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| Aubergine rolls |
We had friends over to celebrate the New Year’s Day
and I decided that an anti dote to Christmas would be roast lamb.
Ok so it’s
normally an Easter thing, but we were having a quiet New Year so I wanted
delicious food that would feed the soul as well as hungry revellers after a
bracing walk.
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| View from Lymington over the Solent to the Isle of Wight |
Tired of nut
roasts and slices of fish I turned to my cook book of the moment,
Made in Sicily by Giorgio Locatelli.
It’s
entirely his fault I became a Sicily convert. I was hooked after watching one of his
programs on TV a few years ago and then spend a few gorgeous weeks there last
summer, splitting our time between Ernesto and Elda’s beach hut style villa
near Noto
and Butera 28
the Palazzo of the Lampedusa family in Palermo.
Anyway back to the food....more precisely Aubergines..
They aren’t popular with certain members of the
family however this recipe had everyone, family and friends, converted. It
combines the sweet taste of raisins, pine nuts and onion with a shavings of
pecorino cheese all rolled up neatly in aubergine and baked..OH WOW..
The taste is divine.
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| Aubergine Rolls with bay leaves |
So whilst we had them as a starter and moved onto
the very slow roasted lamb, teen V had them instead of the lamb with roasted
veg....
For us meat eaters they were a delicious starter and
for her made a welcome change from nut roast.
On a practical level they can be made in advance and
just put into cook for 10 minutes when you take the meat out so everyone is
served at the same time.
The blend of nuts, dried fruit, vegetables and
cheese is very well balanced and so offers a nutritional delight.
AUBERGINE ROLLS
Serves
4 as main or 6 as starter
Preparation
time 10-15 minutes but allow 2 -3 hours for draining drying etc..
Cooking
time 10 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
2 Medium aubergines
Sea salt and black pepper a pinch of each
Splash if olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
1 onion
20g raisins
20g pine nuts
20g pecorino cheese, grated
Lots of fresh bay leaves
2 tbsp of breadcrumbs
Juice of 1 lemon..I forgot to put this on the
finished dish and it was gorgeous with out – your choice-
WHAT TO DO:
1. Slice
the aubergines thinly length wise, sprinkle with salt and leave to drain for a
few hours
2. Wipe
off any excess water or salt and squeeze them to get rid of any extra moisture.
3. Boil
a saucepan of water and blanch each aubergine in the water for about a minute
then leave on the side to drain.
4. Heat
the oil in a frying and slowly fry the onion until soft, for a few minutes then
add the raisins and pine nuts for a further minute. Take off the heat and stir
in the cheese, salt and pepper. You should have a nice dense mixture, but you
might want to add more olive oil here.
5. Now
place the slices of aubergine on a board and spoon a tsp of mixture at one end
and then roll it up. Put it on a wooden skewer with a bay leaf between each
roll.
6. Put
about 4 rolls to a stick and place in an oven proof dish, sprinkle with bread
crumbs and bake for about 10 minutes.
Giorgio says to squeeze the juice of a lemon over
the top before serving, but I didn’t and it was great..the choice is yours.
It is easy; just make sure you leave enough time for
each stage.
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| Bay tree by the garden gate |
The other unexpected pleasure I had when out getting
some bay leaves from the garden was to discover the Mahonia, (spiky leaved
shrub with small yellow flowers that smell amazing) had blossomed and smelt so beautiful.
You felt spring was near, even though I know it’s not!
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| Winter garden 2013 |
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| Bay tree |
So armed with bay leaves and a sprig of mahonia we
celebrated the start of 2013
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| Mahonia |
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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| Bay leaves |
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