Jump straight to Lemon and Coconut Tadka Dal recipe

Dal is a favourite of mine, I have blogged about it more than once. Sometimes as a whole meal with egg (you know I love them), often with tadka (a perky mixture of spice and aromatics), always a cheerful sunshine yellow (although I am partial to a black spiced dal makhani too swirled with a little cream and I will share more on that soon). 

This dal is cheerful and elegant with lemon and coconut. It is one to make in a big pot for friends for a summer weekend lunch, or one to make and store in the fridge for comfort, or in the freezer for a later date. I must have had four bowls of this. I don’t bother soaking the dal, which means it takes longer to cook it, but it will still be done in 40 minutes. And it just cooks away, right? It needs little attention. 

This post is published in partnership with Bombay Sapphire, who sponsored this post. It is the second of two posts. In the first, I shared my preview of The Grand Journey from Bombay Sapphire and shared my Saffron and Coriander Crusted Lamb Chops recipe which featured two of the 10 botanicals. Here I share my experience of The Grand Journey itself. Enjoy!

An evening on a train with expertly crafted gin cocktails and food from a Michelin star chef sounds like a pretty perfect evening. Add that this train, the Laverstoke Express (named for the home of the Bombay Sapphire distillery) brings you from Spain to Tuscany to the Moon.

The Grand Journey details were kept firmly under wraps and turned out to be a multi sensory experience in a vintage style train carriage in London’s Banking Hall, led by hugely entertaining hosts serving expertly crafted food and drink featuring the 10 botanicals from Bombay Sapphire. It was a fun and surreal immersive gin filled evening showcasing the 10 botanicals used to flavour Bombay Sapphire in both food and cocktails. 

On arrival, we were presented with a G&T in a signature Bombay Sapphire G&T glass with bright blue stem. The train was beside, complete with steam and train noises. The lights were low, and the mood dark, spirits were high. We were beckoned in and took our seats in the low light. I wondered, why so dark? Once we were all seated it was immediately obvious why. Film of the destinations was broadcast on the windows and also on the tables. Koi carp swam around our plates and Moroccan tile patterns danced around one of our drinks. 

My heart feels heavy today and so I need something light. The past few weeks have been intense in a busy and complicated kind of way, and it all takes a toll eventually. As it did today. Tomorrow will be brighter.

On a gorgeous summers day like today (27 deg C in my part of London), my body calls for something fresh and bright and breezy. I didn’t want complications but I did want to eat something fresh and delicious and soothing. I wanted spaghetti and I wanted it with tomatoes, some fragrant basil and the punch and flavour of a hot red chilli. Fresh chilli would only do, I wanted more than the heat, I wanted the fruitiness and the gorgeous aroma. I wanted it to taste of summer and sun, and not of something that had been dried some time ago. 

Tomatoes at my farmer’s market. The two central rows are the tomatoes that I bought for this week.

This post is published in partnership with Bombay Sapphire, who sponsored this post. In it I share my preview The Grand Journey from Bombay Sapphire and share my recipe which features two of the 10 botanicals. The recipe follows at the end of the post. Enjoy!

The Bombay Sapphire Grand Journey returns to London this summer after a sellout season last year. Ivano Tonutti is the Master of Botanicals for Bombay Sapphire, and he travels the world to sustainably source the world’s finest botanicals for their gin. The Grand Journey is a fun and delicious multi-sensory dining experience with dishes created by Michelin Star Chef Tom Sellers of Restaurant Story and Bombay Sapphire cocktails created by Sean Ware to reflect these journeys and to showcase the flavours and the gin. The journey takes place on the Laverstoke Express, and takes you through the 10 sustainably sourced botanicals that are used to flavour Bombay Sapphire, from Java to Ghana to Tuscany, all the way to Laverstoke Mill, the home of Bombay Sapphire.

