thepassionatecook

Couscous salad with mediterranean vegetables

The rainy season is officially over, which means two things... we no longer have to put on our "winter" clothes to go out in the evening (you wouldn't believe how cold 25C can feel after 6 months of living in a tropical climate!) and we get to enjoy BBQs again on a regular basis. Of course, our way of living here is completely different from back in London - which has its up- and its downsides. On the downside, we no longer can step outside into our own garden to fire up the Weber when we feel like a big juicy steak, as BBQs are not allowed on a condo balcony. But what we lose in spontaneity, we gain in company...

Booking one of the BBQ pits in our condo is such a palaver (filling in a form well in advance, incl. out your FIN number, paying a deposit, etc) that it's worth making a bigger thing out of it. So there you have the upside: we never barbecue alone anymore. It's usually a late-afternoon get-together with a number of families in our block of flats, the children splashing in the pool or riding their scooters, the ladies sipping a cocktail with their feet in the Fish Spa (yes, we have our own!) and the big boys manning the Teppanyaki grill. And we don't even have to worry about cleaning up after!

To minimise the effort involved, everybody chips in with supplying booze, some dips, a selection of side dishes or a dessert - and here is what I made last time. My friend Nina said she loves couscous and is always happy to get new ideas, so I decided on a refreshing couscous salad. You'd really be hard-pressed to find a salad that is easier to prepare - the couscous takes a bowl of stock and all but 15 minutes to soak, then your roast some chopped up vegetables in the oven, throw it all in a bowl, give it a generous glug of olive oil and lime juice and you're ready to rock and roll! If you want to spruce it up a bit, add some chopped herbs or toasted pinenuts, some olives or cubed scamorza, you could even add some left-over roast chicken if you want this to become a more substantial salad - the possibilities are endless.

Passion fruit curd

   This little number has been causing quite a stir lately... it all started with rather excessive birthday celebrations throughout the month of January, one of which being a breakfast with 12 amazing girlfriends at my place. The amount of food we had was nothing short of decadent, not to mention the copious amounts of bubbly consumed - but you only turn 27 once, right?

After smoked salmon generously scattered with red onion and capers, crisp-toasted bagels brimming with thin slices of pastrami and a chunky tartare-style sauce, sinfully creamy oeufs en cocotte with ham, cheese and thyme-scented mushrooms and a refreshing fruit salad with ginger and mint you would think the ladies would gracefully skip dessert? Yeah, not MY friends... they know good food when they see it and happily indulge in it. That's why I love them!

So my friend Vera had agreed to bring dough for waffles and (wo)man the iron (champagne-glass in hand, of course) - and they sure were delicious... but (sorry, my dear!) it was a rather inconspicuous-looking kilner jar filled with a thick, yellow substance that completely stole the show. People had been having a hard time identifying its contents - was it my famous home-made mayo? or vanilla custard? - until someone finally was brave enough to stick their finger in. The "oh my God"s and ecstatic moaning that followed were undescribable... and I don't think I have ever had so many requests for a recipe before in my life - and not just that, some ladies actually resorted to hefty bribes!

Said kilner jar ended up in one of my friends' fridge and her seven-year old son licked it so clean it could have gone straight in the cupboard without washing. Since that day, this little guy has been following my elder son around at school, trying to talk him into inviting him to ours for a sleepover ("and tell your Mum to make that delicious thing she put on the waffles the other day") - Max being completely ignorant about the whole affair... he hasn't even tasted it, refusing to eat any sweets that don't have insane amounts of chocolate in them!

So here you have it. I am letting my secret out of the bag. We're talking curd here. Not the traditional lemon curd (which I also love), my version is made with passion fruit, one of my favourite, favourite fruits of all times. It alo involves a neat technique for removing the black seeds without losing most of the flesh and juice. So do read on, do try it - you'll be forever hooked like my friends here. A couple of eggs, some sugar and butter and the priced juice is all it takes... plus 15 minutes whisking in a bain marie - but no sweet without sweat, right?

