Napoleon of aubergines with pomegranate and yogurt sauce (serves 4)
Prep time: 30 mins
Baking time: 5 mins
600g pumpkin, peeled and roughly chopped
2 small aubergines, cut into ½cm thick slices
1 tbsp plain flour, for dusting
4 tsp oil, for frying
knob of butter
2 tbsp mint leaves, finely chopped
150g feta cheese, roughly chopped
200ml Greek yogurt, strained
handful of mint leaves, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 pomegranate, seeds removed
1 tbsp pomegranate molasse
Preparation
1. Place pumpkin in a pan, cover with water and bring to the boil. Add a little salt and simmer gently for 10 minutes, or until just tender but not mushy. Drain and set aside. Preheat oven to 200°C.
2. Dust aubergines with flour. Heat oil in a nonstick frying pan and fry aubergine slices until golden on both sides. Drain on kitchen paper.
3. Melt butter in a pan and add cooked pumpkin, mint and feta cheese. Mix together.
4. To make yogurt sauce, mix yogurt, mint and garlic together until well combined.
5. In another bowl mix pomegranate seeds with pomegranate molasses.
6. On a lightly greased baking sheet, layer the aubergine slices, with pumpkin mix in between, in four neat piles, starting with the largest slices at the bottom and finishing with the smallest slices on top.
7. Bake for 5 minutes. Serve hot with yogurt and pomegranate sauces.
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Classic saffron risotto (serves 4)
Prep time: 5 mins
Cooking time: 30 mins
2 tbsp olive oil
50g butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
400g risotto rice, such as arborio
2 pinches of saffron
1.1 litres chicken stock, hot sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
90g Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Preparation
1. In a large pan, heat olive oil and half the butter. Add onions and garlic and sauté over low heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the rice and turn up the heat.
2.The rice will now begin to fry lightly, so keep stirring it. After a minute it will look slightly translucent.
3. Add saffron and add your first ladle of hot stock and a good pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a simmer so the rice doesn’t cook too quickly on the outside. Keep adding ladlefuls of stock, stirring and almost massaging the creamy starch out of the rice, allowing each ladleful to be absorbed before adding the next.
4. Carry on adding stock until the rice is soft but with a slight bite. This will take around 15 minutes. Taste the rice to check if it is cooked. Don’t forget to check the seasoning carefully. If you run out of stock before the rice is cooked, add some boiling water.
5. Remove from the heat and add the remaining butter and Parmesan. Stir well. Place a lid on the pan and allow to sit for 2 minutes. This is the most important part of making risotto, as this is when it becomes outrageously creamy and oozy, like it should be. Eat it as soon as possible, while the risotto retains its beautiful texture.
King prawns guvech (serves 4)
Prep time: 15 mins
Baking time: 15 mins
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus 3 tbsp extra, if required
6 spring onions, cut into 2cm pieces
2.5cm ginger, peeled and grated
2 garlic cloves, chopped
pinch of dried red chilli flakes, or more to taste
2 tomatoes, cubed
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
12 raw king prawns, peeled and deveined
100g crumbled feta cheese, plus extra for serving
1/2 small bunch thyme, roughly chopped
Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/gas mark 4. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a medium-sized casserole dish and sauté spring onions, ginger, garlic, chilli flakes, tomatoes and pomegranate molasses over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes to soften slightly.
2. Top with the prawns then cover with the crumbled feta. Drizzle with remaining olive oil if the dish looks like it needs it and transfer to the oven to bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the cheese has melted into the sauce and the prawns are cooked through.
3. Remove from the oven and garnish with thyme. Crumble over a little extra feta before serving, if you wish.
Pasta and pesto with thyme (serves 4)
Prep time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 10 mins
2 tbsp pine nuts
120g fresh basil leaves (pick off as much of the stalk as you can, as this discolours easily)
120g fresh thyme, only the leaves
3 garlic cloves, if desired
50g Parmesan, grated
300ml olive oil
500g dry pasta, brown if possible
toasted pine nuts, grated Parmesan
and basil leaves, to garnish
Preparation
1. To make pesto, toast the pine nuts in a dry pan, and then cool. Lightly crush in a pestle and mortar, along with a pinch of salt.
2. Add basil and thyme leaves a few at a time, and working as quickly as possible, pound them into the mixture until you have a thickish paste. (To save time this can be done in a food processor.) If you like garlic then add 3 cloves at this point. I love it with garlic.
3. Work in the cheese, and then gradually incorporate 250ml oil.
4. Spoon the pesto into a glass jar, and pour the remaining oil on top. Do not mix. It will keep in the fridge for at least 10 days.
5. To prepare the pasta, place it in boiling salted water and let it cook until al dente. Drain and toss it with 3tbsp of the prepared pesto. Garnish with toasted pine nuts, grated Parmesan and a few fresh basil leaves.