Sounds dreamy doesn’t it? And it was. Perfect for a sunny afternoon. It comes together quickly and it is as pretty as a picture. Any edible flowers will do and there are many. If you don’t already have a nasturtium plant I heartily suggest that you procure one. They grow easily, need little space and they are productive. Flowers and leaves taste and look great (a little peppery), and there are lots of different colours, mainly cheerful shades of orange, yellow and red. When they go to seed, you can treat the seed pods as capers, and pickle them. Here I use nasturtium, both flowers and leaves, but also cucumber flowers (a real garden treat, gentle and tasting of cucumber) and joyful chicory flowers. 

Let’s get this garden started! Although it never really stopped, it has been chugging away all year long. My garden has been producing a variety of joyful greens all winter (beet greens, rhubarb chard, kales and cabbages), then beautiful bright yellow flowers from the greens in Spring. Spring woke my lemon balm, which burst into action and is now an irrepressible force, contained for a while in its terracotta pot but now like a shrub dotted with small white flowers demanding a new larger home.

My chicory plant, almost 3m tall!

Edible chicory flowers

A tumble of edible chicory flowers

Socca is a wonderful thing. So easy to make, and very delicious. Using chickpea flour it is also gluten free. This recipe whisks me back to Nice, to a summer there when I was 19. It was only my second summer away from Ireland, my first trip abroad ever I had spent on a farm outside an idyllic looking English village outside Canterbury picking apples. I say summer, it was 3 weeks and a brief trip to London after, but it allowed me to peek at the possibilities available to me and dream of a travel filled future. The following year, after 1 year in university, I headed to Nice for the summer. 

Nice was a whole different thing. I lived in a small studio apartment not far off the Promenade des Anglais (a boulevard bridging the city and the bright blue sea). I worked in a market in the evening, wandering during the days, loitering in bookshops and anywhere I found interesting. I read biology texts in French to try and develop my language skills (I was studying for my degree in Biology at the time). I read and I walked and I swam in the salty Mediterranean Sea. I burned my feet on the stones on the beach and I jumped from one stone to another to reach the sea before discovering that I would be spectacularly out of my depth after a couple of feet. I worked from 5 until midnight every day, every week, and then I went for pizza most days with friends that I had made there after we finished. I discovered jugs of rosé, pizza with thin gorgeous ham and bottles of chilli oil hiding sprigs of rosemary and dried chillies.  

I won’t apologise for waxing lyrical here. Asma Khan has been cooking some of my favourite food in London for some time now, and her gem of a restaurant Darjeeling Express finally has a permanent home in Kingly Court in Soho. 

Opening night at Darjeeling Express in Soho! Asma on her food, and the food we ate on the evening (it was impromptu so forgive the sound quality, I will do this again with my microphone).

As with her many pop ups before this, at Darjeeling Express Asma and her terrific all woman team of cooks are cooking authentic food from her Bengali childhood as well as the food of her father’s region Uttar Pradesh, and the food of her Royal Mughlai ancestry. The result is an exciting menu where the food of royal kitchens meets the street food of Calcutta.

I never need an excuse to fire up my BBQ. I love cooking over fire and it gets me out of my tiny kitchen. I grill when it is sunny, and when it rains. I don’t mind. I just love to be out there. Over the bank holiday I gathered lots of random stuff from my fridge and cupboard and cooked it. The result was some terrific new recipes, one of which I will share now. 

Gojuchang is one of my favourite store cupboard ingredients. A fermented hot paste made from gochugaru (a wonderful Korean red pepper powder which I use a lot too), glutinous rice, fermented soy bean powder, barley malt powder and salt. So far, so mesmerising and confusing, but this is one of the most delicious things that you could have in your kitchen. Hot (but not face melting), rich and deep, I add it to many things. Korean food, of course, but also unexpected things like soups, stews and bolognese. It is perfect for BBQ marinades. 

This post is a happy sponsored collaboration with Sherry Wines UK. I have three great new recipes for you for your Bank Holiday picnic! Peach and manzanilla slushie, smoky pork rillettes & olive tapenade. Read on for details and have a great weekend. 

Well, what about this sunshine? Isn’t it gorgeous? Summer has come, and with summer my attention turns to outdoor eating and cooking. Barbecues and picnics. Cold drinks, lots of food, and your favourite people to share it with. 

