I would like to blame jet lag as the reason I didn't really post last week, but it was really down to pure laziness! But I'm back and that's what really counts. Saturday gave us the last sun, Ireland will probably see for the next 7 months, so we made the most of it and had a lovely salad on the balcony, which was actually the first time we have used it since we moved in!
I made a lovely salad with a dressing that I just had to share here!
Classic Dijon Balsamic Dressing
1/4 Cup of Olive Oil
3/4 Cup of Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tablespoon of Dijon Mustard
1 Clove of crushed Garlic
A good pinch of Sea Salt and Black Pepper
I used to have a handy little plastic dressing mixer, but it's gone walking so if you don't have one like me, just place all the ingredients in a small glass cover tightly with some cling film and give it a good shake. It's ready to serve or you can store it in the fridge!
It can really bring out the flavours in a plain old salad and put a SMILE ON YOUR FACE!
I have a few winter warming dishes coming up but this recipe is actually taken from the book and was featured on Georgina Campbell's Ireland Guide website. Plus I got a request in the comments section so I just couldn't resist!
Hearty Minestrone Soup This is a perfect winter meal solution, full of tasty vegetables, and filling thanks to the pasta. I use wholewheat spaghetti, but feel free to add other shapes like fusilli or pasta elbows instead. If you don’t have any paprika, you can get a bit of spice by adding a dash of tabasco sauce, or a good pinch of dried chilli flakes.
Serves 4 1 courgette, chopped into small chunks 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes 2 x 410g tins cannellini beans 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 large onion, finely chopped 2 stalks of celery, chopped 2 large carrots, chopped into small chunks 2 litres/4 pints homemade chicken stock 75g/3oz wholewheat spaghetti, broken into 1-inch pieces 2 tablespoons of olive oil A good pinch of paprika A good pinch of sea salt
In a large pot, heat the olive oil and fry the garlic cloves and onion for 2 minutes or until they become soft. Stir in the celery, carrots and courgette and cook for five minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock, and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the wholewheat spaghetti, paprika and cannellini beans. Give the soup a good stir and cover. Cook gently for a further 10 minutes or until the pasta is cooked. Season with a little sea salt and serve straightaway with a good chunk of wholemeal bread and enjoy!
I have a few winter warming dishes coming up but this recipe is actually taken from the book and was featured on Georgina Campbell's Ireland Guide website. Plus I got a request in the comments section so I just couldn't resist!
Hearty Minestrone Soup This is a perfect winter meal solution, full of tasty vegetables, and filling thanks to the pasta. I use wholewheat spaghetti, but feel free to add other shapes like fusilli or pasta elbows instead. If you don’t have any paprika, you can get a bit of spice by adding a dash of tabasco sauce, or a good pinch of dried chilli flakes.
Serves 4 1 courgette, chopped into small chunks 1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes 2 x 410g tins cannellini beans 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 1 large onion, finely chopped 2 stalks of celery, chopped 2 large carrots, chopped into small chunks 2 litres/4 pints homemade chicken stock 75g/3oz wholewheat spaghetti, broken into 1-inch pieces 2 tablespoons of olive oil A good pinch of paprika A good pinch of sea salt
In a large pot, heat the olive oil and fry the garlic cloves and onion for 2 minutes or until they become soft. Stir in the celery, carrots and courgette and cook for five minutes. Add the chopped tomatoes and chicken stock, and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the wholewheat spaghetti, paprika and cannellini beans. Give the soup a good stir and cover. Cook gently for a further 10 minutes or until the pasta is cooked. Season with a little sea salt and serve straightaway with a good chunk of wholemeal bread and enjoy!
Wow! What a week it's been, I have seen 14 record stores and been on 17 radio stations with Industry throughout the country! I finally arrived home Saturday afternoon and have been in bed since. Myself and Sofie woke up late this morning and decided to go for a walk down to the farmers market in Howth, to pick up something for breakfast.
