Olympic Food Challenge: Avocat aux Crevettes Senegalaises - Senegal

Day Four of the Olympic Food Challenge.  Wasn't the opening ceremony amazing last night?  Not normally my kind of thing but I twisted the husband's arm and I'm so glad I did.  Aside from the obvious things I could mention like Becks in a speedboat, Daniel Craig and her Maj and Cav's eyelashes, it was just brilliantly bonkers and brilliantly British.  The only disappointment was Macca at the end.  Why, why, why does he just plain refuse to sing The Frog Chorus?  Just think what Danny Boy(le) could've done with that!

Straight from Abigail's Party

The slight tedium of the countries pouring in one by one was punctuated by my running commentary of 'I'm cooking that country and I'm making....' which just about made Trevor Nelson's inane wittering bearable.  Big up to Sir Tim Berners-Lee for giving us the joy of the internet so we could all complain about Nelson in union.  As for Huw Edwards...

Anyhow, today's pick was Senegal who held Team GB to a one-all draw in the opening men's football match.  They're fielding 35 athletes across a variety of disciplines, having come a long way since Tokyo in 1964 where they were exclusively involved in athletics. (Thanks to the London 2012 website!)  Located on the coast of West Africa, and with a population of just under 13m, Senegal's cuisine is largely influenced by French, Portugese and North African cooking.

The recipe I selected today is a starter to a menu for dinner for eight.  I wanted something I could make for lunch and I just loved how delightfully Seventies the dish is.  Basically, it's a posher version of prawn cocktail with avocado, eggs, chickpeas, tomatoes and peppers thrown in.  The recipe says that it's a bit complicated.  The most complicated part was dragging all the ingredients from their various locations and then attempting to follow the faffy plating up.  I've admitted before that my presentation was lacking so in some ways it was refreshing having someone instructing me exactly what to do but even then I did my own thing - using three Little Gem leaves rather than a pile of shredded lettuce and adding an extra quarter of egg to keep the 'power of three' layout evenly balanced.

Flag of Senegal

It was so Seventies-tastic, right down to the instruction to garnish with parsley (I had flat leaf and curly to hand but this just screamed for curly!), that I duly Instagrammed it with the 1977 filter.  The first time I've ever used that one.

Taste wise, it was an interesting combination.  The avocado, lemon and yogurt worked well.  The chickpeas were a bit of a curve ball and not something I'd look to do again in a hurry but they bulked it out nicely to make a decent lunch.  I liked the vibrant reds and yellows as prawn cocktail, much as I love it, can often look a bit insipid.

Probably a bronze in the grand scheme of things.  You can find the recipe here.

Wahaca Mexican Winter Salad

Yes, that's right.  It's the hottest day of the year so far and I made a Mexican Winter Salad.  Not only that but I've been cuddled up to a hot water bottle all day.  If you think I'm probably starting to lose the plot, you're wrong.  I lost it years ago.

These three events (hot day, excruciating back and leg pain, winter salad) weren't planned to coincide.  I picked the recipe mostly because I seriously couldn't understand why anybody would want to eat salad in the middle of winter.  Soup - definitely.  Salad?  Why.  But then the average temperature in Cancun is 23C in January (thanks Google).  Slightly different to the average 4C we can expect in the UK.  Which I guess kind of explains it.

So with the temperature at a toast 27, I guess today was as close as I'll get to eating like a real Mexican for a very long time.  The month started with J and ended in y too.  Tenuous but I feel I'm justified.

Why do my salads never look artfully tossed?

As I mentioned in a previous post, the standard Ingram family salad was just a bigger version of a pub side salad - lettuce, cucumber and tomato.  No dressing.  So to have a salad that contained none of those ingredients was a real departure.  In fact, my mother would have a fit if I served her this.  She doesn't like radishes and can't stand sweet things (oranges and pomegranates in this case) with meat.

I have to admit that I'd made up my mind before eating this salad that I probably wasn't going to like it. I don't like licorice and so the smell of the fennel  put me right off.   But having never tried fennel before, it's something else I can tick off my list of things to try before I finish this blog. I've also never been a fan of pomegranates - they seem a lot of effort for very little benefit in my opinion.  Plus the juice stains magnolia paint like you wouldn't believe (unless you used to own two African grey parrots who were obsessed with eating pomegranates and would flick the seeds up the wall).

But this salad - like all the other Miers dishes that I've been a little apprehensive of - just worked.  The balance of flavours was spot on.  I especially loved the spiky sea salt and sharp feta with the sweet oranges.  Served with a plain grilled chicken breast it was a delight and looked so very pretty.  I didn't include the Totopos - deep fried slivers of corn tortilla - purely because I'd've eaten way too many of them and having been put back on the 'running bench' whilst I get over my latest 'episode' I have to watch what I'm eating even more than normal.  I'm sure it would only make the salad even better.

Another fine recipe from Wahaca: Mexican Food at Home.  Really must start looking in some of my other books again!

Wahaca: Three Tomato Salad

I have hated fresh tomatoes with a passion for my entire life.  They loiter on the side of your plate in pubs, oozing their juice over the best chips or lurk surreptitiously in the middle of shop-bought sandwiches, making the bread soggy.  This makes me grumpy.  If I'm dining in company, whoever my companion is (historically my grandfather or mother, now the husband) will immediately be furnished with said tomatoes in exchange for cucumber and/or coleslaw.  They offend me so much I can't even have them on my plate.  It's the slimy insides I don't like.  And cherry tomatoes are the work of the devil as they have the greatest slime-to-flesh ratio of all tomatoes.

I've got nothing against cooked tomatoes.  Not cooked whole tomatoes, you understand.  But if they're in a sauce then I'm okay with that.  And, one of my favourite recipes from this blog so far has been Thomasina Miers' chilli jam - which contains mountains of tomatoes.  I keep a huge jar in the fridge to dollop into sandwiches or eat alongside salads.

Not quite as nicely styled as the book version but just as tasty

The only time in my thirty-something years on this planet that I've ever enjoyed tomatoes was the first time I met the parents of my very first boyfriend.  Despite him being off to the top end of the weird scale, I really liked his parents and when they offered to make us dinner, I politely accepted.  His dad was a keen gardener and grew all his own fruit and veg.  You can imagine my horror when the aforementioned meal turned out to be chicken with a fresh tomato salad.  But because I was bought up to have good manners (things have changed since then!) I accepted the plate with good grace and steeled myself to do battle with the mound of tomatoes, taunting me.