Glühweinbirnen mit Roquefort-Eis und karamellisierten Pekannüssen

Ja, wenn's bei mir mal wieder einen Beitrag auf Deutsch gibt, dann kann das nur eines heissen: ich habe die grosse Ehre, auch heuer wieder bei Zorra's Kulinarischem Adventkalender (mit Wettbewerb!) mitzumachen! Nachdem ich letztes Jahr eine Reihe Canapes vorgestellt habe, die mit wenig Aufwand viel Aufhebens machen, so ist es heuer ähnlich: so kurz vor Weihnachten kann ich Euch nur ein Rezept antun, das erstens leicht zu meistern und zweitens gut vorzubereiten ist.

Wie vielleicht der eine oder andere von Euch mitverfolgt hat, hat sich bei mir im vergangenen Jahr so einiges getan... welche Auswirkungen das auf meinen Weihnachtsfrieden haben sollte, konnte ich bis vor ein paar Wochen nur erahnen. Weisse Weihnachten sind bei uns eh schon lange kein Thema mehr - schon in meiner Jugend hat sich spätestens am Tag vor Weihnachten immer Tauwetter eingestellt... aber bei durchschnittlich 32C (im Schatten, nicht neben dem Kachelofen!) habe ich heuer lange gar nicht kapiert, dass jetzt dann bald Advent ist, geschweige denn, dass auch nur ein Funken Weihnachtsstimmung aufgekommen wäre. Und bemüht hätte ich mich wirklich redlich: die obligatorischen Kekse, das Basteln, Besuch am Weihnachtsmarkt (in Spaghettiträgerkleid und Sandalen!), seit Wochen pausenlos Weihnachtsmusik in voller Lautstärke... und Glühwein.

Jawohl! Glühwein kann man ganz gut auch bei Sommerhitze geniessen, wenn's denn sein muss... zwar nicht heiss, aber man sollte gar nicht glauben, wie lecker der auch "on the rocks" schmeckt. Eine weitere Variante des kalten Glühweingenusses findet sich im vorliegenden Rezept.

Für mich war Weihnachten schon von jeher kein Konsumzirkus - und obwohl ich schon seit Jahren nur mehr zu den sprichwörtlichen "heiligen Zeiten" in der Kirche anzutreffen bin, ging's mir bei diesem Fest immer um mehr als einen dicken Mann im roten Pyjama, um mehr als einen Haufen Geschenke. Die Weihnachtsstimmung kommt bei mir in Abwesenheit von Schnee und Kälte, Weihnachtsmärkten mit Punschständen und Maronibratern eigentlich nur auf, wenn ich intensiv Zeit mit der Familie verbringe. (Zugegebenermassen hatte ich auch mal eine Phase als Teenager, wo ich Weihnachten am liebsten mit den Obdachlosen am heimatlichen Bahnhof verbrachte hätte, aber das ist eine andere Geschichte).

Weihnachten ist Familienzeit. Schon die Adventzeit wird bei uns zelebriert mit tag-täglichem Zusammensein, sei es beim Basteln, Singen oder Keksebacken. An den Weihnachtstagen selbst ist keine Ausrede blöd genug, das gemeinsame Essen weiter und weiter hinauszuzögern... ein paar knackige, gewürzte Mandeln frisch aus der Pfanne zu einem Glas Sekt, ein Amuse-bouche hier und ein Canape dort, ein Granite als Gaumenerfrischer... und dann braucht's ja wohl dringend noch eine überleitung vom Käse zum Dessert oder umgekehrt!

Meine Glühweinbirnen mit Roquefort-Eis sind da genau das Richtige - wer's nicht als überleitung zwischen zwei schon an sich dekadenten Gaengen will, hat hier ein Mittelding zwischen Käsegang und Dessert gefunden, ähnlich einer Birnen-Blaukäse-Napeolon, die ich auch gerne serviere. Dies hier hat den Vorteil, dass die einzelnen Arbeitsschritte unglaublich einfach sind (vor allem, wenn man eine Eismaschine besitzt), und dass ausserdem alles bereits Tage im Voraus zubereitet werden kann.

