living in london has its ups and downs and the last few weeks have epitomised that – with the heatwave that we have been experiencing, the city has been full of people beaming with joy at the chance to bare their limbs and enjoy the sun. hidden in cooler corners and under trees are those londoners who find the heat that bit much to bear and who are longing for the temperatures to cool.

i’m in the first gang and really am delighted that the weather is so glorious, however at least once a day, when i have to jump on a tube, i feel real sympathy for my cooler weather loving friends. standing (because inevitably you will be) on a hot, humid and smelly tube is no way to enjoy london life.

which is why it is all the more amazing that i decided to crank up the oven and roast a chicken. i had to though – the beautiful label anglais bird i bought via food4london was taking up too much space in my freezer.

i cooked it very simply, rubbing the skin with olive oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. inside i stuffed it with a mix of slow-cooked onions, breadcrumbs, fresh thyme and oregano from the garden plus lemon zest, juice and seasoning. the chicken was basted with the juices it released and we ate it, sitting in the garden, with asparagus and some of my best broccoli.

the chicken was incredibly flavoursome and the stuffing reminded me of my childhood roast chicken dinners, when both stuffing and bread sauce were obligatory. best of all there were lots of leftovers and the carcass created a wonderful stock.

it was definitely worth creating the extra heat in the kitchen.

this angela hartnett recipe for linguine with peas and parma ham is an old favourite. the variation this week was to use smoked garlic in the recipe and smoked salt for seasoning. it added a subtle additional layer of flavour to an already delicious and fantastically easy dish.

with the arrival of summer sunshine, we are eating more salads and i’m thrilled that the british tomato is finally season is upon us. although tomatoes are available throughout the year, it is only in recent weeks that local arieties have ripened and i’ve been reminded that there is no comparison between the flavourless tomatoes available during winter and the sweet, tangy and delicious british varieties.

although i am growing tomato plants, they have only just started flowering and there is no sign of any tomatoes so i still have to buy them. the tomatoes provided by food4london are grown by brian and lorraine watts, who run the leonard ironside nursery at farthing common, lyminge, which i visited last month.  

jonathan believes that, by shortening the supply chain, he can provide high quality local seasonal food at prices which are comparable with the supermarkets. this is really interesting for me as, since we moved last autumn, i have struggled to find good value fish, meat, fruit and vegetables from local shops or markets. i’ve also had the incredibly frustrating experience of buying fruit, at what was labelled a farmers market, only to find that the flat peaches i bought had sainsbury’s stickers on them!

so, having already started buying some of my weekly shop via abel & cole, i am now using food4london in an attempt to support the kentish suppliers that jonathan works with. the quality seems really good (these same producers supply a lot of london’s restaurants via a linked business) and i like the fact that jonathan is committed to providing local products which are in season.

i’ve also been lucky enough to be able to spend some time in kent visiting some of these suppliers and learning more about their businesses. as a result i’ll be writing regularly in the coming months about what i learn, starting tomorrow with the serious business of growing tomatoes!

having signed up to the daring cooks and made both ricotta gnocchi and potstickers, i thought i had better get back on track with the daring bakers challenges, having missed a few.

the june daring bakers' challenge was hosted by jasmine of confessions of a cardamom addict and annemarie of ambrosia and nectar. they chose a traditional (uk) bakewell tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in england.

the reason for the “tart... er... pudding” is down to the rich heritage of this dish and the two main types which exist - the “pudding” where a layer of jam is covered by an almondy pastry cream and baked in puff pastry and the “tart” where a rich shortcrust pastry holds the jam and frangipane, an almondy sponge cake-like filling.

the version we were dared to make was a combination of the two: a sweet shortcrust pastry with a frangipane and jam filling.

so, how did i get on?

having got completely over-excited about roasted broccoli with lemon, parmesan, pine nuts and basil (aka best broccoli) and having eaten it a bit too often in recent weeks, i was keen to try melissa clerk’s roasted broccoli with prawns, which has recently caught the wednesday chef’s imagination.

given it’s a roast broccoli dish you might struggle to get it onto the menu if you are cooking for someone who is pleading for less ‘best broccoli’ but be sneaky, it’s quite different and worth a try.

the difference comes from the flavourings - in this case coriander and cumin seeds plus a bit of chilli add a wonderful spiciness. lemon is still involved adding its lovely summery zing which brightens all the other flavours. the prawns taste great roasted and david and i happily polished off a huge serving each.

we ate it with warm bruschetta which didn’t quite work. rice or flat breads seem the more obvious answer. or would you suggest something else?

cooking pasta using the absorption technique has been on my “to do” list for a while now. this involves cooking the pasta in much less liquid than normal, with the pasta absorbing the liquid in the same way that rice does when you make risotto. as a result the liquid is usually something chosen on the basis that it adds additional flavour to the dish.

i tried this out using chicken stock and am intrigued to experiment further. i used rigatoni which meant that i needed quite a lot of stock to cover the pasta and as a result it wasn’t all absorbed. i boiled off as much as i could but didn’t want soggy pasta so we were left with a reduced stock sauce, which was nice enough in this dish but would have been a problem with some other sauces.

the pasta was a slightly different texture – it was more delicate and almost silky. it also absorbed the flavour of the stock really well. this made the first few mouthfuls a bit of a shock as i’d expected the change in texture but not the flavour absorption – my vegetarian pasta dish was incredibly chickeny! thankfully the squash and sage were strong enough flavours to cope with this.

so, the next experiment will be with pasta which can be packed more densely in the pan, such as farfalle, orrechiette or trofie. i’d also like to try the technique which sees the raw pasta fried in olive oil until it is slightly browned as apparently this adds an extra flavour dimension. i’ll also think more carefully about the combination of stock and other flavours – i love the idea of a prawn stock within a seafood dish.

i am in love with peyton and byrne's essex blackcurrant jam. it is fantastically dark and fruity, not too sweet and makes your mouth water and toes curl from the sheer delight of eating it.

i first tried it as part of afternoon tea at the wallace collection. david picked up a jar for me from the p&b shop in the new st pancras station. it's as good as i remember and is my new favourite jam.

by rights this ice cream should be pictured nestled amongst pretty pastel-coloured rose petals to signify its delicate perfumed flavour. instead you'll have to make do with this more simple picture of it, in a cone, ready to be eaten as i sat in the summer sun in our garden.

the recipe is an adapted version on my easy vanilla ice cream, with 2 teaspoons of rosewater replacing the vanilla. very easy, very delicious.