeping the water boiling, and add in a good pinch more of salt to the water, along with a sprig of mint. Add in 400g new potatoes (I used Jersey royals), with any larger potatoes cut in half. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30-40 minutes or until properly, properly tender - no chalky potatoes on my watch, guys! I then love to let them sit and cool in the water because I think it exaggerates their potato flavour. Meanwhile, make your salsa verde. Gather a couple of large handfuls of your favourite herbs - I used flat leaf parsley, basil, mint, a tiny bit of tarragon and some lovage from the garden, wash them and then roughly chop them.
Meanwhile, crush a roughly chopped clove of garlic in a pestle and mortar with some salt, chopped anchovies and a pinch of chilli flakes. Add in a few chopped anchovies and a tsp of Dijon mustard and mulch it all together to a paste, then add in the herbs and crush everything together until finely chopped. You can do all this in a mini-chopper, but I much prefer to do it by hand. Now pour in about 150ml extra virgin olive oil and stir to combine into a salsa. Next, add in a tablespoon of lemon juice or good quality vinegar, stir and taste, adding in more acid according to your palate and how it’s tasting - you want it balanced, but slightly mouth-puckering. When you’re happy, drain the potatoes and add the beans into the pan with them, then pour over the salsa and toss it to coat them really well. Taste and season. Decant into a pretty serving dish.
Homegrown raspberries and making pavlova
Our raspberry cane has been left to go rather wild this year as we haven’t managed to steal much time for gardening, but it’s fruited abundantly for the first time, and I’ve been loving going outside and gathering the sweet, gorgeously fragrant berries with my daughter. She is a total fruit bat, and to watch her utter delight at the idea that we can grow and eat our own berries has been utterly heartwarming. She was honestly eating them as quickly as I could pick them! There were also quite a few that had already gone over or had been got by the flies, so I left them on the plant for less-discerning garden friends to enjoy. These are definitely some of the best raspberries I’ve ever tasted, and we used them to crown a showstopping pav I made for our mates, which I’ll be sharing very soon.
3. Swimming without swimwear
Because sometimes, the best swims are the ones you didn’t plan on having. When we left the house for a quick walk after our Sunday lunch (the one with the salsa verde pots and the pav) it was cloudy and drizzling, and none of us felt much in the mood for swimming. But by the time we got down to the beach, the rain had lifted, and the water was flat as a pancake, clear as the Med, and just too darn inviting to ignore. So, even I hadn’t packed my bikini, or a towel, I reasoned that I was wearing underwear, I was among friends, and no one would care if I just got in the sea. I did, and to my delight, everyone else followed suit (or lack thereof). It was one of the most amazing swims of the year, the sea felt decidedly balmy and the impromptu nature of it just served to make it more relishing. We used the baby’s muslin to dry off and we were totally fine. So don’t let the lack of adequate swimwear ever put you off jumping in!
4. The Bold Beans Cookbook
Regular readers will already know how much I love Bold Beans’ pulses, and I loved hearing from those of you who had cooked and enjoyed my Chickpea A La Vodka and Greens N Beans recipes using them. Well now, fellow bean fans have a whole new source of inspo thanks to this beautiful cookbook by the Bold Beans founder Amelia Christie-Miller, who has written an array of delightful recipes that show that there are just so many delicious and exciting ways to cook with pulses. She’s even roped in food writers and chefs (including yours truly over here) to share some special recipes too. Well worth a space on your cookbook shelf.
5. Punch Drunk’s The Burnt City
I don’t have any photos to show for this recommendation, because, wonderfully - you have to zip your phone into a locked bag on entry into this immersive theatre experience - but I really cannot rave about this production enough! If you’re looking the ultimate in theatrical escapism - Punch Drunk’s The Burnt City , which is loosely based on the fall of Troy, is an absolute treat. Set across an incredible sprawling set in Woolwich, you basically go off and explore it all on your own (or with a pal, but the chances are you’ll get split up), getting lost in the amazingly imaginative sets as the play unfolds around you. The sets are absolutely incredible - at one point you’re in a smoky Japanese backstreet, the next an abandoned shipyard - as is the choreography, dance and acting, and it’s honestly one of the best plays I’ve ever experienced. I’m even considering going back again as you have a different experience each time because you can’t physically get around the whole thing, but they have a really clever way of guiding you through the action. My friend knows someone who knows someone who’s been 37 times. It’s that good.
Excited to try the salsa verde potatoes. I love that you can use up some herbs which are lying around. Your pavlova is so pretty. I’ve never felt confident with them but it’s such a nice pudding for a BBQ
Salsa verde recipe looks fab! Going to try it alongside some lamb this weekend with the fam :-)