Eggplant Pasta Sauce

Ingredients:
1 good-sized eggplant cubed (salted and drained if you wish)
1 large onion
2 or more cloves of garlic chopped finely
1 tin whole peeled tomatoes
1 cup petit pois (frozen is fine)
1 cup chopped fresh basil
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tbs lemon juice
2 tsp raw sugar
salt & pepper to taste
olive oil

Directions:
Fry eggplant and set aside to drain (I like them done golden brown). Sweat the onion and garlic in olive oil along with the cumin, a little salt and pepper. Add the eggplant and stir. Add the tomatoes and set to simmer. Add peas now if fresh, or near the end if frozen. Simmer until tomatoes have broken down, about 10 mins. Add lemon juice and add sugar (this is not strictly necessary but I find it enhances the flavour). Make a final adjustment with salt & pepper, serve with your favourite pasta and sprinkle with basil.

Poussins with Balsamic Vinegar

Allow one poussin per person. You can buy poussins - 4-week old chickens - ready to go in good butchers and even in some supermarkets these days.

Wash and thoroughly dry the poussins inside and out. If part of the neck is still in place, remove it. Rub plenty of salt and pepper into the poussins inside and outside. Poke a small sprig of rosemary and a sprig of sage into the cavities. Cut off the wing tips (they only get in the way and there's next to no meat on them) and tie the legs tightly across the cavity opening.

Brown the poussins very well in a couple of tbsps of olive oil and a knob of butter (preferably) in a non-stick pan over moderate heat. Brown them top, bottom and sides. It should take about ten minutes. If the non-stick pan is ovenproof, keep going with it. If not, transfer the poussins to an oven-proof dish.

With a very sharp knife, very carefully cut the skin between the thighs and the breasts and very carefully ease the thigh away from the breast a fraction. This lets the heat penetrate into the thickest part of the flesh, meaning it should cook at the same time as the thinner breast meat.

Pour about 200 mls of hot reduced beef or veal stock over the poussins and put them into a 200C oven. Mrs finbar doesn't eat meat, so I had to use a reduced brown chicken stock. Not as rich, but it still worked. After 20 minutes, baste the birds with the hot stock and drizzle a tbsp of good balsamic vinegar over each bird. Give them another 15 to 20 minutes in the oven undisturbed. Gently ease the thigh away from the breast to check the colour of the flesh inside the thigh. It can be very very marginally pink. The worst thing you can do is overcook poussins.

If the birds are cooked, remove them and cover them with foil and rest them for 10 minutes. Deglaze the dish with another tbsp of the balsamic vinegar. If the dish can go on top of the stove, put it over high heat and reduce the liquid by about a third. If the dish can't go on top of the stove, pour the liquid into a small saucepan and proceed. Lower the heat and whisk in a couple of small knobs of butter, one at a time, waiting till the first one has melted and been absorbed before adding the next. This sweetens the sauce and gives it a nice shine.

Poussins can be fiddly to eat whole with a knife and fork. I carved them in the kitchen. Use a very sharp knife to cut right around the thigh, separating it and the leg from the body. A swift tug removes the thigh bone from the body giving you two small marylands per bird. Using the same very sharp knife - and it has to be very sharp - remove the two pieces of breast meet.

Arrange the portions in a nice stack on each plate and drizzle the reduced sauce over the top. Or, if you want to make the guests work, remove the string tying the legs and place a whole bird on each plate and drizzle with the reduced sauce.

It's a dainty but hearty dish. It goes very well with braised radicchio. Treviso is best, but it's hard to find. You can use the easier-to-find round one. It's more bitter than the Treviso, but braising it reduces the bitterness enormously. If you use the round one, cut it vertically into quarters or eighths, depending on the size. Don't remove the core or everything will fall apart. If you're using Treviso, just cut it in half vertically. Use a very sharp knife to score the heart inside, with the scores running down deeply into (but not through) the core. This helps the cooking process. Wash and dry thoroughly. Place the pieces cut-side down in an oven-proof dish that will take them without too much overcrowding. Season with plenty of salt and pepper. Pour a couple of tbsps of olive oil over the top. You don't want them swimming in oil. The oil should just cover the bottom of the dish and then some.

