THE LONDON FOODIE SUPPER CLUB

As I'm sure you all know, I do pop up supper clubs at my home, and occasionally at other venues as well. I absolutely adore doing these events - I love cooking and it's so nice to meet my wonderful guests, some of whom have become friends having attended an A Little Lusciousness pop up. In November last year a couple came to a pop up who live close by, the husband supports the same football team as the boy, they stayed in touch, me and the wife went out for drinks and now they're friends of ours, so much so that I was invited to go to the London Foodie Supper Club with Robin a couple of weeks ago. She'd bought 2 tickets and wanted for me to have the chance to experience someone else's pop up supper club. I'd heard so many good things about The London Foodie so said a definite yes to the invite, and counted down the days til the event itself.

The London Foodie is Luiz, an investment banker turned chef and food/wine/travel writer, born in Brazil to Japanese and Italian parents, who's been running supper clubs in his house for the past 4 years. Luiz does two different styles of supper club - one is based on French cuisine and the other on Japanese. The night I went to was a slight deviation from the second of these as he introduced a Nikkei style of cooking to his pop up. Nikkei cooking is a mix up of Japanese and Peruvian styles and has now expanded to include influences from all over South America. Think sashimi with a tiger's milk dressing, as well as the use of corn and potatoes with more traditional Japanese style food. I first discovered Nikkei cuisine in Seville in Spain, of all places, and it's become a firm favourite since.
 
I dashed from work in West London to Islington on a Friday evening, desperate to arrive in time, and getting there literally as people were  moving from the living room area upstairs where we treated to a welcome gin and tonic and some wasabi popcorn, to the gorgeous downstairs area where long tables were set up and the doors to the beautiful garden were wide open, letting the last of the day's warmth stream in.
 

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L'ETO, BROMPTON ROAD

I got hit with the flu last week, and after sloping off early from work on Tuesday for my bed, I realised that I definitely wasn't going to be able to make the launch party of the newest branch of L'Eto later that evening. I was gutted to miss it, as I've tried their cakes before and they are seriously good, so was thrilled to find out that they wanted me to go in my own time to try out their full dinner menu. I chose last Sunday evening and took the boy along with me for a lovely dinner on a not so lovely evening.

We arrived wet and windswept and hungry for some food, and were greeted into a dining room that felt like someone's luxury drawing room of their home, rather than a formal restaurant setting. The leather panelled walls, gorgeous art on the walls and arm chairs mean that the restaurant is just as suited to those who want tea and cake as it is for those who want a 3 course meal, as we did. The front of the room has a buffet area, with piles of salads, cured meats and breads, while the front window is full of homemade cakes and delicatessens, as well as L'Eto branded jams and granolas.

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10 MINUTE VEG STIR FRY + TUNA

I made this delicious meal for dinner last night. The boy's been ill at home all week and I wanted to make something healthy, quick and tasty to feed us both (before we collapsed on the sofa to watch How to Train your Dragon 2 - perfect film for a 31 and 37 year old to watch!)

This recipe uses tuna as the main protein but you could make it veggie by omitting the tuna, or top it with some grilled chicken or beef if you want something meaty.

Serves 2

1 large tuna steak
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 broccoli
1 red pepper
3 cloves of garlic
Bunch of spring onions
2 nests of dry egg noodles
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
Coriander
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 chilli (for mine only, the boy's allergic so I added this last)

Fill the kettle and put it on.

Rub the tuna steak with olive oil, a grind of pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Chop the broccoli heads off and slice into small pieces. Slice the pepper into rings. Crush the garlic and finely chop the spring onions.

Put the noodles in a bowl and pour over the boiled water. These will need to sit for 5 minutes while you cook the tuna and the veg.

Heat a small frying pan over a high heat. Once hot put the tuna in the pan and leave it to sear for 1-2 minutes, depending how thick the fillet is.

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THE BOLLO HOUSE REVISITED

I've blogged about The Bollo before - it was one of the first reviews I ever wrote on my blog. Since then we've been more times than I can remember, for food, drinks, Sunday lunches, last minute dinners, meetings, cocktails.... It's our regular so we end up there for many reasons or no reason at all. Then you can imagine my horror when I called to book earlier this Summer only for the phone to ring and ring with no answer. They'd closed! During Summer!! But a bit of further investigation led me to find out that it was only temporary as they were undergoing a full front and back of house refurb, and they'd be open again soon. So the night after they reopened we were there like a shot to try out their new range of drinks and updated food menu.

