A couple of summer salads

Huzzah, summer is still here! So inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi and Nigella, I've tried to come up with a few salad recipes that can be served warm or at room temperature, and don't require loads of standing around in a hot kitchen. And the results of this have been an aubergine, feta cheese, tomato, and basil salad, and a green bean, spring onion, and almond salad. The aubergine salad just requires the aubergine to be fried in olive oil, and when cooled a bit mixed with the cheese, chopped tomatoes, and basil, and seasoned with a (little salt) and pepper. The oiliness of the aubergines means that no further dressing is required, but the salty cheese cuts through some of this richness.

For the green beans, I just steamed these in the microwave and softened the sliced spring onions in olive oil. Once the onions were almost done, I added in some flaked almonds and carried on cooking until they took on a bit of colour. The onions and nuts were then tipped over the cooked beans, with any extra oil acting as a dressing, and the whole lot seasoned well. I served both these salads with an Ottolenghi mushroom dish I've written about before, to make an excellent summer vegetarian meal that also avoided overheating in the kitchen.

Fish fragrant aubergine and a Chinese feast

As I'm sure I've said before I really know very little about Chinese food. Of course I can stir fry stuff or chomp on sesame toast, and I have experienced the Indo-Chinese cooking that's produced dishes such as gobi manchurian. However it's only recently that I've had my horizons broadened about the regional variation present in Chinese cooking (thanks internet!) and learnt about some new ingredients too.
I think I first read about fish fragrant aubergine on Lizzie HollowLeg's blog. This is a Sichuan dish, that doesn't actually contain any fish, but is aubergine cooked in style that fish is often prepared in (apparently). It can sometimes also contain minced pork, but as non-meat eater Lizzie's use of tofu seemed like an excellent alternative protein. As I wasn't sure I'd be able to get all the ingredients she used, I also found a slightly simpler recipe from the writer and Sichuan food expert Fuschia Dunlop. So here's my recipe, which takes elements from both and omits the things I couldn't find in the shop.

Recipe (enough for four as a side dish with other things):
1 large aubergine
Enough sunflower oil to fry the aubergine
Around 10 ready-fried tofu pieces
4 cloves of garlic (turned into a paste with the ginger)
Thumb-sized piece of ginger (in a paste)
2 tblsp chilli bean paste (Fuschia also gives excellent advice on which chilli bean paste to go for, and I chose the Chuan Lao Hui brand)
1 tsp light soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
2 tblsp Chinese black vinegar
1 tsp granulated sugar
A few tablespoons of water
1 tsp cornflour (if needed)
2 spring onions, sliced
1 tsp sesame oil

Firstly cut the aubergine into fishfinger-sized pieces, and cook them however you prefer. I shallow fried them in a frying pan in a couple of batches, but you could deep fry, or even brush with oil and bake them. They do need to be cooked through though. Once the aubergines are done, put a couple of tablespoons of oil in a wok and stir-fry the chilli bean paste for a couple of minutes on quite a high heat before adding the ginger and garlic paste. If anything looks like it's sticking add a little water, and keep it moving. Then add in the tofu, aubergine, soy sauces, sugar and vinegar, stir well, and reduce the heat. Let it all simmer for a few minutes, and add the cornflower if there's lots of liquid (I didn't need to bother with this step). Cook out the cornflower, if you're using it, for a further few minutes and then stir in the spring onions and sesame oil, and take the wok off the heat.
And tah-dah, my first bit of Sichuan cooking was done!

I decided to cook the fish fragrant aubergine as part of a Chinese dinner with salt and pepper squid, Sichuan-style prawns (blog posts to follow), and some steamed green vegetables with sesame oil. But the aubergines would have been perfectly fine on their own with some rice. I really loved their spicy, succulent-ness with hints of sourness and sweetness.

It was also great to be able to cook with some unfamiliar ingredients like the chilli bean paste and black vinegar. I still don't know too much about it, but on the basis of this dish I think I might quite like Sichuan food.

Aubergine raita

So I thought I'd blog about one of things that I made for my MasterChef meal. This aubergine raita is a really nice variation on the traditional cucumber number. It requires a little more effort as you need to cook the aubergine first, but it's definitely worth it. There's not much of a recipe as this is something you'll need to judge by eye and taste, but here are the basic ingredients which will make enough as a side dish for about four people:

1 medium aubergine
Around 250g (half a large pot) Greek yoghurt
Around 2.5tsp ground cumin
Around 1tsp sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Enough vegetable oil to fry aubergine

Firstly slice the aubergine quite thinly. Put a couple of tablespoons of oil in a (non-stick, ideally) frying pan, heat until pretty hot and then drop in some of the aubergine slices. Unless you have a mahoosive pan you will probably need to cook these in at least a couple of batches. The aubergine will suck up most of the oil before it's cooked through properly, but rather than adding more oil, turn the heat down a little, add a few splashes of water and put a lid over the pan. This allows them to effectively steam and finish cooking. Once you're sure that the slices are all thoroughly cooked through, drain on kitchen roll (if required), and put to one side to cool completely.
In the meantime, roast the ground cumin in a dry pan. I would really recommend grinding your own cumin seeds too, as it makes a big difference to the flavour. Roast over a lowish heat for a few minutes, and you should be able to tell when it's done by the nice smell of....well, roast cumin.
Beat the yoghurt a bit with a fork to lighten it, and then add the cooled aubergine, cumin, sugar, and salt and pepper. You could also use plain natural yoghurt instead, or a mix of that and the Greek version. Mix well and ideally leave to sit for a while for the flavours to mingle.
This raita is perfect with other Indian dishes. I eat it with dry, spicy fish but I imagine it would work well with meat too if you are so inclined.
And finally props to my mother for the recipe, and whichever 'auntie' it was that originally passed it on to her.