Roundup: Amanda Seyfried Talks Career Regrets; Bill Murray Dating Kelis; Panthers Win Game 3 of Stanley Cup Final
Amanda Seyfried discusses her career regrets, Bill Murray is dating Kelis, the Panthers won Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final and more in the Roundup.
2023-06-09 19:28
Liverpool director sends warning to Man Utd & Real Madrid over Harry Kane pursuit
A Liverpool director has warned Man Utd & Real Madrid over their pursuit of Tottenham striker Harry Kane.
2023-06-09 16:56
Astra Enters Into $2 Billion-Plus Pact With UK Biotech Quell
AstraZeneca Plc entered a collaboration with UK biotech Quell Therapeutics potentially worth more than $2 billion to develop
2023-06-09 15:29
Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto Admits the Team He Put Together Stinks
Jerry DiPoto thinks the Mariners team he constructed isn't good.
2023-06-09 14:16
Ukraine war: Oleg Orlov faces jail time for criticising Putin's war
Kremlin critics like Oleg Orlov are facing jail terms for criticising Russia's war in Ukraine.
2023-06-09 13:56
Forest Side: Heavenly Cumbrian produce elevated to Michelin-starred proportions
When is a Waldorf salad not a Waldorf salad? When it’s almost a pudding – and there’s not a lettuce leaf in sight. This simple side salad of celery, walnuts and apples was invented in 1893 at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York. While it’s been subject to many reinterpretations over the years, the Forest Side’s head chef Paul Leonard garnered a Michelin star for his take on this classic dish. Arriving in a delicate and crisp stewed-apple tart case that takes no less than 72 hours to create, it’s filled with a creme fraiche cake, walnut brittle, dehydrated grapes and confit celery. Walnut, celery and apple gels are also added, along with a Granny Smith apple skin sorbet, all topped with a walnut tuile. The different flavours and texture compliment each other perfectly, creating an unforgettable sweet and sour flavour bomb that continues to linger long in the memory. This petite morsel of food forms part of Leonard’s eight-course Michelin-starred menu at the Cumbrian hotel and restaurant, which was named the Best Country House Hotel of the Year in the 2023 Good Hotel Awards. In addition to the star, it’s also been awarded four rosettes, ranked number nine on Square Meal’s annual list of the UK’s 100 best restaurants and reached the top 30 of Harden’s Top 100 of the Best UK Restaurants. Which is a long way of saying that there’s plenty of justifiable interest in this superb family-run operation and that it’s been a good 2023 for the team. And it’s far from Leonard’s first culinary rodeo. Having cooked under Marcus Wareing and Andrew Fairlie, the Hull-native retained a Michelin star at The Isle of Eriska on the west coast of Scotland, before heading up the luxury Devonshire Arms in Bolton Abbey, Yorkshire, where he won four rosettes for his cookery. In 2019, he joined the team at the Forest Side. Here, the emphasis is very much on making the most of this sensational landscape, in both aesthetics and taste, with Leonard aiming to source 90 per cent of produce from within a 10-mile radius of the establishment. Handily, an extensive and original red brick Victorian walled garden is home to many of the ingredients rustled up by the team, including saffron, courgettes, tomatoes and an “unofficial” apple orchard that boasts 300 different types of apple. And what a successful collaboration it is. Guests arrive in the light and airy dining room, which looks out to the red-squirrel-occupied garden and dramatic fells. Reclaimed timber and steel tables sit aside a central sommelier’s table crafted from a windblown tree in the grounds. But instead of the buttoned-up atmosphere that often permeates restaurants of this calibre, the familiar sound of classic anthems – think Fleetwood Mac, The Kinks and Pulp – floods through the space, extinguishing any sense of forced propriety. It’s an intentional move initiated by Leonard and a welcome one more restaurants could learn from: a relaxed room of toe-tapping patrons is significantly happier than one with a reverential silence. Snippy waiters with clipped accents have no place here. At the Forest Side, staff seem genuinely delighted to be there, arriving with smiles and warm inflections. Under Leonard’s leadership, junior chefs present each course and it’s a genuine pleasure to see their passion for and pride in the food they’ve created. Proceedings kick off with a trio of “snacks”: a rhubarb and whipped chicken liver tart, a Hafod cheddar gougère, and a croustade of brown buttered shrimp. The gougère is scrumptious – buttery and nutty and blanketed with a slice of bresaola – while the whipped chicken liver is smooth and rich. Kohlrabi with cured and lightly smoked trout is served with a salsa verde made from garden herbs and cured trout roe, while a unctuous broth is made from pork fat, seaweed and mushrooms. “Beetroots cooked in their own juice all day” might not seem like the kind of dish to set hearts aflutter, but this isn’t any old root veg. The humble vegetable is cooked all day in its own juice before being dehydrated to create a fudgy