The Mock Turtle

I haven’t done it quite like that but I have grilled it in a kind of slashed wedge :psycho: and it was delicious. Screw the apricot jam though.

To answer the question earlier, the Nigel book made me really cross and I haven’t looked at it since .

His whispering made me turn the tv off the other week.

Rogan has a special section on sweet cicely. Guess which plant my squirrels decided to dig up to plant their nuts under this spring? I was all "oh well, I don't know what I'd do with it anyway" and then this turns up.

emma p! Did you ever find a stockist for corn tortillas? They have them at Farmdrop now.

I have, thank you! Planet Organic near me sells really good ones with only corn, salt and lime in the ingredients.

Oh excellent!

I picked some up today to make tortilla soup

More Taverna cooking at the weekend -

Roasted beets and leaves with dill yoghurt.Essentially roasted garlic-y beetroot with yoghurt sauce. Huge hit with G as he loves capers and dill.

Slow cooked lamb shoulder with fresh dates - this smelt so so good which is lucky as it was cooking for hours. The lamb was roasted with red onions, garlic, bay, cinnamon, dates which made a delicious sauce. You add a bit of date molasses on the lamb at the end which made it so sticky and unctuous.

Anari, pistachio and apricot pancake on Sunday. It's a huge pancake you have a slice of and I used ricotta instead of anari. The kids loved this. Such a treat for weekend breakfast.

I made something from Rogan. Hake (halibut in the book) with globe artichokes, pine oil and mushroom broth. I served it with new potatoes in lovage butter (not pictured).
I slightly overcooked the bloody hake and ugh, turns out that what I really dislike is overcooked fish. I should have read between the lines - he had me cook it in pine oil at a low temp on the hob. That is surely code for "this is a home cooking alternative to sous vide. If you have a sous vide thingy, use it". I had the hob on the lowest possible temperature but it wasn't gentle enough.

Also I wasn't keen on the artichoke puree (I think I just don't love artichokes) with the fish; it was a bit too rich for my tastes against the fish. I assume user error, mind, I think Simon can balance a dish more or less.

And the pine oil. I walked 10 miles and up a hill and climbed a motherfucking tree (well, about a foot) to get those pine needles. The taste of the oil was great, but could I taste it on the overcooked fish? Not really. I can now, it has quite an aftertaste and the tip of my tongue is slightly numb.

Mushroom broth was lovely. Good job, it used up almost all my dried mushroom collection. And the potatoes in lovage butter were great, but they were the offspring of my own mind.

Yeah. Maybe this was a step too far for a stressful Monday. Mr G (no tastebuds) and Moo (will not turn down food) liked it though. Who wants to come for tea?

That looks spectacular! And even if it wasn’t exactly as you would have liked, it sounds to have been a useful experience. What is the wedge of something, please? It looks a bit like a tight dauph...

Pine oil? Please tell how you make this

It looks beautiful. Artichoke, mushroom and hake sounds lovely together.

The wedge is a piece of fried artichoke. I only had two big ones with which to make the barigoule and the puree so quartered them, as well as hacking at them impatiently.

The pine oil was easy - it was 75g of pine needles (which is a LOT) to 200 ml of neutral oil. Heat them together in a pan very gently until the needles start to fizz and move, then turn the heat off and leave to cool, then sieve. The difficult part is getting the needles in the first place, so many pine trees only have greenery up in the higher reaches, and I didn't want ones that were on a busy road and breathing fumes.

It should have been a 10, but too rich/loose a puree, and overcooked hake meant I can only score it a 6. (yes, I am watching the new series of MKR )

I wanted to make pine needle syrup when the last of my bought stuff got used up and had the exact same thought about pollution. I bet there are some deep in Wimbledon Common.

They're oddly awkward to find as they aren't many natively hanging around London woodlands, and the ones that have been planted on purpose tend to be in more polluted areas. The ones I found were at a high point, and in a part of ancient woods that had been planted in a semi-landscaped area near a folly. It was a bit of a mission. And at one point I excitedly spotted a Scots Pine in the distance and then got to it and remembered how Scots Pines only start with their needles about 20 ft up.

This is the most middle class page ever

But where do you source your pine needles? Waitrose are all out.

You’d probably have to get them in Whole Foods

I genuinely was looking for suppliers at Christmas! I needed more pine syrup for a cocktail I like and fancied trying pine sugar too

I sense a business opportunity, shinning trees.

George is an excellent tree climber!

Excellent, I assume that post Brexit it will be totally legal for me to set up a business and employ small boys to climb up things to make me money. He's hired.