Jamie Oliver Eggplant Food

PICKLED EGGPLANT (AUBERGINE) - JAMIE OLIVER

Steps:

• Combine water, vinegar and salt in a pot. Bring to a boil.
• Remove the green end of each eggplant. Slice in half lengthwise, then cut across into 1/2" slices. Cut slices into 1/2" batons. Add to boiling brine for 3 minutes. If they float, keep re-submerging them with a spoon.
• Combine oregano, chile, garlic and both oils. Drain eggplant and add to oil mixture. Toss well.
• Put canning jars into boiling water for 5 minutes. Transfer eggplant and oil to canning jars and seal.

JAMIE OLIVER'S EGGPLANT PARMESAN

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with oil, and place in a single layer on two or more baking sheets. Bake until undersides are golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes, then turn and bake until other sides are lightly browned. Set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.
• Meanwhile, in a large saucepan over medium heat, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil and add onion. Sauté until soft, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and dried oregano and sauté another 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and their juices, breaking up whole tomatoes with your hands. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes.
• Add vinegar, basil and salt and pepper to taste. Into a 9-by-9-inch, 10-by-5-inch or 10-by-6-inch baking pan, spoon a small amount of tomato sauce, then add a thin scattering of parmigiano, then a single layer of eggplant. Repeat until all ingredients are used, ending with a little sauce and a sprinkling of parmigiano. In a small bowl, combine bread crumbs and oregano, if using, with just enough olive oil to moisten. Sprinkle on top. If desired, recipe can be made to this point and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature before baking.
• Bake until eggplant mixture is bubbly and center is hot, 30 to 45 minutes depending on size of pan and thickness of layers. Remove from heat and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving. Recipe can also be reheated.

AMAZING PICKLED AND MARINATED VEGETABLES

Steps:

• Make sure you have some small sterilized jars ready to go. Bring the pickling liquid ingredients to the boil in a big pan. Put the pickling marinade ingredients into a large bowl with your chosen herbs and mix well. Slice up your chosen vegetables any way you like, but if it's a larger vegetable try to get the pieces around 1/2-inch in thickness. This way, the flavors and pickling liquid will penetrate sufficiently. Smaller vegetables, like mushrooms or very small onions, can be left whole.
• Place the sliced vegetables in the boiling pickling liquid and leave for around 3 minutes - they'll probably rise to the surface, so keep pushing them down to ensure they are all immersed. Lift the pieces out with a slotted spoon and place them into your bowl of pickling marinade. Toss together - it will smell fantastic.
• Pretty much straightaway, put the hot vegetables and pickling marinade into your sterilized jars, filling them to the very top. Cover the vegetables completely with the marinade and put the lids on tightly. Put the jars aside until they're cool. Clean the jars, attach sticky labels and write the date and the contents on them. Store the jars somewhere cool and dark - it's best to leave them for about 2 weeks before opening so the vegetables really get to marinate well, but if you absolutely cannot wait, you can eat them sooner. They'll keep for about 3 months - but they're so bloody good I'm lucky if the jars last for a couple of weeks in our house!
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• Choose 1 of the following vegetable and herb options: .

RIGATONI WITH SWEET TOMATOES, EGGPLANT AND MOZZARELLA

Steps:

• Remove both ends of the eggplant and slice it into ½ inch slices, then slice these across and finely dice into ½ inch cubes. Some people prefer to season their eggplant with salt and let it sit for a while in a colander to draw out the bitterness, but I don't really do this unless I'm dealing with a seedy, bitter eggplant. This dish is really best made using a firm silky one.
• Now put a large saucepan on the heat and drizzle in 4 to 5 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. When it's hot, add the cubes of eggplant, and as soon as they hit the pan, stir them around with a spoon so they are delicately coated with the oil and not soaked on one side only. Cook for about 7 or 8 minutes on a medium heat. Then add the garlic and onion. When they have a little color, add the canned tomatoes and the balsamic vinegar. Stir around and season carefully with salt and pepper. At this point, if you wanted to give the dish a little heat you could add some chopped fresh or crumbled dried chilli, but that's up to you. Add the basil stalks, and simmer the sauce nice and gently for around 15 minutes, then add the cream.
• While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta. Cook according to the package instructions until it is soft but still holding its shape, then drain it, saving a little of the cooking water. I like to put the pasta back into the pot it was cooked in with a tiny bit of the cooking water and a drizzle of olive oil and move it around so it becomes almost dressed with the water and oil.
• At this point add the lovely tomato sauce to the pasta. By now the eggplant will have cooked into a creamy tomatoey pulp, which is just yum yum yum! (Jamie's words) Season carefully to taste with salt and pepper. Take the pan to the table, tear up the mozzarella and the fresh basil, and fold these in nicely for 30 seconds. Then very quickly serve into bowls. By the time your guests start to eat, the mozzarella will have started to melt and will be stringy and gorgeous and really milky-tasting. Just lovely with the tomatoes and eggplant. Serve at the table with a block of Parmesan cheese and a grater so that everyone can help themselves.