The Bollo changed hands pre-refurb and is now run the by the same group who own The City Barge in Chiswick, which is another new favourite of ours, so I was excited to see what they'd done to improve this place we call our second home! A lot is the answer!! I'm so happy that all has changed for the better. The inside of the pub has been given a lick of paint, the slightly odd seating arrangements are gone (it used to be a bit of higgledy mix of bench seating, large tables, sofas and various types of chair) replaced with more tables, creating a restaurant feel in the main dining area, but without having lost any of the pub feel in the bar area. And talking of the bar area, their drinks selection is awesome now. There's about 10 different craft beers, a lot of which are brewed in London, on tap - one of which is a new favourite - 3 Weiss Monkeys - a wheat beer brewed in London Fields which is light and refreshing with a delicious lemony taste to it. We sunk 5 of these between us before we'd even ordered  food - oops! If you like wheat beer or are interested in trying it, go for this, it's the best wheat beer I've ever tried.

But the main event for me was the food - we loved the old, seasonally changing menu that had our favourite dishes on it which we ate over and over again. I was nervous about the change, but I needn't have been - it is SO good! The menu has been spruced up - bread to nibble that used to be served with oil and balsamic has been upgraded to delicious slices of a seeded loaf, now served with oil and dukkah. Salt and pepper squid is now calamari with merguez sausage - traditional has been replaced by modern with a twist.

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OLD EL PASO STAND n STUFF

There's not much we like more for a slap up dinner than a fajita or taco night, especially when we've got friends coming round. It's such a fun way to eat, with everyone grabbing their own ingredients and creating a unique plate made up of their favourite components from everything on the table - it allows the boy to steer clear of spice, but me to load up my plate with jalapenos and hot salsa, so everyone gets what they want. So when I was invited up to the Old El Paso HQ in West London to try their new range I was intrigued to find out more.

Old El Paso have launched their newest product (after 8 years in the making) - the Stand N Stuff soft taco. Think soft flour tortilla made into a flat-bottomed boat shape that you can fill with whatever you fancy without having to worry about it all spilling out. My bug bear with normal tortillas is that lump of folded flour wrap you get at the bottom that's stodgy and excessive, and the messy leakage of delicious juices that normally spill out of the tortilla when you eat it. There's none of this with the Stand n Stuff - just an open sided pouch that I find much easier to fill and eat that the standard tortilla.

We were given a little talk about Old El Paso, who've been trading for nearly 80 years and started life as a tinned tomato distributor before becoming the Old El Paso we all know today. After tasting the new range and then cooking up our own versions in their test kitchens we were sent on our way with goody bags stuffed full of the new products - we got one of each of their Stand n Stuff kits, in each of the 3 flavours - Smokey BBQ, chipotle and honey, and extra mild, which come with the tortilla boats, a spice mix and a salsa pack, as well as some of the tortillas on their own, and a nice big jar of jalapenos.

I was super keen to get in the kitchen at home and rustle up my own version of the tortilla, and so made these really delicious spicy tuna tortilla boats - which you can easily make too.

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BUSH HALL DINING ROOMS

Last year while we had our house refurbed we stayed with friends just off Uxbridge Road and I found what is now one of my favourite pubs for food. However there was another place on Uxbridge Road that I walked past quite often that looked really good, and that was Bush Hall Dining Rooms which had only opened a couple of months before, and is part of the iconic music venue, Bush Hall, next door. Fast forward nearly a year and I finally got round to going there. Now I've discovered it I've actually booked it for my birthday meal next month as that's how much we liked it.

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A LITTLE LONDON LUSCIOUSNESS - 20th SEP

When I started doing pop up restaurants in November last year, I never once imagined that by August this year I would've done over 18 events already! Although I've stuck to my plan of 1 public pop up a month, I've had so many requests for private catering gigs that I've been cooking most weekends for the last 6 weeks! I absolutely love it - but also have a full time job, so have been exhausting myself a bit recently!! I decided to have a break from public pop ups in August, although ended up catering a hen do and a baby shower last weekend anyway.

