Yummy sausage-based discovery

I'm always after new food ideas and I scour delicious magazine avidly each month. I fold over the corners for anything I fancy trying; I judge the success of each issue by how many foldy corners wadge together at the top.

Of course, many corners represent foolish pipe dreams - sashimi plates I'll never dare to make and ice cream for which I don't have the requisite equipment. But, each issue, there will be a gem. Usually noodly, sometimes salmony, but increasingly sausagey.

A couple of months back I found this: sausages with creamy lentils. It takes around 40 minutes to make, so it's just about achieveable as a quick mid-week meal. And, boy, is it easy! Minimal chopping, hardly any stirring, plenty of leave-it-and-see time. I pimped it slightly, of course - I didn't bother twisting the sausages into smaller versions (because that's just weird), I left out the garlic and fresh coriander and used creme fraiche rather than yoghurt. But whatever - do what you will. That's the joy of food, as far as I'm concerned - we all know how to make things for our own taste.

Anyway - go and try it. Get the recipe here: http://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/sausages-with-creamy-lentils

PS: makes good leftovers too.

Alive and well and eating

I'm sorry - I haven't been in touch. I've been an erratic blogger. I said I'd be here with news, dear reader, and I wasn't. I didn't even tell you more about Madrid!

But I'm alive and awfully well. And I'm discovering the eating delights of Smithfield. If I were the kind to use the phrase foodie heaven (which I'm not), I'd use it to describe the Smithfield area. It's a gastronomic delight, and no mistaking.

Never mind the fact that every famous, modern lunch chain has a branch right on my doorstep. And never mind the fact that there's a plethora of beautiful traditional old pubs to hand. I'm not even counting those things.

A short walk away I've discovered The Modern Pantry - a cutesy, wholesome restaurant with a fantastic choice of takeaway options for lunch. If you haven't tasted their aubergine quiche and soba noodle salad you don't know real happiness.

Then there's Farm, home of the fish finger bap. There's lesser known chain Benugo, with their excellent Parisian panini. There's Abokado for wonderful sushi.

When evening rolls on, you can choose from Hix Oyster and Chop House (also a good lunch venue, for small snacks at the bar), posh old Club Gascon, and any number of swanky bistros and brasseries.

I might be some time.

A slice of Madrid at home

So you knew it was just a matter of time, right? Before I got ideas above my station? And felt the need to recreate the Estado Puro tapas at home? Don't you hate always being right?

I didn't feel adventurous enough to try the tortilla in a glass. But I did try out the cute little patatas bravas with a swirl (or in my case, dollop) of sauce.

I consulted the Book of Tapas - otherwise known in my house as the 'big yellow book of chomps' - for a standard salsa brava recipe and followed it to begin. It's a bit of white wine vinegar, a dash of worcestershire sauce, some crushed garlic, chilli flakes and a whole load of paprika mixed together. But it wasn't thick or rich enough, so I took drastic steps.

First I added one teaspoon-full of salmorejo mixture, which I was making at the same time. Salsa brava doesn't traditionally contain tomato, but it feels as if it should! To thicken the sauce I heated it intensively, stirring constantly until it made a deep red paste. A quick taste - similar enough to the restaurant's original. I selected same-size, neatly shaped small potatoes (I can't remember which kind, but ones suitable for baking, not boiling). Once the potatoes had baked in their skins for about 40 minutes I took a scoop out of the top of each and plopped in some sauce. Another five minutes in the oven unites potato and sauce nicely, and they're ready to serve.

Also on my twee plate (pictured above): a small ramekin of salmorejo, asparagus spears, slices of tortilla, jamon iberico and onion-stuffed mushrooms. Yum, eh?

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Lunchtime creativity

One of the best things about having some time at home is access to my kitchen at lunchtimes. And, of course, a little bit more time to be creative about the food I prepare. I'm not a sandwich fan so I've challenged myself to make a lunch I love every day, from whatever I've got in the cupboards. And I've come up with some delicious results.

Roasted tomato soup

Easy as pie (or even soup), this one. Put a handful of either cherry or baby plum tomatoes into an ovenproof dish with a drizzle of olive oil and a splash of balsamic vinegar. Roast them in a hot-ish oven for about 20 minutes. Once they've cooled enough not to give you Freddie Krueger burns, decant them into a bowl with fairly high sides. Add half a slice of bread torn into chunks, a small spoonful of creme fraiche, a squeeze of tomato puree and a splash of water. Blend it all with a hand blender and you're done. If you prefer soup to be piping hot you can heat it a little at the end (add a splash more water if it starts to thicken).