texture, and served with a chamomile-infused yoghurt. It’s delicious. We gobble down a supple scallop, followed shortly by the most tender and rich hogget, splashed with a sauce made from confit lamb tongue, pickled mustard seeds and wild garlic buds. And the bread! Baked before each service, this milk loaf is glazed in Marmite and simply served with a butter made at the nearby Winter Tarn Dairy. This early course is luxury comfort food at its best and we’re forced to restrain ourselves for fear of spoiling our appetite. We finish off with “first rhubarb of the year”, ginger and custard, which is as delicious as it sounds: a perfect balance of sweet vanilla, sorbet and herbs. Satiated, we make the easy trip upstairs to our room, one of 20 at the hotel, all of which have garden views and make the perfect end to our decadent dining experience. Is there still a place for fine dining restaurants during a cost-of-living crisis? As employers and buyers, producers and supporters of local food, they’re invaluable to the economy, while for gastronomes who wish to splash some cash treating themselves or someone else, they’re a luxury much like a pair of tickets to see Beyoncé or a championship football match. Overheard snippets of conversation among fellow guests reveal birthday treats or anniversaries, of a weekend away from the grind to relax in this glorious gothic mansion house amidst the fells. Whatever the reason, a trip to the Forest Side is quite simply sublime. A four-course dinner menu costs £85pp, while an eight-course dinner menu costs £130pp. A four-course lunch menu costs £55pp, while an eight-course lunch menu costs £85. Wine pairings come in flights of four, six or eight and start from £75 per person. B&B and dining packages are also available - visit theforestside.com for more information. Read More Showstopping BBQ main dishes for a hot grill summer 7 TikTok food hacks that actually work Saltie Girl in Mayfair will make you happy as a clam – as long as you can afford it Chef Ravinder Bhogal: Vegetables are the secret to saving money How to make tomato confit with whipped feta Kataifi: A comforting Greek pie full of veggie goodness
2023-06-09 13:52
The divisive debate over California's anti-caste bill
California will become the first US state to ban caste discrimination if the legislation is approved.
2023-06-09 11:17
NFL rumors: Shocking team could become instant front-runner for DeAndre Hopkins
The DeAndre Hopkins sweepstakes now involves a new front-runner as the Titans snagged the first visit for the coveted free agent wide receiver.Here's the thing about veteran NFL free agents: Only some of them are serious when they say they want to go somewhere to compete for a championship....
2023-06-09 10:21
Projecting Draymond Green contract extension this summer
What kind of contract can Draymond Green expect from the Golden State Warriors in free agency?The Golden State Warriors organization finds itself in a precarious position. Bob Myers, orchestrator of the greatest basketball dynasty of the last decade, is no longer with the front office. Now the r...
2023-06-09 05:56
Chef Ravinder Bhogal: Vegetables are the secret to saving money
With food prices hiking, many of us are looking to cut the price of our weekly shops – while still eating delicious food. And the answer, Ravinder Bhogal believes, lies in vegetables. “Vegetables are the ultimate economical thing to cook,” says the chef and restaurateur, who was discovered by Gordon Ramsay after she applied for his competition to find “Britain’s new Fanny Cradock” on The F Word. “Meat has become so expensive. If you lavish the same kind of care and attention on [vegetables] as you do a steak or joint of meat, they are going to sing with flavour.” She continues: “Why can’t you take the time to marinate vegetables, inject them with flavour, baste them, add texture to them or play with their textures?” Bhogal, who was born in Kenya to Indian parents and moved to England at the age of seven, says root vegetables are our real saviour when it comes to budget cooking in Britain. “Anything that’s grown in this country, swedes, celeriac… And if you buy in season it’s naturally going to be a bit cheaper.” The 44-year-old, who owns London restaurant Jikoni (the Swahili word for “kitchen”) is vegetarian “80 per cent of the time – then I might have a Sunday roast or something” has released her third cookbook, Comfort & Joy: Irresistible Pleasures From A Vegetarian Kitchen. “There are so many things that you can do with vegetables where you’re just not going to miss the meat. What isn’t there to love about the lightness and brightness of vegetables?” And there’s a real misconception that vegetables can’t be comforting, she says: “For me comfort is about food that nourishes you, that makes you feel well, that makes you feel alive, that makes you feel revived.” It was Bhogal’s early years in a multigenerational household in Nairobi (“My grandparents, my uncle and aunt, their children, my mother’s brood of five, whoever happened to be visiting, there was a parrot, a dog, kittens, chickens, goats – it was a really chaotic household!”) that would pave the way for how she approached food later