It does not have to be sunny to have a barbeque. Sunday was grey and miserable with a continual threat of rain but I had bought a great butterflied leg of lamb from The International Store the previous day and it had been marinating in the fridge overnight and to shove it under the grill would not do it justice. Cooking over the raw heat of white charcoal would be the only way to get the right combination of dark almost caramalised exterior and pink middle.

It is only over the last month or so that I have bought meat from the small butchers at the back of The International Store and I have not been disappointed yet. They have whole chickens with their heads still on and before it was taken off the bone the leg of lamb was of a size that I am not sure it would fit in the oven. Next time I will get it on the bone and it can be roasted stuffed with garlic, anchovies and rosemary on a bed of cannellini beans and tomato sauce.

The marinade was from Simon Hopkinson – an onion, garlic, ginger, orange and lemon juice, cumin and coriander, turmeric, cayenne pepper, paprika, soy sauce and sesame oil all wizzed together into a fine sauce in the food processor, poured of the lamb and left overnight in the fridge.

On Sunday afternoon as grey clouds loomed up from the horizon the barbeque was piled high with coals and lit. After half an hour the coals were white and I spread them out so an even hot heat glowered at the rack that I placed above them. I laid the lamb down and put on the lid and left it for 20 minutes by which time one side was nicely blackened and I turned it over for another 20 minutes. Cooks perks – so I took a couple of slices to make sure all was going okay. I took the lamb off the heat and let it rest for 10 minutes or so whilst the table was laid and the rest of the late lunch completed.

We ate it with a yogurt sauce and roasted new potatoes and a plate of salad from the garden.

The music should have been Frank Sinatra in his Vegas years.

One of my favourite cookbooks is Catalan Cuisine by Coleman Andrews. It is worth getting just for his description of La Boqueria which appears at Appendix 1. As he says … just to see, smell, sense the food at La Boqueria – just to get some sort of abstract feel for it in its native state for an hour or two – will teach you a lot about the cooking of this rich and fascinating region, and will help bring Catalan cuisine alive for you. There are those who would say the say about Birkenhead Market.

The books performs a similar job to the market. We all think we know something about Spanish food and what Andrews does is show that there is a distinct style of food and of taste that is special to the particular region, its restaurants and eating places. I have only been to Barcelona once, for a long weekend, and I remember there was something carnal about the place or that might be the way I always feel as I walk around a good Spanish city. One of my favourite recipes in the book is Swordfish (although we tend to use tuna instead) with Raisins and Pine Nuts. The recipe comes from a cookbook that is almost 500 years old and there is something medieval and Moorish about it.

1and a half pounds swordfish or tuna steaks
flour
olive oil
a glass of white wine
juice of one freshly squeezed orange
a tablespoon of lemon juice
18 almonds, blanched and roasted
parsley, mint and marjoram – finely chopped
2 oz sultanas, plumped in warm water
2 oz pine nuts, lightly roasted

Flour the fish lightly in the flour then brown in a frying pan in a small amount of olive oil.

Drain the fish on kitchen paper. Deglaze the pan with the wine, orange and lemon juice and reduce the liquid by half.

Grind the almonds to a paste (a picada) with the herbs moistened with some liquid from the pan, add to the pan along with the sultanas and pine nuts stirring all together. Return the fish, season with salt and pepper and heat through and serve.

Will be eating it with slow cooked crusty rice and some salad from the garden.

Listening to Nilsson.

In 1985 the writers of the NME put together a list of the best albums ever made. I was still too close for comfort to that part of my life when The Wombles were my favourite group and I was slightly surprised to see that they had Marvin Gaye at the top of the list. No matter I went out and bought What’s Going On and now know it for the work of genius it is. Second on the list was Van Morrison and Astral Weeks. Almost thirty years later I cannot remember if I had bought Astral Weeks by that stage. I was a big fan of Moondance and I think that I probably had it. Scary now to think how old the album appeared at the time just 14 years after it had come out and now we are all another 28 years down the line.

I have been listening to it again over the last few weeks and this evening I had it on as I cooked chicken with lemon and sage. It has been a Friday evening and there was that moment when I was able to put the drudge of the week behind, the door was open and I turned it up loud so it could echo a bit round the garden and annoy the neighbours if they were listening.

I cheated with the chicken and it was packs of legs and thighs from the supermarket. Fried in olive oil until brown, add a finely chopped onion and garlic and the juice of 3 lemons. The sage came from the garden. There are two bushes outside the back door – purple and green. They are obviously loving the lousy summer and have gone bonkers over the last few weeks with a profusion of blue flowers. Somewhere nearby there must be a hive full of sage flavoured honey as at any one time there are half a dozen bees at the flowers.

We will have it all with new potatoes and green beans and a plateful of salad. I might try and dig out Moondance to listen to.

One day I am going to sit myself down and write a book of recipes of all the things I cook from the vegetables and fruit I buy from the grocers on Oxton Road. There will be a large section on tomatoes and what to do with the boxes they sell for £2.99. Another section will be given over the bags on the 50p shelf, past their best, but now a bargain and difficult to resist. But the largest part of the book will be devoted to the aubergine, the various different ways of cooking it, how to avoid it soaking up too much olive oil (soaking in milk I read the other day) and the endless variety of recipes that are available from the Middle East.

One of my favourite is a puree made with garlic and yogurt. One way or other I have been doing this for 17 years – the first time I did it was for the party I had for my 30th birthday. Most recently I did it last weekend on Saturday night when a large dollop of the puree was placed in the middle of a bowl of tomato soup.

So – roast 3 aubergines. You are best doing this over a barbeque. But if it not lit they will do just as well under a hot grill. Remember to prick them otherwise they may burst. Don’t be timid with the heat. The skin should be charred. Turn them every so often until they feel soft and giving to the press of your fingers. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Whilst they are cooling take a large bowl and crush some cloves of garlic with sea salt in the bottom of the bowl. I use a wooden pestle to do this. The number of cloves will depend on how aggressive you like your garlic.

Take each aubergine and slit the skin with a knife. Use a spoon to scoop out the flesh adding this to the bowl with the garlic. Stir the aubergine into the garlic – again using the wooden pestle to form a smooth puree. Add about one third of a tub of Total Greek Yogurt (500gr) and a good glug of olive oil. Stir until all well amalgamated. Check for seasoning and if necessary add salt and pepper. It is now ready to eat.