Illustrator Clare Youngs on art, appetite and food in children’s books

Pick ‘n’ mix

What’s usually playing in your kitchen or studio?
When I’m working in my studio during the day, I usually listen to audiobooks. But on Saturdays when we’re cooking in the evening, the soundtrack is always The Craig Charles Funk and Soul show on Radio 6.

What would you get from an ice cream van?
I like a plain orange lolly, a bit boring, I know. However, if I was at Ruby Violet ice cream van in Granary Square,  London, I’d get a luscious Damson and Sour Cream Cone.

What would be your dream birthday cake?
Definitely a layered coconut cake.

 

Is there a particular book or scene in a film that makes you particularly hungry?
Elizabeth David’s A Book of Mediterranean Food, particularly her instructions on making pissaladière and anchoïade. Whenever I read it, I long to be sitting in the shade of an almond tree in a hot Mediterranean garden overlooking the sea, with a warm slice of pissaladière and a cold glass of rosé. I recently had to explain how to cook it to one of my daughters on the phone, while she was on holiday and wanting to make it.

Which books did you enjoy reading to your children when they were younger?
Hairy Maclary from Donaldson’s Dairy!

Favourite thing to take for a beach walk or picnic?
If it’s a winter’s walk, then it would be a flask of homemade soup. During Covid times I was in charge of making lunch everyday. I often used the leftovers from the night before or whatever I found in the fridge. I did get the reputation of being able to make a nice soup from anything, although the soup from leftover moussaka was not a success and has never been attempted again!

The main meal

What would you make for a special dinner or Sunday lunch?
I do love to cook a fish pie with a potato rösti topping. I make sure it has lots of prawns in it, because I love them. My husband doesn’t like prawns so much but he likes boiled eggs in a fish pie, and I don’t really. So I get to eat the prawns and he gets the eggs! We’re lucky enough to have a really great fish shop here with a lot of choice.

I’d cook scallops as a starter. One of my favourite recipes of all times is grilled scallops with sweet chilli sauce and crème fraîche, from Peter Gordon at The Sugar Club. There are a lot of ingredients in the chilli sauce, but it’s so worth the effort.

What are some of the things that your family cooks that you look forward to eating?
We all love cooking in our family. We have a big island in the kitchen that’s great for gathering around. If some or all of our four offspring and various partners are down for the weekend, there are plenty of helping hands. We often go through some of our cookbooks and choose dishes we think will go together. Some of our favourite books are Sirocco and Feasts by Sabrina Ghayour, Ottolenghi’s Simple and a well used copy of Casa Moro by Samantha and Samuel Clark. It’s a joint effort with my husband usually rolling out some kind of flatbread at the end of the island.

Can you remember the first meal you had when you moved to the coast?
We went out to the local Indian restaurant on our first night in our new home beside the sea. One of my teenage daughters hadn’t seen the house before we moved. She wasn’t 100% sure about the move and thought we were going to be living in a little village. There happened to be some sort of incident opposite the restaurant with lots of police cars and flashing lights. She cheered up a bit then and thought maybe it wasn’t so different to London!

Worst-ever meal?
Without a doubt it was when I somehow got served pig’s ear in a restaurant in Barcelona. It was literally a big ear, hairs and all, swimming in some kind of white sauce. I honestly don’t know what you were meant to eat, there was no meat, just ear! The whole meal was a disaster, as the starter was a pile of sprouts too. I was seven months pregnant at the time and they gave me the worst indigestion I’ve ever had. I had to struggle back to the hotel and lie down for a couple of hours to recover. I didn’t think they even ate sprouts in Spain… One year when we went to Spain for Christmas, my husband took some sprouts with us, as he loves them more than me and didn’t want to miss out on them with our Christmas meal!

Did you ever have weird pregnancy cravings or aversions?
I went off coffee and chocolate and craved pickled cabbage!

What was the first meal you made for your now-husband?
We were students at the time. My mum had bought me a copy of one of her favourite cookbooks, The Pauper’s Cookbook by Jocasta Innes. I think it was probably a recipe from there. I was always cooking the bacon, potato and onion hotpot, which is wonderful and I still often make that dish. I can remember the meal my husband first made me when I first met him: mashed potato and gravy. Nothing else, just that – and he had phoned his mum to ask how to make the gravy!

What’s a dish or recipe you would love to try making?
I’d like to experiment more when buying from the fish shop here. We go to Spain quite a lot and we cook all sorts of different fish, squid and shellfish there but here in the UK we tend to mostly go for cod or haddock. I’d like to cook more Japanese food. I always linger over the Japanese section in the supermarket, thinking how interesting everything looks. So I’d merge two wishes and learn Japanese cuisine while being more adventurous at the fish shop!

My bite-size week

What’s for dinner if you’ve had a rubbish day? Something comforting?
Mushroom risotto or any risotto really. I love the whole process of cooking risotto. Standing over it and stirring in the stock bit by bit is a relaxing thing to do and the end result is comfort food at its best.

What’s your go-to speedy dinner?
Anything on a toasted slice of sourdough. My favourite thing is to roast some mixed cherry tomatoes with olive oil and any herbs from the garden. They only take about 12 minutes, then pile them onto the toast and put it back in the oven dotted with goat’s cheese for a few minutes. I serve it with a few rocket leaves on top and lots of black pepper.

 

What are some of your favourite social media accounts to scroll?
On Instagram I like Nigel Slater. I’ve always loved his books and recipes. The photos are always impeccably styled and I love the photographs he posts from his travels. Very beautiful. I like @adventuresinjelly. I have quite a few vintage jelly moulds as I used to collect them, so that’s probably why I’m so drawn to this account. That and the wobbling jellies are wonderful. I also follow @charlottelovely. Her posts always make me smile and I especially like her courgette and nut faces.

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