Und nicht vergessen: nach Einlegen der Birnen den verbleibenden Glühwein unbedingt einmal auf andere Art servieren... über ein paar Eiswürfeln in einem Longdrink-Glas und dabei bitte ein paar Tropfen Weihnachtsstimmung gen Singapur blasen! Ich warte hier einstweilen auf die Ankunft meiner Eltern aus dem verschneiten Europa und dann kann auch für mich endlich Weihnachten kommen!!!

FROHE WEIHNACHTEN UND EINEN GUTEN RUTSCH INS NEUE JAHR!!!

Auch dieses Jahr gibt es wieder einen Wettbewerb bei dem es insgesamt 10 Preise - gesponsort von Betty Bossy, Braun, Cupcakes-cupcakes.de, Deutsche See, Kuhn Rikon, MySwisschocolate.ch, Senseo und Trisa Electronics - zu gewinnen gibt. 

Sesame prawns with sour mango & cucumber salad

So I might struggle to find some ingredients here, but prawns are something Singapore definitely has no shortage of and the quality is absolutely amazing! There are many seafood restaurants in town and for someone coming from a country/continent where seafood is rarely available fresh (meaning that it hasn't been frozen or transported on ice somewhere along the supply chain), this country certainly is prawn heaven. No matter where you go, you can be sure to be served the plumpest and juiciest prawns - fingerlickingly good.

Our first experience of eating prawns here was on Boat Quay - now, to even the most seasoned, but still undiscerning tourist, this might look like the tourist trap par excellence... in the middle of the Financial District and close to all the sights, a row of restaurants lined up along the river, right where the cruises depart. If it wasn't for two little boys (and the two adults lugging them around and cheering them on "come on, it's only 35C in the shade!") who happened to be utterly exhausted after what really was just a short walk, it wouldn't even have crossed our minds to enter one of the eateries there on the river. Where we come from, big, fat panels of glossy photos of, well, food (but not the kind of foodporn you find on blogs these days, just poorly photographed dishes of unidentifiable food objects) don't really scream "die, die, must try" or even "decent food at reasonable prices" at you... they holler "get out of here as fast as you can, this is a complete rip-off and you'll probably be hugging the toilet for days".

Not so here. After passing by the 15th restaurant and its seafront garden and fending off many a smooth-talking waiter, I let myself finally be lured into one of them (it was the "fish and chips available" that did it, you might remember that the day before, my son had said that he hated Chinese food and that was that) - and Chris and I had the most wonderful selection of top-quality prawns we had had in a very long time. The sheer variety on offer will bowl you over, but I will have to delve into the weird (cereal prawns, anyone?) and wonderful (drunken prawns, yessir!) ways of enjoying your crustaceans on another occasion.

Now that I call a (fantabulous!) kitchen my own and have a great wet market just around the corner, I obviously want to get my hand dirty and cook again... Vietnamese being one of my favourite cuisines on this continent, I finally embarked on getting my money's worth out of Lemongrass and Lime, a cookbook I bought ages ago - I had simply been struggling to find the ingredients. And what in London would have involved a car journey to the Asian supermarket and my tried and trusted fish monger, both in different parts of town, is now available right on my doorstep... you can see why I am loving it here, right?

These prawns are deep-fried just for a minute in order to retain all their succulent juices, the crispy coating of a light batter providing a lovely contrast of textures. I love the salad they come with it, its flavours being like a summation of what Vietnamese cooking is about: fresh, crunchy ingredients bursting with flavour - sweet, sour, salty all happening in one bite in perfect unison. It actually uses the same sauce you will serve for dipping, the ubiquitous Nuoc Cham. I have made a mental note to include coriander and mint leaves when I make it again, just because I am addicted to these herbs and they feature widely in Vietnamese cooking, so I think the food police has nothing on me.

Way better than cereal prawns, but that's just my personal opinion!!!

