I feel happy just looking at this salad; it’s like a tomato kaleidoscope, perfect for a summer barbecue. I always make it to mark the start of summer but the weather this year has been so unsettled that this is my first. I think it is worth trying to get as many different varieties of tomatoes as you can when you are making a tomato salad. These are from Borough Market where we picked up varieties like, ‘Aunt Ruby’s German Green’ and ‘Brandywine’. It makes such a difference to have varying sweetness and flavour; some of them tasted almost minty. This is one of those recipes that I always come back to as soon as the tomatoes are in season. Nothing fancy here – it’s just a tomato salad, but that’s the point. This is my mum’s recipe. Cheers mum!

Rainbow Tomato Salad

½ small red onion, very finely chopped
2 small cloves garlic, very finely chopped
Balsamic vinegar, your good stuff
Extra virgin olive oil, again, your good stuff
Salt and pepper
Enough mixed tomatoes to fill your serving plate when sliced
Basil leaves

- Slice the tomatoes (about 1/2 cm thick) and arrange on a serving plate.
- Scatter over the red onion and garlic and drizzle with the balsamic and olive oil.
- Season and garnish with torn basil leaves.

This improves after marinating for a few hours. It makes an awesome addition to a BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) sandwich, which is a personal favourite and speciality of mine. I have spent more time than is reasonable refining this sandwich and I am making a note to self now to post about it.

We ate the salad with some torn buffalo mozzarella, also from Borough Market (yes, we bought a lot of food there), drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and seasoned with a twist of black pepper. I love simple food like this on a hot summer’s day. We don’t have the heat yet but it’s summer in my kitchen.

We returned to Borough Market yesterday as promised and picked up some of those mushrooms that had caught our attention last week. We opted for the Buna Shimeji or Brown Beech mushrooms. These were perfect cooked in white wine and cream and eaten with some fat, juicy ostrich steaks. The flavour of the meat was rich and earthy and we cooked them rare, just like beef, as the seller suggested. Because the meat is so lean, it can be quite tricky to cut but once in the mouth, it is really tender. Next time though, I think thinner steaks will make for better eating.

We ate it with this fab yellow, round courgette, much sweeter than the standard variety. The trusty barbecue came out for the steaks and courgette slices, drizzled with olive oil and seasoning and cooked just in time before the first few drops of rain.

Ostrich Steak with Brown Beech Mushroom Sauce and Yellow Courgettes

2 ostrich steaks
An average clump of Buna Shimeji (Brown Beech) mushrooms
Dash double cream
Dash white wine
Small handful thyme leaves
Olive oil
Generous knob butter
1 yellow courgette

- Slice the courgettes, coat with olive oil and seasoning (not too much salt) and grill on the barbecue.
- Cook the ostrich steaks for 2 minutes each side, then rest in a warm place for 6 minutes or so (I keep the oven on low) until the sauce is done.
- For the sauce, saute the mushrooms in the butter and a drop of olive oil for a couple of minutes before adding a healthy splash of white wine and allowing it to reduce nicely.
- Add the thyme and a dash of double cream, remove from the heat and adjust the seasoning.

Yum, yum yum! The sauce was so flavoursome; although not overly strong, the mushrooms had a nice little kick to them. We finished the meal with one of these ‘coconut drops cakes’.

They consisted of chunks of coconut, glued together with a sweet, gingery coating, very, very moreish, although not the kind of thing you can eat all at once.

For lunch this week, we ate some really fresh, hand dived, seared scallops, served with stir fry, bacon bits and bread. The scallops were perfectly cooked and juicy. How cool is Borough Market?! I could go there every week and it would take me a very long time to tire of it. Sadly, my bank balance will not allow this. Borough Market isn’t the cheapest place to shop, but you are paying for the quality of the produce. If more people started shopping in markets and local shops, then obviously the price would go down, although this is a tourist attraction too, which partly contributes to the prices. The crowds don’t seem too bad when you are there however, because it’s just so damn impressive.Next week I’ve promised myself a different farmer’s market, but it won’t be long before I return to Borough.

