Aubergine, Tomato and Cheese Bake

Aubergine, Tomato and Cheese Bake

This is my variation of the classic Italian aubergine melanzane dish.

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 large or 2 small aubergines

Tomato sauce (see below for recipe)

60g mozzarella, thinly sliced or grated

60g fontina or cheddar cheese, thinly sliced or grated

40g grated Parmesan cheese

Olive oil               

Salt

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180˚C.

2. Slice the aubergines into circles, about 5mm thick.

3. Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan and cook the sliced aubergines for about 5 minutes on each side - until they are soft all the way through. (Aubergines need a lot of oil while being cooked – just keep adding oil until they stop “drinking it up”. After they have been cooked pat the slices dry with kitchen paper to get as much of the oil out as you can).

4. Sprinkle some salt onto the aubergine slices.

5. Put a layer of aubergine slices into an oven proof dish.

5. Spread some tomato sauce (see below) onto the aubergines, and then spread half of the Fontina (or cheddar), Parmesan and mozzarella cheese on top of the tomato sauce.

6. Repeat the process again – i.e. add a second layer of aubergines and spread the remaining tomato sauce, and then the remaining cheese on top of the tomato sauce (as on the first layer).

7. Bake it all at 180˚C for 15 minutes and then brown the cheese under a grill for a couple of minutes before serving.

Tomato sauce recipe:

Ingredients:

75g of tomato puree

75g tomato passata

2 teaspoons of dried mixed herbs

¼ teaspoon coarse black pepper

¼ - ¾ teaspoon of chilli powder

¼ teaspoon of salt 

Method for tomato sauce:

Mix all the sauce ingredients together well in a bowl.

Additional Information

Fontina is an Italian cheese that is rich and creamy with a nutty flavour, and it melts wonderfully. It was originally recommended to me by a local Italian delicatessen, and I haven’t looked back since! The combination of Fontina with mozzarella is superb; also the mozzarella reduces the cost of this dish as it is more reasonably priced than the Fontina. If you can’t get hold of Fontina cheese, use cheddar instead.

It is vital to make sure that the aubergine slices are thoroughly cooked during the initial frying process – the aubergine should be soft enough to almost melt in your mouth after being baked, which it won’t do if there are any raw bits left.

Health benefits of aubergines

Aubergines are strictly speaking classified as berries! They are a good source of fibre, folic acid, potassium and anthocyanins (an anti-oxidant) – all of which are beneficial to health.         

Banoffee pie

Banoffee pie

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas

Toffee sauce (see below)

Biscuit base (see below)

Cream topping (see below)

Refrigerated dark chocolate for decoration (optional)

Toffee sauce

Ingredients for toffee sauce:

50g butter

75g brown sugar

50g white sugar

100mls golden syrup

150 mls double cream

Method for toffee sauce:

1. Heat the butter, sugar and golden syrup over a very low heat until the sugar is dissolved (this takes about 10 minutes). If you don’t have golden syrup, use an extra 80g of brown sugar instead. 

2. Next, add the cream and continue heating while it is gently bubbling for another 10 minutes, and then take it off the heat and leave it to cool down to room temperature. (Don't overcook the toffee sauce or else it will end up too hard when it cools down).

3. Make the biscuit base while the toffee sauce is cooling down.

Biscuit base for the base of the pie

Ingredients for base:

120g digestive biscuits

50g butter

Method for base:

1. Melt the butter over a low heat.

2. Crush the biscuits in a polythene bag (using a rolling pin), until they resemble fine crumbs, then add them to the melted butter and stir until the butter is evenly distributed.

3. Put the biscuit and butter mixture into an 8 inch (20 cm) diameter dish which is at least 3 inches (8 cms) high, and press it down to form a firm and even base, then put it into a fridge to set, which should take about 30 minutes.

4. When the toffee sauce has cooled down make the cream topping.

Cream Topping:

Ingredients:

200mls double cream

20g icing sugar

Few drops of vanilla essence

Method for cream topping:

Whisk the cream with the sugar and vanilla essence until it is thick and just starts holding its shape, but be careful to not over whisk it as the cream will separate out and curdle if you do.

Final Assembly of Pie

1. Slice the bananas and layer the pieces on top of the biscuit base.

2. Cover the bananas with the toffee sauce.

3. Cover the toffee sauce with the whipped cream.

4. Grate some chocolate on top of the cream for decoration.

5. Chill in a fridge for about an hour before serving.

Sea Bass with Miso Sauce

Sea Bass with Miso Sauce

Eating Nobu’s black cod inspired this recipe. I found it quite hard to get the ‘blackened effect’ – at first I tried grilling the fish, but that tends to dry it out, so instead of grilling it I first bake and then pan-fry the fish briefly in very hot clarified butter.