By the time we had finished looking around the market, breakfast became brunch and we ended up in the new Seafood Tapas bar, Octopussy, which is the latest little eatery to appear on Howth's west pier. It's a pretty funky cafe/bar which serves tapas sized seafood dishes, such as calamari, crab claws, paella, Dublin bay prawns, and Thai prawn curry. The dishes are all fairly reasonably priced for what you get, all under €10, and will definitely leave you full. I ordered the Dublin Bay Prawns, which were simply griddled in a little butter, they were a little messy to eat, but totally worth it.
Chilli, Garlic and Lime Dublin Bay Prawns I use a microplane grater to mince the garlic and chilli, its a really handy kitchen gadget. To butterfly a Dublin bay prawn, run a knife from the head to tail, being careful not to cut all the way through, then gently flatten it out.
Serves 2 8 Dublin bay prawns or langoustines, butterflied 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 red chilli, minced 1 tablespoon of olive oil juice of 1 lime lime wedges and chopped coriander, to serve
Place all the ingredients in a bowl and toss the prawns to coat. Heat a large griddle pan, and add the prawns. Cook for 2-3 minutes either side or until cooked through. Transfer the prawns to a serving plate, sprinkle with a little chopped coriander and serve with some lime wedges.
First of all a big thank you to some of the readers here who nominated "The Good Mood Food Blog" for this year's Irish Blog Awards and a big congratulations to everyone else nominated- Fingers crossed!
The last few months have been a little crazy and things don't look to be settling down, I'm going to be in Sweden for the next week and bit so hopefully will be able to stick up a few pictures up here. Even if they aren't food related!
In other news, myself and Sofie have been busy planning our very own little vegetable patch as an experiment for this year. The aim is to expand our herb garden and learn a little more about growing our own vegetables, with the hope to provide enough, to include in a good few recipe's during the spring, summer, and autumn. We will be documenting the process as we go along, so stay tuned to keep up with our progress!
Fork Crushed Herb and Roast Garlic Potatoes This recipe always has my mouth watering at the thoughts of it. Roast garlic has to be one of my absolute favourite roast ingredients. The process takes the pungent cloves and transforms them into a smoky, sweet and wonderfully creamy mush. This is a super side dish which goes really well with any main course, or even on its own as a tasty belly filler!
750g or about 16 Baby Potatoes. 2 Tablespoons of Extra Virgin Olive Oil. A Large handful of Flat Leaf Parsley. A Handful of Chives, chopped coarsely. A Handful of roughly chopped Dill. 1 Bulb of Garlic. A Good Pinch of Sea Salt and Ground Black Pepper.
Before you start anything get the garlic in the oven. Cut off the top of the garlic so the tips of the cloves can just about be seen. Drizzle with a few drops of olive oil so the exposed tips are covered. Now cover in tinfoil and pop in the oven for 40 minutes at 200oC/ Gas Mark 6. While the garlic is roasting, place the potatoes in a large pot of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the potatoes are tender, you can check this with a fork. While the potatoes are cooking prepare and chop your herbs. Drain the potatoes and tumble into a large mixing bowl.
With a fork roughly crush each potato and season with salt and pepper. When the Garlic is ready, pop out the cloves from their skins and mash with a fork on a chopping board. Transfer the garlic to the mixing bowl and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and scatter the dill, chives and parsley on top. Gently mix all the ingredients to combine, and be careful not to break up the potato too much. Serve in a large bowl with a final scattering of Parsley and a drizzle of olive oil.
Before I met the lovely Sofie from Sweden, meatballs for me were always associated with Italy. Combined with a thick tomato sauce and soft melt in the mouth pasta, they make a dish which is a staple of the classic Italian mama's recipe repertoire. If I was to name one recipe that is ideal for food therapy its this, there is something strangely yet extremely relaxing about rolling the meat into satisfying little balls and plopping them into boiling hot creamy tomato sauce. Relying solely on the heat of the sauce to cook and infuse the little balls to perfection.
