Food journal

Events, eateries, edibles and kitchen essentials for keen home cooks

Events, eateries and kitchen essentials for keen home cooks

Food For thought The V&A’S exhibition Food: Bigger than the

Plate, running until 20 October (entry £17), explores how the food choices we make – from gastronomic experiments to urban farming – can lead to a more sustainable future. To coincide with the exhibition, the museum has commissioned a special range of products, including the Vegetabull teatowel, £10, by Jan Lewitt and George

Him – originally issued as a poster by the Ministry of Information in 1941 to encourage the use of veg and milk rather than meat during wartime shortages. Wild Elderberries

After the elderflower in early summer come the elderberries. These small, sharp and fragrant berries are very versatile. They are great in sauces or pickled on game dishes; I regularly use them with grouse in the early game season. Adding elderberries to an apple or pear crumble is an ideal way to make a classic more exciting, or try an elderberry gin made as you would with sloes, but as the elderberries are much softer they won’t take as long to infuse – around six weeks. An elderberry and red wine chutney is a wonderful way to preserve their flavour, too – serve with a cheese board – while a jam is a classic to make and keep in the larder.

The Restaurant Coworth Park in Ascot gives a modern twist to classic British dishes

Café culture What: The Provenist. Interiors brand Neptune has opened its first café, next to its Bath store on Walcot Street, so shoppers can now peruse the homeware and furnishings, before popping next door for a bite to eat while they mull over their purchases. Food: With ingredients sourced from independent local suppliers and specialist producers, try from brunch options such as smashed avocado on toast, to seasonal tarts and salads. open: Mon-sat 8am-5pm; Sun 10am-4pm

royal lineage Having feasted on flowerrich pastures and clover fields, the bees on HRH The Prince of Wales’s Highgrove Estate buzz their way back to the hives nestled in the old paddock, to produce this wonderfully floral Royal Orchard Summer Honey. Enjoy its lingering taste of sunshine, £7.95 for 200g.

NEW on the block Dotted with crunchy crystals of sea salt, the new Cornish butter from family-run The Butterworks, £2 at Waitrose, is a deliciously creamy delight, perfect for spreading on freshly baked rolls (see page 151 for rolls recipe).