Leek and parmesan risotto

Chop one leek very finely and soften it with a bit of butter or spread in a large frying pan. Add a large handful of either risotto or paella rice and stir it around to coat the rice with the butter. When it's starting to look and sound squeakily dry, add half a pint of either chicken or vegetable stock. Put a lid on and let the whole thing simmer until the rice grains are puffy - check now and again, because you might need to add more water. Once it's done, add a spoonful of creme fraiche (detecting a theme?) and as much grated parmesan as you fancy. Smother it with black pepper before tucking in!

Salmon noodles

Heat some chicken stock with soy sauce until it reaches boiling point. Add a salmon fillet, broken into large flakes, and some sliced shiitake mushrooms. Once the salmon is cooked, turn off the heat and add slices of spring onion and a forkful of ginger (the kind you can get in a jar is easiest). Either cook noodles in the microwave or add them straight into the salmon broth, depending on what kind of noodles you have. Serve the whole thing with a last drizzle of soy sauce.

So that's my top three, for ease of preparation and satisfaction at the end product. Can you inspire me further? What's your favourite lunchtime feast? Ah go on - tell me!

Cous cous I said so

Since I got back from Morocco, the question I've been asked most is "how was the food?" People ask it in an envious, anticipatory way as if I'm going to tell them tales of world-class cuisine. I'd expect such hushed reverence if I said I'd returned from, say, Paris or rural Italy. But Morocco?

Many of my holidays are based around food experiences: you've probably noticed by now I'm quite partial to food! But when I booked the trip to Morocco I wasn't expecting world-beating cuisine. It turns out I was astute in my expectations.

Ok - Moroccan cuisine has the potential to be fantastic. The country grows fantastic fresh produce and makes use of a wonderful array of spices. There's a few well-known national dishes - tagine, cous cous, pastille, kefta, harira - and they're often cooked very well indeed. But ... it's all a bit....well, samey.

We travelled quite extensively around the country, from the west coast across to the Sahara in the east, across the Atlas and back over to the southern west coast. We experienced busy modern towns, old medinas, small villages, tiny outposts and touristy ports. We ate in fancy restaurants, family-run riads, remote service stations, small cafes full of locals, tourist traps and mock-European places. And my overriding food memory of the country can be summed up in one word: tagine.

There's a few exceptions. The 'Berber pizza' is worth a try, and reminded me of a lamb pasty. Some of the traditional Moroccan salads presented as appetisers in all the typical riad restaurants are delicious. The seafood in places like Essaouira makes a real change and is perfectly cooked. But these things stick in my mind primarily because they're exceptions. Most lunchtimes, wherever we'd just arrived, the menu choices were tagine, cous cous or kefta. Always in the same order, too - "tagine, cous cous, kefta" - like a menu mantra!

I did have one outstanding tagine: spiced chicken pieces with onion and tomato topped with a fried egg. It made a change from the standard chicken and lemon, lamb or meatball ones. Of course, I can't for the life of me remember the name of it! Anyone?

During our stay we found a leaflet listing the top restaurants in Morocco. I don't know who did the choosing! We were fortunate enough to visit three of them during our stay. One was completely overrated, one was pretty good and one - Le Patio in Essaouira - was outstanding. I ate fish with an olive cream followed by a delicious apple tart. The food was a fusion of traditional Moroccan and European; it still made use of excellent local ingredients but broke away from the menu-mantra. I feel a bit sad that my favourite food experiences in the country were the non-authentic ones, but that's the way it was.

Before I went, I asked someone on Twitter how he'd enjoyed the same tour a few years ago. He said it was excellent but "there's only so many tagines you can eat". My sentiments precisely.

Spring, spring, spring

Spring is in the air and Easter is here, which immediately makes my food-brain turn to springy food. Eggs, asparagus, mushrooms, cabbage, watercress, beetroot, spring onions, etc.

One of my stand-by Easter lunches is scrambled eggs on toast with asparagus. It's dead easy to make and deliciously light. Add a bit of smoked salmon, if that's your bag.

Another favourite at this time of year is savoy cabbage and spring onions mixed into mashed potato, served with roast chicken or sausages. I may also try it with an oven-baked salmon fillet.

This evening's dinner will be tagliatelle with assorted mushrooms, spring onions, asparagus and a creamy sauce. Again it's awfully easy to make - just remember to add the cooked pasta into the sauce and vegetables, rather than pouring the sauce onto the pasta. It's the Italian way, apparently!