The recipe itself is pretty fool proof, and will give you results making you feel like the perfect Italian mama or papa!
Mood Food Meat Balls
500g of Minced Meat (Pork or Beef)
2 Garlic Cloves Minced
2 tsp of Dijon Mustard
2 tbsp of Tomato Ketchup
1 tbsp of Oregano
Good pinch of salt and pepper
For the Tomato Sauce:
1 Garlic clove chopped finely
1 Onion chopped finely
2 tins of chopped tomato's
1 tsp of Tabasco sauce
1 tsp of dried oregano
1/2 cup of red wine (optional you can use water but the wine gives a richer flavour when the sauce reduces)
1/4 cup of milk
Good pinch of salt and pepper
In a large bowl mix the meat and the ingredients with a fork making sure to mix well. Take about a teaspoon full of the mixture and roll with your hands into a small ball. It's better to make the balls smaller as they cook quicker and are a lot easier eat. Work your way through the mixture and set the balls on a large baking tray. Place the balls in the fridge allowing them time to firm.
Now for the tomato sauce, it's a fairly standard affair, heat a large saucepan and add a drop of olive oil, fry the garlic for a minute and then add the onion. Fry the two till golden and soft and then add the tinned tomato's. Bring the mixture to the boil and then stir in the Tabasco sauce, dried oregano, and red wine. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes or until the sauce has reduced.
Add the meatballs to the sauce pan, making sure they are covered by the sauce, I know your thinking raw meat in my sauce surely I'll be poisoned! But no believe me it works and keeps the meat lovely and tender. Bring the sauce pan back to the boil and simmer for another 15 mins.
Serve with some good quality tagliatelle and there'll be clean plates all around!
Ok so hands up you got me, burritto's are not exactly gourmet cuisine, but if you've been at work all day, and have little time to prepare for guests, sometimes this is perfectly acceptable. After all, if it's healthy and fresh, there can't be too many complaints really, can there? I have in the past spent a lot of time in preparing for having guests over, but as time has gone on the easiest and most enjoyable nights are the ones, that seemed almost efortless.
Here is a quick recipe for speedy burritto's!
Mood Food Burrito's!
250g of Minced Beef or a packet of Quorn Mince
2 Garlic Cloves minced
1 tablespoon of Chili Powder
1/4 tablespoon of Oregano
A good pinch of salt and pepper
Half a glass of water
1 Packet of Wholemeal Flour Tortilla Wraps
2 Peppers sliced thinly
1 Red Onion sliced thinly
Punnet of Cherry Tomatoes halfed
1 bag of mixed salad leaves
1 Tin of Sweet Corn
Half a cucumber sliced thinly
The only real effort in this dish is the browning of the meat and the preperation, apart from that you might as well put your feet up and wait for the guests to arrive!
To start, brown the the meat in a large frying pan, and season with the garlic, chilli, oregano, salt and pepper. Add the half glass of water and let simmer for about 8 mins.
Prepare the vegetables and heat the flour tortilla's.
And that's it, serve everything on the table and people can assemble their own burritto to their taste!
GOOD MORNING! What a morning! It's one of those days that you just know are gonna GREAT! For you, today I have another Aubergine dish, which is more of a adaptation of the Aubergine Parmigiana I posted about last month. This is more like a full meal version of the original recipe!
I have to admit ever since discovering Aubergine Parmigiana, I have been hooked, and am planning to blitz it at some stage and see if it works as a sauce also, stay tuned.
AUBERGINE PARMIGIANA PASTA BAKE
5 dried tagliatelle balls
2 Large Aubergines
A good splash of Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 Red Onion sliced thinly in half moons
2 400g Tins of Chopped Tomatoes
2 Teaspoons of dried Oregano
2 Teaspoons of fresh parsley finely chopped
1/3 of a cup of grated Parmesan cheese
Before you even put on your apron, put some water on the boil and cook the tagliatelle, and leave to the side.
