This mezze type meal went down very well and made a pretty,
colourful spread. I did my pomegranate tabouleh from a previous post but
slightly altered since the pomegranates were more bitter than usual (see below),
fennel and chilli spiced roasted carrot and parsnip salad with sesame yoghurt
dressing, baba ganoush (burnt aubergine dip), flat breads and grilled
spatchcocked quail. Spatch cocking quail is really easy, a little grim (when you scrape the remaining innards out), but very satisfying! If you aren't conviced, youtube it and you will see how simple it really is.
Morroccan spiced spatchcocked Quail (prepare the day/at least 6 hours before cooking)
Spatchcocking quail makes them far less fiddly to eat since the breast are flat facing you when you serve it, giving your knife and fork much better leverage! This recipe again uses the ras el hanout morroccan spice mix that my cousin recommended (see other recipe here) and is quick and easy. It is nice to have something a bit different than a chicken every now and again and the gamey taste goes nicely with the spices. Quail are also pretty cheap at around £1.50 each and one is enough per person as part of a mezze style meal.
Ingredients (serves 8 with other mezze style salads, dips and bread)
8 quail
4 tablespoons olive oil
Juice of half a lemon
2 teaspoons of salt
1 1/2 tablespoon of Ras El Hanout spice mix
1 tablespoon honey
4 garlic cloves, crushed
Method
1. To spatchcock your quail you will need a good sharp knife, some scissors and some kitchen roll. (The bones are good for stock so you can freeze them for later.)
2. Snip of the neck if it has been left on by the butcher. Where the head of the quail would be, snip along one side of the back bone. Then snip along the other and discard the backbone to use in a stock at some point.
3. Press the bird flat and using your kitchen roll, pull away any innards that have been left inside.
4. Finally, pressing down, you should be able to see a little bone x shape at the peak of the breastbone. Take your knife down the middle of the bird, pressing on the middle of this x and push down to break the breastbone. The bird should easily lie flat now.
5. Once done, place with all the other quail in a freezer bag or bowl so that you can cover with the marinade.
6. Mix up the ingredients of the marinade and pour over the meat.
7. Leave covered or sealed in the fridge for 6 hours or more (you can do it without properly marinating but there just isn’t the same depth of flavour.)
8. About an hour before you want to serve up take the meat out and get to room temperature (not a disaster if you forget this step but you will have to cook it for 2-4 minutes longer – just check it!).
9. Heat up the grill.
10. Place the birds with the legs and wings tucked in (see picture) on a baking tray, skin side up.
11. Place under the grill for 3 minutes (don’t worry if some of the skin blisters).
12. Turn over and grill for 3-4 minutes more
13. Check the biggest one of them where the breast meat is thickest to the bone – it should be nice and pink but not bloody.
Spiced roast fennel
and parsnip salad with sesame yoghurt dressing
I made this up based on what I had in the cupboard one day but it worked so well it is now something of a staple salad.
Ingredients (serves 7
as a small side dish)
1 kg of baby carrots
2 large parsnips
1 tablespoon of fennel seeds
1 tablespoon of dried chilli flakes
½ teaspoon salt
Oil for cooking
1 tablespoon of sesame oil and 1 tablespoon of honey for
frying, later
3 tablespoon of sesame seeds
½ a pot of yoghurt
A tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
A tablespoon of honey
Salt to taste
A handful of basil (coriander could be used instead for a
different effect)
1.
Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius.
2.
Peel carrots and parsnips.
3.
Half any extra big carrots lengthways
4.
Dice the parsnip so it is quite small, around 1cm
diameter and 0.5cm tall.
5.
Place the parsnips and carrots in a baking dish
and rub with oil, fennel seeds, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and chilli flakes. Cut any
extra big baby carrots in half lengthways.
6.
Roast for 20 minutes so cooked (test the
parsnip) but the carrots are still crunchy.
7.
While they are in the oven toast the sesame
seeds in a frying pan until slightly bronze (only takes a minute or two and so
easy to burn so don’t leave the hob while doing it).
8.
Next mix the yoghurt dressing and add salt to taste.
9.
Once the vegetables have had their 20 minutes
transfer to a frying pan and fry up with a drizzle of sesame oil and a
tablespoon of honey for 3 minutes or so, stirring so they get a nice honey
glaze.
10. Serve
at room temperature. Toss with the sesame seeds and serve with the plucked
basil leaves scattered around the root vegetables and spoons of the yoghurt
dressing placed around it (see picture).
