Melanzane To Die For

One of my favourite Italian recipes is Melanzane Parmigiana. A lot of people have difficulty knowing what to do with aubergines, and I know what they mean….they can be tasteless and rubbery. Here, chef Domenico Maggi, explains how to make his delicious version.

Ingredients:

Fresh whole aubergine, medium sized – one per person should be enough.

Virgin Olive Oil for deep frying (Domenico says that if you can’t use that, the second best is ground nut oil).

Virgin Olive Oil for general cooking – a good glug.

Several cloves of garlic (how much you add is down to personal taste).

Several slices of bread.

Handfuls of fresh Basil and Parsley.

A couple of teaspoons of pickled capers, rinsed.

2 beaten eggs to bind.

Ground black pepper.

Canestrato or Pecorino cheese, grated.

Start with the aubergine and slice each fruit in two. Remove most of the the flesh from the centre of each half with a large spoon or knife, but leave a thin layer (about half a cm) lining the skins so they don’t fall apart during baking.

Deep fry the aubergine skins in olive oil for a few minutes, then drain. (Domenico uses virgin olive oil in the fryer no hotter than 180 degrees. Smoking point is 190, after which the oil’s structure can be damaged and becomes unhealthy to consume.) Put aside to cool, ready for filling.

Chop the remaining aubergine flesh into small pieces. Peel, crush and chop several garlic cloves. Heat virgin olive oil in a wok-type pan and fry the garlic until just golden. Add the chopped aubergines. The oil will be quickly absorbed by the spongy flesh, and it might seem dry, but don’t over do it as weirdly, once the flesh is cooked, the oil returns to the pan.

Take a large baking tray and decant the cooked aubergine into it. Leave to cool – shouldn’t take too long.

Take several slices of  bread, remove the crusts, and roughly chop into large cubes. Next, chop up large handfuls of fresh parsley and basil. (If you don’t have these, adding any other fresh herbs will also work.) Rinse a handful of capers to remove the pickling vinegar. Throw this all into the mix. Then add 2 beaten eggs and mix the whole lot with your hands into a lumpy filling. Season well with ground black pepper.

Next, stir in a couple of large handfuls of grated Canestrato (this is milder that Parmesan, similar to Pecorino, made from cow’s and sheep’s milk). I like the hands-on mixing thing – no need for extra washing up!

You shouldn’t need to add any extra salt, as the cheese does the job for you.

Now – back to the aubergine skins waiting in the baking tray….sprinkle a little cheese over them. Then push the mix into each half to the top. Once they’re all filled, you can sprinkle more grated cheese over the top to make a delicious crust. Set aside till needed and bake for around 20-30 minutes at 180 until golden and the aubergine halves are soft and just starting to collapse. A delicious aroma should fill the room.

Try serving with a basic Provençale style sauce on the side. Heaven.

Extracting The Best From The Olive – You Get What You Pay For

After our delicious lunch we were treated to a tour to see the industrial side of olive oil production. A visit to Co-operativa Agricola San Giorgio is a must if you’re in the Lecce area, nicely finished off by perusing the produce in the farm shop.

I love industrial places. They are a feast for the senses. Factories provide excellent opportunities to practice capturing motion by using different shutter speeds and combined with the noise make a great video. Crates and crates of olives are standing out front waiting to be lifted.

 

The basic method is still widely used today. First the olives are ground into an olive paste using large millstones in the press for at least 30-40 minutes. This applies pressure to the paste and separates the liquid oil and solid vegetable matter left over. Then any water in the mix is separated by decantation using a centrifuge.  Making sure the olives are well ground, this allows enough time for the olive drops to join to form large droplets and for the fruits’ enzymes to contribute to the oil’s aroma and taste.

After grinding, the olive paste is spread onto discs (traditionally hemp or coconut fibres) which are stacked on top of each other, then placed into the press. These days, synthetic fibres are used which are easier to maintain. Using hydraulic pressure of up to 400 atm, the discs are forced together and water is poured down the sides of the discs to increase percolation speed. After each batch , the paste must be removed from the discs, otherwise left overs will cause inconsistencies and contamination to the taste and purity of the oil.

 

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive Oil Process © trish gant

Olive oil on farm shop shelves © trish gant

Olive oil on farm shop shelves ©trish gant

Plenty of products on sale here including Grappa

Plenty of products on sale here including Grappa

 

Why Grindstones?

Although they are ancient by design, grindstones break up the fruits’ pulp while barely touching the kernel and skin. This reduces the rate that oxidisation can occur. Using this extraction method, the amount of water used is minimal compared to modern methods of extraction. Less polyphenols are washed away and once the paste is exhausted, the ‘pomace’ has a low water content and makes it easier to manage. The disadvantages to this method are that the grindstones require more manual labour to maintain them and the process involves waiting periods which can expose the paste to oxygen and light. All this translates into a longer production time from harvest to pressing.