Slice the aubergine in half length ways and scrape out the flesh, chop into chunks, and leave to one side. Oil and salt the skins and place on a baking tray.
In a large frying pan, fry the garlic in olive oil for about 30 secs then add the onion and fry for another 1 minute. Then add the aubergine chunks and fry till brown. Add the Tomatoes and Oregano and simmer for about 15 mins till reduced.
Add the pasta to the tomato and aubergine mix and make sure everything is combined well, then add the mix to the aubergine skins and top with shavings of a good quality Parmesan cheese.
Then pop the baking tray into the oven for about 30 mins at 200 Celsius.
I would like to blame jet lag as the reason I didn't really post last week, but it was really down to pure laziness! But I'm back and that's what really counts. Saturday gave us the last sun, Ireland will probably see for the next 7 months, so we made the most of it and had a lovely salad on the balcony, which was actually the first time we have used it since we moved in!
I made a lovely salad with a dressing that I just had to share here!
Classic Dijon Balsamic Dressing
1/4 Cup of Olive Oil
3/4 Cup of Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tablespoon of Dijon Mustard
1 Clove of crushed Garlic
A good pinch of Sea Salt and Black Pepper
I used to have a handy little plastic dressing mixer, but it's gone walking so if you don't have one like me, just place all the ingredients in a small glass cover tightly with some cling film and give it a good shake. It's ready to serve or you can store it in the fridge!
It can really bring out the flavours in a plain old salad and put a SMILE ON YOUR FACE!
This is still a fairly experimental dish, but the idea is similar to the duck salad I posted earlier this month, but without the noodles. It's really easy, quick and spicey! If you have a cold this will really clear those sinuses!
Spicy Chicken and Cucumber Salad
2 Chicken Breasts finely sliced
Enough flour to coat the chicken slices
Salt and Pepper
1/2 Cucumber finely sliced length ways
2 Peppers finely sliced
1 Red Onion finely sliced
6 Radishes finely sliced
The juice of 1 Lime
3 tablespoons of Rice Wine Vinegar
1 tablespoon of Fish Sauce
1 Teaspoon of sesame oil
2 Cloves of Garlic very finely chopped
Half a red chili very finely chopped
Thumb sized piece of ginger peeled and very finely chopped
Wow fourteen that's a lot! STAY WITH ME! Mix the flour with salt and pepper and coat the thinly sliced chicken. Fry them in a very hot pan with vegetable oil until nice and brown, leave to the side.
In a large bowl, combine the lime juice, rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, sesame oil, garlic, chili, and ginger. This should be to your taste so add something, subtract something be my guest! Add to the bowl, the cucumber, radish, red onion and red pepper. Mix the all the ingredients together in the spicy dressing.
Serve the spicy cucumber salad with the chicken strips on top and enjoy!
Eating porridge in the morning is one of the most perfect ways to set your body up for the rest of the day. It is high in complex carbohydrates and provides the body with slow releasing energy. In the last few years porridge has slowly become one of the hottest super foods, and understandably so, the oats have so many health benefits that they are often linked to long and healthy lifestyles.
Here are just a few benefits of porridge, it can help dieting, prevents childhood obesity, helps concentration, heals the skin, improves sex life, and can even beat depression!
I'm going to write a bit about my thoughts on milk and the whole dairy industry issue, but for now let me just recommend that you make your porridge with water and if you can't avoid milk, at least try goats, or soya.
Apple and Cinnamon Porridge
1 Cup of porridge oats
2 and a half cups of water
1 Large apple grated
A good sprinkling of Cinnamon powder
A quick drizzle of honey
I know some of you may be thinking this is hardly rocket science, but porridge can get a bit boring to eat so, I always try and experiment a little to make it that bit more interesting. You can do this in the microwave or on a stove.