Crabmeat fried rice

If you've ever wondered what to do with left-over rice, you've come to the right place. For some reason, despite years and years of cooking experience, including numerous catering gigs where keeping an eye on quantities in order not to overdeliver (profit!) or underdeliver (honesty!), I am still not perfect at judging how much rice or potatoes etc to cook for any given meal. And maybe I shouldn't beat myself up over it, since appetites vary just as much as my ability to make a good judgement!

I find it even harder when I cook Asian food... the challenge being that you have so many different dishes going round at the same time that you just cannot gauge whether your guest will happily polish off your food without a single grain of rice or gobble up the white stuff as if their life depended on it... So I sometimes end up with a whole lot of leftover rice and since it's hard to re-heat (steeping it in boiling water for a minute might do the job, but the result is watery and tasteless and I don't like using a microwave because it reduces every food's nutritional value to zero), a stirfry is a popular option.

This week, on an impromptu shopping spree in Holland Village, I picked up a new cookbook... no expensive affair either, just an Australian Women's Weekly, a cheap and cheerful collection of recipes for stir-fries. Do I really need this? Probably not, but it's what happens when you go shopping on an empty stomach. Everything looks irresistable, you could probably sell me stir-fried shoelaces on a grumbling tummy, especially when there's a nice picture to go with. I didn't expect much, really, but as I browsed the recipes that same afternoon (tummy happily filled with a summery salad and some toasted sourdough), I was still salivating over the photographs and lists of ingredients. There was a recipe in there for a stir-fried rice omelette, I decided to skip the omelette bit - seemed a bit much of a muchness - and just made the stir-fry. This time, I didn't actually have any leftover rice, but I had an opened tin of crabmeat (I know, how strange is that? My very first time of buying crabmeat pasteurised and in a can, me, the fiercest fiend of canned food... with a few valuable exceptions) in the fridge from making a soup I will share with you very soon.

Instead of the omelette, I served this with steamed bok choy, drizzled with 1 tbsp dark soy sauce and 1 tbsp rice vinegar - a few pinches of crisp-fried shallots or garlic on top and Bob's your uncle! This is a quick Asian trick I have adopted since living in Singapore... most Hawker stalls here (a Hawker centre, for those unfamiliar with the term, is a collection of open air stalls serving inexpensive food... one of the best, though not healthiest, and definitely the cheapest way of experiencing the local food) will "upgrade" your dish to a "menu" that's a rather healthier option than at the golden arches - the famous chicken rice will become a chicken rice menu through the addition of a small plate of kailan or bok choy and a bowl of miso soup and make your dinner healthier, not even more calorie-laden. You could do the same with pretty much any vegetable that takes your fancy, but I usually use Asian greens, asparagus or broccoli with the same simple treatment: steam for a few minutes, then drizzle with soy sauce and rice vinegar and/or fish sauce, add fresh or crispy shallots or garlic if at hand. Voila: your dinner just got that much healthier.

So here you have it, a wonderfully simple and quick stir-fry - even if you make the rice from scratch you can whip this up in under thirty minutes... perfect and satisfying weekday dinner, I should think!

Pumpkin muffins with yoghurt and pumpkin brittle

Round two of "Using up everything your pumpkin has to offer" is for all of you out there with a sweet tooth. I am normally more of a savoury person, but I had a really hard time keeping my fingers away from that glorious pumpkin seed brittle! Crunchy, nutty and caramelly... what's not to like?

In the course of making these muffins, I began to seriously doubt whether publishing recipes for an international audience is a good idea... you see, I have lived in a lot of different countries and continents over the years and of course I have been aware of the fact that flour is not flour and some things are more universally available than others. In six years of food blogging and therefore cooking more consciously, I have also learnt that there are so many variables involved (different oven strengths, different equipment used - my Thermomix is much stronger than your average food processor, a cast-iron pan behaves completely different from a cheap non-stick, just to give you two examples), even the climate makes such a difference - massively affecting rising times or how to store what you've made... and while I make every attempt to boil things down to suit the most average of kitchens and most universal of environments, I am acutely aware that people following my recipes to the T will find their creations differ from what they see on my blog. And it's not because I use hairspray or a blow-torch to pimp up my food ;-)

In this particular instance, I learnt that although pumpkins may look pretty darn similar all around the world, the flesh you scoop out couldn't show more variations if it tried... in the UK, the meat I encountered was pretty moist and juicy, staining everything no end, this year's pumpkin was a stringy and very dry affair - I was pulling out strands and strands of flesh and hardly had to scoop or cut at all. So what, you may say... well, it sure was easier to hollow out the beast this time, but of course, a drier meat results in drier muffins, so the recipe needed adapting.

