The Greasy Spoon | Food & Culture

The Chervil Revolution

 

 

I'm going to suggest that we start a Chervil Revolution. For some reason it's quite hard to find chervil in Britain- unlike in France. And I really don't know why, as the plug I bought from a herb nursery a month or two ago is now flourishing in our London town garden- which means semi-shade, pollution and pesky cats.

The secret- as with many herbs- is to re-plant it in a pot full of free-draining, slightly poor stony soil. I bought some grit from our local garden centre and mixed it into standard compost (adding a handful of sand, too). Until I discovered this, all my herb plants used to die a grizzly, wintery death swamped in cold, wet, water-logged compost. Follow my method and you'll have them growing away in no time at all- our tarragon is going beserk! Topping out helps too (especially if you're in the semi-shade and your plants get a bit straggly reaching for the light). This just means snipping away at the top as the plant grows. But you're going to be doing this anyway, you're a cook.

Why do I like chervil so much? It tastes like a sophisticated cross between two of my all-time favourite herbs, dill and parsley. It's got a very subtle aniseedy taste, and visually, looks like those delicate green feathery tops you find on carrots. It's brilliant with fish. Watirose might just sell it in those little plastic bags. Don't think anyone else does, so why not grow your own?

And last, but not least, my new website is now up and running. You can have a look at: http://www.lukehoney.co.uk. There's a new blog on the site too (you'll find it under "inspiration") so if you're interested in architecture, design, interiors, antiques and the like, please go and have a look at it when you've got a spare moment.

 

 

Chervil

 

 

When was the last time you used chervil in the kitchen?  It's one of those herbs which the British don't seem to use very much; which is a shame: "Gourmet's Parsley" (Anthriscus cerefolium) has a delicate, slightly aniseedy, or liquorice, flavour. It looks very much like Italian flat leaf parsley. The Romans were keen on the stuff, and it is supposed to be good for high blood pressure. Excellent in salads and with fish, and as a more sophisticated substitute for parsley.

Popular in France, it's relatively hard to find over here, although the larger branches of Sainsbury's are supposed to stock it. It would be a brilliant thing to try and grow in the garden. I'm going to try sowing it in terracotta pots which I'll place on our new brick steps leading out from the kitchen doors. It prefers cool moist conditions, and needs to be regularly harvested to stop it bolting, or going to seed.

 

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Wild Garlic

 

 

 

We've just come back from an invigorating five day trip to South Cornwall. It was warm enough to enjoy a simple lunch al fresco at the ever-wonderful Tresanton Hotel in St Mawes. The slightly Agatha Christie-ish ambience of the upper terrace (with its ocean-liner metal railings, sea views and steamship loungers) remains unchanged: fans of "Peril at End House" (first published in 1932) will know what I'm talking about.

 

 

On Monday we dropped in at Rick Stein's Seafood Restaurant in Padstow and enjoyed an intensely flavoured bouillabaisse (Cornish style) with crutons, red pepper aioli and grated cheese; roasted Hake (served in a piping hot earthenware dish with puy lentils) and a pretty concoction of lobster and crab wrapped up in puff pastry and served with a pinkish lobster sauce.

The Seafood Restaurant at Padstow has to be one of my all-time favourite restaurants and, in my 'umble opinion Master Copperfield, remains consistently excellent. The discreet service is of the highest professional standard: raise your eyebrow and in an instant there will be a helpful waiter at your side; tables are spacious and the atmosphere is relaxed. The food is unpretentious and utterly delicious.  I can't recommend the place enough.

I've always had a thing about Cornwall- as a child, we used to spend our summer holidays at the charming sea-side town of St Mawes. It really is the most romantic destination: 

 

The mysterious St Michael's Mount.

 

Caerhays Castle: "Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again..."

 

The Cornish lanes and hedgerows are full of wild flowers, (including violet coloured wild orchids) and at this time of the year, daffodils. A thought occured to me on our drive home over Salisbury Plain and past Stonehenge: the verges of Wiltshire's main roads are barren; and in the case of South Buckinghamshire, I regret to report, littered. Does an enlightened Cornish county council have an active policy to encourage wild flowers?  Or is it that in counties such as Wiltshire and Oxfordshire, with large-scale and mechanised farming, wild flowers are killed by the spillover from intensive crop spraying?

It's the time of year to pick and use wild garlic (Allium ursinum). It can be found in damp woodlands and hedgerows, and gives off an evocative, garlicky smell which can't be missed. I love its subtle taste. Funnily enough, unlike the standard variety in which you use the bulb, with wild garlic you eat the green leaves. In London we have to buy it from specialist shops, the superior supermarkets (such as Wholefoods) or your local farmer's market.

I'm going to make a creamy and simple risotto, flavoured with my favourite wild garlic. If I chop up the leaves small enough, I'm hoping that this will make the risotto turn a pale light green colour.