Page 116 – A Little Bird

6th September 201728th October 2021

Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh

For many the first discovery of Ottolenghi was gazing into the Notting Hill store’s window piled high with dusted giant meringues and all sorts of delicious looking cakes and pastries, when it opened fifteen years ago. Since then, we and many others have devoured every new book from Yotam Ottolenghi and his team. And we return to them often. Yet despite a background as a pastry chef, it’s taken until now for the hugely influential writer and cook to produce a book dedicated to pastries, baking and puddings.

But Sweet, written in collaboration with Helen Goh, is an opus worth waiting for. Ten years in the making this is a wide-ranging, inspiring and beautiful book packed with delicious things you want to cook right away. There are all the trademark punchy flavours you’d expect from spices and unusual combinations as well as exotic influences that give classics an intriguing twist – a rich crumbly Middle Eastern millionaire’s shortbread with tahini and halva for instance or pretty madeleines made with honey, saffron and dipped in pistachios. There are plenty of utterly scrumptious cakes – including one rich with beetroot, ginger and soured cream. But there are classics too – Victoria sponges and lemon poppy seed cake, rich fruit cake as well as the most delicious cheesecakes, epic show-stopping puddings and a chapter of truly beautiful mini cakes, which includes some of those jewels that light up those Ottolenghi windows.

Here’s a taster recipe of one of our favourite cakes from the book so far – a flourless cake which is easy to make and heavenly to eat. From Sweet by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh (Ebury Press, £27)

Belinda’s Flourless Coconut and Chocolate Cake

Every month or so we gather in the test kitchen with our pastry chefs. It’s an open forum, with the chefs presenting their offerings, which we then taste and discuss. It’s always exciting, as ideas are constantly being improved and implemented.

This cake was a product of one of those meetings, brought to the table by Franceska Venzon, herself inspired by Belinda Jeffery’s version of the cake. We’ve played around with the shape – baking it in a loaf tin – and added a chocolate ganache, but the base is all Belinda’s.

There’s something about a cake showcasing its flourless-ness or gluten-free nature which can often make it sound a little bit worthy. Unfairly so, in a case like this, where the feeling of eating it is the very opposite of ‘free-from’: it’s utterly buttery and decadent.

serves 8

—

200g unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing

250g caster sugar

60g desiccated coconut

scraped seeds of 1 vanilla pod

¼ tsp salt

4 large eggs

180g ground almonds

water ganache

60g cooking chocolate (70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped into 1cm pieces

25g caster sugar

25g liquid glucose

3 tbsp water

scraped seeds of ¼ vanilla pod

25g unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into 2cm cubes

This can either be made in a regular 900g loaf tin or in a 23cm round spring form tin.

This will keep well for up to 5 days in an airtight container. It can be eaten on the day of making, but we think it tastes even better served at room temperature the following day.

1 Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas Mark 4. Grease the base and sides

of the 900g loaf tin or 23cm round springform tin and line with baking parchment, then set aside.

2 Place the butter, sugar, desiccated coconut, vanilla and salt in an electric mixer with the paddle attachment in place. Beat on a medium-high speed, until pale and fluffy: about 3 minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Reduce the speed to low, add the ground almonds and mix until just combined.

3 Scrape the mixture into the cake tin and bake for either 40 minutes if using the loaf tin, or 50 minutes if using the round tin, or until the cake is golden brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Remove the cake

from the oven and set aside to cool in the tin before inverting on to a serving plate. Set aside until completely cool.

4 Make the water ganache when you are ready to serve. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside. Put the sugar and glucose in a small saucepan and place over a medium-low heat. Stir to combine and, when the sugar has melted, increase the heat to medium and bring to the boil, stirring gently from time to time. Continue to boil for about 7 minutes, until the colour is a pale amber. Remove from the heat and carefully pour in the water. Don’t worry if the mix seizes: just return the pan to the heat, add the scraped vanilla seeds and stir gently and continuously until it returns to the boil and the sugar has melted again. Remove from the heat and wait

for a minute before pouring the water-caramel over the chocolate. Allow to stand for about 3 minutes, then whisk to combine. Add the butter, a couple of cubes at a time, whisking after each addition. Continue until all the butter has been added, whisking

to combine until the consistency is that of golden syrup.