What a surprise.  These were firm and tasty and had that gorgoeous fresh-grown tomato smell.  I've always loved that smell and it reminds me of when my mum used to grow tomatoes when I was a child.  Dressed in a simple vinaigrette and sprinkled liberally with salt, they were an absolute revelation.  Nothing like those squidgy, slimy, dreary salad tomatoes peddled by the supermarkets.

Sadly for my tomato-eating career, we split up soon afterwards on the advice of his mother.  She had the sense to see I could do better for myself (I couldn't have done worse!).  Don't get me wrong - she liked me. She even told me I was dating the wrong son and that I'd be a fantastic daughter-in-law (I was a late starter on the dating scene).  But the weird, psychotic tendencies of son number two quickly sent me running for the hills.

The past fifteen years have been plagued by further encounters with both people firmly at the wrong end of the weirdo scale and nasty tomatoes too.  I'm sure I've eaten in places that could've changed my tomato fearing mind, but it's just something I would never consider ordering.  When you go out, you go out to eat for pleasure, not to torture yourself.  Lycopersicoaphobia has remained firmly rooted in my psyche.

Until I got my copy of Wahaca: Mexican Food at Home by Thomasina Miers.  If you're a regular reader, you'll know I adore Thomasina's books.  And I'm now eager to holiday in Mexico one day (although I'll be going by myself as Mr Fussy wouldn't eat the food and would worry that he'd get kidnapped by a Mexican drug cartel).  Flicking through the book, the one recipe that really captured my imagination was the aforementioned Three Tomato Salad.  Yes.  Seriously.  I've been obsessing about this for a couple of weeks now to the point where I'm wondering exactly why I'm craving something I can't stand.

For the record, I would like to categorically state that I am not pregnant.  My mother will obviously be very disappointed by that.  My boss will most likely be relieved.  As will the husband because he's starting to make noises about me working late too often.  I am actually working to keep a roof over our heads!

Pretty colours

So today, I headed to Morrisons to pick up some real tomatoes.  They've recently revamped the fruit and veg section and you can buy all manner of weird and wonderful things.  And lots of it doesn't come stuffed into a huge plastic box so you can just buy what you need.  Okay, it's probably more expensive, but I don't mind paying a bit more to buy only what I need if it's far tastier than a giant economy pack of flavourless tomatoes.

I was spoilt for choice with stripy Heirloom tomatoes and tiny orange plum tomatoes, regular cherry tomatoes on the vine and pretty orange and yellow tomatoes.  I really wanted someone to share this joyous occasion with but the husband is crashed out on the bed after another session of the Insanity workout and I'm too impatient to save it until the next time I'm at my mothers so it seemed the perfect antidote to yet another wet and dreary day.

The flavours are amazing.  Fresh tomatoes with feta and pineapple, mixed with a red-wine vinegar dressing.  The salt of the feta cuts beautifully through the sweet tomatoes and is balanced well with the acid from the pineapple and the dressing.  In fact this now ranks up there with my all time favourite recipes from this year.  And I have enough tomatoes left to make it again for tomorrow's lunch.  I was planning on using them to make Gazpacho, but it seems a criminal waste of beautiful tomatoes.

I'm now firmly converted!

BBC Good Food Griddled Chicken and Corn on the Cob

There's a quote from my favourite film that just about sums up the advice I'd like to give out to several people that I know today.  It's something that I need to learn to remember as well.


"But sometimes a person we love, through no fault of his own, can't see past the end of his nose."


I won't go into any details on the subject, but it just about sums my day up.  And why although I think my day today has been a Crappy day from Crapsville, there are people around me who've had worse days and have worse problems in their lives.  There are also people who I know are currently judging me for apparently not seeing past my own mediocre problems who if they knew the whole story (which of course, is none of their business) would understand my apparent myopia.

This July weather makes for rubbish light in my kitchen

Anyway, enough myopic belly button staring.  Monday's are always a tough day for fodder in our house.  It's a long day in the office, now preceded by a 4am start for a run so by the time I'm home at 6pm, tea needs to be quick, simple and tasty.


Monday's are the day I really rely on the simplicity of BBC Good Food to come up with something from the content of my fridge.  This is from the June 2012 issue of the magazine which is still lurking on my sofa.  I've still to find the time to read the latest edition.


I needed to stop off for a couple of bits and was horrified to find that corn cobs were £1.99 for two.  I know it's out of season, but I just couldn't justify the expense at the moment.  Especially when I know in a few short weeks, they will be selling them fro about 25p each.  So I improvised with tinned corn, cooked it in a smoking hot frying pan and it still chargrilled really well.


There's not much else to say about the recipe other than it's simple and quick.  I'd not thought about making my own spice coating much before - I tend to use the Schwarz pre-made ones - but this worked quite well and I'll use it again to add a bit of variety.  


You can find the recipe online here.


PS: Without Googling, do you recognise the film that this line is from?  I've only watched it about 1,000 times and know it word perfectly.

Leith's Thai Noodle Salad

So today was a bit of a big day.  First day back at work.   4am alarm call. New healthy eating regime (again).  Restarting the exercise thing (again!).  New boss (thankfully he's quite nice if you feed him cake - just not after midnight).  400-odd emails in my inbox after a two-week holiday (that excludes the fifty-odd I read and replied to whilst I was away, and I'm not even important!)  A mountain of washing that still needs to be conquered.

I had intended to make a low-fat turkey chilli for lunch, but then I realised I hadn't organised myself well enough for lunch at work (this was at 3.57am, just before the alarm call) so I decided to whack together a little prawn noodle salad, thus saving me from temptation at the salad bar in the canteen at lunchtime.

Healthy luncheon

Ordinarily, when I'm at my base site, I'll have a jacket potato and salad.  Trouble is, salad is about the only thing they do well and I usually end up with pasta or rice salad and coleslaw and all manner of other lovely salads, covered in dressings crammed on to my plate, meaning that I'd probably have done better to have something else.  But making my own instead, even if it meant cooking noodles before 5am, meant that I managed to stay relatively safe during day one.


Despite eating lots of rubbish on holiday, lugging around a 15kg toddler meant that I came home 4lbs lighter than when I went.  We walked several miles most days and this is a long way when you're only two.  When you're thirty-five and carrying a two-year-old it seems even further.  I now not only need to see a chiropractor about my hip pains (which keep interrupting my running) but also my bad back and neck from too many piggy backs.  I'm keen to keep up the weight loss momentum so healthy eating and low-impact exercise will be replacing cake and toddler carrying for the next few months.


