Royal potato salad a l'Ottolenghi

800 g new potatoes, washed 

150 g frozen peas

20 g parsley leaves

20 g basil leaves

60 g pine seeds

60 g parmesan

2 cloves garlic

200 ml olive oil

1 tsp white wine vinegar

handful of mint leaves

5 boiled eggs (or 15 quail's eggs)

salt and pepper

Wash the potatoes, boil for around 20 minutes until soft but firm. Boil the eggs until ready (I reckon about 4 minutes is enough), then refresh in cold water. Blanche the peas for 30 seconds in boiling water, then rinse and refresh in cold water.

While the potatoes are boiling, add the parsley, basil, pine seeds, garlic and parmesan to a food processor and blend. Add in olive oil bit by bit until you have a runny pesto. 

When the potatoes are cooked and have cooled enough to handle, cut them in half or quarters, then mix in with the pesto, mint leaves and vinegar. Season with plenty of salt and pepper.

Peel and quarter the eggs, mix in gently with the potatoes, and serve. Add extra mint or parsley as garnish if you want.

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.

Thai gazpacho

It was a very hot summer here, so we ate a lot of cold soups. This one turned out very nicely, although if you want it to have a reasonably attractive colour, make sure you use yellow tomatoes, not red ones. Otherwise, though, it's all very tasty. Based on this recipe.

Ingredients:
3-4 large yellow tomatoes, cut into chunks
1 full Noa cucumber, or 1/2 English cucumber, peeled and cut into chunks
1/2 yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into chunks
1 onion
1-2 cloves garlic
1 tbsp lemongrass (paste, fresh, or frozen)
1 thumb-size piece of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
juice and zest of 1 lime
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp chilli paste OR 1 chilli (or to taste)
mint, (Thai) basil and coriander to taste (should be about 1/2 cup or so)
1/2 a 400ml tin of coconut milk (you can use more too, but keep some for serving)
seasoning

Throw the tomatoes, cucumber, pepper, and onion into a blender and blend. Add the garlic, lemongrass, ginger, lime juice and zest, fish sauce, chilli, herbs and seasoning, and then as much coconut milk as you want (less is more, add little by little until you have as much as you want). Blend the mixture until smooth.

Put in the fridge to cool for a few hours. Serve with some bread on the side. 

Aubergine/melanzana parmagiana

A vegetarian sort-of-lasagne Italian dish which worked out quite nicely. Very happy with the results. It did not take as long as I thought it would, either, so there's that, although it does take a bit of time. Make sure you have plenty of crusty bread, like a baguette or something similar, with you, so that you can mop up the sauce.

I adapted this from the Guardian's version of this recipe, with some changes. NB: I used quite a large baking tray which explains the quantities. I also layered the aubergine quite thinly, so if you increase the density of the aubergine, you can cut down on the tomato sauce. Still, tomato is nice, so it's up to you.

1.5 kg aubergine/brinjal/"egg"plant, cut lengthwise into 1 cm-thick slices
8 cloves garlic, minced
2 red onions, thinly diced
4 x 400 g tins tomatoes
1-2 glasses of red wine, or 4 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp oregano or Provencal spice
250 g grated parmesan cheese (or grana padano - meaning that the name is somewhat badly chosen. Oh well...)
250-500 g mozzarella (depending on your cheesy preferences)
50 g breadcrumbs
handful of basil leaves

Cut up the aubergine, salt it (I laid it in layers in a colander, sprinkled some salt over it, and then repeated until I'd done the whole batch), and leave for about half an hour. While you're waiting, fry the onions and garlic for a couple of minutes, add in the wine/wine vinegar, and then tip in the tomatoes and simmer for about 45 minutes, stirring frequently. Crush any big bits that might cause trouble later on.

Rinse the aubergines very well and then fry at least half, but preferably all, of the aubergine slices on a griddle pan for a couple of minutes on either side. I cooked half the slices and left the other half raw when assembling the dish, which seemed to work quite well, but I'd recommend cooking all the aubergine before assembling the dish.

When you've cooked everything, heat your oven to 180 degrees, and then start putting together the dish. Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce in your oven dish, then a layer of aubergine (packed tightly), then mozzarella, parmesan, and seasoning. Repeat in this order until you have used up all the aubergine. Top with a final layer of tomato sauce, then sprinkle breadcrumbs and a little bit of parmesan on the top.

Shove in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes or so, then take out when ready and leave for a couple of minutes before serving. Top with some of the basil, and serve bread on the side.