These koftas have saved me on more than one occasion – the kind of occasion where Chris casually mentions that 6 people are coming over for a feed in half an hour and won’t it be OK if we just buy some sausages? I can never just buy some sausages. These koftas take ten minutes to prep and you can vary the spices so people don’t notice they’ve had them two last minute dinners running (also great on the BBQ). My basic recipe is this: 500g lamb mince, 1/2 red onion (softened in olive oil), 1 fat clove garlic (crushed and and added to onions for last 30 seconds), 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 2 teaspoons ground coriander,* 1-2 red chillies (chopped) and seasoning; just mix everything together well with your hands, mould around skewers then grill. I vary them by adding chopped herbs like mint, parsley or coriander; spices like fennel, cardamom, ground cloves, cinnamon or nutmeg and some lemon or orange zest. The list goes on. Chuck it in and see what happens I say.

I usually serve them up in flatbreads with a tzatziki style sauce but the sight of a few red peppers threatening to wither and a bag of walnuts led me onto muhammara sauce; a thick slurry of pulsed nuts, smoky roasted sweet pepper, pomegranate molasses and breadcrumbs. The only slightly time consuming bit of making this sauce is roasting the peppers so I speed things up by just sitting them directly on the gas flame – just remember to turn them every so often and don’t be alarmed by the spitting and crackling. Also make sure to use something like tongs to pick them up, they will be super hot. My muhammara always comes out paler than others I’ve seen, which I think might be down to the traditional inclusion of aleppo pepper in the recipe; I just used two red chillies from my balcony…

For a bit of substance I also made a tabbouleh: parsley (about 80g as it should be the main ingredient), cooked bulgur wheat (about 50g, although I used barley cous cous this time), 6 chopped cherry tomatoes, 4 sliced spring onions (green parts only), a small handful of mint leaves, a crushed garlic clove, lemon juice, 4 tablespoons olive oil and seasoning. It was delicious but we ended up chucking the whole lot in flatbreads anyway for some carb on carb action. Sometimes it just has to be done.

Muhammara

4 red peppers – roast them until the skins are blackened then place in a bowl and cover with clingfilm. Leave for 10 minutes. The skins should now be easy to remove. Chop roughly, discarding the seeds.
4 tbsp olive oil
70g walnuts
2 red chillies, roughly chopped (seeds or not, up to you)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted until fragrant in a dry pan and then ground to paste using a grinder or pestle and mortar
50g white breadcrumbs blended to a paste with about 1 tbsp cold water
2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and pepper
A few mint leaves, shredded, for garnish (optional)

Put the peppers, walnuts, breadcrumb paste, chillies, cumin, pomegranate molasses and garlic in a blender and blend to a paste. Remove from the blender and mix in the olive oil then taste and add seasoning. Sprinkle the mint leaves over the top and serve.

* using whole cumin and coriander seeds, briefly toasted in a dry pan until aromatic and then ground in a spice grinder or pestle will give you a better flavour but ready ground is fine too.

I am obsessed with anchovies. I know that some people can’t stand the intense salty, fishy flavour but that it precisely the reason I love them so. I can do a whole tin in one sitting spread onto hot buttered toast – often I’ll do a soft boiled egg to dip the salty soldiers into. This is possibly my favourite snack and one which I’m very tempted to bust out at our next Guilty Pleasures Dinner Party.

The dinner is supposed to be a place to share culinary creations you shouldn’t really enjoy but you do and I pondered the eligibility of my egg and soldier offering. I mean, many people already love anchovies, right? Think Rowley Leigh’s parmesan custard with anchovy toasts, think lamb studded with rosemary and anchovies, think Worcestershire Sauce, Gentleman’s Relish, Caesar salad, fish sauce, bagna cauda…I could go on.

And then I realised, anchovies are a very guilty pleasure indeed, because we shouldn’t really be eating them at all. Stocks of the salty suckers are dwindling and I for one am gutted. I’m probably single handedly responsible for tipping the balance into the red. Well, me and Rowley Leigh who quite rightly laments that there is no substitute.

So, I’m trying to cut down (a little bit) – I’m taking things one week at a time. Can’t people just start breeding them or something? Crikey, I’m tempted to set up some sort of operation on my balcony just to keep a personal supply going. I thought I might have made the whole thing worse by using tuna in this dish too but that’s OK as long as it’s not Bigeye, Northern Bluefin, Pacific Bluefin or Southern Bluefin, apparently. Phew.

