Caponata di melanzane

Today I cooked a big family dinner. Yesterday we did our shopping at the special chicken shop, butchers, organic shop and market at St-Gilles.

For starters we had raw vegetables, toasts with shrimp salad and blinis with smoked salmon and fish eggs.
After that another chicken broth.
Main course was meat loaf, served with baked potatoes, tomato sauce and caponata.
The potatoes were grenailles from the market. I didn't peel them but washed them, then cut them in 2-3 pieces if necessary, steamed them for 7 min, then baked them at 200° C with olive oil, rosemary, pepper and a lot of salt.
The tomato sauce was just tomato, dried basil, pepper and salt. It simmered for a long time and then we passed it through a sieve.

The caponata is from Lorenza de' Medici's 'ITALY The beautiful cookbook'.

Serves 6-8

6 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and sliced in rings
2 garlic cloves, chopped finely
3 peppers, yellow and red, sliced in rings
500 g aubergines, peeled and diced
3 tomatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp oregano
2 tbsp capers
100 g black olives
3 anchovy fillets, chopped

Heat olive oil, add onion and garlic and fry for a while. Add peppers and aubergines and fry for 15 min on medium heat. Add tomatoes and oregano and let this simmer until peppers and aubergines are cooked. Stir regularly.
Add capers, olives and anchovy and remove from the heat. Add pepper and salt and let the caponata stand for a few hours.

As usual, I'll add photos later if I find the time ;-)

Yellow pepper, mushroom and bacon pizza

Another version of a quick savoury tart. I had a salad with it.

Serves 2

1 pizza dough (ready made)
a bit of butter or olive oil
1 yellow pepper, chopped
250 g mushrooms, chopped
1/2 dried red chilli pepper, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tbsp dried oregano
a bit of ricotta
smoked bacon, chopped

Heat butter at high heat in a pan. Add yellow pepper, red chilli pepper and a pinch of salt. Fry for a few min, while stirring continuously. Add mushrooms and garlic, and fry until both vegetables are nearly cooked.
Roll out the pizza dough in a pie dish. Pierce it with a fork. Spread the ricotta over the dough. Add vegetables. Cover with oregano and small pieces of bacon.
Bake for 25' at 200°C.

Red pepper and walnut paste

Last month, when my friends came to dinner, we prepared this paste and served it on small toasts as a starter. You can also use it as a sauce to dip vegetables in. It's another Claudia Roden recipe, called muhammara.

Serves 6

2 red peppers
red chili paste
1 slice of bread without crust
90 g peeled walnuts
1/2 garlic clove, crushed
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
olive oil

Roast red peppers in the oven at 200°C for 30 min. Turn them once. Let them cool in a plastic bag, then peel them and remove stem and seeds.
Blend all ingredients into a paste using a blender.
Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

The walnuts were deftly and painstakingly peeled by hand using Mono Pico, a very simple device which my cousin brought me from the Museum of Modern Art in New York.


We forgot to take pictures of the result - which was delicious. So instead a few pics showing the view from the kitchen in the evening.

Roast peppers with anchovy

This Italian recipe, peperoni alle acciughe, is a nice starter for a warm Summer evening.

Serves 4-5

4 anchovy fillets (I used tinned)
3 peppers (you can use different colours)
1 tbsp oregano (dried or fresh)
1 garlic clove, very finely chopped
1 tbsp capers, very finely chopped
salt
olive oil

Wash and dry the peppers and cut away the stems and seeds.
Cut them in 3-4, put them in an oven dish greased with 1 tbsp olive oil, add salt and dried oregano and roast at 200°C for 20-30 min until they are soft.
Let them cool, then transfer to a serving dish and sprinkle with garlic, capers, anchovy and olive oil.
Let this stand for 2h before serving.

Note: if you use fresh oregano, chop it finely and add it at the end together with garlic etc.

Parsnip and sweet potato soup and other soups

I love soup and I was inspired by this combination of vegetables in labelga's post on March 6.
My basic method for soup is: fry chopped vegetables for a few min in oil or butter, add boiling water, bring to the boil. Then lower the heat and let the soup simmer for about 10 min. Not longer, unless the vegetables are not cooked yet. Then mix it with a hand mixer.
This is the method of my mother's housekeeper. She used butter. I usually use olive oil - or sunflower oil when I use Asian spices - but butter tastes nice once in a while. I remember her endives (witloof) soup, delicious! The trick in this recipe is not to boil the soup for very long, so the vegetables keep their flavour.
When my vegetables are about to go off, I often throw them into a soup.

Sweet potato and parsnip soup



1 small onion
2 medium parsnips, peeled and diced
1 big sweet potato, peeled and diced
some leftover lettuce
1 dried small chilli pepper, chopped finely
1/2 tsp ground cumin
vegetable stock
1 tsp butter

Heat the butter and fry the onion and chilli pepper in it on low to medium heat. After 1-2 min add parsnips and sweet potato and cumin. After a few more min add the lettuce and let this shrink a bit. Then add boiling water, stock and salt. Bring to the boil then lower the heat and let the soup simmer for about 10 min. Mix it with a hand mixer.

I served the soup with sour cream and chopped parsley.

Pumpkin, endives and red pepper soup

This was a combination I once made at a friend's with her leftover vegetables. It turned out really well.
I used these ingredients:

1 small pumpkin, peeled and chopped
2 endives, washed and chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 small potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tsp sugar
2 bay leaves
"herbes de Provence"
olive oil
vegetable stock
pepper & salt

Broccoli and fennel soup

This was another successful combination.

1 onion
1 sprig of broccoli
1 fennel
olive oil
fennel seeds

Pumpkin ratatouille

I still had half a pumpkin left, so I made this dish, based on a recipe by Nigella Lawson.


Serves 2-3

1-2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 peppers, one yellow and one red, chopped
2 courgettes, sliced
500 g pumpkin, chopped (weight without seeds or skin)
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp ground coriander
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tsp sugar

Fry the onion in olive oil for a few min. Add garlic, cumin seed and coriander and fry for a few more min.
Add peppers and fry on medium heat for a few min.
Add pumpkin, courgettes, sugar, pepper and salt and fry for a few more min.
Cover the pan, lower the heat and let the dish simmer for 30-45 min until the vegetables are soft.
One day later, this dish tastes even better!

After the meal, we went to see the Sara Tavares show in Brussels. It was great!