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BBQ Pil-Pil Prawns Recipe from the new Berber & Q Cookbook

As June approaches it’s time to step it up when it comes to outdoor eating and this new cookbook from Josh Katz (ex-Ottolenghi) offers the perfect inspiration. The founder of Haggerston Grill House, Berber & Q, Katz specialises in cooking over coals using flavours inspired by the Middle East and North Africa. Along with a step-by-step guide to barbecue cooking, there are recipes like Barbecued Cumin Lamb Chops with Anchovy Butter & Lemon Yoghurt and Smoked Chicken Thigh with Saffron and Orange Blossom that will elevate your summer suppers. This is one of our favourites from the book:

MONSTER PRAWNS WITH PIL-PIL SAUCE RECIPE

Gambas pil-pil is a dish that originates from the Basque region in Spain, consisting of prawns cooked with lots of garlic, chilli and olive oil, usually prepared in an earthenware dish and brought to the table still sizzling. There’s not a lot wrong with any of the words in that sentence.

Ask your fishmonger for the biggest prawns he can find. Make a statement. Avoid the tiny ones often used. And bread is obligatory. I say that a lot, but this time I really mean it.

SERVES 2

8 giant black tiger prawns, or any large prawns you can find, the bigger the better

2tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, minced or grated

1tbsp chopped dill

1tsp dried chilliflakes

PIL-PIL SAUCE

100ml olive oil

3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

½tsp salt

1tsp cumin seeds, lightly toasted

1tsp ground coriander pinch of cayenne

3tbsp Confit Chilli Salsa

8–10 cherry tomatoes, quartered and deseeded

GARNISH AND SERVE

2tbsp lemon juice

2 basil leaves, finely sliced

2 slices of sourdough or ciabatta, lightly grilled on both sides (optional)

FOR THE MONSTER PRAWNS

Start by deshelling the prawns, leaving the heads and tails on for aesthetic appeal. Use a small knife to create a slit and cut out the vein that runs down the back of each prawn.

Season the prawns with salt and pepper, toss them in olive oil, garlic, dill and chilli flakes, and put in the refrigerator to marinate for 2–4 hours.

FOR THE PIL-PIL  SAUCE

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based (preferablycast-iron) frying pan and gently sauté the garlic for 2–3 minutes, until softened and translucent but not coloured.

Remove the garlic from the oil with a slotted spoon (be sure to take out all of it and don’t leave any stragglers behind) and transfer to a mortar and pestle, leaving the cooking oil in the pan. Add the salt, cumin seeds, ground coriander and cayenne to the garlic and work the mix until it forms a paste.

Return the pan and oil to the stove top and warm over medium heat. Add the confit chilli salsa, cherry tomatoes and garlic mix, and cook for a few minutes to heat through. Turn the heat down as low as it can go and let the sauce gently bubble away and intensify in flavour whilst you finish the prawns.

TO FINISH THE MONSTER PRAWNS

Set a barbecue up for single-zone, direct grilling – ensuring that you are cooking on hot embers. Set the prawns on the grill rack directly over the burning coals, turning once or twice to colour both sides well, until the prawns are cooked all the way through, about 2–3 minutes on each side depending on the strength of your fire. Alternatively, heat a cast-iron pan over high heat until smoking hot and grill the prawns until done.

Whilst the prawns are grilling, have the pan with the pil-pil sauce set on the outer edges of the barbecue or grill to warm through.

TO GARNISH AND SERVE

Once cooked, transfer the prawns to the pan of pil-pil sauce and finish with the lemon juice. Garnish with the basil leaves and serve immediately. Some lightly grilled bread of any sort will be needed to mop up the pan juices.

Berber & Q by Josh Katz (Ebury Press, £25) photography by James Murphy is out on 31 May 2018.

 

 

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Edward Bawden at Dulwich Picture Gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery is one of our favourite places to see art in London. Its little enfilade of jewel box rooms ensures that exhibitions are succinct and well edited, and you tend to leave feeling stimulated and refreshed rather than exhausted and slightly guilty for skipping later displays, as so often happens in longer exhibitions at larger spaces. Case in point, the perfectly-formed new exhibition on printmaker, illustrator, watercolourist and designer, Edward Bawden (1903-89).

Edward Bawden, Brighton Pier, 1958, Linocut on paper, Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery (The Higgins Bedford), © Estate of Edward Bawden

What is it about Edward Bawden that we love so much? Perhaps his simplicity of line, his incisive wit and his keen eye that celebrates the minor yet joyful details of British life and delights in the small and everyday. This exhibition charms us with all of this, along with stories and context that add a new layer of meaning to the images we have seen reproduced so many times, from those he designed for Shell to commissions from Fortnum and Mason. It is intriguing to see studies and mock ups that reveal his craftsmanship and his fascination with artistic process.

