A First Over all for Mariquita Today!

It’s not easy to put into words how it can make you feel when you’re lolling about in an area of sea barely off the coast, lined with glittering skyscrapers, amongst many other beautiful classic yachts, waiting for the start sequence to your race. It’s a moment of clarity following a busy, sometimes stressful morning doing breakfast, making sandwiches, stowing the boat, sorting crew’s uniform, planning dinner; and then there you are, quite possibly the luckiest person in the world. I always have an inward little bubble of pride that in my life I have managed to get myself into the position where I can be a part of this scene. Adrenaline pumping; in pre-start positions on the staysail sheet with my staysail team, watching the most beautiful yachts in the world sail by, ready to seriously vie with you for that perfect position on the start line.

As you can see, I struggle to do it any justice at all with words and will never be able to come close with my hastily taken photos either. And I hope you don’t think that I’m gloating, it’s just that so much passion and skill goes into preparing for exactly these moments. The  leather work, led by our leather guru and bosun Nikki, that covers the wooden blocks, the perfectly administered varnish, the splicing of lines, stitching of sails, the heartfelt dedication to skills that have kept these boats sailing as they were one hundred years ago. Not to mention the team work.

Jim at the helm

The bow 'talks' to the helm constantly about sail trim.

And it’s great team work that gave us our first place today! We fought hard, like Trojans and as the race progressed the wind strength grew and it was our day. First place for Mariquita! You should have heard us cheer as we crossed the finish. To be honest it was all getting a bit much for the boat with the Jack Yard up. My team and I were up to our waists in gushing sea water on the leeward side trimming the staysail in on the jigger, harnessed on and loving every minute of it.

 

My photos will never capture the power or the speed or the effort involved in sailing a classic yacht the way we do; with no modern-day power winches, simply as it was back then. We pull on everything by hand, grit and sheer determination and the odd shanty. We love it. We live for it.

Thats me tailing the topping lift

 I will leave you with the words of someone more qualified then me to speak on our behalf. Our Captain Jim Thom, loves to read this to us, the crew, every now and then; and usually at the beginning of the season. I think he has good reason. This piece really says it all. Ladies and Gentlemen, the words of Joseph Conrad;

“Of course, yacht racing is an organised pastime,…but for a great number of people it is a means of livelihood that is, an industry. Now, the moral side of an industry, productive or unproductive, the redeeming and ideal aspect of this bread winning, is the attainment and preservation of the highest possible skill on the part of the craftsmen. Such skill, the skill of technique, is more than honesty; it is something wider, embracing honesty and grace and rule in an elevated and clear sentiment, not altogether utilitarian, which may be called the honour of labour. It is made up of accumulated tradition, kept alive by individual pride, rendered exact by professional opinion and, like the higher art, it is spurred on and sustained by discriminating praise.

That is why the attainment of proficiency, the pushing of your skill with attention to the most delicate shades of excellence, is a matter of vital concern. Efficiency of a practically flawless kind may be reached naturally in the struggle for bread. But there is something beyond – a higher point, a subtle and unmistakable touch of love and pride beyond mere skill; almost an inspiration which gives to all work that finish which is almost art – which is art.

It is the striving for victory that has elevated the sailing of pleasure craft to the dignity of a fine art in that special sense”

                                                                                   Joseph Conrad,

                                                                 The Mirror of the Sea

Thanks Joseph. Nice one. I’m in my bunk now waiting for sleep to come. It’ll be another early morning, another day of adrenaline, good strong wind (or so I’ve heard on the grapevine) and we are determined to get another first place. On Sunday I shall probably sleep a lot so I hope to see you again on Monday for another little catch up.

Thank you for reading my excited little blog today. It feels good to work so hard and get an official first place. How often does that happen in life really?...

Wish us luck, Cheers!

Believe it or not, my bunk is behind the lashed up wooden hatch at the back there. Home Sweet Home.

Tidying lines after a great day out racing.

