Leith's Soda Bread

Many, many moons ago I discovered that my body was much happier without yeast roaming around inside it. Ever since then, soda bread has become a staple. And it just so happens that making soda bread is super simple, only takes an hour from ingredients to baked, is a million miles tastier homemade than shop-bought, and the only thing you'll need to buy fresh is a tub of buttermilk. 

There are pages and pages of soda recipes out there. My preferred one is this Leith's one, although this Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall one also looks quite great. Pick whichever takes your fancy and knock a loaf together. It'll be the easiest bread you ever make, and it'll go wonderfully with butter and honey (especially the London Honey Co honey), with cheese, with soup, toasted with peanut butter... You'll be addicted soon enough.

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Love & Lemons: Fig & Rocket Salad

We're still working our way through the best of the figs over here in East London. We're showing no sign of slowing down our rate of fig eating any time soon.

They're in breakfast, cakes, eaten as they are when standing around in the kitchen, and now incorporated into supper too. Love & Lemons' photography is always inspiringly stunning: a glimpse into what every plate of food I eat would ideally look like. When figs were popped into a salad in this recipe, we popped out to the shops to make it ourselves.

This enormous bowl of salad was a combination of all our favourite things. Always a good place to start. Fresh figs, peppery rocket, creamy avocado, salty cheese, and crunchy, vibrant pesto all muddled together to make the best salad I've had in a very, very long time. Super simple, super showy, super stunning.

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5 Things

5 happy moments from this week:

1. Supper with L

2. Aperol spritz

3. Sunrise

4. Tahini cookies

5. Fresh air

Happy weekend!

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River Café: Lemon Tart

Lemon tart has always been a favourite of mine. It of course falls behind apple tart and apple crumble, but, it's up there at the top, in the elite group.

After a super special visit to the River Café in June (a meal I still dream about), when I sneaked a little mouthful of T's lemon tart, and then another little mouthful, it lodged itself in my memory as a perfect pudding. 

At the end of a super sleepy weekend where I only got out to bed to exercise and then crawled back in, late on Sunday afternoon it was time for me to do something. After flicking through the pile of cookbooks (which have now moved to a shelf, those of you who are avid readers will be pleased to hear), it was decided that it was a lemon tart. I saw the title and remembered the meal and then realised I just needed to buy a million eggs and a million lemons to get going. This recipe isn't one for the thrifty or health conscious. 

The pastry is made and then grated and pressed into the tin, blind baked before being filled with the zingiest (definitely a word) and must luscious of custards, blasted at a high heat to set the top and make the beautiful markings. I'm happy to say we've still got some left, every evening becomes super special when it ends with this.

Here's the recipe. But go and buy the book for goodness sake.

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