Pomegranate Tabouleh (serves 6)
Similar to my previous recipe (see here) but with roughly double quantities
and addition of ½ a peeled, deseeded cucumber, diced, as well as the lemon
juice mixed in with a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of paprika for extra
flavour.
Pomegranate and Cucumber Tabouleh
120g Parsley (weighed with stalks - bigger than your average supermarket pack)
30g Mint
4 tbsp lemon juice
1 tablespoon of honey
1 tablespoon of paprika (smoked or spicy for different effects)
10 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
100g Bulgar wheat (Sainsburys don't seem to sell this but Waitrose does)
2 fat salad onion or 6 spring onions (white only)
1 1/2 pomegranates, deseeded
1/2 a peeled, deseeded and diced cucumber
Put the bulgar in a fine sieve and put under the cold tap until the water runs clear. Transfer to a small saucepan and cover with 300 ml cold water. Bring to the boil then put the lid on and simmer on a low heat for 10-15 minutes until cooked (should be soft but not soggy, nor with a crunch)
When cooked, pour into a sieve and leave to drain.
Deseed the pomegranate taking care that there are no white bits, and add to the bowl, along with any juices. Chop the spring onion super fine and add to the bowl. For the cucumber, peel, halve lengthways and scrape out the seeds with a teaspoon. Dice and add to the bowl.
Take a few stalks of parsley and pack them together tightly. Use a large, very sharp knife to trim off the end of the stalks, then chop the remaining stems and leaves very finely. Add to the bowl.
Pick the mint leaves, pack a few together tightly, chop as finely as the parsley and add to the bowl.
Add the bulgar wheat to the bowl and mix up very well with the lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Taste and adjust the seasoning and then it is ready. (You can make this quite a while before if you have the time since the lemon juice keeps everything fresh.)
Baba Ganoush
This burnt aubergine dip is absolutely delicious. You can whip some yoghurt or hummous into it for a subtler dish and make the aubergines go further. I personally love the strong barbequed flavour of the aubergine on its own, and its slimy texture but it is an acquired taste so when serving to others I usually do the creamier textured hummus mix. My recipe is not the most authentic on earth since I am certainly not middle eastern, but I have tried to incorporate the traditional method of cooking the aubergines over a naked flame. This gives it that delicious smokey flavour. I however like to finish the aubergines off in the oven to ensure its mushy all the way through and there aren’t any uncooked bits since I hate the taste of undercooked aubergine.
Ingredients (enough for a big bowl – 6 people)
5 aubergines
1/2 big lemon
2 big cloves of garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon of salt
65ml extra virgin olive oil
15 ml toasted sesame oil
1/2 pomegranate
Small handful of mint or basil
1 large pot of hummus (just a bit bigger than the standard supermarket sized pot)
To serve
Turkish/Lebanese flat breads or pitta
Method (ideally do the day before you eat it or at least 6 hours before eating)
 |
| This looks pretty weird and makes a massive mess on your hob as you can see! |
1. Place the aubergines each on the naked flame of a hob (see picture). You can probably only do 4 at a time because of your hob only having 4 rings. After about 2 minutes turn over and prick the blackened burnt bit with a fork. Do the same again another 3 times until all 4 quarters of each aubergine is blackened and pricked.
2. After these first 8 minutes I like to move the aubergine down a bit so that the part near the green stem gets cooked, and repeat the same steps. You only need to do 1 minute per quarter for the top.
3. After these 12 minutes move the aubergine back so that you cook the centre again and cook until really shrivelled and starting to leak a bit, another 3-6 minutes (I am afraid to say this makes a really big mess of the hob but nothing a bit of elbow grease can’t clear up afterwards).
4. Once all the aubergines are done, place them on a plate and leave to cool until you are able to handle them
5. While they cool grate the zest of your lemon and place in a big bowl. Add the oils, salt, the garlic and the juice of half your lemon (4 tablespoons or so).
6. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Once the aubergines are cool enough to handle, carefully scrape the blackened skin off them (I use the side of a fork to do this). Pick out any bits of black skin that have clung onto it.
 |
| This is what the skinned aubergine will look like |
7. Place the peeled aubergine flesh on a foil lined baking tray. Cover with foil and put in the oven for 20 minutes.
8. Once the time is up, place the aubergines in the bowl with every thing else and mix up, tearing the aubergine flesh up with a fork as you go along. Taste and add salt or lemon juice if it isn’t salty or sour enough for you.
9. Stir in the hummus and leave to infuse for 6 hours or overnight in the fridge.
10. To serve take out and get to room temperature. Sprinkle basil leaves of chopped mint over it and the seeds of a pomegranate.
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