So with no more pop ups this month, my next date is Saturday 20th September. I'm teaming up with Urban Food Fortnight to put on a pop up using locally sourced produce. If you follow my pop ups you'll know that they are all about using sustainably produced, seasonal produce, sourced mostly from the West Country, where I grew up. However there's a different challenge with my September date, as all the ingredients I will be using will have been grown in and around London! Now this might not sound so appealing, but what I'm doing is teaming up with various allotment holders to use their lovely home grown fruit and vegetables, all of which are seasonal, and I am souring all of my meat and dairy from farms in Essex and Kent. It's an exciting challenge and one that's made me come up with a menu that I can't wait to cook...

The menu for 20th September is:

Fig and elderflower cocktail - made to order on arrival (non-alcoholic version if requested)

 

Grilled figs with chicory, apple, candied walnut and gorgonzola salad

 

Slow roast pork belly, fennel gratin, mustard creamy mash potato, buttered cabbage & rosemary and crab apple sauce, served with cider gravy

 

Raspberry mousse with shortbread biscuits

 

Cheeseboard with homemade chutney and rosemary and sea salt biscuits

 

Coffee or herbal tea with homemade chocolates

 

As always, dietary requirements can be catered for, so if you'd like to come but there's something  you can't eat or don't like on the menu, then just mention in the comments section when booking and I can email you alternatives to choose from.

 

Tickets for the pop up are £30 and include a welcome drink. It's bring your own booze on the evening so you can bring your preferred drinks with you. I provide soft drinks for those who want them. Tickets are available here - and have already started selling!

The pop up takes place at our lovely house in Acton - which is easily accessible on the Piccadilly line, or via the overground stations South Acton or Kew Bridge, which link to East and South London respectively.

If you're not quite convinced and want to see what other guests have said, you can read all my reviews here. And here's a couple of photos from my last events....

Walnut and cranberry bread for the starter:
 

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MY NEXT POP UP with HOPE FOR TOMORROW

I can't believe it is July already!! This year seems to be whizzing by SO fast. But that's a good thing, because it means that it's nearly time for my July pop up! On Saturday 19th July I'm hosting a four course dinner at our house, all in aid of a wonderful charity called Hope for Tomorrow. Hope for Tomorrow are a charity that provide support for cancer patients by bringing treatment closer to home. They raise money to build mobile chemotherapy units that can be driven to more rural, hard to reach areas, therefore saving poorly patients grizzly car journeys to and from the hospital for treatment. Hope for Tomorrow work with the NHS to make sure the mobile units get to those that need them. If you want to read more about their truly amazing work you can visit their website here.

My pop up starts at 19:30 on Saturday 19th July and will take place at our home in West London (in between Chiswick, Acton and Ealing). Hopefully if it's nice outside seating will be in the garden, as that's what we did at my pop up last weekend and it was so great to be out there.

The menu for the 19th July is as follows, but if there's something on there you don't like/can't eat but you still want to come, that's no problem at all - just mention in the comments section when booking what it is you can't eat and I will email you a few other options to choose from.

Summer berry fizz cocktail (non-alcoholic version available)

*

Pea and broad bean mousse with herbed goat's cheese and homemade bread

*

Whole salmon, braised fennel, baked and dressed aubergine, posh potato salad and Summer vegetable glut salad

*

Blueberry sour cream cake with salted caramel creme fraiche and crystallised summer berries

*

Somerset cheese board with homemade seedy biscuits and chilli tomato chutney

*

Coffee or herbal teas, served with homemade chocolate balls

All my ingredients are the best quality I can get and everything is then homemade by me for the pop up. While the coffee and chocolate are clearly not British I use as many seasonal, British ingredients as possible.

Tickets are £30 for all the food and a cocktail and can be bought HERE. It's bring your own booze on the night, so you can bring as much as you like, and I provide soft drinks if required.

Hope for Tomorrow is a very dear charity to me which is why I've chosen to raise some money for them. All proceeds from the pop up on 19th July will be going straight to Hope for Tomorrow, and will also be match funded either by the company I work for during the week, or failing that, by myself.

My next pop up after 19th July will be on Saturday 20th September - details to follow - as I'm having a little break/already doing too many catering gigs in August!

I really hope some of you can make it along for a Summery four course feast of an A Little Lusciousness pop up!!

