Ottolenghi’s Lamb Kofta with Corn, Zucchini & Roasted Carrot Salad and Homemade Hummus – easy, vibrant and summery, with pomegranate molasses and feta.  Jump to Recipe 

I type this from the sun-lit, flower-adorned kitchen table of our new place in Melbourne.

Dining chairs remain on the to-do list, so an assorted collection of our desk chairs surround the table, any TV watching is currently from the floor, a few cardboard boxes linger to attempt to squeeze into the recycling, and the walls are freshly blank – but it is home base. For the year, or maybe longer – my first experience at living in a home that is not also my family’s, the first go at renting a house. Being more adult and no longer spoon-fed by the organised life of college and living in a building occupied by 300 other student – the freedom of having more of your own space than the 3 x 2m brick room filled up by a non-descript bed and desk. Don’t get me wrong, college was an incredible experience that I wouldn’t change – but I was definitely ready to move on. College food is finally in the past (a big bonus!) and one of my favourite belongings, my Kenwood, proudly occupies the new kitchen. It all feels very grown up.

(In saying that, I do have matte-grey pineapple wall-paper stickers adorning the wall above my bed – so maybe not quite so grown up yet..)

Moving house is strange: trying to find your feet in unfamiliar rooms, and with people who are your friends – but not your siblings or parents. I was lucky to have the best house-mate ever help me out with furniture shopping and IKEA flat-pack assembly, which would have been a major challenge on crutches. Flat-packing isn’t my biggest strength, I quickly discovered. Although reading the instruction manuals wasn’t a challenge, the big arrows pointing to which screw should go where, and which side should face each way, I kept trying to do everything too quickly, assuming I knew it all – and then would come to a grinding halt when I missed essential points in the assembly of my bed, or bedside table – only realising when it didn’t fit together properly, or was extremely asymmetric.

Fortunately, most of my mistakes were reversible – or at least, nothing has collapsed on me yet.

Much of my cooking is going to need to become significantly more budget friendly as well. So far it has gone well: cheap summer roasted tomato pasta with grilled zucchini, a vietnamese ginger chilli chicken with soba noodles, a quick leftovers shakshuka. It is made easier simply by the fact that I am no longer cooking for effectively 8 people as at home – by the time the insane appetite of my three brothers is taken into account, anything becomes expensive. Cooking for three girls is far more managable.

These middle-eastern lamb kofta with corn, zucchini & roasted carrot salad and homemade hummus were on the table last week. The salad relies on seasonal fresh ears of corn and zucchini, pan-fried or grilled, tossed with caramelised, warm roasted carrot and brightened with coriander, feta and a pomegranate molasses dressing. Ottolenghi’s spiced lamb kofta are brilliant – a middle-eastern version of a meatball, sweetly scented with cinnamon and all-spice and given a kick with fresh chilli and herbs. Pinenuts are an optional extra – they taste amazing if they fit your budget, but if not – take them or leave them. Homemade hummus, lemon and garlicy, rounds it all off, and it only takes a few minutes to transform your humble can of chickpeas (or dried, if you are a purist) in your food processor.

Cook’s notes (and budget tips):

• For faster evening assembly, make the kofta mixture the morning of or earlier whenever you have time and store in the fridge uncooked until just before meal-time.
• Hummus can also be made in advance.
• New tip from one of the girls in my house: buying feta for a few is MUCH cheaper (at least in Australia) when bought from the supermarket deli, rather than the prepackaged brands. It might not be quite so fancy, but enough for this meal might only cost $2. For other meals, the same goes with chicken.
• The lamb kofta are more easily cooked on a barbecue flat plate for ease, space and heat – but can be cooked in a pan if necessary. The zucchini can also be grilled on the barbecue rather than a pan.

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