Steamed spicy sour aubergine

 It's the sign of a good dish when it evolves in your kitchen over the years. I first started making a version of this as 'yu hung aubergine' about 15 years ago but since then I have simplified it and also pushed it in a spicy sour direction.

Ingredients

1 aubergine
2 tbsps vegetable oil
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tsp chilli sauce
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsps light soy sauce
4 spring onions

Method

1. Cut the aubergine crosswise into 3 pieces, then cut each piece lengthwise into 6 or 8 wedges. Steam the aubergine for 8 minutes, until cooked but still firm.
2. Combine the oil, ginger and chilli sauce in a frying pan and cook gently for a couple of minutes. (I avoid adding minced ginger to hot oil as it will spit.)
3. Add the aubergine, mix well to coat in the sauce, and fry for another minute or so.
4. Add the vinegar and soy sauce, stir well and simmer for another couple of minutes.
5. Finely chop the spring onions, add to the aubergine mixture and cook for another 30 seconds or so.

I've probably eaten some version of this about once a week for the last five years, usually served with noodles for a quick lunch or supper, but sometimes as a side dish or pimped up with the addition of some firm tofu. The simplest way to vary this dish is by using a different chilli sauce. The aubergines above were made with a tablespoon of Laoganma's Crispy Chilli in Oil. It's not too hot, and includes crunchy soy beans and is flavoured with Szechuan pepper.

Pickled mushrooms in olive oil

This is a method of preserving vegetables called "sott'olio" in Italian (under oil). It consists of parboiling them in seasoned vinegar, then covering them with oil. It can be used for aubergines or courgettes as well.

Ingredients

250g of mushrooms

200ml of cider vinegar

1 tsp of whole coriander seeds

1 tsp of black peppercorns

4 bay leaves

1/2 tsp of salt

100 ml of olive oil

Method

1. Add the coriander, peppercorns, bay leaves and salt to the vinegar, bring to the boil, reduce heat to minimum, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
2. Wash and slice the mushrooms (not too thinly) and add them to the vinegar. Bring back to the boil, turn off heat and leave to cool.
3. Transfer the mushrooms to a jar or a small tupperware, adding oil between each layer and more to cover, and store in the fridge.

I wasn't sure whether to post this but then I got really hungry late at night, remembered I had a bowl of this sitting in my fridge and immediately ate half of it (with crackers and hummus) and it was absolutely delicious.

Risotto with fennel and courgette

I used to make a sausage version of this (and sometimes still do) but I've gone semi-vegetarian over the last few years so one of the key flavourings in the sausage version (fennel) gradually took centre stage. I often do variations on this - leaving out the fennel altogether, throwing in some peas or plenty of fresh basil, squeezing some lemon juice into it... A good recipe should have a method at its core, and the details should provide one way of implementing this. I'm always in favour of simplifying recipes where possible and also of taking advantage of whatever may be available - in your fridge or the local shops.


Ingredients
100g butter
1 fennel bulb
1 courgette
2 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
300g arborio rice
900 ml of boiling water
1 vegetable stock cube
freshly ground black pepper
freshly grated Parmesan

Method

1. Roughly chop the fennel bulb, slice the courgette, finely chop the garlic
2. Dissolve the stock cube in the boiling water
3. Put 50 g of the butter, the fennel, courgette, garlic and salt into a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan and fry gently for about 10 minutes, until the fennel and courgette have softened.
4. Add the rice and stir thoroughly.
5. Add a few ladlefuls of the stockwater to the rice, and stir gently until the liquid is almost absorbed.
6. On a low heat, add the rest of the stock, a ladleful at a time, stirring while you cook, until the rice is tender but not mushy. (This should take about 30 minutes).
7. Remove from heat, add the remaining butter, stir well, cover and leave to sit for 2 minutes. Serve sprinkled with black pepper and Parmesan.

Pickled herring

I like the seasonality of herring, the fact that it is only available for a few months during the summer. I was in the fishmonger the other day (Williamson of Portobello) and behind me was a large Russian lady with bright pink hair. We were both in for some fresh herring to pickle but unfortunately they had sold out. The fishmonger offered us some of their ready-pickled herring instead but we both turned it down ("too soft" I said, "too vinegary" the Russian lady said) and instead got to chatting about the best way to pickle herring (and why the shop-bought stuff was inferior). The Russian lady was originally from Odessa. She recommended adding some vodka to the marinade. It was another couple of weeks before I got back to the fishmonger. They had plenty of fresh herring this time but there was no sign of the Russian lady.

