Last month, I wrote about attending a talk and book signing in Manchester for Nigella Lawson’s latest book, At My Table. The BBC Two six-part series of the same name started on Monday 30th October at 20:30, it was the second episode this week so yesterday, I made two of the recipes. If you’ve not watched it yet, you can catch up with the series on BBC iPlayer.
First up is beef and aubergine fatteh, however, I replaced the minced beef which Nigella used with minced lamb as we don’t eat beef. Fatteh is a Middle Eastern dish comprising toasted flatbread and various toppings, similar to nachos. Nigella’s recipe uses toasted pitta bread, a spicy meaty aubergine layer, a garlicky tahini yoghurt finished with toasted pine nuts, pomegranate seeds and fresh mint. Unfortunately I didn’t have any Aleppo pepper but paprika worked fine as a substitute. We had this for dinner last night and it was incredible, all of the elements worked together extremely well. The spicy lamb and aubergine was complemented by the sweet pomegranate and creamy tahini yoghurt; the toasted pitta and pine nuts added texture and of course, mint goes well with lamb.
The different components of the fatteh can be eaten in other ways:
- Toasted pine nuts and pomegranates make a great snack.
- The garlicky tahini yoghurt is a quick and easy hummus alternative (without the hassle of blending chickpeas) so could be eaten with the toasted pitta or crudites.
- The spicy lamb and aubergine could be used for a samosa filling.
I will definitely be making this Middle Eastern feast again as it’s a healthier alternative to nachos and certainly tastes as good as it looks. The recipe for the beef and aubergine fatteh can be found here.
For dessert, I made passion fruit ice cream cake which was so quick and easy to do as it’s simply combining double cream, shop bought meringue nests and the pulp of passion fruit. If you like the mango and passion fruit Solero ice lollies, this is a more decadent version of that. It took a lot of self-discipline for me to actually get the mixture into the freezer as I could happily have eaten it as it was. I obviously didn’t add the orange liqueur but freshly squeezed orange juice worked well as a substitute. The ice cream isn’t sickly sweet with the meringue adding a soft crunch and the passion fruit making it so fragrant. The recipe for the passion fruit ice cream cake and coconut caramel can be found here. I didn’t make the coconut caramel as there are just two of us and the ice cream would obviously be easier to store than the caramel.
I’m really looking forward to making both of the above next summer, how easy would they be to make during Ramadan?! These are actually the first two recipes I have made from At My Table, once I’ve tried a few more (including one which I’ll be baking next week), I’ll be posting a book review but so far, so good! 🙂
THE MANCUNIAN FOODIE 