This is an amazingly quick and easy but very impressive fish soup. It is every bit as elegant and tasty as bouillabaisse but a lot quicker to make. Because of the cream it's not quite as healthy. I suppose you could cut down on the amount of cream, or use single cream or low fat creme fraiche, but for my parents I didn't want to make any compromises. Not that I want to feed them unhealthy food, but they don't visit me often, so when they do, only the best will do.

Even ze table setting looks French, n'est-ce pas?

This may actually be the last time they visited me here, it is quite a trek for them from Finland and they are not as young and sprightly as they once were. Last time they came, two years ago, dad nearly died. He got pneumonia and was hospitalised after they got home for several weeks and mum and the terminally ill family dog were incarcerated at my sister's. So I was very happy that they plucked up the courage to visit us this one last time. I love to spoil them, cook them foods they wouldn't otherwise have and show them around the wonderful London.

I will obviously continue visiting them regularly in Finland, so it's not like it was the final  goodbye, which obviously would have been very sad. Although I must say I did go to the ladies at Gatwick for a little cry after waiving them goodbye at the ticket barriers.

I get a bit sentimental quite easily. We recently visited husband's old aunt in Dubai. As we sat there I started thinking about how this could be the last time the two of them met. I thought about how kind she had been to my husband when he was a little boy, about her long life, how so many of her generation have now passed away, her lonely years as a widow after her husband's death. How this mighty matriarch now is bed-ridden and quite dependent on the help of others. And I saw husband getting a bit emotional as well holding her hand and my bottom lip may have started to quiver a little, because husband urgently whispered to me to not start crying. Because if I did he would start crying and then the aunt would start crying. And then probably the nurse and the rest of the household. And then we'd all just cry. I could see how that would not be a good idea, so I masterfully blinked my tears away, pretending to sneeze blaming the air-con and really doing quite an Oscar-worthy performance of someone who's definitely not on the brink of tears. I think the nurse/carer was onto me, but she didn't give me away. And it worked which was great, because obviously it was better to have a calm, happy moment, than a hysterical bawl-fest.

But back to my parents' joyous arrival and the glorious golden the fish soup. I picked them up at Gatwick and we drove home. Getting out of the car dad said his left hand was completely numb after hanging on to the door handle for dear life for the 50 mile drive. And I was even trying to drive very carefully and smoothly which is entirely against my nature.

At home they unloaded their presents. Lots of lovely Finnish goodies, rye bread, salty licorice, smoked salmon, reindeer, moose etc. And a beautiful Alvar Aalto tray while I heated up the soup base which I had prepared earlier adding in the fish, mussels and cream. It was awesome, best fish soup they had had in a long time, apparently. Probably since my bouillabaisse, is my objective guess.

Our new Aalto-tray. My sister once lived in a house designed by Alvar Aalto. None of the doors opened properly but it was a beautiful building. Beauty and practicality don't always go hand in hand.

The other awesome things I cooked them was a Spanakopita for late Friday dinner after a classical concert which wasn't to husband's taste particularly. When the band had finally finished and had left the stage only to reappear, husband was panicking "Why are they coming back?". But they only came back for some more applause not an encore.

My gorgeous rustic Spanakopita

Saturday husband's kids came so it was a massive dinner of lamb yiouvetsi, feta pepper chicken, asparagus with pine nuts and parmesan, mushroom with blue cheese and a salad with Lappish squeeky cheese, that my parents had brought. Dad loved the yiouvetsi, and I must say it is one of my favourite recipes. I spoke to them a few days ago and he has a chunk of lamb in the freezer ready for my next visit for us to do the yiouvetsi together. Or if it's anything like "let's go and wash my car together" I will do the cooking and he will watch and point out any concerns in the process. But that is fine, I don't mind cooking for him or washing his car. And he does helpfully squirt water from the garden hose whenever necessary.

On Sunday I made my trusted Provencal duck legs which I know they love with haricot verts and cauliflower chevre pure.

We managed to squeeze in a fish and chip lunch on one of the river boats which was an interesting experience. You know the Tattershall castle on the Embankment. They don't have a proper menu outside anymore, only a fish a chip booth where a grumpy lady (I don't blame her, I would be grumpy if I was shut there on my own all day) is as unhelpful as possible, at one point telling me to run to the kitchen to get her some cutlery and salt. That went down well. But to give her her due, she didn't give a toss about my outrage, clearly thinking it was up to me how I ate my fish and calmly just went on frying her fishes. I decided to go downstairs to get cutlery and salt because I didn't want my parents to have to eat bland fish with their fingers.