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SIMPLE SUMMER SALAD

This is a really quick and straightforward salad that I made for dinner a few nights ago. It was so well received on social media (and at home!) that I wanted to share the recipe for it here. Other than making some mayo, it's really just a case of boiling the veg - all of which can be done in the same pan. Mayonnaise might seem like it's going to be complicated to make, but honestly, once you've made it once and realised how easy it is, you'll make it over and over again. I've posted a recipe for mayo here before, but actually make it slightly differently when I'm using it as a dressing rather than a dip, so the recipe below is adjusted for this. 

Makes enough for 2 people as a main course, or 4 if served as a side

300g new potatoes, scrubbed and cut into chunks the same size as the smallest potato
125g asparagus
250g frozen peas
1 or 2 avocados
1 tbsp nonpareille capers
1 free-range egg yolk
1 heaped tsp English mustard
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 tsp cider vinegar
40ml rapeseed oil
40ml sunflower oil
Zest of 1 lemon
Pepper

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MAY & JUNE A LITTLE LUSCIOUSNESS POP UPS!

I've got some more pop up dates in the diary! And tickets are still available for both.

I had a hugely successful pop up last Saturday, that my guests loved. It was such a fun evening, and I think (hope) that every went home with full tummies and smiles on their faces after a four course feast of seasonal produce (and lots of wine!). This is a little snapshot of the evening at my house:

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EATING IN SEVILLE

A couple of weeks ago the boy and I took ourselves off to Andalucia for a well earned break. In fact, I had won a weekend at a 5* hotel near Estepona back in Autumn last year, via Quintessentially Travel, so had booked another 7 days on top of that via AirBnb, firstly in Seville then on to Cadiz, before the weekend at the hotel. More on both the hotel and Cadiz in my next few posts, but here I want to tell you about Seville.

I spent a year living in Seville in 2004. I have wonderful memories of lots of good food, interesting tapas bars and great places to drink. Although structurally Seville hasn't changed too much (apart from the addition of trams and tubes!) pretty much everything else seems to have been replaced or upgraded. Yes, there were still a few places I knew and recognised, but the food scene in particular, seems to have taken off in a big way. Gone are many of the small, traditional tapas bars, having been replaced by fusion restaurants, sushi bars and all sorts I would've never expected to see in Seville. 

We set off, armed with various emails and blog links that recommended places to eat, and print offs from Lizzie's blog, Hollow Legs, including her really helpful spreadsheet she compiled from a Seville/Cadiz visit, ready to go. However, on arriving in Seville, I began to realise just how much has changed, even since Lizzie's visit 2 years ago. We hung on to all recommendations, and visited a few of them, but were thrilled to bump into an old acquantance of the boy's and mine, the very talented grafitti artist Seleka, who now runs the wonderful DeLimbo gallery in the centre of Seville, and had a whole load of recommendations of the newest and best places we should go to eat.

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HOP VIETNAMESE

I've been eating out a lot more than normal recently, which I've been really loving (it's always nice to be cooked for!) Last Tuesday I was very kindly invited to go and check out a new pop up - HOP Vietnamese. The lovely Liv from Grub Club was due to go, but after not being able to rearrange a meeting that clashed she asked if I wanted to go along instead. Which I did!

This was HOP's second pop up, at House of Wolf, a cool cocktail bar set over several floors on Upper Street, near Highbury and Islington. We were greeted at the door and taken to the 1st floor, where a man resembling Ludo Lefebvre from The Taste was serving up delicious cocktails. Sadly, as it was a Tuesday evening and the middle of an already busy week for me, I had decided to not drink, so I stuck to the non-alcoholic versions, which were still really good - refreshing and tasty. I had a raspberry mint fizz, but could've had a chilli and lemongrass Collins or a coconut crush.

 

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SQUID INK, SPINACH, PESTO & SEA BASS

I wasn't actually going to post this recipe up on my blog - it was just something I threw together for a weekday supper for me and the boy, and the title of it's a bit long winded. But the photo I posted on Instagram of our meal went down a treat, so I thought I'd put the recipe up here in case any of you want to make it.

You can substitute any ingredients you don't have for what you do have - my recipe was influenced by the contents of my fridge!

Serves 2:

150g squid ink spaghetti
50g spinach pasta

Handful frozen peas
2 tbsp pesto - I used Pisco pesto (I think that's what it's called, although can't find any info online about them), which was a homemade brand I picked up at Battersea car boot sale at the weekend
Packet of spinach
Lemon juice
Black pepper

2 fillets of sea bass

Get 2 pans of water on to boil - 1 large for the pasta, one smaller for the peas. 

