Archive for July, 2008

Stuffed Aubergines

July 26, 2008 at 8:23 pm · Filed under Dinner Party, Main Course

This recipe was the first time Wifeshui ever enjoyed aubergine – now she loves the stuff. The problem most people have with this rather awesome vegetable is that it only responds well to certain cooking methods, and if you get it wrong it’s disgusting. So: never boil or steam an aubergine, always use very hot oil if you choose to fry it, and for pity’s sake, don’t try and eat it raw!

Ingredients:

2 large aubergines (eggplant)
1/2 an onion, diced finely
1 good quality lamb sausage
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 a cup lentils (dry)
20g feta cheese
2 tablespoons raisins
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 dried red chilli
100g breadcrumbs
olive oil
stock

1. Put the lentils on to simmer in the stock, and cook until soft (this will depend on the type of lentils you have – check the packet!).

2. Halve the aubergines lengthways and use a teaspoon to scoop out most of the flesh from the middle, leaving a shell. Brush the shells with olive oil and put on a baking tray in a preheated oven at 200 degrees.

3. In a deep frying pan, use a little oil to saute the aubergine flesh, onion and garlic. Skin the sausage and roughly chop the meat. Add it to the pan along with the pine nuts, raisins and spices. Cook for about 5 minutes.

4. Drain the lentils and add them to the frying pan as well, along with the breadcrumbs. Mix thoroughly, and continue to cook for a further 2 minutes.

5. Take the pan off the heat, add the diced feta and stir in. Take the aubergine shells out of the oven (they should have had about ten minutes in there by now). Spoon the mixture into the shells and return them to the oven for 25-30 minutes. Serve hot, with tabbouleh or a green salad.

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Ratatouille with Spicy Potatoes and Guacamole

July 16, 2008 at 8:09 pm · Filed under Main Course, Vegan

French Provencale stew, with a slightly Mexican twist. Sometimes you have to work with what you’ve got.

Ingredients:

1 large aubergine (eggplant)
2 courgettes (zucchinis)
1 large white onion
1 red pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1 cup of passata
3 large tomatoes
teaspoon of cumin seeds
salt
squeeze of lemon juice
Tabasco sauce
handful of basil

6 large potatoes
handful of breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon tumeric

2 ripe avocados
2 cloves garlic
1 green chilli, deseeded
squeeze of lemon juice

1. Cut the aubergine into large chunks and put it in a colander. Sprinkle liberally with salt and lemon juice,put a plate on top and leave for about 30 minutes. This will draw out the bitter flavour and make the aubergine much more palatable.

2. Cut the potatoes into rough wedge shapes (you can leave the skins on, although I prefer to peel them), and mix them in a large bowl with the olive oil, chilli powder, turmeric and breadcrumbs. Put them on a baking tray and whack in the oven for 50 minutes at about 200 degrees.

3. Cut the rest of the vegetables into large pieces and put them into a casserole dish. Wipe the aubergines off with kitchen paper and drop them in also. Fry the onions, cumin and garlic in a splash of olive oil. Add them to the casserole, mix roughly and pour over the passata. Add a few drops of Tabasco, cover, and pop in the oven for about half an hour.

4. Finely chop the chill and garlic for the guacamole, and mash with the avocado and lemon juice. Leaving the avocado stone in the bowl will allegedly prevent the guacamole from discolouring, although I reckon the lemon juice does most of the work there.

5. Sprinkle the torn basil leaves over the ratatouille, and serve.

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Bubble & Squeak Potato Cakes

July 13, 2008 at 5:59 pm · Filed under Leftovers, Light Lunch, Starter

These freeze pretty well, so you can make up a batch of them any time you have an overabundance of spuds and store them for future use. Just make sure you defrost them thoroughly before cooking.

Ingredients:

12-15 potatoes – I’ve done a little messing around with varieties and find that firmly textured potatoes like Desiree seem to make for the best results
50g plain white flour
3 eggs, separated
100g breadcrumbs (I find it easiest to freeze a few slices of bread and then break them up in a food processor)
½ a head of cabbage
4 rashers of streaky bacon
3 spring onions (scallions), finely chopped
20g butter
2 tablespoons olive oil
5 tablespoons vegetable oil, for frying
salt & pepper
teaspoon of mustard powder

1. Peel the potatoes and chop into large pieces, about 3-4cm across. Put into a large pan of boiling water, and cook for 10-15 minutes or until soft.

2. Drain the potatoes, add the butter and olive oil, and mash thoroughly. Set aside to cool.

3. Finely shred the cabbage and blanch in boiling water for 2-3 minutes, until slightly wilted but still crisp. Grill the bacon until crispy, then chop it into small pieces.

4. Get your hands dirty! Add the cabbage, bacon, flour, egg yolks, spring onions, salt & pepper and mustard powder to the potatoes and mix the whole lot together. You should end up with a doughy mixture that holds together pretty well – add more flour if it’s too wet.

