September 2010 Welcome to the September diary, we do love autumn and September brings with it the first hint when, quite early in the month, there is a definite change in the colour of the trees. Food-wise, in a good year, September is a culmination of all summer's promises and the atonement for a good many of its let downs... NEWS FROM THE KITCHENS September, again depending on the weather, provides our kitchens with lots of mushrooms and chanterelles and is the first of the months when we start making warming dishes which use root vegetables, in fact a real change of dishes from the lighter food of the summer months. Our menus take on an autumnal feel on the 20th of the month when the new autumn menus go into production in all our kitchens. At the Parsonage new entries to the list include wild mushrooms with a fried duck egg, rabbit with mustard & bacon, oven-poached salmon with roast beetroot & horseradish and pot roast partridge with cannellini beans. At Gee's smoked eel with beetroot & horseradish, roast saddle of rabbit with shoulder & leg cottage pie, 'Rofford Farm' beef, braised with celery and carrots with creamed potatoes and slow-cooked shin of veal all tempt on the new menu. At Quod too, the menu becomes more autumnal, with fish in the form of sautéed skate with brown butter and capers, and sea bass with confit fennel & thyme beurre blanc. The warming and hearty meat offerings include duck shepherd's pie, braised short ribs with pan-roasted root vegetables and beef bourguignon with creamed potatoes. Pizzas entice too: new additions to the list include wild mushroom, parsley, garlic and parmesan, roasted squash, mozzarella and basil oil or potato, fresh pecorino and rosemary. New to the salads are pan-fried chicken livers with pancetta & peas, chopped chicken and tarragon and Roquefort, endive and walnut. To conclude the list, among the new puddings are profiteroles with warm chocolate sauce & baked blackberry and stem ginger pudding with thick Jersey cream. Here's hoping the good weather lasts and we can continue to make the most of our sunny terraces and cook for you this month... NEWS FROM THE FARM Rofford Pork has arrived! The first Oxford Sandy and Blacks will be at Quod, the Old Parsonage and Gee's this week and a steady but limited supply will continue until the end of October. These very special rare breed pigs have been naturally reared on our farm and have enjoyed a very special Oxfordshire free range life. Come and enjoy the special flavour of these pigs, especially the fat! The next long awaited farm event will be this year's Pure Aberdeen Angus beef arriving on a plate near you around the end of October. Our autumn menus will feature this special beef whenever supplies will allow. Thank goodness for the recent rains which have revitalised the autumn grass for this winter's silage feed for the cattle in their barns. All sixty Pol Dorset ewes appear to be successfully 'in lamb' so the 2011 Rofford Easter lambs are on their way! Jeremy Mogford CHRISTMAS IN OXFORD ...at the Old Bank Hotel. Check in on Christmas Eve, shop and visit the city's museums and galleries, not forgetting midnight mass at the famous Christ Church cathedral. Call down on Christmas morning for Buck's Fizz in bed, breakfast in the restaurant, followed by a traditional Christmas feast in our brasserie. After breakfast, on Boxing Day enjoy a guided tour of the city and its colleges with our resident Oxford tour guide Isabella Underhill. Prices from £390 (inc VAT) for two people sharing a double/twin room. If you wish to book by telephone please call 01865 799599 or email reservations@oldbank-hotel.co.uk. ...at the Parsonage. Check in on Christmas Eve, shop and visit the city's museums and galleries not forgetting midnight mass at St Giles' Church. Call down on Christmas morning for Buck's Fizz in bed, breakfast in the restaurant, followed by a traditional Christmas feast at the Parsonage Restaurant. After breakfast enjoy a perfect Boxing Day walk with our resident Oxford tour guide Isabella Underhill. £420 (inc VAT) for two people sharing a double/twin room. If you wish to make a booking please call 01865 310210 or email reservations@oldparsonage-hotel.co.uk. These offers are subject to availability so we recommend booking early. CHRISTMAS FEASTING MENUS All our Christmas and New Year Feasting Menus are now available on our website www.oxford-hotels-restaurant.co.uk. Gee's is available throughout December to hire exclusively for your Christmas party celebration and menus can be chosen from the website or tailor made to your requirements. Contact Laura Cottrell on 01865 553540 for further details. The Old Parsonage is the perfect setting for Christmas celebrations and the Pike Room, seating up to 16 guests, can be hired exclusively for lunch and dinner throughout December. Menus can be chosen from the website or tailor made again to your requirements. The chefs can cook a whole suckling pig for special occasions. Contact Deniz Bostanci on 01865 310210. Quod and the Old Bank have three private rooms available to hire exclusively throughout December. The Red Room, Gallery and Boardroom all house amazing twentieth century art collections and again menus can be designed specifically for you. Contact Steve Holmes on 01865 202505. Mark Zulawski, Garlic and a Knife Beside a Frying Pan, 1955, Oil on Canvas, Old Bank Hotel RECIPE OF THE MONTH