Spanish Highs and Salt 'n' Papper Squid

I can say with the upmost certainty that we are absolutely loving Barcelona already and we’ve not even been here a week. It’s a whole new world of food inspiration and food exploration. The city is alive and kicking everyday, all day and well into the night. The pace slows slightly during the hours of siesta but not enough to stop any necessary shopping or eating. Tapas and Catalan restaurants abound; some great, some touristy and not so great, but you soon get the hang of spotting the good, locals-filled places, inviting you in with their thirst quenching mojitos, sangrias and Cava; and most importantly their tasty little morsels of mouth watering tapas. The new modern twists on old fashion-styled tapas are so far my favourites. They are inventive bursts of flavour on the end of a cocktail stick or in bite-sized portions. Perfect on a hot summer evening with a glass of something cold and clinking with ice as you people-watch under an umbrella, serenaded by a spot of live jazz. Music, food and shopping; we’ve been spoilt so far.

Funny how I thought that I was now becoming an early-to-bed sort of a girl; being 30-something, you know how it goes. However as luck would have it, it appears that I am still more than capable of dancing till 3:30 in the morning. And Oh how I danced! (a bit like no one was watching in fact – except they were watching apparently, all of them. Watch and learn people, watch and learn).

My next bit of news is that I have experienced my first Spanish market. You know what’s next by now – a plethora of market photos to patiently scroll through. Forgive me. Hey, you would too if you were there. It was ace. And it has coffee shops and bars and if you like, as the man next to Sian and I having a coffee at 9 30 in the morning, plainly did feel like, you can happily sit and eat tapas and drink beer or wine too.

‘Colourful’ seems a reasonably dull word to describe it. Inspirational it definitely was. I came back to the boat armed with the freshest squid and tortilla ingredients for the final crew lunch before we embark on our regatta sandwich diet. (The roof of my mouth is shuddering with the memories. A week of eating baguettes everyday deteriorates the hardest of gums. But from years of regatta baguette eating, I have learned the essential trick; turn the baguette upside-down. The softest side of the baguette then will not slice open the roof of your mouth on an everyday basis).

Salt ‘n’ pepper squid. That’s also Ace. And easy to make and the crew think you’re a genius. I never discourage that kind of thinking. Smile bashfully and soak it up. You never know when it’s going to stop.

This isn’t too painful in the mid-day heat either if you are as lucky as us not to have air conditioning – oh no hang on…

For salt ‘n’ Pepper squid you will need;

Fresh squid. For 12 people I bought 10 squid but that was as a side dish so you could eek that up to 15 or so if you would like bigger portions.

Sunflower or vegetable oil for deep frying

½ cup plain flour

½ cup of corn flour

1 tbsp rock/big salt

1 tbsp peppercorns

Method;

·        You can easily ask your fishmonger to clean the squid so all you have to do is slice the squid into rings or open it up and slice into 1 cm wide strips. Make sure you get the tentacles too – my favourite bit. If however you get your squid fully intact with ink, guts and skin then all you do is pull off the head which will be attached to the tentacles and pull out the insides of the squid including the funny plastic looking, lolly-pop stick-thing that goes all the way up inside it. Then peel off the purple skin, it comes off quite easily. Give everything a little rinse and hey presto, slice into strips as I mentioned above. The tentacle bit has the head and ink attached. Cut the head bit off which may contain the ink sack so that you are left with the tentacles. Make sure you can stick a finger through the skirt of the tentacles which will mean you’ve taken all the bits out that you need to. Easy. Rinse and pat dry with kitchen roll.

•       In a large bowl add the flours and mix well. Then in a pestle and mortar, bash the peppercorns and   salt up together into a rough powder. Add this to the flours and mix.

•         The squid might still feel a bit gooey but that’s ok, just bung it all into the flour mixture and with your hands toss well so that it is all well coated.