5 Spread the ganache over the top of the cake, letting a little run down the sides.

Belinda’s Flourless Coconut and Chocolate Cake

23rd August 20175th September 2017

New makeup collections from Claudia Schiffer & Victoria Beckham

We were big fans of the first Victoria Beckham x Estée Lauder makeup collection which came out last year and was a sell-out success (particularly the Morning Aura illuminator, see our post here). Combining both sleek design and high quality products, they weren’t the cheapest but we did think they were worth the splurge. Her second, follow-up collection is launching 1st September and you can already get a sneak preview on her site here. As well as the basics found in her ‘Signature Look’, you’ll also find the collection divided into looks inspired by her favourite cities including London and Miami plus two limited edition kits. Beckham herself has picked out both the Eye Ink Mascara in Blackest (£36) and the Skin Perfecting Powder (£62) as her top buys but you’ll need to be quick off the mark buying the products as they do sell out quickly (you can get them online at Beckham’s website here or at Selfridges).

Also launching this month on 5th September is Claudia Schiffer’s first makeup line in collaboration with German brand, Art Deco cosmetics. The line will feature Schiffer’s ‘cloud’ logo on pale pink packaging and include a full range of lipsticks, nail varnishes, blushers, eyeshadows, mascara and foundations. Prices haven’t been revealed yet but Art Deco is renowned for selling good quality products for both home and professional use at reasonable prices and the collection has already been given a big thumbs up by top makeup artist Lisa Eldridge. Buy directly from ClaudiaSchiffermakeup.com.

26th July 201726th February 2018

Beauty: best illuminators

We used to think that illuminators were best left to the likes of Kim Kardashian but thanks to Victoria Beckham and now supremo makeup artist, Pat McGrath, we are true converts.

We use Beckham’s Morning Aura, £68 from Net-a-Porter US which is a primer and moisturiser-in-one almost every day. In her video for Vogue, Beckham applied it over her cheekbones and nose as a highlighter over her makeup but we like using it under our foundation or BB cream, as it acts as a great primer and gives you a subtle glow. Unfortunately, you can only buy Morning Aura from outside of the UK at the moment but there is a second Victoria Beckham/Estée Lauder collaboration coming this autumn so keep your eyes peeled (the first collaboration was sold exclusively at Selfridges on it’s debut).

Alternatively, we’d recommend Skin Fetish by Pat McGrath, £70 from Net-a-Porter. McGrath’s makeup line, Pat McGrath LABS, has just gone on sale and it has been 25 years in the making. We were lucky enough to watch McGrath at work on shoots in the past and, famous for her research and 80 plus bags of makeup and brushes, she is meticulous in her skin prep and application. Responsible for the makeup for over 80 fashion shows a year including Dior and Dolce & Gabbana, it’s not surprising that McGrath’s line is fashion forward and includes strong pigments not for the faint hearted (glitter lips for example?) However, it also has Skin Fetish 003 which she calls her secret weapon for creating a lit-from-within-glow. It contains a pressed pigment highlighter, a highlighter duo stick and a brush but it’s the highlighter stick that we love. Again, we use it under makeup and it really does create a luminous radiance.

26th July 201728th October 2021

The Barbary

It’s taken us a year to make it to The Barbary, but it’s been on our mind ever since it opened its doors in Neal’s Yard last June. The Palomar’s little sister, which has just 22 seats around a zinc-topped horseshoe counter or ‘kitchen bar’ as it’s known in-house, is snug – not least for the heroic staff who manage to glide and weave around each other in an entertaining ballet. And just like The Palomar this is a really fun place to eat and people watch – it would also be a fabulous place for a date with it’s buzzy atmosphere and ice-breakingly close quarters. But what most people come here for is the delicious Berber-inspired menu.

