(Not up for the chitchat? Completely get it. Click the email title to go to a web-based version then jump straight to the recipe or Cultural Fun.)
I am well, thank you. It was my birthday on Friday and I curated a delightful day for myself: a couple of hours at the pottery studio in the morning followed by (an extremely reasonably priced set menu) lunch at Honey & Smoke with my lovely friend Romilly. We then had a look at the Grayson Perry exhibition at the Wallace Collection which I really enjoyed (see Cultural Fun for more details)
Later James and I had an early dinner at Sambal Shiok (their laksas are legendary but what I was craving on this occasion was the fried chicken which really hit the spot) before seeing Jazz Emu at the Pleasance (again, more later).
On Saturday we had people a few people round. That’s where the pinwheels come in - as part of an easy-to-put-together spread of things to nibble on. Also on the menu were asparagus with preserved lemon mayonnaise (literally just mayo with preserved lemon purée stirred in - the perfect accompaniment to spring’s finest spears) and these little slices of baguette spread with browned butter, allowed to cool then whipped with an equal quantity of cream cheese, the whole thing topped with radish slices.
I also made myself a cake. Nicola Lamb’s Anything Cake with some added ground almonds. Fancied it up with a soak made from almond syrup and lemon juice, Christina Tosi’s milk crumbs (link) and buttercream made with a jar of pistachio paste I brought home from Corfu this time last year.
Lacked structural integrity when sliced but was delicious.
My favourite thing was non-edible though: a drawing game: one minute to sit opposite someone and do a blind contour drawing of each other - never looking down at the paper and never taking your pen off the page. The results are always funny and no one feels bad about their drawing as everyone’s look silly.
I saw everyone’s drawing look’s silly but actually my friend Em did that one at the front of the table which I think looks incredibly cool.
Recipe: Puff pastry party pinwheels
I think I’ve only made puff pasty twice since graduating from Leiths. There would have to be a very good reason for me to start encasing butter and making folds. Unless you’ve got a point to prove, ready-made is fine. Dorset Puff Pastry from Ocado is the best I’ve tried. JusRol will do the job. I’d stay away from Sainsburys own-brand.
I did two varieties. Cheese and kimchi are a great combo and worked perfectly. Then the other is an attempt to recreate the sweet-salty joy of the Dusty Knuckle’s rightfully-feted feta and honey pastry:
Fill and roll the pastry. Lay the pastry out in “landscape” format - with one of it’s long edges closes to you. Leave it sitting on the paper it came wrapped in. Sprinkle over the grated cheddar and kimchi OR the feta, leaving a 2cm gap at the top. Starting at the long end nearest you, gently roll the pastry up into a log, stopping before you reach the 2cm border. Use the paper to help you if you like. Keep it quite tight but with a bit of wiggle room for the pastry to expand when baked.
Egg wash and seal. Brush some of the beaten egg onto the border then finish rolling. Press the edge well to seal.
Wrap and refrigerate. Wrap the pastry log well, first in its paper and then again in clingfilm. Refrigerate for at least half an hour although you could easily do all this the day before a party and let it sit overnight.
Slice and bake. Unwrap the log and slice into 1cm rounds. You’ll get about 20, plus a couple of uneven ends which you can either discard or bake with the rest and eat as a “chef’s perk”. Place the slices on a baking tray and brush the top with beaten egg. If you’re making feta pinwheels, mix all the seeds together and sprinkle a generous pinch on each round. Put in the oven and bake until golden brown, about 10-15 minutes.
Glaze. The cheddar ones are fine as they are, but if you’re making the feta pinwheels then they’ll need glazing with honey straight out of the oven. If using fermented honey it will already be fairly liquid so just brush it on. If using runny honey straight from the jar, dilute it with warm water (a teaspoon should be enough) until it reaches a brushable consistency. Let the pinwheels cool slightly and eat.
Cultural Fun
I really recommend Delusions of Grandeur, the Grayson Perry exhibition at the Wallace Collection. I like Perry a lot. He seems like a thoughtful, intelligent, very human chap. Plus he has a sense of humour and has always been very insightful about the British class system and its foibles.
Here he has a new persona, Shirley Smith, an artist whose East End childhood was marked by abuse and so escaped into art. Shirley believes herself to be the Honourable Millicent Wallace, rightful heir to Hertford House (the Wallace Collection’s location). Some of the pieces in the exhibition are “by” Shirley, some by Perry himself and others by outsider artists Madge Gill and Aloïse Corbaz who really were exhibited at Hertford House during the war.
This ceramic cabinet was probably my favourite piece.
So there are lots of levels here. Who delusions are we talking about for a start? Lots of styles too. Perry’s signature pots but other ceramics and sculptures, paintings, prints and tapestries too. It’s quite brave of the Wallace to let him have free reign as he makes it clear that the high Rococo stylings of much of the collection isn’t particularly to his taste. But it all weaves together. I’ll definitely be back for another look.
Jazz Emu was great fun. A cool/deluded, transatlantic-accented singer songwriter character by comic Archie Henderson, I’d not seen him live before but was familiar with some of his YouTube output (Money is my favourite). The show we saw was a work in progress and I’m generally wary of those, having seen too many comics reading off bits of paper and asking “Is this anything?”. But this was all there: songs, structure, video inserts and all, just a few fluffed lines as he got to grips with learning the script. Look out for tour dates later in the year when the show will be fully ready.
Bye! See you next week!
In the meantime, if you felt like sharing In Good Taste with friends or family who might enjoy it, you can do so with the button below.
Or upgrade to paid to support the work I do. Either would mean a lot to me. Thanks so much.
In Good Taste is a Sycamore Smyth newsletter by me, Clare Heal. It’s free to subscribe and new issues will appear in your inbox every Thursday.
You can also access it via the Substack website or app where each issue remains free or a month after publication but older posts and archive access are for paid subscribers only. If you can afford it, do consider upgrading to paid to support my work - those vegetables won’t ferment themselves...
I also occasionally include affiliate links to Bookshop.org and will earn a small commission on anything purchased via a clickthrough.
You can also find me on Instagram or visit my website to find information about my catering work, cookery lessons and upcoming events.
Thanks for reading In Good Taste! Subscribe to receive new posts and support my work.
