Caponata (Sicilian Eggplant Stew)

Since my mum started growing eggplants & doesn’t really use that many herself, I am always on the lookout for new ways to cook them. This is a lovely recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Italy, he says it can be eaten as a cold starter or a warm side, we served it along side some meat & mash. I also tried out the leftovers from the fridge cold as suggested but I think the lovely warm wintery flavours are lost & I will continue to heat it up to eat nice & hot. The eggplant is lovely & creamy & as always the tomatoes are lovely with it. The olives, capers & vinegar all blend in nicely to give it a slightly sour flavour which is nice for something a bit different.

Caponata (Sicilian Eggplant Stew)

Olive oil
2 nice large purple eggplants, cut into large chunks
1 heaped teaspoon dried oregano
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 small red onion, peeled & finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled & finely sliced
a small bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley, leaves picked & stalks finely chopped
2 tablespoons salted capers, rinsed, soaked & drained
a handful of green olives, stones removed
2-3 tablespoons herb vinegar
5 large ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
optional: 2 tablespoons slivered almonds, lightly toasted

In a large frying pan, pour in a couple of glugs of olive oil & place over heat. Add the eggplant & oregano, season with a little salt & toss around so the eggplant is evenly coated with oil. Cook on high heat for about 4-5 minutes, giving the pan a shake every now & then. When the eggplant is nice & golden all over, add the onion, garlic & parsley stalks & continue cooking for another couple of minutes. Feel free to add a little more oil to the pan if it’s getting too dry. Throw in the drained capers and the olives & drizzle over the vinegar. When all the vinegar has evaporated, add the tomatoes & simmer for about 15 minutes or until tender. Taste before serving & season if needed with salt & pepper & a little more vinegar. Drizzle with some good olive oil & serve sprinkled with the chopped parsley leaves & almonds if you like.

Griddled Eggplant with fetta, mint & chilli

Today I’m having Michaels family over for a bbq & to start with I thought I would try out these little morsels from Nigella Lawson’s Forever Summer that I have heard so many good things about.

The recipe calls for a large bunch of fresh mint which luckily I have growing in my courtyard no thanks to me. It initially grew on it’s own & every year I cut it back as it tries to take over the garden & just keep a little patch to use for cooking. I love the fact that I can just pop out the back door to take a cutting whenever I need, and Mint is so versatile, it can be used in sweet, savoury & even drink recipes, you gotta love it. You can see in the picture how it’s growing very heartily amongst my lobelia against the back wall! So this recipe is my entry this weekend for Weekend Herb Blogging, hosted by Pat at Up a Creek without a Patl this round.

I have to say these are absolutely yummy, I could have eaten them all if it wasn't for the fact that I had a mamoth bbq waiting for me. The strong taste of the eggplant went really well with the salty, creamy cheese & the mint & chilli just set the whole thing off, really easy to prepare too. One hint too, I was very cautious with the filling & eneded up hacing some leftover so stuff them full.

Griddled Eggplant with fetta, mint & chilli

2 large eggplants, each cut thinly. Lengthways, into about 10 slices
4 tablespoons olive oil
250g fetta cheese
1 large red chilli, finely chopped, deseeded or not, depending on how much heat you want
Large bunch fresh mint, finely chopped, with some saved for sprinkling over at the end
Juice of 1 lemon
Black pepper

Preheat the barbecue or griddle to a high heat
Brush both sides of the eggplant slices with the oil, and cook them for about 2 minutes each side until golden & tender
Crumble the fetta into a bowl & stir in the chilli, mint & lemon juice and grind in some black pepper. Pile the end third of each slice with a heaped teaspoon of the mixture & roll each slice up as you go to form a soft, stuffed bundle.
Place joint side down on a plate & sprinkle with a little more mint.

Makes 20 rolls

A La Grecque – Aireys Inlet

Sunday night I took Michael to this new restaurant in Aireys inlet which is run by Kosta Talimanidis, the guy who used to run the famous Koasta’s in Lorne, this is his new venture which I have heard much talk & praise about so couldn’t wait. Nothing disappointed form the moment we walked in, the décor is very bright, with white walls, painted with colourful murals here & there & bright bulbs hanging down around the bar area. The staff were very friendly, helpful & quick.

To start with we shared 2 entrees, 1st grilled soutzouk which for those of you who do not know what this is, is a spicy Turkish sausage, served with an eggplant jam, fantastic flavours that were perfect together. 2nd was some Kalimari in a light batter served simply with rocket & aioli, scrumptious.

For mains I had a roast pork shoulder (sorry abt the blurry photo), served with baked apples, pancetta & sage & Michael had some Grilled blue eye with a dill sauce & some greek salad. We also had some potatoes & a beetroot, rocket & yoghurt salad. I loved every mouthful of each dish. And of course we had to finish up with dessert, there was no way I was leaving without it! I went all traditional & had the almond, hazelnut & rosewater baklava which was huge & I’d have to say the best I’ve had & Michael had the slow roasted peaches with ottway ranges honey & Meredith sheeps milk yoghurt, again divine.