Add salt to the larger pan once boiling and add your pasta. This needs to boil for 10 minutes. In the meantime, add the peas to the small pan, and boil for 1 minute, then drain and leave to one side. 

Heat a frying pan until hot, rub the sea bass fillets with olive oil and season. Place in the frying pan, skin side down and cook for a couple of minutes, until the skin is golden and crispy, and the fish is cooking through. Flip the fillets and cook for 1 more minute. Remove from the pan and leave to one side.

When the pasta is cooked (taste to check it's to your liking), drain, leaving a tiny amount of the cooking water, and return to the heat. Turn the heat right down and add the bag of spinach, stirring it through the pasta until it has wilted. Add 2 tablespoons of pesto and the peas and continue to stir. I drizzled some really nice olive oil through the pasta at this point as well; just to loosen the whole thing up a bit.

Put the pasta in shallow bowls and the fillet of fish on top. Squeeze a nice amount of lemon juice over the whole thing, and serve. A perfect, quick weekday dinner for 2!

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NEXT A LITTLE LUSCIOUSNESS POP UPS!

Last October I started doing a monthly pop up restaurant/supper club at our home in Acton Town and I've absolutely loved every minute of menu planning, food sourcing and all the cooking and preparation involved in putting on these events, as well as meeting all the lovely guests who've come to eat my food.  

My next pop up is on Saturday 29th March 2014, at our lovely house, in Acton Town, West London (Piccadilly line). The menu for the night is:

STARTER – Salmon three ways - beetroot cured with capers, sashimi with spring onions and pan fried with soy glaze

MAIN – Bavette steak, dauphinoise potatoes, greens and red wine sauce

PUDDING – Rhubarb hazelnut crumble, homemade stem ginger, hazelnut ice cream (this is the same pudding I served at my February pop up, but it went down so well, and rhubarb season should be made the most of, so I'm serving it again in March!)

CHEESE – Montgomery cheeseboard, spiced chutney and herby salted crackers

COFFEE and HERBAL TEAS served with sticky chocolate balls

If you'd like to come along but there's something on the menu you don't like, just let me know in the comments section of the booking form, and I can make you an alternative.


Tickets are available HERE.

You can come on your own, bring a date, grab some friends, or book out a whole table for however many of you there are! It's £30 a head for the evening, and it's bring your own booze, so feel free to bring a bottle of your favourite!

I do my public pop ups once a month, and the next one after this will be April 26th. Link to tickets and menu is HERE.

Hope to see some of you at one of my pop ups soon!!

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VALENTINES BLOG LOVE

Valentines Day is the one day of the year when I don't want to cook for myself and the boy! So rather than a load of lovey dovey Valentines pink recipes, I thought I'd share the love by telling you about some of my favorite blogs I read. I read a lot of blogs, from food to lifestyle to travel and beauty, and obviously I really like all the blogs I read (otherwise I wouldn't read them!) but I can't list them all here, as there are tons I really like. However, these are some of my favs that involve food, that I hope you can enjoy too.

My FAVORITE blog of all of them is Manger. Mimi lives in Medoc in France with her beautiful family and their 14(!) dogs, where she cooks my idea of food heaven, with the most incredible looking produce. Oh how I would love to spend a weekend at their house!! I was going through her blog pulling some photos to put in this blog, and I literally saved tens of photos as I just couldn't decide between them.

Just look at that meat:

 

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LEFTOVER CHEESE RECIPES

I'm not sure about you, but leftover and cheese aren't normally 2 words that go together in our house!! However, there is normally that bit of rind that ends up at the back of the fridge - not enough cheese on it to put it on a cheeseboard, but still too much to warrant throwing it away!

So here are a couple of ideas of what you can do with any of those nearly just rind bits you've got lying around.

First off, CHEESY POTATOES.

400g potatoes
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Fresh herbs
Leftover cheese (I used cheddar, brie rinds, a small piece of reblochon and some of the Montgomery Ogleshield I had)

Preheat your oven to 200C.

Start off by parboiling your potatoes - you want them nearly cooked, so chop into bite size pieces and boil them in salted water for about 10 minutes.

Once boiled, drain and add to a tray with plenty of olive oil, salt and pepper. Now take all your leftover cheese (including the rinds) and slice thinly. Spread over the potatoes, and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling and potatoes a little golden.