As the name suggests the focus here is on food that originates along the strip of North Africa, from Morocco and Algeria to Tunisia and Libya, where Berbers settled in the 16th century. The menu is compact – just like the restaurant – but it’s no less impactful for that. We started with delicious naan bread straight from the tandoor oven which can be dunked into all sort of unctuous starters – baba ganoush, Msabacha chickpea stew or delicious roasted beetroot and labneh. Mains are then divided into earth (grilled halloumi and peppers or delicious spiced and roasted cauliflower), sea and land and, of those fish and meat dishes, it’s the Pata Negra neck of pork that is the must-have here. This meltingly good cut is rubbed with ras-el-hanout and then char-grilled and served with a sweet date syrup and confit garlic. It is sublime. One of our favourite things at The Palomar is the fantastic fattoush salad and predicatably it’s just as good here – a colourful, crunchy and piquant contrast to the richer mains.

We were too full to do the pudding menu justice – our neighbour’s kanafeh looked utterly delicious – but we did manage a serving of a zingy refreshing strawberry sorbet. Because of its bijou size and layout the Barbary has so far only accepted walk-ins but now you can book for groups up to four at either midday or 5pm. Alternatively just take your chances – waiting diners cluster around the edges or in windows and that is no hardship – it gives you more time to take in the buzzy scene.

26th July 201727th July 2017

Littlest Luxuries

We’ve definitely found that since having children (twin girls), we spend less money on ourselves and more on our kids’ clothes. The result is a gorgeous wardrobe that they grow out of all too quickly. We were delighted then to discover the recently launched Littlest Luxuries, a website set up by Lucy Walford (who previously worked for House & Garden and Tatler), that sells a lovely selection of nearly-new designers childrenswear. Brands include Bonpoint, Caramel Baby & Child, Marie-Chantal, Stella McCartney and many more. Unlike eBay (which Walford says she has been using for the past 10 years and built up a good knowledge of how to photograph and sell clothes successfully), the quality is very high and if there are any marks (such as a name on a shoe), you will be informed before you buy. The website is beautiful to look at too. And if you want to sell some of your kids old clothes, then you simply fill in the Sellers Form, letting them know which clothes you’ve got and they will tell you which ones they will accept. Happy selling/shopping!

19th July 201720th July 2017

Dries Van Noten – The Movie

Despite the release of numerous fashion films over the past few years, many of those outside the fashion industry (and even some of those in it) don’t really know what the day to day life of a designer is really like. But Dries – a documentary by Reiner Holzemer that follows a whole year in the life of the Belgian designer Dries Van Noten – will change all that.

Van Noten is one of the few established designers to have remained totally independent throughout his incredible career which began in 1986 when he showed menswear as part of London Fashion Week. What becomes clear, as Holzemer builds up a picture of this understated, thoughtful designer, is that his longevity is all about his obsession with giving his customers beautiful clothes that become wardrobe favourites for decades rather than seasons.

As well as providing a really intimate portrait into how his company operates from the incredible fabrics and embroideries that are so much a part of the Dries world, to the show production in Paris, the film provides an incredible sense of the non-stop work of a designer at the top of their game. But better still, Holzemer really captures the man behind the brand too. We get a rare and privileged insight into Ringenhof, the exquisite neo-classical home with the most extraordinarily beautiful interiors and gardens, that the designer shares with his partner Patrick Vangheluwe. The beauty of it – and the way Van Noten orchestrates it – is mind-blowing. No wonder women everywhere want to step into his world.

19th July 201728th October 2021

Our favourite Phone Cases

In the mood to change your iPhone case? Here are our top picks:

Rifle Paper Co Herb Garden case, £34 from Papermash

Edie Parker Hello case, £40 from Net-a-Porter

Choose from a variety of lovely Liberty print fabric patterns, from £14 at FloweryInHand on Etsy

Personalise your case with gold plate charms and letters, from £25 at TINKALINK

Road Trip case, £35 from Kate Spade

Jeweled garland case, £40 also from Kate Spade

Marc Jacobs glitter case, £32 from Net-a-Porter

Vermicular by Cressida Bell, £29.99 from Stringberry (and if you like strong graphic designs, do check out Stringberry’s other great imprints too)

