Warmer days

I'm going to run quickly through some spring dinners we have had over the last few weeks. A firm favourite in our house is a very simple dish with chicken thighs, new potatoes & cherry tomatoes. Preheat the oven to about 200. Boil some smallish washed new potatoes about 12-15 mins. Meanwhile skin tomatoes using last week's method. Because they're cherries, the skins will pinch off easily. Cut each thigh into about 3 pieces & rub with olive oil & salt & pepper. Fry in batches until almost cooked & transfer to a shallow ovenproof dish. When the potatoes are almost cooled squadge them with your thumb until they are slightly crushed. I do this a lot so when I say crush the potatoes that is just what I mean. I find this really burns my thumbs after a while & if I have a lot of potatoes to do, I use the back of a teaspoon. Crush a bunch of fresh oregano leaves in a pestle & mortar with some sea salt. The abrasiveness of the salt helps with the crushing process - salt is also good for crushing garlic on a board with the back of a knife. Add about 4 tbsp of your best olive oil, a splash of good red wine vinegar & a few good grinds of the pepper mill. Mix it up and add to the chicken, potatoes & tomatoes with a few more oregano leaves. Toss carefully and spread in your ovenproof dish. Bake for 40 minutes or so until everything is golden & slightly sticky. Perfect with a green salad.

Scallops are in season & we like to make the most of seasonal luxuries. Try a rather decadent scallopy pasta for 2. Put the pasta water on to boil. Fry 100g pancetta until crispy & set aside. Lightly brown the scallops in the oil from the pancetta & set aside. Pour about 1/3 cup of bubbly (I used prosecco because it's not too sweet) into the pan & bring to the boil. Take off the heat & leave to stand a minute then pour in a little cream. Add the scallops & simmer 3-4 minutes, which is about the time you will need to cook your pasta if you use thin egg ribbons. Try fettucine. Mix the scallops with the pasta, add chopped chives & the crumbled pancetta. You'd better finish the bottle of bubbly because it won't keep.

A couple of Sundays ago it was almost like summer. Truly it was. Although I had been planning a completely different meal, I made a spontaneous decision to have ham & salad. I did crushed rosemary potatoes - that's boiling & crushing as above, tossing in olive oil, sprinkling about some salt & pepper with rosemary & roasting for 40 minutes or so in a hot oven. We had sliced free range ham, hard boiled eggs, grilled haloumi, salad, served with a selection of home made relishes. I also did my first asparagus of the season using a method I saw at the Clevedon Farmer's market once. I think I remembered it right. I put the asparagus in a large piece of tinfoil, seasoned with salt & pepper, squeezed on some lime juice & drizzled over some olive oil. I then loosely wrapped up as a parcel & steamed in a hot oven for about 12 minutes. It was perfect. By the way the Manurewa Hungarian sausage guy who has a stall at Clevedon also has his sausages at Moore Wilson now. I haven't tried them yet but always mean to. Has anyone had them?

Still on the tinfoil theme, we had to get dinner over quickly one night last week so I fished out a spicy bean stew, (July 5th), from the freezer & topped it with a fillet of terakihi steamed in a foil packet. I remembered my mother doing something similar with fish. In addition to olive oil & salt I added a bay leaf & a slice of lemon. It cooked in about 12-15 mins at 180.

For morning teas I have made a great loaf twice now. To your favourite Madeira loaf, add about 2 tsp finely chopped rosemary & leave out the lemon. On top sprinkle about 2 tbsp rosemary sugar before baking. I keep a jar of caster sugar with a stick of rosemary, similar to vanilla sugar. I usually use it when savoury sauces call for sugar. The loaf was delicious as some of you can testify. The other cake in the picture is a treacly gingerbread loaf with a lemon icing.