Greetings from a kitchen that isn't my own. Despite being well-equipped with three toast racks and a noisy pepper mill, I miss my knives and lemon juicer. Cooking anywhere but your own kitchen requires a different approach, so I rely on tried-and-tested recipes that work regardless of equipment or local shops.
These recipes need only a knife, a couple of pans, a wooden spoon, and a heat source. A box grater and whisk are handy too. A decent corkscrew is vital. For a proper list of kitchen essentials, Laurie Colwin's Low-Tech Person's Batterie de Cuisine is a good reference.
Holiday recipes that work anywhere
There's always pasta. Rachel Roddy's courgette carbonara is a summer favourite, with matchstick courgettes fried in garlicky oil, tossed with long pasta, egg, parmesan, and black pepper. Her peperonata and bursting tomato pasta also shine with summer produce.
I build holiday meals around carbs. Tortilla de patatas works hot with salads or as beach sandwiches. Georgina Hayden's fried halloumi and apricot jam baps are great with salad or crisps. Her recipe uses quick homemade jam, but shop-bought works too.
Rice dishes like Rachel Roddy's stuffed peppers and braised green beans with tomatoes and onions are perfect. Crumble feta on top.
Curries can be tricky, but cumin seeds, mustard seeds, and turmeric go a long way. I take them along with Marmite and breakfast tea if abroad. Alison Roman's 'The Stew' is adaptable with easily found ingredients. Meera Sodha's Sri Lanka-inspired potato and green bean istoo, squash kiri hodi, and courgette and white bean curry are aspirational but use supermarket ingredients.
Two dishes I return to: Rosie Birkett's cheeseboard tart, which I add jalapeños to, and Thomasina Miers' raspberry, cardamom and almond cake, which I've made with strawberries and black pepper. Both need a springform tin, which is now on my essentials list.
My week in food
Booksmart
A bonus of staying at my parents is their collection of cookbooks, from Rose Elliot to Josceline Dimbleby and curiosities like Cooking With Love by Leslie Sellers.
Frankenchickens
Project Slingshot, founded by Veganuary co-founder Matthew Glover, aims to end factory farming in the UK by 2040. Using ads, social media, and celebrity endorsement, it highlights 'Frankenchickens' bred for large breasts but suffering health issues. It shifts the debate from whether to eat meat to whether animals should be raised industrially.
Dante's peak
At Claridge's new restaurant Dante, known for cocktails, I tried a garibaldi: 45ml Campari and 120ml fresh orange juice. The iteration uses 'fluffy' orange juice from a high-speed centrifugal juicer, which may join my kitchen essentials.
