tapas

Roquefort cheese and chilli chorizo together - a revelation! Toast rubbed with garlic and fresh tomato and drizzled with olive oil.  Tomatoes fresh from the market chopped roughly and roasted with garlic, onion, cumin, thyme, olive oil, bay leaves for hours on a low heat in the oven turning occasionally, served with goats cheese and fresh bread, or in a salad with advocado or whizzed up into a glorious soup with a drizzle of olive oil on top...

ooh la la!

I had the great fortune to be in possession of three vital ingredients needed to create a salad I'd been dreaming of for quite a while.  Compliments of Bill Granger, who does simple easy food that is never boring.  His version was lychees, chilli and mint - and I did have some tinned lychees. But after peeling sweet orange segments for a fruit salad that weren't used I decided to go with these, chopped mint and a pale green chilli that had a good amount of fire to it.  No dressing, as I thought olive oil might kill it. A truimph! Zesty and fresh, and actually a bit of the orange zest would not have gone amiss must try next time...

plat du jour

What makes a marvellous plate of food?  As I inspected my plat du jour which consisted very simply of thinly sliced ewe's cheese, toasted pain and a beautiful cherry confit placed in the middle I wondered.  It's not always found in hours of creation, sometimes it can be as simple and heavenly as a plate of cheese and bread. A glass of Rose. Summer! Rick Stein made the comment on his tour around spain series 'the best ingredients cooked as simply as possible'.