•         Heat the oil in a large, deep saucepan. When the oil is hot enough to brown a small cube of bread in 30 seconds then it is time to fry the squid. I did small handfuls of squid at a time. It will take a few batch-fulls.

•         After 3-4 minutes frying time, place the golden, crispy squid on a kitchen roll lined plate until you have got through the whole lot. Make sure the oil is fully re-heated after each batch before putting the next lot in.

•         Serve with sweet chilli sauce, garlic mayo or a fresh chilli, coriander, lime and fish sauce dipping sauce like I did.

Our regatta starts on Thursday; the regatta crew is turning up as I type. We will be training with them tomorrow and Wednesday and then racing till Saturday. A short but sweet regatta.  The bit I worry about is the heat. It’s as hot as the sun here. Really that’s no exaggeration. And if there is no breeze out there when we’re ‘trying’ to sail, we’ll be doomed. There’s no shade or escape from the heat on a sailing yacht during a race. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!

Wish us luck. Thanks for reading and Adios Amigos!!

Salute!

Ready-to-go Sangria

A Trip to Barcelona

Mariquita and crew arrived safe and well in Barcelona yesterday! (Thursday, sorry not great internet here)

Our arrival into any harbour after a delivery is normally followed with a

The boy's bunks

good boat clean, on deck and down below. This will take up most of our time, that potentially should be spent letting loved ones back home know that we’re all good and well. But honestly you wouldn’t believe how grotty the forepeak seems to get; all those boys sleeping in such close quarters in a dark hole.  It is essential work after a delivery to give everything a really good airing and thorough clean; the floors, the towels, the galley. So I hope that this will suffice for any of you Mum’s/girlfriends/wives out there who might still be waiting for that yet-to-come phone call.

The forepeak after a delivery. Nice.

And joy of all joys! We’re attached to land this time. So that means constant access to the shops, internet cafes and gelato. Hoorah!

The Porquerolles

Very little of any note happened on our little cruise to Espagne.  The first day we gunned it (7 knots) to the Iles de Porquerolles, part of the Hyeres Islands west of St Tropez. A beautiful island covered with green trees that verberate with the sound of billions of invisible cicadas, chirruping with the intensity of some huge power station. You can’t see them but by goodness you can hear them.

That evening, in Matty’s honour I made homemade 4^th July cheese burgers for dinner. God bless America.

We were lucky enough to have the next whole day at anchor so that we could explore the island and do a bit of free diving in the very clear, beautiful waters. Definitely a place to visit if you’ve never been before. So that was all very nice.

Exploring inland.

We left early the next morning, a glorious morning and ploughed into the biggest and most uncomfortable swell which stayed with us for most of the day. There was no breeze and blazing sunshine which meant that life in the galley was very hot, airless and incredibly unsteady as we pitched and rolled and stopped and started. It wasn’t a huge amount of fun. I ended up cling-filming everything down to the work top and was tempted to cling-film myself there after I unwittingly rugby tackled the fridge door. I wasn’t much in the mood for lunch after I had cooked it. I don’t often get sea-sick and have lots of little tricks to keep it at bay especially when I’m cooking inside what could quite feasibly be a bucking bronco.  A few moments up on deck later and I suddenly had my sea legs back. I can tell when they’ve arrived. I feel like I could stand on my head in the galley and be absolutely fine in a raging storm.

Stay!

Dinner then became the easiest slow cooked, one-pot, tarragon chicken casserole served with rice (though not standing on my head). Comfort food and settling, for more than a few un-settled stomachs on board. For those that needed to it was ladled into mugs and eaten up on deck with a spoon. Yum.

A very serious game of chess between Will and Billy.

But yet again, no fish on the end of the line. I just don’t understand it! We need to do some serious lure shopping I think. Disappointing.

Arriving In Barcelona!

So we arrived early evening last night. It was a very exciting arrival because it was pretty new to most of us on board. Only a few of the crew have been here before. I can say already that it is incredibly hot and we’re being warned constantly about pick-pocketing which is a little stressful. I think though that like any big city, you keep your wits about you and cash and cards stuffed down various items of underwear. I’m sure we’ll be fine.

