Artichoke Bruschetta

Having passed my viva in November, I'm turning over a new leaf - or perhaps simply reclaiming old habits - to discuss good tucker again! Which starts with what's in my fridge at the moment: artichokes. I could eat them by the bucketload. I stare enviously at them in WholeFoods and other supermarkets I can't afford. I sometimes pick them up and wonder what life would be like if I could casually splash out and lay down big bucks for these crinkly green beauties. In my imaginary life I'd have a dog too. And heck, a car parking space. And a garden. I'm living the London dream.

Elephant Garlic

Now, according to the label, this beast is supposed to taste delicate, more like leek than garlic. And it only takes an hour to cook. Well mine didn’t, on both counts. Even I couldn’t eat this simply “spread on toast”. But never mind, I gave it another blast in the oven, which gave me some more time to think what the hell to do with it. In an ideal world, the garlic would have been great in a creamy almond and orange soup, but I don’t think my family could stomach that, particularly on the only warm weekend we had all summer. But this bulb goes to show that cooking disasters can often turn into something delicious. So here’s what I did with mine.