Clare Latimer returns to the restaurant which influenced her style

PHOEBE, my goddaughter, was confirmed last weekend at Eastbourne College and for a treat her parents took us all to the Hungry Monk in Jevington for lunch, which lurks very near Beachy Head – but no temptation that day as we were all very happy!
It was a lovely hot summer’s day, the country lanes were lush with new greenery, wild flowers and cow parsley, animals were grazing contentedly in the fields and life was pretty perfect.
The extra interest for me was the fact that in 1971 when I started cooking, a new and very different cookbook came out and became almost a cult.
It was The Secrets of the Hungry Monk and I have to say that it influenced my style of cooking more than anything else has succeeded to do ever, and we still use versions of the ideas now. The intrigue for me was that it was a restaurant that I had never been to.
The restaurant is a village cottage with quaint rooms snaking up and down stairs and round corners and has obviously not been changed since the day it opened.
For example we ate in a private room upstairs and the kitchen next door was just two very old cookers plugged into the wall and a sink in the corner. The food was good, served by informal staff and it was a real feeling of coming home, which is so rare these days in restaurants.

SALMON WITH ROSEMARY AND BACON
This recipe was one of my favourites and still remains on our menus after all this time.
I have changed it slightly as the years have gone by. The mix of flavours were way ahead of their time in 1971.

Ingredients, serves one
One x 225g fresh salmon fillet;
One rasher back bacon;
Sprig of fresh rosemary;
Knob butter;
Salt and freshly ground black pepper;

Method
Preheat oven 200C 400F or Gas 6. Place the salmon fillet on a square sheet of tin foil and then cover with the rest of the ingredients.
Wrap up like a parcel bringing the edges up so prevent the juices running out and to make an airtight parcel. Cook for 15 minutes. Serve hot with salad or vegetables.

BANOFFI PIE
This recipe which has become a firm favourite throughout the country and certainly in our shop was invented at The Hungry Monk and they even have a blue plaque on the wall confirming that it was born here.
Again I have changed it slightly. They use pastry on the base but we prefer to use ginger nuts and it gives a stronger flavour and marries very well with the banana and caramel
We also put more chocolate on the top but that is just greedy!
You can boil up quite a few tins condensed milk at a time and keep for emergencies.

Ingredients, serves six
One tin condensed milk;
85g butter
200g packet ginger biscuits, finely crushed
Two bananas;
One pint double cream, whipped;
25g dark chocolate, grated.

Method
Put the unopened tin of condensed milk in a saucepan half filled with hot water. Boil for four hours, topping up water when necessary, then leave to cool ˆ or store at this point.
Melt the butter, add the ginger biscuits crumbs and mix well. Press the mixture firmly into a 20 centimetre cake tin to make the base.
Open tin and spread over the condensed milk, which will now be brown.
Peel the bananas, cut into slices and arrange them over the caramel.
Top with the whipped cream and then sprinkle over the grated chocolate. Chill until ready to serve.

Clare’s Kitchen
41 Chalcot Road
Primrose Hill
NW1
Tel: 020 7586 8433
www.clareskitchen.co.uk