IT'S hard not to daydream about upping sticks, moving to the beach and opening a cafe – the thing is, Simon Stallard went and did it.
Eight years ago the chef, who has worked in kitchens around the world since he was 16, quit his day job and took on the lease of a National Trust ice lolly kiosk on the Roseland Peninsula, Cornwall, with his wife Jem.
The little green shed, perched on a coastal footpath above sandy Porthcurnick Beach, was transformed into The Hidden Hut – a beach cafe and lunch spot with food good enough to match the gorgeous sea view. It's gone on to become rather renowned, but now, thanks to its new eponymous cookbook, you don't have to roam the wilds of Cornwall to stumble across its food.
Stallard says the Hut menu is unmoored from mainstream foodie trends, but does "follow the weather".
"Today it's raining," he says, as he looks out at the sea. "There's a chowder on, a daal; they're quite warming dishes, but as soon as the sun comes out, the grills go on."
The Hidden Hut is famed for its feast nights – legend has it, feast night tickets have sold out faster than Beyonce concerts – and the book features dishes from these events as well as classic daytime Hut recipes. On Wednesday nights throughout summer, Stallard and his team get their outdoor grills and beach barbecues going and host dinner for 80-100 people on the cusp of the ocean.
The deal is, you bring your own plates, cutlery and booze, and they provide the food, "come wind, rain or shine". "They're a thing of beauty in their simplicity," says Stallard warmly. "If it's a sunny evening and you've lucked out, then you really have hit the jackpot."
Part of the feasts' appeal he reckons is the fact there's no choice when it comes to what you're eating. "It sounds really weird but there's always a big focus on huge menus [in restaurants], you've got to have something to please everyone – we've done the opposite."
They've traded a menu for a calendar, so there are multiple options, but they're available on different days. So, tonight it's windchime mackerel, next week summer sardines, the week after, lobster and chips.
"It's not like you're turning up thinking, 'Half the party don't eat shellfish and someone's allergic'. That's the night you're booking for; that's what's on," says Stallard firmly. It certainly an approach that cuts out food envy and dithering.
Some of his favourite feast nights are when the grills are loaded with shellfish. "We staple loads of newspaper to the tables and have massive great big shovels of shellfish and claws, hammers and picks. People just pick through it with a beer or a glass of wine, and hang out at the top of a beach – that's the bit that makes them mega."
He believes it wouldn't work if the Hut cooped people up indoors – the charm of it comes from cooking, eating and hanging out together under the Cornish sky. There's just nothing better, he says, than being outside: "Even if you're just having a sandwich and a bowl of soup in the rain under an umbrella, there's something so real about it.
"It actually stops and slows everything down, even just lighting the barbecue in your garden, it just feels really nice. Your mindset, everything, you change when you light the barbecue – it's all good, it feels right, and it tastes better too."
He admits he's something of an "anorak" when it comes to the art of grilling, from selecting the wood the Hut uses ("We basically have a wood library") to inventing his own grills. He has one made out of a tractor tyre and particularly admires ones crafted from washing machine drums, but it's his 'windchime' grill that sounds like actual magic.
"It's basically loads of stainless steel cable that runs backwards and forwards, right across these huge grill-beds that are on winches, so they can go up and down, then we use big metal clips to clip fish on like you would the washing on the line," he explains. "The grill needs to be atomically hot and you have to peg 250 fish up in one go," he says, almost sweating at the thought. "But it looks beautiful."
He's adamant though, whether you're grilling on the beach or in your back garden, there's no real need to be afraid of cooking over fire. "It's not a dark art, we've been doing it for thousands of years," he says. "You don't need much to be able to do it, you can make a barbecue or a grill out of almost anything, it's good fun – just befriend a good welder."
:: The Hidden Hut by Simon Stallard is published by HarperCollins, priced £20. Photography by Susan Bell. Below are two recipes from the book for you to try.
CHICKEN AND WILD GARLIC SOUP
(serves 4-6)
3 tbsp sunflower oil, plus extra for roasting
1 large chicken, jointed (you can ask your butcher to do this) and breasts reserved for another recipe
3 celery sticks, roughly diced
1 onion, roughly diced
1 leek, roughly chopped
1 large garlic bulb, cloves peeled
100g wild garlic leaves, roughly sliced (keep the flowers if you have them)
4 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
A small handful of mint leaves, ripped
A small handful of coriander leaves, ripped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Preheat the oven to 220C. Heat the sunflower oil in a large saucepan over a high heat and add the chicken legs, skin side down, along with the wings and the carcass (you may need to do this in batches, depending on the size of your pan). Fry over a very high heat, to brown all over. Transfer to a roasting tin and coat in a little more oil and a pinch of salt. Roast for 15-18 minutes until a deep golden brown.
Add the vegetables to the same pan (there should still be some oil in there) and put it back over a medium heat. Sweat the veg for two minutes or until starting to soften but not colour.
Once roasted, return the chicken to the pan and pour over two litres cold water. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for one and a half hours. Strain the soup and return the broth to the pan. Take the chicken from the sieve, remove the skin and shred the meat from the bones, discarding the bones and skin. Leave the meat to one side.
Divide the wild garlic among serving bowls and top with the spring onions. Divide the shredded chicken between the bowls and add the herbs. Taste the broth and check for seasoning, adding more salt and pepper if needed. Ladle it over the chicken and greens in the bowl, and sprinkle over the garlic flowers, if you have them.
CARAMELISED LEMON TART WITH LAVENDER
(Serves 6-8)
For the pastry:
25g hazelnuts
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
110g chilled butter, cut into cubes
1 large egg, lightly beaten
For the filling:
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
125g caster sugar
150ml double cream
Juice of 4 lemons and the zest of 3
Icing sugar, for dusting
Dried edible lavender flowers, plus extra sprigs, to decorate
Method
Preheat the oven to 190C. Spread the hazelnuts over a baking tray and cook in the oven for 7-10 minutes until the skins have darkened and the nuts are golden underneath. Turn off the oven. Rub the nuts between two clean tea towels to loosen the skins. Pick the hazelnuts out from the skins. Leave to cool, then grind them to a powder in a food processor.
To make the pastry, put the flour and butter in a food processor and blend until you get a breadcrumb texture. Stir in the ground hazelnuts and enough of the egg to make a smooth dough. Wrap the pastry in cling film and chill in the fridge for 15 minutes. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured work surface until it is large enough to line a 23cm round tart tin. Lay the pastry over the tin and press it into the edges and up the side, then prick the base all over with a fork, trim the edges and chill in the fridge for another 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven again to 190C. Line the pastry case with baking parchment and add enough baking beans to cover the base. Bake blind for 15 minutes; remove the paper and beans and return the pastry case to the oven to bake for another 10-15 minutes until light golden.
To make the filling, put the eggs in a bowl and add the sugar. Beat using an electric beater until the mixture leaves a thin ribbon trail when the whisk is lifted. Stir in the cream and lemon juice. Strain the mixture into a jug and stir in the lemon zest.
Turn the oven temperature down to 170C. Carefully pour the filling into the pastry case and bake for 30-35 minutes until the filling is set but is still a bit wobbly. Dust the top of the tart with a layer of icing sugar and, with a kitchen blowtorch or in a preheated grill, brown the top until the sugar melts and caramelises. Scatter a few lavender flowers over the top and decorate with a sprig or two of lavender. Serve warm or cold.
