Food chat with Fiona...

The summer tomato, eggplant and chilli glut has hit. What a glorious time of year, my cherry tomatoes are so sweet they taste like lollies.

An easy and tasty meal is as simple as cutting the eggplant into wide slices salt, wash and dry. Then throw into a baking tray with chunks of red capsicum, handfuls of little tomatoes, onion wedges, few olives, chunks of feta cheese and a good slurp of olive oil.

Herbs you like – thyme, oregano? My basil is sending up flower spikes, I chop them off and layer them in there, flavour is great and easy enough to pull the sticks out when finished. Medium oven for 30 or 40 minutes. A splash of red wine vinegar stirred through when it comes out of the oven brings it all together.

Divine as a side, as a main, with pasta, cold with crusty bread…. Yum.

Chillis are a favourite – I make a sweet chilli sauce, and fill the cupboard for the year, always good to have something to gift when visiting people. Chillis with a whole heap of spices ground together makes a tangy Harissa, cover the top with olive oil and it too will store. If you visit Morocco they like to tweak a dish with it, subtle but adds to the mouth interest, if you travel east to Tunisia they use enough to add fire to a dish. You can choose how much you would like.

Travel via Tastebuds, try something new.

Happy harvesting.

If you want full recipes drop me an email fiona@creative-arts-safaris.com. I am off to Vietnam soon, I’ll bring you some flavours back to try Best wishes – Fiona