June Newsletter
Recommendations of lovely businesses, recipes and products. Tuck in…
Exhibition - Firstly, I am going to be exhibiting a new direction of work as part of a group exhibition called KEEP at the Pie Factory in Margate. The work is entitled Follicle…. come and check it out between 18th-23rd June. More info here
Twinkle Troughton - Margate based artist painting ethereal green landacapes. Some of my favourites are the Cliftonville Promenade pieces from the Wild Sanctum series . “Fascinated by the myth of the English landscape as a visual epitome of Englishness, I use the natural world in my paintings to tell another story of England.” More info here
Spaghetti Vongole Recipe - Sweet and delicious clams with a glorious amount of garlicky butter coated spaghetti. (Don’t tell the Italians)
This is an amalgamation of various recipes but really it’s all down to getting good fresh clams. (recipe below images)
New Product - Pelargonium scented handmade candle. I love my pelargoniums and so, working with my friend Bridget (who has beautifully turned the pots) we have collaborated to create hand-painted and poured candles gently fragranced with lemon and rose Pelargonium. Buy here
Minnie’s Spaghetti Vongole - Serves two hungry, or four restrained eaters
1kg small clams - scrubbed clean and soaked in salted water for two hours before rinsing
½ a bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley - stalks finely chopped and leaves roughly chopped
6 cloves of garlic - peeled and roughly chopped, reserving one for crushing in at the end
Small pack of cherry tomatoes on the vine (flavour is so much better) - chopped in half
Small glass of white wine (or more)
400g dried spaghetti
Good extra virgin olive oil
1–2 dried red chillies, or a mix or fresh and dried (whatever you have)
100g good salted butter
Boil a big pan of water for the pasta, chuck a generous amount of salt in. Add the pasta once boiling and cook until al dente, get on with the rest of the recipe whilst the pasta is cooking
Get another big pan out for the clams and sauce, put it on a med-high heat.
Put about four tblsns or big glugs of extra virgin olive oil into the big pan and add the garlic, parsley stalks, dried chilli and tomatoes.
Keep stirring so the garlic doesn’t catch, just as the garlic starts to get golden edges, gently add the clams and wine. It gets steamy and sizzly at this point. It takes a few minutes for the clams to open, so keep gettly shaking the pan around. I take the clams out one by one as they open ( so they don’t overcook), but you can wait until they are all done if you like.
Once clams have cooked, remove them and turn up the heat to reduce the sauce until it thickens, crush a clove of garlic in at this point. Chuck any clams that didn’t open
Drain the cooked (al dente) pasta, keeping a small cup of pasta water.
Add a dash of the pasta water to the sauce and the butter. Stir or whisk to thicken.
Add the clams, parsley leaves and the spaghetti back into the pot and stir gently but well (if you haven’t overcooked the clams, they should remain in the shells here) The pasta will be soaking up all those juices.
Serve right away with a drizzle of olive oil, optional lemon wedges and cracked black pepper. Absolutely delicious!
Hand-turned, painted and then filled scented candle pot. Each one is truly unique as they are freehand drawn before being painted.
Gently fragranced with lemon and rose geranium
