Note for Dan

Should you want to recreate the polenta pizza thing I made for our dinner earlier this week, follow the following:

1. Boil a kettle. Slice a medium-sized onion and fry it until soft and translucent. Add a heaped cupful of polenta and stir. Add the water from the kettle. Add slowly and make into a thick porridge, stirring continuously to make sure there are no lumps. Add a glug of oil, stir in a heaped teaspoon of pesto, a handful of frozen peas, salt, pepper and a glug of vinegar. Taste it. Polenta is ridiculously hard to make taste nice. If it's lacking in salt, hold your horses for a sec. Put the grill on. Generously grease a baking tray and spread the polenta mixture out onto it as thinly as possible. You might want to sprinkle some coarse rock salt onto it now. Stick it in the grill until it is crusty and has browned a little.

2. While the polenta is grilling, you will have time to do the toppings:

• Fry some mushroom slices with salt, pepper and garlic and set aside.
• Defrost 4 chunks of frozen chopped spinach (this will be easier when we get a microwave but for now, heat with a bit of water in a pan. When defrosted, season, add freshly grated nutmeg and stir through some cream. (If you're using non-dairy cream, make sure it's not too sweet. I used oat cream). You could probably do this with fresh spinach too. Keep warm.
• Heat up a can of chopped tomatoes with a bit of dried basil, salt, pepper, garlic powder (I was feeling lazy) and chopped black olives. Keep warm.
• Your polenta should be ready now. Cut into slices and slop your toppings on, er, on top.

It's really nice cold the next day for your lunch as well. You can have it next time. This is dish was too delish for pictures. Or mail me one.

Elderflowers, Starters for Mains, and Yummy Yogurt

Every spring / summer, I watch elderflowers bloom, give them a sniff as I walk past them, watch the tiny flowers fall to the ground, and before I know it, there are elderberries on the branches. I nibble one or two regretfully, wishing that I had done something with the blossoms. This year, I got my skates on and subsequently I have gone a bit elderflower crazy.

Last week, when looking for Grime and Nourishment to get a the recipe for Imam Bayildi, I found a pamphlet called "Well Fed- not an Animal Dead!" by Graham Burnett on the shelf, which I started to read. I was taken by one section, and after reading, I picked a reasonable amount of elderflower heads, maybe ten, gave them a rinse, and dunked them head-first into some diluted apple juice. (equal parts water and apple juice). I left for about one a half hours, and was left with a delightful refreshing elderflower drink.

This week I am trying to make elderflower champagne. I left the mixture for 24 hours, and it didn't start to bubble, as the recipe said it would. I fear this is down to the water being too hot and killing off the yeasts. The recipe said that to add yeast if it didn't start to bubble. I ignored that, and added some fresh elderflower heads, and a bit of warm water, a bit more sugar, lemon, and vinegar. I am leaving it for another 24 hours. If there is no action, I will relent and add yeast.

I have a nagging feeling that the champagne will fail. So I decided to make elderflower cordial to use up my excess. My hunt for that elusive ingredient, citric acid, led me around all of the chemists in the vicinity, the local Boots, and the nearest supermarket without success. There were elderflowers along the way and I couldn't help myself and picked more heads. I finally found the citric acid in the nearest chemist's to me. Isn't it always the way? So, now I just have to wait.

On Sunday, not knowing what to make when Rick came round for the Apprentice Final, I made a couple of starters and we ate them all. The first was a fried tofu with spring onions, in a spicy salty sauce. This was followed by chunks of roasted butternut squash, with toasted cumin seeds. I toasted the seeds in the oven in the leftover oil from roasting the squash, then threw on some salt.

But the most exciting thing I made was potatos baked in yogurt. Into the thick creamy yogurt I crushed garlic, added salt, cumin, garam masala, curry powder, chilli powder, then chopped in fresh parsley and fresh mint. I seasoned the peeled half-inch potato cubes, added a dash of olive oil then smothered the potato in the yogurt mix. I then baked it in the oven, and when they were done, I topped it with cheddar and mozzarella until they melted. It was delicious. I wished I had taken a photo. But then I didn't know I was going to have a food blog in which I was going to write about it. The only bad thing the potatoes weren't completely cooked so I would recommend parboiling them or steaming, then cooling before baking.

I have also been subsisting on polenta which I toast, add curry powder and salt, then adding yogurt until it cooks. It tastes a bit like the Gujarati dhokra but is less time and effort. I like it, but I imagine most people would think it disgusting. By the way, I don't just use curry powder willy-nilly. I never use it in curries. To me it has a fake curry taste. It's a bit like Dairylea in that respect: as long as you don't consider it to be the real thing or use it in place of the real thing, it's ok.