Aubergine & Peanut Stew with Pink Onions
Pictured page 169
This stew brings charred aubergines to a pan with peanuts, peanut butter and lots of chilli and spice. The onions add a shock of acid and neon pink. Red-skinned peanuts are a great source of protein and in summer try soaking them in cold water to make them more nutritious, then eat with fruit for breakfast.
150g unsalted red-skinned peanuts
2 medium aubergines, chopped
2 tablespoons groundnut oil
2 white onions, peeled and thinly sliced 1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
½-1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or chilli powder 2 bay leaves
Small bunch of coriander, stalks chopped, leaves
kept whole
6 whole tomatoes, roughly chopped, or 400g tin
chopped tomatoes
3 tablespoons tomato purée
½-1 Scotch bonnet chilli, finely chopped,
depending on heat
500ml hot vegetable stock
3 tablespoons peanut butter
PINK ONIONS
1 red onion
1 tablespoon caster sugar or honey 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
TO SERVE
Rice or flatbreads
Small bunch of coriander, chopped
In a heatproof bowl soak the peanuts in 500ml boiling water, leaving to soak until they need to be added to the stew.
Put a large saucepan or casserole dish over your highest heat, add the chopped aubergines and dry-fry, turning regularly, until browned on all sides. This will take 5 or 6 minutes and you may need to do it in batches depending on your pan size.
If you have been cooking in batches, add all the aubergines back to the pan, then add the oil and fry for a further 5 minutes, adding more oil if it looks a little dry. Add the white onions and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes until they are soft.
Add the spices, bay leaves and coriander stalks and fry for a minute more. Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato purée and fry for a couple of minutes, stirring from time to time so nothing sticks.
Add most of the Scotch bonnet chilli and all the vegetable stock. Drain the peanuts and add to the pan, then simmer over a medium heat for 10-15 minutes until you have a thick sauce.
Pink onions: While the stew is cooking, slice the red onion as thinly as you can and put in a bowl.
Add the caster sugar or honey and red wine vinegar and scrunch with your hands. Add the remaining Scotch bonnet and the coriander leaves and stir.
Once the stew is ready, stir in the peanut butter. Drain the liquid from the onions and stir it into the stew a tablespoon at a time until it is the right level of acidity. Add a little more hot stock or water if it’s too thick. Taste and season with salt and black pepper, ladle into bowls, top with the pink onions and coriander, and serve with rice or flatbreads. Serves 4
Late Summer Corn & Tomato Curry
This is a summer kind of curry. It’s bright in flavour, with sourness from tamarind offsetting the sweet tomatoes and corn, all levelled off with the calming creaminess of coconut milk. To make this in autumn or winter, use tinned cherry tomatoes, frozen corn and some roasted or very thinly sliced raw butternut or winter squash.
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds Coconut or groundnut oil
2 leeks, washed and roughly shredded 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped 1 green chilli, roughly chopped
1 x 400ml tin coconut milk
2 tablespoons tamarind paste
1kg tomatoes, small ones halved, big ones quartered, or 2 x 400g tins cherry tomatoes
Kernels from 1 large corn on the cob or 175g
tinned/ frozen kernels
2 large handfuls of chard or spinach, washed,
leaves roughly shredded, stems sliced
TO SERVE
Lime-spiked yoghurt (plain yoghurt mixed with
lime juice and zest)
Rice, warm rotis or chapatis
You will need a large shallow pan for this; a big frying pan would do.
Put the fennel and coriander seeds into a spice grinder or pestle and mortar and grind until you have a rough powder. Put your largest frying pan or wok over a medium heat, add the ground spices and mustard seeds and push them around the pan, toasting for a couple of minutes, then tip into a bowl.
Put the pan back over a medium heat, add a little oil, the leeks and a pinch of salt, then cook for 10 minutes until soft and sweet. Put the toasted spices back in the pan and stir.
Add the garlic and chilli and stir around the pan for about another 5 minutes or so. Next, pour in the coconut milk, add the tamarind, tumble in the tomatoes and cook for 20 minutes on a medium-high heat. You want the tomatoes to lose some of their liquid and the coconut milk to intensify and thicken.
Next, add the corn and greens (sliced stems and leaves) and cook for another couple of minutes until the greens have wilted.
Serve with lime-spiked yoghurt and rice, or rotis or chapatis. Serves 4
Fig & Halva Sundae
The magic of a sundae never gets old. Here, the fruit gets mashed to make the sundae sauce, so if your fruit is not super-ripe and mashable you might want to chop it up a little first. If you are vegan, check the halva you buy is vegan – most is, but some has honey in it.
4 ripe figs (seasonal variations include raspberries, strawberries, ripe peaches or apricots or very ripe plums) 2 tablespoons honey or maple syrup 4 scoops of good vanilla ice cream or
vegan ice cream
50g halva, crumbled
1 small handful of pistachios (about 20g),
roughly chopped
Peel and mash 2 of the figs and stir in the honey. Cut the remaining figs into quarters.
Take two glasses or glass bowls and spoon in a quarter of the mashed figs, top with a scoop of ice cream, a crumble of halva, a couple of quarters of fig and some chopped pistachios. Then repeat the process, finishing with the final pieces of fig and the last of the pistachios.
Eat immediately. Serves 2