Nina St Tropez

My new girl crush cookbook

My mother in law, June, bought us a beautiful cookbook for Christmas, Nina Parker's Nina St Tropez. Recipes from the South of France. I was sold from the minute I saw the chic white and copper colour scheme on the cover, and I have been poring over and cooking from it ever since.

Inspired by Nina's yearly family holidays to St Tropez as a child, the recipes in this book are traditional provençal fare - light, fresh, and reminiscent of sea and sun.  There are also some nice explanations about local places and people, bringing each recipe to life and adding context, with the author's love of the town evident in the warmth of her personal recollections.

I should probably be insanely jealous of this woman, not only because my own family holidays at the Barmera motel were about as far removed from swanning about the French Riviera as you can get, but Nina's lifestyle, as depicted by this book, is so glamourous and carefree I can't help but sigh longingly into the pages. Nina can generally be found:

having beach picnics with attractive suntanned friends

enjoying a guilt-free breakfast of cafe au lait and croissants

serving canapes and aperitifs on boats

eating gelati in a bikini

and carrying plates of meringues through the streets wearing nothing but an apron.

And yet, I can't be bitter when I'm so smitten, and I can't be dismissive when her recipes are so good.  My lunch today was inspired by Nina's 'Salade de Chèvre Chaud', a salad of fried goat's cheese, figs and toasted hazelnuts in a honey, lemon and thyme dressing, but being 45˚ today, my hazelnuts went untoasted and my chèvre remained froid. Delicious.