Posh 'noush

After all the rain we have had recently, a break in the weather meant that I donned the old galoshes and ran up to the vege garden. The storm last week decimated most of what I had growing, but after a couple of hours of hard toil preparing beds for new plantings, (I am not joking, I think I got sunstroke today) I gathered the fruits of my labours.

I couldn't believe that I filled a whole basket! The first Diggers Heritage corn was cooked up for dinner and my oh my! It tasted just like corn is supposed to taste, and better.

But I degress. I stripped all of my eggplants. These are a small "Slim Jim" variety, again from Diggers. They are fabulous to cook as they don't require salting like the bigger varieties. Saute a few with some tomatoes in olive oil,  and add to some cous cous. Garnish with basil, and you have a great meal that takes minutes to prepare.

Back on track. There were just too many eggplants for the abovementioned recipe. What was I to do? Baba Ganoush was the answer. After consulting my Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beer (no, I don't have any verjuice) cookbooks, and realising that I didn't have all the ingredients, I decided to wing it. Combine the recipes, thought I, be creative. Let the juices flow. Relax into the process. Instead of the juice of three lemons, I threw in some frozen lemon sorbet, tahini was replaced with hoummus. This is the final recipe, warts and all.

1 kg eggplant, chargrilled and skins removed
1/2 cup yogurt
2 teaspoons garlic from jar
1/2 cup hoummus
salt & pepper
1 teaspoon dry roasted cumin, ground
6 desertspoons lemon sorbet
1/4 cup olive oil

The final product served with some bread. The recipe made about a kilogram. It has been a success for after school snacks. Look forward to more recipes as I attempt to use all of my produce like the country women of yesteryear, opposed to arranging it  artfully in pretty bowls, until it  ferments and is given to the chooks.

Taste test. Very smoky, as I basically incinerated the eggplants on my gas cooker, but quite nice. That bit of sugar in the sorbet has done the trick. My husband commented that he has "eaten worse in restaurants." I think that is a compliment. xxN