So if you're after a high-end experience, go somewhere else. If not fussy and don't mind running around the ship for stuff and the weather is nice, like it was on the day, then why the hell not. Find some forks and salt, don't let the grumpy lady scare you and enjoy.

We had another nice pub lunch in a little hunting lodge in Richmond. Dad likes the British pub culture, although he is not a big drinker coming from generations of temperance movement ring leaders. Dad's grandfather wanted to make alcohol only available through the pharmacies. He must have been a popular fellow. And his daughter, my grandmother I remember being quite disapproving of even some mulled wine on Christmas.

Anyway the current generation is much more open-minded and dad has relaxed a bit, so on their last evening here we walked to our local pub which is quite nice and had a fun evening with husband and dad fighting in the bar who gets to buy the round (we had one round of drinks the entire night) and mum and me admiring our handsome husbands from the table.

Again back to the fish soup. I served it with saffron aioli. A spoonful on top of a plate of soup makes it even more delicious, like rouille on Bouillabaisse. And on the side some fresh French country loaf and homemade mackerel pate (recipe also below - it was awesome - inspired by Jamie Oliver).

I made an even healthier version of the pate again later. I substituted some of the cream cheese with low fat creme fraiche, left out the oil and loosened it with a little splash of water. I also added a lot of dill and basil, so it ended looking a bit like quacamole, but tasted absolutely amazing. I won't attach an image of this particular version, you can just google quacamole, that's how it looked.

Creamy French salmon and mussel soup with saffron

Rapeseed oil
One leek, chopped
1 garlic clove, grated
1/2 fennel bulb chopped
Salt
1/3 cup white wine
Pinch of saffron, ground (use your pestle and mortar)
4 cups of good quality fish stock (low salt if possible)
500g cooked mussels (I used ones in white wine sauce)
400g skinless, boneless salmon, cubed
3/4 cup of double cream
Zest and juice of half a lemon (or more to taste)

Heat up the oil. Add the leek, fennel and garlic. Season with salt and pepper and saute for a couple of minutes on medium heat. Add saffron and white wine and stir. Let the white wine evaporate a little and then add fish broth. Leave it to boil gently for 15 minutes.

Add cream, fish and mussels and bring back to boil. Let it simmer for 4-5 minutes. Add the lemon zest and juice and check the taste.

Serve with saffron aioli and fresh bread.

Tip: If you want to make the soup thicker add a couple of tablespoons of plain flour on the vegetables and stir in before adding the white wine.

Tastes better than it looks! Jamie Oliver's smoked mackerel pate - great for any lunch sandwich! And you can take a massive bite and breath into the face of a colleague you don't get along with if you are the passive aggressive kind.

Smoked mackerel pate

1 pack of smoked mackerel (around 200g), skin and bones removed
Generous handful of fresh parsley
100g cream cheese
Zest and juice of one lemon
Creamed horse radish, to taste (1-3 tsp depending on how hot you like it)
2 tbsp olive oil

Add all ingredients into a food processor and pulse until preferred consistency. You can eat immediately, but leaving it in the fridge for a few hours or overnight will only make it better.

I made this again substituting some of the cream cheese with low fat creme fraiche and leaving out the oil and it was awesome. I added a lot of dill and basil as well, so it ended looking a bit like quacamole,but tasted amazing. I won't attach an image, because you can just google quacamole and that's what it looked like.

Coconutty Caribbean Soup with roasted sweet potato from my second box

My first half priced pack with the chosen three meals was delivered on the following Saturday. It worked out quite well because I had a busy week ahead and wasn't going to be home. So I cooked all the meals before I left on my work travels on Sunday and packed everything in small containers for husband to heat up for lunches and dinners until I came back Thursday evening after our annual sales conference in Southampton and a quick trip to Amsterdam.

And I could brag to my colleagues about husband's menu: Sweet chilli beef, Yellow Indonesian vegetable curry, Mexican style chicken with refried beans and Middle-Eastern spiced lamb shank with saffron rice (weekend's leftovers). Some of my younger female colleagues were rolling their eyes, and 20 years ago I would have been right there with them.

Gender equality has always been very close to my heart as my brothers will testify. Our hoovering areas were measured with mathematical accuracy and my sister and I once imprisoned one of our brothers downstairs until he'd hoovered the area allocated to his lazy golden boy arse.

But more recently I've realised it's about bigger things than hoovering and cooking, and that I quite like husband getting my car washed, unblocking the drains, worrying about the boiler which I didn't realise is almost a full time job etc.

