BABA GANOUSH & APRICOT WANTONS

Ingredients
Whole eggplant
Fresh apricots
Wanton wrappers (potstickers)
Cumin
1 Lemon
1 egg
Thyme

So, this one obviously takes a little more work but it's a hit.

The two ears sitting on the fried, slice of eggplant are wantons filled with apricot puree and baba ganoush (egg plant puree). You can make this yourselves if you have a blender or a ba-mix or buy it from the shop as a pre-made dip.
To make your own baba ganoush, pre heat your oven to 200 C / 390 F. Chop up 3 eggplants for 20ish wantons. Peel and chop up garlic. Place the garlic and eggplant into the hot oven with some rosemary and olive oil. After 10 minutes take the tray out and mix everything around. Roast for another 10 minutes. How long to roast depends on your oven but you know when to stop when the eggplant starts to get a bit mushy and the garlic good brown (caramalised) colour. Now puree the eggplant and the garlic and add a little salt, say three pinches, taste to see if you want to add more Now add Cumin, say two pinches for 3 eggplants, have a taste and see if you want to add any more. I add a squeeze of lemon too! Bingo, Baba.

Now for the apricot puree. Find some nice ripe apricots but any fruit will do, peel them, remove the seeds and chop them up finely and sprinkle a little bit of thyme in with the mix, (fresh preferably but up to you). Easy

Now take the wanton wrappers and lay them out on slightly, flower dusted table. Crack and egg into a bowl and mix well with a fork, this is what will keep the wantons together.
take a teaspoon of baba and of apricot puree and place this in the centre of the wanton, don’t use too much…you may need to try a few different amounts depending on the size of your wantons. The wantons ideally should be shaped like a diamond on the bench so that you can fold two points together to make a triangle. Now take a little egg on your finger and follow the top, triangle rim of the wanton. Lift and fold the bottom half over the filling and press down, crimping using your fingernail to create little triangles. these are now ready to be cooked in hot oil. get vegetable oil nice and hot in a pan or deep fryer (but not boiling!!!!!) say 150 C and then fry the wantons off in the oil just until they have a nice gold colour. you can test the temp of the oil by throwing in a wanton wrapper piece to see if it frys. Once you have cooked off your wantons, you can put them in the oven on low heat while you prepare some plates to serve on.

In the photo above I served the wantons on an eggplant slice that had been roasted with a little olive oil and salt in the oven at 200C for 10 minutes. I then used a little of the baba for one of the wantons to stick onto the eggplant and a little of the apricot / thyme puree for the other. BUT you could just serve the wantons straight up with a little dollop of the baba and apricot on the plate so that people know what is in the wantons.

-James

Price ★★★★
Taste ★★★★.5
Ease ★★

MISO SOUP

Every one loves Miso but how do you make it? Easy, buy the miso paste and get with it.

Ingrediants
Miso paste from your local supermarket
Noodles of your choice
Baked Tofu
Seaweed strips (Nori; what you roll sushi rolls in) or fresh seaweed / kelp from a packet

Ok, might sound a bit crazy but you can supplement any of the above ingrediants with what ever you prefer, eg. tofu to chickem or prawns, seaweed to zuchini etc…
Fill and start heating a pot with as much water as you would like to have soup. Once it starts to get a bit of steam coming off, pour 300mls (a coke can) into another bowl. To this bowl add a large, desert spoon of Miso paste. Note don't boil miso paste, it splits and goes bitter, that's why you have poured a little of the water off into another bowl.
Be carefull to mix the misopaste well with the warm water using a fork, whisk or chopsticks.
Add your baked tofu and noodles to the pot that is now boiling and let the noodles cook as long as is suggested on the packet. Turn the heat off, add the seaweed and stir. Wait till the soup cools down a little and add the miso you mixed in the bowl. Now tate the soup, if you like add some soy or mirin or fish sauce and Voila you've got miso in under 10 minutes. Takashi N. Sandiego

-James

Taste ★★★★ 

Price ★★★★.5

Ease ★★★★

OMLETTE

Ingredients

2 eggs
1 garlic clove
finely chopped cilantro / coriander (handful)
Cucumber
tomato

Whisk eggs in a bowl with a fork until the yolk and whites are integrated. Add a splash of whatever flavour or flavour combinations you like, eg sweat chilli sauce, soy, A1, tapatio salsa hot sauce etc + a little pepper. Heat olive oil in a fry pan and add garlic. Fry the garlic till it becomes slightly translucent (sweats), then add the eggs. Don't stir the eggs just let them set till the edges become firm and you can run a spoon around the edges of the omelette that is forming in the pan. Now, throw in some chopped cucumber and tomato and the cilantro (or what ever combination of goodies you would like to see in the omelette, like tuna or ham etc). Once the omelette starts to become solid but still very much runny in the centre, lift up one side of the omelette with you largest spoon / fork and fold the top over to the other side as is shown in the picture above. Slide the omelette carefully out of the pan and onto a plate. I threw some sunflower seeds into this one too cause they needed eating.  Tuck in.

<!–[if !supportEmptyParas]–>FYI – Traditionally omlettes are served still runny in the centre so that they are not too dry. Up to you!

-James

Taste ★★★.5

Price ★★★★★

Ease ★★★★★ (though you might need some practise folding the omlette over!