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Nigel Slater recipes
Food
Nigel Slater’s hot and sour recipes
Summer suppers are exceptional if they’re hot with spice and char, and sharp with a citrus, tamarind or vinegar tang
Nigel Slater
Nigel Slater
Charry nights: aubergines with tamarind for dinner.
Charry nights: aubergines with tamarind for dinner. Photograph: Jonathan Lovekin/The Observer
Few things are possible to deliver me to the desk quicker than meals that aren’t best citrus-sour but warm and smoky, too. Those bringers of sourness – the citrus juices and vinegar, tamarind paste and yogurt – turn out to be all the extra attractive with the creation of a little warmness inside the shape of ginger and mustard, or chili and garlic. Add to that the deep charred notes from the grill and also you’ve were given me.
Earlier inside the week, I made a marinade for a few aubergines I deliberate to toast on the griddle. The tartness of lime juice and tamarind became softened with a pinch of palm sugar – the hard, butterscotch kind that is available in a bath – then I spiked it with chopped red chilies and a gentle paste of crushed ginger. To exaggerate the sour notes I made a dressing for them with yogurt and a pointy inexperienced apple, pimped with a splash of white wine vinegar, then they met the recent bars of the kitchen griddle, their flesh crisped, their edges singed. We ate the aubergine with a dish of rice cooked with coconut milk and cardamom.
Hot-candy-bitter got any other outing in a far-cherished cake this week, too. A polenta cake, basted with a syrup of lemon and clean ginger. Ideally, I must have doubled up on the syrup portions, preserving a jugful back to pour over the cake as we ate, an afternoon treat that could have wished spoons in addition to fingers.
Aubergines with tamarind
Cut the aubergines into slices or wedges, as the flamboyant takes you. There will, I assure you, be a lot of smoke, so activate the extractor or open a window. Better still, cook them outside on the fish fry. Arm your self with a palette knife to gently prise them from the bars of the griddle. If you select, in preference to the sour-apple dressing, make a dressing of olive oil, lime juice, and coriander leaves.
Lime juice 100ml (about 2 limes)
ginger 30g
fish sauce 3 Tsp
palm sugar 4 Tsp
hot pink chili 1
hot inexperienced chili 1
tamarind paste 4 tsp
groundnut oil 2 tbsp
aubergines 300g
For the apple yogurt:
mint leaves 12
Apple 1, small
white-wine vinegar 2 tbsp
herbal yogurt 200ml
Squeeze the lime juice right into a mixing bowl. Peel and grate the ginger and stir into the lime juice. Pour inside the fish sauce then stir within the palm sugar till dissolved.
Finely chop the crimson and green chilies, eliminating the seeds if you wish, then upload them to the marinade with the tamarind paste and groundnut oil, combining the components thoroughly.
Cut the aubergines in half of lengthways then into wedges as you might a melon. Now cut every wedge in half of. Put the aubergines into the marinade, flip to coat and set aside for an excellent half of hour. During this time they will soften a touch.
Next, make the apple sauce. Finely chop the mint leaves and placed them in a small mixing bowl. Grate in the apple – it could be as coarse or high-quality as you desire – then stir within the white-wine vinegar and yogurt. Cover and set apart.
To cook the aubergines, heat a cast-iron griddle (and activate the extractor). Place the aubergines on it and go away to brown on the bottom. Turn, loosening them with a palette knife and brown the opposite side. Keep the heat low to mild to make certain they’re cooked right thru – they ought to be fully tender.