This month's recipe from Simon Cottrell, Head Chef at the Parsonage, features on the new autumn menu. Rabbit with mustard and bacon Serves 4 200ml chicken stock 12 round shallots 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 200g piece of smoked streaky bacon cut into 1cm lardons 4 farmed or 8 wild rabbit legs 1 clove garlic, finely chopped 150 ml dry white wine 300ml double cream 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard Salt and freshly ground black pepper Preheat the oven to 150 c / Gas Mark 2 Pour the chicken stock into a saucepan and bring to the boil, add the shallots, turn down the heat and poach for 5 minutes. Scoop out of the pan and set aside. Heat the butter in a heavy based frying pan and, over a medium heat gently sauté the bacon lardons until crisp and golden. Spoon the bacon from the pan into a casserole dish and return the pan to the heat. Brown the rabbit legs in batches if necessary until they are completely sealed all over and have a good, even colour then add them to the casserole. Now turn the poached shallots around in the fat in the frying pan, stir through the garlic and pour over the white wine. Give the wine a blast of heat, letting it bubble for a minute before adding the chicken stock and the cream. Whisk in the Dijon mustard and check the seasoning before pouring the sauce over the rabbit and bacon in the casserole. Cover the casserole, place on the middle shelf of the oven and leave to braise for 45 minutes or until the rabbit is tender. When the rabbit is done, transfer the legs to a warm plate. Place the casserole over a high heat and let it bubble until it has reduced by about a third, the sauce wants to be thick and creamy. You could add a little more mustard at this stage if you like piquancy. Stir the legs back through the sauce and serve with creamed potatoes. This recipe can easily be adapted to use chicken legs instead. SEPTEMBER ART EXHIBITION Alison Pullen, David Atkins, David Rhys Jones, 'Oxford' 10th - 25th September Oxford has been a source of inspiration for many artists and writers. At the Sarah Wiseman Gallery this September the city is celebrated by three artists selected for their artistic flair and style, each invited to the city to respond to its beauty and energy. Alison Pullen is famous for her paintings of interiors, using an ingenious method of painting on top of a photographic collage to create an incredible multilayered image. She has been working at the Bodleian Library, Christ Church, Green Templeton and Worcester Colleges, producing paintings that communicate the majesty and history of the interiors of these buildings. David Atkins has been championed since college by the art critic Brian Sewell, he established his career with his landscape paintings however in recent years he has turned his attention to cities such as Venice, New York, Oxford and London. This exhibition will see his second collection of paintings of Oxford. The first collection exhibited in 2009 was of the city in winter with dark rainy skies; welcoming the opportunity to be in the city in summer, his paintings focus on the river at Magdalen Bridge. David Rhys Jones is one of this years joint winners of the 2010 Jerwood Applied Art Prize, his photographic work on ceramics record a mix of cultures and architecture found in modern day cities. His work is based on journeys and he has explored the city looking for the quirky and unique. These ceramic wall pieces are sure to be highly collectable. Readers of the Gee's Diary are invited to attend the preview of the exhibition 6pm - 9pm on 9th September. RSVP on 01865 515123 or email info@wisegal.com. Sarah Wiseman Gallery 40/41 South Parade, Summertown, Oxford OX2 7JL Web: www.wisegal.com. JAZZ THIS MONTH We have some great jazz for you this month featuring musicians who play the London jazz scene such as Ronnie Scott's and the 606 Club. Highlights include singer Fini Bearman performing at Gee's on 12th September. Fini's passion for music is divided equally between singing and piano, in addition to performing she is a well respected composer. Fini is joined by Oxford's own international pianist Frank Harrison who has played for the last ten years with Gilad Atzmon's band. At Gee's they play accompanied by Tim Dawes on double bass. Appearing on Sunday 26th September at Quod, 5 - 7pm, are Ross Stanley on piano, Tim Dawes on double bass and Enzo Zirilee on drums. Ross Stanley, who also plays regularly at Gee's and the Parsonage, has worked with Liane Carroll, Dennis Rollins, Guy Barker, Ian Shaw, Stan Sulzman, Bobby Wellins and Steve Arguelles, as well as being a regular member of the Jim Mullen Organ Trio and the Jacqui Dankworth Band. He is one of the most in-demand jazz pianists in the UK. Enjoy a night at the Parsonage or Old Bank Hotel combined with dinner and jazz at either Gee's or the Old Parsonage for two people from £155. Subject to availability on Fridays and Sundays. You can view all the forthcoming Jazz listings at Gee's, the Old Parsonage and Quod. MY HIDDEN OXFORD We continue with the eighth in our series of best kept Oxford secrets and little gems. Each month we ask a customer or friend to share with us their thoughts. This month, architectural historian Michael Pickwoad takes a closer look at Holywell Street ... To take a walk down Holywell Street is to step back in time. Its peace and tranquillity, fostered by the