The recipe today came from my Leiths Simple Cooking book.  I adapted it based on what I had in my fridge and it worked quite well for a lunch box meal.  The flavours were delicate, it was filling enough for me to miss out on my afternoon snack that the diet allows and it made me feel thoroughly virtuous.  Definitely a diet make-again as it's less than 300 cals.


Serves 1 (adapted from Leith's Simple Cookery)

• 1 nest medium egg noodles (I used Blue Dragon, 158 cals for the nest)
• 100g cooked and peeled King Prawns
• 3 radishes, finely sliced
• 3" chunk cucumber, cubed
• 2 spring onions, cut diagonally
• 1/2 red chilli, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp nam pla (fish sauce)
• a couple of sprigs of coriander, chopped
• a few mint leaves, chopped
• pinch of soft brown sugar
• splash soy sauce
• 1 lime

1. Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.  Once cooked, drain then run under the cold tap.
2. Cut the lime in two.  Squeeze the juice of one half of the lime into a small bowl and stir in the nam pla, soy sauce, sugar, chilli, coriander and mint.
3. Mix the vegetables, prawns and noodles together then pour over the dressing.
4. Squeeze the juice from the other half of the lime over the dish just before serving.

Diana Henry's Diamond Jubilee Chicken

I finally got round to making this, albeit a day or two late.  Mostly because the only person who I know who would've enjoyed this dish would've been the Queen of my life - my beloved Grandma.  Our Jubilee celebrations were somewhat muted by her absence.  It's been nearly seven years since she passed away and her presence is still keenly missed at significant events.  Especially when they involve the Queen, because when I was little, I genuinely thought she was the Queen.

She used to have the same kind of perm that was hairsprayed to within an inch of its life.  She was short like the Queen, never showed her emotions when she was sad and was the perfect matriarch to keep us all in line; yet would always put herself before everyone else when there was a crisis.

It tastes better than it looks in the picture!

So much so that I honestly believe that she wanted to be so much more; but she was born in a time where women knew their place and did as they were told by their fathers and then their husbands.  That's not to say that my grandad bossed her around - far from it. But just simple things - like what we had for dinner - were dictated by the male of the household.

Whenever I moan about cooking two or three different dinners, I always try and remember that we were bought up eating what made my grandad happy and she'd only get her way over dinner if we went out to a restaurant.  He's a little more adventurous these days, but it took years to twist his arm.

I remember Coronation Chicken being introduced to the household at some big family event or another.  Curry wasn't even permitted so the idea of cold chicken curry was completely radical.  I'll readily admit that I ate a bit and turned my own nose up at it.  I'm not sure if my memory fails me but I swear it had something like grapes or raisins in it.  And that's what put me off.

But as I matured and my tastes changed, I started to enjoy the amazing Coronation Chicken sandwiches I used to get from a tiny artisan deli near Exmouth Market when I was living and working in London.  And I'm sure I enjoyed it at least once when my grandma made it before she passed away.  But of course it's one of those things that I've parked on a 'not without Grandma' shelf since then.  Along with the chocolates that I bought her back from holiday the day before she left us.  They lived in the back of my fridge - moving house twice - until recently when I finally threw them out.

Anyhow, it felt appropriate to try a modernisation of Coronation Chicken to celebrate the Jubilee.  I was torn between this recipe and BBC Good Food's reworking of it.  The Torygraph recipe won out simply because it was more faithful to the original recipe - using fresh mango whereas the Beeb used pomegranates.

Queen of my heart (second left)

Overall, it worked really well together.  The old-fashioned dressing complimented the fresh, modern flavour of mango and avocado and I loved the touch of the crunchy nuts.  My only gripe was that the dressing was a bit tasteless but I'm assuming that it depends completely on the ingredients that you use.  It includes mayonnaise, curry powder and mango chutney.  All of which will vary greatly depending on the brands that you choose to use.  I would normally use Geeta's Premium Mango Chutney, but had run out so bought some of Tesco's Finest Mango and Apricot Chutney.  It was particularly sour and vinegary - not something I'll be using as an accompaniment to a curry.  And the mayo wasn't my usual brand either.  So it took a little tinkering until I was happy with it.  But of course, my quantities will only work for someone else with similar brands and a similar palate.

If you're not all Jubilee'd out and looking for something different to serve for a special occasion, this would be a good sharing dish.  But beware of the industrial quantity of dressing it makes!  You might be eating it for days on end so make sure you like the flavour.

You can find the recipe here.

Lil Ms Squirrel's Panzanella

I was on a course today and during the breaks (because my mind NEVER wanders when I'm at work), I got to thinking about identity and more specifically how I identify myself.  Like most courses, you had to do the 'Name, Job Title, How Long You've Been With the Company, Tell Us Something Unusual' icebreaker-y thing at the start.  Knowing pretty much everyone in the room, I may have tuned out just a little and focussed my attention on the course notes.

When on another course recently, we were asked to do the same exercise and I decided to shake things up a bit by introducing myself with my Twitter profile.  It sums me up quite well in 140 characters and tells people more about me than they would probably ever care to know.  Saying so much in such as small amount of letters is pretty amazing for someone like me who has a tendency for verbosity.

If you've never seen my Twitter profile (why not??!), I sum my self up like this:


"Slummy mummy, blogger, jogger, maker, baker, doer, high heeled shoer, daydream believer, Mrs @lccphotography, and international woman of mystery"

Just to clear up 'The International Woman of Mystery' bit, I work for one of those institutions that if you knew who it was, I'd probably have to kill you.  In fact, I'm now worried every time I vaguely mention my work on my blog that I'm violating our recently published social media policy.  Mostly because with a bit of smart Googling, you can find out what I do and where.  I'm not at all important.  But I like to keep people guessing.



Salady goodness



I have various personas depending on the situation but at work, if people don't know me personally, they know me as 'the lady with the shoes'.  The men always joke about who will steal my shoes (especially the red patent heels) if I have to leave them in one of the 'safe' areas before donning my oh-so-sexy safety shoes.

All of the older ladies on site are very taken with my collection of towering heels and enviously tell me that they wish they were young enough to still get away with wearing shoes like that.  And take great delight in telling me that I'll be in for a bout of varicose veins in a few years time and will find comfort in a frumpy pair of Dr Scholls like my mother used to wear when she was my age.  I'll stick to running shoes, thanks all the same.

