Roast aubergine, tomatoes and mozzarella

 Singin' in the rain

Well after today, if one doesn't sing, one is liable to shoot oneself.  The nonstop downpour from 10 am through until now, almost bedtime, was enough to make the silly ducks and chickens who live in the garden next door gurgle or gargle.  The farmyard noises are a constant, and I try not to think stews and roasts and endless wonderful casseroles when I hear them.  Oh dear, now I've just lost about a dozen of you and any other vegetarians who read this, of course.

Perhaps you will give me a second chance as the meal I made tonight was all veggie, up and down the line, and not a feathered friend in sight, except through the window but I was on to better things by then. 

David often finds good recipes in the Times which he reads online each morning.  He can't send articles by email  from that form but he can photograph with his blackberry and then email me a picture of the recipe.  It works, sort of, to a point.  The quality of the print is fuzzy and the pics all look like swamps with rushes but the ideas are great.  And this one of Lindsey Bareham's (and on the strength of this and several other successes of hers, I've ordered two of her cookbooks) is so simple it's almost embarrassing to add but it's another way of attacking the mighty aubergine and a most attractive dish if done properly.  Not sure my pics will do it justice as I'm not good at multi tasking, but you'll get the general idea and if you like aubergines, then give it a whirl.

For 2 people:

2 medium aubergines
olive oil
6 large, ripe, vine tomatoes
2 garlic cloves (Lindsey says four, but unless you're alone for the weekend, be sensible!)
couple of handfuls of Basil leaves (recipe calls for 50 but life is simply too short)
2 buffalo mozzarella, drained (lump kind, packed in water)

Oven to 200ºC/gas mark 6

Line a roasting tin with tin foil, shiny side up.  Halve the aubergines lengthwise.  Cut a diagonal lattice pattern in each cut side about 2 cm wide.  Brush olive oil over the tops.  Roast for 10 - 12 minutes in the oven until the centres begin to soften.

Arrange the halved tomatoes, cut side up, around the aubergines and drizzle with oil and seasoning if desired.  Return tin to oven and roast for another 10 to 15 minutes until the tomatoes are squashy.  Remove from oven, scatter minced garlic cloves over aubergine and flip tomatoes so that they are arranged cut side down on top of aubergine.  Cut thick slices of mozzarella to cover the top and return to oven briefly until the cheese begins to melt.

 


Tear basil leaves over top before serving.

David prefers a grated hard cheese to the mozzarella which does get a bit 'stodgy' if the slices clump together.  Any cheese would work and goat cheese might be best of all.  Let me know if you have any other good ideas.

Cherry tomato clafoutis

As predicted, following up my last post has been difficult.  The past month been busy, and I haven't had much time for anything more than everday cooking.  A few new things have been tried.  An easy stir fry of braised red cabbage, pancetta and peas that works equally well as a main course or a colorful side dish.  A delicious lemon curd layer cake that went over a treat with colleagues and family.  Nothing that seemed like a worthy successor to the pie chart pie, but I'll never blog again if I keep thinking that way, so I have decided to (re)start afresh with something simple that I made over the Easter weekend: a cherry tomato clafoutis.

A clafoutis is traditionally a sweet dessert, most commonly made with cherries.  However, a recent edition of Good Housekeeping included a recipe for a savoury version which looked good, so we decided to try this out to accompany our barbecued chicken.  It's incredibly simple, but works very well and is aesthetically appealing (at least until you serve it - then it collapses somewhat).


Cherry tomato clafoutis

 60g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
3 large eggs
100 ml milk
3 tbsp shredded fresh basil leaves, plus extra to garnish
150g cottage cheese
250g cherry tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste, if desired


Mix together the flour, baking powder, eggs, milk and seasoning.  Then whisk in the basil and the cottage cheese.

Pour the mixture into a shallow baking dish (that can hold about a litre), and arrange the cherry tomatoes in the mixture as you please.  You can either drop them in whole or slice them in half and add them, cut sides down.

Season the lot with black pepper and cook in an oven set to 180 degrees C for about half an hour until the egg is a golden colour and has set.  Garnish with the remaining basil and serve.  Depending on how many people are dining, this could either work as a main course, with a green salad on the side, or as a side dish to accompany meat.  Either way, it passes my mother's 'back pocket' test and will certainly be made again!

A real pea souper

I've always been cautious when it comes to devising my own recipes.  My rule of thumb is to make the recipe as written the first time, and then play around with it after that.  But somehow I rarely get to the experimentation stage where I start substituting most of the ingredients and thinking about what would work better.  This is part of why I started the blog: to develop my own style of cooking that isn't just cribbed from someone else.  So yesterday I devised my own cookies (coconut, maple and chocolate chip - they need some refining, but I'm sure will show up in a future entry).  And today, an improvised pea soup from the ingredients I could find in the house.  Adapted from a recipe I found in the Saturday Times a few years ago, but different enough that I'm going to claim some of the credit for it!  Very easy to make, but so delicious.