I eat and cook very differently from my grandparents, but there are a few overlaps and they have great emotional weight. This is one of them - there was always a jar in my grandparents' fridge (shop bought, though - suspect my grandmother would have thought this home-pickling of mine was madness).

Ingredients

6 herring, filleted
1/2 onion
20g of fresh dill

For the marinade

300 ml of cider or white wine vinegar
300 ml of water
2 teaspoon of whole coriander seeds
2 teaspoon of white mustard seeds
2 teaspoon of black peppercorns
2 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoon of caster sugar

optional: 3 tablespoons of vodka or gin

1. Place all the marinade ingredients in a small saucepan, bring to a boil, stir to make sure the salt and sugar are fully dissolved, and leave to cool.
2. If the herring fillets are still attached, separate into two halves, lengthwise. Finely slice the onion.
3. Place a layer of onion in the bottom of a rectangular tupperware (one that is just long enough for the herring), cover with some fresh dill, pour a little of the cooled marinade over it (through a tea strainer), then place a layer of herring fillets on top. Repeat until you have used up all the herring. If you have any onion and dill left, put some on top, pour the remaining marinade over the fish so that it is covered, put the lid on the dish and leave to pickle in the fridge for three or four days.

Raspberry blondies

Ingredients

175 g butter
200g soft light brown sugar
100g caster sugar
200g white chocolate
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 eggs
200g self-raising flour
75 g frozen raspberries

Method

1. Melt the butter, light sugar, caster sugar and 100g of the white chocolate in a bain marie. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
2. Line a square 20 x 20 cm tin with greaseproof paper. Preheat oven to 180oC.
3. Add the vanilla extract to the cooled mixture, followed by the beaten eggs, one at a time.
4. Add the flour, and mix until smooth.
5. Add 50g of the remaining white chocolate, broken into small pieces, together with the raspberries, and pour the batter into the tin.
6. Bake for 50 minutes until just set, and leave to cool in the tin.
7. Melt the remaining 50 g of white chocolate in a bain marie and drizzle over the blondies.

Mango, coconut and lime cake

I've been a late comer to Great British Bake Off but now I'm hooked. I have to admit that I'm in awe at how talented (most of) the participants are, but it's also clear that keeping it simple and getting the basics right is often the surest route to success.

One thing that I hadn't expected was to be inspired by the use of unusual ingredients, but after watching a recent episode I decided it was time to reboot my banana bread.

The 'recipe' here is just the proportion of dry to wet ingredients, the basic methods and cooking times. You can use it as a template and swap ingredients in and out - tinned peaches instead of mango, oat milk instead of coconut milk, replace the chilli with some ginger and so on.

Ingredients
120g caster sugar
60g soft butter
150g tinned mango, drained and pureed
50g coconut milk
1 egg, beaten
140g self-raising flour

juice of 1/2 lime
2 or 3 drops of chilli sauce

Method

1. Set the oven to 180oC and line and grease a small loaf tin.
2. Cream together the sugar and butter.
3. Add the mango, coconut milk and egg to the butter and sugar, and mix well.
4. Mix the flour into the resulting batter, then add the lime juice and chilli sauce.
5. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin, and bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes until golden.
6. Allow the cake to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring to a rack.

Fried Chinese spare ribs

I love Chinese food, I love spare ribs and I love (almost) anything deep fried. When I started making this, I was slightly scared by the long list of ingredients. Then, to my surprise, I found that I had all of them in my cupboard or fridge - yes, even the fermented red bean curd! The original recipe comes from The Woks of Life, which I think might just be my favourite new food blog.

Ingredients

1 kg pork ribs
1 tablespoon of fermented red bean curd, plus 1 tsp of the sauce from the jar
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp fivespice powder
2 tbsps Shaoxing wine
1 1tbsp dark soy sauce
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsps cornflour
2 tbsps plain flour
oil for frying

Method

1. Chop the pork ribs into 1-inch segments. (You'll need a heavy-duty cleaver for this - if you don't have one, this recipe is as good an excuse as any!)
2. Combine all of the ingredients - except the cornflour, plain flour and oil - in a large bowl, mix well, and leave to marinade for at least an hour.
3. Heat plenty of vegetable oil in a wok or frying pan to a medium heat (about 170 C).
4. Mix the cornflour and plain flour in with the ribs so that they are thoroughly coated, then fry them in small batches for about 7 minutes until they are done.