Today, I was sporting a new pair of turquoise suede platform shoes - with a five inch heel.  Hardly practical for any job but worse when you are on a site tour with someone from H&S who has issues with high heeled shoes.  To be fair, said person was quite right and having been on my feet most of the day (normally I sit at my desk bare foot) by the time I got home, I was tired and had sore feet and really couldn't be bothered with dinner tonight.

The temptation was to just toast the remains of yesterday's sourdough and slather it with butter and jam (not all on the same area - I don't like the two things spread on top of each other - but of course, I had to try something new for the blog.

With a lack of vegetable matter in the fridge, I hit on the idea of a panzanella.  I've seen this made on the tellybox several times before and have always shied away from it because it involves stale, soggy bread.  I don't do soggy bread - I like mine crispy.  But the one thing I was pretty sure about was that this is one of those salads with a myriad of interpretations.  And I wasn't wrong.

In fact, Wikipedia (which of course is totally true) states that the modern version of panzanella is a salad of stale bread, soaked in water and dried and tomatoes, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.  It then carries on to list a whole raft of other things that you may include in a panzanella.  Stopping just short of throwing the kitchen sink in.  In fact, if you didn't know better and if you pick and choose correctly, you could actually end up with a Salad Nicoise instead. 

So, I set about making up my own panzanella.  I kept made sure I had tomatoes - which I'm actually beginning to like after all these years since I've forced myself to eat them whilst writing this blog.  And I did the bread thing, but instead of soaking it to bring it back to freshness, I actually baked mine to make croutons.  I'm sure a real Florentine traditionalist would have a dose of the vapours over that choice.  I then added some sald vegetables, fresh herbs and a chopped up pan-fried chicken breast.  With a lemon dressing (I left out the recommended garlic - mostly because I have a lot of meetings tomorrow), I had myself a really nice storecupboard salad (okay I keep my salad in the crisper in the fridge, but you know what I mean!).

And because the salad was vaguely virtuous and I've not eaten since breakfast, I think I fully deserve the last of my fully loaded brownies.

So this is how I made my salad for one.  Easily multiplied but not in this house as it contains vegetables.  And I'm the only one who eats them.

Recipe

• 1 ripe tomato, cut into eight chunks
• 3 inch piece of cucumber, cut into chunks
• 1 slice day old bread - sourdough or other rustic bread is best
• 2 tsp chilli olive oil
• 2 tsp plain olive oil
• 1/2 small red onion, finely sliced
• 1 chicken breast
• 2 tsp Schwarz chargrilled chicken seasoning
• small handful of fresh mixed herbs, chopped - I used basil and coriander
• half a little gem lettuce (optional)

For the dressing

• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp white wine vinegar
• juice of half a lemon
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cut the bread into 1/2 inch cubes and toss with the chilli olive oil.

Bake in an oven preheated to 220c/200c fan for 10-15 minutes until brown and crispy

Butterfly the chicken breast and sprinkle both sides with the seasoning.

Heat the 2tsp plain olive oil in a small frying pan and pan fry the chicken for about 10 minutes, turning once, or until fully cooked.  Remove from the pan and leave to rest for five minutes, then chop into chunks.

Meanwhile mix the cucumber, tomatoes and onion and herbs in a bowl.

Mix the dressing ingredients and season to taste.

Combine the chicken, croutons, vegetables and dressing.  Mix well then serve on the lettuce (if using).

BBC Good Food Potato Salad with Caesar Dressing

Whilst the warm weather has made me productive in some areas (getting the washing done and dried), it's made me lazy in other areas (slaving over a hot iron/computer to write my blog/hot stove etc etc).  Tea last night was an indoor/outdoor barbecue (last Friday's post will fill you in on this).  We ate the leftover food from Friday's barbecue along with salad and new potatoes.

I always over-estimate the number of new potatoes I need (or rather that the husband will eat - approximately two) so was left with a huge pile in the fridge.  Having been to lazy to make myself sandwiches last night, I had an epiphany at about 4am this morning as to what to take to work for my lunch - potato salad.

Not just any potato salad, but a Caesar dressed potato salad - the idea coming from a recipe I happened across on Friday when looking at recipes for Caesar dressing.  Bingo.  I still had some dressing left from Friday so stirred one bowl into the other and hey-presto, I had lunch.

A little heavy on the prosciutto!

To give it some body I also threw in a chopped up frankfurter (we always have them in the fridge because it's about the only lunch the husband can make for himself).  It was a really nice lunch - mostly because my beloved grandma used to make me a similar potato salad with frankfurters for my lunch when I was a kid (and probably why I was so fat back then).

Because my dressing had been 'developing' in the fridge for a couple of days, I will admit that iit tasted fishier than I remembered from Friday and if I'm honest and was making it again, I'd probably leave them out because I'm really not a fan and I'm sure the dressing tastes fine without them - it's just obviously not a true Caesar dressing.

You can find the original potato salad recipe here.  It's much easier than the one I made Friday because it uses shop-bought mayonnaise rather than making your own.  The dressing I used came from Thomasina Miers' Mexican Food Made Easy, one of my favourite books.

And because I'm so lazy and there was so much left over, I ate the remainders for my tea - without the frankfurter but with baked prosciutto crumbled over the top.

Thomasina Miers "The Original Caesar Salad"

My two favourite things about summer are picnics and barbecues.  Reading Good Food Magazine this time of year makes me insanely jealous because of the picture perfect family gatherings they show accompanied by pages of recipes for tasty outdoor eating.  The closest we generally get as a family to outdoor eating is a cheese and ham toastie in a pub garden - mostly because the husband wants a beer.

It's not for want of trying.  Whenever I invite my family to visit in the summer, it always rains and we end up eating indoors.  We do occasionally go on picnics to Corsham Lake but my new fear that Miss A is going to end up drowning herself looking for the sheep that was stuck in the lake on our last visit, coupled with the husband's discerning food palate (I once made cheese and onion bread for the picnic - this didn't go down well and all he ate was Hula Hoops and bananas) means that it's not really the relaxing, joyous occasion that I always hope for.

