Award-winning Keith West's market stall outside the Enkel Arms off Holloway Road is always tempting. As I was picking out ripe figs, slightly beaded with juice, a woman next to me, doing the same, asked how I eat them. 'Just as they come', I said.
'I slice them, and eat them with olive oil and oregano', she told me. Yes, basil or mint would do too if I didn't have oregano. That was the evening's first course sorted.
But there was also a burrata in the fridge that needed eating. The combination was heavenly; sweet fruit, creamy burrata, peppery oil, fragrant mint. Figs can be bought from Keith West's stall just off Holloway Road (Image: Frances Bissell) Earlier I had bought chicken wings to make a batch of stock for the freezer.
But the plump meaty joints looked far too good for the stock pot. With some left-over diced polenta and a few sugardrop tomatoes I made a rather Waitrosey-looking tray bake. These are not dishes I used to cook very often, but I find their simplicity rather appealing now.
The trick is to choose ingredients which take the same time to cook, and respond well to a medium-hot oven without drying. Apart from chicken wings, chunks of Calabrian sausage and diced pork fillet have worked well for me. Plums go well in a crumble (Image: Frances Bissell) Meat balls, too, are an obvious candidate.
With fish, I use hake cutlets or home-salted thick cod fillet. These I add when the other ingredients, starch and vegetables, are almost cooked. As well as diced polenta, .
