What would feed me..Kellie? …the series finale & round up..

  Can you believe that this guest post series has been running for over six months? I’m amazed, I didn’t really have a plan when I started it, but I probably didn’t expect it to go on for so long, and with so many amazing posts! I’ve been overwhelmed with the care and creativity that has been taken by so many of you, and I thank you greatly for being so enthusiastic 🙂 at the bottom of this post you will find a montage of all of the dishes that I have been ‘virtually fed’ and links to everyone’s posts. Please do remind yourself of the wonderful array of dishes, all following my request to make vegetarian, gluten free, sugar free, healthy dishes. 

I know this was quite a challenge for some of you and I can only say a HUGE thank you, you did a fabulous job, I would eat them all…although maybe not all at once! 

Thank you all so very much for all your hard work, I am bringing this post to this week’s Fiesta Friday to fully share all of your wonderful dishes and celebrate the wonderful community that we all share. I love the family that we’ve created and thank you all for letting me be a part of it.

This final post in the series comes from one of my favourite blogs: Kellie’s Food to Glow. When I look through my posts over the last couple of years, I have reblogged posts from Kellie’s blog more than anyone else’s. I love her ethos, her recipes, her flavours, her knowledge, and her sheer generosity, she is such a caring and giving person, it shines out of her posts. If you don’t already follow Kellie’s blog – you need to, but before you jump over to her blog, check out what she brought me. So, in this very fitting finale to the series…for the last time…

What would you feed me, Kellie?

 
As a reader of Elaine’s playful and delicious food blog you will be very familiar with her love of Middle Eastern flavours – the fragrant spice mixes, tahini, dips harissa, her legendary chermoula; anything hot and ‘punchy’ a particular love and forte of hers.   

Elaine’s creative and energetic cooking inspire all of us to get into the kitchen to chop, roast, mash, and blend our way to a delicious and usually quite easy vegetarian meal. I was therefore suitably flattered and not a little scared about being asked to close out this wonderful series of hers. What could I do that she hasn’t already thought of?

Luckily I also adore Middle Eastern flavours so at least I would be making something I would like too. I make a version of this already but as luck would have it, have never thought to blog it. But for Elaine I wanted to throw in something unexpected (she is used to that), so it had to be Japanese yuzu powder.

This floral-citrus powder is made by drying and pulverizing the deeply fragrant Japanese citrus fruit of the same name, and it goes wherever anything citrus does, amping up any dish with not only notes of orange blossom and lemon zest, but also overtones of grapefruit. Luckily we can get the powdered stuff online, although the juice is often available in bottles in the specialty section at the supermarket (wjth the sushi bits and bobs). It is however entirely optional in this recipe.

Knowing how much Elaine loves dips I am writing this up as a dip, but it is equally at home atop pasta, courgetti, or even the substance of a rather messy tartine. Your call, but I know Elaine would dig in with some homemade pitta chips. I’ll just go and fire up the barbie then, Elaine. 🙂 

Title: Burnt Aubergines, Avocado-Tahini Sauce and Fried Caper-Chickpeas

Serves: 2

Author: Kellie Anderson, food to glow 

A messy mélange of summer goodness. 

I roasted my aubergines over a charcoal fire, but don’t let wet weather or lack of garden space deter you in making this soft, dippable crush of spiky yet comforting flavours. Alternative methods are cooking the aubergines directly (and I mean directly) on a gas hob, or even in the oven. The latter lacks the to-me essential smokiness but is a good enough sub as the other flavours pull everything together. The only must is that aubergines be thoroughly cooked and very soft. 

 

Ingredients

2 plump, firm aubergines

Rapeseed oil for brushing the aubergines if bbq-ing

1 ripe avocado

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tbsp light tahini

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice + zest of half lemon

Warm water to thin

1 tbsp olive oil, plus more to drizzle

1 mug of cooked chickpeas

1 tbsp capers, rinsed and patted dry

1 tbsp yuzu powder (definitely optional but adds floral-citrus zing to the chickpeas)

Cherry tomatoes, chopped

Handful of flat parsley, chopped

Lemon wedges and pitta chips (see below) to serve

Method 

The aubergines are the only time-consuming part of this whole foodie affair. The most delicious option is whacking them on a hot barbecue grill.  