But the additional value that your entry ticket affords you is the revelation of a whole body of work by Bawden that we are not so familiar with. Bawden was an official war artist and his output from this time shows another side to his talent. As a student he lacked confidence in life drawing and at home rarely produced figures larger than matchboxes. But in Cairo he was ordered to create portraits of the people he encountered on his travels. So that is what he delivered, sensitive drawings and paintings demonstrating the same spare line and careful power of observation that his better-known works are distinguished by.

The ideal small exhibition, make sure to add this to your summer diary. And if you have children, check out the Little Grand Tour who are running a family-friendly tour of the exhibition on Thursday 10 July.

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Penelope Chilvers

With the motto, ‘go anywhere, do anything’, Penelope Chilvers designs the kind of shoes that are both practical and playful in equal measure. Take the new Amelia Friesian Boot for example, and you’ll find  geranium pink pony cowhide combined with the signature Safari style that’s just made for stomping. Having previously lived in Barcelona, the Londoner is heavily influenced by traditional Spanish techniques and leather boots, sandals, espadrilles are synonymous with the label. Spending her time between a studio, two shops (Ledbury Road and Duke Street) and her Notting Hill home, the designer shares her favourite London haunts:

 

Where’s home? 

London – a place that seems to me to be made up of huge villages. My village is anywhere that is a stone’s throw from Portobello market – I like it because it attracts artistic people and being on a hill you can see surprisingly long views for a city.

How do you structure your working days?

I work best between 6.30am and 9am, when it’s quiet – it’s a time for problem solving and creativity. During the day I’m not on my email much as I’m either chatting to my team, or at the drawing table in the studio. I love travelling a lot to see the artisans that make my footwear in Spain, where I research and get inspired, this is where most new collections are born.

You seem to spread a sense of fun in your shoes. Where do you find your inspiration?

I love a” brown boot” more than anything, and it’s often the way I start designing a new style: aiming to make a classic, in noble materials, but I can’t hold myself back from transforming them a year later,  and using colour too.  My inspiration comes from travel and adventures.

Which pair of shoes in your wardrobe do you wear the most often?

I have recently started wearing the Salva boot in tan –  they are one of our long lasting classic styles and one of our best sellers. I’ve always loved how they look on other people. They are a little bit cowboy, a bit gaucho girl, and very laid back. I’m wearing them every day at the moment with dresses, skirts and jeans.

How does your motto ‘Go Anywhere, Do Anything’ translate into your designs?

A question I ask myself all the time when designing is ‘Does it make you feel free?’ My footwear is about empowering and giving confidence to the women who wear them. This motto also sums up our carefree attitude –  we make footwear to keep by the door, to depend upon and not to be kept in a wardrobe for rare occasions. People wear them all season long. They are made to last. 

Can you share your favourite London…

  • Bakery or cafe: Andina, Westbourne Grove, created by Martin Morales of Ceviche. I recommend the baked Aubergine dish and Peruvian meatballs.
  • Cocktail bar or pub: The Beaumont, close to our shop for an after work cocktail
  • Place to de-stress: White City House pool

Where are you off to this summer and what of your collection will you be taking with you?

I spend as much time in Spain as I can, I love to get out of the city and visit my family around the country too. I’ll take the tan Alma sandal, a rucksack for the beach and I enjoy wearing black in the summer (never in winter) so I’ll wear all the black satin styles such as the Nonno or Hannah espadrilles. I have mixed jute soles with satin uppers to create graphic lines with a natural element, this make them versatile and perfect for a party on the beach, a wedding on a lawn or a walk to work through the city.

 

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Butter Wakefield – Garden Designer

When I speak to Butter Wakefield, she’s literally just won Best In Show for her trade stand at Chelsea Flower Show, designed for Gaze Burvill. The American-born Londoner runs a small and highly successful garden design business that is driven by word-of-mouth recommendations, and this win is the pinnacle of months of hard work. Her mantra for success, ‘be happy, be polite, be helpful and just keep chipping away at it’ seems to be paying off. Here we catch up with the designer about Chelsea, London gardening and ways to unwind in the city:

When did you get picked to design a garden at Chelsea?


Credit: www.clivenichols.com

Last August I was invited by Gaze Burvill to design their trade stand – to be chosen was hugely exciting, tho I’ll admit it ruined the end of my summer holidays with thinking about it! The brief was to design a purpose-built, imaginative space to showcase their beautiful garden furniture. I was allowed to choose the pieces myself and went for a round table, with circular benches, half with backs and half without, and some sofas and an amazing outdoor kitchen range. The layout also has to allow for lots of people to move about the space, so there’s lots to consider.