Microwave: Combine the oats and water and place in microwave for about 4 minutes or until you get the desired consistency. Then add the grated apple, sprinkle with cinnamon, drizzle the honey and serve straight away.
Pot: Combine the water and the oats int he pot and place over heat, stir continuously usually takes about ten mins to get the right consistency, Then add the grated apple, sprinkle with cinnamon, drizzle the honey and serve straight away.
A pretty simple and easy breakie with an interesting texture from the apple.
This is such a tasty, fragrant and fresh dish, I have had the idea for this dish for a while now and eventually got round to cooking it last night. The whole process took about 30 mins and was pretty hassle free. The duck is from Silverhill foods, it's a really great product, it's so handy to have in the freezer and is nice and crispy when cooked.There is nothing more appealing to me in fresh cooked food as combining texture's and this dish has it all, crunchiness from the cucumbers, crispiness from the duck, and softness from the aromatic vermicelli noodles.
This recipe is a perfect example of experimentation in cookery. I had a vague idea of what I was doing when I started but the dressing itself came purely from my own tastes. That's the way cooking should be, not meticulously following recipe's to the last word, but adding something here, adding something there till it tastes the way YOU want it!
So fly my pretties and make MAGIC!
AROMATIC DUCK NOODLE SALAD
1 Crispy Half duck portion (available at most supermarkets)
180g Vermicelli rice noodles
1/2 a Cucumber
Bunch of Spring Onions
For Dressing
The juice of half a lime
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 thumbsized piece of ginger peeled and minced
2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
Before you start put the duck in a roasting tin and throw in the oven for 25 mins at 210 degrees C. Soak the noodles in hot water while you are preparing the veg and dressing.
In a small bowl mix the ingredients for the marinade and set aside.
Cut the cucumber in half again and slice very thin, trim the spring onions and slice thinly, set aside. Drain the noodles, rinse them in cold water and then mix them with the marinade in a large bowl.
Take the duck out of the oven, slice thinly and add to the noodles along with the cucumber and spring onion. Serve straight away!
Also check out The Humble Housewife writing a fabulous guest blog on the ravishing Damian Mulley's Blog.
This is a great little lunch you can prepare the night before, it's simple fresh, tasty, and can be eaten hot or cold! I've started taking lunch in every day to work so it's become interesting experimenting with what works being bundled in a bowl and reheated!
QUICK STIR FRY LUNCH (Serves two)
2 Cloves of Garlic finely chopped
1 Red Onion cut in half moons
1 Head of Broccoli
2 Red Peppers
2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
Prepare the veg, finely chop the garlic, slice the red onion into half moons, remove all the florets of broccoli, and slice the peppers horizontally. In a hot wok put about a tablespoon of sunflower oil and fry the garlic for 1 min, add the onion and fry for a further 2 mins, then throw in the Broccoli and peppers and stir with the garlic and onion.
Keep stirring and add the rice wine vinegar, fish sauce, and sesame oil. Serve hot or keep in the fridge for lunch tomorrow!
This is what we woke up to this morning. Now if that doesn't get you going on a Monday morning I don't know what will! After a pretty unsettled couple of weeks were back on track with a healthy lifestyle starting with a nice healthy jog last night, unfortunately I know it's going to be broken up yet again when we hit Sweden on Friday!
This is a great breakfast to start the week. So many people forget about breakfast, but when your mother told you to eat it, she was right! When you think about it logically, your body hasn't received any nutrients since the night before and is therefore running practically on empty! When you wait till twelve to nourish your body you have wasted a whole morning, when you could have had your body full of nutrients releasing energy.
As a general rule it is always better to eat something for breakfast rather than nothing. People who are making the time excuse generally aren't being realistic, I made this breakfast and ate it in 20 mins and it was a fairly big one, every person can make the time in the morning, by setting the alarm that little bit earlier.
