Category: Summer
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Prawn ceviche with avocado
Our evening binge-TV is Modern Family. There are 11 seasons so it looks like we’re covered until next summer (who am I kidding, we’ll be finished in a month). In an episode we watched the other night, a character lamented, ‘Do you remember when summer meant fireflies, cut-off shorts and ice cream trucks?’ Do I […]
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Burrata salad with courgette, basil and pistachios
At the beginning of the summer, the thought that one day I might be sick of salads was a laughable concept. Fresh, cold and crunchy, salads was everything the weather was not as here, the south of France has been balancing on the cusp of 40C for more days than I care to remember, and […]
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Spaghetti vongole
Many great spaghetti dishes are ready in under 15 minutes. Aside from a slow-cooked ragu or a Bolognese, a spaghetti dinner gives you little time to prepare yourself, whether that’s finishing an email, video game or conversation before it’s on the table, steaming its way into a gluey tangle. Carbonara, spaghetti aglio e olio (the […]
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French cooking: Spiced apricot tarte tatin
I’ve never kept it a secret that I’m a winter girl at heart. My favourite foods usually involve pastry or suet, I mean, I love lard for goodness’ sake. However, I will admit defeat in favour of summer fruits. This season can claim proud responsibility for the best fruits of the year. One of those […]
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No-churn cherry ripple ice cream
I have been living and breathing cream for the last week. My cream-focused projects have ranged from both ends of the heat spectrum, from baking a dish of it for 12 hours, to plopping it whipped and cloudy into a loaf tin before freezing. And as this blog post is titled ‘no-churn cherry ripple ice […]
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Hummingbird cupcakes
When I moved to the south of France, I expected skies in the exact shade of blue as a Swedish hunk’s eyes, sun-drenched river banks, warm terracotta soaking up the sun, and me, lounging in my garden with a chilled cocktail clasped leisurely in hand. Now, a year later, I can only testify to the […]
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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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Carne asada nachos
Carne asada nachos isn’t the recipe I was expecting to post at this time of year, but here we are. Veganuary, as you may know or have heard of, has no doubt settled under my skin. My sub-conscious urges me to eat salad after a month of gorging myself (see last month’s confessions of a […]
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French cooking: 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, […]