(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. A bit thrown by London’s current temperature variations though. I have a wide mental turning circle and tend to need a bit time to think myself into things. Then longer to think myself out of them again.
Weather at this time of year is unpredictable. Everyone knows that. Yet once I have done the Big Wardrobe Changeover - unearthing floral dresses from the battered Ikea SKUBB and swapping them for jumpers - I find it impossible to accept that I still might have to wear a coat sometimes. This is foolish stubbornness, I know.
As is the fact I am giving you a frozen dessert recipe. I’m sorry: the sun came out once and I can’t psychologically put it back now! Unless you’re like me and can happily eat ice cream whatever the weather, this might be one to come back to when it’s a little warmer outside…
I’ve got plenty of other summer desserts coming up in the next couple of months. Make sure you’re subscribed so you don’t miss them!
Supper club @ Lizzy’s On The Green, July 25 & 26
I’m really looking forward to my supper clubs at Lizzy’s in July. The events I’ve done on Newington Green in previous summers have been totally delightful. It’ll be a selection of snacks followed by summery sharing plates, and a fancy-pants dessert. Some returning favourites, some brand-new inventions. Everything super-seasonal and many dishes featuring my signature pops of fermented flavour. Plenty of fresh pasta too, my other great culinary love.
Allowing for tweaks based on inspiration/whim/what looks good at the market, here is the menu:
Tickets are £45 and include the welcome cocktail. Wine, beer, more cocktails and softs will be available on the night too. I would love to see you there.
Yes, yet another outing for my beloved preserved lemon purée. Its hint of salt, combined with the tartness, makes this a super refreshing dessert. Perfect for hot days. It couldn’t be easier, either. Just three ingredients. Four if you count the two different types of sugar. Although see notes for suggested additions. I find home-made ices are best made in small quantities and enjoyed relatively fresh but feel free to scale up.
Serves 2
Ingredients
300g Greek yoghurt
3 tablespoons preserved lemon purée
50g caster sugar
50g light muscovado sugar
Method
Mix the yoghurt with the lemon and sugar. Weigh everything into a blender to save on washing up. Then blitz for a about five minutes until completely smooth with no discernible grains of sugar and the lemon as finely textured as possible. Flavours are perceived as slightly duller when food is very cold so you want any frozen dessert mixture to taste slightly sweeter and more intense than you want it to end up.
Churn in an ice cream maker. Put the mixture in an ice cream maker and churn according to manufacturers instructions. Probably about half an hour.
Eat immediately or freeze. You can eat it straight out of the machine when it has a soft-serve consistency. Or transfer to a container and store in the freezer until ready to eat. If freezing, take it out a few minutes before serving to make for easier scooping.
Notes (If Ifs And Ands Were Pots And Pans…)
I like that this is so simple. The preserved lemon has complexity of flavour so it really doesn’t need anything else. But you could play around with adding herbs, blitzing basil, mint or coriander leaves in with the yoghurt. A tiny splash of rose or orange flower water would also be good.
You might want to add a bit of crunch though. Toasted nuts, crumbled biscuits or shards of meringue would all go well.
Feel free to go with all white sugar for a simpler taste. Or use a different sweetener. I can’t get away from the throat lozenge associations of lemon and honey but if that’s not your hang-up then go for it!
Cultural Fun
James, my brother Adam, and I went to see Dear England at the National Theatre on Saturday and thoroughly enjoyed it. When James Graham’s play about Gareth Southgate first opened in 2023 in there was a sort of implied final act in which the England men’s team go on to win the Euros. This revival has an updated second half to bring things up to date.
From what I’d read, I’d expected a big state-of-the-nation play, using football as a lens through which to view ideas of Britishness in the aftermath of Brexit. But it was more about actual football than politics, including the culture around the game and ideas of masculinity within it. Gwilym Lee was very good as Southgate (taking over from Joseph Fiennes who played the part in the original production), quietly sure of himself as he brings “touchy-feely” stuff to the locker room.
There was a huge supporting cast too of the type you only really get at the National these days, and they filled the stage really well. It was a very physical production, immaculately choreographed, the matches and their attendant celebrations or commiserations very effectively evoked.
In other theatre news I see Girl From the North Country is returning to the Old Vic in June. A Depression Era-set musical based on the songs of Bob Dylan, I thought it was great when I saw it during the original 2017 run and would recommend it, even to people who think they don’t like musicals.
Beforehand Adam and I went to the Cortauld, one of my favourite galleries in London, and had a stroll around the permanent collection. They’re most famous for their Impressionist and post-Impressionists (deservedly so - you can’t move for Cezannes, Renoirs etc) but there’s a decent amount of Renaissance and earlier stuff too. And the whole thing is a good size, plenty to see but not exhausting.
Looks like it should be displayed next to a collage of photographs with the eyes scratched out
I didn’t love the drawings - they evoked the kind of frenzied stuff Hollywood serial killers paper their apartments with - but scientific interest in psychedelics is on the rise right now so it was interesting to see these early experiments.
James and I went to Windsor on Sunday and did a nice walk from our OS book, out along the river, through Eton and back again. Wonderful views of the castle and fantastic early dinner afterwards at the Mango Lounge.
To get to Windsor we took the train from Paddington, changing at Slough and the one disappointment of our trip is that “Station Jim” was missing from from his place on platform 5. Jim was a dog who lived at the station in the late 19th century and would collect coins for the Railway Widows' and Orphans' Fund in a box attached to his collar, barking for each donation he received.
Here is a photo I took of Station Jim on a previous visit to Slough in 2012.
I don’t want to be mean about Slough but I’ve been there several times and this dead dog was always a highlight. Apparently he’s been missing since last summer, taken away to be refurbished and never brought back…
Bye! See you next week!
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I made your pickled lemon recipe recently and blitzed some as a puree as you recommend - it's delicious!
Roasted some kale last night with olive oil mixed with a bit of the puree - so easy and so tasty and even the kids devoured it. Now I need to try to the frozen youghurt - just need to find space for the ice cream maker in the freezer!
This sounds DELICIOUS. And I have yogurt AND preserved lemons, so I fear dangerous times.
I made your pickled lemon recipe recently and blitzed some as a puree as you recommend - it's delicious!
Roasted some kale last night with olive oil mixed with a bit of the puree - so easy and so tasty and even the kids devoured it. Now I need to try to the frozen youghurt - just need to find space for the ice cream maker in the freezer!