Then there's the barbecue.  Source of endless despair.  The current incumbent was purchased two years ago.  It's not been used.  Not for want of trying, but the husband has this paranoid fear about setting fire to things.  I think I only got away with having lit candle votives scattered around the tables at our wedding reception was because he was so nervous beforehand - and then so inebriated from the apple vodka a Polish friend bought - that he didn't notice  So whenever I suggest a barbecue, rather than beating his chest like a caveman (how I assume most men react to the thought of cooking large slabs of meat over open fire) he finds a way to convince me to cook indoors and eat outdoors.  I feel like Hyacinth Bucket (a reference for UK readers) with her "Indoors Outdoors Barbecue with Finger Boo-fay"

Summer lunching

But because our bottom-of-the-garden neighbour angered the husband earlier this week for randomly burning stuff in his chimenea at 11 o'clock in the morning and making two loads of washing stink of smoke, the husband is determined we will have a barbecue tonight to exact revenge and smoke out said neighbour.

There is a small flaw in this plan.  It has nothing to do with wind direction or the fact we barbecue on our patio which is a good twenty-feet from the neighbour's house.  It's the fact that the minute it stops raining and it's warmer than 10C, the bottom-of-the-garden neighbour barbecues every single meal.  Well maybe not his cocoa pops, but in weather like this, they often seem to have all day barbecues every day.  So any effect from our paltry barbecue will be lost in the fug that regularly emanates over the bottom fence.  But still, if it means we actually get to eat real, barbecued food then who am I to complain?

In anticipation, I went a bit mad with the Ocado 3 for £10 offers this week and have enough barbecue food to reciprocally barbecue every meal for the next week.  I never thought for a moment that this was an ideal opportunity to try something new on the barbecue.  And so this is why, after thumbing through Mexican Food Made Easy and rueing a missed opportunity, I settled on trying a Caesar salad.  Mostly because I still have some anchovies left over from another experiment and have no idea what to do with the strange little salty fish.

I never would've guessed that the salad had its origins in Mexico but apparently it was invented by an Italian chef in a restaurant in Tijuana.  I knew the story about it being thrown together in desperation when they ran out of food, just not that it was in Mexico - hence it's inclusion in the book.

In essence, it's just lettuce with some croutons (made using a square of the gorgeous foccacia that I made and partly froze) tossed with the ubiquitous dressing and then covered with shavings of parmesan.  But of course, it's that ubiquitous dressing that caused the problem.

Because I wanted to halve the ingredients and didn't want the faff of messing up my food processor, I toyed with the idea of making the dressing manually so researched other recipes and they pretty much all use regular mayonnaise, thinned down with a variety of liquids including white wine vinegar, lemon juice and yogurt.  I toyed with the idea but then figured that it would be someone else's recipe and not Thomasina's.  So sticking with the original quantities, I got under way.  Except the rubbish food processor attachment for my Kenwood Prospero didn't even touch the ingredients with its blades.  I ended up scooping it all back out and putting it into the blender attachment instead.  This time it worked better but I ended up with double the faffy washing up!  And the anchovies were still a bit lumpy - but you can't have everything.

Worth it for a really tasty, if unhealthy salad.  And it now means that I know what I'm having for lunch or dinner over the next few days.  Bang goes the diet :-/

Grilled nectarine salad with roasted chicken, feta, rocket and peanuts

This evening I had what was very nearly a perfect meal for a perfect, summer's evening.  In fact, the meal was perfect.  There were just a few things that spoiled it.

Number 1.  My dogs.  They are intent on trying to burrow their way under the fence to Percy's house.  Percy is a scruffy little white dog who lives in our bottom-of-the-garden neighbour's house.  The need to burrow is accompanied by a lot of noise.  To the outsider, they sound fierce.  With insider knowledge of my two dogs, they just want to play.  Despite being five and four they both behave like mad puppies - even in this heat.  It's really quite exhausting - if I was a dog, I'd just want to laze on the patio.  Still - it saves me from having to dig up lots of weeds.

Number 2.  The absence of a perfect man to share the evening with.  Or in lieu of him, I ate alone as the husband is off shooting vintage pinup pictures in an oilseed rape field - yellow flowers, red-haired model, blue sky.  All very arty.  If I'm honest though, I didn't mind so much that he wasn't around because there was no face pulling that I had fruit, cheese, nuts and chicken all on the one plate.  Nor complaining that I had to take a picture of my dinner first.  Or that it was too hot to eat a cooked meal (he would've had chicken and Uncle Ben's rice with gravy because it's Wednesday).  So I sat and daydreamed about having perfect company in the absence of any.  Tall, dark, handsome, rich, well mannered, eats what's put in front of him and knows how to treat a lady.   A girl can dream.

My new favourite meal, ever!

Number 3.  A chilled glass of Chablis or Prosecco.  I generally don't drink (for no reason other than I'm a lightweight) and very rarely think of having alcohol with a meal.  And I'm certainly too old to drink on a school night.  But this dish and the beautiful evening was just crying out for a little drinky to celebrate the end of a lovely day.  Well it would've been lovely if I'd not been stuck at work all day.  But you know what I mean.

So why this dish?  Well thumbing through my Leith's Simple Cookery the other day, I happened across a recipe for nectarine, feta and rocket salad.  On the way home this afternoon, I had a sudden urge to sink my teeth into a beautifully ripe, yellow-fleshed nectarine.  And with all the other ingredients at home, I figured that would be a good recipe for tonight (I failed on the planning front this week so am just picking things randomly each day).

Then, when I looked online to see if I could find a link for the recipe to put on the blog, I happened across this recipe  by The Food Fox instead.  I was utterly sold by reading the post about the lucky, lucky person who can just drive to their local farm store and buy whole boxes of fresh-off-the-tree nectarines.  I was so jealous.  I don't even want to consider how many food miles my paltry tray of four nectarines travelled.

Nectarines are right up there at the top of my favourite fruit list.  During summer I will pretty much eat nothing else on the fruit front apart from nectarines and raspberries.  Until that very sad day when you bite into a nectarine and the flesh is all furry and you realise the season is over for another year.  I love peaches too.  I'm just not a fan of the fuzzy skin.  The only downer on the nectarine front was that I could only get white-flesh ones.  The taste is great, but the salad would've looked so much better with the juice-oozy yellow-flesh fruit in amongst the pale feta and chicken.

As the blog says, the dish is an assault on the taste buds and senses.  Salty, sweet, sour, crunchy and creamy.  Every mouthful is a different experience with the punchy mustard or the salty-smooth feta, teamed with peppery rocket and crunchy peanuts.  I would eat this every night for dinner throughout the summer and would never get bored.

