This dish is simple to make and guaranteed to brighten your day!

WHAT YOU DO

1. Heat oven to 380F. With a sharp knife, criss-cross the flesh of the aubergine in a diagonal pattern, then place on a baking tray. Drizzle the aubergine with a little olive oil and allow it to seep into the cuts.  
2. Mix the Gochujang with the lemon juice to make a thick paste. Spread the paste over the aubergine, sprinkle with the coriander leaves (you can also add a sprinkle of dried chilli, as I did for this shoot but it's rather spicy already so tread carefully!) then cover the tray with foil and roast in the centre of the oven for 30 mins.
3. Remove the foil and roast the aubergines for a further 15-20 mins, depending on their size, until tender.
4. Serve the aubergines with a scatter of green salad leaves- I used rocket (arugula)

W. C. Fields

Now for a little poetic cocktail licence!  I love gin and vermouth and of course together they make a fabulous martini but they are not to everyone's taste when laid bare in a cocktail.  I liked the idea of a classic Bloodhound with it's bright red strawberries but I don't like tooth shockingly sweet cocktails.  They loose some of their sophisticated appeal if they taste too sweet.  

So this is my subtle remake of the Bloodhound.  It has all the punch of a martini but with a softer edge.

BLOODHOUND WITH A TWIST

2 parts gin

1 part vermouth

Juice of 1/2 lime

6 frozen cherries

handful of ice

*Place everything in a shaker and vigorously give it a shake.  Strain into a glass and retrieve the cherries from the shaker.  Place the cherries into the bottom of your drink and enjoy them once the drink is gone.  (I also think the gin soaked cherries would be good on ice cream)

Quote by Tommy Cooper

When I was little I used to love the Alpen cereal box.  The boxes showed a beautiful mountain range.  Perhaps it was fates way of telling me I would one day live close to the mountains?  Anyway, I do love mountains and I certainly love muesli.

This is not an "overnight" oat recipe.  There is nothing to stop you doing that and if you do I would suggest adding some steel cut oats to give some extra bite and nuttiness but I eat this with cold milk straight away.  That's the way we ate muesli when I was little all the while looking longingly at the mountains on the box.

There are no hard and fast rules about how to make muesli but I stick to the following basic guidelines:

2 cup oats
1 cup fruit- I used a mixture of raisins and dried cranberries
1 cup seeds & nuts- I used a combo of pumpkin seeds, flax seed and crushed California Almonds
1 cup toasted coconut- just dry fry it in a large frying pan and move it around to stop it from burning

Just mix it all together and store in a jar.  Serve with ice cold milk.

I was sent some truly fabulous California Almonds to work with for this blog post.  I will be using them in quite a few recipes coming soon.  I was not paid to say nice things (I only say nice things when I really mean it!) and all recipes and images are my own.