And finally, one for the summer: a shark case from Stella McCartney, £22 from Matches Fashion

5th July 201728th October 2021

Trullo: The Cookbook & a recipe for Mussel Fritti

When Trullo opened on an unpromising stretch of road in Islington in 2010, the area had a fairly lacklustre dining scene. Upper Street was dominated by chains and although there were good places to eat in the borough: the Duke of Cambridge organic pub, Au Lac Vietnamese in Highbury, the French Conran restaurant Almeida, there weren’t really enough of them. The chef Tim Siadatan, who was one of Jamie Oliver’s original trainees, set to change that with Trullo. This was a different beast, using British ingredients to make simple and brilliantly executed Italian dishes. The pappardelle with beef shin ragu fairly quickly became a classic to the extent that the restaurant takes it off their menu at their peril. We also have an enormous soft spot for their pudding list – it’s the kind of restaurant where you’ll want all of your party to have something sweet to finish so that you can eat your way through the whole list!

We can’t go to Trullo quite as often as we would wish, however, so are delighted that Siadatan has now distilled all his wisdom into a cookbook. This is a gentle, undaunting book of crowd-pleasing recipes. Nigel Slater, no less, has said ‘This is the book I’ve been waiting for.’ If you’re still unconvinced, here’s a recipe from the antipasti section for mussel fritti, or ‘popcorn of the sea’ as Siadatan calls it. Serve with aioli and a cold beer and imagine you’re in Italia.

Mussel fritti

Serves 4

about 50 mussels, cleaned (or ask your fishmonger to clean them
for you)
a glug of olive oil
125ml white wine
300g plain flour, sifted
300g semolina
1.2 litres groundnut oil
16 flat-leaf parsley leaves
lemon wedges, for serving
fine sea salt

To clean the mussels, rinse them under cold water, scrape off any dirt, pull
off the ‘beards’, and discard any mussels that are open once tapped or have
broken shells.

Heat a pan big enough to hold all the mussels on a high heat and add some
olive oil, followed quickly by the mussels and white wine. Give the pan a shake
and put a lid on, and cook for 3–5 minutes until the mussels have opened.

Transfer onto a tray (retain the cooking liquid) and allow to cool.
When cool, pick the mussels out of their shells, discarding any closed ones.
Strain the cooking liquid through a fine sieve, then leave the mussels submerged
in the liquid.

Get your pane ingredients ready: sifted plain flour, mussel cooking liquid and
semolina. Fish out the mussels with a slotted spoon, then, working in batches,
roll them in flour, dip back into the mussel juice then roll them in semolina.
Heat the groundnut oil to 180˚C (or throw a breadcrumb in – when it sizzles
and turns golden you’re ready to go). Working in two batches, deep-fry the
mussels for 2 minutes, then add the parsley for 10 seconds (stand back, it
spits!). Transfer to a bowl lined with kitchen paper and season with fine sea salt.

Serve with a wedge of lemon for squeezing.

28th June 201728th October 2021

What we’re packing for our summer holiday

We can’t wait to fly off on our summer holidays and this is what we’ve been busy packing:

We’ve uploaded the Stack music app onto our phone for what they call ‘Just Good Music’. It’s a curated collection of music that you can either listen to live for free or pay a small monthly fee for a playback selection. Think Barry White, Bjork, Johnny Cash and Bob Marley, all in one playlist with no ads or talking in-between. It’s your summer playlist sorted. Free or £2.49 per month from i-tunes.

We were lucky enough to be given a couple of these Bleecker& Love waterproof pouches last summer by a Greek friend and haven’t looked back. Perfect for either storing your valuables on the beach and/or then for your wet swimming costumes at the end of the day. €25 from 2TheLittleStore (who shipworldwide).

We bought this Helen Kaminski hand-made raffia bag a few years ago and, unusually for a summer beach-through-evening bag, it still looks good as new. It holds all our kids toys/books and due to it’s secret leather patch on the underside of the shoulder strap, it’s very comfortable to wear too. £209 from Beach Cafe.

