It has taken some of us quite a bit of time to get back onto the ‘travel bus’ post pandemic. I’ve certainly found it difficult to normalise the process of booking, passport-finding, packing and embarking since 2020, and, at the risk of stating the obvious, Brexit hasn’t added to my ease at this whole endeavour. So it was with pleasure and, dare I admit, a small amount of trepidation, that the writer her indoors and I travelled recently to Portugal… but what can I say… just a stunning place to be. Admittedly we walked into Lisbon in full festa mode, so saw it at its best. We then spent a few days just north of the city with locals who showed us the ‘real’ west Portugal, before returning to Lisbon on Santo Antonio, a bank holiday, as he is the patron saint of Lisbon, so it was still in full party mode.

I had heard friends talking about the quality of both the food and the wine. Our friends there are definite ‘foodies’, so we had our eyes opened to some real Portuguese treats. So, a brief ‘tour’ of food and drink. A typical day started with coffee, a range of breads and fruits and jams. It is a cliché, I know, but to have strawberries, apples or pears that just taste as they should is such a delight. Mid-morning, time for more coffee, this time with pastries. Whilst we had to try the increasingly ubiquitous pastéis de nata (custard tarts) in their country of origin (and they were very good indeed), there were so many other options. The Portuguese way is to perm some combination of eggs, sugar and almonds, with stunning, often very sweet results.

After a brief interlude of village market/quaint town/beautiful church, time for lunch…Having over-indulged already, a ‘light’ snack was what we only ever wanted, furnished by any number of establishments, one of the best of which was in a small town called Batalha (just under 2 hours north of Lisbon), where there was a café, restaurant and wine shop, all run by the same team. Small plates were ordered – the famous pastéis de bacalhau (codfish fritters, made with potato, onion and parsley, morcela (a rich, flavourful blood sausage), a variety of local cheeses and cured meats, all washed down with a lovely Alvarinho – light crisp and refreshing, so an ideal lunchtime drink.

Time to walk off lunch, so a short drive to the beach and a long, leisurely stroll along the coast – beautiful expanses of white sands, almost deserted, charming coves, rocky outcrops… and a more than gentle breeze to help manage the temperature of the sun! Unsurprisingly, we managed to find a small bar in which to down a small Sagres while watching surf school students splashing playfully on and off their boards in a sea that was becoming increasingly challenging for the less experienced students.

One evening, at a festa in a small village, communally eating beautifully succulent and spiced grilled/barbecued chicken, washed down with a passable red before the band came on and played a mixture of europop and trad Portuguese tunes was a delight, though less so for the pescatarian writer her indoors. Another evening, the freshest sardines you will ever have in a restaurant overlooking a small, working port. The sardines were still relatively small, as the season has just started. Perhaps our favourite meal was in a restaurant just off the main Lisbon to Porto road. Thick steaks of succulent fish, cherne in portuguese, grilled and finished with garlic, parsley and lemon, served with new potatoes and sides of migas, a variety of different recipes that are based on using up the previous day’s bread, which is soaked then cooked with onion, garlic and beans, or any vegetable that is to hand. I had a grilled black pork belly dish, (barriga de porco preto grelhada) that was succulent and so, so tasty!

Here we drank a beautiful local white and a full-bodied, dark fruited red. I was struck by just how good the wines were in Portugal, so many of which have yet to reach the UK market. The above meal was finished off with some tawny white ports, a 10, 20 and 30 year old (left to right in the photo)- apologies for the rather poor quality below, but it had been a long day (and a long meal)!

I can’t recommend Portugal highly enough and will certainly be back there soon, this time with a car, so I can bring back ingredients…. and wine!

Clearly eating and drinking all the above, so a slightly different finish to this blog post and I’ll end with some music. We had a great night in a Fado bar in Lisbon, listening to the beautiful, melancholic, heart-wrenching songs, but the soundtrack to the trip was a cd our friends had in their car – Simple Minds greatest hits. So, so many from which to choose, but probably Don’t you and Someone somewhere brought back the most vivid memories..