It's so filling too.  Sometimes I feel a bit cheated with salads simply by their virtuousness and feel that they need some degree of carbs on the side - fresh bread, minted new potatoes in their skins, a little cooled, dressed pasta.  But with this one, I honestly felt absolutely stuffed afterwards, like I'd eaten a big, fat meal and it still came in at less than 500 calories - even with peanuts thrown in.

Now off to enjoy the last of the daylight once I've added it to my make again list.  Shame I can't have it for tea tomorrow!

BBC Good Food Oriental Duck Salad

Today's post is a variation on a theme from yesterday.  More duck. Still couldn't face the idea of duck and grapefruit so decided to go with an duck noodle salad for a working from home lunch.

The inspiration came from BBC Good Food although like with so many recipes, there are versions of this salad all over the shop.  And because I was time limited, I adapted it for my own needs.  I wanted something I could make in ten minutes so that I could spend the other twenty minutes of my lunch break sat in the back garden.  Admittedly I was slurping with one hand and scrawling notes with the other, but at least I got to see the sunshine for a change which was great.

Sunny lunch in the garden - love the reflections

The original recipe roasts a duck leg in the oven but as I had duck mini-fillets, I seasoned them and then pan fried them.  A little too much in fact as they were a little too overcooked for my tastes but they still tasted good.  I didn't have celery so replaced this with a handful of beansprouts.  And I warmed my noodles back up because the idea of hot duck and cold slimy noodles didn't really do it for me.

Actually, it always frustrates me when I read comments on recipes on the Good Food website where people say 'I really enjoyed this recipe.  But I didn't use the recommended meat or vegetables and I changed the spicing and cooking method yadda yadda'.  I want to shout at my screen 'So you made a totally different recipe so how could you give it five stars?  Or no stars?  Why bother commenting on a recipe for a chocolate cake when you ended up making spag bol?'  Okay so I've never found one quite that extreme.  But there are some that are nearly that bad.

So here's the original recipe if you want to try that.

And here's what I did instead

Recipe - serves 2 

100g duck breast mini fillets
1 bunch ramen noodles (I used blue dragon)
1 medium carrot, made into strips with a vegetable peeler
2 spring onions, cut into thin strips - reserve some greens for the garnish.
handful of bean sprouts
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp sesame seeds
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Cook the noodles according to the packet instructions.  Drain, refresh in cold running water and place in a small saucepan.
Season the duck breasts, pan fry for four minutes then remove and slice thinly.
Mix the hoisin, soy and sesame oil.  Tip into the saucepan with the noodles and warm gently.
Mix in the sesame seeds and vegetables, divide between two serving plates then top with the duck.
Garnish with extra soy and the spring onion greens.

Leith's Warm Sushi Salad

I lost my sushi virginity at the relatively ancient age of 23.  I was going through a difficult time and a good friend phoned me and told me he'd take me out for a swanky dinner in London to cheer me up.  I was cheered merely by his call because I had a little crush on him and the thought of dinner together made they dark day suddenly seem rosy.  He asked where I'd like to go and being completely indecisive and not knowing London very well, I said I'd leave it up to him.

He met me from the tube and walked me past many fabulous restuarants around Long Acre and Covent Garden before arriving at the doorway to a Japanese restaurant.  He asked if this was okay and not wanting to seem fussy/difficult/demanding I nodded a hesitant consent and stepped inside.

I'm not *that* old but I swear a decade ago, you couldn't buy Sushi in the local Tesco Express (did they even exist then??) so the concept was still novel to someone as green and naive as I was then.  He's a very traditional, slightly posh chap so I left the ordering up to him.  A nine course taster meal at £40 a head.  A lot of money in those days when you've not long left uni, have a huge student loan to pay off and can't actually afford to buy yourself a winter coat, let alone go Dutch on a meal (plus the drinks) like that.

I did at least know that I'd be expected to eat raw fish, but nothing prepared me for the arrival of caviar the size of Maltesers and something that looked remarkably like fish eyes.  I did manage to enjoy some bits like the gorgeous tempura prawns and the vegetarian sushi.  But it was spoiled by him betting me that I could eat the rather odd ball of pea-green paste on the side of one dish without my eyes watering.  The deal was that if I won, he'd pay for us both.  And if he won I'd settle up.

Of course, I lost (I just about held onto my dignity before I had to dash off to the ladies to fix my mascara) and whilst I was gone, he proceeded to order a rather expensive bottle of wine to toast my first foray into the world of Japanese food.

Needless to say, the bill hurt more than the wasabi and maxed my previously just-shy-of-the-limit credit card right out.  I spent the rest of the winter without a coat.

Luckily, it didn't put me totally off sushi and I'd love to have that meal over again so that I could appreciate it.  And in case you were wondering, we are still friends.  We don't speak often and see each other even less, but I count him as one of those people you can call on in a time of crisis or happiness.  Life and work just gets in the way far too often.  Last time I saw him I accidentally locked him outside of a meeting room in the snow.  It wasn't revenge, honestly!

Sharing that tale makes me wish I could go back in time and give that me a hug and tell her that things got better and a lot different and that she'll become a survivor.  What doesn't kill us only makes us stronger!

Anyway enough of the deep stuff!  The Nori, sushi rice and the wasabi I used when I made my own sushi back in January has been clogging up my store cupboard and so this recipe seemed like the perfect alternative to all the faff of trying to make perfect sushi shapes.

When I made it, it didn't look like much but it was really filling.  It's probably double the amount of sushi you'd get in one of those pre-packaged lunch boxes.  And I bet if you found it in a restaurant it would be called something trite like 'Deconstructed Sushi' and come with an astronomical price tag.

Serves 4 - Adapted from Leith's Simple Cookery

• 225g/8oz sushi rice
• 4 tbsp sushi rice seasoning (I used Clearspring)
• Wasabi paste
• 1/2 cucumber, peeled and diced
• 225g/8oz smoked salmon, sliced (I used Waitrose Smoked Salmon Trimmings)
• 1 avocado pear, diced
• 2 sheets Nori - shredded
• Japanese Pickled Ginger to serve (I didn't have any of this so decorated with bits of salmon)

1. Cook the rice according to the package instructions.
2. Mix the sushi seasoning with enough Wasabi paste for your taste and mix with the rice.
3. Stir through the cucumber, avocado, smoked salmon and most of the shredded Nori.
4. Divide between serving plates and garnish with the shredded Nori and ginger

Mary Berry's Salade Nicoise

One of our senior managers' favourite phrases is 'Every day is a school day'.  And today, I've learned why hardboiled eggs sometimes stick to their shells when you try to peel them.  I only learned this after nearly ripping my poor little boiled egg to shreds as I was trying to assemble my salad.  It didn't make for a very photogenic picture (I will never be a good food stylist anyway!), but it was tasty, nevertheless.

