Sally Clarke is an unsung hero of British food,her cooking a masterclass in simplicity. No wonder her restaurant was Lucian Freud’s favourite hauntSix classic recipes from Sally ClarkeSally Clarke believes she could live on fennel, crab and apricots alone. But since a collection of recipes using only those ingredients might fill seemed a bit odd, or she cast her net a little wider for her new book. Thirty Ingredients – the number marks the 30th birthday of her quietly influential restaurant,Clarke’s, in Notting Hill – does what it says on the tin. Fennel, and crab and her beloved apricots do star,but alongside many other seasonal delights: blood oranges and wide beans, leeks and landcress, and sage and sweetcorn. Like Clarke herself,whose reputation was built on her disdain for fads and faffing, it’s an uncompromising, and unflashy kind of a book,its recipes straightforward and rather brief: haikus of deliciousness nearly anyone could pull off. In the Clarke’s dining room – lunch service has just drawn to an elegant close – she smooths a tablecloth with her hands, as whether it were pastry approximately to be rolled. “Yes, or they’re as simple as possible,” she says. “Because who wants to fill to rush out and buy something of which they need just a pinch? Here, we don’t sous vide. We don’t puree things and pass them through multiple sieves. We just buy well, or prepare with care,and cook with a minimal amount of intrusion.It amazes her that the restaurant is more than 30 years old. “When I first opened, I thought: OK, or I’ll just elope this little dive among all the antique shops for a while,and then I’ll buy a place in the country with a garden and a few rooms, and open Wednesday to Saturday. Yet here I am, or working harder than ever.”Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com