HB&B Blog — Claire Bullen
The Beer Lover's Table: Butterscotch Pudding Pots with Pumpkin Spiced Caramel and Yonder Brewing Coconut Florentine Stout
Claire Bullen Somerset Stout Yonder Brewing

I should confess: I’m not much of a dessert person. Most days, I would rather have a wedge of cheese than a slice of cake at the end of a meal. Whenever I have a chocolate dessert, I last about three spoonfuls before getting overwhelmed by its intensity. I’ll choose a plain, buttery croissant over one filled with almond paste or glazed with vanilla. But every now and then, I find myself craving something sweet – usually around this time of year, when there’s a new chill in the air and the nights are drawing in. Blame it on vestigial...
The Beer Lover's Table: Persian Lamb and Quince Stew with Burning Sky Saison Automne
Beer Lover's Table Burning Sky Claire Bullen Saison Sussex

I know it’s autumn, even without looking out the window or checking the forecast. My body knows, because almost to the day that the calendar ticked over to October 1, it began to crave pumpkins and sage, chestnuts and mushrooms, bitter greens and browned butter. What I want to eat right now is stew. I’ve had a recipe for this particular stew – called khoresh-e beh – open in one of my zillion tabs for months, just waiting for this time of the year to hit. I like Persian stews like this one because they go beyond mere stodge; they tend...
Wine & Food Killers: Chilaquiles with Salsa Roja and La Grange Saint André Le Marmot 2022
Claire Bullen France Natural wine Natural Wine Killers Red wine

There are few better teachers – or creative constraints – than necessity. The best of my cooking over the past year has arisen out of leftovers that urgently needed using: wilting spinach and stale sourdough that turned into ribollita, old takeaway pulao that was reborn as fried rice. Striving to avoid food waste has become less a slogan and more a challenge – one taken up with some gusto and humility, and one that has pushed me to the outer limits of my knowledge. There are few better examples of necessity cooking than chilaquiles – stale tortillas sliced, fried into...
Wine & Food Killers: Sweetcorn Butter Toast Two Ways and Chateau Barouillet Bergecrac Blanc Sec 2022
Claire Bullen France Natural wine Natural Wine Killers Orange Wine

I’m not on TikTok (after spending much of the past decade donating large parcels of my brain to social media, I’m moved to defend the last stake of my sanity), but I still get cooking inspiration from TikTok. The most recent: corn butter tomato toast, made by a guy named Pierce on a farm in Montauk. The idea – grilled sweetcorn blended with butter, slathered on toast and topped with freshly salted slices of heirloom tomato – is so ingeniously simple that it astounds me that it’s not already a canonical summer dish. Most commenters seem to agree: “CORN BUTTER?!...
Wine & Food Killers: Jackfruit Empanadas and Parajes del Valle Macabeo Maceración 2022
Claire Bullen Natural wine Natural Wine Killers Orange Wine Spain

At most weddings, the food is barely worth remembering – but at this one, there were empanadas. Beef empanadas, cheese empanadas, all dressed in a deliriously spicy orange sauce. I remember them, but I can’t for the life of me remember how many I ate. Ever since, I’ve thought about making them at home. Empanadas are made across Latin America from wheat flour, corn or even cassava; their fillings and styles and colours vary, they can be baked or fried, served hot or cold. In this way, the empanada feels less like a singular entity and more like a category, capacious enough for flights...