There: a whole post with no splash of red wine! Well, it's spring - rose or white would be far more appropriate ...

Soupy water

A colleague recently came into the office with a huge container full of carrots. Apparently she had a big bagful at home and felt obliged to munch them before they went off!

I immediately suggested she made carrot and coriander soup: it was my first thought. Other people later suggested carrot cake or batons to dip in hoummus, but I stuck to soup. I'm a very soupy person.

And then I realised I go around saying I'm 'soupy' but haven't made my own soup for ages and have a fairly limited repertoire of recipes.

So ... answers on a postcard, please. Let me know your favourite soup recipe by adding a comment here. And I'll make some, and tell you how I got on!

Cottage with an orange roof

I've just discovered cottage pie with sweet potato mash on top. Yes, I know I'm well behind the times!

Folk say it's better for you, but I'm not sure exactly why. In my book it just makes a nice change and tastes more interesting.

Cottage pie is surely one of the easiest and most satisfying things to cook. Just bung lean mince, chopped onions, carrots, beef stock and a bit of red wine in a frying pan and fry it until the mince is cooked. At the same time peel a couple of sweet potatoes, chop them into small cubes and boil them until soft and squishy. Mash the potato (on its own - no need for butter or any of that malarkey). Then you layer it all in an ovenproof dish with the potato on top and shove it into an oven for 20 minutes.

It makes great lunch leftovers too, and I've got a cunning tip for transporting it effectively. Set aside a small portion of each (mince mixture and potato) before it all reaches the oven. Place them side by side in a tupperware container to make sure it doesn't all go mixed-up and soggy. The next day, microwave the whole thing for a few minutes and layer it onto a plate, like a little orange-roofed cottage!

Just brie!

It works just as well without the bacon, too. Just brie and the cranberry sauce. I'm just quality-checking it as I type!

I can't remember anything by The Cranberries

I can't be alone in my cranberry sadness. Every time I open the kitchen cupboard in January (sometimes even February and March) I look glumly at a languishing half-full jar of cranberry sauce, collecting dust.

I can't not buy it for Christmas dinner - roast turkey just wouldn't be the same with one trimming missing - but what does one do with it afterwards?

Well, never fear: I've discovered the delights of a brie, bacon and cranberry panini. Slice up some brie, add small pieces of cooked smoked bacon and smear on a dollop of cranberry sauce. Toast the whole thing in a sandwich or panini toaster and chomp it up! If you don't have a sandwich toaster, you could have the same filling in a baked ciabatta or just a sandwich.

And if you haven't got any leftover cranberry sauce? Make your own - it's incredibly simple. Put two handfuls of fresh or frozen cranberries into a saucepan with the juice of half an orange and one dessert spoonful of caster sugar. Heat it until the cranberries burst and it starts to look 'saucy'. Let it cool down a bit, then have a taste and add as many squirts of honey you need to make it sweet enough.

In fact this whole blog post has been a sham: I made my own cranberry sauce last Christmas and I don't even have an abandoned jar in the cupboard. But I can still sympathise with my former, cranberry-sad self.

Graze skies

Thanks to the delivery of the latest delicious magazine (I received the subscription as a Christmas present - hurrah!) I found out about Graze.

It's based on a simple premise: we know we should snack on small portions of delicious, nutritious nibbles throughout the day but we're too busy, lazy or unimaginative to provide ourselves with sufficiently tempting snacks. This is particularly pertinent for office workers, although I find I'm just as bad when I'm at home, personally.

Graze sends you a box of goodies, divided into 'just right' portions. They're certainly delicious and nutritious, aiming to provide at least one serving of fruit alongside something a bit more decadent. There's a huge range of snacks on offer, and you rate what you've received online; the bit where you browse the website and mark which food you love, like or want to try is almost as good as the eating bit! I spent a whole lunch hour rating snacks last week. It's worthwhile when your box arrives at the office containing the likes of wasabi coated peanuts and fresh pineapple slices.

The good news is that they're currently offering a free trial box, followed by one at half price. You do have to sign up, but it's easy to cancel or suspend deliveries at any time. Visit the Graze site and enter the code GB6C7QT to take advantage of the offer. The even better news is that for every 'friend' I recruit using this code, Graze will donate £1 to the Rainforest Alliance on our behalf.

Start grazing - it's the future.