I noted down to make a Nicoise a few weeks ago when rummaging through my Leith's book for ideas.  Given the sunny weather over the weekend, it seemed an appropriate choice for tea tonight.  And thankfully the awful grey, wet morning gave way to a lovely sunny evening which meant eating salad didn't seem like so much of a bad choice.

There are so many variations on a Nicoise, that I plumped for Mary's version just because the book was close to hand at tea time.  All classic recipes have their variations.  I found some use potatoes (I didn't go with this as I'm trying to watch my calorie intake), others used sun-dried tomatoes (in all honesty I would've preferred this as I don't like fresh tomatoes, but again it was all about the calories).  There are also many different opinions on the dressing.

It may not be beautiful but it tasted good!

What I knew from somewhere deep in the depths of my brain, however was that is based around tuna, has  french beans and black olives and then other random salad vegetables thrown in.  Even the tuna is a contentious issue.  From the five recipes I looked at, four used tinned and one used fresh.  I would've preferred fresh, but because I keep buying tuna when I see it on special in the supermarket and putting it in different places in the store cupboard, a recent stocktake revealed seven tins so it seemed madness to waste more money buying fresh.

Some recipes used Cos lettuce, one used Iceberg, one used spinach.  I plumped for Little Gem as they were on offer in the supermarket.  Because I was after traditional here, I braved both fresh tomatoes and anchovies.  Mary adds cucumber to hers.  I went with this purely because I love cucumber and it's really low in fat (although I'm not sure it's traditional).  She uses a mild white onion.  I had half a red one left over so in that went, rather than wasting another onion.

And then the egg.  I don't like hardboiled eggs when the yolk is set.  Never have.  I love the white bit, but I hate the powdery texture of a fully set egg yolk.  Especially if it's got that nasty grey ring around the outside.  So for me, it was important to have my egg with the white just set enough but the yolk still runny enough to dip soldiers in.

I already knew to add salt to the water to make sure that the egg doesn't burst.  And you can stop the nasty grey ring by running the cooked eggs under cold water (not environmentally friendly!).  I also tend to cook my eggs from cold - I've figured out that 15 minutes over a medium heat works best (or about 9 minutes if you put them in boiling water).  Being environmentally friendly on the washing up front, I also through my beans into the same pan at the 10 minute mark.

Unfortunately, however, trying to peel my really fragile boiled egg (remember the middle isn't set so it's really delicate), I was disappointed to find the shell was ripping off bits of white with it.   I persevered and made it look just about respectable enough for the picture.  The minute tea was over (and I'd recovered from having to eat both tomatoes and anchovies in one sitting) I was Googling a solution to the problem.

And it turns out that my eggs were too fresh.  Apparently they need to be a few days old.  The trouble with that is, how can you tell with shop-bought eggs?  Yes, they have an expiry date.  And yes, horror of horrors, before I started this blog and got through a mountain of eggs each week, I would often use eggs that were a week or two out of date (and I'm still here to tell the tale!).  But how can you work out how long has elapsed between it being laid and ending up in my shopping trolley?

So next time I want really good hard boiled eggs (a rare occurrence anyway), I will make sure I use some that are near their expiry date rather than ones I've just bought.  Or just peel really carefully and know that I'll have ugly looking (but great-tasting) eggs.

As for the recipe, I deviated a bit from Mary's instructions.  And so I'd suggest just doing a bit of research and picking a recipe that works for you.  I really liked the meal, even with the fresh tomatoes but I think I'd try with the sun-dried ones next time for the intense taste.  And potatoes on the side because I'm still hungry.  Blooming diet!

Warm Spicy Lentils with Beetroot and Goat's Cheese

Having suffered from a serious carb-overload at the weekend, I once again turned again to this month's issue of BBC Good Food magazine to get me over my bread- and pasta-filled stupor.  The recipe is from a promo-ad for a particular brand of toothpaste.  I only paid attention to this small detail when I realised that the calorie count wasn't at the bottom - a sign from the Good Food team that either it's an endorsed, therefore untested recipe or that the calorie count is so stupendously high that if you have to ask what it is, you really shouldn't be eating it.

I still try to kid myself that I need the carbs for running.  Except that I don't run half as much as I used to which is why I'm now struggling so hard to find the right combination for weight loss.  Despite never going back to my 'Jabba the Hut' days, I still yo-yo up and down by a couple of stones depending on what lemons life cares to throw at me.  And, indeed, what I choose to do with those lemons.  If things aren't going well, I'd be more likely to make a tart au citron and eat the lot than lemonade.

People who know the un-photoshopped version of me (my husband is a photographer so I look nothing like my profile picture in reality), and didn't know me back in my more active running days are still surprised when I tell them I run.  Just this morning, one of the guys I work with looked me up and down and said 'You run?  Really?' and stifled a snigger.  The comment had been initiated by me turning up to work in running shoes.  Normally I'm only ever seen in the office in heels (or barefoot).  The joke was that I'd run the 35 miles to work through the snow because nobody seriously believed that I do actually run.

In fact, in just five weeks, I'm running the Bath Half marathon for Guide Dogs for the Blind for the second time.  Last time was 2008 when I finished in 2h 13m.  This time, I'll be happy to get round in 2h 30 as I've only really been back running for five weeks, but I'm running for charity which is the only thing keeping me on the case at the moment.

Anyway, today's tea was the punishment for the weekend crime of a huge plate of sausage pasta with garlic bread (I was desperate for a dinner that wasn't something new) and consuming the best part of the Giraffe loaf I baked on Saturday.

There's nothing healthier than a plateful of lentils.

The recipe called for puy lentils but scouring the shelves of our local Tesco, I could only find red or green lentils.  A quick Google revealed them to be pretty much the same.  Mr Crisp would be pleased to know though that my tin of green lentils was significantly cheaper than if I'd gotten proper puy lentils on my weekly Ocado shop.  Whilst reading up on lentils (thrilling), I was also amused by the comment that they were good to bulk out regular recipes rather than eating a plate of just lentils which can seem endless.

