Feta fritters in the garden

So it turns out I'm a bit obsessed by deep frying (have I already mentioned that?). Today, feta and herb fritters - the feta basically dehydrates inside to leave an almost hollow, salty, tangy, herby ball of light, crispy deliciousness. Try it, I urge you, and dream of Greece, where the sun shines all summer and cooks are not afraid of oil.

200g block of feta
2 handfuls of finely chopped, mixed herbs such as parsley, rocket, thyme, chives
oil for frying (I re-use a mixture of olive and sunflower)

For the batter:
100g plain flour
1 egg
fizzy water or beer

Whisk the egg into the flour and slowly add the water, whisking all the time until you have a double cream consistency. Break up the feta and mix together with the herbs. Mould into small rounds, a bit smaller than a ping pong ball.

Half fill a saucepan with your oil and heat until a drop of the batter fizzes and quickly turns golden. Turn the feta in the batter and drop in batches into the oil. Cook for a couple of minutes, carefully turning from time to time, then fish out and drain off the oil on kitchen roll. Eat quickly, with a glass of cold rose.

Marmite breadsticks

Failed to make bread for lunch today - I'm in denial about how bread-led we are as a family. It would be admitting how often I hadn't planned ahead. We made breadsticks to fill the lunchtime pangs. Mixed a tablespoon of Marmite into the dough, huge success, happy 3 year-old.

Bright Lights on a windy night

An evening glance in the old chimney pots we use for forcing rhubarb and later in the summer growing herbs, and - oh joy! - a great sprouting of palest pink rhubarb. Wind is howling around the house, Ed has gone to bed with all the shutters open leaving me feeling exposed to the gloom. Rhubarb, quickly into the pot for a gentle and brief poaching in sugar syrup and nothing else, turns the pale pink of ballet slippers and babies' nails. Eating it straight from the pot at blood temperature, it melts in the mouth, not fibrous at all. A pleasure of country living to accompany howling of the wind and beating of rain.

Wild garlic flower fritters

Nothing so much as a brilliant sunny evening with friends compels me to make fritters. It's nuts really, what then happens is they are outside drinking beer at sunset and I am inside peering into a pan of boiling oil. But I love fried food. Oh, foraA built in deep fat fryer! Well, a girl can dream.

2 handfuls wild garlic flowers (impatient, I used buds as ours haven't come out yet, but they will be prettier then)

For the batter:
4 tbs plain flour
1 egg
lager

Beat the egg briefly with a whisk, then incorporate it into the flour, slowly pouring in cold beer to loosen it up as you go. Stop when you have reached the consistency of double cream. Meanwhile, heat a saucepan with oil not
deeper than halfway (I have a large jar of frying oil which I strain and decant into, using it again and again). Drop a little of the batter in, when it quickly turns golden, you are ready to cook. Turn the flowers in the batter and drop, in batches into the pan of oil. When they have turned golden, fish out with a slotted spoon and put onto a plate lined with kitchen roll. When you have finished all the batches, sprinkle with sea salt and eat whilst hot, preferably with a very cold beer.

A great breakfast pancake

The kids aren't great at eating breakfast, it's a daily battle. Pancakes reliably slip down - you wouldn't know these had a good dose of ground almonds in for a bit of sturdy energy, and neither did they.

Breakfast pancakes (makes about 6)

100g plain flour
25g ground almonds
200ml milk
2 eggs
olive oil or butter, too cook

Beat the eggs into the milk. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the middle. Add the wet ingredients and whisk into the dry ingredients thoroughly till smooth, it should have the consistency of double cream. Allow to sit for a few minutes if you have time. Heat a little olive oil (I use a mild one for cooking) in a frying pan, and when hot, ladle enough enough mixture to just coat the base of the pan. Cook for a minute till turning golden underneath, then flip over and repeat. Serve with sugar and lemon - if you want less of a sugar hit, use caramelly coconut palm sugar, or xylitol instead of regular white sugar.