The week started with our inaugural scheduled Sunday lunch. We have nominated one Sunday each month as Sunday lunch for guests, and invited friends to join us. We were 8 adults, 4 kids and 2 babies for lunch last Sunday, and just barely squeezed around our (new, larger) kitchen table. There was a huge lasagne, made with a beef shin ragu, and another huge dish of aubergine parmigiana for the veggies; asparagus, fennel salad and broad beans with peas. For dessert, hazelnut shortbread, strawberries and cream and dulce de leche brownies. The sun came out for long enough for the kids to play with sand outside, and we had a great time.

The strawberries weren’t from our garden, but it won’t be long now until they are here. The one above is the very first one to ripen. I’m sure that when I planted strawberries, years ago, they were all Cambridge Favourite, but this is definitely a different variety to most of them. It is a very deep, glossy red, with rich colour all the way through the berry, and a strong strawberry fragrance. A strawberry warmed by the sun is a very different proposition to one from a plastic tub in the fridge. For years I couldn’t stand strawberries – the texture, plus the slightly sour flavour of most shop-bought strawberries was a combination I couldn’t bear. But properly ripe strawberries from the garden converted me. Now all I have to do is try and protect the crop from being savaged by the pigeons.

Recipes:

• Aubergine parmigiana – approximately from a Cranks recipe for Tian d’aubergine
• Hazelnut shortbread – from James Morton’s ‘How Baking Works’
• Family meal fish tacos – NY Times
• Chili with chocolate – Slow cooked

Without a recipe:

• Lasagne
• Beef stir fry with rice
• Fish and oven chips, peas and asparagus

Reading:

• Nigel Slater writes an ode to the British embrace of immigrant cuisines
• Those hyperbolic diet headlines (“Slim with chocolate!”) are almost all based on junk science. Here’s how that works – and how a science journalist faked that chocolate study.
• In preparing a blog post for work on food innovation, I came across this lovely piece from Bee Wilson about Eliza Acton.