Modern Methods

Separation at all stages is done using an industrial decanter and centrifugal force, spinning at 3000rpm.(Two or three phases of centrifuge can be used.) Using a hammer, disc, knife crusher or de-pitting machine, the paste is then malaxed for 30-60 mins. As small olive droplets gather, fruit enzymes create the oil’s aroma. Solids are removed by a slowly rotating coil in the drum which pushes the solids out of the system. Separated oil and water are then rerun through a vertical centrifuge working at 6000rpm removing any small amounts of vegetation water.  The machinery using this method is more compact, oil production being continuous and requires less labour. Olive oil made using the two-phase centrifugal system contains more phenols and is more resistant to oxidisation than oils from three-phase or hydraulic press methods. However, this method uses more energy and the pomace can be wetter, so adding drying to the disposal process and because more water is used, it reduces the amount of anti-oxidants present in the product.  There are some other methods but I don’t want to bore my readers too much!!!!

First Cold Press or Cold Extraction

The temperature of malaxation and extraction has a critical effect on the quality of the oil. When high temperatures are used to increase the yield of oil from the paste, it has a negative effect on the vitamin and antioxidants content. Under strict EU regulations, extraction must be done under 27 degrees centigrade (80 degrees Fahrenheit). Olive oil bottled outside of the EU is not covered by this standard and so the consumer has no idea what they are buying.

What does this mean to me, the person who dishes out the dosh?

Olive oil quality is equally dependent on the condition of the fruit itself. Oxidisation occurs immediately upon harvesting and the fruit should be pressed within 24 hours. During the period between harvesting and grinding, the olive’s enzymes are very active and degrade the oil. If you wait too long the oleic acid content goes up affecting the taste and making the oil more bitter. Exposure to light also affects this process, so keep your bottles in a dark cupboard or in a dimly lit part of the kitchen. If you buy a large can, it’s best to decant some into an air-tight vessel.

I do believe you get what you pay for when you peruse those shelves in Waitrose wondering why!

 

Shooting Food – Waste Not Want Not

I love working with food. It’s delectable, delicious and very challenging. Although the home economy trend is towards more natural, there is a fine line between natural and looking a mess I’ve found.

During my assisting years, I worked with some great food photographers: all exceedingly talented. One had his own photo-library shooting dishes to order for clients when stock was a relatively fresh thing. His studio was tucked away behind some shops in a rather well to do part of London. You’d never know it was there. He was the first person I knew to have a bespoke mobile cookery island that could be pushed around to the set he was working on. From there, he regularly whizzed up dishes llike soufflés and crepes which were absolutely fresh as they hit the table.

I also recall working with another on some advertising shoots for a well known cured meat company. In those days we did all kinds of things to manipulate the look of the meat. His dog, a friendly and energetic Boxer called Hogan, used to drag me to Keishi Colour with boxes of 5×4 for processing. Naturally there was a lot of waste doing food shoots. One time, I was so brassic that I took home boxes of cakes from a freelance job. Well , they were destined for the bin anyway. I particularly had a penchant for the Lemon Drizzle fingers. Waste not want not! I can honestly say that after a week of them, I never wanted to see another in my life again….the strong stench of sugar made me gag. (I lived near Portobello then.)

Watching home economist Mary select hero cakes and fill in any air holes with crumbs using a fine scalpel was fascinating. Now it’s all about cloning in Photoshop!

One time, I took home a Lobster Thermidore from a Fortnum’s Christmas shoot: a rich source of protein for any impoverished assistant and return for the long hours we spent creating something which looked amazing. Nowadays food has to be as natural as possible. In photo sessions, vegetables are almost always raw or barely cooked to retain their colour. In the UK our love for Oriental style dishes flash cooked in a wok or steamed has influenced the way we see food in terms of nutritional value and how it fits in with our busy, hectic lives.

There is a growing raw vegan movement and the food is surprisingly filling and tasty, sourced locally where possible. With the opening of restaurant chains like Wagamama and Yo Sushi, offering instantly fresh and nourishing meals among informal surroundings, the British palate is changing.

Growing your own is extremely popular too, especially for cash-strapped families. The age of frugality is here and is being championed by Premier model Mak Gilchrist whose local bus stop allotment programme in Brixton featured recently in the papers. (One of my earliest childhood friends, she’s always been a bit “right on” introducing me to Spirulina shakes and sprouting beans in the 90’s.) I’ve tried sprouting but mine just end up hairy!

This week, I took advantage of the harvest in my garden and completed two food tests using Passion Fruit from the front of the house for a dessert and veg grown in my little 8×4 plot to make a courgette linguine dish. Courgette sliced up with a julienne peeler is a great low carb substitute for pasta but it collapsed rapidly once it was dressed with lemon and olive oil.

Lately I’ve developed an irrational craving for young Nasturtium leaves and add them to salads whenever I can. I planted a few this Spring and they’ve gone bonkers, creeping across and up walls, invading. So why not eat them? The flowers are yummy. If you’ve not tried them, they’re peppery like cress, but do check for Black Fly because they love them too. Chuck them in a bowl with Virgin Olive Oil, sea salt, black pepper and fresh lemon juice for a zesty, healthy meal.