Ingredients (serves 4)

4 sea bass fillets

1 tablespoon clarified butter

Marinade for fillets:

4 tablespoons mirin

4 tablespoons soya sauce

Juice of 1 lemon (40mls)

Salt

1 or 2 finely chopped green chillies – optional

Finely chopped fresh ginger – optional

Finely chopped spring onion - optional

Few stalks fresh parsley - optional 
¼ teaspoon chilli powder - optional

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 180°C

2. Marinate the fish in the marinade for at least 10 minutes.

3. Bake the fish with the marinade in a covered dish (with foil or a lid), for about 7 minutes.

4. Heat the clarified butter in a large frying pan until it is very hot but not smoking.

5. Drain the fillets from the marinade and then fry them for about 30 seconds on each side.

6. Serve immediately with a sprinkling of chilli powder and then a tablespoon of warm sweet miso sauce on top of each fillet.

Sweet miso sauce

Ingredients

25 mls sake

25 mls mirin

4 tablespoons (125g) white miso paste

4 tablespoons  (50g) sugar

Method for sweet miso sauce

1. Put the miso paste in a saucepan and add the sugar.

2. Gradually add the sake and mirin, stirring well to prevent lumps from forming.

3. Heat the mixture over a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved (about 5 minutes), stirring constantly all the while.

4. Take the pan off the heat and let the mixture cool down – it keeps well in the fridge for a few weeks.

Additional Information

The cooking time is crucial in this recipe – if you over bake or over fry the fish it loses the ‘melt in your mouth softness’ that makes this recipe so good. The cooking time in this recipe is based on fairly thin fillets -you could also use salmon or cod instead, but depending on the thickness of the fish, you would need to adjust the cooking time accordingly.

The chillies, ginger, spring onion and parsley do add a little bit of flavour to the fish – I have tried making it without these and it still tastes good, but the lemon juice, soya sauce and mirin are essential ingredients of the marinade.



Health Benefits of fish with soya sauce
An article in a newspaper on 18/11/09 tells about how adding soy sauce to baked fish enhances its omega-3 health benefits. According to the article, baked or boiled fish is a better source than fried fish of omega-3 fatty acids (which have been shown to protect the heart), and adding low salt soy sauce to a fishy meal enhances the benefits further. The researchers studied omega-3 consumption among nearly 200,000 people, as well as the different ways the fish was prepared; their findings were presented to the American Heart Association.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6590817/Fish-with-soy-sauce-is-good-for-the-heart.html

Madhvi’s Naughty Cheesecake

Madhvi’s Naughty Cheesecake

For the base of the cheesecake
Ingredients
120g digestive biscuits
50g butter

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 160°C

2. Melt the butter over a low heat.

3. Crush the biscuits in a polythene bag (using a rolling pin), until they resemble fine crumbs, then add them to the melted butter and stir until the butter is evenly distributed.

4. Put the biscuit and butter mixture into a 20 cm (8 inch) springform cake tin and press it down to form a firm and even base.

5. Bake it for 5 minutes at 160°C, then remove it from the oven and let it cool down before covering it with the filling.

For the cheesecake filling

Ingredients

400g full fat cream cheese

200g sugar

1 ½ tablespoons flour

Freshly grated zest of 2 oranges

Freshly grated zest of 2 lemons

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 eggs

3 tablespoons double cream

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 240° C.

2. Blend all the ingredients (except for the eggs and cream) in a large bowl with an electric whisk.

3. Beat the eggs in one at a time.

4. Beat the cream in, but do not over whisk.

5. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in a pre-heated oven at 240° C for 10 minutes.

6. Turn the oven temperature down to 100°C and bake for another 60 minutes.

7. Remove the cheesecake from the oven and leave it to cool down before chilling it in a fridge (still in the tin), for at least a few hours. (If the cake is a bit ‘wobbly’ when you take it out of the oven, put it back in for another 10 minutes or so - until it feels firm on shaking the tin. Don’t use a knife to check whether it is cooked through – shaking the tin is enough).

Lemon curd and cream cheese topping

Ingredients

100g unsalted butter

100g icing sugar (sieved)

100g full fat cream cheese

100g lemon curd (home made or ready made)

Method

1. Whisk the butter in a large bowl with an electric whisk – for about 1 minute - until it is soft and creamy.

2. Add the sieved icing sugar to the butter and continue whisking for another minute until it is thoroughly blended in.

3. Add the lemon curd and continue whisking for about half a minute.

4. Add the cream cheese and continue whisking for another minute until the mixture is smooth.

5. Spread the lemon curd topping onto the cheesecake and chill for at least another 30 minutes before serving.

Additional Information

This is indeed a very naughty cheesecake so I wouldn’t recommend making it on a regular basis, (unless you have growing teenage children who are ready to polish it off before you get tempted into having a large slice yourself!).

Instead of the lemon curd icing, you could put a fruit glaze or just leave the cheesecake plain.

Many recipes for baked cheesecakes have an extra egg yolk in the recipe – I have tried making it with and without the extra yolk and can’t tell the difference. If you have a spare yolk lying around then by all means chuck it in if you want, but it isn’t an essential ingredient as far as I’m concerned.