Melanzane alla Parmigiana

The weather is improving. It's time to start thinking hoping to be able to dine outside. This is a great dish to prepare in advance and then heat and serve outside. 

I had two lovely big plump aubergines and had made this before but topped the dish with mozzarella. I found a recipe on the BBC Good Food website saying to top with beaten egg. I changed this slightly and added Greek yoghurt.

I used passata instead of chopped tinned tomatoes but either would work.


Melanzane alla Parmigiana Recipe

2 aubergines
1 red onion finely diced
1 clove of garlic crushed
1 carton of passata or 2 tins of chopped tomatoes
a sprig of rosemary chopped
salt and pepper
1 large egg
2 heaped tablespoons of Greek yoghurt
100g of coarsely grated Parmesan
Rapeseed oil and olive oil

Using a large frying/griddle pan, add a tablespoon of rapeseed oil and one of olive oil. Add slices of aubergine and batch fry for about 4 minutes each side until softened and beginning to yield back the oil onto the pan.

In a separate saucepan saute the onions and garlic until softened. Add the tomatoes/passata and season. Finally add the finely chopped rosemary leaves only. Simmer ten minutes.

Layer up aubergines and tomato sauce in an oven proof dish. Grate some Parmesan over each layer.

Finally whisk the egg and yoghurt together and pour over the top of the dish. Finish off with remaining grated Parmesan.

Put in oven 180C for 25 minutes or until golden and bubbling. Cool and serve thick wedges.

Can be served as a main or as a vegetable side. It's really good with crusty bread. Perfect for spring or summer dining.









                                                

Fennel and Blood Orange

According to The Dining Room.ie and food writer Tom Doorley, this combination is in the top ten list of fashionable ingredients. I just happened to have the ingredients and on a lovely sunny Easter Saturday thought it would be perfect with some fish.








Fennel and Blood Orange Salad

1 fennel bulb finely sliced
1 red onion finely sliced
2 blood oranges skin and pith removed and cut into segments
half a lemon juiced
the juice saved from segmenting the blood oranges
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper

Using a mandolin slice the fennel and the red onion. Prepare the oranges using a sharp knife to remove the skin and pith and carefully cut into individual segments (peel and segment the orange on a board, carefully tip the juice that comes out into a small bowl.)

Add the lemon juice to the saved orange juice and add roughly equal quantity of extra virgin olive oil to the juices. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and toss through the salad.

Mini Easter Simnel Cakes

I remember the first time I made a Simnel cake really well. It wasn't long after we had moved here from England and I decided I'd have a go. At that stage I wasn't as proficient at baking and my fruit cake repertoire was Christmas cake often burnt on the outside and doughy in the centre.  As usual I skimmed the recipe and completely missed the bit where you put the layer of marzipan in the centre. Then when I read it back, thought to myself that has to be a mistake.

Then the following Easter I made it correctly and was completely hooked. So much so that for several years I was tempted to do the same with every fruit cake I made. The marzipan layer is unbelievably delicious and sort of sinks and ripples through the cake.

Mini Easter Simnel Cakes Recipe

Ingredients
150g softened butter
150g dark muscovado sugar
2 large eggs
50g glacé cherries chopped
50g dates stoned and chopped
150g mixed dried fruit
25g flaked almonds
50g prunes stoned and chopped
175g plain flour
half a teaspoon baking powder
pinch of grated nutmeg, ground cloves and cinnamon
zest of one lemon and orange
1 tablespoon rum

Cream the butter and sugar. Mash the muscovado with a fork as it can be lumpy. Whisk in the eggs. Add a small amount of flour if the mixture curdles. Add the dried fruits, cherries, dates, prunes, flaked almonds, spice, zests. Fold in the sieved flour and baking powder. Finally add in the rum.

Almond Paste/Marzipan
150g ground almonds
75g caster sugar
75g icing sugar
1 egg beaten
apricot jam to glaze

Mix the almonds and sugars together. Beat the egg in a separate container and add slowly to the mix. You may not need all the egg.  It is better to add less than more. Just get in there with your hands and as my grandmother taught me, the heat from your hands releases the oil in the almonds and binds the paste. 

Roll the paste out to just under a 1cm thickness and cut rounds to fit your individual cake moulds.

Grease and line your miniature cake moulds. I used 6 moulds which were used in the bakery I worked for making individual mousses and cheesecakes and so have no base. I lined them with baking paper. 

Just under half fill the moulds with the cake mixture. Add the disc of marzipan and finish off with cake mixture. Smooth it out and make a slight dip in centre. 

Put the cakes in a preheated oven at 140C or 120C fan for an hour and a quarter. I then turned my oven up to 180C fan to brown the tops for a further 10 minutes as they were very pale

To finish off. Remove from moulds and cool. Invert them and brush the base with apricot jam. Cut out another disc of marzipan and press down gently. Brush with the beaten egg left over and place under a hot grill for a couple of minutes.

I had some mixture left over so it should be sufficient to fill a deep muffin tin with a dozen wells. The cakes will just be smaller.