I’ve never worked in a professional kitchen, but my assumption is that the chefs know exactly how their ovens work best with particular recipes and are clearly enabled to produce the best quality meals possible, without any extraneous distractions. This notion is perpetuated by many TV cooking shows, even those filmed ‘at home’ – if you’ve ever watched any Nigella programme, you’ll know exactly what I mean! This calm idyll was only broken when some tv chefs filmed from home during lockdown and people like Jamie Oliver were being interrupted by their kids etc.

There is a joy about cooking at home, surrounded by familiarity. You instinctively know where pots/pans/knives are (or where they should be, depending on who last unstacked the dishwasher!), where you left the paprika in the spice rack and how many steps it is from the hob to the sink. You know exactly how carefully you have to put certain pans down on the worktop, how long to keep the gas on before the hob stays lit, when to put the fan on so that the smoke/heat detector doesn’t go off….

However, there can be disadvantages too. Anyone with young children will know only too well how they can distract you at a critical moment. Anyone with an elderly parent has probably had a phone call at the most inopportune moment with an ‘internet related’ emergency. Anyone with a pet will be only too familiar with potential issues. Our dog, Coco (pictured above) loved food, any food, all food. She would hover by the fridge, hob, work surfaces, hoping for something to fall into her mouth – cheese was a particular favourite (our fault, as we always ‘hid’ any medication in a lump of cheddar), though cucumber, tomato, strawberry and chocolate always went down well, as did salmon and any meat. The amount of times I swore when nearly falling over her with a hot pan, over-filled bowl or just trying to prepare a meal!

However, when your pet of 13 and a half years is no longer around, words cannot express how much you miss those times… RIP Coco…

Eating: Those of you who know me are well aware of my fondness for soup. This ‘cheat’ gazpacho was a real treat – served from the fridge and topped with olives, pickled onion, mozzarella and basil. Great for the current warmer weather we’re enjoying!

Drinking: With some warmer weather (at last!), time to crack out the rosé. This one is the perfect pale colour, refreshing and, most importantly for me, dry.

Listening to: You know how there are some artists that pass you by and it seems overly difficult to start getting in to them? i knew the name Gil Scott Heron, but was not really au fait with his music. A recent Desert Island Discs episode, however, encouraged me to listen. Current favourite tracks include the well-known Lady Day and John Coltrane, The Revolution will not be televised and Is that Jazz?

At a time when the food press is full of articles with titles like: ’50 great spring salads’, ‘Springtime recipes: plant-based sharing plates’, or ‘Best cabernet francs for barbecue season’, it would have been rather helpful if the weather had been sent the memo and delivered appropriately. This year, of course, there is also the small matter of the coronation to occupy significant food press copy, with a special focus on sparkling wines to help us all mark the occasion.

As a fanatical cook, I have felt unable to commit fully to the spring bandwagon, preferring warming and ‘comfort’ food meals more often associated with chilly autumnal evenings and only rarely dipping my toe in the spring waters. Of course there is a certain joy at the first asparagus of the season. It adds crunch to salads, a splash of colour to a roasted vegetable dish, goes well in quiches… and is so tasty on its own. Another of its joys is that it can be steamed, griddled, roasted, blanched and eaten raw. As a lazy starter on one of the warm days we have enjoyed, some asparagus tips charred on a griddle and topped with lemon zest and parmesan was a particular hit.

The trick when deciding what to cook during times of uncertain weather for me therefore, is to choose dishes that suit any conditions. It will come as no surprise to those of you who know how much of an Ottolenghi and school of Ottolenghi fan I am that my most recent ‘crush’ dish is one of his. Taken from Simple, it is his baked mint rice with pomegranate and olive salsa. It ticks the boxes on so many levels: it is easy to prepare; it fills the kitchen with fabulous aromas both as you prepare it and as it cooks; it tastes fabulous; given what you serve it alongside, it can feel very spring-like, summer-like or even autumnal. I have served it with simply roasted salmon fillet (dusted with pul bilber and sumac) and green beans, with a hollandaise sauce on the side.

Time to leave the kitchen and get back out there and dodge the showers/hail/bright sun/frost/thunderstorm..