EGGPLANT AND BLACK CHICKPEA ORECCHIETTE

Steps:

• Soak the chickpeas overnight, then drain and cook according to the packet instructions, until soft.
• For the orecchiette: Pile the flour on to a clean surface and make a well in the middle. Gradually add 200 millimeters (6.8 ounces) of warm water, using a fork to bring the flour in from the outside until it forms a dough. Knead on a flour-dusted surface, switching between fast and slow kneading, for 10 minutes, or until smooth and firm. Cut the dough into four so you can work with it a quarter at a time. Cover the rest with a clean damp tea towel while you work, to stop it drying out. Roll your first quarter into a long sausage shape about 1 centimeter (3/8 inch) in diameter, then cut it into 1-centimeter (3/8-inch) nuggets. Keep your surface well dusted with flour.
• Now, method number one: starting at the edge furthest away from you, drag a blunt eating knife towards you over a nugget of dough, so it curls round and over the knife. Gently pull the dough off the knife, push your thumb inside and turn it inside out. Repeat, and you'll get it after a while. Method number two requires you to stick your thumb into the centre of a nugget (roll it into a ball first if you want to be more precise), rotate your thumb around to create a round disc, then pick the disc up and hold it between your thumb and forefinger, pulling it gently over your forefinger to make a similarly effective little ear. Transfer to a floured tray as you go.
• Whichever method you choose, repeat with the remaining pasta, shaping and perfecting as you go until all your little ears are done.
• For the sauce, trim the eggplant and zucchini and chop into 2-centimeter (3/4-inch) dice, then peel and finely slice the onion. Cook the veg in a large frying pan on a medium-high heat with the olive oil for 15 minutes, or until soft, stirring occasionally.
• Drain the chickpeas, reserving the liquor. Stir the chickpeas into the veg pan with the juice of 1/2 a lemon, loosening with a good splash of reserved liquor. Cook over a low heat for 8 more minutes, then taste and season to perfection with sea salt and black pepper.
• Meanwhile, cook your fresh orecchiette in boiling salted water for 4 minutes (or cook 300 grams (10 ounces) of dried orecchiette according to the packet instructions). Scoop the pasta into the sauce and toss together, loosening with pasta cooking water, if needed, then tuck in.

JAMIE OLIVER'S GRILLED VEGETABLES

Steps:

• Wash your vegetables.
• Heat the grill or griddle pan, put the whole peppers on and get them black on all sides.
• While still hot, put them in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave to cool.
• Slice the zucchini 1/4" thick and do the same to the fennel, reserving the herby tops.
• Grill the zucchini and fennel together on the grill for about a minute on each side, or until nicely charred. You don't want them too black or too raw.
• Remove to a clean dish towel in one layer, making sure they don't sit on top of each other or they will steam and get soggy.
• Cut the eggplant across into slices 1/2" thick.
• Grill the slices, turning 4 times to get the nice grill marks.
• Remove to the towel.
• Boil the baby leeks in salted water until they're just cooked.
• Drain and rub with a little olive oil, and grill until lightly marked.
• Peel the peppers and cut into strips.
• Put all the grilled vegetables into a big bowl.
• Take about 1/4 of the basil leaves and bash them with a mortar and pestle with a good pinch of seasoning until you have a smooth pulp.
• Add about 8 TBS of extra virgin olive oil and the vinegar, to taste.
• Pout this over the vegetables and toss quickly so that everything gets coated in the lovely basil oil, then throw in the remining basil leaves.
• Slice the garlic really thin to give you a delicate flavor and add to the bowl along with the fennel tops.
• Mix everything together, and serve on a large plate at room temperature.