Stuffed aubergines with lamb & pine nuts
All hail Yotam Ottolenghi, the God of extremely tasty Israeli food. I was given (after heavy hinting) his latest book, Jerusalem, for Christmas and cooked two of the recipes that caught my eye most last night for dinner – and they were both exceptional.
The first dish I chose involved lamb and aubergine, two great ingredients that are obviously quite important in Israeli cooking and to Ottolenghi himself, who frequently uses them in his recipes.
The recipe makes enough for four generous servings, but I halved the quantity of lamb and aubergine as I was cooking for two. However, I forgot to half everything else (idiot). I’ll include the original recipe here so that you can make it as intended, but I thought the extra strength of spice was absolutely delicious!
You will need:
4 medium aubergines (halved lengthways)6 tbspn olive oil
1 1/2 tspn ground cumin
1 1/2 tbspn sweet paprika
1 tbspn ground cinnamon
2 medium onions, finely chopped
500g minced lamb
50g pine nuts
20g flat-leaf parsley, chopped
2 tspn tomato puree
3 tspn caster sugar
150ml water
1 1/2 tbspn lemon juice
1 tspn tamarind paste
4 cinnamon sticks
salt and black pepper
Method:
1 – Preheat the oven to 220 degrees.
2 – Place the aubergine halves, skin-side down, in a roasting tin large enough to accommodate them snugly. Brush the flesh with 4 tbspns of the olive oil and season with salt and plenty of black pepper.
3 – Roast for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly.
4 – While the aubergines are cooking, start making the stuffing by heating the remaining oil in a frying pan. Mix together the cumin, paprika and ground cinnamon and add half of this spice mix to the pan, along with the onions.
5 – Cook on a medium-high heat for 8 minutes, stirring often, before adding the lamb, pine nuts, parsley, tomato puree and 1 tspn of the sugar; season. Cook for 8 minutes or so, until the meat is cooked.
6 – Place the remaining spice mix in a bowl and add the water, lemon juice, tamarind, remaining sugar, cinnamon sticks and 1/2 tspn salt; mix well.
7 – Reduce the oven temperature to 195 degrees.
8 – Pour the spice mix into the bottom of the aubergine roasting tin. Spoon the lamb mixture on top of each aubergine.
9 – Cover the tin tightly with foil, return to the oven and roast for 1 hour 30 minutes, by which point the aubergines should be completely soft and the sauce thick.
10 – Baste the lamb with the spice mix twice during cooking. Serve warm, not hot.
(Note, I removed the tins from the oven after one hour, as they were perfectly cooked and had absorbed the spice mix well at this point.)
Baby spinach salad with dates & almonds
While the lamb and aubergines are cooking, you can easily whip up this salad, also from Ottolenghi’s Jerusalem book.
This is a very interesting, exciting salad that with sweet and spicy currents running throughout. It’s so easy and doesn’t involve making a complex dressing – but the results are stunning!
You will need:
1 tbspn white wine vinegar
1/2 medium red onion, finely sliced
100g pitted Medjool dates, chopped
30g unsalted butter
2 tbspn olive oil
2 small pita breads, roughly torn into 4cm pieces
75g whole, unsalted almonds, roughly chopped
2 tspn sumac
1/2 tspn chilli flakes
150g baby spinach leaves, washed
2 tbspn lemon juice
salt
Method:
1 – Put the vinegar, dates and onion in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Leave to marinate for 20 minutes before removing any residual vinegar.
2 – Meanwhile, heat the butter and half the oil in a pan. Add the pitas and almonds; fry for 4-6 minutes until the pita is crunchy, golden and crisp. Remove from the heat and stir in the sumac and chilli; set aside to cool.
3 – When ready to serve, toss the spinach with the pita mix before adding the dates and onion, remaining olive oil, lemon juice and a pinch of salt; mix well and serve immediately.
This simple-sounding salad, with its sweet and tart ingredients and the crunchy nuts and pitas, was the perfect foil to the rich, earthy and smoky lamb. Do try these recipes together – it made the most incredible dinner, one that I will no doubt make time and time again!
Love this cookbook! The lamb in particular is wonderful.