Eating: The above rice dish from Ottolenghi! Can’t get enough of this at the moment. Photo above was taken prior to crumbling feta over the top.

Drinking: During a recent trip back to visit friends from our time in Somerset, I re-acquainted myself with this lovely, quaffable, ‘every day’ rum. I think the writer her indoors was converted too!

Listening to: As a fan from the early days, I was intrigued by the long-awaited new album by Everything But The Girl, Fuse. It has some great tracks, though current favourite would have to be Run a red light. It’s release has also made me go back and listen to their cover of Night and Day, as well as their biggest hit, Missing.

Tree in blossom from our local park…Spring is springing!

Like a child returning to school after a long time off sick, I return to the world of blogging tentatively and not without trepidation…

This will only be a short post, but will follow the same structure as before. It has been quite a tumultuous time since I last posted…I wonder to what extent those of us who lived through the lockdowns etc will reflect in years to come on the shorter and longer term impacts it had on us, our lives and our outlooks? I think it would be uncontroversial to say that, at the very least, the pandemic threw our lives up in the air and that things have settled very differently for some as a result. Long story short – a combination of things (some seemingly inconsequential, others more evidently important) has meant that the writer her indoors and the cook him in the kitchen are back in London. South London to be more specific.

It is a vibrant area, full of creatives, people who are so proud to live here and, as importantly (!), some fantastic opportunities to eat and drink well. It is certainly true to say that the food scene is lively, especially with pop-ups and the plethora of food markets – it is difficult to move around the different postcodes at the weekend without coming across a food market, either selling ‘produce’ or a very wide range of tasty offerings from around the world and normally both. Our local food market for example, which takes place on the last Sunday of each month, offers dishes from Brazil, Portugal, Spain, the Himalayas, North East India, Ethiopia, California, Argentina and Ghana. On offer in addition you will find locally smoked fish, locally made gin, additive free bao buns, a sourdough specialist baker, socially responsible coffee, locally sourced honey… the list is seemingly endless and the variety wonderful. What shines through on a visit to the market, even on the freezing days in the winter months, is the love of food, the passion for sharing and the sense of community that this engenders amongst the traders and especially amongst the visitors.

Eating: As is evident from my posts on Instagram, I have been having a bit of a love affair with Spanish food of late. My current go-to starter is this creamy roast garlic soup with green olive and manchego toasts. The recipe I use is José Pizarro’s, though I tend to add a little more roast garlic and reduce the amount of pimentón slightly.

Drinking: The garlic soup is often prefaced by a glass of chilled, dry sherry. Gone are the days of my great aunt serving me bucketloads of Harvey’s Bristol Cream at 11.30 am! This, from Sainsbury’s is affordable and very quaffable. It is light and has a nice crisp finish, great with salted almonds.

Listening to: Bizarrely, perhaps, I have been listening to different versions of just one song, first recorded in 1946 – 16 tons, written by Merle Travis and originally by Tennessee Ernie Ford. It resonates with our current political and economic situation as it portrays workers (coal miners) making low wages, working long hours and trying to get out of debt. Covered by Stevie Wonder, Tom Jones and Johnny Cash amongst many others, favourite versions currently include those by BB King and a live recording by ZZ Top and the late, great Jeff Beck.

Christmas lunch – The challenge with this sort of meal is that all need to be catered for with food which complements the trimmings of a ‘traditional’ roast…With only three of us eating turkey, I baulked at buying a crown and managed to find a small(ish) whole bird, which I roasted slowly in the low oven in the Aga, stuffed with sausagemeat and a lemon and with paprika, garlic butter under the breast skin. This was cooked breast down for the first 40 mins and allowed to rest after cooking, to free up oven space. Nut roast for the two non-carnivores, recipe adapted from the BBC goodfood website to make it low FODMAP and gluten free (gf bread for the breadcrumbs, garlic oil to replace the garlic, celery to replace the onion). This was made and cooked on Christmas eve, so only needed heating through on the day, so could also go in the low oven in the Aga. Shop bought vegan sausage wreath with stuffing for child #2 – looked good and tasted good too. The above ‘centrepeices’ all served with mushroom gravy, made during the week before Christmas and frozen until the day, recipe from vegetarianrecipesmag.com, a really ‘full’ tasting gravy with enough heft for the carnivores, roast potatoes, dredged in chickpea flour after par boiling, honey roast parsnips, pan-fried sprouts with pomegranate seeds (whilst not the same as done with lardons, still very christmassy!) and peas. (The family will not allow me to serve a roast without…). Child #2 had shop bought vegan pigs in blankets – yes, it doesn’t sound right, somehow, but they were ok. The carnivores had traditional pigs in blankets. Bread sauce as the final offering, made the previous day, adapting Nigella’s recipe to make it gf, low FODMAP and vegan, so whole onion to flavour the soya milk which I then removed, soya cream to pep it up and gf bread. The consistency wasn’t as usual, but, with additional milk and cream added, it still worked really well. And breathe…

