Aubergine salad

AUBERGINE SALAD

 First recipe

Ingredients

1 large round aubergine or 2 medium ones

1 large sweet red pepper

1/3 of a bunch of parsley

1 small onion

2 cloves of garlic

40 g. of olive oil

Salt to taste

1 TB of balsamic vinegar

Instructions

Rinse the eggplant, wrap it with aluminum foil and put it into the oven on the first rack from the bottom.

Bake at 160 C degrees for one hour or more.

To check if it is cooked, remove it from the oven and unwrap it. Peg a fork into the eggplant.

If it is soft and the fork plunges easily into its flesh, it is ready and it’s time to remove it from the oven.

If the eggplant is not ready, you should cook it longer.

You can also understand if it is soft, by squeezing.

Squeeze the eggplant, if it volume is lessened and remains so, it is cooked.

Let the eggplant to cool.

Unwrap the foil and peel it.

With a knife, pull the skin from the stalk downward and it immediately peels.

Put the peeled eggplant in a bowl.

Cut it with a knife into small pieces.

Scour the sweet red pepper and chop it into the eggplant.

Scour the onion, garlic and parsley and wash them.

Chop them and put them into the bowl with the eggplant.

Add the oil and mix.

The salt and the vinegar are added at the time of serving.

Garnish with a little parsley.

Second recipe

Prepare a large eggplant as described above.

Cut it into pieces and put it in a food processor.

Add oil, garlic, salt, onion and vinegar and beat them together.

The eggplant becomes mashed.

Empty it in a dish and garnish with parsley and sweet red pepper.

In my opinion the previous salad tastes better than this one.

Halvas with semolina

HALVAS WITH SEMOLINA

Ingredients

2.5 cups semolina coarse

2 cups sugar

1 cup blanched almonds

1 cup corn oil

4 cups water

1 scant tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon crushed cloves

Instructions

Count all the ingredients with the same cup.

In a medium pot put the water and the sugar.

Place the pot over medium heat.

Wait for the water to warm up. Just before boiling remove the pot from the heat.

Pour into the pot the crushed cloves and the cinnamon and stir with a spoon.

Put in another pot the corn oil and chafe it over low heat.

Pour the semolina into the corn oil and stir. Let it cook until its color to whiten a bit.

Add the almonds into the semolina and stir. Cook the almonds for two min.

Pour the hot water with the sugar into the semolina and stir.

Stir constantly until the semolina to absorb almost all the water and to soften.

Empty the halva into a ring mold or in any other cake form you like.

Press down the halva with a spoon to take the shape of the form.

Let it cool down completely.

Put over the mold a round platter and turn the halva upside down in the platter.

Sprinkle the top of upturned halva with cinnamon.

  

Mutton with green apples, onions and rice

HEAVY LAMBS WITH GREEN APPLES, ONIONS AND RICE

Ingredients

1.5 kilo heavy lambs (lamb lying in the second year of life)

6 large green apples

5 large dry onions

1 cup orange juice

The juice of one lemon

Salt, pepper

2-3 sprigs of fresh rosemary or a TB dry leaves

4 allspice berries

Oregano and savory

1 TB coriander grains

1 tsp grated black pepper

300 g. of rice for pilaf

Instructions

How to prepare the meat

Buy the meat two days before the cooking.

I usually buy the meat from the front leg and the neck of the animal. But all parts of the animal are suitable for this dish.

Ask the butcher to carve your meat as he does for the roast in the oven.

Put the meat under the tap and wash out any small pieces of broken bones that there are on it.

Sprinkle salt, pepper, oregano and savory all around the meat.

Coat it carefully all around with olive oil.

Put it in a pan.

Wrap it with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator on the top shelf.

Leave it to be marinated for two days.

On the third day put in a large pot 3 liters of water and place it over high heat.

Once the water boils pour in an onion peeled and chopped.

Add salt, the coriander grains and the black pepper.

Pour into the pot the sprigs of rosemary or the rosemary leaves.

Let the onion to boil for five minutes and then put into the pot the marinated meat.

Boil the meat over medium heat for one and a half hour to two hours.

Check to see if the meat is ready.

Peg a fork into the meat.

If it plunges into the meat without resistance, the meat is ready and you must stop the boiling.

But if the meat is still hard leave it to boil as long as it needs to become soft.

When the meat is done, remove the pot from the heat.

With a long fork take the meat off the pot and put it in a shallow pan.

Sprinkle some salt over it and leave it aside to cool.

How to prepare the pilaf

Strain the broth of meat with a strainer.

Measure 5 cups of that broth and put it into another pot.

Place that pot over medium heat.

Peel the onions well outside.

Remove the outer leaves and leave only the tender part.

Cut each onion into six pieces.

Drop the onions into the boiling broth.

Let the onions boil until they become soft and tender.

Use a circular baking pan 30 cm in diameter.

Scour the green apples from their skins.

Cut each apple into quarters and place them regionally into the pan.

Pour into the pan 1 cup orange juice and the juice of one lemon.

Place the pan in the oven on the first rack from the bottom and bake at 200 C degrees.

Wait for the broth to boil again.

Scour the meat from the bones and fat.

Cut them into pieces in the size of walnut.

Let the broth to boil for 3-4 min. Add into the pan the rice and stir.

Add meat and stir again.

After 15 minutes look at the food and stir the rice.

At this time the green apples are starting to get a dark beige color and smell toasted.

Put a tablespoon of rice into a plate. Try it to see if has sufficiently softened. 

Because the green apples are cleaned, they become soft easily.

Never mind that they become like jelly, because their taste goes into pilaf and makes it delicious.

Turn off the oven and leave the pan inside for 10 minutes.

Then remove it from the oven and try its taste to see if everything is okay.

Leave it to cool a bit and then serve.