Place into a 200C oven for ten minutes. Turn them, give them another six or seven minutes, then turn them again and give them another six or seven minutes. They're done when the core is tender. You can so all this hours ahead, set the dish aside and reheat in the oven when ready. If any sort of radicchio is too bitter for your taste, you can use witlof (or belgian endive, or whatever your greengrocer calls it). It's less bitter than any of the radicchios and it's treated in exactly the same way in the cooking process.

For extras, I par-steamed some baby carrots and finished them in a pan on top of the stove in some butter with a sprig of rosemary and seasonings, and served a warm lentil salad on the side.

Drain, remove the onion and garlic, rinse the lentils well. Finely dice half a good-sized peeled carrot and a stick of celery. Finely dice two or three cornichons. Deseed and finely dice a medium-sized ripe tomato. Finely mince a couple of shallots (the tiny onion, not the scallion or spring onion). Combine the vegies with the lentils.

Prepare a vinaigrette. Emulsify one tbsp cab sav vinegar, three tbsps walnut oil, one tsp of Dijon mustard, some finely chopped tarragon, and seasonings to taste.

Add enough vinaigrette to the lentil salad to moisten it but not drown it. Check for seasoning and adjust accordingly. Prep it this far at least an hour ahead of time to let the flavours infuse.

Just before serving, warm the salad gently in a saucepan over a low heat. You might need to moisten it with a wee bit more vinaigrette. Don't overheat it. Just warm it. You don't want the tomato bits to cook or they'll collapse.

Serve as a side to anything you like.

Lemon, fennel and rocket salad

1-2 lemons
2 oranges
1 large fennel bulb or 2 baby fennel
200g rocket
100g almonds, chopped (or pecans)
1/2 cup Kalamata olives, halved lengthwise

Toasted sesame dressing:
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp white-wine vinegar
1 tsp French mustard
Salt and ground black pepper

1. Peel the lemons and oranges, removing all the white pith. Cut into thin slices and remove any seeds. Thinly slice the fennel. Wash and dry the rocket and tear into pieces. Chill while making the dressing.

2. To make the dressing, heat the oil in a small pan over moderate heat. Add the sesame seeds and fry, stirring constantly, until lightly golden. Remove from the heat and cool. Pour the mixture into a small jug, whisk in the remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper.

3.Combine the fruit, fennel, rocket, pecans and olives in a shallow serving bowl. Drizzle with the dressing and serve.

And tonight I added a drizzle of oil from my jar of fetta cheese, garlic, chillies and olive oil. And a soupcon (Can't do cedillas) of Reggiano...oh, and a few finely minced capers....and mashed Kalamata olives...a drop of lime juice...finely torn basil leaves....and substitute the Jatz with slices of grilled thick slices of baguette, smeared with best olive oil...

A glass of good shiraz and you wouldn't call the king your uncle...

Layer the wafer-thin slicees of Bresaola on a white platter, top with sliced fresh mozzarella, a semi-dried tomato wedge* (see below), torn leaf of sweet basil. Drizzle w/ EVOO and best Balsamic. Serve at room temperature, of course.

*Semi-dry tomato wedges in a spray-oiled tray at 100C for 1.5hrs so they are still somewhat juicy. Accelerate the caramelising process by wiping each piece of tomato with the back of a spoon dipped in sweet chilli sauce. And sprinkle them w/Maldon salt. Check tray every 1/2hr as even the best-made ovens have uneven temperature. Shift tomatoes accordingly.

Travel update. We've decided, in the first instance, to take a place over there for three months, using it as a base to look for a place for the balance of the couple of years. Preferable to having to commit to a place for a couple of years sight unseen. I'm in email touch with the sister of a friend of a friend who operates a rental agency in Tuscany. With her intimate knowledge of the properties, and photos via email, we're prepared to take a property for three months sight unseen (well, not physically inspected by us) on her recommendation. Last night she emailed info on three or four properties, a couple of which seem to be strong candidates. All in Tuscany, not all that far from Florence, which is a pleasant surprise. One of them is between Florence and Fiesole, a ten minute or forty minute walk from Florence. At this point, late March or early April would seem to be the time for blast off.

Auntie P. I'm making that pear dessert again tomorrow night for Mrs finbar's birthday. This time I'll take a photo!