Desserts followed – A choice of: Heston’s orange Christmas pud, doused in vodka (our addition!), homemade vegan, gf mince pies, raspberry and lemongrass trifle (Nigella’s recipe again), a selection to suit all tastes and eating requirements. In the evening, we offered a cheeseboard and fruit for those who felt the need to pick at something (despite not needing to!).

Boxing Day breakfast – Tradition dictates Christmas cake, with copious amounts of tea or coffee, depending on your preference… The writer her indoors always makes the cake and this year made a vegan and non vegan version. Both iced with homemade vegan royal icing – that chickpea water gets everywhere. I’ll admit I was surprised by how good the icing was; I may not have the best palate in the world, but I couldn’t taste the difference and the texture was spot on! Child #1 has to give this a miss given the copious amounts of nuts present, so defaulted into toast, followed by trifle – well, it is Christmas and we all eat and drink things that perhaps we shouldn’t at times when we shouldn’t, so hey ho!

Boxing Day lunch and supper – enough of everything for leftovers, served with mashed potatoes, bubble and squeak, pickles and salad. The writer had stepped up to the plate yet again and made a coleslaw with red and white cabbage and dairy-free yoghurt as well. There does come a point when something that looks and feels healthy seems somehow to mitigate the rest of the eating and drinking – perhaps I’m delusional, but fresh lettuce and assorted other leaves, crisp tomatoes and cucumber need to come out on Boxing Day too.

So what have I learnt from the all the above? With enough time, planning and thought, it is entirely possible to meet a variety of differing dietary requirements without overly compromising taste, texture, satisfaction. It also really helps if more than one person is thinking about it and doing it! To think about it a different way (and to go back to my old teaching habits at the end of a lesson) – what went well and even better if…

www – Christmas cake with vegan icing, nut roast with mushroom gravy, carrot lox and scrambled tofu. In fact the overarching plan basically worked, so pats on backs all round for this!

ebi – bread sauce needs re-trying, as do the dauphinoise potatoes, so better use of soya dairy substitute products – more practice required. Also greater thought about homemade vegan options that work with the overall pattern, rather than just buying in…

The next food-related job in the house is a great one – try to finish up all the unhealthy food lying around, including chocolates and assorted sweet goodies before the new year really kicks in and we all start some sort of post Christmas detox. This is difficult for us as January is a birthday month, so ‘Dry January’ consists of dry white wine, dry cider, dry martini………

Eating: We used far fewer eggs than we had envisaged, so a spate of different shakshoukas (can be spelled a variety of ways, so google with an open mind) for brunch. There are some fabulous recipes out there for them – the guardian series ‘how to make the perfect’ has one, bbc goodfood website etc. and they are eminently playable with and adaptable for whatever you have hanging around or need to use up. Little bit of fresh chilli on top of the one above to add to the heat on a cold winter’s morning.

Drinking: Child #2 had a recent weekend in Vienna and this appeared over Christmas. Nice and dry, yet with a slight fragrance that went well with a prawn dish we had.

Listening to: Having just blasted our way through Succession (yes, it is as good as everyone says it is – great, great tv), the soundtrack by Nicholas Britell has been added to playlist for the moment!

