Tomato and Feta Salad with Aubergine Relish

From Market Vegetarian, Ross Dobson, Ryland Peters & Small, 2008.

This was a salad of tomato and mozzarella. I had feta cheese so decided on using that instead.

The relish was made first. I chopped a red onion and sautéed it for about 2 minutes in olive oil. I then added a chopped eggplant (aubergine) and cooked this with the onion for about 10 minutes when the eggplant had turned golden and was perfectly soft. While it was cooking I chopped 2 garlic cloves, a stick of celery and a red capsicum. I also measured out a tablespoon of capers and about a handful of black olives.

The garlic was added to the eggplant mixture and cooked for about a minute before I added the celery, red capsicum, capers and olives. These were cooked for another minute. I did not want them to lose their crispness. I now added a good dash of red wine vinegar and a couple of teaspoons of sugar. They were brought to the boil and cooked for another minute. The heat was now turned off. It was seasoned with salt and black pepper and left to stand until it was at room temperature. I checked it for taste and it was very good.

When it was time to serve, two large tomatoes were sliced and placed on a serving dish. The eggplant relish was spooned on top and the feta crumbled and sprinkled over. Some mint leaves were scattered on top.

The relish was zesty and a little crunchy. It went very well with the tomatoes. Perhaps the creamy mozzarella would have been better than the feta, but it was all very enjoyable.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Chilli Roasted Vegetables with Feta Cheese

From Market Vegetarian, Ross Dobson, Ryland Peters & Small, 2008.

Looking for a dish that would comfort but would be low in carbs I turned to this salad. It more than fulfilled my need and was delicious.

A red and a yellow capsicum were seeded and cut into sections. A fennel bulb was sliced thinly. Two garlic cloves were sliced thinly. Two red chillies were deseeded and sliced thinly. Three tomatoes were cut in halves. The vegetables all went into a bowl and were sprinkled with sea salt and a dribble of olive oil. They were gently tossed to ensure that they all were coated with oil and then they went into a 180ºC oven for an hour. They were turned over after about half an hour.

The vegetables came out of the oven and were rested for about half an hour after which they were picked out and arranged on a serving plate. Feta cheese (the recipe called for goat’s cheese but I had feta) was crumbled over. Some basil leaves were scattered on the salad.

Now some balsamic vinegar was added to the juices left in the pan and the liquid was poured over the vegetables as dressing.

This was the most mouth-watering salad. Writing this I start thinking about it again and would dearly love to have it again. The recipe suggested having some sourdough bread to eat with it and soak up the juices. I wish I had had the bread for it would have been a great accompaniment.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔ 

Rhubarb and Custard Pots

From Market Vegetarian, Ross Dobson, Ryland Peters & Small, 2008.

With four egg yolks waiting to be used, this seemed to be an ideal dessert to make.

About 500g of rhubarb was cut into 3cm lengths and added to a saucepan with a tablespoon water, 3 tablespoons caster sugar, a teaspoon orange zest and the juice of half an orange. This was brought to the boil and then simmered until the rhubarb had begun to disintegrate but was taken off the heat while it still had some substance to it. It was spooned into four bowls and left to cool while the custard was made.

The recipe called for 250ml single cream and 250ml double cream. Creams here don’t seem to be labelled single or double so I used pouring cream and thickened cream to make up the 500ml. This went into a saucepan on a low heat and while it came to the boil a vanilla pod was added to it. When it eventually reached boiling point the vanilla was removed and the seeds scraped from it to be added to the cream.

Four egg yolks were beaten with 2 tablespoons caster sugar for about a minute. The hot cream was now poured in slowly while the yolks continued to be beaten. When all the cream was added it went into a fresh saucepan and was heated over a low heat for a few minutes to thicken a little. It was now poured over the rhubarb and, when cool, placed in the refrigerator for at least three hours.

The tang of the rhubarb against the creamy custard was an absolute delight. I must make it again.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Nectarine and Pistachio Summer Crumble

From Market Vegetarian, Ross Dobson, Ryland Peters and Small, 2008.

There were some cheap nectarines at the local store so it seemed a good time to try out this recipe that I had recently been looking at. It was the season for this fruit and so it seemed to fit nicely into the philosophy that is promoted in the cookbook, a philosophy which I frequently overlook.

The recipe was such a simple one that it would be difficult to go wrong with it. The crumble was made from pistachios and almonds which had been processed roughly. These were mixed with butter and oatmeal. Flour and sugar were added next and they were all rubbed together until they felt right.

The nectarines were cut open and the stones removed. The ones I had had stones that resisted all effort to let go the fruit so I just cut around them. The crumble was sprinkled over the fruit and it was cooked in the oven for about 15 minutes.