BTW, I saw your namesake in a movie my daughter hired yesterday - the main character was called Fin for short tho. Think the title was something like The Station Agent, but I often don't recall the names of movies and books etc acurately, so don't quote me :P

In the meantime, I can post a photo of the birthday party gatecrasher:

Tomato chutney, made from assorted Ste Lucies, Giordanes and the unidentified RL red beefsteaks that came out of the Soldacki packet:

And put to good use on chargrilled organic chicken sausages with potatoes sauteed with sage and rosemary:

I have to tell you, the chutney is gorgeous. She dug into the cookbook collection and found one from the early 1960s containing an old-fashioned tomato chutney recipe. Here it is with her amendments:

3 lb ripe tomatoes (but not over-ripe)
1/2 oz allspice powder and 1 oz mustard seeds tied in muslin
1/2 tbsp salt
1/2 pint good red wine vinegar
4 oz minced shallots (eschallots, not spring onions)
4 oz sugar
1/4 tsp cracked black pepper
1 chilli deseeded and minced

Wipe the tomatoes, bake in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes or until the skins split. Remove the tomatoes from the oven, peel, chop and place in a pan with the minced shallots and chilli. Add the allspice powder and mustard seeds in the muslin and heat until simmering. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, then add sugar, seasonings and vinegar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved, then continue cooking gently until the liquid reduces and the chutney thickens. With the amount of juice in heirloom tomatoes, this reduction can take quite a while, up to an hour. Cool, remove the muslin bag, pour the chutney into jars and seal well.

If there's any left, we'll bring some to Rutherglen.

finbar, please tell Mrs finbar that this recipe is absolutely fabulous! :)

I was able to use mostly ingredients from the garden. Just sooo satisfying to go and harvest what you need for a meal.

Italian Green Tomato Pickle

Makes about 3 cups and doubles easily

Snappy, spicy, and a perfect lift for so many dishes, this seasoning found in the city of Lecce, in southern Italy's Apulia region, is an old way of putting up the last (or first) of the tomato harvest. There, they are often small oval green tomatoes with pointed tips. Sometimes the tomatoes, in their marinade of garlic, chillies, basil, and mint, are set out on their own as part of an antipasto. On other occasions they season vegetable sautés, soups, tomato sauces, are sautéed into simple pasta dishes, blended with scrambled eggs, and are added to meat stews and ragoûts. Try a few spoonfuls the next time you sauté spinach, sweet peppers, or onions. They're excellent on sandwiches, especially ones of roasted vegetables, or good ham.

Ingredients:

500 g green tomatoes, cored and cut into ½ inch pieces
2 tbs salt
2 sun-dried tomatoes (not under oil), soaked and minced
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs minced fresh hot red chilli
6 mint leaves, chopped
12 basil leaves, minced
about 4 cups white wine vinegar (7% acid)
about ½ cup fruity extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

In a china or glass bowl combine tomatoes and salt, cover and refrigerate 24 hours. Turn into a sieve and rinse briefly under cold, running water. Toss tomatoes with garlic, chilli, sun-dried tomatoes, and herbs.
Collect small jars and lids adding up to about 4 cups capacity. Wash them in hot soapy water, then immerse in water in a large pot. Bring lids and jars to a simmer, lift out with tongs and fill with tomato mixture to within 1 inch of jar's lip. Add enough vinegar to cover, topping off with a little oil. Seal, cool, and refrigerate.
Marinate 4 days before serving. Top off with more vinegar and seal after each serving.
Will keep 6 months in the refrigerator as long as they are totally covered with vinegar after each use.

1kg pumpkin
1 whole egg
150g plain flour
85g parmesan, freshly grated
A little freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

TO SERVE:

60g butter, melted
50g parmesan, freshly grated
Sage leaves

Preheat the oven to 200C. Cut the pumpkin into pieces and roast (skin on) till quite soft. (You can also steam it, but I think even steaming leaves the flesh too damp) The pulp should be dry but soft. Remove the skin and put the flesh through a mouli or potato ricer. Or use a potato masher, but don't over-mash. The pulp needs some texture. Don't use a blender because you'll end up with no texture at all.

Beat the egg, add salt and pepper to taste. Mix with the pumpkin pulp, flour, parmesan and nutmeg. You should end up with a soft, workable dough. Not a sticky one.

Form the gnocchi. Take pieces of the dough and use floured hands to roll them (on a floured surface) until you have long "sausages" of dough about 3/4" thick. Cut the "sausages" into about 1" - 1 1/2" pieces. Dust with extra flour to make sure they don't stick together. One by one, run each piece down the tines of a fork, using gentle pressure, to create the little ridges in the dough that will hold the sauce.