All of us have learnt over the years that every country has different kinds of cream available (half and half, so extensively used in the US, is unobtainable in Europe, there is not ONE kind of cream, even if sold under the same name, milk does not equal milk, the fat content will vary (and yes, that DOES make a difference when you're trying to do certain things like achieve a nice foam), curd cheese is not exactly like ricotta and if you go to Austria, where we use curd aka Topfen or Quark a lot, we have various different kinds, differing in fat content... but that even products of the same BRAND could show such vast variations was a new lesson I learnt here. I always thought when someone said philly, they meant the philly I could buy in each and every shop in the country, no matter whether I bought it at the service station or the gourmet supermarket. Here, you have a number of products of philly, a big fat block which is very hard and dry, a spreadable version (60% fat) which is still drier and harder than the regular philly you get at home and in most European countries... so you will understand that even I, as an experienced cook, do struggle with recipes I have made a hundred times now, just because the parameters are not the same anymore.

So if you've ever struggled with a recipe (mine or someone else's) and have cursed its author, cut them some slack - it might just be due to the fact that the products you use are different from theirs. Use every recipe with caution, question it, apply your common sense and we'll all live happily ever after. And don't write hate emails, please, I'll be upset for a while, then delete it and think no more of it, but you might end up with a stomach ulcer - not worth it, right?

Anyway, back to those muffins I am trying to sell here: I'd like to describe them as moist or crumbly as they case may be, but this will really depend on what kind of pumpkin you can get - my pumpkin was so dry I decided to pre-bake it with some maple syrup to release the juices. Taste-wise, I went easy on the sugar, but added maple syrup for a fuller flavour, I toasted the pumpkin seeds to make them taste even nuttier and the icing is a no-sugar affair, cream cheese and yoghurt to cut through the sweetness and add moisture. And the addictive pumpkin brittle, well, it's not compulsory, but it does add another component of contrasting textures... but if you haven't been as self-controlled as I have and you've nibbled it all up before the muffins had cooled down, its not the end of the world. Or you might decide to just make another batch...

Spice-roasted pumpkin seeds

Halloween is upon us and I couldn't believe my luck when I found a pumpkin here in Singapore, despite the fact that Halloween is not much of a tradition here (thank you generous S'porean friends, old and new, who I keep annoying with where to find this and where to buy that... what would I do without you!)!

Now, in any other situation, I wouldn't really care all that much if I went without pumpkin carving for a year, Halloween isn't really celebrated in Austria, either, so it's not like I'll sit here and weep if I can't run around the block in a witches costume and scratchy wig in 32C! But we're house-bound at the moment, quaranteened, if you will, and I promise I will spare you the details - suffice to say that after days of making spiders out of buttons and a few pipe cleaners and drawing gazillions of pumpkins, bats and witches, I had ONE pumpkin, TWO children and a LOT of time on my hand. And it's amazing how much you can get out of just one fruit!

First up and out: the seeds. This is a novelty for me, as I said, Halloween was a non-entity when I grew up and my farmer granddad always used to say "pumpkins are for the pigs". All I knew was the pumpkin seeds (and the oil made from it) which we bought in the shops - dark green kernels, already hulled. Imagine my surprise when I bought the seeds here and they came in their white shells!

So this year, with lots of time on my hands, I decided to recycle what would normally have ended up in the bin or, as in previous years, featuring as part of our scary pumkpin display - I can't find the picture right now, but it's basically a carved pumpkin "being sick"... you get the idea.

