Stuffed aubergines

I love aubergines, but when I cook them, I basically do only one thing: dice them, heat them with oil, eat them as a side dish or mix them with tomato sauce and eat them with pasta.  And I'm generally a bit wary of stuffed foods, but this turned out not to be too much of a hassle (and technically, the aubergines aren't stuffed).
For 2 people:
2 aubegines
300 grs minced lamb
50 grs pine nuts
cinnamon
paprika
I massively simplified the spices involved. I also forgot to buy parsley and pureed tomato. Note to self: buy pureed tomato next time you're at the supermarket! It's useful! 

Put the aubergines cut in halves, skin down, in a roasting tin, with olive oil and pepper. Leave at 200 d. for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, cook the lamb mince in a pan with the cinnamon, curry and pine nuts.
Remove the aubergines from the oven, leave to cool, put the lamb mixture on top, put back in the oven at around 180 degrees for about one nour and half. Now you're supposed to make a fancy sauce involving cinnamon sticks which is probably amazing, but, once again, I don't have cinnamon sticks, I'm not sure where to find them. If the local (and decently-furnished) supermark doesn't sell it, I don't do it. This is proving to be the one consistent issue with this experiment, and one that Mssrs Ottolenghi and Tamimi should have addressed since their book is targeted at European readers, a lot of these spices are a) hard to find, even in multicultural areas b) what are you going to do with a whole jar or bag of some weird spice you won't need again? This is not the Middle East where you have markets that sell you exactly the quantity you want!

Anyway, enough kvetching, back to the recipe. The obvious issue with this is that it takes time, so you have to cook it well in advance (or maybe it's not an issue for those less disorganized than yours truly). It could also have benefited from some kind of sauce, as an alternative to the cinnamon one I was thinking yoghurt based (which would de-kasherize it, if that's an issue).  Otherwise, baking aubergines in the oven is a way to go, by all means so  that was a neat discovery. And it improved staying in the fridge over night, all the juices blended nicely and it became tastier.

Cannellini and Lamb soup

'cuz everything's better with coriander, right?

I recently discussed eating legumes with a friend and as a consequence decided to look up some recipes containing them in Jerusalem. This specific recipe does contain beans but obviously doesn't encourage vegetarianism.
I have an ambivalent relationship with legumes. I hated them as a child. Now I like them, but not love them, and only when they're nicely cooked and not tough. This specific recipe involves:
-lamb (the piece I used was about 150 grs I guess).
- 200 grs cannellini beans
- Charlotte potatoes-it's up to you how many, really.
-4 cardamome pods. And crush them! I didn't, and they kept floating in my soup.
a tbsp tomato purée
salt

Put the lamb, cut in cubes, in boiling water with salt. Let simmer about 20 mins and remove the scum regularly. I'm not used to boiling meat, and it's not pretty. Especially if you don't watch your pot because you're trying to see The Simpsons in the meantime, and find your pan exploding with brownish foam, But it does go away . So you should have a broth, at this point.. Add the cannellini, which should have been left to soak overnight (or a whole day). This is important or they'll be uneadible. Don't listen to anyone who tells you it's enough to soak legumes for a few hours. Add the cardamome pods and the tomato purée. Leave to simmer for one hour (this time you can watch tv in the process, as long as you go check the pot once in a while and add water if necessary). Add the potatoes, wait another 20 mins, or until the beans and potatoes are soft.

This is a warm, conforting dish. However I add a few issues with it. Mainly, it's a bit of a pain to make. It doesn't require massive activity but it takes long, and boiling the meat was a pain. Then, the cannellini were ok, but still a bit tough for my taste. I've been advised to use baking soda in the soaking water. Thirdly, but this admittedly my fault since I don't really bother with proportions, there were tons of beans and potatoes and not that much meat. I had beans and potato soup for two more days. I know a lot of people deliberately create leftovers but I don't, I'm too worried I'll end up throwing out stuff if have a few unplanned restaurant trips or something (it has been known to happen, by the way)... The potatoes felt stuffy and kinda pointless. I guess they add carbs to the dish, but I'm wondering if a handful of rice wouldn't have been more pleasant.
My verdict: an interesting dish but not one I plan to make again soon, except maybe for guests where the effort and large quantities make more sense.

Chicken thighs with clementines and arak

The dish before and after being basted with sauce!

Arak was a big (alcoholic) discovery of my trip to Israel last summer. I'm not a fan of aniseed in general and the few times I had tried arak before in Lebanese restaurants I had disliked it. But yet somehow (after many shots?) it has grown on me, so I decided to buy a bottle at the duty-free in Ben Gurion airport before leaving (interestingly enough, it's Jordan-produced). So I was quite intrigued by Jerusalem's chicken with clementines and arak recipe. I'm very happy with the results, it might have been the one, so far in the experiment, that turned out the best. You can do it with an entire chicken that's been cut out or with chicken thighs, I did latter because I'm not going to cut a whole chicken apart and I'm not feeding a huge Jewish or Arab family. The recipe is right out of the book, minus fennel seeds that I couldn't get hold of, and  with quantities for two people:

2 chicken thighs

50 mil arak (apparently you can use ouzo or pernod instead)

3 tbsp of orange juice

3 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp sugar

2 tbsb grain mustard

2 medium fennel bulbs

4 clementines  sliced horizontally (supposed to be unpeeled, I peeled them)

1 tbsp thyme leaves

oil and black pepper

chopped flat leaf parsley, to garnish

Put the arak, oil, lemon and orange juice, mustard, sugar a in a mixing bowl. Add salt and pepper. Trim the fennel and cut each bulp in half lengthways. Cut each half in 4 wedges. Add the fennel to the liquids, along with the chicken pieces (it works better if you cut the thighs in two), clementine slices and thyme. Stir well and leave to marinate in the fridge for a few hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 220 degrees. Put the chicken and marinade in a dish big enough to accommodate everything in a single layer. The chicken skin should face up. Once the oven is hot enough, place to roast for 35-40 mins, until the chicken is cooked through.

Put the chicken and other ingredients in a serving plate, cover and keep warm. Pour the cooking liquids into a small saucepan, place on medium-high heat, bring to boil and simmer until the sauce is reduced to a third. Put the hot sauce over the chicken, garnish with chopped parsley and serve.

What was nice about this dish was the smell and taste of arak, fennel and other nice things throughout the preparation. The sauce (that can be soaked up with pitta pieces) was particularly yummy. If anything, next time I might try adding some more arak.

In other news, stay tuned because I bought some fenugreek! I'm still not sure what it is but I can use it now!