Potato and Aubergine Hot Pot

My other half runs a cooking group at work, twice a week. Funny, she never cooks at home, well hardly ever... Erm, change of subject ;)

Today, they made stovies and tonight we used the idea at home and came up with this.

(serves 4 as a main course, 8 as a side dish)

1 kg potatoes
1 large aubergine
5-6 large tomatoes
1 onion
1 red onion
1 pint of stock of your choice
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
dried herbs of your choice
1 red chilli
3-4 cloves of garlic


Slice all the vegetables very thinly and layer them in a roasting tray seasoning with pepper and salt as you go: potatoes sprinkled with pepper and salt, onion rings. tomatoes sprinkled with pepper and salt and dried herbs, aubergines sprinkled with pepper and salt. Repeat the veggie layers.

Finely slice the red chilli, optionally removing the seeds, and finely grate the garlic. Mix with the stock. Pour over the veg. They'll be half covered in stock. Cover with tin foil and cook in a preheated oven at 220 °C for approx. 30-45 minutes. Check if the veggies are done or almost done. Remove the tin foil and cook uncovered for another 15 minutes.

Serve with a green salad for a main course or as a side dish.

White Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce

I've just returned from a few days in my home state in Germany where I was just in time to catch the end of the asparagus season. White asparagus is not readily available in Scotland and it'd been three years since I last tasted it. Even though it wasn't that cheap I bought nearly two kilos of the stuff, enough to accompany two meals.

My godson love asparagus with an Hollandaise sauce but is generally happy with the powdered stuff enriched with an egg yolk and/or some cream. He also thinks the world of my cooking so I decided to  give him and the rest of the family a treat: homemade Hollandaise sauce!

It's been decades since I last made it and without any internet connection we first checked my mum's sparse selection of cookery books – no joy – then phoned around without reaching anyone nearby. In the end, we spoke to my other half's sister in London who did an internet search and, knowing we like Jamie Oliver, gave us his recipe, which I modified as I simply couldn't bring myself to make a sauce, in which two servings were made using 2 egg yolks and 100 g (!) of butter. Admittedly, that was probably meant as a main course but still...

Perada

When I made membrillo (quince cheese) for the first time last autumn I realised that fruit "cheeses" have been around for a long time. Knowing I couldn't get quince for another year and expecting the batch of membrillo to be finished well before then I made a mental note to try and make perada (pear cheese) some time.

Today, my favourite discount supermarket hat 25 % of Abate pears and I seized the opportunity. I came home with 2.5 kg of pears, went on the internet and found two recipes I liked. One is from a blog called LondonEats, the other from whatscookingamerica. I based my perada primarily on the LondonEats recipe but added apples instead of pectin as suggested by whatscookingamerica.

After cooking the fruit pulp for three hours without my spoon leaving a trail I decided I'd settle for a soft spreadable rather than a firm perada that can be sliced. I'm sure it'll be just as tasty.

2.5 kg pears
0.5 kg apples
soft brown (unrefined sugar), 1 part to 2 parts of fruit pulp
300 ml water
juice of 2 lemons
rind of 1 lemon, cut into strips with a speed peeler

1. Rinse the fruit, don't remove the skin but place whole into a couple of saucepans so there's just the one layer and cover with cold water. Bring to the boil, then simmer until the fruit is soft. The fruit is soft when a pointed knife slips easily into the pears. As my pears were still firm, this took 30 minutes of simmering. I removed the apples earlier as their skin burst when they were done.

I thought the boiled pears looked reallz funky.

2. Drain and leave to cool. Once the pears are cool enough to handle, remove the skin and discard. The fruit now needs to be passed through a sieve using the back of a (wooden) spoon. You can either chop it up or run it through the food processor with the coarse grater disc inserted. The latter tip I gleaned from the membrillo recipe and it makes pulping the fruit much easier.

3. Measure out the pulp. The above recipe resulted in 1.8-2 l of pulp. As it was quite sweet already I used only 1 part sugar to 2 parts fruit.

4. Place the fruit pulp, sugar, lemon juice, water and lemon rind into a stainless steel saucepan. Stir well and bring to the boil. Simmer until the mixture is thick enough for a spoon to leave trails. Mine took 3 hours but never got that thick, perhaps because I didn't use pectin.

Remember to stir regularly to prevent it sticking to the bottom of the pan.

Warning: Do be careful. The thicker the mixture gets the more it spatters and those spatters are roasting. My right hand got hit numerous times. Eventually, I got wise to the danger and put on an oven glove to stir.

5. Remove the lemon rind. It seemed a shame to discard it so I set it aside and placed a slice or two on the top of each filled jar. Pour into sterilised jars , screw on the lid and turn upside down until completely cool. Store in a dark cool place.  

Layered Aubergine, Tomato, Chorizo and Mash Bake

We've been on holiday at home for the last week and as the weather was gorgeous spend a lot of time in the garden though we still haven't had a barbecue. When the temperatures dropped to 8 °C today and we had driving rain and even hail stones, interspersed with sunny, if chilly, intervals I was a bit at a loss as to what to cook. My other half craved potatoes – baked, mashed, roasted, whatever. A look in the fridge revealed several aubergines, a couple of kilos of vine tomatoes, fresh taragon and soft chorizo sausages. There was also some left-over white bread earmarked for bread crumbs. The cooking gears in my brain started grinding and before I knew it I was well on my way to create another new dish. And only now do I realise that there was neither garlic nor onions in this dish. Never missed them.

