My Last Supper - Polly Nicholson
What would you have for your last meal on earth? A drink, a starter, a main course and pudding? You never get full and you can be wherever you want in the world…
We would be sitting outside under the blossom-laden boughs of an apple tree, and many of the ingredients would be freshly harvested from the kitchen garden...
My last supper would be at Blacklands, our Georgian home nestled at the foot of the Marlborough Downs in West Wiltshire, with my husband and our four children. We would be sitting outside under the blossom-laden boughs of an apple tree, and many of the ingredients would be freshly harvested from the kitchen garden.
To drink, a sparkling water kefir by Aqua de Madre, because it’s full of live cultures and the bottles are so pleasing.
The starter would be a spicy hummus wrapped in the petals of the Rembrandt tulip ‘Insulinde’, to make bite-sized mouthfuls that are as mesmerisingly beautiful as they are delicious. ‘Insulinde’ is one of the historic tulips in my National Collection, but I have plenty so can spare a few for a special occasion.
For the main course, I would slow roast a shoulder of our Hebridean lamb. I barely eat red meat, so when I do I want to know the provenance; there is nothing better than our own organic lamb, and I can certainly vouch for the husbandry it has received. We eat it at ‘hogget’ stage (around 18 months of age) when the flavour has developed, and find that the shoulder is the best cut. To accompany it would be my homemade redcurrant jelly, asparagus dripping in butter, and baby Jersey Royal potatoes. All seasonal and delicious.
Pudding would be a rhubarb sorbet because at the moment I have a glut of rhubarb and am experimenting with different ways to cook it. Sorbet is the current favourite, sprinkled with baby mint leaves, simple and delicious.
To finish, a square of salted caramel chocolate from Melt, if that is allowed?
The Tulip Garden Growing and Collecting Species, Rare and Annual Varieties by Polly Nicholson
The Tulip Garden Growing and Collecting Species, Rare and Annual Varieties by Polly Nicholson
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