Oven roasted Sicilian aubergine with tomato and feta

As mentioned in my last post, we have had a bit of a revolution in our local Morrisons which now sports a funky new veg section. Including one with a lot of different aubergines – there was Dutch, smaller rounder Indian, purple and white aubergines and a Sicilian aubergine. The latter is just gorgeous looking – check out the vibrant purple and the lovely round shape. I’ve never seen one before and though it cost me £1.69 which is expensive for an aubergine, I couldn’t resist.

According to the Think Sicilysite, the Romans were suspicious when first shown the purple black fruit by Moroccans and dubbed it the “apple of insanity”. Ilove that! That site has some great recipes but as I didn’t have the ingredients, I did my own thing. And my goodness, it was DELICIOUS so have a go. Ingredients:

• 1 Sicilian aubergine
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 4/5 spring onions,
• 3 fat cloves of garlic
• 6-7 sunstream tomatoes (or any full flavoured vine ripened tomato). Was about 120g
• 1/2 chili flakes
• A small amount of salt to season
• 100g feta cheese
• 5/6 fresh basil leaves

Cooking:

     

• Preheat the oven to 200 degrees centigrade (180 for fan)
• Wash the aubergine, cut off the stem then slice into 1cm discs
• Arrange the discs into an oven proof dish and coat with generous amounts of olive oil (I used at least 3 tablespoons)
• Roast in oven for about 15 minutes
• Meanwhile, top and tail the spring onions, peel outer layer if manky and slice up green and white parts finely
• Remove outer layer of garlic and slice finely
• Wash and chop tomatoes into quarters
• In a heavy based pan, add 2 tbs olive oil and fry the onions and garlic
• When they start to caramelise, add the tomatoes, chili flakes and season slightly. As feta is quite salty, you can leave out salt if you wish
• Remove the aubergine from the oven and pour the onion/tomato mix over the top. Then crumble up the feta and place back into the oven.
• Roast for a further 15 minutes, then tear up the  basil  and chuck it on on top. Place back in the oven for about 15 /20 minutes until aubergine has cooked through (check every now and again to ensure it’s not sticking to the bottom or burning on top).
• Serve with warm bread, with pasta, on toasted slices of bread as bruschetta or just on it’s own. Delicious!

Ratatouille with lemon and coriander cous cous

I’m was never keen on ratatouille… it’s a bit too much like nut roast in being very “vegetarian”. In the olden days before being veggie was acceptable, ratatouille was often the only offering on a restaurant menu, and it was awful.

However, times have changed (or is it me? or was it the film Ratatouille????). I went for a Delia recipe of oven roasted ratatouille. I started off cooking it on the hob, the moved my casserole pot to the oven to roast it off. I also missed off the coriander seeds because I forgot them but the results were great so I don’t mind. The first time, I cooked it with basil however, tonight I used crushed chili seeds instead. Both were equally yum.

On both occasions, I ate it with cous cous with a healthy squeeze of lemon and 1 tbs of finely chopped coriander stalks. It’s so delicious and a bonus for me is that it can be frozen as for some very mad reason Mr Plummy Mummy will not eat cooked aubergine or courgettes….more fool he.

As it’s a Delia recipe, I can’t copy it here. However,as the pictures I took were just so colourful, I cannot help but post them up.

    

Roasted aubergine with feta, chili and spring onion

This recipe was born out of watching Nigel Slater on the beeb recently cooking his Chilli Feta . However, I had a lovely Dutch aubergine to use up so made some adjustments.  I should have googled Nigel’s recipe before I started as I first began with half a red onion which I cooked in a frying pan with a beautiful red chili and some garlic but the red onion did that strange metamorphosis it does when cooked going from something fresh tasting to something very sweet. This sweetness works well in say a quiche, but would not complement either the aubergine or the feta so I ditched that and went for the spring onions. I am also kicking myself for not using thyme which I have in plentiful supply as I have it growing in my garden and on my window sill (cos I forgot what was in the garden and ordered more Dummy!)

Anyway, the end combo with roasted aubergine was delicious. I had to use a green chili as I ran out of red but in future will stock up on red as that would be divine. I hope you try this and enjoy.

Ingredients

• 1/2 Dutch aubergine
• 2 tbs olive oil
• 5 spring onions sliced thinly
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 chili (red would be best but I only had green tonight. Also end result wasn’t very spicy so could add 2 chilis if you like it hot)
• 100g pack feta cheese
• 1 sprig fresh thyme
• Seasoning to taste

Cooking

• Pre-heat oven to 220 degrees (fan oven)
• Cut the aubergine along its length. If you are making dinner for one, then reserve the other half for aubergine shak.
• Make criss cross marks in it
• Wipe a little of the olive oil over the aubergine, grease a baking tray and place aubergine with cut side down to roast in the oven for about 20 minutes. It’s ready when the aubergine is tender but not totally mushy
• While the aubergine is roasting, in a pan heat the remaining olive oil over a medium flame and cook the spring onions, garlic and chili for 2 minutes stirring continuously. Remove from heat.
• Cut the feta into 2 cm cubes and stir into the onion mix. Also add thyme leaves off the twig and season to taste.

• Take the aubergine out of the oven and flip onto it’s skin side. There should be enough give to let you push down the flesh. Spread the feta mix on top and put back into the oven for about 5 minutes until the feta has melted and slightly browned on top.
• Serve with thick oven chips (or fresh bread if you want to be good). Although the skin is edible it will be quite tough so I chose to just scoop out the insides with the chips like a dip. It was very yummy and suitable for either lunch or a light dinner.

