Recipe: Stuffed Aubergine Schnitzels

Serves 4

Ingredients:

-3 aubergines

-1 tomato, sliced

-Slices of cheese (e.g. mozzarella/ taleggio/ emmental/ cheddar...)

-20 leaves of fresh basil
-50g pine nuts

-50g parmesan, roughly chopped

-Squeeze of lemon juice

-2 eggs, beaten

-100g breadcrumbs

-Olive oil

-Oil for shallow frying

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Cut the aubergines into 0.5cm slices, place in a colander, sprinkle with salt and leave for 1hour. Rinse.

2. Arrange the aubergine slices on a baking tray and brush with olive oil on both sides, season. Bake for 30 minutes or until soft, turning them once.

3. Meanwhile make the pesto by blending the basil, pine nuts, and parmesan in the food processor with a squeeze of lemon, seasoning, and a good amount of olive oil.

4. When the aubergine slices are cool enough to handle, take the four largest slices and spread with some of the pesto. Top each with a slice of cheese and tomato, and spread with more pesto. Then sandwich together with slices of aubergine. (There will be some left over which can be used in a pasta sauce, salad, etc)

5. Heat the oil in a large frying pan. Coat the aubergine schnitzels in the beaten egg, then dip in the breadcrumbs, and repeat. Then gently lower them into the frying pan and fry gently for 3-4 minutes on each side (do not crowd the pan, two at a time is good). This can be quite fiddly.

6. When golden and crispy on each side, remove from the pan and pat dry with kitchen paper. Serve with a green salad and some extra pesto.

Pu-er Tea

'Pu-er tea is aloof, and never perturbed by either honour or disgrace' China Culture Express

Pu-er is a large leaf tea from the Yunnan province of China. It is one of the rarest and finest Chinese teas, and is often referred to as the 'Queen of teas'. After having been picked, the tea is briefly fired to allow the leaves to retain some moisture. It is then left to age (and ferment due to the bacteria left on the leaves) in special underground caves. It can either be left as loose tea, or more often than not it is compressed into tea cakes. Pu-er tea is much like a vintage wine, and can be left to age for decades. The rarest pu-er teas fetch extraordinary high prices- for example £90 for 10g of this 1950's Menghai Raw Pu-er supreme : http://jingtea.com/tea/puerh-tea/1950s-menghai-raw-puerh-supreme-loose

The art of brewing pu-er tea is a ancient and complicated one (see links below- there are 8 steps). Spring water is recommended, and the first infusion should always be discarded as this washes the leaves. The tea can then be brewed up to ten times, but only for 10-20 seconds for the first few and slightly longer for the last few brews.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VjfN_el6SQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbcPXsD-RI8&feature=related

Pu-er tea has a distinct aroma (almost fishy, farmyard smell) which nearly put me off the first time I tried it. However the taste is smooth and refreshing.

There have been many studies into the health benefits of pu-er, and it is said to reduce cholesterol.

Recipe: Red Pepper and Feta Pizza with Capers and Chilli

This makes enough for two good sized pizzas (roughly 30cm diameter). The quantities of the topping ingredients can be changed to taste.

Ingredients:

Base

-330g strong white bread/ pizza flour

-5g dried yeast

-220ml luke warm water

-1 tsp golden caster sugar

-1/2 tsp fine salt

-1tsp olive oil

Topping

-2 tbsp tomato puree

-5 tbsp passata (or tinned chopped tomatoes)

-2 tsp oregano / herbes de provence

-Seasoning

-1 clove garlic, sliced

-Thinly sliced onion, red pepper

-1 tsp capers

-Sundried tomatoes, chopped

-A few slices of feta

-100g parmesan shavings

-Chilli flakes

1. To make the base, pile the flour and salt onto a work surface or into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the yeast and sugar to the warm water and mix. Leave for 3-4 minutes, then pour this into the well with the olive oil. Using a fork, start to mix the flour into the yeast by gradually pulling in the flour from the sides. When it gets thick, use your hands to form a ball shape. Knead this for 10 minutes (I did this in a machine). Cover with cling film and leave for 30 minutes to rise.

