i’ve never been a fan of pork. bacon, yes! spicy italian or spanish sausages and salamis, oh yes! but plain old pork? nope, definitely not.

i think this comes from childhood when we often had pork chops which i always found low on taste and far too dry and chewy. as for pork roasts, they’ve never seemed very exciting either.

until recently that is. pork belly has been appearing on an increasing number of restaurant menus and as a result of a particularly fabulous crisp pork belly dish at fino i decided to try cooking it at home.

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over the years, i have tried many recipes for homemade pizza. the key, for me, is good dough and i think i’ve found the perfect recipe. i actually found it a while ago but keep losing the details so publishing it on this blog should hopefully ensure the recipe is always to hand when i want it!

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the weather in london has turned wet and grey and i’m starting to think about more warming food, particularly for lunches. this soup is very filling (lots of potatoes in it) and, despite the large number of chillis in it, has only a mild kick.

lightly cooking extra chillies and ginger to be added at the end is something i often do with dals as it adds an extra layer of fresh flavours (i often add diced tomatoes too). this works really well with this soup.

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earlier this week we spent a few days in paris, taking advantage of cheap eurostar tickets. despite doing lots of research about where to stay, and eat, nothing went to plan. our hotel was overbooked and we were relocated to a very underwhelming place nearby. then all the restaurants i wanted to eat at were full. luckily we had better luck with rearranging our food plans and still managed to eat some fabulous meals.

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