Peri-peri chicken livers

A cheap and easy meal or snack for all occasions. Spiciness can be adapted according to taste. Based on this recipe.

500 g chicken livers, cleaned
butter for frying
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3-4 tbsp peri-peri sauce, or to taste (I have it on good authority that you can use sweet chilli sauce too. Alternatively, peri-peri sauce is quite easy to make at home)
juice of 1 lemon
125 ml cream
salt and pepper for seasoning
parsley, to serve
crusty bread, to serve

Melt the butter in a hot pan and fry the livers and until golden-brown on both sides. Add the garlic and peri-peri sauce and fry for another minute or so, then add the lemon juice and cream, season and leave to simmer for 5-7 minutes. Garnish with parsley and eat with bread on the side.

Soba, aubergine and mango salad

Just incredible. Courtesy of Yotam Ottolenghi's book, Plenty:

120 ml rice vinegar
40 g sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 fresh chilli, minced
1 tsp sesame oil
zest and juice of 1 lime, plus extra juice to taste
sunflower or rapeseed oil for cooking
2 medium aubergines
250 g soba noodles (made from buckwheat flour)
1 ripe mango (or 2, depending on how much mango you want)
handful each of coriander and basil, roughly chopped
1/2 red onion, sliced thinly

For the dressing, bring the vinegar, sugar and salt to the boil and cook for a minute. Take off the heat, add in the garlic, chilli and sesame oil, and leave to cool. Once cooled, add the lime juice and zest.

Dice the aubergine into 2cm pieces. Fry until golden brown. Once cooked, sprinkle salt over the aubergine and place in a colander to drain.

Cook the soba noodles for around 5-8 minutes depending on the pack instructions. Once cooked, drain in a colander, rinse with cold water, and leave to drip dry. Original instructions say to squeeze out the excess water - not sure if this is entirely necessary, but you do you.

Dice the mango into chunks similar in size to the aubergine. Roughly chop the herbs. Throw the noodles, aubergine, mango, herbs, onion and dressing into a big bowl, mix everything together, then leave to marinade for an hour or two. Serve with bread.

Can serve as a main meal or a side, depending on how hungry you are. Add whatever you want to the salad - tofu and mushrooms spring to mind.