This is one of my favourite dishes to have in one of my favourite restaurants (Il Bacio) where I am going tonight - birthday weekend starts here! Yes I promised a write up and you will get one, prepare to drool

In the mean time here is my variation on their dish, basically a rich tomato sauce covering griddled aubergine layered with mozarella and parmesan cheese. Ooof!

Not a quick dish but worth every minute.

Ingredients

2 medium aubergines
200g mozarella
50g parmesan
1 med-large onion
1 tin tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 capful balsamic vinegar
1 big/2 medium clove(s) garlic
fresh basil, dried oregano, S&P, olive oil

Serves 2

1 Chop onions finely, fry gently for 10 minutes
2 Add tom paste and balsamic and dried oregano, fry gently for a further 2 minutes, add chopped toms, S&P
3 Simmer gently with lid off. Put oven on to heat 170 degrees
4 Slice aubergines lengthwise, brush with oil and start griddling in batches, they are ready when nicely scorched and slightly transclucent - about 3 minutes each side (you may want to open the windows, it gets a little smoky, that’s normal - black and billowing is a step to far…)
5 In a deep oven dish put in a layer of aubergine, dot with ripped bits of mozarella, chopped/torn basil, a wooden spoon dollop of the tomato sauce and a little parmesan - repeat until you run out of aubergine
6 Smother with remaining sauce (there should be quite a lot) and parmesan and pop in the hot oven for 30-40 minutes until golden and bubbling
7 Give it 5 minutes out of the oven (molten cheese is no friend to the tongue). Serve with bread (French or Italian), a green salad and a nice Chianti

The secret to a great Moscow Mule is the quality of your ginger beer - and make no mistake it must be ginger beer, that white, cloudy, spicy, gorgeous zing of a drink, and not the insiped, clear brown meuh of ginger ale (whatever the Smirnoff ads might tell you - ignore them, Smirnoff is wrong about the ginger ale. Oh and you can’t make one without lime either - fools!).

Get the spiciest ginger beer you can find, Fentiman’s for preference but Jamaica Ginger is also good.

Ingredients

Ice
1/2 fresh lime
Good slug of Vodka (50ml is good)
Ginger beer
Sprig of mint (if you’re feeling festive!)

makes 1 cocktail

1 Put ice in glass and squeeze lime into it
2 Add vodka and top up with ginger beer to taste

Enjoy (responsibly) very good on a hot summers day/sultry night.

Swap the vodka for golden rum for an equally tasty Jamaican Mule.

When summer turns to autumn, the skies are low and grey and you feel the first chill of winter in the air there’s nothing else for it than a comforting home made pie - especially when the cold comes and August isn’t even over yet!

Whether it is a crusty pastry pie, a soothing fish, a sweet custard covered fruit or, as here, my favourite combination of mince and mash, a pie is ideal when summer deserts us. This cottage pie is simple to make and like a warm hug to eat.

So, as the drizzle falls outside, spend an hour and a half in the warm kitchen. Its worth it for the soul.

Ingredients

4 medium-large potatoes (approx 800g)
500g beef mince
2 medium onions
1 medium carrot
3 tablespoons tomato paste
225ml beef stock
Dried herbs (2 bay leaves, thyme, oregano but you can mix and match your favourites)
splash milk and generous knob of butter (for mash, say 40g)
Cheddar Cheese for top (50g)
S&P, olive oil

Serves 3-4

1 Peel potatoes and put kettle on to boil, chop into 6/8 and put in pan with boiling water.
2 Chop onions and fry gently in big, deep saucepan for 8 minutes
3 Make up stock, turn on oven to 170 to warm, grate cheese
4 Add beef and break up well whilst browning, once brown add tom paste and cook for a further 2 mins
5 Add herbs, stir, add stock (so that it barely covers meat and onions), bring to a lively simmer, uncovered
6 Once pots have been boiling for 15-20 mins (about now) drain and mash with S&P, butter and a splash of milk, mash until you think you have mashed enough, and then mash a bit more (who says cooking isn’t good exercise!)
7 Put beef mixture into a caserole dish, cover with mash, sprinkle over cheese and pop it in the oven for 25 minutes (until cheese is bubbling and browning on top) serve with steamed greens, runner beans or some-such and enjoy the simple, comforting flavours warming right through to your toes.