So that brings you pretty much up to date with Mariquita. The regatta crew will be arriving soon and the regatta should be a whole lot of fun. Tomorrow I’ll be out exploring the city, trying to find the supermarkets, bread shops, maybe the odd shoe shop and restaurant and all whilst trying out my recently learned 3 words of Spanish.

And maybe out for a drink tonight…

Thanks for reading and check in soon for Spanish adventures.

Gracias!

Sian's little basic Spanish lesson on the crew board.

Mariquita's Mackerel Meal with a Message.

                                                                                                          

Mackerel is probably one of the crew’s most favourite fish. Which is great for many reasons; firstly it is incredibly healthy, full of great oils (Omega 3’s no less) and essential proteins and minerals. Secondly it is a sustainable fish and there are huge quantities of them in our seas. Mackerel are caught in a very controlled and sustainable way so you can buy, catch and eat with no fear of depleting the sea further of its precious and rare supplies. It’s a pretty sad and frightening story that fills us all on board Mariquita with huge dread. The threat of fish-less seas and oceans is a very real and fast approaching issue. We should all be very aware and doing our best to get involved, either on a political level or simply on a consumer level, buying only well labelled and known sustainable species. You can look up and join Hugh Fernley Whittingstall’s famous ‘fish fight’, an on-going and fantastic effort to ban ‘discard’. Over one Million tons of dead fish are dumped into European waters every year. A law that bans fishermen to land any by-catch means they have to dump any accidently caught, dead fish back into the sea. This is waste on a massive and horrendous scale. Get involved if you aren’t already. Those of us who make a living from and on the sea should be right in there like swimwear with our anti over-fishing and anti-discard efforts.

So if you really fancy some fish but are unsure as to what fish you can buy conscience free then ‘Go the Mackerel’. Like I said, it is delicious, meaty, full of great flavour and incredibly good for you. Its meatiness means that it can cope with more robust flavours or, simply grill, serve with some new potatoes (or some cheeky homemade, fat chips) and a great crunchy salad, lemon wedges to squeeze and you are away.

In Antibes I bought some fresh whole mackerel from a fish shop by the covered market. They were very nice fishmongers and after I explained that although I may have been dressed in boat uniform, my budget wasn’t in the super-yacht league, they directed me to the freshly caught mackerel they had in and I was hooked (fish joke). You can very easily tell fresh fish from not-so-fresh fish. There will be signs such as clear shining eyes and a salty-sea smell, not a fishy smell. Good firm flesh and bright clear scales. And talking of scales, they weigh in very lightly on the price front too.

I was very much in the mood for a Japanese spin on my Mackerel meal. Perhaps It was the influence of the availability of some lovely Asian ingredients in Antibes that led me to a simple but tasty little teriyaki mackerel with a coconut and cardamom infused rice idea.

I bought my mackerel whole so that I could fillet them myself but you can also ask the fishmonger to do this for you. Actually it was hard to get my fish away from the shop without being filleted. I had to convince him I was fine to do it myself. But I do enjoy doing it.

This is a very simple meal and took no effort at all to do but tasted so good, was filling but healthy and not too hard to eat with chop-sticks (Its okay Ma, you can use a fork if you like).

You will need;

2 mackerel fillets per person

3 small red chillis (or none, if you don’t like spicy. Or more if you do)

1 inch, fat knob of fresh ginger. (I buy a huge piece and freeze it. Its not hard to break off bits when you need it.)

1 fat clove of garlic

Zest and juice of 2 limes plus extra limes for serving

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp furikake seasoning or sesame seeds

4 tbsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp mirin (like a sweet rice vinegar) Or 1 tbsp honey of you don’t have Mirin

1 bunch of fresh coriander leaves and stalks

Method;

• First wash and pat dry the mackerel fillets. Lie in a ceramic dish and start to prepare the marinade.