Well I think that went ok…we managed not to trigger any anaphylactic shocks in child #1, nor any episodes for child #3. Child #2 had vegan options and the vegetarians and carnivores also all had something on offer at all meal or snack times. We also succeeded in keeping to our traditions and routines. As I said in my last post, planning was key, along with some careful shopping and remembering to take reading glasses on shopping trips so that contents labels on pre-packaged foods could be fully perused for allergens etc.

Christmas Eve lunch – Spicy lentil and tomato soup, recipe adapted from Easy GI diet by Helen Foster. In my opinion, there is a much greater tolerance of ‘vegetarian’ soups than of many other vegetarian recipes and the above certainly wasn’t sniffed at by the writer’s mother, despite her default position. Child #1, who has yet to escape the clutches of his parents by stubbornly continuing to live at home, is used to his carnivore tendancies not being met, so no problem there. The soup is vegan, so child #2 happy and child# 3 dealt with by a few simple adaptations of the original recipe – using celery to replace the onion and garlic oil rather than garlic. Most vegetarian stock cubes are gluten free, so all good here too! Homemade bread, made vegan by using Pure spread, rather than butter and shop bought gluten free loaf… first meal down and all happy!

Christmas Eve supper – Braised red cabbage cabbage, traditional and no tweaking required, except to substitute butter with a non-dairy spread, cooked in the low oven in the Aga, gammon, boiled then roasted with a chilli jam glaze in the top of the Aga, salmon fillets, cooked en papillote with lemon, soy and garlic oil in the Aga, shop bought vegan falafels and a version of dauphinoise potatoes, made without onion and using whole garlic and soya milk and cream. To be honest, this was probably the least successful meal of the season in that the falafels were probably a bit of a cop-out and the potatoes didn’t really work very well; they certainly didn’t look very appetising – they tasted ok, but the textures weren’t as planned.

Christmas morning breakfast – smoked salmon, scrambled eggs, toast – traditional, no tweaking really. I tend to use my bread machine when we have a houseful, so just needed to use non-dairy spread rather than butter to make it vegan. GF child#3 had shop bought gf tiger rolls. Carrot lox and tofu scrambled eggs for child #2. Silken tofu (the recipe states firm tofu, but I only had silken!) mixed with turmeric, salt and black pepper, recipe taken from simpleveganblog.com. The smoked salmon replacement, carrot lox went down a treat. I used a recipe from theedgyveg.com, in which you marinade pre-cooked, sliced carrots in a mixture of: hot water, nori granules, caper brine, vinegar, miso paste, soy sauce, garlic powder and lemon juice. To be honest, there was a hint of salmon about it and it was really tasty – perhaps as an interesting side dish as a starter. The carrots benefit from a longer marinade, so ideal, as I was able to do this 3 days in advance and leave it in the fridge!

Time for some presents and a glass or two of champagne!

Eating: Too much, clearly – it’s Christmas… the above carrot lox was intriguing, interesting and tasty. I’ll certainly do it again. Pictured above with the tofu scramble.

Drinking: At Christmas, it has to be champagne – well at least pre-1.00pm. The writer her indoors and I have an ongoing, long term love affair with Black Label Lanson, dating back to a very hungover arrival at Caracas airport after a long flight and free champagne on board a British Airways 747. Still in ‘going away’ outfits that were certainly not fit for purpose given the heat when we landed, struggling to remember whether we had the visas we weren’t sure we needed and clutching a complimentary bottle of the aforementioned, which we thought we might have to use to bribe the armed border personnel supervising the queues at passport control, we eventually made it to our hotel, to be greeted by a further bottle of champagne in an ice bucket by the bed….. it was not consumed – well not then anyway….

Listening to: Has to be our family Spotify (other streaming services are available) Christmas playlist, which always sparks the ‘which is the best Christmas song?’ debate. At the risk of being controversial, we all know that: The Andrew Sisters- Walking in a Winter Wonderland, followed by Bruce Springsteen – Santa Claus is coming to town (live) and then Wham! – Last Christmas are the top three…When I say we all know this, I am the only person who holds this to be true in the family… debate to roll on next year, I’ll be bound.