Chop whatever herbs you have to hand - I like to use parsley and basil but you can use whatever soft herbs you have. Sprinkle over the cheesy potatoes and serve. I served ours with leftover pulled pork and an avocado and tomato salad.

Perfect grub for Sundays spent watching movies!

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A LITTLE LUSCIOUSNESS POP UPS

Having now done 3 public A Little Lusciousness pop ups, and 3 private A Little Lusciousness catering gigs, I thought I'd share some of the photos with you, although I can't share all the recipes, as they're going into my cookbook I'm writing!

STARTERS

Homemade hummus:

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A LITTLE SLOW FOOD LUSCIOUSNESS

On Saturday 2nd November, I'm teaming up with Slow Food London to bring you my first public A Little Lusciousness pop up! I've been in talks with Grub Club for a while about launching pop up restaurants, and it is so exciting to finally be able to tell you about it, and give you some more details!!

Slow Food is a global, not for profit organisation whose aim is to promote "the pleasure of food with a commitment to the community and the environment". They stand against the increase in fast food, and aim to get people to stop and think about where their food has come from. It's all about local sourcing, preparing home food and taking some time and care with getting food ready to eat. It is an ethos and an attitude towards food that they promote - one I firmly believe in, and one that I'm sure many people could learn something from. The Slow Food London food projects are really in line with my beliefs around homegrown, lovingly prepared food, so when the opportunity to do something with them came up, it seemed like the ideal time to launch my pop up to the public!

The menu for my pop up is as follows, with all ingredients being free-range and/or organic, and sourced from British suppliers that I continue to work with (including Devon large white variety pork shoulder from Wyndham House butchers, and cheeses from the wonderful guys at O Toma O Morte). It will be a very casual evening, and a great opportunity to spend some time with like minded foodies!

WELCOME COCKTAIL...

STARTER – Borscht with homemade soda bread.

MAIN – 24 hour shoulder of Devon free-range pork with special carrots, celeriac coleslaw and vegetables, with smokey BBQ sauce.

PUDDING – Sticky apple and pecan cake with butterscotch sauce.

CHEESE – Cheeseboard with pears, chutney and homemade biscuits.

I'll be providing soft drinks as well, but if you'd like something stronger, please feel free to bring a bottle (or two!)

All proceeds from ticket sales for the night will be going to Slow Food London Schools Programme, where the money will go towards funding a raised bed garden being built in a school for special needs children in London. You can read more about what Slow Food London do here.

Going forward, I will be doing a monthly pop up in West London, which will be promoted through the Grub Club site. It would be great if you can make it along to one of them, as I'd love to put some faces to names!! For tickets or more information please go to my page on the Grub Club website. Tickets are available now for the November event, and details about the December event will be up soon!!

Thank you!

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SALMON with STUFFED PEPPERS / SALAD DRESSING

I wasn't intending on posting this recipe up here, as it's more of a compilation of foods than an intricate recipe, but it tasted and looked so good that I felt I had to share! It's the perfect summer supper that's quick and easy to make. You can eat the red peppers with other fish than salmon, they're also great with sticky chicken, and they're brilliant to take to a picnic. 

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SUMMER PRAWN and PEA SOUP

This isn't actually a soup. Well it is, but normally soup has more liquid than other ingredients, so I suppose this more of a broth. Either way, it's the perfect lightweight, healthy meal that's quick and easy to cook. The original recipe came from Lyndsey Bareham's column in The Times, but I've made a few tweaks to give it my own twist.

Serves 2.

250g Jersey Royal new potatoes
1/4 vegetable stock cube
1-2 cups of water
1 lemon, zest and juice
200g raw king prawns, peeled
200g peas

100g green beans, chopped into 2cm pieces
1 tbsp creme fraiche

Rinse the new potatoes and chop into bite size pieces (about 2cm square). Put the potatoes in a wide saucepan (I actually use the wok to cook this in) and pour over enough water to just cover them. Sprinkle with a tiny corner of vegetable stock cube. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for 8 minutes or so, or until the potatoes feel slightly soft when poked with a knife.

Add the zest and juice of the lemon and the prawns, stir, and cook for another 2 minutes. Now add the peas and beans and cook for 1 minute.

Remove from the pan, and stir the creme fraiche into the juice.

Serve in bowls with plenty of the liquid, a grind of black pepper, and a big wedge of lemon.

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