The Joyful Home Cook

2 Meanwhile, melt the coconut oil in a frying pan or wok over a medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds and fry until they start to sizzle and pop, then add the curry leaves, onion, cumin, garlic and pinch of salt and cook for a few more minutes, until the onion starts to colour. Add the tomatoes and cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, until the tomatoes have collapsed and given up their juice.

3 Add 4 tablespoons of the creamy coconut milk and spinach to the dahl and simmer for another 3 minutes, then pour in the contents of the tomato pan, along with the final tablespoon of coconut milk. Stir, taste, season with salt and pepper and serve or keep warm by covering with a tea towel.

Coconut sambol

Serves 2–4

Heaped on the side of the plate and dusted onto every mouthful of curry, this spicy condiment, based on Sri Lankan pol sambol, is at once fiery, tangy with lime juice and cooling with creamy coconut. It can be made ahead and kept in the fridge.

½ red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

½ red onion, finely chopped

¼ tsp sea salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

pinch of dried chilli flakes

4 tbsp desiccated coconut or fresh coconut

juice of 1 lime

1 In a pestle and mortar, grind the chilli, red onion, salt, pepper and dried chilli flakes together until well combined and the onion releases some juice.

2 Add the coconut and grind again, then add the lime juice and mix well. Taste and season further with salt and lime if needed. Store in the fridge.

Squishy aubergine, crispy chickpea and broccoli salad

with homemade ferments

Serves 2

Something magical happens when salted aubergine is fried in plenty of oil – the aubergine at once sucks it up, creating a silken, creamy inside, while the outside of the flesh caramelises and browns, making something deeply savoury and utterly addictive. Paired with nutty roasted broccoli, cooling labneh and crispy spiced chickpeas, with an array of homemade ferments to cut through the richness of the aubergine and tahini dressing, this salad has it all. The inspiration for this dish came from one of my favourite local restaurants, The Good Egg in Stoke Newington, which specialises in Israeli food and serves ‘Sabih’ – a popular Israeli sandwich of fried aubergines and boiled eggs stuffed into pitta bread. Add boiled eggs to this to beef it up, or lose the labneh to keep it vegan.

1 large aubergine, cut into 1.5-cm slices

1 tsp sea salt flakes

1 × 400g tin chickpeas, drained

½ head of broccoli, broken into florets, including leaves

3 tbsp rapeseed, olive or vegetable oil

pinch of dried chilli flakes

1 tsp smoked sweet paprika

handful of flat-leaf parsley leaves

handful of dill fronds

handful of mint leaves

1 tsp sumac

150g Labneh (see here (#litres_trial_promo))

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the dressing

20g preserved lemon, deseeded (shop-bought or (see here (#litres_trial_promo)))

1 tbsp lemon juice

4 tbsp water

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp honey

1 tsp salt

1 garlic clove

½ tsp cumin seeds or ground cumin

1 tbsp good-quality tahini

To serve

1 tbsp Fermented Turnips (see here (#litres_trial_promo)), drained

1 tbsp Pink Pickled Onions (see here (#litres_trial_promo)), drained

1 tbsp Fermented Green Chillies (see here (#litres_trial_promo)), drained

2 toasted pitta breads

1 Place the aubergine slices in a sieve over the sink or a bowl and scatter the sea salt all over. Leave it to sit and drain the moisture from the aubergine for about 30 minutes.

2 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6. Dry the chickpeas with a clean tea towel and tip them into a roasting tray. Add the broccoli, broccoli leaves, 1 tablespoon of the oil, chilli flakes, smoked paprika and some salt and pepper and toss together. Roast in the oven for 25–30 minutes, until the chickpeas are really crispy and the broccoli is crispy at the edges but tender when cut into.

3 Meanwhile, wipe off any excess water from the aubergine with kitchen paper, then heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in a heavy-based frying pan or skillet over a medium-high heat. Once the oil is shimmering hot, add the aubergine slices and fry for 4–5 minutes on each side, until nicely browned on the outside and squishy in the middle. You may need to add a little more oil as you go. Transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper and set aside.

4 To make the dressing, put all the ingredients into the bowl of a food processor and blitz until you have a loose but emulsified dressing.