Grilled Pepper Salad
Piedmontese Peppers
Peperonata with Anchovy Bruschetta
Moutabal
Spiced Aubergine Salad with Cumin
Slipper Moussaka and Greek Salad
Glossy black aubergines and bright red, yellow and green peppers haven’t made much of an impression on Cornwall. It’s always been possible to buy them – at a price and as a speciality ingredient – from the redoubtable Tregenza’s at the top of Market Jew Street in Penzance. These days they are also widely available in local supermarkets, imported from Holland, but they remain ‘exotic’. Anyone who cares to grow either will have great success – they come from the same family as potatoes, tomatoes and chilli peppers – and can be planted in grow-bags or on a window ledge. Aubergines come in various shapes but it’s unlikely you’ll find a creamy-white egg-shaped one (hence the name eggplant) in Cornwall, or a tiny, thumb-sized baby like those I can buy at my Cypriot greengrocer in London.
Aubergines do take some understanding. Under the purply black skin, the manilla flesh turns soft and creamy when it is subjected to heat. It has a lusciousness that is hard to define and a subtle, almost smoky flavour. Bigger fruit, whatever their skin colour, are delicious sliced, rubbed with olive oil and cooked on a griddle. Aubergines are famously good at drinking up oil. One solution is to dredge prepared aubergine with salt and leave them for 20 minutes to break down the cells and make them less porous. Another is to dust it with flour.
Red peppers – sometimes called by their generic name of capsicums – are also known as pimientos, sweet or bell peppers. They are rich in vitamins A and C, carotenoids and a red colouring agent called capsan-thin. Orange, yellow and green peppers are generally unripe red peppers. Peppers are transformed by roasting or grilling, turning their texture silky and slippery and intensifying their flavour.
Roasted peppers are one of the most popular summer treats at the Fish Store. They look so beautiful laid out on a big platter and fill the place with the smell of hot Mediterranean sunshine.
6 red or 3 red and 3 yellow peppers
2 garlic cloves
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp red wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
Preheat the overhead grill and cook the peppers on all sides until the skin is totally black. Put into a bowl, cover with clingfilm and leave to cool. Peel off the skin, remove seeds and stalks, and divide each pepper into quarters, following the shape of the fruit. Lay out, skin-side uppermost, on a platter.
Peel and chop the garlic, sprinkle with ½ teaspoon salt and crush to a juicy paste with the flat of a knife. Mix the garlic into the vinegar and add 5 times its volume with olive oil. Spoon the dressing over the peppers.
If ever a dish caught the public imagination it is this one, demonstrated by Delia in her television series Summer Collection and published in the book of the same name. It’s become known as Delia’s peppers but can be traced back to Elizabeth David’s Italian Food, published in 1954. Franco Taruschio spotted it and put it on his menu when he opened The Walnut Tree in Abergavenny in 1963. That’s where Simon Hopkinson first tasted it and included the simple but delicious dish on Bibendum’s opening menu in 1987, where it was enjoyed repeatedly by Delia, amongst others, and Elizabeth David. Every so often the peppers pop up in a cookery feature, reinvented, as it were, with the addition of mozzarella or feta, black olives or capers, vegetable rice concoctions and other bits and bobs. The original is the simplest and the best.
Serve the peppers as a starter, as part of a meze meal or barbecue. They are great for picnics and parties. I usually make one or two trays of them when there’s a glut of peppers.
4 decent-sized red peppers
salt and pepper
4 garlic cloves, preferably new season or ‘fresh’
4 plum or similar-sized ripe tomatoes
approx. 3 tbsp olive oil
3 anchovy fillets
Pre-heat the oven to 425°F/220°C/gas mark 7. Halve the peppers, slicing evenly through the stalk. Remove any white filament and the seeds. Rinse the peppers and arrange, cut-side uppermost, on a heavy, shallow baking tray. Season inside the peppers with salt and pepper. Peel the garlic and slice in super-thin rounds. Lay the slices in the cavity. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes, count to 20, drain, cut out the cores in a pointed plug shape and peel. Halve the tomatoes lengthways and place, cut-side down, in the peppers covering the slices of garlic and nudged up closely together. Season again with salt and pepper and splash with olive oil. Place the tray in the oven and cook for 20 minutes then reduce the heat to 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4, and cook for a further 20 minutes. You want the edges slightly charred and the peppers tender. Remove from the oven. Slice the anchovies into 3 long strips. Decorate the peppers with an anchovy kiss and leave to cool in the dish. Use a fish slice to scoop them on to a serving dish – a white one is best for this – and spoon over the juices. If you need to keep the peppers hanging around, cover them generously with clingfilm and store in the fridge. They keep perfectly for about 4 days.
