I love parties where everyone brings a plate of food along to share, as you get to taste so many wonderful dishes. Add a few glasses of champagne and I am hard pressed to think of a better way to spend a sunny afternoon. My friend’s new housemate is a gorgeous girl of Sri Lankan heritage, so there were mountains of fabulous Sri Lankan treats such as samosas, spiced chick pea patties and coconut rice, as well as homemade custard filled profiteroles (which were so good that The Brooding Architect ate 4), rum balls and a very impressive looking white chocolate and raspberry tart!

My friend, The Ex-Frustrated Public Servant asked me to post the recipe for my contribution on the day – ‘Ridiculously Easy Guacamole’ – the perfect thing to bring along to a party with some natural corn chips, if you are running short on time. If you are a little bit more organised, I suggest serving it with some homemade tomato salsa, which is also ridiculously easy to whip up if you have a food processor or blender.

Ridiculously Easy Guacamole

Guacamole
(Makes a party size serve)

Ingredients

• 3 ripe avocados
• ½ red onion, finely diced
• 1 red chilli, de-seeded and finely chopped
• Juice of 1-2 limes (depending on size and personal taste)
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• Handful of coriander (about ¼ cup), roughly chopped
• A generous sprinkle of fresh ground salt and black pepper

Method

1. Halve the avocados. Remove the seeds, use a spoon to scoop out the flesh and place into a mixing bowl.
2. Roughly mash the avocado with a fork or potato masher until chunky.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and combine with a fork.
4. Place into a serving bowl. Serve with natural corn chips.
5. If you don’t plan to serve the Guacamole immediately, place an avocado seed on top of the dip. I read somewhere that this prevents the Guacamole from turning brown. I have no idea if it is true – but I figure it can’t hurt!

To prevent discolouration, place an avocado seed on top of the dip

Baba Ghanoush

I pre-roast my eggplant the night before, so that all I have to go on the day is whip together all of the ingredients in the food processor. Using a food processor results in a silky smooth dip. For a more rustic, chunky dip you could put some ‘elbow grease’ into it and mix all of the ingredients together by hand.

Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients

• 2 medium eggplants (choose eggplants which are firm, with deep purple glossy skins)
• 3 or 4 cloves garlic, chopped finely
• Juice of 1 ½ to 2 lemons (depending on size)
• ½ cup Tahini paste
• 2 Tablespoons olive oil
• 2 Teaspoons cumin
• ½ Teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional – leave out if you do not like spicy foods)
• Small handful of chopped mint
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
2. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place the eggplants on the baking tray, drizzle with olive oil (I like to use my hands and rub the oil all around the eggplants to ensure that they are evenly coated) and season with salt and pepper. Pierce the eggplant skin a few times with a fork.
3. Bake the eggplants until tender – about 3o to 40 minutes depending on size.
4. Allow the eggplants to cool slightly (or overnight on a covered plate if preparing in advance), carefully remove the eggplant flesh from the skins and stems.
5. Once the eggplant flesh has been removed place it, along with the lemon juice, olive oil and garlic into a food processor and puree to a smooth paste.  Add the tahini and puree again. Add the cumin, cayenne pepper, chopped mint, salt and pepper
6. Serve with warm flat bread, or savoury biscuits of your choice.

Baba Ghanoush - Packed up for the Cup Day BBQ

To put in bluntly, my food processor is shit hot. I have no idea why I struggled blending up soups and breadcrumbs for nearly 10 years in my crappy blender – a remnant from my student days. I blame my reluctance to fork out on a flashy blender years ago on my (half) Chinese cheapness.

One of my favourite dips to whip up in the new food processor is a roast beetroot dip, which is inspired by my love of the pancar dip at one of my local Turkish haunts, Alasya.

Ingredients

• A large fresh beetroot (or 3 or 4 fresh baby beets)
• 500g natural yoghurt
• Pinch of castor sugar
• ½ teaspoon crushed fennel seeds
• Juice of ½ to 1 lemon (adjust for personal taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Making this dip takes a little organisation, but the end result is well worth the effort!

The night before you need this dip:

1. Scrub the beetroot clean and wrap it in aluminum foil. Pop in a 190 degree oven until tender. The exact cooking time will depend on the size of the beetroot, but it generally takes between 30 and 40 minutes for a large beetroot. One the beetroot is cooked, let it cool. I generally just leave it on the bench and pop the whole foil parcel in the fridge before I go to bed.
2. Rest a sieve (or your colander) inside a bowl. The bowl has to be big enough so that the seive is not touching the bottom and there is room for liquid to collect. Grab a clean Chux (or Aldi imitation Chux wipe, which I use) and sit the Chux wipe inside the sieve. Spoon all of the yoghurt into the sieve and tie up the Chux with string. Put the bowl in the fridge for at least 4 hours (preferably overnight). At the end of this process all of the excess liquid will drain out of the yoghurt and you will be left with labna (a soft yoghurt cheese).

The day you need the dip:

1. Assemble your food processor.
2. Slide the beetroot skin off the roasted beetroot. As the beetroot is cool this will be really easy to do. Some people like to use gloves for this, as if you don’t work quickly you can end up with beetroot stained fingers. Throw the peeled beetroot into the food processor.
3. Crush up the fennel seeds in a mortar and pestle. Throw the crushed fennel seeds into the food processor.
4. Add labna (drained yogurt), oinch of castor sugar and salt and pepper to taste to the food processor. Blend together.
5. Juice the lemon. Add food processor and blend. You might want to add the lemon in stages – tasting between each addition.
6. Place in bowl – garnish with extra fennel seeds if you want it to look fancy for visitors. Serve with toasted Turkish bread (or fennel and cucumber slices if you are – feeling virtuous) and a cleansing ale.