Make this, honestly, just make it. It's sooooo nice. And this recipe generally makes too much sauce so there's always some to freeze and serve to the baby with pasta shells on those days when the take-away menus are winking at you and you'd rather open your wrists than cook another family meal...

Okay, first things first I am a bit rubbish with measurements. What we're aiming for with the sauce is a bolognese-y type consistency and apart from that I make this recipe when I find myself with a big tub of plain yoghurt to use up. It's all storecupboard stuff. It looks like a lot of work but it isn't, it's just that I'm useless at writing recipes. 5 mins prep of the sauce and 30 mins cooking. Then walk away and leave it in the oven for 40-ish.

1/2 a pack of Puy lentils, (which I reckon is about 250g)
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
1 or two carrots
1 or two sticks of celery
Some spices. Cinnamon or mixed spice is the type of thing. A good couple of heaped teaspoons
One can of plum tomatoes
Slosh of red wine, Marsala or Port, whatever's in the cupboard.
Tablespoon of tomato puree
1 red pepper
1 aubergine
About half a big tub of plain yoghurt, (which again I think should be about 200-300g's worth so a couple of wee tubs will also do the trick)
1 egg
Some mature cheddary cheese, if it's mild it'll taste a bit bleh in my humble opinion.

First make your bolognese-ish sauce, so chop and sweat your onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil, add the chopped carrot and celery and cook down a bit. Then add the spices and gently, gently, gently fry. Add more olive oil, be generous if you want to, it's not like the rest of the recipe is high in fat. Rinse the lentils and fling them in, along with the tomatoes and good covering of water and simmer. I sometimes add a bay leaf as well if I remember.
 
While the sauce is cooking, stick a fork into the stalk of the red pepper and whack it onto the gas burner, turning it every so often as it blackens a bit. Put it in a plastic bag so the skin will steam off a bit and then rinse off the skin under a cold tap. If you can be bothered roasting it properly you could do that, but remember it doesn't really need to cook, just sweeten a bit, as it's going in the oven later.

It generally says on the pack that the lentils take 20 or so minutes to cook so at that point I taste the sauce and add the tomato puree and the booze to taste. I reckon another ten minutes or so makes the sauce nice and sludgy.  

Meanwhile, finely, finely slice your aubergine and preheat your oven to 180 degrees. You can thickly slice it if you prefer but the bugger will take all day to cook.

I use a square dish about 30cm x 30cm and I lay out, not particularly neatly, a layer of aubergine and one of the sauce, with a few bits of pepper on it, then aubergine then sauce with pepper etc, finishing with a layer of aubergine. I reckon I normally get about three layers and have sauce left over.

Mix your yoghurt, egg and a good few handfuls of grated cheese and pour it onto the top of the dish and whack it into the oven for 40-45 mins or until the topping looks delish and a knife goes easily through the aubergine. The topping will slightly souffle up a bit and taste Amazing, I promise. It freezes well and is one of those things that tastes even better the next day as leftovers.

"Great Nanna Peg's/Nanny Annie's potato cakes

This recipe is actually the Nome's great granny's, but her Nanna makes a mean version.  They are a lighter, fluffier and altogether more comforting version of tattie scones.  I grew up eating them with bacon as a lovely Friday night tea - thought that they might make usable fist food, and a good vehicle for other flavourings, and the Nome shoved them into her mouth as fast as her little paws could go.

Potatoes - fluffy mashable kind
butter - unsalted, ideally
flour - I use plain, but can't see SR doing any harm

Peel, chop and boil potatoes until cooked enough to mash. Drain, and mash with a knob of butter until most of the lumps are out - don't overmash. (Add extra ingredients at this point - see below for suggestions). Add flour little by little until the dough just stops feeling sticky, but is still light and fluffy.  Place on a floured board, and pat into a circle about 1 1/2 cm thick.  My mum usually cuts this into wedges, but I went all posh and used a scone cutter.  A complete waste of time, as the Nome rearranged them into the abstract shape of her choosing, and then shovelled them in.  Anyway, put a very small amount of butter in a hot frying pan, let it lightly cover the pan, and then fry on both sides until golden brown - it's very quick.

Suggestions for additions - a good Lancashire cheese met with N's approval, and I've also made them with spinach and herbs.  They'd make a good fishcake as well, I reckon, and bits of other veg would also work.

The great thing is that you can collect up the bits that litter the high chair tray, squish them together, and if your child is as laid back as mine, they'll just treat it as a brand new potato cake.  I think it's good "early BLW" food, as it's very handleable, but soft enough to bite and manipulate easily for the novice baby."

...continuing the pulse or bust theme of the recipes section, we now have the hummus burger. I think they sound great, actually.

"I know the list of ingredients is a bit long
but it's honestly dead easy to make. It's fine to add
the fresh chilli as long as you take the seeds out, I
promise - the result is tasty rather than spicy. But
you might not want to squeeze extra lemon on the baby's
burgers.
On a personal note, may I add that I live in South
China where the lychee season is in full swing.
Apparently Annabel Karmel's books haven't been
translated into Cantonese yet. It's a tragedy waiting
to happen.

200g hummus
1 cup soft fresh breadcrumbs
2 tbsp tahini
half tsp ground cumin
3 spring onions, chopped
1 small red chilli, deseeded, very finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaf
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice (plus wedges to squeeze
over cooked burger)
2 x 400g cans chickpeas
1 tbsp sesame seeds
2 tbsp dry breadcrumbs
1 cup greek yogurt
2 tbsp virgin olive oil
1 tbsp chopped coriander

Put hummus, fresh breadcrumbs, tahini, cumin, chilli,
garlic, coriander, juice, 1 can of chickpeas in a food processor and whizz till it forms a thick paste. Scrape into a bowl, and stir in the chickpeas. Shape into 8 burgers (you may need more breadcrumbs to get the right texture). Mix dry crumbs with sesame seeds, roll burgers in the mixture, and fry in olive oil on both sides till nice and toasty looking. Stir the yogurt, virgin olive oil and coriander together and serve the burgers with the yogurt sauce, lemon wedges and toasted pitta bread."


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