The Modern Menu: recipes for outdoor summer eating from Iain and Matthew Pennington at The Ethicurean in Bristol
Matthew: “You’ve only got so many meals left in your life, so why not make them good?! That’s always been how I’ve thought about it anyway. Food’s been an important part in both our lives for so long, it’s hard to pinpoint an exact moment that informed what we do now.”
Iain: “I’ve got an overarching memory of our dad coming home from a long day at work and then cooking for us when we were growing up.”
Matthew: “He was quite fascinated by ingredients and he’d do things like drive 80 miles to get bacon from somewhere he thought was the best, and it was. And he introduced us to things like pickled anchovies, so he definitely sparked something in us.”
Iain: “As we got older we were left to cook for ourselves a lot of the time. There are a few years between us and I remember watching Matthew getting into cooking as a teenager. So, the two blokes in my life were cooking, and it was kind of like, ‘Ok, this is what we do’.”
Matthew: “The other influence, from an outdoors perspective, was going to cubs and scouts. Even at that time, sort of 1980s, 1990s, it was still quite feral – there were no risk assessments going on! It was just amazing fun, and we had some incredible leaders that taught us to cook and eat in the wild. And that’s been a prevailing thread really.
“Foraging continued through my young adulthood, and then I started going to places like Jekka’s Herb Farm and places where they were growing cut-and-come-again salad crops. You eat them like that, when they’re almost alive, and it’s like nothing you’ve ever tasted.”
Iain: “And then I guess it just evolved. We both worked in food when we were studying, and then we started doing a closed-loop food system, buying from producers at farmers’ markets, taking ingredients home, turning them into things that you could eat, and selling it back at the farmers market.
“That went on for a couple of years, with us going to every West Country farmers’ market we could get ourselves to. It served us well, because many of those suppliers are our suppliers today, and now our friends.”
Matthew: “Some of them live up on the hillside near us, and they all celebrate food, outdoor culture, pagan events, those sorts of things. What could be better?!”
Iain: “One day at a market someone mentioned this café up near the airport. I was imagining a greasy spoon, but we went to see it anyway.”
Matthew: “I remember when we arrived and feeling blown away. We’d come from a background of sourcing as close to where we were based as possible, and then to then come here, to have all the produce growing in front of the restaurant; it was the natural next step.
“We took it on in the space of a month with very little savings, no staff, just ourselves and our equipment. Not the best way to do it, but when you get an opportunity like this you just have to throw yourself in. That’s the only way.”
Iain: “It was very DIY in the beginning, and it took seven years of brutal grafting just to build up crockery, cookers and dishwashers. We didn’t have enough plates at the beginning! We’d have to wash up in the middle of service to be able to send more out.
“We got there though. What we hope people get out of coming here is a chance to slow down. We never rush people off their tables, and that’s really important to us. I think everyone craves a simpler life, so we want to make people feel like they have that here, where they can see the food they’re eating growing in the garden, and that they’re in a beautiful environment, connected to the land.”
Matthew: “We’re both self-taught chefs, so I suppose cooking at home had a big part to play in that. And we also try to grow our own food at home ¬– knowing where food comes from, both here and at home, is a big thing for us. Food that’s been moved around the world and reaches you in a sorry state is never going to taste the same as something that’s just come out of the ground, like the stuff we’re cooking with today has.”
Iain: “The last couple of years, food at home has always been about quick nourishment, nothing elaborate. But lockdown changed all that – we’ve never eaten so well as we did in those weeks!”
Matthew: “One thing that has been very interesting for us to observe is how so many people, who would normally just shop in the supermarkets, have gone to the local grocer or got veg boxes from growers. They’ve championed local produce, and realised the importance of supporting local producers.
“Alongside that, it’s also really encouraging to see people growing at home, because they’ve had a bit of time to do gardening. They’ve just learned the beginnings of it, and that’s all it takes.
