The heatwave may have subsided but inside I am melting. Projects, to-do lists, mental notes, a spooling Google Calendar and errands to run not helped by a near week-long tube strike. I wrote this sentence almost an hour ago and remembered ten other things on my list that I’d either forgotten or had to do so I wouldn’t forget, and on top of that I’m thinking about breakfast (eggs, tomatoes on toast, frozen banana and spinach smoothie, wish I had some comté). Luckily my fridge is much more ordered and tranquil than my brain: it’s bursting with greens (spinach, rocket, cucumbers, fennel, courgettes, chives from mum’s garden) and fruit (strawberries, bananas, raspberries). I’m having a renewed love affair with new potatoes and of course that means a new packet of Kerry Gold butter. Barbecues are back, evenings are light-filled and come with pizza and a pint of beer in the park, and there are all manner of salads to make.
It’s officially BLT season (because it’s officially tomatoes on toast season). The method is simple. Grill your bacon until it’s crispy. Toast your bread (I like a seeded sourdough), butter AND mayo both sides. Place one thick slice of tomato on one piece, salt, pepper, chive and extra v it; add two pieces of super crunchy lettuce (recently used a butter lettuce as it was from mum’s garden, but would ordinarily suggest a cos or romaine). Layer on the bacon, sandwich it then cut it in half. It’s a perfect meal.
I think about ricotta gnudi on a weekly basis and my fear of flour and doing anything that resembles the measured tendencies of baking means I never do it. This recipe looks far more simple and I actually might try it (if I ever end up eating a meal at home in the next two weeks).
Happy to report that Alison Roman’s newsletter is back and she’s making Smash Burgers and they look absolutely perfect.
Part 2 of the Vanity Fair piece on the Grey’s Anatomy writer Elizabeth Finch, who stole stories from those suffering around her. It’s wild.
I raced through Alice Vincent’s memoir-meets-biography-meets-horticulture-diary, Rootbound, in a few days. It begins with a break up and all the swirling emotions that come from uncoupling your physical and emotional life with someone – the remnants of love, the guilt at moving on, the summer of London parties, the trying to forget and struggling to remember of it all – felt particularly relatable and pertinent to me. Next up, Crying In H Mart (finally).
Desperate to get my hands on some Tart vinegar but alas it’s only sold in the States. Anyone want to start a condiment brand with me?
Ordering sushi and nasi goreng takeout twice in one week and feeling good about it when I woke up to leftovers and could have a true nasi breakfast:
The gorgeous simplicity of a bowl of fettucine covered in buffalo butter, parmesan and black pepper.
I met a lovely woman from Goa the other day and we spoke about Indian curries and I told her how much I miss them. More of a side than a curry, but then this recipe for Saag Paneer popped up from Hetty McKinnon and I’m excited to try it.
A final word from Virginia Woolf. My mum referred to it as “a real good foodie’s word”:
You’re going to love Crying in H-Mart!