I have ended up with a huge bag of pumpkin seeds after making the watermelon and feta salad at the weekend. The seeds do have a creaminess about them (although not as much as a pine kernel) and they have a nice nutty edge. I experimented with a pumpkin seed pesto earlier this week with our harvest of lemon basil from the ‘kitchen garden’ (aka ‘pot on the roof’). It was ok, but I added too much garlic (2 cloves instead of my usual 1) and it needed a lot more basil. By the way, if you haven’t tried lemon basil, it tastes fantastic and it smells like an essential oil. I have found it very hard to grow, so any tips greatly appreciated. We ate the pesto simply with spaghetti but I made a note to self to make an improved version and to dollop it into a veggie lasagne.

Fresh pasta is something that I try to make every few months if I have the time. Yes, it does take longer but I find it so satisfying and well worth the effort for the improved texture and flavour. You can control the richness of the flavour too by adding extra eggs, or just extra yolks, as I believe is the proper method.

Roasted Vegetable Lasagne with Pumpkin Seed Pesto

For the pesto

A good handful pumpkin seeds
A good handful basil (not lemon this time)
1 small clove garlic
A good handful grated parmesan
Olive oil
Pepper

For the pasta

300g ‘00′ Flour
3 eggs
1tsp salt

For the lasagne filling

3 small courgettes, diced
1 small aubergine, diced
2 red onions, diced
2 handfuls cherry tomatoes
1 red and 1 yellow pepper, diced

Small handful capers
Small handful Olives
Sliced mozzarella (as much as you dare)
Grated parmesan (not too much, it goes in the sauce too)

For the cheese sauce

1 pint milk
2 tablespoons grated parmesan
1 bay leaf
45 grams butter
40g plain flour

- Give the veg a nice coating of olive oil and seasoning and roast for around 30 minutes.
-Make a well in the flour and salt (either on a surface or in a bowl) and crack in the eggs. Gently incorporate until it is a soft but firm dough, adding a few drops of water if too dry and a sprinkle of flour if too sticky. Wrap in cling film and let rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.
-While the pasta is resting, make your pesto. If you have a mezzaluna then you are lucky. I don’t and I usually make my pesto in a pestle and mortar but I found the pumpkin seeds to be resistant to this kind of treatment and ended up pulsing it (very hesitantly) in the food processor.
- I add the garlic, basil and seeds first. Then remove from the processor, stir in a bit of oil to loosen it and add the cheese. Then I add more oil to reach the desired consistency and adjust the seasoning.
-For the cheese sauce, chuck everything apart from the cheese into a pan. bring up the heat until it thickens. Then remove from the heat and stir in the cheese.
-I use a pasta machine to roll out my pasta. I am assured that it is do-able by hand but I’ve never tried it.
-I layered the lasagne by starting with roasted vegetables, then a sprinkling of capers and olives, slabs of mozzarella, a flash of grated parmesan and dollops of pesto followed by pasta sheets and cheese sauce. I repeated this once more and finished with a slightly unreasonable amount of mozzarella, pesto dollops and grated parmesan on top.

I’m pleased to say that this turned out be wonderful despite the huge amount of bold flavours. I was sparing with the olives and capers but I couldn’t quite bring myself to leave them out altogether. I still think that they work, even with the pesto, and that fresh pasta made all the difference. I also experimented with leaving the pasta machine at number 5. This is too thick, although still delicious. The most pleasure to be had from this dish came the next day, when we ate it cold, with some crisp leaves dressed in olive oil, lemon juice and black pepper.

Serves 2 greedy people for 2 days or 6 people with sensible appetites for dinner.

Borough Market is food heaven. I can’t believe we didn’t get round to visiting sooner and we can’t wait to go back (next week). It exceeded expectations. There is such an overwhelming amount of fresh, local and lovingly made produce for sale. We tasted so many samples as we moved between stalls – all were delicious.

The selection of cheeses on sale was awesome; a sharp, creamy caerphilly, a strong gorgonzola, the best parmesan I have ever tasted and a stunning selection of really mature creamy cheeses that, in the words of the seller, had, “a taste of the farmyard about them.”

It was tempting to buy a bit of everything but we decided to calm down by seeking out lunch as the smells wafting around the market were so mouthwatering. Still riding the wave of our recent “ultimate kebab” quest, we headed for a stall selling Greek food and ordered 2 lamb kebabs in flatbreads with tzatziki. The breads were perfect and the lamb juicy. My tzatziki has always been lacking a certain something (see previous post) but today I found the answer – dill. It was perfect. And the sun was out.

