Chefs Sam and Sam Clark opened Moro in the East End of London ten years ago, and the Mediterranean flavours of their food proved an immediate success with locals. To ensure a fresh and plentiful supply of locally-grown organic produce, they took an allotment in Manor Gardens, and were introduced to a secret place where Londoners from all corners of the world met and were united by a love of gardening and food.

Despite strong protests, petitions and alternative proposals, the hundred-year-old Manor Garden allotments were bulldozed last year to make way for a concrete path between sports venues for 2012’s Olympics, and the multicultural community that had grown along with the plants was scattered to hard-won alternative sites.
The Clarks chronicle the final year in the life of Manor Garden allotments through 150 recipes in their new book, Moro East, and demonstrate that it is possible to grow good Mediterranean ingredients organically in the UK.

Fattoush

This is a beautiful variation on the famous Lebanese bread salad, with subtle sweet and sour notes. We make our own crispbread for a more delicate texture, but genuine pitta bread (not the thick and flabby supermarket version) is also good. We have a whole bed of Moroccan mint on the allotment that spreads like a weed, perfect for this salad as well as for tea.

Serves 4

1 large aubergine, cut into 1.5cm cubes and tossed with 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
8 tablespoons (120ml) olive oil
16 ripe cherry tomatoes, cut in half
4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced
Seeds of 1 small pomegranate (about 100g)
1 small bunch of mint (about 20g), roughly chopped
1 medium bunch of flat-leaf parsley (about 40g), leaves picked

Crispbread
1 quantity of Flatbread Dough (see www.spainmagazine.co.uk for recipe) or 2 pitta breads
Flour for dusting
25g unsalted butter

Dressing
Seeds of 1 small pomegranate (about 100g), squeezed to make juice *
1/2 small garlic clove, crushed to a paste with a pinch of salt
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil



Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas 4.

First make the crispbread. Take a quarter of the flatbread dough (use the remainder for another recipe, or shape it into loaves – less than one quantity of flatbread dough is difficult to knead as it is such a small amount) and divide it into 2 rounds. Roll out and stretch each one until it is extremely thin and almost translucent, about 25cm in diameter. Lightly dust with flour.
Put a large frying pan over a medium-high heat and, when hot, place one of the flatbreads in it. Cook until lightly coloured underneath, then invert to cook the other side. Remove and leave to cool. Meanwhile, do the same for the second flatbread. If using shop-bought pitta, just carefully split them in half lengthways. Melt the butter and brush it on both sides of the bread. Place the breads on a rack in the middle of the oven and bake until golden – about 5–10 minutes for paper-thin homemade flatbread, 10–15 minutes for thicker pitta bread. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

To make pomegranate juice, cut the pomegranate in half, break open each half and pick out the seeds, being careful not to include any of the pith, as it is very bitter. Put the seeds in a sieve set over a bowl and crush them with your hands as much as possible to extract the juice. Then push them against the sieve with the back of a large spoon to extract as much remaining juice as you can.

For the dressing, mix all the ingredients together and season with salt and pepper to taste. For the aubergine, rinse off the salt and dry well with kitchen paper. Heat up the olive oil in a large frying pan or wok over a high heat and fry the aubergine for about 10 minutes, until soft and deep golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and keep warm.

To serve the salad, combine two-thirds of the crispbread with the tomatoes, spring onions, aubergine, two-thirds of the pomegranate seeds and the herbs in a large salad bowl, breaking up the bread with your hands as you go. Now pour on the dressing and toss very gently. Taste for seasoning and serve with the remaining crispbread and pomegranate seeds on top.

Find more fantastic recipes from Moro in our March 20085 issue.