the lazy girl's favourite squash with go-faster stripes: delicata squash

delicata squash

This stripy winter squash is also known as "bohemian squash" (a name I find rather appealing - I dream in bohemian!)

san marzano tomatoes (or elvish shoes!)

San Marzano tomatoes (or elvish shoes!)

Coming home from Earth, one of my favourite local grocery shops, clutching a small bag of vibrant San Marzano tomatoes, I wondered if these tomatoes really will taste superior as it is alleged. The proof will be in the pudding, or perhaps a pizza sauce or more likely a simple stew or sauce. I have plans for these beauties, I just haven't finalised the fine detail.

some are hot and some are not! padrón peppers: the vegetable equivalent of russian roulette!

tapas: padrón peppers

Pimientos de Padrón are tiny bright green peppers from the Galician region of Spain which look like small green peppers or even mild green chillies. And that's part of the thrill, because although they taste like mild and sweet peppers, some of them pack the heat of chillies . . . just not all of them.

It is said that one in 20 padrón peppers is a hot one. In Galicia there is a saying "Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non," which means "padrón peppers, some are hot and some are not." So try them if you dare!

when is a lemon a cartoon villain? when it's citron beldi!

citron beldi (Marakech lemons)

It's a given that I liked to potter around grocery shops, to find out what they've got, what's new or unfamiliar to me. It's my favourite type of shopping and browsing.

damsons: or what have the romans ever done for us!

a bowl of damsons

I have been feeling an Olympic-sized hole for the past few weeks - nothing to celebrate, I guess. London has settled back down to its normal grumpy self and I was feeling out of sorts. Until a trip to my local fruit 'n veg stall brought on a shout of sheer joy.

Damsons are in season. Hurrah!

my life just got a little spicier! sainsbury's harissa paste and mini lamb burgers

sainsbury's harissa paste with
mini lamb burgers

If you have been reading this blog for some time, you may have realised that I do like to cook from scratch. It is not that I am all holier-than-thou about ready-meals; God knows that M+S cheese and tomato pasta bake has kept me fuelled on many occasions. And I cannot imagine life in the kitchen without Lea + Perrins Worcestershire sauce. 

But in my experience, most of the ready-made sauces and pastes on supermarket shelves just aren't to my taste. Before I began cooking I did used to use these sorts of products, but added so many ingredients to them to improve the flavour, that I realised I might as well as cook from scratch. I also find many of these ready-made products far too sweet, a little gluey in texture and many have a peculiarly cloying and synthetic aftertaste. 

tip: making breadcrumbs

a simple loaf of white bread

I suppose I am lucky that I've always got a loaf "on the go". I make my own bread and if a loaf doesn't turn out so well then it is sacrificed to the altar of thrift. When life gives you a bread disaster, you make breadcrumbs! 

tips for lemons . . .

lovely lemons!

I mentioned in a previous blog posting that I wanted to run an irregular feature on kitchen tips; the sort of things I have learned over the past 20 years that don't always get mentioned in cookbooks - such as how you can get more juice from a lemon. 

Well there's a lot more where that came from, so when life gives you lemons, there are so many things you can use them for, and not just in the kitchen.

Cherry Aid (16 July)

a bowl of cherries

At my local supermarket today I saw a special offer on cherries. Excellent, I thought. Cherries are in season and these are half price . . . unfortunately, despite the fact that English cherries are in season, (it is July), these supermarket cherries were from Greece. And while I have absolutely nothing against Greece, (and frankly they probably need all the help they can get in this austere times) I find it absurd that supermarkets are importing cherries from abroad and that this particular supermarket had no English cherries on offer.

an arabian nights stew: lamb tagine with ras el hanout

lamb with ras el hanout

This lamb stew is a true Arabian Nights of flavours . . . it contains the beautiful spice blend, ras el hanout. Ras el hanout could said to be a metaphor for the Arabian Nights - a collection of fabulous stories, poetry and songs filled with tales of kings, queens and concubines; magicians and djinn, pirates, sailors and fisherman, poets and thieves, viziers and merchants, angels and slaves. Of hungry ghosts and mermaids. They are tales of adventure, treasure, mystery and of dreams. They are absorbing and exhilarating, very like the spice blend itself.

what heathcliffe did next: merguez mezze

merguez with green pepper

Heathcliffe had asked me to pick up some merguez sausages from Phoenicia, my local middle eastern deli in Kentish Town. Fortunately I know what merguez sausages look like. A peculiar thing to say you might think, but the butcher's counter meats are labelled in Arabic (which I don't read) and quite often I am mystified by what I am actually looking at. Gargantuan cuts of meat the like of which I have never seen before, hugger-mugger with somewhat grotesque mounds of sausage. But still I come in to browse, hoping that I'll get one of the friendlier butchers to explain to me what exactly it is I am looking at. Occasionally when I'm feeling brave or adventurous I'll actually buy something.

mezze: what the sujuk!

sujuk mezze

"Have you ever had sujuk before?” Heathcliffe asked me as he prepared his glorious mezze feast. WTF? (I thought rather inelegantly). I hadn't heard of it before either. Heathcliffe was preparing a rather unprepossessing sausage. Its skin was a plastic pink colour, the flesh a "crushed raspberry" hue. If I'm honest, I wasn't really looking forward to it. But I am a girl who likes her adventures in food. So I was prepared to try it, if only the once.

marinated beyaz peynir (turkish white cheese)

marinated Turkish white cheese - beyaz peynir

There are lots of Turkish and Cypriot shops near where I live in north London. A comparative recent discovery is cans of cheese. Yes, you heard correctly - a can of cheese. This is "beyaz peynir" (which in Turkish means "white cheese"); a salty, dense cheese made from unpasteurized sheep milk, very similar in taste and texture to Greek feta cheese. Actually I would defy you to tell the difference. Perhaps feta is a little more tangy and beyaz peynir is firmer and a little creamy.

summertime and the mezze is easy! grilled halloumi with lemon

fried halloumi with lemon juice

If I said to you, yup we're going to be eating something that squeaks like polystyrene and can set your teeth on edge, but is a sensational eating experience, you may well be forgiven for thinking I'd lost my marbles (again). But if you've actually had halloumi, pronounced "hal-ooo-mee", a prince amongst cooking cheeses, I am convinced that you'll be nodding in agreement.

tip: vanilla sugar

vanilla sugar

Instead of buying ready-made vanilla sugar, make your own. It is very simple. Often this is sold with a premium markup. Many of the supermarkets sell their own brand vanilla sugar, at about 4 quid for 300g. For that price, you can make your own. And since vanilla pods stay fragrant for years, this is the kitchen tip that keeps on giving!  

Vanilla sugar is often used in European cooking, particularly German and Scandanavian. It is perfect in cakes, pies, icecream or custard. In fact most things that you would normally put sugar into. It is great in coffee and fabulous in hot chocolate but whatever you do, not in tea. (Oh lord, you are not one of those people who puts sugar in their tea, are you?)

happy birthday to me! (or why I love the pea)

My love of peas has been a constant in my life. I have often wondered if it is to do with things that happened on and around the day of my birth. It’s a long time ago, a distant memory but I was there, remember!

My pregnant mother had decided to have me at home - a home birth. Her GP, a fierce ex-miner called Dr Heathcote, had advised total bed-rest for the last month of her pregnancy. And as a woman who was full of energy this was always going to be difficult. A solution was reached. My father arranged to have a television installed in their bedroom in order that my tennis-obsessed mother could watch Wimbledon during the last weeks before spawning.