We are at the very height of the citrus season with an abundance of perfect fruit available from Southern Europe. Sweet oranges abound – we have Navels, musky Blood Oranges and tingly, refreshing Tacle Mandarins from Sicily. Also from Italy, we have Lemons and the last Bergamot of the season. From Spain we have Seville oranges. All are available in the shop as fresh fruit.
In the restaurant, the Sevilles feature a couple of times as the Seville Orange Tart and as a key ingredient in the dressing for the Puntarelle Alle Romana. The Navels also feature as Oranges in Caramel and in Claudia Rodin’s famous Orange and Almond cake. Finally, we have our first Marmalades of the season – Tawny Seville Orange and Pink Grapefruit.
As well as the Puntarelle from Italy, we have several seasonal favourites back in the shop and on the menu – from Catalunya we have Calcots with Romesco – delicious chargrilled “spring onions” with. a red pepper, garlic and almond emulsion. Both the Puntarelle and Calcots will be home grown products within the next month but the extreme periods of cold this winter have set back our timings. The same is true for the sweet forced Rhubarb – the only fresh UK fruit available in the first quarter – for the next couple of weeks we will be stocking stems from the Yorkshire Rhubarb triangle until our own shoots are large enough to pick!.
Our menu for this weekend is set out below- we look forward to greeting you in the shop or in the restaurant.