I think it fair to say that many things have changed over the last year (classic bit of British understatement, there). Given that this blog revolves around food, I’m going to focus on how changing eating habits are clashing with many of our Christmas traditions. Before I go further, let me explain…

As most people do at this time of year we have several traditions involving food and drink, especially from Christmas Eve through to the morning of the 27th. Typically, plans are as follows:

Christmas Eve – lunch of spicy lentil soup and fresh bread, champagne and nibbles with friends and family from 4.00-6.30 (timings strictly adhered to), followed by gammon, dauphinoise potatoes and red cabbage with white and/or red later in the evening. Christmas Day – champagne breakfast with scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and toast. Nibbles around midday with more champagne (when my dad was with us, for champagne substitute mulled wine). Full roast with all the trimmings from about 3.30, followed by mince pies or Christmas pudding with port. Grazing allowed in the evening to suit individual needs! Boxing Day – Christmas cake for breakfast, salads for lunch, bubble and squeak in the evening with cold meats.

All very traditional, all worked out around arrivals of family members, present opening etc. However, the above will need considerable thought this year given the following food requirements/constraints:

The writer her indoors: pescatarian. Child #1: nut allergic (hard shell), lactose free but will eat anything (else). Child #2: vegan. Child #3: pescatarian, gluten free, allergic to garlic and onions. Writer: not a huge fan of fish, but will eat most things. Writer’s mother: will eat most things, but not a fan of ‘that vegetarian muck’ were her words, I believe. Sibling #2: brings own food and only needs access to microwave just prior to eating.

The answer to keeping everyone happy, healthy and in child #1’s case alive is, of course, planning and I’m lucky to have the time to think about it and make it all work. Thus far, we have looked at recipes that mean we can keep the same basic structure both of meals and timings. Christmas cakes have been made – the writer her indoors always does these – one traditional and one vegan. Neither gluten free or nut free, but there will be mince pies for children#1 and #3, with homemade mincemeat, as most commercial ones contain nut traces. Later today I will be making vegetarian gravy for the main event, then freezing it. Salmon will be added to the Christmas Eve menu and the dauphinoise recipe adapted for the lactose free, vegan and garlic allergic children. If I don’t tell my mother about the recipe changes, my guess is that she’ll forget and enjoy anyway….In the past I have used a cashew nut and lentil recipe for a nut roast for the non meat eaters and my challenge this year is to make that vegan as well. I intend to try a vegan carrot lox to sit alongside the smoked salmon… and so it goes on.

I will update you on the levels of success and failure as Christmas approaches. For me all the above isn’t an extra hassle, rather an interesting challenge to make tasty, ‘traditional’ food for all, using a range of old and new ingredients and techniques. And I’m sure that an awful lot of families/venues are managing similar sets of requirements, so my intention is to talk through how manageable it all is!

Eating: Lentil and aubergine stew, recipe adapted from Simple by Ottolenghi. Readers will know that I love me a bit of Yotam, and, as I had several aubergines in the house, I thought I’d give this a go. A lovely midweek meal, warming and very straightforward. I added some fresh red chilli and coriander for garnish (instead of chilli flakes and oregano) and used Greek yoghurt, rather than crème fraîche, as that’s what I had! Served with rice – delicious!

Drinking: A Pinot Gris sourced from Virgin wines – fresh and citrussy but with plenty about it too!

Listening to: Having just finished the BBC series The Outlaws, I have been listening to the playlist from the series. Much of the music is new to me, or not my ‘go to’ genre/band. Current favourites include: Young Dumb & Broke by Khalid and the version of I fought the Law by The Dillingers.

Those of you who know me well will be aware of my interest in all things Japanese, from the short stories and novels of Murakami to the woodblock prints of Hokusai and the range of tasty sushi, noodle and tofu dishes that are increasingly easy to find in the UK. It had been our intention to spend a month in Japan in 2020, but, as blog followers will be aware, this trip was curtailed after five days. This taster has only served to whet my appetite further – pun intended! One of the most pleasant surprises in Kyoto was the high quality of the sake we tasted, especially the warm one we had on our last night in a street bar. It wasn’t the highest quality drink I’ve ever had, but it seemed to resonate and reflect the warmth both of the welcome we received and also our own feelings towards the country.

