Alone again

Living alone really isn't healthy. Without the discipline of cooking for another I live on bread and ketchup, savoury rice and the odd experimental dish that very rarely makes the grade.

Yesterday's dinner of Chinese Spiced Vegetables in a Marmite sauce really wasn't all that appetising but today's invention turned out to be a masterpiece of restraint and elegance. Oh yes it did.



Potatoes in a Lemon Peanut Broth.

This sounds a little bizarre but is wonderful, light comforting food that doesn't overpower the senses and allows the simple conjunction of lemon and peanut to shine through. Although you'll be tempted to add extra soya sauce, chillies, all the sorts of strong flavours that are associated with savoury peanut dishes, control yourself, let purity win. You won't regret it.

Choose some nice boiling potatoes and cut them into tidy pieces. Boil in well salted water until just soft, drain and return to the hot pan to dry and go floury.

To make the broth put the zest of a lemon, a small clove of finely chopped garlic and a good deal of finely ground black pepper into a little peanut oil and allow to sizzle gently for few moments to take the rawness from the garlic. Add to this one half pint of water, the juice of a lemon, two teaspoons of sugar, two flat teaspoons of cornflour (slake it in a little of the liquid to avoid lumps) and two tablespoons of peanut butter. Mix all together well and bring back to a simmer, stirring continuously, until the cornflour is cooked and the broth is unctuous. Taste for seasoning. You will almost certainly need more salt.

Serve in a soup bowl with plenty of broth to the potatoes and with coriander leaf sprinkled over.