2. In the meantime preheat the oven to 220 C. Make up the the sauce by mixing together the tomato puree, passata, herbs, salt and pepper.

3. Divide the dough into 2 balls, and roll each out into a 30 cm round, and place on a baking tray/ pizza trays. Leave for 10-15 minutes.

4. Spread the tomato sauce onto the bases and then add the topping ingredients. You can either add the parmesan before or after cooking.

5. Drizzle with olive oil then bake for 10- 15 minutes or until the base is crisp and golden. Serve with a rocket salad.

Recipe: Arancini

This is a great way to use up leftover risotto, but it is so nice it is worth making some up especially.

Ingredients:

-650g leftover risotto (I used mushroom)

-2 medium eggs, beaten

-100g fine breadcrumbs

-oil for shallow frying.

1. Put the beaten egg and breadcrumbs in two separate shallow bowls. Start heating the oil in a large frying pan.

2. Take large spoonfuls of the risotto (ideally chilled) and form croquette shapes. First dip in the beaten egg, then roll in the breadcrumbs. Repeat this.

3. Carefully lower the croquettes into the oil and fry gently for 5 minutes or until golden brown on all sides. Serve with salad or as a starter.

You can also make arancini with a melting cheese centre. For this you also need 50g of mozzarella/ fontina/ gruyere or other similar cheese, cut into cubes. When shaping the arancini, take a cube of cheese and mould the rice around it. Fry gently and serve immediately.

Cheese of the month: Camembert de Normandie (AOC)

Camembert comes from the Pay's d'Auge area of Normandy in Northern France. This cheeseboard favourite originated in Crouttes in 1761 by Marie Christine Harel,who perfected her cheese recipe taking advice from a priest from nearby Brie. The cheese was famously issued to French troops during World War I, becoming firmly fixed in French popular culture as a result.

Today, because of it's AOC status, it is made to very strict specifications. It can only be made in three territories in Normandy, and from normand cows.

As a young cheese, Camembert has a creamy taste but as it matures the taste becomes stronger and even quite pungent (I have had to put very ripe Camembert outside in solitary confinement before, the smell was so strong!)

Some people say that Camembert goes best with white wines, if eating with red wine then a light one low in tannin would be best, as strong red wines can give a metallic taste.

Web Camembert

Just for fun- your photo on a box of cheese!

http://www.webcamembert.com/

This quirky website allows you to upload a photo/ use a webcam to create your own Camembert label, with a range of traditional styles to choose from.

You can even order personalised plates, mugs, stickers etc. - that may be going a bit too far...

Recipe: Rosettes

Rosettes are thin, waffle-like deep fried batter pastries, of Scandinavian origin. They are traditionally made at Christmas time, but are also served on May Day in Finland. To make them, intricately designed irons are heated in hot oil, then dipped into a sweet batter, then back into the oil and fried until crisp. They are usually just simply served with a dusting of icing sugar.

There are many different iron designs, and different batter recipes to try. With the irons I received for Christmas I tried the following recipe:

Basic Batter - makes 36 rosettes

-225ml milk

-1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise

-3 tablespoons granulated sugar

-1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

-1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

-175g all purpose flour

-2 large eggs, beaten

-Oil for frying

-Icing sugar for dusting

1. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla and whisk with the milk. In a separate, larger bowl, mix together the sugar, salt, cardamom and flour. Add the milk and eggs and whisk until smooth. Chill the batter for 30 minutes.

2. Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or large saucepan until the temperature reaches 375°.

3. Carefully dip the irons (with handle attached) into the oil and leave to heat for 2-3 minutes. Blot on a paper towel. At this point it is handy to have some paper towels laid out on the work surface, as it can get messy!

4. Dip the hot iron into the batter up to the top edge of the iron- do not totally submerge. Then dip into the hot oil for around 15 seconds or until golden brown. Remove from the oil and gently remove the rosette, using a fork if required. The rosette may detach itself from the iron whilst it is still in the oil, in this case carefully remove from the oil with tongs. Drain the rosettes on paper towels then serve dusted with icing sugar.

A video on how to make them can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxAKDEV3UuM