So I saw in my mind's eye husband obviously distraught at being left without the wife for so many days, missing the healthy packed lunches of overnight oats with blueberries, salads etc. But also possibly rubbing hands together at the thought of a sneaky fast food lunch or a nice takeaway pizza to eat in from of football in the evening. So I told him if he wanted to get a takeaway while I was gone, he could and he wouldn't get a bollocking if I came back to find some uneaten food in the fridge or a pizza box in the recycling bin. But he insisted he prefers my home cooking. Bless him.

When I got home there was only some of the Indonesian vegetable curry left. And that's not necessarily a sign that it wasn't good. There was quite a lot of it to begin with and it is a proven law of physics that a male homo sapiens will be unable to eat the vegetarian options if there is still meat in the fridge.

HelloFresh Sweet chilli beef, Yellow Indonesian curry, Mexican style chicken

The cost of the box with 3 meals for 2 people is £34.99. The introductory offer was 50% of week one and three. You can choose your delivery day and change it in the app whenever you need. You can also skip any week and stop the deliveries completely whenever you wish. So if not cheap, it is a very convenient system.

The choices of recipes each week is quite good. There are 14-16 recipes each week to choose from, usually 4 vegetarian, 2 fish/prawn, 3-4 chicken and the rest beef, pork or lamb. Some weeks there is also a premium recipe which can be venison, duck or a nicer cut of lamb. You pay £4.99 extra for the premium recipe.

The amount of food is pretty generous for two people. There is not a huge amount of meat, around 250g, but with the vegetables and everything else it makes two generous portions with possibility of  leftovers for some of the recipes.

Some of the pastes and ready spice mixes are quite potent and salty, so worth just having a taste and adding to your own taste. The yellow Indonesian curry would have been way too hot (for husband, things rarely get too hot for me) if I had added all the paste, I only used a fraction. The chilli beef was the first one I cooked so I added everything according to instructions, and it ended up very tasty and nice, but a little bit on the salty side. Doing it again, I would leave some of the soy and ketjap out. For the Mexican chicken I left out quite a bit of the Mexican spice mix because it tasted quite hot.





For the reduced price of £17.50 a pack (3 meal  s for 2 people) it is good value for money, but for the normal price it starts to get a bit expensive for what you get. There is a definiate convenience value of course and the recipes are interesting and tasty.

"So you pay someone to make your face red?" asked husband when he came home tonight and I asked if my face was any different after my electro-current facial I had together with lovely exfoliation and masks and moisturising etc. Apparently very much the same, but a bit red. He did concede after some squeezing, that it looked a bit smoother.

I also had my almost non-existent eyebrows waxed and tinted. "You hhhave destrroyed them some time, no?" Asked the Eastern European beautician lifting her immaculate, dense eyebrows in astonishment and accusation? I tried to defend myself telling her that I'd never done anything particularly dramatic with them, that they'd always been a bit pathetic. How does one destroy eyebrows anyway.

I try not to get too political about stuff on social media. There would be so much to get upset about in the world but I don't usually want to go there because there are happier options, like posting pictures of cats and dogs and food. But as the topic is close to my heart I will comment on the made-up controversy about Jamie Oliver's Jerk Rice A.K.A the "let's beat Jamie Oliver over the head with something because everybody likes him, he makes way too much money, has a loving wife and too many cutely named children" bullying debacle.

Jerk salmon. Oops.

I won't repeat the whole story here. Feel free to google Jamie Oliver and cultural appropriation. But basically he has made some Caribbean inspired rice and called it Jerk Rice. Shocking.

Summer holiday is over. We had an absolutely amazing week in Finland visiting friends and family. The weather was even more unbelievable than the gorgeous summer we've enjoyed in the UK this year. The temperatures were around 28-30 C every day and even the lake water was 28 C. I was out there on my lilo slapping horseflies till 10pm.

We were treated to so much amazing food I could write about it the rest of the year. And maybe I will. One recipe at a time.


We drove around quite a lot visiting my three brothers, friends, my cousin and best childhood friend and my parents of course. Husband's kids were with us squeezed to the back seat of our hired Volvo V40 which would comfortably fit 4 normal sized people, but with these cyclopes normal laws of physics don't apply. They actually couldn't sit with their necks straight, which obviously is just academic since they never sit straight anyway bent over their smart phones like drooping flowers. Only less fragrant.

I can't believe this weather. This is what it should be like always, regardless of season everywhere in the world! Endless days, even weeks of sunny, hot days. Today is again around 30 degrees. Shame about the football, we can't move far from the house because husband needs to see the games. On his new ultrahyperHD TV which is way too big for our living room. But that was a battle I was always going to lose, so without too much grumbling I followed him to Currys and the screen of his dreams and home it came, ready for the football.