• In a bowl, mix the crushed garlic with the peeled and grated ginger. Finely chop and deseed the red chillis and add to the bowl.

• Finely chop the coriander stalks (the soft ones, nothing tough or woody) and add to the ginger and garlic mix, saving the leaves for the garnish. Add all the other marinade ingredients except the lime juice. Just the zest for now.

• Season with some salt and pepper and pour over the mackerel in the ceramic dish. Mix and mingle using your fingers, making sure it is all nicely covered. That’s the best bit, it feels lovely. (weird? maybe) If you have to use a spoon, be nice and gentle.

• Leave the fish to marinade for 20 minutes to an hour.

 

• When your rice is cooked ( I cooked mine in coconut milk with some toasted and lightly bashed cardamom pods and a few Kaffir lime leaves), put a non-stick frying pan or griddle on to heat.

• Put a very small amount of sunflower oil in the pan. There is oil on the fish but because there are some other ingredients in there too, there could be potential for sticking. When the oil is very hot, put the fish into the pan skin side down. Drizzle the fish with some of the lime juice, the pan will sizzle excitedly.

  

• After a few minutes turn the fish over and drizzle with some more of the lime juice. When the mackerel is cooked, it won’t take more than a few minutes on each side, serve with the coconut rice and some lightly steamed mange tout or other lovely sweet, crunchy green beans. Garnish with the coriander leaves and serve with lime wedges. Hey presto, a delicious, healthy and ultimately satisfying dinner that would be very Tres Bien with a cold glass of Prosecco don’t you think? Or some sake?

There are many ways to make such a great fish taste even greater. If you have a great mackerel recipe please share. My sister did a great smoked Mackerel paté at her wedding. Great memories usually involve great food don’t they?   Well, mine tend to.

Funny that.

Thanks for reading, I hope that, if you haven’t already, you too can get involved with Hugh’s campaign. It’s a good one. A worthy one. And eat Mackerel, Marvellous Mackerel!

Cheers!

My Other Life and Baked Bananas

Sometimes life can be a bit of a paradox. On the face of it, the everyday living stuff, you can be having a great time, have the best job, the best friends, be making the best of your days. Of course you go with it. You can evolve happily with that nice, easy flow and have no reason to rock any boats.

Then you get gastric flu (or whatever that was) and you’re lying on a hard wooden floor in the airless heads of a boat at anchor in misery and pain, making those uncontrollable, animal-like noises with the entire crew just feet above your head, wishing more than anything that you were in your own house, on your own bathroom floor with your head down your own toilet within earshot of absolutely nobody (or at least just your mum).

And I hated it. I hated being on that boat, bobbing about in some bay, away from solid land and a proper toilet and the privacy and dignity of a lonely, cool, tiled bathroom floor. I might have cried pathetically on more than one occasion.

Just to eek the pitying bit out a fraction more I will let on that I mourned my double life. Yep, I have a double life I’ve not told anybody about. Maybe we all have one and I’m about to admit to something that potentially everybody does. Though just before I tell you about that I would like to quickly acknowledge that this is a food blog and I have just been talking about gastric flu which really isn’t what you were after, I’m sure. So I’m very sorry for any discomforting memories I may have stirred or unsuspecting images I may have conjured. That’s not cricket in a food blog is it; I apologise.

In the double life that I lead in my head, I have a very nice cottage in the countryside. I have a great little kitchen with lots of character and charm and everything I need to create little homemade masterpieces. I have an Inglenook fireplace in my living room and a dog. My garden is mostly laid to lawn (that’s what estate agents call gardens with lots of grass) and has vege patches, fruit trees and herbs dotted idly around. I ride my bike to the village shop most mornings to get the paper and chat to various neighbours about how the village play rehearsals are coming along and the possible explanation for last nights 5 minute power cut. I casually cycle home and make toast and marmalade (that I made) and a nice mug of tea (in a mug from an entire set that I already have actually in a bottom drawer somewhere). Obviously I’m incredibly thin and work out regularly and recycle and save water and go to yoga classes, but I think that’s where I start to tread on a lot of other peoples double-life territory.

