Eggplant and blue cheese spread recipe

Eggplant and blue cheese spread with flat bread

I got inspiration for this dish from baba ghanoush, an Arabic spread generally made with eggplant, onions, tomatoes and other vegetables. I substituted the onions and tomatoes with blue cheese and it turned out to be a great combination. The spread had the distinctive blue cheese taste without overpowering the eggplant flavour. Overall an excellent combination and I for sure will be making it again.

The amounts I have suggested is based on my taste. You can vary the amount of cheese and cream, as well as the type of cheese to suit your taste. I have not tried this dish with any other kind of cheese. I presume feta cheese would work well.

Ingredients

1 medium eggplant, cut into centimeter cubes

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 teaspoon paprika

100 grams blue cheese, crumbed

100 milliliters cream, crème fraiche or yogurt

1 tablespoon oil

Instructions

1.       Heat oil over medium flame

2.      Sauté onions until translucent

3.      Add garlic, cook for about 30 seconds, don’t let the garlic brown

4.      Add eggplant and cook until done, about 15-20 minutes. Stir frequently

5.      Reduce heat to low, add paprika, blue cheese and cream and stir through

6.      Puree the mixture or leave it chunky

7.      Salt throughout the cooking process

Beetroot Cake Recipe

Beetroot cupcake

Beetroot cake is not as common as carrot cake and I wondered why. The main explanation I could come up with was the fact that carrots are more easily available than beetroots. They are both sweet root vegetables and requires similar procedures for preparing a cake. But beetroot looks nicer!

Most beetroot cake recipes I found on the internet were for chocolate beetroot cake, plain beetroot cakes were less common. Again I asked myself why? Why is beetroot being treated differently. I am sure beetroot and chocolate is a great combination, and so is carrot and chocolate. But carrot cakes recipes are more popular than carrot chocolate cake recipes. I suppose some questions are best left unanswered.

One of the more appealing aspects of working with beetroot is the beautiful red color. Here is a photo of the dough before it went into the oven. When it comes to good looks, beetroot cake dough is unbeetable!

Beetroot cake dough

The dough loses some of the red color during baking but taste is important. And it did not disappoint. The cake was surprisingly quite light and moist. If you prefer a more dense cake you can half the amount of baking powder or increase the amount of beetroot.

The beetroots can be either cooked or uncooked. I had baked beetroots which I chopped finely. Uncooked beetroot will work fine, just as uncooked carrots does.

Ingredients

2 cups flour

2 large beetroots, grated

1 cup sugar

230 ml oil
4 eggs beaten

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon cinnamon powder

Instructions

1.       Preheat oven to 175 degrees

2.      Sift the flour, baking power, salt and cinnamon powder, then add beetroot

3.      In a separate bowl mix the sugar, eggs and oil thoroughly

4.      Combine the wet and dry mixtures

5.      Pour the mixture into to two greased loaf tins or cake pans

6.      Bake until done, about 40 minutes.

Char Siew/Char Siu Pork Recipe

Char siew pork with rice

Char siew pork is one of those "love at first sight" dishes. It is hard not to love slices of pork glistening with char siewy goodness, unless you don’t eat pork. In addition to good looks char siew pork possesses other desired characteristics we look for in a loved one – tenderness and a good balance between sweet, salty, spicy and tangy.

Char siew is not difficult to prepare, however there are many different variations regarding the ingredients for the marinate, cut of meat and cooking method. 

Regarding the marinate it is important to get the right balance between sweet, salty, spicy and tangy.

Ideally the cut of meat should have some fat otherwise the meat will dry up. Probably the best cut is pork belly but if you have some hesitations on using pork belly, you can use pork butt or shoulder.

The preferred cooking method is grilling. Char means fork and siew means cook/burn indicating that the meat is skewed using forks and grilled. If grilling is not convenient or practical the oven is a good substitute. That’s how I do it. You can also use a wok and finish off under the grill for the charred effect.

Pork is the preferred meat but other meats can be used. Char Siew chicken and fish are quite nice. I have never tried beef.

 

Ingredients

500g pork, sliced into strips

Marinate

2 tablespoons hoisin sauce

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons sugar or honey

1 tablespoon rice wine

1 tsp minced garlic or garlic powder

½ teaspoon 5 spice powder

Salt and pepper

Glaze

1 tablespoon soya sauce

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon oil

Directions

1.       Mix all marinade ingredients and marinade the pork, preferably for at least one hour.

2.      Preheat oven to 2o0 degrees

3.      Cook until done, about 30 minutes, turning the meat over half way through

4.     Once cooked glaze the pork and place under the grill until it is well charred, about 5-10 minutes