“It doesn’t get better for produce than now, in high summer. From July until September or even October, it’s just incredible, with so much to choose from. We’re lucky here, because we just wander up to Mark, the head gardener, and ask him what’s good that day.”
Iain: “Vegetables are great on the BBQ, so don’t just cook burgers! Lettuce can go on the grill, and you can put root vegetables directly on the coals, charring their skins, which are then peeled off. Don’t rush outdoor cooking, there’s something ceremonious to it and you want to savour the moment.”
Matthew: “Splitting up your cooking area is quite useful. I wouldn’t flatten the coals out so you’ve got an even heat over the whole grill – it’s pointless. Push them all to one side so you’ve got a hot area for grilling, and a cold area where things will rest and hold. That’s definitely helpful.”
Iain: “We are looking at the current situation as the opportunity to create the next iteration of this place. We are slightly forced into a corner as we know that potentially half the number of people may come out to visit us, or we can only seat half the number we normally would. But we also hope to turn that into a positive.”
Matthew: “It’s given us the chance to think about what’s important too. Kitchens are hellishly stressful places, and to have time at home to not be so up against it made us realise we should have that at the restaurant – we should be able to enjoy the prep side of it, and to have a slower, more manageable service.
“And we’ll give more time to the guests, create more of an experience. We have different areas of the garden that they might visit to eat something, and finish with marshmallows toasted on the lawn at the end of the night. That’s the hope anyway.”
Marinating meat in miso is up there with the best of discoveries we’ve made over the last decade of running a restaurant. It results in such a complex depth of flavour, particularly when cooked over fire, and is a go-to for us when it comes to outdoor cooking. We’ve been making our own miso at the restaurant with English peas and pulses for the last five years or more. Although we’d strongly urge anyone to get into this vast subject of endlessly fascinating mould-based fermentation, explaining and teaching the process exceeds the scope of this article. Miso can be easily found in supermarkets and can take a year or more before its fully ready if made at home.
If you’re regularly lighting the BBQ, we recommend cooking the beetroots in the dying embers of your previous BBQ, so they can be prepared and finished with your next BBQ. Alternatively, you can use a method called salt-baking, which we will explain in due course, and finish on the BBQ with the lamb.
Lamb and vegetables1 medium sized leg of lamb, seam-butchered into individual muscles (your butcher will do this for you)
2 large little gem lettuce, or other firm lettuce like romaine or cos
6 large beetroot, mixed colours from your local greengrocer (leaves attached, if possible)
4 large spring onions, washed
Herbs for garnish, such as thyme and its flowers, fennel fronds, fennel pollen, borage flowers etc.
Sea salt
Neutral flavoured oil, such as grapeseed or groundnut
150g miso
100g grapeseed oil, or other neutral oil
2 garlic cloves, finely grated
1 tbsp coriander seeds, lightly toasted & crushed
2 big sprigs winter savoury or 4 sprigs thyme, finely chopped.
10-15 fresh anchovy fillets, finely chopped
1 tsp Dijon mustard
2 tsp capers, finely chopped
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp grapeseed or other neutral oil
Make the miso marinade by combining all the ingredients and mixing until homogenous.
Thoroughly coat the lamb with the marinade and allow to infuse in the fridge for a minimum of 24 hours, up to a maximum of 72 hours.
To cook the beetroot in the BBQ, allow the embers to pass their ferocious stage and cool a little. Heavily salt the beetroots and place them directly onto the embers. Turn every five to 10 minutes, until well coloured. Test whether they are cooked by placing the tip of a knife into the centre. If there is no resistance, remove and allow to cool. If they are still raw inside and heavily coloured, wrap them in foil and place them back in to cook further.
Remove them when they are cooked throughout. Allow to cool, peel the skins off and slice into chunky wedges.
Alternatively, you can bake the beetroots in the oven. Simply heavily salt them (approx. 2% salt vs the weight of the beetroot), place in a tray covered with foil and roast at 170C until completely cooked.