Middle eastern delight

I spotted a dish I didn't recognise on the tapas menu in a restaurant recently. I'm quite nosy and inquisitive when it comes to food (well, when it comes to most things!) so it's unusual for me not to have at least some clue what's in a recipe. But in this case, I hadn't.

'Imam bayildi with Greek yoghurt and flatbread', it said - nothing more. So I asked what it was and the head waiter was sent over to explain. He described 'a middle eastern dish of aubergine cooked down with spices and dried fruit'. Well, that was good enough for me - put me down for one of your finest, good sir!

His description turned out to be accurate but he forgot to say it would be amazingly delicious and a teensy bit addictive! The next day I was online searching for imam bayildi recipes (of which there are many and varied) and it has now found its way into my repertoire. So here's my version, for your delight.

First chop a smallish aubergine into inch-sized cubes and place them in a colander sprinkled with a little bit of salt. Leave it for a while, then cook it over a high heat on a griddle pan for 5 minutes, with a tiny bit of oil.

At the same time, toast some cumin seeds in a large dry frying pan. Once the smell of the cumin starts to waft, add some olive oil and a very finely chopped red onion. Add a splodge of tomato puree, some sultanas, a shake of ground coriander, a pinch of ground cinnamon and the griddled aubergine. Pour over half a cupful of water and leave the whole thing over a low heat (covered if possible) for half an hour or so. It really can't cook down enough, so you can get away with leaving it for longer as long as it doesn't 'catch' on the bottom of the pan.

When you're ready, add the juice of half a lemon and serve it with flatbread and sour cream.

*The restaurant was St Alban, near Picadilly, and is always fantastic.

Spanish highs

I wasn't disappointed by Spain, you'll be glad to know!

The food adventure started with a visit to the Delicatessen in Tarifa, which serves pretty good jamon iberico by the racion (sort of medium-sized portion). They also make a fantastic salad of asparagus on a bed of salmorejo (a sort of tomato sauce/soup) and delicious Cava. It's in a lovely location, perfect for sitting in the shade for hours with a book.

Next we ventured to Jimena de la Frontera and found a small, typical Spanish bar on a noisy hill (Jimena is a very steep town, so almost everything is on a hill!). We ate fantastically good ham, a tortilla de patatas and some asparagus. As I was saying before, almost any bar in Spain will have some tapas available and it's usually pretty good no matter how basic the place looks!

We also had a couple of picnics with food bought from Eroski, the Tesco-style supermarket. Even fairly inexpensive supermarket-bought ham is good in Spain, so you just need to buy some bread and cheese to go with it.

Some parts of Spain now have fancy 'fusion' restaurants - one of the best we tried was Posada La Sacristia in Tarifa, although the one in hotel Escondite del Viento was pretty good too. I ate local fish with tabbouleh, salmon and tuna sashimi, a tuna thing with rice, banana fritter and a salad with guacamole - all very delicious.

But I can probably eat that stuff anywhere and it isn't why I go to Spain. It's all about the ham!!

Jamon jamon

I'm going to Spain next week, so I'm very excited. I'm mainly excited about the food - in fact I can hardly wait!

I guess Spain isn't renowned for its excellent cuisine, but its signature food is simple and delicious. You don't need to do anything fancy with Pata Negra ham - just slice it. You can't go far wrong with a tortilla espanola or a handful of Marcona almonds. You'd be best advised to put olives in a dish and leave them be, rather than trying to infuse them with garlic oil or stuff them with an anchovy.

I look forward to my annual jaunt to Spain for just this reason: it's easy to pitch up at almost any tapas bar and order some ham, olives, a tortilla and a nice glass of red wine, which will all be delicious. Far better than complicated messed-with food at some fancy faux-Spanish place.

Best possible taste

Sometimes we ask someone's opinion because we suspect they'll think the same as we do, and just want our own opinion verified. It's just nice to have some agreement and do that smug nodding.

Such was my attitude towards this year's Taste of London festival. I wanted to go along and confirm my opinion of certain restaurants. I checked the list of restaurants attending beforehand, read their menus and made a list of what I wanted to eat. Then I'd be able to go, "yes, just as I thought - Busaba Eathai does serve great chicken satay. Boy, do I know resrtaurants!"

Fortunately I left my list at home. Also some of the queues were a bit too long to handle and some dishes didn't look as nice as they had sounded. So I wandered blindly, checking the menu at each stall as I went and tasting a variety of different things from places I didn't know very well. In other words, got the best from the festival.

