nam prik noom

 We ate this amazing thing in Thailand many years ago. Is it a dip? A sauce? Not sure but we're happy to eat it with some sticky (glutinous rice).

Grill eggplants and hot green peppers. This is best done over a fire but you could also do it in your oven. The skins should char and blister. Put them in a dish and cover with a cloth to sweat them a bit. This makes it easier to peel the skins off. Peel the skins off! In a mortar and pestle, smash up some garlic then add the green pepper and smash some more then add the eggplant. You want a nice chunky mess. If you don't have a mortar and pestle that's big enough, you can roughly chop the veg (mince the garlic). Season with fish sauce and lime or lemon juice. It should be smoky, fishy, spicy and tangy. Serve with sticky rice and some grilled meat or boiled eggs.

imam bayildi (swooning imam)

 This is a classic Turkish dish (although Greeks claim it too). It is delicious eaten warm or cold, either as the main dish (with some bread) or a side dish to some grilled lamb.

Slit eggplants lengthwise but don't cut through (you're making a long pocket). In a frypan, fry the eggplant slit side down in some olive oil until the skin darkens, then flip and fry the other side. Remove from the pan. In the same pan saute sliced onion and garlic until golden brown, add chopped tomatoes, chopped parsley and salt. Cook, occasionally stirring, until it's no longer juicy (no free-running liquid). Stuff this into the eggplants and arrange in a baking dish with the slits up. Bake in a moderate oven for about 30 minutes or until the eggplants are totally soft to touch. Cool down to warm or even room temperature before eating.

gazpacho

This week you should have most of the items to make gazpacho. It's so lovely and refreshing on a hot day.

This recipe is pretty good. I use cider vinegar instead of sherry vinegar. I think an hour of marinating is enough.

• 500 g tomatoes
• 1 beaver dam pepper
• 1 cucumber
• a few cloves of garlic
• 1 small red onion
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1/3 cup of really good olive oil

Peel and deseed cucumber. Deseed the pepper. Chop all the other veggies and put in a bowl with the salt, vinegar and oil. Mix well and leave to marinate in the fridge for 1 hour to overnight.

Blend in a blender, food processor or with a stick blender until it's a smooth as you like. You can drizzle in more oil while blending if you like more olive oil flavour. Sometimes it's strained but I prefer it thick. Serve straight away with some bread. 

Lentil and Silverbeet soup

This is an often used recipie in our kitchen especially when we have an abundance of silver beet and coriander. While the ingredients seem not that inspiring the end result is delicious especially with some bread or toast on the side.

(From The Complete Middle Eastern Cookbook by Tess Mallos)

Iranian herbed rice

Here's a dish I make pretty often. It's green and herby and delicious. I make a quicker version compared to the traditional. 

Wash 1 cup of basmati rice thoroughly and drain through a sieve. While it's draining, heat a fair bit of butter in a pot, add a teaspoon of turmeric powder and let it sizzle for a bit. Add the drained rice and stir around for a minute or two on low heat. Add 1.5 cups of water, 1 tsp salt and a bunch of chopped silverbeet. Bring to the boil with a lid on, then turn down the heat to very low and cook for about 15 minutes. The rice will cook faster than this but longer cooking allows some nice crusting on the bottom. When it's done, mix through all your chopped herbs - coriander, dill, parsley, spring onion tops - check it for salt and serve. (that much rice is about 2 serves. Farmers like more rice. I'd cook 1.5 cups for 2 of us. Add 1.5 volumes of water regardless of how much rice you use)

There's a version of this dish that has fish cooked within it and another with lamb. If you want to try this, brown the meat in a pan with turmeric butter first, then layer on the rice before cooking the rice as above.

Baked Bramley apples

Bramley’s are the classic English cooking apple. My favourite way to cook them is baked whole. 

Nestle as many as you can fit into a baking dish with a splash of water in the bottom (lid optional) and bake at around 120C for about an hour. Ideally just until they are fully soft but before they explode.

Once cold you can keep them in the fridge and add them to your breakfast or just suck the fruit off the core.

The dessert version of this involves removing the core of the apples and stuffing with cinnamon, butter, sugar, sultanas and walnuts. Serve hot or cold with cream or ice cream.

 

chile verde

Chile verde (literally green chile) is a stew with a base of tomatillos. It's traditionally made with pork or goat or lamb. 

Chop up onions, garlic, green chiles or peppers and fry in oil or lard. Whilst that's cooking, dehusk and then grill or char the tomatillos on a dry pan/hotplate. Add the soft tomatillos to the sofrito and then add some cumin powder a little coriander powder and the pieces of meat. Add salt and some oregano, cover and cook over a low heat until the meat is tender. If the meat needs a longer cook, you may have to add some stock so it has more liquid to cook in. Cook with the lid off until the sauce is thickened a bit. You can remove the meat and puree the sauce but I prefer it chunky. Check the salt, top with chopped coriander and serve with rice and or tortillas and salads