This recipe is incredibly easy to do, and there's a chance these beauties will be done before you finish carving - a lovely pre-dinner snack, tasty morsels that add some crunch to your salad or a spicy sprinkle on your pumpkin soup... they're so versatile, you'd be foolish to chuck them in the bin! (They're also a great home-made gift to bring along to dinner parties - stored in a glass jar with a tight-fitting lid, they'll easily keep for a few weeks!)

Starting a new life in Singapore

I'm not dead yet... neither is this blog!

Life's been pretty busy lately - as if a daughter graduating and departing for her gap year doing community service in Panama wasn't enough, we have also decided to pack up camp in London after 11 wonderful years in this amazing city... which meant lots of work and big tears all around, but also exciting times ahead!

It's exactly a week ago that we touched down in our new home, Singapore, but we haven't found a place to live yet, so the weeks with all but random opportunities of connecting to the internet, but more importantly, the months without kitchen, recipe books, notebook, sharp knives, etc are not yet over. What's more, I ended my days in London by auctioning off pretty much all my food stuff (in excess of 150 different spices and other specialties) to my deserving and grateful friends under the influence of copious amounts of bubbly, so it'll take me a while until I have stocked up again. The very positive flipside is that I'll get to explore all the wonderful markets, food halls and specialty shops that Singapore has to offer, plus, it forced me to throw away a few items in my cupboards that to my horror had been well past their best-by date.

Starting from scratch should be fun and exciting, and as soon as I have sorted out the bare necessities (school & transport for the boys, flat, telephone, internet connection, etc), i will have time to devote to this blog again... and I hope it'll receive a bit of facelift in due course and a new slant in terms of content as well, seeing all the wonderful experiences and travelling to be had on my doorstep.

First impressions of Singapore?
I'd be lying if I said it was plain sailing. I've had my ups and downs, to put it mildly, a bit more accurately, it was an emotional roller coaster. Nothing to do with the place itself, although perhaps with the temporary accommodation we're in: mild pneumonia due to the indomitable air conditioning, restless nights due to the noise levels (also attributable to the AC), the lack of equipment in a kitchen measuring 2 square meters with a fridge that likes to compete with the AC in the "Orchard Park Suites has got really annoying sounds" competition (husband slapping it in hope of silencing it as I type), resorting to the inhouse launderette (@ probably 55C and 80% humidity) for your family's laundry needs, et cetera, et cetera.

And then the fact that everything is a struggle. If you're not used to living in an equatorial climate and don't know the city at all, even going out to find the bare essentials can be a chore. Add to that the fact that apart from your own adaptation process (climate, culture, mild anxiety attacks over not having a place to live or a school for the children), you have to cushion off your kids', then it becomes obvious that every excursion outside the perimeter of the hotel (may I add that I am ALONE with the kids, as husband is already putting his feet up in his high-powered job at a big local bank) is an effort beyond belief. And with all of that you always have it in the back of your head that this is NOT a vacation (under which circumstances you probably laugh many a situation off with a shrug and a funny picture for the photo album) and you wonder whether you will EVER get used to it and make your new life here work.

With the first comment from my 6-year old "why does everybody look so Chinese here?" and the second "I don't like Chinese food" (granted, this was due to a traumatising experience in a pan-Asian restaurant with his kindergarten group), the forgiveable response of a caring parent is pure panic. What have I done? What have I done to expose my children to a climate, a culture and food that they're not familiar with, why did I have to leave a big and reliable support network behind (and now struggle to even have a quiet meal due to lack of trusted babysitters), why did I give up my studies, my practice that was just starting to flourish, my beloved catering gigs, why, why, why???