I got back from my US girls' holiday early Monday morning. Husband picked me up from Heathrow and deposited me at home, where I sat back behind my laptop as if nothing had happened and started a life support ventilation conference call at 8.30 am.

As always after holidays fridge was not well stocked and I didn't have the time or energy to go shopping. Although I am a good transportation sleeper and never really suffer from jet lag, which annoys some of my friends who travel a lot. Put me in any moving object and I will be asleep in about 15 minutes. And so I was this time as well. 15 min of The Darkest Hour and I was a-snoozing. Luckily I woke up to the little pretzel bag being handed over, because it always annoys me when I miss the snacks. On the way over they overlooked me. I was wide awake, but they just missed me, and I didn't get the pretzels and they were my favourite, the sourcream and chives kind. Very upsetting. This time they were plain, but the bag was quite big. It was American Airlines after all.

I did have a short bout of tiredness yesterday, it was a very boring meeting to be fair. I had the tiniest of microsleeps, you know the jerky kind, just enough for young Victoria to completely catch me red-handed. She won't give me away, because I'm helping her with a budget impact model, the thought of which makes me want to macrosleep, so we just had a sisterly little giggle about it afterwards. Not that I've ever really giggled with my sister. She is not really the giggly kind. Construction engineer and all that.

So as there was next to nothing in the fridge and I knew it was going to be a busy week ahead I did a freezer and cupboard raid and found plenty of ingredients for a delish Greek style pasta bake that would make a lovely dinner and be easy for husband to heat up in the coming days.

This is a great, versatile recipe. You can leave out meat altogether or replace the lamb with chicken or beef, whatever you have left over from your Sunday roast. And you could use any herbs you like and go together with the meat of your choice. Rosemary is also great with both chicken and lamb. So pretty much chuck any pasta, cooked meat and veg together, pop in the oven and enjoy!

Greek lamb pasta bake with feta and mint (serves 6

2 cups of uncooked wholewheat or dark (rye) pasta
1 red onion
1 bell pepper
3 tbsp of fresh or 3 tsp of dried herbs (mint, oregano, basil)
400g can chopped tomatoes
1-2 tbsp tomato paste or sundried tomato paste
100g low fat feta cheese
2 cups roast lamb
1/3 - 1/2 cup (or handful) olives
salt
blackpepper
oil
a generous sprinkling of grated parmesan

Cook pasta in salted water leaving it al dente and drain.

Chop your veg and meat and combine the pasta, lamb, canned tomatoes, tomato pure, bell pepper, olives, onion and chopped herbs. Cube the feta and add in. Season with salt and pepper and mix well.

Transfer to an oiled baking dish. Bake in 200°C for 20 minutes, sprinkle on the parmesan on top and bake for another 10 minutes.

For my Friday night's entertainment I decided to try making hummus substituting chickpeas with cauliflower. I know, it's all crazy party central here. Who needs a night club or a wine bar, when there is a blender and a food experiment.

Unprecedented warm weather shocked all of us on the British Isles over the bank holiday weekend. And not least because it was bank holiday weekend. This doesn't happen often, but we were not going to question it, but just quickly deweed our gardens enough to create access to the barbecue and wipe the bird poo off the garden furniture to have lunch al fresco pretending we are not uncomfortably hot, our necks are not burning and we are definitely not wishing we could be indoors in our cool kitchens or dining rooms.

So I also did a quick deweed, went for a visit to Homebase like everybody else in the catchment area judging by the pandemonium in the car park to buy my obligatory petunias, geraniums and patio cleaner. The easy kind that you just dissolve in a can of water, pour over the patio and miraculously it's all clean when it dries out. That's my kind of cleaning. I think someone should definitely come up with a similar thing for indoor cleaning.

Our little garden is the size of a stamp and of course completely overlooked on all sides. We are in London after all. You just have to forget about people watching you, wish Good Morning to the topless not very fit guy next door sitting on the window ledge with a can of beer at 9.30am and not worry about people judging you for overcooking the chicken on the BBQ. Campylobacteriosis is all I have to say about that.
So on bank holiday Monday I (over)cooked some middle-eastern spiced chicken and prawns and halloumi and tomato skewers with only one piece of halloumi sliding through the grill onto the coal. Usually it is a lot more.

I love a nice fresh salad preferably of the Greek kind, so I did this slight twist on the traditional Greek salad which was perfect for the hot day.

I forgot all about the red onion, so that's why you can't see any in the picture.