Allow to cool under foil, peel and chop into chunky wedges. Set aside or keep in the fridge until needed.
Make the anchovy dressing by combing all the ingredients and mixing until homogenous. Place in the fridge until needed.
Remove the lamb from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature.
Slice your lettuces lengthways in half, ensuring the leaves remain held together by the root. Just prior to cooking, dress in oil and salt.
Cook the lamb on a hot BBQ to lightly colour the outside, continue to cook to an internal temperature of 48-50C for medium-rare (pink). Remove from the fire, place on a plate and wrap with foil. Leave somewhere warm in the sun for 30 minutes to rest. The internal temperature will continue to rise during this time, and the muscle fibres will relax. Do not skip this part.
While the lamb is resting, you can BBQ the remaining ingredients; the lettuce, spring onions and the beetroot.
Place the oiled lettuce on the BBQ and cook until charred and wilted. Do the same with the spring onions. Reheat the beetroots until they’re warm.
Dress the lettuce liberally in the anchovy dressing.
Slice the lamb and plate all the ingredients up. Garnish with herbs and flowers.
Serves 4
This dessert screams summer, and our version is an impressive way to please your guests. Fig leaf may seem an obscure ingredient, but we cannot recommend it enough. What’s great about using fig leaves, aside from their incredible flavour, is that it doesn’t rely on seasonality or good weather for the figs to ripen – many of which never will, and those that do are often eaten by birds.
We use a swiss meringue for this dessert, which many people have never prepared. It’s a great way of achieving a crisp shell with a fluffy interior that’s easy to scoop out.
Swiss Meringue150g egg whites (approximately 3-4 eggs)
150g caster sugar
150g icing sugar
1 vanilla pod, split and seeds removed
300g blackcurrants, de-stalked and washed
30g caster sugar
30g water
½ tsp citric acid, or juice from ½ lemon
500g double cream
50g caster sugar
4 medium fig leaves
Mixed summer berries
Baby mint leaves
Make the blackcurrant purée ahead of time. Place all ingredients in a pan, bring to the boil, remove from the heat and allow to cool. Blitz in a blender and pass through a sieve. Set aside or keep in the fridge until needed for up to five days.
MeringueTo make the meringue, combine the egg whites, caster sugar and vanilla seeds in a metal or glass bowl. Whisk to thoroughly combine. Place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water. Continually whisk until the mixture reaches 65C.
Pour the hot mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the icing sugar and whisk on high speed until the mixture has cooled to roughly room temperature. It will thicken up dramatically throughout this whisking/cooling process.
Using a large kitchen spoon, drop enough meringue for each person onto a parchment lined baking tray.
Bake at 85C for 90 to 120 minutes, until a delicate shell has formed on the outside of the meringues. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Remove from the parchment.
The underside of the meringues will not have crisped up, and we use this to our advantage. Working very delicately so as to not crack the shells, scoop out all of the meringue that is soft and fluffy, so you are left with a hollow meringue shell. Set aside or eat as a snack. The meringue shells will keep for up to a week in an airtight container.
Fig leaf creamThe day before you plan to make these desserts, infuse the cream with the fig leaf.
Combine the cream and sugar in a pan and bring to a very gentle simmer. Immediately remove from the heat and add the fig leaves. Place a lid on the pan and allow to cool to room temperature before placing in the fridge overnight.
Remove the leaves from the cream and whisk to a stage where the cream begins to thicken, but not quite soft-peak stage.
Combine half of the blackcurrant puree with the cream and gently fold through. If it’s not at a very soft peak stage now, then you can whisk a fraction more.
Spoon the cream/blackcurrant mixture into the hollow meringue shells and place on a plate. You shouldn’t be able to see that the meringue is full of cream. It’s a nice surprise.
Garnish the plates with the mixed berries, remaining blackcurrant purée and mint, and eat immediately.
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