July: Our recommendations on the menu this month

What we’ve been eating: Smoked chalk stream trout, crème fraîche, confit potato, Avruga caviar, lemon

This dish again demonstrates James’s love of fish and seafood.

The chalk stream trout has a beautifully clean flavour so we try to keep the preparation fairly simple to really emphasise the natural flavour. The fish is firstly lightly cured with salt and lemon zest for 45 minutes. From there, we cold-smoke it over oak wood chips to give a delicate smoky flavour and a firmer texture. We pair this with confit potatoes cooked with thyme, which brings a rich butteriness to the dish along with the candied lemon, which we make by thinly slicing lemons and soaking them in stock syrup to give it a wonderfully sweet lemon flavour.

We then add Avruga caviar to enhance the smoky notes and, to bring those big flavours back, we add a few dots of creme fraiche to really lighten the dish. At the very end, the dish is garnished with salty fingers and delicate alyssum flowers.

What we’ve been drinking: 2021 Familia Bastida ‘Alceo’ Verdejo

This Spanish wine is a great addition to our list, from Familia Bastida, who have been making wines since 1870. Alceo Verdejo comes from Castilla-La Mancha, not far from Madrid, and verdejo is a grape that grows almost exclusively in Spain. The wine shows fine herbs, ripe lemon, green melon and great minerality, and if you enjoy Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Grigio, this light, expressive wine is a great alternative. We suggest pairing it with our smoked trout dish. Served with crème fraîche, confit potato, Avruga caviar and lemon, it’s a lovely summery starter on our à la carte menu.