Dear LPG, 

Well, after all those years of providing meals for my children, family and the odd friend, I am still no cook as I am sure you can tell by now.  I am, like most other women and men on the planet, able to manage a dozen or so dishes that come out reasonably well due to the amount of times that I have repeated their cooking process, but I am sure that the many gaffs I have made during the past year and a half of keeping my promise to LPG have not gone unnoticed.

In celebration of the Irish people, I opted this month for that very familiar recipe which originates close to home and the outcome is my most successful so far.  I have always thought of all things Irish as very straight forward and uncomplicated, and the recipe that I opted for was the same. How can you go wrong with four ingredients?  I am proud to say that I think my picture of this dish looks more like the original than any of my past nineteen national creations to date, but I forgot one little detail when I decided on my Irish theme.  

The sad thing is that I did this last year too and promised to think it through in 2022.  I am one of those people that gives up meat for Lent each year and I did it again… Right in the middle of my meat-free month I, with no forethought, chose a dish I couldn’t really try.  So I made this dish without tasting it myself but one of my taste testers is actually Irish and, though she stopped short of telling me that my version was just like her mother used to make, I did note a nod (which I interpreted as ‘of approval’) as she put the fork to her mouth on this occasion. 

I have put the rest in the freezer so that I can have a go after Easter, but the general consensus is that I did well this time. 

Well April is coming and with it Syria’s big day and, when it comes to this dish, they do not claim national exclusivity, I have heard of falafels but have never tried one, so I do hope to learn the secrets of making a reasonable representation for April this year.  One detail the internet has taught me is that these bites are vegetarian so I hope I do them justice and, if so, I will put a reminder in my diary for next Lent…  

CB, Lewisham 

CB share some recipes for this popular food from the Syrian area…

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