What are you cooking now?

[french frank]

Indeed, but pichade is not from Nice - but, the horror, the horror, Menton.

Didn't know your neighbours were actually Niçois: could have been from Perthshire . But Menton is also in Alpes-Maritimes (just). That said, I've always thought of pichade as being closer to Italian pizza than French versions - pissaladière and the more Germanic tarte flambée. When I think about it, my guru Jérôme is from Nice and he only has pichade on his menu (though I do mention pissaladière to him. Quite often).

Never thought of preparing the onions in the oven. I use the merest whisper of oil and some thyme but will indulge in the iconoclastic touch of a small glass of white wine (or decent rosé) next time - and not tell the local cuisine police.

I don't prepare the onions in the oven; I prepare them in a cast iron skillet. But I bake the dish in the oven when I've prepared the onions.

I think I've said before that, due to a lack of black olives (of the correct local variety), I used green ones than had to endure the humiliation of them being removed in a very disdainful fashion - très français.

I wouldn't make the dish if I didn't have black olives!

Incidentally, ate in Bristol last week en route to Cornwall - Marmo: almost irredeemably awful. If you've never been, I wouldn't recommend it, unless you take an ear trumpet with you.

Never 'eard of it. But is seemed to please Jay Rayner. In fact, I haven't eaten in most of the places he mentions. I tend to go to local neighbourhood places rather than down in the city. little french is quite good.

[Joseph K]

My customised version of this really delicious soup whose recipe I got from composer Michael Spencer:

Fry chopped shallots (6) and celery sticks (5) in lots of butter and olive oil for around 10 mins, add 10 thinly sliced garlic cloves for 5 mins, add tablespoon or more of grated ginger and a teaspoon or more of thyme leaves, stir and add 200 ml white wine (I don't bother with the wine, but you might). Add 4 bay leaves and a pinch of saffron (I don't bother with saffron) then a litre or more of veg stock, then quite a lot of half-cooked green lentils (I always eyeball an amount) then season generously, bring to boil then simmer for 20 mins. Make sure lentils are cooked, remove the bay leaves, add 4 tablespoons chopped parsley and blitz.

For music, today it was a couple of tunes off Zaric & Barrett's Mirage album, 'restless horizon' & 'suma', and a couple of tunes off Miles Davis's Live-Evil, 'Funky Tonk' and 'What I Say', all from my phone with a mini-speaker attached.

This is an old picture of the first time I made it, with red lentils:

[teamsaint]

My customised version of this really delicious soup whose recipe I got from composer Michael Spencer:

Fry chopped shallots (6) and celery sticks (5) in lots of butter and olive oil for around 10 mins, add 10 thinly sliced garlic cloves for 5 mins, add tablespoon or more of grated ginger and a teaspoon or more of thyme leaves, stir and add 200 ml white wine (I don't bother with the wine, but you might). Add 4 bay leaves and a pinch of saffron (I don't bother with saffron) then a litre or more of veg stock, then quite a lot of half-cooked green lentils (I always eyeball an amount) then season generously, bring to boil then simmer for 20 mins. Make sure lentils are cooked, remove the bay leaves, add 4 tablespoons chopped parsley and blitz.

For music, today it was a couple of tunes off Zaric & Barrett's Mirage album, 'restless horizon' & 'suma', and a couple of tunes off Miles Davis's Live-Evil, 'Funky Tonk' and 'What I Say', all from my phone with a mini-speaker attached.

This is an old picture of the first time I made it, with red lentils:

Looks and sounds great JK. I fancy giving that a go.
Getting recipes from composers is probably a better way to go than than getting music from chefs then ?…….

[Joseph K]

Go for it, TS. You won't be disappointed.

[french frank]

Eej: I'd planned to have a small helping of tabbouleh for lunch, but when I opened the fridge I saw a bowl of leftover spicy red cabbage. I momentarily wondered whether to add it to the tabbouleh but was somewhat repelled by the idea. But the cabbage needed to be eaten so I googled "red cabbage" and "bulgur wheat" and came up with Eej. I was reassured by the fact that it wouldn't be a mash-up of leftovers but a proper recipe.

I decided to restrict the ingredients, so soused the prepared bulgur in fresh lemon juice, added a chopped spring onion, chopped fresh parsley and fresh mint and mixed in the red cabbage. Served chambré (not very warm but not very cold). To paraphrase the lady: if you like this sort of thing, this is definitely the sort of thing you'll like (trust me). It's definitely my sort of thing, though I don't think I'd cook the spicy cabbage specially. But I might. Absolutely my kind of thing for a light lunch on a hot day. 100% better than I'd predicted and much better for omitting the tomato, black olives, cucumber etc that I usually add to tabbouleh.

[french frank]

Jérôme lent me his grandmother's book of niçois and provençal recipes (just a paperback) and I'd made the tapenade and socca with rather limited success. I thought next I'd try a vegetable tian but looked to the internet for an alternative recipe. I thought it sounded like a lasagne without the pasta, but this is in vertical layers i.e. you place your small slices on end - courgettes, aubergine, tomato and onion, perhaps with some slices of mozzarella, - two or three layers side by side depending on the size of your dish - and bake very slowly. I imagine some olive oil goes on it too, plus herbs, garlic &c. If I can add some black olives somewhere, I shall.

