COULD IT BE THAT I HAVE FOUND MY HOME AT LAST

After the culinary lows of the past week I felt a little bit of home cooking was in order. A Salad Nicoise seemed like a suitable dish for tea on a hot summer's evening.

I went for a classical assembly although this is one of those dishes in which every component is disputed. Mine contained cos lettuce, tomatoes, green beans, boiled new potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, anchovies and tinned tuna. The dressing was made with oil, vinegar, lemon juice, capers, garlic, anchovies, black olives, finely sliced shallots and seasoning.

First though a plate of Iberico Chorizo provided a small diversion while the eggs were boiling. Then came the salad which we had with a chilled bottle of Albarino.

For sweet we had an excellent brownie courtesy of the highly recommended Chocstar (although I believe this one was actually made by a patissier of some tony restaurant) accompanied by a very full-on Gonzalez-Byass Noe PX.

Short and sweet and setting us up nicely for weekend fun.