So, in the latest of the tasting flights with my friends here, I was excited to be hosting the ‘sake and sushi’ evening. Preparations began by thinking about a three course meal that would work. Having never attempted to make sushi, this was first on my starter list. I quickly added a chilled tofu dish, as I have only used silken tofu once before and was keen to try a different recipe. Edamame beans became the third part of the starter trio as I love them, quite apart from somehow feeling healthy when eating them. Next I considered desserts and quickly settled on macha green tea ice cream, as we had some in Japan that was delicious. I decided to pair this with fresh fruit and macha green tea and white chocolate chip cookies. Finally, I decided to do a ramen dish for mains, as one of our number is obsessed with noodles, so it seemed like a quick win. Having prepared ramen dishes before, I also felt that it would add a sharing element, as I intended to prepare everything in the kitchen and then allow people to build their bowls at the table.

Next began the research into sake. We like to share information about the processes that go into making the spirit/chosen alcohol, a steep learning curve with regards to the polishing, soaking, steaming etc of the rice grains, as well as the three different qualities of sake – Junmai (robust rice flavour and light and refreshing), Ginjo (fruitier and more floral but still relatively light) and Daiginjo (richer, more complex, finessed flavour and aroma profiles). I was looking to find sakes that paired well with my chosen menu. I still had some brought back from Japan, but, with all the writing on all the labels in japanese, I was none the wiser. This one I decided to serve both warmed and at room temperature with the main. I sourced a sparkling sake for dessert, to be served chilled and a different bottle for starters, to be served below room temperature but not overly chilled.

So, the meal was as follows:

Starters: Sushi nori rolls with a variety of fillings including: tuna, salmon, red pepper, cucumber, toasted sesame – served with soy sauce and japanese mayo. Hiyayakko – chilled silken tofu served with spring onion, chilli, seared sweetcorn and soy. – pictured above. Spicy glazed edamame beans. Served with Akashi-tai sake, a daiginjo quality sake. – pictured above.

Mains: Spicy garlic ramen bowl, based around a spiced chicken broth and served with egg, seared chicken, coriander, sesame, spring onion, seared beansprouts and noodles. Served with warmed and room temperature sake (picture below).

Desserts: Macha green tea ice cream served with raspberries and green tea cookies with white chocolate chip (picture already posted on instagram). Served with chilled Keigetsu sparkling sake John.

Eating: Cauliflower and potato curry, recipe from BBC goodfood. Having got int a slight rut for an easy midweek spicy dish, I needed to branch out and try another one. Cauliflower really lends itself to taking on flavours whilst retaining texture, so this seemed like a good one to try. Recipe will be added to the recipe page.

Drinking: An Argentinian reserve Malbec, sourced from Naked wines – a nice hearty red for the cold days and evenings.

Listening to: In a previous life, the writer her indoors used to teach a girl called Hannah, who is now the singer with London Grammar. We had tickets to see them on the last gig of their current tour, in London. Much time listening to the new album Californian Soil prior to hearing much of it live (which was astonishingly good!), favourite tracks currently: Californian Soil, America and How does it feel.

I’m sure many of us had an experience with some form of alcohol when we were younger, the memory of which has stayed with us and guided our drinking habits since then; perhaps that should be non-drinking habits…. Extensive research amongst friends over several pints reveals that for most of us it was a meeting with a spirit that continues to haunt us – many a plethora of ill-advised vodka and limes, brandy and babychams, rum and blacks or, in my case, a tumbler of sweet sherry, given to me at 10.30am on an empty stomach by a great aunt when sent to visit her by my well-meaning parents. Though for some, too much ‘rough’ cider figures large in the consciousness. These ‘formative’ experiences live on and colour what we say we like and will happily drink.