I’d like to say I’ll be able to stop eating anchovies but I’m not quite sure I can make that promise. I mean, I have an addiction, I can’t just go cold turkey – I’ll need professional help.

Grilled Radicchio, Fennel and Tuna with Spicy Anchovy Dressing (serves 2, generously)

1/2 head radicchio
1 bulb fennel
1 tuna steak
1 tin cannellini beans, drained and rinsed (or soak your own)

For the dressing

1 large red chilli, de-seeded or not (up to you) and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 handful mint leaves, chopped
Juice of 1/2 large lemon plus an extra squeeze to finish
6 anchovy fillets (more or less depending on taste)
Black pepper
Pinch of sugar
Oil (I used rapeseed)

- To make the dressing either whack the garlic, chilli, mint, anchovies, sugar and black pepper in a blender or pound in a pestle and mortar (my preference) until you have a mushy paste. Add the lemon juice and about 4 tablespoons of oil and mix thoroughly to emulsify. Adjust the quantities as necessary. If your dressing is too tart or you feel like it is punching you in the mouth, add another pinch of sugar.
- Remove any tired outer leaves from the radicchio then cut lengthways through the core and then do the same again so that you have four wedges. Cut the fennel lengthways through the core into slices, taking care to remove any tough bits of core but leaving enough so that it stays together in slices.
- Brush the wedges of radicchio and fennel with some of the dressing, reserving a teaspoon for the beans and some for drizzling at the end. Then grill them either on a hot griddle or the BBQ.
- Rub the tuna steak with oil and season. Grill for 1 minute each side then set aside on a warm plate while you assemble the salad.
- Arrange the fennel and radicchio slices on plates. Mix 1 teaspoon of the dressing with the beans and scatter over. Slice the tuna across the grain and arrange on the plate before drizzling over some of the remaining dressing and adding a final squeeze of lemon juice.

Yesterday I made my 7th notch on the 2009 BBQ bedpost. Not too shoddy considering it’s only spring. Every Brit knows you need to make the most of each glimpse of sunshine – case in point being this very next day as we are dealt a dose of predictable bank holiday gloom. Cloud and drizzle hangs over London, no doubt putting paid to plans of picnics, walks and BBQ’s everywhere. By the end of the summer though, I will have grilled, smoked and charred every ingredient I can think of over a hot kettle of coals. There will be memories of beers that flowed, fingers that got burned and I will probably have gained half a stone.

Our most major BBQ achievement this year has been actually bothering to find out how to use the thing properly. I always wondered why slow cooking joints just didn’t happen until I consulted google when making this lamb. Still, mustn’t get too cocky – there are always lessons to be learned. The moral of the story this week? Don’t forget your drip tray.

You see, this salad was actually just an afterthought addition to the BBQ, the leftovers from the previous night’s dinner, out of place with the rest of the menu but delicious nonetheless. The main event was supposed to be these jerk pork ribs, big meaty beasts that had been sucking up that spicy sweet seasoning all night long.

The butcher had sold out of regular ribs so I opted for strips of pork belly with the ribs still attached, figuring that more meat is clearly a good thing. Knowing they would need long cooking I started them in the oven with the intention of finishing them on the BBQ. In my excitement however, I forgot to position the drip tray to catch all the fat and just slapped them right on.

I wandered off for literally a minute before I heard screams from outside and turned to see 2 foot high flames leaping from the Weber. The ribs were sticks of charcoal within 30 seconds. Ruined. In true carnivore fashion though, we picked through the burnt remains for nuggets of meat in the kind of frenzied, primal display that can only take place among good friends. That is why I bring you pasta.

The Fregola Sarda is a toasted Sardinian pasta with an earthy, nutty flavour, made by rubbing with the hands to form crumbs (‘fregare’ apparently means ‘to rub’). It is immensely toothsome and satisfying – a pure carb hit to help me on my way to that extra half stone. I mixed it with some roasted aubergines, peppers and a few stray spears of aspargus.

For the wild garlic, a big thank you must go to The Food Urchin, who has been kindly supplying the food blogging community with a seemingly endless supply of plants from the bottom of his garden. A handful of leaves make fantastic pesto, with none of that raw garlic edge you get when using more than half a clove in the regular variety.