general absence of motor traffic, allows the viewer a glimpse of what a market town in middle England would have looked like two hundred years ago as well as being an education in the simple beauty of English vernacular architecture. The main modernisation was carried out during the 18th Century when many of the more ancient structures, dating back centuries, were altered or refaced. How wonderful Holywell Street looks in photographs taken early in the last century, with the walls of the houses largely unpainted and despite the more recent colour schemes there is still little to spoil the overall delight. It is one of those rare streets that looks just as it should and if you begin to wonder if you are in a film set, then Bath Place could well convince you even before you reach the ancient Turf Tavern. At the far end, near Longwall Street, you can see where New College expanded its premises in the mid-19th Century by demolishing a number of dwellings to build the Scott and Champneys blocks and a tutor's lodging that would befit a cleric from a Trollope novel. The only modern building can be seen near the Kings Arms. Built in 1970 as Blackwell's music shop, it was a bold statement about which Sir Nikolaus Pevsner wrote that 'it creates a disturbance in the even front of the houses in the street and in itself was not valuable enough to put one in a forgiving mood'. Apart from five contiguous private dwellings beyond New College (95-100), the rest of the street is owned by Merton, Wadham, Harris Manchester, New College and Hertford Colleges, an ownership that has probably kept commercialism from invading the street. A notable landmark is the Holywell Music Room, built in 1749, the earliest purpose built concert hall in the country and now resplendent with a new and properly sympathetic door case along with an impressive array of railings. The Oxford Print Centre nearby, is a good example of re-fronting with an archetypal and extremely attractive 18th Century shop front. Midway along the street is Mansfield Road, from where there is one of the best views of the street as it curves away to the Broad, with the afternoon light delineating the repetition of Georgian bay windows. It is its ordinariness that is so glorious and although nowhere near as grand as College architecture, it is the survival of such consistent and honest simplicity that raises it to the highest order. With an example of almost every variation in sash window design, Holywell Street deserves close inspection for that alone. Michael Pickwoad Read previous contributions to 'My Hidden Oxford' from Cllr Bob Price, Debbie Dance, Tony Joyce, Hugo Brunner, Isabella Underhill, an anonymous local artist, Bill Heine, and Christopher Brown. BERRY BROTHERS WINE RECOMMENDATION Our wine recommendations for September come from Robert Manners of Berry Brothers, our wine supplier for Gee's and the Parsonage. Pecan Stream, Chenin Blanc, Waterford Estate 2009, South Africa Nestled between the Simonsberg and Heldeberg mountain ranges this is a full bodied white wine with fresh 'crunchy like' fruit reminiscent of pears and apples that is ideal as an aperitif or to accompany the stronger flavoured dishes on the autumn menus. It is on the wine lists at Gee's and the Parsonage, bottle £24.95. Shiraz/Viognier, 'Working Dog', 2009, S E Australia Robust and rich with hints of black pepper backed with spice and liquorice this is a classic Aussie shiraz without being a blockbuster. Having lower tannins than some European counterparts this is ideal with both red and white meats and even lighter style pasta based dishes. It is on the wine lists at Gee's and the Parsonage, bottle £19.95. THIS MONTH'S COMPETITION This month, for a chance to win a classic roast grouse supper for two at the Parsonage with a bottle of Berry's claret, simply answer the following question: Historically, game is out of season when there is no specific 'letter' in the month. Which letter signifies this? Email your answer to louise@mogford.co.uk. The winner will be the first correct entry drawn at random. Good luck! The winner of last month's competition is Carol Glanville who correctly stated that the way to tell if an aubergine is ripe is to look under the calyx, the greeny-purple star where the fruit joins the stem, if the skin there is pure white the fruit is ripe, if it is tinged green, wait a few more days. Carol has won a case of specially chosen wine selected by our wine expert Robert Manners of Berry Brothers. COMING UP NEXT MONTH September is the run-in to autumn but it doesn't properly begin until October when there is nothing nicer than crumpets for tea by the fire at the Parsonage and all the delicious things which rightly belong to autumn tea time. Pheasants become available as do winter vegetables, borlotti beans, aubergines, bulb fennel, celery, damsons, sloes, rowans, blackberries, mulberries, elderberries and much more... Thank you for subscribing to Gee's Diary. We look forward to welcoming you back to our hotels and restaurants very soon. Kind regards, Jeremy Mogford Gee's Restaurant & Bar 61 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 6PE 01865 553 540 email | web Quod Brasserie 92-94 High Street Oxford OX1 4BN 01865 202505 email | web The Old Bank Hotel 92-94 High Street Oxford OX1 4BN 01865 799599 email | web Old Parsonage Hotel 1 Banbury Road Oxford OX2 6NN 01865 310210 email | web