I’ve been approached by one of the most popular series’ on BBC3 - Kill it, Cook it, Eat it - to help them find some foodies to join in a debate about hunting.

The series is about the ethics of meat eating and meat production and is a topic I expect every real foodie is already very engaged with, I know I certainly am. And this series explores the hunting of meat pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable to eat

They are looking for a few different people, I said I’d help them out - So, whether you’re a vegetarian, a meat connoisseur or something in between; if you have strong opinions about hunting and game, then please get in touch. Importantly you should never have actually hunted.

If you are interested please contact:

Giorgio Murru
Assistant Producer
Firefly Film and Television Productions Ltd

GiorgioMurru@fireflyproductions.tv
020 70332286

On Saturday night we discovered a real gem of a restaurant, Emni a delightful modern Indian that we’ve been meaning to try for ages - and I’m very glad we did.

The place is a clean black and white, with old school attentive service and really, really excellent food.

Crispy Popadoms opened proceedings and were accompanied by an unusual take on the usual dips - one of which tasted like the best brown sauce in the world (I mean that in a good way), tamarind I think.

Then the starters which were juicy minced lamb kebab, spicy lentil patties stuffed with dried fig and a striking potato basket that came with a side that looked like chantilly cream (but tasted delightful).

Main courses were also charming, richly spiced, with a delicate heat and wonderful flavours:

- Keralan prawns with yellow lentils, beans and carrots tossed with onion and tomato gravy
- Kashmiri chicken with fresh chillies, ginger and black cardamom
- Slow grilled long aubergines cooked in sun dried tomato and fresh chilli sauce
- Smooth delicate-yellow lentils tempered with asafoetida, garlic, chilli and coriander

This restaurant is far from the huge portions and blunt flavours of your local curry house (although there is definitely a place for these in my life and heart). Plates are presented with all the style of unpretentious nouvelle cuisine and delight the palette with their thoughtful flavouring and the meal was finished with room left for coffee. All in all a refreshing and unusual joy, especially at such a reasonable price - I shall definitely be going again.

4.5/5

Starters £4-6
Main £9-14
House wine £15(ish)

Emni Restaurant
353 Upper Street
Angel Islington
London N1 0PD
020 7226 1166
www.emnirestaurant.com

Smoked Mackerel is a great fish, really good for you (ok maybe a bit too much salt but think of all those fish oils), cheap as chips and sustainable to boot. I really love it and enjoy it in many forms, from a home made mackerel pate on toast (just mix with creme fraiche and a tiny bit of butter) to a simple baked potato topping or a buttery, fishy foundation to a spinach salad. Last night C invented another great addition to the smoked mackerel repertoire.

Really simple and really quite delicious, make extra and you can have it for lunch the next day (or even the one after that) just add a few drops of balsamic before you eat to make it more lunchy salady.

Ingredients

1 small onion
2 cloves of garlic
Really big handful of parsley
250g farfalle pasta
3 smoked mackerel fillets
1 yellow pepper
1 tablespoon horseradish
1/2 tub (100g) creme fraiche
Pinch each dried thyme & dried basil
Olive oil, Pepper (no need for salt - mackerel is plenty salty)

Serves 2 with a portion left over for lunch

1 Chop onion then put pasta on to boil 
2 Put onion and crush garlic into pan, fry gently in olive oil
3 Chop yellow pepper and add after 4 minutes
4 Chop parsley, flake mackerel
5 When pasta is done drain (but not too well) and mix all ingredients - pop a lid on and let it sit for a minute or two whilst you prepare the plates/set the table
6 Serve with a green salad and lots of ground black pepper on top - goes well with beer (apparently, although I hate the stuff myself…)

Well we had a bit of a glut on courgettes this week (C picked up 3 from the ‘help yourself’ box not realising there were already 3 in our veg box) so courgettes may be a bit of a theme over the next few days.

One of my favourite courgette recipes is this gorgeous and super quick curry recipe. So quick that it keeps all the freshness of its many green elements which beautifully compliment the seawater and sweetness of the prawns. Thanks Madhur for a firm family favourite.