Peperonata is a soft and gooey stew of red pepper, onion and tomato seasoned with garlic and a little wine vinegar. It makes a delicious vegetarian supper with anchovy bruschetta but is also very good with scrambled egg or a couple of soft-boiled eggs. It is excellent too with roast lamb or chicken and lovely with grilled red mullet. Because peperonata can be eaten hot or cold – it is at its finest, I think, lukewarm – it is the perfect thing to make to last over several days (covered, in the fridge) as the flavours improve and it goes with so many things. Great for a barbecue or party (because it can be made ahead).
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic
5 tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper
4 red peppers
900g large plum or other ripe tomatoes
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey or sugar
for the bruschetta:
1 ciabatta loaf or 4 thick slices sourdough or country-style bread
1 garlic clove
4 anchovy fillets in oil or 2 tsp anchovy paste
about 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Peel, halve and finely chop the onion. Peel the garlic and slice in wafer-thin rounds. Chose a spacious heavy-bottomed pan and cook the onion in the olive oil with a little salt over a gentle heat, cooking until very soft. Allow about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, use a potato peeler to remove the skin from the peppers. Don’t be too meticulous about this. Discard seeds and white membrane, then slice the peppers into strips. Add the garlic and peppers to the onions. Season lightly with salt and generously with pepper, reduce the heat slightly, cover the pan and cook for several minutes, giving the occasional stir. Place the tomatoes in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Count to 20, drain, remove the skin, cut the tomatoes lengthways into quarters and chop. Add the tomatoes and vinegar and leave to cook uncovered for about 45 minutes or until the tomatoes and onions have cooked into a thick, creamy, jammy sauce and the strips of pepper are very soft but still distinctive. Check the seasoning, adding a smidgen of sugar or honey if you think it necessary. Allow to cool or serve immediately. If using ciabatta to make the bruschetta, split it lengthways and cut in half to make 4 pieces. Grill the bread lightly on both sides. Rub one side with the peeled garlic and smear with olive oil. Coarsely chop the anchovy fillets and mash them with a fork with a little of the oil in the tin to make a paste. Spread the anchovy paste over the bruschetta and serve with the peperonata.
Moutabal is one of many names for a creamy aubergine dip which is popular throughout the Arab world. Its special flavour comes from grilling or roasting the aubergines until the skin is scorched hard and the flesh inside is meltingly tender. It is then scraped off the skin and mashed with garlic, lemon juice and olive oil to make a thick, creamy and smoky mixture which is utterly addictive. The flavour can be softened by adding a little natural yoghurt and given a nutty back taste with tahini, the oily pounded sesame seed paste which is often also mixed into hummus. Traditionally, moutabal is made by hand, blended with a fork, and that gives it a pleasing undulating texture and makes it easier to control the balance of seasonings, but it can be made in a jiff with a food processor.
I make it all the time to serve with toasted pitta bread as a snack or with drinks but it is excellent with lamb as a sauce-cum-vegetable.
2 large aubergines, approx. 350g each
2 garlic cloves
salt and pepper
1 tsp ground cumin
1 small lemon
6–10 tbsp olive oil
Pre-heat the overhead grill and cook the aubergines, turning as the skin chars, wrinkles and hardens and the flesh insides begins to sag. Don’t be timid about this, the aubergines need to be thoroughly cooked. Remove to a colander over the sink and use a sharp knife to slash the flesh from the stalk to its bulbous end so it can drain and cool. Meanwhile, peel and chop the garlic. Sprinkle it with ½ teaspoon of salt and crush to a paste with the flat of a knife. Transfer to a mixing bowl or the bowl of a food processor. Use the knife to scrape the flesh off the skin into the bowl. Add the cumin and a generous seasoning of black pepper. Add the juice of half a lemon and 4 tablespoons of olive oil. Use a fork to mash and stir. If using a food processor, pulse until just smooth. Taste the moutabal and adjust the flavours with more salt, extra lemon juice and olive oil.