Get lots of boiling salted water on the go. Drop the gnocchi into the water without overcrowding. They're cooked when they rise to the surface and float.

Meanwhile, you've melted the butter in a pan with the sage leaves over medium-low heat. The butter should be light brown. Remove the gnocchi from the boiling with a slotted spoon, drain well, place carefully into the pan with the melted butter and sage. Toss gently to coat, turn out onto warmed plates, sprinkle with the extra parmesan, and serve.

Yum!

mudlark, who's too tired to attempt anything but a reheat tonight :(

It's not ideal, but I've also frozen them in the past when I've made excess. You just have to make sure the container is well sealed to keep out any moisture. Let them thaw completely before you prise them apart very carefully.

Lamb Saag (Lamb & Spinach curry)

1.4 kg chopped, steamed silverbeet (or food processed if you prefer)

Paste base:
Process the following ingredients to form a paste with 5 tbsp of water:
3 onions coarsely chopped
5cm ginger
8 cloves of garlic
1 green cayenne chili

1.4 kg lamb pieces (I use the meat from a lamb leg cut into BIG (2.5cm) cubes
8 tbsp corn oil (or other quality vegetable oil)

Spices:
1 cinnamon stick
7 whole cloves
7 cardamon pods
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp ground coriander seed
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp tumeric

1 tomato chopped
2 tbsp natural yogurt
1 1/2 tsp salt
1tbsp Garam Marsala

Brown lamb pieces in vegetable oil and then set aside.

Using the same oil cook the cinnamon, cloves, cardamon and bay leaves until the bay leaves start to darken, then add the paste base and cook for around ten minutes, adding water if required to prevent sticking.

Add the coriander, cumin and tumeric, 2 minutes later add the tomato, 5 minutes later the yogurt and finally 2 minutes later the lamb and juices. Once mixed add the silverbeet and salt.

Bring to the boil and simmer for 50 minutes or until the meat is tender. You shouldn't need to add any water but this depends on the lamb you use.

Once the meat is tender add the garam marsala and serve.

Mahi Mahi a la Med'
(This is for two, adjust accordingly. But I don't worry about the quantities and just make it by feel and eye)

Take about 600-800g of fresh fish fillets, skinned and deboned and cut into 6in long by 2in wide slivers. I have mahi mahi or dolphin fish at the moment, but you could substitute kingfish, Spanish or spotted mackerel, yellowfin or albacore tuna, bonito, snapper or trevally. You want a lightly oily white-fleshed fish not a really oily species like farmed salmon, nor do you want a delicate blue-eye or whiting. Wild trout (not farmed ocean trout), silver perch or Murray cod would work. Imperative that the fish be fresh.

Take about 2lbs of mixed heirloom tomatoes, diced into largish cubes, or use halved cherries. Best to have yellows, reds and greens.
Half a tin on Italian butter beans or borlotti beans, drained and rinsed. Sometimes I got the whole tin if not having bread.
About 18 good meaty green and black olives, seeded
Half an onion, halved then finely sliced
1/4 garlic glove, finely chopped
Half a handful of chopped parsely
Half a handful of fresh oregano leaves
Slug of very good Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Slug of very good White Wine Vinegar (or red-wine [cab sav] vinegar if fish is more oily or strong like say mackerel and tuna)

Mix the above and let rest while you prepare the dressing for the fish...

Hand Pounded Salsa Verde

Large handful of fresh oregano
Garlic, 1/4 clove chopped
Small dash of top-quality EVO oil
Small dash of top-quality (white or red wine) vinegar
Cracked black pepper
Salt flakes

Throw all the above into a mortar and pound with a pestle till you make a rough green sauce. Taste and adjust seasoning, but don't be heavy handed with the salt as the olives above have salt.

Now take your boneless Mahi Mahi or fish pieces and dry sear over a very high heat, a white-hot pan or BBQ hotplate, very quickly. This fish won't stick if it's a seasoned hotplate or non-stick pan. Take a large white plate, arrange a bed of the tomato mix on the bottom and top with a vertical stack of fish and drizzle or dab the Salsa Verde about. You could sprinkle a few real capers (washed of sal)t or sliced caperberries about if you like them or pound these into the Salsa Verde.

A little crusty bread should be served to mop-up the dressing and juices. A glass or two of cold-climate Reisling is a great acompliment.

