ORZO TRAY BAKE WITH FETTA AND PEPPERS

Turn oven on to 220C.

Quarter 4 peeled red onions, one whole chilli, one roughly chopped red pepper, and split a head of garlic across the hemisphere of the bulb.

Drizzle with olive oil then roast for 20mins until the onions are cooked and the veg are starting to char.

Add in a tin of cherry tomatoes, a tsp of nigella seeds and a tsp of crushed coriander seeds.

Cook for 20 more mins, squash the tomatoes now on the back of a spoon, squish out the garlic and add it back to the pan with 800ml water, 250g orzo, mix and then dot with a whole packet of fetta (200g) that you crumble over. Cook for 15 mins until the orzo is cooked.

Top with sprinkled green herbs like parsley, dill or fresh coriander.

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Simon and Yumi belly-laugh over some food-related nonsense and it's contagious, so listen if you need to get some sunshine today. Yumi also shares a bit about what happened at her recent (and very fancy) birthday lunch.

And maybe you also need ...chocolate cake? The quite legendary CHOCOLATE CAKE recipe from the wonderful Helen Goh can be found here.

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Yumi and Simon haven't seen much of each other recently so have much to catch up on, including what's going on with Yumi's extremely adoring foster dog, a fantastic Japanese snack that her kids LOVE, and what to do with that leftover chilli oil you've had cluttering your pantry ever since the Great Chilli Crisp Oil Fad of 2014...!

If you want to buy the crunchy "osembe" crackers, they look like this. They're not available at all Asian grocers and the lesser imitations are distinctly LESSER - so make sure they're Japanese and make sure they're Shoyu flavoured. (Sometimes they also come with beans baked through the crackers - these are also excellent and delicious but my kids refuse them.)

To batch-cook eggplant for use in baguettes or a black bean ragu, dice 2-3 eggplants into 1cm dice, preheat a pan, warm through your chilli oil and fry up the eggplant. Setting a timer can help if you struggle to trust when the eggplant is done: You'll need at least 10 good minutes of cook time.

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