What we ate last night

I ike to cook. And that in itself is a bit of an understatement. After cooking relish and making aioli all day yesterday I couldn’t wait to get back in the kitchen to make dinner (for just three of us).

Menu

Roast chicken with sweet potato

Felafel

Baba ganous

Guacamole

Pear flan

For felafel I had soaked a bunch of chick peas the day before and drained them, leaving them in the fridge overnight. And I had a lovely legless and wingless organic chook (limbs already made an appearance in barley and vegetable soup earlier in the week), marinating in salt, pepper and chilli flakes in a plastic bag. And while I prepped I whacked 5 big eggplant onto the bbq and, turning them once, slow-grilled them till blackened and pretty soft.

So into the hot oven on a bed of sweet potato chunks went the chook.

The eggplant flesh scooped out and left to drain in a colander.

The chickpeas ground in batches in the food processor with some onion, garlic, parsley and coriander. Then I added some ground cumin, ground coriander, salt, pepper, allspice, a little baking powder and about 2 tablespoons plain flour. This mixture I combined well with both hands, adding a dribble of water to form a thick paste. Covered and left in the fridge until time to fry.

Back to the eggplant. Into the rinsed out food processor went 4 crushed cloves of garlic, the juice of 3 lemons, salt, pepper, olive oil and a glut of tahini (now this is controversial, but I like the creaminess it adds). I blended all this then added the eggplant and briefly pulsed it. Authentically the eggplant is just mixed in with a fork but the girls like it a bit more mushy. Into a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of sumac.

The felafel is fried in sunflower oil, so I needed a depth of about 5 cm. I formed and squeezed walnut-sized lumps and dipped one side in sesame seeds. They take about 4 minutes in batches to cook.

I also made a kind of guacamole with lime juice, red onion, red and green chile, avocado, cucumber and radish all finely chopped with salt and pepper and fresh coriander with a bit of avocado oil.

For dessert I had some filo pastry left so I lined a flan tin with ghee-brushed sheets, then filled with a combination of almonds processed till fine with some coconut sugar, then butter and a generous pinch of mace. I mixed in an egg. this is a kind of frangipan I guess. I peeled four large beurre bosc pears and tin sliced the quarters. Into the oven with the chicken and a sprinkle of more coconut sugar towards the end. The flan took about 45 minutes, but then again, my oven is crap.

Appreciated by Pete and Olympia. I forgot to take photos!