This dish is incredibly versatile as it can be vegetarian, vegan and even gluten free. It's great as a main course with a side salad or a side dish with a roast, pork chops, poached, fried or baked fish.

(serves 3-4)

2 aubergines
4 fist-sized potatoes
2 small soft chorizo sausages, approx. 110 g
2 small pointed red peppers
5 plum vine tomatoes
(elderflower-infused) olive oil
2 sprigs of fresh taragon
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
milk
bread crumbs

1. Peel and quarter the potatoes, wash and place into a saucepan. Season with about 1 tsp sea salt and pepper. Add boiling water so the potatoes are just covered and boil for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain off the water, add a good glug of milk and a splash of olive oil. Mash, check the flavour and set aside.

2. Meanwhile slice the two aubergines into 1 cm slices. Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a frying pan. Fry in batches until golden, then drain on kitchen paper.

3. Half the peppers lengthways and core. Slice and fry for a couple of minutes.

4. Slice the chorizo and fry until brown on both sides.

5. Cut the tomatoes into 1/2 cm thick slices. Pick the leaves of the taragon sprigs and chop.

6. Assemble the dish in an oven-proof dish: Layer the first aubergine, season with pepper and salt. Place all the tomato slices on top and season with pepper and a little salt. Scatter the taragon on chorizo slices over the tomatoes. Next add the sautéd pepper and another layer of aubergines. Spread the mash on top and bake for 45 minutes at 200 °C/gas mark 5.

7. Mix a couple of small handfuls of fresh bread crumbs with a little olive oil. Scatter over the mash and bake for another 10 minutes.

Spring Onion Quiche with Herby Short-Crust Pastry

We love quiche and make it fairly regulary always trying out new toppings and this time, also a new base.

(serves 4-6)

1 quantity of herby short-crust pastry
2 bunches of spring onions, roughly chopped
2 large cloves of garlic
1 small bunch of parsely, finely chopped
4 large eggs
150 ml soured cream/crème fraîche/ordinary cream
splash of milk
sea salt
black pepper
pinch of nutmeg
extra virgin olive oil

Make the pastry according to the recipe. Grease a 26 cm fluted flan dish with a tiny bit of olive oil. Place the pastry ball into the middle and with your knuckles spread it evenly. Stab a few times with a fork, cover in greaseproof paper, pour on ceramic baking beads (or failing that uncooked rice, chickpeas, beans or similar).

Preheat the oven to 200 °C/gas mark 5 and blind bake for 15 minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the topping. Clean and wash the spring onions, then coarsely chop them. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and sauté the spring onions over a medium heat until just softened and lightly brown.

Beat the eggs, season with pepper, salt and nutmeg. Add the cream and milk and mix well. Squeeze the garlic through a garlic press and finely chop the parsley. Add to the egg mix.

When the 15 minutes are up remove the pastry from the oven using oven gloves, pour off the beads and remove the paper. Pour the topping onto the pastry and bake at 200 °C/gas mark 5 for 35-45 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

Herby Short-Crust Pastry

I've often wondered if I could make short-crust pastry with olive oil instead of butter. Yesterday, I decided to put it to the test. I didn't use just plain olive oil but a thick coriander-and-lime oil I made a few days ago, which needed using up. And I didn't dare use just oil, so used equal amounts of oil and butter. It worked beautifully.

This recipe is enough for a 26 cm fluted flan tin.

150 g wholegrain flour
100 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
65 g coriander-and-lime oil
65 g soft butter, cubed
3-4 tbsp warm water

Mix the flour and baking powder, then add the oil and butter and knead into a smooth dough adding water as necessary. Cover and keep at room temperature until ready to use.

Slow cooked leg of lamb

I made this recipe with a half leg of lamb the other day, which was a little more than two people could eat. The next day, we heated up the leftovers and the resulting stew was almost better. This time, I doubled the ingredients so I can freeze some of the leftovers. However, there wasn't enough room in the roasting tray for all the veg so some of them were roasted separately.

The actual dish is the result of a number of recipes I found on the internet. The seasoning is based Nigel Slater's recipe here.

Cooking time: 4 hours

(serves 8)

1 leg of lamb (approx. 2.3 kg)
4 cloves of garlic
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp toasted cumin seeds
1 tsp sweet paprika
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
2 aubergines
4 sweet red peppers
1.2 kg potatoes
3-4 courgettes
extra virgin olive oi
1/2 bottle of red wine
2 tsp flour

Preheat the oven to gas mark 3/160°C.

Grind the cumin seeds in a pestle and mortar, remove and set aside for a couple of minutes. Crush the garlic with some sea salt in the pestle and mortar. Add the cumin, thyme, pepper, paprika and mix with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Spread over the meat, place into a roasting tray and put into the oven for about 30 minutes. Then add the red wine.

Roast for about another 2 hours. In the meantime, cut the potatoes and vegetables into large chunks. Season with a little pepper and salt and drizzle with oil. Add the potatoes and aubergines to the roasting tray. Cover with tin foil and cook for 30 minutes before adding the remaining vegetables. Cook for one more hour. By then the meat should be really tender.

Remove the meat, cover and rest. Transfer all the vegetables into a warmed bowl. Dissolve the flour in a little cold water and stir into the cooking liquids to make a gravy. Place the roasting tin onto the hob and let the gravy come to the boil and thicken. Check the seasoning, then pour into a serving dish.

Serve the leg of lamb on a warmed platter surrounded by all the veg.