AUGUST

Hello!

August is officially here. Some exciting things are happening this month - festivals are making a comeback, East London sees the opening of Cafe Cecilia and a very elusive heatwave.
The recipes in this newsletter champion the best of August. A breakfast for a lazy weekend as well as a salad of sorts. Grilled fennel with mozzarella, eaten with chunks of bread and thin slices of orange. 
This month we celebrate blackberries making an appearance on the hedgerows, the end of pea season and the very short-lived damson window. I’m heading up to Scotland later this month - which (hopefully) means lots of bilberry picking! 

Big love, Emma x

Apricots on Toast

A very good weekend breakfast, especially in late Summer when the apricots are sweet, soaked with the seasons sunshine and the brambles are starting to appear on hedgerows. I like to use mascarpone here but anything from a good fridge or freezer forage would work - yoghurt, crème fraîche, ice cream.
Find it here.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

5 apricots
1 tbsp salted butter

1 tbsp runny honey

2 cardamom pods, seeds removed and lightly crushed

2 slices of sourdough

70g mascarpone

(approx.) 10 blackberries

Method:

1. Heat the grill to 200ºC

2. Halve the apricots and place cut side down on a lined baking sheet. Grill for 5 minutes.

3. In a small pan, heat the butter, honey and cardamom seeds over a low heat until the butter and honey have melted together and smell warm and sweet. Leave to one side.

4. Lightly toast your bread - you don’t want it to colour too much!

5. After the apricots have had their 5 minutes. Place your lightly toasted bread on the baking sheet and top with the apricot halves - cut side up this time. Spoon over the cardamom honey butter and place back under the grill for a further 5 minutes - or until the apricots are bubbling and starting to turn golden.

6. Dot with mascarpone and blackberries to serve.

Grilled Fennel and Mozzarella

My love for fennel is something that is on another level. I think it’s one of the most incredible vegetables and I will fight you about it. This dish is so uncomplicated and think the sheer simplicity of it just lets the fennel sing. Serve it with some thinly sliced orange - and don’t miss out the toasted fennel seeds on top (that’s the best bit). Eat with some good bread as a lunch for 2. Find the recipe here.

Here are some of my favourite Instagrams from the last month. I recently had a conversation about tiramisu and have not been able to stop thinking about the perfect pudding ever since. This tiramisu from Merlin Labron-Johnson of The Old Pharmacy might be the perfect one (captured by Chris Fynes). An image I want to look at all day every day by Valentin Cheli. This very pleasing process of peaches poaching - so beautiful, by the wonderful El Kemp.