Pea and basil soup

2 tbsp olive oil

2 shallots (or one red onion), sliced

450g frozen or fresh peas (I think frozen probably work best, unless you have an hour to devote to shelling pea pods)

4 tbsp torn basil

2 tbsp dry white wine

400-450ml vegetable stock

80g pea shoots (go substitution crazy here - the recipe called for spinach, but I had pea shoots in the house and thought it would enhance the flavour of the peas nicely.  I think rocket would also work)

salt and pepper, to taste

200ml creme fraiche 

2 slices parma ham

To make the soup, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan.  Add the shallots, and cook over a medium heat until soft but not browned.  This takes about 5-7 minutes.  Add the peas and the basil, and cook for another 2 minutes or so.  Then pour in the wine, and cook until it has bubbled and reduced.  Pour in enough stock to just cover the peas, and then bring to the boil.  Add your salad leaves of choice, and cook until they have wilted.

At this point you can either blend your soup in a food processor, or using a hand mixer.  I would recommend adding one of the latter to your kitchen inventory, if you don't have one already.  They are so useful, and save you having to wash up all the fiddly bits attached to a proper blender.  The original recipe suggested that you sieve the mixture after you have blended it in order to remove the lumps.  But I like a bit of texture in my soup, so I stopped at this point.  To finish it off, add the seasoning and the creme fraiche, and stir until mixed.  Toppings are entirely up to you - I fried some parma ham slices and added some fresh basil which worked well, but I'm sure there are other things you could add.  Or just eat it unadorned.  It's certainly good enough for that.

In praise of tinned tomatoes

Tinned tomatoes belong to that category of things that you take completely for granted. You always have at least one tin in the cupboard somewhere, don’t you? Everybody does.

Well, I thought I did. It was mid-afternoon, and I’d been working to a deadline and hadn’t really spent much time thinking about dinner. I knew I had some frozen cod fillets that represented potential protein, and turned to a cookbook standby—Off the Shelf, by Donna Hay. It’s a book about cooking with what you have on hand.

I glanced through the recipe and thought, “Perfect. I have all I need,” and set out the cod to defrost.

A couple of hours later, I came down to get started. I went to the cupboard where I keep the tins to get the tomatoes the recipe called for—and nothing. Chickpeas: yes. Lentils: check. Tuna: enough to feed an army. No tomatoes.

Fortunately, there is a 24-hour convenience store at the end of the street. Most of the merchandise is heavy-duty junk food made from edible oil by-products sold at exorbitant prices, but they have a tiny shelf of real (albeit packaged) food, hidden at the back. I threw on a coat, ran down the street, and wonder of wonders, there were two tins of real tomatoes on that shelf. Evening saved.

I’ll get to the recipe in a minute.

The experience got me thinking. What are the absolute staples that I should always have on hand, no matter what? I did an inventory, typed up the result, and I plan to tape it to the inside of my pantry cupboard door. Next  time I am heading out to a supermarket, I will check to make sure that I actually have the things on that list, and if not, I will stock up.

The list was surprisingly long, and in certain categories there are several items (you can’t get by with just one type of vinegar, for example). So…what’s on your standby list? What has to be there to make you feel that you are ready for a siege? What are the must-haves versus the nice-to-haves? In what category do you put mustard? Artichokes in a jar? Tarragon vinegar?

All contributions welcome. Here’s the recipe, modified to suit my non-exacting standards.

Tomato and basil poached fish

A puddle of olive oil

2 onions, chopped anyhow

Garlic

3-5 thinly sliced potatoes (I leave the peel on and use a mandolin to slice them)

½ cup fish stock

2 medium-sized tins whole peeled tomatoes (but diced is OK too)

2 firm white-fleshed fish fillets, enough for two people

Basil pesto, or fresh basil chopped, if you have it

Heat a deep frying pan. Add some oil, the onions and as much chopped garlic as you think is reasonable for two people. Cook the mixture until the onions wilt. Add the potatoes, stock, and tomatoes. Cover. Give it another 5 or so minutes.

Remove the cover and stir to break up the tomatoes a bit if you are using whole tomatoes. Let it reduce and thicken – this takes maybe 5 minutes. Maybe more. Put the fish on top. Give it a few minutes each side. When it starts to fall apart a bit, it’s ready.

Take out the fish, and stir the pesto through the tomato mixture. Put the tomato mixture on the plate and put the fish on top. Serves 2.