Healthy lentils blanketed by cheese

When I picked up the can this evening, I was quite hungry and figured I could probably polish off most of them.  That was until I drained them.  Opening the can was something akin to opening a tub of rice from the Chinese takeaway.  It looked all tiny and innocent until the lid was removed and suddenly the contents expanded to ten times the volume of the original container.  I swear the quarter-tin that I needed for the recipe was enough to feed a family of four for a week.

Overall, the recipe did feel pretty healthsome, even with a huge lump of grilled goats cheese on the top.  I'm not sure about the flavours.  I wouldn't call it spicy per-se as it uses smoked paprika.  It was tasty but needed seasoning that the recipe didn't call for.  And if I'm honest, I would've probably preferred the smoky paprika flavour to be coming from some small chunks of crispy chorizo.  It was a bit like eating something made from Quorn.  It had that 'meaty' taste, but without actually eating meat.  Kind of a little fake and disappointing.

Anyhoo, if you're looking for something healthy and/or veggie, you could do a lot worse than this dish.

Serves 4

• 4 medium beetroot, peeled and cut into wedges
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp thyme leaves, chopped
• 4 spring onions, sliced
• 2 celery sticks, sliced
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• 400g Puy or green lentils, drained
• 50g sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 200g goat's cheese, cut into 4 slices
• 100g baby spinach leaves
• 2tbsp parley, roughly chopped.

1. Heat oven to 200c/180c fan/gas 6.  Place the beetroot wedges in a roasting tin, toss in 2 tbsp of the olive oil and add the cumin seeds and thyme leaves..  Roast for 30-35 mins until tender.
2. Heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan and saute the spring onions and celery for 3-4 mins.
3. Stir in the smoked paprika, lentils and sun-dried tomatoes. S tir occasionally for 5-6 mins to heat the lentils through completely
4. Grill the goat's cheese until golden and bubbling.
5. When the beetroot is cooked, add to the lentils with the spinach and parsley, and mix to combine.
6. Divide the lentil and beetroot mixture between 4 plates and top each one with a slice of grilled goat's cheese.  Serve immediately.

Prawn rice noodle salad

The trouble with cooking for one is that you often end up with piles some special ingredient with a limited shelf-life and having to eat it for days on end.  Kind of like the Christmas turkey, you have to keep looking for different and interesting ways to use ingredients.  Or just eating the same thing over and over again.

This weekend saw me with prawns and rice noodles a-plenty.  And I really wasn't in the mood for them after Friday's lovely Singapore noodle-fest.  But, this challenge is all about looking for different recipes and being a little adventurous, which is why my lunch today is a prawn and rice noodle salad - with mango.

Sweet and meat is kind of like marmite.  You either love it or hate it.  Growing up, whenever it was gammon steak for tea, there was one camp inhabited by my mother and grandfather where pineapple on the side was a crime (they had a fried egg instead) whereas my grandma and I embraced the contrast of salt-pink gristle and oversweet, metallic-tinged pineapple rings alongside lashings of cauliflower cheese (heaven) and oven chips (god how I hate those things).

Please excuse the tidemark round the box...

But sweet and seafood is an entirely new thing for me.  The ingredient seems very pan-Asian but seeing as how the furthest East I've been is Turkey (the place, not the bird) I couldn't say if it's anywhere near authentic.  But I had all the ingredients to hand and it sounded portable so game on.

It's different.  I adored the dressing, but still not sure about the salad as a whole.  Probably a 'grower'.  I'm not saying I wouldn't eat it again, but I wouldn't go out of my way to make it in my current lifetime.  I don't know anyone else who would eat it if I cooked it.  I know people who would eat bits of it (my mother the prawns but she'd hate the mango and peanut butter, the child would eat the mango) but unless I am ever faced with visitors with distinguished tastes, the next time I eat this will be when I throw caution to the wind in my late fifties, take a gap year and backpack round the far East.  Like I said - not again in my current lifetime.

And please excuse the tidemark around the box in the picture...trying to save on the washing up, I mixed it in the box - lazy or good for the environment????

Mixed Bean Salad

Today was one of *those* days.  My best intentions to get up and run at 4.30am were scuppered by a night of interrupted sleep.  So my plan to treat myself to something lovely for tea went by-the-by as the run was moved to this evening, meaning I had to re-research a recipe quick-smart.

I should've known it wasn't going to be the loveliest of days when I volunteered (read ever-so-slightly-co-erced) into doing something that wasn't my responsibility at another of our sites.  This particular site isn't far away from my main base, but you might as well be in the back of beyond.  It's a whole other hostile climate down there.  I do mean the weather of course - cold, wet and freezing on a ridiculously flat and exposed landscape is just not fun.

And the local diet is based on whatever past-its-sell-by-date fayre happens to be left in the vending machine.  So a quick lunch recipe seemed to be the solution.

Thumbing through my recipe books whilst juggling my hairbrush and eyeliner, I found a recipe for mixed bean salad - great idea to use up the leftover beans from the soup I made on Monday.

Lunch time!

The book is something like the Barbecue Summer Bible or 101 Barbecue Recipes or something like that.  One of those books that look like a really good bargain in the supermarket and then just sit there gathering dust as day after day after day it rains and then just when you pack all the garden stuff away, out pops the sun and you just can't be bothered to go to all the faff of barbecuing and head for a pub lunch instead.  Well that's what happens in our house (mostly because the husband has a bit of a fire phobia!)

Really simple recipe that you can just throw together with the contents of the fridge.  I just had enough for one portion but it was filling and felt super-healthy, even with the addition of some feta that wasn't in the original recipe.

Also, having a selection of Garden Gourmet herb tubes in the fridge is proving a real boon for dishes like this.  No more need half-dead 'Living Herbs' to adorn my window-sill in winter months.

Serves 4 as a side dish

400g tin mixed pulses
1/4 cucumber diced
4 spring onions, finely sliced
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced (I rarely have fresh tomatoes as I don't like the slimy middle so used red pepper instead)
100g feta cubed
2tbsp oil
juice of half a lemon
1tbsp fresh basil
2 tbsp fresh parsley
2-3 garlic cloves minced

Mix it all together.  Season well with salt and pepper.  Serve.  Simples!

Well the book was a bit more long-winded than that, but am now too tired to copy it out!