as a chef. Her grandfather dutifully tended to his shamba – or allotment – and had a deep respect and connection to the verdant soil where many vegetables grew. “When he came from India to Kenya, he completely fell in love with this beautiful red, volcanic soil that just seemed to give and give and give,” says Bhogal. “And he never stop being grateful for that. He’d come from a place where there was so little, and then suddenly, there was this soil that just blessed him and his family with all these beautiful things to eat.” Everything the household ate was either grown by him or came from the “mama mbogas” – local women with smallholdings who peddled their “the freshest hand grown vegetables” from door to door, she says. The chef in the house was her mother though, who was an “exceptionally talented” cook. “There were so many mouths to feed, so you can imagine the level of organisation that it took. She was the commander in chief and we were all her assistants, whether you liked it or not.” As a result, Bhogal learned to cook from her mother’s direction, although she wasn’t always happy about it. “Initially, I really resented it because growing up in quite a patriarchal household, the boys would be outside playing, and the girls would be in the kitchen. And that really sucked to me. “Anything I tried to attempt to cook, [my grandfather] would always tell me how delicious it was and praise me, and I think I made that connection between food and love and winning people over with food.” And the influence of her time in Kenya can be seen in the latest book; think pili pili cassava (one of the go-to carbs in many African nations) or Kenyan maru potato bhajias with tamarind and tomato chutney (potato coated in spiced chickpea flour and fried). Swapping Kenya for England as a child left a mark on Bhogal. “Kenya is like a state of mind, it’s such a bewitching country, it never really leaves you, it clings to you,” she says. “When you grow up with such colour and such a colossal sky… I was outdoors a lot, playing with all the animals [with] this really beautiful, very lush sunny backdrop. When you are plucked from that age seven and turn up in a very grey dark England, you try and hold onto that and keep connected to that.” South East London was “very different and sort of haggard in comparison to Kenya”, she says. “Everything was very small suddenly. I grew up in a flat above a shop and going from huge trees and sky that was ever blue to turning up to this very dark, dank [place]… The adjustment was very, very difficult.” But it’s all culminated in her cookery style now. “I consider myself a hybrid, I’m Indian, there’s Persian ancestry too, I’m British, I grew up in London, I’m also the product of all kinds of the diverse immigrant communities that helped bring me up.” So you’ll find Persian-inspired fermented rice, lentil, beetroot and coconut handvo (a savoury cake) in her new book, alongside Mumbai street food like peanut and golden raisin poha, and English grilled peaches with silken tofu and Thai basil and lime leaf gremolata. The recipe for pea kofta scotch eggs with saffron yoghurt is vibrant amalgamation; honouring memories of her father bringing home a sack of locally grown peas from Nairobi’s bustling city market and shelling them in the kitchen with her mother – it is a hybrid of her mother’s Indian recipe and her British identity. Plus, some that have been tried and tested by her discerning restaurant diners, like mango and golden coin [curry with dumplings] – where the mangos are served whole, stone and all. “I remember telling my husband I was going to put this mango curry on the menu and he was like, ‘You’re insane, how are people going to eat a whole mango?’ And it’s gone on to be one of the most popular things. “I think the whole joy of a mango is the generosity of serving it whole, there’s something about a whole mango that’s so rapturous,” Boghal says. “When it comes to the table people often go, ‘Is it chicken breasts?’ Nothing gives me more joy than to see people using pooris to scrape off the flesh from the mango and pick up the stone and gnaw on it. “I think if you don’t have a problem picking up a lamb bone and gnawing it, why not a mango stone?” ‘Comfort & Joy: Irresistible Pleasures From A Vegetarian Kitchen’ by Ravinder Bhogal (Bloomsbury, £26). Read More Showstopping BBQ main dishes for a hot grill summer 7 TikTok food hacks that actually work Saltie Girl in Mayfair will make you happy as a clam – as long as you can afford it These recipes will keep you hydrated on hot days Three tomato salad recipes that aren’t boring Try one of these pasta recipes this British Tomato Fortnight
2023-06-08 13:46
Bajrang Punia and Sakshi Malik: Indian wrestlers pause protest after meeting Anurag Thakur
But they have warned they would resume their agitation if no action is taken against the federation chief.
2023-06-08 12:46
Pedro Pascal's retells his family's immigration story -- and it's harrowing
Pedro Pascal has become one of Hollywood's most popular and beloved figures, but his journey to this point couldn't have been possible without his parents' harrowing journey from their home country of Chile.
2023-06-08 05:51