Aubergine curry

Curry seems to be going down well at the moment - you ate this with a little rice and some cumin potatoes, and liked all three.

Makes enough for 4, as one of a couple of main course dishes. It'd also be nice with some chickpeas thrown in.

You'll need:

1 onion, finely sliced
1 medium aubergine, cut into chunks
1 green pepper, cut into large(ish) pieces
whatever veg you have left in the fridge that you need to use up (we had a small piece of butternut squash that got chucked in)
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon medium curry powder
1 teaspoon brown sugar
(you could also add some chilli powder, if you're making this for non-small people, or indeed for small people who like spice)
sunflower oil
1 tin of chopped tomatoes

Fry the onion in a little sunflower oil until it turns translucent. Add the pepper and aubergine chunks, and fry until they have softened (you may need to add some more oil - the aubergine will absorb a lot). Chuck in all the spices, and fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the chopped butternut squash (or whatever other veg you want to use up), and the tin of chopped tomatoes. Rinse the tin out with some water, and add this in too. Bring everything to the boil, and then simmer for 20-30 minutes, or as long as you've got.

Ratatouille

We returned home to be greeted by the largest courgette ever on the allotment. (Seriously, it was about a foot long). This is probably not the world's most authentic recipe for ratatouille, but it did have the benefit of using up about a third of the monster...

Makes lots and lots. We ate this with meatballs and rice, and I'll probably also puree some of the leftovers to make a pizza topping.

You'll need:

1 medium aubergine, cubed
1 large onion, finely sliced
a couple of cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 monster courgette, cubed
1 red or yellow pepper, sliced
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tin of tomato puree
lots of black pepper and Mediterranean herbs
2 bay leaves

Sling the onion and garlic into a frying pan, and add a large slosh of olive oil. Fry until they've turned translucent. Add the aubergine, and fry until it's softened. It absorbs a lot of olive oil, so you may need to add another large dollop.

Throw in the courgette and pepper, and fry for a couple of minutes until they too have softened. Tip in a tin of chopped tomatoes, another tin full of water, and the tomato puree. Season with a good sprinkling of dried Mediterranean herbs (think oregano, thyme etc), and a couple of bay leaves. Bring the sauce to the boil, then leave to simmer for a good 30-40 minutes - the longer the better.

Lamb, aubergine and apricot tagine

When you were really tiny, you used to like this (and throw it all over the floor). Today was a rather more sedate affair round the big glass table in the dining room table (it was too cold and windy for the balcony), but the couscous still went everywhere.

This makes enough for six (or four really greedy people).

500g lamb mince
an onion, chopped
about 1/3 of a 250g bag of dried apricots
one small-medium aubergine, diced (cut into pieces about 2cm across)
some water, or a tin of chopped tomatoes

spices - 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, ground cumin and turmeric, and a good screw of black pepper

Heat the mince in the frying pan until it goes from pink to brown. Add the onion and aubergine, and fry for 5 minutes, until the onion goes translucent, and the aubergine has started to soften.

Add the spices, and fry for a couple of minutes.

Add the liquid - today I had 3/4 of a can of chopped tomatoes lurking in the fridge, so I stuck that in, together with some water. I usually add enough to just cover the mixture. Chuck in the apricots - I sliced them up today, but you could halve them, or even add them whole.

Bring to the boil, and then simmer for however long you have. You need at least 20 minutes, I reckon, but an hour would be more like it. The longer you leave it, the more liquid you may need to add - the apricots and aubergines absorb quite a lot, so keep checking to make sure it hasn't boiled dry...

Serve with some couscous, and whatever green salady stuff you've got in the fridge/garden. If you're feeling very fancy, you could shred some mint and scatter it on top. I haven't managed to persuade you that's a good idea yet...