Category: Summer
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Spaghetti with prawns and whisky sauce
In my opinion, it’s not a habit to serve spaghetti and prawns with whisky. Correct me if I’m wrong. To me, whisky is that unfathomable drink, ferociously harsh and unapologetically alcoholic, which lawyers manage to knock back without even a grimace in courtroom dramas. But this unusual combination of spaghetti with prawns and whisky sauce […]
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Nectarine cheesecake hand pies
To do lists are all well and good, but they’re only satisfying if you can actually cross something off them. For once, I am proud to say that two tasks on my to do list can have a line drawn firmly through them, and this is particularly satisfying as these two tasks were hanging over […]
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Cherry Clafoutis
And so, finally, six months later, I’m back in France! It’s almost unbelievable to think the last time I saw my boyfriend was on a dark, wet morning in December as he dropped me off at the airport, our last kiss between two face masks. At long last – Christmas, a birthday, and, oh yeah, […]
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Raspberry and hazelnut crème brûlée
A crème brûlée is one of those delicate French deserts which we Brits adore and worship from afar but probably never attempt to make. Add it to the collection along with soufflé, mille-feuille and croquembouche. Even the name ‘crème brûlée’ doesn’t help (does it really need this many accents?!). I’ve started taking French lessons. I […]
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Bramble and bay jam
I love jam. That may not be a mystery. My friend Hannah can testify. When we lived together I had a collection of seven jams in the fridge. One for each day of the week you could say. Looking back, I admit it was excessive. Jam on toast, jam on scones, jam on my face, […]
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Citrus and ginger no-bake cheesecake
Allegedly, cheesecake was a favourite dessert of Henry VIII. Unrecognisable to the cheesecake we know and love today, the cheese was diced and softened with milk before straining. To this, the chef would mix butter, eggs and sugar and pop it in the 16th century oven, and, as it was so popular, the recipe was […]
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Goat’s cheese and coriander salad
Lockdown has been a peculiar time. Like many others I’m sure, my normally eager productivity has sunk into the depths of a swampy quagmire, struggling to stay buoyant. Cooking for myself is suddenly hard work and my cool night time habit of reading cookbooks has worryingly disappeared. People have been proudly nurturing their sourdough starters […]
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Cheese scones
Back in November I moved. The house has chipped blue woodwork, a red front door with frosted glass and a garden dominated by a rickety metal washing line. Each morning before work, the sky glows pearly pink while I stand at the kitchen counter making my breakfast. It’s a quiet and peaceful time, which, after […]
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Watermelon and feta salad
I was born in bleak mid-January, so, naturally, I have become accustomed to a cold, wintery birthday. It comes with the territory. Like all occasions, you shape the celebration to the season and I have hosted a number of wintery parties. For instance, the Valentine’s Day-themed sleepover which involved a hideous microwaved Skittles concoction (why […]
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Nectarine and blueberry croissant cake
If a positive start to the year is an increase in productivity then mine is going badly. So far I have eaten three chocolate chip cookies straight off the baking tray and dozed in my bed, bundled under the covers like a hibernating bear, even though the sky is a perfect shade of periwinkle blue. […]