What was the process of creating the garden like?

We were allowed in on 4 May and that’s when the build started. The trees arrived that day, and the plants a few days later to settle in. The industry is fantastic and everyone pulls together when there’s a crisis – I had to go and borrow some soil from Chris Beardshaw who was very accommodating! We’re in it together and we all support one another, the atmosphere is just phenomenal.

Credit: clivenichols.com

Which were your stand-out gardens at this year’s Flower Show?

The Seedlip Garden, Mark Gregory’s Yorkshire Garden and Jo Thompson’s Wedgwood Garden.

How much time do you spend outdoors vs. indoors?

I spend all my time outdoors! I love it. I did interior design before which was an amazing learning curve where I picked up an understanding of pattern, scale, design and colour, key foundations for my gardens in fact. But I was inside too much, it drove me crazy, I’m happiest outdoors and truly love my job.

Where do you get your ideas for your gardens?

Architecture plays a huge role. I study buildings and the way the masters like Christopher Wren and David Nash made them, I study roof lines and shapes. I also consider dimensions. Walking around Chelsea is inspiring – look at someone like Tom Stuart Smith. The way he threads his plants, the planting is just unbelievable. Cast your eye around and you lodge ideas in your mind for future projects – of course every client wants something different so its good to have things in store.

Do you have a work uniform?

No! I am not a personal branding type of person, I don’t even have a branded van. Today I’m just wearing black jeans, black espadrilles and a flowery shirt.

How do you unwind after a long day at work?

There’s nothing more soothing than being in my own garden. I love picking flowers, arranging them, carrying a posy to my bedroom.

Credit: clivenichols.com

Where’s home and what do you like about your neighbourhood?

Ravenscourt Park. I love the Angelsea Arms – it’s a proper pub and I enjoy wandering there once a week for a meal. I also love setting off for a long walk with my border terrier, Wafer. He and I have a very happy time on the river, it’s walking distance from my house yet it always feels like a holiday – it’s exotic, the views on the water and sense of space and horizon – it’s really transportive.

What’s your favourite flower?

Alchemilla mollis and Rosa Munstead Wood (above).

What’s on your bucket list?

Winning Gold for a Show Garden at Chelsea.

Catch Butter Wakefield’s garden for Gaze Burvill at Chelsea Flower Show until Saturday 26 May. butterwakefield.co.uk

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Peter Pan at Regents Park Open Air Theatre

One of the great joys of summertime in London has to be an evening at Regents Park Open Air Theatre. And there’s no better play to see here than Peter Pan, a story made for the magical setting in the woods. George Llewelyn Davies, killed in action in 1915 was one of the children who inspired J.M. Barrie to create Peter Pan. In his memory, this story revolves around the Lost Boys – a hospital ward of injured soldiers – for whom imagination is their only escape. Soon they’re in the fantasy world of Never Never Land, with Captain Hook, Tinkerbell and swashbuckling adventures that transport them a million miles from the war.

This adaptation was first shown in 2015 to critical acclaim but it’s back this summer to mark the centenary of the end of World War 1. An ideal half term treat, the show is for ages 4-11 but that’s not to say that adults won’t enjoy it too.

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Brilliant and Wild: A Garden From Scratch

Feeling inspired by Chelsea Flower Show? Novice gardeners can take heart with this new book that shows you how to create a beautiful and wildlife-friendly space in just twelve months. Lucy Bellamy, who you might recognise from The Great British Bake Off (series 4), went on to train in horticulture at Chelsea Physic Garden and The Royal Horticultural Society and is now a garden designer and writer. There’s step-by-step instructions that take you from a back-of-an-envelope plan to a flowering, low-maintenance perennial garden.

 

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Orla Kiely at the Fashion and Textile Museum

There’s a brilliant moment in the new exhibition Orla Kiely: A Life in Pattern when you enter into a large, high room filled with eight dresses, each nine feet tall, hanging from the ceiling.  The dresses are an exact replica of the smaller versions that Kiely has made in her fashion collections but seeing them in such a large size brings every ruffle, every colour and pattern to attention.  And to accentuate the feeling of Alice in Wonderland even further, the dresses are accompanied by eight mini dolls made by the artist Sarah Strachan wearing the same outfits. ‘Scale is so important in my work’ said Kiely when we asked her about the room, ‘I’m always playing with scale in my patterns.’

The new exhibition shows over 150 of her colourful patterns (out of a library of over a 500) including, of course, her most recognisable and popular ‘stem’ pattern that has adorned everything from Uniqlo Heat Tech t-shirts to the interiors of a Citroen DS3.

