Rosemary and basil aubergines in za'atar

One of the books I'm most enjoying at the moment is Mark Diacono's Herb which is perfectly suited to a man who is a great gardener as well as a cook (and the most engaging writer as well as taking all his own photographs. Sickening, really!)

This recipe is for one of my favourite ingredients, aubergines, and is wonderfully simple.

Mark writes: This is my favourite way with aubergines, and one that shows how they take beautifully to so many herbs. The oregano in the za’atar and the rosemary lend flavour to the cooking aubergines, while the fresh basil scattered to serve completes the picture. Adding the rosemary for the last few minutes aromatizes the aubergines;

I know ‘aromatize’ sounds like the sort of unwelcome thing a garage unexpectedly does to your car when you’ve taken it for an MOT, but I promise it is the best word for it. It is as if resinous smoke has been blown through every pore of the aubergine, without a trace of the bitterness that comes with roasting rosemary sprigs until they resemble the skeletons of sparrows’ legs.

Try this with roast lamb, griddled courgettes, couscous and pretty much any cold cuts.

Rosemary and basil aubergines in za'atar

Serves 4

4 aubergines (eggplant), quartered lengthways

4 tbsp olive oil

a few good sprigs of rosemary, broken into 3cm (1in) pieces

4 tbsp za’atar (see below)

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the dressing

50g (2oz) tahini

1 tbsp yoghurt

juice of 1 lemon

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 tbsp olive oil

To serve

pomegranate molasses

hot sauce or chilli flakes

handful of Greek basil leaves, or other basil finely shredded

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Lay the aubergine quarters in a single layer on baking sheets, brush with oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place in the oven, turn the heat down to 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4, and cook for 20–25 minutes until tender and brown.

Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients together with 2 tablespoons water; use a little more water if required, to reach a consistency of double (heavy) cream.

Mix the rosemary, za’atar and a heavy grinding of pepper in a bowl. Remove the aubergines from the oven, top with the za’atar mix, drizzle with more oil and return to the oven for 5 minutes.

Drizzle with the tahini dressing, pomegranate molasses, hot sauce or chilli flakes and scatter with basil.

*ZA’ATAR

Depending on your threshold for authenticity, you may be frustrated in searching for the one true herb at the heart of za’atar. Hyssop, wild oregano and savory are among the prime suspects; all create a wonderful version of this classic blend. I usually go with the lightly citrus zing of Mexican oregano in summer, and hyssop or winter savory in the colder months. As with chaat masala, once you start making and using this, you’ll find yourself sprinkling it on everything from oily flatbreads to eggs on toast.

Makes a small jarful

3 tbsp sesame seeds

1½ tbsp ground cumin

2 tbsp sumac

2 tbsp dried Mexican oregano, dried marjoram, oregano, savory or hyssop

1 tbsp salt

Lightly toast the sesame seeds in a pan over a medium heat, shuffling them around a bit to ensure they don’t turn too dark. Combine all the ingredients together with a mortar and pestle, as much as anything to encourage the flavours and scents to be released as they mix.

Store in a sealed jar, where it will keep for a few months, losing intensity over time.

What to drink: I'd be marginally inclined to go for a bright, fruity red like a young syrah or grenache with this but a herby Italian white like a verdicchio or a vernaccia or even an orange wine would work too. Or a strong dry rosé. Probably in the natural wine spectrum.

For other pairings with aubergines see here and wine matches for herbs here

Extracted from Herb by Mark Diacono (Quadrille, £26). You can read more about Mark - and indeed buy herbs from him - on his website Otter Farm.

Smoked Salmon and Spinach Lasagne

I'm normally a bit daunted by chefs' books but Chefs at Home, a collection of recipes from some of Britain's best loved chefs which has been put together in aid of Hospitality Action, a charity that supports the restaurant industry, is full of the kind of food they actually make for their families.

This one is from Tom Kitchin who writes: "This comforting pasta bake is easy to prepare and always popular. The recipe is based on a Scandinavian dish that my wife Michaela has been making for years. It’s absolutely delicious and has the added advantage that it can be prepared in advance, ready to bake and serve when required."