Sherry Wines UK asked me to come up with some recipes for a picnic. I had to think twice. Not because I don’t love sherry, precisely because I do. What if everyone realises just how good it is and then the prices go up, as with my other favourite things? Sherry is priced excellently (some say underpriced), given the quality and the age. It is terrific value for money and very delicious. 

Yesterday was a perfect London day. 24 deg C, bright sunshine, and a lovely tease of a breeze. No humidity that my hair could sense, or my skin. Yesterday was a day that rushed in and yelled summer, and then pulled away again. It is ok, it is coming back later this week, I believe. 

A day like yesterday tickles my memory and brings me to places like Greece. Specifically the islands, I love an island, being a child of an island myself. I love being by the water, and that feeling of being carefree. A feeling I don’t think I have felt in a while and that I ache for. Memories of bright Greek salads (so good in Greece but they rarely translate outside), bowls of thick Greek yogurt with generous sploshes of local honey, moussaka with a cloud light topping of eggy bechamel. And fava, one of my favourite things to eat in Greece. 

Who doesn’t love an asparagus mimosa? I am a little egg obsessed, this is well established. In low moments, I love egg mayonnaise. It was one of the first things that I started to make myself as a teenager. Chopped onion, chopped boiled egg and mayonnaise, with salt and pepper, sometimes with tomato, always between two slices of bread. It was my thing, along with potato salad. I combined them at times (and I suggest you do too, if you never have). When I was hungry, egg mayonnaise was what I wanted. Every time. Now, when I am tired or sore or sick, I reach for egg mayo too.

Egg mayo is so much more than invalid food. It is deeply satisfying and nourishing, not just on its own or between slices of bread, it is wonderful with asparagus in an asparagus mimosa, and fun in delicious served inside a scooped out tomato. Mimosa is a simple thing, chopped boiled egg, dressed and scattered on top of asparagus is all it is. This time I elevated it with a crisp chorizo crumb, something which I suggest you bulk make, and then try not to eat it all in one go. Chorizo crumb goes with pretty much everything. Scatter some on a fried egg, serve it as a meaty pangrattato in place of parmesan, even better with.

When I was 13 I was working on an obsessive little project that had nothing to do with food. The only food I was interested in then was eclairs, lemon meringue pie, my home made toffee and taytos (Irish cheese and onion crisps, as many as I could get, however possible). This project was unrelated to all of that but I was fascinated. It was a school project about Bach, for music class. All my research was piled into a bright red binder all about the baroque period. I have loved Bach since, music keeps me sane and as with food, I am not a music snob. Some of it grabs me by the gills and I love it, from Bach to Kate Bush to The Shins. 

I have such fond memories of this dish, it is one of my clearest memories of my short trip to Tbilisi some years back. That and the wonderful flea market, everyone singing in gorgeous chorus between drinks of wine, and this one meal in a restaurant upstairs. I remember being outdoors looking at a garden. I remember the little walnut balls, divine. I remember this garlicky chicken. Crisp, rich and intense, I remember noticing how they jointed their chicken differently. Georgia is a wonderful country for food and wine, and I really must return there and explore further and for longer. 

At Market in Tbilisi

It is traditional to use a whole chicken for this, I decided to use chicken thighs. Chicken thighs are inexpensive, have great flavour, retain moisture and have plenty of skin to crisp. The flavours in this dish are rich and deep, but it is deceptively simple. The chicken is par cooked (and the skin crisped) before being covered with a garlic milk mixture which forms a beautiful crust on top as it cooks further in the oven. 

Khinkali – Georgian dumplings – another dish that I need to make and share

A perfectly good dish to start this week on! This is perfect with a salad with a sharp dressing to cut through it. 

This post is a happy sponsored collaboration with Yealands Family Wines. Eat Like a Girl only partners with carefully selected producers who share our values. Read more about sponsored content on Eat Like a Girl.  Read on to discover more about Yealands Family Wines, how to nab yourself one of 90 sets of 6 bottles of wine and how to make an Eat Like a Girl recipe designed to match them. 