 

Kiely set up the business with her husband in the 1990s (with two children in tow and Orla still working full time in another job) and she is now one of the UK and Ireland’s most successful designers.  She and her husband still own 100% of the company and oversee every detail (the stylist Leith Clark with whom she designs the fashion collections says, ‘In her work Orla is…a control freak.  She oversees every single aspect of every single element and it all, every detail, matters deeply to her.’)  And it definitely shows through in this exhibition –  every fabric and design (shown alongside samples, mood boards and making techniques), every handbag and notebook is carefully considered, loved even.

It’s an exhibition which feels like being immersed in Kiely’s own personal world of colour and design – often humorous with a strong nod to the mid-century modern world of her childhood.  ‘My earliest memory of pattern was being allowed to choose my own wallpaper as a child’ says Kiely. ‘It was the 70’s so it was brown floral and when I closed my eyes, I could feel the colours flow like a river.  It was so relaxing’.  Do go and see this show – it’s a riot of pattern and colour which makes for an extremely uplifting and joyous experience.

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Late May/early June Sample Sales

Who: Donna Ida
What: Up to 90% off denim womenswear
When: 25 May 2018: 10am – 6pm
Where: 40 Elizabeth Street, SW1W 9NZ

Who: Bella Freud
What: Big discounts on womenswear
When: 31 May 2018: 9am – 6.45pm (£3 entry free for charity)
Where: Brown’s Hotel (Clarendon Room), 33 Albermarle Street, W1S 4BP

Who: Skandium
What: Up to 70% off discontinued lines, ex-display and warehouse clearance furniture including designers such as String, Gubi, Fritz Hansen & Vitra
When: 2 – 3 June 2018: 10.30am – 6pm
Where: St Hilda’s East Community Centre, E2 7EY

Who: Chinti and Parker
What: Big discounts on all cashmere
When: 6 – 7 June 2018: 9.30am – 7pm
Where: Chinti and Parker, Unit 35 Tileyard Studios, Tileyard Road, N7 9AH

Who: Linda Farrow Sunglasses
What: Big discounts on sunglasses including designer eyewear such as Erdem & Charlotte Olympia
When: 7 – 8 June 2018: 11am – 8pm & 9 June 2018: midday – 6pm
Where: Linda Farrow, 51 Calthorpe Street, WC1X oHH

Who: Vanderhurd
What: Big discounts on fabric, cushions, bedspreads, carpets & dhurries by both Vanderhurd and A Rum Fellow
When: 13 June 2018: 10am – 7pm; 14 June 2018: 11am – 6pm & 15 June 2018: 11am – 5pm
Where: Vanderhurd Showroom, 17 Portobello Road, W11 3DA

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Game-Changing Heist Nude Tights

Nude tights are having a moment. This week Meghan Markle was spotted at her first public engagement as a newlywed wearing a pair, adhering to the strict royal dress code of no-bare-legs. With plenty of summer weddings this year, I’ve been tempted to try the look but I’ve been apprehensive too and struggling to find the right pair.

From the moment the box arrived, I knew Heist tights would be different. It’s a treat to open their sandy pink box that feels luxe and smart. The tights come in a dust bag that I will be using again to stop any zips or heels catching on them as you pack and unpack for a weekend away. As you slither into them, they feel smooth and silky. There are two options of waistband – high at the waist and low to sit around the hips – I went for the high and the panel around the waist gives you just enough additional support to justify a lunch time pudding.

 

I wore Heist Nude on a hot summer’s day – all day – and never felt sticky. As the day turned to night I was thankful for a little leg warmth, and the flexibility meant I could dance all night without them rolling down or digging in at my waist. At 18-denier you almost forget you are wearing them – without a doubt the smoothest and most flattering tights I have ever worn.

Reader Offer: 15% off readers’ first purchase PLUS free UK shipping using the code HEISTNUDE. *Redeemable online at heist-studios.com. Ends Midnight BST 2nd June 2018

The Nude is available in two shades, Light and Dark, in UK sizes 04-14. The range also offers jet-black opaque styles: The Thirty (available in UK sizes 04-14), The Fifty and The Eighty, both available in UK sizes 04-24. Heist start at £19 and are available exclusively via their website www.heist-studios.com, with worldwide shipping available. 

Review by Allegra Marland for A Little Bird. 

This is a Sponsored Post.