Getting out of bed is a mental thing, when the alarm goes off I get straight out of bed and don't leave myself time to consider those extra few minutes I could waste by staying there. Try it tomorrow, just get straight up when the alarm rings, it's not that hard and you feel great about yourself too! Well that's what I told the girlfriend when I dragged her out of bed this morning! :)
Mixed Fruit Smoothie
1/2 cup of Mixed Frozen Berries
1 Banana
Orange or Apple Juice (not from concentrate)
I always keep some frozen mixed berries (Boylan's) which you can get in most supermarkets these days, as there perfect for smoothies because they last for a long time in the freezer. Throw the Berries in a container with the banana and fill the container up as far as the berries with Orange or Apple juice.
Then blend and serve, it's really quick and really easy.
I've been planning to experiment with this for a while, ever since the girlfriend dropped the bombshell that she was allergic to both soya and nuts (I think I mentioned that before?).
Pesto is one of those food items that seemed like it had never been heard of before it became popular and reminds me of a chapter in Nigel Slater's "Toast" where he describes his father bringing home spaghetti for the very first time, and how strange the whole family felt eating this odd foreign food.
Pesto for me was the same, I first tasted it on toasted french bread with sun dried tomato at one of my mother's dinner parties when I was younger, and from that moment I fell in love! Pesto was smothered on toast for breakfast, heavily mixed in spaghetti for lunch, and every other combination I could come up with.
Pesto is considered one of the oldest oily sauces in culinary history. It's classic ingredients are Basil, Salt, Garlic, Olive Oil, and Parmesan cheese. I did a bit of research on Pesto and there is a non nut variety deriving from France where it is called Pistou, the ingredients are Basil, Olive Oil and garlic only. I love the nutty flavour so wanted to recreate it and here's what I came up, now this is hardly radical but here it is:
Nut Free Pesto
3 Cloves of Garlic
1/3 cup of Mixed seeds (Sunflower, pumpkin, sesame etc.)
1/2 Cup Olive Oil
1/2 Cup Parmesan Cheese
3 Handfuls of fresh Basil
Pesto is so easy to make, peel the garlic cloves and bash them with the back of a knife, put in a food processer with the seeds, cheese and basil. Blitz for about 30 secs depending on what consistency you want. I drizzle the oil in bit by bit but that's just me, you can just add in once you have the rest of the ingredients in a paste.
Serve straight away or put in a container with olive oil poured on the top. IT'S LIKE SOOO EASY!
OK I KNOW I KNOW THIS IS MEANT TO BE A HEALTHY BLOG! But this recipe is not my fault, I made it to cheer someone up! I could play on that whole chocolate is good for you crap but realistically, there are no health benefits to this at all. They do taste great and sure your grand once you eat things like this in moderation! I can't help feel I'm contradicting myself in posting this but here it comes:
Gooey Chocolate Pudding! (Adapted from Nigella Lawson's How To Eat)
150g of good quality plain chocolate
125g of unsalted butter
3 Eggs
150g of sugar
35g of flour
This one of the easiest baking related recipe's i know, it takes about 10 Min's to prepare. First of all break up the chocolate and microwave with the butter until both are melted. In a bowl mix the eggs sugar and flour together until any lumps are gone. Then slowly incorporate the chocolate and butter mix until mixed through. Grease about eight ramekins or muffin tins, and pour the mixture in. They should only need about ten Min's in an oven at 175 degrees Celsius. Enjoy (in moderation ;) I promise something healthy tomorrow!
GOOD MORNING! Well this was dinner last night mainly because I decided that if i didn't use the squash in the fridge it was going to end up in the bin! I love love love roast veggies, when there done properly that is, I mean when there's a little crispy chewy and caramel like on the outside and soft and mushy on the inside, now that's perfection. I have just moved into a new apartment which means a new oven, which means getting used to regulating the heat! I'm used to gas hob and oven so moving to electric isn't exactly great news as it seems much harder to regulate the temperature. But I'm getting there!