Greek salad with marinated tomatoes

Dressing:
Dried oregano
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
Salad
1 pack of cherry tomatoes
1/2 red onion
3 small Iranian cucumbers
100 g feta cheese
Handful of pitted olives
Fresh mint

Whisk together the dressing ingredients. Halve the tomatoes, slice the red onion very finely and mix with 2/3 of the dressing. Tip the tomatoes and onion on a platter and leave to marinade for 10 minutes.

Cut the cucumbers into thick slices and cube the feta. Add them on the platter together with the olives. Tear the mint leaves and spread around the platter. Pour the rest of the dressing over the salad.

There has been tremendous excitement in Finland (which looks very similar to depression in Italy - if you know what I mean - not overly expressive with our emotions, us Finns) around this new invention called NYHTÖKAURA, pulled oats. It is a meat substitute made of oats full of goodness and lots of people have been going on about how great, versatile, healthy and tasty it is.

Not sure about the pack design to be honest. What the hell is the tiger doing there.

So when I've been back to Finland I have been searching for this magic ingredient, but so nuts have the Finns gone for nyhtökaura that it has been sold out every time I have checked. Only during my last visit was I able to find some. When I got home I didn't really know what to do with it and also had lots of lovely moose and reindeer, which I knew exactly what to do with, so I just stuck the pack in the freezer. Now with my next Finnish trip approaching I have tried to empty the freezer to make way for new arctic goodies, so I took out the pack and decided to make a stir fry like I would normally do with chicken.

I was a bit apprehensive as I placed the plate in front of the football watching husband, but such is his trust in me that he just tucked in - I had to retreat to the kitchen in case we were heading for a car crash. But he actually really liked it and pronounced it was very tasty and fresh. Probably more due to the fresh vegetables than the pulled oats, but at least the pulled oats didn't decrease the enjoyment. And he didn't ask what it was, which usually is a good sign.

This is a really easy, healthy and quick weekday meal. If unlike me you are not a fan of chopping,  buy a pack of wok veggies and make it even easier for yourself. And feel free to use any veg you like.

Pulled oats, vegetables and noodle stir-fry (serves 4)

Oil
1 red onion, chopped
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
Fresh chilli to taste, chopped
1 cm piece of fresh ginger, grated
1 carrot, grated or cut to strips
1 red pointed or bell pepper, cut to strips
100g mushrooms, sliced
3 tbsp soy
3 tsp honey

I've tried to return back to our low sat fat & low GI healthy diet without causing too much shock to the system. The system of course is used to non-stop grazing between hearty, regular and frequent meals. The first day in the office after holidays my stomach was growling by 9.30am. So was everyone else's. And we'd all thought everyone would bring a lot of Christmas leftover chocolates to the office, so no one actually did. I had eaten my measly lunchbox lunch by 10 am and had to go out and buy a sandwich at 12.

My earliest memory of Ossobuco is from when I was about 7 years old and having dinner at my best friend's house. She was also called Hanna, so I called her Yrkki just to avoid confusion, she didn't appreciate it much. I was very much in love with her morose and slightly hostile older brother who threatened to beat us up if we ever went into his (unhealthily clean) room or touched his vast collection of neatly stacked board games. But the romance never happened for us, even though I obediently never touched his board games. Me and his sister did sneak into his room and snooped whenever he was out, obviously. But he turned down all my marriage proposals in the most ungentlemanlike manner and with very little endeavour at civility (yes I have been watching Pride and Prejudice again) and I never learned why. I thought I was quite an eligible 7-year old with my good grades, blond plaits and cute dungarees.

So during one of many sleepovers we had this mouth watering and meltingly soft, wonderful meat dish. I think that time it might have been pork. I'm not sure if I ever had it again until I started cooking myself. The dish surprisingly never was part of my mother's very broad repertoire. Which makes me think I definitely must cook this for them the next time they come and visit.

My next rendezvouz with Ossobuco was inspired by my sister who was bragging about what brilliant Ossobuco she had made and how all good wives should make it for their husbands otherwise they were not such good wives. I already have the handicap of not having taken my husband's name, which puts me behind her in the good wife competition. Although of course it's not a competition and we are not at all competitive, but very supportive sisters. But just out of interest I immediately had to try if I could make an even more fantastic version.

So I have been making this both from lamb and veal quite a few times and everytime husband's reaction confirms that this is a great man dish. I was planning to maybe do this for Christmas or New Year, but couldn't find the cut, so the other day walking past the lovely butcher's C Lidgates in Holland Park I popped in and they had beautiful thick cuts of veal.