12 June - a hotdog at the airport

A day of travelling today with snatched food; a prawn sandwich in Bergen for lunch, then a hotdog and a beer at the airport while we waited for the flight home. Looking forward to getting back to my own bed and my kitchen too.

10 June - caviar and bacalao

For dinner this evening, we had the most beautifully presented caviar. It’s one of those things that for me, often verges on being over-strong, but small mouthfuls mixed with sour cream just hit the spot. In the spirit of a photography course, I tried a bit of food photography this evening with shots of the plates from all angles!

The caviar was followed by bacalao - a kind of fish stew of salt cod, tomatoes and peppers, which is best known in Spain and Portugal, but apparently Norway too. Quite tasty and actually not as salty as I'd expected.

9 June - slow-cooked lamb and frogspawn

Today was soup again for lunch; this time a creamy cauliflower soup, perfect for a slightly damp, chilly day.

Sadly, the cold and rain drove us indoors for dinner this evening, but a hearty dish of slow-cooked lamb with swede and potatoes warmed us up after a busy afternoon snapping outdoors. A huge glass dish of lumpy white stuff arrived for pudding that none of us felt quite sure about. Venturing the first taste, my instinctive description was that it felt a bit like frogspawn, which didn't really inspire the rest of the group to try it! It was actually a chilled creamy pudding, a bit like rice pudding, but made with barley instead and although we were all a bit uncertain about the texture on first taste, it grew on us and with a fruit sauce made from cherries and strawberries, we all ended up with a good bowlful.

8 June - home-smoked salmon by a fjord

For the next five days, I'm on a photography course, based in a fantastic wooden lodge right next to a fjord; Hardangerfjord. Our host and chef, Jarle (below), is cooking us three traditional Norwegian meals a day. Breakfast was a spread of bread, cheeses, jam and eggs, then lunch was hearty pea and ham soup.

For dinner, we were outdoors at a long wooden table in the lovely evening light. We started off with salmon that was home-smoked by Jarle's mum and had to be the best smoked salmon I've ever tasted. Served in lovely thick slices with soured cream ... mmmm! Then there was pollock cooked with loads of veg and served with boiled potatoes. And of course, a glass of Jarle's home-brewed cider to wash it all down!