So back to reality; and the wooden floor of the boat’s heads. No, let’s move on from there. I’ll spare you any more detail. My double life is now tucked away a little further back in my mind where it normally quietly lingers. It’s taken a few days but I’m back on my (slightly wobbly) feet. And the big relief, although it was never in doubt or not on the horizon, is that I’m interested in food again. And perhaps I’m starting to be glad for my other life once more; the real one where I work on a beautiful classic racing yacht and cook for 11 friends. I should be.

And now for the confession where you will no longer feel at all sorry for my recent bout of illness (if indeed you ever did) and double-life mourning. I had a day off the boat yesterday at a friend’s house to lay by their pool, relax and recoup and it was just what the doctor ordered. And believe it or not, I have a recipe for you. It’s a very small one and it is very simple but after everything it is always the simple little comforts that make us smile again and let us know that everything is going to be okay.

The house had a lovely garden (a bit like mine, laid to lawn) and it was buzzing with wildlife and midsummer vitality. The area of Provence and rosé wine vineyards is stunning this time of year as you can see. It was so, so nice to amongst the wildlife and away from the sea for a bit. Country air; a little breather. A little perspective.

A beautiful Carpenter Bee

 A few of us from the crew went up to enjoy the day, the pool and some Pimms (I’ll admit I had one, lots of lemonade though). And as the day progressed, the sun began to slowly set, the buzzing softened and the frogs began their chorus. This was when the bananas and dark chocolate materialised from Nikki’s bag of Barbeque goodies.

Joe hard at work at the Barbeque.

And I knew that I could smile again. Having been depressingly off my food, I was childishly excited and hugely revived by the most simple of deserts;  baked bananas spiked with hot melted chocolate. 

Yippee!

So just in case you wondered; for Nikki’s baked chocolate bananas you will need;

Bananas, 1 each

A couple of bars of dark or milk chocolate

1 smouldering barbeque

Method;

• First decide who is going to make them. This can be tough after a day in the sun, jumping around in a pool like kids, drinking Pimms to quench your thirst. Rock, Paper, Scissors is an acceptable method of getting someone to move in the right direction.

• Rock, Paper, Scissors loser then takes a knife and slits the bananas from stem to stalk and lays them on the barbeque as shown.

• Keep turning the bananas so that they bake through and when you think they are just about there, spike the bananas with the broken pieces of the chocolate and wait till the chocolate melts.

 

•  Remove from the barbeque and serve on plates with spoons and maybe a little French bread to clean the plate with.

• Enjoy quietly and count your blessings.

Mariquita leaves it’s anchorage at Cogolin and is heading to Barcelona tomorrow. It will be nice to have a break from France and experience Spain.

Once again I have my sushi ingredients on the ready for a bit of fish catching; the way it should be done; on a line, one at a time. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Thanks for reading. I’ll see you soon having had a few more adventures at sea no doubt and a few stories to share. I’ll put my ‘other’ life away in a little box and enjoy the pleasures of what I have right now .

Back on both feet; my real life at 33 degrees.

Cheers!

Meaty Moussaka.

I just made chocolate pecan pie. It’s in the oven as we speak. I had some chocolate berry sauce left over from the ‘Sweet Sushi Woo’ day, and one can not waste good chocolate can one? There must be some kind of law against that. So I gently melted it and when it was cool enough, mixed in 2 tubs of mascarpone, some cream, two eggs and an extra egg yolk, a knob of butter, a tbsp of flour and poured it into a blind-baked pastry case on top of a layer of pecans. Popped the little tin of naughty-ness in the oven on low for 30 minutes and hey presto! The crew can’t quite believe they’re getting spoons twice in one week.