Also I just want to apologise if you've seen the gaudy yellow plates repetitively in photo's and have had just about enough of them but there all I have at the moment what with the moving and all! Were going to Sweden in a few weeks time so I intend to stock up with a few Ikea essentials.
This dish came together as a result of wanting to make a meal out of the squash rather than presenting it as the weird vegetable on the side of some other complicated dish. Squash is a strong meaty vegetable and should be treated as such.
Spicy Sticky Roast Squash Salad
(serves 2)
1 Large Squash
1 Red Onion
1 Red Pepper
1 Large Carrot
8 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons of Honey
1 teaspoon of chili powder
A good splash of olive oil
This is an extremely easy dish and comes out looking like your a pro! So first of all prepare all your veg. I've read about different ways of cooking squash mainly with the skin on but being a glutton for punishment I like to peel them, so there's no work involved during the eating process. Once you have peeled your squash, cut it into halves and scoop out the seeds, then cut into chunky slices. Prepare the rest of the veg cutting into chunks. Leave the garlic cloves as they are, this will result in a rich yet mellow flavour a lot more palatable than in it's raw form.
Place all the veg into a large roasting tin and toss in some olive oil, next drizzle the honey over the mix, and finally sprinkle the chili powder.
Roast in a preheated oven at about 150 degrees Celsius for approx 30 minutes or until brown. YUM!
The mystical Vegetable that is THE AUBERGINE! Apart from this beautiful and glossy vegetable being so nice to look at, it also has some interesting health benefits, you'll be interested to know! Aubergine's are from the nightshade family which includes vegetables like peppers, tomato's and potato's, in my opinion they have a very distinct taste and texture, but then that's something you should really discover yourself!
AND HERE ARE THE REASONS YOU SHOULD EAT AN AUBERGINE:
Right now they are in season and will be until the end of October.
Aubergine's contain phytonutrients which apparently have antioxident properties and protect cell membranes. That can only be good right?
Aubergine's have been found to have, wait for it, anti cancer and anti cholesterol properties.
Aubergine's are extremely low fat, but also extremely absorbant so make sure to roast or grill instead of frying! (I've learned my lesson!)
Now I am not going to profess a love for aubergines but I ate this dish on a holiday recently in Rome, and was pleasantly surprised with the fresh full flavoured taste! I immediately wanted to know how to recreate it, so when I came home I looked through some Italian cookbooks and unfortunately what I came up with were deep fried or cheese laden version's.
So just the other day I experimented with what I thought was the closest to the recipe I had eaten. I fried the aubergine slices in olive oil but I think it would be easier to grill them in future! So here goes:
Aubergine Parmigiana
2 Large Aubergine slice length ways
A good splash of Olive Oil
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 Red Onion
2 400g Tins of Chopped Tomatoes
2 Teaspoons of dried Oregano
2 Teaspoons of fresh parsley finely chopped
1/3 of a cup of grated Parmesan cheese
I read about preparing Aubergine's and there seems to be some sort of argument over whether or not to soak them in salted water before cooking. But I decided to soak them not wanting to go against tradition!
Soak the aubergine slices in salted water for 20 minutes, then remove from the water and pat dry. As I said already I fried the slices but I think it would be far more healthier and less time consuming to grill them till soft. Put the cooked slices to the side.
While the Aubergine slices are soaking, in a saucepan fry the garlic and red onion till soft. Then add the two tins of tomatoes, Oregano and Parsley. Bring the sauce to the boil and leave to simmer for about 15 Min's or until reduced. When the sauce has cooked stir in some salt and pepper to taste and leave to cool.
In a large roasting tin, spread a thin layer of the tomato sauce and place the aubergine slices on top, add more tomato sauce, sprinkle some Parmesan cheese, and repeat the process until you run out.
Bake in a preheated oven at 150 degrees Fahrenheit for about 25 Min's.
.jpg)
