What I´m loving right now

I´m sure you´re thinking, what´s the point of complaining about tomatoes in Scotland? How silly do you have to be?

You´re right. This is no vegetable paradise, but there are some amazing things I have here that I´d never find in Spain, like

1-tiny new potatoes. Steamed, roasted or boiled, with butter or oil or salt or herbs or in this very addictive salad, by Yotam Ottolenghi via The Wednesday Chef.

2- spring onions, the real thing, young and tender, perfect for going straight into soups or omelettes or sandwiches or risottos or anything, apart from the super-sauce, of course.

3-cucumbers that look like something you should use to sink a U-boat and yet are delicate and crisp and have none of that indigestible afterlife.

4- raspberries and strawberries. Of course. Perhaps when we have a car we´ll try the pick your own places, but for now, I try to buy these from small local shops. The supermarkets nestle all sorts of berries from Spain!

For the rest, I´ve discovered that when English recipe books say "add six garlic cloves", they´re not crazy, it´s just that here garlic cloves are tiny little runts.

I also have a big love for Yeo organic yogurt, which Pía and I consume by the pint, and for some dangerous little sausage called "cumberland cippolata". The flour is amazing, or else my new oven is, or else I have finally been touched by the fingers of the great baking gods, but the loaves and pizzas I make here are my best yet.

So there you go. Nice stuff, plenty of it. And that´s not even mentioning the smoked fish, which probably deserves a post all its own.