Seasonal local food recipe No.294 – Felicity Cloake’s perfect moussaka

This recipe is taken from Felicity Cloake’s How to Cook the Perfect column in the Guardian. Every week she takes a familiar dish and tries several different recipes before coming up with her definitive recipe to make the perfect dish, in this case the perfect moussaka. We will be trying this on Sunday.

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking time: 1 hour 45 minutes

Ingredients
4 tbsp olive oil
3 medium or 2 large aubergines, sliced
1 large onion, finely chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp dried oregano
500g minced lamb
2 tbsp tomato purée, mixed with 150ml water
150ml red wine
Small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, chopped

For the béchamel:
500ml milk
60g butter
60g plain flour
50g kefalotyri or pecorino cheese, grated
2 eggs, beaten
Nutmeg, to grate

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 180C. Cut the aubergines lengthways into 0.5cm slices, and put them on to oiled baking sheets. Brush with olive oil and season. Bake for about 25 minutes until soft, golden and floppy.

Meanwhile, put 2 tbsp olive oil into a large frying pan over a medium high heat and cook the onion until soft. Add the garlic, cinnamon and oregano and cook for a further couple of minutes, then stir in the lamb. Turn up the heat slightly, and brown the lamb well, cooking until the mixture is quite dry. Stir in the tomato and wine, bring to a simmer, then turn the heat down low and cook for 30–40 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated. Season and stir in the parsley.

While the meat is cooking, make the bechamel. Bring the milk to just below boiling point, and melt the butter in another saucepan. Stir the flour into the butter and cook for a couple of minutes, then gradually whisk in the hot milk. Cook until you have a thick sauce, then stir in the cheese until melted. Take off the heat and allow to cool slightly, then beat in the eggs, salt to taste and add slightly more nutmeg than you might think wise (it’s a strong flavour, but you need a heft of it in this dish I think – half a teaspoon at least).

Arrange a third of the aubergines in the base of an oven dish, and top with half the meat. Repeat these layers, then finish off with a layer of aubergine, and top with the sauce. Bake for about 45 minutes until well browned, and then leave to cool for half an hour before serving.

Aubergines and sweetcorn in Camel CSA’s weekly boxes

The veg boxes are still bursting with our bountiful harvest. It’s been a wonderful, warm, sunny week.

In all our boxes this week:
*aubergines
*beetroot
*tomatoes
*calabrese or sprouting broccoli
*cucumbers
*sweetcorn
*green peppers
potatoes ‘Caesar’ (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*mixed salad bag
*French beans
*cucumbers

* = grown to organic principles. All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated. Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

Try these tasty dishes on Camel CSA’s recipe page –
Raw salsa
Chicken with lemon, and chilli broccoli

Seasonal local food recipe No.291 – Aubergines with pasta and cheese

This is an old favourite from Vegetarian Meals by Rosamund Richardson.  It is good served with a green salad.

Serves 4-6

Preparation time: 45 minutes
Cooking time: 25 minutes

Ingredients
2 medium aubergines
olive oil
225 g pasta shapes
3 tbsp tomato puree
1 garlic clove, crushed
225 g strong cheese, grated
salt and pepper

Method
Cut the aubergines into fairly thin slices and sprinkle with salt.  Let them sweat for 30 minutes, and then rinse the salt off and wipe dry.  Cook the aubergine in olive oil – they absorb it well, so you will need quite a lot – until they are soft and slightly browned.

Cook the pasta ‘al dente’.  Make up 300 ml of tomato sauce using the tomato puree, crushed garlic and water.  Put layers in a baking dish of the tomato sauce, sliced aubergine, pasta and cheese, seasoning with salt and pepper as you go.  Finish with a layer of cheese and bake at 180°C/Gas mark 4 for 25 minutes.

Lots of summer veg in Camel CSA’s boxes

We’ve each got a bag of red tomatoes as well as yellow ones, plus aubergines, the “long purple” variety. Standard boxes have a fennel bulb.

In all our boxes this week:
*tomatoes
*aubergines
*Swiss chard or spinach
*mixed salad bag
*parsley
*courgettes (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
potatoes (Burlerrow Farm, St Mabyn)

Standard boxes also have:-
extra potatoes
*cucumbers
*mangetout peas or French beans
*fennel

* = grown to organic principles
All produce grown by Camel CSA unless otherwise indicated.  Please wash all vegetables and fruit.

Try these tasty dishes on Camel CSA’s recipe page –
Neela’s aubergine and potato
Delia’s oven roasted ratatouille

It’s time to… plant out aubergines and tomatoes

The polytunnels are filling up with spring-sown vegetables.

Get a look at the beautiful aubergines in our veg boxes

All boxes have aubergines, and plums from Mark’s Dad’s garden this week. We’re back again for the winter with our main-crop potato supplier – James Mutton of Burlerrow Farm in St Mabyn.

Small boxes have:-

New season aubergines and tomatoes in our veg boxes

Yummylicious! This week in Camel CSA’s vegetable boxes: –
* aubergine or tomatoes (Camel CSA)
* cucumbers (Camel CSA)
* blackcurrants (Camel CSA)
* carrots (Camel CSA)
* potatoes (Camel CSA)
* shiitake mushrooms (Mark Malcolmson, St Kew)
* broad beans (Mark Norman, Bodmin)
Standard boxes also have: –
* extra potatoes
* French beans (Camel CSA)
* parsley (Camel CSA)
* mixed salad bag (Camel CSA)

* = grown to organic principles