Tagine week: Eggplant and Pumpkin Tagine with green chillies

Now that the evenings are much cooler, we have dusted off the tagine and gone a little overboard with it.

This is a hearty vegetarian tagine, prompted by our pile of delicious butternut pumpkins and late season eggplants and zucchinis (although of course we used tromboncino).  This is a bit of a staple recipe in our house whenever we have too much of any of these vegies (usually this time of year).

Eggplant and Pumpkin Tagine with Whole Green Chillies
 

Sauce:

100ml olive oil

2 large onions, finely diced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 heaped TBS coriander seeds

1 heaped TBS cumin seeds

1 heaped TBS caraway seeds

1  TSP ground allspice

2 TSP sweet paprika

1 TSP chilli powder

1 TSP ginger powder

2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes

6 long green chillies

1 TBS honey

600ml water

Vegetables:

1 kg pumpkin diced

2 small eggplants

2 small zucchini

100mL olive oil

150g cooked chickpeas

100g black olives

Greek yoghurt (to serve)

Use a mortar and pestle to grind coriander, cumin and caraway seeds to a fine powder. Sieve to remove husks. Mix with other remaining spices.

Heat oil in frying pan, sauté the onions and add the garlic- fry until browned. Add the spice mixture to the frying pan and cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add tomatoes, chilli, honey and water and bring to the boil. Lower the heat and simmer uncovered for 45 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius.

Bake the pumpkin in the oven for 15 minutes.

Cut the eggplant and zucchini into medium sized chunks. Salt and leave for 20 minutes. Wipe off excess water and sauté in olive oil in batches.

Add all the vegetables, chickpeas and olives to the tomato sauce. Add more water if the sauce is too thick. Bring sauce to the boil, season with salt and pepper. Serve with couscous and plenty of thick Greek yoghurt.

Sicilian Caponata

This is like a Sicilian ratatouille. We make a big pot of it then eat it hot or cold (controversially). 

Interestingly, whilst eating our caponata a close family member disclosed to us that she had always believed that capers were actually derived from tiny fish and refused to eat them. We showed her a jar and she still maintained that they looked "fishy'.

Here's our recipe... keep it a secret.

1 large eggplant, cut into large chunks

2 red capsicum, roughly chopped

4 small potatoes, cut into quarters

2 tins tomatoes

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 red onion, sliced

¼ cup red wine vinegar

2 tsp capers

2 tbs green olives

1tbs sugar

Large bunch of parsley, finely chopped

Salt and pepper

Fry the eggplant chunks in olive oil until brown, then remove from the pan.

In a large, heavy based saucepan fry the onion, garlic and capsicum for a few minutes then deglaze the pan with red wine vinegar.

Add the tinned tomatoes and potatoes and season with salt, pepper and sugar. Simmer for 30-40 minutes until the sauce is thick and the potatoes are tender.

Return the eggplant to the pot, add the capers, olives and parsley. Ready to serve!

Eggplant and Rick Stein Part Two

Rick Stein also reminded us of a Sicilian pasta we used to make all the time. It's very simple, but great at this time of year when eggplants, basil and tomatoes are so delicious.

 

Sicilian eggplant pasta

1 large eggplant (salt for 30 minutes then wipe the juice off)

Bunch of cherry tomatoes

Chilli flakes

3 cloves of garlic finely chopped

Handful of fresh basil

100g feta cheese

Pasta

Cook the pasta in a big pot of boiling, salty water.

Fry the eggplant in a pan in olive oil until brown, then remove. Add the garlic and fry for 30 seconds. Add the chopped tomatoes and chilli flakes and sauté for 5 mins, until the sauce is thickened. 

Return the eggplant, season the sauce with salt and pepper.  Finally add the crumbled feta, torn up basil leaves and the drained pasta. Serve straight away.