As with most simple dishes the key is the quality of ingredients. Line-caught fish, heirloom tomatoes, homegrown herbs, gourmet olives, and imported oils and vinegars, used sparingly, make a wonderful pairing.

I will take a photo next time.

Cheers, Grub.

Eggplant Lasagne (Nearly Vegetarian)

(serves 6-8)

Ingredients
1 Kg shredded mozzarella cheese – more if desired
4 lge shiny purple/black egg plants

Sauce
2 lge tins chopped tomatoes 800+ gms
2 tins tomato & onion capellery 440 gms (substitute 1 lge tin tomatoes & garlic)
2 lge onions diced (sautéed)
200g chopped mushrooms – more if desired
3-500g chopped bacon
140g tomato paste
250ml red wine (after taste testing of course!)
2 teaspoons Oregano
2 tbspns parsley
2-3 lge cloves garlic crushed
pepper & salt to taste (be careful – err on having less as there could still be salt on the eggplants)

Instructions for Sauce
Simmer all together until liquid thickens into a nice sauce consistency (approx 2-3 hours). Add extra water as necessary.

Slice eggplant approx 1/4" thick, layer into a bowl, salting each layer (quite heavily) all over. Leave overnight. Pour off liquid, rinse well and pat/press dry with paper towel or tea towel. (Rinsing is crucial to remove salty taste. Salt was to draw out bitter liquid).

Fry until golden brown in oil with a little butter and put on paper towel to absorb excess oil.

Alternative would be to avoid the salting/frying stage and simmer in water until tender. Frying is tastier. Bad things always are!

Lightly grease lasagne/baking tray, then place layers of sauce, cheese and eggplant until the baking tray is full. Top with cheese.

Cook in medium oven approx 1 hour and until cheese is melted and lightly brown.

Lasagne should ‘set’ and when slightly cooled, be easy to slice and serve. Freezes well. Sauce can be used for other recipes.

Like other dishes of its kind, this tastes much better the day after cooking, if it can last that long.
Enjoy

Woori

Trim the chicken breast. Use a very sharp knife to slice it in half laterally, cutting from the thick end to the thin end, ending up with two, thinner chicken breasts. They're going to be hammered out flat, doubling their size, so if they're already large (in area terms), cut them across into halves. Make sure you remember which are the "outside" sides of the breasts, the sides on which the skin would have been.

Place a section of breast between two sheets of Glad Wrap on a chopping board. Use the milder side of a meat tenderiser to beat the breast flat without smashing holes in the meat. A rolling pin will do the job, too. Strike down and sideways, stretching the meat, ending up with a thin piece of chicken of (hopefully) equal thickness all over. Repeat the process with the rest of the sections of breast.

Roughly chop a clove of garlic (or more than one, according to taste). Add the garlic to half a cup of Italian parsley on a chopping board. Mince the lot together with a sharp knife. Tip the mixture into a small bowl, add salt and pepper, a sprinkling of dried chilli flakes, and enough good extra virgin olive oil to create a wet paste.

Smear the wet paste all over over one side of the flattened chicken breasts. And, in particular, onto the "inside" of the breasts that had an "outside" or skin side. The marinade won't be absorbed as effectively on the skin side. Let the chicken sit for half an hour or so for the flavours to be absorbed.

Heat a ridged griddle pan till it's very hot. Carefully lay the chicken - marinade-side down - in the pan making sure it's flat on the pan's surface. If the pan is hot enough, and the chicken thin enough, it shouldn't take more than about 45 seconds before the chicken is ready to be turned. As soon as you see the edges of the chicken turning white, it's ready to turn. The key is not to overcook the chicken. And, with the chicken as thin as it is (or should be), it's just about impossible to undercook it. Turn the chicken carefully, making sure, again, that it's flat against the pan. Another 30 to 45 seconds should see it ready. If you're working in numbers, set the cooked chicken aside on a warm plate while you do the rest. If you haven't got a ridged griddle pan, a large frying pan coated with a film of oil will do.

Plate the chicken, grind some pepper over it, drizzle with some good extra virgin oil and serve with a lemon wedge. I serve it with wilted spinch and potato wedges sauteed with herbs.

Woori

We usually had them with breadcrumbs browned in butter. Sprinkled over the dumplings. Plus sugar, if required.
Old recipe from Austria. :)

Thanks for bringing back great childhood memories!

PP

PP