A Realm of One’s Own
There’s nothing more exciting than discovering a hidden gem, which is precisely how many people describe Towpath. If you were strolling down the Regent’s Canal in Hackney during the winter months, you’d never suspect a restaurant sat behind Towpath’s shutters. To add to its intrigue, this unassuming little eatery is advertised exclusively by word of mouth. While having no website and no phone number might seem detrimental to business, it only adds to the charm in Towpath’s case.
(Keep scrolling to the end for a recipe for a Towpath favorite: Crispy Lamb with Hummus, Caramelised Onions, Pinenuts & Parsley!)
The following is an excerpt from Towpath by Lori De Mori and Laura Jackson. It has been adapted for the web.
We’ve come to think of Towpath as our own tiny realm. A dustmote in the Big Smoke. But nonetheless not without its own vision, values and what’s evolved into a rather long list of what we do – and what we don’t. Even though we opened with no clear business plan beyond, ‘let’s see what we can do with this funny little space,’ from the very beginning we were all on the same page about the big things. Which is good, because after all, this was where we would be spending our days and, as Annie Dillard writes, ‘how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.’ No small matter.
We wanted to create a place with a small-town sense of friendliness and belonging, but also a vibrancy – a bit like a schoolyard at lunchtime, where you could just turn up and know that, at least until the bell rang, there would be an escape from the tedium of being pinned to a desk with a pencil in your hand try- ing to learn long division.
We dreamed of a place where every table would not be occupied by someone staring into a device, lost to the world around them.
So, we asked ourselves, what kind of invitation could we offer, above and beyond what we put on people’s plates and in their glasses, that would entice them to put it all down and rest a bit? Like on a porch in Alabama.
First of all, it meant taking a decidedly low-tech approach ourselves. This proved easy enough since we had zero enthusiasm for spending our energies creating a website, blogging, instagramming, tweeting or doing whatever else one does to establish an ‘on-line presence’. We wanted to be in the world doing physical things. More like on a farm than in an office. Laura wanted to be cooking and I (less usefully but with equal enthusiasm) wanted to create homely little still lifes from the daily objects that surrounded us, arrange flowers in old metal jugs and have interesting conversations with whoever ambled up to our counter.
In practical terms this meant that there would be no website, no phone number, and no wifi. More controversially, though not intentionally so, there would be no takeaway cups with their attendant paraphernalia, which we had visions of being crammed into the already overflowing (and woefully insufficient) bins along the towpath or sunken like shipwreck on the murky bottom of the canal. And anyway, we wanted people to stay – even if that just meant standing at the bar for a few minutes with a cappuccino, Italian style.
As for the coffee itself, from the very beginning we decided to keep it simple. Beans from our friend Alessandro Staderini of Piansa. Dieci Magnifici Più Un he calls the blend – 10 arabica beans sourced from all over the world for their aroma, flavour and balance, plus one robusta for that little kick and beautiful crema, roasted in small batches at Piansa’s torrefazione just outside of Florence. To the dismay of some, there would be no decaf (as we only had room for one grinder). And no filter coffee or cold brew. Just the best possible Italian-style coffees we could make with the wonderful Marzocco machine Alessandro gave us when we told him we wanted to bring our favourite coffee to London. To the utter horror of others, we decided to use only one type of milk – rich, sweet, full fat and delicious, which we get from Northiam Dairy in Sussex. No semi-skimmed. No soy, oat, almond, rice or other ‘non-milk milk.’
Simplicity suited us both practically and temperamentally. The former, because after all, at least at the very beginning we were cooking from home and operating out of a space that was roughly the size of a market stall – a set up that was proving complicated enough as it was. The latter, because we were of the opinion that there might already be a tad too much choice out in the world. We didn’t want to be the place that offered everything, any way you wanted it.
Crispy Lamb with Hummus, Caramelised Onions, Pinenuts & Parsley
This is a lovely dish to use with any leftover lamb shoulder. I often braise lamb shoulders when we host private dinners and since I serve the shoulder whole on a platter, there are invariably leftovers. This is the perfect way to use up all those pieces of lamb that people are too polite to really dig into at the dinner party.
If you want to make this dish and don’t have any braised lamb shoulder, you can substitute with some minced lamb. Of course, you can also cook a lamb shoulder from scratch.
At Towpath I always make a big batch of caramelised onions at the beginning of the week – they seem to come in useful in so many different ways and you can store in the fridge up to 10 days.
Serves 4
For the caramelised onions
6 brown or red onions, halved and thinly sliced
3 tablespoons olive oil
For the lamb
2 tablespoons olive oil 600g/11/4lb lamb shoulder, torn into big shreds or minced lamb
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon 100g/31/2oz caramelised onions 50g/2oz unsalted butter 200g/7oz hummus (see page 55) 40g/11/2oz pine nuts, toasted
2 handfuls of chopped parsley salt and pepper
On a high heat, cook the onions in the olive oil until they start to brown. Turn the heat down to medium and cook until softened, sweet and fully brown. This should take about 20 minutes. Season with salt at the end. Remember to keep stirring the onions as they often catch. If they do, pour in a little bit of water as that unsticks all the yummy caramelisation on the bottom of the pan.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and when it’s smoking hot, add the lamb. Let the meat get super crispy and brown before turning over.
Season with salt and pepper and add the cinnamon. The lamb shoulder will only need to crisp and warm up as the meat is already cooked. This should only take about 3 minutes on each side. The minced lamb will take a bit longer to cook – turn after 4–5 minutes and cook for another 4–5 minutes. If the meat is too crowded, cook in batches as you don’t want the meat to steam.
When the meat is almost cooked, add the caramelised onions and stir to mix well. Check seasoning, turn off the heat and add the butter. Let it melt and give it a good mix.
On a platter, first spread the hummus, then the lamb and onions. Scatter over the toasted pine nuts and
the parsley. Drizzle over the melted butter from the saucepan to create delicious juices.
Serve immediately with bread or flatbread.
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