Serves 4

100g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing

100g plain flour

950ml whole milk

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

½ leek, cut into thin strips

400g baby spinach

2 garlic cloves, crushed

8–10 lasagne sheets

500g smoked salmon, cut into 2cm squares

250g cheddar, grated

50g parmesan, grated

4 dill sprigs, chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

green salad, to serve

Melt 75g of the butter in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Add the flour and cook out for 1–2 minutes, then slowly add the milk, stirring as you go. Cook for 8–10 minutes, stirring continuously without letting the sauce boil too hard, until thickened. Once thickened, add the mustard and nutmeg.

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas mark 4 and grease a lasagne dish with butter.

Melt the remaining 25g of butter in a saucepan, add the leek and cook for 2–3 minutes to soften a little. Season with salt and pepper, then add the spinach leaves (a handful at a time is easier) and the garlic and cook for a further 2–3 minutes, until the spinach has wilted. Drain off the excess liquid.

Spread some of the sauce over the bottom of the dish and place a layer of lasagne sheets on top. Top with some of the leek and spinach mixture, then some smoked salmon. Sprinkle over some cheddar and parmesan. Repeat the process, finishing the top layer with sauce, a few pieces of salmon, and grated cheese. Bake for 45 minutes, until golden and the lasagne is tender. (To check if the lasagne is cooked, insert a fork – if there’s no resistance, it’s ready.)

Sprinkle the dill over the top and serve with a fresh green salad.

What to drink: I'd go for a rich full-bodied white like an old vine chenin blanc, a godello or a grillo with this

Extract taken from Chefs at Home: Delicious Family Recipes from the UK’s Leading Locked Down Chefs (£26, Jon Croft Editions)

Photography ©Kris Kirkham

Seasonal Veg Pakora

With the new season's spring veg springing up in the garden and coming into the shops it's the perfect moment to make these delicious Seasonal Veg Pakora from Grace Regan's appetising new book, Spicebox.

"On almost every city street in India, you’ll find a food vendor tending to giant karahi of floating pakoras in bubbling oil" says Grace, who runs the Spicebox curry house in Walthamstow. "The battered veg varies depending on what’s in season but soft, faster-cooking vegetables are preferable, such as onion, aubergine and spinach."

Below she's listed seasonal veg and combinations that work well. "The harder the vegetable, the smaller you have to cut it. For root vegetables, grating works best." (There are some useful tips on cooking veg in the book which includes 100 spicy curry house recipes.)

"Traditionally, just gram flour is used but Grace finds that adding rice flour and baking powder makes for a crisper batter at home."

Serves 4–6 as a starter/side

For the batter

Veg oil, for frying, around 1 litre

100g gram flour

50g rice flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fine sea salt

2 tsp ajwain seeds (also called lovage or carom seeds; swap for fennel or nigella (black onion) seeds if you can’t find them)

1 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp tsp ground turmeric

A thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated

1 green chilli, thinly sliced

A small bunch of coriander (stalks included), finely chopped

2 tsp garam masala

Salt

Put the gram and rice flours into a bowl, along with the baking powder and the rest of the batter ingredients. Slowly pour in 500ml water and whisk until a batter is formed – you’re looking for the consistency of a thin pancake batter.

Pour the oil into a large saucepan or wok – it needs to be 5–7cm deep – and place on a high heat.

Test the oil to make sure it is the right temperature by dropping a piece of batter into it. It should fizzle and turn golden in around 30 seconds. If you have a thermometer to hand, the oil should be 180°C.

Drop a small handful of your chosen veg (see below) into the batter and make sure it’s evenly coated. Allow any excess batter to drip off, then gently drop the veg into the oil. Fry until golden on one side and then turn over, using a slotted spoon (they will take around 1 minute 20 seconds on each side).

When the pakora is golden on both sides, lift it out of the oil and drain it on a piece of kitchen paper. Season with a generous pinch of salt on both sides. Repeat until all your veg are cooked. You can cook two or three pieces at the same time, depending on the size of your pan and the veg.

Grace recommends these with date and tamarind Chutney or green (mint and coriander) chutney, recipes for both of which are in the book.

