Baked plaice, squid and samphire

One of the things I love about Eastbourne is that there seem to be lots of worse drivers than me. I also love the way that the sea changes all the time

It's been great spending the weekend with my old man. I don't know think I've ever written about him here. He's one of those people that can drink anyone under the table, has something interesting to say about every topic from football to philosophy, and appears to be on a slightly different planet to the rest of the world. When you give my dad a problem, like "How do I convince the grant people that my travelling round the world and cooking would benefit the UK?" (bit of a tall order, clearly), he'll come up with loads of ideas and solutions, and inspire you to the point that you actually start thinking maybe your dreams can come true. Another brilliant thing about him is that he can laugh at himself, which I think is one the most important qualities you can have in life. Far too many people take themselves incredibly seriously. So my daddy's wonderful and can do almost anything. One thing he definitely can't do, however, is cook. He tries, bless him, as he needs to survive when my mum is in Poland, but I can see he appreciates my taking charge of the weekend menu as soon as I arrive. Dinners are usually fish from that shop on the seafront I always go on about

This time, I ended up getting load of small, local plaice, as they had a good offer on them (I got eight for under £3!), and baking them, well seasoned, with thyme and red palm and canola oil. I wasn't being creative or awkward, that was literally the only oil my dad had in the house. I also stuck some parboiled potatoes in the baking tray along with the fish, as well as onions and bruised garlic cloves. That all took half an hour on a medium heat. We had samphire and squid on the side. The samphire I'd left to stand in boiled water for five minutes, and served with butter. The squid I pan-fried (seasoned beforehand) in the red palm and canola oil again (which gave it a great colour), on a really high heat for 5min. Then squirted with lemon juice, of course

Apart from eating lovely fish, we drank many bottles of cava, had some long overdue hear-to-hearts and found lots of random Polish and Russian music clips on YouTube. I wish I was still there, a weekend always feels like too short a time to spend with the ones you love, doing what you enjoy

Coffee shake

This shake wins the best summer beverage prize hands down for me

And that's coming from someone who doesn't particularly like coffee. You need a blender, some instant coffee, honey, ice cubes and good quality milk. The milk is key - I use full cream Tesco finest Channel Island Milk, which gives a rich flavour and a creamy consistency. You make a teeny, little coffee with a teaspoon of honey and then blend it with all the other ingredients until all the ice cubes have dissolved. It's the ideal way to start a summer's day. Or refresh you throughout. Or even to reward yourself on your return from work. Actually, the only downside is that once you've tried it, you'll want to drink it all day long

A few veggie things...

I love meat. I also love animals. So when I see images like I did the other day from Elmkirk abattoir, it causes me a massive amount of stress and conflict. What to do? I tried to find out where they supply to, hoping to boycott their meat, but since I couldn't find that information, I realized that this kind of thing is probably more widespread that we'd like to imagine. Of course, you can always choose to sweep things under the carpet and simply not think about anything that makes you unhappy. But this is not an option for me anymore (I wish it never had been). I'm at a point in my life where I am choosing to think about all the things that are difficult for me to think about, in order to find genuine peace and contentment, instead of falling for the fake version. Fighting the good fight, and all that. A natural conclusion is to become vegetarian, and yet that doesn't feel right to me either. Many vegetarians tell me that they do it for ethical reasons but that they never liked meat that much anyway. Well, I really, really do - I mean, I love game, offal, black pudding, steak tartar, everything - the meatier and bloodier, the better. Someone who has always wanted to be a vampire can't just become vegetarian without sacrificing their sense personal freedom and general happiness. I could, therefore, limit myself to meat from safe sources. The only problem with this is trust. It's difficult to trust people, and yet if you don't trust anyone, then where do you end up? In a state of apathy, at a guess. Eating meat from supermarkets again, supporting what you find abhorrent. Therefore, I needed to make an informed decision. I have read all about Ginger Pig and have chosen to put my faith in them. I have one nearby, in Hackney, so this is where I will get my entire meat supply, once a week. And because they're more expensive than the supermarket, I will just eat a bit less of it. If I am too hungover or busy to do bespoke food shopping at the weekend, I will simply abstain from meat until I can go. And being veggie for a week is nice too. As much as I couldn't give up meat forever, I don't feel like I'm missing out if I don't have it for a few days. I can just eat sexy veggie food like this...

... buffalo mozzarella, with roasted cherry tomatoes and basil (with olive oil, garlic salt and black pepper) and fresh rye bread from here

Or bulghur and quinoa grains with mushrooms (mainly shitake) fried in sesame oil and soya sauce (and garlic salt of course!), finished off with tabasco and some natural yoghurt on the side

Or my favourite hangover food - al dente spaghetti, with tomato passata, chilli and basil (and, you guessed it, garlic salt). Perhaps garlic salt is the secret to actually becoming a vegetarian... Anyway, despite being completely committed to my new, meaty resolution, I refuse to impose it on other people. I don't want to be a nightmare guest or fussy diner, so when I go out to a restaurant or to friends' houses for dinner, I will, as ever, be grateful for anything that's put in front of me

Kale Tortilla and Sweetcorn Soup

I made plans to go to Eastbourne and hang out with my dad this weekend. Then I changed my mind. About five times actually, back and forth (luckily, my dad is extremely chilled out). I've been doing that a lot recently and I'll tell you what, it feels good. Just over a year ago, when I was in the middle of a life crisis, completely lost, without any idea what I wanted, and really rather stressed out about it, a friend of mine, Anton, said to me "remember, you can always change your mind". This has stayed with me as one of the best pieces of advice that I've ever been given. It seems so obvious, yet I don't think a lot of people feel like they can change their minds. I certainly didn't in my old life, I was always busy doing stuff that I'd said "yes" to weeks before, whether I felt like it or not, carrying on down old paths, chosen for no apparent reason, always an undercurrent of discomfort and anxiety, that comes from suppressing your natural instincts. And does anyone really care if you go for a drink with them now, or a week later? (or never in some cases) Or if you cancel that party? I don't think so. Not really. And if they do, then it's still a small price to pay for your freedom to do what you want, when you want. So I stayed in Hackney and cleaned my flat as much as I could with my injured back (stupid yoga position, too early in the day), found a new favourite passtime (swimming in the lido), had a few beers, and cooked quite a lot

This is basically an ordinary Spanish tortilla, with the addition of kale. You finely slice an onion and a potato,  then fry them, covered and seasoned, in some olive oil, for about 20min. Pour boiling water over a handful of kate, and allow to cool a bit, before chopping finely and adding to the potatoes and onions for the final 5min of cooking time. Break about 5 or 6 eggs into a bowl and whisk lightly, season. Add the cooked potato, onions and kale into the beaten egg mixture, heat some more oil in the frying pan, and pour it all in. Turn the heat down really low and cook for about 25min, uncovered. I don't bother turning the tortilla over, instead I stick it under a hot grill for 2min to gently brown the top side. And I prefer eating it cold. It was perfect today, eaten with chilli jam, while sunbathing in the garden after a swim. Then, there was this beautiful sweetcorn soup from 101 cookbooks

I used more water than in the recipe, cooked it all together for quite a bit longer than recommended and added pearl barley. My friend Ayesha loved it, because, apparenty, she loves anything yellow. Yeah, you read right, anything yellow