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17 May 2005: Hot hot hot This seems like it should be too much of a good thing: two dishes for dinner, both seasoned with chilli, ginger, soy sauce and Shaoxing rice wine. But actually it was delicious. A third, somewhat milder dish might have been a nice addition, but for a Tuesday night I couldn't really be bothered, so our only accompaniment was steamed rice. The aubergine recipe was adapted slightly from one on this page; the green beans from half a dozen very similar recipes scattered across the net. I couldn't find plain yellow bean paste in the shops this evening, so used some yellow bean paste with chilli in the sea spiced aubergine, and I thought that this gave the dish a nice amount of heat. If you like chilli and use plain yellow bean paste, you might want to add in an extra fresh chilli. Sea-spiced aubergine 
Preheat the oven to 200 C. Place the whole aubergine(s) on a foil-lined baking dish in the oven, and bake for around 30 minutes, until it is wrinkled and soft. (Note that the skin may look smooth while it's in the oven, even when the aubergine is done - we left it in for about 45 minutes, waiting for it to get wrinkly, but it was only when we took it out of the oven that the skin collapsed and wrinkled, in a kind of freaky manner.) Remove the aubergine from the oven and set aside to cool. Once it is cool enough to handle, cut into 1 inch cubes. Heat a dash of peanut oil in a pan, and add the garlic, ginger and chilli. Fry for 20-30 seconds, until they are becoming fragrant. Add the stock, yellow bean paste, wine and soy sauce, and bring to a simmer. Immediately add the aubergine pieces, and simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes until the sauce has thickened. In a small bowl or glass mix together the cornflour with a couple of teaspoons of water, then add to the aubergine mixture. Cook for another minute or two until the sauce has thickened further and lost any visible traces of the cornflour. Sprinkle with the spring onions and serve at once. Szechuan green beans 
Steam or blanch the beans until just tender, then drain and set aside. Mix together the oil, soy sauce, wine, chilli, ginger, sugar and salt. Heat a wok over a medium flame, then add the combined sauces and simmer for a minute. Add the beans and cook another couple of minutes until very little liquid remains and the beans are warmed through. Serve at once. Comments (2) | Permalink 16 May 2005: Spring stew 
I didn't have particularly high hopes for this tomatoey stew - it's dead simple and I bought the ingredients from the boring Tesco on the way home from uni. But it really works. The onions cook to sweetness in combination with the tomato, and even Tesco peppers and courgettes taste spring-like. The sugar snap peas add some crunch, but could be replaced with normal green beans quite easily. To sooth my crossness after dealing with Tesco and their abysmally-arranged vegetable section, I then stopped by Sheridan's cheesemongers on Pembroke Lane and picked up a Mine-Gabhar raw milk goat's cheese and a pointy-ended Breton baguette to have with the stew. The conversion of my mood to happiness once at home was completed by a glass of Peregrine pinot noir from Central Otago in New Zealand. Ted bought me a bottle of this for my birthday and it is divine, tasting like black cherries and spice. It's a little heavier than what I would normally drink with a dish like this, but given the rainy, somewhat chilly weather I think it matched very well.
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and cook the onions over low-medium heat for about 10 minutes, until they are softening. Add the garlic and peppers and continue to cook for a further 10 minutes, then add courgettes, roughly chopped tomatoes and juice, red wine, salt and chilli flakes. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Add the peas and cook until they are warmed through. Season to taste and stir through the basil. Serve warm or at room temperature. Comments (0) | Permalink 8 May 2005: Chickpeas and greens 
A great deal of tonight's dinner comes from the ever-excellent The Hungry Tiger. I knew I wanted to make the chickpeas and greens with garlicky, lemony yoghurt as soon as I read Redfox's recipe last year; I can't quite believe that it's taken me this long to get around to doing so. The impetus to make it finally came when I saw the piles of lovely mature but still tender spinach at the Temple Bar markets yesterday, and bought a bag full for just a euro. We spent a couple of hours today at Dun Laoghaire, walking out along the east pier in brilliant sunshine, then running back in to shore when the sky blackened in a matter of minutes and hail thundered down. Arriving home still slightly damp, we dried off and then pottered around the kitchen for an hour or so producing a highly satisfying meal of the spinach and chickpeas with yoghurt, alongside aubergine stew and couscous with pine nuts. Yoghurt with garlic and lemon Spinach with chickpeas
Heat some olive oil in a large pan, add the onion and cook over very low heat for 20-30 minutes until it is very soft and sweet. Add the garlic and cook another few minutes, then turn up the heat to medium and add the coriander and the chopped spinach. Turn the spinach as it cooks down. Add the chickpeas, salt and pepper, and chilli flakes, and continue to cook until the chickpeas are warmed through and any additional liquid has evaporated. Aubergine with tomato and cinnamon
Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat, and add the aubergine and garlic. Stir for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes, red wine, cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. Simmer for 15 - 20 minutes or so, until the aubergine is tender (the time taken will depend on your aubergine) and the tomatoes are cooked down to a thick paste. Season to taste. Comments (0) |
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