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.

Finnish and Scandinavian Cuisine is not just about smoking, but smoke definitely features as I have mentioned. When we go back home for summer holidays and visit my siblings and parents in their respective summer houses by the gentle, quiet lakes or the sea we are often treated to beautiful, freshly smoked fish - salmon, trout, arctic char, vendace, whitefish or common bream.

It’s a taste and smell that immediately transports me to summer and Finland from wherever I may be. And this is the time of year I really start missing it. The nights there are getting whiter, the birch trees are bright green and people are escaping the towns every weekend.

After midsummer the country shuts down for an entire month when everyone just relaxes in their summer cabins heating their saunas, swimming in the lakes, where the water is pure enough to drink if you don’t mind a few bugs, reading old paperbacks in their hammocks, playing darts and barbecuing and smoking fish like there’s no tomorrow.

They also do other things and most Finnish babies are born nine months later in March or April. In our family the share of summer holiday babies is 60%, me included.