15 January - sunday lunch in the sun

Having failed in my shopping yesterday that included butter for toast, it was muesli for breakfast - not my favourite - so I felt justified in going out for a proper Sunday lunch. After a fantastically hot, sunny morning sitting on the roof terrace wishing I'd brought shorts, by the time I wandered down to the waterfront for lunch, it was clouding over. Undeterred, I opted for the terrace of Don Berto - apparently a popular spot for family Sunday lunches.

I started off with some garlic bread to compensate for the lack of toast for breakfast. Then for my main, I had the most fabulous, falling-off-the-bone lamb shanks, slow-cooked in a rich sauce with carrots, peppers, courgette and aubergine, topped with vegetable crisps and with a whole roast garlic on the side - the discretely snapped picture really doesn't do it justice!

Certainly solved the problem of having nothing much in for supper - it was more than enough to keep me going!

19 June - braised lamb shanks and gooseberry & apple crumble

I went to the supermarket yesterday with a rather vague "meat" written on my shopping list for today's dinner and I came home with a couple of lamb shanks. I knew I wanted to slow cook them, so I turned to Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries and found a recipe for braised lamb shanks with mustard. I browned the meat gently on the hob in a little oil, then added a couple of sliced onions, 3 peeled and squashed cloves of garlic, 3 bays leaves, some rosemary, 250ml stock and 250ml red wine. When it all came to the boil, I covered the whole thing with foil and a lid and popped it in the oven at 150C for a couple of hours. Halfway through I turned the meat over and added a good dollop of wholegrain mustard. It came out lovely and tender and went nicely with some simple boiled potatoes, green beans and spring greens. There was rather a lot of meat, so I pulled a few bits off before I put it on the plates, to keep for lunch one day in the week.

To use up the rest of the gooseberries while they're nice and fresh, I mixed them with some apple to make a crumble. My usual crumble mix is, again, based on a Nigel Slater recipe. I whizz together 90g plain flour with 65g cold butter in a mixer, then add 3tbsp caster sugar, 3tbsp ground almonds and a few chopped hazelnuts. I put the gooseberries and apple (one big Bramley) in a dish, sprinkle over a tbsp sugar, then tip on the crumble mix and cook the whole thing for about half an hour. Even with custard, the gooseberries still had a nice, tangy kick!

13 April - gilgamesh, camden

Today I met up with a friend in London on my way down to Brighton and went for lunch at Gilgamesh in Camden. It's a huge, OTT restaurant styled on the theme of the epic poem after which it's named (written in about 2000BC and set in Mesopotamia with tales of ancients kings, battles, monsters etc.). My friend assured me that it's even more dramatic at night, but it was still a pretty impressive setting.

We went for a set menu, with a mix of dim-sum style starters, a main course and a pudding. The food is described as pan-Asian and it definitely came up with a great mix of Asian flavours. The starters were quite Chinese-y with prawn sushi rolls, Char Siew pork wraps (really delicious, if rather tricky to eat with chopsticks!) and spicy chicken samosas. Then for my main I had lamb shank mussamon - a meltingly tender lamb shank served in a lovely rich southern Thai sauce - a creamy brown curry sauce, a kind of crossover between Thai and Indian - fantastic! I think we were both pretty stuffed after our mains, but still managed to get through pudding; a little chocolate sponge (quite grainy, a bit like a polenta cake) and a splodge of icecream.

Great company and a great meal - can't complain for a mid-week lunch! I'd definitely recommend the place and I will have to go back some time in the evening to get the full effect.

Now I'm down in Brighton for a week for work, staying in a little rented flat. The kitchen doesn't look bad, but this evening I couldn't manage more than a small bowl of soup after such a huge lunch.