Spring/summer veg

Cabbage, finely shredded

Brussels sprouts, finely shredded

Beetroot, grated raw, or cooked and sliced

Carrot, grated raw

Celeriac, grated raw

Butternut squash, roasted and sliced

Potatoes, boiled and sliced

Sweet potato, roasted and sliced

Cauliflower, cut into thin steaks

Kale, finely shredded

Leeks, thinly sliced

Onion, thinly sliced

Parsnips, grated raw, or roasted and sliced

Autumn/winter veg combos

Grated apple and beetroot

Grated pear and celeriac

Sweet potato and sliced spring onion

Kale and potato

Brussels sprout and beetroot

Cauliflower and leek

What to drink: Lots of possibilities here - a crisp dry Italian white like Falanghina, a fresh Provençal rosé, a dry riesling, a sylvanier, dry cider, a pilsner, a lemon or mango flavoured soda ...

Extracted from SpiceBox: 100 Fresh, Vegan Curry House Favourites by Grace Regan (Ebury Press £20). Photography by Joff Lee and James Lee

Five-spice smoked tofu nuggets

Tofu has never been my favourite ingredient to be honest but these brilliant smoked tofu 'nuggets' from my friend Elly Curshen's book Let's Eat are positively addictive.

Elly writes: These things are ridiculously delicious and I can't recommend them enough. They're great on the end of skewers and dipped into the satay sauce as party food. But if you don't want to serve this as a canapé the cubes of tofu are delicious on a bed of brown rice with some pok choy and the sauce drizzled over the top. (I actually served it with a crunchy vegetable salad based on the noodle salad in Elly's book. I'm not giving the recipe for that so you have to buy it!)

The tofu you choose is important. You want to look for one that comes as a big, solid, wet cube and nearly always in a cardboard box. The recipe requires this soft, wet kind to create the steam inside the crust that makes it puff up.

Make the dressing first so the nuggets stay nice and crisp.

Note: this recipe contains peanuts

Five-spice smoked tofu nuggets

Vegetarian, vegan.

Makes 8 (although I cut them slightly smaller to make 16. That might serve 4 at a pinch though don't bank on it)

1 x 225g box of smoked tofu
2 tbsp cornflour
¼ tsp Chinese five-spice powder
a large pinch of smoked paprika
300ml vegetable oil
2–4 tbsp Satay Dressing (see below)
flaked sea salt

Lay the block of tofu on a few sheets of kitchen paper. Fold another sheet of kitchen paper and use to press down gently on the top to absorb the moisture.

Cut the tofu up into 8 (or 16) equal-sized cubes. Put the cornflour in a shallow bowl, add the five-spice powder and paprika and mix well. Toss the tofu cubes in the spiced cornflour until they are dusted on all sides.

Pour the vegetable oil into a wok and place over a high heat. Once hot, shake off any excess flour then very carefully lower each nugget into the hot oil using a slotted spoon or tongs. Deep-fry, turning regularly (and very carefully), for 4–5 minutes until all sides are golden brown and crisp. Remove the tofu from the pan using a slotted spoon or tongs and drain on kitchen paper.

Sprinkle the cubes with flaked sea salt while they are still hot – this helps to keep them crispy. Put them on to skewers and serve with the dressing for dipping.

Satay dressing

Makes 6 portions

1 tsp light soft brown sugar
2 tsp lime juice
4 tbsp peanut butter (smooth or chunky is fine, and I actually find the cheaper, bog-standard versions work best)
3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1¼ tbsp vegetable, sunflower or rapeseed oil
1¼ tbsp Sriracha (or more to taste)
2 tbsp sesame oil

Dissolve the sugar in the lime juice, then put it into a blender with all the remaining ingredients and blend until smooth. Taste and adjust as you see fit. That’s it. Once made, it will keep fine in the fridge in a jar for ages.

What to drink

The sauce is more important than the nuggets when it comes to finding a pairing. Winewise I'm thinking an off-dry riesling or young semillon. A medium-dry cider would also be good.

Elly Pear's Let's Eat is published by Harper Collins at £20.You might also like to try Elly's Smoked Salmon and Radish Salad from her first book, Fast Days and Feast Days.