This can change when presented with a hitherto un-encountered drink – don’t get me started on absinthe…but I also had a ‘moment’ a few years ago with tequila, so it was with some trepidation that I approached the follow-up meal ‘entre amis’, which was to be based around tequila. Despite a love of Cointreau, I’m not a massive fan of margharitas and I am very jury’s out about ‘shots’; none of this boded well for the evening! However, I am happy to report that a successful night was (again) had by all. It went as follows:

Margharitas, paired with nibbles, including pistachios, tortilla crisps with tomato salsa and spicy empanadas.

Shots of Olmeca tequila blanco (with lime wedges and salt obviously), paired with mexican fishcakes (made with pilchard) and pineapple and prawn with chilli.

Sips of Altos reposado with beef chilli, sour cream and rice.

More sips of the reposado with a chilli and chocolate mousse.

All the above washed down with Sol as well, as clearly there wasn’t enough alcohol….

Why is the thought of re-visiting our early alcohol nightmares so strident? Is it the memory of feeling awful physically, or rather the way that those around us dealt with us to make it an even more ‘memorable’ experience? Are we taken back to that moment by the smell, the colour, place or company? Certainly our associations with these early experiences are as strong as our associations with, say, songs, so why am I surprised that it takes just a word or a smell to be right back in that moment?

What the last couple of outings described here has shown me is that it is possible, if not to ‘get over’ the strong feelings associated with our own particular bête noire, to learn to live at peace with it and stay open to changing our memory muscle to accept…Pairing with food certainly plays its part in this process.

Eating: For me, the star of the show was the prawn/pineapple combination, as I wasn’t expecting it to work.

Drinking: The Tequila reposado was a really enjoyable ‘sipper’.

Listening to: Mercury prizewinner Arlo Parks. Really good music to cook to – favourite tracks currently Creep, Hope and Eugene.

We are all too fully aware of what we have lived through over the last 18 months or so and how our lives have changed. However, there are some positives to arise out of this ‘situation’ – I hope we can all bring these to mind… Relating this to food and drink is, for me, an easy one. For example, our local farm shop has thrived, expanding the range of what it offers, as many residents of the villages around where we live have been reluctant to shop in larger stores and supermarkets; as part of this I have enjoyed a range of local cheeses hitherto untried and in some cases unheard of.

On a different level, with a group of friends during lockdown, we expanded our knowledge of different spirits with some zoom blind tastings. The group comprises mainly whisky drinkers and we enjoyed ports, rums and brandies, but one of the most successful tastings was a set of three sherries. With all the tastings, we discussed how they would pair with food and the extent to which this might change the tasting experience.

So, recently, given the relaxation of rules governing meeting up, the group of 6 met up in a garden on a bright sunny evening to enjoy a flight of sherries with food. So excited was I that I forgot to take pictures of the food and I apologise for the poor quality of the pictures of the sherries – I leave you to work out why…. The evening started with some information about the different types of sherries and some history around their development – food and drinking panned out as follows:

Cold meats, pistachios, salted almonds, crostini and pimientos de padron served with chilled manzanilla La Gitana (very dry).

Sautéd garlic mushrooms served with chilled amontillado Barbadillo (off dry).

Slow-braised ox cheek stew with chorizo and red peppers served with oloroso Cuco (Barbadillo).

A selection of blue cheeses served with Lustau East India Solera Sherry (a sweetened oloroso).

Vanilla ice cream served with Noe Vinum optimum rare signatum Pedro Ximénez Jerez. We poured our over the ice cream rather than drinking it!

Safe to say we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. The sherries opened up when drunk, the foods really complementing them and vice versa. I was certainly left feeling that perhaps too often I don’t think carefully enough about what we drink with the food that we eat and that we should be more adventurous more often – not just offering red, white or rosé.

Eating: Roasted pumpkin and blue cheese lasagne, a recipe sent to me by a friend, so not sure where it originates. I used squash instead of pumpkin. I was originally slightly ‘jury out’ on the recipe but it works really well – tasty, comforting food for a colder than expected summer evening.

Drinking: The above, Romanian cab sav, on which I got a good deal some time ago having tried some at a local ‘do’. Award winning, packed with flavour and a real find.

Listening to: Clifford Brown – chilled yet uptempo jazz, great in the background when cooking… and quality musicianship when you look at who is also on the recordings!