Determined not to let the rib fail get us down, we took inspiration from the flames for dessert – bananas flambéd in rum with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. Classic hot and cold and sweet caramelised goodness. The remaining rum went into mojitos, which we enjoyed while sprawled on sofas, cradling our over-stuffed bellies and bickering over a board game. There may even have been dozing at some point. Someone bring me a pipe and slippers.

Fregola Sarda with Roasted Vegetables and Wild Garlic Pesto

1 packet fregola sarda
3 bell peppers (I used two red, 1 yellow)
1 large aubergine
4 spring onions, just the green parts really, sliced
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Wild Garlic Pesto

1 handful wild garlic leaves, well washed
50g pine nuts
50g parmesan
Olive oil (about 100ml)
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice

- Preheat the oven to Gas 6/200C
- Cut the peppers into wedges and the aubergine into inch cubes. Spread the peppers and aubergines out on different oven trays then drizzle each with olive oil and season. Roast them for about 30 minutes or until soft and slightly charred. Allow to cool then chop to desired size.
- Cook the fregola sarda according to packet instructions (about 15 minutes in boiling salted water)
- When the pasta is done, drain and mix with the vegetables then add the sliced spring onions.
- Make the pesto by either putting the wild garlic leaves in a blender with the pine nuts or crushing them together in a pestle and mortar (good for stress relief). Then stir through the grated parmesan, lemon juice and some salt and pepper. Taste and adjust as necessary (add more cheese, seasoning, whatever). Stir the pesto through the pasta and serve.

Simon Hopkinson’s ‘Week In Week Out‘ is a strong contender for the title of ‘my favourite cookbook ever’. He makes use of so many beloved ingredients, with recipes that make my heart skip a beat and my thighs quiver in fear every time I look at them. A book for the calorie counter it ain’t. Nor the vegetarian. The squeamish can also forget it, as Simon is a huge advocate of nose to tail eating. All these qualities combine to form a sumptuously photographed, mouth-wateringly carnivorous (there’s also a lot of fish) and very British cook book.

The book begins with this salad, showcasing one of my favourite smoked beasties – the eel. I love that rich, oily texture, which works well with crisp, streaky bacon and a sinful beurre blanc. This is the first time I’ve attempted this sauce at home and I was surprised at how easy it was although again, not for the faint hearted.

As I’ve been growing in confidence with wine tasting recently, I wanted to have a go at matching some wine with the eel. I chose a wine (an Austrian Grüner Veltliner), based on a vague memory of a Twitter conversation with Dan from Bibendum. I also asked the man in the shop, just to keep all bases covered and he agreed enthusiastically so I went ahead and bought it.

It turned out that Grüner was an excellent match for the eel – quite a bit of acidity to cut through the richness of the salad, notes of peach and grapefruit with a peppery finish. I also thought I detected a bit of floweryness (that’s an acceptable wine description, surely?) on the nose. There, I said it. My first blogged attempt at wine tasting. Now I nervously anticipate your comments.

I may lack confidence with the wine, but I will boldly say that you should make this salad. It is smoky, soft, crispy and buttery and immensely good for you (mostly psychologically). And, dare I say it, your experience may be further enhanced should you pair it with a glass of Grüner Veltliner.

Rowley Leigh’s Smoked Eel and Bacon Salad (serves 4)
(from ‘Week in Week Out’ by Simon Hopkinson)

1 small salad frisee (the inside, yellow bits). I used curly endive
A squeeze of lemon juice and a tiny splash of light olive oil to dress the above
Salt and pepper
200g smoked eel fillets, sliced very lengthways as thinly as possible
8 rashers of smoked, streaky bacon, grilled until crisp
1 heaped tablespoon finely chopped chives

For the beurre blanc
2 shallots, very finely chopped
4 tablespoons white wine vinegar
4 tablespoons white wine
4 tablespoons water
250g very cold, fine quality unsalted butter, cut into small chunks
Salt and freshly ground white pepper

- Make the beurre blanc: using a small stainless steel or enamelled pan, combine shallots, vinegar, wine and water. Reduce over a very moderate heat until almost no liquid is left. Then, reduce the heat to as low as possible and add the butter one chunk at a time (using a small whisk), until it is all incorporated. It should look like light, slightly jellied custard. Season and keep somewhere warm (but not actually on the heat).
- Separate frisee into thin leaves and dress with the lemon juice, oil and seasoning. Arrange evenly on the plate as a base for the salad.
- Arrange the eel strips on top, the bacon bits around the edge and then spoon the beurre blanc ‘in and around’. Garnish with the chopped chives.

