Friday night snacking

It's Friday night, you're all coming round. There's going to be drinking, and to save ourselves from slipping in to a pile of drunken idiots, we'll need the snacks...

• Hummus and pitta
• Slow roasted tomatoes (Zoe's favourite)
• Big bowl of salad
• Random fridge items

Hummus

• 1 tin of chickpeas
• A whole bulb of garlic - no you won't use it all!
• 1 lemon - juice only
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• Olive oil
• Pinch of salt
• Fresh coriander (or cilantro, if you're from the US)

I really like to slow roast a bulb of garlic - I usually do this on Thursday if I've had the oven on. (Same applies to Zoe's tomoatoes as you'll see later.) Just stick it on the shelf on a low to medium heat for 30-60 minutes. You'll know when it's done because it'll have sticky oils oozing and be a squidgy with a squeeze. The garlic is sweeter when roasted and loses that harshness.

Get out the food processer and drop in the chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, a 2-4 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, and salt. Whizz it up and see how it looks. If it's still dry, add a little more oil. (I sometimes save some chickpea liquid to moisten without it getting too oily when I've only got heavy duty extra virgin, too tasty, olive oil in!). Taste, fiddle, taste some more, and put into a bowl in the fridge to let the flavours develop.

Just before serving, sprinkle with chopped coriander, and toast the pitta bread.

Zoe's favourite tomatoes

• A heap of those tasty miniature tomatoes (Pomodorino, mini Plum, etc.)
• Olive oil
• Salt
• Pepper

Cut all the tomatoes in half, length ways. Sit them on a roasting tray, skin down. Drizzle (or ideally spray) with a little olive oil, season and leave in oven at 150C for about 1-1.5 hours. (A good time to roast your garlic!)

A big bowl of salad

The secret to tasty salad is to make it fresh, not get too hung up, and add lots of things... I usually make sure I have the following in store:

• Leaves - maybe iceberg lettuce, rocket, lambs lettuce, whatever looks freshest really.
• Cucumber
• (I don't add tomatoes if i'm doing slow roast tomatoes)
• Grated carrot

Then I add toppings or side dishes for that mix and match opportunity:

• Tuna, finely chopped red onion and sunflower seeds
• Chicken, spring onion and croutons
• Feta, chopped red onion and black olives
• ...or simply whatever is to hand in the fridge

Just stick a good bottle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar on the table.

Random fridge items

If you're calling in to the shops, any of these are always handy and no hassle:

• Olives
• Parmesan
• Anchovies
• Smoked trout (get some mild horseradish)
• Cheese, cheese, cheese (a mixed selection of hard, soft, and blue)
• Cheese biscuits (scottish oat cakes, charcoal, water biscuits)
• Tasty bread
• Slices of ham
• Chutneys and pickles (pickled onions, beetroot, green tomato chutney, etc)
• Grapes
• Pistachio nuts

Minter - I think it's your turn... get the oven on. I'll bring the DVDs!