Last night we had a great hunk of rump steak cooked whole on the barbecue so it was was charred on the outside and pink in the middle.

Yesterday at the grocers Kazim suggested that I should buy some of their broad beans. They were very young, young enough not to have developed a tough skin and he told me I should have them with a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice and some dill too.

We had them as part of a late lunch this afternoon together with a salad that I had eaten in Barrafina earlier in the week; radish, fennel and pomegranate seeds. There was also a large plate of chicken cooked with ground cumin and two aubergines, cut in half, salted and then fried slowly until soft and then slathered in a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice and lots of garlic.

There was more garlic with the chicken. The grocers have been selling bulbs of young garlic from Egypt and I tucked a couple into the chicken pieces as they roasted. By the time the chicken was done the garlic was soft so you could squeeze it like tooth paste out of its papery skin.