You didn’t really need an excuse to whip out a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc today did you? But it is International Sauvignon Blanc Day so let’s make it a bit special. I have partnered with Yealands Family Wines for this post, an exploration of their wines, a lively and gorgeous recipe for you to make to go with them for Sauvignon Blanc Day, and a chance for you to win one of 90 Cellar Door Gift packs (with 6 bottles in each pack, 2 x Peter Yealands, 2 x Peter Yealands Reserve and 2 x Yealands Estate Single Vineyard).

Wonderful, right?! Let’s get started.

Eat Like a Girl is 10 today. TEN! Woah, happy birthday to you, little thing!

10 years ago, at about this time, I was sitting at my (very messy) office desk feeling overwhelmed. It was towering with notebooks and papers relating to the science publishing projects that I was working on (I studied science at degree level and then technology for my masters). I worked late, and to relax I cooked when I got home. Many evenings and weekends would be spent exploring food shops from far off lands and bringing home ingredients that I hoped google would help me understand or one of my many cookbooks which I had been hoarding for years.

(there was punctuation, I swear!)

I have always been a cook more than anything, as much as I love to eat out now. I didn’t eat out much when I first moved to London, I didn’t have much money after the bills were paid, but I did cook, and I looked at restaurant menus all the time, taking inspiration from them to my kitchen back home. I was obsessed with travel, and travelled when I could (rarely), taking inspiration from those trips back home to my kitchen also. 

Eggs for brunch! Maybe 75% of my brunches have eggs, isn’t that the way it should be?

I was caught on the hop today while scheduling work for next week when I was informed that it is a bank holiday again. Again?! When I worked in an office I would of course know this ages in advance and I would be plotting and planning, but working at home for myself where my only colleagues are inanimate (and gorgeous fragrant) tulips and the occasional neighbourhood cat, I often miss the memo these days. The days pass and follow and now it is almost May. How did that happen? Regardless, it did, and now summer is almost here.

Tulips from Amsterdam! Truly, I picked them on an organic tulip farm earlier in the week and brought them home. Gorgeous.

Chepstow was very familiar and I didn’t know why. Not far beyond Bristol and just in Wales, Chepstow is of course the home to a famous horse racing track and it is where the Grand National is. I must have seen it on the TV listings many times (I know little to nothing about horse racing, despite this I did manage to pick a winning horse before entirely at random and at 40:1 odds!).

Isn’t everything better with an egg? Most things, anyway. An egg is an instant easy sauce. That rich yolk, which must be runny, and a variety of things to go with it, some of which must be crisp and dippable. And a runny egg yolk is the perfect thing to have with some lovely saltimbocca.

One of the farmers at my local farmers market sells terrific meat. The prices are excellent, the minced meats have plenty of fat (and therefore lots of flavour and moisture) and there are always interesting cuts. He also always has veal, minced and in thin escalopes. Saltimbocca alla Romana had been on my mind, and when reminded of it via an instagram post from the wonderful Rachel Roddy, I decided that it had to be done.

Cooking from scratch is my thing. This site is a celebration of food and cooking, and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love it. I love the work, I love the flavours, I love seeing what is possible and most of all I love eating it and sharing it. I am also a big fan of doing the best you can when there is limited time available. Speedy suppers and brisk brunches. (My cookbook Comfort and Spice has a whole chapter on Speedy Suppers).

The Anatomy of a Speedy Supper

Often this means that I cook something simple, other times it means that I use one of my cupboard helpers. Flavour bombs that dress up an otherwise simple dish and give it the gift of time borrowed from earlier, when it was first made, often more time from when it was allowed to age and ferment. I love to use miso, chilli oil, gojuchang, fermented black beans, black garlic, and this evening wild garlic oil and a tube of harissa paste from a local middle eastern shop. Yes, I do often make harissa, I love its vibrancy when fresh, but the tube is ace too and well worth having on standby. (I use a Tunisian harissa paste, Hariisa du Cap Bon, available in a tube or tins).