We’ve been at anchor now for ages. It’s Okay really, you get used to it but I am certainly looking forward to when we leave for Barcelona and have a proper berth attached to the hard stuff, the land. I’ll be able to wander off the boat willy-nilly for little food shops, or for a nice little stroll whenever I please. Ah, the little things in life.

It’s the exercise I miss the most. My waste-line is talking to me and putting a chocolate pecan pie in the oven is really not going to help things is it?

I’ll never learn when it comes to food. I’m obsessed. I really need to tell you about my moussaka too. Delia Smith’s recipe from one of her ‘How to Cook’ series was the best and easiest I have ever made. Actually, it was the first moussaka I ever made, all those years ago, learning to cook. So I must pass it onto you. It’s a real crew pleaser and is a lovely summer night supper with a lovely salad and a glass of wine. I’ve made a few little alterations of my own. I struggle to get minced lamb in France when I don’t have access to a butchers, so last week I made it with cubed leg of lamb instead and it was seriously delicious. Also Delia’s recipe says it will feed 4-6 people; she can’t have ever cooked for a bunch of sailor boys because you need to at least double her recipe to feed 6. So my recipe is bigger and made with cubed lamb instead of minced but essentially this is Delia’s and it is great. Thanks Delia.

You will need;

600-700g lamb, leg steaks or a good equivalent

2 medium onions finely chopped

1 tsp sugar

3 large aubergines

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

3 tbsp tomato puree

1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

½ tsp cinnamon

500 ml red wine

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 quantity béchamel sauce (see blog, ‘A Glamorous Lunch In Cannes’ for recipe)

500g pot of ricotta cheese

1 egg, beaten

Parmesan cheese

Method;

• Heat your oven to about gas mark 6. Slice the aubergines into slices a few millimetres thick. Lay them on a baking tray and brush the sides facing up with olive oil. Give them all a little sprinkling of salt and pop into the oven for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye on them. They can burn in seconds when you’re not looking. When they are lightly browned and just about cooked, remove them from the oven and put aside for now.

• Turn the oven down to gas mark 4.

• Cut the lamb into smallish pieces, just smaller than bite sized. Sear in a hot pan with some sunflower oil and season. Fry till the lamb is browned all over. Set aside whilst you cook the onions.

• In the same pan with all the lovely lamby juices still in it, heat some more sunflower oil. Sautee the onions with the tsp of sugar and a sprinkling of salt till they are lightly browned. Add the garlic and the chopped fresh herbs and mix. Pour in the red wine, tomato puree, balsamic vinegar and cinnamon. Tip the lamb back into the pan with the onions and red wine and simmer gently for about 20 minutes. Taste the sauce and season accordingly. It might seem quite thick but this is good.

• Add the ricotta to the béchamel sauce and take it off the heat to cool before adding the beaten egg. Season and grate in some fresh nutmeg.

• Tip the aubergine slices into the bottom of your chosen baking dish. Cover with the lamb sauce then pour on the ricotta sauce. Grate some fresh parmesan cheese over the top and bake in the oven for 40 minutes. The ricotta topping will puff up slightly and go a lovely golden colour.

There we are. It is a very good meal with a lovely salad, some crusty warmed bread and a good red wine. I have been known to put slices of par-cooked potato in this before to bulk it out for large amounts of people. And although it may seem like a lot of aubergine to slice up and cook, believe me, it’s worth it. This is one of those meals where my ‘full-up’ message stops working and I could just keep going and going.

I really should start running again. And stop making pies. Speaking of which, I’d better take it out of the oven. I’ll let the boys have it and refrain myself…  oh bother, why is it so hard!? If you could smell it too, you’d understand.

Weak in the presence of good food. Hey-ho, we’ll be racing in a few weeks in Barcelona. Did I mention how excited about that I was?

Thanks for reading, see you before we depart for pastures new and Spanish.

Cheers!