Category: Lunches

  • Cheat’s Prawn Ceviche with Avocado

    Cheat’s 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 within 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…

  • Burrata Salad with Courgette, Basil and Pistachios

    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 in the south of France, the temperature has been balancing on the cusp of 40C for more days than I care…

  • Easy Spaghetti Vongole

    Easy Spaghetti Vongole

    Many great spaghetti dishes come together 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…

  • How to Make Fluffy Focaccia (and survive a heat wave)

    How to Make Fluffy Focaccia (and survive a heat wave)

    The heat wave came without warning. Although I can’t say the same for the focaccia. That came from an all-consuming craving for salt-crusted cushion-soft bread, and no matter how many heat waves we suffer, there will always be a focaccia in this house. I have not experienced many heat waves in my life. This is…

  • French recipe: Crab Soufflés

    French recipe: Crab Soufflés

    To conclude February, my food bucket list of 2022 begins, commencing with these light, creamy crab soufflés, an easy yet outrageously decadent lunch for you to treat yourself! In case you missed it, I’ve chosen 10 delicious recipes to make this year – a hopefully easy-to-achieve number, especially as I’ve waited until 27th February to…

  • The Ultimate Tuna Melt

    The Ultimate Tuna Melt

    In my opinion, lunchtimes don’t get any better than a tuna melt, full of molten cheese. But can such perfection be improved? Nostalgia is a peculiar thing. Flavour is a major culprit. Just the smell of certain foods can transport us back to our childhoods – whether it’s a snack, drink or particular ice cream,…

  • Juicy Carne Asada Steak with Loaded Nachos

    Juicy Carne Asada Steak with Loaded Nachos

    Carne asada nachos isn’t the recipe I was expecting to post at this time of year, but here we are. Veganuary, which 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…

  • French recipe: Tartiflette

    French recipe: Tartiflette

    I’ve eaten an eye-watering amount of processed meat recently. They say a diet of processed meat is bad for you, but when push comes to shove, I bet whoever ‘they’ are would submit to that meat coma with the rest of us. I emerged from this pork-induced fog after eating four-days’ worth of rillettes, saucisson,…

  • How to make gyozas

    How to make gyozas

    When you move to France, gyozas aren’t the first foods which come to mind. I should be writing a diary about all the baguettes and eclairs I eat, not Japanese finger foods. For those who are interested, I eat a lot of baguettes, but we had one with lunch today and it was a BIG…

  • The Best Dressing for Asparagus

    The Best Dressing for Asparagus

    Ahhh asparagus… You’re the sneakiest of vegetables, yet we seem to love you for it. This will not be an ode to asparagus, although I could probably write one, yet I’ve already done that with blood oranges and sometimes I think the fruits and vegetables of this world just want our worship. Tell me what…