First off I need to make a small confession, I was quite innocently browsing cookbooks on a well-known website when out of nowhere two cake books just fell into my basket and before I knew it they had been delivered to my place of work…in a bid to appease my conscience I felt that I had to make use of them as soon as possible. Therefore my first tasty treat of the week was a Marbled Chocolate Crumble Cake from my brand new copy of Rachel Allen’s Cake. Extremely easy to make this was swirled, crumbled, and in the oven before lunch – and more importantly, ready for consumption just a few hours later. I did take one look at the size of it and think we’d have to give some away (I know, I know, what did I just say?!), but luckily hubby stepped up and accepted the challenge – he’s been putting on a brave face and packing some in his lunchbox every day. Slightly bizarrely when we sat down to enjoy a piece for breakfast on Sunday morning we switched in the TV to find Rachel Allen cooking this exact cake…spooky!
Following a successful cake-making session I decided an easy dinner was called for, so I whipped up some Aubergines with Buttermilk Sauce from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty. This was quite possibly the easiest dish to prepare, the aubergines take care of themselves in the oven while you prepare the sauce, and whack the hell out of a pomegranate to release the seeds (boy did I have fun with that, though I do wonder how many stray seeds I’ll find scattered about the kitchen this week!). Thanks to the thyme and the za’atar there are delicate hints of lemon, and then bursts of sweetness from the pomegranate, finished off by the creamy yoghurt dressing and the soft flesh of the aubergine – a wonderfully summery dish which I served with just a side salad. If you’re a fan of aubergines, which I definitely am, then this is the dish for you.
Having abandoned this next recipe in favour of an easier dish the night before I finally got round to making the Salmon Fishcakes from Delia’s Frugal Food for Sunday dinner. They didn’t actually involve much work but clearly the thought of waiting for potatoes to cook and then making the fishcakes was just too much for a Saturday. They were made with a tin of salmon, so nothing fancy at all, and much cheaper that way too (always a bonus!). With a pinch of cayenne pepper they had a slight kick to them which, along with the crunch and zing of the cornichons, lifted these from being just mundane fishcakes to being very tasty indeed. With just a side salad to accompany them this was a lovely fresh and light meal, just the ticket when you’ve got a massive cake stashed in the kitchen for supper! 
A week in our household just wouldn’t be complete without some form of pasta dish sneaking its way onto the menu, this week’s offering was Penne al Mascarpone e Pancetta from Gino’s Pasta. The recipe was in the gluten-free section of the book but I just substituted regular penne, and cooked it anyway (because I’m crazy like that!). I guess when I get aubergines on the brain one dish a week just isn’t enough, but when it’s finely chopped it doesn’t really count right? The aubergine cooked down and soaked up all the juices from the pancetta, I did add a little bit of the cooking water from the pasta towards the end, just to slacken the sauce slightly – I usually find that mascarpone sauce can dry out a little so this helped it coat the pasta nicely.Recipe Count: 103
New Target: 104
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