BTW if this is too much faff you could just made an American style grill sandwich as I did today with the remaining feta. Take two pieces of bread and butter one side of each. On the non butter side of one crumble up the feta, add 3 chopped spring onions and a chopped chili. Put other piece of bread on top (buttered side facing out) and cook in a frying pan until the buttered sides are nicely toasted and the cheese has melted. DELICIOUS!

Ringan bateta nu shak (aubergine and potato curry)

This shak is so easy to make and has very few ingredients – it’s easily cooked within 20 mins. It’s so rustic! It relies on good quality aubergines and potatotes. I prefer to use the small round aubergine sometimes called a brinjal (do a google image search to see what I mean) sold by Indian grocers rather than the long plump Dutch aubergine normally found in English supermarkets. However, if you cannot get the former, the latter is equally delicious.

Select ones that are plump, quite firm and has few blemishes on the skin. When you cut into the aubergine, the flesh should be white and there should be few seeds.

Sometimes aubergines can be bitter. To remedy this they can be salted before cooking. Wash the aubergines, cut off the stems and slice them aubergine into largish dice shapes. Then put a liberal amount of salt over them and leave for half an hour. Wash out the aubergines well (the water will run a sort of purplish colour!) before using in the cooking below.

The amounts below yield enough for 2 people. I prefer to serve this shak with fresh rotlis, sliced onions (cover with lemon juice to remove the sting!) and a sweet (in my case banana).

Ingredients:

• 3 round aubergines (or 1 large dutch aubergine) – wash, remove stem, cut into 3inch dice
• 4 small potatoes -  remove skin, cut into the dice same size as aubergines
• 3 tbs groundnut oil
• 1 tsp mustard and fenugreek seeds
• 1 chilie chopped finely
• 1 tsp salt (nimak)
• 1 tsp chili powder (murcha)
• 1 tsp coriander/cumin powder (dhana jeeru)
• 1/2 tsp turmeric (hurder)
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 tomatoes – diced finely
• Coriander to garnish

Cooking

• In a largish pan, heat oil over medium heat then throw in mustard/fenugreek seeds
• Once seeds start to pop, add chilies
• Add potatoes and aubergines
• Add all the spices and stir the mixture very well
• Cook for 2 minutes and keep stirring
• Add enough water to just cover the vegetables. Don’t be tempted to put more as aubergines already hold a lot of water. Bring mix to the boil.
• Turn down to a simmer and cook for five minutes, keep an eye on the levels and stir occasionally
• Add the tomatoes, stir and cook for a further five minutes
• When you come to serve garnish with coriander and serve with rotlis. If you don’t have rotlis, naan or rice do just as well.

P.S. Sorry I didn’t remember to take a picture of the final dish. It all got eaten very quickly!

ringan nu ohroh (smoked aubergine curry)

I may have the spelling wrong  but the cooking of this very tasty aubergine shak is spot on. It’s normally served as a side dish but I like to gobble it up as a main. In appearance, it’s similar to baba ghanoush but is much more spicy! However, don’t be tempted to overdo it as the glory of this dish is light spicing to enhance the smoked aubergine flavour.

Ingredients:

• 1 large aubergine (350g)
• 2 tbs groundnut oil plus extra for oiling aubergine
• 1 large onion (80g), diced very finely
• 1 very ripe tomato, roughly chopped. Optional. Can be left out
• 2 cloves garlic, sliced finely
• 1 green chili, sliced finely
• 1 tsp rye/methi seeds (fenugreek/mustard seeds. Don’t worry if you don’t have fenugreek. Also can substitute cumin seeds)
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp dhana jeeru (coriander cumin powder)
• 1/2 tsp hurder (turmeric)
• 1 tsp salt, or to taste
• Coriander to garnish

Preparation:

The aubergine is smoked before it is added to the shak. To do this,

• Wash the aubergine then dry skin with a paper towel
• Cut a slit in the aubergine lengthways (2nd picture below), then rub all over with oil. Don’t chop off the stem as that will be handy for handling it in the grill

• Place on a baking tray and cook under a very hot grill. It is possible to roast it in the oven but I think the grill gives a particular smokey flavour so this is the preferred method. The skin should char and the aubergine begin to deflate as the water it contains is cooked out.
• It will take up to 30 minutes to fully cook. Turn the aubergine so that it is chars equally on all sides, about every 9 mins.
• The aubergine is ready when a knife slides in easily (By this stage, it will be very flat and should feel as if there is nothing in the skin!)

• Wait for the aubergine to cool before handling. Scoop out the innards and mash. Discard the charred skin and stem

• And for your viewing pleasure, here is a picture of the onion, garlic and chili chopped in preparation

Cooking:

• In a large pan, heat the groundnut oil over medium heat
• Add rye/methi and wait for the seeds to start popping
• Add onion and cook until translucent and browning at edges. This can take up to 10 minutes. It’s important to cook the onions well so don’t rush this stage
• Add garlic and chili and cook for 2 mins
• Add prepared aubergine and stir to combine well with onion/garlic mixture
• Mix in the spices. Remember don’t be heavy-handed here…subtlety is what we are after in spicing
• Stir in the tomatoes if using and stir all to mix well
• Turn down the heat and cook for 5 minutes. Stir regularly to ensure that it has not stuck to the pan.

The tomato is optional as without it the flavour of the smoked aubergine really shines through a bit like baba ghanoush but it’s also tasty with. Entirely up to you.

Once cooked, garnish with coriander and serve with rotlis.

The dish can be enhanced by adding spinach (after garlic/chili phase to let spinach wilt down before adding aubergine), or roasted red pepper (peel skin off, and chop pepper flesh into small pieces. Add at same time as aubergine)