A Recipe For Baba Ghanoush

Take an aubergine
Cut off the little green
Bit of stem
Then I always tend to slice it
Lengthways in half

Rub a little oil on the middle
Then place it face-up under the grill
Or you can put it whole on the
Thing above a gas hob
If that’s what you have

Roast it til the outsides crisp
And the inside part is soft
Then scrape the flesh away from the skin
Which I think the recipe says to discard
But that’s essentially peeling a hot aubergine
And that’s hard
So I just tend to chop it up and throw the lot in

But first on a heat that’s not too high
Chop or crush a few cloves of garlic and sweat then
Before you add the aubergine and
Plenty of ground cumin
Then just let that go for a while before
Adding the chopped tomatoes and a
Little water that you’ve swished around the tin

Let that cook so it’s simmering nicely
Then you could add a tin of chickpeas
And cook on a fairly low heat until they’re soft
I’m pretty into this but it’s priced to be a controversial move so just cook it until it’s nice and stewed if you’re not

When I made this almost every day I used to serve it with brown rice and green lentils, sometimes cooked with bay leaves
You can cook them together in the same pan they boil in roughly twenty five minutes so I tend to start the rice and lentils first

The bay leaves that I used to use were the ones that Simon found
As a pile of branches on Camberwell Grove
Propped up outside a house someone had left them out there
With a note that said help yourself so
Obviously, Simon bought them home

This is a recipe that I frequently use, this is the recipe I use for baba ghanoush
Jake showed it to me a few years ago and he got it from Jack Monroe, I’ve cooked it like a million times, I’d like to thank Jack and Jake both


Icarus Record Collection

I was dressed as a soldier
There was flint on the floor
The host wasn’t at his own party
By 12 it was over
And with a four leaf clover
I sat down and drew out the hall

I’d come with a costume
But a lack of desire
And waltzed in keen for an ending
It was whiskey that drew it
But a vehicle ploughed through it
The house has now lost its front wall

The dark was alive
But i was inside
Sensing spinning wheels stream from the speakers
My hero was slain
I attributed blame
To the laughs that we put in the punch

I was wearing a new coat
That i found on a friend
I travelled to new corners in it
With an offered cigarette
I got caught in the net
Of a debate that i wanted to leave

Transfixed on the fall
Of David’s old chair
Which he took to to tell us his stories
I listened so loudly
The others slept soundly
I’m not sure i was even there

With simian airs
Paul played the stairs
And left the photos too close to the fire
I lost my flute
Danced with a newt
Spent an hour alone with a wall

I was tricking the kitchen
There was no one else there
Much later was becoming too early
Found a safe place to rest
And put a pan on my chest
Because the rain was beginning to fall

I tripped over Gunther
He was laid in the hall
He woke up to sell me some water
We sang hymns together
The day went on forever
I don’t remember being so tall

He carried the cross but he held it too long
An Icarus record collection
He scarpered and left us and we wandered from room to room
He scarpered and left us and we wandered from room to room
He scarpered and left us and we wandered from room to room