The phrase I’ve probably used most often in the past week or so (apart from, ‘I think I’m lost’ and ‘nom nom nom’), is, ’detox schmeetox’. Yes, I have been predictably unsuccessful in making more ‘healthy choices’ after the Christmas period, I’ve just been exercising like mad instead. Which, quite frankly, works for me. I mean, if I can exercise enough, then I can eat pretty much what I want, right? OK, so I stil need to rack up the requisite portions of fruit and veg and keep the saturated fat down but, apart from that, this is a plan I can see myself sticking to.

My exercise ‘regime’ consists of this – as much cardio as I can bear (varies between 30-60 minutes), followed by weights, as often as I can manage it. My chosen cardio exercise is alternating stints on a cross-trainer with…skipping. Now, now, don’t laugh. It’s not just for kids alright? Boxers do it and everything. Apparently, it’s a massively effective cardio workout. So there. I do have a pink rope, but that’s beside the point.

It’s cold outside, I’m craving comfort food and that’s damn well what I’m gonna have. Before my ‘hardcore exercise’ decision, I’d been scorning myself for ’slipping up’ and finding myself purchasing chorizo and rocket sandwiches and having full on blow outs at the always superb New Tayyabs *sigh*. It was amazing, as usual. Myself and the blogging crew (including Chris, Lizzie, Niamh and Charles and Joel from Tipped) congregated there on Thursday for a feast. We managed to work our way through….

…(clockwise from top left) the famous Tayyabs lamb chops, grilled meats, some rather fine ales and towering stacks of puffy, warm breads, liberally doused with ghee.

I was also very pleased with how my favourite Tayyabs dish went down among my blogging mates. It could have been embarrassing. As it was, everyone loved it! The ‘Tindi Masala’ is made with baby pumpkins, highly spiced yet fresh tasting, those juicy little pumpkins are a joy. A Twitter conversation yesterday revealed that Lizzie is going to try and re-create the dish. I am crossing my fingers and toes for her.

Above is the temptingly named, ‘dry meat’. Don’t let that put you off though, it’s another must order. Meltingly tender slow-cooked lamb. It literally falls apart in the mouth. Very rich and very good.

This minced chicken dish was delicious too, I’ve not tried this before and I can’t remember what it’s called. How useful.

Masala fish -  gorgeous crispy coating of spices and flaky fish within. This was another new one on me – I loved it. Can they do no wrong? Did I mention it was a mere £15 a head each? They can do no wrong.

And finally, a dessert! I’ve never tried the sweet things at Tayyabs and these ice lollies were a lovely cooling way to finish – just like mini milks but with more exciting flavours (mango and pistachio). Anyway, that was Thursday, this is today and, despite all that exercise and detox schmeetoxing, I found myself craving something light. After all, there’s only so much fat and meat one woman can eat, apparently. A quick survey of available ingredients revealed some rice vermicelli – good for a fresh and punchy noodle salad. Preferably containing prawns, most definitely with lots of lime and chilli and some thai basil, if I could lay my hands on it, which I did.

So it turns out my body doesn’t want to eat fatty foods all the time – who knew? If I let myself eat what I like, eventually I start craving lighter dishes anyway. Which begs the question why I worried about the whole thing in the first place. I’ve clearly got self-regulation all sewn up. As long as I keep really active, of course – and therein lies the challenge…

Vermicelli Noodle Salad with Prawns

100g rice vermicelli noodles
1 red chilli, finely sliced
1 handful coriander leaves
1 handful Thai basil leaves, shredded
2 fat spring onions, finely sliced
1/4 cucumber, finely diced
1 large mushroom, finely sliced
180g prawns
Handful peanuts, crushed lightly

Dressing

Juice of 1 lime
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 inch piece ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 teaspoon sugar

- Cook the noodles in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, drain and refresh under cold water.
- Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a bowl.
- Mix everything in a bowl. Scatter the peanuts on top.