2 shallots

garlic clove

bit of fresh ginger

tin of tuna

season all

dried thyme

fish sauce

(black) buckwheat

black pepper

Bit of tomato puree

Bit of hot pepper sauce

Knob of butter

Olive oil

(I also bought) 1 courgette

And this is what I created

I chargrilled the courgette first on the open stove first, then added it, chopped to the frying shallots, garlic and ginger before sticking all the other ingredients in, bar the butter and buckwheat – simples. The buckwheat is Polish “kasza gryczana”, which is very popular in Eastern Europe and difficult to find in the UK, but you could use other types of grain. The traditional way of cooking the black buckwheat was to wrap it up like a baby and put it under a pillow to steam for about forty minutes, but I just cook it like rice, then stick some butter in at the end

Next month I am set to be even poorer than this month, because yesterday Anna and myself went on a quest for the “summer look”. As usual, Anna found nothing she wanted and I fell in love with something I can’t afford. Is £300 too much for a cardigan? You should see this one though! I have asked them to put it aside until payday for me. I will probably spend a month sitting at home twiddling my thumbs, eating bread and drinking water, but what can I do? I’m just not the sort of person to deny my feelings…