Italian Deli Delivery, London

I was very disappointed that the local supermarket didn't have buffalo mozzarella to go with the basil growing in the garden - I had a real craving for it. But then I remembered I am now in London, so I can get what I want whenever I want it!

The next day the rather strangely named Nifeislife delivered several balls of real buffalo mozzarella straight from Italy. It had only been in the buffalo a few days previously! The online Italian deli flies in the cheese from Campania - home of the original mozzarella di bufala - twice a week.

I also got some superbly complex, soft and sweet parma ham that is freshly sliced by Nifeislife's in-house chef, some lovely mini plum tomatoes and cherry tomatoes, and some interesting buckwheat pasta called pizzoccheri.

There's loads to choose from on the site, but next I will definitely be trying some burrata cheese (mozzarella style cheese with a soft creamy centre), and provola - a smoked fresh mozzarella. They also do mozzarella plaits that I used to go mad for when they had them in Waitrose, as well as countless non-mozzarella-based products!

Still can't believe these things can be delivered the same day or next day, right to my door, and Nifeislife is no more expensive than a normal Italian deli, but without the travel expenses and time of getting there.

Vegetable Garden Gallery 2010

Here’s a look back at the different stages of my vegetable garden in 2010. Now there are just a few cabbages, sprouts, and turnips left, along with some sad-looking beets and ratty callaloo.

The pigeons have pretty much destroyed my kale and sprouting broccoli crops, which is particularly painful, because the seeds came from the States and were delivered by a friend, and you can’t buy either vegetable in France.

Bring on summer! It it is time to start again, and plant the first veg of 2011 – broad beans. The sun has been warm for a week, and spring is on its way, so it feels like I don’t have long to wait for summer. I’ve still got a couple of months of bringing logs in to stay warm, but there is an end in sight.

EARLY SUMMER


Peas flowering


Sunflowers, baby aubergine plants and some happy-looking beetroot


Lots of baby plants; garden still looks quite bare

JUNE/JULY


Peas are ready now


Courgette starting to fruit


Pretty beans

AUGUST


Baby cabbages and brussels sprouts


Tomatoes ripening among flowers


Aubergines fruiting madly


Garden looking less bare now

SEPTEMPBER/OCTOBER


Lush ripe tomatoes


Haul of garden produce


Decent squash harvest

NOVEMBER


Fantastic cabbage - I'm proud of this one!

Tunisia-Inspired Meal

I made moutabel, humous and flatbreads for some friends, followed by ojja. I was really pleased with the result, and my guests naturellement loved it all. The moutabel made good use of my bumper crop of aubergines, too.

The ojja was made with garlic, olive oil, green peppers, cumin, aniseed (didn't have caraway), green olives, merguez sausages and garden tomatoes, with eggs broken in near the end.


Humous with olive oil, smoked paprika and basil flowers


Moutabel with pomegranate molasses, walnuts and parsley


Anyone know where I can get whole blanched almonds in the Dordogne? I want to make the cous-cous we had in Tunisia, but in this part of France almonds only seem to be available either with their skin or flaked.

September in France

...was lovely, as usual. But France Telecom (or France Teleco*ks as I like to call them) managed to mess up both my phone line and internet connection for the whole month I was there - quite an achievement, I know, but inconvenient when you work freelance entirely online. That's why I've been very quiet on the blog and twitter recently.

Anyway, I consoled myself with the endless supply of those juicy garden tomatoes, along with courgettes and aubergines from the garden. Creamy, homegrown aubergines are far more enjoyable than shop-bought ones, both in terms of the unctuous texture and a more fragrant flavour. Courgettes are nuttier. I enjoyed lots of both, roasted, fried and barbecued, often with garlic (raw or cooked with the veg), sometimes with lemon juice, usually with garden herbs.

As for the tomatoes, see my previous post. I just gorged on them as anticipated, and it was fabulous.

Tomato Fest, France

I'll soon be off to catch the end of the French tomato season. However much you pay, wherever you shop, whatever you grow, it is literally not possible to have a true tomato experience in the UK. Toms in Britain are more acidic and the textures are all broken up into skin, seeds, liquid, and solid flesh. In France, in season, they are juicy, fruity, smooth and soft. Not pappy, mind, just with synergistic textures that are tender but satisfying.

Tomato jelly with goats' cheese, France

Anyway, there are some growing in my garden in France, so I am very excited about making the most of them while I'm there. They are the montfavet variety, and I am also looking forward to buying some luscious marmande ones from the village market - they come in all shapes, sizes and colours, and the stall owners ask what you are going to use them for, before selecting suitable specimens from the pile.

Here's what I did with homegrown French tomatoes one year, when I had a glut (see photo above). Now, though, they will be a novelty again, so will probably all end up as tomato salads, which are a completely different and a stupendously delicious dish, if made with the French tomatoes. Hmmm and atop pizzas, and maybe a few gazpachos, and in more imaginative salads. Yeah, well I might play a bit, but no jelly - I'll need all my time to eat tomatoes, and won't have any left to fiddle around with them.