Light your barbecue and once the charcoal or wood goes ashy, pierce the aubergine six times (to stop them potentially exploding, although this is more of a risk in the oven), slick the aubergines with some oil and place on the hottest part of the grill. Allow them to get wrinkled, dark and blistered – turning to cook the whole aubergine. Allow up to 20 minutes to get them shrunken and wrinkled all over. The whole thing should be very soft and perhaps burst in places.. Allow to cool a bit while you get on with everything else.

You can also ‘bake’ the pitta chips on the bbq too. Cut a couple of wholemeal pittas around the seam, tear or cut into large bite-sized pieces and lay on the grill, turning as they brown. Or, pop pieces on a baking tray and bake at 180C/350F for 8-10 minutes, until dry and starting to colour.

 Make the avocado-tahini sauce by putting the avocado, garlic, tahini, lemon juice and zest and about 3 tbsp water in a food processor or blender, blending until smooth. Add more water or lemon juice to make a thickish, dippable sauce. 

 For the chickpeas, heat a small sauté pan over medium-high heat; toss the chickpeas and capers in 1 tbsp oil, adding yuzu powder if you have it; add to the hot pan. Saute the chickpeas and capers until brown in places.

To serve, mash the aubergine in their skins (or carefully scrape it out into a bowl), then mash in the avocado sauce to mix. Taste for seasoning. Now top with the chickpeas, tomatoes, parsley, and serve with lemon wedges and pitta chips. Some grilled halloumi on top would also be lovely if you wanted a more substantial and luxurious meal. 

 
Kellie, you thought I would love this, and I do! Thank you for the introduction to a new ingredient 🙂 xx

The round up… 

  

The links..

Selma: Almond, Orange and Tahini Biscuits 

Susan: Vegan Shepherds Pie

Prudy: Beans in sauce over quinoa

Sue: Pascal de Frijol (Bean Pascal)

Sonal: Tea with Elaine : Kahwa, a Kashmiri Green Tea; Date, Figs n Pistachio Salami; Eggplant Fritters (Baingan Pakode), Pan Grilled

Julianna: Swiss Chard Rolls with Black Rice in a Vegetable-Coconut Broth

Indu: Red Chori (adzuki beans) and pumpkin curry

Monetta: Poor Man’s Stew

Laura: Zucchini spaghetti and creamy tomato sauce, cauliflower tabbouleh and almond coconut cookies

Diana: Imam Biyaldi (baked stuffed aubergines) 

Linda: El Bissara, Broad bean Soup

Angie: Seared ‘scallop’ satay, sesame snap peas and string beans  

Melissa: Banana, date and pecan muffins

Naina: Kerala Ishtu (South Indian vegetable stew)

Karinna: Endive, asparagus, broccoli and bean salad

Chitra: Kiwi Lassi

Marisa: Dukkah Crusted Chunky Sweet Potato Fries and Tahini Dipping Sauce with Roasted Garlic

Fae: Vegetable Sushi

Jhuls: Spicy Baked Beans and Eggs

Krystina: Courgette/zucchini fritters

Suzanne: Khoresht e Bademjan (Vegetarian), eggplant stew 

Ginger: Pansotti di Borragine (Spinach, borage and chard filled gluten free pasta) with Salsa di Noci (Ligurian Walnut Sauce) and sugar free berry compote 

Deena: Padron pepper, masala cashew and slow roasted tomato salad

SJ: Savoury pancakes

I feel that care taken in these posts and the spirit of sharing that they represent is a perfect, lovely tribute to my darling Selma, she loved the idea of this series and her cookies have been the most popular post of them all. Thank you, sweetheart, for everything, you will be missed more than you know xxxxx