 

Slowly, but surely I have some answers. Slowly, but surely, I feel that I have arrived. Little steps, but still: finding that the boys will be at a school that is wonderful not only in terms of facilities, but also has a lively and lovely community, surviving my first excursion alone with the kids (Jurong Bird Park) - meaning a full day OUTSIDE, not skipping from one climatised shopping mall to the next -, viewing some apartments and realising that for the budget we have, we can find a more than adequate space, even with a kitchen that is workable for a passionate cook, experiencing the locals as incredibly friendly and helpful people even if their language/accent is sometimes hard to understand, finding that no matter where you go, you can have wonderful food experiences even without much research, even in the areas most prone to host tourist trap after tourist trap...

and after a week I can now safely say "I'm loving it" and I am looking forward to a wonderful time here. I hope that I will be able to share some of my learning curve, some of my culinary and cultural experiences with you over time... I don't proclaim to be an expert in any way, it'll be the novice's perspective on all things Asian, but some of you might enjoy just that or laugh with me as I inevitably make a fool of myself...

Singapore, Asia, here I come!

Seared scallops on samphire

Ah! Samphire! Always such a treat, but so hard to track down. When you do get your hands on some, you get an extra reward by a fishmonger whose smile says "that's a girl who knows her seafood". I know he loves me for always asking for the more unusual stuff, the things that are just that bit harder to track down, and he, like me, enjoys the resulting satisfaction. I like that. A lot. So that's my Ode to the Polish (I think) chubby guy at Fishworks in Richmond... I don't even know his name. Shame on me, but that's easily remedied.

Moving on. I was desperate to find some samphire as soon as the season opened, really, slightly egged on by wanting to re-create (and much improve on) a dish one of my fellow diners recently had at the Cadogan Arms in Chelsea. The idea of scallops, samphire and butter is one that's hard to beat and I like butter as much as the next person (in fact, I am positive I like it a LOT MORE than the next person), but the specimens served at said pub were swimming in obscene amounts of butter, and it wasn't of top quality either.

So I took the opportunity to create a much lighter version at home for an eclectic tapas feast we had with some friends just before our holiday to Spain... Wiebke and Dirk, if you're reading this, it always happens to us, we seem to meet the loveliest people just before relocating somewhere else - we've been living at spitting distance for the past few years, why did it take us so long to find out that we get on like a house on fire???

Anyway, everybody fell in love with this dish - and it couldn't be simpler if you tried. So next time you go to your fishmongers', see if they have some scallops and ask for a handful of samphire as well - it's an excellent source of vitamin C and minerals and, being a diuretic and digestive aid, is currently being investigated as a possibly treatment option for obesity and thought to be beneficial for kidney complaints. Here are some tips on picking your own.

The scallops are easily cleaned and all they need is flash-frying in a pan of melted butter, tossing the blanched samphire in the cooking juices and serving the lot in the shells or on some toasted sourdough - give it a dusting of freshly grated nutmeg, if you want, which is my little secret twist... a very easy, impressive and extremely satifying starter!

Garlic, rosemary and chilli almonds

If you're anything like me, you were probably sold when you read the first word... anything involving garlic is good in my book! It is in France and Spain that I learnt to love the tradition of having an aperitif before your meal - we tend to do this only when we have friends around for dinner (or lunch, as the case my be). More often than not, I will serve a canape or finger food of sorts, but when I am pressed for time or due to last-minute preparations invite our guests to stand with me in the kitchen, chatting or chopping as required, a bowl of nuts and some olives is a more suitable accompaniment.

Although we are blessed in the UK with a whole variety of nuts and flavourings being widely available (from supermarkets and corner shops to market stalls and mail order) and some of really excellent quality, nothing beats toasting your own nuts adding any condiments you fancy at the time. This "recipe" has become a firm favourite, I am a garlic addict and I have a big, lushy rosemary bush on the veranda by the kitchen window, so it's always at hand. It's no coincidence that I am drawn to these condiments, they do exactly what my body needs: chilli is warming, rosemary is excellent for low blood pressure (which I used to suffer from a lot) and garlic shields off all evil (not only unwanted suitors and vampires, but any type of bacteria, virus, fungus).

And if you thought an aperitif was an excuse to drink yet another glass of alcohol, think again: its origin lies in wanting to fire up your digestive system, which is why traditionally, one would serve bitters - but no matter what you're drinking with it, the rosemary is a great stimulant for your appetite, so tuck right in, you now have medicinal reasons for indulging in the wonderful tradition of aperitifs!