On our way up to Cockermouth for WoolFest, Nic and I made a little detour via Cartmel. My everso-talented cousin, Dan Cox, is head chef at Aulis Research Design, which is part of Simon Rogan's restaurant collection in Cartmel. Simon was the stand-out star of this year's Great British Menu, he was shortlisted for all 4 banquet courses and won the desert course. Unfortunately, Dan was busy down in London at the big Taste of London event on the day we visited, and rain and the torch celebrations got in the way of our planned trip to the farm. None of this mattered though, as we had the MOST incredible meal at L'Enclume. If you are anywhere even vaguely near to Cartmel or the Lake District, I can't stress enough how much you need to try to have a meal there.
We started with a glass each of delicious British sparkling rosé called Balfour. Completely yummy, and I never would have guessed that it was from the UK.
First up were these delightful amuse-bouches. They are a wafer made from chick peas and rosemary, with a cream cheese topping, decorated with Viola and other petals. Nic and I agreed that we happily would have eaten a whole meal of them, but luckily there was just one each so we didn't spoil our appetites.
Next up was cod yolk with garlic cream. The picture really doesn't do justice to this. It was amusing, delicious and fun to eat. The cream on the left is garlicky, and the yellow yolk was a jelly-like outer covering that contained a sort of cod mousse - but it wasn't overly fishy, it was just yummy. It's garnished with crispy pancetta, something green that I can't remember, and amazing crunchy vinegar powder on toasted puffed rice. It was a complete play on the idea of fish and chips and ramped our enthusiasm and excitement up a notch. I think the serving staff were enjoying our enthusiasm almost as much as we were enjoying the food, which is really saying something!
It's almost impossible to pick a favourite dish out of the many options, but if pushed, I think this would be in my top 2. It's sugar snax carrots, ham fat, tarragon and nasturtium (more ingredients from the farm, I think), and the shiny sheets lying over the carrot are carrot caramel. The caramel was one of the most stunning things that I put into my mouth over the course of the meal. It was melt in the mouth good and to coin an over-used phrase, "absolutely jam-packed with flavour".
Next up were sea scallops with spiced strawberry, grilled cauliflower and coasal leaves. I nearly fainted at the thought of scallops, as these are one of my favourite ingredients! This dish didn't disappoint either. I can't remember what the yellow sauce on the plate was, it might have been honey based? But the little brown bits you can just about see are toasted buckwheat and brought a great texture contrast as they were nice and crunchy. The combination worked brilliantly, with the spiced strawferry sauce really bringing some sharpness to the soft scallops.
I'm writing this post just before I have lunch and thinking that no matter what I cook, it's going to be a huge disappointment after reliving this magnificent meal!
Our main dish was Reg's guinea hen and offal with baby turnips and elderflowers. Maybe it was this dish that had a delicious honey-mead sauce - I know that one of them did! The meat was tender and super-tasty, as were the teeny-tiny turnips and mushrooms that accompanied the guinea hen. I'm dribbling even more now.
Our lovely server Camilla, took us through the delights of the cheese board, and this was the point at which we started to wonder how we would manage to carry all the boxes of yarn and set up the stand at the show. We tried lots of the cheeses. They were all utterly delicious. And I've completely forgotten the names of my favourites... I should have written them down, but I was already self-conscious about taking pictures of each dish, so I didn't.
The accompanying crackers were wicked-good too. There was an oaty one tucked under the bread that was perfect with the stronger cheeses. Mmmmm.
Our first pudding... Lemon verbena cake with raspberry, milk skin and sorrel. You can't see the cake - it's hiding under the tuile biscuit - but it was a wonderfully greeny-yellow colour and strongly fragrant and lemony.
This was my favourite of the sweet dishes by a long way. The green was chervil granita and has already started to melt in this pic - I stared in awe at it for a little too long, I think. It's accompanied by cherries, a sweet ice creamy something (I can't remember what it was, but it was good!!), and crunchy hazlenut. This dish was fresh and perfect in everyway. I would imagine that Simon's banquet-winning pudding was this sort of dish - fresh and incredibly tasty. I want to eat more of it right now!!
Finally, when we thought we really couldn't take any more, we had coffee accompanied by these treats:
Aerated chocolate filled with Kendal mint cake ice cream. The perfect end to an incredible dining experience.
The staff were utterly delightful - attentive, welcoming and really enthusiastic about the food. The setting was clearly beautiful, even though it didn't stop tipping it down the whole time we were there. Jim is utterly gutted that he couldn't join us this time, so I do hope I'll be able to return with him before too long - I SO want to see the farm as well.
Massive thanks to all the staff who made our visit such a total pleasure.
The standard 5-course lunch menu costs an incredibly reasonable £32.50 - with drinks and cheese board as extras. The restaurant no longer has a menu as such - you are asked to choose between the 5-course lunch menu and the 14-course tasting menu, and whether you have any dietary requirements, and then the staff bring the dishes out and talk you through each one as they come. It's a culinary magical mystery tour. If you have the opportunity, go to L'Enclume, I highly recommend it.
Thank you all for the great comments on the Coronation Knits post - I'm so glad to see that I'm not the only technique junkie out there. I love trying new things! The lucky winner was commenter number 22: Linda, who said, "I love knitting socks in the round on dpns. Have even mastered grafting toes (after many failed attempts) with the wonder that is youtube!"
You Tube is absolutely brilliant for finding tutorial videos - almost every technique you've every thought of is up there in some form or another. I wouldn't be the knitter I am today without the help of many of those videos!
P.S. I've also joined Instagram (as you can probably tell from the pictures above), and I'm JenACKnitwear there too.
