All of my plans for January 2025 went flying out of the window when a last minute freelance job on a TV drama filming in Tenerife was offered to me.

Over the first few weeks I navigated the best places to buy the essentials required for cooking for one. Stocking the cupboards, fridge, freezer and fruit bowl gave me a sense of creating a domestic environment I would look enjoy returning to.It is no longer ever a chore to create something to eat in the evening. I look forward to coming back after filming and eating either something I had cooked over the weekend or preparing a green salad with plenty of olive oil, ACV and a pinch of salt.

Before I flew over I had been reading The Full Freezer Method by Kate Hall bought after listening to Gilly Smith’s excellent podcast, Cooking The Books. I have stored chopped onions, celery, fresh herbs, cooked beans and chick peas, sliced bananas, leftover tomatoes or beans which as made cooking here very easy indeed. I make overnight oats with blueberries and chia seeds, yogurt, tahini and honey to take to work for breakfast (breakfast on set is sliced meat, cheese, pastries, boiled eggs and trays of melon. I got bored of melon and boiled eggs pretty quickly).

. Today I walked into Santa Cruz and bought a new sketch book and pencils as a treat and more dried herbs, spices and pu’er tea. I haven’t had much time to write about food since I’ve been here but I will share a recipe of what I prepared one weekend.

This dish is based on ingredients I had in the kitchen and is in no way authentic.

Osso Buco For One

1 piece of Beef Shin weighing around 370 g seasoned

1 red onion diced

1 stick of celery chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

2 x fresh vine tomatoes chopped

Red wine 200 ml (white wine is recommended but I had only red to hand)

Stock 500 ml (ideally beef but chicken or vegetable would work).

2 garlic cloves cut in half

2 dried bay leaves

A few trigs of thyme

Spanish olive oil

Method

Heat a couple of glugs of olive oil in a casserole or medium sized pan. Brown the meat on both sides until golden.

Remove the meat from the pan and set aside while you fry the onion, celery and carrot with a pinch of salt.

After 5 minutes, add the garlic and fry gently for another few minutes mix has softened and the onion is translucent.

Return the meat to the pan, add the wine, tomatoes, herbs and 500 ml of meat stock.

Simmer for 1 hour on a very low heat.