It turned out to be a pleasant dessert though the nectarines were not overly juicy and so it was oddly drier than I had expected. Enjoyable but slightly disappointing.

 Taste: ✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Upside-down Red Pepper and Tomato Pie

From Market Vegetarian, Ross Dobson, Ryland Peters and Small, 2008.

Upside-down recipes are always, for me, slightly magical. You never quite know what it’s going to be like until you turn it over. Sometimes there’s no magic at all and you end up with a disaster but it’s certainly fun trying. So I was tempted by this upside-down pie.

The pastry was a cheese one. Flour, cheese and salt were mixed. Then melted butter, eggs and milk completed the mix. It was kneaded for a little and then left in the fridge for half an hour. The recipe calls for the dough to be made in a food processor but I usually tend to opt for hands.

While the dough was doing its wait, I put some onions, garlic and sliced red capsicum in a frying pan and cooked them for a good 10 minutes. A can of tomatoes was then added with seasonings and cooked for another 5 minutes. This was then left to cool.

The dough was now rolled out to about the size of the frying pan. This was placed over the mixture in the pan and placed in the oven for about 20 minutes until it had browned. When it was ready it was taken out and let cool a little. It was then upended onto a serving plate.

The result was rather like a pizza with a thicker than usual base. The savoury sauce was tasty and the slices were soon demolished.

While I don’t always stick rigidly to Ross Dobson’s recipes they can generally be counted on to work. For this one I did not use buttermilk in the dough and used hands instead of processor to make it; small variations which didn’t seem to affect the final product.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔

Greek Salad with Creamy Feta Dressing and Lavash Crisps

From Market Vegetarian, Ross Dobson, Ryland Peters and Small, 2008.

There are so many variations of a Greek salad that it would be difficult for anyone to say which is the original one. It’s like the fact that so most restaurants you see advertise one or two ‘traditional’ items so you begin to doubt just what ‘traditional’ really means. In most cases I think it just means that the name of the dish is a well-known name but what is served can often be dubious as to its authenticity.

Ross Dobson in Market Vegetarian acknowledges the variety of versions of Greek salad that exist and informs immediately that his is a variation. In his version the feta cheese is not included in the salad but comes in the form of a feta dressing.

This dressing was made by putting feta, garlic, vinegar, dill and oil in a blender and churning them until smooth. Milk was then added and the dressing was blended again until mixed.

Lavash was broken into pieces and crisped in the oven.

The usual vegetables were mixed in a bowl with some olive oil. The crisped lavash was then added and the mix was tossed again. When the salad was served the feta dressing was dolloped on top.

I rather enjoyed the salad with its dressing done in this manner though I think I would have also liked to have some pieces of feta in the salad as well as in the dressing.  I do enjoy feta and the usual Greek salad often suffers from everyone trying to grab a piece of feta from it before it even gets served at the table. I think this was what I missed in this version.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔

Summer Sweetcorn Soup

From Market Vegetarian, Ross Dobson, Ryland Peters and Small, 2008.

After having made a salad of winter fruits I went straight ahead and made a summer sweetcorn soup.

This would seem to go right against what Ross Dobson is promoting: using fresh vegetables from the market when they are in season. At least this soup was perfectly in season though, rather than using fresh sweetcorn, I used frozen corn that, of course, could have been picked goodness knows when and from goodness knows where. I unfortunately didn’t read the label of the package. Apologies to Ross Dobson but sometimes there’s a case for using what’s handy and the corn was in the freezer.

For the first part of the soup I had to make the tapenade from red capsicum. It was very like a pesto but substituting the capsicum for the basil. The red capsicum had first to be put under the grill in the oven until the skin had turned black. It then went through the steaming process in a plastic bag until it was cool. It was then easy to peel. Next it went into the food processor with garlic, pine nuts and oil and was puréed. Some grated parmesan was added and it was ready. This was totally amazing to eat and it needed a lot of will power to stop from getting into it straightaway.

For the soup the sweetcorn was tossed into a pan with onion, celery, garlic and butter. It was then cooked over a medium heat for about 10 minutes. The stock was added and heated to boiling. It was then lidded and cooked for another 15 minutes and left to cool.

I then used a stick blender to whip the soup until it was smooth. It was poured through a sieve, cream was added and it was ready to serve when it had been heated through.

The soup was dished into plates and a spoonful of pepper tapenade was placed in the middle.

This is a soup worth going back to again. It was smooth and delicious and that pepper tapenade is wonderful. There was some of it left over and it was soon eaten up on slices of bread the next day.

Taste: ✔✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