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Some of our favourite things from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The RHS has been working for some time to promote the healing benefits of gardens and gardening and to that end Matt Keightley has designed the RHS Feel Good garden – a gorgeous billowy mix of grasses including Stipa tenuissima and deschampsia along with these stunning black irises (a more diminutive black Iris chrysographes – also appeared on Tom Stuart Smith’s garden). The best piece of news from Keightley was that messy gardens are much better for our mental health than neat, formal spaces. After the show the garden is being relocated to Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust.

We are always on the lookout for more roses – David Austin’s introductions this year were standout – the incredibly scented Emily Bronte and the pretty single yellow Tottering By Gently. But it was this rambler, Dentelle de Malines, that caught our eye. How pretty would this look scrambling over a garden fence?

Main Avenue first timer Tom Massey didn’t disappoint with a beautiful, innovative garden for the Lemon Tree Trust – a charity that supports gardening and growing in refugee camps. Massey travelled to the Domiz camp in Iraq and incorporated some of the inventive ideas that have been born from the challenging conditions and the makeshift gardening that has evolved there. While one side of the garden had beautiful perennials planted into gravel the opposite side of the garden had a wall of concrete breeze blocks and steel guttering that had been repurposed as planters.

Lupins seem to be everywhere at this year’s flower show but we noticed more of the rich blue West Country lupin – Persian Slipper – than any other variety. Its velvety blue spires fill Nic Howard’s garden for David Harber and Savill’s. They also look beautiful mixed in with lilac and pink, as seen here on Janine Crimmins’ A Very English Garden.

Chelsea isn’t just about planting – Blue Forest’s towering playhouse has been creating a stir on Main Avenue with its amazing tunnel slide. Who wouldn’t want this in their garden?

Sarah Price’s M&G Garden was beguiling from all angles with its rusty earth walls and exquisite planting. We spotted so many plants to covet but one of our favourites was the Euphorbia rigida which has a dome of spiky foliage and the prettiest rose pink flowers.

In the Floral Marquee there are some extraordinary stands this year but none more swoonsome than Ashwood Nurseries monoculture of hellebores. It’s an incredible feat that these winter flowers are even in flower in late May – let alone looking so fabulous. The Nurseries’ latest addition is the Evolution series of plants – some of these gorgeous new hellebores may not be available commercially until 2020 but these beauties are worth the wait.

There was a big push for yellow at this year’s Show – and it’s a notoriously hard sell with many of us immune to the charms of zingy yellow flowers. But Hay-Joung Hwang’s extremely relaxing LG Eco-City garden made a strong case for the colour with yellow lupins mixed with copper verbascums, orange geums and white foxgloves.

Hwang softened the feet of the trees in her garden with ferns and delicious mossy domes. But, as usual, the master of moss at Chelsea was Kazuyuki Ishihara whose Japanese Hospitality Garden was a sensory overload of gushing water, immaculate planting and rivers of plush, velvety moss domes.

Our plant lust list from Chelsea is pretty much endless but we will leave you with this luscious beauty – Papaver ‘Cloud Peony Black.’ She’s totally dreamy.

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Uniqlo Tate Late

So much more than just later opening hours, the Tate Lates on the last Friday of every month offer a vibrant mix of art, music, film, workshops and talks. This May’s Tate Late focusses on The EY Exhibition: Picasso 1932 – Love, Fame, Tragedy. See this and the concurrent exhibitions, Joan Jonas and Shape of Light for just £10 each between 6-8.30pm. There will also be street food vans and food pop-ups outside on the lawn, and cocktails at pop up bars around the building and a whole host of activities. Expect music from NTS Radio in the Terrace Bar until 11pm, a surreal life-drawing salon with larger-than-life models posing as iconic portraits, collage workshops, screenings of Jean Zainlevé’s film The Love Life of the Octopus that inspired Picasso and his contemporaries, and more. Free entry and no booking required.

 

 

 

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Royal Wedding Party at Chelsea Physic Garden

The loveliest of the Royal Wedding celebrations, watch Saturday’s ceremony on an outdoor screen within the verdant oasis of the Chelsea Physic Garden. For one day only, London’s oldest botanical garden is free to enter, and members and non-members alike welcome to explore the walkways and greenhouses, and to discover the medicinal plants cultivated here since 1673.

As well as exploring the gardens, follow the Royal mystery trail, enter the ‘Best Hat’ competition, sip a Minty Markle cocktail and take a flower crown class with Bloomologie. And of course, watch Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s big moment on the large outdoor screen. The Tangerine Dream Cafe will be serving a special menu of champagne and oysters, asparagus and poached eggs, and summer trifle.

No booking required, but capacity is capped at 600 people, first-come-first-served so arrive early to avoid disappointment.

It’s goodbye for now…

The team at A Little Bird are taking a break to recharge and make some exciting changes behind-the-scenes. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

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