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23 July 2006: Spiced aubergine stew Hello strangers. I'm just back from a week in west Cork, during which I slept a lot, did a bit of walking and swimming and much admiring of beautiful coastline, ate some seriously fantastic breakfasts at Fortview House, the B+B we stayed at, and also had some particularly delicious scallops with roasted cherry tomatoes and fresh coriander at O'Connor's in Bantry. On the way back home, we stopped off for a night in Cork city, to eat dinner at the superb vegetarian restaurant Cafe Paradiso. I had a gingered miso broth with oyster mushrooms, samphire and wild garlic gnocchi, then cabbage leaf dolmas of butternut squash and hazelnuts, with red pepper and harissa sauce and a drizzle of cardamom yoghurt (the yoghurt was a knock-out - I will definitely be stealing that idea). Bridget (chef Denis' Kiwi partner) recommended a great wine, Lawson's Dry Hills sauvignon blanc, which was the best of that variety I've had for a long time. We also spent the night in one of the huge and lovely rooms above the restaurant, which meant we got to eat breakfast there the next day as well. We were still much too full to have the offered two courses, but limited ourselves to only one thing from the really appealing list of possibilities: poached eggs on bagels with spinach, with avocado and a fresh yellow cherry tomato relish. Mmm, so good - all the delicious things about eggs florentine, without the gluggy hollandaise. And those tomatoes were fantastic. All in all, an excellent week of relaxing. And that form of relaxing included not rushing around trying to fit in all the good restaurants in Cork. If we got hungry, we ate in the next good-looking place we came across. If the huge breakfasts plus late lunches meant we didn't want dinner till 10 or 11, then we stayed in and had clementines and apple cake at the B+B, over a game of cribbage or a novel. No stress. There are places down there I'd like to go in the future - Annie's Restaurant in Ballydehob, for example - but they'll wait. It's time for taking things slowly. 
Coming back from the holiday, I was looking forward to making some simple, vegetable-rich food, but actually found it difficult to get back into the habit of cooking. Weren't we just going to chose from a menu and have the food arrive? Last night we could only get together the enthusiasm for pasta with steamed broccoli, jarred tuna, fennel seeds and lemon juice. This evening, however, we pottered around the kitchen for an hour making this silky aubergine stew, flavoured with cardamom, ginger and coconut milk (adapted from a Nigel Slater recipe here). The photo above is deceptive: there was more sauce than you can see here, pooling around the chunks of soft aubergine, and the glossy look is all due to the late sun streaming in through the window as we ate, not to any shiny quality of the stew. I used one long and very hot red chilli in this, but next time would add less at the start and then taste for heat later on before adding more. It's still delicious, but I think a little less chilli heat would let the other warm spices shine more. We ate half for dinner tonight, and I'm looking forward to finishing it tomorrow night and seeing how it's developed - I bet it gets even better.
Remove the stems from the aubergines, quarter them lengthwise, then chop into slices about 2 cm wide. Sprinkle with salt, and leave them to sit in a colander over the sink for 30-45 minutes. Peel and chop the onions, then cook them with the oil in a heavy saucepan over moderate heat for 10-15 minutes, until they are soft and translucent. Prepare the spices. Gently crush the cardamom pods and extract the seeds. Put them in a mortar and pestle with the coriander seeds and the peppercorns, and crush to a rough powder. Peel and slice the garlic cloves. Peel the ginger and cut into thin matchsticks. Finely slice the chilli. Add the crushed spices, the garlic, ginger, tumeric and chilli to the onions. Stir for a minute or two until they are aromatic, then add the tomatoes, stock and coconut milk. Gently bring to a simmer. Rinse the salt from the aubergines, and pat dry. Heat a ridged grill pan over a moderate heat, and place the aubergine pieces on it, without adding any oil. Turn them as they cook, until they are softening and have dark grill lines across them. As each piece is done, remove it from the grill and add it to the tomato mixture. Continue until all the aubergine is added. Taste for salt and chilli, and add more of either if necessary. Allow to simmer for 25-35 minutes (depending on the firmness of the aubergines and the size of the pieces), until the aubergines are soft and silky, but not disintegrating. If the sauce is too soupy, gently lift out the aubergine pieces into a bowl, and turn up the heat for a few minutes to reduce the sauce. Return the aubergines to the sauce, and stir through some chopped coriander leaves. Serve with rice. Serves 4. Comments (2) | Permalink sometime in April 2006: Sunshine = Vietnamese This entry has been sitting mostly-finished for well over a month - finally I've managed to get 5 minutes together to add the last couple of lines and upload! Vietnamese chicken salad 
Preheat the oven to 220C. Heat a frying pan over high heat. While it is heating, brush the chicken breasts with olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Place the chicken in the pan, skin side down, and cook for two minutes without disturbing the meat. Turn the breasts and cook for a further minute. Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the breasts to a baking dish. Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 9 minutes. Remove from the oven, and set aside to rest for 20 minutes. Peel the carrot and finely julienne. Slice the cucumbers into halves lengthways, scrape out the seeds, and finely julienne. Rinse the bean sprouts well. Pick the leaves from the herbs - the leaves can be left whole, or roughly torn if too large. Bring a pot of water to the boil and add the noodles. Return to the boil, then turn off the heat and leave to sit for 3 minutes. Drain and leave to cool. Make the dressing by combining the fish sauce, lime juice, rice vinegar, caster sugar, shallots and chillies. Stir until the sugar has dissolved. Leave the dressing to stand for at least 5 minutes before using. To assemble the salad, toss together the chicken, the vegetables and herbs, the noodles and the dressing. Serves 4. Vietnamese eggplant salad 
Bring a large pot of water to the boil, then add the whole, untrimmed eggplants. Let the water return to the boil, lower the heat, and simmer until the eggplants change colour and start to wilt a little. This should take about 8 minutes for slender Japanese eggplants, or about 12 minutes for the larger European kind. Remove the eggplants from the heat and place in a colander to drain. Once the eggplants have cooled just enough to handle, cut them lengthways in half (Japanese kind) or quarters (European), then into 4 cm slices. Make the dressing by mixing together the garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper. Gradually add the sesame oil, whisking continually with a fork, until the dressing is well blended. Let it sit for a few minutes so the vinegar can reduce the sharpness of the garlic. Toss the eggplant, coriander and dressing together and serve. Comments (0) | Permalink |
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