My highlights were sizzling wagyu beef on hot rocks from Cocoon, tunapica from Asia de Cuba, lemon tart with strawberries from Rhodes 24 and prawn pomelo with peanut from Busaba Eathai (ok, so a couple of old favourites sneaked in, and I was right ...).

The highlight of the festival overall, though, wasn't food-based. Cocoon restaurant also offered a sake tasting. We were led through six or seven types of sake by a very friendly and knowledgeable sommelier. Unfortunately it was over-popular, cramped and noisy (just in front of the food counter); it definitely merits its own stand or masterclass next year.

Biscuit princess

When someone asks, "what would you like for your birthday?" the correct response is always "biscuits".

I was lucky enough to receive some fantastic birthday biscuits this year. They came in a pretty pink tin, from Fortnum and Mason, which winds up and plays 'Happy Birthday To You'. The biscuits themselves are lemon curd, chocolate chip and shortbread varieties and are delicious with tea.

Truly biscuit royalty!

Next time you're in the Maldives

Ok, so this is a bit self-indulgent. Even if you are about to go on holiday to the Maldives it's unlikely you'd go to the same resort as I did. And it's not the sort of place where you can pop over to another island for dinner! Nevertheless, I was pleased enough with my Maldives restaurant experience to write about it.

The resort we visited (Komandoo island) has an a la carte restaurant called Aqua, which opened fairly recently. It gives the chef a chance to be a little bit more experimental and extravagant with food than he would in the 'all-inclusive' restaurant. Generally food for holiday-makers in the Maldives tends to be good, but unimpressive. It's healthy, well-cooked and often delicious but unmistakeably mass-produced and calculated to please all. So I was delighted to be offered an alternative, and I was very impressed and pleasantly surprised by what we found.

I ate an amazing seafood and pasta dish with tomato sauce, a lobster bisque, lemongrass and curry soup, reef fish served with potatoes and salsa, plus too many amuse bouches to mention. This is on several occasions, of course, rather than at one huge blow-out ...! The food has Maldivian, Indian and pan-Asian influences, with distinctly European presentation. I think I'd even give it one of my highest accolades: it's London restaurant standard!

So, if you are ever passing ...! Actually, I just noticed on the island's website that Aqua is "designed to offer our guests a culinary art beyond their expectation", which is more or less what I just said, but shorter!

If you can do without the MSG

Sticky beef with cashews

Go on then - have a recipe. Half borrowed from the June issue of delicious magazine and half improvised the night before last.

'Toast' some cashew nuts in a dry frying pan for just a moment, before adding some chopped ginger (according to personal taste - I add loads). Fry it for a couple of minutes, then add four dessert spoons of light soy sauce, two dessert spoons of tomato ketchup, a teaspoon of honey and a pinch of chilli flakes. You could try adding some sweet chilli dipping sauce, if you felt adventurous! Add 50ml of water and turn up the heat, then add some broccoli florets and cook the whole thing until the broccoli is done.

Separately, pan grill a sirloin steak until it's slightly underdone for your own preference (but I think you'll find medium rare is correct ...!). Leave it for a moment, then cut it into long, thin strips. At the last minute, stir the beef strips into the other ingredients. Serve it all on top of some egg fried rice with a squeeze of lime juice.

Stick a fork in me ...

Ready to bleat

There's been a bit of fuss lately in the free London 'newspapers' because some Pret a Manger sandwiches aren't made on the shop premises. They're put together at a larger branch and transported to smaller ones.

So? Does that make a difference? I mean, how fresh do you need?! They taste the same, you were oblivious two weeks ago and it's not as if they are stale or mouldy when they reach you. Really - just get over yourselves!

I don't care where they are made: I quite enjoy a nice Pret picnic somewhere nice in the warmer weather. What you want to worry about is when smokers come along and ruin your cosy spot!

Tea is better than coffee

In the world of tea rooms, an honourable mention must go to Kim's Coffee House in Saffron Walden.

Firstly, it has the most amazing selection of tea, all loose leaf. It's served in great teapots which don't lose the heat immediately and is of a great quality. Ask to see the 'full' tea list and try the Sikkim - somewhere between an Assam and a Darjeeling.

Secondly, the food is pretty good. One expects a nice selection of cakes from a tea room, but this cafe serves a good range of sandwiches, salads, breakfast options and homemade cakes. I had a delicious open bagel with mounds of smoked salmon, presented with a huge lemon wedge and some black pepper.

Thirdly, it's in a good location and has a nice garden at the back.

My only complaint is that it isn't open on Sundays!