5. Form the potato mixture into golf-ball sized pieced and flatten them between your hands. Dip first into the egg whites, then into the breadcrumbs, and ensure they are fairly well coated.

6. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan – make sure it’s good and hot. Fry the potato cakes in batches of two or three at a time – any more than this and the temperature differential will reduce the heat of the oil, meaning that the potato starch will absorb the oil instead of being sealed by the heat. You may need to add more oil, or refresh it partway through cooking if it starts to fill up with bits of singed bread.

7. Once cooked, decant the potato cakes to an ovenproof plate covered in kitchen roll, and keep warm in a very low oven until you have finished frying. Served with a green salad.

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Banana & Orange Cake

July 12, 2008 at 8:49 pm · Filed under Cake, Dessert

This was adapted rather freely from a vegan, gluten-free parsnip cake when we only had about half of the required ingredients to hand. It’s no longer vegan or gluten-free, though. Nor does it contain any parsnip.

Ingredients:

250g white self-raising flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
7 tablespoons olive oil
130g brown sugar
4 bananas, mashed
2 tablespoons poppy seeds
Juice & zest of 1 orange
1 egg, beaten

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Line a 2lb loaf tin with greased baking parchment.

2. Sift the flour, baking powder and spices together in a large bowl. Add all the other ingredients and mix together to form a thick batter.

3. Spoon into the loaf tin, and bake for 45-50 minutes on the middle oven shelf.

This is a pretty versatile recipe – replace the poppy seeds with two tablespoons of cocoa and a handful of chocolate pieces for a chocolatey version, or add chopped crystallized ginger and maple syrup instead of 50g of sugar. The picture shows a version which replaced half the oil with peanut butter, removed the orange juice and poppy seeds, and added an extra banana – and it was awesome!

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Broccoli and Blue Cheese Risotto

July 12, 2008 at 7:09 pm · Filed under Risotto

Even if you think you don’t like broccoli, or blue cheese, this is worth a try. It’s great on its own, or if you’re trying to impress, it would make an excellent companion to a nice rare steak. The flavour is quite intense, though, so if you’re going to serve it as an accompaniment make sure you have a nice simple centerpiece (like a steak – I love steak) to your meal.

Ingredients:

150g Arborio risotto rice (don’t use regular rice, it will be a disaster!)
1 head of broccoli
50g good quality blue cheese, like Blue Vinney, Devon Blue or Stilton – anything creamy and flavoursome.
½ an onion, very finely diced
½ glass white wine
about 1 ½ pints good vegetable or chicken stock
knob of butter
1 egg yolk
toasted pine nuts, to garnish

1. Cut the broccoli into florets and blanch them and the stems in boiling water for 3-4 minutes. Reserve a couple of florets and put all the rest of the broccoli (whilst still hot!) into a food processor with the cheese. Blend until you have a stiff paste. Set this aside to cool.
2. Heat the stock to a gentle simmer in a saucepan. In a deep frying pan on an adjacent burner, sauté the onions in the butter until translucent. Add the rice and stir until well coated with fat. Turn the heat up a notch.
3. Add the wine to the frying pan and stir until absorbed. Turn the heat down to a simmer.
4. Transfer one ladleful of stock from the saucepan to the frying pan. Stir until absorbed.
5. Repeat step 4.
6. Repeat step 4 again.
7. Repeat step 4. You get the gist. Add the stock in small quantities, stirring all the while, and only adding more when the previous ladleful has been absorbed. This process helps the rice grains to break down and release their starch, which will give the finished risotto a lovely velvety texture. If you add too much water at once, especially near the beginning of the cooking process, what you end up with is soggy, waterlogged rice in a thin gruel, which is not at all pleasant. Once you’ve repeated step 4 about eight times you can begin adding slightly more liquid each time, but be careful not to overdose the rice!
8. After about half an hour, the rice will be soft and fluffy, and the remaining liquid in the frying pan (of which there should be very little!) will be a creamy colour and consistency. Note that you may not have used all the stock by this point. Turn off the heat and mix in the broccoli-and-cheese paste you made earlier, along with the egg yolk and the reserved florets. The residual heat of the pan will slightly cook these.
9. Decant into bowls, and serve with a scattering of toasted pine nuts on the top.

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Gentlemen – start your ovens!

July 12, 2008 at 6:26 pm · Filed under Admin

I’m getting carried away with this blogging lark now – this is the third one I have on the go. Feel free to check out Right To Think (atheist rantings, also my main and most oft-updated blog) and Theist Vs Atheist (does what it says on the tin…) if you’re interested, but here I’m only going to talk about food. Food, glorious food… my second fondest passion after my beloved Wifeshui. This will be a place where I’ll record my favourite recipes, hopefully averaging one per week. Any foodies out there are welcome to join in and comment, add suggestions or let me know how these recipes work out for you. So fire up your stoves, whip out your spatulas, and prepare to get cooking!

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