In which GG regains her cooking mojo

As I think I've mentioned, I am going through what might be called the seven year itch of cooking. I love it, I want to keep doing it, but the monotony of putting a meal on the table night after night is beginning to feel like a chore. And it is times like this that I have to do something which reminds me why I love food and what I love so much about cooking it, especially for others.

Typically Jewish, for me cooking is all about making something delicious for other people. When someone has gone to effort for you, baking you a cake or making you dinner, it makes you feel loved and cherished and looked after. And I like feeling that I am doing the loving, cherishing and looking after. And also I think it makes up for me being a grumpy old bitch most of the time.

The long-awaited rescheduled dinner with two very dear work colleagues finally arrived last friday. And being off work (a miracle in itself worthy of a celebratory dinner) I decided to spend the day in a gentle kitchenness. One of my colleagues is a vegetarian, which I always find a challenge, and the other most definitely not, so finding food that was filling and hearty and delicious and also, to be honest, a bit show-off-y was a tricky and the main course had kept me worried for weeks.

The starters were easy, I was planning mezze. While I wouldn't dream of doing tapas, as it means loads last minute and you spend the whole night in the kitchen, the mezze were done in advance. I made hummous (sprinkled with a light dusting of sumac), baba ghanoush, flatbreads (sprinkled with either nigella seeds or sesame seeds), various pickles (including pink turnips!), beetroot with yoghurt and parsley and labneh. The latter I had very fond memories of, from my brief stint in restaurant PR and a fantastic lebanese restaurant called Fakhreldine, which served it. I seem to recall theirs was quite creamy and unctuous but mine was more the texture of ricotta with the taste of a young goat's cheese. Whatever, it was de-fricking-licious and I've enjoyed the leftovers all weekend. It was made by mixing greek yogurt with salt and leaving for 24 hours to drain in muslin. Glutton Colleagues (and I mean that most affectionately) were hugely appreciative, made lots of delicious noises, couldn't believe I'd made it all myself. Honestly, you couldn't ask for better guests.

Main was a fairly standard spinach and ricotta cannelloni (yummy though) but the star of the show was the honey halva parfait. Now I take no honours for this - it's straight from my Jewish Princess Cookbook, but you know that anything from that is likely to be good. I've made it a few times now and it is failsafe, delicious and ridiculously impressive. It is also the sweetest foodstuff you'll ever put in your mouth so it was perfect for me and one of my guests who's Iranian. The other Glutton Colleague actually giggled as she ate it, which has to be a good sign. In an attempt to soften the blow, I served it with cinnamon poached pears, which turned out to be a perfect marriage.

And we had a shisha! And it was delicious!

With apologies to the JPCB, here is the recipe:

250g halva (any flavour but I use plain), crumbled into irregular chunks
300ml double cream, whipped to soft peaks
3 tablespoons runny honey
2 eggs
200g sugar

Beat eggs, sugar and honey together. Add Halva. Fold in cream.
Lightly oil small loaf tin and line with clingfilm
POur in mix
Freeze overnight.

The halva will sink probably, but I don't worry about trivialities like that.

So on a bus tonight going down Edgware Road, I wondered what it is about food from the middle east/Levant region I love so much. I love the savouryness of grilled meats off the griddle, dark, umami-ish, spicy and the fresh, vibrant salads and vegetables. I love the colour and the way that sort of food makes your mouth feel sparky and woken up and like it's excited. I like that its deeply satisfying but not stodgy and that it's social food - made for sharing, grazing, picking at with hands, that it has a much more sensuous quality that other types of food. Or maybe I'm being a bit of a cultural idiot and giving it an arabian nights quality it doesn't have. Of course, I love British food and food traditions too, but there is something incredibly enticing about Arabesque food.

And now I'm hungry and going to make some fishcakes. Ooh, if you aspire to be a food star - Carnation is giving foodies the chance to make a pudcast with top chef Phil Vickery and win a year's supply of Carnation (which, for the record, I love). Go to Carnation.co.uk for more info.

Lots of love
GG