This slippery, soft aubergine salad is a variation on the gooey Turkish salad dish called imam bayeldi and is succulent and sweet yet hauntingly spicy and very moreish. For anyone who has doubts about aubergine, this is a dish that will change your mind. It’s almost a meal in itself but goes with everything from baked potatoes to lamb chops or roast chicken and is good, too, eaten meze-style. Try it, for example, next time you barbecue lamb kebabs, or are wondering what would be good with lamb steaks, or want something a bit different with a roast joint. The flavours, incidentally, will develop and get even more interesting after 24 hours. The exact origin of the dish is unknown in a way that’s often the case with popular restaurant dishes as they pass between chefs and kitchens. I first ate it at Bibendum, and then Blueprint Café. I saw it on the menu at Fifth Floor in Henry Harris’s day and at Chez Bruce in Wandsworth. The link here is that all these restaurant chefs worked in Bibendum’s kitchens at the same time as Nikki Barraclough. She picked it up from someone at the Carved Angel in Devon. Anyway, I do urge you to try it.
3 medium aubergines
1 tbsp salt
2 Spanish onions
8 plum tomatoes
3 garlic cloves, preferably new season
100ml olive oil
1 heaped tsp ground cumin
1 heaped tsp ground allspice
½ tsp cayenne
2 heaped tbsp currants
2 heaped tbsp chopped mint
2 heaped tbsp chopped coriander
Chop the aubergines into 1cm cubes. Pile into a colander and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of salt. Leave for 20 minutes. Peel and finely chop the onions. Pour boiling water over the tomatoes. Count to 20, drain, peel and remove the cores. Coarsely chop the flesh. Peel and finely chop the garlic. Heat half the olive oil in a spacious pan, stir in the onions and gently sauté until tender and pale golden. This will take about 20 minutes. Mix in the tomatoes, spices and garlic. Stew gently for 10 minutes, stir in the currants and turn off the heat. Rinse the salt off the aubergines and pat dry with absorbent kitchen paper. In a wok or your largest frying pan, heat the remaining oil until smoking. Tip in the aubergines and stir-fry, adjusting the heat so nothing burns, until golden and cooked through. This takes about 15 minutes and you may need to do it in two batches. Mix both sets of ingredients together in a large bowl, stir in the fresh herbs and leave to cool. Taste for seasoning. You may need more salt.
Perfect party food which can be made and cooked in advance and comes with in-built portion control.
6 medium aubergines, approx. 400g each
8 tbsp olive oil
salt and black pepper
2 onions, approx. 100g each
6 garlic cloves
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp tomato purée
2 x 500g minced lamb
4 tsp dried oregano
2 large glasses red wine, approx. 400ml
6 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
2 x 470g jar Dolmio white sauce for lasagne
2 large egg yolks
300g feta cheese
for the salad:
4 Cos lettuce hearts
1 large cucumber
2 medium red onions
12 ripe tomatoes or 200g cherry tomatoes
small bunch of coriander
20 pitted black olives
200g feta cheese
juice of 1 lemon
6 tbsp olive oil
Pre-heat the oven to 425°F/220°C/gas mark 7. Halve the aubergines lengthways cutting through the stalk. Cut a 2cm lattice in the flesh, slicing almost to the base without piercing the skin. Run the knife round the inside edge of each half. Smear the cut surface with a little olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Arrange on baking sheets and cook in the oven for 25–35 minutes until the flesh is completely soft and lightly browned.
Meanwhile, peel and chop the onion and garlic. Cook together, stirring occasionally, in the remaining olive oil in a large, wide-based pan until soft and lightly coloured. Stir in the cinnamon and then the tomato purée, cooking for a minute or so until the tomato looses its bright red colour. Add the lamb, breaking it up and stirring it into the onions with a wooden spoon. Cook for a few minutes until browned and then season with salt, pepper and the oregano before adding the red wine. Let the wine boil up and then simmer over a low heat for 25 minutes. When the meat is cooked and the wine absorbed, stir in the chopped parsley and tip the mixture into a sieve to drain. Spoon the meat on to the aubergine ‘slippers’, pushing it down lightly between the sagging lattice. Leave to cool. Finally, empty the white sauce into a bowl. Beat in the egg yolks. Crumble the feta into the sauce and stir. Spoon the sauce over the meat. Cook the slippers in the hot oven for 10–15 minutes until the top is blistered and golden. Leftover slippers reheat perfectly.
To make the salad, cut across the lettuce in 3cm wide strips, rinse and shake dry. Split the cucumber lengthways, scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon and slice chunkily into half-moons. Peel and halve the onions and slice wafer-thin. Quarter the tomatoes; halve cherry tomatoes. Chop the coriander. Place everything in a salad bowl. Add the olives. Slice chunks of feta over the top. When ready to serve, whisk the lemon juice with the olive oil together and pour over the salad. Toss and serve.