C DAY-LEWIS

We have had the Spring equinox, the clocks are about to change, it was 16 degrees somewhere in the UK earlier this week, so positively balmy. The sun’s out today, Easter is round the corner and here at Bread and Flowers, we are feeling positively Lambtastic at the thought of next week’s menu.

LAMB, MINT AND ORANGE KHORESH - £9.00
This one is an old favourite from the first Diana Henry book I ever bought, ‘Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons’. Khoresh is a Persian stew, unusual and exotic and eats perfectly well with simple basmati herb rice with peas and beans from the frozen section

BASMATI HERB RICE WITH PEAS AND BEANS - £4.50
A perfect combination of rice, peas & beans, get your greenery & carbs all in one easy hit

CHARGRILLED BROCCOLI - £2.50
It is exactly what it says on the tin, blanched broccoli, sprinkled with olive oil and seasoning, then chargrilled on a cast iron griddle, ready to be re-heated at home.

FIG AND HONEY CAKE, CRÈME FRAICHE - £6.00
We’re finishing off with Diana Henry’s reassuringly voluptuous offering, couldn’t think of a nicer way to end a meal

NEW STORE CUPBOARD ADDITIONS
We have added a couple of items to our store cupboard this week.

OLIVE OIL
We use a delicious extra virgin olive oil which is brought into the UK by a friend who sources it from family run suppliers over in the Malaga region of Spain. It is from 1 set of olive groves which are strictly regulated, from care of the trees and fruit to the pressing process, by the Junta. It comes in 2 litre bottles and sells for £15, so £7.50 a litre.

ORTIZ ANCHOVIES
Additionally, we are now stocking small jars of exquisite Ortiz anchovies from Brindisa, they really are the Rolls Royce of anchovy and we are throwing in a scrummy canape recipe which shows them off to perfection. 95gm jar of anchovies in olive oil £8.50. if your wondering what to do with them, I have listed a recipe below.

RESTOCK
Whilst we are on the subject of store cupboard, we’ve re-stocked the delicious pappardelle pasta from Italy and we have plenty of pasta sauces in the frozen section, all good for a midweek treat, so dive in
CREAMY TRAFALGAR TROUT & BROCCOLI, PASTA SAUCE - £7.50
BEEF CHEEK RAGU - £7.50
MUSHROOM & LENTIL BOLOGNESE SAUCE - £5.50
PASTA DI ALDO PAPPARDELLE - £8.00

YOGHURT, CREAM CHEESE, ANCHOVY CROSTINI
You can buy crostini from Waitrose these days, they are much nicer home-made. Get hold of a small French flute/narrow baguette and cut it into 10mm slices, brush both sides with olive oil, sprinkle with Malden salt and coarse ground black pepper. Put on a baking sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes in a 180c oven until golden brown, watch them like a hawk, they burn very easily. Allow to cool.
Mix together 175gm cream cheese and 25gm yoghurt and spread a generous dollop on each of the crostini. Then take half an anchovy fillet and curl it on top of the creamy mixture, finally sprinkle with an abundance of za’atar (also available from Waitrose) Should make about 20 canapes.

C DAY-LEWIS
Thanks for the feedback from last week, it’s great that so many of you are liking the links to the music from back in the day. This week I’m sharing one of my favourite poems by C Day-Lewis, written in 1956, when he was 52 years old; ‘Walking Away’. Get your hanky out it’s a real tear jerker.

It is eighteen years ago, almost to the day –
A sunny day with leaves just turning,
The touch-lines new-ruled – since I watched you play
Your first game of football, then, like a satellite
Wrenched from its orbit, go drifting away

Behind a scatter of boys. I can see
You walking away from me towards the school
With the pathos of a half-fledged thing set free
Into a wilderness, the gait of one
Who finds no path where the path should be.

That hesitant figure, eddying away
Like a winged seed loosened from its parent stem,
Has something I never quite grasp to convey
About nature’s give-and-take – the small, the scorching
Ordeals which fire one’s irresolute clay.

I have had worse partings, but none that so
Gnaws at my mind still. Perhaps it is roughly
Saying what God alone could perfectly show –
How selfhood begins with a walking away,
And love is proved in the letting go.
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