We found these irresistible boxes of fungi; our mouths watering in anticipation of picking some up next week. We dreamed about classic mushrooms on toast and something perhaps with the more exotic meats on offer such as ostrich steak. I’ve only eaten it once before in South Africa and my memory is hazy.

The huge slabs of chocolate had crowds gathered around gawping and I made a mental note of the vibrant array of currants; red, white, black, they will all be delicious in my summer pudding – the first of the year. Next week is going to be a good one.

Anyway, enough about next week, what about today? I wanted to make one of my favourite salads, feta and watermelon. Now, I know what you are thinking, but I was making it way before Nigella made it famous (honest!) and mine is slightly different. Today, instead of the feta, we pick up some of the tangy Caerphilly and substitute that, which is wonderful. Much more exciting than the feta. I also add toasted pumpkin seeds to my version which I think adds wonderful texture and nuttiness.

Watermelon, Caerphilly & Pumpkin Seed Salad (Serves 2 with seconds)

1/4 large watermelon, seeds removed and cut into chunks
A wedge of Caerphilly (pictured below)
Handful pumpkin seeds, lightly toasted
Olive oil
Mint, leaves of 1 small bunch, chopped finely
1/2 average sized red onion, sliced thinly

- Combine the red onion with the melon and crumble in the Caerphilly.
- Mix the mint with enough olive oil so that it looks like a mint sauce and drizzle over the salad.
- Combine everything gently and garnish with the pumpkin seeds.

We ate the salad with strips of rare, rib-eye steak from our beloved butcher (yes, it is that good, it makes you snub the meat at Borough Market) which we cooked on the barbecue. We can’t wait to go back. I have my eye on those currants, some seared scallops for lunch, some ‘coconut drop cakes’, chocolate brownies, those mushrooms, oh dear…..

We have been without gas now for a week. The weather is far too unsettled to rely on the barbecue and the ‘hot plate’ that they (the gas people) have given us in the meantime is not capable of boiling a pan of water. This is inconvenient as we received some glorious beets in our veg box this week and I have been itching to make a salad with them.

It occurs to me that this is one of the few times that a microwave may actually be useful and after peeling them and slicing them into thin rounds I plop them into water and let the evil machine do its job (don’t get me wrong, I realise that the microwave does come in handy every so often, but for some reason I still resent having it in the kitchen). They take around 15 minutes to cook this way, which surprises me as I expect it to just nuke everything in 10 seconds.

This makes a really earthy, sweet/sharp salad which I think will eat brilliantly come rain or shine and, let’s face it, we’ve had both most days this year.

Beetroot with Cumin and Feta

5 medium beetroot
½ a standard block of feta
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar

- Peel and slice the beets into 1cm (ish) slices. Cook the beets in boiling water until just tender (or steam, which would probably be nicer).
- Allow the sliced beets to cool and spread on a serving plate.
- Drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkle over the cumin seeds.
- Crumble over the feta and serve.

We eat the salad with one of my favourite prawn dishes – amended to include some extra veggies out of fear that they will be overlooked due to lack of gas. The original recipe is from Steven Raichlen’s ‘High -flavour Low-fat Italian Cooking’ and it is so scrumptious with some crusty bread and a green salad, it is one of those recipes that you keep coming back to again and again. I haven’t reproduced the recipe as printed as I haven’t used it for years. I basically made it as described here but with a bit more wine, some thinly sliced fennel, broad beans and the finely chopped fennel fronds.

Pan Fried Prawns

Around 14 raw tiger prawns, peeled and de-veined
White wine (a good splash)
A pinch of chilli flakes
3 fat cloves garlic, peeled and given a smash with something heavy
A handful flat leaf parsley, chopped
2 handfuls cherry tomatoes, halved
Olive oil

- Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a good, sturdy pan (I used my trusty cast iron skillet).
- Add the garlic cloves and fry over a high heat for a minute or so.
- Add the cherry tomato halves along with a pinch of chilli flakes until nicely seared.
- Add a good splash of white wine and allow to bubble for a minute before adding the prawns until cooked through.
- Add the parsley right at the end and serve immediately.

I think that it is essential to have some good, crusty bread to mop up those sumptuous juices – irresistible!