Lonely Planet, one of the planet’s most well-known travel books, has launched a series of cookbooks called From the Source that aim to discover the classics of various countries, right from their source. The first is From the Source Spain (£19.99), which offers a collection of mouth-watering regional classics gathered from the some of the best cooks in Spain. This highly versatile book also seeks to show the diversity of Spanish cooking by showcasing recipes ranging from local home comfort cooking to high-end Michelin fine dining, thereby offering a little something for everyone.

Lonely Planet – From the Source Spain

Recipes include dishes such as one of my all time favourites and one of the most revered Spanish dishes, Paella Valenciana (paella with chicken and rabbit), a selection of pintxos (Basque tapas), and cochinillo (suckling pig).

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Maggie Beer

A few weeks ago, I blogged about how Maggie Beer, the famous Australian food writer, cook, TV presenter and food producer, was coming to London. Maggie is perhaps not that well known in the UK, but she is a bit of an Australian icon. And so when I was invited to the UK launch party for Maggie’s new products, including her acclaimed verjuice, at Australia House, I was absolutely delighted to go along.

As a consequence of being able to attend the launch party, I have managed to get hold of this never-seen-before recipe of the verjuice custard that Maggie showcased at the 2009 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in March. The festival was also attended by Heston Blumenthal from Fat Duck, Sat Bains from Restaurant Sat Bains, Shane Osborn from Pied à Terre, and René Redzepi from Noma. You can read all about the festival on the Australian Gourmet Traveller website.

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On Wednesday, I was invited to a an event to mark the first pea shoots from Mullens Farm for the season at Hix Oyster & Chop House. The event was hosted by the man himself, Mark Hix, and the order of the day were a number of savoury courses, all containing pea shoots. Here is what we ate and all were delicious: chilled pea shoot and spring leek soup; pea shoot, ham hock and asparagus salad; and sea trout poached in oil with wilted pea shoots, wild garlic and cucumber. There was also a dessert of floating islands with lemon sauce.

Chilled pea shoot & spring leek soup

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