Keeping to Spanish theme however, the cherries are the acclaimed Picota cherries from Spain and the cheese is Manchego. I forget the type of meat but this too is Spanish in origin.

Serrano Ham and Manchego Salad - Serves 4 as a starter

Ingredients
75g Frisée salad leaves 20 Picota cherries, pitted 25g Flaked almonds, toasted 4 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 2 Tablespoons apple or white wine vinegar Salt and pepper 200g Serrano ham 100g Manchego, cut into cubes 4 Stems of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Method

1. Mix together the frisée, cherries and almonds in a bowl.
2. Whisk together the olive oil and vinegar, add to the salad and toss thoroughly.
3. Arrange the ham slices on a large plate and heap the salad in the middle.
4. Place the cheese around the salad, then scatter with parsley.

Over lunch an introduction to the wines of Paul Zinck, thus specifics and photos over on Spittoon, then a more formal tasting and a wander through Eguisheim. It is one of those quintessential Alsatian villages, verging on the twee perhaps but a delight to discover.

Artisan & Vine
126 St John's Hill,
Clapham, SW11 1SL

The restaurant is not as high-brow as some of the other vineyard restaurants we visited; a welcome change actually. My choice of starter was my initiation into snails, meaty little blighters, dripping with garlic butter. Superb with Beyerskloofs Brut Sparkling Rosé.

No idea how I managed to snap a picture of an empty restaurant; the place was full and buzzing!

The Pinotage burger had been touted all week as the restaurant's best dish; so it seemed churlish not to try it. It is the relish on top, rather than the burger itself, that contias the pinotage. It was nice, rather than being terribly memorable (unlike the snails) but washed down with copious glasses of the Beyerskloof Pinotage Reserve made for a most enjoyable lunch...

For inspirational mood-setting, three photos from my recent trip to Madrid. It was a while ago now but I've been saving these photos for just this occassion. (More photos on flickr.)

Casa Labra, C/Tetuan 12 is famed for its cod croquettes; cheap too.

El Abuelo, C/Victoria 12 supplied the most delicious, quickly fried prawns, washed down with a fresh, crisp white wine.

Casa Lucas, Cava Baja, 30 is one of my favourite wine bars. If memory serves this looks like a combination of beans, olive oil and squid. What I do recall is that it was damn delicious.

By using a ready-made pastry case that is smaller than the recipes 22cm diameter the custard filling obviously has to be reduced too. Basically I cut everything by half; but still had excess cream left over. The other thing I should, perhaps, have done is to strain the raspberry puree. While I don't mind the crunch of the little seeds it did lack a certain finesse and smoothness a simple strain would have provided.

Raspberry Duck Egg Custard Tart

For the Custard

• 400ml double cream


• 5 duck egg yolks


• 55g caster sugar

For the Raspberry Puree

• Punet of frozen raspberries


• a knob of unsalted butter


• 80g caster sugar


• (I also added a slug of my elderflower syrup but this added little to the final flavour)

Simmer the puree ingredients until a thick, quite dry puree is produced. Part bake the pastry case. Then spread most of the puree over the base of the pastry.

Bring the cream to the boil. Lightly whisk the egg yolks and sugar together and slowly add the cream on to this mixture, stirring all the time. Pour back into the saucepan and heat through for 2 minutes again constantly stirring. Strain the custard through a fine sieve and pour it onto the pastry case. Bake for 20-30 minutes until the filling is just set. A temperature of 180C seems about right.

Allow to cool and serve with a spoonful of the remaining raspberry puree and clotted cream.

PS: Fork Magazine has a blog