Summer. Slumber. ZZZZZZucchini.

Thank you for your patience, dear readers. Summer is in full swing and so is our drought. It’s hot, humid and horrible day after day. Which means that even I spend weekends in shorts (albeit pink ones), polo collar shirts and boat shoes when I have to wear shoes at all. My daily choice of clothing is essentially linen slacks and an open collar shirt in the lightest weaves I own. I roll back the sleeves a turn or two. Loafers are light in colour and suede, bucks are white, my gait is slower than usual.

I still cook and should have done the zucchini shown below on the grill. It was far to warm an evening to keep the oven on for an hour to bake the stuffed vegetable. I was soporific by the time dinner was served.

In the foreground, a couscous, raisin, olive, mint stuffed half. The top half is stuffed with ground lamb seasoned with onions, garlic, ouzo salt and pepper, with feta and oregano topped with a white (béchamel) sauce.

This is the Harissa, a North African chili paste flavoured with cumin and coriander that was served as a condiment for the couscous stuffed bit.

Next time I will grill the zucchini halves with salt and olive oil to give them more flavour, but this was a promising start. It would have fed about  six friends, rather than the three of us alone.