Food Glorious Food - Exploring More Sustainable Everyday Recipe Choices

Disclaimer…I am not a professional chef!

In the past I have mentioned the wonderful Roasting Tin cookbooks by Rukmini Iyer that I discovered last year. They appealed to me straight away as I am all for finding time saving recipes that create the minimum washing up and mess, can be adapted to accommodate the ingredients I have to hand, and are incredibly delicious .

Four books in The Roasting Tin Series Author: Rukmini Iyer Photographer: David Loftus Designer: Pene Parker

The combination of ingredients and flavours are exciting and there is something for everyone, from those who are established vegans or vegetarians to those who just want to explore a less meat based diet or discover new all round healthy appetizing recipes.

The recipes suit my on going efforts to cut down on food waste as I find the leftovers can either become a side dish to another meal or make very tasty hearty soups.

Each month I will be sharing with you one of the recipes that I have particularly enjoyed from the Roasting Tin series as well as other sources.

I will be focusing on recipes that might encourage you too to switch to a less meat based way of eating.

I hope that some of you will try them out and share some feedback. You too might wish to share your favourite recipe based around the ingredient of the month.

Ingredient of the month:

Aubergine

Did you know? During the Late Middle Ages, Italians thought eating an aubergine could drive you mad! They called it the “crazy apple”.

In America, aubergine is known as “eggplant”. Although this might sound like a weird name for the shiny, purple vegetable we most often eat today, in the past a white, rounder variety was far more common. This white aubergine could (more) easily be mistaken for an egg hanging from a plant!

An aubergine plant grown in its perfect environment can reach five or six metres in height and produce up to 110 aubergines!

An aubergine’s spongy flesh is great for soaking up flavour to make a filling and tasty dish, but it can also soak up a lot of oil when fried.

If you want to stop your aubergine from sponging up more oil than is necessary, you can use a method called “degorging” – a cooking technique far less scary than the name suggests!

All you need to do is chop up your aubergine as normal, then sprinkle a generous amount of salt on the top (or place the pieces in salted water) and leave it to stand.

After half an hour, return to your aubergine and rinse off the salt and juices. Hey presto! Your aubergine is degorged and ready to cook. Your degorged aubergine will soak up less oil when frying and will sometimes also taste sweeter,

Recipe:

Roasted Butternut Squash, Aubergine and Halloumi with Bulgar wheat.

Serves 3-4 people

In a way this is somewhat like an alternative risotto.

Ingredients:

2 small Red Onions quartered
700g butternut squash cubed
I large Aubergine cubed
Chopped Garlic (I use quite a lot as we love it but it is up to you)
250g Halloumi cut into cubes
3 Table Spoons of Olive Oil
200g Bulgar Wheat
400ml Veg Stock
Salt and Pepper to taste
You can use mint in this recipe but I prefer without.
I large Roasting Tin

Method:

Preheat oven to 180oC/ fan 200oC/ gas 6

Place the onion, squash and aubergine into the tin, sprinkle in the chopped garlic and oil and mix through.

Distribute the halloumi cubes across the top.

Season with salt and pepper and place tin on the middle shelf of the oven for 45 mins (see tips below)

Remove from oven, stir through the bulgar wheat and pour in the stock.

Cover the tin (I it a baking into the top of the tin to avoid using foil )

Return to oven for a further 15 mins

Serve with an optional garnish of basil or rocket leaves and a green side salad.

Tips:

I include crusty bread if I need the dish to go round more people.

Stir half way through cooking, if the halloumi seems to be getting too browned.

Soak tin overnight. I have invested in an enamel tin which makes cleaning it after a soak very easy.

I sometimes use peppers and courgettes instead of the squash for variety… Really you can experiment with whatever you have or need to use up.

Look forward to hearing how you get on with and trying out some of your favourite Aubergine recipes.

Please share you recipes in the comments below or email us (with pictures of your dish if possible) to sustainableshrivenham@gmail.com

What’s in Season?

Supporting your local producers by shopping local and working with what is naturally seasonally available, are always the most sustainable options. In Shrivenham and the surrounding villages we are lucky to have a number of farm shop and other food outlets which can provide us with more sustainably sourced foods.

Next month I will be looking at what is available locally and in season and sharing another of my favourite recipes focusing on one or more of these foods.In the meantime, you may wish to check this out for yourself. There are many good sites on the web..here is one I found to get you started.