WATERMELON SALAD

We prepared this for the retirement party of a neighbourhood friend as it is really easy buffet summer food.

You need:

- a watermelon (if you are in the UK use a whole watermelon, but if you are in Spain, Italy or France use only half - British watermelons are half the size of Mediterranean ones, which is a bit bizarre as most of them are imported from the Mediterranean)
- one and a half packets of feta cheese
- three red onions
- 200 g of black olives
-  big bunch of parsley
 - 5 tablespoons of oil
- three and a half table spoons of vinegar
- salt

Cut the watermelon in bite size cubes. Cut the onions in half moons and put them on top of the watermelon. Crumble the feta cheese and add it to the salad. Finally sprinkle the parsley on top. Separately mix the oil, vinegar and salt and pour it over the salad. Toss it all together.

We were running really late for the party so I am afraid we took the picture of the salad in its foil container, which is convenient for the party but a bit ugly for the blog - on the bright side though it means you will not have to do any washing up.

GOURMET AWARD

This is the Elle Gourmet Award that we won earlier this week in Spain for our blog.
 My sons could not come to the awards as they are still at school for a couple of weeks, but they would have simply loved meeting Josep Roca from El Celler de Can Roca (the best restaurant in the world, Michelin Guide dixit) and Elena Arzac from Arzac, the first three Michelin stars restaurant I ever went to when I was in my twenties. 

Not bad, right? and as one of my son says, all this for something we do in our spare time!

COD WITH GARLIC MOUSSELINE

This is a way to prepare cod that became fashionable in Spanish restaurants a few years ago. It is very simple to make. You need:

- one fresh cod steak per person (this recipe is for four steaks) - the recipe is even better if you do it with salted cod,which is a great product, but for some inexplicable reason it is too difficult to find salted cod in the UK. 

- 2 eggs whites

- one egg yoke

- half a clove of garlic

- half a teaspoon of parsley

- 4 generous tablespoons of mayonnaise (shop bought is fine)

- salt

Preheat the oven at 180 degrees. 

Salt the cod steaks and put them on a roasting tray (if you want you can oil a bit the tray beforehand, but it is not really necessary).  Whisk the egg whites. Separately blend the mayonnaise, egg yoke, garlic and parsley (you can do this in a food processor or with a hand held blender). Mix carefully the mayonnaise mixture with the egg white and pour it over the steaks covering them completely (or just cover each steak if you want less sauce). Bake for 20 minutes.  

If your children do not like the garlic flavour you can do this without the garlic, but then add another egg yoke to the mayonnaise mixture.

Children can easily help with most of the preparation for this, but ask them to be careful when they mix the mayonnaise and the egg white as if they mix too energetically you will loose all the egg whites' air.

BANANA BAKE

Apparently bananas have a soothing effect, which is exactly what I need after we discovered yesterday that our system had been hacked. Just in the blog we got more than 2,600 hits from a single country (yes, that country). No point involving the police, since last time this happened (and despite my husband being in government at the time) they were so utterly hopeless that it was actually rather funny. Talking of funny, I am half-discussing with a couple of people about putting together some recipes with  funny anecdotes (not just about the police!!) that took place during the last five years. Not sure I will find the time to do this...but will definitely keep you posted.

For this recipe you need:
- two bananas
- half a lemon
- 4 table spoons of fromage frais or thick yogourt
- two table spoons of honey

Preheat the over at 175 degrees.
Mash the bananas (reserve three slices for decoration). Sprinkle the juice of the lemon on the bananas. Mix with the yogurt/fromage frais. Put it on a small baking dish or ramekin. Drizzle the honey on top. Bake for 20 minutes (we put it at the end for 1 minute under the grill to get a nice brown colour).

Unlike me, my children love both bananas and honey, so they like this for breakfast. It is really easy for them to do the whole recipe on their own provided you help with the oven.

PS - have you joined the Inspiring Women campaign? We have 16,500 women registered already (and if you are a man, you can join Inspiring the Future, which is the wider campaign)

PADDINGTON LOAF CAKE

This is a seriously easy cake.

You need:
- 275 g self-raising flour
- 2 eggs
- 120 g butter - melted
- 2 tablespoons of milk
- 100 g sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 3 tablespoons of marmalade (we used thick cut)
- a handful of 'perled sugar' (if you do not have this just used a coupe of tablespoons of demerara sugar)

Preheat the oven at 175 degrees.

Mix the flour, salt and sugar. Then separately mix the melted butter, beaten eggs and milk. Combine both sets of ingredients (just do this with a wooden spoon) Then add the marmalade. Put it all into a loaf tin (just lined, no need to grease it). Sprinkle the pearl sugar or demerara sugar on top and bake it for one hour (put a bit of foil on top of the cake after half an hour so that  the sugar does not get burnt).

According to my children this tastes particularly good with chocolate ice-cream.

PANNA COTTA

Very simple to make. We have tried different combinations of gelatine and cream and this one makes a properly wobbly panna cotta.
You need:
- 350 ml cream
- 2 gelatine leaves
- 150 ml milk (we use semi skimmed)
- 50 gr icing sugar
- a vanilla pod or table spoon of vanilla extract

Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water. Heat the cream, milk and vanilla pod (take out the seeds) or vanilla extract. Once it is boiling let it simmer for one minute and a half. Take it off the heat, remove the vanilla iPod,  and add the icing guar and the gelatine leaves. Stir it a bit so that the gelatine dissolves. Sieve it through a colander and pour into individual ramekins (this makes 4)

. Let them set in the fridge overnight. When you are going to serve it put the ramekin for just a second in warm water.

CAPRESE SALAD

Very simple salad, but a good way for the children to taste different kinds of tomatoes (and they do taste differently). There is indeed an incredible variety of tomatoes in the market.  I read recently that there is more technology in a tomato  than in an i-phone - fancy the thought!

You need:
- various kinds of tomatoes, sliced thinly
- basil leaves
- mozzarella cheese (cut in cubes or teared into small pieces)
- olive oil (plenty)
- balsamic vinegar
- salt

Arrange the tomatoes first, the salt, then the basil leaves and finally the mozzarella. Pour the oil first and finally the balsamic vinegar. Eat it immediately (if you are preparing this in advance do not pour the oil and vinegar until you are just about to eat the salad)