Trip to Chinese supermarket...

All the different kinds of aubergine you can get in a Chinese supermarket.

Great ravioli cheat. Buy wonton skins from a Chinese supermarket. Make up a filling. In this case I roasted sweet potato and garlic. Put a teaspoon in the middle of the skin. Fold over. Seal with water.

I deep fried them and served them with a ginger, lemon and peanut sauce.

Ginger, lemon, peanut sauce
Thumb of fresh ginger, peeled, minced
Juice of 1 lemon
3 tbsp peanut butter

Mix ingredients and heat in small pan, add a scoop of peanut butter. Then strain, thereby removing ginger stringy bits, into container.

You could also boil the wonton and add them to soup.

Yesterday I also made Sweet Chestnut soup.

Sweet Chestnut soup recipe

500g of sweet chestnuts, roasted, peeled
1 litre veg stock
300ml single cream
1 tsp cumin, ground
a pinch of nutmeg, ground
a drizzle of truffle oil

Roast chestnuts for 20 minutes. Careful not to overroast. Then, after peeling, boil them with vegetable stock, cream, cumin, nutmeg for some time. Then whizz them with a hand blender. You get a nice creamy sweet soup. If you have it, a squirt of truffle oil would probably be good.

This week I also made vegetarian laksa paste ( adapted from Nigel Slater’s recipe)

Ingredients:
5 cm galangal root
4/5 cm fresh turmeric root
4 cm ginger
4 cloves garlic
3 sticks fresh lemon grass, chopped
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin, ground
handful of fresh coriander leaves
4 tbsps vegetable oil or groundnut oil
1 tsp Salt
1 400 ml can of Coconut milk
50g Baby sweet corn
50g Mangetout
2 Carrots, julienned
a handful of pea aubergines
500ml veg stock
300g Medium firm tofu, cubed
1oog Rice noodles

To garnish
Half a red pepper, sliced thinly
Fresh Mint
Fresh coriander
Fresh lime segments

Blend all the ingredients together. If you are not vegetarian, add fish sauce or prawn paste. Salt to taste.

In the pan, add plenty of coconut milk, fresh mint leaves and various Asian vegetables. You could also add mangetout, baby sweet corn, julienned carrots, tofu cubes.

I added tiny little green aubergines (eggplant) that looked like peas.

Cook rice noodles separately. Add at the end. Serve in bowls topped with strips of finely sliced red pepper and more coriander leaves. Add slices of lime for people to squeeze.