This is definitely one of those places I will have to visit again as would love to try every single item on the menu. Well done!

Melanzane alla Parmigiana (Aubergine parmigiana)

Tonight I wanted to cook up something with the fresh eggplant my mum gave me from the garden so tried out this simple dish from Jamie’s latest ‘Italy’ book. As promised it was very moorish & I’m going back for seconds in a minute it was so tasty, very easy to prepare too. Its almost a meal in itself which is good as its all I’m having tonight, Michael having left me to my own devices while being wined & dined by his work.

Melanzane alla Parmigiana (Aubergine parmigiana)

Jamie describes this as a classic Northern Italian recipe. Which is great served with all sorts of roasted meats or fish. He recommends grilling the eggplant rather than frying with oil as this gives them a creamy rather than greasy texture.

3 large firm eggplants
olive oil
1 onion, peeled & finely chopped
1 clove garlic peeled & finely sliced
1 heap teaspoon dried oregano
2 x 400g tin plum tomatoes
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
a little wine vinegar
a large handful fresh basil
4 large handfuls freshly grated parmesan cheese
2 handfuls of dried breadcumbs
a little fresh oregano, leaves chopped
optional: 1 x 150g ball of buffalo mozzarella

Remove the stalks from the eggplants & cut into 1 cm thick slices, set aside. Get your griddle pan or bbq really hot. Meanwhile, put 2 or 3 glugs of olive oil in a pan over medium heat & add onions, garlic & oregano, cook for 10 minutes until soft & the garlic has a tiny bit of colour. Add the tomatoes to the onion mix, cover & simmer for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, grill the eggplant on both sides until lightly charred & set aside. When the tomato sauce is reduced, add salt & pepper, basil & vinegar. You can leave chunky (as I did) or puree.

In an oven dish, put in a small layer of sauce, sprinkle lightly with cheese, followed by a single layer of eggplant, repeat until all ingredients used up, then finish with a layer of tomato, cheese & sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs are nice tossed in olive oil with the fresh oregano. Also you can serve with torn up mozzarella on top. Place the dish in the oven at 190c & cook for ½ an hour until golden, crisp & bubbly. Its best eaten right away but can be served cold.

Cookie Wednesday 30th Nov05

The other night I grabbed a quick bite to eat at Cookie with Rach before heading off to the movies to see Pride & Prejudice - great romantic movie by the way

The cookie business card advertises itself as being a Beer hall - Eating House - Disco & it covers all well. Once you find the entrance, up a staircase off Swanston street, to the left side is a restaurant serving modern Thai food & to the right is the beer hall. We ate in the more casual beer hall, same food, only diff being you have to order at the bar. I have been a few times & my fave is the Lamb & eggplant curry, the lamb is so tender it falls apart & it has a wonderful sweet flavour, we shared this with some steamed rice & it was more than enough for 2. Great place to eat for lunch or dinner but be warned come Friday/Saturday night (& maybe later other nights for all I know) its very packed & not much room for food, great place for Friday night drinks though!

Cookie
252 Swanston Street
Melbourne
03 9663 7660

Enjoy!

WhyNot @ Byron Friday November 18th 2005

For our last night in town we headed out to Why Not where we decided to sit out on the back on one of the lounges & do tapas & cocktails. The lounge area is very asian inspired with large wooden couches covered in bright cushions with some really interesting art work on the walls by Evan Malcolm, we kicked our shoes off, lounged back & ordered up our tapas & cocktails.

I love the idea of eating like this, lots of teeny little dishes allowing you to taste so much more on a single night & still be able to walk out afterwards. We started with some big fat juicy black olives & pistachios, some dips - a homemade guacamole & a smoky eggplant dip which was to die for & not like any dip I have tried before, wish I had that recipe! We also had some antipasto, & caperberries which I also love & would love to see on more menus, artichokes, fetta, semi dried tomatoes & lots of toasted bread. This was washed down with a cosmopolitan, they have this great deal where you can order any tapas item & a cocktail for $15.00 which we planned to take advantage of. We were off to a very good start.

Next up we had some Chilli salt baby octopus & coconut mussels, these were fantastic, esp the coconut broth the mussels were served in, quite different. This lot was washed down with a bellini

Next up were some very tasty Grilled thai prawns & tuna with daikon & ponzu. The ponzu was not something i had eaten or heard of before & was quite interesting, almost potato like, wouldn't say it wasnt nice but I also wont be rushing out to buy any in a hurry

We finished it all of with a lovely cheese platter

A great relaxing way to enjoy our last night in this lovely place