If, like us, you’re a magnet for all things buzzing and biting after dark, then we highly recommend that you grab some of this Myrtle and Citronella emulsion from Korres. You can use it on toddlers 3 and upwards and it is completely DDT-free. Most of all though, it works! €13.50 from Korres

Great for both kids and grownups, these waterproof leather sandals (you can both go in the water and put them in the washing machine) have been going strong since the 1940s. We’ve bought them for our kids for the last 2 years running and they’ve been fantastic. From £42 at Salt-Water Sandals.

And finally, we swear by our Norma Kamali swimsuits. They hide all your bulges and accentuate your curves in all the right places. They also keep their shape well from year to year which, as they are an ‘investment’ swimsuit, is key. This one is £250 from Net-A-Porter but they also have a slightly different red halterneck one on sale for £153 here. I tend to buy them in the sales for next year as they annoyingly sell out of the popular sizes even at full price.

21st June 201728th October 2021

The Little Book of Brunch

We have plenty of cookbooks that we read for escapism without the hope of recreating any of the recipes but increasingly, we’re turning to cookbooks that actually fulfil a need. And whilst it might seem absurd to consider brunch a need, we’ve certainly found it necessary of late not to spend £20 on some avo toast and fresh juice on a Sunday morning. We still want a leisurely, indulgent time with friends which is where The Little Book of Brunch comes in. Sophie Missing and Caroline Craig, authors of an old favourite of ours The Cornershop Cookbook, have produced a book of down to earth brunch recipes written with characteristic verve. These women are serious eaters in the sense that there’s not one recipe for baked eggs, there are three, but they are also grounded enough not to make either the recipes (or the lifestyle that comes with them) seem daunting.

If you like the idea of the book but aren’t sure if it’s for you, or if you just love brunch, why not try some of the recipes and meet the authors at their free event at Ink@84 Books this Sunday? Ink@84 in Islington is not only a great bookshop but also, a lovely venue space which serves Nude coffee and after midday, Sacred gin as well as a range of local beers. The Little Book of Brunch event, where you can sample some of the dishes and chat with the authors, will kick off at 11.30. See you there!

20th June 201721st June 2017

Little Black Book

We’re no fan of career guides on the whole but Otegha Uwagba has produced something a bit different with the Little Black Book. She won’t ask you to work out who moved your cheese or what colour your parachute is, hallelujah. Instead, this is robust, sensible and calm advice. We love her idea that “being really good at what you do” is the best possible brand. A networker of note, she has garnered advice from creative women we would like to emulate, not least the novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Penny Martin, editor-in-chief of The Gentlewoman magazine. We’ve been thinking a lot recently about Martin’s suggestion that you need to choose whether your professional or personal life is going to be more high-octane and which is going to be more restorative. And whilst nothing Uwagba suggests will exactly seem like rocket science, this is a useful and digestible guide to developing the creative career that will most suit you.

31st May 201728th October 2021

Bun House

We were thrilled when Bao opened a larger branch in Fitzrovia last year and it meant we could eat a dinner of Taiwanese steamed buns without having to queue first, as we had at their original branch. We’ve often found the immense fillings (not least the black cod) rather unwieldly nonetheless. And whilst this is absolutely fine when we want to go for a solo dinner (our favourite way to eat at Bao), we would also like to have a weekday lunch with a friend in slightly more elegant surroundings. This is where the lovely Bun House comes in. It opened in March, on the corner of Greek Street and Old Compton Street and has already developed quite a following and it’s not hard to see why. It has been designed beautifully for starters (one of the co-owners has a design background) and is easily the most tranquil place we’ve ever eaten a steam bun filled with pork belly. The Chinese buns served here are also, crucially, sealed rather than left open — as at Bao — so there’s no danger of losing any of the delicious filling! We have to say this is the most low-maintenance way we’ve found yet (no queues, no faff) to wolf a lunch of delicious buns and some stand out pickles (daikon and kohlrabi as well as the ubiquitous cucumber). A small word of caution, however: this is not a brilliant place to bring a vegetarian as even the house fries are actually (alarmingly tasty) deep fried duck tongues! Everyone else should run not walk to Greek Street.