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Cookery writer Winter menu series at Water Lane, Kent

Clam, haricot and green garlic at Water Lane, inspired by Claudia Roden

New Winter Series with menus inspired by the writings and recipes of some of Water Lane’s favourite food writers and cooks

Water Lane walled garden, Water Lane Hawkhurst, Kent, TN18 5DH
www.waterlane.net | @water.lane

Water Lane has launched a series of set lunch menus inspired by the writings and recipes of some of Head Chef Jed Wrobel’s favourite food writers and cooks. The series has launched with recipes from Egyptian-born British food writer, Claudia Roden. Best known for her Middle Eastern cookbooks including A Book of Middle Eastern Food and Arabesque - Sumptuous Food from Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon, Claudia’s food is full of warmth, sunshine and flavour. In the heated Carnation House at Water Lane, try Burnt leeks and cobnut tarator and Taramasalata, farinata and radishes before Clams, haricot and green garlic or mutton meatballs, kalettes and orzo. For pudding, blood orange flan and poached rhubarb or spiced rice pudding and butter baked bramley apple.

Next in the series is British food writer and chef Simon Hopkinson. Hailed as the ‘food writer’s food food writer’, Simon led the kitchen of Terence Conran’s Bibendum in the late 1980s, before leaving the restaurant trade to concentrate on cookery writing, notably Roast Chicken and Other Stories, which was declared ‘the most useful cookbook of all time’ by Waitrose magazine. Jed’s take on Hopkinson’s classic Southern French cooking includes dishes such as Beetroot dumplings with horseradish cream, Grilled pork belly and chicory gratin, Seabass and fennel a la Grecque and Junket pudding with rhubarb and vanilla. 

Two courses for £27
Three courses for £32
Lunch is served Wednesday to Sunday, 12-3pm.

About Water Lane
Water Lane is a walled garden with a vinery and Victorian glasshouses on the Kent and Sussex borders. A long-term project, the site is being sympathetically transformed into a working kitchen garden with vegetable beds, cut flowers, restored vinery, outside spaces and a pavilion for dining and events.

During the Winter months the restaurant is in the heated Carnation glasshouse. In the summer, it moves to the outside terrace, overlooking the vegetable and flower beds. The menu at Water Lane reflects its sense of place in the English countryside with a short and often-changing seasonal menu by head chef Jed Wrobel. Much of the restaurant produce is grown in Water Lane’s vegetable beds or sourced from organic and biodynamic farms. Meat is from pasture raised herds and day boat fish is from nearby Hastings and Rye. 

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Autumn Equinox at Water Lane with SSAW Collective

Autumn Equinox at Water Lane with SSAW Collective

Water Lane x SSAW Collective
Autumn Equinox on 24th September

Autumn Equinox at Water Lane | SSAW COLLECTIVE

Saturday 24th September
10.30-4.30pm
£175 per person

On Saturday 24th September, SSAW Collective, a community of florists, growers and chefs who create experiences that celebrate seasonality, is hosting an event to celebrate the Autumn Equinox at Water Lane, Hawkhurst, in the High Weald of Kent.

The Autumn Equinox was traditionally marked to reflect on the past season and to pay thanks for a good harvest. It was a time when fruits, vegetables and meats were preserved to provide food for the cold months ahead. This event at Water Lane harks back to that spirit and looks at how the British flower growing season can be preserved by producing lasting creations. 

The day will be spent in the beautiful walled garden at Water Lane, learning and creating with Autumn's warm colour palette and celebrating the change in the air, as the nights start to get longer, and days grow shorter.

Guests will participate in a natural dye-making, bundle-drying and eco-printing workshop led by Ros Humphries from The Natural Dyeworks, and a floral workshop with SSAW Collective, learning to combine dried and fresh flowers straight from garden to make an Autumnal table centre piece to take home and preserve into winter. There will be light refreshments in the morning, followed by a delicious feasting lunch created by Water Lane’s head chef Jed Wrobel.

Lunch will be served to share with a menu of seasonal and provenance led dishes with most of the ingredients home grown in the Water Lane kitchen garden. The menu includes Sweetcorn, butterbean and black basil flatbreads, Beetroot, soft boiled eggs and crispy sage, Squash, radicchio, Pevensey Blue and walnuts, Gardener’s Pie with green bean chutney, Leek, broccoli and wild mushroom gratin and for pudding, Roast plums and muscovado meringues, and Hinxden Dairy whipped cream.

Timings:
10.30-45 arrival 
Workshops, followed by an autumnal sharing feast 
Approximate finish time: 16.30
Event Address: Water Lane, Hawkhurst, Kent TN18 5DH

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October at The Small Holding

Pigs at The Small Holding (credit Food Story Media)

Pigs at The Small Holding (credit Food Story Media)

October at The Small Holding

“A group of folk growing amazing things, then pulling them out of the ground, sometimes knobbly and lumpy, then cooking and serving them. It’s perfectly imperfect and I wouldn’t change a thing.” Grace Dent, The Guardian

“Striding confidently into its second year, Will Devlin’s restaurant shows no sign of slowing down, ‘a truly sensational experience’ is one fan’s heartfelt comment. The level of ingenuity generated by a kitchen on turbo drive, fuelled by its own small holding, hen coop and piggery is prodigious.” Will Devlin was named ‘Chef to Watch’ in The Good Food Guide 2020

Now the days are getting shorter and there’s woodsmoke in the air, the kitchen is preserving as much of the summer gluts as possible. There are autumn raspberries and damsons and blackberries from the hedgerows and woods. Wild mushrooms and cobnuts have been found and are on the menu. Rare breed Berkshire pigs, chickens and ducks roam the farm and sheep for hogget and mutton graze less than half a mile away. 

Everything is home-made at The Small Holding, including sourdough bread and butter, yogurt and ricotta or sourced hyper-locally such as Hinxden Cream who have a herd of pedigree Guernsey and Holstein Friesian cows in nearby Benenden. Ingredients are picked less than 10ft from the kitchen and when there’s a glut, the kitchen preserves, pickles and jars.

The October Full Acre sample menu is below, with full vegetarian and vegan menus available and costs £60 per person with an optional 4 glass wine pairing at £40 and 6 glass wine pairing at £60. The Half Acre menu is £30 per person. 

Cauliflower, Nettle, Truffle
Beetroot, Cheese, Lovage
Squash, Walnuts, Sage
Hake, Leek, Chard
Celeriac, Scallop, Ants
Partridge, Carrot, Rhubarb
Pork, Potato, Chard
Miso, Apple, Cobnut
Plum, Yogurt, Oats
Blackberry, Buttermilk, Brandy

For interview requests with Will Devlin, images, commissioned press reviews or to visit The Small Holding for a Farm and Forage tour please contact hannah@thediningroompr.co.uk or 07730 039361.