Aubergine with Pomegranate

As ever, i have to make something special for tara when i'm having meat.  And of course, i have to eat meat more often these days because there's loads of meat recipes in nigella's book!  a good excuse, i know.

- Slice 2 aubergine's lengthways about 1/2 cm thick.
- If using a griddle (which i did) brush with olive oil, and if a frying pan, heat some olive oil in a pan.
- Fry on a high heat for a few minutes either side until the outside is crispy and inside soft.
- Remove and place on some kitchen towels.
- Halve a pomegranate and remove most of the seeds by hitting the outside with a wooden spoon.
- Arrange the aubergines on a plate and squeeze the juice of the remaining pomegranates in the shell over them.
- Sprinkle with salt, handful chopped mint and the pomegranate seeds.

Mmmm aubergine, the king of vegetables...

Panchphoran Aloo

I cooked this to go with the previous duck and with tara's aubergine with pomegranate and it seemed to work.  It's hard not to burn the potatoes in the frying pan, but the crispy bits add to the flavour.

- Dice 900g potatoes into 1cm cubes and fry in some oil until half done, on a high heat to begin with, then a low heat.
- Add 1/2 teaspoon each of red chill powder, turmeric, fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds, black mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds and some salt.
- Stir regularly to stop the potatoes from catching and stop cooking when the potatoes are done.
- Garnish with fresh coriander.

Duck with Orange Salsa

The uncooked salsa (i assume salsa is always raw?!) really lifted the roasted duck - its a salsa to always bear in mind whenever you cook duck, particularly as its so easy to make.  Nigella suggests duck breasts but i used a duck leg which worked just as well.

- Slash the skin of 4-5 duck breasts, sprinkle with soy sauce and cook for 20 mins on a rack at 200C.
- Meanwhile, peel 2 oranges (i used clementines) and slice into small chunks.
- Finely chop 1/2 red onion and a fresh chilli, and add to the oranges, along with a good clump chopped coriander and 1/2 as much mint.
- Sprinkle with salt and squeeze 1/2 lime over it.
- Take the duck out of the oven and add the salsa.

I cooked this back in camden, together with the panchphoran potatoes and the pomegranite aubergine for tara, and it all seemed to work together.

Clementine Cake

Having accidentally made Queen of Puddings instead of this clementine cake a few weeks ago, i thought i'd make this now for Marni's 5 week birthday.  Actually, i made the chocolate pudding for marni's 5 week birthday, but it was so awful, i made this as well!  This was more like it - if Marni could eat as well as suck, she would have loved it.

- Boil 4-5 whole clementines in a pan for 2 hours, then drain, cut each in half and remove the pips.
- Pulp everything in a processor.
- Beat 6 eggs and add 225g sugar, 250g ground almonds, and 1 teaspoon baking powder.
- Mix well and add the pulped clementines.
- Pour the mixture into a buttered/lined 20cm tin and cook for 1 hour at 190C.
- You may need to cover the top after 40 mins to stop it burning.

Nigella calls it the easiest cake she knows, but you wouldn't know it to taste it - delicious.  By the way, that's 50 recipes down - a pretty good start if i say so myself - deserves a glass of champagne!

Seven Minute Steamed Chocolate Pudding

Easily the worst thing i've cooked so far.  It's cooked in a microwave, which rang alarm bells immediately, and seeing as we don't have one at home, i thought i'd better cook it at wittering, where surprisingly, there is one.  The ingredient list sounded nice, but putting everything in a bowl and then into a microwave for 7 mins, sounded dodgy - and it was.  I didn't have any clingfilm so i used baking parchment, which is maybe the reason it didn't work - however, i'm not going to try it again to find out!

- Grate 250g dark chocolate into a food processor and process together with 120g of butter and 100g brown sugar until combined.
- Add 1 teaspoon vanilla essence, 125ml double cream, 40g flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking powder, and 3 eggs and process until smooth.
- Put into a buttered pudding basin, cover with clingfilm and cook at 100% for 5 mins in a microwave.
- Pierce clingfilm, cover with a plate and let stand for 10 mins.

Good luck!

Quinces Poached in Muscat

Quinces aren't around outside november/december, so i had to grab my chance this year to cook with them and am i glad i did - they were truly amazing.  As you can see from the picture, the quinces go from rock-hard and white/lemon in colour, to a soft gorgeous pink and taste delicious.

- Fill a bowl of water with cold water and a squirt of lemon juice to put the quinces in and stop them turning brown.
- Peel 4 quinces, quarter and core them, putting them into the water and keeping the peelings/cores.
- Add 700ml muscat, 300ml water, 500g sugar, 1 stick of cinnamon, 2 bay leaves, 4 cloves, 3 cardamon pods and 6 peppercorns to a pan and bring to the boil.
- Put the peelings and quinces in an ovenproof dish, pour over the wine, cover and cook at 150C for 2 1/2 hours.
- Remove from the dish, strain the syrup into a saucepan, and reduce for a few mins.
- Serve the quinces with the syrup poured over them.

Nigella warns about over reducing the syrup and creating quince toffee, which of course, i did!  In fact, the syrup i was left after 2 1/2 hours in the oven, didn't need reducing at all once it had cooled a bit.  I do however now have quince jelly which is delicious on toast.  So i suggest taking half the syrup out, to have with the quinces, and creating quince jelly with the rest.  You can always increase the quantities for the syrup to have more of both.

Aubergine Moussaka

This is a great recipe - a good moussaka with a lebanese theme according nigella.  I think the addition of the chick peas makes it a bit more middle eastern, as does the use of pomegranate molasses.  However, given that i was at wittering rather than home in london, this was a bit tricky to find.  I had to use dark sugar with a squeeze of lemon as a substitute which seemed to work.

- Peel 500g aubergines in lengthways stripes, cut into 1.5cm cubes and saute for a few mins in 3 tablespoons olive oil.

- Remove to a dish covered in kitchen roll.

- Add 2 more tablespoons olive oil and saute 1-2 thinly sliced onions and 10 cloves thickly sliced garlic for about 5 mins until soft.

- Add 150g chickpeas (don't use the whole 200g tin or they will dominate) and cook for another 5 mins.

- Add 1 1/2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses and return the aubergines to the pan.

- Peel and quarter 500g tomatoes and add to the pan together with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon allspice, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and 200ml water.

- Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for about 1 hour.

- Serve sprinkled with parsley or coriander.

We had this a couple of times, once with the couscous, which didn't really do the moussaka justice, so the second time, i made some fresh chappatis which were perfect with it.

The chappati recipe i got, not from nigella, but from a guide on a 2 day camel trek in the Great Thar Desert in India.  In the middle of the dunes, he got out a small bag of flour, added a bit of salt and water to it, and gently kneaded it for a few mins.  Then he flattened it out as thin as possible into small chappatis, heated a metal pan over the fire until very hot, then cooked them without oil for a couple of mins on each side.

I have used this method of making bread many times since, and its as easy as bread making gets.  Whether or not, you've ever made bread before, i suggest you give it a go.