Grilled aubergine with saffron yogurt

This is an Ottolenghi salad that I make lots, its served at room temperature so is perfect for picnics and to go with BBQ's.

serves 4

3 medium aurbergines, sliced lenghtways about 2 cms thick
olive oil for brushing
pine nuts
pomegranate seeds
bunch of basil

Saffron yogurt
a pinch of saffron strands
3 tbsps hot water
180g greek yogurt
1 garlic clove crushed
generous squeeze of lemon juice
3 tbsps olive oil

Prep
Infuse the saffron in the hot water in a ramekin for 5 mins. Pour the infusion into a bowl with the yogurt garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and season to taste. This sauce can be kept for up to 3 days in fridge.

Place a griddle pan on a high heat and brush the aubergine slices with olive oil. When the pans hot grill the aurbergine until they have clear lines on them and are soft and not spongy. If you don't have a griddle pan they are great cooked on the bbq or in the oven for around half an hour at 220c.

To serve place the aubergine at room temperature on a large plate, season, and spoon a few dollops of the yogurt on top, sprinkle the pine nuts, pomegranate seeds and basil leaves on top.

River cafe polenta, almond and lemon cake

This week has been a bit up and down with the weather, lots of rain and then an absolute scorcher yesterday in the 30˚s. Yesterday was an especially good day because not only did I get a little bit less pasty but I also stood up on my surfboard about 10 times!! I did almost die about twice getting absolutely smashed by waves and ended up with my hair looking a bit like a loo brush but very happy!! Since the weather has been crappy I made a huge cake, and I think this could be my newest most favourite cake I have ever made. I have been trawling through my River cafe books and there is so much amazing stuff so since I have all kinds of great ingredients on my door step I am going to go nuts and try loads this month. Serves 12 450g unsalted butter, softened 450g caster sugar 450g ground almonds 2 teaspoons good vanilla essence 6 free range eggs zest of 4 lemons juice of 1 lemon 225g polenta flour or fine semolina 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon of salt Preheat the oven to ...

Simple Supper

I went to Whole Foods today to get a very short list of things for a pie I'm making tomorrow and managed to leave an hour!!! later. Whole Foods is not a place to go when you don't have a plan, it's a bit like Westfield where you get all overexcited with the shops, loose track of time and suddenly you leave and it's dark and you haven't bought anything. After getting the things on my list I realised I had to get stuff for dinner too. My basket got fuller..then emptier while I chopped and changed my mind constantly finding all kinds of amazing stuff, attempting to smell sauces in jars unsuccessfully. Unfortunately Whole Foods is possibly the most expensive place to shop so I have to do a bit of maths as I go and check I'm not spending my weekly budget on one small meal. After 45mins of indecisive supermarket heaven I eventually left with a very simple supper. Homemade fresh taglionini, some delicious looking fresh semi-dried tomato pesto made by Sapori D'Itali...

I remember my first ever falafel, I was eighteen. I imagine not many people would remember something like that, but given that I was fresh from the Dorset countryside and there weren't many opportunities to try new food, I remember it! Maybe it was actually more memorable because of the epic shock I had when my head was blown off by the spiciest sauce ever! After a bit of swearing, sweating and a running nose I recovered and went back to my normal routine of ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. Unfortunately I worked minutes away from Mustafas falafel van on Portobello and my workmate and now fellow hippy food friend Philly loved them, she dragged me back and under strict instructions Mustafa was banned from the bottle of spicy sauce. Anyway end of my story is that it turned out falafels are pretty damn good once you can taste them, and if your ever hungry on Portobello go and give them a try! This recipe is from Green Kitchen Stories which is one of my new favourite blogs, it...

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