Roasted Italian Vegetables

Antipasti Roasted Italian vegetables (or if your doing Tapas, Spanish ones or Provencal, French ones)

1 bunch of spring onions (whites only)

2 large red onions

1 large Fenchel bulb

2 courgettes

1 large Aubergine

6 large cloves of garlic (leave the parchment skin on)

Fresh herbs (basil, rosemary, thyme and sage)

Course salt and ground pepper

Olive oil.

Slice the Aubergines quite thin length ways, sprinkle with salt and allow to dewater on a plate (this is also to remove any bitterness, though today they are no longer as bitter as in years gone by due to the unnatural selection process.

Slice the courgettes lengthways

Slice the Fenchel bulb into thin slices (and attached stems cut into pieces.

Peel the onions and cut into 1/8ths

 

Remove the aubergine slices and pat dry, place these along with the rest of the vegetables and herbs into a deep roasting tray, splash liberally  with olive oil, add the herbs, grind over the pepper and sprinkle with the sea salt, mix all together (use your hands it’s easiest).


Cover with aluminium foil and put into a pre-heated oven at 200-210°C for 30 minutes, the vegetables should still have a bit of bite in them. When finished transfer to a dish and cover.

 

In the same roasting tray place some small Italian Roma tomatoes (Those small plum shaped ones), sprinkle with salt and roll in the oil left over in the base of the roasting dish, pop into the oven and roast until the skin splits, remove and add to the rest of the vegetables.

Roasted peppers

2 each large red and yellow peppers (Capsicum)

Place in a roasting dish and place in an oven at 200°C for half an hour (check at 25 minutes, the skin should be blistered and blackening in places, if not put them in for another 10 minutes. Remove and pop into a zip-lock bag and allow to sweat (I left them for a good hour). Remove from the bag and the skin will just pull off break open and remove the stem and seeds (best done under running water) tear into pieces.

Put the ripped pieces of sweet grilled peppers on top of the other roast vegetables, that’s it ready to serve.

Cauliflower rice

Here is an amazing recipe; I am along with a few others on the wildfood web site trying to lose a bit of weight. Lee the web owner and site Guru is also on a diet. He told us about this rice substitute, it is cauliflower, yes you read it correctly cauliflower, it originally came from "Fat Secrets" the programme that he is following, and so here is how I made it:

You will require 1 cauliflower head and that’s it in its purist sense, now Lee thought it would be even better bulked up with some pre-cooked rice. This made me think “Bulgar”, so I made up some Bulgar with Marigold vegetable stock and soy sauce.

Remove the florets’ from the stalks(don’t throw them away) and pulse them in the kitchen machine, I have a smallish Moulinette, so had to do it in two batches, do not over blitz, it should look like small grains of rice, transfer  to a microwave bowl and cover with cling film.

Chop the cauliflower stems quite small.

For the stir fry you will require:

The chopped cauliflower stems

2 spring onions sliced

2 pointy paprika diced (1 red and 1 yellow, but this was just for aesthetics)

100g of pre-cooked chicken strips (you could make your own, but I bought these)

2cm of ginger grated

A thumb nail size piece of shrimp paste

Pinch of chilli shrimp powder

Some anchovy sauce (about a tsp.)

Soy sauce

Fish sauce

Oyster sauce

1 table spoon of wok oil

Here we go, this is quick, oil in wok, in goes the cauli stalks, stir fry over a high heat until just starting to colour, then grate in the ginger, then the rest of the veg.

 At this point, put the bowl with the Cauliflower rice, into the microwave and cook at highest setting for 3 minutes.

When it goes ping, take it out of the microwave, give it a stir and then cling film back on and into the pinging machine for another minute.

Add the chicken strips, as these are already cooked they just need heating through.

Add the shrimp paste, shrimp chilli powder, and all of the sauces to the stir fry, keep it moving.

Remove cling film, stir in the Bulgar wheat (any liquid not absorbed pour into the stir fry). That is it, no more, no less, plate up your rice and spoon your stir fry over the top.

All you have to do is eat it, this gets a great big thumbs up, Lee thanks for the tip, it was fantastic.

For true vegi meal just miss out the fishythings and the chicken, you could use torfu

Roast Mediterranean Vegetables with speck, feta and anchovies

Sometimes the very simple meals are the best and especially when the weather is warm and you can’t be fussed with cooking (BBQin’ being the exception). Here is a one that once prepared, you pop it in the oven and only visit it twice.

My take on Mediterranean roast vegetables with feta cheese.

Ingredients:

1 large courgette
2 red peppers
1 large onion
6-7 cloves of garlic
2 plum tomatoes (it can be any, but these I had at hand)
Handful of small diced feta with herbs (I bought mine already diced)
6 Anchovy filets
50g Bauchspeck (or smoked streaky bacon)
Handful of cepes (I always have a packet of the frozen ones from Lidl or Aldi in the freezer)
6 new potatoes, halved or large ones quartered
1 heaped Tablespoon of Herds de Provence
1 Tsp. of oregano
Enough olive oil to coat all of the vegetables (and a bit more for later)
Course Sea salt (I have some from the French Atlantic coast with herbs in it.
1 sprig of fresh Rosemary
2 sprigs of fresh Basil (I have the small leafed sort on my balcony)
Plenty of ground pepper
A grinding of dried chillies

Wash your veg.

Slice your courgettes lengthways, slice off the tops of the red peppers and remove the cores, cut into ¼s, roughly slice the onion, leave the skins on the garlic cloves (you can press the soft pulp out if you are lucky enough to get one of these little gems on your plate.
Put the speck, and cepes into the bottom of a deep roasting tin, then the tomatoes and red peppers, sliced courgettes, onions and garlic into the roasting tin(It matters not in which order you add the vegetables), sprinkle (pour) the dried herbs over the top, add the salt and pepper, grind the chillies (how much depends on your and/or your guests taste, pour in the olive oil and now mix so that everything is coated in herbs and spices (now you see why it doesn’t matter).

Cover with aluminium foil and put into the oven at 180°, make sure you have put your bottle of Aldi pink in the fridge for later.

Peel the spuds and put into salted water, bring to the boil, cook until just tender.

Open up a cold beer and go and sit on the balcony and read a book or listen to a bit of cricket or if not too hot go for a bike ride (1hr max).

After a good hour, have a look, the veg should be tender, remove the foil, watch the pinkies the roasting tin is bloody hot (I will show you the scares some time) add the potatoes and anchovies, sprinkle with the fresh herbs, olive oil and salt.

Put back into the oven at 230°C on the top rung and cook uncovered until the potatoes brown and the skins of the red peppers blister and go black.  Add the feta cheese and pop it back in for about 5 minutes.

Remove to a heat proof base

and spoon onto the plate, don’t forget the juices, the olive oil and veg juices have mingled with the feta and anchovies, it really is that easy and that fantastic, I had a nice stick of Mediterranean bread with olives and sundried tomatoes , you will require this to mop up the juices, before spooning out another plate full.

You could make this entirely vegetarian, by missing out the anchovies, feta and speck, but then you would be missing out on a wonderful eating experience. You can add any veg you wish, aubergines or those small long sweet pepperoni's, any thing you wish I think chunks of pumpkin would also go well!

I have enough left over for lunch tomorrow cold with bread and for an accompaniment to some grilled sardine’s tomorrow night.