This has been a funny week fraught with duty and domestic tasks. The first part of the week meant I could indulge myself in some leisurely cooking and the second half of the week has been exactly the opposite. Rocket arrived home from working abroad and so we were both shattered.

We had some goats cheese, it was made by Alex James, from Blur.  Well, I don’t know if he milked the goats, or cut the curds but it’s one of his anyway… washed in cider and wrapped in vine leaves wooo ooh! Do we sound fancy!? It’s called Little Wallop – what a great name? I don’t like all goats cheese, particularly the ones that hurt you under the ears and smell like musty goat udder….but I respect those that love them just the same.

This one though, was full of flavour creamy and really yummy. So we made our standby salad of choice, it comes from Rick Stein and it has graced our table in France on numerous occasions either as a lunch in it’s own right or alongside some grilled meat or fish. Tonight we added some shop bought smoked herring and peppered smoked mackerel.

The whole thing is very tasty and can be thrown together in five minutes flat. If you don’t enjoy mackerel, you could use up cooked meat left overs like chicken or some grilled lamp chops would work well.

Serves 4

Take about 3 really ripe tomatoes, preferably plum ones but today were using up some vine tomatoes we had in the fridge.

1/2 whole firm ripe cucumber

1/2 Cantaloupe dependent on size or another orange fleshed melon – nicely ripe.

I piece of goats cheese ( I also like firm ricotta with this).

Large flaked fillets of smoked mackerel and smoked herring

Partially peel the cucumber and cut it across at angle into thick slices.

De-seed the melon, cut into eighths, take the skin off, then cut across so that it is roughly the same size as the cucumber.

Quarter the toms  lengthways.

Arrange the fruits into a serving dish and crumble, or roughly chop (depends on the type of goats chefs you have really) and scatter over a good portion of the goats cheese.

Mix the juice of a lemon with about 2 thirds more oil than juice, add a good pinch of sea salt, and plenty of freshly ground black pepper.

Pour the dressing over the fruits and cheese and make sure they are well covered.

Flake the mackerel and or herring into large pieces and scatter over the fruit.

You could accompany this with some nice crusty bread to mop up the dressing if so required – a glass of Provencal Rosé works well….I shall be having Belvoir Raspberry and Rose Cordial.

Footnote: I did have the cordial, but I had the wine too…. my body – no longer a temple…