Off now to the greengrocer. May also bake a loaf this morning - 'an ill-favoured thing but' … .

Greengrocer had mozzarella, but I decided to use halloumi because it was in a smaller pack

[Barbirollians]

Jérôme lent me his grandmother's book of niçois and provençal recipes (just a paperback) and I'd made the tapenade and socca with rather limited success. I thought next I'd try a vegetable tian but looked to the internet for an alternative recipe. I thought it sounded like a lasagne without the pasta, but this is in vertical layers i.e. you place your small slices on end - courgettes, aubergine, tomato and onion, perhaps with some slices of mozzarella, - two or three layers side by side depending on the size of your dish - and bake very slowly. I imagine some olive oil goes on it too, plus herbs, garlic &c. If I can add some black olives somewhere, I shall.

Off now to the greengrocer. May also bake a loaf this morning - 'an ill-favoured thing but' … .

Greengrocer had mozzarella, but I decided to use halloumi because it was in a smaller pack

Two favourite books of Provençal recipes here - Cuisine of the Sun by Mireille Johnston ( who made a celebrated French cookery series for the BBC In the early 1990s ) and Lulu's Provençal Table by Richard Olney . Both are marvellous .

[french frank]

Two favourite books of Provençal recipes here - Cuisine of the Sun by Mireille Johnston ( who made a celebrated French cookery series for the BBC In the early 1990s ) and Lulu's Provençal Table by Richard Olney . Both are marvellous .

May even be more authentic! It should be said Jérôme's grandmother possibly isn't that old, so her standby seems to be Dominique Compans, La cuisine provençale et niçoise. She may also have an older, more traditional one. I find ideas there but there seem to be more interesting actual recipes online.

[cloughie]

Two favourite books of Provençal recipes here - Cuisine of the Sun by Mireille Johnston ( who made a celebrated French cookery series for the BBC In the early 1990s ) and Lulu's Provençal Table by Richard Olney . Both are marvellous .

We have Mireille’s 2 French Cookery Course books - very good and a particularly tasty recipe of her’s is Salmon with Lentils. Also excellent is Patricia Wells’ Bistro Cooking.

Almost met Mireille at the BBC Good Food exhibition at the NEC many years ago but got fed up of waiting as she was in a long conversation with Claudia Roden!

[french frank]

Actually I'm not cooking it at the moment but found this recipe, perfect for the cost of living crisis: Provençal Aigo Boulido (boiled water). Boil the water with bay leaves and lots of garlic. Put a slice of stale bread in a bowl and sprinkle with grated cheese and some fresh sage leaves. Pour the garlicky water over the bread/cheese and let it infuse for a minute to bring out the herby flavours.

If very hard up, leave out the cheese.

[Belgrove]

What to do with a bumper crop of quinces? Turn them into membrillo. Much of yesterday was spent peeling and chopping the rock hard fruit, then simmering and sieving, then boiling with sugar to an alarmingly eruptive lava-like consistency, and finally setting in a cool oven to transmute the initially pale flesh into a fragrant orange paste - what a palaver. Radio 3’s sequence Soundscape of a Century provided a perfect background to the effort - like an eight hour long Words and Music.

[french frank]

Simple Korean dish: sweet potato stuffed with kimchi. My own addition for lunch was some chopped bacon and bits of cooked shredded savoy cabbage which needed to be eaten. I saw the recipe* for the sweet potato and kimchi in one of the newspapers, and then spotted a small tin of kimchi in the Coop (2 portions so I may have it again tomorrow).

* if you can call it a recipe - just boil or bake the sweet potato, then slit it open and fill with kimchi.

[teamsaint]

Simple Korean dish: sweet potato stuffed with kimchi. My own addition for lunch was some chopped bacon and bits of cooked shredded savoy cabbage which needed to be eaten. I saw the recipe* for the sweet potato and kimchi in one of the newspapers, and then spotted a small tin of kimchi in the Coop (2 portions so I may have it again tomorrow).

* if you can call it a recipe - just boil or bake the sweet potato, then slit it open and fill with kimchi.

Hugh Fearnley Whatnot has a good recipe for a sweet potato and peanut( butter) bake . Very easy , very nice, very high cal.

[french frank]

Hugh Fearnley Whatnot has a good recipe for a sweet potato and peanut( butter) bake . Very easy , very nice, very high cal.

I thought I wouldn't like sweet potato (being sweet, I thought) but when I saw the recipe I had to try it as I love kimchi. Very healthy combination! My hawthorn jelly has been going down very well with stilton too. Really worth doing.

[cloughie]

Hugh Fearnley Whatnot has a good recipe for a sweet potato and peanut( butter) bake . Very easy , very nice, very high cal.

I assume you mean Eatsitall