Now we just need to make sure the new house guest (a lost ginger cat who is residing with us until we can find his owner - long story) doesn’t get to the prawns before we do…

Ingredients
From Madhur Jaffrey’s Illustrated Indian Cookery (a cookbook with the powerful accolade of having heavily stained pages)

2 med courgettes
1/2 teaspoon salt
vegetable oil (groundnut is good)
3 cloves garlic
1/2 packet coriander
1 green chili
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 heaped teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
tin chopped tomatoes
2 inches ginger
1 tablespoon lemon

1 Cut courgettes lengthwise into 4 then each strip across into 3, chop coriander, grate ginger, measure spices
2 Heat a 20cm pool of oil in medium high heat, crush garlic into pan and fry gently until golden brown
3 Add all other ingredients to pan except prawns and coriander bring to simmer
4 Add prawns and coriander simmer for 3 minutes, turn up heat and boil away a little of the liquid so that the sauce is thick
5 Serve on a bed of white basmati rice with a glass of chilled white Rioja and a little spoon of lime pickle on the side

This is a full hearty brick red stew, the paprika seems to capture the sun in it’s warm spice and, as the rain falls outside (in August… love this british summer) it is perfect for soothing and warming. Foil the rich sweetness of the stew with some nutty brown rice and a green salad.

Oh and, of course, it is very simple to make - not that quick (1h30 in all) but with minimal contact time.

Ingredients
(adapted) From Delia Smith’s essential kitchen classic Complete Cookery Course

2 big chicken legs (or 4 thighs/drumsticks) - approx 5/600g
1 tin chopped toms
1 medium-large onion
tablespoon of Paprika (preferably hot smoked or snazzy spanish/hungarian, but any really)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 clove garlic
1 small-medium green pepper
Creme fraiche/soured cream to swirl (approx 100g)
S&P, Olive Oil

1 Put oven on to heat up 170 C. Chop onions roughly
2 Heat up a puddle of oil (15cm or so across) in a casserole dish with a lid (leave this off for now) on the hob. Brown chicken until skin is just starting to colour, remove to a plate and replace with onions, cook gently for 10 mins
3 Add Paprika, cayenne and crushed garlic, fry for a minute then add tinned toms (rinse out tin with about 1/3 again of water into casserole)
4 Bring to simmer and put chicken back in, cover and put in oven. Cook for 45 minutes
5 Take out of oven and mix in green pepper sliced into long thin bits. Put back in oven for 30 mins
6 Take out of oven and swirl in creme fraiche/soured cream, serve on a bed of nutty brown rice with a crisp green salad and a bit of bread if you have it. Oh, and an unsophisticated but cosy red is a perfect accompaniment

This is just a quickie to remind you what an easy delight a lunchtime omelette is on a weekend.

All you need is a couple of eggs per person, some random bits from the fridge (in our case a few mushrooms and a bit of old cheddar too past it for a cracker) a little butter and hey presto, a simple delicious lunch. Serve with a little side salad, if you have it, or just a hunk of old bread sprinkled with water and heated up in the oven, if you don’t.

A simple forgotten treat, mmmm.

Back from holiday number two, The Big Chill festival, with the memory of sunshine and dancing in a field still warm in my heart (and a swollen ankle too, but that’s another story - yes it involved cocktails, darkness and an unseen hole…).

One of the other great memories that lingers is of dinner on the first night - fresh mackerel fillet curry with rice and salad.

If you are heading to a festival this summer seek out the Goan Fish Curry stall, I implore you. Their standard curries, made with sustainable Cornish fish, are delicious fare but their mackerel fillet special would not be out of place on a (very good) fish restaurant table. Gone are the days when festival food meant a burger, tastless lentil pat or, at best, some chips with garlic mayo in a pitta - actually that one wasn’t always so bad

‘I’m afraid it’ll be a few minutes as we cook them fresh’ was a promising start and it just got better from there. Juicy, fresh as the sea, mackerel seared on the griddle and smothered in tangy, thickly spiced sauce set off by just right rice and a clasic tangy tomato, onion salad speckled with fresh coriander.

I’m telling you it was delicious. Go, my friends, find a festival, dance in the fresh air and fill your stomachs with gorgeousness - it does an urban foodie soul good.